Desicritics Author: USC Trojan

Indian Cricket: Spiraling Down

USC Trojan — Thu, 5 Apr 2007 00:22:25 EDT

As I read yesterday's cricket headlines, I could not imagine the amount of bad news that started coming out. It shocked me that there was a problem between the senior members of the team and the team management (Greg Chappell and Rahul Dravid). I would have thought it was coach vs the team or some members of the team against some other members of the team, but this clearly seemed like a division in the team.

The sad part is that the "senior" players referred to, were Bajji, Sehwag, Saurav and shockingly, Sachin. I always thought Sachin was the non-political types, but in fact his interview was published by TOI and he started talking when otherwise he would have simply gone home, taken a vacation and come back to practice when required.

The other three were close without a doubt, so I don't doubt that group. But how did Sachin end up in that group? Also, if I were Sachin I would not be speaking out with Bajji and Sehwag because their places in the side have been questioned for the longest time and if some selector with some guts comes to select the team, they are the first two I would fire.

So it is quite surprising that Sachin first of all is becoming political, and secondly, is ready to be associated with a group of 4 where two are about to be fired from the team.

The next bit of bad news I read is that Greg Chappell has requested that his contract not be extended and it seems to be triggered by Sachin's interview. I think Greg Chappell was a must-have for this team of babus. I have already written about it in the past and I continue to say so.

What the players don't like about him, behind the scenes, is something I cannot comment on. But if they don't like his disciplinary attitude and taskmaster-ish ways, then it is silly to protest against him. Of course, if he really is a power-hungry control freak who overrides the captain's thoughts and ways, I agree, there is no need for him. But I doubt he was like the latter.

The other bad news is that the task force created by the BCCI to talk with the captain and the (ex) coach, contains Sunil Gavaskar. He clearly is not an unbiased party and he should have been left out of it. The report that this task force produces, is not going to be impartial and I for one will certainly "send it to the shredder" without reading it. As a result, there won't be a decent recommendation for the next steps to be taken. And we will be back to the drawing board, but this time, without anything to write with!

I am not going to talk about the next steps and stuff here (maybe another post later), but I can only hope that we do not go the "old Indian" way or the "Pakistan" way. The old Indian way would be to chop and change and bring the sentimental captain back (Sachin Tendulkar). The Pakistan way would be to make sure there are no foreign coaches in the future. Ever! Neither of these are required, and hope there is some sense in the decision-makers.

Speaking of Sachin Tendulkar, there are a lot of rumors I hear about his performance and his attitude and now of course I read his vocal opposition to the coach's ways. Is there an agenda? Is there someone pulling some strings behind the scenes? I know he is indebted to Sunil Gavaskar, but could it be so bad and completely out of character that he would actually informally "fix" the games so India loses terribly in the World Cup and as a result Greg Chappell ends up having a bad legacy in India and is buried forever? Could he?

And of course, an interesting perk to Sachin in that conspiracy theory is Rahul Dravid may be fired from captaincy and Sachin may end up getting it to end his career as a captain of the team.

I would be very very shocked if that were true, and I would definitely end up NOT watching/following Indian cricket AT ALL. But you know, wonders never cease, especially when we are talking hundreds of crores of rupees!

Indian Cricket: Good News At Last!

USC Trojan — Wed, 4 Apr 2007 11:06:31 EDT

I was extremely excited to read this morning, that Zee head honcho Subhash Chandra has decided to form the Indian Cricket League, ICL, as a professional cricket league separate from the BCCI's structure.

While I am not a big fan of professional leagues like the NFL and the NBA because they truly do not encourage loyalty, I am also sick of having to play domestic cricket for your "state" side. Automatically, as a player playing for a "state" side, there is a tendency to believe things do not need to be fixed immediately.

For example, if there ia a fielding problem, I doubt if someone is going to step up and say we need a fielding coach. If the team loses in the first round or worse, gets relegated to the second tier, the coach may not be fired at all. And of course, there is absolutely no passion among the fans today and it could be because of lack of interest in the domestic circuit but more interestingly, it could be because of lack of exposure to who is playing.

How many of us know the #15 player in the Indian team? How many of us know, on the other hand, the captain of the Mumbai Ranji team? Worse, the winner of this year's Ranji team?

