The monsoon drew a dampener for Indian cricket fans who were hit by a deluge of poor Indian performances backed conveniently by a string of injuries that made it impossible for the team to have any sense of cohesion or strategy. However, the tour of Australia, although only two Tests old, has shown that the 4-0 defeat in the series to England were no fluke but just the shape of things to come if India did not get their act right. The home series against the West Indies was a distraction and the same story has begun to unfold in Australia.

After two Tests where India had their chances albeit in small patches but failed rather timidly in their attempt to overcome a transitional Australian team revealed one major difference between the two teams: the sheer lack of intensity from the Indian team and the exuberant determination in the Australian team. That brings into question Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s captaincy only from the possible point of view of being able to inject in the team the sense of urgency to turn around the fact that India have now lost six Test on the trot abroad and it is going to be a matter of serious pride that India eke out at least one win from the remaining two Test matches if they are to avoid a scathing witch hunt that is going to perhaps cost the captain more than anybody else although there is an entire team and set up that needs to be questioned with the kind of feeble bowling attack being presented and the lack of batting resistance that has prevented India from scoring over 300 more often than not.

What has come to hurt the Indian cricket team the most is the fact that they have been humiliated not by a close margin but rather by a glaring gap between the intensity of the two teams. While the veteran batsmen are holding onto their positions despite the lack of motivated batting, the lack of plot in the bowling department is costing India dearly. And it appears the Indian team is either too tired, too clueless or too arrogant to be affected even by such defeat as was reflected in the manner in which some of the Indian cricketers spoke even in the face of defeat and thereafter. Not much can be expected to change with attitudes like that.

It would seem that cricket in India would never run dry like a desert. And yet the plight of cricket stadiums today would suggest that the Sahara desert had arrived. Cricket has had a reputation for filling up stands to the brim, to dangerous levels where air to breathe seems on scarcity. However, the sights that have greeted cricket stadiums in India following the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 have been lamentable in terms of population.

(Fortunately the World Cup escaped such a scenario else, the fate of one day cricket would once again have been brought under cynosure.)

It would seem that cricket administrators and channels with broadcasting rights feel little need to promote the game in terms of getting people to the stadium which would explain why cricketers these days play in front of barren seats and yawning, tired ground staff who fill up the few seats. Until recently it seemed a phenomenon restricted mainly to the sports that suffered from step motherly treatment in the face of cricket fanaticism in the country. However, the sheer glut of cricket that has made the sport unsustainable for watching for the spectators, which has become a primary reason that it is high time boards decided what was more important : brimming coffers in the short term with repercussions in the long run or sustaining returns on investment through pull backs?

However, the situation is grim enough that neither the administrators nor the broadcasters can overlook. Apparently gate revenue must count for little because there seems no sense of urgency to fill up the stands even late in the day. One explanation for that has to be the rates at which tickets are sold which makes it next to impossible for families to get themselves to see the action live. The second has to do with the shoddy treatment of spectators at the stadium with severe restrictions on what they can carry, over priced bottled waters and snacks, not to mention sanitation facilities.

The fact that some of the fans even complained of dusty, untended to seats speaks of just how granted spectators at the ground have been taken. Arguably while television viewing has been greatly enhanced through digital innovations and technological facilities, the powers that be have ignored one crucial quotient – it is the spectators at the stadium that create the atmosphere, it is with the stadium spectators that cricketers are buoyed to entertain and perform, and it is the spectators who make an event come alive to make it the most happening against the rivalry of other entertainment on offer. Watching with concern cricket with an empty background goes not make for good broadcasting. It is time boards and broadcasters realized that.

Sachin Tendulkar is going through a strange pressure by media and cricket fans. On the brink of 100 international centuries – although the tendency not to combine the one day internationals and Test runs has been followed until Tendulkar’s milestone, Tendulkar has managed to overshadow matches, contexts and situations, which something about the man himself but more so, about the kind of adulation and therefore, the demands on him.

Tendulkar has been stranded on ninety-nine international centuries since the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 and it seemed even the ICC was hoping for a fairy tale  ending with Tendulkar capping off the final with the milestone. Although he come close in a historic semi final match against Pakistan in Mohali, he came tantalizingly close during the third Test against the touring West Indies.

