Ranchi, October 21
“I think only two bowlers should play, all batsmen should play and the part-timers should bowl.”

A rather obtuse thing to suggest about changes that should be made in One-day cricket, isn’t it? But these words were spoken by probably the smartest man in Indian cricket, Mahendra Singh Dhoni. The captain is a very smart man; thus, even if he says something that seems as absurd as what he said two nights ago in Mohali, you can bet that the message hidden in the words is far from absurd.

The essence of Dhoni’s message is this: Bowling is dying, skills are becoming extinct. Flat pitches, infinitely improved bats and batting-friendly rules have made bowling a suicidal activity.

When poor Ishant Sharma was smashed for 30 runs by James Faulkner on Saturday, it was the 10th occasion when a bowler was hit for 30 runs or more in One-day cricket. Only one of those 10 massacres took place before the 2000s.

In the 1980s, the highest number of runs taken off one over was 26, which happened four times in that decade; in the 1990s, the highest was 30 (Jayasuriya off Aamer Sohail in 1995-96). In the new millennium, bowlers have been struck for 36, 35, 32, 31 and 30 runs (five times). Clearly, the living conditions of bowlers are becoming intolerable; the human development index of the bowlers in this century would show a sharp decline in their condition.

Twenty20 has killed the confidence of the bowlers, nowhere more than on the dead Indian tracks. Five years ago, Imran Khan had told this writer: “One-day cricket has already taken a toll on fast bowlers because of the stress it puts on them, and due to the frequency of One-day competitions. The playing spans of fast bowlers have shortened. You just look at the number of fast bowlers who regularly break down. That's the stress One-day cricket puts on the bowlers. Then the travelling it involves, and there's not enough rest like there used to be in my time… You end up playing with niggles, which get accentuated when you're playing if semi-fit. Now, if you increase T20, the quality will go down further.”

What Imran Khan said in 2008 has actually happened. Several players - including the likes of Virender Sehwag and Zaheer Khan - have played in the IPL money-spinner with niggles and worsened their injuries. There is no time to rest. The travel is incessant, and during the Twenty20 season, the punishment is mandatory. Bowlers bowl defensive lines and lengths. Your best bowlers and best balls get struck for sixers, your worst bowlers (Rohit Sharma, Yuvraj Singh, L Balaji) take hat-tricks because the batsman is suicidal, too, going for all or nothing. Fast bowlers break down, or burn out very quickly. The confidence of the bowlers is shattered. They forget their lines and lengths.

Dhoni the batsman isn’t a man likely to be sympathetic to bowlers - he tortures them for fun, after all. Dhoni the captain, though, is a seriously worried man. His young bowlers have not developed; they have only regressed, losing their pace and skills, becoming increasingly predictable. Men like Ishant Sharma, RP Singh, S Sreesanth, Irfan Pathan and Praveen Kumar seem lost to Indian cricket. Even the gifted Zaheer Khan seems to have reached the end of the road.

That’s why Dhoni is worried. Another very sensible man, Ian Chappell, shares the worry. “In the short form of the game there's a chance bowlers will become an endangered species if the trend for heavier (and better) bats and shorter boundaries continues.” Chappell wrote recently. “You can't blame the bowlers for thinking they're being served up as cannon fodder for the pampered batsmen.”

Modern cricket has systematically crippled the sport’s most fearsome species, the fast bowler. No wonder Dhoni’s words dripped with sarcasm at this absurdity.

Ranchi, October 21
There was no scheduled practice session for the Indian team today, but one man seemed very keen to work on his skills. Ishant Sharma, whose 48th over in Mohali cost him 30 runs, and who consequently became the object of national ridicule, had a long practice session at the stadium in the afternoon.

Ishant, hit by James Faulkner for 4, 6, 6, 2, 6, 6 in Mohali, seemed to have been left friendless in the whole world after that, except for MS Dhoni and the selectors, who defended him and picked him for the final four One-day matches.

