The Ranji One Day Trophy is on..

Reports - here

Is it just me...

or doe anyone else out there also believe that India are way too bottom heavy?

If, as experienced by India in 2006, the Windies pitches tend to get lower and slower as the game progresses and the ball is difficult to get off the square after around the 35th over - isn't having a lineup with Tendulkar at 4,Yuvraj 5, Sehwag 6, Dhoni 7 and Irfan 8 - a waste of firepower?

Stray thoughts on Team India..

...and its chances in the World Cup.

Why the selectors had to delay the announcement of the team to the West Indies until today is beyond comprehension, especially since they had zeroed on the team around the 3rd ODI against the West Indies.

The moment Irfan Pathan and Yuvraj Singh were selected to play against the Sri Lankans and continued to be retained by the team in spite of their "niggles", they were assured a passage to the Carib.

In Sehwag's case, the very fact that he played the 3rd test at Cape Town despite being out of form and in spite of being the lesser spinner compared to Harbhajan sealed the deal for him. I had written earlier that the selectors are fooling nobody by "dropping" Sehwag as he would be a shoo-in to play Sri Lanka. True to form, the selectors obliged.

I think that in trying to be all things to all people, the Team Management ( read Dravid and Chappell) lost the plot. And this happened around the time India went to Pakistan in 2006.

The intent was laudable - trying to set in motion a bunch of processes that will help the team perform better collectively and at the same time allow for players within the team to better their skills.

That there were flaws in the team was apparent even when India was on a roll against all comers at home. ( during the 17 win streak).

The fact that they lost at Jamshedpur and Hyderabad ( bouncy wickets) and Kolkata( green top) and would have lost at Mumbai against South Africa but for the catches spilled indicated an inability to adjust to conditions outside of the straight and narrow ( read patta wickets).

Selecting Saurav Ganguly for the Pakistan trip basically set into motion a sequence of events that has lead up to the mess we find ourselves in today.

The Ganguly selection undid all the effort of placing processes before personalities. And just like that, it was about personalities and not processes.

Experiments like changing the batting order became personality centric instead of process centric, players were tried and discarded and tried again and discarded again. Vide using Pathan at 3 while completely jettisoning the Dhoni option at the same position. Vide Md. Kaif being shunted up and down the order while Yuvraj Singh retained his place at 4 or 5. Vide non specialist fielders taking up specialist positions ( more so in tests that ODIs, but hey, it all counts). Vide the persistence with some players ( read Raina) at the expense of others ( read Kaif).

Things came to a boil in the West Indies where the Indians could not adjust to the bounce and pace of the wickets and just like that, the victor had become the vanquished.

It has been a free fall from then on.

People centric and people specific processes meant that if the people failed, the process failed. To arrest the slide, more processes were introduced which may or may not have been tailored to the individual concerned.

This led to greater insecurity within the team, which in turn added to process failure, which in turn led to patchwork jobs to quick fix what was broken - which increased the insecurities.

Lack of viable communication lines between the think tank and the rest of the team may have also contributed to the free fall.

A nation, polarized as it was by the Ganguly-Chappell spat, was quick to take sides and this added to the doom and gloom.

What had worked for India during its winning run is the fact that the team was quick to identify and seize the initiative during crunch moments of the game.

Ever since the second ODI against the West Indies in the West Indies, the team collectively lost that ability to identify key moments in the game ( the last league game against Australia in Malaysia and the third ODI against SA being the most glaring examples ).

This, coupled with a collective form slump and a tendency to hit one's way back to form, only made things worse.

It could all have been different if the man at the helm had shown a little more enterprise.

Rahul Dravid is India's best bat, and arguably its greatest #3. In the absence of Tendulkar and Ganguly, the onus was on him to lead from the front. And he had shown glimpses of enterprise, in the period between late 2005 and early 2006 ( vide his use of powerplays and the super sub).

I get the sense that Dravid, the Captain, is temperamentally more suited to the longer form of the game only because it gives him the time and the space to express himself.

In the shortened form of the game, I feel he is quite out of his depth. he operates as if he has done the sums in his mind beforehand, and irrespective of the state of the game, is content to lead by the numbers.

Which is great when the team operates on auto pilot, but not so flash when things are going south.

What is noticable in the period between the last visit to the West Indies and the current scheduled vsit has done is that it has made Rahul more rigid in his approach to ODI captaincy. Is it because of the pressures of the job or his inherent nature is a matter conjecture.

But that rigidity of thought has led to a rigidity in action and that brings us to today and the team selection.

Look at the team going to the West Indies. Three key members of the side ( Sehwag, Yuvraj and Irfan) have no form to speak of, Yuvraj and Irfan are crocked, Sreesanth is a borderline selection, the two spinners have become containing bowlers rather than wicket taking options.