But with the creation of a television network-sponsored league, there is an expectation now that there will be extensive coverage by a well-known television network, and since it is going to be a professionally run league, there will be accountability. The babus of our cricket team and the ones who aspire to be there, cannot simply say they are going to pass on the domestic circuit because now that is going to be their bread and butter.

The professional league will then also need to have professional support staff. No more nominated managers and physios acting like trainers. If it is anything like the other professional sports, there will be a strict contract whereby the cricketer may not be able to do skydiving, for example. In short, the teams' interests will drive the cricketers' interests.

And those are all the good points. Not all is good though. Playing for the "state" does inculcate some sort of loyalty within the team. So when Sairaj Bahutule went to play for Maharashtra, there was some level of disappointment as well as a feeling that he had ditched "his team".

Whereas in a professional scenario, trades are part of the game. You play for one team one day and due to any situation with you or the team, play for another team another day. You are simply a resource that has to start working at 100% from day one and you may have many day ones in your career.

But besides the loyalty thought, there seems to be nothing wrong with a professionally run league and in fact, it may be a good idea to keep the BCCI on its toes, even though Zee has said that they are not competing with BCCI but complementing them.

I don't know how BCCI will let its contracted players play in a separate league with different commitments, but we'll see how this plan unfolds and what happens next. I can't wait to see it happen, if it materializes.

Congratulations, Mr. Chandra and all the best!

Cricket World Cup 2007: Boring Cup continues

USC Trojan — Wed, 4 Apr 2007 06:16:17 EDT

Yes, I said it. The tournament has lost a lot of the luster due to the absence of India (and to a certain extent, combined with the absence of Pakistan). So grudgingly, I follow the scores, just to keep my fantasy team adjusted to current form.

Some of the highlights so far:

1. Australia seem to be unbeatable at current form. It is scary to think that they have beaten everyone, where, except for Hayden, there have been different star performers every game! No wonder McGrath claimed they can go unbeaten through the tournament. They are not my favorites when I think with my heart, but they are when I think with my brain (and if there is money to be placed!).

2. South Africa is a close second among the teams and probably in their best form currently. They have only lost to Australia and they can comfort themselves that at least it is the clear #1 team in the Cup.

3. Sri Lanka may be the dark horse in the tournament. Before Sri Lankan fans burn me, I would like to clarify why I say that - I think they have been hidden under the aura of Australia and it may be good for Sri Lanka to have it that way. The pressure will be lesser and once you reach the semifinals, it is anyone's game on any day. For now, I am keen to see what happens when they play Australia on April 16th. Of course we know how exciting the Sri Lanka/South Africa match ended up being!

4. New Zealand may be the only other team with any chance of making some noise. Yes, sorry England and English fans - you guys are just not consistent and talented enough to beat the above three teams. You will be a distant 5th or maybe even 6th after West Indies, though it looks less likely the way the West Indians are playing!

Bangladesh and Ireland are probably just happy to be where they are, and should not be a cause for concern to the top 4.

One trend I have seen among the Indians at work and otherwise, is that they have stopped caring about the World Cup in general. The standard question I get is "So what the heck is going on with the World Cup? I stopped following you know .. damn .. those idiots!" and I think they assume I am following it closely so they can get some updates!

Some other friends were telling me that they were having trouble getting rid of semifinal and final tickets they have since the package they bought included many games and they were not going to hang around for the semis and the finals. Can you imagine - there are tickets for the semis and the finals and no one wants them! And its not like the stadiums in the West Indies are all 100K capacities! Its just sad for the country and the board that such a spectacle is reduced to such shameful mess. Even Brian Lara was disappointed with the attendance for the Home team!

On a lighter note, I am languishing in the Cricinfo Fantasy League because I kept Chanderpaul for a long time and I had Stuart Clark for a while in the Super 8's. Dropped them and got Graeme Smith and Makhaya Ntini. Let's see how it goes now.

iMacs - More Cool Than Easy

USC Trojan — Thu, 29 Mar 2007 01:22:03 EDT

So from all that I have read so far about the iMacs, especially the dual core intel-based iMacs, I thought it a must-have for anyone interested in the new digital lifestyle. And with the new addition to our family, we have been a little busy with some video recordings.

