Ball Tampering : Another sad incident rocking the game

Ball Tampering, Pitch Fixing, Spot Fixing, Match Fixing so many new dictionary words have been incepted in last few years in a sport which is known as Gentleman's game. The game of cricket has seen a huge transition in phases from the old days of 'Bodyline series' which was primarily built to beat the great Don moving to Kerry Packer circus which brought huge money in the game and to the present day IPL which is more of an event than a game. The media has played a big part in making or breaking these stories and then getting them slowly die down.

The current controversary of Steve Smith is more of an eye opener for the game . The way it was cooked up shows a complete lack of maturity on the leadership part of Smith. The rules of the game are quite clear, the umpires have become more tech savvy , the spectators understand the game much better and media as usual are always up there for the breaking news. Knowing all this, one wonders what was it that made Smith commit a mistake? I treat this as pressure situation with series at stake. In today’s competitive times, no one wants to lose ,nobody is  ready to learn from mistakes and is going overboard to convert results into own team’s favor. However when one tries to understand the punishment for the sin committed , it comes down heavy match fee fine or one match ban at the max. Wont it be true then that the captains would be willing to sacrifice some money or few games and put all their energies in winning the current game by hook or crook rather than thinking much beyond into ban or any fine thereof which anyways doesn’t sound too harsh.

The game needs a serious revamp when it comes to rules and regulations.  The way stringent rules apply in Olympics , Cricket needs to have a wakeup call. The rules need to have an impact on the careers than on few mere matches. The rule books need a revisit to improve the quality of honesty and responsibility on the players and the cricket board which they represent :

1. The captain should lose his captaincy and also ban him from  the game at least for a year. The captain has to have the toughest norms as he not only represents his own country but is brand and goodwill ambassador of the game
2. Ban the player for at least one year who commits a mistake and for misusing the spirit of the game.
3. Strip the records of the players in the key area of the player's profile :
1. Batsman's Mistake – Take off his batting records for last 1 year
2. Bowler's Mistake – Take off the bowling records for an year or so and on the same lines for other functions of the game. 
4. The Coach needs to be made accountable too for the actions on the field.
5. The match referee needs to be replaced by a jury who do not represent any board or are not on the payroll  of ICC instead are chosen from the who’s who in their own fields and common people who do not have direct connect with the game. 

Winning or losing doesn’t matter but the game needs to be played in true spirits and the players need to be the role models of the game. Its time we move back to the basics of the game with high morality values.

P.S. The views mentioned are personal and do not target or hold any person responsible in any individual capacity. That is upto the governing authorities of the game , how to deal with the rules and regulations .

- Jayawant 

Great Legends Great Sons

Stuart Broad , the baby faced Englishman joined the elite club of ‘Special 400’ and made it sure that the dream every father lives all through his life that son makes a name for himself better than what the father achieved came true. Chris Broad , the stubborn Englishman of yesteryears who had a short but impactful career as an opener was due for a long career. He made a difference to the English team in Ashes of 1986 but faltered enough to be sidetracked never to join the playing 11 for England. In last few years , Chris has come back to limelight and  has lead a partially successful career of match referee. It’s a general trend that the father – son duo do not often make an impact on the international scene and reach a level where it becomes difficult to comment who was better. Many times this comes due to the fact that the son can’t handle the paparazzi or the attention of being a son to great father. Classic examples of failures would be son of legendary Sir Don  whose son changed his name to Bradson and never touched the game of cricket. Ian Botham’s son Liam left cricket to join the game of Rugby to make a name for himself. Colin and Chris Cowdrey and our very own Sunil and Rohan Gavaskar would add to this ever unending list.

However , there always are exceptions to the rules and we had few amazing pairs who made an equal impact on the international scenes . Top 4 of my favorite pairs along with Cris and Stuart , I have tried to enlist here :

1) Lance and Chris Cairns:

Lance was a gritty all-rounder and a fighter. He was hard at hearing from the age of 17 but it never had an impact on his match winning skills . Never ever any foul appeals or any emotions on the field. He introduced people like us what is meant by hostile home conditions. He deserved more but probably with New Zealand not having enough zeal, has always played less cricket than others .

Chris made a complete all-rounder and was backbone on the kiwis attack. Extremely injury prone and lazy too, he had a class of his own and the smile after beating the master would always be there to remember. He missed more test matches than he played , else he was a classic material in the mold of Sir Richard Hadlee.

For me the sad part was to come to know Chris was blamed for match fixing scandal and it was a big blot on this mighty talented cricketer.

2) IAK and MAK Pataudi : 

The nawabs are nawabs and whether they are on the field or of it, the tiger is always a tiger.

