2017 in retrospect- some events that stood out

Another day (actually more like day and a half) to go before we change the calendar. Thought of putting down some important things that happened this year in the world of cricket:

1. Day Night tests find a firm(er) footing - Day night tests were started 2 years back ; pink ball cricket was more of a novelty, an experiment. This year saw pink ball cricket becoming more entrenched - WI played it, Pak and SL did too; SA and Zimbabwe capped it with a day night test , to end the year. So yes, looks like these are here to stay and increase. Why is this important? That's where the next point comes in...

2. 4 day tests - This one is still in a proposal stage, but the SA versus Zimbabwe 4- day test was accorded official status. The ICC reckons that they will 'keep experimenting' with this concept till 2019 and then decide. The first one was a damp squib (got over in less than 2 days), but with more evenly matched teams, and with Day-night 4 day tests that last Thursday to Sunday, there is a very good chance that spectators will fill stadiums to watch test matches.

3. Test League - Viewer interest and Test matches now get a context - thanks to a test league. All matches played will lead up to an eventual showdown to decide the best test team. So, every bilateral test series (and not just the Ashes) gains significance.

4. A relook at T20 leagues - The SA promoted Global T20 league didn't take off due to lack of sponsors. This caused a lot of soul-searching, some job losses and the conclusion that a) T20 leagues need a place in the cricketing calendar and b) That we cannot have too many T20 leagues.
Interestingly, this might lead to the football/ soccer like format where all the action is intra-country (in the leagues) ending with a inter-country league champion; the shorter bilateral formats (more like the football 'friendlies' will occur less often). This might just mean that Test matches (D/N, weekend, 4 day) will stay bilateral, T20s (or maybe T10s) go league style and ODIs get extinct!

5. T10s - Is this a fad? Is it a threat to T20s? Or is this a pension plan for retired cricketers?Or maybe, this is cricket's ticket to the Olympics!!
No one knows what this can become, but the T10s (10 over a side matches, each match lasting approx 90 mins) tournament in Sharjah (where else) was a reasonable success. Eoin Morgan (the biggest star of the T10s and the captain of the eventual winners - Kerala Kings) was suggesting T10 be the cricket format for Olympics; what if someone takes him seriously!

There were several other notable events - India's victory run across formats, Rohit Sharma's third double hundred in ODIs, Pak winning the Champions Trophy (and ensuring that this particular tournament gets at least one more chance) , Bangladesh's victories (and defeats), SA finally settling the ABD issue on captaincy, Aussies getting a world beating team again, England looking like losers despite a new captain (again) and also showing the world how much they like their drink, SL still grappling with the loss of Sangakkara and Jayawardane (except when they play Pak), WI and NZ not doing anything very spectacular (except for WI coming very close to upsetting England in a test match), Zimbabwe struggling with finances, Afghanistan triumphing despite the finances..... notable sporting activities. The politics (BCCI et al) continued and India's financial clout is more firmly entrenched. Lets see what 2018 brings (hopefully an Indian series win outside).

An addendum - This was also the year that Women's Cricket came into its own. The performances of our Women in Blue made people sit up and take notice. The Women came close to winning the World Cup (they played better in the finals than the men's team did in the Champion's Trophy finals) and got recognition and acclaim all over. So maybe, this will be the year when Women's cricket start's getting more mainstream.

Test losses and T10

England has lost the Ashes - lots of reasons : the guys who were supposed to perform well, didn't (Cook and Root); the lower order couldn't bat well, the English bowlers weren't fast enough, the Aussies batted really well and their bowlers were really fast! But yes, a very important reason - I guess England did indeed miss Stokes! Shocking that it appears to come down to one man's absence. But honestly, Stokes in the 2nd Test could have meant an English win and Stokes in the first test could have meant a test draw. He most likely wouldn't have been able to save this 3rd test though.
So, time for England to introspect and for the Aussies to experiment.
After another ho-hum ODI series (India-SL), where the only excitement was in the ODI that India lost (we could have been all out for a record low score), it will be time for India to go to SA. A real test awaits the team - rude shock for Virat after the honeymoon? Or maybe, this time, India will really play well. Lets see.
Also worth seeing, or rather following is a new format. The T10 format that was held in Dubai. Got over pretty fast. Each individual game lasts 90 mins and from what the reports indicate, it seemed pretty exciting - http://www.espncricinfo.com/story/_/id/21802800/the-top-ten-t10
Maybe finally, cricket has some means of competing with football!

A series of hope...and another with smoke..rather smog!

And there goes another one!
The last days of two Test matches today. England versus Australia - the second Ashes test and India V/s SL, the final test of a series no one cared much about!
England were thrashed in the first test and it looked like they were going to lose the second one badly too. Then, surprisingly, they managed to end day 4 on 176/4 needing 178 to win on the final day. Were I a gambler, I would have put my money on England winning and breathing some life into the Ashes! Thank God I am not. Even as I am writing this, England have lost 3 wickets today for the addition of just 12 runs! Now, it's upto Bairstow to butt the Aussies (figuratively) and hope to win! But hey, at least there's some hope for England to win!
And now, lets compare this with the India-SL Test series. SL managed to draw the first test (actually India should have been in that position), lost the second one at Nagpur and now are desperately trying to avoid losing the third test (at Ferozshah Kotla). This test was more in the news for the SL players feeling the effects of Delhi's (in)famous air pollution! Now, it will be worth seeing if the pollution finally saves them.
Ok - back to the Ashes now. Maybe England will manage a fascinating draw rather then lose while trying to win!