My Dell laptop started screaming for help when I tried to import the 30-minute miniDVD into the Roxio Easy Media Creator 8. First of all, it took 45 minutes to import a 30-minute clip, which sounds unreasonable to me. And the laptop is not that old - it is only 1.5 years old and it was not on battery power, but AC power.

After one or two such experiences, I started thinking about possibly getting a Mac Mini or iMac. I went to the Apple store and talked with some of the sales people there and they talked about how easily and quickly I will be able to import the videos into iMovie and I was almost sold then. I asked them what was the return policy in case it did not work out for me and they said that for any opened box, there was a 15% restocking fee! So I walked out of the store with nothing.

Then, I started scanning other stores' return policies and found out that Best Buy had a reasonable return policy for desktops - no restocking fee if returned within 14 days. So I went to Best Buy #1 near my office and asked for the iMac and they said they do not stock it. So I stopped by the Best Buy #2 on the way to home, and they said the same thing. They asked me to order it online. So I came home, ordered it online and chose in-store pickup as the delivery option.

I picked it up yesterday, came home and immediately hooked it up. I needed to resolve two important issues - can I run Windows XP reasonably fast, hopefully side-by-side with OS X, and of course how quickly does it import the movies and how easy is it to clip some parts and create a decent movie package?

So the first thing I did after hooking up (which took no time at all) is download Parallels trial version and installed Windows XP with SP2 on parallels. That step really took no time (maybe 15-20 minutes) and I was all set with my Windows XP. It looked and felt like a PC and I was able to browse the web from there. I tried to set up a PPTP VPN connection to the wife's office because she would end up using it for work. It did not connect. Bummer #1. I said lets forget about VPN for now, and let's check the more important thing - videos.

The first big surprise in my video importing experience was that slot-loading optical drives that come with the new Macs do not support miniDVD! My Sony camcorder writes to miniDVDs and since I do not have an option to return that anymore, I have to make do with miniDVDs. But the iMac would not support it out of the box.

There were plenty of suggestions online about what to do in order to read the miniDVD including buying an external DVD (tray-type) drive! Are you kidding me? I want to lose the wires around the computer and reduce the clutter in general and the suggestion to work around the miniDVD issue is to buy another piece of hardware with the appropriate cables? Shut up!

Another option I entertained was to use the camcorder as a USB drive, but no matter what I tried the Mac just did not recognize my camcorder over USB. I pretty much gave up after 45 minutes of trying to get the damn thing recognized and realized it was not going to work and even though the machine is a fabulous piece of hardware, I was not ready for it yet.

Maybe my expectations were raised by the ads on TV that make it seem like connecting a new piece of hardware is a pain with Windows but is a breeze with Macs. I had heard/read so many good things about the Macintosh OS and the simplicity of use.

I may be the exception, but the iMac just did not work for me. I am going to return it to the store today.

Cricket World Cup 2007: India Does Not Deserve That Break From Bermuda

USC Trojan — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 00:12:19 EDT

Note: This post was composed before the Bermuda/Bangladesh match today. Regardless, the point remains the same. India played like losers. They just did not bat well enough against Sri Lanka on a great batting pitch for me to hope for a Bermuda upset on Bangladesh. They bowled OK in that match, but the batsmen let us down once again (after the Bangaldesh debacle).

It was a bad loss against a team which was truly beatable on the day. And if you consider that it was a must-win for India, the way they batted was simply unacceptable. What was the top order thinking? Uthapa and Ganguly seemed to be in a lot of hurry to score quick runs and Ganguly did not realize even after losing Uthapa to a bad shot that he needs to be there till the end. He gave up with a lazy shot. What was the rationale?

Anyway, even though there is a theoretical chance that India can make it to the Super 8, I would believe it would be unfair for India to go through because of the way they have played.

And a final note - looks like once again I jinxed India. I "worked from home" and made it a big deal at work the previous day, and as usual overplanned the whole thing. And now, I am afraid the world cup package on Willow is not going to be worth it.

Now, on to the thoughts on the match:

Objective #1 - Restrict Jayasuriya and the other big guns from getting a big total
The good: It was a great opening spell in which not only did Ajit, Zaheer and Munaf keep the batsmen quiet, but also got a few wickets at the top to continue the pressure on the middle order. My fear was that Sri Lanka, after being put in to bat, would get off to a flier and make 300-320 an easy target to achieve. From the first few overs, it was clear that at least it would not be easy to get to 300-320+ target.

