Will the real World Champions please stand up

The one day series between India and Australia was being described as the battle of the world champions. Australia have held the crown in all formats of the game for a long time and deserve the tag, whereas India had just won the Twenty20 championship, the newest and quickest format of the game. It did not seem a fair comparison to me and Australia have duly set the record straight as they always seem to do when someone threatens their crown. They will no doubt get better at Twenty20 as they take it more seriously.

For India all the euphoria and celebrations in Mumbai after their victory seem a distant memory. I kept thinking of the celebrations England had after their Ashes win in 2005, and although I count that as a bigger achievement, I felt that the celebrations went too far. The wounded Aussies were plotting revenge on the plane home as England just relaxed and basked in the glory. England were totally outplayed in the next series and brought to earth with a bang. The Aussies had raised their game to another level after the defeat and there was this gap again between them and the rest.

I felt a similar emotion when I saw the Indians celebrating and felt sure that the Aussies would exact revenge. Nothing stirs them more than seeing another team lauding their success. That would have given them all the motivation they needed to play better than ever. They have proved that yet again they are a distance ahead from the rest. In order to beat them they have to be under par and the other team has to be playing at their best in all aspects of the game. India came closer than they have at other times in this seies and there are very good signs as they can only improve. The Aussies still won by a big margin and never looked like loosing the series.

The Indians had decided to fight fire with fire and came out throwing all the punches with their aggressive attitude on the field. It is all well and good to do this as Indians have been labelled too soft in the past but in the end it is the performance that counts and not who out sledged whom. It seems to me that Indians almost seem to invite the sledging by their behaviour and when it gets too far, they cry wolf. It is better if they channelled all that aggression into their play, as when they do that they seem to do well. The Aussies are masters at mind games as well and are no angels but they produce the goods almost everytime and you have to admire them for that.

The end of the series left a bad taste in the mouth with some sections of the crowd monkey chanting towards Andrew Symonds. This is going too far and there is no room for that sort of behaviour in the game. It is personal and nasty and clearly affected Symonds. I think the offenders in Mumbai must have thought they were being cool, copying similar behaviour in the previous game at Vadodara, when the matter was taken lightly by the officials. The way to prevent this spreading is to ensure that the offenders are duly punished and a strong message sent out that this sort of behaviour will not be tolerated. The Aussie crowd are not above this sort of behaviour themselves, with many visiting teams, including Sri Lanka, West Indies and South Africa complaining of abuse dished out to them. Monty Panesar was counselled before the Ashes tour last winter against abuse that he was likely to face. In the end the crowd actually took to him and apart from some isolated cases, there was no major incident. It tends to happen all round the world by an ignorant minority and whereas a bit of mocking is fine and adds to the atmosphere, it is when it crosses the boundary and becomes personal and racist that it becomes unsavory and action needs to be taken.

I look forward to the Test series between Australia and India as it is bound to be hard fought and will carry the needle between the teams that has been evident in this series, which always makes a contest that much more spicy and even more of a spectacle. The Aussies have proved that they are the true world champs and have stood up to be counted when required. It is up to the Indians to rise to the challenge and fight hard in a format of a game that really is the ultimate test.

Less is more

I don't know if it is just me but I am finding this constant diet of the short form of cricket rather tedious and boring. It has lost any value and interest for me and it is a struggle to watch it. I was never a big fan of the shorter version of the game but the sheer number of games played is killing any interest and entertainment value.

The one day format certainly seems dull and too long after the Twenty20 circus. The powers that be want to continue this format as it is the money earner and that is the name of the game now but I am sure that Twenty20 can be as profitable if not more because of its popularity. There are far too many games played that it is hard to stay interested.

There is no time to miss cricket as one tournament follows the other in quick succession without having enough time to draw breath. It must be mentally and physically hard on the players to constantly have to perform at the top level and keep up the intensity and interest. I remember times times when I used to eagerly await a series after a long break but now it is an effort to watch some of the games as there is nothing new to watch and just too many matches.

I am now eagerly awaiting a good Test series and the time between Tests is growing ever longer.The last Test in England was in mid August, where we were left gasping for more but instead we had a prolonged one day series to be followed by more of the same everywhere. It seems an age to wait now for a Test series.

In these times of money driving schedules and the number of games played it would be good if the authorities realised that more is not always better but that less is actually more.