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Huffington Post (UK) Journalism

English Cricket is Losing the Plot

The article first appeared on The Huffington Post (UK) here

It would have been okay if it were just about losing a test match to India at Lords Cricket Ground after 28 years. What should worry the mandarins of the game in its country of birth, however, is the complete lack of purpose and direction of the current team.

Saddled with a captain who is trying to stay put on a slippery slope, the current English team represents everything opposite to the adrenaline-pumping romance of the ‘class of 2005’ that beat the mighty Australians – in what was clearly the best Ashes series of this century, and one of the best series played between any two teams of all times.

Is Moeen Ali the best spinner that England has got – in a series involving the master players of spin no less? If yes, then they might as well play with no spinners, at least against India. But then, he is actually a batsman too. So, is he a middle-order batsman who can either single-handedly save or win the match for England?

And Ben Stokes? If he were into playing cards, three ducks together might have been a good dig. Or, wait; is he in the team for his bowling? Some say he can be a poor man’s Paul Collingwood. Is that the vision?

Similarly, was Michael Atherton right in saying that “a significant English career might have come to an end”, when Matt Prior departed after playing that rather aimless pull shot – of a ball way outside the off stump? Atherton didn’t even mention the 36 byes that Prior let slip through and about his gloves. Did the ECB anticipate such a development so early in the series?

At the beginning of the series, only the ECB and God knew the answers to all of those questions. Now, only God knows.

The point is not about the performance of those two. It may not even be about the approach of ECB towards filling those key slots. Because it would be safe to assume that the English board would not have any reason to go for these players but for the belief that that’s the best it has got.

That, I’m afraid, is the scarier part. There are three more tests to go. Senior pros like Anderson, Broad and Bell – and who knows, even Cook – can still crank up a notch and win something for the team.

But that would merely be putting a blanket over the less than adequate other half portion of the team.

How did things come to such a pass so drastically soon? Wasn’t this the number 1 test team till very recently?

There are either no easy answers or many obvious answers to every crisis question.

English cricket is not sure what it considers cricket! Though England won a T20 World Cup, it neither celebrated it (contrast it with the mind-numbing excess after India’s victory in the inaugural T20 WC), nor built upon it. The lesser said the better about its approach towards the 50-over version of the game. People here in India believe that England does not even want to play the shorter version. And no, the feeling has got nothing to do with the clash of boards about IPL.

But test cricket is its thing. And yet, it is letting itself down on that front too – primarily because of abysmal handling of players. So while a precocious talent like Pietersen is out “because of attitude problems”, players have been leaving the game because of psychological stress. No offence meant, but ask an Indian player what pressure is. Or closer home to English cricketers, ask what Wayne Rooney, John Terry feel like.

We are not even talking about the abrupt retirements of Strauss and Swann.

Where is the player management?

The immediate task for England is simple – do not allow India to win any more tests in the series, and win at least one for itself. However, the bigger challenge would be to prepare a team that wears its heart on its sleeve – just like in 2005. With or without import of talent from South Africa.

Unless Jim Laker would forever be proved correct for his words, “The aim of English cricket is, in fact, mainly to beat Australia.” In that case, be ready for MS Dhoni and his men heap further misery on this English team in the tests ahead.

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Huffington Post (UK) Journalism

Hat-Trick Boy Stuart Broad Brings England Right Back

A little after Rahul Dravid reached his 34th test hundred on the second day of the India-England test match at Trent Bridge, Nottingham, Alan Wilkins expressed his gentle displeasure to fellow commentator Ravi Shastri about the nickname ‘Wall’ given to the Indian batsman. “A wall can be brought down”, he argued – thereby implying that Rahul Dravid can’t be.

And yet, if you were to be in India these days, you would have thought that it is neither victory in the series nor the safeguarding of the No. 1 Test team status, but the 100th international century by Sachin Tendulkar is all that matters to Indians. Unfortunately, it may well be true in some sections of the so-called cricket-literate nation.

But Rahul Dravid, just as VVS Laxman, is used to being in the shadow of Tendulkar. In fact, he would rather not have any other way; just as India would rather not have any other man at the crease when the chips are down, than the ‘Wall’ himself. (Sorry Alan, but I guess it’s tad too late in the day to change the nickname. If you wish, he is known as ‘Jammy’ within the team.)

After yesterday’s late counter-attack by Stuart Broad with the bat and the first-ball wicket of Abhinav Mukund by James Anderson, the test match seemed evenly poised at stumps last evening. However, as has happened many a times in the last decade, Laxman and Dravid the steadied the ship and started taking the game away from England this morning – till Laxman perished behind the stumps on a Bresnan beauty.

But while the crowd favourite Sachin came and went early, along with Suresh Raina, Dravid stayed well at the crease and went ahead to score yet another important century for the team.

And yet, the highlight of the day was to come later in the day. In a maniacal period of about 20 minutes, India lost 5 wickets for mere 8 runs. After getting Yuvraj Singh caught behind in the 85th over of the Indian innings, England’s man of the moment Stuart Broad wrecked havoc with a deserving-yet-dubious (owing to Harbhajan being wrongly given out) hat-trick in the 88th over. After bowling two dots, Broad got Indian skipper MS Dhoni caught in the slips on the 3rd ball, caught Harbhajan Singh LBW on the 4rth ball and bowled Praveen Kumar on the 5th, before bringing some sanity to the proceedings with a dot ball.

It was the kind of over that could potentially change the complexion of the whole test match. It certainly changed Dravid’s composure, as in the very next over, he got caught at the third man of Bresnan, while trying to do a Sehwag while upper-cutting a rather innocuous ball. He made 117, typically fighting runs.

A little later, Broad completed his demolition job by getting Ishant Sharma caught by Ian Bell. Broad finished the day with scintillating figures of 6 for 46! Add to that the fact that he was the top scorer with the bat too. Yesterday, he had remarked that he felt good answering the critics. After today, he might have to search hard for critics.

To put things into perspective, this was not only Broad’s personal best bowling figures and the 10th best ever by an English bowler against India, but also the first hat-trick against India by an English bowler! The most recent performance of such impact by and English bowler against India was 21 years, by Ian Botham in 1980. Now that the great all-rounder’s protégé Andrew Flintoff has retired, should England already consider Stuart Broad the next Ian Botham? Hmmm!

On the other side of the crease, after looking like building a substantial lead during the 128-run partnership between Dravid and Yuvraj, India ended with just 288, enjoying a lead of 67 runs. However, it is a low-scoring match and the pitch and conditions are still favouring swing bowlers. So, 67-run lead might prove to be a handy one – especially in the light of the fact that injured Jonnathan Trott not likely to bat. He had injured his shoulder while trying to stop a ball today.

Sure enough, the lead started looking handy almost immediately after the England 2nd innings began. Alistair Cook continued his extraordinarily poor run at the crease, as he got out on 5, caught by Yuvraj at point on an Ishant Sharma ball, which he was trying to play towards mid-wicket!

When the frantic day finally ended, Andrew Strauss and Ian Bell were at the crease, with England still 43 runs behind India.

It is going to be difficult to wait till tomorrow!

Score at Stumps on the 2nd Day:

England 1st Innings: 221 all out (Stuart Broad 64, Andrew Strauss 32; Praveen Kumar 3/45, Ishant Sharma 3/66, S Sreesanth 3/77)
India 1st Innings: 288 (Rahul Dravid 150, Yuvraj Singh 62, VVS Laxman 54; Stuart Broad 6/46, Tim Bresnan 2/48)
England 2nd Innings: 24/1 (Andrew Strauss 6*, Ian Bell 9*; Ishant Sharma 1/9)