Legacy of umpires under threat!

Change is inevitable goes the cliché .The game of cricket has certainly seen lots of these in the recent past .But the one that will have a lasting impact would be the present proposal of reviewing a decision of the on field umpires .Prima-facie , it may look promising and with all the right intentions. However in the longer run it might just clip the powers of the umpires world over, if the trialing of the Umpire decision review system is successful

It is needless to mention the scrutiny the modern umpire is subjected to, with the stakes high as never before .Interestingly the need for the change gathered momentum with the infamous decisions against the Indian side, in the tour down under .India went on to loose the series

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The system, to be tested in this year's Sri Lanka v India three-match Test series starting on July 23, will allow the fielding and batting sides three unsuccessful appeals to the umpire per innings to change a decision if it is perceived to have been incorrect. The on-field umpire will consult with the third umpire, who will review available television coverage of the incident before relaying fact-based information back to his colleague. Slow-motion replays, the wicket-to-wicket "mat", sound from stump microphones and ball-tracking technology up to the point of impact on the pad will be available for use by the television umpire.

Sure, the game is being taken to new level, with the aid of technology with certain sects advocating if the technology is there then why not use it. Does it mean premature death of the umpire as the discretionary authority on the field?

As they say, the umpiring decisions gone in favour or against evens out in the longer run. The stoppages resulting from the referral will slow down the game .The next question is whether technology is always foolproof?Notably, the LBW decisions which are corroborated by Hawk eye technology do not take into account the playing conditions , bounce .At best ,it is a guesstimate of the trajectory of the ball hitting the pad .If this is not enough , it does not factor the swing of the ball .Then ,there are cases in which doubt still lingers on the legitimacy of a catch , because of the optical illusion, even the slow motions are inconclusive .The game would be bereaved of moments , when a plumb LBW appeal would be turned down , a non existent nick being adjudged out on a crucial juncture of the game .The umpires who are the protagonists to the drama surrounding all these will be cornered .

Time will tell, with all the intent with which ICC has brought the use of technology will take the game to a next level or reduce the status of the umpires.

Steyn is the new gain !

Dale Willem Steyn gives an impression of a tiger that has just tasted blood, and become a man-eater. Aggressive, fiery, with the celebrations he involves in after every scalp he claims, he is the new face of the South African pace attack .Fast bowlers come in a variety of flavours. South Africa had Shaun Pollock who was relentless and untiring all through out his career, Allan Donald had the stare to sweat the batman along with the impressive in dipper and beautiful bowling action while Makhaya offered stamina and longevity with an unusual angle to discomfort the batsman . Nel has on field antics and sporty nature .But Steyn unlike all these is uncommon is like a fresh breeze, which energies you with a normal height and build , unlike most fast men, has an ability to take someone’s head off with a shiny red cherry.

Perhaps the most captivating trait is he can swing the ball away from the right-handers in excess of 90 miles an hour consistently and possesses a near unplayable yorker .He bowls pretty straight and delivering the ball from very close to the stumps, which explains the number of clean bowled dismissals. The ascension has been an accelerated one for Dale who seemed unripe on his test debut in 2004 .Steyn announced himself to Test cricket with a fast in-swinging delivery that left Marcus Trescothick ‘s stumps rearranged .However ,he faded from view after three matches against England in which he took eight wickets and conceded more than 400 runs. He had another go early in 2006 and, since then, he has become a nemesis to the batsman world over

To top it up, Dale Steyn signed off a dream season in Test cricket by sweeping all the major honours at the South Africa Cricket Awards on Tuesday night. Steyn won all the four awards he was nominated for which included SA Cricketer of the Year, Test Player of the Year, SA Players' Player of the Year and the SuperSport Fans' Cricketer of the Year.

The progress has been steep .However,Steyn needs to add one more arrow in his quiver and that is a genuine in swinger, which will fetch him a fortune .With now a new responsibility of the spearheading the attack, he has his task cut out .But his rise would be closely monitored, with real litmus test will come in England.

Steyn’s potential to join the very best who have marked out a run-up would be dependent on how quickly he develops a slower delivery and off cutter , which will eliminate the predictability ,the control to bowl the three quarter length , most importantly remain injury free .Plus, the real test of character will come when he will have a fewer wickets to show in good batting conditions .

So far its been a fairytale Picking up 78 wickets at 16.24 a piece in 12 tests ,and playing a dominant force behind South Africa's home series wins against New Zealand and West Indies with an unbelievable strike rate

He has stated that "he loves the buzz from bowling fast" and that he wants to be the quickest in the world

While Brett Lee is the most improved bowler and arguably the best fast bowler in the world ,Steyn has been a transformed bowler and looks the only bet to dethrone him .

