Tale of Pakistani women's cricket

Asia cup of women's cricket went back home. It is specifically significant as it was not home for a few years and Bangladesh stole it last time. If not for that anomaly, it was always with India.

Bangladesh's success in 2018 is like magic. They defeated India and Pakistan in the league, and SL's loss to Thailand boosted them to second in the league. Then they defeated India in the final unbelievably, taking home the only cricket glory of the tiger nation. But it was as good as a fluke. They never displayed anything to match it in the game.

The actual up-and-coming team in the context of women's Asian cricket is - no not SL but - Pakistan.

Pakistan women never had cricket, In fact, it was illegal that the very first team they created in the 1990s was taken to the court and got banned. By that time only SL and India had women's cricket in Asia. They were both bad - India was just bad, SL very. But they were international cricket teams of the time. In fact, Pakistani women were granted test status by SL.

And then in the 2000s in the Asia cup, it was just two-sided. India and SL may play only within themselves, or with Pakistan or Bangladesh at times. They both would defeat the minnows Pakistan and Bangladesh easily and India would beat SL in the final. Pakistani women looked like the Malaysian women of today. Despite playing on invitation in the nineties, Pakistani women were not good enough to play in the world cup and hence were never qualified before 2009.

Two things changed after 2010. Asia cup changed the format to T20I. And Pakistan women changed the tables... like really really changed tables, in fact, they made the table into a table mountain.

SL women had a deficiency for power-hitting for the longer we knew them. They do even now, Just one or two like Eshani or Chamari may stand against this inevitable truth. So SL women were weakest in T20. In fact, SL never took part in the T20 format finals until this year. They last played in the Asia cup finals in 2008.

IDK how this change and the relative weakness of the second-best team boosted Pakistan. But Pakistani ladies started appearing in the Asia cup finals in both 2012 and 2016. At the same time, they started playing in the WC.

Looking at the team strength today, Pakistan women are a team of international capacity, a team far ahead of SL and of course Bangladesh. They are not as good as India which is in the highest tier of women's game. But they are no longer in the woods even in a WC.

I really dunno what jetted Pakistani ladies around 2010. SL should study it. SL women show some great spirit. But talents are not there to match it. They need to make the most of the remaining Chamari years to do what Pakistan did.

Meanwhile, Pakistan shows glory day by day, and perhaps will convert their success to the WC level.

Jhulan Goswami and the debate of unfair play rule

Finally finally Goswami goes !!!

India's opening fast bowler retires from international cricket with 250+ W-ODI wickets in 200+ appearances - both records pretty tough to take away from her. And also to play 20 years to retire at grandma age of 39 is a feat that only a very few fast bowlers of both genders have achieved.

Once India had a spinner, who probably has the best ODI bowling average of all time with all the chances for all records, but decided to retire at the age of 30. So for women's game where tradition, marriage, kids, and all the what not push the players out of it, Goswami's stay seems like the longest fathomable.

And I don't think there are any other current players of both genders who played the first international match in 2002. So probably the longest staying international cricketer of all.
India-W marked her departure with a classic ODI where they defended 169, and Goswami's fellow fast bowlers proved that her departure won't leave them in any sort of shortcoming.
Now to the most unwanted debate of the last wicket of England-W. The act of running out anyone who leaves the crease early as the bowler goes into the stride is valid and legal. Not just new but it has always been so. It was once called the category of "unfair play" meaning that the runner is taking an unfair advantage.

Then it was kept aside as "not fitting the spirit of the game" but some players invoke the moral debate every now and then. It was attached to the name of the Indian player Vinoo Mankad just because it was an Indian who did it against then mighty Aussies (for example they do not call putting rubber balls in the gloves "gilchristing" or under-arm bowling "chappelling").

 ICC decided finally that the act should not be in the debatable category of "unfair play" leading to debate and it should be made yet another way of running out a player. The debate should not be there anymore. But then, that rule is not active as yet, as far as I can see it will only be active on the first of October.

That does not mean it's illegal. Once again an Indian has done it against England, so there is a huge outcry and moral codes and whatnot. It is unclear what they are saying. The act was, is, and will be legal. The category only changes. The moral debate should no longer be there that is what ICC clearly shows up. The timeline of Oct 1st is for the category change, not for the moral debate. The moral debate is already invalid.

But, having said that I am looking forward to seeing more amendments just like the "flexing the arm" of a bowler, which once was regarded illegal, and then found that everyone is doing it on a minor scale, and in fact, it is really hard not to do it. This is another rule that almost everyone is breaking and hence may need amendments. T20I Wc is gonna be really interesting in the backdrop of this.

Groundsman's son against the groundsman

A young man moved to Adelaide from regional Australia and found himself a job as a groundsman in Adelaide oval. Not a very rewarding profession, but fairly enough to support his stay in the town and help him play some district level of cricket. 12 years on, the groundsman is heading towards 500 test wickets for Australia.