And the strange part has been that while the stadiums have remained unusually empty, Tendulkar’s overnight score of sixty did manage to bring in a few expectant fans. Imagine their plight when after ninety-four glorious runs, Tendulkar stumbled with a shot he perhaps would not have played had he been given another chance.

It did not take very long for the electronic news channels to flash that one false stroke over and over again. It did not matter where India were in that particular situation. All that mattered was the manner in which Tendulkar was dismissed. The echoes and images seemed forever to die down and with it, yet again the visible disappointment of proposed air programmes taking a backseat with the milestone shoved further away.

With some debating whether Tendulkar should play the ODI series against the West Indies in order to get that 100 that would release the tension going into the series against Australia down under, others contend Australia would be the fitting choice of destination for Tendulkar to raise his bat. Either way, it would seem so much thinking is being done for Tendulkar that it is hard to imagine how he is able to channelize and immune himself from the chaos that has surrounded him for the better part of 2011.

For once though, Tendulkar knows what most children go through when they take the report card home. Irrespective of a high score, there is always the concerned parent who asks: why only 94 when there were full 100 marks for the taking? Only Tendulkar will want to say there were multiple (in millions) voices instead of one or two?

While it would seem that three people have paid for the crime they have committed, there is even an argument in some circles over whether the three sentenced Pakistan cricketers needed to go to jail. There are several such matters that have been brought up including the ludicrous discussions of how the Pakistan cricketers could have avoided the trial and avoided arrest altogether in the hope that extradition failed.

The real issue though does not only pertain the three cricketers deemed guilty but of the several cricketers, and not just of Pakistan origin, that are yet to be caught before cricket is to give the illusion that the trial has been the first of several steps to getting the game closer to ridding itself of the malice.

The danger with the exposure of such incidents is that several names are dragged into the issue without verifiable knowledge of who’s guilty and who is not. While there is a suggestion that spot fixing is a lesser crime than match fixing, it is an argument that holds little water because it still involves selling out the game. And what seems like a fair judgment to draw is that much like the decade before that spat out match fixing’s first confession, a system is still required to derive the truth from the lies and that the ICC is still largely a body that has little control of the individual boards or the players or for that matter, the manner in which cricket functions.

It cannot be lost that despite the phone hacking scandal that put to rest the News of the World tabloid, had it not been for the tabloid, the menace of spot fixing would not have been brought to light even as late as a year back. And plausibly because it did not come from the ICC’s Anti Corruption agency that it held such shock value, showing how the ICC had once again failed to check the growing threat to the integrity of the sport.

And despite the year that has seen Pakistan cricket in general in greater turmoil for spot fixing and other reasons, the ICC, apart from passing judgment and laying progressive bans of the three cricketers, have not been able to yet come up with a solution that will further the cause of bringing back some honesty and authenticity to the sport.

The ban may be a deterrent as also the court verdict, but it is hard to imagine any person involved shaking in his boots when the trap whereby he may be caught is yet to be devised.

In a cricket mad country, one would not have expected the kind of reception that Formula One racing, a concept alien to Indian without even a single world class racing track of repute until the Buddh International Circuit, received over the weekend. There was the natural razzamatazz of the anticipation of celebrities – from the film world as well as the cricket fraternity – and lavish parties that Formula One racing tends to draw to it. But most importantly, the loudest drone that silenced the peripheral revelry was ultimate the irrefutable sounds of the F1 engines.

There has been the rare occasion where cricket has been upstaged in the country. But it has needed an Abhinav Bindra and an Olympic gold to do that. The entry of Formula One into India as a race marks the culmination for many ardent fans of Formula One, author included, in the ultimate recognition for one’s passion, (fifteen years alone again in the author’s case).

Cricket did carry on, but largely in the background. That is an uncharacteristic scenario in itself because team India were walloping an England team that looked formidable at home but tame in the Indian sub continent. Order restored as far as the Indian dressing room was concerned but there were few takers for their redemption.

Instead engulfing the mood was not the sound of bat thumping ball but rather of the distant roar of the arrival of the cars of raging adrenaline. The drum beats had begun well in advance. And the most thunderous aspect of this unprecedented event was in the fact that while cricket was not be forgotten in the background with Sachin Tendulkar himself being the highest honoured invite to hold the chequered flag at the end but that the first Indian F1 Grand Prix virtually delivered everything it promised.