The English Ass(h)es

Another Ashes season has begun - and like most, it began with a lot of expectations. England were going in without their talisman (Stokes), so, it looked like winning was going to be difficult. But then 2 new players called Vince and Stoneman, showed that England might just have a chance to win!
False signals it turned out. England lost the test by 10 wickets - mainly due to average bowling and really bad batting. There were a lot of sidelights that impacted the game - Bairstow headbutting Bancroft (much much earlier in the tour) , Moeen Ali given out stumped due to the line being of uneven width.... but they seriously cannot take away the fact that Australia played well and England played bad. With the way the English are playing, it seems unlikely that even Stokes will revive them. Sure, England might win a Test in this series (maybe 2 if they are lucky) , but it looks sort of impossible for them to win the series.
I will be watching the remaining 4 matches with my face covered I guess!

An Away match on a domestic pitch!!

The pitch has a lot of grass, the fast bowlers have showed the India top order it's place (except for Cheteshwar Pujara, who batted sanely), the bowl is swinging and the Indian lower order has pitched in with some useful runs! All this is expected to happen on the India tour of South Africa! Except for, it's happening here in India!
On Day 3 of India's first test against SL (Eden Gardens, Kolkata), India have finished their first innings on 172 while SL are fighting on 109/2. SL won and chose to bowl ; the pitch looked like it would assist fast bowlers and it did! India only have the rains to thank (and maybe curse) for the fact that the match has reached Day 3. The pitch has eased today making batting easier - maybe, if India had gotten all out on Day 1 itself and SL had batted, India would have had a better chance.
But now, it looks like SL have a chance of not only winning this Test, but also, maybe a chance of winning this series. That would be historic - SL winning a Test series in India! Lets hope that does not happen.
Interestingly, we have seen recent ODI series where the team winning the toss has chosen to bat first, rather than chase and sort of succeed. We are now seeing a Test match where the team is choosing to bowl first and risk batting on the last day. The situation used to be reverse atleast some time back (or maybe , I need to analyze the results and the tosses better).
Here's hoping for more interesting Test matches :)

How to make Tests interesting? Get Pakistan to play more often ;)

In the past one month or thereabouts : India beat SL 3-0, England beat WI 2-1 , Aus tied with Bangladesh 1-1 and SA beat Bangladesh 2-0 in Tests. The England -WI series and the Aus-Bangladesh series had some moments of interest. WI actually got to the last test of the series with some chance (outside chance) of winning the series. Bangladesh entered the final test leading the series! But finally sanity was restored. Back to the same old boring test results!
But hey, just when things were bad, enter Pakistan! The Pak-SL series in UAE (Pakistan's home ground) was expected to be uninteresting. Pak playing at home (where they hadn't lost a series in a long time) and SL playing away from home, after having being white washed in their home test series! Pak winning 1-0 or 2-0 seemed possible!
But hey - thank Rangana Herath and Pak for doing the impossible. With 136 needed to win the test (after SL collapsed spectacularly in the third innings), Pak got all out on 114 (http://www.espncricinfo.com/series/18037/report/1120284/day/5/). OK - this was Pakistan. OK - SL had also collapsed to a very low score and OK - this was Rangana Herath (master of the 4th innings) bowling. So what is SL went 1-0 up in the test series? Oak would bounce back in the second test.
The second test had a script that went awry - SL hit 482 in their first innings. Pak got all out for 262. But then came the fightback! Pak got SL all out for 96 runs leaving them 319 get to win.
This is where the fun began - Pak lost their first 5 wickets for 52 runs and their last 5 for 23! In between, they put up a 173 run stand! Yet, Pak lost by 68 runs finally. This was a test match that , at 225/5 (92 more runs needed, 5 wickets in hand), Pak should have won. Even Rangana Herath was not troubling them so much. Yet, Pak lost.
I am not happy (or unhappy either) that Pak lost. I am just happy about how unpredictable this match was. Each day , it looked like there would be a different winner! This is exactly what the beauty of test cricket is. Unlike most ODIs or T20s, where the winner is usually clear sometime into the game; in a test match, fortunes can fluctuate each day. But yes, that can happen only if there are evenly matched teams (India, England, Australia and SA; preferably not playing anywhere in the subcontinent). Or, it can happen if one of the opponents is Pak :)
get them to play and you never know who is gonna win.

The false dawn of Test cricket?

The last two weeks have been very topsy-turvy in Test cricket! We had a promise of a new and maybe improved world order - Bangladesh beat Australia (in Bangladesh) and West Indies beat England in a Test (well, in the case of WI, the match should have been a draw, were it not for Joe Root's sporting declaration). I thought that hey, maybe now WI will go back to becoming world beaters again. And maybe Bangladesh (who already are a good team), will now go on to become great.
Sadly, Australia thrashed Bangladesh in the second test, with David Warner playing an uncharacteristic innings to ensure the Aussies wouldn't lose. Nathan Lyon then took the wickets to get them to win. Actually, nothing sad about Australia winning a test, it's just that I would always like their opponents (even if the opponent is Pakistan) to win :D . But hey, the Aussies showed why they are a very very tough team to beat. And their batsmen and bowlers showed that they possess the skills and the mental strength to play when conditions are not favorable!
And what do we say of West Indies? That they flattered to deceive...again? England is an inconsistent test team anyway; if they win one match , they manage to lose the next (like they did in the most recent Eng vs SA series). So, WI winning test 2 wasn't an aberration entirely. But then, to lose the third test the way they did (I am talking of the second innings, not so much the first innings. Both teams bowled fantastic in their first innings), was to actually question if the 2nd test match was just luck or actual good play?
Sigh! Sometimes things are too good to be true. So then, the test world order (in terms of capability of teams) continues to be India, England, Aus and SA in the top 4. Not in terms of ranking (I have no idea what their test rankings are)! Maybe Bangladesh will be at 5 and Pak at 6. But hey, interesting test series in the near future - India vs SA, the Ashes and then India vs England. It will be interesting to see how Kohli's team fares against the SAffers (or Faffers) in SA and against Root's men in England. Here's hoping for some really intense test cricket :)

Sporting declarations!

