Silly M(a)id-on

I was travelling the day the match fixing scandal broke out. I had no idea how big it was as I was only able to catch the headline. I read something to the effect of “England win among allegations of match-fixing” and I thought “Pakistan has lost a match, so nothing new in these allegations.” The fact that that “worthy” tabloid called News Of The World had broken the story did nothing to make me take this stuff seriously.

I was forced to change my mind a little bit after watching the videos once I got back. But I have been back and forth since then.

The evidence is compelling. But on the other hand it is, after all, NoTW’s evidence.

It is foolish to assume that match/spot fixing does not go on. But on the other hand, why hang someone without a proper investigation?

Proper investigation is not something you can expect from our worthy cricket administrators (regardless of nationality). But without that, and punishing the guilty, how do you begin to clean up the mess?

So where does that leave the average cricket fan like me?

With so many thoughts running through my head, I thought I would be able to pen down a long winded, well articulated post to express all of that. But it turns out that writing eloquent posts is not something I am particularly good at. So after 4 futile attempts in the last 3 days, I am doing the next best thing and making a list of all those thoughts instead, because frankly, I need to get this out of my system.

• 10 years ago, I suffered a massive blow to my belief system when it was revealed that Hansie Cronje and Ajay Jadeja were involved in match fixing. These were 2 of my favourite cricketers and I just could not believe that these guys could be involved in such a thing (specially Hansie). My only source of information then being newspapers and NDTV, not being net savvy enough to discover reports like this and not being cynical enough in general, I took all the proceedings at face value. With the guilty punished, I happily moved on with my life and my cricket, telling myself that it might not be perfect, but it is going to be ok. A cousin of mine would tell me that I am an idiot to still follow cricket so religiously and that I lived in “La La Land” (his words) if I still took everything that happened on the field at face value. But I ignored him of course and I never attempted to find out what sort of “investigations” had gone on in ’00 and how credible the punishments meted out were. Surely, living in denial is not an option now. (Please note PCB et al. DENIAL….NOT AN OPTION).

• I wonder why I feel so disgusted and angry right now when these spot-fixing allegations obviously don’t come as a surprise. Why do I feel betrayed when at the back of my head I sort of knew that this stuff happens all the time? I really don’t understand myself.

• It has been only 3 days, and I have resolved a million times, and then backed down, that I will never watch a match again, and stop maintaining this blog. Over reaction? Possibly. Do I see myself as actually going through with this? Maybe not. At the moment though, I don’t see the point in weighing in India’s chances in a match when player X might already have decided to go for 100 runs in his 10 overs or Player Y has decided to throw his wicket away. I don’t see a point in gloating when India wins or moping at a loss. I question India’s T20 triumph and I wonder whether India could have won the WC in 2003 after all if it weren’t for these bookies. After all, why should I believe that Indians are not involved?

*******

Onto a couple of articles that have appeared online, that rankled a bit.

First off, Geoff Lawson in Sydney Morning Herald.

The instant reaction after watching the investigative videos was – why would you, a cricketer with such potential, want to stake your reputation for some money? What’s with all the greed? What about ethics? Etc etc.

Geoff’s article’s first half was a reality check in that regard. Of course you idiot! (The idiot being referred to here is me). If someone is powerful enough to run such a racket, wouldn’t they go to any lengths to ensure that all this runs smoothly? Why wouldn’t they threaten players to do their bidding? And surely, I don’t expect these players to become martyrs in order to “uphold their morals” and do the right thing. Of course, if your family is under threat, you do what you are asked to. I would too.

The thing that does bug me is this part –

I will never condone any form of fixing, but we should consider that a cricketer might not be thinking of personal gain but of getting money to buy a generator for his village because they don’t have electricity.

Um, yeah. Let’s not get carried away, shall we Geoff? A player gets a decent amount (not over the top, but decent enough) as match fee. One might want to be a little patient in order to save money to buy things? You know, like us mere mortals do?

Next up, Dileep Premachandran in the Guardian. The crux of his article is neatly summed up by the tagline “Lack of legitimate earning opportunities draws jealous players into the hands of unscrupulous bookmakers”.

Honestly, the premise is very offensive. So basically, if I am a very very capable software engineer and Google doesn’t want to employ me and let me earn big bucks (assuming that Google is the only place where I can earn big money as a s/w engg.) for whatever reason, even as my other not-so-bright classmates do so, Dileep would totally understand if I started indulging in industrial espionage? What sort of a shithead logic is that?

Lastly, maybe I am a very hard hearted person, but I don’t get all the outpouring of sympathy for Mohd. Aamer. Assuming he is guilty of course, clearly he is an adult and should have a sense of what is right and what is not. Unless his family was under threat, he had a choice to say no. And he didn’t. If that means the end of a cricket career, well, then so be it. Clearly, having the potential to excel is just not enough in this world. There are thousands of people who can vouch for that.

Despite the odds, the fan always hopes, hopes for not only the best, but for the near impossible too. There was life in Dravid’s exult when Laxman lead India to victory in the third test a few days. That to me in(sic) the spirit of a man determined to succeed. Prove me right, Dravs!

