"Duleep Trophy might have lost a bit of its sheen and importance in the recent past, but it is still very dear to me" © Cricinfo Ltd

Dear readers

When I started playing first-class cricket about a decade ago, the whole purpose of playing Ranji Trophy was to do enough to get picked for North Zone in Duleep Trophy. The Ranji format was different back then. Teams were divided into zones, and would play each other before the top two qualified for the knock-outs. Hence the media coverage was also restricted to the matches in the particular zone. For example we would rarely get to know about the matches happening in the south or east. I'm sure it must have been the same for other zones too.

Doing well was important and one got noticed all right, but only in his respective zone - unless someone did something out of the ordinary, something like a triple-century or 15 wickets in a match. The knock-out matches were always pretty important, but there were only a handful of teams involved.

The real chance to get noticed at the national level would come when one represented the zonal side in Duleep Trophy. This was an opportunity for players from different states to see each other play. This tournament also included the India players since a not-so-crowded international calendar during this period allowed them to play. The players in the Indian team would often share details of up-and-coming cricketers with each other, but that was also limited to a player's knowledge of the zone he played in. The Duleep Trophy was the only platform where one would compete against the best in the country, and hence performances would get noticed too.

Those days, an ordinary outing in Duleep Trophy would severely hamper one's chances to represent the country. One would have to wait for the next edition of the tournament, which obviously happened after a year, to repair the damage.

But now that the Ranji format has changed it has become a national tournament in the true sense of the word. With the teams divided into two divisions and in two separate pools thereafter, teams get to play against different teams every year irrespective of the zones. The media coverage of Ranji Trophy has also changed with the format, and now we can follow almost every team's fortunes. One need not wait till the Duleep Trophy to know which guy is doing well in the season. While the Ranji Trophy has become more important, the importance of the Duleep Trophy has become somewhat diluted. Performing extremely well in the Duleep Trophy is no longer the only way to impress the selectors. And the fact that a lot of players play for India before playing for their respective zones these days just reiterates my point. This probably isn't such a bad thing for a player because now he has more avenues and hence more chances to leave a mark. A couple of bad innings in the Duleep Trophy are not going to push his career back by a year. On the contrary I see it as an opportunity to continue the good work, and add up to the tally of runs or wickets for the season.

The Duleep Trophy might have lost a bit of its sheen and importance in the recent past, but it is still very dear to me.

Cheers

Dear readers,

Though this post has probably got nothing to do with domestic cricket, my book most certainly does have. I'll take the liberty of taking you through the journey of how Beyond the Blues happened. At the insistence of Siddhartha Vaidyanathan, a friend and former Cricinfo journalist, I started keeping a diary for the 2007-08 first-class season.

Even though I had read quite a few rather popular diaries in England, I was sceptical about the interest such a book would generate with the Indian reading audience. People in India don't follow domestic cricket as closely as they do in England and perhaps that's why there has never been a book written about India's domestic cricket. The second issue preventing me from writing the book was the discipline and effort it would require. I knew that once started, I had to commit myself to write almost everyday, and that included days when I would come back home knackered after the day’s play, days when I would fail on the field and writing would be the last thing on my mind and on days when nothing of note would happen and hence would find it equally difficult to write.

But when I did start writing eventually, little did I know that it would become a book some day. I started writing notes at the end of the day and started enjoying it. Within two months into the season I had written over 20,000 words and that's when I realised I needed to see it through till the end. Writing at the end of a day's play was keeping me on my toes during the day as well. Though I wrote on days when I didn't do well, it wasn't a happy feeling. I would constantly tell myself that it would read quite badly in the end if I have a poor season; that I'm commenting and recording everyone's performances while I scored only a handful of runs. A very scary thought indeed. Not that it prevented me from nicking the ball outside off-stump to the keeper, but it did add that extra focus to do well.

A lot of things also conspired to keep me on my toes: the central contract, Delhi's dream run, my personal form and chances of playing for the country. In any case, I couldn't have written the script better. It was a landmark season with Delhi winning the Ranji Trophy after 16 years, North Zone clinching the Duleep Trophy, and me ending up being the highest run-scorer. We also had the first edition of the IPL in the same season to top it all.

