THE BALL PUPPETEERS… Sydney Francis Barnes

Cricket history has seen iconic men who, with their capabilities, completely revolutionized the art of bowling and the game of cricket. Like in Marvel’s Avengers, these men hail from various corners of the world and were bound to a higher calling. They grew up to eventually become legends. 

What took them to these heights?

They had exceptional love, passion and dedication towards the game. These individuals often single-handedly decided the fate of the match and in course accomplished remarkable feats. Their rise to fame was fueled by hard work, dedication and invincible faith in their abilities.

Ball Puppeteers:

Eminent bowlers always demonstrated the ability to ruffle a set batsman with accuracy, consistency and bowling variations. While the ability to swing the ball both ways and art of reverse swing with the old ball served as a career defining strength for the pace bowlers, sharp turn, skid and deception in flight of the delivery are the trademarks of legendary spinners. They are the Ball Puppeteers.

SYDNEY FRANCIS BARNES

Regarded as one of the greatest bowler in sports history, England's Sydney Francis Barnes made his test debut against Australia in 1901. Barnes bowling is remembered for its effective combination of bounce and swing with the new ball. His international career of 27 test matches featuring South Africa and Australia-the only countries he ever played against would raise many eyebrows but, a look at his accomplishments would leave everyone in awe. Barnes amassed 189 wickets at an average of 16.43. 

If you think that’s flattering, here is more. His staggering performance for Staffordshire in Minor Counties Cricket Championship will leave you drooling. A whopping 1,432 wickets at an average of less than 9 is a testimony of his astonishing career that ended at the age of 61.

The cynosure of his career are his herculean efforts from 1911-1914. In 1911-1912, Barnes enabled England to win The Ashes, as he took 34 wickets in the series against Australia .In the next two years, playing his final test series, Barnes took 7 five-wicket haul and 3 ten-wicket haul to plunder 49 wickets in  4 matches against South Africa, a world record. His accomplishments earned him the No.1 spot in ICC best-Ever Test Championship rating for bowlers.

Undoubtedly, he is the greatest of the game and deservedly honoured by ICC.

Indian Cricket : Politics at grass root level

Mahatma Gandhi, Poverty and Sachin Tendulkar are three things that almost every foreigner knows about India. On 2nd April 2011, the whole nation was in tears of joy.. No, no, no ! It wasn't for the happy ending of a romantic bollywood flick neither it was a much anticipated prospective change in the Indian political scenario.. It was the instinctive outburst of emotion from the whole nation as Dhoni lashed the world cup winning six into the stands of the vociferous and jam packed Wankhede  stadium.

Cricket is undoubtedly a rage in India. A sport that draws emotions from every street and corner of the nation, like no other sport has ever been able to do . A sport that gave real life superheroes for every child in the country. A sport that gave the people of India Sachin Tendulkar, a deity figure of the cricket universe. A sport that has now become a  part of our culture and to many of us, a way of life.

Back in 1983, when Kapil's devils lifted the world cup at the Lord's balcony for India by defeating the mighty West Indies, they gave millions of Indians a a historical moment to cheer for ages to come. The victory, unarguably seen as the greatest, particularly for its constructive impact on the younger generation, acted as an inspiration and a motivation for those aspiring to replicate the same for India.

 

The future of every game rests on the shoulders of the budding aspirants,  who, with all their talent and capabilities, dream of achieving feats their idols have left behind for inspiration and sometimes even aspire to surpass them and bring more glory to the nation. 

When such deserving talent is denied a potential opportunity by the so called dignitaries in power it is evidently politics at grass root level. Young talent is therefore left disappointed. Disappointment to aspiring young talent is like gravity is to weight.

 

Despite the fact that cricket has earned scores of international recognition for India and remains one of the most essential sports in its international outlook, young talent is barely given an unbiased chance at elementary platforms of selections. The process of selection of players for the inter college tournaments, under 16, under 19 tournaments and the university teams is just for namesake. In most cases there is always a pre-selected team comprising of players who have represented the state earlier, few of them brought in on recommendations by the higher officials. The selection and fitness trials are just in place to fulfill the formality. It just ends up as a part of news in next day newspapers.

