Barcelona board cannot escape responsibility for Lionel mess

It must have indeed come as a shock to the myriads of FC Barcelona fans right across the globe that their super star captain and the highest paid football player in the world Lionel Messi wants to leave the club.

Camp Nou no longer seems to the same place where the Argentine arrived as a teenager way back in 2001. At 33, the mercurial Messi has handed in a transfer request to the club board, with whom he has not really had the best of relations right through the 2019-20 season.

The 2-8 defeat at the hands of eventual UEFA Champions League winners Bayern Munich seems to be the last straw for the man who earned close to a staggering 100 million Euros per year at Barcelona through last season, making him the highest paid footballer on Planet Earth.

The Barcelona board seems to have taken Messi's presence at Camp Nou for granted, especially since the Argentine had let the June 30 deadline for free transfer pass without incident. Little did they realise that with an extended season due to the Covid19 pandemic, deadlines have lost all meaning.

So when Messi, through a recorded delivery and open content on Burofax, sent in his transfer request to move on from the Catalan club, it indeed sent shock waves not only in Spanish football but the entire football world! After all, Barcelona is the only club that Messi has ever played for in his entire senior career of 16 years.

Even though Barcelona are looking at a 700 million Euro pay-out, it could very well end up being only a dream since the lawyers will have to settle the issue and Messi, more likely than not, appears set to walk away for free. 

That even the appointment Ronald Koeman, the fifth Dutchman to take charge at Camp Nou, failed to hold Messi back hints to problems much deeper than his mere cold vibes with the last few men at the helm. Koeman follows a long line of Dutch coaches since Rinus Michels in 1971, followed by Johan Cryuff, Louis van Gaal and Frank Rijkaard.

Each one of them provided the club with a fair degree of success but that doesn't seem to hold out any hope for keeping Messi back at Camp Nou. 

FC Barcelona president Josep Maria Bartomeu may find it tough to defend his position once Messi leaves since the two are known to share a rather indifferent relationship. The only saving grace for Bartomeu would be to somehow enforce the 700 million Euro fee but that too appears rather tenuous with fans already clamouring for his resignation.

Sometimes decision-makers fail to fathom the true passion of fans who, without any doubt, form the cornerstone of any sporting outfit. So there is little surprise that views inside and outside the board-room hardly match at the moment. Since retaining an unsettled player, especially after the transfer request has been put in such a public fashion, may not really be a good idea, its all about cutting the losses.

Lionel Messi has grown up with Barcelona and if he leaves, it is bound to cause an upheaval at the club!

    

Spirit of gentlemen's game died with Bodyline series itself

With several weeks still to go before the first ball is bowled in the 13th edition of the Indian Premier League, the cricket world is engrossed in an interesting debate over Law 41.16 of the game.

The law states: "If the non-striker is out of his/her ground from the moment the ball comes into play to the instant the bowler would normally have been expected to release the ball, the bowler is permitted to run him/her out."

And the opinion is sharply divided into batting and bowling camps, the former invoking the "spirit of the game" while the latter point to Law 41.16!

When modern advancement in technology has made, like much else in life, a contest of millimetres and television frames, the spirit of the game argument can well be thrown out of the window. After all when the Douglas Jardine-led England Test team employed the leg-side trap to curb the batting genius of Sir Donald Bradman it was well within the laws of the game to pepper batsmen with short-ptiched deliveries with Law 41 on unfair play yet to introduce the clause 41.6 regarding dangerous bowling.

If England could justify their action, why not the rest of the world!

Surprising that much debate followed the first-ever dismissal under Law 41.16 by late Indian all-rounder Vinoo Mankad when he ran out Australian opener Bill Brown in the Sydney Test ... when the batsmen did not desist to taking early starts despite being repeatedly warned by the bowler.

That the type of dismissal was nick-named after Mankad is a great dis-service to the man who served the game with plenty of distinction and can be easily clubbed as one of the early 'true" all-rounders in cricket.