Objective #2 - After restricting initially, don't let them get away to a huge score
The good: The innings was mainly controlled by India. The bowlers all did their job well and kept the batsmen in check. There were no huge overs and there was no real momentum built for a true slog over launch.
The bad: There were not enough breakthroughs taken in the middle to truly cause a collapse. Harbajan was useless and too predictable. If we were OK with predictability, we should have pursued the Kumble option, where he could at least slip a fast flipper through to get a wicket or two.

Of course, the last few overs were pathetic because instead of limiting Sri Lanka to maybe 220, India had to live with a target of 250+.

Objective #3 - Get a decent start to launch the chase
The good: Not much good here. The only thing we can talk about is the positivity shown by both Ganguly and Uthappa. But I think the exuberance was OK till it caused their downfall.
The ugly: The way in which the top order got out. Uthappa was living a charmed life and the wily Vaas eventually got him with his mind. Uthappa was bent on hitting Vaas straight through and succeeded once or twice and Vaas finally got the ball closer to Robin's body making him scoop it up straight at the bowler which ended up being a nice reflex catch.

Ganguly was also looking very impatient. Unlike his previous many innings where he dropped anchor and started to accelerate only after settling in completely, here he started stepping out randomly. This was one innings where he should have hung around, being the only man in form, and should have let the other end keep hitting out and maintaining the strike rate. He would have been ideal against Jayasuirya's spin in the middle. But he got out lazily and created a sudden sense of panic in the team.

Sachin probably got a wake up call about his age with the ball he got out to. He had no business to miss the ball due to the pace, but it did seem like he was just a little late to play at the ball, causing an inside edge to the stumps. Once again, just when he needed to fire, he did not. I don't know, this inning and his form of dismissal may end up creating a bad World Cup legacy for Sachin like Gavaskar's dismissal off DeFreitas.

Yuvraj's run out was unfortunate, and definitely at the wrong time (is there a right time for a run out?). Dhoni's wicket was also a pathetic shot attempt - why did he have to try such an extravagant shot off the back foot against the world class spinner?

Can't expect much from anyone else down the order, but Ajit's dismissal was also quite sad. He tried to hit out the first few balls and I think I saw Dravid at the other end come and ask him to not hit rash shots, but he did not listen and ended up stepping out and hitting the ball straight to a fielder.

Objective #4 - Win the match and virtually eliminate Bangladesh from contention
Mission a thorough failure!

I know that it is hard to overlook one of the worst performances we have seen from the Indian team, especially given that the nucleus of the team is completely going to change come next World Cup, but now at least I can watch the rest of the games with a real outsider's point of view.

Cricket World Cup 2007: India Creams Bermuda - Take that, South Africa!

USC Trojan — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 01:12:11 EDT

Yea, take that, South Africa. If you could demolish your opponents, we could too! The Indians came back big time against an opponent who was just happy to qualify for the World Cup. Now the Indian team has created a whole bunch of optimism in fans' hearts. Now their destiny is part in their own hands (beat Sri Lanka for sure) and part in others' hands (if Bermuda can beat Bangladesh or Bangladesh can beat Sri Lanka, for example).

In any case, the India-Bermuda match was worth watching because of the execution - everyone (except Uthappa) in the batting order fired and created a world cup record total. The acceleration at the end was fantastic and I even watched the whole innings again after going home!

What sucked was that the bowling gave up runs and was not able to close it out early. Kumble should have been brought in earlier and he could have cleaned up the innings.

Anyway, now that the net run rate is sort of healthy, India has something to play for in the tournament rather than just wait and watch.

Some key thoughts on the game ...

Objective #1 - Bat first and bat big to get a bump in the net run rate
The good: Lost the toss and were invited to bat first. I can't imagine India making up a decent net run rate while chasing. So thanks for the gift, Bermuda captain.
The bad: Uthapa failed again and it meant another one day innings for India without a decent start.
The ugly: In retrospect of course it was not such a bad thing, but I really was shocked that Sehwag was included in the team, and more so when I saw him walk out at 1-down! What are Dravid and the team management (no, only Dravid) seeing of Sehwag in the nets and off the field that they keep taking him in the XI?? I know he scored a century and now he is all set for another year or something, but still, it is a question of principles after all. I am disgusted with that though as a fan, I am ok because he fired and got India off to a great start to set up the unbelievable finish!
The great: What a finish to the innings. Yuvraj and then Sachin really crushed the bowling in the last 10-15 overs. Unbelievably clean hitting in the death. Made for awesome viewing!

