Monthly Archives: May 2009

Overhyping Test Cricket

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Kartikeya over at “A Cricketing View” has adopted a take-no-prisoners attitude against Twenty20 and for Test cricket. He has written passionately (excitably?) on the subject calling the IPL “nonsense” and a “fraud” and considering Test cricket as the only pure form of cricket. There is quite a bit of stuff – so start on his home page and read the first few posts to get a flavor.

The fact that I am writing this should tell you that I think he is all wrong. I do not consider T20 to be some perverted, bastardized form of cricket, nor Test cricket to be the absolute last word in cricket. I do accord more respect to Test cricket as it is a better arbitrator of cricketing skill than the limited over versions, but Test cricket is not a be-all, end-all of cricket. Consider the following points:

Test Mismatches

Test cricket is remotely interesting only if the teams are evenly matched. I suppose there is some fun watching Sri Lanka whitewash Zimbabwe and Bangladesh time-after-time or Australia run up 16 consecutive victories (twice!), but I don’t see it.

Team and individual statistics based on such Test mismatches are devoid of meaning. This goes for Hayden’s 380 against Zimbabwe and Muralidharan’s minnow wickets.

There have been very few closely fought Test series though those have been classics (India-Australia 2001, Ashes 2005). Most Test series (including the recently concluded England-WI series) have been one-sided and not worth even a passing glance.

Test Scoring

Scoring runs or taking wickets in Test cricket is less attributable to luck, but that is simply a function of the fact that there is no over limit and no need to declare a winner. This means a percentage game where the batsman avoids any type of risk to protect his wicket.

But when the Test match involves some kind of incentive for one side to force a result, you see a different game being played by the batsmen. They make risky shots, go over the top, run more and so on. This belies the point that there is no element of premeditated batting in Test cricket.

We also see this in the attitude of different batsmen. Someone like Sehwag is more aggressive, reaching a triple century with a six. Others prefer a more sedate approach with perfectly grounded strokes. We have also seen teams like Australia bring aggression into their win strategy, such as maintaining a specific run rate to ensure enough time to win matches.

Twenty20 Dynamics

Twenty20 is purer than you think. The batting team has 120 balls with 10 wickets in hand. They are out there to make as many runs as possible. The best way obviously is to smash it out of the ground every single time making 720 (and more if the opposition adds a few no-balls).

Protecting wickets is not a big priority, but you cannot lose too many of them too fast. For one, each wicket is a dot ball. Secondly, you don’t want to be all out before all your overs are up. And finally, some of your batsmen will be better hitters than others. So there is a fine line that you have to walk.

So the problem in front of bowlers (and the fielding team) is how do you stop the batsmen from going on the rampage when they have the greatest incentive to cook runs from balls that would normally command respect? Seems that the answer is pretty simple. Like always, bowl and field better, this time at a much higher level of intensity.

In this year’s IPL, we have seen some bowlers make the adjustment while others failed. We saw teams bowled out for small scores and, in other cases, teams failing to defend huge totals. The best teams were those who were able to combine a good batting lineup with a performing bowling unit, like always.

This does not mean that there is no element of luck. There is and that is why Twenty20 will always be a poor cousin to Tests. But what people forget is that this is what makes T20 more appealing. It is a more level playing ground for teams. An unexpected wicket or a sudden run-fest over can quickly change the course of a match. The underdog has a greater chance of pulling an upset.

And if it is a mismatch, you don’t have to wait 4 days for the weaker team to succumb to an embarrassing defeat.

Final Thoughts

Cricket will need all forms of cricket. Test cricket is unique to cricket and should be treasured. But I am of the opinion that Test cricket is played more than it should be. For example, there is no reason why any team should play more than one-off Tests against Bangladesh. Any 3 or 5-Test series that ends in a whitewash should have reduced Test matches the next series. The reverse applies – if a series is close and exciting, the number of matches should be increased.

There is enough room for T20 in this setup. The biggest loser should perhaps be ODI matches which fall in between T20 and Test and now seems to have the worst of both. They served their purpose in their time and should be reduced. Perhaps ODIs should only be part of tournaments involving multiple teams.

ICC Twenty20 World Cup 2009 Schedule and Calendar

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Here is the ICC T20 World Cup schedule in a convenient calendar format:

June 2009
S M T W T F S
5
-
EN v NL		 6
NZ v SC
AU v WI
BD v IN
7
SC v SA
EN v PK		 8
BD v IR
AU v SL		 9
NL v PK
NZ v SA		 10
SL v WI
IN v IR		 11
D1 v A2
B2 v D2		 12
B1 v C2
A1 v C1		 13
C1 v D2
D1 v B1
14
A2 v C2
A1 v B2		 15
B2 v C1
B1 v A2		 16
D1 v C2
D2 v A1		 17
Rest Day		 18
-
1st Semi		 19
-
2nd Semi		 20
Rest Day
21
-
Final

Key for the countries is as follows:

  • AU – Australia
  • BD – Bangladesh
  • EN – England
  • IN – India
  • IR – Ireland
  • NL – Netherlands
  • NZ – New Zealand
  • PK – Pakistan
  • SA – South Africa
  • SC – Scotland
  • SL – Sri Lanka
  • WI – West Indies

The timings of the matches are at 12:30 GMT and 16:30 GMT, except for the second day when the matches start at 9:00 GMT, 13:00 GMT and 17:00 GMT. In the calendar, I have put a dash when there is no 12:30 match. So if there is only one match for the day, it will be at 16:30 GMT.

