Sydney - The Michael Clarke Test

The 2012 New Year’s Test at Sydney Cricket Ground was special for the hallowed ground. It was hosting its 100^th Test. The SCG as always provided great cricketing action. This is however quite simply, The Michael Clarke Test. He started off by predicting that Ricky Ponting will come good and he was right. If only he could say what he was about to do !

Ricky Ponting came into the series with his career hanging on the slightest of threads. The owner of the most beautiful pull shot in the game had not reached 3 figures since his 209 in Hobart in January 2010. He was struggling, but then he was prepared for a scrape and fight out in the middle and then he found his game at Sydney. His 134 may have been only the third highest score behind Michael Clarke’s 329* and Michael Hussey's 150* , but it gave the most emotional moment of the test. He knew he had misjudged the single and was a direct hit away from being stranded at 99. The way he scampered to reach from 99 to 100 and diving full stretch showed his desire to breach the mark. His helmet was askew, his jersey muddied and he had dirt in his mouth. But the ball hadn’t clattered the stumps. Assured that he had made the single, Ricky got up and removed his helmet to acknowledge the crowd. He didn’t curse, shout or point fingers at the press box. The smile plastered on his face was that of relieved happiness of realising the flaming talent in himself. This was unlike any of his 39 hundreds overall or 5 previous ones at SCG in an emotional sense. This was a different Ricky Ponting.

And it was wonderful to watch him get that hundred.

And local boy and Aussie skipper Michael ‘Pup’Clarke couldn’t have chosen a better script for himself. Hammering the first triple century at SCG in the 100^th Test being played here while leading his team to an innings victory. At this point does he even care that he played without a bat contract? Heck no. For he, taught quite a few lessons to India on how to play the game. He was cheeky and unselfish in his declaration of the Australian innings. The Indians had all but resigned to the fact that a 400 was about to be scored against them. But at the drinks in the second session of Day 3 , Clarke and Hussey walked past the drinks trolley and kept on walking .There was the declaration. He had caught the opposition off-guard !

But where Michael Clarke really gained respect from cricket fraternity was when he declared when he had Brian Lara’s 400 within reach. Yet, he declared as Hussey had reached 150. Why ? Well he thought he had enough of a lead and wanted to give his bowlers enough chance to bowl out India the second time. That India folded over in 3 ½ session is another matter , with Clarke notably scalping Sachin on 80. But he saw ahead in the match, anticipated better and then you can’t complain if luck favours such a captain, can you?

Remember, you can never discount a sudden spell of showers in Sydney. It clearly reflected his priorities- to win the match and not personal achievements and erasing landmarks. Very few people would do that, especially sub-continental players. The sub-continent is obsessed with numbers, who won’t let Sachin Tendulkar bat in peace by building the hype around a made-up term called ‘international centuries’.

It’s not a great time to criticise a team when it is in shambles. But this is a clear opportunity to set things in motions about the future. The team shows some resistance and stomach for a battle but its will is punctured against sustained aggression and skill. Gradually the problems have compounded. As Harsha Bhogle points out, it is unpardonable for this generation of players to be unathletic. VVS Laxman won’t ever run a three and bowlers have weak throwing arms. Players are not agile and don't dive. Do they worry that they will be forced to do the dirty laundry themselves? For India, this is a big problem as they have just one athletic guy in Virat Kohli in the team, and he prefers to show the finger to the crowd.

India has got a decent pace battery, but this decline in Tests was always coming. It is harking back to the times in the 90s when on overseas tours, India followed one collapse by another batting debacle soon after. The other teams have learned to play in India and its dustbowls and it won’t be long before India stops dominating at home and continues capitulating abroad. It would be worse than lions at home, lambs abroad. They would be hyenas at home, winning against the weakest while settling for scraps against better teams. Tests are won by teams that have a will to guts it out, not by teams whose spine is missing half a dozen vertebrae.

India and cricketing finance are directly related, but it seems only Australia and England care about the Tests. And once Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar leave, its assured that cricket following will take a massive hit. Its futile to talk about rebuilding this team, because that process should have started 4 years ago. They haven’t even found a replacement for Sourav Ganguly! Teams lose a lot when built up from scratch, however that would be part of a long term plan to have the best Test side and there is no shame in that .The pity is in maintaining status quo and being the ostrich , even when you lose 6 overseas test in a row and that too by thumping margins.

For a start, fire Duncan Fletcher and hire Stephen Fleming as soon as possible.

Oh Sharjah!

The Sharjah Stadium, holder for hosting the maximum number of ODI’s, added another feather to its illustrious cap when it became the first venue in the world to host 200 one day internationals. Sharjah, which hosted its first match in 1984, was built painstakingly in edifice and reputation by Abdul Rehman Bukhatir, reached the milestone in 24 years(1986-2010) should have reached it much earlier.

On Feb. 18, Sharjah breached the milestone, with the ODI between, can you believe Afghanistan Canada!! It’s a shame that 200 was reached via a match of extremely low significance .Although I must add that it was a thriller of a match that the Afghans won by 1 run. Sharjah entertained, true to its DNA.

Sharjah also has the unique distinction of having two tied games in, the last one between Pakistan and Sri Lanka which I saw live. It is also the venue of that last ball six by Javed Miandad in Australasia cup finals v India in 1986, which established the legend of the venue. An oasis in the gulf.

But for me, Sharjah now is synonymous with the Coca-Cola Cup 1998, which gave us the stage for Sachin Tendulkar’s back-to-back invaluable gems

The Sandstorm innings (143) and the Birthday innings (134), the day after against the Australians. It was something else those innings, magical, impervious batting.

I remember reading in the papers the next day after the sandstorm innings -

India lost ,Australia won and Sachin won.

India as a policy has stopped playing at neutral venues after the Hansie Cronje match fixing scandal broke .So since 2000, it doesn’t go to earlier popular venues -Toronto, Abu Dhabi, Nairobi, Singapore or Sharjah. However India did play a tri-series in Kuala Lumpur in 06’with the West Indies and Australia. And India not coming to Sharjah is the worst thing to have happened to the stadium. It may be play quasi host of Pakistan, but unless India plays, the money and enthusiasm will not come easily.

Also,over the last decade, it's thunder has been stolen by more enterprising emirates –

Dubai’s Sport City Stadium and Abu Dhabi’s Sheikh Zayed Stadium .Sharjah would have continued to be one of the leading international venues had it wouldn’t have become such a hotbed for bookies and a haven for fixed matches. By conservative estimates, 20 % of the matches were fixed. No big surprise that.

After all, it was Dawood Ibrahim’s backyard in the 80’s where famously he was photographed in the stadium aisle with his associates and also yesteryear starlet Mandakini. For years that is the only archival footage that intelligence agencies had of him.

Sharjah was a stadium started with noble intentions (it has an ex- cricketers beneficiary fund), flourished immensely leaving MCG and SCG far behind and then fell victim, almost inevitably to the match fixing fiasco and its aftermath and the subsequent economics of cricket politics.