Right now, all of us test enthusiasts are celebrating 2 Huuuuge events - WI beating England yesterday (2nd Test) and Bangladesh beating Australia today (1st test). Not that we love England or Australia less (wait...I do not like Australia, despite the fact that they are a much more gentlemanly team now), it's just that we love the underdog more!
But I do not want to write about the underdog - No Sir. For me, while the Bangladesh victory was entirely a Bangladesh contribution (and full marks to them ), the WI victory had a lot to do with Joe Root's 'sporting declaration' on the 4th day of the Test. He sat WI 322 to chase and win on day 5. That seemed reasonable (given usually how bad WI bat , and how well England bowl). But, surprise-surprise, WI actually won! And made Joe Root look foolish. So, I thought of digging up some such declarations that made Test matches interesting!

1. SA versus England tour 1999/2000, 5th Test : The series was won; SA were up 2-0. The 5th test had seen a lot of rain and a result was not looking possible (SA had batted). So, the spectators were in for some disappointment. But hey, Hansie Cronje forfeited one innings, convinced England to do the same and the result was that England were directly in the 4th innings chasing 249 to win. They won! All of us fans thought it was a great gesture - it turned out to be a fixed match. You can read about this here

2. India versus Australia, Chennai 1986 (1st Test) : Also famous as the Chennai Tied test! Not sure if Allan Border had been sporting or downright condescending. Australia batted first and declared in both innings - second innings declared on 170/5 . At that stage, maybe India chasing 348 in the final innings looked impossible! But wonder-of-wonders, India came so close to winning that the test got tied!

3. WI versus England, 1968 (4th Test) : Maybe Joe Root was compensating for this test. Sir Garfield Sobers decided that he would make the match interesting. So, he declared on 92/2 and set England 215 on the last day; thinking that it would be enough! Enough to allow England to win and create a result out of a match that was not expected to have a result!

To read more interesting stuff on declarations in cricket - do check this blog .

Dhoni shepherds Bhuvaneshwar to a 100 run partnership!

Most of us (myself certainly), thought that Dhoni's playing days were about over! That it was possibly better not to make Dhoni part of ODI/ T20 teams and instead give other players a chance (maybe, make KL Rahul keep wickets if you couldn't find a good wicketkeeper-batsman). Not out of any malice towards Dhoni; it's just that of late Dhoni seemed to be losing his touch, unable to finish matches.
But yesterday showed us Dhoni in a new avatar. A finisher indeed - but who ensured that he stayed around and encouraged others to finish the job, who acted as a player and a coach at the same time, who got a no. 9 batsman to reach his first half century in 69 matches!
The second India vs Sri Lanka ODI (Micromax Cup 2017) began on a very familiar note - SL batting well, then losing the plot and then being saved by some sensible batting by no.6 and 7! 236 as a total never looked enough - India were set 231 in 47 overs (Duckworth Lewis) and reached 109 for no loss in some 15 overs! It looked like India would finish this match too in 30 overs. Then both openers got our quickly - India rejigged the batting order to give other batsmen a chance!
But then - something surprising! A bowler out of nowhere took 6 wickets to leave India at 131/7 - 7 wickets lost for 22 runs!! Akila Dananjaya , coming to play a match the day after his wedding, took 6 wickets! The best part? He got 3 of the batsmen - including Kohli, bowled to googlies. It sort of reminded me of Kumble where he would spin but then trick batsmen with straight balls and get wickets.
So, at 131/7 - India looked like losing the match by a huge margin. After all, there were 100 runs to get in around 25 overs. Not too many runs needed, but hardly any wickets in hand! Dhoni only had the bowlers for company ! And Dhoni wasn't even batting as well as usual. But hey - we got to see Dhoni in a new avatar - he rotated strike, took singles and didn't allow Bhuvaneshwar Kumar to play a rash shot - even when Bhuvi played 17 continuous dot balls! Surprisingly, Dhoni didn't even hit boundaries later (he hit one overall) - instead he let Bhuvi do all the hitting to reach his maiden half century.
SL were unlucky to lose - but a master showed their batsmen how to keep calm when things are not going your way. SL re-discovered a bowler and India realized that their batting line-up runs deeper than they thought! So, all in all, not a bad day for cricket!

Saving cricket's Tests!

Hey! Anyone watching that?

1 week - 2 test matches and 2 disastrous results! India beat SL in 3 days and won the series 3-0; England best WI in their first test - again within 3 days and in fact by getting WI out twice in a day!

The India-SL series saw pretty much no spectators ; the Eng-WI one had a whole lot of people in the stadium (because it was a day-night affair)! However, looking at the way the first test went, it is unlikely that spectators will buy tickets for the rest of the Eng-WI series! But hey - we are all kicked up about the Ashes, the India-Australia series, the SA-Aus series and maybe the India-England ones too!

It appears that there are 2 kinds of test matches - those that interest viewers (and hence they don't mind following the match in some way) and those that are outright futile (India-SL or Eng-WI for example). But if you look at it seriously, there are some basic problems that Test cricket has:

Let's have more competitive games please!

1. Format - A 5 day game! Who seriously has the time to spend 5 days on a game. That too with each day lasting maybe 7 hours! Even ODIs are under pressure from T20, so , it is natural that people have lesser interest in Tests!

2. Lopsided competition - About 20 or 25 years back, it was almost always the case that the home team would win the test series. Otherwise, they would all play out draws! But, each side used to make an attempt to win (except certain recordbreaking matched like these) . Now, it looks like teams give up after the first days play! WI is not even sending its best team anywhere. Infact, if there is a test series between any two of India, Australia, England and maybe South Africa, there is a chance of a competitive game. 

3. Home advantage and the toss - Other than the home advantage (England takes advantage of swing, India of spin), there is also this whole thing of the toss. Win, the toss, bat first and save yourself from having to bat on the 4th or 5th day to win/save the match! Given that the pitch deteriorates towards the last day of the Test and also considering that the home team knows the conditions best, the visiting team is almost always at a disadvantage with the toss!

