Wednesday 4 April 2007

Cricket At Its Boring Best



The chaff is on its final stretch, he top four clearly visible. If this World Cup has no more upsets in store, then Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Sri Lanka should take their rightful spots in the semifinals. The difference in class between the above mentioned teams and the rest in the super eights is as clear as crystal.

Ireland tried their best and came second-best, by a long distance. Most of the games in the second stage are becoming a big yawn, and a futile exercise. South Africa must watch out for the number of runs that leak in the final ten. They have to get tighter, or higher-ranked sides might just trample over them.

When results are a foregone conclusion, add heavily priced tickets and little amusement, and your grounds are nearly empty. Television viewing has also dwindled; a difficult time zone to accommodate in the sub-continent has had its part to play.

The scheduling of matches in the super eight has left a lot to be desired. Only a handful of matches have produced good contests. The one that involved South Africa and Sri Lanka was worthy. Same way today's game between Sri Lanka and England holds promise. Sri Lanka, though, seems to have hit the straps better than England. The slower nature of the wickets give added advantage to the Islanders.

It is going to be a difficult match to predict, as the two sides play with a style that is totally distinct from each other. The Lankans rely on instinct and spin, while England try to grow on discipline and hinge on pace. The fans have been devoid of quality stuff, so the best we can hope for is a keenly contested match.

India might have been ousted but continue to hit the headlines. It was good to see Sachin Tendulkar come out in the open and voice his displeasure. No player, whatever be his stature, would ever like his attitude questioned. And to someone who has done so much for Indian cricket for more than 17 years, it would have been difficult to digest.

The blame game has definitely gone past the point of no return, as I mentioned earlier. I don't see a cordial atmosphere in the dressing room if Greg Chappell continues to be the Indian coach. It is time to move on and appoint someone who will understand the players better.

12 comments:

M.S.VAIDYANATHAN said...

There is no denying the fact that our cricketers are cash crazy. They are a pampered lot and hanker more for endorsements and care a foot for the country.

Its time all the seniors quit enmasse and allow the youngsters to showcase their talent or atleast give them a chance to earn some money. For one thing is sure, the seniors are a pack of indisciplined lot and will only try to fix the blame on Greg. Saurav ganguly is a classic example.

M.S.VAIDYANATHAN

Anonymous said...

There is no denying the fact that our cricketers are a much pampered lot, hankering only for money. Their priority is endorsements and not country's image.

Its time the seniors quit graciously and stop trying to fix Greg for all the mess they have made. Indisciplined lot that they are we all know led by Saurav Ganguly.

Even if we had won we could not claim credit, for who knows a couple of months later, some newspaper will carry a story of how our cricketers sold themselves for a few rupees.

M.S.VAIDYANATHAN

M.S.VAIDYANATHAN said...

Our cricketers are not only cash crazy and crave for only endorsements but also are an indisciplined lot. Saurav's reentry is a classic example.

Poor Greg, he should not have taken up the coaching assignment at all.

M.S.VAIDYANATHAN

Aswin Kini said...

Yes Krish, so far the Quarters have produced only a few competitive matches like SouthAfrica Vs Srilanka. Otherwise, it has been very boring indeed to watch. I, however feel that WestIndies might just sprung a surprise if they win all their remaining matches and the equation works out in their favour. As of now, New Zealand, Srilanka,and SouthAfrica, Australia are the only teams that have great chances of reaching the semis.

However i would like to see the forthcoming matches as all of them are interesting ones like England vs Srilanka, Australia vs England, Srilanka vs Australia, and of course NewZealand Vs Australia.

Anonymous said...

"I don't see a cordial atmosphere in the dressing room if Greg Chappell continues to be the Indian coach. It is time to move on and appoint someone who will understand the players better."

It seems you are turning a deaf ear to all your commenters. Nevertheless you got what you wanted:
http://in.yahoo.com/_ylh=X3oDMTE4dTJmaHZnBF9TAzI4NzMwNzI0BHBpZAMxMjczNTIEdGVzdAMwBHRtcGwDaW5kZXg-/s/89126

If India doesn't start playing superlative cricket starting today, do you have the guts to eat your words? We will see...

sundarblog said...

