Ireland is one team that will feel most undone by this verdict. They did nothing wrong in this world cup or for that matter in last four years and are placed above Zimbabwe in the present ranking system. Also, 2015 is still far away and Ireland has every chance to go one step further and consistently beat teams like Bangladesh and West Indies. Instead this gross injustice will dishearten many upcoming players like Dockrell, who may follow Morgan’s footsteps and join England team, which is always on a lookout for foreign players.

Ireland may also feel hurt due to special treatment handed to Bangladesh. Bangladesh has done nothing in last ten years to deserve a test status or a status of major ODI nation. Their good performances have been few and far between and there is no way it should get a direct qualification in a World Cup. They have been backed by ICC (or BCCI!) to every possible extent and I really believe if Ireland or Netherlands were given such a support, they would have turned out to be better teams than Bangladesh. It seems that backing by BCCI is the way to go in modern day cricket!

It would be a shame if cricket goes downhill in Ireland, who has been one of the most consistent associates in the last few years. To state the obvious (but seems beyond ICC’s understanding), the only way to continue their development is to play more high quality matches. ICC should make sure that Ireland play at least 10 ODIs every year against test-playing nations. The future tour program will not be adversely affected by this as any team touring England can easily play three ODIs against Ireland. But, I guess this message can never get across ICC, which can easily go out of the way to fit in IPL and Champions League. But then ICC’s motto has always been – “Why care about the development of game as long as extra money can be made”. Unfortunately, it will remain the same forever.

No matter what the world says now, however much people want to comment on our victory in only sub-continent in last few years or that we are unworthy of being called best test team. We are the WORLD CHAMPIONS!!! Agreed that this is not the best format for a World Cup but on the way to glory, India still beat Australia, Pakistan and SL, who were arguably the toughest oppponents that any team can face in the knock-out stages.

Though it has still not reached the levels of invincible Australian team of the last decade, this team can easily be labelled as “toughest team to beat” in the present era. The last three matches have been a prime example of fantastic team effort as every player has come to the party and contributed at some stage or the other. I believe that this has possibly been the greatest success of the team, which has historically relied on 2-3 players. Or shall I say just one player who has given his everything in last 20 years!

Ever since the debacle in 2007 WC, every cricket following Indian just had one wish – let us win the WC for Sachin! This was the only accomplishment that had eluded him and was possibly his biggest disappointment till now. However, all the record books were set straight with this fantastic achievement and seeing him erupt with tears of joy was probably the best sight in the history of cricket. Virat Kohli aptly pointed out that this man carried the burden of nation for 21 years and it is a high time that we pay him back. As a fan who has been following cricket since early 90s, Sachin holding the trophy was really an emotional moment for me and I guess I can speak for the entire nation who had seen Sachin waging a lone battle when everybody around him kept falling apart. Even today when India had such a formidable middle order (which finally proved out to be brilliant), entire nations’ hopes were pinned on Sachin. Everyone in the country was expecting Sachin to score his 100th international ton in the final and at the fall of his wicket, half of the Indians had given up hope of winning the match. Such has been the pressure that this man has handled in last 20 years and only God (read Tendulkar) knows for how many more years! However, he has taken everything in his stride and possibly has enjoyed the game more than any other cricketer. The hunger for the game has never diminished a wee bit and he still would go out tomorrow for a practice session to improve and become a better batsman.

Also, let us not forget the contribution of the greats of last decade who progressed step by step to bring Team India to the level where we are today. Dhoni has been one of the outstanding modern day captains, however, the credit of developing the present lot of players goes undoubtedly to Sourav Ganguly. The architects of Indian win in this WC – Yuvraj, Zaheer, Harbhajan, etc – are all products of Ganguly era. As young players, they were supported and backed to every possible extent by Ganguly. He was the one who converted these young, brash individuals to mature, match-winning cricketers and they are reaping dividends of that. And then we had Rahul Dravid and Anil Kumble – the two pillars of Indian team for a long time around which the whole team revolved. Those were the stalwarts who brought the belief that we can compete with the best teams on their soil. It has been a long effort of these individuals (and a few others) that has culminated to the present level of Indian cricket.

