The Before and Beyond of “Kashmir Files”-Part 2

 

Part 2- Don’t take the name of Lord in vain and don’t give up your land in pain

A lot of trouble mongers from across the border saw themselves cool their heels in jails due to an efficient security grid that the Indian Army and Police provided. India saw a PM whom I cannot claim to have been my namesake without a sense of contempt. Nobody would have a doubt that he had his blinkers on but was it by purpose or ineptitude can be debated. Proof of the pudding, he left India in an extraordinary foreign exchange deficit and crisis.

No debate on the fact that the first Home Minister of India from the ROP (Religion of Peace) was placed strategically to augur well for the mayhem to follow. Into a peaceful Kashmir, were released some of the hard core, fiendish and imprisoned terrorists clearly playing to an agenda by the honorable HM. The Centre was looking the other way. The daughter of this Union Home Minister, a medical intern, on her way back gets kidnapped by JKLF. Beat that for a make believe.

 Gallons of ink and acres of papers have gone into untying this staged kidnapping and release. Release not just of the daughter but dreaded terrorists too. Regent Abdullah cried foul over this act of the Government but did not blink an eye when it came to his turn to release few more of the devils into the Kashmir civil society. Such dots connect themselves.

Not a page of history needs to be read to understand this enigmatic kidnapping. When the same transpired in the case of Saifuddin Soz’s daughter not a rat was released to secure her release.

The Chandrashekar Govt. with the able hand of Dr. Swamy, the then Minister for Commerce and Law refused to agree to demands for release of 5 terrorists by J-e-I. Is anybody guessing what this would stand for? Please don’t strain your neurons. Not worth it.

This in spite of the fact that the father Soz, belonged to ever reigning Abdullah’s party and literally, no imagination mind you, rolled on the floor in the PMO. I am sure a knowledgeable reader would have now connected the dots to the effect of a Rangoli.

 Immediately thereafter targeted killing of Kashmiri Pandits and unholy acts with them increased exponentially. Doctors, Judges, Lawyers, Govt officers, Businessman and even Air Force officials were not spared. They were just not killed but brutally done so as to cause fear in the hearts of the Kashmiri minority population, notably the Kashmiri Hindus.

Demands for Azaadi rang from where once call for prayers would emanate. This is where the entire narrative got hijacked right under the nose of the conniving Govt. Kashmir is made up of Muslim majority, Hindu minority and Buddhist minority (around the Ladakh region). So Azaadi for Kashmir was never asked for by the other two communities. How then could a slice be sliced further?

The movie talks enough about what was the crime of the Kashmiri Hindus. Being so.

Given that the moderates from the aggressor community were also put to rest would not exonerate the sin, isn’t it?

 Conservative records talk of 44000 families having to displace into decades of poverty and test for survival. Now convert that into what number of population it would quantify to. I choose not to narrate the lined-up killings shown in the movie. The director gets his credit here.

While much water has flown around Article 370, not as much has been discussed around the sinister Article 35A that gave the Govt of J &K to decide who would be permanent residents of the state and provide special rights and privileges to them.

Do I hear a question who got the benefit of this? I hope not. The Kashmiri majority community.  Note majority and minority are not the same everywhere in India. A huge scam in itself to award minority status across the country even in states when they are an overwhelming majority. Maybe my Kerala brothers can speak volumes on this.

To keep this blog away from legal riddles, will put to rest saying that this article too was good riddance along with Article 370, but the damage caused by it in 70 years would take generations to reverse.

 How does life in a Refugee Camp look like?

 I would request everyone who can spare some time and money to visit the camps in Delhi and Jammu and let me know if it is anything other than shambles.

Imagine these were the educated, peace loving, partaking in festivals of their brethren turned aggressors and low profile citizens who have been made to prove they belong to this country.

 What is happening in the Kashmir of today?

 After late wisdom and face-saving measures, Rashtriya Rifles of the Indian Army was created under the Ministry of Defence and like always the Army had to do the cleaning for the mess created by it’s political masters. Operation Sadbhavana has been going with elan and the number of trouble mongers are ever dwindling today. Should not be more than 200 in the valley when this post goes live.

More importantly the average life cycle of a terrorist in the valley has plummeted to minutes from a daunting months once in not so distant a past.

Life is still not as throbbing in Bangalore, but public opinion is not a small catalyst by any measure in making that happen even if there is a congenial Govt. at the Centre.

 I want to leave the reader with a thought in the mind. If I were to take up arms to evict you from your house would you not do the same to defend yourself? Mind you, it would still be within the horizon of Section 97 of Indian Penal Code.

The Before and Beyond of “Kashmir Files”-Part 1

                                            

                                                    Part 1- The Melting Pot

Agnihotri needs accolades for staking his life and pointing to a time in history when everything around somebody from this very land stood still in the wake of unprecedented horror unleashed on them. He had his limitations while directing a movie. The blood-soaked rice scene, an example, of how moderately it can be shown. He could not have shown a 6-hour movie either. The ordeal for that woman lasted 10 days and not just restricted to cooking blood-soaked food. Now, I have my limitations too. I am leaving the graphics to the reader’s imagination. Wild as it can be, the less real it would be still.

