Off Stump

An edited version of this piece has been published here on ESPNcricinfo. Cricket is almost unique amongst team sports where the focus is as much on the individual as on the team. Whether its the inordinate focus on stats and records or the fact that the game is ultimately an individual contest between a bowler and a batsman, cricket's very different from football, hockey, rugby and most other team games in that respect. And that almost automatically means that all fans of the sport have their favourite players that they look forward to watching and following more than some others. These affinities are formed for reasons that are mostly hard to explain, especially when it comes to players who are new and just making their way in the game. And its greatly rewarding as a follower of the game when these newbies start to convert their promise into performance. I'm no different from most fans in this respect and the 2013/14 season (so far) has been brilliant as three young batsmen...

Disclaimer: I'm an unabashed fan of Mahendra Singh Dhoni as a player and captain (see here ,  here and here ) and believe he's still the best choice as leader for the Indian team everywhere. New Zealand's astonishing turnaround in the Wellington Test match has (not unsurprisingly) led to a renewed call from Sidharth Monga on ESPNcricinfo for a change in the leadership of the Indian team, ie Dhoni's removal as Test skipper. While I have to admit that Monga has been consistent in his views on this for sometime now and the fact that Dhoni's defensive attitude is what costs India opportunities, it would be better if he strove a little harder to present facts fully and not selectively. I don't usually see the point in picking apart opinion pieces but given his latest tirade had so many factual holes and selective interpretations, I feel compelled to do so. " India will have gone 14 Tests and three years without an overseas Test win. Only Zimbabwe have...

Much is being made of the fact that Mahendra Singh Dhoni now has the highest number of overseas losses amongst Indian captains after Auckland. If Christian Ryan's fantasy came true and the fans had their way, he would have been sacked long ago and one of Kohli/Rohit/Pujara made skipper and that alone would have turned India's fortunes. At the risk of coming across as a Dhoni apologist, that's just pure balderdash in my opinion. First the stats. Dhoni's away win loss ratio is still a good deal better than many captains of the past and of those above him, Wadekar and Kapil Dev's two wins each came in the same year (1971 and 1986 respectively) and they lost the captaincy soon after as losses started to mount. Six of Ganguly's wins came against Bangladesh and Zimbabwe (vs just one for Dhoni) leaving Dravid as the only captain who's undisputedly done better. India (and Dhoni) have taken a severe beating since 2011 and among international captains (with 8 o...

Modern day corporations are increasingly realising the benefits of having more diversity in their organisational make-up and empowering individuals to be more flexible and focus on what they do best. Those in charge of managing cricket teams though appear to have a diametrically opposite viewpoint. The Pietersen saga is just the most recent example of this high-handed, headmasterly behaviour from team management and boards. Enough has been written about it (with George Dobell's views the closest to my own) so I won't dwell on the reasons why I think its not the right decision for Engish cricket. The larger (and more worrying) point in my view is that this adds to the list of incidents in recent times of teams pushing for a much more conformist and less individual attitude. Press conferences were one of the first (and arguably minor/harmless) things to be infected and nowadays all you hear is "hitting the right areas", "putting together partnerships", ...

The only breed more inconsistent than the Indian seamers are the Indian fans. If you went by the headlines, fan comments in social media, and interactions with followers of the Indian cricket team, India constantly bounce back and forth between being the best team in the world and worse than Bangladesh/Zimbabwe. There is no middle ground. Reactions over the last three years would bear testament to this: April 2011: India win the World Cup after a good tour of South Africa. All hail the best team in the world. January 2012: Successive 0-4 batterings against England and Australia. India are the pits and Dhoni and all the senior players should be sacked (Dravid and Laxman retire) June 2013: India win the Champions Trophy after wiping out Australia 4-0. Best team in the world again. February 2014: Away losses mount again after defeats to South Africa and New Zealand. Back to being the pits (sack Dhoni etc) Passion is a great quality but when not tempered with patience (as is...