What is Wrong with the Indian Cricket Team?

A little more than 4 months ago, I was ecstatic at what my favourite cricket team had achieved. We had won the world cup and were the number one side in test cricket. The Board of Control for Cricket in India was (still is) the strongest and the richest board in the world. Our batsmen were the best, bowling better than most and even the captain was considered the coolest and smartest. In short everything was shining and success and glory was everywhere you looked. Be it ODIs, test cricket or even the T20 in which we had the most attractive domestic tournaments in the world (the IPL).
So what has changed since then? Why do I need to write a blog post about things that are wrong with this team? In the last 3 weeks this team has been humbled by an English team who have been rising steadily and improving remarkably for some time now. The way the English won the last Ashes spoke a lot about the quality of their test team. It is understandable that India are missing a few crucial performers due to injury and fatigue but that can not be taken as an excuse for a poor showing. So what is wrong with this team?
First and foremost, this Indian team is not improving in skill and quality. In my opinion every player in this team has given their best performances in the past and yes I am counting the youngsters as well. Unless they work on their technique and skill I don't see them giving a better performance in the future. Even SRT, Dravid and Laxman need to give world class performances everytime they step in or else their ageing bodies will take a toll on the team. Secondly, the team is tired at this point of time because of lack of bench strength. So many players play all the three formats throughout the year and it causes mental and physical fatigue. Change of coaching staff may also have an impact and what Duncan Fletcher will do to change that remains to be seen. Mind also goes to the fact that after so much success, have the players forgotten what it was to work hard in times of hardship? I hope not but I fear they have.

Dropped catches in the third session of the day speaks of low confidence and concentration, which you don't really associate with the Wall. Lethargic body language and hands in the pocket were so common in the field. This post should not be considered as a criticism in bad times, because we all have done that a lot. We Indians love to hack the team when they don't do well, but this is something totally different. This performance is so bad I can say for sure, I have never seen such shoddiness in my lifetime. Comments and replies are most welcome.

is IPL good or bad??

I would like to refer to an article written by Sanjay Manjrekar about the IPL. he said IPL gives the opportunity for ex cricketers to earn a livelihood and thus sustain their lives and those of their families. He was talking about people who find themselves like fish out of water when they are away from the cricketing field. In some ways he is right. Imagine an I-banker who is forced to work as a civil engineer after 15 years of working as a big shot in the investment world. Let's now look at the other end of the spectrum. The young players who are trying to find their feet in the world of cricket. For them IPL is a great opportunity to show their talents and make a claim for a spot at the international level.
But what about the people who are currently in the international playing XIs. What about the Malingas and the Gayles and the Dhonis and the Rainas. Everyone of those cricketers are just tired because of so much game time. At the end of the day they too want to rest and spend some time with their families. This is precisely one of the reasons why some of the international cricketers are taking voluntary retirement from their international careers.
The lure of the money is there and it creates a feeling of unprofessionalism in the players' minds. The fact that national contracts of year long do not pay any way near the month long contracts of the IPL or for that matter other lucrative leagues in Australia and WI and England. The fact that so much money sometimes brings in people with malicious ideas (read match fixing, spot fixing) into the picture. What the cricketing world does to tackle this problem will be very interesting to see in the coming years. Will we see some more Lalit Modis and Suresh Kalmadis or whether the bad time for cricket and IPL is behind us.

20 years of Sachin Tendulkar

There is so much that has already been said about Sachin and his 20 years in international cricket that anything I blog will be redundant. People have and will talk about the world record he shared with kambli, the last ball over in hero cup '94, the swashbuckling 1996 WC, the desert storm of Sharjah '98, the broken back innings of Chennai '99, the melodious flowing dominating 2003 WC, the latest centuries in Sydney, Chennai and Hyderabad, the Everest of runs in all forms of cricket and the eventuality of him hanging his boots. But nevertheless here is my tribute to my hero and undoubtedly the best cricketer of all times.

What we often forget is that he is a normal human being. He has his family and may need some peaceful privacy in life. Its like in the movie "The Truman Show". He has been constantly observed, loved, criticized, praised, worshiped since he was 14. And how well he has taken the pressure. Just to give an example of the pressure he faced at that time: He was presented batting pads by the world's leading test run scorer and told by many legends of the game that he would play for India. He was sent letters inked in blood saying please don't retire because of the back injury. When Sachin bats trains have been known to stop minutes just to let everyone on board catch up on the action. When he made 15000 runs in ODI cricket the sensex rose to a new high. Every match he plays in the TRP fall down drastically when he gets out.

It will be stupid to say he doesnt realize how much we love him. Of all the people he will know the most how his countrymen have risen and fallen with each of his innings and with each twist and turn of his life and career. We all thank GOD like he does, after reaching a 50/100 or a major landmark. We all wept with him when he lost his father and dedicated the next 100 to him. We all dance with joy at his every dive, every catch, every run he scores. He might just hit one four and get out but for us it is all worth it.

I think the only demon he has left to fight is retirement. And he will fight it with his own style, just like he has been fighting his own demons for the past 20 years. I am not sure if anyone can thank him enough for his contribution to sports in general but Knighthood for Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar is the least that should be done.

32 Beautiful Moments

So the day started and players came out to warm up. The maestro came and the crowd erupted. He carried two bats under his arm, some would say a child carried two toys, some would say a warrior carried two swords. Each catch he took, each ball he fielded and each time he rolled his arm during the hour long warm up it was as if the crowd was already getting their money's worth.

And then it was time to field. Ponting opened the innings, powerplays happened and there were 15 men on the field; my eyes were set on Sachin and Sachin alone. To be frank I don't know when I will see him in action live again.

