I wasn't following it
Originally published on Monday, August 29, 2005
How could I be so cruel? I wasn’t there pressing my favorite F5 when the (de)famed Indian batting line-up was being 007ed by Bond … Shane Bond. I have been made up of a true Indian cricket fan’s irrepressible ability, hope. Even when they were 8 down for 44 (yes only India, of course apart from the Windies and the Zimbabweans can manage such a plight against the kiwis, Bond or no Bond), you would have found me banging the F5 hoping a rare crack from Harbhajan or Pathan, or whosoever it is. And yet even after knowing that India were due to play there 1st game against the kiwis today, I lost track of it, and entered cricinfo to get some ashes bites with the breakfast tea, only to discover “Bond Blitz floors India”.
I, for one, have been an ardent supporter of the men in blue, and their super leader, Sourav Dada and also the real dada, Jaggu Dada. I believed these people -for all the things they were accused of doing for themselves – did some serious things for Team India taking it in the right direction. But hope has its own limits. I was one of the few who did not lose patience when the crowd attacked Mohd. Kaif’s house in UP after India lost to the Aussies in the league match of 2003 world cup. Hope did not betray me then, as it had a firm basis to be alive. I could see them coming back in the groove, based on the CONSISTENCY they had maintained throughout the year preceding that tournament in the limited overs game. But as age is starting to show up on the Aussie team, so is impatience starting to show on me. I don’t know where India go from here. And I believe that now is the time to drop dada. He isn’t getting any younger, neither can I say any hungrier, nor any better. And Team India is going from bad to worse. Justine Langer once told Glenn McGrath that you got to hit the rock bottom to come back up again. But rock bottom standards for McGrath were quite high by Ganguly measurement scheme. All McGrath had done was missing one season due to an ankle surgery, and not picking up noticeable amount of wickets in around half a dozen appearances on return. Ganguly over the last two seasons has seen a considerable amount of drop in his average from 44 to 40 in ODIs, which is quite significant and I am not even dissecting his test form which has been, barring the sole Brisbane hundred touted as a tiger’s knock, abysmal.
There has been a lot of pondering done on India’s losing cause in the recent time. A point has been missed time and again though, which I believe lies in their dreadful ODI bowling. It’s there for every one to see that they have lost an important man in their world cup mission, namely Zaheer Khan. The man needs to rediscover himself somehow, if he has to fill in the shoes of even Javagal Srinath, forget Kapil Dev. Same can be said about Harbhajan Singh. I have to really stress my memory to recall when Harbhajan took his last 3 wicket haul, an achievement which should not be far beyond an Indian ace spinner’s capability. But he has literally looked incapable of picking up wickets recently and if he keeps going on the track he is now, we might need to force him to retire alongside Anil Kumble. Have I lost my marbles? Remember what came Saqlain Mushtaq’s or Mushtaq Ahmed’s way? And when they were kicked out, they were bowling at least a notch above the supremely straight stuff that Harbhajan bowls these days. I mean even Kumble spins it more than Bhajji these days. Is it not the worst abuse ever for a spinner?
Was it just a purple patch for a bunch of mediocre batsmen who would look potent of chasing any total against most attacks, if not all, that took them to the world cup finals 2 years ago? Yuvraj Singh, for a long enough period of time, has been ugly; bad could be a complement for him. And they still hope that he will get runs CONSISTENTLY. I don’t care about a solitary hundred that he strikes against a futile West Indies attack. When time demands him to bat, he’s either foxed by a spinner, or if he avoids it then he sweeps him into the hands of deep mid-wicket, or else he edges a quicky to the slip cordon. Virender Sehwag is the replica Sourav Ganguly of the early years of the millennium. While Sourav was prolific in ODIs and dismal in Tests, Sehwag’s the opposite.
They now realize the value of their batting champion Sachin Tendulkar. As his critics shout, he may not play a Brian Lara or a Steve Waugh or an Inzamam Ul Huq for his team, but I have seen him score hundreds on days when he hasn’t timed a single delivery and has been completely out of form, still at a reasonable strike rate, through some thoughtful and soulful stuff. Those knocks may not win matches for his team, but they never let his team be embarrassed to the extent of 8 for 44, that too against a soul Shane Bond, I don’t count Andre Adams a bowler.