Fortunately, finding a publisher wasn't a problem as Harper Collins came to know that I was writing a diary and approached me to publish it. The first hurdle was collecting the pictures for the book. Even though I carried my camera to all venues but my photographic skills are worse than my bowling skills .A photographer friend Ashutosh, who had clicked a lot of pictures during the domestic season, came to my rescue. The next bit was to choose the cover for the book and it was indeed good fun. I went to several book stores, not to buy books but to check out the covers to gain an idea. Finally, we had three options to choose from and I posted them on my facebook profile for the people's verdict and the one that got the maximum number of votes was finalised as the cover. Finding the title was even more difficult and facebook didn't come to my rescue this time, but a friend, yet another Cricinfo journalist, Sidharth Monga came up with this title 'Beyond the Blues' which we found very apt. The idea behind the title was that in India we identify our cricketers with the colour 'blue', these are our 'men in blue', but then there are 'the blues' of playing domestic cricket too which everyone goes through before donning the blue India colours.

The final bit was to finalise the date of release which gave us all a bit of a headache and some heartache too. We were supposed to release it in October but the book wasn't ready by then and we didn't want to do a shoddy job of it and hence postponed it. Then it was difficult to find time during the domestic season and so we decided to do it on December 22 at the Taj Mahal hotel in Mumbai which would have been the fourth day of the second Test between India and England. But then 26/11 happened and the plans were scrapped. Celebration was the last thing on our minds at that point of time.

Finally, on January 8 the book saw the light of day with a release function in Delhi. I was overwhelmed with the response on that night. Everyone who I had invited turned up to show their love and support. Virender Sehwag cancelled his advert shoot to be there and the rest fought their way through a heavy traffic jam (thanks to some festival and petrol pump strike) to participate in the event. Mr Arun Jaitley, the Delhi and Districts Cricket Association president, was kind enough to officially release the book.

I can't thank everyone enough for making that day memorable. Now that the book is out and reviews have started pouring in, I'm a bundle of nerves once again. It is even worse than facing a quality bowler for two reasons. One — I've been playing cricket for as long as I remember and hence it doesn't make me too nervous. And second - while facing a quality bowler at least you have the opportunity to do something with the ball hurled in your direction, whereas in this case you could only read what others think about your work with no option to change the outcome. But then that's exactly the reason why anyone writes a book - to know what others think about it. So I'd like to request my readers to feel free to give an honest feedback on Beyond the Blues. And also forgive me for boring you with this post which has nothing to do with the ongoing season but I promise to make up for it in the forthcoming posts.

Cheers.

	We do have to make peace with the fact that the man standing 22 yards away is also human and can commit mistakes © Cricinfo Ltd

Dear readers,

We, Indians, are always looking for divinity in everything. We make Gods out of normal human beings and treat the game as a religion of sorts. Following the same trend even deeper I can clearly see divinity at work in first-class cricket. They say 'To err is human, to forgive divine’ and that's concretely manifested in almost every first-class game played in India.

Take the ongoing Ranji Trophy final for example, whether it was Wasim Jaffer on the first morning or Zaheer Khan on the second. Both of them erred in judgment and nicked the ball to the wicketkeeper but the umpire standing 22 yards away forgave their human follies and divinely granted them some more time to improve on their game in the middle. On the other hand both Ajinkya Rahane and Mohammad Kaif had to turn to their divinity when the man 22 yards away erred disastrously and gave them out when they clearly weren't.

The standard of umpiring in first-class cricket has been below-par for as long as I've been playing the game but rarely do we see people talking about it, apart from the affected players that is. The reason being that the matches were never shown live and hence there was never enough evidence to attract criticism. Now that the matches are shown live and they happen to be really high-profile games, the mistakes are glaringly visible and the consequent criticism very vocal.

I'll avoid sounding like a cynic and hence will mention only a few incidents and leave it to the readers to make up their minds. Not so long ago, in a Duleep Trophy game, we heard someone talking at square leg. Initially, we though the fielder must be chatting with the umpire, which happens quite often, and was a little too loud. But to our utter disbelief there was no-one fielding in the vicinity and the umpire was standing alone. Was he talking to himself? Further inspection revealed he was busy talking on his mobile phone, a fact he vehemently denied, but the next phone call gave it away. It was on silent but the vibrator mode's buzz was rather audible.

Then there was this incident when a bowler bowled six front-foot no-balls in an over without getting called for any one of them. I was at the non-striker's end and kept drawing the crease to attract the umpire's attention but to no avail. I did improve my drawing skills, though, and I can proudly say that drawing a straight line with my bat is not an issue any more!

On many occasions, the umpires walk towards covers or mid-wicket before adjudging someone leg-before wicket. A few of the decisions might have been correct, but as a batsman you don't want to see the umpire moving sideways to decide whether the ball was hitting the stumps or not.

