FIVE WISHES FOR 2012

Would love to see them batting together once again!

There are a lot of things I would love to see happening in 2012... but I have picked out over here, five of them that I dearly wish for:

1. Get That 100 And Then Many More

I hope it happens in a few days time now at Sydney. He's got three there already, and with a Test average of more than 200 at SCG, there's every chance that the 100th ton for Sachin Tendulkar finally arrives there. I wish to see that 100th ton out of the way, and then many more runs and tons from the Little Master in 2012. India will be playing Test cricket against Australia, Sri Lanka, New Zealand and England over the next 12 months... so lets have another special year (like 2010) in 2012 from Sachin Tendulkar!

2. Cheteshwar Pujara Gets Back In

His last appearance in the Indian squad was a year ago... in the Third Test during India's Tour of South Africa. An injury in the IPL caused Cheteshwar Pujara to miss virtually the entire remaining 2011. He made a comeback for Saurashtra mid-way through the Ranji season, but could not get back his form that saw him force his way into the Indian team. With Saurashtra not making it to the quarterfinals (they came very close), and his spot uncertain in the West Zone team, it could be a difficult path for Pujara now. Taking into consideration that Virat Kohli has been given his chance at No. 6 for India in Tests with Rohit Sharma right behind him, Pujara will have to work extremely hard and pray for a little bit of luck along the way. I too will be praying for him... and hope to see him reclaim his spot in India's Test squad very soon!

3. Afghanistan Qualify For The World Twenty20 Championships

The Qualifying Tournament for participation in the World Twenty20 Championships 2012 will be held in United Arab Emirates from 13th to 24th March 2012. A total of 16 teams will fight for the meagre 2 spots open for them in the main event. Realistically, the teams that have a good chance to make it through are Ireland, the Netherlands, Afghanistan, Canada, Kenya and Scotland. I would love to see Afghanistan make it through once again, and participate in their second major global tournament after the 2010 edition of the same. Having followed Afghan cricket closely for the past one year, I find the prospect of Afghanistan in top-flight cricket a very realistic and exciting one!

4. An Exciting U-19 World Cup

The Australian state of Queensland will be hosting the U-19 Cricket World Cup in August 2012. I love watching the U-19 World Cup tournaments for they show up a lot of unknown exciting talent... and not always from the regular cricketing nations. The highest wicket taker in the 2010 edition of the U-19 World Cup in New Zealand was a fast bowler from Papua New Guinea! India is place in arguably the easiest group - Group C - alongside the West Indies, Zimbabwe and Papua New Guinea. I would love to see the Indian juniors perform well and for a lot of young, new and exciting talent to emerge from this tournament.

5. India Gets A Small Measure Of Revenge In November - December

India will be hosting England for 4 Tests at the end of the year in November and December. There is nothing Indian fans would like to see better than a reverse whitewash after the humiliation faced over the English summer of 2011. But one's got to be realistic here... the English cricket team in Test cricket is a fantastic one, and though they are not the most comfortable playing in sub-continental conditions, they can still be a handful. A good pace attack can work in any condition on earth, and the South Africans have shown that admirably in India - twice! But I would love to see India gain some big wins over England during the winter season, and show them why this land came to be known as the Final Frontier!

THE CURSE OF FIC

Ray Jennings, coach of Royal Challengers Bangalore, recently talked about Bangalore's future, tipping Virat Kohli as a strong contender for the captaincy after Anil Kumble finishes his career. "Virat Kohli showed a lot of maturity in recent months and became a part of the Indian set up. For me, he is very much our future captain. How long Kumble is going to be around? I think Kohli can take over from him," he said. "I have no doubt in mind that he can be India's captain in two-three years. I have watched him for a while now and he has been maturing and understands his game better."

Hmm! Future Indian Captain (FIC). Interesting!

At the start of the last decade, Sourav Ganguly had taken over India's captaincy and by 2002-03 period, given some brilliant results. At that time, Mohammed Kaif used to be regarded as the FIC. After all, much like Virat Kohli, Kaif's CV included a feat of having captained India's U-19 squad to a World Cup win. Remarkable achievement that!

But where is Kaif now? Somewhere deeply buried in the ruins of the archaic structure of Indian domestic cricket. I don't believe he deserved what he got, but that's for another day. Here is a man who was tipped for Indian captaincy in the future, but few know where he is right now.

Other youngsters who were considered for Indian captaincy in the future during the past one decade were Yuvraj Singh and Virender Sehwag.

Yuvraj! Captaincy!? Dear Yuvraj, you are not even a certainty in the Test squad as of yet. You have also been relieved of the captaincy duties of Kings XI Punjab. Even Preity Zinta knows her cricket! And also, you are no more young!

Sehwag! Out of the side for some time, he made a wonderful return and now is one of the most vital cogs in the Indian team. But he has admitted himself that he has no interest in the Indian captaincy and would prefer to continue scoring runs. If he continues the way he does, does it really matter who the captain is?

So, the men who had been tipped to take over from Ganguly and Dravid have almost no chances of becoming the skipper of Team India. If given a choice, Kohli would certainly choose to walk the Sehwag-path (though I have a feeling he may well go down the Yuvi-way - hope he's not the next Kaifu).

Now that Jennings has predicted Kohli for the highest position in Indian cricket, Kohli-fans must keep their fingers crossed that he does not get affected by the curse of the FIC.

AUSTRALIA VS. AUSTRALIA

Friday: Australia beat Pakistan by 135 runs at Perth to go 4-0 up in the series. Saturday: Australia U-19 beat Pakistan U-19 at Lincoln to lift the Cricket World U-19 Cup Champions title. Sunday: Will Australia again manage to beat Pakistan at Perth to complete a whitewash?

