In 2008 there was this wonderful movie made by David Fincher called "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" , based on a short story of same name by F.Scott Fitzgerald. The movie was about titular character who was born as 70 year old and aged in reverse . Curiously as he grew older (age-wise) , Benjamin Button kept getting better , fitter , energetic and younger. Age is one those concepts which we always love to challenge as it dictates what we can/should do , it creates an invisible boundary or box limiting the roles to be played during that period of life. Hence the concept of being able to defy and move opposite to age and what it entails is a very fascinating subject.
Of late in India , there seems to be a 'Benjamin Button' effect going around , clock seems to be running in reverse all over. First there was this case of country's biggest ever superstar actor who is in late 60s , sending the clock for toss and playing a 12 year old kid suffering from progeria. While it could definitely be said that Mr.Bachchan fitted the role to perfection and nailed it with his portrayal , same unfortunately cannot be said about another blockbuster movie which hit the screen earlier this year. The movie has a title which in a way proclaimed what it expected the audience to be ! It had an actor in mid 40s and two other actor in 30s hoodwinking concepts of age and playing college kids who challenge education system with glee and with great commercial success ! The movie in spite of strange choice of age-defying actors did work thanks to the basic ideas espoused by the movie and its good presentation . Credit is also due to the actors for having put in effort to ensure they somewhat fit the bill. The concept has been such a huge success that this month in India there has been a spate of Ads on TV starring these actors with one of them reprising a college boy role again in a series of Ads for a telecom operator .The other actor , the super star , amazingly continues to play yet another age-defying role this time of a young son leaving family for first time to big city for his first job (!) , promising to stay in touch with his parents and also his college going girlfriend through his cellphone ! If this is not enough the 3rd actor , who is from South India , appears in an ad for a bathing soap whose USP is that it helps hide age and makes you look much much younger !!!
Now for some serious time benders - in the field of sport. This years' IPL has just proved that age is just another statistic which can be bandied about during pre-match analysis and discussions , but out there on the cricket field it hardly matters. The so called veterans of the game , who were supposed to be on their last leg and were being nudged out by media decided that this is the time to roar back . Sachin Tendulkar has never batted so well ; In international cricket in the last few months He has played some stupendous innings and in IPL that form seems to be continuing He can hardly put a foot wrong of late . Kallis seems to have struck the form of his life and in the initial matches no one could even get him out . Vaas rocked the party right from start of season with a clutch of wickets . Hayden put many youngsters to shade with his experimental Mongoose bat , rest of the veteran gang - Murali , Kumble , Dada , Gilchrist , Warne are all having a ball this season and seem to be more competitive than most youngsters. And the buzz is that Brian Lara is planning to come back and is widely believed to be in contention for a place in one of the new franchisees , with Kemp and Martyn also playing (and heck with Michael Schumacher behind the wheels of a F1 car ) one could be excused if there was a confusion on which decade we are in !
What has happened to world suddenly i wonder , the clock seems to be turned back somehow ! What next i wonder ?!
Monday, March 29, 2010
Saturday, March 06, 2010
No Country for bowlers
It was a hot March evening - about middle of last decade - me and my roomie were casually watching cricket on TV and saw Ricky Ponting demolish South Africans in style with a brilliant knock and lead Australia to an unbelievable 434 in 50 overs ... tht was quite a score at that time . But when South Africans began the chase , we knew that this was something special and we sat through entire 50 overs not able to believe what we were witnessing , it was a run feast - yes . Bowlers were getting slaughtered - yes . But it was fun to watch and was good cricket . South Africa pulled off an amazing win in the end in what is even now billed as one of the greatest games in ODI cricket , and no total was safe after that in ODIs. After 2005 esp , we have seen a run glut in ODIs with scores of 300+ being commonplace . Somewhere during middle of last decade , when the attendence started dropping for cricket matches a new crisper format was created called T20 . Matches getting over within 3.5 hours , just 20 overs per team but with runs scored almost at twice the pace of ODI cricket !
With advent of T20 , batsmen started getting more creative with just a few overs to play they started taking more risks and changed the whole mindset of building an innings and consequently opened up whole new ways to score runs . Reverse sweeps , scoop shots , switch hits started getting employed and if that was not enough stricter rules for wides , Free-hits for front-foot no-balls meant that noose tightened further for bowlers. Stats-wise last few years have been the worst time ever in cricket for bowlers , never have their clan been thrashed around so much , in the era of T20 an economy rate of 6 runs per over is a luxury and is celebrated as achievement . Its not only in T20 but in ODIs and test cricket too batsmen have started thriving , scoring runs at fast clip.
