Does the BCCI have any sense of history and occasion at all? If they do, can someone from the BCCI please explain to me this.
Kolkata was the scene of the greatest comeback in the history of cricket. Mumbai was the scene where Australia were rolled for less than a 100 in their 4th innings.. Bangalore witnessed India crash to a 217 run defeat versus the Aussies.. Nagpur has gone down in infamy for THAT test in 2004.
And Mohali can be a mean place to bat depending on what side of the bed Daljit Singh woke up on.
So, why on earth would the BCCI schedule the 4 test series at Mohali, Bangalore, Delhi and Nagpur?
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Nilesh Kulkarni was selected in place of Iqbal Abdulla for the must win game against Saurashtra. Which is not the issue. The issue is, why was he dropped in the first place?
Starting with the Ranji finals last season, Kulkarni found himself in the dog house. His non selection for the Muhammad Nissar Trophy did not provoke any outrage. And then, a 19 year old kid was selected ahead of him in the Ranji team.
And the Mumbai selectors, in their infinite wisdom, had chosen to play Abdulla in the ODI and Twenty 20 competitions last season.
Which is about the worst possible way to groom a kid who is looked upon as the future of left arm spin bowling in the city.
Per the Mumbai Mirror, the Kulkarni non selection was because the selectors wanted to "teach him a lesson". In that case, why the volte face? If the selectors had the courage of conviction, they should have stuck to their guns and not played Kulkarni. The fact that they did gives us a fair indication of the length of their spine..
And what about Sudhir Naik? For a must win game, he rolled up what was possibly the flattest wicket on view in domestic cricket. Flatter than the Kotla.
“You cannot live in a fool’s paradise,” “You can’t carry the burden of the past. You have to accept that Mumbai has lost it’s sheen. In times like these one can only look to the God. We have to regroup and that has to happen fast.”
Indeed Mr Rege! With leadership like this, fools paradise is about the only place we can be in!
Thursday, January 03, 2008
Rant!
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16 comments:
UP has a VERY young team and has made the semi-finals. Here are the ages, in batting order:
Rohit Srivastava 27
Tanmay Srivastava 18
Suresh Raina 21 (just)
Mohammad Kaif 27 (just)
Ravi Shukla 20
Piyush Chawla 19 (just)
Amir Khan 21 (close to 22)
Praveen Kumar 21
Praveen Gupta 21 (just)
B Kumar 17 (just)
Sudeep Tyagi 20
UP's batting isn't their strength. Out of 5 proper bats, Ravi and Tanmay are just making it at this level. Amir, their WK is not a proper bat. So, why does one suppose have they played an extra bowler? Gupta, the SLA is in a similar position to Abdulla. Tyagi and B Kumar were drafted in this season. Only Praveen Kumar, Piyush, Kaif and Raina are close to India selection.
What does that mean for Mumbai? Are Gupta, Tyagi and B Kumar better than Mumbai's second string? UP's batting doesn't measure upto Mumbai's in any shape or form. Mumbai's batting is strong and deep. Their bats have scored plenty of 100s this season. Nayar, their pace allrounder has done that. So has Ramesh Powar. IMO, UP does the basics well and has a great captain.
Issacn
Homer,
I have a bigger rant - why does Bangalore get an ODI or Test during every single series? Chennai hasn't had one for ages, whatever happened to the rotation policy is beyond me.
To Prabu... rightly said... but I do believe the series against SA will happen in chennai.
Homer... had recently met a fairly large group of older state level cricketers and their rantings on what happens in a selection process is quite shocking... I understand your points and am very happy to see you focus on domestic cricket... cheers mate
Anonymous,
Thanks for your comments.. UP has come across as a pretty decent outfit over the last three Ranji seasons.And it helps to have the FIC ( Future India Captain ) leading them...
That said, the 2005 Ranji semifinals would have been a very different story had Wasim Jaffer been available to Mumbai...
Cheers
Prabu,
Chennai hosts South Africa.. And in the March April timeframe... Unlike the September October timeframes when Chennai is periodically given a test.
Who would have thought? :)
Cheers
Scorpicity,
Thanks much :)
Cheers
Homer,
I do know that Chennai hosts a test when SA is here but when was the last time a test was held in Chennai b4 that? I can think of Bangalore and Mohali hosting a test in almost every alternate series. Anyhow, no point talking about their politics...
interesting observation Prabu..
