Are we myopic?

Are we?

Please bear in mind that Sunil Gavaskar is a member of the 7 member committee set up to select India's next coach.

Remember too that Dav Whatmore is the front runner for the post of India coach.

June 4th couldn't come sooner :)
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PS:- Today marks the start of the travel season in this part of the world, and I will be doing just that. Hence, blogging will be sporadic over the next 3 weeks.

In the meanwhile, all of you out there, stay safe.

Cheers

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Cow Corner

Today..

I must confess I have been a bit bewildered by some of the statements appearing in the papers and on news channels (one of which, an exclusive, I know to be patently false!). A lot of names of former cricketers are being thrown around and while that is not bad in itself, the reasons are strange, even poor. The two attributes thrown up most often are that a player has a good record and therefore commands respect. Neither of those is too useful beyond a point and if anything, deserve to be minor qualifications.

Harsha Bhogle on India's next coach

Anyway, let’s get the skipper to do the explaining himself: “We have gone down that road and we have tried that a little bit in Pakistan, but we have seen that sometimes it doesn’t really work for the team. Having me in that number three position seems to work a lot better for the team, especially in some of the big games and away from home.

“So yes, I could have done it (opened) here in this situation but would that have solved the problem for us for the England tour? Probably not. We would have probably gone back to me at three in England. So at least here, we can give someone else an opportunity to try and stake a claim. If he doesn’t, then somebody else will be given an opportunity.

Rahul Dravid speaks

Manoj Tiwary, who was operated upon by Dr Andrew Wallace in London on Wednesday, was discharged from the King Edward VII Hospital on Thursday.

“He is fine. According to Dr Wallace, he has made good recovery. His hand has been put in a sling. He will undergo a check-up after a couple of days,” a family member said.

Yay!!

This is what grooming new talent means to me. If we are to look for suitable replacements for Kumble, Ganguly, Tendulkar and Dravid, this is the policy we need to adopt.

India will find the going tough in England if the best team is not picked. And that means picking a player like Laxman, at the expense of dropping the superfluous elements.

Mohinder Amarnath

Ireland is more famously called the Emerald Isle. And that is because incessant, unpredictable rain is ubiquitous to the country that helps greenery stay all year round and manages to keep the locals tucked under the umbrella for most of the 365 days.

If this piece of information isn't bothering the BCCI yet, there's more specific information on way. It is precisely in June and July that the most fickle part of the year — in reference to rainfall — begins.

Eat that, Lalit Modi.

What has Virender Sehwag been doing ever since his quiet return from Bangladesh? Well, he’s been busy, manoeuvring his gleaming BMW through the lanes of Vikaspuri for daily practice at his alma mater to various grounds in the capital to play club cricket.

In between, he attended a meeting with his employers, ONGC and ensured five promising players — Ishant Sharma, Mayank Tehlan, Suhail Sharma, Sumit Nehwal and Joginder Sharma get full-time jobs.

G.S. Vivek reports

Today...

Simply too timid

Zimbabwe and World Cup format dominate troubled ICC’s horizon

Flintoff's career at crossroads after pulling out of Test

Schofield report recommends cut to volume in bid for enhanced quality

BCCI to Dravid: Fatigue? What fatigue?

It’s pouring cash

Free falling

Try Indian math to beat Aussies

- Formula adds unbeaten innings to correct batting average anomaly

BLACKED OUT IN BANGLA

- The cricket fan is cheated by Doordarshan’s double standards

Future holds cup, buys in-stadia rights for 4 ODIs

Munaf can return to bowling in a fortnight: Dr Joshi

NCA presents: Dr Sandy Gordon, Indianised !

Maninder - hooked, caught and bailed

Today..

Ranji bad run makes Gujarat cricket body put on its thinking cap

Rs 100-crore Eden project: CAB to pick from Ahluwalia, Larsen

Board wakes up, orders sporting wickets

There’s a selector in the nets

From crests of fame to the nadirs, Maninder has seen it all

Tiwary leaves for London

ICC president Percy Sonn ‘extremely critical’

Lehmann unwell

Wright to be head coach at CoE

Back to the drawing board

Draw Deal

Edged & Taken

A two-Test series achieves little

Skipper speak

India skipper Dravid said that they were never under pressure in the game but the record ninth-wicket partnership (77) between Mashrafe and Shahadat Hossain in the first innings dented their hope of winning the game.

