WHAT IS WRONG WITH INDIAN CRICKET?

Why is India not the number one team?

India is a country of a billion people. Yet, we cannot find 15 people who are competent enough for a top notch job in the Indian cricket team. A statistical analysis of the players India has produced over the last 30 years may tell a story. We take three Indian batsmen; compare them with three counterparts (same period, similar position in batting order, etc) and three bowlers and three counterparts. In this analysis (only in tests), I choose to ignore Sunil Gavaskar, Kapil Dev, Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid, as they are clearly great players. There is no doubt about their greatness.

THE BATSMEN

Gundappa Vishwanath played international cricket around the same time as Greg Chappell. Also, as far as batting goes, they both played a similar role. Chappell played 87 matches to Vishy’s 91; Chappell had 19 not outs to Vishwanath’s 10; Chappell had 7110 runs to Vishwanath’s 6080; Chappell had an average just under 54 to Vishwanath’s 41.93 and Chappell had 24 hundreds to Vishwanath’s 14. Also, Chappell bowled much more than Vishwanath.

V.V.S.Laxman has been an important cog in the Indian batting. He has played a role much similar to that of Mahela Jayawardene. VVS has played 80 matches as against Jayawardene’s 85; VVS has 4878 runs as against 6289; 15 not outs as against 10 and 10 centuries as against 16. Jayawardene also has had to bear the extra brunt of captaincy.

Dilip Vengsarkar played around the same time as Sir Vivian Richards. It is important to note that although Richards has played 5 matches more than Vengsarkar, he has played 3 innings less. Richards has 8540 runs to Vengsarkar’s 6868; Richards’ average is just over 50 as against Vengsarkar’s 42.13 and Richards has 24 hundreds to 17 of Vengsarkar.

THE BOWLING

India is known for its spinners. Bishen Singh Bedi can be considered a contemporary of Derek Underwood of England. Although Underwood has played 19 more matches and bowled about 85 more overs than Bedi, Underwood has an average of 25.83 as against Bedi’s 28.71 and he also has a strike rate of 73.6 as against Bedi’s 80.3. India loses again.

Anil Kumble is the workhorse of the Indian bowling, a contemporary of Shane Warne. Kumble’s average is 28.65 as against Warne’s 25.41; Kumble’s strike rate is 65.2 as against Warne’s 57.4 and has lesser 5 wicket hauls (in innings) and ten wicket hauls (in matches.)

Javagal Srinath was India’s pace spearhead for years. Shaun Pollock is his contemporary. Srinath’s average is 30.49 while Pollock’s is 23.19; Srinath’s strike rate is 64.0 while Pollock’s is 58.1. Pollock also has 6 more five wicket hauls than Srinath (in innings.)

Is that really not enough? India is statistically overpowered. But, the only ‘positive’ point is that India has produced at least four excellent players in the last thirty- odd years. - BS

INDIAN CRICKET'S FUTURE

Indian cricket has seen many great personalities - right from Ranjitsinhji to Mahendra Singh Dhoni. But what is the sport's future in India? I reckon the cricket scenario in India is going to turn out to be like the hockey situation.
European countries like The Netherlands, Scotland and the Republic of Ireland are slowly gaining prominence in the world of cricket. The Irish' recent good yet highly controversial performance against Pakistan is only substantiating that point. If India is to lose out on the cricketing front, it is going to be because of the unavoidable cause - the Indian's basic physique is certainly not as strong and big made as some or most of the Europeans' - and the avoidable - the Indian character is such that hard work cannot be a substitute for talent.
Not much of the cricketing aptitude of European countries (barring England) has been seen until recently not because of incapacity but because of their being unaware of and not-so-interested in cricket. Now, since a cricket is becoming more and more popular and famous in these countries, they will not just come up as cricketing nations but will do so at a conspicuous pace.
Cricket, after all is a sport. Physical strength is required not just for the sheer game but also in a way for amplification of mental and psycological strength and I don't think any of my unbios countrymen will deny that the Dutch and Scots are endowed with more of that than we are.
In the case of hockey, India were on top of the world. They are still a very formidable team. But, their prominence has certainly decreased since the late entrants (the Dutch, etc) have 'stolen the Indians' thunder.'
The Indian cricket players and more importantly administrators have to work hard and be careful of the future of Indian cricketers. New players should be groomed, talents should be spotted and given attention, and most importantly politics should move out of the picture. A significant point here is that talents are being spotted to an extent now. But these 'talents' are either sitting in engineering colleges mugging or are exploited at a young age resulting in early burn out. Strategy is more important off the field as compared to on the field. -BS

