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!

Superstitions in modern world !

We were getting ready to catch the latest movie on Friday evening , i was at a friend's place waiting for him to get ready. Just 20 min to go for the movie , he was searching for his car keys and finally when he found it and when we were about to get out , i sneezed ! Had this nasty cold for last couple of days and had been sneezing throughout evening , nothing different in the way i sneezed this time . However my friend seemed to have a different opinion , he stared hard at me then inexplicably instead of following me out of the house and locking it , he went back and sat on the sofa ! 19 min to go for movie ... i was really surprised and asked him whats going on ? He said "you sneezed" ... then added "they say when someone sneezes before you go out for something , its not good sign , you should sneeze again or we need to wait for a couple of minutes " . Now suddenly i was the guilty party , in spite of not misplacing keys and despite being ready much before time , by this act of sneezing i had delayed our departure and now i suddenly realized that he actually expected me to sneeze again to ward of the evil ! i told him to stop this nonsense and marched him out ... though he came , it still nagged me this behavior came from a guy raised in city ! News channels / newspapers report about a lot of superstitions and medieval practices followed in rural hinterlands , but incident above made me look around in urban India for superstitions.

Of course harmless ones like believing that our cricket team will win the match if we continue sitting in the same position on our sofa is amusing and charming you could say. But there several annoying ones as well where the particular practice must have had some relevance when our ancestors initiated the practice , but following them in today's age without thinking whether it is relevant or not is foolish IMO

Some practices actually make a lot of sense and probably because they didn't have any scientific basis to support the belief , some religious explanation was provided to ensure that people follow that practice . The belief in astrology is another perplexing thing , sun-sign and stuff are really harmless obsessions . What really astonishes me is that lot of educated youngsters think astrology is a science ! The fact that college educated youngsters confuse Astrology with Astronomy is a sad reflection of our education system !

Recent solar eclipse was another reality check on the superstitious urban India , plethora of e-mails started floating around ( driven by older generation who have become net-savvy of late ! ) advising everyone the dos and don't s of eclipse. I got a mail from someone telling me what Hindu's should do to ward off eclipse evils , including the mantras to be recited. Mail also mentioned that no food should be consumed during eclipse( 11am to 3:30 pm on that day) and we should take bath as soon as eclipse is over before doing any activity . Quick search online tells us that there is no scientific basis for this , according to scientific community solar eclipse is a brilliant celestial event , however care should be taken not to view the sun directly during the event. I wrote back with links mentioning that as far as i know we need to avoid looking at sun otherwise we should do fine. I got a mail back saying , Sun releases harmful rays which pollute the food and will cause stomach upset if food is consumed during 11am - 3 pm when eclipse had occurred. The person suggested waiting till 3pm and then consuming the food . My further questions like - "wont the food prepared during the day contain these so called 'harmful rays' " ? Wont the raw materials get hit by radiation ? Wont entire food in the world get tainted that way , should we stop eating forever ? - did not elicit any response ! Although someone else suggested adding Tulsi leaf is a sure-fire way to get rid of all the 'germs' and radiations !!!
I tried to reason with another person who endorsed the contents of mail that by not consuming food during proper time we will actually be causing indigestion and stomach upset . I got a reply that such a thing wont happen as it is ok to consume Milk , biscuits etc during eclipse , we should not eat proper meal that's all ! I was totally stumped and did not have any response to offer for such gems of wisdom ... and these are the answers i got from educated , working professionals !

Its very amusing yet sad all the same , as people are sullying our glorious tradition and culture by blindly following practices . Im not saying everything we do is stupid or meaningless , there must have been precise reasons for each and every cultural / religious practice and belief . For eg , wrt solar eclipse , our wise ancestors would have probably understood this problem and had through religious myths ensured that people avoid looking at sun and even stepping out during eclipse , as a precautionary measure they would have ensured we don't perform any activity during that time.
In today's world thanks to scientific advancement , we are in a much better position to know things and instead of trying to understand why we are doing something , people still believe in blindly trusting the wisdom of ancestors. Knowledge is a continuous process and every generation owes it to next generation to keep finding out things and improving the knowledge of how and why things happen . But somewhere down the line the purpose of the whole thing seems to be lost with regards to our traditions , questioning them gets you branded as non-conformist rebel and as arrogant youngster ! Its really frustrating when people , even educated people, living in urban India working as software engineers follow these ancient beliefs without really thinking