Yorked!!! – By Chetan Narula.

Onto the World Stage: England – The Outsiders.

If there were ever an English team capable of winning the World Cup of the sport they gave birth to, it was the team that won the Ashes in 2005. Sadly that team exists today only in bits and pieces and that too in shambles after a 5-0 thrashing down under. But that was the long version of the game, you must be wondering why I am talking about that. The point being that team stuck it up to the world’s best team not only in the tests but also the ODIs preceding that.

But does it really matter if they win this edition of the cup or not? As I recall many English dailies claimed in 2005 that they had not recovered a long coveted series but won the biggest prize world cricket had to offer. So I ask why bother about Windies 2007? Simply put, because they were put back in their places this Australian summer blanked all over the place in the tests. But again this is not about the longer version of the game. As they took some respite back home by winning the CB series, some English bookies had the audacity of making them 2nd favourites for the big tournament. What were they thinking?

Before we discuss their fortunes, past or future, any further, let’s take a look at the team they are sending to the Caribbean: Michael Vaughan (capt), Ed Joyce, Ian Bell, Andrew Strauss, Kevin Pietersen, Paul Collingwood, Andrew Flintoff, Paul Nixon (wk), Ravinder Bopara, Jamie Dalrymple, Monty Panesar, Jon Lewis, James Anderson, Liam Plunkett and Sajid Mahmood.

Quite a bit of change from the team who were a thorn in the Aussie backside, it’s really sad that somebody as good as Marcus Trescothick is not in the team. But then his breakdown will not be the last one we will see in the over-loaded world of cricket and so the selectors have been tied for long. But more than this it’s the injuries that cause the most concern. Michael Vaughan might not have scored an ODI ton yet, but if he is fit, he has to play because frankly speaking he is the best captain they had after probably Mike Gatting. Plus that also allows you to free up Freddie Flintoff’s mind and if free that mind can cause a lot of terror. So Vaughan’s fitness is the biggest issue for England. If he is fit, there’s no telling what this team can do, ala 2005.

But in his absence, they don’t have to stick with Flintoff as captain, do they? Andrew Strauss was being groomed too and after all wasn’t it under Freddie that they were blanked down under? Well here’s where the problem gets more complex, what do you do when Strauss loses form or confidence. He doesn’t have either right now and this meant trying out a plethora of opening combinations in the ODIs in Australia. And that is where the English selectors have failed yet again. Mal Loye who put both the Aussie and Kiwi attacks to the sword, would have been a good choice upfront but he is not even in the team. An unknown Ravi Bopara replaces him as he is in their words, more suited to the requirements. Oops I say.

As much as I am happy that another player of Indian origins makes it to the English team, I have to say untried players have atleast no place in the big tournament. If not more, he could have been the standby for Vaughan, a role Loye is playing. Plus the bowling in the West Indies has to be specialist to have any chance and not bits and pieces. Guess him being an “allrounder” and Loye just a pure batsman went against him. The bowling looks fine on paper, I mean good enough to be spanked all over, because that is what we will see most of the time. One addition could have been the mercurial Stephen Harmison, but his retirement from the short version is a deterrent. Sadly, a man of his talent wasn’t given more chances either by the selectors or by himself.

One player who could have made a difference would have been Vikram Solanki. No I don’t want to see an English team with as many Indian origin players possible. The point is that while the English team was hounded more or less everywhere they went this last season (home matches included), he was busy playing for Rajasthan in the Indian domestic league. And it doesn’t exactly take Sherlock Holmes to figure out that the experience he gained there will help out in the Caribbean as the conditions will almost be similar.

Considering 2006-07, the high points for this team were of course winning the CB series and well, that’s about it. The lowest being when they were thrashed 5-0 at home by the rampaging Sri Lankans (read Sanath Jayasuriya). However all that can be changed at Saint Lucia where they will play all their group matches. The match against New Zealand on 16th March would go far to determine where they end up in this tournament. Win it, and they gain the momentum & more importantly, the confidence to reach the semis. Lose it and please book your early tickets to England.

My verdict: Book your early tickets home.

Flying Lap!!! – By Chetan Narula.

A Heady Mix…

Never has the winter testing by F1 teams created so much interest and curiosity among the millions of fans world wide. Call it effectively the “last Schumacher effect” if you may. In leaving the sport too, the man has only made it more appealing. Bernie Eccelstone could not have asked for more.

The reason that Schumacher is no more on the starting grid means that a certain number of races will now be open for other drivers, which otherwise he would have won. But his leaving the sport has more far reaching consequences than that. The most important one, being the arrival of Kimi Raikkonen at Ferrari and the debate of the number one driver being sparked again in the scuderia pits. But before we get into that, there is the whole matter of testing times to discuss. And that for a change has nothing to do with one Michael Schumacher.

The most important test of the season at the Sakhir circuit, Bahrain got over this weekend and it is now very clear that we have an impending face off for the championship between Ferrari and Mclaren-Mercedes. The Woking based outfit have evolved their season strategy around Fernando Alonso and at Barcelona before this test, they were awesomely quick. Even the young Lewis Hamilton blew away the competition at the Spanish track which included two burning Ferraris.