The ground fielding is weak, and while the team can boast of a formidable batting line up on paper,the team is collectively in pre season form.

They still cannot adapt to changing situations, partly because of inertia and partly ennui.

The captain expects the team to be carried by 7-8 key members, hardly the attitude to take to the Worlds biggest stage.

On the flip side, Zaheer, Munaf and Agarkar are firing. So are Sachin and Ganguly. Dravid can bat himself back to form, and there are two more ODIs to play against SL.

At the end of the day, the Dravid-Chappell legacy hinges upon the teams performance in the World Cup. Better the effort of the JohnWright-Saurav Ganguly dispensation and they will become heroes for life ( and beyond).

Anything less and it will mean curtains to their current roles.

Personally,the negatives outweigh the positives and it will take a superhuman effort from the team collectively to get past the Super 8's.

Team BCCI announces its XV for the World Cup.

Prem Panicker articulates, in a manner more lucid and more polite than I can muster at this moment, thoughts on Team India's selection for the World Cup - here.

The team - here

The Victory aftermath

Should Vaughan stay or go?

Peter Roebuck

The gloating - here, here, here, here, here, here and here

And the World Cup prospects - here, here, here, here

A side note..

Niranjan Shah was quoted yesterday as saying that two Saurashtra players would be made available as XIIth men for the team at Rajkot today, given the problems with injuries besetting the Indian team.

Pray then, why was Ajit Agarkar on the field substituting for Saurav Ganguly when he is yet to recover from the flu?

Knowing that Irfan Pathan and Yuvraj Singh were carrying injuries, why were no substitutes announced for them?

Given that both Irfan and Yuvraj are carrying injuries, and thier cricketing forms are suspect, should they be even considered for the World Cup?

Given Sehwag's time at th crease and the mode of his dismissal, should he be on the plane to the World Cup?

And Uthappa? Twice in two games, he has fallen caught in the slips to a short ball. Is he a candidate for the World Cup?
--
Cyrus Barucha's XV for the World Cup - here

Mumbai Cricket

Here and here

Such are our priorities!!!

Around a year ago, I read this article in the Sportstar

Milking the cash cow

In the above article I found this quote

"A proposal to increase the prize money to the Elite winner to Rs. 1 crore is under discussion," said Shetty. At present, the Elite runners-up get Rs. 4 lakhs, the Plate Division winner gets Rs. 3.5 lakhs and runner-up claims Rs. 2 lakhs. "First-class cricket is becoming a paying profession," said Shetty. "The Rs. 20,000 allowance a day may increase to Rs. 25,000 when Board revenues go up and when the benevolent fund deduction is scrapped."

Brilliant, thought I, this is finally a way of bringing some parity between the national players and the domestic players.

Fast forward a year later and there is this article

Rs 1 cr a blurred vision: Ranji Trophy winners to get only Rs 7 lakh

and this quote

BCCI secretary Niranjan Shah said that the Ranji Champions will get no increased prize money this year. “Yes, there was a proposal in the vision paper, but it has not been put into practice. We will not be able to enhance the prize money this year. It can only be done from the next season onwards,” Shah, said.

Oh well, I suppose the Board members are so swamped with work that they really haven't had the time to discuss the issue.

But wait.... Here is what the Board President was doing yesterday ..

"Pawar skipped a meeting to watch this game and he said that since it had been decided in principle to release the grants to the CAB and that since he was coming over here, he decided to bring a cheque along with him to the tune of Rs 8.02 crore,"

That explains it!!!!

The Board President is so busy acting as a courier between Mumbai and Kolkatta that he ( and his Board) do not have the time to discuss or put into practice a proposal that is pending for the better part of 2 years now.

So what about the CAB and its Board who now have a whopping 8.02 crores added to their kitty and whose President is so sensitive that

"Everyone is very unhappy with the way the game ended. A lot of hard labour has gone into the organisation of this match. We had only 10-12 days' time, and the arrangements were spotless. Everyone including the umpires were highly sympathetic," said Mukherjee

and

Although Mukherjee initially denied that the Indian team had already boarded the team bus before the final inspection was done, he later softened his stance. "Even when the umpires went out for the inspection, they said they were 98% certain that there would be no play. All these players are experienced enough to know that there was no chance of play," said Mukherjee.

what did such a caring and sensitive soul and his Board do with the additional monies?

Maybe they would try to better the existing seating arrangements for the people who spend good amounts of money to watch the cricket perhaps?

Or maybe they would get a better public service system by which the spectators do not have to spend their
time in the rain waiting while the players have themselves left the ground a while ago?

Or maybe they would refund all the people who sat through until late at night in the vain hope that they could get to see some live cricket?

No way Jose....

