The period between 1996 to 2006 was a kind of era which saw very attacking cricket. From 1996 to 2006, It was Australia which dominated world cricket. Looking closely at Australia's team three reasons have gave them victory in the past. First, it was a their world class fielding. Second, their ability to handle pressure. Third, the kind of leadership they got due to Steve Waugh and Ricky Ponting . Some other factors like Cricketing style, in which they used to take a single after every four and six and their dodging style and calculation of on field tactics gave them title of world champion. In India the period between 1996 to 2005-06 was based on Tendulkar and techniques. A more traditional cricket was played in this era. This includes tricks like keeping mid-on and mid-off player on even after fielding restrictions are off. The reason behind this was simple as to try to take wicket as batsman will go for lofted shot. For that reason giving some extra run was OK. At the same time there was tendency to believe on traditional player who were sound in techniques. However, MS Dhoni's entry in the Indian cricket team just revolutionized not only Indian cricket but also world cricket. More sophisticated and calculated cricket is being played in his era. This includes inclusion of fielding centered all rounders. He believed in more pressure handling players than the technically sound players. His ability to analyze the situation according to the game earned him respect of greatest ever captain in world cricket. Inclusion of Aashish nehara in world cup semifinal even after harsh opposition, Constant belief in Sir Ravindra Jadeja, at the same time taking Cricketing abilities of Shikhar Dhaan, Suresh Rains, R Ashwin to next level , has helped Indian team a lot. His ability to remain calm at critical situation and ability to believe in his own tactics put him far over the managing capability of other captains. Inclusion of ICC Champions trophy in his long list of achievements has put him above all the standards. When Sanjay Manjarekar asked him "what's next? " He simply smiled and answered "I am not here to prove anything to anyone, I just wanted to concentrate on my next tour." Dhoni's media handling capability is also exceptional because many captain find it very difficult to deal with media during worse time. He has established a new culture where a breed of pressure handlers are emerging. A culture of fielders, never die attitude oriented batsmen, and calculated risk taking bowlers has emerged in India which is certainly taking India's Cricketing future ahead.
In India, watching cricket match is a second profession after the first profession of earning money to watch cricket. An average Indian spends one year of his life watching cricket. There is nothing wrong in that because It gives us a subject to interact at tea stalls, local street ground, lobby of cinema theaters and many other places. Indian Premier League ( IPL ) a T-20 format of the game gave opportunities to many players from India and from worldwide to earn the money. Starting in the year 2008 the league got huge amount of success in a small interval of time. The league gave us star players whose name we never heard of. It gave players a kind of ex-poser which they truly deserved. However, there is other side for the league. A huge network which works day and night to convert black money into white money. Wherever huge amount of money is involved, it attracts heavyweights from all corners of the society including Mafias and bookies. In India betting is legally banned. The casinos are banned across all the states. So the network of bookies did not have any game or thing to bet on. It was Mahalakshmi Racecourse where bookies had a chance and the horse-betting really took place a tipping point during the nineties. Then came betting for Indian national team where bookies did their business. As the technology became more advanced, the chances of fixing match became rare except for the cases of Mohammad Ajharuddin and Ajay Jadeja who were caught for match fixing. Recent controversy in IPL where Shanthakumar Sreesanth a player of Rajasthan Royals was involved shocked the nation. Police investigation showed that how he signaled the bookies by keeping towel in his pant. Why Sreesanth and other low profile people were caught is an interesting question. Bookies always fish a weak player. The involvement of other teams has not come in aimelight. I am sure from the history of Sreesanth that he will take the name of other players and will create controversy. I think Sreesanth is a mere victim of the game. The involvement of franchise can not be ruled out. What concerned me was suspicious death of investigation officer Bardish Dutt and his girlfriend at Gurgaon where they were shot dead. Police have given hint that bookies were working on the instruction of oversea Mafia. If this was a case then media attention should shift on the investigation of his death. Twitter and Facebook pages have flooded with curses directing at Sreesanth and IPL. The haters and critics of game are demanding to ban the league. Some twits also showed anger towards the politician as when cricketer commits mistake they are banned then why not politicians? What we need to do is to have some patience let the culprit be given strongest possible punishment. Banning IPL is not a solution and it will never going to happen. We need to strengthen the vigilance so that this kind of incidences never happen. The most important would be to enjoy rest of IPL as a game not as a game of life.
So really how does a cricket ball swing? the answer lies in the aerodynamics of physics. Basically there are three types of swings 1) In-swing - In this type of a swing the ball goes towards leg stump after it pitches , One has to keep rough side of the ball on the right hand side.At the same time the seem position inwards. 2) Out swing - In this type of the swing the ball goes towards the sleep corner after it pitches. One has to keep rough side of the ball on the right hand side. At the same time seem position outwards 3) Reverse swing -In this type of the swing the ball does exactly opposite phenomenon than the above two cases . One has to keep the shiny side of the ball on the right hand side in order to get reverse in-swing and vice verse. Let us physically examine what exactly happens in the process of swing bowling . For that I will take the example of conventional out swing. 1) Conventional out swing- In this category bowler keeps the ball slightly angled towards the sleep corner and rough side on the right hand side as shown in figure below.
There are two concepts which needs to be understand, the first one is laminar flow of air. In this the movement of air is smooth and air sticks to the ball for shorter time as surface is smooth and hence separation of the air from the ball is earlier. On the second hand there is rough side so the movement of air is disturbed or simply turbulent. In this case because air strips from the seem and sticks to the ball for longer time and separates later. So there is a low pressure on the top and high pressure at the bottom which results in the out swing because of of resultant force. The direction of the resultant force is as shown in the figure. 2) Reverse swing- The concept of reverse swing is a bit difficult to understand. Reverse swing starts happening around 30th over in the match. At this time the both side of the ball are rough. So the bowler can't take out the conventional swing but if someone starts bending his back and generating speed the ball moves exactly opposite of conventional swing.
In this case since there is turbulent flow of air on the both hand side hence a thick layer of air forms at the seem position at the top level. The resultant force now turns towards right and the ball moves in the reverse direction. 3) Straight seem bowling at high speed / contrast swing In this case the seem is straight facing the batsman straight.At low speed the ball will move towards the rough side but at the high speed the ball will move towards the shiny side.
Same mechanism of aerodynamics also happens in this case. So the conclusion can be drawn that the effective swing bowling depends upon the bowling action of the bowler, the wrist position while delivering the ball and most important the speed which one can generate. If the bowler can generate the speed up to 90 mph at the start, the ball will start reverse swinging from the first ball of the over.
