The Spectator

Indian cricket is never short of a subject for debate & analysis and currently it’s the constitution of the bowling attack that is the topic of discussion. This subject isn’t new and is going on for a while now. The turn of the millennium saw the revival of Indian cricket as a potent force in limited overs cricket under Ganguly, Dravid and later MSD. Part of the process had to do with the team adopting a flexible approach; Dravid keeping wickets creating space for a batsman, Irfan's batting skills harnessed, and lately Yuvraj as a regular bowler in the colored avatar. There is one thing in all that which hasn't changed - the basic outline of the team with 6 batsmen, 4 bowlers and a keeper, with the notion that Irfan will be a bowler first and Yuvraj will be a batsman first. Indian bowling attacks have never been threatening as a unit but have been efficient with all the ability they have. This feature works pretty well for limited overs cricket as the winner is decid...

Along with the stats for India’s win at Bengaluru, you will find special reports in newspapers and sports shows on TV on the way a certain Sachin Tendulkar has been getting dismissed and quantification of lack of 3-figure mark for a year and a half now. Some will go a step ahead and suggest the man to hang his boots. Valid facts and obvious consequent emotions, but where is the cricketing logic amongst all this to rationalize the observations? Ex-players like Sunil Gavaskar & Sanjay Manjrekar suggested that age appears to be catching up with him and that fast bowlers are trying to get him bowled or leg-before by bowling full and that his above-the-rest hand-eye co-ordination reaching the level where most others belong. There would be certain reasons why these ex-players are suggesting reasons for Tendulkar’s form/way of dismissals, but unintentionally that has got almost every Tom, Dick & Harry discussing about his technique, skills & ability, including those who fol...

Picture this: 4 pm start to a day of test match cricket, no issues of conceding working hours to watch action at the stadiums, prime-time live streaming on TV, and yet the definitions of test cricket kept intact! As rosy as it sounds, it has been a long ‘work-in-progress’ to materialize this fantasy idea. Need is the mother of inventions and it would be fair to say that the process to make this a reality has largely been catalyzed by the declining interests in on-field following for the format at many conventional centers. The longer it takes to implement this, implies the lack of full-proof solutions that are available at the moment. The most pertinent question surrounding day-night test cricket is the color of the ball. While night cricket (2 nd innings for ODI matches & T20 matches) works on the white color of the ball for dark backgrounds, test cricket is played with the red ball as this format is contested predominantly in natural light and white uniforms. The minds be...