Before you start blaming the BCCI for everything, let me tell you that efforts are being made to improve the standard of umpiring in the country. There are six cameras installed for the duration of every first-class match played in the country. There's an umpire's coach who gets the live feed and monitors their performance. Based on the video evidence he rates the umpires for their competency, decision-making and proper implementation of the rules. Since this started only last year, there is still some time before we start reaping the benefits of the exercise.

Please don't get me wrong, there are still a lot of umpires who have gained a lot of respect from the players and are very competent. Umpiring goof-ups happen in international cricket as well so first-class cricket can't be foolproof. As long as the human element is involved in the game, which I think should be there forever, mistakes are going to be made. Don't we as a batsman or a bowler make mistakes? Since we, cricketers, also make plenty of mistakes on the field, regardless of however much we crib and cry, we do have to make peace with the fact that the man standing 22 yards away is also human and can commit mistakes. After all "to err is human …"

Cheers

PS: I know it might sound like a plug but I'm also human and hence allowed to err … My book is out in stores and I'm waiting for some honest feedback.

	Where would Saurashtra be without Shitanshu Kotak? © Cricinfo Ltd.

Dear readers,

With the Ranji finals starting tomorrow I can't help but think of two relatively unknown names who lead Uttar Pradesh into the finals. Both Shivakant Shukla and Parvinder Singh played the innings of their lives when their team needed it the most. This is what intrigues me about team sport - different people standing up and bailing the team out at different difficult times. But the sad part is that everyone's contribution is not acknowledged in a similar manner. This is the story of people who are always the best men.

Last year, Parvinder Awana from Delhi took a hat-trick against Maharashtra when we were desperate for a wicket. He got a lot of crucial wickets at times when we needed them the most. But his overall season tally didn't match up with the best in the country, nor was it good enough to get him into the North Zone squad for the Duleep Trophy. His hat-trick wasn't the only time he made a crucial contribution, the wickets against Tamil Nadu in a must win game for Delhi, crucial second-innings wickets against Baroda in semi-finals were as important to Delhi's success as Gautam Gambhir's, Rajat Bhatia's or my centuries were.

And he wasn't the only one. A lot of people played a significant role to ensure the team's success, but only a few were rewarded individually. It's because they make up the supporting cast, and aren't the lead actors that they aren't given a share of the limelight. They are expected to be contented with the collective success.

When we talk about Saurashtra's resurgence as a team, we only talk about Cheteshwar Pujara and Ravindra Jadeja being the main contributors. Yes, they have been doing really well, but there are others too. The team wouldn't have done wonders without Shitanshu Kotak's consistency with the bat and Sandeep Jobanputra's relentless aggression with the ball. There are others too. But since only two are tipped to play for the country we tend to forget the rest and their invaluable contribution. It's just the outside world I'm referring to because the teams value their contribution and hold them in high esteem.

The same thing happens in international cricket too, but not nearly quite as often as in domestic cricket. Perhaps some of these guys are never going to play for the country, but they are the pillars of their team and immensely important to first-class cricket in India. These are the guys who ensure that one doesn't drop the guard even against a lesser known individual.

Some of us are really blessed because whenever we perform we get picked to play at the next level, well most of the times at least. But that isn't the case with everyone. For starters they're competing with the known names of Indian cricket for a spot in the zonal side. And even when they do get picked they rarely get the desired batting position or enough number of overs to bowl, and that is if they make it to the final XI. In theory, they got an opportunity and are rewarded for their performances but in practice it isn't the same all the time.

Bhatia is one such example. He was the country's best allrounder last season, and was picked to play in the Challengers this season. In theory he was rewarded, but let me tell you how it panned out for him in practice. He played only one of the two matches his team played (because they didn't make it to the finals), and his team needed well over 6.5 runs an over when he walked into to bat with four or five top-order batsmen already back in the hut.

It was his big chance and he didn't want to goof up, but his options were really limited. He couldn't bide his time because doing so would mean the asking-rate would keep rising, but getting out while trying to up the ante would ruin his only chance to make an impression. Well, some might argue that it was a tailor-made situation for him to make a mark for himself. That may be true, but just one opportunity after six years of hard toiling in the domestic circuit, and that too, in far from ideal circumstances doesn't sound that appealing to me. It would be good to spare a thought for these guys.

Personally, I can't thank these guys enough for playing their role to perfection to ensure that a few of us eventually play for the country.

Cheers

Dear readers,

Generally one must beat the opposition to qualify for the next round; a draw is never good enough. But in all probability a draw will do the job in this year's Ranji Trophy semi-finals. Both matches, though at neutral and Test venues, are being played on flat batting surfaces where the toss almost decided the outcome of the game. These are perfect win-the-toss-and-bat-first conditions. And to make matters worse for the team losing the toss, the match is only a four-day game and a first-innings lead is adequate to decide the match.

