Just as i had come to the conclusion that nothing on Indian cricket could arouse my curiosity anymore,considering the things that had happened in the past few weeks,I found myself wrong,not just once but twice and on both the occasions I had to cast my gaze downwards to make sure that my feet were firmly set on the floor.It was the announcement of Indian Cricket League or ICL made by Zee TV supremo Subhash Chandra that had caught me unawares for the first time and before i could delve into the nuances of a professional domestic cricket league,the BCCI drew up a slew of initiatives to revitalize a staggering Indian cricket team thereby startling even the best of the optimists among the fans of the game.All this within a span of three days.
The idea of a domestic professional cricket league was something that i had been toying with for quite a long time as i found it rather odd that there was a huge amount of cricketing potential left unearthed in India where Hinduism manages only a close second in the run up for the most followed religion with cricket notching up the top spot.In a multi-sport country,say,the United States,a professional league is expected to be challenged by similar leagues of other games.No such problems here since India is a single-sport country and I have always wondered why the domestic cricket scenario was in such a downtrodden state.The enthusiasm of the public towards the national team can be spread to the poor cousins of theirs who play in the domestic circuit only by bringing in sponsors and live television coverage to the games.The BCCI's failure to cash in on this has paved the way for others to pioneer into it.
Among the many recommendations that the BCCI has come up with to improve the state of the game in India,two of them stand out from the rest.One is the expulsion of the contracts based on seniority and the other is the formation of a pool of thirty players who are eligible to play international cricket so that they could be rotated accordingly.The former would inevitably be the first step towards the end of the senior-junior system in the team and I hope that in future a player wont be forced to address his captain as 'Dada' or 'Kaka' to get himself into the playing XI.The latter suggestion would come into prominence if the BCCI is to join hands with ICL at some point.The BCCI could fill the pool of players with the best players in the ICL,especially since it is advisable to have a separate team for 20/20,which is exactly the format of ICL.
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
Wednesday, April 4, 2007
The Blue Eleven
The administrators of cricket in India have finally decided to put their heads together on what went wrong and what the need of the hour is to set things straight.In exultations of victory,no matter how cheap it may be,the weaknesses of a side are swept into oblivion.Hence this loss has urged those concerned to sit up and do something about the issues that need immediate attention if the show has to go on.
The fact that it's the only team with three of its batsmen in the 10000 run league mattered the least in the World Cup as the celebrated batting line-up crumbled against Bangladesh and Srilanka.Save for some amount of consistency shown by Munaf Patel,the bowling department looked mediocre and the fielding seemed even worse.The slackness in fielding could be attributed to the exclusion of Suresh Raina and Mohd. Kaif from the World Cup squad (thanks to their inconsistent batting) and that of Dinesh Karthik,who despite being in good form never made it to the playing eleven due to reasons unknown to anyone outside the team management.Coach Greg Chappel has,among the many bombshells that he has dropped,said that the senior players blocked the path of juniors.In any case,the trio along with Yuvraj Singh had brought something to cheer about as far as India's fielding was concerned in the past and in the World Cup the triumvirate's absence cost the team dearly.Such was the dependence of the entire team on its batsmen that their failure to pile up runs got translated into the team's downfall.
The recent dip in their ranking notwithstanding,Australia continues to be at the pinnacle of world cricket because they understand the basics of the game and are deft at doing it right,not just once in a while but game after game.For India to reach anywhere near their standards the batsmen should carry their bats with unfaltering confidence throughout the innings not panicking at the fall of a wicket or a two;our bowlers should realise that even as the day of retirement is closing on him,Glenn McGrath continues to top the list of best bowlers since he is consistent with his line and length.Do we need a specialist bowling coach to tell our bowlers (especially Zaheer Khan) that it's not about bowling an exceptional delivery in an over with the rest being scorable ones,not to mention the wides and no balls,but it's all about consistency. And i sincerely don't believe that Jonty Rhodes has to be brought in to tell our cricketers that while its overwhelming to watch diving stops and flying catches,sometimes the simple task of picking up a moving ball from the ground and throwing it to on to the top of the stumps is what that matters.
And finally,in the wake of recent revelations of the coach i think this has utmost importance,the teams from the Indian subcontinent are the only ones to classify their players as seniors and juniors with commentators and columnists using these terms freely without considering the criteria of such discrimination.There may be individual stars in a team but at the end of the day cricket is a team game and all the members must shoulder equal responsibility.If somebody is not able to put an end to this horrendous and anachronistic procedure of labeling of players,at the earliest,Team India is not going to recuperate from the mess to which they have dragged themselves in.
PS:The media from the Indian subcontinent go on lengths about talent in cricket.Actually,cricket is all about technique,talent is what singers,artists etc have.
The fact that it's the only team with three of its batsmen in the 10000 run league mattered the least in the World Cup as the celebrated batting line-up crumbled against Bangladesh and Srilanka.Save for some amount of consistency shown by Munaf Patel,the bowling department looked mediocre and the fielding seemed even worse.The slackness in fielding could be attributed to the exclusion of Suresh Raina and Mohd. Kaif from the World Cup squad (thanks to their inconsistent batting) and that of Dinesh Karthik,who despite being in good form never made it to the playing eleven due to reasons unknown to anyone outside the team management.Coach Greg Chappel has,among the many bombshells that he has dropped,said that the senior players blocked the path of juniors.In any case,the trio along with Yuvraj Singh had brought something to cheer about as far as India's fielding was concerned in the past and in the World Cup the triumvirate's absence cost the team dearly.Such was the dependence of the entire team on its batsmen that their failure to pile up runs got translated into the team's downfall.
The recent dip in their ranking notwithstanding,Australia continues to be at the pinnacle of world cricket because they understand the basics of the game and are deft at doing it right,not just once in a while but game after game.For India to reach anywhere near their standards the batsmen should carry their bats with unfaltering confidence throughout the innings not panicking at the fall of a wicket or a two;our bowlers should realise that even as the day of retirement is closing on him,Glenn McGrath continues to top the list of best bowlers since he is consistent with his line and length.Do we need a specialist bowling coach to tell our bowlers (especially Zaheer Khan) that it's not about bowling an exceptional delivery in an over with the rest being scorable ones,not to mention the wides and no balls,but it's all about consistency. And i sincerely don't believe that Jonty Rhodes has to be brought in to tell our cricketers that while its overwhelming to watch diving stops and flying catches,sometimes the simple task of picking up a moving ball from the ground and throwing it to on to the top of the stumps is what that matters.
And finally,in the wake of recent revelations of the coach i think this has utmost importance,the teams from the Indian subcontinent are the only ones to classify their players as seniors and juniors with commentators and columnists using these terms freely without considering the criteria of such discrimination.There may be individual stars in a team but at the end of the day cricket is a team game and all the members must shoulder equal responsibility.If somebody is not able to put an end to this horrendous and anachronistic procedure of labeling of players,at the earliest,Team India is not going to recuperate from the mess to which they have dragged themselves in.
PS:The media from the Indian subcontinent go on lengths about talent in cricket.Actually,cricket is all about technique,talent is what singers,artists etc have.
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