Cricket Tournaments

What do you remember when we talk about the 1980s and 1990s in Indian cricket? Indians being the   underdogs cruised to a phenomenal victory over the mighty West Indians to lift the world cup. Emergence of some exceptional cricketers like Amarnath, Kapil Dev, it all happened in 1980s. Gavaskar’s excellent strides against the fast and fierce West Indian bowlers like no-one could ever do! 1990s saw some outstanding cricketers in action, from the likes of Sachin Tendulkar to Rahul Dravid to Anil Kumble to Sourav Ganguly.

But, these excellent years did have something to regret about in Indian cricket. Match-fixing sagas were the most disappointing ones among them. Playing against your own country even after being in the squad is one of the worst things you could ever do. Why would you ever do that? How could your conscience ever let you do that? How could you ever sell your own country? The thought just amuses me.

Indians were extremely confident about playing in India but when it came to pitches abroad they would falter. Basically India didn’t have proper technique to counter the pitches abroad, especially the ones outside the subcontinent.

But life isn’t always about what you need, it’s sometimes about what happens. And as said, everything happens for a reason.  Whatever happened was for a reason, and the reason was pretty awesome. This gave India the need to get in some-one who could actually coach them in a way to play against the teams in their own den.

Its been a decade since the resurgence in Indian cricket started. With John Wright’s inclusion to the team, it was time to adopt dome international standards and techniques. His being a unique style of coaching, it didn’t go down well with the Indian players in the beginning. But his ability to adapt and understand the Indian political situations in cricket well and creating strategies considering the Indian cricketer’s mindsets help made the perfect start for an excellent decade. His partnership with Saurav Ganguly as a captain was outstanding and they together paved the way for many more youngsters.

Their partnership was the reason to why we have such exceptional and mature cricketers like VVS Laxman, Yuvraj Singh, Zaheer Khan, Virendra Sehwag, Harbhajan Singh and many more in our arsenal. He set a base, a foundation for Indian cricket. Some exceptional wins, he led India to the final of the World cup. And the credit has to be given to him. But statistics doesn’t matter as much as they way he has taught Indians how to play cricket in the right manner. Some motivational tips, the team huddle and there you go play cricket in the right way, in the right spirit on the ground. That’s what he taught them the best, apart from coaching them how to play cricket.

But his era was cut short due to loss of form of Saurav Ganguly and other cricketers, including Sachin Tendulkar. Though his tenure ended abruptly, but a job well done! But what matters is that the way he still advises the young boys and feels proud about the Indian cricket.

But what came next, was completely out of imagination. Greg Chappel’s spell with Indian cricket was one of the most horrendous experiences ever to be believed.  A supremely dominating, dictating and tyrannizing coaches I’ve ever seen. I agree these are harsh words, but all he’s done is worse to the Indian cricket.

Removing Ganguly from the team, marking an almost end to his exceptional career he never could have done worse. Ego problems always create bigger problems. I agree Ganguly had to be shown the right way, but not with the harshest solution. It still shows how much hatred he inflicted in the hearts of Indian cricketers, as no-one still has no words for him and as his name comes, they just say ‘Pass on please’.

Though an exceptional cricketer, his tactics never went down well with the Indians, as the way his tactics didn’t go well with the world in his playing days when he was captaining Australia. Asking his brother, Trevor to bowl the ball as if they were playing in a school playground, was one of the most disgraceful moments in the world of cricket. Even his brother, Ian Chappel doesn’t acknowledge it.

As his term was over, Gary Kirsten took his place. One of the most media-shy coaches, he never went in front of the media except when he left. He understood every player’s mentality and the way to deal with them. A cricketing brain, he was exceptional with whatever he did.

With M.S.Dhoni he had forged a partnership which was worth to watch. Winning the World Cup after 28 years, they together with the team got smiles on the millions of Indians all around the world. He was like John Wright in many ways. But where Wright laid the foundation, Kirsten was the man to lead the team forward.

He was a coach, a friend, a supporter everything you needed at that point of time. His coaching style was different and how! After winning the cup, he was carried on the shoulders by the young guns like the way he carried the team during his tenure. Creating a place in the heart of these millions of people is not easy, and he’s done the impossible. He has got himself the respect which he deserves. Cannot be forgotten that soon.

With him leaving the post, his post has been taken over by Duncan Fletcher. Looks like a media-shy person like Gary Kirsten, hopefully he’ll continue from where Gary Kirsten left and very well, indeed.

Its been a long tough schedule for India all around this year. With just some breaks in between the World Cup and the IPL, the South African tests just got over 10 days before the World Cup. On top of that, the West Indies tour is going to take just 6 days to kick start. Unfortunately, it puts a lot of pressure on the players and their fitness because of this packed-up schedule.

Indian Cricket Team With World Cup 2011

The test squad as well as the ODI squad for the West Indies tour have been announced and its quite disappointing to not hear some of the big names. Virender Sehwag already pulled out of the ODI squad because of injury, while Gautam Gambhir cannot play both the test tour as well as ODI tour because of a shoulder injury which was apparently caused in KKR’s last game against Mumbai Indians. Yuvraj Singh too has a throat infection which ultimately leaves Dhoni and Zaheer Khan to take rest off this schedule. This is not all, as Sachin Tendulkar too gets off the flight to West Indies as he wants to spend some time with family.

