New Zealand - West Indies Day 2 at Napier is haulted due to rain. Doesn’t matter. At least we have the Sri Lanka - Pakistan test in Colombo. Any live test cricket action can do on a Sunday morning.

Next thing I know, I see Sanjay Manjrekar announces that the match is delayed due to rain. Agh.

I love that test cricket is nature dependant (cloud causes swing) and has so many variables (ball deterioates, the pitch wears, the pitch is always different). But rain is some thing which always irritates.

This is not Wimbledon and thus Cliff Richard will not start singing. So go away rain!

Bulgarian Albena Denkova and Maxim Staviski’s years of hardwork have finally reaped fruit. The pair won the ice dancing Gold in the World Figure Skating Championships. The couple have been a team since 1996. Denkova had a word to say about the judging in the Torino Games as well.

Reports CNN:

We skated well in the Olympics and we are pleased this time the decision of the judges they looked differently on us and our programs. We didn’t change any thing from the Olympics.

I am glad the pair have a quality reward for years of effort.

Moving home is always tedious. So when I decided to move Sportolysis, I knew it was never going to be a piece of cake.

The whole process of buying a domain, hosting, shifting posts, shifting comments, toggling with wordpress and every thing in between has taken about 6 days. In the end, I feel joyous, excited, thrilled but most of all thankful.

I wouldn’t have manged this without some very significant people. Firstly, Sudeep. He has installed wordpress for me and played with HTML as only he can. If I had gone to install wordpress all by myself, it would have taken me way more time. Yes, I am that new to all this. Sudeep has played the biggest role in getting Sportolysis shifted. You rock!

Secondly, Abhinav. My younger brother has designed all the cool headers you see on Sportolysis. He is cool personified. The banners are there to prove it. For hosting the site, James should be thanked. He has been helpful with all the queries I have had. I bought the domain name via Brainpulse. The registration was completed in a jiffy and the service has been prompt. Vulturo, Arnab da and Will have been there to resolve any doubts which have surfaced in my mind.

I haven’t won an Oscar. But I thought the best way to start this would be to acknowledge the people who have made this task much easier.

This is a new beginning for Sportolysis. A journey which promises so much. I hope you can enjoy the ride with me.

A few days ago I asked the question, “Has England let the opportunity slip in the battle for No. 2 and chasing Australia?”

A win in Mumbai is now needed for England to remain in the race. Very difficult but it is the only way England can stop the opportunity from slipping. No one said the battle was ever going to be easy!

England did win in Mumbai and showed strength in the face of adversity. The persistance was evidant in the way England batted in the post tea session on Day 4 - with planning to go for the shots only once England felt safe. The persistance was also evident on Day 5. The pitch had not deteriorated. It was playing much better than most 5 day pitches play. England kept the ball in a line which made Indians play. Ball after ball this line was maintained. There was hardly any straying. The discipline and superb bowling effort was a pleasure to watch.

Defensive mindset

India has been defensive in mind set in this series. In the first test they went for the shots very late. That was when the score line read 0-0. Here the score line was 1-0. So it was unlikely that they would go for runs and risk drawing the series. The plan would be to play out the first session and a half or two sessions and if wickets are in hand after that, see if going for the target during a small phase is a good option.

This is where I think India erred. Defensive play is never a good option regardless of the situation. Dravid almost got into a shell and Tendulkar survived a few close LBW shouts which would have been plumb had they been a bit closer to the wicket. Safeguarding your wicket is needed in such situations. But in the process playing the natural game as far as possible should not be forgotten. If you let the bowlers dominate, they will gain in confidence and get on you sooner rather than later.

(more…)

With Sehwag missing most of the time in the field in England’s second inning due to injury, he can bat only lower down the order.

Debate between Jawagal Srinath and Dean Jones occurs on who should open with Jaffer. Jones reckons it should be Munaf Patel.

No he wasn’t joking as he backed it up:

I would say Munaf Patel. If he gets quick 15 runs, India could be off to a flyer. Certainly he is wasted at number XI and should bat up higher.

Hmm.

In the Commonwealth Games trials, Jones bettered her 200 metre breast stroke mark a few months ago. This time she breaks her mark in the 100 metre breast stroke at the Commonwealth Games. CNN reports:

Jones set the first world record of the Games, shattering her previous mark by 0.62 seconds in the 100m breaststroke to clock one minute 05.09 seconds.

Who said breaking records and setting new standards was difficult?

Rahul Bhatia wrote a wonderful small piece on his blog where he fears India wont matter once Tendulkar is gone. The following is what I have to say on the same:

Some generations leave their darlings on people. Some players who are chrished a lot more than the game itself.

In these times we forget that the game goes on. It went on after Bradman in Australia and many cherished players in many eras.

