Friday, September 14, 2007
Reactions
Rahul Dravid called a close to his captaincy today. Newspaper round up and blog reactions
A thoughtful, intense cricketer has handed back the Indian cricket captaincy because some of the enjoyment had been leached out of his game.
As befits a quiet, dignified man, there was no fanfare. Rahul Dravid wanted to announce his decision on Thursday, then realised it might take some shine off the launch of the Champions Twenty20 League, and instead spoke privately to Indian cricket board chief Sharad Pawar and that was it.
Till Friday, 14th September, Indian cricket was in search of a coach. Now, the appointment of the coach is a distant second with the quest to find a successor to Rahul Dravid becoming the burning concern. With a seven-ODI series against Australia beginning in just over a fortnight, there isn't much time. What's more worrying, though, is that there aren't too many obvious candidates either.Anand Vasu
Rahul Dravid’s decision to abdicate the captain’s throne has only raised the brows of the Indian cricket fraternity to unprecedented heights.Ehtesham hasan
The few who matter are treating his decision with sheer contempt as they feel he has abandoned the ship when his stewardship was needed most.
At the post-match press conference on Thursday, someone asked Mahendra Singh Dhoni about the pressures of captaining the side against Pakistan.Amit Gupta
The Indian captain stared nonchalantly into space, smiled gently and with a shrug of his shoulders said: “Pressure kya?”
Mobile phone statistics aren't for public consumption but it wouldn't come as any surprise if the number most sought after on Friday' was that owned by Rahul Dravid. The words "Dravid" and "jolt" are rarely used in the same sentence but his resignation has left most in a daze. Dravid the batsman has thrived in adversity, soaking up every ounce of pressure and adopting trench warfare, but Dravid the captain seems to have exhausted his last drop of patience. And he's switched his phone off.Siddhartha Vaidyanathan
Adelaide, Kolkata, Leeds, Rawalpindi. Rahul Dravid has ensured he will be remembered when, years from now, proud grandfathers tell stories of what had happened in those cities in the early 2000s. It’s his flashing blade that has scripted some of India’s greatest test wins of our era.Kunal Pradhan
There’s a buzz that key officials of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), struggling in any case to appoint a coach, have sought Sachin Tendulkar’s availability for captaincy.LOKENDRA PRATAP SAHI
Just over a month ago, in England, a senior Indian cricket board official asked Rahul Dravid, “Why are you so serious? Your expression looks like the whole weight of Indian cricket is on your shoulders.” The Indian captain laughed wryly, and replied. “You don’t know.” Now we know. After two years of leading a volatile group of cricketers — aggressive smalltown youngsters with an in-your-face attitude that he struggled to understand and insecure veterans desperate to get the script they wanted for the final chapter of their careers — Rahul Dravid last night simply shrugged his shoulders and walked away.Ajay S Shankar
What was most intriguing about Rahul Dravid’s decision to make himself unavailable for the India captaincy was not just the decision itself, but its timing.
It has come on the eve of what is possibly India’s toughest-ever season of cricket — up ahead are series against Australia, Pakistan and South Africa. It can’t get tougher than this.
For three full months, indeed more, Rahul Dravid guarded his secret zealously. He didn't give any indication of it as he led Team India single-mindedly and passionately, plotting the downfall of England and motivating his own mates to surpass themselves.
In breaking news, Dravid resigns as captain of the Indian team. The rest of the year for Indian cricket is not going to be easy with tough tours of Pakistan and Australia ahead. A new coach and a new captain aren’t going to make things any easier.
The man who gave India Test series wins in England and West Indies, a first Test series win against Sri Lanka in 12 years, and managed a tough transition where many of Ganguly's champions went through the first serious troughs of their careers (Harbhajan, Sehwag, Kaif) and some of the great players showed marked decline (Tendulkar, Ganguly), has decided to quit as India captain. He says he didn't enjoy the job anymore. Like it happened with Ganguly, the captaincy wore him down. Ganguly let it destroy the batsman in him - Dravid is unwilling to do so. It is the difference between the two men.
Kartikeya at A Cricketing View
Don't know if Rahul Dravid's resignation is for real - remember he also offered to quit after the World Cup flop? Anyway, I appreciate his tacit admission of his failings as a captain. The trouble is that the replacement may be worse, because the board has shown poor judgement so far in selection of coaches and captains.
Today Rahul Dravid resigned as captain of Team India. Or offered to.
Typically I’d wait till the dust settled and things got clarified about what that means before I wrote a post on something like this but I feel strongly about Rahul Dravid. I even thought he was deserving of the highest compliment at the recent Test series. So here goes.