Another man found his job as a groundsman in a run-down cricket club that is in the margin of first class cricket. He would even play softball cricket for the club once or twice, yet it was beyond his reach. He taught all what he could, to his son, who is playing test cricket today for his country.

Pathum Nissanka playing Nathan Lyon in Galle. It is the groundsman's son against the groundsman. Cricket's palace staff claim their legacy in the palace.



3Gihan Jayawardane and 2 others

Thisara Perera retires

Thissara Perera had a bullet train engine, with an out-of-control break in it. And he traveled with his wife as the train guard, who was accused to be the one in control of the seemingly out-of-control break secretly.

Perera was probably that unique player whom Sri Lanka never had before or after. The hard-hitting fast bowler - the gonna be Botham, gonna be Freddy, gonna be Watson, gonna be Klusener, which he never gotta be.

Of all players with 2000+ ODI runs he has the 4th best strike rate of 112+. He was a pretty good bowler as well, with the capacity to play as a permanent bowler, with pace, bounce, swing, etc. In any of these skills, he has shown immense promise and sporadic match-winning performances. But then again, it never connected to consistent performance. And when things went wrong they really went wrong. Perera stood looking stupid in the middle.

Add to that the controversy of conflicts with players, ugly social media politics for captaincy, wife involvements of infamous comments on colleagues, and whatnot.

So finally he has retired.

I think he could have been a great player for SL - that hard-hitting fast bowler - had he had a different attitude and discipline into the game.

I am in a way happy that he retired. On one side, his sporadic performances embedded in near betrayal failures were so harmful to white-ball cricket that was attempting to recover. Plus, SL would not mind one mercenary player - the Andre Russel which he can be - who plays in leagues around the world and brings a sorta sole representation for the country.

Money may clear lethargy that he seemed to bring about every now and then. And money will keep the distracting family members also out.

Long live, bat and bowl Thisara Perera in all world leagues carrying the lion under the franchise jersey.


PS: I must say I missed one such player. Athula Samarasekara. He played so long ago and we have little idea about his pace, but the look of big Sam suggests that he was faster. Sadly he played 15 years too early that the game was not intelligent to pick his natural style.

And another - Suresh Perera.

The Mercenary Era

2007 WC was a disaster for India. Lost the first level matches - even to Bangladesh - and got kicked out right there just after three games. An aging team, captained by a player who may not fit the tempo of that time, not well fitted for modern terms of the game. Not many replacements were found in India either. Yeah, no matches to what the little island below had to offer.

At the same time, T20 cricket was knocking every door. It was becoming popular every day. 

And needless to say that the Indian crowd was highly unsatisfied. They expected to see better cricket. They were thirsty but nothing suited for consumption other than the poison of hatred towards the players. Nothing else was available there (we know they don't cheer the runner's up SL for sure).

It was under these circumstances that some bunch of people got together in discussion. The bureaucratic sloth bears in BCCI may never see the light for years and they thought that they should take the matters in hand. India was becoming rich so it was surely a lucrative operation worth trying. Thirst was there but lacked any supply for the demand. It was a business opportunity.

It is unclear whose idea it was. But gotta be a damn good one. But it is very likely to have got shaped pretty much in the mind of then chairman of National Cricket Academy and the biggest cricket veteran sitting there.

You must have guessed it. Play a T20 cup. Play franchises. Play foreign players. Play for money, pay good money and earn good money. In return wake up Indian cricket and make it really good for them.

It was not IPL. It was ICL, that never to be league of Zee TV. The think tank thought BCCI will be happy for their commitment for the nation at the harshest moments of history and would support their plan. What came out was threatening bans and almost certainly theft of intellectual property.

I hate mercenary cricket and I wish that meeting never took place. for it changed the world cricket, partially caused the ruin of SL cricket and really impacted all the other nations in bad ways (scheduling issues, loyalty issues, players leaving national cricket, early retirements, etc etc). But I have to admit that it is singly the biggest reason for the gap between Rahul Dravid's India and Virat Kohli's India in 13 years.

ICL died in the hands of BCCI but the format was replicated in not only IPL but zillion other cricket nations all over the solar system and milky way for that matter, well, only those have functional cricket administration. Not the few dead ones.

Today, that veteran man who pretty much certainly was behind this brilliant idea is somewhere in an Indian hospital after suffering from a heart attack. This is not the only story you can write about Kapil Dev but pretty rare this would be remembered today.

Get well soon big boy.

Kusal Perera - Should the ESPNcricinfo's best test batsman of 2019 play any more test cricket?

As he pocketed the ESPNcricinfo award for best test innings of 2019 beating Ben stokes, Kusal Perera still has not even secured his place in the test side.