 The preamble to the story goes thus. USA and USSR had been through the cold war era and waited with bated breath as to who would do the first sin. For all it’s ills US is a democracy and always had the backing of its people, even if divided in private they would be united in public. Contrast that with USSR-people were silenced with doles or jails. At best a quasi-democracy at that time. Even worse now. So, anything inimical would invoke public resistance and riots.

Lo and behold USSR made that first wrong move. An old birdie has that the intentions of this behemoth of a nation were not virtuous. The idea was to recast the map of Soviet Union to include Afghanistan, Pakistan and eventually, yes, India. In that order.

 As USSR made it’s foray into Afghanistan in 1979, they had bitten more than what they can chew. Perfect opportunity for the west to bring down it’s oldest rival. While the Afghans adopted shoot and scoot, the west designed the most diabolical weapon ever seen. A radical version of the “religion of peace” (ROP).

Overnight, books, pamphlets and insinuating speeches reached Afghanistan. Probably the single most lethal move which would come back to haunt its creator and the rest of the world.

Peacemakers from the religion of peace with Kalashnikovs trooped in from the rest of the brother countries which made the situation in Afghanistan a cocktail.

 After 10 years of burning their stocks, USSR did in Afghanistan what US just did. Evacuate and leave behind the big guns. Eerie coincidence?  Time log 1989-90. Rings a bell?

Now for 10 years the rabid Kalashnikov holders knew nothing other than pulling the trigger. They had to be a spent force or force that can be spent elsewhere. Not in their dreams were ISI going to miss this opportunity.

Move the theatre to India-Pakistan affairs now.

1971-Pakistan had received a bashing of their lifetime. 90000 troops led by Gen Niazi had surrendered to Lt. Gen Jagjit Singh Aurora. That they were released with increased girth in contrast to Capt. Saurabh Kalia is a matter for another day. In comes Gen. Zia-ul-Haq and frames the infamous “Bleed India with a thousand cuts” policy, knowing well he would be a sitting duck in a conventional war.

 The first cuts were tried in Punjab in the late 80s and to their curse they met a wall called Kanwar Pal Singh Gill I.P.S, yes, the “Supercop” KPS Gill. Rightfully or not Operation Blue Star marked the finale to Pakistan’s devilish attempt in Punjab, though at a dear cost of life of Gen. Arun Kumar Vaidya.

 Close to 2 decades of peace in Kashmir. Business did well. So did tourism. ISI shifts the “to be spent force” to Kashmir. Remember there were no electric wired fences back then at the border. Porous as paper. Hundreds of radio sets from Pakistan reach deep inside Indian borders to disseminate orders to the “innocent astray youngsters”. Now, no enemy thrives without the doors of the fort opening from inside. Indian polity did not disappoint them.

India Vs England, Ahmedabad, Third Test, 2021

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To tame or cane the dragon, is the question!!

Now that it is anything but secret that the destroyer in chief of the old normal sprang from the wet market of Wuhan or from a lab therein, the indignation of the world is all over China. Be that as it may, what do we Indians do? Join the party, spoil the party or for a change use the famed Indian brain?



Even while I write this a bunch of us would have uninstalled Chinese Apps and retweeted “Boycott China”. Believe me that would be water off the ducks back for China. First of all, India has a unique geo-political standing with China as against the world. While a distant country can cancel flights and do eyeball to eyeball confrontation with China and play the waiting game, India hath not an easy option for the maker did not give us a choice of neighborhood.



Let’s wink a while and bend a little to understand a little bit more about this chalk and cheese combination of Asia. To begin with India, China and history are incomplete without one another. We share not only a 1700 km long border with China but also a minimum of 2500 years of history.



Many official communications from China refer to Indian aspects as Yìn dù jiào. It’s no coincidence that the phonetic is loaded with the character of the land and if that hits the raw nerves of communists and secular worrywarts, I would tell them “verily ask thy master, why did you make us sing knowing it was farce”



In all those thousands of years not a sword crossed between the two countries while Europe kept burning year after year, remember Winter War, Ottaman wars, et el.

Indo-Chinese relations on the other hand had become so deific that we had started exchanging Gods and Godmen. Few of my Tamil chums would know that a certain Boyang from China is a household seer held in high esteem. Or was I expecting a little too much from my fellow domiciles?? Anyway, I am not giving away the suspense here. You know where to reach!!



Beginning 1959, tensions between the two countries kept escalating and culminated in the rather gruesome 1962 war over a disputed Himalayan border, inter alia. Shock and Awe? No. Certainly not in the fact that the Chinese are cold blooded, inscrutable and expansionist. The designs were in plain sight. Not for the then PM and Defense Minister, V.K Krishna Menon.



The incredible foreign policy in vogue said peaceful co-existence and non-intervention with affairs of other countries. Trusting that the neighbors would translate this into Urdu, Chinese, Burmese, Russian etc and proclaim the same. Travesty of politics also known as Panchsheel.



The calamity didn’t stop there either. A foreign policy as catastrophic as this led to a defense policy of disarmament and many ordnance factories converting into cottage industries.



The Shanti Parva in Mahabharata has that King Yudhistra proclaimed the same foreign policy but sent the strongest of his brothers Bhima and Arjuna to safeguard the borders as his defense policy after his coronation. Difference between a PM, Indian by birth and foreign by thought vs a king who was Indian in sum and substance



By the time the writing became clear on the wall, the then PM went on AIR bidding goodbye to his brethren in Assam and started writing letters to USA, USSR and “to whomsoever it may concern”

Now these are lessons on how not to deal with China. The Chinese are masters in treachery and our fait accompli next door. Their supremacy in this region is going to stand for time to come, unfettered, unaltered and without a rival.