However, India still need to keep their feet on the ground. Over the next one year, they play two tough test series in England and Australia, which will be a good test for Dhoni & Co. There will still be doubters out there who would say that the team still needs to win consistently outside the sub-continent to be really called as World Champions. But, all that is for another day. This is the moment to remember for rest of our life. Let us just live in the present and enjoy the moment!!

It must have been a sense of deja-vu for all those who would have watched the 1999 test against Pakistan in Chennai. Similar to that game, Sachin once again stood tall among the ruins and once again it was heart-breaking at the end, to say the least. But, let’s just forget about the defeat for some time and focus on the great innings that we have just witnessed.

This innings today can easily be called as one of the all-time best knocks in the limited overs fixtures. Sachin showed why he is hailed as the greatest batsman of his era, if not all-time. It was in many ways similar to innumerable innings that he played in 1990s when he was the only one scoring runs for the team. Sachin, though slow to start, was at his prime today. It was as if one was watching the highlights package of last 20 years of Sachin’s career. Each and every shot that he played made you drop your jaw. He used his feet beautifully against the spinners and there were lovely straight sixes that we haven’t seen in long time. And then there was a fantastic six of the pull which reminded us of that glorious six against Caddick in 2003 WC!! It was a treat to watch his trademark flicks and cover drives, which nobody else in the world can play as well as he does when in full flow.

In this era of slam bang cricket, he played an innings which was throwback to the 90s. There was not a single ugly looking shot and I hardly remember when he tried to slog or manufacture the shots. He used all his experience and relied totally on his skills to find the gaps to precision. It was truly amazing to see how he never let the required run rate go out of his control without taking slightest of the risks. He judged almost everything to perfection. Alas, had the guys on the other end would have been a bit more supportive, it could have been a different story altogether!!

It was really disheartening to see Sachin so heart broken towards the end in post-match presentation. I had a feeling that he may break down in tears, which clearly showed that how much the victory means to him. He still says “I care about playing for India” or “it has always been my dream to play for India”… what an amazing guy he is!! Even after giving more than half of his life to the game, he is so much passionate about representing the country and there has never been lack of motivation from his side. I think the youngsters in the team like Virat Kohli, Ishant Sharma, Munaf Patel etc. can easily learn a lesson or two from this great man about the right attitude towards the game or how important is it to remain passionate about representing your country.

The game of Cricket has always been bigger than individuals. There have been many great players who came, contributed to the game and left. But, I don’t know why Sachin sometimes makes me feel that he is different to those other greats. It is hard to envisage cricket without Sachin. I know it will be wrong to say that he is bigger than the game, but I am ascertained of one thing that cricket will definitely become poorer once he’s gone!!

However, it was rather unfortunate for Australia to lose the series despite being statistically much better than England. Australia had more centuries, six of the top seven run getters in the series were Australians, they took more wickets than English, however,the inability to grab the crucial moments, which was probably the biggest strength of the Australian team two years ago, proved fatal for them. The draw at Cardiff will probably hurt even more given that the series would have ended in a draw and Australians would have retained the Ashes.

Going into the series, the bowlers were the major cause of concern for Australia as none of them had any experience of playing in English conditions and Hauritz’s confidence level was too low. However, as it turned out, their first innings batting collapse in three test matches cost them the series. At Lord’s they lost six wickets for 50 runs; at Edgbaston, from 126 for 1, they went on to 200 for 8; and to top it all, they lost all of their 10 wickets for 87 runs in Oval. This sort of a performance was not expected from a line-up that boasted big names like Ponting, Hussey, Clarke, etc.

Further, the team was not helped by some very ordinary selections throughout the series. It started much before the actual series had even begun. To go into a five match series without a back-up opener was a blunder and especially when one of your openers was just three matches old. Though playing Watson somewhat clicked, but, I am still not convinced with him being a long-term solution. Watson does not have the technique to face new ball all the time and it was exposed by English bowlers whenever they decided to bowl straight to him. Dropping Hauritz at Oval was again a very poor selection given the dry nature of the wicket. Even if the pitch was not as spin-friendly as it turned out to be, a spinner’s role is always very crucial on 4th and 5th day on pitches like Oval, and Ponting shouldn’t have forgotten that when they played here last time, Warne took 12 wickets in the match.

