God save the King (Dhoni)!

Another topic that is very close to my heart is Cricket. I’ve been a passionate follower of team India since India beat Pakistan in the 1996 World Cup QFs. That bludgeoning by Jadeja of one certain Waqar Younis, and the subsequent dismissal of the pompous Aamir Sohail by Venky Prasad turned me from indifferent to crazy about Cricket. I’ve seen team India perform badly time after time and I’ve seen the highs. But never have I seen, read or heard any international team (excluding B’Desh or Zim) humiliated in a manner England humiliated India. Maybe they did worse to Australia in the 2010-2011 Ashes in Oz, but Australia still won a game then whereas we were completely routed. That Oz suffered an innings drubbing thrice in their own backyard makes me feel better. Much better.

However, from our own recent history I don’t think anyone could’ve imagined what transpired. India had been on the top for about two years. We had the best middle order and a captain on a career high. Surely, we could’ve given England a fair competition given that this team was the same one that drew with Aus in Aus, SA in SA and beat every other team in the interim. Importantly, we lost to none since Dhoni took over about 2 years ago. With that in mind, it is simply astounding how we looked worse than schoolkids playing against professionals.

What basically happened was we ran into an England team which has lots of quality (think Cook, Petersen, Bell, Swann) and is in the form of their life (think Broad, Bresnan, Prior) all at the same time. What was worse was this Indian team for several reasons was low on quality and form. Other than Dravid, everyone else struggled. As in, seriously struggled including Sachin. It made the contest a no-contest all the way through. Now, why were we in the worst of form and did our bad form make England look good? Let’s talk about that.

I think it’s a no brainer to imagine that team India was tired. Dead tired after endless hours of test and one-day cricket with the World Cup being the last and the most exhausting event of the season. When the season ended, it didn’t really end. There was the IPL to play for another 3 months. This essentially meant all players were not resting, not recuperating, not working on their fitness etc. Another reason that often gets ignored is the impact the IPL has on the skillsets and motivations of players. Test cricket is a completely different kettle of fish. Bowlers need skills, perseverance, aggression and above all the strength to succeed. Batsman need the skills, practice and guts. You don’t need all of that in the IPL. So the skills you’re working on for 3 months day-in day-out is something that’s a total waste as far as test cricket is concerned. It tires you out, but gives you no benefit whatsoever. Then there is the motivation question. Think about this. If I was Suresh Raina and I really wanted to make it big in test cricket, wouldn’t I promptly go prepare for the English tour by playing county cricket there for 2 months after the world cup? But when the IPL pays millions more, why would I do that? Why would I spend the time working on a more gruelling, less paying sport when I could get all the money I’ll ever need from a lighter and easier sport. That is what the IPL does. It makes small time cricketers richer but also drives people like Raina away from the real deal cause that’s the easy and more profitable way out. The point is even more obvious for fast bowlers. Everyone realises how much hard work fast bowling is. From a skill/fitness point of view, I don’t think there should be any doubt the IPL is an evil our already overworked fast bowlers can live without. From a motivation point of view, why would anyone in their sane mind want to endure a test match and all the pre-work that goes with it when they have an option of playing the IPL and not only earning more money but also getting the satisfaction of playing the game.

So we see where all the blame lies? But is that all? If that is indeed the case, why wasn’t India a world class team when there was no IPL. After all, India was never a world class test team ever. It only became slightly better than the others with Ganguly and then with Dhoni. The team wasn’t exactly ruling the charts when there was no IPL – so is eliminating/rescheduling the IPL the answer? Well not really. What we need is for most of the money the BCCI makes to go back to the game. That means improving the playing and coaching facilities at grass-roots i.e. at a school then University then First Class level. It also means setting up procedures to spot talent early, having more money in the first class level so more people play the game and the first class competition improves in quality. The BCCI made a profit of INR 1,600 Crores in 2010-11. A good question would be how much of this is going back to the game for its development. And how much of it ends up with Mr. Pawar et al. At present, the BCCI seems to be using and abusing the hen that lays the golden egg. They’re using all of cricket’s popularity to earn zillions but are putting little back into the game. Given that it’s a private body and not acccountable to anyone, technically there’s nothing anyone can do about their desires and drives.