Change and Virender Sehwag are poles apart .Is not it ! .Clearly the most gifted and exciting batsman , who shot into prominence with his 69 ball hundred against the Kiwis six seasons back .Purists argued that he would struggle in tests and bowlers will sort him out quickly, even if he would shine in the shorter version .Well, as it turned out, he was run away success in tests and continued to struggle in limited overs version .As the form deserted So much so that , once certainty , he was dropped and asked to sort out his batting .If the recent form and the approach is anything to go by Virender Sehwag has changed his approach for good .The recent batting display in the Asia Cup , with scores of 89 ,59 makes an interesting reading , while the strike rate has been in excess of hundred or in close vicinity , the slashes , the upper cut , the high risk shots have definitely come down .However the result still remains the same, Sehwag sizzler.
Sehwag is back to his merry ways. But the significant question is has Sehwag finally learnt the art of shot selection?
Well the skipper concurs on this. "That [shot selection] is why he [Sehwag] scored 80 [89] runs," Mahendra Singh Dhoni, his captain, said later. "You have to pick and choose. A batsman like him can score easily at one run per ball. He just has to pick and choose."
To the time when he was termed a Tendulkar clone, Sehwag has had a roller coaster ride .
Often in the past, he has frittered away the advantage to the adventurous endeavors The problem plaguing Sehwag range from ineptness against the short ball to the inability to find the right pace of scoring .
Being off-color in ODIs with the last 50-plus score for India was against Bermuda in the 2007 World Cup he lost his place in the XI. He was picked for the CB Series earlier this year, but after consistent failures India preferred Gautam Gambhir and Robin Uthappa to partner Sachin Tendulkar. Sehwag looked in terrific touch and is capitalizing on it in the absence of Tendulkar, after a good IPL, where he was amongst the top run getter.
Though he continues to dominate in the Test arena, Sehwag's one-day form dipped alarmingly - after January 2004, he went through a period of 60 matches where he averaged under 29. Despite his fitness levels dropping and his one-day spot being under threat - he was dropped from the side for the home series against West Indies in early 2007. He was a surprise pick for the Test team to tour Australia after not being named in the initial list of probables.
How has the change in fortune occurred then .Well, work with his longtime coach A.N.Sharma has definitely reaped encouraging results. Now the focus has shifted to play as much as balls as he can .
He is taking guard on middle stump, rather than leg stump. as a result he has cut down his tendency to reach for deliveries outside the off stump or feel for the balls outside off stump . The second change was that Sehwag made a slight back-and-across movement in the lead-up to playing a shot. as against his still stature while playing the shot, something like Ponting .But the most important adjustment has been bat for longer periods and pace the innings after getting the eye in.
Then came the scores of 63 and an imperious 151 - his first century in the team's second innings - to help India draw the Test in Adelaide. And hold on! ,in the first Test against South Africa in Chennai, he made an even more resounding statement, rattling off the quickest triple-century in Test cricket
Sehwag's technique is unique and unorthodox, often backing away lack of footwork, with his timing often attributed to his eyesight. But what remains his forte is he sees opportunity in every ball. Sehwag can see possibilities that don't exist for the less flaired . What appears a risk to many is for him an opportunity to create a boundary .He will immediately forget that he has been beaten on the previous delivery and the next ball will disappear for four .
Having stamped his authority in tests with an enviable success, what remains to be seen whether he can replicate the same in ODIs and reset the bar for himself.
One thing is clear though , Sehwag will have competition for the opening slot in ODI’s if he tries to play out most of the overs and paces his innings well.

When he first made his debut against Australia, he was unfortunately given out on 96, missing out on a debut hundred, only one thing was known at that time and that he has promise. Little did he knew that this lad would decimate the attacks world over and become the first Australian batsman to pass the 10,000-run mark in both Test and one-day international cricket. As Ponting Ricky Ponting's ascended to the exclusive 10,000-run club, one just wondered looking at his reaction whether he is unaware of this milestone. .Only Brian Lara and Sachin Tendulkar have previously posted 10,000 runs in two forms of the game, and both are widely recognized as the greatest batsmen to have represented their countries. That is sufficient to give an idea of what Ponting has acheived

Commended by Academy coach Rod Marsh as the best teenage batsman he had ever seen, Ricky Ponting began with Tasmania at 17 and reached international standards at a young age for a batsman, making his One Day International and Test debuts in 1995 at the age of 20. However, the fairytale rise to the top was not unhindered though. Surely though, it has again sparked a debate which gets more contentious as he continues to pile on heaps of runs at international level