Objective #2 - Get them out quickly and again, bump up the net run rate
The good: India scored the highest margin of victory in one day internationals.
The bad: Why couldn't we finish them off earlier? Kumble was the trump card because no one in the Bermuda team perhaps knows his bowling and most likely no one has ever faced him in person. He could have run through the innings. I think he was brought in quite late. We could have had them out for under 100. It would still not have bumped up the net run rate above Sri Lanka's but we would have come mighty close.

Objective #3 - After the debacle against Bangladesh lock up a big win
Mission accomplished!

Now, we need to take care of business against Sri Lanka and of course hope for some help from Bermuda and maybe Bangladesh! :-)

Cricket World Cup 2007: India Derailed by Bangladesh

USC Trojan — Sun, 18 Mar 2007 16:00:20 EDT

I knew there was some problem brewing. I always get that feeling about India's games (and in a similar fashion, about USC games). The feeling I get when I over-plan the viewing of the game itself. Plan a sports bar meeting. Or some drinking games. Or simply idli-dosa breakfast along with the game on TV (as opposed to my internet-only subscription).

That feeling is that India (or my favorite team in other sports) is going to have a bad day out. I tried to slow it down towards the latter part of the week by forcing myself and the cousin whose house I saw the match at, to behave "normally". Oh by the way he feels (corrected since: he felt) that India will win the World Cup this year. So naturally the expectations were raised for this supposed easy game. Of course, as we know, things did not quite turn out the way it seemed to have been set up.

Some of my thoughts (besides extreme anger at the team's performance):

Objective #1 - Pocket the win

The Ugly: It was not only a loss, but it was a loss in ALL departments of the game. India was never in the game except for a very brief period where Yuvraj and Sehwag seemed to have some control over the bowling. Starting from the top order collapse to the lack of a decent middle consolidation to the surrender of the lower order except the 10th wicket partnership, there was really nothing in the batting. The bowling failed to turn on the screws when needed and to add insult to injury; the teenagers from the Bangladesh team were actually stepping out to India's pace bowlers and whacking them all over the ground. And finally, the Bangladesh fielding saved I would say at least 20 runs in the field, whereas India failed to convert a few half chances that came their way. Pathetic loss to start the campaign and frankly, I have written the team off as long as Sehwag continues to be part of the starting eleven. And that brings me to the next point...

Objective #2 - Bat well and accumulate a good net run rate in case of tie breaker situation

Here I need to start with the most burning situation first and therefore, go in reverse order.

The Ugly: Virender Sehwag. That's all I can say. He was almost run out without facing a single ball for lack of basics like dragging bat in the crease and rather trying to jump over the fielder. And then, in trying to cut a ball too close to him, chopped it on to the stumps! Un-freaking-believable shot from a guy who clearly needs to get back to the drawing board and save his PR money for when he actually gets back to some sort of form. Seriously, India really needs to drop this guy from the starting eleven. I believe Pathan at #6 is better than Sehwag anywhere in the order and of course in pure batting terms, Dinesh Karthick will be better anywhere in the order than Sehwag.

The Bad: The top order unnecessarily put themselves into a hole by trying to exaggerate the devil in the pitch. At the same time, Robin Uthappa and the lower middle order got out to unnecessary shots and created more pressure for everyone else.

The Good: It continues to be the return of Saurav Ganguly. What a turnaround he has had! I, among many others, had proclaimed that he is out of sight and therefore out of mind. Now, not only is he back in the team, but essentially the only batsman in form today! And of course, he is one of the few stars in my Fantasy Team. Also another good thing with the batting was Zaheer and Munaf who showed it was not that bad to bat on the wicket.

Objective #3 - Bowl and field well to show the world that defense wins games

The Bad: The initial few overs were key but the young opener (I deliberately refer to him without name) had other ideas. Even though Zaheer got a wicket, both he and Ajit strayed once in a while and it gave Bangladesh enough comfort in an over to chance their arms here and there. The fielding was the other aspect that classifies as 'bad'. Dravid should have somehow created a catch out of that lunge at mid off. Dhoni should have scooped up that dying caught behind chance. So the defense showed it was not up for the challenge and it let some young guns in the opposition take over the game. Of course, it is not their fault that India lost. If the batsmen had put up 30-40 more runs, it would have been a better total to defend.