Finally, whether all is so gloomy is debatable. Agreed India has been hopelessly pathetic against England, but isnt this the same team that became no.1 by beating Aus, SA etc. and then becoming ODI World champs? Isn’t this also the one country where cricket remains a religion? So I’d say lets wait before we make drastic judgements and hasty decisions. A pretty interesting next few months for Indian cricket then..

The Union of India vs. the People of India

I wrote this post on the tenth day of Anna's fast so with the benefit of hindsight now, I think some issues I've raised have been addressed. However, I still think I must publish my thoughts as they were when things weren't so certain and clear.

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Over the last few weeks, Anna Hazare’s name is all across every single Indian news website I land on. He is everywhere. News websites can’t have enough of him, and people are going crazy all over Facebook and twitter in supporting him. It is hard to imagine how successful the movement would’ve been without Facebook/twitter. This however also makes me wonder whether most of his supporters are the type of people who would use Facebook – educated and urban. Is this lack of broader appeal something that the Congress is banking on..that’s surely food for thought.

Anyways, as I write, he has been on a fast for over ten days and the government is negotiating with his representatives. What I like about this whole movement is that its not something random. We’ve all been affected by corruption for quite some time and we all think it is seriously about time things changed. Plus, enough opportunities were given to the government to take in the feedback on their version of the bill – something they arrogantly and quite stupidly brushed off. And it’s now blowing up in their faces making everyone from the very wise Mr. Prime Minister look politically foolish.

The other thing I appreciate about Anna’s strategy is that it is not just a one-man approach. He has a good team working for him. The three key members on his team have a great public image, are known to be clean, and are not entirely naive. Having this kind of a team approach is beneficial from a succession planning perspective. It also gives the movement credibility and the panache to survive if key members leave. A thought that crossed my mind is maybe the govt thinks that if Anna dies, people will protest for some time, but without a leader, they will eventually get back to their lives and everything will be ‘normal’ again as it so often happens in India. However, given the presence of a strong support group in Anna’s camp, this is not likely to happen. If anything were to happen to Anna, am reasonably certain one of the three (Bhushan, Bedi, Kejriwal) will take up the cause. What’ll also happen is his ultimate sacrifice will pull in all the millions sitting on the border now straight into the battle. That is surely not something that Mr. PM wants. In any case, I think the govt is smart enough to recognise this. I think their strategy now is more of creating a stalemate where people lose interest, Anna is put in a hospital at some point, and the matter basically dies its own natural death. It will take a lot of resolve from Anna et al to preempt and avoid this quagmire. Without any direct involvement in the negotiations process I do believe the govt is succeeding in creating a stalemate. However, it does walk quite a tight rope what with Anna’s health failing each passing day. Politically, this makes for a most interesting situation.

Another thing that I often ask myself is whether the whole thing is stretching a good idea a bit too far. Agreed we all need a strong lokpal, but is that an end unto itself? Is it really necessary to force the govt into submission over certain issues which the standing committee doesn’t agree on? Essentially, should Anna and his team, rightly or wrongly be allowed to bypass the constitutional process? I don’t think so. I think we’ve made a point and the govt. gets it. The larger point is that we’re fed up with corruption and that things need to happen to clean up the system. Then again, if we end up with a nominal lokpal that fails to address the very issues it was drafted for, haven’t we ended up wasting the whole effort we took to protest and bring forth our opinion on the govt.? These factors again make the matter very interesting. There are certain demands that AZ is making that can’t be accomodated given our current constitution. There are some that can be accommodated but the Standing Committee is not willing to concede, either because of plain and simple ego or because they sense they’re digging their own grave by doing so. All in all, in general I am with AZ and his demands. However, when it comes to making statements such as ‘govt will have to take our Jal Lokpal or go’, I am a bit unsure. Mr. AZ you’re not an elected representative of the people, so I really don’t know if you can, or should imply that you can, bring a govt. down. As criminal and immoral as it may be, the govt represents the Indian populace. It is in power because we put them there. We put them there probably because there was no one better around, rather than because we liked them. But We put them there. We meaning the 1 billion plus people of India. That is why we must continue to be humble and think of working with rather than against the govt. Our demands are justified but till we don’t put ourselves IN the system, we need to work with its limitations from the outside.

All in all, I think this is a bloody good start by a bloody smart and honest person! Let's hope this is the beginning of the end of corruption in India :). Do I think that will happen by passing a good Lokpal bill? No, but you've gotta start somewhere!