4. Remuneration - Test quality players sometimes carry that label and hence miss out on all the money in professional T20 leagues. Also, test matches earn less money for the player (and yet need more commitment). More importantly, a player who is great in Tests, but not in the short format (Cheteshwar Pujara for example) doesn't even seem to get sponsorship opportunities! So, can some players really be blamed for not wanting to play Test cricket?

While there have been some discussions around trying to organize Test matches better and having a sort of Test World Cup that will add more meaning to bilateral series, all these plans have not materialized. Some are talking of doing away with tests altogether and only having T20 - there is this interesting article on the same : 

But Test cricket does have its fans (spectators who actually pay for the ticket) and from a players development perspective, it definitely helps batsmen and bowlers improve their game significantly. But we might need changes in forma and mindset to allow Test cricket to survive :

1. Format - I am borrowing someone else's idea here- why not reduce Test cricket to a 4 day, day-night game? Something that will be played only Thursday to Sunday, so that spectators will atleast turn up on the last 2 days? To ensure teams try and win (and not draw), a test championship and a suitable point structure is needed ; more on that later.

2. The home advantage and toss - 2 ways of looking at this; either let the uncertainties continue (home team leans on the curator to make a suitable pitch etc.) , but allow the visitors the right to decide what they want to do first (no toss) or allow random drop-in pitches to be used (used sometimes in ODIs) and take away the home advantage altogether. The pitch will be something both teams discover only on the morning of the match , so any advantage the home team might have had is gone. Infact, maybe we will have interesting scenarios where there is a pitch suited for spinners in Australia or maybe for fast bowlers in India!

3. Remuneration - This part is tricky! There are more ticket proceeds, there's more sponsorship money and more money for Telecast rights in case of T20s (and also ODIs)! So, how can a test player be paid more money that a T20 player? So, maybe the boards will need to use T20s to cross-subsidize Tests better. More importantly, the cricket boards should take away the temptation of T20 leagues competing with Tests by locking a calendar for T20 contests like IPL, BBL etc. etc. When the leagues are in progress (and 2 or 3 leagues can be operational in parallel), no Tests will be played and vice-versa. Then, it will also make it possible for the cricket boards to make Test participation a pre-condition for T20 league participation by players! So, in short - pay the players better in Tests and allow them T20 opportunities like IPL/BBL etc.

4. Lopsided competition - If point 3 above is taken care of, each country will be more likely to field its best team. In which case the competition is not so lopsided! However, to ensure this is indeed so, a better way might be to have a 2 tiered test structure with relegation/ promotion. This will make each Test match interesting (hopefully).

5. Kill ODIs -  Though there might not be a very strong link here, it is my hypothesis that 3 formats are way too much in cricket. T20 is better that ODIs as a shorter format (more games in the same time, more unpredictability and hence more fun) and Tests score over ODIs as a longer version! So, why have the added complication of one more format? Eliminating ODIs will save up time for more (interesting) T20 matches and Tests. It will also reduce injuries and fatigue among players to some extent!

6. The Test Championship - Finally, having a Test championship might actually keep everyone interested. It will help if there is an actual 'final match/series'between the number 1 and 2 ranked teams. But even without it, it should be fun to see teams having a clear target towards being crowned the Test Champion. It would be even better if teams are penalized for drawing matches (a drawn match makes both teams lose 1 point; an outright win on the other hand will give the winner 3 points and the loser 0). Thus, Test matches will be saved from draws (not there there are too many drawn matches these days). 

My few thoughts as a Test cricket fan. More ideas/ thoughts are welcome.

And test cricket gets into a rut....

Realized I haven't written in more than a month - guess I got carried away with the excitement of watching the Women's World Cup (and of the Indian cricket team coming really really close to lifting the World Cup!).
In many ways, the Women's World Cup was an eye opener. It showed how closely contested matches can make the game interesting - yet it faced the familiar problem of lopsided contests. It also made me wonder why women do not play test cricket often!
But lets forget about women's cricket now and come back to the men's game. SA were playing England in England. After losing the first test badly, SA thrashed Eng in the second test and rekindled some hopes of a contest! But the 3rd and 4th tests proved that 1) SA no longer bat as well as they used to! 2) SA also are unable to bowl as well as they used to! 3) The all-rounders in the England team are really all rounders - they bat and bowl well. Unlike in India when they batted AND bowled badly!
It also proved that a good leader can only do so much - Faf coming back to captain SA in the 2nd test, did lift their spirits and won them the game. But hey, same team failed comprehensively in the next 2 games! The same Joe Root who was praised after the first test, then castigated after the second is now being hailed as a great captain!
Another great captain , of course is Virat Kohli. India versus SL - India won the first 2 tests by huuuuuge margins! SL has (still) not been able to recover from the loss of Malinga, Vaas, Sangakkara and Jayawardene! And so, India has a chance of white-washing SL 3-0 in this series! It will be interesting to see how Kohli and team fare on away Test tours - versus SA, England or Australia. That's where the true test of India as a test team, will be. Until then, more one-sided test series in store! 

Snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.....

Trust India to breathe life into any series (we really are sporting in our mindset) - the India vs West Indies cricket series seemed all but settled (oh - you are not aware that it is being played? I don't blame you- there are other games afoot in men's cricket. Read those here and here) when we Indian's decided to breathe some life into this series. After 3 matches, where we won 2, one was washed out on account of rain, we entered the 4th match and chased (something most teams today think they are good at). There was only 190 to get...in 50 overs! Teams have done that in 20! And yet, India lost by 11 runs! The interesting part is that it took us 49.4 overs to get all out.
Anyway, my post today is not about how bad the Indian team played, or how well Holder bowled (in my limited opinion, he is the best thing to happen to WI cricket in a long long time. He may not be a superstar, but he is 100% committed to the cause). Rather, I thought of compiling some such near misses - memorable 'snatching defeat from the jaws of victory in cricket :

1. South Africa versus Australia, 1999 WC semi-final : For a generation of fans, the South Africa versus Australia semi-final in 1999 is possibly the most heart-aching of matches. Rather than read the score-card, read the report here . A match that Lance Klusner all but won for SA, was lost due to it being tied! Australia went through because they had beaten SA in the Super Six stage.