That brings us to the question of where to start the cleansing job. I guess it starts at the top with an axe on the skipper. England can afford a non performing skipper, India cannot. The man to wear the hat should be the only permanent member of the team, Rahul Dravid. Or if they are prepared for the tough decision, then they should go with different men for the two versions, Dravid with the test squad and Kaif with the ODIs. Have I lost my marbles now? If Ganguly is to go and Dravid is not a long term option, then the only person that stands a chance is Kaif. He has batted more consistently in ODIs than anybody else apart from Dravid himself and, although at a junior level, has previously led a world winning team. The next axe falls on Yuvraj, who must be asked to win a place back in the team by doing some notable stuff at the domestic level. And for god’s sake I hope they don’t bring back an ever unfit VVS Laxman as a replacement. If Sachin manages to come back sooner rather than later, then they must think about whether Sehwag deserves a place in the playing eleven. I believe it’s better to lose by trying out young blokes like Suresh Raina, than by chancing continuous failures like Yuvraj.
And what about the bowlers? It has to be made clear to Ashish Nehra and Zaheer Khan, that the BCCI has wasted enough money on their fitness and travel tickets. It’s time they do something about it or accept that they were never made for the highest level, a sad realization that came very late in case of Ajit Agarkar. But giving it a second thought, is there an option? I fear that the answer is no. If strike-rate-wise the best ODI bowler to immerge from a nation happens to be called Ajit Agarkar (believe it or not he still holds the best strike rate for an Indian taking more than 100 ODI wickets), then god save that country. And if you drop Harbhajan, the only bowler who has averaged less than 4.5 runs per over since the 2003 world cup, is it not a suicide?
So do you really count it as the captain’s failure? Or is it the impotency of his men that’s responsible for the debacle? That brings me back to the original question, was it just the coinciding purple patch of a few ordinary people that gave us hope of a CONSISTENTLY high performing team? Well only time and (maybe) Greg Chappel could tell. For the time being, my breakfast menu has changed to English style to avoid tummy-aches like 8 for 44.
How could I be so cruel? I wasn’t there pressing my favorite F5 when the (de)famed Indian batting line-up was being 007ed by Bond … Shane Bond. I have been made up of a true Indian cricket fan’s irrepressible ability, hope. Even when they were 8 down for 44 (yes only India, of course apart from the Windies and the Zimbabweans can manage such a plight against the kiwis, Bond or no Bond), you would have found me banging the F5 hoping a rare crack from Harbhajan or Pathan, or whosoever it is. And yet even after knowing that India were due to play there 1st game against the kiwis today, I lost track of it, and entered cricinfo to get some ashes bites with the breakfast tea, only to discover “Bond Blitz floors India”.
I, for one, have been an ardent supporter of the men in blue, and their super leader, Sourav Dada and also the real dada, Jaggu Dada. I believed these people -for all the things they were accused of doing for themselves – did some serious things for Team India taking it in the right direction. But hope has its own limits. I was one of the few who did not lose patience when the crowd attacked Mohd. Kaif’s house in UP after India lost to the Aussies in the league match of 2003 world cup. Hope did not betray me then, as it had a firm basis to be alive. I could see them coming back in the groove, based on the CONSISTENCY they had maintained throughout the year preceding that tournament in the limited overs game. But as age is starting to show up on the Aussie team, so is impatience starting to show on me. I don’t know where India go from here. And I believe that now is the time to drop dada. He isn’t getting any younger, neither can I say any hungrier, nor any better. And Team India is going from bad to worse. Justine Langer once told Glenn McGrath that you got to hit the rock bottom to come back up again. But rock bottom standards for McGrath were quite high by Ganguly measurement scheme. All McGrath had done was missing one season due to an ankle surgery, and not picking up noticeable amount of wickets in around half a dozen appearances on return. Ganguly over the last two seasons has seen a considerable amount of drop in his average from 44 to 40 in ODIs, which is quite significant and I am not even dissecting his test form which has been, barring the sole Brisbane hundred touted as a tiger’s knock, abysmal.