Homer, Rege was right with his comments. But we all know what happened after that, don't we? Three straight innings victories, a comeback from 0-5 (thats 5 wickets) against Baroda in the semis, and a first innings lead to win the Ranji Trophy. The sheen may have gone, but the never say die attitude still seems to be there.
However, given what happened this season, one can debate if that is getting whittled away too. I propose Mumbai lose their first two games next season, and play with their backs to the wall. They might end up winninng the trophy again!
There is a good post in analyzing Mumbai's performance this season, if someone is willing to take the time and effort.
Sailesh,
Thanks for your comments and apologies for not having responded earlier - was too caught up with the events Down Under.
My rant is basically against the duplicity of the selectors - they treated Kulkarni like dirt during the finals of the Ranji Trophy and for most of this season but when faced with a must win situation, did a volte face.
So, if Mumbai has lost its sheen, as Selector Milind Rege so pointed out, how about a little introspection on why that is.
Look at the selections this season - Hiken Shah did not make it to the team till about the 5th game, Iqbal Abdulla was reduced to being a containing bowler rather than an attacking one ( and did we expect anything different, given that he played Twenty20 and ODI as part of his grooming into the Mumbai team), we had a pace battery that was hors de combat for most of the season and we did not have the batsmen in form.
The danger signals were there in the Irani Trophy game itself when Munaf blew us away in the second innings. And we paid the price for not heeding to them.
That said, this should be a good experience for the team. How they galvanize from here will be testament to Muzumdar and Amre's man management skills.
Cheers
Homer, yes, the selectors bungled up with Nilesh Kulkarni. I do not quite agree with your charge about Hiken Shah. At the start of the season, you'd have had to drop one of Muzumdar, Sharma, Nayar and Naik to accomodate Shah.
The fault, for once, lies not with the selectors, but the players. Against Maharashtra, the players threw away their wickets and conceded the first innings lead. Those two points would have seen us through. Same story in the last game where the collapse was inexplicable.
Rohit Sharma was off form, and Muzumdar was not happy with him, as he felt Sharma was still in T20 mode. Prashant Naik had one failure against Maharashtra, and was dropped for the next game (or was he injured?). Hiken Shah and Vineet Indulkar got chances in the crunch games, and both failed. Powar and Abdullah did not perform towards the end of the league season. We did have some bad luck with injuries to our fast bowlers.
But really, Mumbai have a squad good enough to win the trophy, and no matter who actually gets selected in the team (atleast as far as the batting is concerned), they should be putting up good totals, bar the odd failure. The team bats as low as number 9 when Agarkar and Powar are playing, so not even getting a first innings lead is criminal.
Not having seen any games (I am in the US), I cannot really put a finger to why the team choked (is that the right word) at crucial moments of the season.
There are a few things that do need some urgent attention. One, temperament. Two, we need to groom more bowlers, our options are looking pretty threadbare at the moment. Three, we need better pitches. When a win was needed against Saurashtra, we got a pitch that enabled the opposition to score 450+ in the first innings. Ridiculous.
This comment is turning out to be a bit longish now, so I'll end by agreeing with you that it now depends on how Muzumdar and Amre rally the team.
Sailesh,
But this was the very same core that won the Ranji the last time.
And with Swapnil Hazare, Kshemal Waingankar, Avishkar Salvi, Mundeep Mungela and Murtaza Hussain ( not counting Ajit Agarkar and Zaheer Khan), there are some decent bowlers in the line up.
If Sharma was out of form, it made little sense to have him opene against Maharashtra..
In fact, if you look at the season and the choices Mumbai made, it will strike you as more than peculiar ( and this includes their shot selection).
And that raises questions about the leadership.
If Sudhir Naik can roll out a patta in a must win game, there is something seriously wrong somewhere.
Cheers
Homer
But this was the very same core that won the Ranji the last time.
Temperament. Overconfidence? Take it easy attitude? Whatever it is, it needs to be set right, and nothing better than a loss to do that. I'm sure this wont be a problem next season.
If Sudhir Naik can roll out a patta in a must win game, there is something seriously wrong somewhere.
Yes. The sooner this is fixed, the better. Not just the Brabourne, but in the lower levels too. Hopefully the Wankhede will come up with a much better wicket after renovation. I remember it used to be the only pitch in India where the ball used to come onto the bat nicely. How times change!
Sailesh,
I am just amazed that no one in the Mumbai hierarchy thought it necessary to step in, either with the way the game was being played or the way it was being administered.
Hence the rant!
Cheers
Hiken Shah is brilliant!!!!!!
Anonymous,
Thanks for your comments and I concur
Cheers
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