(This post contains comments I put over at Prem's blog. They may mean nothing, they may mean a lot, but by Jove they amount to a lot of words that I typed in an awfully short period of time!!!.
Since these comments( rather my typing speed) were my feel good factor for the better part of yesterday, I decided to put them on this blog. As always, your opinions make all the difference. Cheers)
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Lets put our selectoral caps on and work through this - we have the Bangladesh tour coming up next- good competitive side but should not tax us. What to do - rest the big three, give the youngsters a taste of International ODI cricket.Then we have the Afro Asia cup- again not a big tourney for us - followed by the three match series in Ireland against Oz. Now there you might want one senior or two, Rahul and Sachin will be my choices because of their cricketing acumen .Then the 7 odi set with england - gives us opportunities to juggle around with Sehwag and Harbhajan and Yuvraj. Th one ODI against Scotland followed by the 20/20 thrash fest. In the interim an India emerging team travels to Australia to play against Oz, NZ and SA.
We will have the Challengers and the Oz tour to India play out almost simultaneously - 10 more ODis to define and refine the team philosophy and the team.Take it on a series by series basis - with the CB series in OZ marking closure on what we want from th team. If we plan well, we should have answers to quite a few of the questions. refining and fine tuning can begin from season 2 onwards.
That is the time bound aspect.. now- let us identify demand and supply - we need all rounders . who are the guys who do a fair job with bat and ball in domestic cricket? who are the guys who are primarily strong in one skill but can be molded into the other?What about openers - we need to have a pool of about 3 solid openers. bowlers - we have a good set of pace bowlers - they need to be handled carefully. who are our spin options? when should we expose our spin options? Is it prudent to play the spinners in a thrash fest like the 20/20 or should they play in OZ with the bigger grounds?We don't want swing bowlers in Oz and hit the deckers in England. What about the middle order? how many pure batsmen do we need. why do we need pure batsmen and what are their roles? how many anchors and how many dashers?
Once we have listed the demands - check against the supply. Out of a pool of 420 players, we should find 20 that fit the bill.. if we don't, there is the NCA, the MRF Pace Academy. Leverage these. Leverage the knowledge base we have in our country. By the end of season 2, we should have about 20-25 players who can be rotated in and out of the team on a per series basis. All along maintain open lines of communication with the players - let them know why they are sitting out.it will be a hard grind - but the results will come- sooner than we expect because, unlike the Chairman of selectors, I believe we have enuf talent in the country to get the job done. sure, the talent is not Sachin Tendulkar like, but do we need 10 Tendulkars?
To give you an idea of what I will be looking for to name my XI here is an example - Abhishek Nayar. Kid has a half decent outswinger and is a left hand bat. But more than that, kid has heart. His two scores (97 and 86) came at a time when Mumbai needed it the most. So, the potential is there, kid can hustle - needs a little work with his skills- one more season in domestic cricket and possible A tour selection and he should be on his way.
phew !!!
Indeed...
Update :- Here is
Monday, March 26, 2007
Phew!!!
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11 comments:
All your points make a lot of sense. Especially the "keep open channels to players" bit. Kaif complaining about how he didn't know why he was dropped should not be happening...
Thanks Mephistopheles...
:)
how about your two cents on players, goals etc?
Every single player in the Indian team to the world cup showed the same "heart" and the same qualities - due to which he made the side in the first place.
Mephistopheles asks "What kind of Cricket team do we want?" - the answer to that is obvious - the most talented, well balanced cricket team we can select - with the best blend of skill and athleticism.
The qualities of a good cricket team are well defined - the personnel are not apparent.
I don't think theres anything wrong with the selection policy or with the way the selectors do their job.
The Ranji format needs to be revamped, where every game is important and every game is consequential.
It is obvious that we need to have a pool of 3 solid openers - the point is, what do we do if we don't have those openers?
Those who are doing a fair job is domestic cricket are well known and they will make up the India A (or India Blues if Sharad Pawar has his way) squad.
I don't agree that we have enough talent in the country to "get the job done" - that is contradictory - the whole point is that international cricket demands talent and skill which is out of the ordinary - which is about first class quality - which is potential world class.
The idea has to be to look for that kind of talent and treasure it.