It would seem like they have been liberated from some curse which had for generations held them back and had controlled their ability to attack and decimate their rivals the bowlers , their seemed to some natural order of things , balance of nature which allowed batsmen to prevail in most contests , but always allowed bowlers to comeback strongly call shots too on many occasions and stamp their authority enough to ensure there was always a contest between bat and ball ... but something seems to have snapped during late 2000s , never before have bowlers appeared so clueless as a tribe (of course there are a few practitioners who still conjure up magic , but they are a rare breed indeed) ... it could be the emergence of subcontinent where tracks are bowlers graveyard , but that is just one factor ... matches all over the world in last few years have produced high scores ... T20 cricket as I mentioned earlier must have played its part too in increasing the appetite of batsmen. How else do we explain Indian test team successfully chasing a near 400 4th innings target to win a test match on final day !
Experts have mentioned that this is not an overnight phenomenon and this is something which has been happening over the years with batsmen getting benefit of good protective gear , better bats , smaller grounds , stricter laws which reduce scope for bodily harm and ensure bowlers bowl in a channel where batsmen can if they play properly - hit the ball , docile pitches , sheer workload which burns out most bowlers have all played a part in slowly titling the balance more and more away from bowlers. I think these might be the set of reasons which has caused this imbalance in the game between the two traditional opponents ... But the tipping factor to me is that match in 2006 when the myth of an impossible to chase target was demolished !
But is it all over for the bowlers ? Have they been reduced to pathetic losers who need to scratch and bite the cricket ball on sly to manage to compete with batsmen ? Are they mere accompaniment pieces to batting armies , playing support roles to batsmen ?
The prognosis doesn't look very good at the moment for bowling , but there are still a breed of fighters left the ones who deliver precise yorkers , ones who bowl with genuine pace , ones who manage beat the batsmen with their flight and variations. But they are a diminishing tribe , for the sake of the game lets hope they prosper and come up with newer tricks in their sleeve to restore the balance. This IPL did suggest that even though it is show of batting might ... there are guys who can 'swing' or spin the match away with the ball too ... even in matches where 200 runs are scored in 18 overs .. 2 tight overs in the end turned a possible record chase into a close fight ... however bowlers need to move away from playing supporting role by just stemming the flow of runs and its time they asserted their might with new innovative wicket taking deliveries!
With advent of T20 , batsmen started getting more creative with just a few overs to play they started taking more risks and changed the whole mindset of building an innings and consequently opened up whole new ways to score runs . Reverse sweeps , scoop shots , switch hits started getting employed and if that was not enough stricter rules for wides , Free-hits for front-foot no-balls meant that noose tightened further for bowlers. Stats-wise last few years have been the worst time ever in cricket for bowlers , never have their clan been thrashed around so much , in the era of T20 an economy rate of 6 runs per over is a luxury and is celebrated as achievement . Its not only in T20 but in ODIs and test cricket too batsmen have started thriving , scoring runs at fast clip.
It would seem like they have been liberated from some curse which had for generations held them back and had controlled their ability to attack and decimate their rivals the bowlers , their seemed to some natural order of things , balance of nature which allowed batsmen to prevail in most contests , but always allowed bowlers to comeback strongly call shots too on many occasions and stamp their authority enough to ensure there was always a contest between bat and ball ... but something seems to have snapped during late 2000s , never before have bowlers appeared so clueless as a tribe (of course there are a few practitioners who still conjure up magic , but they are a rare breed indeed) ... it could be the emergence of subcontinent where tracks are bowlers graveyard , but that is just one factor ... matches all over the world in last few years have produced high scores ... T20 cricket as I mentioned earlier must have played its part too in increasing the appetite of batsmen. How else do we explain Indian test team successfully chasing a near 400 4th innings target to win a test match on final day !
Experts have mentioned that this is not an overnight phenomenon and this is something which has been happening over the years with batsmen getting benefit of good protective gear , better bats , smaller grounds , stricter laws which reduce scope for bodily harm and ensure bowlers bowl in a channel where batsmen can if they play properly - hit the ball , docile pitches , sheer workload which burns out most bowlers have all played a part in slowly titling the balance more and more away from bowlers. I think these might be the set of reasons which has caused this imbalance in the game between the two traditional opponents ... But the tipping factor to me is that match in 2006 when the myth of an impossible to chase target was demolished !
But is it all over for the bowlers ? Have they been reduced to pathetic losers who need to scratch and bite the cricket ball on sly to manage to compete with batsmen ? Are they mere accompaniment pieces to batting armies , playing support roles to batsmen ?
The prognosis doesn't look very good at the moment for bowling , but there are still a breed of fighters left the ones who deliver precise yorkers , ones who bowl with genuine pace , ones who manage beat the batsmen with their flight and variations. But they are a diminishing tribe , for the sake of the game lets hope they prosper and come up with newer tricks in their sleeve to restore the balance. This IPL did suggest that even though it is show of batting might ... there are guys who can 'swing' or spin the match away with the ball too ... even in matches where 200 runs are scored in 18 overs .. 2 tight overs in the end turned a possible record chase into a close fight ... however bowlers need to move away from playing supporting role by just stemming the flow of runs and its time they asserted their might with new innovative wicket taking deliveries!
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