Mitchell Johnson was a major letdown for Australia and his ineffectiveness in the series probably proved out to be the difference in the end. It is a nightmare for the captain when your strike bowler has only one decent spell throughout the series and that too, when you needed him the least. I believe Ponting missed a trick by persisting too long with him and selecting him for all the five matches, when you had likes of Stuart Clark and Brett Lee (for last two matches) on the bench.

A lot of soul searching would take place in the Australian camp and there will be a section of people who would now be after Ponting’s life. However, to single out Ponting for this debacle is unfair. I believe Ponting did quite a decent job in leading a bunch of youngsters. It is true that he got a couple of selections horribly wrong in the series, but that is not Ponting’s fault alone and the coach and the selectors are equally responsible for that. He is a much improved captain now and looks far more relaxed in tough situations,
something which was missing in him earlier. Two things that really stood apart for me was the way he handled the boos and did not really make a fuss of it and secondly, the professionalism and composure that he showed after defeat.

There is a growing respect for Ponting in the team and he is definitely the best man to lead the team at the moment. If Cricket Australia decide to sack Ponting, they would risk losing their best batsman as I do not think that he would be playing under Michael Clarke or for that matter anybody else. Australia, at this point in time, can’t afford to lose a batsman of Ponting’s callibre. It is true that Ponting’s form has waned a bit and he is not scoring as many runs as he would like to, but, he is still by far the most prized scalp for the opponent. Also, for the spectators, he is a treat to watch whenever he is in flow. His breezy 78 at Headingley was of supreme class and authority. Also, in Oval till the time he was in the middle, England were not breathing easy even though they had a huge total of 500+ in the bank.

Ponting has now realised that this team does not have the ability and the experience of the earlier team that he led. The team is in middle of a transition and it would be unfair to expect them to keep winning as was generally expected of an Australian outfit. Ponting has done a decent, if not exceptional, job in keeping this team afloat in last 12 months. The good news for him is that most of the tough tests for Australia are over as they don’t play either India, SA or England in next one and a half years. They will play West Indies and
Pakistan in their next summer and I don’t think these teams are good enough to pose any challenge to even an average Australian team. So, the next one year or so can provide a great platform to Ponting and co. to get back to the winning ways and get ready for the tough challenges in next two years.

Ponting has hinted that he may return to England in 2013 for avenging the two defeats, but, that is still very far away and dependent on various factors that are out of his hand. However, before that Ponting has a tough ask of making sure that his team learns from their mistakes in England. It is now upto him to build this young team and get the best out of them, if he wants to realise his dreams of recapturing the Ashes.

Though shifting to SA took some gloss out of the tournament, however, I believe it was better for the game that it was shifted from India. The pitches were far better than the flat, slow tracks that we have here in India. In SA, there is something in the surface for the bowlers and it is a fair contest between bat and the ball. 140-150 has been a competitive score and 150 plus scores have not been chased regularly. This was not the case last year when 175+ scores were a norm and it was constantly getting chased down.

The most interesting aspect of the tournament has been the performance of the veterans. There was a feeling that T20 cricket is meant for youngsters and nothing much can be expected from the oldies in the shorter version. However, IPL 2009 has proved everybody wrong. People like Hayden, Gilchrist, Warnie, Tendulkar have shown that their class is not limited to any particular format and they can be equally brilliant in all the forms of cricket. It has been really satisfying to see Anil Kumble doing such a fantastic job for his team. He has always been such a joy to watch and his committment and hunger to succeed is simply unmatchable. He is one of the most successful bowlers of the tournament till now with 13 wickets and an economy rate of just 5.88 though he has regularly bowled in death overs and even in the powerplays.

However, the good on-field cricket has been marred by some pathetic, torturous and disgraceful commentary. The commentatory level couldn’t be worse than this as the commentators have decided to blabber anything that comes to their mind. Cricinfo has compiled a nice list of slip-ups by the commentators, which is quite hilarious. It has been shocking to see the likes of Harsha Bhogle looking out of sorts in the commentary box. The commentators have been trying to sensationalize every bit that’s happening on the field. Add to this, continuous reference to the sponsors, which looks so cheap and ridiculous. If this continues, people would get so accustomed to it that maybe MCC will have to change the rule book and replace ‘sixes’ with ‘DLF maximum’.

One of the most basic responsibilities of the commentators during the toss is to ask the captains about the playing XI. However, they ask about the atmosphere, the pressure and all other kind of nonsense wihtout a slightest mention about the composition of the team. Cricinfo commentators have constantly complained about this.