After all now TV commentators can be heard screaming at the top of their voices that "the line belongs to the umpire" even as the replays are being cued up to decide on an appeal for stumping or run-out. And on more than one occasion, batsmen on the line have been rightly ruled "out" since Law 39 clearly mention the words "behind the line"

The root of the present debate lies in England player Jos Buttler being run out by Ravichandran Ashwin during the 2019 IPL game between Rajasthan and Punjab, the batsman had been warned previously. Interestingly it was Buttler's second such dismissal, the previous one having happened in 2014 during the home Test series against Sri Lanka.

Ashwin has since moved on to the Delhi franchise which he is expected to lead during the forthcoming IPL . What seemed to have stirred things up is former Australian captain and new Delhi coach Ricky Ponting's open disapproval of the method of the Buttler dismissal, invoking the spirit of the game!

Rather strange coming for a person who believed in playing the game hard and never gave not asked for any quarter!

Ashwin's rebuttal has been just as sharp. And quite rightly so, it seems, since the game of cricket is so much tilted in the the batsmen's favour anyway. So if  Ashwin asks for a "free ball" for bowlers if a non-striker is backing up too far, there's plenty of merit in the argument.

The Indian off-spinner suggests docking the batting side five runs if a batsman is dismissed off the free ball, much in the fashion of a free hit is allowed to batsmen after a 'no-ball' has been called for any reason. 

There are instances aplenty in international cricket when bowlers have stopped short of running the non-striker out when clearly out of the popping crease, some even having cost the team the match. At the end of the day, it's a fair method of dismissal and should never be taken out of the equation. 

As long as Law 41.16 remains on the statute books of cricket, there is nothing wrong in bowlers denying batsman the "luxury" of an early start, spirit be damned!

Online gaming is only betting by another name

The Board of Control for Cricket in India seems to be stepping from one slippery slope to another, especially as far as its most prized event, the Indian Premier League, is concerned. 

Soon after "re-negotiating" the deal with the Chinese company holding title sponsorship rights, it has handed the same for IPL to an online gaming company. 

The company's primary business is to encourage speculation online about performances of players in different roles. Not very different from what race-goers would do at a horse race ... place bets on the performance by different participants in each event!

While most state governments in India strictly ban betting in all forms, including sale of lottery tickets, it appears the company seeks to buy legitimacy for its operations by jumping on the IPL bandwagon. After all the IPL is the most popular annual single sport event in the country and definitely among the top 10 in the world.

There was a time in India when almost every state and Union Territory ran its own lottery business. But slowly it has all been canned  and road-side stands displaying lottery tickets are only a distant memory. 

Cricket has just about recovered from its brush with the betting industry, especially that seeks to control on-field activities to suit its bottom-line. Spot-fixing has been severely punished and, in recent times, even approaches by dubious persons connected with the clandestine world of betting have been handed exemplary punishment by the International Cricket Council.

Since IPL has been found to be a ripe candidate for plucking by the shady characters of the betting world, BCCI would have been better advised to steer clear of such alliances, especially at the very top.

At least till such time as betting on sports events gains legal sanction from the government, as is the case in quite a number of countries. IPL has been a pioneer in many ways for Indian sports, but this route is completely uncharted territory!

Awards delayed are awards denied indeed

It's that season all over again where sporting achievements are put to the ultimate test and national sports awards handed out as recognition.

Much like previous years, every list announced for the annual awards jamboree attracts its fair share of flak. Even though most are a mere shoo-in, its the few that become talking points which detract from the national recognition each awardee deserves.

And how could 2020, already having seen more than a fair share of turmoil and trouble thanks to the global Covid19 pandemic, could be any different.

Five names for the prestigious Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna appear a bit much, more so since the Asian Games and Commonwealth Games were last held two years ago and the Tokyo Olympics had to be delayed till next year. 

Of the five winners, only cricketer Rohit Sharma is a deserving candidate courtesy his string of three-figure knocks during the 2019 ICC World Cup in England. Rani Rampal has been picked for leading the women's hockey side to an Olympic berth at long last, apart from the Asian Games silver in 2018.