2. South Africa versus India, 1993 Hero Cup semi final : Wonder what it is about SA losing semi-finals (they started the trend in the 1992 World Cup when fate and the rains denied them a possible Semi final victory). With 196 to win and 4 to score off the last over, there was no way SA could lose (it shouldn't have come down to that in the first place). Then Tendulkar bowled....and India won by 2 runs!!

3. NewZeland versus India , 1990 Rothmans Cup : Not much available about this match. Except that NewZeland were 148/3 chasing 222 and were playing at home. It was perfectly gettable, except that Kapil Dev and Manoj Prabhakar prevailed!

4. SL versus India, 2009 : I guess this is around the time that ODIs started getting ridiculous! India hit 414 which seemed a more than enough total. SL reached 316/1 in 36 overs - 100 to get in 14 overs was surely ridiculously simple from there. Nopes. They lost by 3 runs!

5. West Indies versus SA, 2005 : At last, a game where SA managed not to lose! Chasing 283, WI were in the game - Gayle hit a century and got out when 27 were needed in 24 balls, with Bravo still playing. It came down to 2 needed in 4 balls with 3 wickets left! WI lost all three and lost by 1 run with 1 ball to spare!

More such games you can think of, where a side that looked like winning suddenly lost (and preferably those that do not involve SA losing)? Would be great to know. 

Coming soon - the Mother of all disruptions

Ok, I am not using disruption in a positive way here. Rather in a 'Beware, things might get so bad, the previous months will feel like good times. Hell, even the demonetization days will start looking good' kind of way!
Yes, I am talking about GST, which will hit the road starting the day after tomorrow (and any resemblance to any apocalypse themed movie title is purely coincidental and unintentional). Several countries have implemented a unified Goods and Services Tax; in most of them there is one single rate (to make life easy). India has taken a step in that direction with a 5 slab structure - 0%, 5%, 12%, 18% and 28%. There is also a 40% slab which is yet to be introduced.
There have been quite some articles in the media about how GST will be good (by the government and by the business community - the government's reasons are obvious. The businesses do not want to rub the government the wrong way). There have also been a lot of articles criticizing it - I came across this one today. While a lot of them focus on the multiplicity of rates, there are some other reasons for us to be critical of GST. And in my limited opinion, slabs are not a valid reason:

1. Slabs - Multiple slabs are a nuisance. Yes! They will make it difficult to classify things, they will give people reasons to get creative and pass off their businesses under lower rates and they will definitely give rise to protests/ threats/ representations and maybe legislation to get certain businesses/sectors/ items under lower tax slabs. But, these are necessary to limit abrupt price rises (which is why most food items are at lower slabs). Ultimately, the government will move towards one or maybe two GST rates (alcohol, tobacco and some other 'luxuries' will more likely move from 28% to 40%; everything else will finally settle down at a 12/15% rate. Yes, there will always be a 0% for some items, but that is the closest we will ever get to a single rate!). This multiplicity of rates is a necessary compromise between politics and business!
2. Increased cost of compliance - This is definitely a very valid complaint about GST. Returns need to be filed thrice each month and (apparently) in every state in which the business the operational. My reason for using 'apparently' will become apparent (for want of a better word) in the next point. But yes, the increased work in terms of filing returns will make people spend more effort on ensuring compliance and less on actual business.
3.Supreme lack of clarity - This is possibly the biggest problem. The Government had been very transparent in issuing the entire rate structure, the items covered and not covered under GST. However, because of the fact that it is very detailed, there is way too much information for people to parse (and also because by nature, we are time-starved, low on attention etc etc , most people have either not read it fully or selectively interpreted it - myself included). Also, the government has decided that it will roll (rather steamroll) GST on July 1, come what may. Indians are so accustomed to deadline extensions (we engineers perfected this in our engineering colleges), that most people thought July 1 would be missed. Now that is not going to happen!
4. Limited dialogue with businesses and media - Assuming the government is the only party that understands the true impact of GST (and I hope this assumption is not wrong), it would have helped tremendously, if the government were to give a detailed tutorial/ FAQ through Youtube/ FB/ T etc. explaining the sectorwise impact and most importantly , the impact on prices. Today, since such information is not available, everyone has a different point of view. Marketeers are making hay by announcing 'pre-GST' sales (the assumption being prices will be high post GST), builders are trying to get people to finish purchases prior to July 1 (though the govt. says that prices in real estate should come down) and dealers are refusing to stock up (due to lack of clarity on input taxes). To my mind, this bit is what is affecting people most. This is also something that has the potential of causing chaos for the next quarter!

Here's hoping I am wrong....

Investors force a CEO to resign!

