281 and Beyond by V. V. S. Laxman

281 and Beyond by V.V.S. Laxman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A wonderful book by VVS Laxman. In the same class as his 281 at Kolkatta. VVS comes across a very balanced person who has had success without having any connects and without being aggressive. The book shows to go that if one has talent and one is ready to put in hardwork success will follow. Unlike the Cool Captain book by Gulu Ezekiel (https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...) this book is a much better read. The book on M. S. Dhoni just states the matches that were played. There is no behind the scenes descriptions and not description of the mental states or emotions of the team members.
VVS Laxman starts of the book with his incredible 281 at Eden Gardens where his partnership with Dravid paved the way for Indian victory. He then goes back to his childhood and describes how cricket slowly creeped into his life and overtook his persona. He covers the key matches, his emotions during the matches. He also has highlighted the rapport he enjoyed with various players in the Indian team and the regard he had for players like Venkatapathy Raju, Azharuddin and his coaches.
A nice read.

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Captain Cool: The M. S. Dhoni Story by Gulu Ezekiel

Captain Cool: The M.S. Dhoni Story - 4th Revised Edition by Gulu Ezekiel
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

More a description of the matches than the life of the charismatic captain cool of the Indian cricket. He came in after a tumultuous era of captaincy by Sourav Ganguly and Rahu Dravid and took the cricketing world by storm with his big hitting abilities.

He led India with a cool head, one of the coolest heads that Indian cricket has seen so far in history, and led to them to real great victories. While statistics may not stand witness to this man the cricket fans during his time can never forget the hope infused each time he walked into the ground.

Don't expect any personal details in this book. It is mostly about the matches he played and with almost no behind the scenes snippets. Looks like the author put together the book without much discussion with the captain and the rest of the teams.

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Sachin Tendulkar by Vaibhav Purandare

Sachin Tendulkar by Vaibhav Purandare


Most of the facts and stories about Sachin in the book would already be known to his fans, but reading the book refreshes the memory and lets one relive those moments of joy and torment. Somebody who has not watched cricket during the 90s and early 2000s or is not a fan of Sachin, is unlikely to find the book interesting.

So read the book if you fall into either of the above categories.

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Why Virat Kohli will not be a good captain?

With the resignation of M. S. Dhoni, Virat Kohli takes over the mantle of the captaincy of the Indian cricket team. The press has been raving about a new era dawning for the Indian cricket. Virat is seen to bring in the aggression which is missing in most Indian cricketers (Saurav Da could possibly considered to be an exception). This aggression is expected to spurn the team to perform and the opponents to wilt.

While aggression does lead to success to a certain extent, one needs to have a mature head to complement the aggression. Virat comes out as a brat who has tasted success very early in his life. There would be lots of things going on in his head to make him heady. The captaincy will only add to his headiness. Sachin Tendulkar tasted success very early in life too, but he was a level headed person who never seemed to wish to stand out in the crowd. The way he blunted the aggressiveness of Glenn Mc Grath, Shoib Akthar, Shane Warne is a standing testimony to his maturity.

Being aggressive in words and not measured words at that does not help. It only brings a bad taste to the speaker and the person hearing it. It further aggravates the situation. A better way to counter the kind of aggression that the Australians bring in is not just not react to their comments, but also to ignore it as if one does not understand the language. Let the bat and the ball do the talking. It will silence everyone.

Reacting to the taunts of the Australians only disrupts the rhythm of the players which is their ultimate goal. By reacting to their taunts we are showing our weakness. A school bullies like to taunt the ones who are most upset by their taunting, the ones who react most to their taunts become constant targets for the bullies. The Australians are like the school bully. As the other party reacts to their taunts their taunts go up, flustering the opponents and leading them to lose their rhythm.

We have to learn to ignore them and not get flustered. Virat does not seem to have this characteristic. While he is no weakling he is another bully. He tries to pay back the other bullies in kind. This can work as long as one can be sure that one has an upper hand. This may not be true all the time as each team has weaknesses and one will only end up looking like a fool. (Remember Zaheer Khan and the World Cup finals).

While I would wish him all the very best, I doubt if he will turn out to be a good, successful captain. He may end up winning a few matches in India against the weak sides, but it is doubtful if he will notch up any significant wins.
 

Australian Cricketers Play unlike Sportsmen

http://www.rediff.com/cricket/slide-show/slide-show-1-australia-tour-india-pacers--throat-ball-intimidate-zaheer-kohli-siddle/20120119.htm

then read

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bodyline

Isn't Australia is doing what England did to them a few decades ago.

The extract from Wikipedia (Bodyline) "A bodyline delivery was one where the cricket ball was pitched short so as to rise towards the body of the batsman on the line of the leg stump, in the hope of creating leg-side deflections that could be caught by one of several fielders in the quadrant of the field behind square leg. This was considered by many to be intimidatory and physically threatening, to the point of being unfair in a game once supposed to have gentlemanly traditions, but commercialisation of the game has subsequently tended to elevate the principle of 'win at all costs' above traditional ideals of sportsmanship."

Now read this from the rediff article "It's a delivery, which is aimed at batsmen's body rather than at their bat or stumps."

Only the name has changed from "Bodyline" to "Perfume". 

So can the same be said of the Australians, or has is it only un-sportsman like to bowl to batsmen like Bradman or should we read white man to white man?