India's Road Ahead
So we finally have been kicked out. Theories abound regarding why it happened and who is responsible and we will see how the BCCI responds on 6th of April. Many organizations having a pathetic quarter generally tend to hold the head of that particular division responsible and ask him to resign. I think BCCI are going to do the same to Dravid and Chappell. But it's time for a reality check.
We were supposed to be cup favorites, but I would say only if Aus, SA and NZ had their worst one month in cricket. These 3 sides were definitely better than ours and we were inconsistent even against teams like SL and WI. Proabably the only 2 teams out of the top 8 we could be fairly confident of beating were Pak and Eng. You should not be surprised too much if you start at 6th place and then can't make it to top 8. Of course we were not so bad that we should have lost to Ban. But that's the thing with World Cups. People have to accept that there are going to be a couple of minnows upsetting the giants in every world cup. It happened to WI (by Ken) in 96, Pak (by Ban) in 99 and SL (by Ken) in 03. I am sure that if we had played SL first or lost one of our warm-up matches, the compacency would not have crept in. And guys let's face it, complacency is in our blood, it's not something that's going to go away in a matter of days. Bangladesh should also not read too much into the victory - beyond the fact that it's definitely a good start for their transition - as the shock element is over and they will be thrashed now on since sides will be more alert against them.
So we come to the dissection table. Is India's domestic structure incapable of producing good cricketers? I would say that depends on how India controls cricketing world. Does it bow to Twenty20? We don't have the natural incline for that format. Again there will be a difference of opinions here, but I think we are more reliant on craft than power. And the Twenty20 effect on cricket would be similar to the one astroturf had on hockey. So we have 2 options, either we oppose it strongly enough that it cannot generate revenue and dies its own death, or we embrace it wholeheartedly and form a bandwagon of our own pune kobras (excuse the pun), andhra gultes, chennai veerans and all and paint the domestic circuit with it. But that's a different topic altogether and warrants a separate post.
Where do we go from here in the more traditional forms of cricket? Greg Chappell's time is probably up and it's time we go back to a foreigner who understands the Indian scenario better, which is why I had thought that Tom Moody was a better choice 2 years ago, since he cuts less of a prima donna figure and lets the captain seem in charge of things. My choices would be, a Dermott Reeve, a Dave Whatmore, a Jonty Rhodes, or looking back at home, an Anil Kumble (if he is going to hang up his shoes) or a Robin Singh, somebody who has a Chappellesque work ethic, minus his revolting nature, which was responsible for him trying to change the whole system too soon. The simple truth he forgot was you have to stay in the system to change the system. Rahul Dravid doesn't seem to be blessed with the leader's luck or the bastard's blood, or the Greame Smith persona, the things that I believe make an effective leader. But do we have a choice? I think we do. My top 2 choices would be Yuvraj Singh and Mahendra Dhoni. One of them should be the skipper and other should be the deputy.
There will be changes to the Australian team even if they go onto win the tourney. You will see guys like Hayden being dropped right after the world cup even though he is the man who is bullying all attacks right now. These guys won't be around for the next tourney in 2011 and so they would be asked to leave. India needs to start implementing such things right now instead of starting on it in 2010. So I would say Ganguly should exit from the ODI circuit. He has had a tremendous come back but I don't see him lasting four years. Tendulkar? Well I think he should take a sabbatical from ODI cricket and should access what he wants to achieve. There's no point playing the game just because it pays you. Dravid? He seems to have good enought touch and fitness to last 4 years.