Further, I do not get that why do we need to have ‘boundary commentators’ and what is the point of getting hold of somebody from the dug-out and ask him useless questions?? Generally they talk to the guys who haven’t had the chance to play and their favourite question is that how does it feel to be not playing?? What kind of a response are they expecting!!!

What is Ramiz Raja doing in IPL when no Pakistani players were allowed. It would have been great if this joker was also banned from commentating. He is simply unbearable, who just goes on and on without making any sense. Further, nothing could be more funny than Sunil Gavaskar hosting the post-match presentations. As if all this was not enough, we have bunch of comedians like Mandira Bedi, Some Kochar, Chang, etc. who would come in between the innings and show as if there has never been a better cricket expert than them. But, I am sure that if some basic questions related to cricket are asked, they would be totally lost, though I do not know much about what they speak as I tend to change the channel as soon as they come over.

Anyhow, we are entering into the last week of the tournament. It should be an interesting week as the tournament is still wide open and anything can happen from here on. And for my wishlist at the start of tournament, some of them have been fulfilled. Further, some of them have changed over the course of the tournament. Will write about them later in detail once the tournament gets over.

ECB was not in the favour of Middlesex’s decision to sign Hughes as they feared it will increase Australia’s chances in the Ashes this year. ECB said that this decision is fraught with risk as it will provide a splendid chance for the talented rookie to acclimatise to tricky English conditions. However, Middlesex went ahead with the deal, much to the dislike of ECB and various English commentators who considered this decision to be against the spirit of nationalism. Not only has he adjusted to the condition well, but, he has also struck form early. The only respite for the English supporters is that Hughes has not yet played on typical ‘English’ wickets and the surfaces till now have been a batting paradise. Hopefully, it will not be the case as the season progresses and we move on to the real battle.

To add to the irony, during Hughes’ second century, it was Andy Strauss, England captain, who forged a big partnership of 200+ with him. Strauss himself scored 150 in that innings. It would be interesting to know what was going through Strauss’ mind while Hughes was taking the bowlers apart on the other end. Surely, half of Strauss’ excitement of scoring a ton would have died down thinking about how to cope with this youngster if he continues this form till July. Wonder why didn’t Strauss try to run him out? That would have been interesting or maybe, Hughes was already aware of the possibilty of these tactics being deployed so he was up for the challenge.

Anyhow, this is a nice little build-up for the Ashes. Already, other players like Brett Lee and Stuart Clark have shown their inclination to play county cricket as a warm-up for Ashes. Clark went on to say that he would have preferred to be in England rather than playing for Australia in Dubai. Quite a bold statement really!! Though whether they’ll get a decent stint remains to be seen.

The world had already experienced his knack to do unbelievable things with the ball. To see him bowl again has been by far the biggest positive of IPL. Although he was playing any sort of competitive cricket after about a year, but, I was never surprised with the control and guile that he displayed in his spells. He is a genius who just needs to have a ball in his hand and rest everything will automatically fall in place.

What really struck me was his amazing capacity to inspire others and motivate them to perform way beyond their ability. Look at what he did with a bunch of yuongsters in last year’s IPL. It is beyond me to understand that in space of 15 days, how could one transform a lethargic, disintersted Munaf Patel into one who suddenly starts to dive around, give in his 100% and become a match-winning option for Warnie.

Yusuf Pathan is another classic example of Warnie’s brilliance. Pathan was living in an obscurity before last year’s IPL, then he gets to meet the legend and rest is history. He was known to be a fearless character and whatever little fear was left was subsided by Warne. Yusuf has also been handed the role of mentoring the youngsters in this year’s IPL. Talk of delegation of roles. There have been plenty of other youngsters like Ravindra Jadeja, Swapnil Asnodkar who have been highly inspired by the master.