Such a schedule just takes a lot of toll on its players and just can’t be acceptable. All the big names being injured all the time and begging for some rest just makes it tough to live a life for them. A bowler has to be prevented from injuries, but as the number of games is increasing, the injuries can certainly go long-term. With Indian fast bowlers are even more susceptible to injuries it just makes it worse. And an injury to a player like Zaheer Khan, where we don’t even have a back-up bowler just makes it even tougher.

As every coin has two sides, this tour and the rest taken by players, has its own advantages too. This tour certainly gives an exposure to younger players in the team to take more responsibility and gives an opportunity to more players to show their talent on an international base. An opportunity, which would give India a larger pool of players to select from and would be an extremely nice opportunity to rotate the players, especially the fast bowlers. This could reduce the chances of players getting injured which will ultimately help India on the whole.

But its sometimes extremely disappointing to look when you see the players still selecting the club and money over country. As per the news, Gambhir was already injured before the start of the IPL season, though he didn’t know the intensity of the injury. On top of that, most of the players preferred playing in IPL with their respective clubs instead of taking the much needed rest. But preferring to take rest during the West Indies tour instead of playing the game for the country just amuses me. Which clearly states, that players have started giving much more importance to the club over country.

Obviously big money lures people and has quite an impact, but why put money over country. They say money is not the only answer but it makes a difference. Country and money are the only answers for the players and they let money make the difference here.

Its extremely important to give an opportunity to every player who is truly deserving, but not on the cost of so many senior players being rested. BCCI needs to keep some basic strategies in mind, and give opportunity to some players at a time, instead of giving every player just to show their talent on one stage. An extremely phenomenal scheme, they can certainly try and make 2 pool of players and try and rotate players at a regular interval. This can certainly help the team. But for that, we unarguably need to get in more talent to play for the country and not waste the talent.

West Indies tour on its way, its time for players like Virat Kohli and Suresh Raina to take up the big responsibility and try and carry the team on their shoulders. Apart from that its definitely a good opportunity for youngsters like Dhawan, Vinay Kumar and some more to shine and steal the limelight away from the other cricketers who have already put themselves in the list of top-level cricketers. Even in the test squad, Badrinath has atlast got a chance to prove himself that he is the lone and vivid player who has the skills to fill the big shoes ahead of Yuvraj Singh and Chateshwar Pujara.

Virendra Sehwag

The controversy over the ‘denied century’ notwithstanding, Virender Sehwag batted with extreme maturity to lead India to victory in the crucial tri-series game against Sri Lanka. True, India weren’t chasing a massive target by any means. Still, the conditions weren’t the easiest for the batsmen under the lights. Most of the top order struggled to cope with the moving deliveries. As such, a repeat of the disastrous batting effort against New Zealand seemed a possible danger. This is where Sehwag came to India’s rescue, and how.

Often in the past, the swashbuckling opener has hit India out of trouble. And while he was totally restraint here either — never expect him to be – there were sure signs of a batsman, who was willing to hold himself back, even be it ever so slightly for the team’s cause.

On this day, Sehwag was prepared to wait for the loose balls instead of trying to invent strokes, which has often been his bane in the shorter format of the game. It was a masterly knock that not only ensured that India stayed alive in the series, but also saw to it that they were very much on par with the other two teams, courtesy the bonus point gained. If only Sehwag can continue to adopt a similar approach in the coming one-day games, one is sure his success rate would only be that much greater.

If Sehwag was the undisputed hero with the bat, there were plenty of them with the ball for India. Praveen Kumar swung the game India’s way early on with a lethal exhibition of bowling under overcast conditions. His performance at the top was critical in guaranteeing that India did not feel the pinch of another lost toss by MS Dhoni.

More importantly for India, the other bowlers stuck to their guns as well and did not allow the Lankans to get away, unlike in the game against the Kiwis, where the opposition recovered brilliantly to post a challenging total and then dump India out of the match with a cunning bowling effort.

Ashish Nehra, whose fitness was a concern, used his experience under such situations to proper effect, backing up Kumar were well. And thankfully for India, Ishant Sharma too raised his game and struck some crucial blows. Following the early strikes, it was imperative for the spinners to carry on the good work. And both Pragyan Ojha as well as Ravindra Jadeja responded to the task on hand.

All in all, it was a well-rounded bowling effort for India, something which should please Dhoni no end. Having said that, it still remains to be seen whether they can be as effective under less helpful conditions. This is all the more imperative in case of the spinners, who have looked listless at times in the recent past.

A couple of other areas India will want to work on would be their batting order, which still doesn’t wear a settled look. Dinesh Karthik put in a match-winning effort in the Asia Cup final. But he hasn’t been up to the mark before and after that.

In the absence of Gautam Gambhir, India need him to make the transition to a consistent performer at the earliest. Also, while both Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma remain in the scheme of things for India, one of them needs to be identified as India’s next middle-order lynchpin pretty soon, in case Yuvraj Singh’s woes don’t end.

The Sehwag-enabled win has definitely given India something positive, from where they can build on. For that though, the rest need to chip in as well.