BCCI needs to take charge of Delhi cricket

Delhi plays a key role in any sphere, and Indian sports can hardly be different. The national capital enjoys the unique distinction of not only providing Team India with a long line of cricketing legends but also has the pride of place as one of the oldest Test venues in the country.

Board of Control for Cricket in India has, for long, adopted a rather liberal attitude when it comes to its relationship with the Delhi and Districts Cricket Association. But now it's decision to with-hold funds that it annually disburses to member associations shows that the BCCI mandarins have had enough!

The willingness to take action against a member that has been able to get away with cocking the snook at BCCI time and again shows the stomach for a fight. Remember DDCA has been run like a fiefdom for decades going back to the all-powerful Mehras! Then came the political backing to continue running affairs of Delhi cricket in a rather clandestine manner.

Finally BCCI under Sourav Ganguly seems to be ready to call the bluff!

DDCA has been without a president for a few months now. The secretary was reported to be in jail in a neighbouring state for a complaint about financial irregularities in his private business enterprise. Cases of corruption and nepotism are pending in courts of law against various other DDCA officials as well.

And the all-powerful sports secretary is neither seen nor heard!

First things first, BCCI must insist that DDCA separate the club affairs from cricket. Elections need to be held without the much-misused proxy-system of voting which appears to be the root cause of the malaise that Delhi cricket finds itself in.

The revamped stadium at Ferozeshah Kotla has not been granted a completion certificate despite it being completed more than a decade ago. Sanctioned plans were violated with impunity without any penal action from the municipal authorities, thanks to the political backing that DDCA enjoyed. But slowly that seems to be on the wane and an entire block has been sealed for two years plus for violation of building laws. The media and commentary boxes above the sight screen next to the historic WIllingdon Pavilion has been declared illegal though it still continues to be put to limited use during international as well as IPL fixtures.

Time has come to take stock of DDCA and put the house in order.

DDCA club members can elect their own team to look the bar and card-room affairs. It's the cricket clubs that play in the several tiered leagues that must be given control for starters. Add to that mix the former internationals and first class players who have turned out for Delhi.

It remains to be seen if BCCI is serious about revamping DDCA or is it merely posturing before the upcoming Board elections!

Cricket needs smart play not a smart ball

ICC's suggestion to outlaw use of natural body secretions (sweat and saliva) to shine the cricket ball has opened the proverbial Pandora's box!
Latest to join the discussion is Australian leg spin legend Shane Warne! He was an innovator if nothing else, using the revolutions on the cricket ball to make it talk! Now he suggests making the ball weighted ... heavier on one side of the seam (sutures) that keep the two pieces of the leather half-globes together!
For the uninitiated, weighting the ball makes it move very differently in the air than simple laws of physics (wind tunnel effect) would suggest. This is where the art of bowling acquires a finesse!
Sowing seeds of doubt in the mind of batsmen is the first objective of a bowler. That done, 75 per cent of the job is over. Remaining depends on the skills of the player(s) in question. Can the bowler breach the defence or will the batsman's innate skill keep him out of trouble?
The idea of a weighted ball has its roots in the "science" of reverse swing!
Laws of motion suggest that any surface with lesser resistance tend to move faster than that providing great friction! So a normal cricket ball tends to swing away from the shiny side if delivered with an upright seam. Reverse swing happens when the uneven distribution of weight of the ball makes it swing towards the shiny (weighted) side, taking batsmen by surprise!
Getting the ball ready for reverse swing is part of the responsibility of the fielding side while keeping all such efforts hidden from the eagle eyed umpires as well as the probing cameras!
For spinners too the slightly older ball with sheen on one side makes sense as it allows drift in the air, depending upon the revolutions imparted! Drift takes the spinners' delivery away from the direction in which the ball is being turned. Warne was a master of the craft as were some of the spin legends like EAS Prasanna and Bishan Bedi.
If the ball is off-balance right from the start, the element of surprise is taken away and batsmen will be able to easily read after a couple of deliveries what is being sent down! 
A bowler's life is tough enough as it is without making it more difficult by these new-fangled innovations that will make cricket even more a batsman's game!