Krish,
By this time,I read your blog, Chapell has announced his resignation. Much expected one. Its time to rethink on our strategy. There were also talks that sachin tendulkar will be replaced as captain in place of Dravid and to me is not a correct move. we have seen how tendulkar failed miserably during his captaincy tenure. Tendulkar is not a good leader, rather a good batsman. Dravid did well and he has to be retained.

Aurindam said...

Hi Krish,
Hmmm....So we get two good news between ur posting this blog and my making this comment.
>> We get to see an interesting match with a nail biting finish.
>> We get to see a resignation

Even I had believed that Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Sri Lanka will be the Top-4 from the Super-8. And now it is almost certain.
And I totally agree with ur views, that came out in the media today morning, w.r.t. the resignation event.

Anonymous said...

Krish,after watching you on television these last couple of days, I notice that you excel in the dubious (sadly) Indian trait of vociferously highlighting peripheral not so important issues, while completely ignoring the central critical issue.
Please highlight the fact that the Irish team is made up mostly of amateurs and still are competetive.
Please highlight that 6 players of the Bangladesh team are below the age of 20.
Please highlight that the Australian and South African teams are setting standards in fitness and fielding that the Indian team just cant match up to.
Please highlight that successful teams are made up of performers and not superstars who have progressively got used to the soft life. losing motivation along the way.
Please stop bashing Greg Chappel. He is not the problem that plagues Indian cricket

Indyank said...

Yes the match between Srilanka and England was interesting.

http://indyank.blogspot.com/

Indyank said...

Greg may not have been the right choice even when he was selected as the Indian coach.His style is different and it may not suit Indian cricket.

what is disappointing is he has failed to acknowledge failure on his part as well.
But there is lot of truth in his remarks against the seniors.For eg: on Sachin - He may not have questioned Sachin's interest in cricket but what he seemed to have questioned is Sachin's motivation level to perform.Well Sachin may be most helpful when it comes to advicing the youngsters in the team but the fact is each of these senior players try to accomodate one or of their friends in the team.This is bad as performance should have been the only criteria for team selection and not personal preferences.

Greg - supports Suresh Raina despite his recent failures
Sachin - May be responsible for bringing in Agarkar,Harbajan and zaheer
Dravid - May be responsible for Sehwag,Harbajan and Zaheer finding a place in the team
Ganguly - Played just to ensure that he remains in the squad

subra said...

The problem with Chappell was that he wanted everything in Indian cricket to revolve around him. In a way, he wanted to perpetuate himself to the exclusion of everything else including Indian cricketing glory that he was suspicious of anything or anyone that seemed to challenge his authority. A coach has to be a collaborator and Greg, with his king-emperor syndrome, lacked this quality totally. View my blog at:
http://mycricketmusingsforyou.blogspot.com/

Dara said...

What baffles me is that in all these postmortems, that I have read and heard, generally by past cricketers, no one has thought it fit to highlight activity and strategy on the field that needs serious consideration. Its all about who is at fault not about what we lack.

Take a look or recollect some of our recent defeats. One glaring example is that we have lost most of our matches, including against Bangla Desh and Sri lanka, during those overs where we have fiddled around with part time bowlers. Against BD, we did reasonably well till the part timers came on. We just didnt have the attack to cash in on the early wickets. This was specially true against Sri Lanka. The match was taken away by a flurry of singles at will when the part timers were operating.

Youngsters, old experience, endorsements etc. is all very well. If we can't peroduce five bowlers who can contain the opposition, we will continue failing. Just take a look again at our defeats and this is something that stares us in the face. Endorsements, indiscipline, selfishness, all these are contributory factors. We need 5 dependable batsmen and the same number of capable bowlers. Till then we have no chance. No one, not even the 7 wise men (Ex captains) seem to have said a word about this.

Krish, if Greg Chapell got it so wrong, why is that all the measures that the BCCI proposes are what he had brought out?