The remainder three are all being honoured for achievements in 2018 or even earlier.

Nothing wrong with that on the face of it since it falls within the four-year window set by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports. But despite all the combined wisdom of the MYAS mandarins, it has become a trap that is difficult to circumvent. 

MYAS has set out a pretty linear points criteria for evaluation for each of the awards ... Arjuna, Dronacharya, Dhyan Chand and Khel Ratna! What defies logic and understanding is that each awardee must apply either individually or through the national sports federation concerned to be even considered for any award. 

Individual applications were permitted following complaints of NSFs dishing out awards recommendations as favours rather than working on pure merit.

But how can a Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna awardee apply for an Arjuna award for the same international achievement and get the nod too? This makes a mockery of the entire awards selection process. MYAS needs to take a fresh look rather than an ostrich-like approach which may avoid controversy but makes it a butt of jokes.

Since the international calendar is pretty much set, barring calamitous circumstances like the virus outbreak, Asian Games and Commonwealth Games medals should get rewarded over the next year or two followed by Olympic Games performances. Even for sports like cricket and other non-Olympic disciplines, it has to be a strict two-year cycle.

It was indeed a breath of fresh air when four top class performances at the Rio Olympics were rewarded in 2016 itself when the triumph was still fresh. 

Yet another Olympic medal, and that too a gold, from Rio surfaces four years later! Should not the MYAS be expected to be alert enough to such performances which anyway should be draw automatic applause and recognition? 

But then where would Indian bureaucracy stand without red tape!

Between the run-outs Dhoni saved cricket from disaster

Mahendra Singh Dhoni remains as much an enigma today as he was 16 years ago when he stepped on to the international stage, his near-shoulder length hair garnering more attention than the first ball run-out on debut. That his international career should also end with a run-out in the ICC World Cup 2019 semi-final is a matter of pure chance!

Or is it?

The roller-coaster ride that is international sport seems to have played out in the full with this man from the hinterlands. But lest we forget Dhoni's run-out dismissals are only symbolic of the man who never shied away from a challenge!

When he was handed the reins of Team India in the autumn of 2007 for the inaugural ICC T20 World Cup, it was perhaps for the first time in over a decade that the national cricket team was leaving the shores without the famous trio of Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid. 

This on the back of a rather forgettable ICC World Cup earlier in the spring.

In fact, the world cup which saw the sad demise of then Pakistan coach Bob Woolmer nearly pushed international to the brink. Both India and Pakistan failed to progress beyond the league phase leading to falling television ratings and much speculation among the die-hard fans.

Obviously credibility was about to hit rock-bottom yet again after the match-fixing saga of nearly a decade ago. It all returned to haunt cricket as revenues fell and cricket players were viewed with suspicion.

In this backdrop Dhoni began his tenure as India captain, having taken over from Dravid for the bilateral series of 50-over one-day internationals against Sri Lanka and New Zealand. And his T20 debut as skipper was a wash-out against Scotland in what was to be India's only second ever 20-over international game.

Team India went on to win the 2007 ICC T20 World Cup under the leadership of Dhoni, virtually laying  the foundation for the cash-rich Indian Premier League the following year as cricket sought to straddle the sporting as well as entertainment spheres.

To do it with aplomb was Dhoni's style as he strode like a colossus not only in the T20 arena but went on to lead India to further successes in the 2011 ICC World Cup (50-overs) and 2013 ICC Champions Trophy.

That he bridged the gap between the Tendulkar and Virat Kohli eras would be under-valuing his contribution to the cause of the game, which he will continue to play for his IPL franchise. 

Re-igniting the love for cricket among the fans when it was at its lowest was what Dhoni did in 2007 in South Africa. Not enough credit has been given to Captain Cool for this unique and singular contribution to international cricket even though history is bound to remember the long-haired wicket-keeper batsman from Jharkhand as a man who helped bring the fans back like no other!

Falling short of the crease may have been Dhoni's fate at the start and end of his international cricket career but he was one who never let the game down! In fact he singe-handedly gave back international cricket the much-needed credibility!

