Bodyline MiniSeries – An experience

“There are two teams out there. Only one of them is trying to play cricket.” – These famous words from the then Australian captain Bill Woodfull to the Pommie manager Plum Warner summarise the entire Ashes series of 1932-33, infamously known as the Bodyline series.
I found out a couple days back about the 1984 Bodyline mini-series (7 episodes) and immediately made a point to watch it. In spite of having infinite discussions with blokes on cricket, I had always managed to escape to gather any sort of knowledge on this epic saga. Plus there was an extra will to know some of the great heroics of the man to whom Sachin Tendulkar is compared to – Sir Don Bradman.
Now, I would never know how close Is the TV series to the original encounter (though I read that it is highly dramatized), but I enjoyed watching it a lot & was thoroughly enlightened with possibly the most controversial series in the history of sport (even today) – yes it would give the likes of Andy Symonds, Mohammad Sami, Lalit Modi a run for their money.

The major characters in the series were:
Sir Don Bradman – The 24 year old Australian was the very reason the Barmies had restored to Fast Leg Theory. In the previous Ashes, he had been unstoppable on English soil & had scored 900 odd runs. Scare of this fellow amongst the Englishmen has been captured very nicely where even The Majesty is clueless about what to do about him.

Douglas ‘Bloody’ Jardine – Crual or Smart, Aristocrat or Winner, Good or Bad – these questions can be put to rest as the arguments may never get over. The mastermind behind the tactics, English captain was Bradman-obsessed to the core & wanted to defeat him(read Australia) at all costs. He took the matter into his hands & made sure they emerged winners, even if that meant disrespecting the team manager or treating his bowlers as objects of slavery.

Harold Larwood – D.Jardine had a plan. Larwood was the executioner. A coalminer from the land of Robinhood – Nottingham, his name was enough to send shivers down the spine of the opposition batsmen. A modest man with all his loyalties to the captain, he made the Bodyline happen.

Then there was Percy Fender – the Surrey captain – D.Jardine’s Godfather in his early days who eventually stepped down from Surrey captaincy to make way from Jardine. Plum Warner – English manager who was in complete disagreement with the Fast Leg theory in the spirit of sport. He was a popular figure in the Australian dressing room, until then of course. The Oz journalist – Cooper – who accidently coined the term Bodyline while shortening his telegraph by replacing ‘in the line of body’ with ‘Bodyline’.

Those times were different. Cricket was indeed a gentelman’s game with the players addressing their skipper as ‘Sir’, players celebrating a wicket with claps & hand shakes & the entire ground full of audience wearing a coat & a hat. Austrlian players were more sober & respectful in their conduct. The then Nawab of Pataudi played for England (and in fact scored a century in his debut match). Conspicuously, there was a prominent presence of smokes,wine & beer in the dressing room. It was strange as I had never imagined it that way. Players ‘actually’ had a minimal body gear (no helmet/skull cap, noo thigh guard). The repercussions of the Great Depression of 1929 are also very evident as Don Bradman was almost to give up playing cricket for Australia. There was a conflict between him playing for Australia & his writings as a journalist for a newspaper. The newspaper eventually released him for the series so that he could play for the country. For the curious souls, Cricket as a profession at those times was not sufficient to make money, the amounts paid were very meagre unlike today.

The biggest take away for me was to get a glimpse of the persona of the legend. Such an immaculate approach to the wicket, great self-confidence, mind blowing results. An impact of a sports person on an entire nation in those times assumes a new dimension all together. Truly a legend. I only wish he would have played more test matches.

To end it, it was a very enriching experience. And I also got convinced that Pommies are losers, loathe great players & never learn from precedences. I say this as they adopted a variant of leg theory very recently against none other than The God Sachin Tendulkar. The combination of Nasseir Hussain & Ashley Giles did make his life tough by bowling outside his pads all through the day. They did succeed to some extent as in that series, Sachin was out stumped the first and the only time in his life in a test match.

A tale of third man & fine leg

The memories of that cold day in Feb,1999 are still etched to my mind, the biggest reason being Anil Kumble. It was this day when took the entire 10 Pakistani wickets in a single day at Feroshah Kotla, Delhi. It was a day to be remembered, a moment to celebrate. He was all over the news – comparisons were drawn against Jim Laker’s performance of 19 wickets against the Assuies. He was touted as the best leg spinner of his times, ahead of Shane Warne. It was truly a great cricketing feat.

Amidst all this buzz, a certain U-14 tournament was going on at Safia College, Bhopal. The boys from Arera club were to play the nasty blokes of Iftekhar Cricket Club (ICC). Known for their notoriety, ICC was a better team, talented, and always with an over-aged team. I was a part of the Arera KhelKood Academy team, & as always never a certainty in the team. By now I had had a good experience of carrying drinks for the team – thanks to my coach. In future this was about to take bigger proportions when I was an extra for all the 3 matches Bhopal Division survived in the U-16 nationals at Bhilai.

