On Tests, captaincy, and a chicken soup moment…

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“I am irritated by own writing”, AdviceToWriters quotes Gustave Flaubert as saying.

Me too. 🙂

Must be one of those blah moods. Whatever — no point irritating you as well, so will leave you with some interesting reads from the past 24 hours.

Harsha Bhogle discusses the art of captaincy with Aakash Chopra and Adam Gilchrist. Nice reading — not sure I agree with the takeaway that the captain’s importance increases as the format grows shorter, though. Sid Vaidyanathan nailed it when on Twitter just now he asked if the Hong Kong Sixes had produced the best captains of all time. Related, a recent Aakash Chopra piece on captaincy, especially in the T20 format.

Another good Harsha interview is the one with Steve Waugh. Again, I am not sure I agree with the takeaway that it is time to introduce day-night Tests.

Test cricket at night is definitely possible. I would have loved to play day-night Test cricket. I think it is exciting, brings another dimension to the game. People want a bit of a change, they want that excitement. Why not bring that in Test cricket? We have got it in Twenty20s. Let’s get a pink ball in and play a day-night Test, if it is possible. Obviously in England it is not really possible because it doesn’t get dark till 10 o’clock in summer. Maybe in the subcontinent the dew might make it impossible. So you’ve got to have common sense around it as well.

So then, given those problems and others, day-night Tests could remain at best a curiosity, an innovation specific to certain countries but not to the ICC universe? Don’t see the larger point of that.

Never mind all that — here’s a chicken soup story on the meeting between an authentic cricket legend and his octogenarian fan.

Oh, and today I am back to hosting the live show. Questions, suggestions, links worth throwing up there? Post them here, and I’ll “do the needful” 🙂 Link to the show, as always, on Twitter. Mine, and the Yahoo stream.

4 thoughts on “On Tests, captaincy, and a chicken soup moment…”

  2. On the subject of captaincy, an important topic is the development of captains, and how the strategic timeouts affect such development.

    Let me explain. Without any timeout, a captain has to think about the bowling changes, and other things for the entire 20 overs. He has to rotate his bowlers properly, change the plan as the match situation changes and he does not get any help from the coach.

    With the timeout, a captain has to think about this for only 5 overs. After that the coach can give inputs on bowling changes.

    Now, the timeouts will not be available for international matches. So the development of bowlers and batsmen will take place. But the development of captains will be at a reduced pace.

  3. Why not discuss the ‘performance’ of overseas players in IPL this season? They have not been as effective as they were in IPL 1 & 2. Other than Kallis and Murali, cant remember one standout consistent performer over the 50 odd matches. There have been odd brilliant spell or innings. But that is about it. Are they worth the money? over hyped (definitely the commentators do hype the foreigners a lot. When Sreesanth dropped a catch, they said ‘ no professional cricketer would drop it’, within a space of couple of balls Bopara let one through the legs in the boundary, and they were saying how wonderful a fielder he is normally and this is only an aberration)- Lumb has been praised to the sky but……………..

  4. Why did Kumble change a successful opening partnership between Kallis & Pandey? By all indications, RD may move up with Kallis in the next few matches, a sureshot recipe for disaster
    I think the semis spot which was in RCB’s cusp may just slip away with the batting order changes.What should be the batting order of RCB

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