Apart from a mismanaged Metallica concert – another first for the heavy metal band in India – and the red mud causing a dirty track parallel to the racing lane to make it testy for some of the drivers, the circuit design itself, the spectator stand and ultimately the action on the track left little to be desired. Two time champion Sebastien Vettel ensured not only that Red Bull continued to dominate the season but that the race was held at the highest intensity, leading from pole to finish in spectacular fashion. Long time F1 fans had the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity watch Michael Schumacher race on track although perhaps ten years back behind the roar of a Ferrari engine would have sent fans into an even greater frenzy.

While the Indian patriotism saw people throw their weight behind Force India despite having two foreign drivers, for true, pure F1 fans, there was plenty of F1 drama in the Felipe Massa-Lewis Hamilton shunting, Fernando Alonso pipping Mark Webber in a splendid pit stop strategy and an exciting but unfortunate Indian driver in Narain Karthikeyan who was given the opportunity by Hispania Racing though he was not their number one prior to the Indian GP. The expectations on Karthikeyan then bordered on the unrealistic, but when such unexpected dreams become phenomenal realities, hope never ceases.

The ongoing proceedings at the Southwark Crown’s Court in London that involves the three banned Pakistan cricketers who face charges of corruption, bribe and cheating over the spot fixing scandal of Pakistan’s tour of England last year has thrown up a few conundrums, most of which are not new to the cricket administration or the cricket loving world at large.

For one, there is speculation that the youngest of the three cricketers has confessed to his role and one can only infer that that decision, if true, would have been made plausibly on the basis of the hope of a reduced punishment after the shock of having five years of ban on cricket imposed on him. It seems rather ridiculous that Amir is even being allowed to file a petition or plea of guilty as a way of weaseling his way out of the present prospect of being jailed if found guilty after the ICC has already delivered the guilty verdict.

However, empathy for Mohammad Amir has fast faded because the gravity of the crime has ocne again been brought to light. With Mazhar Majeed, the Pakistan player agent cum bookie, apparently having sung like a canary to the undercover journalist from the News of the World in a bid to reveal the extent of his access, what it has shown, if the journalist’s word and the tapes are accurate, that cricket has learned little given that Mazhar has been dropping names left, right and center with little evidence to back up over whether and how deep the malice is present in Indian or Australian cricket.

What seems obvious is that he is targeting the teams and players that are prominent enough to draw attention, shock all in the attempt to impress the undercover journalist posing as a prospective bookie/investor. But the accuracy of the information he claims to be ‘revealing’ is as dubious as his reputation, which is why while some cricketers are right to feel indignant, others could well slip under the radar precisely because of the reason.

There is still no system in place to verify the truth or otherwise apart from the sting operation that showed the no balls were premeditated. Ten years since the first match fixing scandal when the late Hansie Cronje confessed after being cornered by the Indian police, there is still no viable measure in place in stem the rot, and certainly nothing in place to stop people from using high profile names at free will and not sufficient enough punitive measures to deter recurrence of a similar episode.

Will the ICC now reconsider the concept of life ban for anyone who sells the game – spot fixing or match fixing?

It would be hard to argue that there is another hard worker quite in the
mould of Rahul Dravid. Someone who has had no hang ups over the many roles
and hats he has had to don in the course of his fifteen years in
international game, Dravid carries his duty to team India on his sleeve. And
in that same inimitable style, Dravid now leaves Twenty20 and fifty overs
format behind.

The irony is that Dravid was considered past his prime as far as Twenty20
was concerned when the Indian team for the ICC World Twenty20 2007 was
picked. His services for India in the limited overs format were considered
expendable which meant that every couple of years when Indian cricket found
itself in a tough spot, Dravid was forced to wear his blue jersey.

The case has been no different on the tour of England, except that Rahul
Dravid converted this opportunity to sign off while the need for his
presence was still felt. At thirty-eight years, few players can dream of a
recall. For Dravid though, he has seen and done it all.