But then Mclaren’s persistent problem of consistency caught up with them as soon as they started testing their race specs. And when Ferrari did exactly that at the desert circuit, they appeared the team to beat for the rest of the year. This was expected as they are still on the Bridgestones where as all the other front runners have to cope up. So much so that this could be the difference between Kimi being the number 1 or 2 at Ferrari this season.

Yes that is exactly what the whole world must be thinking ever since Fellipe Massa broke the track record at the Bahrain tests this past week. The fact that he has been with Ferrari for ages given that he used to test for them previously while Kimi has practically driven all his life on the Michelins, it is no surprise that they have been at most been separated by a second. What else do you put this down to, in testing, when there is no race or fuel strategy and the drivers are more or less trying to achieve only good test mileage at the end of the day.

Massa has also spent a year with Schumacher, watching the way he worked with the mechanics and took part in the setting up of the car, how he was as much a part of the pit crew as all others. Kimi all through his career has been alien to this concept. Another point which could be the difference in performance ever since his arrival there. Make no mistake Massa might actually make this season his own.

So where does that leave Fernando Alonso? The current world champion is the third favourite to win the title? Well as preposterous as the thought might be, it is true. Many reasons are doing the rounds for this belief. Ferrari’s pace and Mclaren’s consistency are the foremost. Testing is one thing but it’s the race weekends when the engines have to last. The signs are good but with Mclaren-Mercedes you never know. And this is where the third point, probably the most important one, emerges from.

All these years at Mclaren, have given Kimi his most potent weapon. His unpredictability. Be it qualifying last and finishing first in 2005, or driving an incompetent Mclaren last year superbly, the Flying Finn never ceases to astonish. His move to Ferrari is the only one in his career which anybody could have predicted. So we can safely presume that while the constructor’s championship is a two way race, it will still largely depend on the race to the driver’s crown which will, without doubt face a three pronged charge as of now. Throw in an exciting young number 2 driver at Mclaren and you will find quite a twist in this tale.

Can’t presumably end this without talking about the rest of them. Renault are struggling for pace and a race winning driver, Toyota for consistency, Williams for good quality consistent engines, BMW again for consistency, Red Bull for lack of good designing (ironically, their design engineer is the highest paid in the business), while the back benchers, i.e. Super Aguri, Torro Rosso and Spyker from a lack of testing mileage.

And oh, did I mention Honda? Well they too are struggling to find form be it pace or consistency. But unlike the rest they are doing nothing about it. Just fooling around in a “green Google earth” livery. The Honda circus is complete.

Yorked!!! – By Chetan Narula.

Onto the World Stage: A Preview.

Cricket’s premier event, the ICC World Cup 2007, is just eleven days away and the excitement in the sub continent air is enough to give you goose bumps, even though the action is on the opposite end of the world. The West Indies are hosting this quadrennial event this time as the most coveted trophy in world cricket moves to the American continent for the first time ever. Not surprisingly the calypso beat is already in rhythm.

So is it going to be better than the last edition hosted in South Africa in 2003? Well that’s a high standard to beat, especially as the previous two editions in England in 1999 and in the Indian sub-continent in 1996, were termed as failures in terms of managing the event given its gargantuan proportions, the latter termed a near disaster. Serious questions have always been raised every time before any major event, more so with cricket because as the ICC s global drive moves into high gear, they are breaking new ground literally. Plus comments from somebody as esteemed as Michael Holding, begs you to ponder over this question time and again.

But as much as I would like to talk about the stadiums and grounds being developed and the nature of the pitches, et all, this is not about it. Because there is a change in the wind this time around. The question which goes unanswered every time around for the past four world cup editions at least, or rather the question nobody bothers to spend time over can no longer be denied it’s due. Who is going to win this year’s cricket world cup? No the answer is not Australia. Surprised? I guess so. But that is exactly why every other point becomes irrelevant.

This article will not discuss why the Aussies won’t win a third consecutive champions’ crown. The essence of this article series is to discuss the teams participating in the event and their chances. Where they have gone wrong in their selections and what are their strong points. And no, I am not going to begin with the favourites. It is going to be a countdown to the dissection of the teams, as to who amongst them in my opinion is going to lift this year’s trophy.

Since the purpose of this article series is clear, I will be utilizing the remaining few lines discussing the fortunes of the minnows who are just there to add up the numbers, Scotland, the Netherlands, Bermuda, Bangladesh, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Ireland and Canada. Frankly speaking, counting two test playing nations among them seriously puts the name “World Cup” in a quandary. The point being that how many of these teams will be progressing as the top two teams from their respective groups, pitted against the might of the remaining test playing nations. None would be a consensus everywhere you would go.


This then seriously questions the grouping system being used in this edition of cricket’s premier tournament. Is it merely to increase the number of matches and generate even more revenue? From this far off, yes it appears only that. How else do you justify including four teams who don’t even play cricket on a regular basis to be playing in the world cup? This in itself labels the globalization efforts of the ICC as a sham. Vicious circle of questions, isn’t it?

Eleven days, and we will start getting the answers.