T-20 - Licensed to thrill!

After a long hiatus, I get a nice excuse to update this almost defunct blog. Having been caught in the typically infinite loop of wake up- travel to office – work - travel back- sleep-wake up, cricket’s been one of the things to look forward to in these days. And what an opportune moment for sure :-) India and Pakistan face off today in one of the most unlikely and dream encounters – a World Cup final in cricket. We’ll look at both these wonderful young teams’ dream run in this tournament later on, first this T20 concept needs a look-in.

“What a ridiculous slam-bang version!!”; “This slog-fest isn’t going to last long, this is just not cricket!". “T-20 is destroying traditional cricket and making a mockery of talent”. Hundreds of such accusations have been hurled on the newest baby in international cricket. It’s a baby without proper pre and post-natal care, without even a mid-wife for that matter! Rules are continuously changing, simply because there are no rules, they are being defined with every match!

But before jumping onto the bandwagon of criticism, let’s just pause for a moment, take a deep breath in this hurricane atmosphere of sixes and lightning matches, and consider some of the aspects of this format. For a start, it’s got some really good things going for it. The administrators have been wise enough to retain the same format of the game, unlike the double-wicket or 6-a-side tourney, which never really took off. So it’s still a contest between 2 teams of 11 players each, with exactly the same rules between bat and ball. Another sensible decision has been to leave the ground sizes unchanged. There were fears that by reducing the boundary size the batsmen could’ve been given 6s on a platter but fortunately that’s not been the case.

The most striking aspect is, T-20 redefines cricket to cater to the perennial scarcity of time of the modern-day spectator and the thirst for constant thrills. It’s like a Man U-Arsenal shoot-out, where every kick and positioning/placing matters. Today’s spectator has thousands of things to worry about than watching a 5-day Test or an 8-hour ODI and wait for the result. Million-dollar deals are stuck in minutes, airplanes and defence establishments are knocked over in seconds, there aren’t that many takers for spending an entire day watching a cricket match !

Talking of slogfest hitting, admitted, the SL-Kenya scoreline left me numb (SL scored a mindboggling 260 odd in 20 overs!), but the Zimbabwe-Australia and India-Pakistan matches showed we can still have good old-fashioned contests between bat and ball in T-20. It’s not just about swinging your bat like a cold-blooded bludgeon with scant regard to the line and length of the delivery, and field placements. Doesn’t batting ultimately boil down to a batsman’s skill with timing the contact of a rectangular piece of wood with a round leather cherry? And contrary to expectations before the tournament that T-20 would involve slogging from ball 1, the successful teams have weathered the storm of early overs sensibly, preserving wickets for the final burst.

As far as cricketing skills are concerned, T-20 demands previously unseen and unprecedented levels of agility; Apart from that, it promotes variety and innovation from bowlers – you just cannot afford to bowl even 2-3 similar deliveries in an over! In fact it upstages ODI cricket also in certain respects. The toss – that eternal power which leaves captains the world over cold in their feet - has lost its potential match-turning muscle. The time period of the T-20 format ensures that no team faces disadvantages for nightlight conditions, morning dew etc. Agreed it promotes see-ball hit-ball across the line. But isn’t it a fact that India's Test team today relies more on players who're so-called "ODI specialists" (Yuvraj, Dhoni, Sehwag), and that we’ve been winning a lot more Tests after the ‘slam bang’ ODIs took over the cricketing world by storm? A good player will adjust to the match situation irrespective of the format. To blame scarcity of talent on the format of the game is like attributing the bad taste of milk to the shape of the cup.

A great contribution has been the erosion of inequities between the so-called superpowers and minnows. – just look at the confidence and clinical passion with which Bangladesh and Zimbabwe went about cleaning up opponents against whose sheer shock-and-awe aura until now they used to wither! Cut back to World Cup'07, when more than half the matches’ results could be predicted even before the flip of the coin. Here you just can’t write off anyone or predict anything whatsoever, irrespective of the situation and match. No wonder even the South Africa –Bangladesh and Sri Lanka-Zimbabwe matches had overflowing stadiums. If you just take a bio-break (or plain shut off the tv and give up on your team) for 2 balls, you might end up missing a dramatic turnaround and a completely different winner and outcome than you expected (as happened to me during the India-Pak encounter) :-D

In that sense, T20 can definitely be beneficial to the development of the game in cricket’s "developing countries". This "baseballised" version can create impact in huge markets like US and Canada. And undoubtedly the biggest gainer in all this has been the spectators. This tournament has taken over youngsters by storm; suddenly you find many more teenagers discussing the exploits of a Rohit Sharma, Brendan Taylor or a Jehan Mubarak on the 20-20 field than even Beckham’s kicks in soccer-crazy England.

T-20 has the potential of snatching market share from pubs and bars as late-evening hangouts for a coupe of hours, to relax after work. Add to it the electrifying atmosphere, carnival dances and music, pulsating action- and you have the ideal ingredients for a marketing showpiece. Reliance, Pepsi, Nike and the other sponsors have hit it big by betting on this new kid on the block.

