Growing up with Sachin - Part 1

I very vividly remember reading the article on the magazine sportstar about the wunderkind (not even sure back then how to pronounce that word) from Mumbai that had been signed by the Yorkshire county cricket club, the first cricketer to be born outside Yorkshire to be signed by the club. I was on my way to school (10th grade - 1992) on the bus and I had taken the magazine from home to read during the bus ride. I remember the goosebumps I felt while reading the article. There he was, holding a cricket bat (it had the "Power" logo" and I felt so proud.

I used to read the sports section in the newspaper "The Hindu" religiously everyday. We did not have a TV in our household till 1998. The only way I could stay in touch with not only sports, but news in general, was to devour the newspaper and listen to the radio. Growing up, my brothers listenened to every cricket match that was broadcast on the "All India Radio" and that was instilled in me as well. Every chance I got, I listened to the live commentary of cricket matches. For matches that were taking place in Australia and England, I would listen to shortwave radio.

There was a buzz about a kid named Sachin Tendulkar in 1989 (I was twelve and he was fifteen) from Bombay who was setting all kinds of records by scoring centuries on domestic cricket debut and he has been fast-tracked to the Indian cricket team on its cricket tour to Paksitan. Sachin's returns from the tour was average but there was a legend born as you read stories about how he played the Pakistani pace bowlers and refused to leave the field even after getting hit on the face by a Waqar Younis' bouncer.

Then came the tour of New Zealand in 1989-90 where he came so close to scoring a century (out 88) and was stopped when the future Indian Cricket Coach John Wright took the catch. I was rooting for Sachin to get that 100 and set the record for the youngest century maker in test cricket. Eventually, he scored the 100 in England in a match he helped India avoid defeat. It still is very vividly etched in my memory, the photograph of Eddie Hemmings dropping a caught & bowled chance off Tendulkar when he was on 10. Sachin batted in the company of Manoj Prabhakar and drew the test match at Old Trafford.

I feel so lucky having grown up in the era of Sachin Tendulkar, as do a millions of other Indians, probably. Cricket was instilled in me at a very young age as having 6 older brothers really helped. Our family on Sundays would go to a local cricket ground (slightly out of town) and would play typically from 8 AM till Noon. We played a a lot of backyard cricket as well. India had won the Cricket world cup in 1983 (I was 6) and there were two outstanding cricketers from India at that time, Sunil Gavaskar and Kapil Dev and a third one was beginning to emerge in 1985 (Mohammad Azharuddin) who scored three consective centuries against England in a home series. There was a definite cricket craze going through the country at that time, and India won the Benson & Hedges series in Australia in 1985 as well. India reached the semi finals of the world cup in 1987 and Sunil Gavaskar retired in 1989. And, Sachin exploded on to the stage and captured the imagination of a country.

The tour of Australia in 1991-92 followed by the Cricket world cup there was when I started following the matches on TV (at my buddy's place). India lost the 5 match test series 4-0 (drawing only in Sydney) but the legend of Sachin grew out of this tour. Ian Healy called the Sachin's inning of 116 at a lightning quick track in Perth, as "one of the finest batting display I have ever seen". Merv Hughes, the big, burly, mustachioed fast bowler, is known to have said to the then Australian captain Allan Border about Sachin as, "This little prick's gonna get more runs than you, AB". Sachin scored a huge 148 at Sydney along with Ravi Shastri who scored a 206. It was the debut match of a blonde Victorian, who would go on to become the leading wicket taker in Test cricket, Shane Warne. I read the match report in the newspaper and then in Sportstar, over and over again, trying to memorize the stats from that match. One thing besides Sachin and Shastri's personal score, that has stuck with me from that match is that, Shane Warne took 1 for 153 from 30 odd overs. Don Bradman, considered the finest batsman to have ever played the game, both statistically and artistically, is said to have told his wife Jessie, to take a look at this kid on television, who reminded of himself playing! The legend of Sachin Tendulkar was well and truly established.