The bottom line was that India had absolutely no answer to Bangladesh's energy, fighting spirit and overall preparedness for this game.

So where do we go from here? We have a theoretical chance of making it to the next stage if we beat Bermuda (and it has to be BIG) and then of course, we have to beat Sri Lanka. Of course, there is one other thing that we can hope for Bangladesh beats Sri Lanka, but I don't think that is going to happen.

As for the next game's team, I hope Sehwag is dropped. Also, we may see Kumble coming in for Ajit. I fear that Dravid may give Sehwag one more chance against Bermuda thinking he can strike his form against the lowly team. I hope it does not happen.

On a big sidenote (and hopefully not inviting any flames), I am glad that at least our rivals Pakistan are out of the Cup losing to Ireland! For quite some time, Indian fans had only Pakistan to watch if their team was out - did we beat Pakistan, and is Pakistan still alive in the Cup? And in this case, the former will not happen but the latter is in our favor.

So for now, here's hoping that India scores a big win tomorrow!

Cricket World Cup 2007: South Africa Runs Amok and New Zealand Squeezes A Win Out of England

USC Trojan — Sun, 18 Mar 2007 13:14:51 EDT

South Africa totally demolished the Netherlands. They were expected to win, yes, but the way they went about it showed that they do not consider any opponent less serious than the others.

To start with, the game was shortened to 40 overs. South Africa batted first and unfortunately, my browser had the England/NZ game on. After a while, I checked the score for the South Africa game and realized that it was an exciting game too. So I simply had two games going on with audio on in both the games. The reason being I was at work and I could not afford to keep a cricket match as my "primary browser window." So I would just wait for the excitement in the commentary and switch to the appropriate window whenever needed.

Herschelle Gibbs' rampage was worth watching. Luckily, I switched to that game just when he had completed the world record of 6 sixes in an over so I was able to see it in replay right after he did it.

And that was not the only exciting batting effort! Boucher came out and hit the fastest fifty in one dayers and I think if it was a 50-over game, many more records could have been made/broken.

It was a fantastic batting effort, where Kallis' century was almost a sidenote.

The result was of course beyond any doubt and South Africa completed the rout. After Sri Lanka's destruction of Bermuda and this game, questions would surely pop up if there is any meaning in including so many smaller teams in the World Cup.

Meanwhile elsewhere, the England top order collapsed and only some small face-saving partnerships made it possible to get England to a decent total. Pietersen seems to be a machine which goes on and on but if the rest of the pieces are rusted, like it is the case with England, his efforts are usually going to be in vain. His fifty was good (I have him in my fantasy team!), but all useless in the end.

New Zealand went about the chase rather casually but in the end Scott Styris steadied the ship and took them home. Damn, how did I overlook Styris for my Fantasy League? I guess Tikolo wasn't that bad a choice.

So England has an uphill battle now. Let's see how the games unfold.

West Indies Opens With a Win - Aussies Ready to Steamroll

USC Trojan — Thu, 15 Mar 2007 00:03:02 EDT

A great start to the cup for the host country. The game was well played in general by the host. It was not a great start to their innings after they were put in by Pakistan. The innings went rough from the beginning but somehow they were able to scratch a 240.

Then, when it came to defend the total, West Indies got a surprise gift in terms of the pathetic dismissals of the Pakistan top order. Seriously, what's the deal with the Pakistan team? One day they perform like they can win the World Cup and the other day they completely lose it. This was the day they completely lost it.

Ultimately, it ended up being a walk in the park for West Indies and they are 1-0 up and presumably, one win away from the next stage. Great job, I am rooting for them!

Oh, and then today's game and what happened in the last few days with Australia, specifically its captain? A lot of back and forth went on between Sunil Gavaskar who clearly does not like Australia, and Ricky Ponting who owes it to his country to step up and respond.

I don't know why Gavaskar still has so much grief, though I must admit Australians are somewhat taking things for granted and behaving like they own the game. But at the same time, I have started losing respect for Gavaskar's thoughts because he is too overly biased against Australia (and Australians, as seen in his clearly negative remarks about Greg Chappell).