Anyway, I had a strong feeling that I would make the 11 as I had been bowling very accurately in the nets with the newly discovered inswinger of mine. Plus, since my dad had offered the social service of bringing his car to drop the team, I had extra chances today. This was a trend. When some one’s dad used to accompany the team to the venues, he would mostly play the match. I used to hate this, but for today I wished it works in my favour. And it did happen that way – I was about to bowl the first ball for our team. Happy me 
On our way, some of the more experienced players narrated stories as to how these ICC players are talented, nasty, clever, cruel taking names such as Saad-An-Sari, Zen-An-Sari, Hashir Fayaz, etc. And it was true, at that age they were more fitter & well-built than our team. We also discussed how in the 70s & the 80s the two colleges – Safia & MACT always had brawls & ended up getting hurt a lot. They had a rivalry of sorts.

We finally reached the venue(15kms away) & started warming up. From a personal viewpoint, I had an average outing with two wickets in my bucket. When I went in to bat, we required 11 runs to win in 6 balls with the last men standing. I was on strike facing the upcoming legspinner Kapil Bhalerao. I had never taken batting seriously and it was all about random shots. I decided to do something innovative. Shuffling to the off side & a fine glance to take a 4 was a big rage those days. I decided to do the same. It worked. I got a fine nick & and it raised for four runs. I was as surprised as the others. This angered the young leg spinner & he made it a point to take revenge. I, on the other hand, was high on confidence & wanted to have an encore. If a conventional leg spinner could bowl a good “karri”, he was a good bowler. That’s what he did & took the bail for a toss. I was out. We lost the match.

That was that but in that match, I happened to witness the funniest moment I have ever seen ‘live’ on the cricket field. My bowling partner Lalan Tiwari from Nalanda School (who was a favorite of my coach) was a funny kid. He was a good bowler & in those days getting good out swingers going for him. He had brown hair & user to wear the same buttoned shirt to the nets which he wore at his school. Some days back he had gotten hit for 36(or 30) runs In an over from one Zuber guy if my memory does not beat me. We used to rub him on this, he never liked it. He was fielding at third man. Not the greatest fielder in the team, he used his feet mostly to stop the ball. Yogesh Pingle, my friend for as long as I can remember was also playing the match. We have played almost all of our school cricket together, be it the inter-sections at Campion, for Arera club at various venues in Bhopal,viz,BHEL, Babe Ali Stadium or be it in Indore,Gwalior or Bhiali – we were there-together. Of all my friends, he has possibly the sharpest memory – he can narrate the stories, anecdotes exactly the same way they happened. I have always thought that if ever I land up in KBC & a cricket question pops up, I’d phone him. He was to take up wicket-keeping seriously in a few months. But at that time, he was in the team purely for his cricketing genius. He was a fast sprinter too. He was fielding at fine leg.

It was a crucial juncture in the match where we had picked up early wickets & our coach wanted us to restrict them in every way possible. As our coach always on the edge of his eat & sort of captaining from outside – shouting instructions at all moments. I do not remember who the bowler was, but the batsman had a hard slash at the ball and it went racing towards Lalan at the third man boundary. As the ball was gaining on Lalan, so did my coach’s growling. He wanted Lalan to be Jonty & effect a run-out. He shouted – “Lalan bhaag. Wicket par throw”. To everyone’s surprise he picked up the ball neatly (a rarity on those brown soil grounds). And then it happened, as if an earthquake hit the ground or an invisible Nasseruddin Shah from Chamatkar was at work, Lalan instead of aiming the stumps threw the ball as fast as he could, at/towards the direction of the fine leg fielder – Yogesh.

Yogesh by now had taken a relaxed position as the ball had not come in his direction neither were there any chances of backing up for an overthrow as the ball had gone to third man and he was standing at fine leg. As he saw the ball coming his way, he first put his hand on his hand shocked at what he had seen, then thought he was aimed at, finally recovered himself to catch the ball and threw it to the stumps. I remember I was at the other end of the ground at deep mid wicket or long on. And was literally ROFLing. Our coach was to later ask Lalan to “Murga Bano”

Since then I have lost touch with Lalan. But Yogi and I are the best of friends and we still ROFL when we recollect the memories of that bizarre act

Analysis time…

1) I have been an ardent follower of cricket for as long as I can remember. And although the rich escort (read slut) IPL is doing its best to make me lose my interest in the current happenings of the sport, I still have a happy time reading articles on Cricinfo (which I must confess I should read more) & discussing about the sport in general.
2) The kind of guy I am (as my friends would know), I like to indulge into numbers, rankings, comparisons. In my college days, I could easily have been spotted discussing some random rankings – 5 best sporting moments, 3 hottest chiks, 3 yummiest dishes – to name a few.

The above two traits in me, coupled with the zest to start blogging again have compelled me to do an analysis of
cricketers on a one-to-one basis. And of course, compare them, rank them. So a task cut-out you say – NOT.