Today Ishant came to the ground with teammate Jaydev Unadkat, bowling coach Joe Dawes and fielding coach Trevor Penney for a post-lunch training session that lasted around 90 minutes. Ishant has been extremely ineffective in the series so far — he gave away 56 runs in seven overs in the first ODI, 70 in nine in the second and 63 in eight in the third. A total of 189 runs in 24 overs, picking up two wickets. In the only T20I match, he’d been hit for 52 off four overs, without a wicket. Clearly, something is woefully wrong.

Most experts agree that essentially, it’s his bowling length and lack of pace that are causing the trouble — he tries to bang in the ball short of a length, hit the seam and make the ball rear up or seam around. But on the slow Indian wickets, he needs to be much quicker than the 135-odd kmph he bowls at; he’s been easy meat for the Australians, who have easily hit him across the line. Everyone in Australia pulls; that’s a bread and butter shot on the bouncy Australian wickets. Ishant’s shorter deliveries are not going to trouble the Australians, certainly not on India’s slightly dead wickets.

Today, Ishant initially worked on his run-up and approach to the wicket; later he bowled with his normal run-up, focusing on pitching the ball with accuracy. This was followed by discussions with the coach, with the focus on the spot where he was pitching it. 

Almaty, Ocober 21
Rising Indian boxer Shiva Thapa (56kg) and Commonwealth Games gold-medallist Manoj Kumar (64kg) endured draining contests but came out triumphant to enter the quarterfinals on a bitter-sweet day for India in the World Boxing Championships, on Monday.

Both the boxers came back after being down a round to outwit their respective rivals. While Asian champion and fourth seed Shiva got the better off Argentina's Alberto Melian 2-1, sixth seed Manoj beat Canada's Yves Ulysse by the same margin. However, former cadet world champion Thokchom Nanao Singh (49kg) and Asian Games silver-medallist Manpreet Singh bowed out of the event after losing their pre-quarterfinal bouts to more fancied opponents. Shiva will face Azerbaijan's Javid Chalabiyev in the quarterfinals, while Manoj will be up against Cuba Yasnier Lopez, who stunned third-seeded Russian Armen Zakaryan. A win in the quarters, scheduled for Wednesday, will assure both of at least a bronze medal in the mega-event.

“It was a very tough bout and took a lot out of me but I somehow pulled through,” Shiva said as he caught his breath after the draining contest. Shiva, a silver-medallist at the 2010 Youth Olympics, faced an opponent whose tactics were not too different from his own. “I tried to play it cool in the opening round and it could have gone either ways because we were quite similar in our style. It was a 50-50 thing. He clinched it and I increased my tempo in the next two rounds,” Shiva said.

In evening session, Manoj opened the proceedings for India. The two-time Asian Championships bronze-medallist was down by three points after the opening round. However, he roared back into the contest to clinch the second round on a split decision before dominating the final three minutes to complete the turnaround. “Manoj picked up in the second and third round after being a little slow off the blocks. He was aggressive and fought in tempo style and completely dominated in the third round,” said Sandhu. —PTI

New Delhi, October 21
Force India are looking to start afresh in the upcoming Indian Grand Prix this weekend, fully aware of the uphill task of keeping rival Sauber at bay in the Constructors` Championship standings, as the Formula One season draws to an end with the final four races.

Sauber are currently 17 points behind Force India and will be aiming to overtake he Silverstone-based outfit for the sixth position in the Constructors` Championship. Force India returned empty-handed from their last two races in Korea and Japan.

"Sauber have been doing a very good job lately. They are the in-form team at the moment and they have been taking all the opportunities that presented to them. It’s going to be a real fight in these last four races. We need to make a step forward to hold them off because they can qualify well and they have strong race pace as well," Force India team principal Vijay Mallya said.

Mallya hopes the support of the Indian fans will inspire the team to score big points.