However, the best was yet to come. Out of nowhere, Warne calls an unknown figure, an 18-year-old Kamran Khan, the next big sensation of IPL. Look how he obliges in his second game against Kolkata. There’s nothing special in Kamran’s bowling and one can call him a slower Shaun Tait. Plus, you need hell of nerves to bowl a last over in T20 game when the opposition just needs seven runs to win. But, when you have Shane Warne standing next to you, nothing is seemingly impossible. When Warne took Yashpal Singh’s wicket in the second last over, he asked Kamran whether he’s ready to bowl the last over. Ever since Kamran nodded in affirmation, Warnie kept on having animated discussions with him till he bowled the last ball of that over. In between every delivery, Shane went upto him and was constantly telling him something. All kinds of physical contacts possible (in public, ofcourse!) like hands around his shoulder, patting him on the back and holding Kamran’s head in his hands were used to encourage the rookie. I would love to know what all did Shane Warne tell him and how much of it was Kamran able to grasp as he has already made it clear that he doesn’t understand Warnie’s english. Boy, whatever he understood, it worked wonders!! More than anything, I think it was Warnie’s captaincy that won the match for them.

Warnie has already been labelled as the best Australian captain that they never had. Given the recent performances of the Australian team, it is quite clear that how much are they missing him. Ponting would be ready to give a leg and an arm to have Warne back for one last time in the Ashes. Even I would love to see him bamboozle the English batsmen again, but, then it would be asking a bit too much. Anyhow, I am more than happy to see him perform in IPL, however little and brief it is!!

Here’s a list of a few things that would make IPL a success for me.

1. Battle between Sachin Tendulkar and Shane Warne: What a fascinating clash this would be!! It has been long since we last saw them competing against each other. People would always remember the thrashing that Sachin handed to Warnie and the latter calling him a nightmare. Didn’t get much to see two of them in the last edition of IPL as Sachin had to miss a match due to his injury and in the other match, he just faced 3-4 balls from Shane Warne, but I am very much looking forward to the engrossing battle between the two.

2. Dravid scoring at a Strike rate of 200: Yes, you heard me right!! Okay, lets get a little realistic here – Dravid should score at a SR of 140-150. As it is, he would be leaving in couple of weeks, however, really want to see him hand a thrashing to the bowlers in the matches he plays. Ofcourse, he can do this, He has done it in the past. There’s no reason why a man who could score 92* of just 56 balls against England can’t do this. He just has to get out of mindset of playing every ball along the ground. Come on Rahul, show it to the world!!

3. Kolkata Knight Riders finishing 8th and Punjab Kings XI 7th: No other result would give me more satisfaction than this as it would be a good lesson for all those who are trying to associate Bollywood with the game of cricket. I would love to see Shahrukh Khan or Preity Zinta lose all their money in this IPL and somehow they are forced to sell off their team. Atleast, the telecast would be more focussed on the cricket field rather than on Shahrukh Khan shouting ‘Karbo Larbo Jeetbo’ on each boundary or wicket for Kolkata or on Preity Zinta hugging or kissing all the Punjab players without even understanding the basics of cricket. Let’s just make it clear to everyone that Cricket and Bollywood are two separate things and it should remain so. And yes, no points in guessing why I want Punjab to finish above Kolkata!!

4. Chennai SuperKings not doing well: I have nothing against Chennai or the players representing it. However, I would prefer Chennai to lose as Dhoni (or the Indian team) has been consistenly winning for a long time and the ‘Law of Averages’ is bound to catch up with him some time. I believe the loss in IPL would compensate for the extended winning run for India and Indian team would then continue to do well after IPL. Weird thinking, right?? Yes, but then that’s the way I sometimes think!!

5. Less Sensationalization by Commentators: Andy Zaltzman has perfectly defined the commentating skills of the present day commentators. It is a high time that the commentators should stop going berserk on each and every action that takes place on the cricket field. For God’s sake there should be some difference between the commentators and cheer leaders!! In last IPL, I remember Ravi Shastri talking about how reverse swing can make a difference to the outcome of the match. Reverse swing in a 20-overs game??? Ravi, do you really believe what you say?? Do you expect that batsmen are going to care about not pressing their front foot too across incase the ball reverses!! Huh, think before you speak!!

6. A grand finale between Mumbai Indians and Rajasthan Royals: Reason – Point #1. Oh! I am so much obsessed with these two players!! But then why shouldn’t I be?? They are two of the modern day greats and I have grown up watching these two people mesmerize the world. This is yet another opportunity for them to show that they are still the champions and it would be foolish to write them off by calling T20 as the game of youngsters. I believe IPL this time around would be the tournament for seniors and there can’t be two better guys to lead the way.