The first round groups are as follows:

  • Group A: Bangladesh, India, Ireland
  • Group B: England, Netherlands, Pakistan
  • Group C: Australia, Sri Lanka, West Indies
  • Group D: New Zealand, Scotland, South Africa

The second round groups are:

  • Group E: A1, B2, C1, D2
  • Group F: A2, B1, C2, D1

ICC does not seem to have Twenty20 rankings, so using the ICC ODI rankings, we could get the following teams in the second round:

  • Group E: India, England, Australia, New Zealand
  • Group F: Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, South Africa

[Amy mapped something similar, but she was wrong about SA playing with India and Australia)

The Mongoose Bat and Its Ramifications

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Well Pitched has all the juicy details about the new revolutionary Mongoose cricket bat that is making a lot of waves in the English Twenty20 community. We will see how it performs in this year’s English Twenty20 Cup before making any judgments. If it helps some T20 batsmen score more runs that usual by converting nudges into boundaries and lofted 4′s into sixers, then it may well become successful.

My initial impression is that although it provides greater advantages for batsmen, the fact that these batsmen also have to play in first-class cricket where they are not always thinking about making runs may cause a difficulty. Batsmen have to transition between one bat and the other between different forms of the game and some/many may not able to make the change properly and will have to either abandon one kind of bat or one kind of game.

On a different note, innovations like these create a significant challenge with statistics. Comparing batsmen from different times is an apples-to-oranges comparison because the newer batsmen have more things stacked in their favor. I don’t mean to point to the Mongoose bat in particular. Even the introduction of better helmets and body protection or no-ball rules slant the advantage towards batsmen. So a century today may be less worthy of praise than one made 20 years ago.

The biggest challenge for cricket authorities is knowing where to draw the line between better performance because of more advanced gear and such performance that disguises lack of talent. If any player can come in and whack a quick fifty, that devalues the quality of the sport. Real value comes when a target is difficult to achieve. Artificially improving the performance by reducing the difficulty involved is less appealing in the long run than getting players to raise their quality.

How to Win Book Cricket (Always!)

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To follow up on our book cricket series (previous posts here and here), here is Scorpicity on how he was the pioneer of match fixing long before anything like that happened in international cricket:

How I fixed it was simple… after the first 50 odd pages, I tore away all the pages with 0 in it and that gave me the leverage of playing extremely well because of the knowledge of the conditions. It got my classmates pissed off because they could never figure out how I kept winning all the time and they never would have imagined anyone tearing off key pages of a textbook! So I lived to become a book cricket legend!

Phew… now that’s a whole lot out of my chest!

Somebody notify the match fixing police and get him banned from math classrooms for the rest of his life! You say he is retired from taking classes? Oh, well.

More IPL Coverage

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Dipz Cricket World:

Bangalore will have the feeling that they handed victory to Deccan Chargers, it was a match that they if they added an extra 20% in all areas they would have won which would have a fairytale story.

A Cricketing View:

The whole spectacle was a fraud. It was as though one was being asked to cheer for superstars simply because they are superstars. The players are bigger than the game in the IPL. It was never supposed to be like that.

When Bangalore lost all their batsmen, and the only “specialist” left standing to shepherd the tail was Robin Uthappa, I got a strange feeling that maybe the league’s Least Valuable Player (or Most Useless Player) had one last hurrah left; [...] “Ootapatta”, as he was once memorably called by Ian Chappell, did not disappoint however. He stuck to his guns and earned full marks for consistency. He remains, hands down, the most useless player in the entire IPL.
And for once, Jumbo looked more a dude than a geek. On the ball, button, but how long can you carry a team on your shoulders, even on those broad shoulders.

IPL Conclusion in the Blogosphere

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jrod at CWB:

The whole tournament is sort of like watching 300, it is so staged, such a camp comedy, amazingly over the top, and so mind-dullingly entertaining that it doesn’t matter if you forget most of what you have seen.

Achettup at Short of a Length:

And so there we have it, the 2009 IPL concludes in South Africa after entertaining us for the better part of a month and a half. We saw Strategic Breaks that were unpopular with everyone but the people who make money off them. We saw Lalit Modi blog and brag and do a terrible job of both (lets not forget the “bowl out” chants) and we saw the Fake IPL Player bitch and yap and do a brilliant job of both. [...] And somewhere in between all that they were some brilliant bits of cricket.

