Off Stump

An edited version of this piece has been published on ESPNcricinfo here . December 22, 2013 was a sad day for world cricket. Cricketers like Graeme Swann not only bring their talents to the field but their attitude that conveys sheer joy at playing Test cricket is a much needed commodity. Especially in these days when young spinners are choosing to play the IPL over Test cricket (more on that some other time though). Jon Hotten is right in saying that he's the player the rebuilding England side will miss the most, but arguably world cricket will miss him almost as much. With Swann gone, Harbhajan and Vettori having completely faded away since 2011, and Saeed Ajmal and Rangana Herath (who're both nearly 37) not likely to last much longer, the next great (or even really good) Test match spinners are nowhere in sight. Most fans of the five day game would probably rate great fast bowling as the thing they like most followed by fine batsmanship. And its now wonder that in mos...

First up, a disclaimer. I don't dislike the IPL. I have not really become a fan but neither do I completely ignore it. In theory, the idea of a cricketing league similar in structure (and maybe one day in popularity) to football leagues the world over is great. As a passionate follower of the game, I would be delighted if that came to fruition in the future but again as a passionate follower of the game, I find the IPL lacking in something. Maybe its the fact that the format is too heavily loaded in favour of the batsmen. Or that there are too many games and it becomes impossible to distinguish one game from another (heaven knows how Americans follow the MLB with 162 games per team!!). Or (and I'm being snobbish here) the fact that Dwayne Smith plays ahead of Ricky Ponting because he is a better slogger. But mostly I think its the fact that the quality is not consistently good enough. It would be simplistic I think to attribute that to the format alone. Yes, T20 games can be s...