Anybody with dreams of the USA pulling back from China can go back to sleep. While investing in China, the USA had grand plans of making an ingress into accessing the cheap labor there but did not plan an egress on need and squarely failed in it.



Much of the US economy runs on the semi processed goods that gets further processed and completed in China before being shipped back. If the “much” lacked the punch, here it is, $560 billion worth of goods as of 2018. That’s a whooping 21% of all imports. How on earth is the US going to replace this and with which country?

For all that I wish, the bravado of substituting with India is not realism given the inferior infrastructure and a bureaucracy as unpalatable as it can get.



Howsoever baffling the quagmire might look, it is not without a solution.



To begin with, India must match China missile for missile, arsenal for arsenal and submarine for submarine in her weaponry. National Security can reckon no compromise and only the mighty are called for the negotiation table, others become menu on the same table.



The foreign policy can be turned to assuage China that India would not side with an adversary of China and partake in an attack on her soil unless there arises a need to protect the sovereign interests of India. In other words, we care a damn what you do with Taiwan and you stay off our borders but yes in whereby thereby diplomatic language.



This will more or less keep China away from Pakistan and if required the Vietnam card can always be played against them saying, if you can groom a bunch of hooligans to hurt us imagine what damage can we cause turning the Vietnamese against you. Surreal it may sound, but possible all the same, if we straighten our backbones and get the ilk of Panchsheel out of our minds.



Transparency, firmness and a neutral posture during their adversity will tame this dragon!!

Mutual Funds-The more we know the less we want!!

A magician’s wand brings out a rabbit from a hat and makes it disappear. The spectator knows for sure something appeared in front of him but knows not where it came from and where it went to. This was a description of not a magic show, but the grand Mutual Fund show in India.

The hayloft of knowledge on mutual funds are that, “it is subject to market risk”. Everything else is known by the fund manager and believed by the investor.

Till 1963, when Mutual Funds were launched in India, investment in India was personal expertise since savings, the source of it, stemmed from therein. An attempt to try a concept launched in USA a good four decades back. A mimic as befitting as a tiger stripe on a cat.

Unit Trust of India floated as an Act of Parliament had a monopolistic rule for about two and half decades till players such as SBI joined the game in 1987. The rich amasses by then under the management was Rs. 6700 crores. I hear the grumble, not even 10% of what Mr. Brewery owes to the country.

Come 1993 and in marched the private players. By then RBI had begun distancing itself and sooner than later Murphy’s law had to be seen around the corner.

The argument for Mutual Funds were almost the same each time and was always “in the long run it is beneficial”.

Irresistible being John Keynes’ rant “in the long run we are all dead”. Now you know why Mr. Murphy had a role to play here.

Ever since the turn of the new millennia, the CEO in the Mutual Fund business, the fund manager, has been under some sort of a duress to venture into unchartered areas and hob knob with grey personalities. A stark example being an ever-increasing presence in Investment Banking.

Now, apart from subject to market risk slogan did we know that MFs are not investment options per se but investment vehicle only. One man’s ignorance is another man’s room for vice. The euphemistic vehicle has been exploited fully to square deals between companies and huge investors at the expense of the gullible middleclass investor.

Take this example- A, with surplus money and not so surplus of a knowhow, invests his money with a fund manager. This manager gets a quirky deal to float money at his disposal to smoothen a syndicate project and in return is able to return a good yield to A. All that A knows of is, he invested in something and it got him something good. What transpired in between did not strike his dreams even.

His compeer B gets inspired and treads the same path but to his misfortune the fund manager’s tryst with luck is well past behind. The result being B gets a sub-prime yield and he is told “in the long run….”. Keynes turns in his grave. A’s success story reaches the media and B either waits for turn of fortune or writes a blog!!! Sorry, this is no confession statement!!

Remember all this is under the garb of transparency, effective regulations and fair play.

MFs have been seen grappling with commodity market and forex market oblivious to the unwarranted risk coefficient and driven by the race to increase the yield, now and here.

Nothing covers up the crevices in the system like good times. Success has many commentaries and failures have no soothsayers. To believe global depression is the villain is plain imbecile.

Global depression did not demand MFs to fund the real estate mafia in India, whose character is unbeknownst to none. Regulators, with all due respect, are only half awake to the misappropriation of assets complimented by violation of related party guidelines.

Before we know, MFs are reducing themselves to a mere vehicle for corporate money laundering. Come a panic situation such as this, the same corporate money exits at the best possible NAV and the retail investor is left high and dry.

Think of this, what are banks doing in MF business? Were they not meant to accept deposits and give credit? In numerous such cases there will be a private label route taken

Franklin Templeton was probably the last in the tribe which has also closed quite a few schemes.

Following suit to this was RBI’s move of opening a liquidity tap of Rs.50000 crore for MFs to alleviate redemption pressure on fund houses.

That this happened within 2 months of the COVID crisis speaks volumes of how the MFs were being managed, if at all they were. Caveat emptor never sounded more relevant isn’t it?