Approach

Cricket teams around the world have different strengths and weaknesses. Therefore, it is incorrect to assume that similar coaching methods can be used with all teams.
Team India cannot be equated with team Australia. The Indian team is a group of highly talented individuals. Indians, by natural tendency, cannot work as hard as Australians and are nowhere near as fit as the Aussies. Therefore, in India, the coaching approach should be such that it suits the personality of our cricketers. Repetitive and elaborated fitness experiments and exercises such as running around the cones in different manners and jumping over them may suit the Australians but they do not suit the Indians.

If there is one reason why an Australian player can perform, it is out of sheer hard work (I am by no means discrediting the talent of the team.) But, in India, unlike Australia, a person with little or no talent even after long hours of practice cannot be made a Sachin Tendulkar. The mental and psychological make up of the Indians is very different from that of the Australians.

Furthermore, the Australian physique can handle much much more than the Indian counterpart. Continuous exercise cannot solve this problem. Nothing/ no amount of effort put in can alter the basic physical characteristics and capabilities of a certain person. Another important aspect is technique. Coaches try to incise technique into the Indians. It is possible to a certain extent. But had Mr.Srikkanth himself gone through modern coaching, his aggression and therefore success will have been subdued to a great extent.
Take the example of a person like Dhoni or Shivnaraine Chanderpaul. Their techniques are different. Yet they are so successful. Every leg-spinner is ask to flight the ball and give it a nice rip so as the beat the batsman outside the off stump. India's most successful bowler, AnilKumble has a different approach.
Sir Garfield Sobers could stay up and drink till late in the night and then come back the next morning to score a double century. None of us can though. And that has to be understood.
It has come to a stage where technique is hindering the growth of talent. Also, there is excessive physical and mental pressure on the cricketers. Discipline must be enforced. All these factors must be taken into account for the long term success of Indian cricket. - BS

Bob Woolmer - Farewell

The Pakistani cricket team and most other members of the cricket fraternity are taken aback by the sad demise of the the former South African and well, former Pakistani cricket coach Bob Woolmer.
Considered to be the best cricketing coach in the present, Bob Woolmer used technology to the greatest extent. Sir Richard Hadlee aptly described him on a famous Indian news channel as being 'ahead of his times.'
A former cricketer talked about Bob Woolmer as showing him his work room as part of his house in Cape Town which had computers and software which would help his coaching - all this in a time when computers were not commonly found in households unlike today when I myself am writing an article which will get posted on the net a few minutes from when I begin writing. His technological exploits and analyses bore fruit when he used his computers to the disadvantage of Worchestershire and England batsman Greame Hick when Woolmer made an observation of great detail. He noted that if Hick was kept without scoring for a sufficient amount of time, he would flick an off stump ball to midwicket. The South Africans took advantage.
As a coach Bob Woolmer, was always striving for the team to perform to its best. He left a lasting impact on every team he coached including Warwick shire, South Africa and Pakistan. He is said to have used a microphone - headphone set up with Wessel (Hansie) Cronje to give Cronje instructions when he was on the field. Although it was immoral, in the times when Cronje had this advantage, the prudent ICC would have never anticipated advantage being taken on the cricket field due to communication devices. A law was later passed prohibiting any such actions.
As a player, Woolmer was an opening batsman for his county Kent and also played close to the top of the batting line up for England. A very good player of pace, Woolmer had beautifully timed drives through the cover, point and mid-off areas. He was also pretty unlucky, having played only 19 tests and 6 ODIs in an international career spanning between 1972 and 1981. He was also a useful medium pacer.
Bob Woolmer was an obviously prominent person amongst the world's cricketing personality. He was handling a Pakistani team which was close to shambles and has found the best route to permanently free himself from his pressurising job. Bob Woolmer, may your soul rest in long awaited peace.

