Tigers give India a right royal kick up the backside

One day after I questioned the presence of some of the minnows, Sod's law required that I choke on my words. And Ireland proceeded to ram my scepticism down my throat. Mind you I was not questioning the abilities of Bangladesh and Zimbabwe, they being test playing nations. I had in mind Bermuda, Canada and Netherlands but after yesterday's matches, no one can grudge the presence of the so called weaker nations. In fact, it would make for informed analysis if the word 'minnows' was banned from cricket.

Bangladesh ambushed India with a clinical, ruthless execution of the basics, with some panache and irreverence thrown in. Their bowling, fielding and captaincy was everything India hoped for but could't match. In fact this match only confirmed the doubts about leadership that surfaced first in West Indies last year. The ODI series in South Africa showed up the weaknesses of the team, primarily an inability to bat for fifty overs on wickets that offer some help to bowlers, against bowlers prepared to bowl in the right areas (to quote the moden jargon). But with the aid of a few dead matches at home the selectors and the country at large managed to sweep the shortcomings under the carpet. I wrote yesterday that the Bangladesh match will show us India's state of mind. We found out that the team is timid and clueless. We can also deduce that the management, comprising the coach, captain and senior players had a negative mindset and was unprepared for this game.

The captain and coach have to take the blame for the negative approach of the batsmen. Rahul Dravid's captaincy has lost the urgency and purposefulness that was visible in the first few months of his stint. The turning point perhaps came in the 2006 Karachi test, when after reducing Pakistan to 0-3 on the first morning, India contrived to lose the match. Since then Dravid's blunders have cost India even before a ball has been bowled in a number of matches. Putting England in after winning the toss in the Mumbai test in 2006, sticking with Sehwag for the decider at Cape Town early this year in South Africa are two glaring examples. To this list, he added the decision to bat first after winning the toss yesterday. Arguably the bigger blunder was sticking with Sehwag even after the failures in the warm up matches and an indifferent performance in the lead up games against Sri Lanka. The move to persist with Sehwag will go down as one of the most cack handed decisions in Indian cricket history. Here I go out on a limb and speculate that the decision to back Sehwag despite his lack of form and indifference to criticism has sent out the wrong message to the juniors in the team. This ranks alongside Ganguly's decision to push for Yuvraj to open against the Australians at home in 2004 even as Akash Chopra was struggling with his confidence. That decision at least had the merit of trying to accommodate Yuvraj in the team when there was intense competition for places in the middle order. Here Dravid didn't have any excuse to persist with Sehwag when he had better options in Robin Uthappa to open and Dinesh Karthik/Irfan Pathan to bat lower down. There are only two reasons why Dravid is doing this. Either he is uncharacteristically afraid of trying out younger players and losing with them or he is just being stubborn in wanting to prove a point. Either way it is hard to stomach for well wishers of Dravid who have thought of him as the thinking man's cricketer.

Credit to the other Indian bastmen, they decided to do their bit to deflect the blame from Sehwag by failing en masse. Uthappa showed little application, but the lad has potential. Tendulkar disappointed when he was needed yet again. For those who still treat him almost as the second coming of Christ, it is time to wake up and smell the coffee. Dravid needs to bat up the order on such wickets, otherwise he adds to the pressure. Ganguly and Yuvraj did a repair job but both threw their wickets away at the wrong time. Ganguly's dismissal in particular was galling as the whole point of him dropping anchor was to stay till the end of fifty overs. The collapse after Ganguly's dismissal was painful and underlined the need to have someone like Pathan or Karthik batting lower down the order. Agreed Mashrafe Mortaza is a good bowler and their spinners bowled with discipline but is it too much to expect a batting line up with so much experience to try and disrupt the rhythm of the bowlers. Ganguly one of the most destructive players of spin bowling was forced to bide his time once the first three wickets fell quickly. Again one has to come back to the decision to play Sehwag. His dismissal put the others under pressure in what was a difficult wicket.

What about Bangladesh - the batting of Tamim Iqbal, Mushfiqur Rahim and Saqibul Hasan, teenagers all was a revelation and the proverbial fresh air. Agreed they were helped by a pitch that was rapidly easing and had become a beauty to bat on. Still to give credit where it is due, the Bangladeshi batsmen showed the temerity of youth and took calculated risks to throw the Indian bowlers out of gear. And anyone who has followed the careers of Zaheer and Agarkar will know that it doesn't take much to unnerve them. Munaf was the lone saving grace but Dravid did his usual bit of letting things drift. At the end it was a well deserved victory for Bangladesh and a proper comeuppance for India.

