The Lords Of Cricket – The Tin Towers

You must have seen The Lords of  the Rings – The Twin Towers 

You also must have seen, The Lords of Cricket, The Tin(Three) Towers

My Bowlers Don’t Get Credit and I don’t like it

Yeh, that’s right … This is Angry Post … so if you are batsman or masturbater-kind over glorious cover drives … FO. 

All Of you … Every single Indian of You … cricket lover of you are guilty of this sin … those who said India produces Great batsmen only. 

FUCK YOU.

“Ooohh wow Great WI bowlers … legends. Oooh Great Pakistani Duo. Ooooh Oooh Murali. OOoo Australian Bowlers …. Ooooh Dale Styen. Oooohh English bowlers in English Condition”. 

 

Shut Up. 

Who the fuck … who the fucking fuck has been taking 20 wickets from 2000-2011. My Dady? No! Your Daddy? No. Then, Shut up your mouth … you have cavity. 

India has played 42 test series 23 WON 10 Draw series = 33 = not lost. 33 out of 42 test series NOT LOST. 

Did your batsman come down from hell and took 20 freaken wickets???? NO.

My Bowlers Did. Yes .. Those Skinny Bastards. Those Skinny Bastards also .. had to bat and bared taunting from commentators the way they bat … the shady techniques they have … laughed at while they took a rapid signals to get off the strike after bowling under ugly sun. (I hope Sun doesn’t read this)

How many times your ‘batsmen’ … your 3 Gods + Your Dasher … Bowl and helped taking 20 wickets? Once … thrice .. I will give you 5 tests. Then … who took those wickets? My Daddy? Your Daddy? NO .. You? NO … My Skinny Bastards. 

Let say you have full respect for Kumble. I agree. But what after him? Did we crash like Aus did Post-Warne? Did we ..? No right! 

Were there only Mammoth BATTERS responsible for those wins? 

You rated them recently … Gave them least score … gave Australia FULL mark. Then, Worshiped Dale Styen. Masturbate over English bowlers in English Condition .. but WTF happened in WC. 

Oh WOW the WORST rated bowling team WON the world CUP. Didn’t they? 

You You You … Pseudo supporter of Indian bowlers. You haven’t done great in giving credit to my bowlers too. One say Zak is God, rest are meh! Really?, Zak had done great against Aus and Bangla in last 3-4 years. What about other series? What have you done?

You said ‘Oh Oh Ishant is inconsistent, IPL has ruined him, Oh oh Bhajji should have been dropped, He is SO bad that he is dragging our team down, oh oh Plaha sucks, Oh Oh Sree .. ‘he is Lunatic’ ‘Overrated bowler’ He is more of an actor than performer, Ojha oh we don’t respect left arm spinner, they ‘AREN’T’ actually real spinner, Munaf!? ‘He has become spinner’  … 

Are you getting it what I am trying to say?

Put one hand on your heart, look at the pitches my bowlers bowled at …  look at the scorecard for last 5 years. I say, look at the score card for even whole decade. And tell me, are you doing enough justice to my bowlers. 

Are my bowlers (plant) lost among three giant batsmen (trees)? Has proper sun-light reached them? Shouldn’t they be praised more in Media, because they are the one who took 20 wickets, no?  for 32 NO LOSS test series? 

What is more easy … playing 200+ dot balls and be MOM or bowling 1oo deliveries running hard … jumping hard .. and still occasionally been asked to play ‘Night Watchman’ to shield your batsman? Just tell me now, what is easier? 

My Bowlers are Work Horses. They are like factories, who never say no, till their system failure due to overload. They are Stallions. Your Batsman are Just Bull Dogs. 

And I like my Stallions as much as I like my Bull Dogs. And you should too. 

– By Angry Knowledge_Eater’s Bowler’ Mind.

 

 

Cricket, Me, and Tardness

It was fun growing up in 90’s. Watching Cricket in 90’s was even better.

But playing cricket, but not just watching, was the best.

For me, there was no such a thing as DravidTards, SachinTards, AustralianTeamTards, KumbleTards, WarneTards etc. etc. I liked all of them. I liked the whole team. I was fan of Nayan Mongia, Ajay Jadeja, even Vijay Bharadwaj, Kambli, Prasad, Srinath, you name it .. everyone. I wasn’t even old enough to evaluate or understand, who was skillful in the team and who was wrongly picked. Nothing sort of thing. I just wanted team to win.

I never had lust of having their autographs or never bought their wall-portraits and fantasied like many teenagers do. I didn’t even ask that I want Sachin’s picture notebook or Rahul’s. Or neither I cared to find out what state is that player from!

Whenever my team won, I got happy. Whenever they didn’t, I felt sad.

It was THAT simple.