Cricket, a sport which ‘officially’ was first played in 1877 (initial signs date back to the 16th century) has as of now, 105 member nations. The test playing nations have produced some V V big disciples of the sport – for whom cricket was/is a way of life. They have dedicated their lives to the spirit of the game, & in the process have accomplished some worthy achievements which continue to amaze us. Whether it is a certain Sachin braving out to bat in the WC, very shortly after his father’s demise & scoring a century, a certain MAK Pataudi facing the fierce Caribbean attack after losing his right eye in an accident, or a certain Greame Smith walking out to bat to save the test match with a broken arm for his country; the examples of sportsmanship are too gutsy and many to enumerate here. Amidst all these mavericks & superstars, it becomes a very daunting task to rank them in any particular order. Records are there of course to help you out, but at many times they are not the best evidence. And then there are the varying playing conditions, different eras, different nations and all that stuff. All these make it an even bigger challenge. To give the word ‘normalize’ some sense – I would need to give it a very detailed & a wholesome meaning.

To help myself I plan to create a set of guidelines/parameters for myself which would help me quantify the players on those parameters so that it gives me a fair idea of where they stand against each other. In this post, I would make an honest attempt to create a set of criteria for the same. Here they are :

1) Quality of play (25): This would highly be governed by the Strike Rates, Averages, and Economy Rates. Someone like Sir Donald Bradman or Wasim Akram would dominate here.

2) Quantity of play (20): Longevity is the key word here. This would take into consideration the number of matches
played, runs scored, wickets taken, and balls bowled, catches taken. Players of the class of Sachin Tendulkar & Muttiah Murlitharan would lead this category.

3) Winning cause (15): Being a team sport, a player is effective only if he places his team’s sentiments before his individual milestones. A player’s contribution towards his team winning therefore becomes a very important judgement criteria. Michael Bevan for you.

4) Role in the team (10): A team is as good as his captain. As a player grows in stature, he is supposed to define the mood of the dressing room & take up a mentor’s role, rather than get stuck up in some vanity act. Being pro-active in team discussions & going out of the way to help the team is the identification of a champion. Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Imran Khan should sweep this category (I guess).

5) Adaptability (10): A super batsman is as good on away pitches as he is on the home soil. A great fast bowler is as good on slow,low pitches as he is on perfume-ball producing bouncy pitches. Adaptability across different versions of the game, different fellow teammates is also important for a player to standout in stature. Little Master Sunil Gavaskar or Greame Swann(too early to comment though) should/would feature on the top here.

6) Impact (10): On the game, on the nation, in the sports fraternity – impact in any form is an enriching factor. Sir Garfield Sobers, a great ambassador of the game he is should do good here.

7) Technique (10): A batsman can go far only if he has a solid backlift, a good hand-eye co-ordination & a straight bat. A bowler can go injury less for long with a good follow through & a strong back. As a fielder too, one needs to be agile & quick. Rahul Dravid is someone who has spent endless hours to perfect his technique. Rewards have been for all to see.

Huff. Thats that. I have also mentioned the weightage right next to the parameter so that at the end of the entire analysis, I would be able to come up with a number against a player’s name which would basically indicate how good he is. As the cricketing names I have mentioned in this post would suggest, my knowledge does not run very deep & restricts to my times(96 & there on). I need to do lots of research before coming up with any numbers. And hence my first analysis would take some time.

I would like to tag all those who read this post, more so my cricket loving blogger friends – Yogesh, Karan, Himank, Rohit to pick a player of their choice & do a brutal analysis based on the afore mentioned parameters.

PS : It has been a long time since I wrote anything. Forgive me for my command over the language.

Play – 9.30 AM – first ball

First things first.Let me take a moment to explain the title of the blog and this post itself.

“Inswinger’s delight” – neat and simple – I used to be a pretty decent inswinger medium pace bowler at my time (U-14 & U-16). Infact, that was almost all which I could do, being an ordinary fielder and a modest batsman

“Play – 9.30 AM – first ball” – That is how an inning begins in a day match when the Umpire says these words. And with this, I make an attempt to start my stint with a cricket blog. Reason being me being out of touch from cricket since I left college. And I feel this would be a good medium to connect with the sport again, be in regular contact of the latest happenings, shout my opinions, get reviews and get in touch with other followers of the game as well.

If someone would ask me  how did you fall in love with the game or when did you get the first glimpse of it, I would say my nanny was the person who gave me a tennis cosco ball in my hand for the first time in my hand at the age of 10. I really did not know what to do with it, so I threw it away. Today, only I wish It was a bat you had given me grandma coz in my entire career, I was hardly given a bat by my coach as well Anyway, the image below would rather be a well-definer for my earliest memories of cricket in my head. Infact, for most of my generation, 1996 cricket WC, when we were in the age group of 8 to 11 years, was the first time when we took it seriously as an object of interest, passion and involvement.

Times have changed highly now. New forms have been introduced. Motives have changed. But our passion for the game has remained the same. We criticize it, play it, watch it, hate it at times – but just cannot live without it.
As I sign off, I am highly eager to see India perform tomorrow without the likes of Yuvi n Gauti – n also the in-form Pathan who has amassed tonnes of runs in the domestic circuit at a strike rate which has not changed, whatever be the format of the game.
Happy Jaipur Team India!

PS: I wanted my blog username to be cricketDiary(Hungarian notation) and not cricketdiary, seems like that is case-insensitive. Oh well, like I have not many variables to assign