Saturday, January 21, 2012

Giant Wheel

It was april 2nd 2011. Kulasekhara bowls to M S Dhoni, and he slams a big six over midwicket, rotates the bats and hugs Yuvraj who was at other end. Tears all around. Teammates carry SRT over shoulders. World cup has been won. Nation waiting for this moment for last 28 years since that gloious june evening at lords. Nation had seen heartbreaks at koklata, debacles in Eng and aus, disaster in carrebean, final capitulation after some good cricket in SA. More than anyone it seemed like SRT has acheived all that one could as a cricketer . that includes highest runs in both forms, highest no of centuries in both forms, world cup, champions trophy and finally No1 test team member for 18 months or so leading till WC. we believed we had seen it all since we started watching cricket except maybe 100th 100 and a triple century from SRT(wishlist always add up). ofcourse series wins in SA and Aus which still was the final frontier....
with two difficult away tours all that that turned into a giant cycle. we are at lowest point in our cricket history of 8 successive defeats in test. No other team has faced this ignominy. what has happened in just an year. same time last year we fought well in difficult away series in SA. Team remains the same. Only change has been Duncan flethcher instead of Gary Kirten. So does it undermines important of a good coach. Chappel was disaster and we started fighting overseas under john wright.
This is a matter of concern. or is becauswe of bad selection or bad scheduling, IPL, or our legends have passed sell by date. Or is Dhoni disinterested in longest form of game along with new indian players... Or is sehwag overrated flat track bully , or gambhir doesnt belong, Indian bowlers lack consistency, planning and fitness. or we dont have good spin replacement for Kumble....
Or is it combination of all above factors.
or are we panicking a bit more than required. So lets pull up stats
We have lost one one home series in last decade after that famous kolkata test in 2011. (ag aus in 04) , where as all other teams has lost atleast 3 home series.
we have won one series in Pak, Eng , NZ and won two in WI. We drew 1, lost 1 closely in SA, we drew one(alomost won)lost 1 under very controversial situations in Aus. all this was prior to nightmare started in Eng.
No other team has won more than 2 away series. So why is india accused of being home bullies.
why is spin inferior to pace in terms of batmen ability to face that.
But ofcourse we need better planning of managing 3 formats of game for sure going forward to turn the wheel again... Here is my suggestion.
1. Horses for courses
2. Testing Young blood and phasing seniors
3. Picthes in balance for domestic tournaments
4. Coaching and phyiscal training
5. scheduling.

So i believe we still have great future. But need men with vision like Ganguly and kukble in helm of things.....

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