Ricky Ponting and to a certain extent, Cricket Australia, had two options - to ask him politely to shut up, or to come out with a statement with their thoughts and opinions. Knowing whatever I know of Australians, I am not surprised they chose option #2 and started pointing fingers at Gavaskar.

Of course the argument itself was pathetic. In response to Gavaskar's comments about Australian behavior on the field, Ponting starts talking about not only the Indian team performance (in terms of wins and losses) but also, the current team's performance which has nothing to do with Gavaskar's behavior. So I think Ponting lost the debate right there by changing the focus of the attack. Classic finger-pointing at work.

Gavaskar of course closed the argument by brining David Hookes in the picture and talking about someone hitting the Aussies for their stupid behavior.

Not sure where it is going to lead the Indo-Aussie cricketing relations, but for sure shifts the focus for Australia. We are used to the Aussie and English press attacking the visiting Indian teams in the past, and I think Gavaskar is trying to turn the tables and start rattling the Aussies by attacking them through the press. In that respect, I think Gavaskar has done a great job on this World Cup "campaign" if I can call it that.

Coming to today's game, Australia showed that the losses against England and New Zealand recently were just blips and after being somewhat bogged down by Scotland, led by Ponting himself and a great finish, they were able to put a 330, where I thought 280-290 was the most likely target.

As I stopped watching, Scotland were 5 down for almost nothing and the result, which was a foregone conclusion became almost certain.

So, we have West Indies with a win against Pakistan, potentially staking a claim at the top spot in the group and Australia winning its gimme game so far. Looking forward to a tricky game for India against Bangladesh coming this weekend!

Cricket World Cup 2007: India Beats The West Indies in the Warm Up Match

USC Trojan — Sat, 10 Mar 2007 23:24:59 EST

The second warm up game was supposed to be a little more serious. After all, it was against the West Indies and the last time India played West Indies in West Indies, they were clobbered.

After winning convincingly against the Netherlands, it was time for India to rest some of the players and at the same time, try to win this game and go into the main competition with a lot of confidence.

Sachin was rested in this game and Ajit Agarkar was brought in. Munaf Patel came in too and Sreesanth was benched.

For some reason I was up early that day and thought I could watch the first hour or so live. But unfortunately, Lara won the toss and chose to bat, so I had to wait till I got to work to see the Indian batting. But in any case, I decided to watch the bowling and after the first loose over, Ajit settled in very well. That ball that got rid of Gayle was a ripper! I don't know what it is with Agarkar but he loves bowling to left handed batsmen and is quite good in getting them out too. And Gayle especially has been his puppy of late. Gayle is a huge threat to take the game away from the opposition and it was good that India got him early.

As it turns out, it was not only him that India got out early. With pretty much everyone firing on all cylinders India bowled the West Indies out for only 85. When I reached work, I turned on Willow broadcast and saw the score at 85-9 with Kumble bowling. I thought to myself "Uh oh, it's over and I missed almost the whole damn innings" and guess what - the next ball, Kumble got the wicket and it was all over!

India won by 9 wickets at the end. My summarized thoughts:

Objective #1 - Give Sehwag another go
The ugly: Yes, there is no good and no bad here. Sehwag was out cheaply chasing a ball he could well have left alone. There was absolutely no pressure in getting to the 85 runs and this was the most ideal place for Sehwag to shut us all up. But instead he made my voice louder. I know Dravid is trying to back his guy up, but come on! What's the value of sticking to the guy when he just does not perform. Plus, mentally, he's in no position to improve. Cut your losses, Rahul and get rid of Sehwag.

My fear is that in trying to back Viru up, Dravid will include him in the first game and maybe even the second and it is going to cost a valuable wicket at the top (or even in the middle, if they decide to push him down the order).

Objective #2 - Continue with the bowling combination
The good: Pretty good outing for both Munaf and Ajit. It does seem like Munaf is fully fit. His throwing action is still a little awkward but I am hoping he stays invisible on the field. Pathan had another nice lbw wicket and I hope he has his confidence back.
The bad: Kumble did not get a decent bowl and I am afraid between him and Harbhajan, Bajji will be chosen for his supposedly more agile feet.

Objective #3 - Win the game and close the warm ups 2-0
Mission accomplished !