IAK didn’t play too much of international cricket but had a unique distinction of representing England as well as India. He also captained Indian team only to have this feat replicated by his son MAK making it to the list of unique duo of father -son who captained the international teams.

MAK was the real cynosure of Indian Cricket and showed us what is meant by stylish cricketer. He lived the 22 yards Tiger size. He was the youngest Indian captain ever and his blindness never deterred him from making an impact on the ground. 

Let’s see whether we see TAK on the silver screen or a green platter.

3) Mickey and Alec Stewart :

Mickey was one of the popular coaches who shaped the profession of cricket coach which otherwise was of administrative title previously. He bought the professionalism and   made it a point that coach plays an important role on the ground too. 

Alec was the typical Khadoos Englishman, who proved how a grit and determination can make a career out of any commitment. It was never easy to make a place for himself in star studded English side. But Alec for me was British Dravid, ready to take on any role whether as an opener, middle order or a wicket keeper. He retired as one of the game’s great keepers and opening bat. Hope to see this highly committed cricketer in some coaching profile someday.

4) Hanif Mohammad and Shoaib Mohammad:

The original little master Hanif was one of the few players known for spending long hours on the batting strip. His highest of 337 against West Indies still remains one of the most complete knocks of all times and his 499 way back in 1960’s remained highest ever first class score before Lara overtook the crown by scoring 500.

Shoaib was a gifted bat and highly talented fielder before we saw the rise of Jonty Rhodes. He made a quick mark and played for quiet a time making an impact as an opener. Though not par with his father , he had a place for himself in the history of the game.

The future looks bright though with the junior Lehmans, Waughs, Chanderpauls, hogging the limelight at the international level and being a true Indian keeping fingers crossed for the young Dravids, Joshis and Tendulkars go a step ahead of Indian greats and make their fathers as well as India proud.

- Jayawant

Hail the Hero ! Hail Stephen Hawking !

Stephen Hawking went into the history books with many unanswered and interesting stories or phenomena which are yet to be fully unraveled and who knows would they ever be . As one of the unparalleled scientists he gave us a vision and version to look beyond what others didn’t even dare to suggest.

As a student of science our lives started with Newton who said earth has a gravitational force to pull down anything and we humans took it to another level and can now pull down other humans too so it’s by default truth that gravity exists .

Galileo proved to us that the earth and other planets revolved around the sun and we realized that the apple is falling down through gravity but we are rotating at the same time . As we used or misused gravity , mankind has its own usage of telescopes in modern arena too , nonetheless stars still find themselves gazed through

Over the years , Newtons and Galileos became sure shot answers and assured results  in our examinations, such were the strong fundamentals they demonstrated and it still holds true in our practical lives. So Newton became 15 marks and Galileo was worth 8 for many amongst a generation of science students.

But there always was a world beyond , which I guess only Hawking saw through his wheelchair . His was never a textbook requirement but was a real science with  zeal of fiction and imposing theories arousing curiosities.

His was a different theory than what we learnt where one said about pulling things down or the other one said looking up . This guy offered us a complete black box a Black Hole. These are essentially regions of space whose gravitational pull is extremely strong that nothing not even light can escape. They are invisible . Each  black hole is surrounded by an invisible boundary called as the "event horizon" that essentially marks the point of no return. So this point of no return made the  very theory a bit scientific, bit fiction and extremely intriguing. He believed anything need not be destroyed fully if one entered a black hole , instead it could come out in a very alternative source or altogether a different universe. This reminded me of our very own Captain Kirk or Spock of the famous Star Trek who used to move from one place to another changing their state in a matter of seconds.

When others were looking at history through times  Hawking was telling us History of time through his book  ‘A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes’. One basic thumb rule for any author to be successful is to ensure that he reaches the last reader first who does not understand the subject and Hawking made it easy  through his simplistic approach.  Such a heavy topic was made easy to explain and that’s where his supremacy got established as an author whom people believed once he was read.

It took years of pain to accept all the Newton Laws or theorems , years of turbulence for Galileo to let people accept him as a scientist and not a weird man , so time  would take its own course for Hawking preachings to be part of reality and take him to the category of 20 marks for the science students. Till then , enjoy the sci-fi logic , read and learn the mysteries of black hole and keep in remembrance the super human of Stephen Hawking.

Hail the Hero ! Hail Stephen Hawking !

P.S. The views are very personal and an attempt to look into the science and scientists through a normal human being’s eyes and is not an analysis on the wisdom of work the legendary scientists gave their lives for and made our lives better and livable through scientific analogies.

- Jayawant