Apart from the selection process the commercialization of cricket leaves the deserving talent stranded. League teams available on lease have added up to the unprofessional ethics of selection. A one-day league cricket team would charge an interested player around Rs 8000 for a season whereas the amount demanded for the 2-day and 3-day leagues are much beyond the affordability of a common man. Making it even worse is the reputation of a team which has become more of a brand name. For example, a league team might have five Ranji players chosen on merit and the rest of them pay the amount demanded by the team owner if they are to play for the team.This often causes the young and capable talent which cannot afford this amount to lag in the race and eventually end up with broken dreams of bragging the whites. 

Nevertheless, one cannot completely blame the higher officials and the owners of the league teams for partiality in selections.Unjust and corrupt practices have become an integral part of the system and now, even cricket is affected by this disease that does not seem to have an immediate cure. The scenario is such because people who can afford these mounting rates do it with a hush. Never has anyone dared to question the awry of selection process or so does it seem.  

As long as such unethical and selfish practices form the core of the selection system a proportion of the deserving talent will always be denied a chance. Genuine talent must not be marooned for the sake of monetary gains or political benefits. Such nuances must be curbed and the fire of corruption must be extinguished. While this can seem an insurmountable feat, it is certainly not impossible.

Today, domestic cricket in India is in dire need of straightening these elementary processes.As cricketers themselves, it is the moral responsibility of the selectors to be fair with the selection process, to give the deserving talent a fair chance, and acknowledge their potential that often goes unnoticed or prematurely marooned. 

In foreseeable possibilities to curb this trend, one idea is to begin reformation at the grass root level. Cricket is born at the grass root level in a cricketer and nourishes with time and encouragement. If the process of selection is structured, organized and above all, just and unbiased, it will bring more transformation to the game than anybody could have ever imagined.  It is never a right time to do something right. So, let us stop waiting and start now.

It is seldom seen that little things often  making a gigantic difference and this principle holds true with Cricket too. 

Young Blood Has It All...

Indian cricket is on the pinnacle of its success and much of its blossom can be owed to the dynamic captaincy of Mahendra Singh Dhoni and a bunch of young lads, who have grown in their stature by accomplishing achievements that no other cricketers of same generation were able to accomplish.

They changed the face of Indian cricket forever. The need for more youngsters in the team was realized by Saurav Ganguly, under whose captaincy names like Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Mohammed Kaif, Yuvraj Singh, Irfan Pathan, Zaheer Khan emerged. But then team India always had seats reserved for the ageing fabulous four (Saurav, Sachin, Dravid and Laxman).  There was a wealthy chance given to players who didn't perform. As the time marched on, the lack of agility and flexibility became more and more visible.

 

The captaincy shifted hands and the young lad from Ranchi (whose long cascading hair once drew praise from the then Pakistani President General Parvez Musharraf) was presented with the gigantic task of leading team India. Soon it was apparent that things were inclined to change.  Leading team India was no meager task yet Dhoni took no time to prove his mettle. He didn't invest in the risk of losing matches by sitting down players with inconsistent performances. The budding cricketers used this opportunity to shine above the horizon just in line with Dhoni to turn his dream of winning the 2011 world cup into a praise-worthy reality.

 The move quickly uncovered the abundance of talent available at domestic level in youngsters like Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Suresh Raina, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ravindra Jadeja and few young lads who gradually became the core part of team India. This was the reincarnation of Indian cricket; young and prolific form yet mighty and unshaken in its potential. Even as this transformation drew some criticism, Dhoni maintained his stance.

The transformation paid off as India made history by winning the inaugural edition of Twenty20 world cup and then scripted history by defeating Australia in their homeland in the Common Wealth Bank Series. It was made clear by the selectors that experience is no more a criteria and one has to perform on a consistent basis to cement his place in the team. The mantra worked as every youngster became more focused in seizing every opportunity at their disposal.