I think its best to think of T-20 as another novel game, rather than try to compare it with the traditional formats and cry foul over its supposed defiling. And this debut T-20 tournament has proved a much better blockbuster event for sponsors, spectators and players alike, compared to the soporific World Cup'07. Even the Test-connoiseurs who sniggered at the concept of ODIs have bowed to the benefits it brought to the traditional format. In fact Tests have produced many more results and intense cricket after the advent of ODIs, compared to the snooze-fests of the 70s. So all ye purists out there, sit back and relax. People aren’t going to stop playing Tests; there’s definitely enough space for all three formats (Test, ODI and 20-20) to co-exist and mutually reinforce this wonderful game.
So who’s complaining? :-)

Well....long hiatus...

somehow those post-Autumns days we were under the mistaken impression that we've made a 'strategic' difference to the company and its fortunes. Also, given our unique travails during Autumns, we thought we deserve some nice chilled-out days in SP. So we spent the majority of Trim 5 doing basically nothing... The HEP guys (for laymen: those sitting for lateral placements) were busy firming up their CVs and convincing themselves that laterals was good for them :-)
We "under-19 World Cup probables" (read non-lateral students) used to spend time attending ppts like zzombies (there were quite a few occasions on Thursdays when we didnt even realise which company's talk we're sitting for :-) , and in general indulge in hypotheses to satisfy our cognitive dissonance needs! PPOs started coming by the dozens, resulting in major sighs of relief to the holders, having got off the mark (Yours truly was one of the fortunate ones :-).

Enter Laterals days. Companies came, companies went, but the story was the same. On a dustbowl of a pitch, and weak opposition, ppl ended up getting 7 and 8 -wicket hauls :-P
There were some who were sure of their targets, so bowled line and length and came away with the desired offer, without bagging too many inconsequential ones.

By the way, before all this, we experienced a period of sloth and slow passage of time, called Trim 5 :-). With the frequency of lectures dipping to less than 2 on an average day, time was at a heavy discount. So the two national pastimes, movies and cricket, got a fair proportion of our mindshare, apart from B-school competitions, whose mails were normally targets of the rude Shift+Delete combination from our keyboard in PGP1 :-)

Which brings me to one shining experience of Trim 5. I made it to the finals of a marketing strategy event at IIM-C's Intaglio festival. Since my partner for the event had to drop out at the last minute, I delivered the presentation alone. But we had an absolute whale of a time. Wonderful events, beautifully decorated campus, really cool weather...twas the ideal recipe for a brk from SP :-). Add to tht the scores of acquaintances i met at IIMC, friends from engg college, Mastek et al.

So here we are, at the fag end of this wonderful course. Ironically we're wondering at this stage, y does all this have to come to an end so soon? Irrespective of whatever people complained of during the course, the hard fact is, we've had some of the most memorable moments here. Unforgetable friends, amazing networking and knowledge/experience of the most varied nuances of life, which would be impossible to appreciate at any other time :-)

Logging off now... to celebrate India's tight victory against the West Indies at Cuttack....got saved by the skin of their teeth due to some gutsy batting by Kaarthik and Agarkar, not to mention smart bowling/fielding.

Me, Cognizant and Chennai

Since this has come about in part due to the lazily laidback passage of time during our Autumns, lets start with that. Our sojourn began on 10th Sept, when me and Sudhanshu landed at Chennai’s Kaamraj airport. We made our way to the CTS guest house in a prepaid cab, confidence personified, with a route map in our hands. Only to realize to our horror that we took a wrong turn somewhere, and were headed in the opposite direction, since the arrows in the map mailed to us wre from the direction of the railway stn and NOT the airport!

When we reached the GH (it stands for Guest House….stop thinking of it as the more popular SPJ Girls Hostel!), everything was calm and eerily quiet. Manchoo was snoring away to glory in his room, having arrived via a nocturnal train journey from Lucknow. But only in the evening did we realize the extent of the sleepiness of the place. It was Thoraipakkam, a suburb on the outskirts of Chennai. We went out on a stroll, and realized much to our consternation that there was practically nothing around. No malls/big shops/cafes/restaurants to hang out in. Compared to fast and happening Mumbai, this seemed an abandoned 16th century abode!

Worse, we had our first tryst with the unforgiving dragon called “The Chennai autowalla”. It took us by surprise that none of the autos seemed to ply on meters. And to top it, they demanded exhorbitant fares, as much as 50 bucks for a meager distance of 2-3 kms! Fortunately, we’d been forewarned in Mumbai itself that autos would quote at least double the actual fare. Language was a major barrier. Hindi’s a strict no-no, and English is greeted by scowls and rude stares. So the 3 of us used our sign language and negotiation skills in combination to lethal effect, and brought down the quoted fare by a reasonable amount . The secret was to break up the English language into small syllables to communicate with the autowalla, and use hands vociferously, in conjunction with your thoughts!

But we had a lovely time at the guest house. The keeper (an ever-smiling man called Sudamani) used to cook delicious stuff. And we used to do all sorts of TP alongwith the other people there.

By now, we've adjusted to the culture shock here. All 3 of us are in different CTS offices in the city. We stay in a rented accommodation (like a serviced apartment, luckily a fully furnished luxurious one, with AC/North Indian food/TT etc), and have very good people for company (all B-school grads, working in IT cos, so lots of fun).

Chennai city is a good place to live in, from whatever we've got to see... the beaches, the food, the incredibly hardworking people.... Only the transport still never ceases to amaze you (especially in the parts we stay and commute in - which don't even come under the map of Chennai). It drives one absolutely CRAZY…..Municipal buses are out of the question..so crowded and unstable that you cant even think of climbing in. Its amazing that they always seem to travel at an incline of 30 degrees, either due to the crowd standing on one side, or irregular construction of the bus itself! That leaves u with a shared auto or maxicab…bigger vehicles designed for seating 8-10 people, but where they end up shoving at least 15-20 people like animals in a slaughter-house. U end up doing the journey in all sorts of comic/dangerous poses, either standing/bending/sitting awkwardly with people falling over you.

It’s been a great leveling experience so far. If we’ve struggled with the transport, language and culture, we’ve also had amazing trips and memorable times. Since there’s not much to do in Chennai, we’ve been out of the city almost all weekends-- so far to Bangalore/Mysore, Mahabalipuram, Yercaud etc. Pondicherry’s lined up for the coming weekend. What’s more, we also took a 5-day Diwali break to Mumbai, which was worth every penny we spent on air travel.