To play or not to play, that is the question

Life has been put in suspended animation since mid-March 2020 when the worldwide pandemic literally blew up in the face of humanity!
Sports, as much of life, went into forced hibernation. The first big casualty, of course, was the Olympic Games in Tokyo which has been rescheduled for a 23rd July, 2021, start though there is no absolute certainty even about that! Neither is there any sanctity to the new 11 June, 2021, revised schedule for the European football championships.
While Wimbledon tennis cancelled 2020, French Open is hoping for a September staging on the Roland Garros clay!
But much depends on the development in the field of medicine and science, both way beyond human control.
One of the options that sports administrators have been mulling over is holding games with gates closed. It has been done ... as a punitive measure against erring hosts, especially in football. But doing it all over the world may just take the needle out of the competitive edge that sports bring to any contest. After all sports people are only human, albeit with vastly superior skills than the average person. But to perform before empty seats may just take the bite out of the high that a roar of a full stadium would bring.
Then there is always the danger of the virus spreading through close physical contact that most sports require!
Added to that is the prospect of costs if TV is going to be the only source of revenue. Someone needs to be paying for moving all the equipment and people into place ... a cumulative 50km plus of high end cables are laid for a single international game of cricket. Besides several truckloads of equipment is required to bring a truly world class audio-visual experience to homes!
Besides there is the small point of rights fees! Since that will be the ONLY source of revenue for the organisers / hosts, they would certainly not want to sell cheap. Neither would TV companies be willing to pay out of their pockets if they can't generate enough revenue from the telecast. So advertisers have to be prepared to bear the costs.
With the world economy reeling from the pandemic, are the big ticket buyers of advertising spots really prepared to go ahead! Doesn't seem likely at the moment.
Safest option would be a wait and watch policy as the summer swings by. May be the balmier days of autumn may bring in more cheer with better opportunities. Till then sports competitions must be kept in abeyance in order to keep them viable!

With all sport suspended, ICC rankings mean nothing

India have slipped to number three in the latest ICC Test ranking on April 30, falling behind Australia and New Zealand. But it was waiting to happen anyway since India was not scheduled to play any Tests after the 0-2 away loss to New Zealand in February!

The highly-valued India Premier League was scheduled for a March end start and would have continued till the third week of May. India would not have played any international games in either of the three formats during this period.

So the drop in ranking was pre-ordained anyway as the rankings take into account only the performance of the previous 12 months, updates happening at the end of each calendar month.

It defies logic, however, that with a global pandemic having brought all sporting activity to a grinding halt why is ICC trying to update rankings as before! If it continues in the same vein, with resumption not likely in the next few weeks either, ICC rankings will become irrelevant.

The administrators need to stay abreast of world developments. Various sports federations have frozen rankings on different dates depending upon the last engagement held where points were at stake. Makes sense since rankings mean more than mere numbers. For some sports disciplines, even Olympic qualification is dependent upon rankings on a particular cut off date!

But cricket? 

With a Test championship already in place, where India incidentally continues to be number one, rankings otherwise lose meaning. ICC should be more worried about the Test championship cycle being interrupted and have a contingency plan in place to take the grand finale well beyond the originally scheduled June 2021.

Even at the recent CEOs conference, such mundane matters were hardly discussed. Focus instead was how to push a Future Tours Programme down the throats of reluctant India, Australia and England. As expected it came a cropper!

Next was the attempt to salvage the World T20 scheduled for later this year in Australia. That India and Australia have expressed interest in a bilateral Test series once sporting activities resume hasn't really gone down well with ICC.

At the end of the day, does anyone really care about ICC and its rankings? Sad to say even ICC doesn't seem too serious so why should nations bother.

Gets pretty lonely at the top

International sport is played more in the mind!
That does hold good for all spheres of life. And perhaps the reason some are more successful than others is because of mental strength. Trial by fire is the hallmark of a champion but it takes years of careful molding and shaping to get the right frame of mind in the first place.
Several top performers have, in recent times, been distressed by lack of proper support as they stay busy. Mental fatigue is one thing but going into depression is quite another!
Rest and relaxation can take care of simple fatigue but depression needs a much more nuanced approach.
Australian cricketers Glenn Maxwell, Jonathan Trott and Marcus Trescothick have all admitted to battling anxieties. So has current Indian cricket captain Virat Kohli. Champion seamer Mohammad Shami even contemplated suicide on more than one occasion as he battled through injuries and family troubles.
First, a person must accept the flaw in the mental make-up. Easier said than done for a person who has already tasted success at the highest levels. But it is the pressure to maintain the level of performance that brought them thus far is what takes a toll. The first question that pops up is: Am I really good enough? And the moment that question mark appears, each performance is put under the microscope.
Here is where professional help is needed. Lingering doubts are not the end of the world. In fact, as one champion sportsperson openly confessed, it is good to have butterflies in the stomach each time you step out. Whether that helps a performer focus more or becomes a distraction is what separates the champions from the rest.
But when performances fail to match expectations, the pressure begins to get worse. Add to that the struggle to stay in the top bracket where the competition is cut-throat! 
Champions know how to surmount the hurdles presented by the mind. They can overcome the pressure and move on ... Its a battle that sports-persons must win on their own. A champion is also the target that everyone looks to knock off the pedestal. And it does get pretty lonely up there!