One last word about this match - it must have been galling for Chappell to find Dave Whatmore taking a leaf out of his youth template and proceeding to show up the creaking bones in the Indian team.
Back in the home of hype (thanks Harsha Bhogle for the term), fans are already seething. Maybe it is too early for such reactions. India do have a reasonable chance to qualify for the Super Eight. Now India will have to beat both Bermuda and Sri Lanka, comprehensively at that, and hope that other results go their way. Fans of Indian cricket know that India always finds the toughest route possible to progress in big tournaments. Nothing new here. I will be surprised if Sehwag is still in the team for the match against Bermuda. It might make sense to try Irfan Pathan and also bring in Sreesanth or Kumble for Agarkar, depending on the pitch. Sri Lanka is not a difficult team to beat but they have some big match players, notably Jayasuriya, Sangakkara and Vaas. So that match on Friday next promises to be a cracker.
Hats off to Ireland too as they dumped Pakistan out of the tournament. The Irish have great spirit as one has seen with their football teams in the past and they gave a warning with the tied game against Zimbabwe. Good luck to them and they have a real chance to reach the second round and prolong this romance with the World Cup. What of Pakistan? As a fan of Pakistan cricket, I am at a loss for words. Osman Samiuddin does a better job here. It is bizarre that Shahid Afridi will take the field for the first and last time in this World Cup in the match against Zimbabwe. And I can bet that Zimbabwe quietly fancy their chances for this one.

World cup underway, yawn

The imaginatively named 'Cricket World Cup' is underway and we already have one world record in place - Gibbs smashed six sixes in an over versus The Netherlands, Daan Van Bunge being the unfortunate bowler. Wonderful as the record is to behold - and some of the shots were pure violence - this just underlines the utterly banal nature of some of these matches. It is all well globalising cricket and allowing the weaker countries a chance to rub shoulders with the major cricketing nations. But some quality control needs to be carried out and maybe a pre-qualifying round to cull out 2 or 3 of the 6 non-test playing nations would have made sense. Having said that Ireland's tie with Zimbabwe and Kenya's clinical performance against Canada were value for money.

Anyways, of the first round of matches played till now, some early signs are visible. England were awful, and having put a few quid on them, I can't begin to describe my feelings after watching their batting performance yesterday. Vaughan played a ridiculous shot and KP got out when well set. As Plunkett and Nixon showed the pitch was easing out and the Kiwis duly took advantage. Oram carried on from where he left off against Australia and they cruised to a six-wicket win.

Compared to England, Pakistan played reasonably well but lost out due to inexperience and sloppiness in the field. They started off well with Umar Gul and Rao Ifthikar but Rana Naved came up a cropper. Kaneria tried hard but he was unfortunate to come up against two expert players of spin, Samuels and Lara. Pakistan ended conceding some 20-30 runs more than what was par for the pitch, but in the end it looked like even 200 would have been enough for Windies. Again inexperience of Imran Nazir and Hafeez hurt Pakistan. They have a long slog from here to reach semis but I think they can only improve with Afridi returning after his ban. Maybe Sami for Rana Naved would be a good change.

From the matches so far, Windies and Kiwis look good and more importantly have the points in bag for Super Eight. Australia look ominous with Ponting laying down a marker for other batsmen to aspire to. Sri Lanka eased to a hammering against Bermuda and Jayawardene got amidst runs. Chamara Silva again impressed.

What about the wickets? Well it is a cliche to classify them as slow and low. Sabina Park offered good bounce and carry while the Queens Park Oval offered something for everyone. I think we will see a good variety of pitches with the venues spread across so many countries - differences in soil type and weather set to play a role. Surprisingly, the spinners have not had much success whereas the military medium bowlers have had better luck. If that's the pattern then India and Sri Lanka have a problem while Kiwis and Windies stand to gain. Australia will reach at least the semis no matter what the conditions. Haven't see SA yet but I fully expect them to reach the later stages and bottle it completely.

Here's what someone, who writes better and is more qualified, have to say about Australia, West Indies, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. I don't share Mukul Kesavan's sepia tinted affection for Sri Lanka but being a proud tamilian may have something to do with it. Today India play Bangladesh, a potential banana skin, and Pakistan take on Ireland. The matches will tell us about India's state of mind and Pakistan's ability to bounce back.