Travis Kalanick - the pugnacious (and world famous of course) CEO of Uber was forced to resign as CEO, by his investors. Uber was infamous for a male-dominated work culture that looked down upon women (the 'bro-culture') and was sort of the ring-leader among gender insensitive companies. A detailed investigation resulted in several people being fired; Travis was under pressure to stop being the CEO. And he finally relented! Interesting this is that he continues to be on the board (he is the largest share holder), so, I am wondering how much will the culture really change if the person with the most influence is still around to question the new CEO.
This is a case of the influential shareholders doing the right thing for the right reasons - but so many times, influential shareholder do the right things for the wrong reasons or the wrong this for the wrong reasons (typically - share buybacks to boost up share prices, when the excess money can either be invested or paid back as dividend). Am not sure if this will make all existing unicorn CEOs better behaved, or will they get more combative and ensure that they can never be forced out?
Coming to the bit on forcing out the CEO - it is interesting how Uber now is truly in 'self-drive' mode! No CEO, no COO, no CMO , several key roles not filled (or were asked to leave) and yet the company is functioning! It is like Uber is in self-drive mode and doesn't need any leaders!
Uber of course had been looking far and wide, high and low for a COO - preferably someone like Sheryl Sandberg. She is now being spoken about as a possible CEO for Uber. Uber ideally needs a woman to counter the 'bro-culture' tag. But hey - what is Sheryl Sandberg simply doesn't want to quit FB. Who does the Uber board turn to? Why not Marissa Mayer? She is now 'jobless' (if there is such a thing for her), she is a woman (of course) , she lead a billion dollar company (though well, it went downward) and more importantly, if Uber is truly able to function without key personnel, even Marissa Mayer might not be able to mess things up :D

Alls well that ends well!

The Champions Trophy is over and Pakistan are the new champs! Something that no one thought possible before the tournament began. The reasonable expectation was that India might face England in the finals - India reached , but lost.
We lost so bad, that we made less than half the runs that Pakistan made. While there are a lot of theories going on about what India did wrong, lets consider some facts :
1. Pak won all its matches (except the one against India), while chasing. So, it looked like they had figured out how to restrict teams to a low total and with Fakhar Zaman, they had figured out how to chase. India too were successful chasing - so, it made sense for India to chase.
2. The Indian team bowled and fielded badly, but we batted even worse! So, even if India had managed to keep Pak below 300 (a 'gettable' total ), we still wouldn't have won. We made less than half the runs they made.
3. Surprisingly, no India batsman, except Hardhik Pandya and maybe Yuvaraj, could figure out how to play the Pak bowlers. Indian batting wasn't just bad, it was atrocious! So, it is likely that India would have lost even if they had batted first. We couldn't figure out the Pak bowlers and that was that!

Overall, the Champions Trophy turned out to be so boring (despite a 'dream final' between India and Pak), that most likely there will be no CT in 2021! The ICC has at last realized that people would love a World T20 instead of another World Cup clone. And I think that (more than the unpredictable Pak team winning) is the biggest plus point of this Champions Trophy. Hopefully, this is the beginning of the end of ODIs.

The CT final!

So - one of the semi-finals went according to script. One did not! Pak beat England (amazing really) while India beat Bangladesh equally convincingly! So, today, the Indo-Pak is happening again (exactly 2 weeks after the group match).
I was about to type that Pak were headed for a 350+ score, with Fakhar Zaman having a chance of scoring 200! Well, he got our before I could type that :(
So, 201/2 after 33.3 overs. Pak can get to 320/330 and if this is finally a typical English pitch (not the ones in this tournament - the ones that were part of the Eng-NZ series 2 years back and since then), India will win with enough wickets in hand and some overs to spare. I mean, this can become a typical boring run chase. Lets hope Pak tries to create some interest; both with the bat and with the ball. 

And today's the final league match...

So Pak vs SL is an interesting match today - not only because it is a virtual quarterfinal. SL hit 236; Pak are 7 down with 31 to win in 9 overs! SO, SL are trying hard for wickets. But it has been looking bad the last few overs - 2 dropped catches, quite some mis-fields. Getting the feeling that luck has deserted SL and they know this too! Some amount of despondence among the fielders and bowlers - and nothing seems to be able to fix it now! I guess this is the Pygmalion effect in full flow - SL are believing that they cannot win and the Pakis are romping home!
Can Pak beat England in the semis? Looks tough. For me, England is the finals for sure....but...can India beat Bangladesh ;)

The Champions Trophy comes alive!

Looks like bad news on the political front matches with good news on the cricketing front!! The UK polls were generally a disaster (but Theresa May is showing Margaret Thatcher like qualities by refusing to budge), but the Champions Trophy has picked up steam!
Bangladesh beat NewZeland (surprise, surprise) and England beat Australia (no surprise there); with the result that England and Bangladesh qualified from that group , for the semis. And in India's group - today's India versus SA and tomorrows Pak vs SL, both are important matches!
At the start of the tournament I was thinking that Eng vs Aus and India vs SA would be matches to decide the no. 1 and no.2 teams of each group - nothing else. And that Pak vs SL would be to decide who would finish last! But hey - thanks to the vagaries of the weather and cricket, all these matches have become important (weather played a role in the England-Aus-NZ-Bangladesh group; were it not for the rains, Auz, NZ and Bangladesh all would have been on 2 points each and the run-rate would have decided the second spot).
Today , India seem all set to win (and knock SA out of yet another tournament). Tomorrow, it will be interesting to see who among Pak and SL win. If Angelo Mathews plays, SL will be my favorite to win. In Pak's case it is impossible to predict which version of their team will show up!!
And BTW, SA (the team Pak beat to go on an upward trend) , is generally in a bad shape. Looks like ABD should hand over captaincy to Faf du Plessis (who has always been keen to be a captain and has proven his mettle as a Test captain) and go back to becoming the star player he is. Then, maybe , SA will bounce back!

the UK polls and...brexit!!

There is a story I had heard and read several times as a kid..... An ambitious king thought of capturing a resource rich province belonging to a neighboring kingdom! That kingdom was known to be peaceful, so he thought he would have an easy victory. However, he faced unexpected resistance from that kingdom, lost, got driven out and ended up losing not just that battle, but control of some of his provinces too! As he and his weary army were hiding in a forest on the way back to their capital, he saw an interesting sight. A monkey had its hands full of some peas that it had snatched from the king's cook. This monkey was safely on a tree, about to enjoy the peas, when it saw some more peas on a plate on the ground. So, with its hands full of peas, it came down and made an attempt to steal those peas too. The cook saw this, threw a stone at the monkey and in its attempt to escape safely, the monkey lost all the peas it had! The king compared this to his own situation and said "Sometimes it is better to be content with where you are and what you have!"

