30.1.12

Cricket: Quandary Down Under

Another 4 Nil defeat. There should be the change in captains, older players should make way for the new ones, bowling is receptive to dominating batsman, the scheduling, lack of everything agree to. But does BCCI feature in all this? Will the heads roll in BCCI? If the team is doing so badly, surely things are not right with the team but shouldn't the board's “responsibilities” be questioned? Surely BCCi is the big elephant in the room. It has money – the most powerful resource. Is anything ploughed back? I dont know who BCCI works, I am not the only one. I am say for sure people working within BCCI may not know how it works. Should N Srinivas,BCCI Chief raise his hand up, if not relinquish power at least come forth and present his vision for the future after these consecutive debacles.

Three Aces that were

A lot of romance that cricket has generated by three of their generation Indian batsman. They scripted some of the most memorable innings. They remain a legend, hey perhaps are in the best position to know when to go. The people outside can only make guess. The road to repair is long. I am still quite sceptic how Virat would do. Is he is the best batsman going ahead. I wouldn't mind Mohammed Kaif, Ambati Rayudu, Rohit Sharma at some stage. There could be more somebody like Rahane, Manoj Tiwari, Venugopal Rao. All remain untested and they may come to replace the great giants of Cricketing History. They have boots the size of oceans to be filled. Their every shot will be dissected.

Simply not worth the hype.

I dont know what a boring series does to movie collection. I hat any movie promotion along the series, It makes for a very bad viewing. I consider my friends opinion more credible for reviews of the movie. At times you read reviews where people write things like “ the store is weak, editing lags, songs are boring but the direction is excellent” I prefer things like “movie fokaat hai, time aur paisa barbaad”. The series was barbaad in equal sense. It is a lesson for the media too, not to hype any Indian series. The world Cup started with very little hype, every Indian fan wanted India to win, but Indians were not the favorites. We barely had the bowling to keep bother batting line ups in check. But some how things fell in match. A shrewd captain on top of his game saw us lift the world cup and make history.

Indian team is not worth the hype. The trumpets that are blown when India wins and te death knolls when they lose is simply stupid (among many things). I am sure they hysteria and the hype adds to the dismay. The consecutive away Test match white washes were no bolt of lightening. There is something surely we see but dont realize or chose to skip for the sake of convenience to our own peril.

The problem is …

It is tough to comprehend. If the batsman are struggling to score runs on bowling friendly pitches, then what are the bowlers doing? Over a billion people still we struggling to find 5 players who have control and consistency to bowl in all condition, control the batsmen if not take wickets. The Indian bowlers were generous to give runs and batsman were miser to score them. In England fitness was the issue, in Australia there could be some other excuse. I mean all the technology and all, dont our batsmen talk to our bowlers what line 7 length to bowl? Do our bowlers lack skill or temperament. India is a huge country cant we decide specific centers to focus on different type of bowling? This series and the previous one is reflective of all that pulls Indian cricket back. The other boards are not so blessed with support of the fans. Indian fans deserves better, the team needs to do more and the board much much more.

Going ahead

The road remains a tough one, there is no test in the near future, till this season ends, cant we invited Sri Lanka or Bangladesh. Whats Tendulkar doing in the ODI team, will he be there in 2015 when we defend the world cup in Australia. Should Sehwag & Co who will take Indian batting ahead need to rethink their batting?Will India take the games to the fifth day when we tour away from the subcontinent next.

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