The recent remarks of Chris Gayle and Mathew Hayden on T20 and the recent exit of Australia in the ongoing T20 World Cup have once again confirmed my long standing belief that it would not be long before the oldest form of the game (the newer baby, ODIs has begun its journey long back, hence am not mentioning about it here) begins its journey into Extinction.
Australia's recent exit confirms the point that even good or even great Test players can actually be a misfit in T20s and this fact is further supplemented by the successes of players who will not actually make it into a Test Side.
Wat does this mean? It means that T20 requires not only a different mindset but also a completely different set of Technique and the best part is that it is not as difficult to master as the technique required for Test Cricket is.
That makes it easier to learn from the players stand point.
On the monetary front, well well, we all know which format of the game rakes in all the Big Bucks, don't we? With players showing more Interest in taking to this form of the game as it is much more simpler and much less complicated than the 5-day format and the People( Read as General Audience ) showing more Interest in T20s because the format is more Interesting and takes much less time to produce a result.T20 is really light on their purse too when pitted against the burden which the 5-days or for that matter the ODIs place on the audience:).
There we go,with so many factors going for it, Test Cricket may not be replaced by T20s for that matter it never will be, rather T20s will in my humble opinion bulldoze Test Cricket and in some years time, I believe that the 5-day format will soon be history.
It so might happen, that Test Cricket might Re Invent or Mutate Itself into a 2-day game or max 3-day game, but I am pretty sure that the game is never going to be the same again and the 5-day format is not going to be around for a long period of time.
It has happened. A long long wait has ended, more than a decade and a half has Indian Cricket waited for a good captain and it seems like the prayer of the fans have been answered.
Indian Cricket has always had great Individual talents but unfortunately has never had had a good captain, a captain who is both tactically astute as well as a natural leader of Men at the helm.
Things finally seems to have fallen in place. Dhoni an unassuming, No Nonsense speaking, Calm, composed and sensible person with a wonderful sense of humor and loads of audacity
Motivating other seems to come so naturally to him. Tactically too he seems to be very shrewd and above all his out of the box thinking really impresses me.
No captain would have had the guts to call off a team meeting before a match and even if anyone might have, i bet no one would have the guts to speak about it in a post match conference, for Team meetings are rituals which is to be followed strictly no matter what.
The leader in him shone brightly when he said after losing the IPL finals "I am not going to blame anyone,we played our best and we are happy with this result". Wow, that's a true leader speaking for you. How often have we heard " The boys did not bowl well, bat well, field well, we were 20 runs short and all such nonsense", Not to say that Dhoni is not issuing such statements but he chooses the right occasions to say that.
More recently when he so boldly came up with the 8-1 field set up, providing us a glimpses of his out of box thinking. A captain who is "truly" aggressive,a captain who lets his actions speak louder than his words unlike some of his predecessors.
Of course these are early days and I am sure that he will go through rough patches and testing times as does any sportsman or for that matter any human. As they say "Greatness is not about avoiding failures, for failure is inevitable. It is making sure that the frequency of failure is long" and I am confident that Dhoni's greatness as a captain, I am willing to put my head on the line and predict that here is one captain who will go down in the annals of Cricketing History as one of the Finest Captains of all time.
P.S: Just one advice for U, Do not get occupied with personal prejudices and involve yourself in divisive methods like some of your predecessors did. That will do.
I seriously don't know how to start this. I am flooded with thoughts and filled with emotion when i think of this man.
Can i begin this with his debut match in which he took a pasting? With the Gatting ball, which was later dubbed as the "Ball of the Century"? With the 96 World Cup Semifinal? With his failures in India? or with this Heroics in 99 World Cup? or With his latest IPL performance?
I am confused.
Warne has been my Ultimate Hero since childhood. The image of a chubby blond figure strolling up to the crease(thinking how to fox the batsman), sending shivers down the spine of many a batsmen in the world is something which has got etched in my mind so much so that i doubt whether i will be able to ever forget them.
As Someone always destined to conquer Nature. Be it in mastering the art which demanded you to rotate your wrist against nature or be it in overcoming injury after Injury which he was confronted with.
As Someone always made the big stage his own,Remember the 96 World Cup Semifinals, 99 World Cup Semifinals, 99 World Cup Finals? Mind you i have not mentioned anything about his exploits in Tests( which will make this post prohibitively long).
As Someone who not only won but won in style and at the same time lost with Honor.
As Someone who dominated the game which is batsman oriented, something confirmed by Wisden when they named him as one of the players of the century. He was the only bowler in that list and he made that list when he was still playing( his career was 8 years old then).
As someone who is a great leader who could make Boys defeat men to which the IPL win stands as the testimony.
As someone with a great cricketing brain and a great eye of talent and so on and on and on. I simply dunno where to end.
The World calls him a Legend,a Leader and a Genius. I simply call him my IDOL.
Thnks Warnie, thnks for all the memories U have given me.
Newspapers, Television, Magazines, Hoardings seems like i cannot escape the IPL fever. Such has been the hype and the hoopla surrounding the even that it is hard to refrain myself from watching the games.
To start off let me say upfront that I am not a twenty twenty hater nor am i opposed to the players making big bucks. Media, Music, Movies, Football, Tennis everything got commercialized long back, and in my opinion cricket has joined the party very late. So for people who are crying foul i would advice them to look at their own field first before they go up in arms against cricket.
Having said that i am against plagiarism, I am against monopoly and i am against crony capitalism all of which are things that IPL stands for.
To begin with the entire concept was taken directly from ICL and they have made a few more changes to create ways to make more money ( unethically of course). The regulators who are supposed to supervise the business operations run the business operations and what more they are doing their level best to make sure that parallel leagues (ICL in this case) are finished by employing intimidation tactics.
Democracy today has a new definition which is " By the rich, Of the Rich and For the Rich" and so does Cricket "By BCCI,For BCCI and Of BCCI".
Coming to the entertainment aspect, 270 sixes have been hit, Hold on...Before u jump all over me on hearing that, i would like to ask u one question, How many of those sixes can u recollect??
Sixes have now become so commonplace that it has led to boredom. I do agree that T20 is a batsmen game but that does not mean that u take bowler out of the contest. Flat wickets are fine. But what is not fine is the short boundaries. These short boundaries are taking out some aspects of the game, which are the Running between the wickets and the Decision making of the batsmen.
With the short ropes batsmen just need not think for they know that even mis hits will clear the boundaries comfortably, there by making them dumb. How many threes have we seen so far ? (sorry for troubling u with this difficult question) u will have to think long and hard to come up with the answer for hardly any have been run.
So with some of the interesting aspects thrown out of the window the game has become like a circus show with the bowlers becoming the clowns.
IPL can revolutionize the game but not if it is run this way. More thought needs to be given for otherwise it will be looked up on as an extension of Bollywood, which if it happens will be the biggest disgrace to the game.
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