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Check back for Parts 2 and 3.

A much needed cricket tool

There was an article on Cricinfo recently about the need for a rating tool to standardize the efforts of fielders in the glorius game of Cricket. Cricket's ugly cousin, Baseball, is so steeped in stats. They have the RBI, OPS, ERA, Fielding percentage and all that to keep the interest of a number nerd plugged in to the game and provide gazillion different ways of approaching the game from the points of view of manager, player, pitcher etc. Cricket has its share of number crunching but its traditionally in rating the batsmen and bowlers. That shows how much of a backseat the fielding standards had taken a back seat to the pure skills of batting and bowling. Fielding (ground fielding, catching and throwing) are such an integral part of the modern cricket game.

With the one day international introduced in the 1970's and the fans' interest in the shortened version of the game, gave birth to a new breed of cricketers that were pure athletes. They could bat a bit, perhaps bowl a bit, but were absolutely electric on the field,, cutting down easy runs, taking acrobatic catches, scoring direct hit run outs... The Twenty20 game, a furhter shortened format of cricket, that lasts only 3 hours and is more palatable for TV viewing for the modern day, fast-food munching, short attention spanned viewers. Fielding standards have become a lot better these days and especially in the Twenty20, couple of runs saved here and there, ultimately decide the winner in this wham-bam cricket.

Now that we have established the value of fielding in not only saving a few runs, but actually playing an immense role in winning the match, it becomes neccesary to actually come up with tools that quantify the fielding quality of the cricket players. There might even come a day, when players who are "fielding specialists" are part and parcel of the game. Perhaps, somewhat similar to pinch runners and defensive replacements in baseball towards the later part of a baseball game.

I was at my buddy's apartment yesterday and shooting the wind while I came with this idea. I am copyrighting, trademarking the idea right here. It begins with a GPS chip. Current international cricketers are decked out in their fancy outfits, sneakers, hats and sunglasses. The GPS chip could be installed in any of this accesory. There exists already a software in Cricket that tracks the scoring shots of batsmen. Basically, it plots the direction and distance of the shot hit by the batsmen and the runs scored by them as a result of these shots. My idea incorporates that in to 10 m diameter circle around any particular fielder. The 5 m on either side of the fielder is his range. The efficiency of the fielder to stop anything within 5 m of his fielding position will be quantified. If he makes an effort to cut down the scoring shot and keep the scoring down, that will be noted down . So, you have a computer screen on the analyst screen in the production trailer or wherever they keep these background people that tracks the location of all 11 fielders in the field. It will display a 5m radius circle around each of these fielders. When a batsman hits a shot towards a particular fielder, if it is within that 5m circle, the fielder's effort in cutting down that shot and keeping the scoring down will be noted. This way, it will be easier to see the number of runs a particular fielder saved during the course of a match. The 5m range will be graded into 1m wide regions (basically, 5 concentric circles). Each circle away from the fielder would indicate a level of difficulty. From 0-1 m, easy; 4-5 m difficult, and everything in between, graded out. The farther the ball is from the fielder, the harder it is to stop it, Isn't it? So, a composite number could be derived based on the different levels of difficulty fielding efort produced by the fielder.

Initially, this idea could be trialled in county matches, or domestic Twenty20 tournaments and then, eventually in all formats of the game. Its about time the fielders got their due.

The name for this technology??? Let me hear it. First thing that popped in my head was "Fielderange".

Bye Bye 377

Today is a big day in the life of gays in India. Its been long overdue. A colonial law that criminalizes homosexual relationships was adopted in to the Indian Penal Code when it was written in the 50's, has been deemed unconstitutional.

I have had several conversations with people near and far about the rights of homosexuals to be with one another, their rights to marriage etc. It, of course, was a rallying issue during the U.S. presidential elections. In the U.S. the homosexual marriage rights becomes a platform issue during every election cycle but the speed of news cycle with all the 24 hour news channels, it gets on the backburner sooner than later, sadly.