"The races after the summer break haven’t been very positive in terms of scoring points, but the morale in the team remains strong. Korea and Japan were not the easiest of weekends, but everyone in the team is working really hard to recapture our early form. It’s all a matter of finding the right balance with the car — when we do that, we will be back in the points," he said. — PTI

New Delhi, October 21
Former junior national champion, Tanvi Lad finished runners-up at the Swiss International Challenge badminton tournament after suffering a straight-game defeat against USA’s Beiwen Zhang in the women’s singles competition at Yverdon-Ies-Bains, Switzerland.

World number 67 Tanvi had reached her maiden international final yesterday after beating seventh seed Yuka Kusunose of Japan in the semifinal but she could not produce her best in the summit clash and went down 12-21 12-21 in a 26-minute match.

World number 160 Zhang was much better with her smashes and net play and she completely dominated the match from the word go.

In the first game, Tanvi failed to get anywhere near the American, who opened up a slender 3-0 lead early on and then kept increasing the gap to eventually pocket the game.

The sixth seed Indian tried to make a comeback in the second game but Zhang always had her nose ahead.

Tanvi came to 9-10 but she could not challenge Zhang, who broke off after that and sealed the match comfortably in the end. — PTI

Mumbai, October 21
The much-anticipated IPL-style football league to be held early next year will be christened as the Indian Super League even as the organisers IMG-Reliance today disclosed the roping in of four more big international stars.

Former Trinidad and Tobago and Manchester United striker Dwight Yorke, former Sweden captain and Arsenal star Fredrik Ljungberg, ex-Argentina striker Hernan Crespo and former France and Arsenal winger Robert Pires have confirmed their availability. “Crespo, Yorke, Ljunberg and Pires have confirmed their availability,” an IMG-Reliance source said.

With their signings, the names of five marquee players out of eight have been known and the remaining three are expected to be named in a few days. IMG-Reliance has also signed up former Man U goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel and former France defender Marcel Desailly as two of the eight managers for the January 18 to March 30 tournament.

The announcement came a day after IMG-Reliance entered into a multi-million dollar deal with Star India to become equity partners in a joint venture for the next 10 years to run the league. — PTI

Kolkata, October 21
East Bengal will play their biggest and toughest match to date on home turf when they face defending champions Kuwait SC in the AFC Cup return leg semifinal at the Yuba Bharati Krirangan on Tuesday.

Having lost the first leg to 4-2 in Kuwait City, the Kolkata giants have their task cut out as they require at least a 2-0 or 3-1 win to make history. No Indian club has ever advanced to the AFC Cup final. Dempo had qualified for the semis in 2008 while East Bengal’s previous best was in 2004, when Subhas Bhowmick had coached the side to quarters.

It will be interesting to watch the strategy of Brazilian coach Marcos Falopa whose experimentation with Saumik Dey, moving him from left-back to up into the midfield has often drawn flak. Otherwise, the team will have a settled line-up in James Moga and Edeh Chidi up front, while the third foreigner Uga Okpara would have the most challenging job of thwarting the Kuwait SC strikers. Captain Mehtab Hossain, Cavin Lobo and Lalrindika Ralte would initiate the all-important moves from the midfield.

The huge gap between both the teams is evident from the fact that the Kuwaiti team is looking for a record third AFC Cup title and is ranked 141st among world clubs in which EB are ranked 447th. — PTI

New Delhi, October 21
Prospects of the Indian cricket team touring South Africa at the end of this year brightened today following assurances from CSA that it could suspend its CEO, Haroon Lorgat, from dealing with matters related to BCCI and the ICC pending an inquiry into allegations against him.

A formal statement on the month-long tour, which is likely to comprise two Tests and three One-day international matches, is expected in a day or two, 'ESPNcricinfo' has reported.

CSA, desperate to cut down the financial loss that it would incur if the series does not go through, had earlier offered to “send Lorgat on long leave”.

The allegations against Lorgat relate to his role in the statement issued by ICC’s former legal head David Becker that the BCCI’s flouting of the FTP could have legal implications.

Though Lorgat is likely to be suspended from two important responsibilities, he would continue to take care of the domestic affairs at Cricket South Africa as well as dealing with other ICC members. —PTI