For that, there needs to be a change of attitude amongst the fans. As a matter of fact, a Marvan Attapattu is impossible in India in the year 2007 simply because he and the selector from his zone will probably get lynched if he gets three ducks in a row. Look at what happened to Raina. I haven't read about this Kaif issue.
What we need is patience and the ability to trust.
Kartikeya,
Are we talking Test or ODI cricket?
It doesn't matter. The Test team is going to have bigger problems than the ODI team very soon, because the Test Cricket requires Class even more than ODI cricket does.
Kartikeya,
wrt Test Cricket, India has about a couple of years to work out its transition plans.
The most immediate issue that confronts Indian Test cricket is the departure of Anil Kumble.
Sachin, Rahul, VVS and possible Saurav should be around for a year or two.. balancing the transition from the proven performers to the unproven ones will be the key.
with ODI cricket, as I had written in "Looking Ahead" we can bring in bits and pieces guys who fill the role- not the class.
Kartikeya,
Just curious, why is it obvious that we need 3 openers? why not 4? or just 2?
If you meant a change of attitude in fans who go around burning things, I agree. If you meant kindness and symphaty to a struggling cricketer from fans, then I can tell you that it is never going to hapen. Why? Because: You, homer, I, and a million others are all fans. In a fan base this big, you are always going to get noise. You will never get unanimity. Everybody's definition of patience and trust will be different.
In a situation like this, it becomes doubly important that the selectors and the administrators are reliable and are following sound selection policy so that they have reasons to fall back on instead of platitudes. Ricky Ponting's selection after the disastrous tour to India comes to mind. ACB knew they had something special in him and even though the fans were baying for blood they stuck by him.
SL having a smaller fan base might be lucky or maybe the fans are more enlightened but everything I've heard about their board indicates that their board is as clueless as their big brothers.
I disagree that every single player in the Indian team showed the same "heart" and the same qualities. That is not possible because they are all different people and hence their qualities and "heart" are different.
If you meant "certain qualities" that made them a part of the Indian team (be it talent, application, etc...or a combination thereof) then any player who has ever been selected to the Indian team has/had these "certain qualities".
In that case, the argument boils down why a certain player was picked and why a another player (formerly of Team India hence having the same "heart" and qualities) was not picked.
So, we are back to square one about selectoral policies. Ideally, there should be a sound reasons as to why players are being selected. Saying, for example, that Kumble has great experience and even though his recent bowling has not been good we are selecting him because (fill in your reason) is not sound reasoning.
Again, that might be sound reasoning for some in which case I reserve the right to argue with them and would hate it if someone called me an ignorant fan.
okay.. here are my two cents .. I am playing selector and listing my criteria for team eligibility.. let me know your thoughts
Match A - Team A1 scores 560/9 decl. Team A2 ends up at 460/5. Kid bowling for team A1 has figures of 4/100 in say 30 overs.
That will catch my eye - since the kid has taken 4 of the 14 wickets to fall and conceded 100 of the 1020 runs scored.
I will then watch for that kids performance over the course of the season - different conditions different match situations - is he the steady hold one end up types, an attacking bowler who may go for a few but gets wickets types, a decent bowler but without much luck.
I will try to collate information from different newspapers - preferably the hometown one and the opposite team one.. if enuf opposite team newspapers have good things to say about the kid- we are on to something.
All along, I have not seen the kid in action - i will ask around - what does he do under pressure, whats his temperament, how does he respond to criticism and how does he react when he loses - what is his performance in the next game after the loss.
These are the factors on which I will decide on whether the kid is good enuf to step up or not.
For example, Ranadeb Bose IMHO is ready to make the step up - has been steady over two seasons - has a good outswinger - tireless, and has heart.
Now you guys need to articulate your criteria for selection - we may actually end up having consensus :)
Homer:
The only thing I would add is for the selector to go and watch this kid play maybe even talk to him and confirm some of the things he has heard.
I don't know if that would be feasible or not. But if it is not feasible to go and watch him play, I would at least like for the selector to talk to the kid.
If the kid does not end up getting selected, the selector should tell him why he was not selected and what he has to do to get selected.
Homer,
Whats your name on Prem's blog?
Chandan,
The same as it is here :)
Cheers
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