I first read the news about the Delhi High Court's judgement that it is not criminal to practice homosexuality in India on google news feed and read some more related stories on BBC and other news websites. I also wanted to read the comments section on some of these stories to see the reactions of people who feel compelled to actually login and comment on these news sites. I have never had the motivation to actually register and comment no matter how compelling the storyline is. A lot of the times I get put off by reading the comments on these sites because it quickly degenerates in to name calling, racist taunts and all that and I could not associate myself with it, so I never felt the need to comment there.

The comments fell pretty much along two lines: homosexuality is a sin and immoral, and this high court ruling is shoving homosexuality down their throats, and the other view was supportive of the ruling. BBC also published views of people from different walks of Indian life as well. One that really caught my eye is the following:

"Dr PV Cherian, medical doctor, Chennai - I am not very happy about this ruling.I am a Christian believer and I think homosexuality is a sickness affecting men and women, that is increasing these days in our affluent materialistic society.God intended us to enjoy normal sex between faithful heterosexual married partners. Discrimination is not a good thing and I everyone should enjoy freedom of choice. But freedom of choice is a dangerous thing, because sometimes we choose the wrong things. Freedom is harmful. I pray for homosexual people to realise their mistake. They need to be educated."

Here is a medical doctor, who has got the best possible education - definitely lot more than an average Indian. He still thinks homosexuality is a sickness. Firstly, he is wrong in saying that homosexuality is a sickness. Secondly, he does not know how much freedom people should be allowed to have. Thirdly, he contradicts himself within the space of two sentences. He thinks discrimination is bad but also, freedom of choice is only applicable, when the choice is something that he can agree with. What a hypocrite! He needs to be educated in the meaning of freedom.

This brings us to a more relevant point. Although the courts have ruled that it is prefectly legal to engage in homosexual sex in India, how will an averge Indian view it? Of course, it will take a long time before a majority of Indians accept the homosexual lifestyle among some of their fellow countrymen. The current activist movement seems to be more concentrated in urban areas. At the very least, this ruling guarantees the rights of ALL Indians to engage in whatever sort of personal relationships they may deem fit and its no body else's business but theirs alone. At the very least, the gays of India do not have to fear for Policemen harassing them. At the very least, they could be tested if they like, for HIV in a clinic and receive treatment if needed, without fear of 10 years in jail. At the very least, this is the first stepping stone for couples like these.

Here are my thoughts on this: The courts needed to deal with the civil rights issue. People are unneccesarily bringing in their moral values in to the equation. The Indian constitution guarantees all the basic personal freedoms and rights. The rights of the homosexuals come very much under this umbrella. They too are citizens of India and no worse or better than any other Indian. To prevent a section of the country (however small or large it is) from exercising their rights based on moral opinions that have been derived from their religious faiths is unconstitutional. For example, it was illegal in a lot of the states in the U.S. for people of different races to marry till 1967. In the current day and age, that sort of law sounds extremely ludicrous. However, you'll be surprised to know that it did not come off the books in the State of Alabama till 2000. Although, no one was arrested or persecuted in Alabama for interracial marriages, the fact that the law was in the books is utterly unbelievable and unconstitutional.

Similarly, the overwhleming majority of homosexuals in India were not arrested or harassed by policemen eventhough the Indian Penal Code 377 professed homosexuality as a criminal offense. However, its unconstitutional and it needed to go and finally, it has. I do not know how long it will be before homosexuality is accepted in India by a overwhelming majority of Indians. This ruling alone is not gonna make it happen. Its an uphill fight for the LGBT community and all the other rights groups in India but I am sure, this ruling has given them a renewed sense of purpose and filled winds in their sails.

You may or may not agree with homosexuality. You may think its a sickness. You may think they need to be saved and cured. But one thing you can't deny in a democratic society is the fundamental rights of people. You can't deny the rights of an individual to be with someone they love. You can't deny their rights to be married to each other. At least, not forever.