The case of the missing Cat

After a surfeit of cricket, the rolling greens of the Royal Birkdale provided a pleasant change of scenery. But the driving rain and howling winds were hardly pleasant for some of the biggest stars in professional golf. Singh, Els, Mickelson soared to 79s and 80s.

I've not had the privilege of playing at any of the links courses in the UK. However I still remember an afternoon round at the Shoreline Golf Course in Mountain View, California - next to the rather benign San Francisco Bay. The short par three 3rd (or was it the 4th?) measured 120 yards over water and a green-side bunker.

During my usual morning rounds, I would hit an easy 9 iron to the green. On this particular afternoon, there was a strong headwind from the Bay. After some thinking - and with a fair amount of reluctance - I chose a 4 iron. Barely clearing the water, the ball landed in the small strip of ground short of the green-side bunker!

And that was more like a 25 mph wind - far more playable than the gale-force 40 mph winds over Royal Birkdale. His long experience, and previous wins at the British Open, helped the Shark - looking a bit long in the tooth - to work his way around the course with his meticulous pre-shot routines and dramatic up-and-downs.

But some thing was definitely missing from the whole show. Call it the feline factor. The half-empty stands (or bleachers - as the Americans would call it) and the pitter-patter of polite applause were pale shadows of the 10 deep crowds and thunderous roars at previous Majors.

As Alice would say about the proverbial Cheshire Cat, we have seen the Cat without a grin but never a grin without a Cat. Yes, that was it. That million-dollar smile - usually flashed when he slots an impossible chip from off the green or a downhiller with a double break from 40 feet - was definitely missing.

He did miss the cut at the US Open a couple of years back. Other than that aberration, Tiger has been at every Major championship over the last dozen years, winning 14 of them. That puts him second behind the legendary Jack Nicklaus.

So, for the lesser mortals, the only excitement left is whether Masters 1996 will rear its ugly head again. That was the last time Norman led the field in a Major going into the final round. The fact that he managed to squander a 5 shots lead and lost to Faldo by six shots is probably going through his mind as he prepares for the final round.

For the Shark's sake, let us hope that he pulls himself together one last time to become the oldest person to win a Major.

What ails Indian cricket?

In a short span of time the Indian cricket team lost two finals – one against Pakistan in Bangladesh and the other against Sri Lanka in Pakistan. Lost may be too mild a word – soundly thrashed would be closer to the truth.

For those die-hard fans who are still euphoric about the young Indian team that won the 20-20 World Cup and then beat Australia in Australia, it is time to do a reality check.

Cricket is not about ‘tamasha’ or show business. It is about solid and consistent performances over a long period of time – under different weather conditions, against different opposition in domestic as well as international competitions.

Our highly overpaid and ridiculously pampered youngsters are suddenly becoming too tired and mentally exhausted to play 12 days in a three week period (or whatever the number of days they actually had to play recently). Most of the matches were played in the late afternoons and evenings where the team was on the field for less than 4 hours. No wonder they do not have the stomach to field for 6 hours in the hot sun during a test match!

Why is there no hue and cry over this in the media? Because cricket spells big money, and no one wants to rock the boat. Even Gavaskar has appreciated Dhoni’s honesty in opting out of the Sri Lanka tour.

Our cricketers have, of late, started using baseball gloves during fielding sessions. Wonder what would happen to the young guns if they actually had to play baseball in the USA. The major league baseball season starts on the first Sunday of April and ends on the first Sunday of October. That totals 183 days. Each team in the league has to play 162 games – yes, 162 games in 183 days.

Count out a few double headers (i.e. two games played back to back in a single day) and you are looking at playing 150 days during the 6 months long season (i.e. 25 days every month). The baseball players get paid big bucks, but they earn it.

Poor Dhoni. He will probably have a heart attack at the very thought of playing for so many days, and that too year after year. If he was the best wicketkeeper in the country I would be a little more kind towards him. If he was the best captain, I would be even kinder and actually condone his copping out (like Gavaskar has done). But he is neither.

No Captain should be so pig-headed as to drop all the proven performers and stalwarts of the team in the false hope that young legs will consistently win matches. To be a consistent performer one needs three other, and more important, assets – talent, brains and experience.

There is no better proof of this argument than Yuvraj Singh. Loads of talent but zero brains. After so many opportunities in the international arena, he hasn’t yet figured out when to go forward and when to go back when playing a spinner. (He has also not figured out that he is no Rohan Kanhai or Gundappa Vishwanath – who could party till the wee hours and then go out and score a hundred.)

So here is a plan for the BCCI. By all means back youngsters and choose different teams for test matches and one dayers. But keep a few stalwarts in both teams. Go on giving as many opportunities as you want to Uthappa, Rohit Sharma, Raina. But appreciate and understand that they are not – and unlikely to be - the next Dravid, Laxman, Ganguly.

While the stalwarts still have a few years of cricket left in them, keep them in the team – if not all, at least two – so that the youngsters get some guidance and learn from the experts. May be India will then start winning more finals (or lose by giving a proper fight).