Indian head wiggle

A friend of mine in this post points out the almost reflexive tendency of people in the western world to say ‘hi, how are you’ and walk on before you have a chance of answering this query. It’s quite hilarious actually. When I was in Australia, people did this all the time. You are walking on the road and happen to look at someone the same time he/she looks at you. Almost instinctively, out pops the question. I think this question is the vocal equivalent of the Indian head wiggle. In Sharjah and for that matter, in most of the Muslim world, the head wiggle or the 'hi, how r u' are substituted with a 'salaam alai kum', and since it is incumbent for a muslim to reply with a 'walikum salaam', people wait just that fraction to catch the reply.
Gregory David Roberts states in ‘Shantaram’: “Gradually, I realized that the wiggle of the head was a signal to others that carried an amiable and disarming message: I am a peaceful man. I don’t mean any harm.” (Pg, 107)
Ditto for the ‘Hi, how are you’ and 'salaam alai kum'.

more thoughts on Cricket

The title of this post might suggest another article on the current Indo-Pak series that whinges about the pitches and the resultant dull matches. However, as such articles have been written ad nauseam and as I bear no ill will to my audience, I will spare you this agony.
Fast bowlers...to me, there is nothing in Cricket more exciting than watching a genuinely fast bowler in the middle of an inspired spell. I have personally seen only two fast bowlers bowling live. The first time was when the West Indians had come to India in 1994 and I have gone to the Wankhade Stadium in Mumbai to help them in their practice sessions. I watched Cameron Cuffy, who at 6'7" looked like nothing I had ever seem before. I saw him bowl efortlessly and at speeds that my 14 year old eyes could not really believe. I played most of my Cricket as an all-rounder...a competent middle order batsman and a work-horse medium pacer. At peak form, I was fairly quick though I have always struggled to get bounce, partially due to my lack of vertical inches. Watching Cuffy get head high bounce with just a casual flick of the wrists was an immensely satisfactory sight for me.
The second time was when I faced Zaheer Khan. This was at the height of his prowess, in the season of '99-2000, when he was about to break into the Indian team. At that time, he was one of the fastest bowlers in India and was bowling consistently in the high 140 km's per hour. Also, we were playing on the Western Railway ground, which possesses one of the fastest pitches in Mumbai. I did not last very long but I did realise that the speeds that we are used to in Pune Cricket are just not good enough to compete in the brutal Mumbai Cricket scene. Over the years, Mumbai has produced some very high quality fast bowlers...Salil Ankola, Abbe Kuruvilla and Ajit Agarker are just three in a fairly long list.
In the domestic cricket scene, there are only two genuinely quick bowlers that I have heard of in recent times...Munaf Patel and Vikram Rajvir Singh. Munaf plays for my state, Maharashtra, though he is originally from Gujarat and Vikram plays for Punjab. Both are very young (Munaf is 22 and Vikram is 20) and have performed very well in their short first class careers so far. If there is one thing that India lacks, it is a genuinely fast bowler. While accuracy and control can be learnt, pace is innate. Therefore, I think we should groom both these youngsters to play for India in the next couple of seasons. A rotation policy can ensure that both get adequate rest and therefore are not injured due to overuse. Selecting them now is essential if we want them to be part of the Indian squad for the next world cup. Additionally, both are competent lower order sloggers.
In the past, we have erred in not giving opportunities to fast bowlers when they were at their peak. Kuruvilla was one of the fastest bowlers in India in his early 20's but was only given a chance when he was nearing 30, by which time he had slowed down a great deal. We should learn from our past errors and give opportunities to young fast bowlers (and I mean genuinely fast) as they are peaking so they can serve India for a number of years.

different strokes for different folks

Ameya makes a good point regarding footwork in this post. According to him, a batsman can extend his Cricketing life by developing good footwork. In the early stages of ones career when ones eye-hand coordination is good enough to compensate for the lack of footwork, footwork may not seem that important. But with age, as ones reflexes diminish, good footwork can help in compensating for the reduced eye-hand coordination. However, I have another spin on this topic. According to me, the main purpose of footwork is to get oneself into the best position to play the most percentage shot (the shot with the least likelihood to fail) on that particular ball. Now, getting into the best position to play the most percentage shot need not necessarily entail a great deal of footwork. And of course, as with most things in life, we can’t use a ‘one size fits all’ rule here. So the criticality of footwork differs in different conditions. From personal experience, I can tell you about the different footwork (or lack of it) that we needed to adopt for ‘natural turf’ and ‘matting’ pitches. For artificial matting pitches, minimal straight footwork is required. What is important there is sideways footwork because the ball bounces a lot more on matting pitches. So even if one plays half-cock, there is no real danger of getting caught L.B.W. but one needs to remember to get behind the line of the ball. On natural turf pitches, especially in India where there isn’t too much bounce, it is important to move forward to minimize the chances of L.B.W. however, it is not as important to get behind the line of the ball because of the lack of sideways movements in Indian conditions.