I read a masterpiece by Mukul Kesawan about Chappell trying to change too many things. I completely agree on the fact that the domestic system isn't the most ideal but it is good enough to serve the first purpose of throwing up talent. It would be nice to have 3 paid selectors who can be made accountable. But barring a couple of incidents of alleged parochialism they have done a decent enough job over the last decade or so. The system has thrown up enough talent in the form of Raina's and Pathan's. Where it fails miserably is in its second objective, that of achieving sustainability in development of this talent. It's not a coincidence that India - if at all they fail to win the age group world cups - generally make it at least to the semi finals (this is not only in cricket, also in hockey). And don't give me that bullshit that we have players who are above their age-group. The British commonwealth, where the game is played, has all these countries - barring England and Australia- which are more or less in the same state of development and so if you allege India of malpractice, I am sure you can't let go the Lankans, the Pakis, the Banglas, or even the South Africans.
These young blokes of India are lost in transition. We, the software engineers of India, are dying for an opportunity to go abroad for studies or work, since it's quite obvious that we become smarter people after that. I don't know why the richest board in the world doesn't spend money on its foreign collaboration programs. If really Sharad Pawar decides, is it impossible for him to send a Piyush Chawla to play for a Warwickshire or a Suresh Raina for the Cape Cobras? Better still, why can't we have a 1 year Raina development program headed by somebody like Sanjay Manjarekar (as I said earlier, in coaching I prefer people who haven't had a heroesque figure as players) or a Pathan development program carried out by Javagal Sreenath? These guys must go through the rigors of domestic cricket for a full season and have all their bad times here rather than while facing a rampaging Sanath Jayasuriya or a Muralitharan in overdrive. Just to make a guess, my next candidate for second season blues - Munaf Patel. He will definitely fail in the next 7-8 months, either through injury or through a dip in form and must be withdrewn and put into an incubator as soon as that happens, rather than being made to carry drinks. Talent doesn't come so cheap and when it comes we got to exploit the last bit out of it rather than turn it into a Vinod Kambli.
As a sidenote before I end, I see Indian economy growing steadily. People now have a life of their own to live, rather than to flock the airports to abuse their fallen stars as they return. We will always gather on the nooks and corners of the roads or the smoking staircase of our company or the lounge of our school and laugh at the forward they received last night about Tendulkar selling chai at Dharavi. This time it's more of the media who have lead the bandwagon of knee-jerk reactions. But it's encouraging to see more and more of the actual public trying to strap up their knees tight and put things into perspective.
We were supposed to be cup favorites, but I would say only if Aus, SA and NZ had their worst one month in cricket. These 3 sides were definitely better than ours and we were inconsistent even against teams like SL and WI. Proabably the only 2 teams out of the top 8 we could be fairly confident of beating were Pak and Eng. You should not be surprised too much if you start at 6th place and then can't make it to top 8. Of course we were not so bad that we should have lost to Ban. But that's the thing with World Cups. People have to accept that there are going to be a couple of minnows upsetting the giants in every world cup. It happened to WI (by Ken) in 96, Pak (by Ban) in 99 and SL (by Ken) in 03. I am sure that if we had played SL first or lost one of our warm-up matches, the compacency would not have crept in. And guys let's face it, complacency is in our blood, it's not something that's going to go away in a matter of days. Bangladesh should also not read too much into the victory - beyond the fact that it's definitely a good start for their transition - as the shock element is over and they will be thrashed now on since sides will be more alert against them.
So we come to the dissection table. Is India's domestic structure incapable of producing good cricketers? I would say that depends on how India controls cricketing world. Does it bow to Twenty20? We don't have the natural incline for that format. Again there will be a difference of opinions here, but I think we are more reliant on craft than power. And the Twenty20 effect on cricket would be similar to the one astroturf had on hockey. So we have 2 options, either we oppose it strongly enough that it cannot generate revenue and dies its own death, or we embrace it wholeheartedly and form a bandwagon of our own pune kobras (excuse the pun), andhra gultes, chennai veerans and all and paint the domestic circuit with it. But that's a different topic altogether and warrants a separate post.