It finally boils down to the point that beyond the tax arbitrage between MFs and Fixed Deposit interests what did the retail investor gain and at what risk? Remember a collapsing giant does not collapse alone and no prizes to guess where the next crash is going to be. Certainly, a price to pay if the guess was not correct.

At The Lord’s, the Lord’s will

The fastest investigation into a test match loss has concluded and the reason is that England missed a key member in their crew hard and sore. All those voices saying KP will get no points. An exorcist was required to travel along since the hotel rooms where the English stayed were haunted.

Now, if that statement looks bizarre, train your guns on Stuart Broad for cribbing like a kid and more importantly not showing grace in defeat. Trent bridge could not be conquered since “the pitches in India were faster” and at Lord’s since the result was notwithstanding a green pasture of a pitch, the reason had to be something paranormal!!!

 ECB should probably plan the next fixture at an indoor stadium with some Ojhas (desi exorcists) roped into the team.

Characteristically, English batsmen had a chair laid in front of the stumps from where they batted. Or so did it appear when no spirit of fight was shown at the crease. To even reach where they did they have to thank the stars and the tail. The English bowlers were appalling in making use of a grassland of a condition. Anderson and Broad were made to toil to their last ounce of energy and that probably explains why they looked far from incisive.

 Poor Cook is going through what Sourav da was going through when his bat stopped talking but not providential enough to have a parallel to the Great Wall of India at his command. Rewrite the Indian story with Mohammed Azharuddin at the helm and a certain SRT as his ever victorious General

The English think tank will categorically come out with a 100 page report citing reasons for failure, given their adeptness at that, but the truth is not so veiled. Trot’s calming presence in the middle, KP’s aggression and the craft of Swann are the stuff of prayers at the St. Paul’s Cathedral.

The Indians took the approach of better being safe than sorry which can be seen in the remarkably improved ability to leave balls outside the off stump. This was so imperative given the Lord’s slope which can make an out swinger behave like a leg spin

In India there is a tradition that when sacred texts are read, at home or at a gathering, it is concluded by a prayer to Lord Hanuman. So anyone who joins the party late will believe that the program was on Lord Hanuman.

Wasn’t it true with the Lord’s test too? We will know the test for Ishant’s career best figures and for being the first ever (“crack of doom” Amar Singh isn’t going to come back and depose) Indian to have bounced out an opposition. Ishant would have finished his bottle of champagne and called his mother to say that 4 of those 7 were due to her blessings and the English’s inebriated brain and would have prayed for both to continue. Such was the absurdity in those shot selections, especially from Prior when in the recent past his bat has been meeting even a fly from the edges.

What actually requires a standing ovation is the gem in the ornament century from Rahane showing the mettle he is made of and equally laudable are the long hours of vigil by Vijay in both the innings. In the mind of an avid spectator this innings from Rahane comes second only to Dravid’s 148 at Headingly, 2002. Well, having said that, it is going to take years of labor and a mountain of focus for Rahane to reach and stay there.

On such surfaces the time spent in the middle to blunt the swing and take the shine off the ball counts more than the flashy fours which was common during the Sehwag era. Thankfully that era of unpredictability is over.  

Pujara was another unsung champion, occupying the crease and taking the blows but performing that ever heroic act of holding one end up. His crouched stance is something that he may want to discuss with the new legendary batting consultant a.k.a Rahul Dravid. A slightly upright stance is certainly helpful in countering the movement and extra bounce. This, more so since he is not a very tall person. This might also explain the reason why Colonel Vengsarkar was so successful at Lord’s, to the extent that he was called Lord of Lord’s.

Vijay’s second innings of 95 was so much of a trance and meditation that the Lord (sic) decided it to be the margin of defeat for the English. It was this focus and commitment to the cause that was missing between the heads and caps for the English

All is not green for the Indians either, as victorious as they may be. The tail wagged way beyond the expectations. Failure of Kohli and Dhawan are actually under this carpet if anybody is searching for it

This positive aberration could well not happen for the next few tests and the onus of scoring will be back on the top order.

 Dhawan should be given a gentle reminder that there is a certain Abhinav Mukund watching the match, without the pads, for now. Kohli deserves a longer rope though.

The English should still stick to the same strategy of preparing a lively pitch but make their bowlers pitch it up this time. You just cannot allow so many balls to be left alone which is a big hole on the energy reservoir. Bowling should be done with a sense of purpose and should appear penetrating. Get in Glen McGrath as the bowling coach.

 If Swann cannot be replaced, so be it. It is of common knowledge that Ali is in for his batting prowess more than as a specialist spinner.

This to me is indecisiveness from the captain and the think tank. England should take excuse of Ali and plan for an all out pace attack. If this is done and the “Bell” starts ringing again, we have an engaging duel for the rest of the series

From the Archives-Nagpur's 26/11-Indians massacred twice over

Vidharba has been demanding a separate state for quite some time. We better go one step ahead and give them sovereign status. This would mean that there will be one possible explanation to Team India’s ruinous performance at the Vidharba Cricket Association ground, “overseas conditions”.  On a more serious note, SA reduced the science behind ICC test rankings to a mere travesty.

The ramp up thus happened. While the Indians were bashing a bunch of High School boys in the name of Bangladesh National Team, SA were engaging a combatant English side. Intriguingly SA have stood to gain on both fronts. They got Dravid dismissed even before the series began and came to India battle hardened. Our selectors needed the services seniors and juniors alike to meet Bangladesh. Badrinath was not worth a try then and was almost the lone bulwark in the first innings now.