For one, Dravid is now filling in for the no.3 spot in the one day format
that has been considered the inheritance of the young and aspiring. However,
the Indian selectors could not find a more youthful, enterprising young man
and turned to the formidable veteran to best serve lagging Indian interests
in England.

Dravid has often been doing precisely the job he has been given – that of
being the saving grace of the team. Whether it was opening the odd innings,
donning the wicketkeeper’s gloves or captaining the team under tremendous
duress, there has rarely been a job that Dravid has shied away from, even if
it was not his choice of interest.

The greatest anomaly of his career though would be the fact that he was
never considered built for the one day game. The irony is if a man who is
not a one day specialist can score over 10,000 ODI runs – no ordinary feat
as the statistics will reveal – then there has to be greater pressure and
the raising of the bar of those who are considered naturally born to play
the limited overs format.

To a certain extent, in calling time over his limited overs career, Dravid
has managed to salvage some of the recognition due to him. He leaves the
‘younger’ format still wanted. What’s more he has shown his bat does like
the Twenty20 and the one day game just as much as he relishes the Test
cricket version – the highest format of the game where Dravid still remains
an indomitable force as he showed in the Test series in England.

Rahul Dravid, all of thirty-eight years, must consider himself on a purple patch as far as his career is concerned. That is because after fifteen years as a dutiful stalwart of Indian cricket, Dravid was accorded the opportunity to go out with a bow. That was planned or contrived in collusion with the Indian selectors. Rather Dravid is being called upon on play his role once more, which has inadvertently given Dravid the swansong that even he had not imagined.

But Dravid is certainly making the most of the call up. There is never a finer moment when a player makes the decision to hang up his boots even as there is unusual clamour for him. In Dravid’s case, it is not just his Test stronghold that is being raved about. Instead Dravid has converted the rare call up into a retirement that people will remember for quite some time. The one day series against England should certainly provide that direction.

However, the excitement has been stirred up because after not being considered a one day specialist, Dravid has been called up to the Twenty20 team, no less! For Dravid, there would have been fewer days of pride when he would have felt that his value as India’s premier cricketer is being recognized. And since he announced his retirement from the shorter version – one day cricket since has never played Twenty20 cricket for India, the Twenty20 match against England provided the ideal opportunity for him to play his first and only Twenty20 match for India.

In a day and age where cricketers gain instant recognition, recall and applause for their limited feats in the Twenty20 format but fall woefully short against the test of time in the longer formats, Dravid is not only defying logic of preconceived notions about him but also, revealing a side to him that perhaps Indian cricket failed to exploit by not putting implicit faith in him enough.

Dravid certainly knows how to command a bow. He did that in style, with three enterprising sixes in a format where he was not even considered, let alone dumped as would be the word after repeated recalls to the one day team. For Dravid to show his full round skills at thirty-eight shows the lack of depth in some of the modern Indian cricketers, exposing blatantly why he is sometimes the understated cricketer in the team. For Dravid it has never mattered that Sachin Tendulkar stood in the limelight and blotted out his shadow. Dravid’s brilliance has a way of shining even in the midst of gloom. The smile on his way on a job well done says it all but also, that perhaps Indian cricket missed a trick.

India have tasted heady glory in the past eighteen to twenty-four months. One would have thought that having acquired the taste for higher aspirations, the team would have felt more egoistic about defending the criticism that came their way before the tour of England when the British press questioned India’s no.1 Test status.

There is something to be said when a team cannot lift itself on the high of being the world’s champion team that other teams want to beat and furthermore, cannot show fire in the face of such intense media glare. It has to be said that the Indian team did not arrive with the body language that suggested the bold, aggressive, confident image that has come to be associated with the Indian team that ruled the roost for twenty months.

Injuries steadily ate away at India’s resources and will. However, to say that that was unfortunate would be saying that India were the victim. Indeed India were the victim – a victim of their own misplaced confidence in landing in England without paying heed to the need to work towards peaking and not simply arrived expected to be handed victory on a silver platter.

Several factors that are the basic foundation of Test cricket could well be applied to the Indian cricket. Test cricket requires sharp, serious decisions. But those were severely lacking when the BCCI decided to rest several Indian cricketers – seven of the regular team – for the tour of the West Indies where the new coach, Duncan Fletcher, would have had a better understanding of the task ahead.