WC Team India

The Indian team for world cup 2007 has been chose this morning by the selection committee headed by Dilip Vengsarkar.
The team is headed by Rahul Dravid whose form of late is just about reasonable. Although he has four fifties in the last 10 matches, he has not been able to convert. Sachin Tendulkar is the former's assistant and his form has just been regained with a hundred, but I am still forced to agree with Mr.Venkataraghavan's opinion that he needs to pass those scores of fifty and sixty which he has not done of late. In the 2006/07 season, he has scored 2 hundreds with 4 fifties, but that's just the one day stat. In tests, he played six innings and scored 2 fifties and one score of forty four but no hundreds. He really showed us the true quality of the bowlers by winning the castrol Indian ODI bowler of the year 2006.
Robin Uthappa has to play cautiously and build his innings carefully, else his career may be short. He needs to build long innings.
Saurav Ganguly has been batting like we knew him in 99 and 2000. He again, needs a hundred. He has played some very useful innings but has not scored a hundred after his comeback.
Dinesh Kaarthick never really got an opportunity to perform but used the little opportunity he got to the fullest. But why is Dhoni keeping?
Dhoni has kept his place in the side with a fifty and he is also a much improved 'keeper (its not a surprise when he collects the ball.)
Where is Romesh Powar? He may not get you a big haul of wickets, but he controls run flow efficiently and consistently picks up a couple of wickets.
Harbhajan Singh is surviving on past achievements. He needs to regain form.
Anil Kumble has not played much ODI cricket but I suppose the selectors have picked him as a tribute to his being the (only) workhorse of the Indian bowling.
Sreesanth is not as efficient a one day bowler as he is in tests due to his tendency to give away runs. In 26 ODIs, his economy rate is below 4 only in 4 ODIs.
Munaf seems to have got in due to accuracy and certainly deserves to go to the Caribbean.
We all know how useful Agarkar is under pressure and he has also performed when the team needs him the most thus taking his place in the indian team.
Yuvraj Singh has not played much cricket of late and has been picked due to his career achievements as with Sehwag.
Zaheer Khan has been very useful to the Indian team and hopefully he is not affected by the injuries that he is prone to.
The selectors did not have much of choice and therefore have selected a good squad for the Caribbean. -BS

The Selection Dillema

The selection of the Indian team for the upcoming world cup in the Caribbean has been a topic of constant debate. What should be done?

The openers:
The Indian team has an unusually large number of choices for the people to put at the top of the line up. Robin Uthappa and Saurav Ganguly have been doing a good job and have been propelling the team to a number of good starts, faintly reminding us of the starts that our team was given in world cup 2003 by Tendulkar and Sehwag. The latter has not played international cricket since the south african tour and will get an opportunity to perform in the Sri lanka series, just prior to the world cup. Whether he will perform is any one's guess. If he performs, I just hope it is not a one time affair. If he doesn’t, he has his work cut out. Gautham Gambhir is out of the equation due to basic technical flaws - he is conspicuously uncomfortable with the ball on his pads (he always gets bowled around his legs, even to pacers) - and inconsistency, but one can say that he has not been given sufficient opportunity to perform. He is known to be the person who plays a couple of good shots and then gets out which has come to become the convectional innings plan of the average Indian batsman over the years.

The Middle order:
Who’s Raina friendly with? With an average in the 20s in the last few matches he has played... We don't have any problems there except the crucial number 7. We have Dravid at number 3, Tendulkar, showing glimpses of his true talent at number 4, ideally Karthick at number 5, either Yuvraj or dhoni at number six, what about no 7? If Pathan regains his form (bowling) (hopefully), we have the luxury of an all - rounder, well at least signs of one. But otherwise, there are some problems.

The 'keeper:
Its either Kaarthick or Dhoni, preferably just Karthick, if the batting is sorted out. But on what basis does Dhoni keep when Kaarthick is proven better (what with his great performance against England and New Zealand with that unforgettable stumping of Fleming off Bhajji.) The issue might be that Dhoni cant field. But that is unlikely.

The Bowlers:
The important decision is - Powar or Bhajji? Powar may not be picking up the five fors but is certainly effective in the shorter version of the game. Bhajji has good records behind him. Jumbo just HAS to play (his not playing is one of the reasons we lost the final of the last edition of the world cup - we know how the Aussies play spin.) Pathan? Once again his form is a concern. Sreesanth and Munaf's destiny will be decided as per their sri lanka series performances. Zaheer is a sure shot. RP has to be considered

England have recalled Gough, why not call on old Sri (nath.)