On an innocuous pitch it was an appalling display of batsmanship. Seniors played like lords and debutants trying to be graceful even before they got themselves anchored. For a change the protagonist was not the strip of 22 yards. Over 550 runs in the first two days and just 6 wickets will stand testimony. No doubt it was another dead duck of a pitch. After all VCA does not belie it’s standards!!!

For once Indian bowlers complemented the batsmen, by being equally listless if not more and absolutely sordid.

 Let us take the anatomy a little deeper.

Ishant needs a sabbatical big time. First lesson to the lad, long hairs don’t intimidate batsmen but nagging line and length bowling does, even if you are not tear away.

Gambhir got 2 very good deliveries and his reaction after dismissal will saymore than what I intend.

Sehwag has gone too far playing the “natural game”. Let’s laud him for his century and also crucify for throwing away the wicket. For Christ’s sake, he is the vice captain!!!! Whoever said playing the natural game means slashing till veins rip apart. SA would have known his wicket is just a matter of time.

Nobody told him that Rome was not built in a day and 556 runs were not scored in a day either. His shot to get out in the second innings when India was following on is something yours truly would not hazard even in the nets, neither front foot nor back foot and trying to carve away on the off side. That is what happens when you are back after belting school kids from across the border

No point in flashing the sword at Vijay when “India’s best ever opener after Gavaskar” (please point your guns at Sehwag for this comment) Gambhir shoulders arms. But he unquestionably lacked application and thought test cricket means flicking around the pads to glory. He would do well to serve Jacques Kallis in a few net sessions.

Sachin retains the same curly hair as when he was 16 but the reflexes are certainly not the same. Agreed Steyn produced an outstanding delivery in the first innings to him, it was full, there for the drive and shaping away to the slips. Add to this it was real quick, nicking to the slips was only inevitable.

He showed in the second innings why he has been sculpted to be a cricketer and not just born to be one. Well cricket showed a few things too. It’s a team game and even if you have the world’s most accomplished batsman in your side victory cannot be taken for granted unless the team performs in entirety. Brian Lara would be the first person to put up his hand and concur.

And yes we had captain marvel who had not seen anything close to the quality of bowling that was on offer. Had he known this he would have chosen to do a few ads and claim a couple of injuries too. One must say Saha was a case of fait accompli to Dhoni (with all the injuries around) and being true to his sub continental grooming he did what should not be done to quality fast bowlers, planting the leg across. But these are flaws that are picked up playing Ranji matches on dead surfaces.

Badrinath went about his job the employee way, grinded into a half century and a century stand while the team was in shambles. He will quietly feel at ease in his mind. What will also keep haunting him is that he did not hold fort in the second innings, the very reason of him being in the team. Let’s spare the knife for the moment

Zaheer Khan did show promise upfront but did not get the kind of support needed to dislodge Amla and Kallis who seemed to be in a trance.

Harbhajan seems to have taken things for granted after Kumble. Today all he needs is to loiter around in the ground to be picked up for the next series. From his deadly combination with Jumbo to an ineffectual performance on an undeniably friendly track, he gives a message that he has been spared the rod way too long and spoilt as a result.

Mishra needs to be given some awakening pills before he is brought on the field. No second thoughts that he went past the bat several times and on another day he would have had a few scalps, but his awesome slowness through the air is his undoing. Amla defends him in the ugliest way ever, but does that each time without having to give a thought. Gets into a defensive stance and waits for the ball, finally when the ball has landed places the bat on it. I thought he was blessing the ball:-)

The writing is clear; Jumbo is being missed hard and sore. If better sense prevails Pragyan Ojha would step in for Mishra at the Eden Gardens. No prizes for guessing what prevails normally.

If all this was not deplorable enough, add another. MOM Mr. Amla for a double hundred on a pitch that was laid for exactly that. In the truest sense there was only one champion, Dale Willem Steyn for bowling all the chambers of his heart out on a dusty track. Weird are the ways, the panel works.

From the Archives-Testing the Time Tested

It’s the familiar story of supplement trying to supplant the edifice, all over again. Barely on own foot and T20 already has the momentum of torrents to be the new visage of the game. The “remotely” positioned viewers and those devoid of telecast of baseball matches have rested assured of more theatre shows coming by and put the game to Rest In Peace. A repeat of the 1882 satirical obituary on cricket may well be around the corner.

Few wise (if I might say that) men still feel otherwise. Michael Simkin (author of Fatty Batter: How Cricket Saved My Life) contends “Soon it’ll be 10/10, 5/5, then one ball to hit a six or you’re hanged. Include me out.” Talks from ICC circles about the future of Test Cricket, making it a four day affair and more have perturbed the avid followers of the game. Peter Roebuck has already expressed his displeasure in his columns and found fellowship in some of the elite of the cricket fraternity, Arjuna Ranatunga, Richie Benaud and Tony Grieg to name only a few. Neither their fears about the future of the game nor the protagonist’s conviction about Test Cricket is built on sand dunes.