When you know that you don't have to bowl the opposition out twice to ensure a place in the final, the approach while batting changes, especially when batting first. One wouldn't want to force the issue as time is never going to be a concern. One must bat on and on for as long as they possibly can and try to bat the opposition out of the game.

There are two aspects of posting a big first-innings total. Scoring anything in excess of 400 would consume a lot of time and then, whether the opposition manages to chase it or falls short, the reply would also take a lot of time. So, by the time each team has batted once, regardless of who gets the lead, it would be near the end of the third day's play. Now, with only a day to play none of the teams would be able to set up the match for a desired result. A five-day match for the knockout stages would therefore be preferable. It's unbelievable what those three extra sessions on a wearing fifth day wicket could do to the outcome of the game.

We, Delhi, conceded a fifty runs first-innings lead in the final but since it was a five day game we knew there might just be enough to get even by the end and we did. One could argue that even a five-day match won't produce a result on such good surfaces. That too is a factor and it brings us to the state of the pitches.

Personally, I think there are few types of tracks which could ensure good cricket. The ideal track would assist the quick bowlers on day one and partially on day two as well, becomes a good batting surface on days two and three and starts helping the spinners on days four and five. But that seems like asking for too much especially in first-class cricket. So the next best option would be to either have a track where the ball does a lot in the first innings, say days one and two, ensuring that both the first innings are wrapped up relatively quickly (I dare not suggest the track provided for Delhi-Orissa game where the match got over in 120 overs), or a track where the batsmen make merry for the first two days before the spinners take over the proceedings for the remainder of the game.

But what we're witnessing in the ongoing semi-finals is the regular kind of track we're used to seeing in India. The track was good to bat on at the start and remains to be equally conducive for batting till the end, with just a hint of spin creeping in, but still, far from doing enough to force a result within four days.

A five-day match and a slightly more responsive surface might just do the trick at this level.

Cheers

PS: My book Beyond the Blues is releasing on January 8, so please wish me luck.

Dear all, Wish you a very happy and prosperous New Year. For the last couple of years we have had the privilege of being at home on New Year's Eve but it hasn't always been like this. On the contrary we have almost always been away playing for our state teams at this time of the year.

If you've been following my blog you might remember that I'd written about the horrid time we had en route to Vijaywada. Incidentally we were in the same city for New Year's Eve as well. There was a small party organised in one of the posh hotels which was obviously not the hotel we were staying in. We paid our way to the party and found that it was a family affair with comedians, poets, singers taking the stage. There was some kind of a live band playing too but it was more of a sit-down function. It wasn't the ideal way to celebrate New Year's Eve but we made do with what we had.

I also remember a night in Mumbai. We were playing a Ranji Trophy game and I was not out on 46 at the close of play on the December 31. Hoping to score big the next morning, the options were very limited for me. I decided to stay indoors in the city of dreams while a few of my team-mates (the one's who had been dismissed, the bowlers and the ones not playing) had a blast. Well, I had a job to do, I told myself. As luck would have it, I got to my half-century off the first ball of the new year and got out soon after. I couldn't stop thinking that I too should have gone out last night. Hindsight is a wonderful thing indeed. My team-mates were quick to rub salt into my wounds by asking me sheepishly about what I did the previous night. I probably also became one of the only batsmen who had to wait a year to complete his half-century.

That was the last year a first-class match was scheduled on New Year's Eve as the captains voiced their displeasure during the captain's meeting (a meeting between the board officials and the captains of all state teams is held every year after the season) and to the board's credit they complied to it. Nowadays, we don't have any matches on Diwali and New Year's Eve. But my poor Christian fellows still end up staying away from home on Christmas as there's invariably a match scheduled for the 25th of December.

I also vividly remember being away from home for age-group tournaments and celebrating New Year's Eve in various other cities. One such time we were in Pune for some Under-19 one-day matches and we celebrated New Year's Eve with some tea at a roadside vendor's who stayed open till midnight. We prayed to God looking at the moon for some reason and went to bed soon thereafter; after all we had a match to play the next day. Looking back at all of it now, it seems so strange that we couldn't wish our parents or friends till the evening of the January 1, after the game got over. Those were the pre-mobile phone days.

Then there was the New Year's Eve at the Sydney harbour in 2003. The entire Indian team was on a cruise ship and I had the best time of my life.

Now that we're home and with our families, we must make the most of it as we really don't know what the future has in store for us. Though, personally, I wouldn't mind staying away on New Year's Eve with the Indian team once again.

Cheers.