He was dismissed after Pakistani tour where he never played any role but being a mere traveler, and De Mel cited several facts for his exclusion

- Kusal was nursing a minor injury

- Kusal needs to regain form

- Kusal does not occupy the crease although he can deliver a random 150

- Kusal is not in playing XI so it will be a pure waste of time for him

- Kusal should focus as the main wicket-keeper and opener of shorter form as 2020 is a WC year.

The last one combined with the first gives a fair reasoning itself. Knowing his injury history, Zimbabwe - a noticeably low key and non-accounted tour - is surely not worth risking his chances for the WC. And that may be further backed by his absence from domestic games since then, perhaps due to injury.

But the question is whether he has at least reserved the squad selection for upcoming England tests.

Here comes the need to regain form and the comment that he does not occupy the crease. His miraculous Durban test produced 51 and 153. But that is followed by 20, 1, 23, 0, 0 where the last double ducks have been in the test against NZL that SL badly wanted a middle-order batsman to save it. Looking into past before the Durban test you need to pass 10 innings to see a half-century. Among them was a match-winning 23 unbeaten in WI, but all the other innings were very short, mostly out for rash shots.



Kusal was playing no 5 in SA as Chandimal was out dropped and Angelo was injured. Both these players have come back. Chandimal not only occupies Kusal's no 5 position but also fills the extra wicket-keeper role. You cannot say that he has done amazingly well, but it is safe to say that his half-century in Pakistan and match-saving stay in Harare should at least be enough to retain the position against England.

Adding to the complexity, Roshen Silva is back playing FC cricket. Although he has done nothing exceptional yet, his impressive batting average and match-saving skills will be at high demand against England in home tests, where Roshen shows more skill to play.

If anyone else is needed to replace Lahiru Thirimanna, the little kid who hasn't stopped performing - Pathum Nissanka - has scored another century to his long list of impressive knocks that decorate his ultra-impressive FC average of 65. He is a wicket-keeper too and should have been selected ahead of Oshadha, if not for some error in De Mel maths.

Where is Kusal Perera gonna fit? And why should he play tests? Because Harsha Bhogle laughed at SL, or because Kusal really won the ESPNcricinfo award?

Only he can fix this. He has to be better than someone in the test team. At the age of 29, he will have to show it pretty quickly.

Mathews should not captain

I  hate to talk about individuals, but sometimes we have to breach that ethic when something looks so clearly evident and straightforward. This post is not favouring anyone or opposing the current captain as a player. To be frank, it is just to say that his captaincy looks so very dumb.

Yesterday SL lost with a heavy margin to Bangladesh. Although they were the favourites and a SL win would be a surprise at that moment, the scale of loss was too bad for even this weak team. It opens scary speculations about the team and its captaincy. It shows symptoms of chronic diseases that may not be cured in the short period before WC.

Despite the individual brilliance of Malinga, the rest looked like a flock of deer in the headlight. It wasn't the best opposition, just Bangladesh, and they were suffering from an injury and many collapses. I don't think the game was lost in any missed catches. I think they lacked a plan for the game entirely. And the captain was just hoping that something will bring the victory - something like a weather event or divine help or something.

I think the lowest point of the game was what happened after Tamim came for the second time to bat with the injury. He wouldn't have survived any delivery onto the stumps. But the only one he played was bowled to his body [WTF? injure him more?] and then SL captain never thought that other batsman should not be given the last ball single. That is street cricket, backyard cricket, or even no cricket but common sense. And that gives the best statement about SL captain.

That captaincy explains why SL loses. Have talent but no plan no thinking, just waiting for something to happen. And that also explains why SL does well in tests but fail in shorter formats. Simply because they play good strategies as evident in West Indies test series, where Mathews is not the captain. When he did last in tests we almost lost to Zimbabwe. Anyone would have been better, Chandimal, Lakmal, Tharanga, Thissara [Thissara was pretty good in captaining]. The batting failure also shows signs of lack of any plan, as they just played their shots and lost wickets.

Also, it was a crazy selection. For the lack of a batsman, they played a bowler. While having a player like Dickwella aside they played an extra bowler. Then to patch the hole they created in batting they played Dhanajaya too early and lost him. The only gain we had in SA series was the settling of no 6,7,8 with Dhananjaya Thissara and Dasun. It is very important to keep them intact, because, when Chandimal recovers they will surely be batting at those positions. If they want to fill Chandimal they should have played someone else. But keeping those 6,7,8 positions intact. For me, this tour's expectation would be how SL's 6,7,8 play in collapses [which will surely be there]. They should not have broken that just to accommodate this game.

Anyways, one more loss may kick them out in whichever stage. At least let's hope they'll do basics right. And among them, for me, is to relieve Angelo Mathews from this unnecessary burden of leading the side.

Nevertheless, I started suspecting the potential of the coach too. This cannot happen w/o his guidance.