Saturday, September 23, 2006

Great Men .. Not so great thinking..

Ok .. Here I am.. Making yet another post after eons. And on the same topic. INDIAN CRICKET. ( Don't think and know much about anything else ).
Been some 1 yr since a certain Mr. Greg Chappell took over the reigns of Indian cricket.He was supposed to be an elixir.The cure all for everything that ailed the sport in our country.So how well has he and the new ( yet not so new ) Indian captain fared ?

A disastrous tour of Zimbabwe. The aftermath of which is known to all and sundry.Our all time greatest captain cant find a place for himself in the same side he moulded (though Dada himself has to be majorly blamed for his inept batting display). Some time down the line came the ODI wins against Lanka and England. Something that not much should be read into.. Afterall Lanka in those days were still in the transition phase , and England in ODIs = me in accountancy. Load of ROOBISH !! Infact .. Horror of all horrors .. A badly bruised team with its lead spinner being someone as mediocre as Shaun Udal managed to beat us in a test match. The worst was yet to come.. A 4 - 1 series loss to WI of all the teams !!
Weren't the likes of Dravid,Dhoni,Yuvraj,Sehwag,Kaif supposed to be more than a match for their less illustrious opponents ? To me .. The 4-1 series win against Pak was the only genuinely good performance in Chappell's tenure ..


Getting to the main issue. Chappell called Ganguly the "Cancer of Indian cricket... Someone trying to destroy the confidence of players in their own abilities" .Though a little too late , a feeling of "Look who's talking" seems to comes to my mind. Take for example Sehwag. What does the team think tank do after Viru has found his run making form during the last series ? Put him down at number 4 !! Not surprisingly after losing his confidence at that position , he doesnt score much at his favoured position as well. Thats that for helping the player gain confidence.
All along , the selectors,and the team management have been praising Sreesanth and his attitude towards the game.His willingness to learn and his dedication.So what happens after a bright series in the West Indies. Dropped for the ICC trophy. Hold on .. But he is still played in matches preceeding the tournament. Confused ... eh ? Or do u just love having ur foot inserted deep into your mouth , Mr More ? And why didnt Chappell and Dravid prevent such a daft decision from being taken ?

Now .. The enigma that is Irfan Pathan. One day they hail him as the spearhead of the Indian attack (you gotta be a lunatic to say that guys ) .. And the next day he finds himself out of the team. The pretext obviously being RESTING the player . ha ha .. Since when was dropping a player from the playing eleven called 'resting' ? And could someone please tell us the theory behind him being repeatedly made to come in at no. three ? He is not a pinch hitter. And he doesnt score enough runs for a one drop batsman. We need a lot more from our number 3 than just a 40 off 50 balls in one inning out of five. Till I last knew .. The number three batsman in a side was supposed to be its best or someone very close to being that. But then .. This is Indian cricket.. And we like experimenting , challenging individuals .. To the extent of completely throwing our preparations off track.


" Anil Kumble has a major role to play for India during the World Cup."
That is what they want us to believe .. If ever someone's actions belied their words .. Then this is it.. When do u finally intend to play him in an ODI ? Directly during the world cup ? And whatever happened to the idea of selecting players in form ? ( read Zaheer Khan).


You keep talking about the bigger picture .. THE WORLD CUP. Sorry to say this Sir ,but the landscape being painted won't look too good if things continue the same way.

4 Comments:

Blogger Amit said...

Gr8 to see you back doing what you do best i.e. speak/write about cricket.

As we wait for Chappell to deliver, let me bring to you an article which also highlights similar expectations and his failure to do so.

http://www.dnaindia.com/sunreport.asp?Newsid=1054805

I feel Chappell has experimented a little too much and I guess we are well past the time when experiments should have stopped.

Here are a few suggestions which i feel if implemented will prove helpful to the team on their road to the World Cup 07-

1.Sehwag and Tendulkar should be opening the batting with Dravid playing @ no 4 or 5 to hold the innings together in order to prevent the famous Indian Batting collapse.

2. Dhoni should be used as a floating batsman and not be left languishing @ no 7.

3. We should play 3 fast bowlers and a spinner and prepare yuvraj and sehwag to bowl the other 10 overs. We just can't win a match playing 6 batsmen and 5 bowlers.