Q at Well Pitched:

They [Deccan Chargers] have just completed what probably was one of the best turnaround stories, if not the best, in cricket history. [...] Yes I know you have heard it everywhere, but I want to say it again – from the bottom of the table, to the top of the pile!

The Old Batsman:

In twenty years, everyone will play like Manish Pandey. We were there when Dravid and Tendulkar and Warne and Gilchrist and Kumble played too, and you know what, it was really something.

Amy S:

The Deccan Chargers have won. You’re now free to sleep as long as you like. I hope you understand how big a blessing this is.

Isn’t it fun to watch top international players in what is essentially an Indian domestic tournament? Also, hard to feel any other way when you saw Gilly and the Deccan Chargers celebrating after they won the match, and the (hideous) trophy. It meant a lot to the players one could tell. Is it the same as playing for your own country? Well I certainly hope not…

Deccan Chargers Take Honors in Lacklustre Final

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So the IPL ends in an anti-climax. Unlike last year’s IPL final, there were no heroics this time. The bowlers called the shots this time, first when Deccan’s powerful batting lineup failed to post a decent score and then when Bangalore made a mess of their chase. Kumble’s strong 4-wicket effort went unrewarded as Bangalore’s five-win streak ended as they fell 7 runs short.

deccan-bangalore

It is hard to feel very enthusiastic about Deccan’s win not only because of the way they won the final, but also because their performance in the league was nothing much to write about. After a surprising run of four victories at the beginning of the IPL, they managed only three from the next 10 matches, one of them via the miserable Mashrafe Mortaza over.

Bangalore had a much better narrative as their IPL was the opposite of Deccan’s. From the verge of elimination, they beat some of the strongest teams in the league. The appointment of Kumble as captain clearly marked a change in their fortunes and they boasted some great individual performances by Ross Taylor, and Manish Pandey. But it was clearly not their day today.

Final verdict: The final three matches (semis and finals) failed to live up to the hype. The few matches at the end of the group stages were much better.

Bangalore Storm into the Finals

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chennai-bangalore-match

An emphatic victory for Bangalore seals the deal with Chennai. Except for a rollicking first wicket partnership of 61 in 42 balls between Hayden and Patel, Chennai were never in the game. After restricting Chennai to 146/5, Bangalore chased the target in a clinical manner losing just four wickets and winning by 7 balls to spare.

Like everyone else who will be talking about the result of this match, let me point out the obvious: The two teams who were placed at the bottom of the Points Table last year will now play each other in the finals. What a turnaround! Bangalore’s performance has been even more miraculous as they were at the verge of elimination before winning the last four league matches in a row. Deccan has been so-so after their initial four-win sprint, but they too deserve appreciation for the way they have reached the finals.

Chennai will be very disappointed with their performance today, particularly the batting that failed to build upon the strong foundation laid by their openers. A score of 146 is way below Chennai’s potential. But they were also let down with some ordinary bowling. Muttiah Muralidharan tried his best, but he gave away a six at a critical juncture. Oram conceded a six off a no-ball in the next over and Bangalore needed no second invitation.

It is ironic how Anil Kumble gets the captaincy by someone’s default even though he has been a great performer for both Bangalore and India. It doesn’t take a genius to notice how Bangalore started winning against the tougher teams after Kumble took over. Today, Kumble stuck to a plan using only his frontline bowlers and not panicking when the going got tough in the first few overs. The calmness of Jumbo!

So tomorrow is the big day. A South Indian affair between the teams from two IT cities. Will Bangalore repeat their victory over Deccan from two days ago? Or will it be revenge? The two captains could not be more different, but both are extremely competitive. Cannot wait.

Things I Missed Blogging in Detail About

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Wisecandyman has a glossary of the nicknames used by the Fake IPL Player. All we need now is a browser extension that will show the real name on hovering over the fake names. Having the text being replaced is not so great because there is something glorious about hearing Sreesanth being referred to as Appam. Too bad FIP turned out to be cowardly/pragmatic.

Fly Slip rightly points out the new peace in Sri Lanka is better than the World Cup win (in 1996). It will be good for cricket too as teams will be less afraid to travel to Colombo and other parts of SL. Of course, the political process better step up to taking advantage of the military success and provide equal opportunity and rehabilitation for the long-suffering Tamilians so that the peace can be permanent.

The Old Batsman wonders if the long stop will return to cricket as batsmen try to take advantage of hitting the ball over and to the side of the wicketkeeper. In a T20 match, where the average margin of victory is so small, conceding a few such boundaries may turn out to be intolerable, so we may see quite a few such unconventional fielding positions.

Ajoy Eric Lal at BCCI (Bored Cricket Crazy Indians) has a must-read story about playing cricket with Shah Rukh Khan at their school in New Delhi. Shah Rukh was the wicketkeeper. It looks like they won a few trophies. And horror! Lalit Modi also studied at the same school. Talk about a small world!