athithidevo bhava

Indians are the most gracious hosts. Nothing exemplifies this more than the generosity of Indian bowlers towards visiting batsmen on subcontinent pitches (save for a brief period of time when Ajit Wadekar and Mohammed Azharuddin decided to play all home games on cow-dung pitches that would crack as soon as the sun would show up). Historically we have been very good at bringing back to form discards and fringe players from opposing teams time and time again. Case in point: Saeed Anwar, the guy was good but obviously had his share of weaknesses against good bowling, but Venky and Sri ensured that he continued to be listed among the top left-handed batsmen in the world. And now, messrs. Pathan, Harbhajan, and Kumble have donned the mantle of generous hosts. Now, which team in the world consistently allows the opposing tail to spend ridiculous amounts of time in the middle and get as many (if not more) runs than the top order. Why the opposing top order fails to capitalize on the generosity occasionally is a mighty conundrum beyond my comprehension (maybe suicidal tendencies are infectious?).

The point of having a leg-spinner in the team is to ensure that he cleans up the tail, with his guile and variety. Someone should tell the honorable Mr. Anil Kumble, that the ball is supposed to have some semblance of turn off the pitch, it doesnt suffice for the ball to be turning in his hand (if there was an award for maximum torque before delivery and minimum turn after, it would surely go the bespectacled engineer from namma bengaluru). And not to forget his googly, didnt someone tell him that its supposed to be difficult to read from the delivery stride, the hand position, and the wrist position. Even I, sitting thousands of miles away watching it on pathetic 100Kbps streams (illegitimately I may add) on winamp, can pick the googly even before he is into his delivery stride! Not to forget the rambunctious Sardar, ever since the 15 degree rules came into effect he has been a shadow of his old self, very conscious of his continued existence in international cricket.

The remedy:
1. Pick one fast bowler who can bowl yorkers at will (how srinath and co never managed to learn this skill over many years is inexplicable!, maybe the likes of ganguly always wanted juicy wide half-volleys delivered at them in nets to boost their already bloated egos).
2. Pick a leg-spinner who can actually turn the ball, maybe not as much as warnie, but at least as much as Sachin! Whether Piyush Chawla fits this bill, only time will tell. but its high time Mr. Anil quits and starts a coaching camp on how to get labeled as a leg-spinner without actually bowling a leg-break.


Of course we can continue to good hosts -- feed them properly, house them properly, and ensure that they dont get any gastro-intestinal problems, and in the case of a certain Mr. Warne get him his supply of baked beans on time. But for god's sake kill the tail -- its a bloody shame to let them wag!