Cricket, since its birth 300 odd years ago in the grasslands of England, was always meant to be a contest between the bat and the ball and never for playing to the gallery. Driven by taste, viewers may decide upon the choice of the game they would swear by and not vice versa. A saying in Hindi goes, the well will not go unto the thirsty but the thirsty will have to go thereto. Our cash rich cricket bodies are doing just what would take to tear apart the very fabric of the game. Pecuniary insatiability has seldom been resisted successfully in the history of mankind and no wonder tradition has been made to battle fiscal forces, with one leg already on the throat. ODIs, being referred to, hoping that World Cup would be the elixir. While being sportive in commerce has always been advocated for, being commercial in sports can only be catastrophic.

Beginning with the days of Industrial revolution and till the present moment we have learned to live fast and die faster. There may be numerous instances in the past to learn from but as Steve Waugh puts in his autobiography “we learn from history that we don’t learn from history”. Any art or sport form that quells quality and is blindfolded by the lure of crisp notes is knee deep into its grave already. T20 with no intensity and pure “slappy” dramatism may be 2 nails together on the coffin while the final ones are being molded. Expecting anything else out of T20 format will be dwelling in a utopian world.

With cricket now a contest of distance that each willow can fetch, bowlers may do well to send their proxies in the form of bowling machines. If no budget is left, after sponsoring valuable or worthless players (whichever way you see), for bowling machines, umpires can step in and run immediately to the boundary with a measuring tape to scale the distanceJ. Younis Khan’s comment was not the least bemusing when he said “In this form it is better to take it easy and have fun. It is like WWF”.

Test cricket has always been the perfect pedestal to show case the myriad skills involved in a game of cricket, discovered by the English and mastered by everyone other than themJ The format is embedded with equal justice for both the bat and the ball to leave their mark and for the “one in a generation” like Mitchell Johnson (quoting Thomson, curse him, if you have to for his performance in the Ashes 2009) to leave a mark with the ball or the bat. The only version of the game where an athlete’s acumen or the lack of it is exposed to the core. Call it the Acid Test.

A quintessential test match is an equal opportunity entertainer where the quickies and the technically accomplished batsmen can have Day 1 to their names if they are potent enough (and the curator has done his part). Day 2 can belong to the old ball stalwarts and the more flamboyant batsmen. The spinners and fleet footed batsmen can make Day 3 and the climax unfolds on Day4 and 5. The spectators both on and off the stadium would have received wholesome entertainment and would have admired the players of their choice, not inevitably a batsman. Much in contrast to narrow your liking to Yusuf PathanJ, nolens volens, if T20 were to have sway.

On a more jocular note, drawing from a little conversation that yours truly had with former Sri Lankan skipper Roshan Mahanama, there is at least a 2nd chance (innings) to resurrect from past failure and stand in contention for selection. No, this is not a tongue in cheek comment at VVS.

Only an eye with zeal for details will appreciate the idiosyncrasies of the marvelous game, which can never be unfurled in a T20 version played for the so called “15 minutes of fame”. The legendary EAS Prasanna makes a remarkable comment in his biography “One More Over” about the aerodynamics behind spin bowling. The revolutions created on the ball create a vacuum around it and as the initial velocity is consumed there is a sudden dip invariably foxing the batsmen, especially those who are stuck at the crease. More the flight and revolutions, sharper will be the dip. In sharp contrast, with 24 balls to outplay a batsman such an art is certain to become folklore soon. Compound this with field restrictions & short boundaries (past the infield into the boundary), it would take Christ to stand this crucification.Not another youngster would aspire to be a bowler. Sri Lanka will be a subject matter of interest not just to the media covering IDPs but also for factories that can produce “slingers” (Malingas)J.

T20s being played at the drop of a hat, we have champions who last till the time companies hold their Annual General MeetingsJ. The results and performances are marked as vividly as wind over water. Believing that such soap operas can sustain the interests of the viewers for ever will be expecting hope to triumph over experience. The glory of the game has come from artful exponents and why on earth do we need cheerleaders and mega screen performers to be involved.

Few years down the line and I wonder if any of the performances can be singled out from memory. Decades later Prasanna’s epic battle with Ian Chappel, an extremely good player of spin, with “net handed” Eknath Solkar (Ekkie) at forward short leg is still etched in memory. Sunny’s tryst with Malcom Marshall and his short pitched missiles brought out an awe inspiring game of batsmanship at the Kotla ground in the form of a resounding century and the hook shot back into his repertoire during the 1983 series. A piece of history that will be as eternal as carved on stone. Frozen over time is the battle of belligerence between Sir Gary Sobers and Dennis Lillee where the former warned the then Aussie captain Ian Chappel, “inform Lillee that I too can bowl short ones and I can be quick too”. Lillee had a taste of his own medicine when he was dished brutish short pitched deliveries by none other than the calypso legend in return for what he received from him. Not just monumental performances, there has been no dearth of humor too. Sunny going at a rare no.4 position and India in a hapless situation made an amused “smoking joe” Viv say in his typical style “whathever number you come maaan, the score is sthill 0″. The much celebrated calypso spirit on display.

Having stood the onslaught of Kerry Packer’s antics, there is still hope around. Looking to vindicate this, the recently concluded Ashes Series has been a capacity crowd puller.

On the flipside Freddie Flintoff has announced his retirement from Test cricket. His knee has become a cushion for needles, but that doesn’t pain for T20s, IPL melodrama and sporadic ODIs. It is difficult to believe that players like Hayden and Freddie are past their best looking at performances in IPL, etc. A very condemnable trend, players retiring even during their prime to make them available for more lucrative games. Caps being traded for cash.