Is he the second best in the all time test annals?
Closer look at this career so far makes an interesting reading. The first half saw him coming in at number six, with not much to offer as he was more often than not batting with the tail and often plagued by disciplinary issues. With the retirement of fellow Tasmanian David Boon, Ponting was elevated to the No.3 position in the Test team for the series against the West Indies in 1996-97 in Australia. He grabbed the opportunity with both hands after initial hiccups. After his first 30 Tests in just under four years his average was a modest 38.62, and after rising into the mid-40s had dipped again to 40.50 after 45 Tests. Since then the average has consistently risen; his averages in recent calendar years are 70.93 in 2002, 100.20 in 2003, 41.00 in 2004, 67.13 in 2005 and 88.86 in 2006 38.6in 2007 and 61.12 in 2008 so far.
To the times in the 1990s there were off-field indiscretions that led him once to admit publicly to an alcohol problem He has had his setbacks, against probing seam attacks and high-class finger-spin, which, when out of form, he plays with hard hands, not to mention to be an LBW candidate early on, as he tries to play across the line, .Not only he has lived through all this but also overcame the issues and became the protagonist of one of Australia's most successful teams. Champion players adapt quickly and learn from their mistakes and emerge as better players with every adversity. Having lost his place in the team several times due to lack of form and discipline issues and with many lessons learned, Ponting's growing maturity was recognized by the CA when he saw off competition from Shane Warne and Adam Gilchrist to succeed Steve Waugh as Australia's one-day leader early in 2002. Ponting led the successful 2003 World Cup campaign from the front, clouting 140 not out in the final, and acceded to the Test crown when Waugh finally stepped down early in 2004.
He became the first Australian captain since Allan Border in 1986-87 to taste defeat in an Ashes series. The result hurt and the pain lingered throughout the next summer, but he regrouped to start an amazing streak of 16 wins in 17 Tests, culminating in the 5-0 demolition of England to regain the urn in the most emphatic way. Ponting was Man of the Series as Australia became the first team in 86 years to achieve an Ashes cleansweep and his 576 runs at 82.28 confirmed him as the game's modern master. The summer was tarnished slightly when England handed Australia their first tri-series finals loss for 14 years and he missed the Chappell-Hadlee Trophy defeat with a back injury. Each lowlight was quickly forgotten as he ensured a third consecutive World Cup win and his second as an undefeated captain.
Steve Waugh believes his successor will hold the game's run-scoring record when he retires. The world's leading stroke player, he finished 2005 with 1544 runs and posted twin hundreds three times in five months, joining Sunil Gavaskar on as the only other man to achieve the feat, and the double effort in his 100th Test at the SCG was magnificent. He followed up with another 1333 runs in 2006 and owns more centuries than anyone but Sachin, Brian and Sunny. Frighteningly, he is far from finished.
One days and Tests alike, Ponting dominance grew, as the years went by .The great and perhaps the single most critical factor was his ability to attack the oppositions into submission and back his strengths He has scored over 10,000 Test runs at an average near 60, but since the February 2002 tour of South Africa (when he was elevated to the ODI team captaincy) he has scored 24 of his Test centuries and averaged above 74, leading to comparisons with Sir Donald Bradman.
Following the England tour, Ponting retained the captaincy and began a rich run of batting form. In the 2005-06 season, he scored a century in both innings of a Test match three times and became the first player to score a century in each innings of his 100th Test match. He is only the second player (after Sunil Gavaskar) to score centuries in both innings of a Test match 3 times and the first to do so in a single season. In the first game of the 2007 World cup he made 113 runs against Scotland.
Most significantly he has made a great impact with his batting .In the wins, he averages 64.38, which is decorated by 27 centuries .And add to his role to effecting a run outs with direct hits and his safe pair of hands in the slips .
Just like grades in the management course indicate little about the managerial acumen, statistics are only part of what makes a great player, but if Ponting (59.13) continues on his current run riot, he will soon pass South Africa's Graeme Pollock (60.97) as the owner of the second-best batting average in Test history.Bradman, however, continues to stand apart from the rest in the annals of Test cricket with a record of 6,996 runs in 52 Tests at an average of 99.94
At 34, he is at the acme and is a serious threat to every major Australian record barring the magical Bradman's average of 99.94 and Hayden's highest score of 380.howver Ponting will sit pretty between Sir Don bradman and the all time great Australian batsman.
Critics might then take a recluse to fact that these days averages now are probably five to seven runs higher than they used to be as boundaries have been brought in . Only looks susceptible against quality finger spin, as he suffers in the subcontinent, some feel it’s the final frontier he is yet to conquer. However nobody can dispute his insatiable appetite for runs and ability to convert the starts into big centuries with exceptional consistency.
Given all the facts and the enormous progress he has made taking every adversity in his stride , we must congratulate Ponting for this rare feat .It is the time to applaud , celebrate and take notice of one of the modern greats of the game as the golden 13-year period that has accounted for many Australian victories and every major trophy continues.