There has been a lot of pondering done on India’s losing cause in the recent time. A point has been missed time and again though, which I believe lies in their dreadful ODI bowling. It’s there for every one to see that they have lost an important man in their world cup mission, namely Zaheer Khan. The man needs to rediscover himself somehow, if he has to fill in the shoes of even Javagal Srinath, forget Kapil Dev. Same can be said about Harbhajan Singh. I have to really stress my memory to recall when Harbhajan took his last 3 wicket haul, an achievement which should not be far beyond an Indian ace spinner’s capability. But he has literally looked incapable of picking up wickets recently and if he keeps going on the track he is now, we might need to force him to retire alongside Anil Kumble. Have I lost my marbles? Remember what came Saqlain Mushtaq’s or Mushtaq Ahmed’s way? And when they were kicked out, they were bowling at least a notch above the supremely straight stuff that Harbhajan bowls these days. I mean even Kumble spins it more than Bhajji these days. Is it not the worst abuse ever for a spinner?
Was it just a purple patch for a bunch of mediocre batsmen who would look potent of chasing any total against most attacks, if not all, that took them to the world cup finals 2 years ago? Yuvraj Singh, for a long enough period of time, has been ugly; bad could be a complement for him. And they still hope that he will get runs CONSISTENTLY. I don’t care about a solitary hundred that he strikes against a futile West Indies attack. When time demands him to bat, he’s either foxed by a spinner, or if he avoids it then he sweeps him into the hands of deep mid-wicket, or else he edges a quicky to the slip cordon. Virender Sehwag is the replica Sourav Ganguly of the early years of the millennium. While Sourav was prolific in ODIs and dismal in Tests, Sehwag’s the opposite.
They now realize the value of their batting champion Sachin Tendulkar. As his critics shout, he may not play a Brian Lara or a Steve Waugh or an Inzamam Ul Huq for his team, but I have seen him score hundreds on days when he hasn’t timed a single delivery and has been completely out of form, still at a reasonable strike rate, through some thoughtful and soulful stuff. Those knocks may not win matches for his team, but they never let his team be embarrassed to the extent of 8 for 44, that too against a soul Shane Bond, I don’t count Andre Adams a bowler.
That brings us to the question of where to start the cleansing job. I guess it starts at the top with an axe on the skipper. England can afford a non performing skipper, India cannot. The man to wear the hat should be the only permanent member of the team, Rahul Dravid. Or if they are prepared for the tough decision, then they should go with different men for the two versions, Dravid with the test squad and Kaif with the ODIs. Have I lost my marbles now? If Ganguly is to go and Dravid is not a long term option, then the only person that stands a chance is Kaif. He has batted more consistently in ODIs than anybody else apart from Dravid himself and, although at a junior level, has previously led a world winning team. The next axe falls on Yuvraj, who must be asked to win a place back in the team by doing some notable stuff at the domestic level. And for god’s sake I hope they don’t bring back an ever unfit VVS Laxman as a replacement. If Sachin manages to come back sooner rather than later, then they must think about whether Sehwag deserves a place in the playing eleven. I believe it’s better to lose by trying out young blokes like Suresh Raina, than by chancing continuous failures like Yuvraj.
And what about the bowlers? It has to be made clear to Ashish Nehra and Zaheer Khan, that the BCCI has wasted enough money on their fitness and travel tickets. It’s time they do something about it or accept that they were never made for the highest level, a sad realization that came very late in case of Ajit Agarkar. But giving it a second thought, is there an option? I fear that the answer is no. If strike-rate-wise the best ODI bowler to immerge from a nation happens to be called Ajit Agarkar (believe it or not he still holds the best strike rate for an Indian taking more than 100 ODI wickets), then god save that country. And if you drop Harbhajan, the only bowler who has averaged less than 4.5 runs per over since the 2003 world cup, is it not a suicide?
So do you really count it as the captain’s failure? Or is it the impotency of his men that’s responsible for the debacle? That brings me back to the original question, was it just the coinciding purple patch of a few ordinary people that gave us hope of a CONSISTENTLY high performing team? Well only time and (maybe) Greg Chappel could tell. For the time being, my breakfast menu has changed to English style to avoid tummy-aches like 8 for 44.
posted by w_o @ 2:55 PM
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