For the second day running, the ICC World Twenty20 moved to the penumbra with two other developments taking centrestage. Bangladesh beat the West Indies on Thursday and Sri Lanka made a whopping 260 in 20 overs against Kenya on Friday but the grand announcement of a Professional Cricket League and Rahul Dravid’s decision to quit as India captain overshadowed it all.
So Rahul Dravid has resigned as Indian captain. For what its worth, I have mixed feelings about this decision. Dravid was not a spectacular captain but he was well-liked and respected in the team (says someone who has no idea what goes on in the dressing room!), and could be considered a reasonable talent at bridging the inevitable differences within any Indian team.
Samir Chopra at Eye on Cricket
UPDATE: He wants to be relieved for personal reasons, is the official reason; he wants to be relieved with immediate effect, and he wants to quit as captain from both forms of the game, per the letter submitted two days ago. And thus far, that is all there is. Flash forward a moment—in two weeks, the Aussies will be here, and the BCCI urgently needs a new captain. Sachin, the current vice captain, or Saurav? Or will the board seize opportunity by its horns and go with a younger leader—assuming there is such an animal ready and waiting in the wings? Prem Panicker at Smoke SignalsThis one was a surprise, but not something that I would not welcome. If anything, Dravid has decided to be smart about this. He's probably chosen not to do something that he's obviously so bad at. In addition, his batting has suffered. While there is no threat to his place in the team, he obviously has goals that he has set for himself that he found himself struggling to meet. In other words, it dawned on him that he was doing a poor job at both batting and captaincy and one had to give. He chose batting over captaincy. And I think its a wise choice.
Vidooshak at Smart Cricket Talk
Not many will be displeased or be taken by surprise. But there are two schools of thought on Dravid's captaincy. This will be debated for sure. I am not a great admirer of his captaincy but his resignation shocked me for the timing.
Thursday, September 13, 2007
More of the same
So, let us understand this -
India, Australia, England and South Africa have launched an International Twenty 20 league that will feature the top two Twenty20 teams from the above mentioned countries.
The BCCI has launched the India Premier League which will be franchise based.
The tournament wll be played in October of 2008.
Which is all fine and dandy, except for a couple of things
1. Here is India's International schedule till December 2008
India - forthcoming Test and one-day series
| Year | Month/s | Teams/Tournament | Tests | ODIs |
| 2006/07 | Jan | HOME v West Indies | - | 4 |
| 2006/07 | Feb | HOME v Sri Lanka | - | 4 |
| 2006/07 | Mar-Apr | AWAY: World Cup (Aus, Eng, Ind, Sth Africa, New Z'lnd, Pak, Sri Lanka, W Indies, Zim, B'desh, Kenya, Ireland, Bermuda, Canada, Scotland, Netherlands) in West Indies | ||
| 2007 | May | AWAY v Bangladesh | *tbc | *tbc |
| 2007 | Jun | AWAY: Afro Asia Cup (B'desh. Ind, Sth Africa, Pak, Sri Lanka, Zim, Kenya) in | ||
| 2007 | Jun-Sep | AWAY v England | 3 | 7 |
| 2007 | Aug | AWAY v Scotland | - | 1 |
| 2007/08 | Sep | AWAY: Twenty20 Championship (Aus, Eng, Ind, Sth Africa, New Z'lnd, Pak, Sri Lanka, W Indies, Zim, B'desh) in South Africa | ||
| 2007/08 | Nov-Dec | HOME v Australia | - | *tbc |
| 2007/08 | Dec-Jan | AWAY v Pakistan | *tbc | *tbc |
| 2007/08 | Dec-Feb | AWAY v Australia | *tbc | *tbc |
| 2007/08 | Jan-Feb | AWAY: ODI series (Aus, Ind, Sri Lanka) in Australia | ||
| 2007/08 | Feb-Mar | AWAY: ODI series (B'desh, Ind, Sth Africa) in Bangladesh | ||
| 2007/08 | Mar | AWAY v Bangladesh | *tbc | *tbc |
| 2007/08 | Mar | HOME v South Africa | *tbc | *tbc |
| 2008 | Apr | AWAY v South Africa | *tbc | *tbc |
| 2008 | Apr | AWAY: Asia Cup (B'desh. Ind, Pak, Sri Lanka) in Pakistan | ||
| 2008 | May | AWAY v Zimbabwe | *tbc | *tbc |
| 2008 | Jun | AWAY: Afro Asia Cup (B'desh. Ind, Sth Africa, Pak, Sri Lanka, Zim, Kenya) in Malaysia | ||
| 2008 | Jul-Aug | AWAY v Sri Lanka | *tbc | *tbc |
| 2008/09 | Sep-Oct | AWAY: ICC Champions Trophy (Aus, Eng, Ind, Sth Africa, New Z'lnd, Pak, Sri Lanka, W Indies, Zim, B'desh) in Pakistan | ||
| 2008/09 | Nov-Dec | HOME v England | *tbc | *tbc |
| 2008/09 | Dec | AWAY v Pakistan | *tbc | *tbc |
| 2008/09 | Jan | AWAY v South Africa | *tbc | *tbc |
| 2008/09 | Apr | AWAY v New Zealand | *tbc | *tbc |
The BCCI expects to get six franchises in place and playing against each other, all the while when the main draws for any BCCI mandated game, the Tendulkars and the Dhonis and the Dravids, will be away on national duty.