• He fielded at short midwicket and tried the underarm back flick (azar style) to run out watson. On realizing what he had done, he sheepishly looked at Sehwag and giggled as if to say "Am I not allowed to have fun".
• Whenever he went to the boundary and about 1000 people went mad.
• During the drinks break, all the foster girls came to him first and offered him a drink.
• Bhajji got angry at everybody who misfielded and always looked at Sachin as if to say "kuchh to sikhao inko "
  

And then he batted... 32 beautiful runs to say the least. The square cut for four, the flick of the hips for four, the square drive and the cover drive, that ever so sweet sound only one bat in the history of cricket can produce (and I could hear it even from the third tier). But alas like all good things it ended. One bad judgement and it was over. Maybe it was the appetizer before the big one at Mohali.

The fact that I left the stadium soon after Sachin got out, makes me think what I will do once he retires. Maybe then people in my life won't get jealous of him.

Sachin vs Bradman

Those who know me know that I am a Sachin Tendulkar fan and a very big one. There is no doubt in my mind that Tendulkar is the greatest batsmen ever. But there are a few people who think Sir Donald Bradman was the greatest of all time. I would like to disagree. Here is a small comparison. Please tell me what you think of it.

Pressure: Sachin plays every innings under huge pressure. 1 billion people expect him to perform in each and every match, be it against the Aussies or Bangladesh. To perform consistently for 20 years is no joke!!! Bradman never had such pressure during his whole career apart from maybe the Bodyline series and in his last innings against England. Just look what pressure did to him. His average, which was usually over 100 in most series, came down to just 52 in Bodyline and he couldn't score 4 runs in his last innings with the whole world watching.

Number of Matches: Bradman played 52 tests in 20 years whereas Sachin has played 159 tests in the same period. Back then the players easily got 8-10 days of gap in between 2 tests. In one year only 4-5 tests were played and to add to it there were NO ODIs. Nowadays there are so many matches and Sachin has played all of them since his debut in 1989. It is only recently that he has started to take breaks from ODI series but he still plays all the test matches for India.

Position of Batting: Bradman usually came at no.3 or no.4 and mostly when the score were 176/1 or 217/2 No pressure!! Sachin usually came at no.4 and mostly when India had lost both the openers and the scoreboard looked like 20/2!!! In ODIs Sachin opens and has the pressure of laying the foundation and setting the trend for the innings.

Opposition: Bradman played mostly against England and he got used to that bowling. So he scored over 5000 runs against them with an average of around 92. He played one series against each of the minnows of that time (India, South Africa and West Indies) and scored heavily against them. He never played in Indian sub-continent against Indian spinners. Moreover, excluding Larwood, Bradman never played any quality bowlers. Whereas, Sachin played against the likes of Ambrose-Walsh-Bishop, Wasim-Waqar-Akhtar, Warne-McGrath-Lee-Gilespie, Donald-Pollock-Steyn and Vaas-Murali-Mendis. His overseas record is as good as his home record. Also the standard of fielding is far better than it was in that time!

Style of Cricket: In the times Bradman played, cricket was not limited to 5 days and so there was no pressure on teams to enforce a result. So a player could play for as long as he wanted and didn’t want to get out. We all know if Sachin decides this no one can get him out, remember the 241* against Australia in 2004, in which he curbed off side stroke play because the ball was swinging. If Tendulkar had played in the era of Bradman, he would easily have an average above 100.

Losing My Religion

Finally I have overcome some terrible and some not so terrible setbacks and have dug deep into the pool of creativity to write this blog on my favorite topic ever: CRICKET. With the success of T20 I have had many debates with cricket haters about the longevity of test and one day cricket as we know them today. There is no doubt about the fact that T20 is more attractive and test cricket is not so. But people (like myself) who love the sledging and planning of a test match, the joy of a hattrick or a double century and that last ball finish after a 7 hour see saw match will beg to differ. I brought this point mainly as this is the hottest point of discussion about cricket at this point of time. In my opinion everybody has a right to watch whatever he likes and we cannot force anything.

To put it differently, many of us don't really like the test/ODI scene today because there are no HEROES playing now. For many of us cricket began in November 1989. Pictures of what went before are too hazy. I remember Imran Khan lifting the World Cup but don't recall what I was doing then. So I can't connect Pakistan's World Cup win to my own life.

Sachin Tendulkar spoilt us. He commanded that we sit in front of the television sets. He ensured we got late with homework, he took care of our lunch-break discussions. Some of us naive schoolboys even thought we would achieve similar feats when we were 16. We got to 16 and continued to struggle with homework. Then came Kumble and the two undertook a teenager-pampering mission not seen in India before. Tendlya walked on water, Jumbo parted seas. When we thought we had seen everything, they reversed roles - Tendlya bowled a nerve-wracking last over, Jumbo played a match winning hand with the bat. One fine day at Lord's we got a glimpse of two new saviors: Delicate Timing and Immaculate Technique. Suddenly my group of eight friends was split into two camps. You were either with Ganguly or Dravid. When we played cricket on the streets, we had a number of choices. Left-handers were thrilled, defensive batsmen were happy, extravagant stroke-makers were delighted, the short boys didn't need to feel left out anymore, spectacles became cool, and freaky bowling actions were no more laughed at.

But alas, every good thing has got to go. With half of the fab four already retired and the geeky Jumbo hanging his boots one of my friends from school told me "Our childhood is ending," and in some way he was probably spot on. Tendulkar's retirement may mean a lot of things to a lot of people, but for a generation of 20-30-year-olds it will mark the end of the first part of their lives. Switching on the television the day after will be a serious challenge.

Acknowledgement: Losing My religion by Siddhartha Vaidyanathan.