The BCCI betrayed a lack of seriousness about the danger to India’s no.1 tag without hard work when they pushed the cricketers into the IPL 4 season, not even giving them the time to let the success of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 sink in. The fans showed exactly what they thought of it, but the BCCI has enough clout, money and arrogance to afford to ignore the sentiments.

Merely blaming batting failure does not reveal much about the Indian captain or the chairman of selectors. Test cricket is about endurance, especially during those time when time can be a great asset if the team knows how to utilize it. England did, by applying pressure consistently and by accelerating their moments of success to not allow the opposition time to breathe and gather their thoughts. Why the Indian batting failed collectively is something that needs to be looked into because if a team with the likes of illustrious names like Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and V.V.S. Laxman is unable to keep back the might of England, the immediate future without these names appears even grimmer.

Test cricket demands the greatest skills, the most astute of minds and the most robust of teams. India paid heavily because the team was not given enough conditioning time, acclimatization time and more importantly the opportunity to work towards processes to pitting England’s downfall with the coach prior to the tour. England, on the other hand, have been preparing this battle even as they were sharpening their minds and body against Sri Lanka. The workout has paid dividends while India, who perhaps underestimated the value of developing momentum and ignored fitness fundamentals, failed to play the game in sessions and were completely outthought, out played and exposed to be compared to an ordinary team.

Unless that stings, India will struggle to achieve that kind of success again. What can be greater humiliation than to be mocked at and then to be unable to disprove those that discredited India’s achievements over the past twenty months. Test character will be needed to bounce back, but the signs continue to elude for India while England are relishing their newfound status in the game’s oldest format and it shows in their performance even when the final match has been reduced to academic interest.

England have been boiling over at the thought that they must fight to convince people that they are the real no.1. There is a divided world that is in constant debate over whether India deserve their no.1 Test status or whether England already have it by default. In that context, this bilateral series is nothing short of a showdown to determine the ultimate champion as they match supreme skill sets.

However, India have had a plethora of excuses right from the first day onwards when after a great first session of play that saw absorbing Test cricket at its best, Zaheer Khan became indisposed as he pulled up rather ominously with a hamstring strain. That image of his clutching the back of his thigh became a significant picture of how India unraveled. Without their spearhead on whom India have come to depend rather heavily, it became a case of learning curve for Ishant Sharma and Praveen Kumar. Unfortunately by the time they grasped their individual roles, the Test was already getting ahead of them. What India must be grateful for though was the fact that both these bowlers were in the Caribbean and therefore, warming up to the task of bowling in Tests, although no Test in the West Indies could have prepared them for the skills they would need to work with in English conditions.

India were essentially walking into a blind alley with this series against England because their sharpness and spring in their feet that has seen them rise in the world rankings was blunted somewhat by the unforgiving, relentless schedule that involved the tour of South Africa followed by the long ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 that India did won only to be thrust with obligations via the Twenty20 league that was the IPL 4 season.

The BCCI saw merit in resting or allowing some of the cricketers recuperate from injuries by skipping the national duties of touring the West Indies, not the most ideal of itineraries arrived at by the board while England were preparing for the home challenge with the visiting Sri Lankans instead of making a better plan to give the players time out from the domestic Twenty20 cash rich tournament that ended up seeing quite a few cricketers pulling up with aggravated injuries. The BCCI is as answerable for why India are as unprepared as they are and why their itineraries are prepared ad hoc to accommodate series that yield more ka-ching and why there is no ruthlessness shown in planning schedules than working the players to the bone.

Without key men in key positions, it was always going to be hard to sustain efforts over a five day period. Virender Sehwag’s absence opened the door for an opener while Zaheer Khan’s role as the spearhead is something that India have not been able to match steps with. England would not contemplate taking India lightly by any stretch of the imagination because India have held their own remarkably well over two years but also, because England know that if they back their strengths, whatever India throw at them, they certainly have a better chance to withstand, especially now that they have the crucial 1-0 lead. Not a lot has changed between the first Test and the second other than the fact that India have now had more a tour match – a hurtful defeat at the team looking to usurp their thunder – and that alone is expected to be sufficient to wake them up, smell the leather and realize this is no paid vacation for convalescence .