What is the significance of this story today? Well, the political situation in the UK reminds one of the monkey and the king! Lets look at what happened so far :
1. The then PM (David Cameron) chose to make a grandiose promise during elections - he said he would hold a referendum on UK leaving the European Union! Was it needed at that stage? No! No one was asking for it!
2. Cameron won and thought it would be a fun idea to actually work on his promise of a referendum! Was anyone still asking for it? No!
3. The referendum was held and the side that said 'Leave EU' won....narrowly! Cameron lost face and had to leave. The next PM was someone who originally supported staying in the EU - Theresa May! Were there other better leaders available? Yes! Were they considered? No!
4. Now in April, May announced snap-polls to strengthen her hand in the negotiations to leave the EU! Were these polls needed! Actually..No!
5. The poll results are announced today - and, Theresa May's party has not secured a majority! Infact her party is now worse-off than it was before the elections!

So, like the king and the monkey, the PM's in the UK did what was un-necessary and lost whatever they had. The next few days will be interesting as people are calling for Theresa May to resign and if that happens the UK's plan to leave the EU (Brexit) will be jeopardized further. It won't be surprising if , given these results someone calls for another referendum on leaving the EU. And this time, the referendum result may be - Let's stay. What is the EU then gives UK the middle finger, or worse, agrees to take the UK in but only after UK makes some concessions to the EU!
Well, it looks like David Cameron and Theresa May are all set to go down in British history as politicians who tried to do the unnecessary for the unwilling and paid the price for it! Here's looking forward to exciting times.

Pak and SL breathe some life into CT

Boring matches and rains have been the norm this Champions Trophy! So, it was in some ways great to see Pak beat SA ; thought it is debatable whether they would have been able to bat all 50 overs. The rains helped Pak win I guess; though we must say that they bowled excellently and batted sensibly!
SL versus India today too is interesting this far. SL are playing like the team of old - when any and every chase was carefully managed till the 40th over. And then, the team would go berserk and finish off the match! So, SL has a chance of upsetting India. If that happens , then the last 2 league games will be virtual quarter-final games. India versus SA and SL versus Pak - whichever teams win will make it through to the semis. India will stand to benefit even if the rains wash off the game - better run rate! So, here's hoping SL win today's match to keep the group alive....even if the games are boring, the results will atleast leave people waiting with bated breath.

Champions Trophy - Pak vs SA

Finally, a match that is a good advertisement for ODIs. Yesterday's NZ vs Eng match appeared promising at first, but once Kane Williamson got over, it was all over for NZ.
Today, Pak bowled and fielded as though this was the original team and the one that played against India was some B or C league team! SA could only manage 219 in 50 overs. And Pak are fighting hard - this looks like a tough match. But I am hoping that the SA fast bowlers repeat their performance vs England (3rd ODI) and get rid of the Pak top order real fast :D
But anyway, definitely a match worth watching.

If only the rains could save cricket from itself....

Another day another Champions Trophy match, another damp squib (as I had suggested in my earlier post), another bad advertisement for ODIs! Today's match had some thrills on account of the rain - there was a good chance that Pakistan would run away with a point if it rained hard enough. Finally, the rain was enough to allow Pak to try and attempt a chase of 289 in 41 overs (India ht 319 in 48 overs), but Pak were all out for 164! Tomorrow's match might be slightly better (Aus versus Bangladesh), but that's because Bangladesh will fight really hard. Yet, impossible to see how Australia will lose.
Frankly, given how boring and one-sided these matches are, it wont be a bad idea if all matches get washed out due to rain. Atleast that way, the sheer stupidity of ODIs wont be questioned (why am I following ODIs if I think they are so stupid? Well, it's sheer morbid curiosity - I want to see how bad can it really get). Frankly, if the CT bores fans out of their minds, then the World Cup in 2019 is in serious danger! Time perhaps to have only 2 formats in cricket - Tests and T20s. 

Champions Trophy Match #3

Well, well - a match that went to script after looking like it would not! SL vs SA - it was natural to expect SA to win quite easily. But after looking like they would reach 350, SA managed only 299 in their 50 overs. Surely, that looked gettable. But, in the end SL lost by 96 runs! Looks like CT will drive another nail in the coffin of ODIs by showing the whole world how boring this format is. Hell, the IPL ...no wait, the India-Aus test at Ranchi had more excitement than these matches (that was a test that ended in a draw!). Yes, the Aus-NZ match yesterday, that finally got called off due to rain might have become exciting (NZ were in a better position than Aus when it rained), but we will never know.
Tomorrow's supposed to be the mother of all battles - India vs Pak. My bet, is that it will be a damp squib. India will have to play really really badly to lose; chances of that happening are not very high.

The politics of cricket

Rain has curtailed today's Champions Trophy match between NZ and Aus - maybe it would have been a good thing if it were washed out! But then, Australia would have been un-necessarily cheated of points (and that would have made the run rate in this group very crucial - assuming both Aus and NZ, beat Bangladesh).
Anyway, rather than a boring ODI run chase, we are getting to witness some off-field antics :
1. The Kumble- Kohli spat, where it appears that a coach who put the team first is getting the boot because he over-ruled the captain's wrong strategy!
2. The episode of Ramachandra Guha resigning from the India CoA - read his full letter here .
3. The pay dispute between Cricket Australia and the players.

Both points 1 and 3 are a confrontation between players and administrators; where public opinion might generally favor players, it is necessary to acknowledge the value administrators bring. Which is where, reading Ramachandra Guha's resignation letter/ mail will be interesting. He mentions how a few 'superstars' and their egos are skewing the way of working. How, in order to accommodate these interests, rules are being broken.
My view is that now since we have enough respectable retired cricketers in every country, they should be made administrators and allowed to administer without political interference. That way, there is more certainty of not only the interests of the game being protected, but also of the spirit of the game being upheld

And Champions Trophy begins...as a terrific bore!

