Silly M(a)id-on

I have a feeling that India is not going to go far in this Champions Trophy. *ducks for cover*

Don’t write me off an as infidel yet! Like any good Indian I still believe we will beat the crap out of Pakistan tomorrow. But in general, the team is not inspiring much confidence this time. I can’t quite put my finger on what’s wrong (It’s not you…it’s me). Important batsmen are injured. Bowlers are off-colour. Fielding has been meh for quite some time now. The Compaq Cup (touted as “preparation” for CT) didn’t exactly rock my world. And the lesser said about that warm up against NZL the better.

As an aside, I get very uncomfortable at the thought of India playing NZL in multinational tournaments. I think we don’t have a very good record against them in such matches, warmup or regular. Some Champions Trophy final(the 2nd edition?), T20 WC 2007 come to mind. Can anyone confirm this? Do we always/mostly lose to NZL in such tournaments?

Anyway, what I need to see is a confident win over Pakistan. Sachin, Rahul…show us what you are made of. Yusuf Pathan…please justify your place in the squad. The fast bowler brigade…get a grip! Remind us again why you all were being touted as one of the best in business and a balanced attack  not so long ago.

Go India Go!!

Obviously mindful of the fact that I was disappointed to see NZL fold up for a paltry 155, Team India has obliged and lost 4 wickets for 84.

Aww…thanks you guys! (no really, I’m not being sarcastic)

With all these discomforting talks going on about ODIs being past their prime, I have been asking myself what exactly is it about ODIs that I don’t want them to die out. Am I just refusing to give up something I have enjoyed so much for as long as I have been following cricket? Or do ODIs still have something to give to the game?

Shane Warne thinks we don’t need them anymore. Harsha Bhogle has a point when he says “If you remove the ODI from the mix, the gulf between T20 and Tests, from a batting point of view, becomes way too vast, and over time you end up with a situation where players are good enough to play either the one or the other.”

Peter Roebuck thinks There Is Life In The ODI Yet. While Dileep Premachandran calls for an overhaul.

There has been a lot of talk about ODIs needing “a context”. Lots of ideas are being thrown about. No more bilateral series, no phony 4-match triangular series, playing ODIs as a build up to Test matches on tours, splitting each innings into 2 etc. Leela made a point about ODIs series being an interesting watch these days only if there is some off-field drama associated with it, and I find myself agreeing with it. But then there wasn’t always some kind of drama associated with ODIs when I used to stay up late and see all those matches, was there? (or was I really fokat those days?)

I mean, all of India’s matches were seen simply because India was playing. All of Australia’s matches were seen because they were the numero uno team and I wanted to see if any of their opponents were giving them a run for their money. Pakistan’s matches were followed cheer the other team because earlier Pakistan losing used to be equal to India winning somehow. All of South Africa’s matches were seen because when they were not busy choking, they used to play good cricket. And for Shaun Pollock.

And now when I find myself trying to write a preview for the Compaq Cup, I don’t know what to say. I mean yeah, I’m happy that India is finally back in action. And I am super excited to see how Dravid will fare and all. But it’s not how it is supposed to be. This series (and the Eng-Aus one) seems so pointless that I am tempted to label it as another Fake ODI Series. As someone commented on someone’s blog (and I paraphrase here because I don’t remember where I read this)

It takes just 4 matches to decide a tri-series, but it takes 7 one-dayers to conclude that England suck at pyjama cricket.

Indeed.