1983 World Cup - Victory story

There have been many memorable moments in India's cricketing history over the last 25 years, but as great as some of these occasions may have been they haven't managed to displace Kapil Dev's Devils feat of winning the 1983 World Cup from being the country's greatest-ever cricketing feat.

Kapil's team were hardly considered to be a good one-day team going into the third Cricket World Cup, and it would have taken a strong soul to back this team of all-rounders to pull out the rug from under the world's strongest teams. Remember, this was a team in which the established batting stars were Sunil Gavaskar, Sandeep Patil, Mohinder Amarnath and Kapil, while the bowling attack was led by the captain with able support from a battery of medium-pacers including Roger Binny, Amarnath, Madan Lal and Balwinder Singh Sandhu.

But, this didn't deter Kapil and his band of merry men one bit as they caused a huge upset in the their first match of the tournament as they defeated two-time defending champions West Indies by 34 runs at Old Trafford to get their campaign off to a rousing start. The Indians eased to an expected win over Zimbabwe in their second match, but lost their next two matches to Australia and West Indies respectively to find themselves in a must-win match against Zimbabwe at Tunbridge Wells on June 18, 1983.
And, this was the match in which Kapil led from the front with an unbeaten 175 to help India score 266 for 8 in 60 overs after his team had been reduced to 17 for 5 early in the match with all the top-order batsmen back in the pavilion. Enough and more has been written about Kapil's magnificent innings and words really can't do full justice to what was a great knock played by one of the game's best-ever all-rounders. Kapil's innings not only helped India come back into the tournament as they beat Zimbabwe by 31 runs, but more importantly instilled the self-confidence and determination in the squad's members to do more than their best in the remainder of the tournament. India then went on to thrash Australia by 118 runs in its last league match to finish the round-robin stage with four wins in six matches to book a semi-finals date with England.

The Indians eased to a six-wickets victory over England to set up a title clash against West Indies on June 25, 1983, who would have been favoured to win their third consecutive World Cup after having bowled India out for 183 runs. Only three Indian batsmen -- Kris Srikkanth (38), Amarnath and Patil crossed the 20-runs mark as the rest of the batting collapsed against some hostile Windies bowling.

But, the Windies team and supporters didn't expect a spirited fightback by the Indians with their skipper Kapil again leading the way. Kapil ensured that his team members stayed focussed on the touch and excelled on the field, and if his efforts throughout the tournament weren't enough, he took a fantastic backward running catch to dismiss Viv Richards off Madan Lal's bowling to instill new life into his team as Amarnath and the other bowlers then ran through the West Indian batting line-up for 140 runs to give India its only 50-overs World Cup triumph till date.

A suicidal stroke is sweeping the IPL

On a tense Friday night, Rohit Sharma did it and perished; a couple of days earlier, Suresh Raina did it too and paid a similar price. Robin Uthappa indulges in the same mischief regularly and still doesn't learn his lesson. Why, the other day, even Shaun Pollock opted for the same trick. There was only one difference though from this seasoned campaigner: he went for the other side but, not surprisingly, ended with the same fatal result. Yes, a new virus is sweeping across the cricket firmament: you can call it the sweep, the scoop, the paddle or the mother of all gaffes: the reverse sweep but it is the latest scourge. Thanks to the IPL, batsmen are falling prey to it faster than a bunch of little, gullible boys. Every big tournament, of course, throws up a new ball, a new shot or a new fielding technique. As the players made peace with the T-20 format, it was inevitable that some innovation would come along too. Given the nature of this game, a destroy-or-destruct streak screaming from each gene, it is fitting that it had to be a suicidal stroke. So why are batsmen, young and old, playing it so unabashedly? Why aren't they realizing that the plusses-minuses ratio is skewed substantially in favour of the latter? Or is there so much stress on boundary-balls that an element of desperation, even madness, has crept into their lexicon? You can blame it on the format. In One-dayers, there is as much scope for horizontal strokes as there is for vertical, or indeed, front of the wicket shots. In fact, the glide to the third man (equally risky) was the byproduct of the 50-50 game. Many perished trying it but they never gave it up. Surprisingly, the glide wasn't even a productive shot as the third man ensured it didn't fetch more than a single. The T-20's suicidal stroke is at least potentially more rewarding. The player looks macho and the shot exhilarating when it comes off; but when it doesn't he looks like a fool. In a way, you can call it evolution. The bowlers have understood that anything short, long or wide will be plundered over the rope; there is no scope for error here. So more and more are resorting to yorkers and slower but fuller deliveries. It is the only weapon left in their hands now. The idea, of course, is to avoid being deposited over long-on, long-off, mid-wicket or covers. The batsmen, in turn, have to improvise. As the ball becomes soft and energy drains from their shoulders, they have to once in a while play a less-physical shot which also yields the maximum. With fine-leg up, thanks to the need for men to patrol the boundary in front of the wicket, this is the only lucrative option. It works when the ball is just short of fuller-length; it is even better if it is drifting down the leg side. Either way, miss it and you have either wasted a delivery or you are goner. Obviously, the stroke is laden with danger but since when has that stopped batsmen? Boys will be boys and will continue to do it. Until they find some other way of doing it.