As we touched 2000, I grew up. (very cool right 🙂 ) I got wiser. Started to understand even further about the game. 2003 WC came. India played many ODI’s. I didn’t get to see whole 2001 epic Kolkata win against Australia. We had temporary BW TV, as we were shifting to new house. I didn’t even get to watch much of test cricket as my school time was 9-5. I come home, if there is any day-night ODIs, I watch them, IF I had done my homework. There was no such a thing as internet. Forget the highlight, not even score card. Was I even keen enough to check every single scorecard in newspaper, as I am right now? No. Only when India won. I would barely even look at it, if India would have lost.

Then, What was I keen to do at that time, related to cricket? Play cricket. Play real cricket. I used to get at least an hour everyday to play gully cricket. Not only cricket, I played all kinds of games. Marbles, hide and seek, Kabbadi, and there are zillion other games which doesn’t have English name. And of course, if you have read my earlier post, I did Judo as well, in depth.

So, what do I want to say? What is my point in all this?

My point is that I never actually had specification or THAT teen-age sportsman love or that eagerness or that bias feelings like I would be happier if certain individuals have scored runs I would be happier that certain others in the team scored. I mean I felt same happiness. Even right now, I would be happier if certain individuals score run without a doubt, but I always had that kind of feeling that let it had to be Indian batsmen or bowlers.  Let it be from the team I supported from childhood. I never had or even today, I never had ill feelings if one player from the team should score more than others.

There was no that crazy ‘Tardness’ developed in my brain, it has lot to do with my age, very limited media exposure, I had no access or interest in Ranji. Nothing.

It was simple. Team won. Tendulkar scored runs, Kumble took wickets, Jadeja played cameo, Azhar caught splendid catch.

It got even simpler around late 90’s and mid 2000’s. Dravid scored, Ganguli scored, Sachin Scored. They all scored. Tons of runs. Mammoth partnerships. Team won. Yay.

And then enter: Access to internet

Statsguru, Forums, Blogs, Videos, More stats, Ranji trophy numbers, which player come from what state, who are Sachins Dravids Gangulys Kumbles competitors in terms of wickets runs … etc. etc.

It just got messy. You start to wonder, ‘Can player actually do that?’ ‘Is this player better than others?’ ‘Is he really the special one in the team?’

Then you tend to follow game very closely, you tend to compete players within team. You tend to question importance of the players within one single team more than you compare your team player than others.

The Tardness was born.

Has tardness ever entered my soul? Has tardness ever polluted my mind? Has tardness ever made me to hate players within a team?

It wasn’t easy. In rise of Internets, access to scorecards, stats, reading articles, reading zillion hate comments, it wasn’t easy. It just wasn’t easy to pick side. It wasn’t easy to adore just one … just one player from team so badly that you can strip any other player with vicious arguments, backing up with specific knocks or specific bowling attacks or specific situations.

The answer is no.

How can it be? I played cricket more than I watched. I never had access to internet, when my consciousness was strengthening. I didn’t even care about what player is from what state. I just supported team. I still support team.

That’s why I have never let Tardness enter my brain. Yes, I might like watching certain players more than others, but Tardness is different. It’s like teen-age love. It’s an obsession for player, that I have never developed in my brain. I never grew up that way. I was very sane by the time, I had access to internet.

I mimicked Dravid’s batting style personally, loved watching Sachin, thrilled when Ganguly stepped out of the crease to hit 6, said ‘YES’ loudly when Kumble’s googly came at > 90 km/hr crashed into stump, widen my hand in air (afridi-style) when Prasad knocked of Amir Sohail’s off stump etc. etc. The list goes on.

I might have Tardness for team. I am not sure if I have ever insulted or question players within team. I might have defended my players. All my team players, all the time. Hack! I even adored Robin Singh.

But right now, with technology, statsguru, videos, score cards, IPL, Ranji, all things available, growing up without having tardness is almost impossible.

If you were born in 70’s and 80’s, and were aged >6-7 entering 90’s, I am sure it was just easier to avoid tardness, unless you had access or immense interest in Ranji and team selection.

And I am glad that I was never involved or never perceived my team or team players that way. It was just easier supporting whole team, though my team was losing quite often. 😛

Who is this Debutant ?

I don’t know what Cricket analysts and Writers are doing these days !!

They are busy picking best XI, and looking for old talented cricketers. But no-one is talking about new recent debutant ? What about the player who worked so hard to get in to side? What about player who made India win many matches for last 3 years !

I mean give this young guy where its due now. Everyone is talking about  some old guy who scored many runs for India and have scored most amount of World Cup runs and highest of centuries and all that. But hey, he is old guy. He tried his best to win World Cup for India, but he couldn’t for India.

But what about this new debutant !! He is young. Energetic. Looks good in technique. And he recently won many matches for India. Not only in Test but one-day too.