4. The position of Pathan in the team should be given a serious thought. Either he plays as an all-rounder or as a bowler or he doesn't play at all.

5. Lastly Dravid should realise that he is not the panacea for every problem that plagues the Indian team and he should learn to have faith in other memebers to solve the problems.

4:55 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Point taken...each one of them!

But but ....
What if Dinesh Mongia had not exposed 10 and Jack to Lee's fury?

Could we lay claim to being the best team in the world?

As regards Experiments-
What about a team which routed back a player who blew away the Indian top order,used as many as 18 players and still came away winners?

Isnt the gap b/w Aus and the rest all too obvious?


When the result doesnt go the right way the entire cycle resurfaces
- 1 billion selectors-1 trillion reasons for defeat etc etc...
Lets face it we are not and never have been the best team in the world. I know..I know 1983 and all....but how many know that the same Indian was beaten black and blue by the wounded Windies here at home.
It's entirely a media created hype that makes us believe we are the best and also gives the public an outlet to vent their emotions - SMS ,Analysis, Match ka Mujrim(Gosh Mujrim...gimme a break!!) featuring a whole host of mediocore ex cricketers a.k.a experts a.k.a Star commentators.. gunning for the players throats!!!

Bottomline we are a ONE SPORT NATION.
Sample this - Zee has coughed up the same amount for 25 neutral ODI's ..yes NEUTRAL (and we thought Sharjah-Toronto-Singapore were history) as Sky have for 4 full English seasons.




P.S - India finished 11th in the Hockey world cup and when questioned coach Bhaskaran has the temerity to reply "We performed admirably considering only 3 months of practice/preparation time". Did anyone care ? Were there 1 billion views ? Did Sonali Chander start a Hockey Controversies show?

And Yes We were THE BEST TEAM in the world once upon a time and have produced the great Dhyanchand who was Hockey's answer to Don Bradman

11:32 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Point taken...each one of them!

But but ....
What if Dinesh Mongia had not exposed 10 and Jack to Lee's fury?

Could we lay claim to being the best team in the world?

As regards Experiments-
What about a team which routed back a player who blew away the Indian top order,used as many as 18 players and still came away winners?

Isnt the gap b/w Aus and the rest all too obvious?

Lets face it we are not and never have been the best team in the world. I know..I know 1983 and all....but how many know that the same Indian was beaten black and blue by the wounded Windies here at home.
It's entirely a media created hype that makes us believe we are the best and also gives the public an outlet to vent their emotions When the result doesnt go the right way
- 1 billion selectors-1 trillion reasons for defeat thru SMS ,Analysis, Match ka Mujrim(Gosh Mujrim...gimme a break!!) featuring a whole host of mediocore ex cricketers a.k.a experts a.k.a Star commentators.. gunning for the players throats!!!

Bottomline we are a ONE SPORT NATION.
Either love them or hate them..but cant ignore them coz no other choice.
Sample this - Zee has coughed up the same amount for 25 neutral ODI's ..yes NEUTRAL (and we thought Sharjah-Toronto-Singapore were history) as Sky have for 4 full English seasons.


P.S - India finished 11th in the Hockey world cup and when questioned coach Bhaskaran has the temerity to reply "We performed admirably considering only 3 months of practice/preparation time". Did anyone care ? Were there 1 billion views ? Did Sonali Chander start a Hockey Controversies show?

And Yes We were THE BEST TEAM in the world once upon a time and have produced the great Dhyanchand who was Hockey's answer to Don Bradman

11:38 AM  
Blogger rooneymaniac said...

Probably all of the points u have made are correct ..
I think u have forgotten a couple of things though..
1. Captaincy .. which i think dravid should be working on ..
2. India had a good series against south africa ..
All that has happened in the past few months for indian cricket hasnt been that good ..
But hopefully there is still time on hand before the world cup and the men in blue might click form at the right time ..
I think the following must be tbe team that should go 2 the world cup :
Sachin
Sehwag
Kaif
Yuvraj
Dravid
Mongia
Dhoni
Pathan
Agarkar
Harbhajan
Munaf Patel(in batting order)
+
Sreesanth
Raina
Powar
Dinesh kartik

12:39 PM  

Post a Comment

<< Home