V Ramnarayan

Eight ways to empower bowlers in ODIs

If we don't want limited-overs cricket to turn into one-sided massacres, we need to change some rules and encourage attacking fields

V Ramnarayan

23-Oct-2013

The run feasts of the India-Australia one-day series have provoked much thought among followers of the game. From the serious analyst to the crazy fan, everyone has an opinion. Most want heads to roll. Indian heads, of course.

At least three newspapers headlined the dilemma of Ishant Sharma on the same day - as part of curtain raisers, not match reports. And sure enough, the fast bowler fulfilled their dire predictions of yet another wayward spell in the match that followed. Nobody, however, paid any attention to the mauling some of the Australian bowlers received.

Short boundaries, better and heavier bats, the two-new-balls rule, and crumbling bowler morale have all contributed to the annihilation of attacks on both sides, reducing the bowlers to cartoon characters subjected to ridicule and worse - by media and spectators alike, who bay for their blood.

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The fearless Indian scourge of chucking

Back in the 1970s and '80s, a certain umpire took it upon himself to rid the game of throwing

V Ramnarayan

08-Oct-2013

The first image that comes to mind when we speak of courage in cricket is that of a batsman facing the fury of a great fast bowler whose missiles are directed at him at close to 100mph. Those suicidal gentlemen at bat-pad are no less gutsy, though helmeted batsmen and fielders enjoy a modicum of protection today.

Courage on the field of play is not always of the physical kind, though. The spin bowler who has been mauled by a master batsman, the captain who must decide the timing of his declaration or inserts the opposition for strategic advantage, and the wicketkeeper who stands up to a quick, all need the quality in abundant measure. The character of an umpire can be severely tested too by the uncertainties of the game and the surprises it can throw up from time to time.

Piloo Reporter, who, along with VK Ramaswami was one of the first neutral umpires from India, was a one-man crusade against the menace of chucking, a campaign he carried on bravely and ruthlessly in the 1970s and '80s.

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Two teams for Tamil Nadu and Karnataka?

The decline of two southern Indian teams may paradoxically have to do with a surfeit of talent, not a lack

V Ramnarayan

25-Sep-2013

"It's probably the water," said a visiting speaker, tongue-in-cheek and politically incorrect. "Maybe Tamil Nadu will start winning the Ranji Trophy once it receives enough Kaveri water." This was in response to a question about why the state was unable to translate talent into performance despite handsome support from corporates and the cricket administration. This was in 2002, at the launch of my book on Tamil Nadu cricket, and nothing much has changed since then.

Tamil Nadu last won the national championship in 1987-88, and that was only their second title since the tournament began in 1934. Of talent there seems no shortage in the state, and sportspersons below the international level do not have it better anywhere, at least in the subcontinent. In Chennai, a cricketer good enough to compete in the first division of the TNCA league is assured of livelihood security of a high order, excellent training and practice facilities, qualified coaches and physical trainers devoted to individual teams, and a systematic process of talent identification and promotion.

Coaches have come and gone, captains and team members have been handpicked and nurtured at the state level, the senior league matches are played over three days, there is no lack of the shorter-format games, and Chennai Super Kings has bred a new avatar of cricketer, one who is confident, innovative and introduced to winning ways by a dynamic captain. Yet the Ranji Trophy remains as elusive as ever.

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How do bowlers adapt to different wickets?

There's plenty of discussion on what batsmen ought to do when encountering challenging pitches, but much less for bowlers

V Ramnarayan

11-Sep-2013

The broad-shouldered, weather-beaten man in his fifties was holding forth in the Indian Express sports editor's cabin, where I was summoned in my capacity as resident cricketer even if I was the baby of the editorial team.

"He murdered his wife," the visitor guffawed when the editor inquired after a certain princely contemporary of his. "She's an alcoholic," he declared with characteristic relish about a movie star.

He was Lala Amarnath, the larger-than-life allrounder and former India captain. In the city to coach the local Railways team, he had dropped in on his old friends at the Express.

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The Oval regales

Memories, close-in cordons, and tactical prophecies: the joys of Test cricket in England

V Ramnarayan

27-Aug-2013

To have emerged from the London Underground at Oval station and come face to face with a sign that said "Surrey County Cricket Ground" was to be reminded of the days of Peter May and Jim Laker, when Surrey were invincible in the County Championship.

My earliest visual memories of The Oval include a superb black-and-white photograph, under its giant scoreboard, that the 1947 edition of Wisden carried - of Chandu Sarwate and Shute Banerjee, who added 249 for the last wicket for India versus Surrey.

My tickets for the recent Ashes Test at The Oval were courtesy my London-based friends Krishna and Ravi. We had great seats behind the bowler's arm at the Vauxhall End. Ravi's friend Balwant was assigned the task of taking care of me at the ground, and he was a generous host.

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Cricket for the Nawabs

Hyderabad cricket in the 1970s had more than its fair share of characters: among them short-sighted umpires, legspinners with Elvis hairdos, and prodigious batsmen

V Ramnarayan

09-Aug-2013

I played cricket in the 1970s in the twin cities of Hyderabad-Secunderabad, a tranquil, overgrown village back then. Today, just like the city, the game there has grown into something unrecognisably frenetic.

It was pretty much somnolent then, and matches did not always start on time. Sometimes the umpires came late, and could then be persuaded by the rival captains to wait for all the players to arrive. Yet in an unexpected theatre of the absurd, there was this provision for two innings in a single day, with bonus points awarded to a team if it won outright. I often witnessed - and participated in - reckless attempts to win a match outright without losing points for falling below the requisite over rate.

My State Bank of India team-mate Nagesh was an expert at running through his overs in seconds, often rushing the batsmen to take guard. These were sheer bullying tactics by the big teams against the weaklings of the league. I rarely got a bowl during a long wait for recognition, yet I once managed to take three wickets in a single over - my only over in the match - when defiant batsmen were frustrating our efforts to enforce the follow-on; only for my captain, Habib Ahmed, to guffaw, "Even Ramnarayan came in useful!"

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