For us, who have been priveleged to have our cricketing ‘wonder years’ in the era of Tendulkar, specially Indian fans as others may cherish a Lara or a Warne, and not necessarily to the same extent, cricket will indeed never be the same.

But we will look back and feel proud about being in the same era as Tendulkar. Our love for the game wont decrease. We are likely to appreciate many finer aspects of the game once there isn’t a Tendulkar. We often have done the same (appreciate the game a lot more) when we watch tests of other nations for example.

That said, I am confident it is not over for Tendulkar.

After the news of the FIR against Jagmohan Dalmiya comes the news that Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) will not host any Champions Trophy matches. A CAB representative wasn’t even present at the meeting. Was it because of the FIR and thus a means of protest? Also was the reason to not distribute the match because the CAB wanted the latter matches? Did CAB put strict conditions because of the FIR? Did CAB put strict conditions at all?

We might never know.

The English Team was at cross roads in Pakistan. I had written on the same nearly 3 months ago which can be read here. I titled it facing adveristy. In the period which has followed since then, England has enountered a lot of adversity. A menacing Shoaib Akhtar in Pakistan and a series of unfortunate events leading 4 of their first XI to withdraw from the tour of India being unquestionably the biggest external adversities. The internal weaknesses they have shown shouldn’t be forgotten.

With the collapse in Pakistan and throwing away a match England should have probably drawn in India in the second test of the series in Mohali, it has probably let slip the opportunity to challenge Australia for now. From being the unquestionable number 2 side, it has gone down a step in the close battle of the number 2.

In fact, it also finds itself at a position inferior to Pakistan. Pakistan appear to have lost Shoaib Akhtar for the immediate future. However there is some time to go for Pakistan’s tour of England. If Pakistan can manage even a draw in that series, it would mean that Pakistan has set itself above the current English side.

And what about South Africa? South Africa played superbly in Australia. It is now involved in the home series versus Australia. If South Africa can manage a victory or even a draw, it can be accepted as a strong team despite Glenn McGrath not playing in the current series and despite what Chris Fogarty has to say regarding only the Ashes mattering, test cricket is about more than just The Ashes. John Stern analyses the current situation and the mouth watering prospect which lies ahead of us much more judiciously.

India may be finding bowlers (Munaf Patel, Piyush Chawla) who might show some potency in times to come. However, with it playing just 2 test series in the run up to World Cup 2007 and having lost the series to Pakistan (despite it being like a 1 test series), India finds itself behind the pack in this chase. Did New Zealand not go behind a huge distance in one session in their home series versus Pakistan where Shoaib Akhtar wrecked them? It did India no favours that for them that the home series versus England was always going to be The Nothing Series. India in fact loosened their noose in the tussle they failed to win their last series in the West Indies. That they lost the home series versus Australia did them no favours. They have been chasing as a back runner since then and will have to keep persisting. They do not find themselves in the picture before the pyajama cricket - World Cup 2007 is done and dusted with.

Climbing up the ladder is difficult. It requires consistent brilliant performances. New Zealand is finding it out the hard way. It is doomed in mid table for the time being. Has England let it’s opportnity slip by two collapses, one in Pakistan and one in India? The importance is not in that England lost. England would be respectable losers after drawing their first test match in India. The importance was in the manner in which a match which should have been drawn was lost. A win in Mumbai is now needed for England to remain in the race. Very difficult but it is the only way England can stop the opportunity from slipping. No one said the battle was ever going to be easy!

Pakistan does have a small lead ahead of the rest of the pack - England, South Africa and India. South Africa has the best chance to contend with Pakistan. While all this is going on, Australia cannot work out who the right players are for their international side. A side which boasted of depth finds itself bringing back older warriors who were discarded after the Ashes war was lost. The batsmen are not showing consistency. There is no sign of a future Glenn McGrath or Shane Warne. Most importantly, Australia has set such high standards for themselves that they will themselves find it difficult to maintain these levels. Even if McGrath and Warne do manage to play for a few more years, it will be very difficult for Australia to not slip from it’s high intensity performances is now characterized with. Some would argue that the slipping has already started.

Very interesting times to be a test cricket fan.

I had written on resisting evils earlier. Rio Ferdinand has asked UEFA to stop the lip service and act. Racism was shown to Eto’o months ago and the South African team during their tour to Australia recently. There have been so so many incidents even if we chalk out only incidents from post January 2005. Wasn’t it only a year ago when Ashley Cole and Shuan Wright-Phillips were abused by Spanish supporters in a friendly in Madrid? It is time sport starts acting. Football excites as few sports can and it is in this excitement that inherent biases surface from the deep core.

Zidane is seen here with a T-shirt which calls to stamp out racism:

Racism is a crime. There is no place for it.

Update: FIFA has decided to take real actions to stamp out racism. Definitely a positive move.