Though, India won the test series in NZ quite convincingly, however, there have been quite a few raised eyebrows on the margin of victory which many believe should have been 2-0 had Dhoni been a bit more attacking with his declaration. There has been quite an unrest in the media with everyone lamenting Dhoni on his decision to bat on fourth day with a lead of 531 runs at the start of the play. Questions were asked that why didn’t he plan for a bad weather forecast on the fifth day.

True, I would also have liked to see India win 2-0, however, I believe people went overboard with their criticism on Dhoni. His approach was a tad defensive, however, it is quite comprehensible given a series which has not been won in 41 years was on stake.

Why do you want to plan about something as unpredictable as weather when you are ahead in the game? It is true that teams do take weather into account when they are in a ‘nothing to lose’ situation. However, with series already in the bag, I do not see any reasons as to why Dhoni should have thought about hurrying up incase it rains. I agree that NZ would have not been able to chase 500 plus score, but, there was always a chance if full two days were available to them. Lets not forget that Ishant and Munaf were struggling to combat the wind and nothing can be ascertained about Bhajji’s performance. So, one could sense what was going though Dhnoi’s mind when he decided to bat NZ out of the game.

There have been comments that for India to be No.1 team in the world, the approach should be ruthless and they need to grab every opportunity that comes their way. People say that India lack a killer instinct which is so very much required to develop a winning habit. But, let me just ask the exponents of this theory that “Has India won enough to be ruthless?” One can not develop a winning habit in a day. It is true that they have been handsomely winning over the last two years. However, it still has a long way to go before being labelled as world beaters. This is a team that had not won a test series in NZ in 41 years. Hence the priority for Dhoni was to get these monkeys off their back. So, I do not see any problems in ensuring completely that you do not lose the match before going for a win.

I believe that all those who are calling for Dhoni’s head should go a bit easy on him. This is a moment to cherish and something which we, as Indian fans, should be really proud of. This team is slowly moving towards the greatness and I hope soon Dhoni, or for that matter any Indian captain, would have little hesitation in taking bold decisions and going for a kill. Waiting for that day to come!!

Let us divide Dravid’s career in three phases:

Phase 1 (England tour, June 1996 to WI tour, July 2006): Dravid played 104 test matches during this period and scored 9,049 runs at a mind-blowing average of 58.75. He scored 23 centuries and helped India win or save test matches more than anybody else in the entire history of Indian Cricket. He was in a dream form for last six years and in the last test series in this period against WI, he was named the Man of the Series. Towards the end of this phase, he was leading the side and everything looked rosy for him.

Phase 2 (SA tour, December 2006 to Australia tour to India, November 2008): Dravid featured in 25 test matches in which he scored only 1,317 runs at a paltry average of 30.62. He was in the worst slump of his career and, more often than not, looked completely out of sorts at crease. There were just two centuries by him – one against Bangaldesh and one against SA in Chennai when his innings of 111 from 291 balls looked completely useless in front of Sehwag’s better than run-a-ball 319. The only significant innings from him in this phase was 93 in Perth, which set up a famous win for India. He resigned from captaincy during this phase and nothing seemed to work for him.

Phase 3 (England tour to India, Dec 2008 to present India’s tour to NZ). Though this is a very small time period to classify as a phase, but, nonetheless it looks like a fresh start for Dravid. He hit a fine century against England in Mohali and his contribution in the ongoing NZ tour has been significant. It seems that Dravid has regained his lost touch, though, not looking as solid as he was in the first phase of his career.

Now, why is it that Rahul was doing so well towards the end of the first phase, but, suddenly lost the plot from SA tour in 2006. The interesting thing is that the Phase 2 in the above mentioned analysis coincides exactly with Sourav Ganguly’s comeback phase. Ganguly made his comeback in Dec. 2006 on India’s tour of SA, much to the dislike of Dravid and Chappell. Further, Dada retired after the recent test series against Aus. after which it seems that Dravid is somewhat coming back on the track.

This clearly suggests that Dada’s presence affected Dravid’s performance adversely and was instrumental in bringing about his downfall. I do not know whether there is even an iota of truthness in this. However, this reminds me of the endless discussions that we used to have amongst friends comparing Ganguly and Dravid. Wow, what an intense bit of arguments those used to be! Good old days…