The art of bowling and other tricks

After seeing the mayhem in ODIs, the consensus was that batsmen would become even more brutal in its pocket-sized version; almost everybody expected the bowlers to be reduced to bit-role players and mini-cameos in T20. The IPL edition has, however, confounded every line of thinking with its twists and turns. Brendon McCullum sent adrenaline soaring with his maniacal 73-ball 158 in the opening match; Symonds and Michael Hussey too plundered centuries to raise the batting stakes. But then, like it often happens in life, the lowly ones struck back. Slowly but visibly, the bowlers clawed their way back into the game. Now, as the tournament enters its final and decisive stage, the verdict has become sharper: if you want to win, you need venom, guile and firepower in your attack too. Hyderabad failed to see this and ended up at the bottom; Chennai is not exactly bristling on this front and is, arguably, the weakest link in the semifinals. Jaipur has pace, variety and depth in its bowling and is, therefore, the hottest team left. Mohali has also progressed smoothly as they have a fairly potent attack; Delhi were doing well until Mohammed Asif pulled up with an injury. Glenn McGrath has toiled bravely but one-man armies won’t do in this highly-demanding format. All the teams have clearly learnt their lessons. One crucial aspect, though, has not been mastered by any captain or coach so far: how and when to use the game's endangered species for maximum impact? To crack this, one has to understand the uniqueness of T20: here there are no sleepy overs; no time to consolidate. Indeed, every ball, every second counts. In ODIs, the initial overs and slog overs are deemed to be the most crucial. The accepted practice, therefore, is to give the strike bowlers the first few overs; they are then saved for the death. At times, they are summoned to break a budding partnership in the middle, though. Surprisingly, the same tactic has been used in the IPL too. The best bowlers are given two, at the most three, overs and then consigned to the wilderness. It has not mattered if he is in the middle of a dream spell or is being particularly devastating. Eventually, when the same bowler is brought on, he struggles to contain the flurry of runs. Virtually every match has shown that there is nothing but bloodbath in the last few overs: the last five invariably go for a minimum of 50. So why are the captains saving these bowlers? The logical thing would be to use everybody at one go: from start to finish. A bowler anyway needs a few deliveries, if not one or two overs, to warm up and get everything right. Why pull him out just when he is getting into full flow? If he goes for too many runs, of course, he can be withdrawn. The most interesting tactic would be to keep one of the smarter bowlers for the last four overs: for the 14th, 16th, 18th and 20th when runs are flowing like blood. It might backfire once in a while but then isn't that life? Keep an eye on Warnie though: he is the one who will come up with something new.

Young South African tweakers to take spin lessons in India

DURBAN: Seven promising young South African spin bowlers would attend a two-week course on spin bowling in Mohali, Punjab from the next week. The players would leave on June 3 for the sessions, to be conducted by Devendar Arora, Narendra Hirwani and Umesh Patwal. The players will be accompanied by national selector and spinning co-ordinator Shafiek Abrahams and Yashin Ebrahim Hassan. The seven spinners are Corbyn Dolley, Keshav Maharaj, Daryn Smit, Aubrey Swanepoel, Thandi Tshabalala, Roelof van der Merwe, and Jonathan Vandiar. The trip has been sponsored by a Dubai based businessman Shyam Bhatia, who was born in India. Bhatia, who published a book on cricket titled 'Portraits of the Game', said cricket made him what was he was today and sport knew no boundaries, religion or colour. "I have cricket to thank for so much of my success. It has opened so many doors for me and this is a way of saying thank you to the game," he told reporters in Johannesburg. "It is a privilege to be involved. I am so pleased to be able to help and India is the perfect place for young spinners to learn their trade." Bhatia has also donated $10,000 to each cricket Board of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, South Africa and the West Indies for cricket coaching of the under-privileged children. Gerald Majola, CEO of Cricket SA, said he was grateful to Bhatia for "wonderful sponsorship which could help develop a string of exciting young spinners and help develop a spinning culture".