Unsung Raina walks into sunset with century in every format

A left-handed middle order batsman, a useful right arm off-spinner and a sharp cover fielder ... That just about sums up Suresh Raina who chose, without any fanfare, bring the curtains down on an international cricket career that was launched in 2005.

Raina's last appearance for Team India was in July 2018 away in England, a clear indication that selectors were no longer keeping him on the radar.

There was something unique about the man born virtually in the shadow of the national capital, Muradnagar in Uttar Pradesh, that despite an international century in each of the three formats of the game Raina spent most of his time fighting to emerge from the shadows!

Making 226 appearances in the 50-over one-day internationals is by no means a small achievement in itself. Add to that 18 Test matches and 78 T20 internationals and the utility man of Indian cricket emerges as a team person all the way.

Panned by critics for a perceived weakness against the short ball, Raina never really could erase it altogether despite facing up to some of the quickest in the business. Perhaps his humility did not allow the stylish middle order batsman to come out and answer his critics with an "in your face" attitude. And how well could he hit the cricket ball is brought to the fore by his stellar knocks time and again, pulling Team India out of a hole with great regularity.

The same simplicity that marked his international career seems to have served him well in the Indian Premier League where he has been with his Chennai franchise since 2008. 

First player to score more than five thousand runs and also the first Indian to hit more than a hundred sixes in the IPL along with almost a hundred catches underlines the value an unsung Raina brings to his franchise.

Little wonder Chennai fans have named him "Chinna Thala", of course "Thala" being reserved for the one and only Mahendra Singh Dhoni. Both will continue to don the yellow Chennai uniform and hopefully delight their fans with more fireworks, with the worry and weight of an international recall off their back.

And should it be a surprise that the same Dhoni once again overshadowed the retirement of Suresh Raina by preceding him a few hours!

Unsung hero, may be but Raina is anything but a forgotten one!

Indian Premier League has always been about creating fresh avenues

Since its colourful launch in 2008, the Indian Premier League has taken the cricket world by storm. Of course, the success of the Indian team led by Mahendra Singh Dhoni a year earlier winning the inaugural edition of the ICC T20 World Cup in South Africa provided a solid launch pad for the tournament. So much so that every cricket-playing country now has its very own 20-over league providing packaged entertainment complete with fire-works.

IPL was packaged on the lines of the American sports league, including its very own commissioner. Obviously the commercial aspects needed to be carefully considered but the seeds had been sown.

And the success story of any sporting contest is not just on the tried and tested being able to deliver but the rise of fresh new talent.

Inaugural season winners Rajasthan paraded an exciting young opener from Goa, a state more know for its football, music and seafood. Swapnil Asnodkar stood all of five feet five inches in his socks and striding out with then South African skipper Graeme Smith, who stands several inches above six feet, indeed made the long and short of it.

Asnodkar's season average of 59.71 in his seven appearances for the ultimate champions catapulted the Goan to heights of fame the opener had never even imagined.

Every team has its own complement of "net bowlers", and its here that several new names have popped up. Mohit Sharma, now a regular in the Chennai line-up, started as one. So did Navdeep Saini, part of the Bengaluru franchise and also served as India's net bowler in the 2019 ICC World Cup in England. That is one step away from international selection.

IPL 2020 promises to be hardly different as each franchise is permitted a complement of 10 net bowlers, whose job mainly is to prevent unnecessary fatigue to the front-liners without denying enough practice opportunities to the batsmen. The restrictions have become necessary due to the Covid19 pandemic which has forced the IPL to foreign shores in the first place.

Several franchise owners, however, are reported to be not too keen on the full quota of 10 and would like to put to use some of the talent available in the United Arab Emirates itself. Obviously the stock would be of south-Asian origin but the chance to bowl with the some of the best in the world could certainly go a long way in honing their talent.

UAE must not miss the opportunity as several of these net players could, in future, may become available for international duty for them. Its a chance to improve and rubbing shoulders with the creme de la creme must not be wasted!