2. Assuming, by some divine intervention, that these players are available for the duration of the domestic competition and then the International Twenty20, has anyone bothered to factor in their workload?
Is there a limit to the BCCI's (cricketborad@gmail.com) greed and lack of planning?
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The Cricket Board today decided to continue with the existing system of contract for the players till the Gradation Committee gives a final shape to a new proposal.
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According to the existing contract, players in the A grade get an annual retainership of Rs 50 lakhs, while the amount is Rs 35 lakh and Rs 20 lakhs for Grade B and C, respectively.
erm... remember this
10. Working Committee approved the Performance-based Payment to the players and decided to do away with the present gradation for Retainership. Apart from the payment, the following points would form a part of the contract.
· A player will endorse not more than 3 sponsors / products
· No Sponsor can contract more than 2 players.
· The players will not be allowed to do any sponsor-related events 15 days before the tour and also during the tour.
· Before every tour, all the contracted players have to undergo a fitness test and only those who fulfill the benchmarks will be considered for selection.
· No player shall have exclusive contracts with electronic or print media. Only the captain can write a column or talk to the media but not exclusively.
· The players shall take prior approval of the Board before signing any endorsement contract and will submit a copy of the agreement to the Board. All the players shall submit a copy of the existing contracts with sponsors to the Board.
· All the players will have to play a stipulated number of domestic matches when not playing for
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Sponsorship of Mumbai teams renewed with National Engg. Coordination Committee for further two years 2007-08 and 2008-09, office bearers to discuss and finalise the terms.
National Egg Coordination Committee guys.. Atleast know who your sponsors are!
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Just a thought...
India A (from): Mohammad Kaif (capt), Aakash Chopra, Cheteshwar Pujara, Manoj Tiwary, S Badrinath, Suresh Raina, Parthiv Patel (wk), Ishant Sharma, Yo Mahesh, Pankaj Singh, Pragyan Ojha, Arjun Yadav, Ashraf Makda, Amit Mishra.
India (from): Virender Sehwag, Robin Uthappa, Gautam Gambhir, Yuvraj Singh, Rohit Sharma, Dinesh Karthik, Mahendra Singh Dhoni (capt & wk), Joginder Sharma, Irfan Pathan, Yusuf Pathan, Ajit Agarkar, Piyush Chawla, Harbhajan Singh, RP Singh, Sreesanth.
India (players from the Natwest series not currently playing) : Rahul Dravid,Saurav Ganguly, Zaheer Khan,Munaf Patel, Ramesh Powar, Sachin Tendulkar.
India U-19 Team : Tanmay Srivastava (capt), Ravi Jadeja, Virat Kohli, Manish Pandey, Saurabh Tiwari, Shreevats Goswami, Pradeep Sangwan, Harshad Khadiwale, Abhinav Mukund, Abu Nechim Ahmed, Iqbal Abdullah, GVS Prasad, Shrikant Munde, Amanpreet Singh, KP Appanna
Of the players listed above, onlyAbu Nechim Ahmed has moved on to the ICL. This gives the BCCI a roster of 49 players who have played cricket with International teams. If we are to include the Mumbai squad who played in the Muhammad Nissar Trophy and the KSCA squad that participated in the Top End series and those cricketers who are currently injured, the BCCI has about 80-90 players with some international exposure in the current season.
Enough to form 5-6 franchise teams to play each other in a latter day version of the Duleep Trophy.
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
We flippin' murdered them
5 debutants and the label of a "second string" team did not deter Mumbai from putting on a sterling performance ( including a follow on) against Karachi Urban in the Mohammad Nissar Trophy.
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And is Abhishek Nayar ready to make the move up to the national team? Kid has shown guts and gumption in adverse situations, is a left hand bat and a steady right hand medium pacer. The home ODI series is a good time to blood him, unless the selectors, in their infinite wisdom, deem that he needs another season in domestic cricket before he can be considered India material.