Pawar dismisses possibility of two IPLs a year

New Delhi: BCCI President Sharad Pawar shot down Lalit Modi's grand plans to have the Indian Premier League (IPL) twice a year and said the crammed International Cricket Council (ICC) calendar leaves no such scope.

Days after Modi, the IPL Chairman and Commissioner, said that from 2011 onwards, he would like to see the IPL twice a year -- one starting in May and the other in September. Pawar categorically dismissed such a possibility.

"We have just got one window from the ICC per year. The calendar is ready for next seven years, so there is no scope," Pawar said in a television programme.

Also read: Modi eyes IPL twice a year from 2011 IPL twice a year not a good idea, says Sehwag
Earlier, in a television interview, Modi had spelled out his future plans for the Twenty20 extravaganza and said, "I think the IPL, we will like to keep it as two seasons. A single season for the first three years, we would like to move it to two seasons and we have another season in September."

Incidentally, star batsman and Delhi Daredevils captain Virender Sehwag too is against having two IPLs a year, for, he thinks, it may lead to premature retirements among top players.

"I think having it twice a year might trigger premature retirements," Sehwag recently said.

The Delhi opener too pointed out to the international calendar and said it would be difficult to squeeze in two IPL seasons in the schedule.

"I think before they think about introducing a second IPL in the same year, they would have to see the schedule. The fact remains that people at large crave more for international cricket than IPL -- be it India vs Pakistan or England vs Australia", he said.

The Boys who grew up during the IPL

Six weeks after the first ball was sent down by Zaheer Khan at Bangalore in the inaugural Indian Premier League, there are a few smiling faces on the domestic circuit, players who otherwise would have turned out for the state teams, performed beyond their expectations, failed to capture selectors' eye and eventually vanished into obscurity.

The IPL circus has scripted a new success story for these small town wonders and paved the way to greater glory. These players were never heard off outside their clubs or state teams and their performances were hardly noticed despite the Ranji League allowing them to play more matches than the earlier system where good players on poor teams hardly got a match or two to showcase their talents.

Of course, there is also another lot of Indian players who were out of favour with Messrs Dilip Vengsarker and company and are staking a claim to be recalled to the test or one-day teams.

Chaps like Suresh Raina, Mohammed Kaif, Laxmipathy Balaji, Ashish Nehra, Yusuf Pathan, Munaf Patel and many more like them got a welcome lease to their cricketing life besides raking in some bucks at the IPL.

However, we are not focussing on these fringe players who made the grade and were usurped by others who performed better in a direct shoot-out of sorts.

Few teams still reluctant to play in Pakistan

Lahore: Despite repeated assurances of top level security by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) for the forthcoming ICC Champions Trophy in September, few member countries of the International Cricket Council (ICC) are reluctant to play in the country.

Sources said that though the last visit of the ICC delegation raised no serious objection during the security briefing given to them by the police and Interior Ministry officials, there are indications that some ICC members countries are still following the wait and see policy.

On the contrary, Pakistan which is also playing host to the Asia Cup in June-July has been given a green signal by the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) which has neither expressed any reservations nor have sent any security delegation prior to the event.

According to sources, all main member countries of the ACC including India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh have not shown any concerns over the rapidly improving security situation in Pakistan in their meeting held at Colombo last Sunday.

There are also reports that the PCB delegation gave a highly satisfactory and successful briefing over the issue to the participating countries, the Dawn reported.

As for the Champions Trophy, the sources said that reluctance has mainly been shown by those countries who have a definite role in war against terrorism in the neighbouring Afghanistan.

The PCB, however, had emphasised upon the ICC delegation that since the whole world is under constant threat of terrorism, it would not be fair to single out Pakistan as a dangerous zone.