Where do we go from here in the more traditional forms of cricket? Greg Chappell's time is probably up and it's time we go back to a foreigner who understands the Indian scenario better, which is why I had thought that Tom Moody was a better choice 2 years ago, since he cuts less of a prima donna figure and lets the captain seem in charge of things. My choices would be, a Dermott Reeve, a Dave Whatmore, a Jonty Rhodes, or looking back at home, an Anil Kumble (if he is going to hang up his shoes) or a Robin Singh, somebody who has a Chappellesque work ethic, minus his revolting nature, which was responsible for him trying to change the whole system too soon. The simple truth he forgot was you have to stay in the system to change the system. Rahul Dravid doesn't seem to be blessed with the leader's luck or the bastard's blood, or the Greame Smith persona, the things that I believe make an effective leader. But do we have a choice? I think we do. My top 2 choices would be Yuvraj Singh and Mahendra Dhoni. One of them should be the skipper and other should be the deputy.
There will be changes to the Australian team even if they go onto win the tourney. You will see guys like Hayden being dropped right after the world cup even though he is the man who is bullying all attacks right now. These guys won't be around for the next tourney in 2011 and so they would be asked to leave. India needs to start implementing such things right now instead of starting on it in 2010. So I would say Ganguly should exit from the ODI circuit. He has had a tremendous come back but I don't see him lasting four years. Tendulkar? Well I think he should take a sabbatical from ODI cricket and should access what he wants to achieve. There's no point playing the game just because it pays you. Dravid? He seems to have good enought touch and fitness to last 4 years.
I read a masterpiece by Mukul Kesawan about Chappell trying to change too many things. I completely agree on the fact that the domestic system isn't the most ideal but it is good enough to serve the first purpose of throwing up talent. It would be nice to have 3 paid selectors who can be made accountable. But barring a couple of incidents of alleged parochialism they have done a decent enough job over the last decade or so. The system has thrown up enough talent in the form of Raina's and Pathan's. Where it fails miserably is in its second objective, that of achieving sustainability in development of this talent. It's not a coincidence that India - if at all they fail to win the age group world cups - generally make it at least to the semi finals (this is not only in cricket, also in hockey). And don't give me that bullshit that we have players who are above their age-group. The British commonwealth, where the game is played, has all these countries - barring England and Australia- which are more or less in the same state of development and so if you allege India of malpractice, I am sure you can't let go the Lankans, the Pakis, the Banglas, or even the South Africans.
These young blokes of India are lost in transition. We, the software engineers of India, are dying for an opportunity to go abroad for studies or work, since it's quite obvious that we become smarter people after that. I don't know why the richest board in the world doesn't spend money on its foreign collaboration programs. If really Sharad Pawar decides, is it impossible for him to send a Piyush Chawla to play for a Warwickshire or a Suresh Raina for the Cape Cobras? Better still, why can't we have a 1 year Raina development program headed by somebody like Sanjay Manjarekar (as I said earlier, in coaching I prefer people who haven't had a heroesque figure as players) or a Pathan development program carried out by Javagal Sreenath? These guys must go through the rigors of domestic cricket for a full season and have all their bad times here rather than while facing a rampaging Sanath Jayasuriya or a Muralitharan in overdrive. Just to make a guess, my next candidate for second season blues - Munaf Patel. He will definitely fail in the next 7-8 months, either through injury or through a dip in form and must be withdrewn and put into an incubator as soon as that happens, rather than being made to carry drinks. Talent doesn't come so cheap and when it comes we got to exploit the last bit out of it rather than turn it into a Vinod Kambli.
As a sidenote before I end, I see Indian economy growing steadily. People now have a life of their own to live, rather than to flock the airports to abuse their fallen stars as they return. We will always gather on the nooks and corners of the roads or the smoking staircase of our company or the lounge of our school and laugh at the forward they received last night about Tendulkar selling chai at Dharavi. This time it's more of the media who have lead the bandwagon of knee-jerk reactions. But it's encouraging to see more and more of the actual public trying to strap up their knees tight and put things into perspective.
posted by w_o @ 3:23 PM
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