You see, here are the CAB's priorities

1. These include renewal of the Eden Gardens lease with the defence ministry
2. a complete review of the existing infrastructure.(For the review, experts may be called in from outside the state, or if needed, overseas.)

And here is the kicker -

Once the lease is renegotiated and an assessment made of the infrastructural improvements needed, CAB may go in for a new club house which will have a club, allowing for earnings throughout the year.

Yup -Such are our priorities!!!

Update :- Here's more on the Boards warped priorities - Girls can't play under BCCI umbrella coz of the BCCI’s excuse — 'lack of time' for not holding these events.

It all boils down to

one game at Rajkot.

One game in which Team India will need to find answers to the following questions

1. Yuvraj Singh's batting form
2. Irfan Pathan's bowling form
3. Munaf Patel's match fitness
4. Virender Sehwag's form
5. Sreesanth's bowling waywardness
6. Robin Uthappa's place at the top of the order.

and then its off to the West Indies, - on a wing and a prayer.

Err.. Rahul

"Firstly, I've not seen that report and to be honest, there's no problem within the team. The authenticity of the report is a little doubtful. I've been asked to comment on the report given by someone whose name didn't feature very prominently when I last looked at the history of Indian cricket. So when I'm asked my view on people, I'd expect you to ask me questions about people who've at least played the game, have some standing and who have been involved in the game to some capacity," Dravid said.

"Almost anyone is entitled to give his opinion and write reports but I'll comment on it if it is worthy of my comment. When I looked at the history of Indian cricket, I didn't see his name featured very prominently. May be I'll look again and I'll tell you,"

At the same time, Dravid neither denied nor concurred with the contents of the said report. The news story alleged that Desai's report, while speaking in broad terms on Sehwag's indiscipline, also referred to Dravid backing Sehwag's inclusion - in the face of near-unanimous opposition - in the side for the second Test .

First, You dont read the report. Then you doubt the authenticity of the report.Then you neither concur nor deny the contents of the report. But you deem yourself worthy to vilify the writer of the report... Great going skip!!!

WTF?

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

* why r we playing test cricket in the southern winter?

Does this schedule strike you as ridiculous? India is jetting from one corner of the globe to the other, non stop, from now until January 2009. Not one break for 2 full years!!!

Forget all the talk of developing talent and building bench strengths, forget all the talk of the international stars playing in domestic cricket, focus instead on how the Board of Control for Cricket in India is running our cricketing talent to the ground...

If the Australians think that the BCCI arm twisted them to alter their summer season, they are welcome to look at this schedule and find one tiny little spot where they could squeeze in a 4 test 20 odd ODI itinerary.

PS : - The above offer is NOT open for Lalit Modi and his cohorts. You can bet you bottom dollar that they will find a 3 day gap somewhere when the team is not playing and fit in a 2 ODI set right there.

PPS:- Saurav Ganguly, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman are due to retire in the next 2-3 years ( 4 if stretched). Will the above schedule precipitate their retirements? And if they are forced into an early retirement because of this grueling schedule, how will we remember them? As players who could not perform in their final laps because they never had adequate time to prepare and get used to conditions or for the champions they are for having soldiered on in spite of this schedule?

PPPS:- How many of our current young pace bowlers will survive this itinerary? Will we be forced to field our U-15 side because there wont be any players available ( because of injuries, fatigue, burnout and other cricketing causes) by Jan 2009?

PPPPS : - Should the BCCI seriously look at recruiting an entire hospital staff, given the fallout of this itinerary on the players health and well being?

Update :- India to play Oz in Ireland in June.. When will it end?

Coz Cricket matters!!

You bowl well, Tendulkar told jopdi no 47’s deaf and dumb boy

Young Jaiswal shoulders responsibility

Meanwhile, in Delhi

No question of clash of egos with seniors, says Dhawan

Read and Weep Part Deux

Mega bucks making way to Ranji trophy

Ranji Trophy winners to get only Rs 7 lakh

Ensure stars for domestic ties: Sunny


The BCCI is incapable of providing its customers proper facilities during cricket matches. The BCCI is incapable of providing adequate remuneration to its employees.

For a Billion Dollar institution, all the BCCI is capable of is putting its collective foot in the mouth.

Interesting schedule

this..

From what I have read, the India Pak series had to be pushed back because the ICC mandated the 20/20 World Cup in September and the announcement for the same happened pretty late, thus putting the overall schedule in disarray.

What this means for India is that they will have to play a 4 test 7 ODI series in England, then rush over to South Africa for the 20/20 WC, come back to India to play Australia in the 7 ODI set, then play Pak in a 3 test 5 ODI (?) series at home, then go down under and play a 4 test gazillion ODI series.

And this is if the BCCI does not go crazy and organize ODIS in Toronto or New York or wherever that may catch their fancy.

Watch this space for player burn out reports, injury reports and retirement calls.