The shortest version of the game is a well identified cash cow and if the obsession continues unabated it can very well consume all the other formats. By the time we are out of the deliquium, we will be left with club wielders instead of batsmen and bowling machines would have replaced bowlers. Bookies and match fixers couldn’t have expected a better windfall (it takes a child’s knowledge to exposit further).While the trenchermen would have changed their interests the gourmets will be left starving for the game they relished for aeons.

The Dravids, Sachins, Laras and Pontings would be the last of their genre as the species heads to extinction. The stalwarts of the yore have all been from and through the grind of Test Cricket. The reader is only too knowledgeable for me to name them.

If good sense or just sense prevails we would be looking into preparing sportive pitches for test cricket not just featherbeds allowing 600 runs per innings and the wicket keeper bowling at the end to finish formalities. 4 day test matches would be remedy turning worse than the disease. There will only be more draws as any team can impulsively decide to bat through than offering a fight. Every wicket cannot be made into a WACA and the pitiable bowlers cannot dream of dream spells every time the ball is thrown to them.

T20 is the variety that is the spice of life. Let’s not commit the faux pas of replacing our staple diet with spice. A place for everything and everything in its place will keep mayhem at bay.

From the archives-Ji Mantri Ji!!

The nation bid a tearful adieu to the late CM of Andhra Pradesh and having watched it from close quarters (as close as being in neighbourhood), must confess that the scenes were heart rending. The public outpour was no less in number and intensity to farewell marches witnessed for Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, MGR or NTR .While the scaling of political vacuum that has befallen is about to unfold, the loss to the family is understandably colossal. The CM in Mr. YSR may be succeeded but his deserted family will never be the same again.

Being an absolute novice at modern Indian Politics, I am in no position to gauge the merits or demerits of the minister who is now history. Nonetheless will be grateful to him for being a high (highest profile of the State) profile occupant of almost the same locality and never having made me to wait endlessly for his entourage to pass by.

To enact the scene just across the state borders in my own homeland’s capital (Chennai) would take the effort needed for a half marathon, the privilege being that it can be accomplished by merely sitting with arms folded on your bikeJ

Amidst all this milieu, few others were also laid to rest and among them was an officer on deputation from the Indian Air Force, Group Captain SK Bhatia .In sharp contrast it was an almost unnoticed affair, neither preceded nor succeeded by any frenzy of the same proportion.

Ostensibly the chopper’s machinery was akin to the “state machinery” for the “inspection of delivery mechanism in Chitoor” to end in calamity. Time for introspection misplaced with inspection?? Dubbing the cause as technical snag would be brushing the dirt under the carpet and fixing the censure on the pilot would be baseless and unfathomable.

For, this person was no neophyte when it came to skies and skiers. He had as many as 5400 hours of flying in his kitty and was the same person who landed his chopper on inaccessible terrains when the Greyhounds (elite anti naxal force) were being rescued not very long ago.

Now let us not commit the gaffe of viewing this in isolation to the topical tragedy. The picture doesn’t skew one bit, across the nation. Make no mistake that these Defence personnel who accompany our “esteemed” Ministers or provide security cover (Z, Z+ and how many more pluses depends upon the power you yield at the highest levelJ) are the best among the best. Public can be guarded less but public servants are guarded the best!!!A case in the point would be the atrocious utilization of the nations’ elite National Security Guards (NSG). If there is any pride left in India after repeated bullying by Pakistan, pinching by BDR (Bangladesh Rifles) and pumping of fake currency under the Lordship of our own little brother Nepal’s ex-prince, it has to be these crack commandos.

Well, not very long ago, when the pride of the largest democracy in the world and ancient most civilization was brought to its knees by a bunch of misguided mercenaries from across the borders, it was this unit that redeemed it. It would take a dozen blogs to bring out completely what goes into creating one NSG commando. Believe me it would sound more fictional than anywhere close to factual if and when discussed. These are dare devils that would chew a toffee and give up their life in the same breadth. The Lord of death would do well to fix an appointment before meeting them. 7 years down the line, recollecting the sight of a Rashtriya Rifles jawan alighting out of a moving a passenger train still sends shivers down the spine. What would one say about the heroics executed in Mumbai (26//11)??

The world has to see to believe what our strike forces accomplished in Mumbai was an alternative employment. The main being, hanging by the window of ministerial vehicles as part of VIP security. The list is not that simple, they roam around in dozens escorting our “priceless politicians” or politicians with “priceless lives”, whichever way you like.

In service of whom many attain martyrdom, as they know not how to hold back.

Beyond the 15 minutes of fame after each operation, their service to the nation never draws any attention in this great country. How many of us still remember the first name of Major Unnikrishnan who was killed in Operation Black Tornado at the Taj Hotel in Mumbai?? We have our own conscience as the judge. And repeat this question few years later; the numbers are sure to dwindle.

In most cases when a politician leaves, a successor from one of his kin has already closed in on the position. No, not a reference to the present situation in Andhra Pradesh and yes, not to that alone too. Quite another way, the struggle for the kith and kin of the deceased Olive Green bearers has just intensified.

The debris of the helicopter may nor may not be picked up, what we sure can pick up is the lesson to delineate red tape from where it should never reach. A respect paid in this way is sure to appease the souls that were lost in the Nallamalla forests as now, they are a lot wiser.