So, here I am writing on this new comer debutant. Who started showing he can be great batsman, if he continues to bat like this for at least 10 years.

That was his first match.

http://www.cricinfo.com/rsavind/engine/current/match/249215.html

He played decent for a debutant, scoring as much as another great senior Ganguli.

http://stats.cricinfo.com/ci/engine/records/batting/most_runs_career.html?id=2753;type=series

He played very vital first inning in first test match, unfortunately, India lost series.

After that, that Debutant have played 31 Test match and scored 3090 test match runs, with 12 centuries, with 65.74 average. Now thats very impressive for a debutant scoring consistently for 3 years. And not only that he has scored runs in ODI, as well. He has scored 1895 runs in 40 ODI with 54.14 avg. Now, that is very impressive for a youngster to be able to do that in both formats. I hope he plays IPL as well, I wonder who will auction him ! And for how many $ !

If India needs to win next world cup, this young person must fire with other youngsters like Raina, Kohli, Ishant Ghambhir etc. with support from senior players like Sehwag, Dhoni, Yuvi, Bhajji, Nehra and Zak.

India also plays Nz. and SA before world cup, it will be really great practice for him to get to play few tough bowlers in foreign condition like SA. He did decent against them in his debut series. Let’s see if he can continue his form, so selectors can pick him for world cup squad.

I want him to get picked for coming world cup. I see him scoring lots of runs for India. He seems to be future of India. After retirement from that old guy, I think India must look forward to this new talent.

India finally looks like finding a proper technique filled batsman, but I don’t want to hype him and jinx him. I know he can learn a lot from few seniors like Dravid, Laxman, and Sehwag. I am sure he must have been asking them lot of question how to handle crazy Indian fans. They must have been giving this youngster lot of advices, how to handle a pressure with media questions and all that. He can learn a lot from these seniors. Looks like MSD trust him as well.

Its sad that youngster wasn’t available for 96 and 2003 world cup to bat with Sachin Tendulkar, who was one of the greatest Indian batsman. If this youngster was found earlier to bat with likes of Sachin, Azhar , Sidhu, Sehwag, Dravid, Srinath, Kambli, Kumble than I am sure India would have won both of the world cups. Imagine Sachin and this debutant batting together against any bowling attack. They would have ruled all bowlers. And won lot of matches for India.

Well, sometimes you can’t get everything what you want. So, I am being optimistic and wishing this youngster a great success on his career. By looking at his fitness, I think he can go long way.

Dravid – The Wall The Rhinoceros

I got carried away with India winning last Test series against Srilanka, so I kind of got lazy with my Animal Cricketer comparison.

But as I am happy now, Today, I want to say my few words for another Indian Legend

Rahul The Wall Dravid.

The Wall

Its been pride to talk about him, since I have been tagged by many cricketers, and Rahul was one of them.

Yes, I bat like Rahul Dravid, …… yeha right I wish I can bat like him.

The reason I have been tagged as a batsman like Dravid, because I love grinning bowlers. I love taking hits, I love leaving bowl, I love respecting bowlers who are in huff and puff when you open. I love staying on pitch for long long time.

I also rarely slogs, I go for cover drive, flicks, late cut, pull, hook, drive, and I like killing bowl in the ground. I love gripping Bat. When I choose my bat, I look for grip. I don’t care much about rest of the bat, all I care about Grip and weight of the bat. Weight should be light.

Once, I read an interview of him, Dravid said he looks for grip of the bat. If the grip is perfect Dravid will marry that Bat make tons of babies by scoring many runs.

I compare him with Rhinoceros, not because Rhino’s beautiful face, because Rhino’s Armor.

Rhino’s Armor is the thickest among many Mammals.

“The collagenous dermis of the white rhinoceros forms a thick, protective armour that is highly specialized in its structure and material properties compared with other mammalian skin. Rhinoceros skin is three times thicker than predicted allometrically, and it contains a dense and highly ordered three-dimensional array of relatively straight and highly crosslinked collagen fibres.” – PubMed

This Armor is the best defense mechanism, it can take almost any kind of hit, heat, and other climate related hazard.

I always see Dravid bats like Cricket Nerd or he even looks like Cricket Nerd. If he meets somebody who doesn’t know him, will defiantly say Dravid is either some model or actor or some executive director or MBA graduate or Computer Scientist but not Cricketer.

His flicks from yorker length bowl are my favortite shots of his. I tried that several times and got Bowled or LBW several times.

So, yeh even some of my friend tell me, I bat like Dravid, I know they are just being Humble to me.

Ohh yes, Dravid is the one of the Humblest Cricketer.

If I have to describe Dravid in one word.

Humble is the word.

Respect for The Wall.