A typically boring ODI tournament. England decided to chase; Bangladesh hit 179/2 in 34 overs! In typical ODI fashion, they will most likely try and reach 220 by the 40th over and then try and hit 100-120 runs in the last 10! England will then chase 330 or so in 48-49 overs maybe?
Looks like this is headed towards a very boring T20like finish  (5:33 PM IST)

So, Bangladesh finally manage 305/6. Can their fast bowlers do what the Indian fast bowlers did to them a couple of days ago? Maybe Mustafizur will fire away. Otherwise, this largely looks like England's game.  (6:45 PM IST)

There's one innovation in ODIs of late (I guess this started around the time of the 2015 World Cup) - teams have started accumulating in the first 15 overs. Rather than score at 10 an over in Power Play, they seem content to be in the 5-6 Runs per over range and keep wickets in hand. They now seem to be using the last 15 overs to accelerate. Not quite been able to get the logic behind this, but it seems to work well for chasing sides. Unless they are chasing 350+, the teams batting second don't seem to get bothered by a 5.5 run rate at the start. Towards the end they operate in T20 mode! Maybe T20 is the explanation for this then. Look at England today - 95/1 in 18 overs. Need close to 7 an over from here to win, but they are perfectly calm (maybe a loss of 2 more wickets will cause some panic, who knows). So, the fun has gone from the ODI game :( . Sigh! 8:20PM IST

And so - England win a really boring ODI by 8 wickets with 16 balls (nearly 3 overs) to spare! I first thought that maybe this was because they were facing Bangladesh, but now it appears that it is something else :
1. The 50 over format doesn't excite even the players enough because of all the T20 they play! So, they spend most of the game going through the motions and then crank it up only in the end.
2. Teams are not afraid of chasing anymore - they chase more than 8 an over in T20 anyway. So what is 6.5 or 7 runs an over?
3. Pitches are so batsmen friendly now that teams have decided they are better off with bowlers who can bat than bowlers who can bowl! That sucks!

Lets hope there are some exciting matches in this Champions Trophy, but if the rest of the matches go anything like this - we are better off playing only Test matches!

The run up to Champions Trophy

So, Champions Trophy (CT) starts tomorrow and will last all of 18 days. Another boring 50 over tournament that's largely catering to television audiences. The warmup games and the Eng-SA ODI series that's running in parallel have had some common themes :

1. It looks like it will be a batsman's paradise - 300 plus scores are easy!
2. Chasing is not so difficult - The old IPL rule; win the toss, bowl first. The batsman dominate the game so much that they will chase down any score.
3. All teams look good, but Australia, England, SA and India look better.

But one interesting thing that might spoil 1 and 2 above, is this - fast bowlers can definitely make a huge dent. Not so much due to sheer pace, but more due to their ability to bowl intelligently. If they can swing the ball then even 130-140 kmph can be dangerous - Bhuvaneshwar and Umesh showed that in the India-Bangla match yesterday. And if you can bowl fast+intelligently, then again you can cause serious damage. Rabada and Parnell did that in the third ODI versus England. It is interesting that thanks to the fast bowlers in the opposition, both Bangladesh and England had half their team back in the hut for less than 25 runs!

So hey, this might be a run fest, but there are very good chances of some lopsided games. If the fast bowlers give the bowling team momentum, then recovery will be tough for the batting team. here's to good bowling then!

GST - rates and protests

India's move to a single tax regime has brought some interesting points of view over the past few days. This single tax regime (GST) is actually 5 tax rates - 0%, 5%, 12%, 18% and 28%.
Now obviously, the folks taxed at 0% and 5% are keeping real quiet - vegetables, cereals and most animal products fall under this category. The 12% guys are in between - they would have loved to be taxed as per the lower slab, but are thankful they are not in the higher slabs, so, they are choosing to keep quiet (why draw un-necessary attention).
The 18% and 28% folk- now, they are really worried that they might lose business due to the high taxes (mind you - they will not absorb the tax, they will simply pass it on to the end customer). So, the reactions from those sections of the industry can be divided into 3 categories :
1. Don't care :  because they are always taxed the most and no amount of pleading will help! They have tried that many times and it hasn't worked - the liquor and tobacco folk! The good part for them, is their customers do not seem to mind the high prices.
2. Head scratching : Those that have been charging a premium but now need to charge a higher premium (is that correct English usage, I wonder?). They are scratching their heads and wondering what to do.
3. Protesters : These folk could possibly have been charged lower rates, but their services have been deigned a luxury. They are making noise. These are the cinemas and restaurants/ hotels.

Now with restaurants and hotels , there are 2 tax slabs - 12% if the restaurant is non-ac and 18% if it is AC. Needless to say, our restaurant friends are unhappy with the 18% rate and are protesting (restaurants in Bangalore are shut today to protest against this rate). Yes, current service tax slab is approx 15%, so a 3% higher charge to customer will pinch. But these same hotels also collect something called a 'service charge' (which even the courts are trying to figure out). If the hotels are indeed concerned about passing the increased charges to the customer, why don't they try reducing the service charges? These same hotels/ restaurants will get their raw materials at lower rates (no GST on food grains and low rates on vegetables), so why not pass on the benefits of low input prices to customers?
Interestingly, most businesses seem to be using the GST rates as a basis for claiming that the end price to customer will increase and hence they should be at a lower slab. The Bangalore chapter of CREDAI (real estate) has asked for stamp duties to be waived off! I am wondering why these companies don't look at the GST as a means of rationalizing prices (apparently, the input tax credits across the chain in real estate allow builders to save 20-25% on their taxes). Looks like industry lobbies want to retain their customers without rationalizing their rates!
Here's hoping businesses see the rates in their totality and pass on benefits arising from it.