"During that ninth-wicket partnership they were playing really well. That was probably the period of the game when they controlled the match more than we did. But I don't think we were under any sort of pressure," he observed.

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'If I was in place of Rahul (Dravid) I may have declared too,' he said after the five-day match in which well over two days of play was lost to rains.

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Our captain admits that his team lost control of the game during the 9th wicket partnership between Mortaza and Hussain.

Their captain is cocky enough to admit that he would have considered declaring against India if he were in Rahul Dravid's position.

Really? With his bowling attack and our batting lineup?

But here is the real unfortunate part- Bashar can state, and proudly too, that his team averted the follow on after being 149/8 and took 6 Indian wickets for 100 runs despite not having played Test Cricket for 13 months.

Here is the unstated part - We let them because we were not good enough.

Gains and losses

Test 1 between India and Bangladesh ends in a draw

India 387/8d & 100/6d
Bangladesh 238 & 104/2

Who gained what? Who lost what?

Your thoughts..

On captaincy..

Test captaincy is like kite flying - you should know when to give, when to rein in and all the time you must be in control.

Some fly kites better than others. Ditto captaincy.

And like kite flying, captaincy is a lot more involved than what we think or see.

PS:- Continuing on the Kite analogy - could the difference between Australia and India's approach to the game be encapsulated by the difference in details between the bridling techniques - here and here?

Both methods work however, the first method takes away the guess work that the second method requires.

India and the Art of Losing the Initiative

As India were going for the win, the possibility of slowing things down, a common tactic when tailenders are thriving, was ruled out. Kumble was missed too. All those failings could just be hindsight for an outside observer, but on reflection, hindsight is foresight for great captains and teams.

Aye.

Muddled thinking

Two overs, two wickets, declaration - the whole point of this exercise was what?

On England

Or why I wont lose any sleep if Andrew Strauss walks out with Rahul Dravid for the toss on July 19, 2007.

On Bangladesh..

Or why declaration is not an option for India.

Unless conditions change dramatically in favor of the bowlers, India should not even consider the "D" word as an option.

Right now, after 3 days of play ( 2 part days and a washed out day), Bangladesh has taken 6 Indian wickets for 384 runs. Including 2 centuries and 2 fifties.

A declaration anytime today will give the Bangladeshis batting practice ( 20 wickets in around 5 sessions is pushing it). And quite frankly, I do not see any merit in giving them an opportunity to bat. Especially when they have 5 of their players carrying ailments and/or injuries.

I would rather our guys bat as long as possible, the longer the better. If numbers 8,9, 10 and Jack can keep the Bangladeshis on the field for a prolonged period of time, it puts the Bangladeshi bowling in perspective. And if numbers 8,9,10 and Jack accrue a few runs between them, it puts the Bangladesh bowling in greater perspective.

And if they are unable to get us all out for whatever reasons, Habibul Bashar should be a worried man.

With back to back tests, he will have to come up with a backup plan, quickly, to counter the impotence of his bowling attack.

And if India plays out 5 days and wins the toss in the Test at Mirpur, Glory be!!

Losing momentum

You are 241/3 with both your batters going well. There are 18 more overs to go in the days play if the light holds. Light being iffy means an early start on the morrow.You lead by 357.

Your spinner has taken 6 of the 10 opposition wickets to fall in the first innings. You have the opposition at your mercy.

What do you do ?

Bat on, lose 3 wickets in 2 overs, hand over the initiative to the opposition and lose momentum in the process.

Great going Andrew.

168 overs to go

England 553/5 decl

West Indies 437 all out

116 ahead, 168 overs ( -2 in case of a declaration) to go. Rain forecast for later today and tomorrow.

5.5 sessions to go.

What gives?

I would say Advantage West Indies.

England, overwhelming favorites at the start of the series, odds on favorites to win this test after posting 553, have now to set the pace and score enough runs as quickly as possible to force a result in this test.