Please do.

..we know they didn’t create any opportunities in the second Test. I was disappointed. I thought they might go for an early declaration and make a game out of it, which they didn’t. I felt that they are not as aggressive as a No. 1 team should be.

A little rich coming from someone whose team was part of this monstrosity. And why would India want to inflict additional pain on its bowlers knowing how “positive” Sri Lankan cricket is generally. Much better to get some batting practice for the bowlers too, right? Coz that is the only skill that comes in handy on most subcontinental pitches.

It’s important that we play aggressive cricket.

Hahaha…you are kidding me, right? Aggresive cricket…I will not be holding my breath for that dear Mahela. It’s not something you guys do, so don’t joke around.

Even in the previous Test we went for the kill.

You have gone for the kill? What is the “kill” here? Test matches, bowlers?

Go back and do what you do do best. Make centuries on flat tracks. Oh, congrats on breaking Don’s record btw.

India’s loss, Somerset’s Gain?

Should Kartik be in the Test team instead of Ojha/Mishra or, dare I say, Bhajji?

A brief look at the happennings over the last few days -

- Howardgate

- Yoyo MoYo indicating a return from “retirement” (they should come up with a whole new word for this state of “hibernation” Yoyo goes into every few months..)

- Issues galore for Pak on and off the field (losing a test match, captain resigning, general amusement via news items like this…link via Achettup on twitter)

- Chris Broad ignoring Aussie misdemeanors and reprimanding Asian players

- the whole Modi-IPL-BCCI saga

Do I hear you ask “So, what’s new?” Yeah, my point exactly…

What’s happening over the next 30 days?

Aus vs Pak – not worthy of any discussion

Bangladesh in England – yawn

Ind vs SL – unless the rain/run-fests turn into a semblance of a contest magically(or India is in a winning position due to some bizarre reason), count me out please!

Ind vs SL vs NZ – groan

Eng vs Pak – whatever!

Time to catch up on some reading…any WWII-related recos will be gratefully received

Don’t be disheartned by this dismal show, ye India fans! This is canny strategy at play by Team India.

Mendis gets wickets in this game. He gets selected for Tests 2 and 3. The Indian batsmen launch a savage attack on him and the 2008 series is avenged for, the way it was supposed to be.

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Get going people! Get a bunch of your friends to play in the game with you and have a little friendly contest amongst yourselves.

Why would you choose to bowl first on a seam-friendly track and then open with your spinners twice in a row?

Are they batsmen, are they bowlers, are they in the team to just make up the numbers, does the captain not like the other players warming the benches? Why were Jadeja and Pathan playing against WI after repeated failures?

Were these mistakes repeated just so that the stubborn captain could try and prove that his tactics and team selections were actually a work of genius, and just did not work in the match against Australia for some reason? Is this one of the reasons why we are almost out of the tournament??

Why…why…why would the batsmen in a team, who are supposed to be “the strength of the team” no less, not even try and apply themselves when chasing a decent score? Twice in a row?

Screw you Men In Blue. Pfft. I’ll follow the girls instead. You would do well to take some inspiration from them yourselves. Two S/F appearances in two T20 WCs. (Dear reader, did you see what the girls did to SL today, yet?

Btw, the senior members of the One day team have rebelled big time against BCCI. They can’t stand playing SL anymore, so they’ve pulled out of the Triangular tournament in Zimbabwe altogether. I know. I know. The BCCI is trying to avoid this scandal by saying stuff like “We are resting the seniors” etc. But trust me. That’s all boo-hockey. Revolt is in the air.

Bhajji has the best bowling figures (RPO-wise).

Yuvi got a couple of wickets.

Rohit Sharma is (and probably will remain) the highest scorer for India.

Yes…it’s one of those matches…

I was going to take a dig at Kabir Khan’s pre-match “We’ll give India something to think about” statement in this post, but I changed my mind. Thanks to this article by Sharda Ugra (link via Prem Panicker).

Opener Karim Sadiq, the Indian Express revealed a few days ago, is called Kabul ka Sehwag (the Sehwag of Kabul) while wicketkeeper Mohammed Shazhad, like MS Dhoni wears the No. 7 shirt. Their left-handed fast bowler is nick named Zak after our own Broody One.

Cricket is not a favourite sport but the cricketers are Afghanistan’s new heroes. They have become the words Afghans want read about their country in the outside world. Not ‘Taliban’, ‘warlords’, ‘drone attacks’, suicide bombers, opium fields, NATO forces, CIA. But victory, qualification, performance, joy, batsmen, bowlers, man of the match, fours, sixes.

The fact that I did not write a cocky post before the match, and that I was feverishly checking the score while watching Iron Man 2 to make sure all was going ok, should tell you that I was a little…well…concerned. Afghanistan has the drive and hunger to make its mark at the big stage, and India has a tendency to start slow. Let’s just say I’m happy to note that India won comfortably and am looking foward to following Afghanistan’s progress in the future.