Ridiculous of Premiership football to even think of a restart

England's Premier League football, with active prompting from the UK government, seems to be seriously looking at ways to restart the games in order to complete the current season!
Given the prevalent global pandemic, it seems a show of normalcy has become more important to the powers that be. A realistic assessment of  the dangers faced by those involved is a prime necessity. And it needs to involve not only players but all present at the venue(s) including support staff for teams as well as ground personnel. Such a move could put to risk even the families and beyond.
The prompting or encouragement seems to have from across the pond with Nascar announcing races behind closed doors. Fair enough! Some Live sport for aficionados cooped up without their regular fix of adrenaline rushes! 
If anything, auto racing is very different as it avoids need of direct contact among competitors! Even the team crew working on the race can afford minimal contact with each other. Plus the provisio for each team to provide test reports of all personnel likely to be at the race before they are allowed entry to the venue. Any positive test result for the dreaded Covid-19 virus means immediate withdrawal of the team from the competition for the next four weeks till each member has three straight negative results during that period, the last being not more than 72 hours old.
Sounds pretty complex, doesn't it? Well there are no simple solutions to this complex world pandemic.
Travel can be difficult in these times ... containment is the watch-word. 
Even the offer of providing the iconic Wembley Stadium to hold more than one game each day may not meet the requirements. Clubs need to be live and train in London with players and staff mingling freely at sessions to keep the competitive edge. And then one mis-step is all it takes for the entire thing to blow up.
Social distancing on the pitch is not possible, nor would it be desirable if the stakes are as high as they are likely to be in a Premier League clash!
France has declared Paris-Saint-Germain as the Ligue One champions. Dutch Ere Divisie maintained status quo with no titles being awarded. Others are mulling similar options. But what Premiership is trying appears, without doubt, frightening to say the least.
Its like playing catch with a live hand grenade inside a crowded trench! Danger far outweighs the benefits!

Chuni Goswami was an all-rounder in every sense

Captain of the Indian football team that won the 1962 Asian Games gold medal at Jakarta and a decade-long career in first class cricket!
Passing away of Subimal 'Chuni' Goswami has indeed robbed the country of a true sporting icon who strode the Kolkata maidan like a colossus. His sporting achievements are unparalleled even after several decades ... 
Scoring 200 goals for his only club Mohun Bagan for whom he turned out from 1954 to 1968, football was without doubt his first love. Chuni-da made his international debut in the 1958 Asian Games at Tokyo, scoring a goal against Burma in his maiden appearance. Four years later the centre forward was leading the Indian team to the gold medal in Jakarta. That he was captain of the national team in 16 of his 36 appearances showed how valuable his leadership was to the side.
Added to that were his 47 Ranji Trophy appearances for Bengal who he represented as a true all-rounder from 1962-63 season to the 1972-73 season, including an appearance in the title clash. He even captained Bengal in the 1968-69 season, the same year he hung up his football boots. His 1592 first class runs included a century and 7 fifties. Add to that 47 wickets and his true value to the side becomes apparent.
Arjuna Award in 1963 and Padma Shri 20 years later were just desserts for the man whose exploits on the tennis courts of Kolkata's South Club is stuff of legends. Ask Davis Cupper Akhtar Ali!
Gifted with a rare "ball sense", he could be a champion at any sport he tried. No wonder the sports world looked at the man with a glamorous and charming personality with awe!
The aura never diminished even with the passing years. In fact, it was strengthened even more as people came to realise what a rare talent Chuni-da was. His ready wit easily endeared him to his myriad fans who will no doubt miss the legend that finally bid adieu to life at 82 following a prolonged battle with age-related ailments.
Sports stars may come and go but there will only be one Chuni-Da!