Listening to Cricket - an altogether different experience

I had been following cricket since my early childhood - as early as my 2nd standard, along with my brother. Very early on, it was radio commentary. I still remember when once I ran into my dad's room shouting Gavaskar scored a century and my dad's colleague who was present there said it wasn't Gavaskar but it was Chetan Chauhan, just to tease me a little. Unshaken, I insisted that it was Gavaskar. He asked me how I knew it and I told him that I had been following it on radio. It is another matter, Chetan Chauhan didn't score a single century in his entire test career, though he came close to achieving that a few times.

A few years later, my father bought a stereo cum radio and we started getting BBC and ABC commentary. We immediately fell in love with their commentary, especially the voice of Chris Martin Jenkins on BBC. It was so refreshing compared to the commentary on AIR. The excitement came from the analysis provided by the veteran commentators on those channels compared to the bland description of the proceedings on AIR. Once in a while we used to have a few good voices, but they were very far and few in between. There was a huge gulf in the quality of commentating.

We regularly used to tune in to these radio channels whenever there was a test match being played. Of course, we used to do lot of circus like keeping the radio in a specific angle, trying for that exact position of the frequency where clarity was maximum, moving the aerial in different directions to get the best possible audio and sometimes moving the whole set into a different room for better receptivity. But we never gave up.

Slowly this has given way to watching cricket on TV starting with the Benson and Hedges world cup in 1995 and the Sharjah Cup tournaments. Of course many of those radio commentators graduated to TV and also did a great job. I can't remember how much of live action we actually used to miss owing to advertisements those days. It was pure and live cricket all the way. We had even the chance to see the players in between overs. For example, we would watch very carefully whether Gavaskar and Vengsarkar communicated at all in the middle while batting together to see and interpret whether there is anything amiss in their relationship. Compare that with the rationing of cricket we get on television today in between advertisements and one wonders whether we were better off following cricket on the radio in the good old days. Alas! there is nothing like pure cricket today (I am only talking about the audience experience and nothing else). Like everything else in modern world, cricket too has become impure making one more facet of life boring and dull.

Is Sehwag the reason for Gambhir's slump in form?

Not long ago he was the mainstay of Indian cricket in all 3 forms of the game. And someone was even gutsy enough to call him the 'Second Wall' of Indian cricket. When he stepped out of the crease in his inimitable style, he would invariably middle the ball with all the sweetness. He showed loads of patience sticking around the wicket for long periods of play, that was so unusual of him. The same patience earned India a draw in the 2nd test in New Zealand recently. He followed that innings up with another masterly 167 in the 3rd test.

Yet, when one looks back at his batting since the end of NZ series, one wonders what has gone wrong for Gambhir. A few stats tell the story of Gautam in recent times.

T20 Format:

World Cup - Played 5 matches for 148 runs at an average of 29.6 and SR of 109.62 (with only one score above 50)

IPL - Played 15 matches for 286 runs at an average of 22 and SR of 102.87 (with only one score above 50)

ODI Format:

Vs WI - scores of 13, 0 in the first two matches.

One of the prime reasons why India didn't do too well in the T20 World Cup is Gambhir's failure with the bat and he could have done much better than his average of 22 and strike rate of 102 considering the form he had been in, in recent times.

A much bigger problem than the stats seems to be his inability to strike and time the ball at will, that has been so much his strength. The silken leg side flicks coming off the middle of the bat are missing, the pull shots are mistimed and he is not sticking at the wicket for longer periods. So, then what is it that is baffling Gautham Gambhir - Is it the fatigue of playing too much cricket? Is it because of a lack of focus and concentration that was so much his strength until recently? I have a strong feeling that it is the absence of Virender Sehwag, his partner for more than a year now in all three forms of the game, that is causing a flutter or two in his batting. He derived so much strength and encouragement from Sehwag, who is also his Dellhi teammate, that Sehwag's mere presence lifted Gambhir's game. So much so that, he would score faster than Sehwag on a few occasions. Sehwag being the Vice Captain also probably helped give the needed confidence to him that he would get much longer look-in than a game or two. With Sehwag being sidelined due to an injury, all of that confidence seems to have gone.

It may not be such a big worry after all. It could just be a temporary loss of form or just sheer coincidence that Sehwag is out of the team for some reason and Gambhir has started hitting a trough in form. But, certainly there is need for someone in the team management, a senior player and ideally the captain, to tell him that he is too important a player in the team's scheme of things to be sidelined in the absence of Sehwag. Gambhir needs to be given the confidence and nurtured well for the sake of India's prospects in all three forms of the game. He is such a wonderful talent, once he has the backing of the team management, can blossom and can play a significant role in lifting India's chances.