From the archives-Praise be to thee Jammy!!

“It was Gavaskar
De real master
Just like a wall
We couldn’t out Gavaskar at all, not at all
You know the West Indies couldn’t out Gavaskar at all”

Lord Realtor perhaps had a premonition of the arrival of another of the ilk of the Little Master when he penned the above lines. The Little Master would have for sure given a tongue in the cheek smile on hearing his glory in tunes .Had he written these lines on Dravid, who would have squarely merited the laurels, all he would have fetched would have been a stoic response

For, all that made sense to this man was the performance in the middle and the consistency about it. Bet, he will be ready to trade all the limelight showered on him for one more exquisite cover drive.

The Indian line up is undeniably a ship sans its anchor without the maestro. Hamilton January 1999. Breezy conditions, fielders with piled up sweaters, green top and a tall and strong kiwi bowler (Chris Cairns) menacingly takes his strides for the run up. Dravid sways, ducks, puts a few pine trees to shame while doing so and sees off the new ball. Goes on to construct a grandiose and flawless 190!!

Will test cricket ever be the same again without its doyen!!!!!!

His golden run coincided with the captaincy of, arguably, India’s best captain Sourav Ganguly, with a searing test average of 105 during that time. Yours truly would have fancied his chances with such a weapon in his arsenal!!Not to say of Dada!!!

For the previous generation who were in awe of the dissimilar prowess of Sunil Gavaskar and Gundappa Vishwanath, Rahul Dravid was the best of both worlds.

The rock of Gibraltar in defense also had powerful wristy strokes and a splendid hook shot. For all that we know, this shot might also walk into oblivion after Dravid. It is such a sore to the eye to watch the new breed of cricketers play the hook shot right in front of their eyes with the vision almost blocked.!!!!!!

True to the words of Sir Donald Bradman, “two extra runs are not worth risking the wicket’’, Rahul has  just 21 sixes in a test career spanning 16 years but has penetrated  almost every gap on the field with some special treatment for the extra cover position.

Rahul will perhaps be the last in the elite list of puritans who have adorned this great game such as Len Hutton, Geoff Boycott, Sunil Gavaskar, Jacques Kallis, Don Bradman, Jack Hobbs, Barry Richards, Colin Cowdrey, Hanif Mohhamed, Greg Chappel, Glen Turner and Vijay Merchant. An ambassador to this, soon becoming extinct, school of cricket!!!

Well, his change of willow to SG might not have turned the tables of fortune but as an ardent admirer hope that this decision will open up new vistas such as taking up the mantle of coaching the Indian team

Rahul Sharad Dravid may not have received his share of acclaim to the fullest level like his comrade of a 1000 battles Anil Kumble, but his name will certainly be taken with a sense of astonishment when accompanied by such statistics!!

Trial by fire-Not Yet

Just when avid test cricket watchers in India were thinking of shifting loyalties to wrestling (thanks to Indian Olympians) after the exit of Dravid and Laxman a ray of hope befell them at the city of Nawabs.

Cheteshwar Pujara did not disappoint his selectors and scored a diligent century. To be fair to the young man, the strip of 22 yards was not an emblematic sub-continental track. There certainly was carry which an English or South African bowling attack would have put to devastating use against the side-on Indian players.

It might have been part of a farewell gift for a very special man from Hyderabad who relishes true bounce. Well, the man himself chose to forego it for reasons best known to him

The curator must have won a few hearts for preparing a lively track. Of what use it was to the Indian speedsters is a question that is better unasked.

Pujara seemed to belong to, a long thought as extinct, tribe of technicians the earlier practitioners of which have been deified by now. The hope of the tribe growing having vanished into the spheres of time

By no strange co-incidence, he has been touted to replace the legendary Dravid and the solution to India’s No. 3 woes. A perfect recipe for disaster.

The No.3 spot has been the most revered position for India ever since Sunny Gavaskar and Chetan Chauhan took guard together for the last time. Such has been India’s tryst with openers. Any person descending therein is expected to be a redeemer of sorts

Hence the euphoria over a little glitz and heralding of a new hero. Well, many such have walked into oblivion in history. Suresh Raina was seen by some to take over the mantle from Sachin not so long ago. The same was then said of Rohit Sharma, both of whom do not deserve a place in backyard cricket at the moment

Pujara’s back foot play was definitely a few drops to the parched connoisseur’s eyes. More so accentuated by the presence of Dhoni on the other end.

But the rookie has lots of kingdom to be covered before he takes on his trial by fire in South Africa next year.

The foremost of them, the dab shot to the third man should be dumped for eternity. Unpardonable for a No.3 to play that. This can make a difference between 0/1 and 0/2 in South African conditions with Dale Steyn and Mornie Morkel inviting themselves to the party. The 0 being a given anyway if a certain prince of Najafgarh continues opening till then.

On occasions the front foot defense too was side-on, much like Dada who is not the best example when we talk about sound technique. The bat, pad and body in the same order is more likely to save the day.

The all so important back and across trigger movement that Dravid exhibited with so much elan during his purple times was not very pristine all the time either

It was a start, nonetheless, in the right direction and the kid would do well to idolize the right seniors and prefer effort over effervescence if he has to stay in contention in the times to come