The likes of Dhawans, Rainas, Kohlis and Jadejas soon emerged. The team India which had two or three good fielders in the squad soon became a team where everyone would dive to stop in a single. An athletic bunch of youngsters soon earned recognition as the best fielders in the world. The standards were now on par with the most acclaimed teams around the globe including England, Australia and South Africa. One must also appreciate the efforts of BCCI in improving the infrastructure that eventually lead to the raise in standards.

In Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Shamra, India found successors for the flamboyant opening pair of Sehwag and Gambhir. Kohli and Pujara could always be shuffled for number three and number four spots in the batting list. There’s much of reliability on Kohli, Pujara, Suresh Raina and Ravindra Jadeja, who strengthen the middle order. One can only be a fool to exclude the Captain Cool, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, finest of batsmen and unarguably the greatest finisher in the world of cricket.

The bowling department is just as good as the batting with the experienced Zaheer Khan and Ishant Sharma. Bhuvanesh Kumar has been the find of the season for team India with Umesh Yadav on the reserve. India has world class spinners in Ravichandra Ashwin, Pragyan Ojha and Ravindra Jadeja with his successful bowling stint ends the search for the fifth bowler.

For now, everything looks green for team India with the bench being warmed up by the names that include Ajinkya Rahane, Dinesh Kartik, Murali Vijay, Amit Mishra, Manoj Tiwari, Shami Ahmed and Parvez Rasool, the talent of whom have already been glimpsed to the world.

Team India in its current composition stands tall with a learned past, a remarkable present and possibly a lustrous future.

Mohammed Azharuddin to coach Jammu and Kashmir cricket team !

Mohammed Azharuddin... The mere mention of the name swings memories of a  stylish right handed batsmen from Hyderabad who with his wonderful wrist flicks transformed a cricket match into a poetic creation with aesthetic nuances of a masterpiece.

Azharuddin  donned a new avatar on 19th February 2009, as he formally joined Indian National Congress and won the general election from Moradabad in Uttar Pradesh to become a  member of Parliament. It is news that the former Indian Captain has been offered the post of a coach for the Jammu & Kashmir cricket team.

Azhar, as he is popularly known, took the world cricket by a storm with swashbuckling test centuries on debut against England in 1984 as he went on to score three centuries in the first innings of first three consecutive test matches, a feat yet to be paralleled. The 1991 "Wisden Cricketer of the Year" award winner also became the first man in the history of world cricket to play 300 ODI's.

Farooq Abdullah, president of the Jammu & Kashmir Cricket Association, confirmed to ESPNcricinfo that Azharuddin was offered the position that has been vacant since Bishan Singh Bedi's exit after the end of last season. "We still haven't reached the final decision," Abdullah said.

"He has been offered the post of coach by JKCA but he hasn't decided whether to take it or not. They want to avail of whatever services he could render. He is seriously considering it since he is desperate to give back to the game that has been so close to his heart."  The former batsman is yet to take a decision. Mujeeb Khan, Azharuddin's secretary said.

But, this will be no walk in the park for the former Indian Captain. When the BCCI banned Azharuddin for life in 2000, he was barred from participating in any cricketing activity. Though the ban was deemed illegal by the Andhra Pradesh High Court in November 2012, a BCCI official said Azharuddin cannot return to cricket in any role without the board's permission since the ruling has been challenged.

"The high court verdict was based on a technicality. Nowhere did the court say he is not guilty of indulging in fixing. Since the proceedings to challenge the verdict have been initiated, as far as BCCI is concerned, any association that wants to appoint him in any capacity cannot do so without the board's consent" the board official said.

Ajay Sharma was also banned for life and hasn't been active in cricket since then. Ajay Jadeja , whose five year ban was overturned by the BCCI, returned to domestic cricket for a couple of seasons before becoming a cricket expert on television. Manoj Prabhakar, also  banned for five years, returned as the bowling coach of Delhi after serving his ban.

Whether Azhar gets a clean chit from BCCI remains to be seen.

Check back for an update for more details as they surface.

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