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.

Tennis Remembrances

While I waited for the Federer vs Monfils QF to start at French Open 2011, mind wandered to how I started watching Tennis for the first time. Monica Seles being stabbed comes to mind, so does watching an oldish Martina Navratilova playing beautiful tennis at Wimbledon. But the reason I really started watching tennis was because of Pete Sampras and his rivalry with Andre Agassi. The constant battles in every grand slam was fun to watch and I was a Sampras fan through and through. One of the main reasons I hate Federer so much is that he took the title form Sampras. I know Pete was getting old and all that but hey we all have our reasons right?

Legendary names like Henman, Courier, Ivanisevic, Hingis, Sanchez Vicario and many more came to mind. Hearty thanks to Abhinav for reminding me of the good ol' days when there was no Fedex and no Nadal. As far as the present goes I remain loyal to the spanish rockstar, Nadal. Federer is on a decline and I don't think he will be able to win a single slam this year.

Head Lice and Bands

While chatting with fellow EA members from the US, UK and Australia I came upon a piece of information I was not aware about my nic name. Nits as most of my friends call me is another name for Head Lice. However, as I work in a Dutch organisation I also came to know that there is a very popular band called the Nits. Of course we in India have National Institute of Surathkal which shortens to NITS as well. In short wherever I go I am super popular.

Its amazing sometimes how if you talk to people from different countries they have different opinions and understandings of the same thing. I still love this nic and thank a certain Anshul from Chandigarh to have given me this legendary name. 

          

Fast Five and The Rock

The jabroni beating, pie eating, trail blazing, eye brow raising, the best in the present, future and past, and if ya’ll don’t like me you can kiss the people’s ass! 

Fast and Furious 5 is one hell of a movie. So much so that I who usually don't have an opinion about non SRK flicks have been forced to write a blog. And its all because of one man. Dwayne Johnson aka The Rock. He and Vin Diesel are magnificent in the movie. The action is mind blowing and the charisma both of them bring to the screen is incomparable. When they were exchanging punches you couldn't decide who will come tops in the end. 

But for me the movie was more about the man from Cali, the man who charmed me and my brother in our childhoods and the man who referred himself as the most electrifying man in sports and entertainment. His and HHH's was so important to us that we learnt all their moves and styles. We even had a championship belt. The rock bottom and the People's elbow were our favorite moves and we even learnt to talk trash from him. Some quotes went like "The Rock’s gonna take your monkey ass down to the corner of Know Your Role Boulevard and Jabroni Drive and check you in to the Smackdown Hotel!". Some of his more famous punchlines included:

"Finally the Rock has come back to ............. (the place where he was :D)"

"The Rock says ...................(usually something to cheer the crowd and insult HHH)"

"If you smellllllllllllll what the rock is cooking". This was also the starting of his entry music.

He was one wrestler who wasn't really interested in girls. He was the people's man and even though we knew it was scripted every time rock would land the elbow on the chest we both loved him and cheered for him.

The movie is awesome but for Rock lovers it is more than that. Go For it Today 5/5

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.