As I had predicted in a previous blog, the U-19 match was a far better contest than the senior one. I think I should put it differently. The U-19 match was atleast a contest, the match at Perth was far from it. No one realistically expected Pakistan to beat Australia in either in Tests or ODIs. I would have thought that this situation will allow them to play a lot more freely and we could have had an exciting series.

In the end, I am forced to conclude just one thing: I should stop making predictions about anything involving Pakistan cricket. Even Nostradamus wouldn't have gotten them right.

All said and done, I have to congratulate Australia's U-19 team as well as Pakistan's U-19 team for their fine performance in the World Cup. Australia's situation scares me. Australia is winning matches consistently by playing a second- or even a third-string bowling attack. And now, their juniors have proven that when their time arrives, they'll be worthy successors.

Are we going to have an end to the era of Aussie domination? Or is it likely to continue even longer? At this rate, Australia can easily field two squads in the next World Cup and end up having a Final match between each other. Then, the cricket rankings will say that the No. 1 ODI team in the world is Australia (1st String), No. 2 is Australia (2nd String), followed by the rest of the cricketing world.

FRI: AUS V PAK; SAT: AUS V PAK; SUN: AUS V PAK

Australia and Pakistan are scheduled to take on each other in 50-over contests thrice in the next 3 days. On Friday and Sunday, in Perth, the senior teams will fight what has been an extremely one-sided battle so far. On Saturday, the U-19 teams of the two countries will have their title clash in Lincoln, New Zealand. With the final matches of Australian Open 2010 Tennis tournament and 9 matches of Barclays Premier League (including a mouth-watering Arsenal v Manchester United clash) also scheduled over the next three days, sport lovers will have to plan out their schedule carefully to include some sleep in their agenda.

Out of the three Aus-Pak clashes, I am almost certain, just as many of you, that the juniors will produce a more watchable contest than the seniors, where the visitors haven't tasted victory on the entire tour yet. If Australia's senior team could swap places with their junior team for the weekend, who knows, they might end up winning all the three games! There is no better way of describing Pakistan's performance in this Australian summer.

They have squandered their chances and not looked formidable at all (except for one day during the Second Test). Controversies have engulfed them as usual - some generated by third parties like IPL, and some created by their own Board (captaincy issues). It seems that lack of cricket over the past one year has not had any effect on the way cricket in Pakistan functions.

With the series in Australia already lost, Pakistan should send Umar Akmal and Mohammed Aamer to New Zealand to join their junior squad (both are in their teens). Atleast, they can increase their chances of winning the U-19 Champions title. That's the least they can do for their fans in Pakistan.

BOYS AND MEN

History repeats itself. Boys have emulated the men. Seven months ago, the senior Team India lost out in the second round of a tournament in which they were the defending champions. Now, it’s the turn of the junior Team India. In both the cases, expectations were high. In both the cases, the team stumbled through the first round with the help of a couple of victories over minnows.

Am I being too hard on the boys? Yeah, I think so. The expectations from them were generated on the basis of the performance of a completely different unit. Virat Kohli’s men (o sorry, I meant boys) had gone the distance and won a Cricket U-19 World Cup Tournament in 2007. Ashok Menaria’s boys, a different set of lads with big dreams and glorious ambitions, could not match them.

Yet, I have a feeling that Ashok Menaria will not be as disappointed about losing in the Quarter Finals as he will be about having lost to Pakistan. Almost 14 years ago, these two countries were involved in another Quarter Final at Bangalore. That turned out to be an epic contest producing come never-to-be-forgotten moments. This one was no less than an epic contest either.

Pakistan went on to win by 2 wickets with 3 balls to spare after the situation looked a little bleak for them. This is not the first Pakistan team to have done that (remember Javed Miandad’s six). The coach of India’s U-19 team, Chandrakant Pandit remarked, “We are shattered. I feel as low as the team felt when Javed Miandad hit THAT six in Sharjah off the last ball. We didn’t speak to each other for nearly two hours after that and here too we were just trying to gather ourselves. Yes, cricket is a tough hard game, but it is played by human beings and human beings have emotions. At this age, the boys can get very upset. Its two hours after the game and I can see some boys are still crying.”

I feel sorry for the boys who lost out to Pakistan. Their match acquired that extra edge and bite due to no fault of theirs. It wasn’t their fault that 26/11 happened. Nor was it their fault that no IPL franchisee decided to pick a Pakistani player at the third player auction (for reasons I’d rather not comment on right now). And now, after this shattering loss, I hope the boys recover as soon as possible. They have a bright future ahead of them and they cannot allow one loss to change it all. The coach, Chandrakant Pandit, a man who knows what shattering losses are like, needs to ensure that boys regroup to perform well again in the remaining matches of the tournament (the 5th to 8th place deciders).

Not even 48 hours have passed since the game ended, and voices from across the border are calling this win a fitting reply to the IPL snub received by the Pakistani players. Rameez Raja describes, “It (the win) comes at a time when this IPL incident has taken place and when our senior team is struggling in Australia.” Former Test player Basit Ali goes one step further, “No matter what he (Lalit Modi) does, he should know the base of Pakistan cricket is very strong and we will keep on producing winners.”

The boys don’t need all this. And here, I mean both sets of boys – Indians as well as Pakistanis. The Pakistan team needs to realise that there is a tournament to be won and that this game was not a be all and end all for them. The Indian team, on the other hand, will be on a self – depreciatory mode thinking that they have let the country down with this loss. No, the boys certainly do not need all this. But this is where they will become men. Or at least some of them will.

Adversity brings out the best in some, the worst in rest. Like Ian Chapell says, you tend to learn more when you lose rather than when you win. The Indian boys have had a big lesson. And we look forward to them learning and coming out better. These boys are the future of Indian cricket. But the future needs to come to terms with the present first.