India and Pakistan's Fielding Woes.

In the recently concluded Asia Cup series, fielding of the teams who played in it was not a thing to be remembered. Pakistan showed some improvement, but not enough. India too, had improved to a certain extent, but yet not upto the standards. Sri Lanka had a good time in the field; so did Bangladesh, except for a few hiccups.

Fielding was not that important about 10 years back. But, now everything has changed in the cricket world. A result of it being the improvement in fielding. Sri Lanka has been a part of that. So has Bangladesh to a certain extent, but not the other test playing nations in the region i.e. India and Pakistan. No doubt, it has cost a lot to these two rival countries, as good fielding would help the team to save 20-30 runs, whereas poor fielding could cost the same amount of runs or even more.

On the other hand, the rest of the test playing nations have caught up in fielding at a good pace. Australia, South Africa and New Zealand seem to be in the fore front without any good competition from the rest. England and West Indies have improved in the last few years. And, Zimbambwe always seem to pride themselves in their fielding skills.

So, at least now, India and Pakistan will have to sit back and do some thinking on this aspect of the game. "Where have we gone wrong? How can we improve?", might be some of the questions they'll have to ask from themselves, and find out the answers. Or, as I said before, it'll cost them not only a lot of runs, but also matches, which are for them to be won.

Mystery = Mendis = Magic?

I first saw Ajantha Mendis bowl about a year ago, in an inter provincial 50 over match. He bowled to Kumar Sangakkara, who was bamboozled by every ball he bowled and then finally edged the ball to slip and Mendis got his man rightfully. At that moment, I knew there's something special inside this man, and I'm sure Mahela Jayawardena who was the captain of that team also knew that there is a lot to come from this man.

He played his 1st first class match in November 2006 for Army in the Division 2 Lague tournament, where he went wicketless, and in fact, he actually played as a batting all rounder. He batted at number 5, but from there he developed into a lethal bowler where the abilities of division 2 batsman were not good enough to handle him. So, he took a remarkable 114 wickets at an amazing average of 14.54. He totally dominated the bowling and that caught the eye of the selectors who picked him for the Provincial tournament, where he was outstanding and was clearly not picked by any of the top ranked Sri Lankan batsman. Therefore, there was no doubt about his selection for the National side; it was just a matter of time.

Some people even wanted him to go to Australia for the CB series, but I think the selectors were right in picking him for the West Indies tour. He did brilliantly in the 1st ODI and almost won the game if not for the 6 off the last ball hit by Chanderpaul. But, after that everybody expected him to do something fantastic sooner rather than later, and sure he did.

His performance in the Asia Cup final will be a memorable one for a very long time. He made the 2nd best batting line up in the world absolutely clueless. He toyed with them, and they were like kids who batted for the 1st time in their life. In fact, it was funny to see them bat against him, unless if you are an Indian.

Although, classified as a right-arm, slow-medium bowler, Ajantha Mendis is a spinner who bowls a mixture of googlies, offbreaks, top-spinners, flippers and legbreaks. When Mahela was questioned about his varieties and how he manages them, Mahela said he has 6 types of deliveries and he's only using 4 of them... Not good news if you are a batsman.

Batsmen have been confused by the variety of deliveries he has up on his sleeves and are at a loss to figure out what his stock of deliveries are. I saw in some articles people saying that once the mystery is out and batsman finds a way to play him, he won't be successful. They say, what happened to Saqlain Mushtaq will happen to him. But, in my opinion, Mendis has the ability to stay ahead of the batsmen and will be a nightmare to many batsmen for a long time to come.

He's still a mystery. So, in the next year or two, he might bag heaps of wickets, but there will be a time when the batsmen would adopt to different techniques to counter him. There lies his challenge. It won't be easy for them to stop this man from achieving great heights in international cricket, because he is something special. And this battle between him and the batsmen over the world, would be a wonderful treat for any cricket fan to witness.

What's Happening West Indies?

West Indies was the most dominating team in the 1970s and 80s. But, since the mass exodus of their best players in the early 90s they have fallen to a sorry state. They seem to lack consistency quite a lot.

Only a few days or months have the West Indies team been able to be above their usual 8th rank, whether it be Tests or ODIs. Although, they have won an occasional tournament in the last 10 years, their status in cricket is no doubt in tatters. But, what has made them become so weak a cricket nation, though, once they were considered as the best team ever.

Many reasons can be given for this downfall. Unlike cricketers, basketball players in the USA are paid well. So, as many West Indians are agile and athletic, they suit for many of the vaccancies available in the teams which play for the NBA title. Therefore, from the young ages, many West Indians pursue a career in basketball instead of cricket. This is one main reason for their downfall.

The other is the lack of proper administration in cricket. Their island cricket teams aren't good enough when compared to the other test playing nations' club teams. Thus, very few talented players get into the national side.

If these issues aren't taken seriously by the cricket administration of West Indies, they are certainly to fall into a deep pit and a recovery would not be that easy.

South Africa - The Chokers

South Africa is back in the cricket news. It was in a valiant effort put by the South African batsmen in the 2nd innings of the 1st test match against England. Although, they are a very good side and have shown such boldness a numerous times in cricket before, they have failed miserably when it comes to the big encounters i.e the crucial matches in the World Cup.

In 1992, South Africa were hot favourites to win the World Cup. But alas! Everything went upside down, when South Africa lost in the semi-finals to England. It was a controversial end to their bid to become World Champions, as the rain interruption made their required 22 runs to get from 13 balls to be revised, to get 21 runs from just 1 ball.

Then in 1996, South Africa were once again one of the favourites to win the World Cup. But, the West Indian start batsman, Brian Charles Lara, ruined the party in the quarter finals by making a brilliant century.

And then it was the 1999 World Cup which seemed to be their tournament. But, their hopes were once again torn into pieces, when Alan Donald got run out by attempting a needless single in their semi-final match against the Australians, who went onto to become the World Champions.

Afterwards, it was 2003 where the World Cup was hosted in home soil. This was to be their best chance to get hold of that nice World Cup. But, to everyone's surprise they didn't even make it to the second round, which was called as the Super Six.

Then came 2007. It was a tournament with mixed sucess for them. They lost to minnows Bangladesh convincingly in the second round and almost lost to Sri Lanka when Lasith Maling picked 4 wickets in a row. Anyway, they somehow managed to make it to the semi-finals. But, it didn't last long-- Australia convincingly beat them in the big game.

In the same year, South Africa hosted a World Cup of a different format. It was the first ever T20 World Cup-- another chance to get hold of that big trophy. But, it never became a reality. They were once again thrown out in the 2nd round.

So, still South Africa's woes continue. One would wonder whether someone has cast a spell on them. But, whether a spell is cast on them or not, undoubtedly, all of the South African fans will only be in joy, the day their team brings that Big Trophy home.