T&T, can you keep our cricket team please?
Greg! Run for your life! We don’t want another Woolmer!
Dravid, please resign on moral grounds. We don’t have any other captain material though. But you are still our best bat!
Sachin, I don’t know who you let down more? Your fans or yourself?
Ganguly, you have made your two half-centuries. So you will be around for the next series. Good. That will keep some Bengalis silent for sometime. Unless, Tata Motors decides otherwise that is.
Yuvraj, what’s the use of being in form if you run like a blind horse?
Dhoni, 0, 29, 0. Is the foundation to your new house through Sir? Take my advice, don’t build those walls. You will anyway have to reconstruct them!
Sehwag, duh!
Harbhajan, the only flight that you know is that one which takes you back to India from the West Indies, right? (Are you really coming back to India? I mean safety is also a concern, eh? What say?)
Munaf, what were you smiling about on the pitch while batting, Bradman?
Zaheer, whenever you bowl the first over badly I get those jitters! There is something called “warm-up”, I am sure Greg has spoken to you about it.
Uthappa, ayta guru Dravid ge aa beer kudisidya? (Uthappa, did you get Dravid those beers you promised?)
Inspiration for the title: The best poster at yesterday’s match was held by an Indian. It said, ”T&T can you keep our cricket team, please”
Apt description of the players. They should be told too much advertisement revenue is injurious to health. Play cricket or quit.
couldn’t agree more…
Read my post:
http://sganeshkumar.blogspot.com/2007/03/indian-cricket-team-lostso.html
Let’s forget this midnightmare!
Adithya;
Let them come back.Why to beat them for their failures?
We too’ve disappointed many(While in school;promising high marks in exams;but not getting so much etc.).Let’s mend ourselves and prove that India can win and that victory need not be a last minute ‘Snatching vicory from the mouth of defeat’;in whatever job in which we engage ourselves.Let the change start from us.
Then;let’s expect India to win the World cup.(Hope;as soon as 2011.)
Still theres some action left in islands .. eh ?
“who killed coach”.
and i guess action on the day Pakistani team returns home would be more interesting than Indian.
Yep adi, I agree with u. MIB suck!!!!
Manju:
Agree!
Sudhakar:
:)
S. Ganesh Kumar:
Yes. We need to give them time to recoup and hit back. I guess we need to hire Dave Whatmore as the next coach to get that “killer instinct”
Bach:
Adanthu nija bidi! Nodana enagutte antha!
Suresh:
Unfortunate that they suck! They were supposed to win this World Cup! And now we are waiting to see if Bermuda can beat Bangladesh. Sad state!
Nice and harsh way of putting it Buddy. I agree with you all the way. According to me the performance of three players has made the difference between winning and loosing the game. Sachin, Dhoni and Harbhajan I guess if these Players were able to perform in their respective fields we would have done well.
Sachin – I feel he is not improving at all. It’s very difficult to say this about sachin because he was the player who took the great bowlers by their horns. I am thinking making sachin a captain might improve his dedication.
Dhoni – I had a bet with my friend that Dhoni cant survive 5 balls of Murali. As expected he didn’t disappoint me. He was average (except one good/lucky catch) behind the wicket and even worse in front of it.
Harbajan – I guess his bowling without getting wickets made a lot of difference.
After this loss let us hope BCCI wakes up from deep slumber and try changing processes rather than blaming just people involved. Like Greg said it is equal responsibility of all the people involved BCCI, Selectors, Coach, Captain and most of all Players. I love Greg as a coach and I think he tried his best to build a team out 15 odd players he has.
//I guess we need to hire Dave Whatmore as the next coach to get that “killer instinct”//
Even if you bring all the best coaches in the world;ou can’t solve the ‘main problem’.
The biggest problem is with our attitude.Even if we bring brand new young,talented and extraordinary players by hook or by crook;they’ll play well for a couple of years and once again fall down;once they become ‘Icons’.
Because;even if they play bad tey” not be removed for their ‘past records’.So we must aadopt the Australian method of temporarily removing a player if he’s not playing well for the past 5-6 mathes and dump him altogether;if he never wants to improve;even if he has a good ‘past track record’.(Like the way Damien Martyn;Mark Waugh etc. were treated.)If we’re like that;why one World Cup;each and ever series which comes by the way will be won by India;or else we’ll just flatter to decieve.
For eg.;Dhoni was initially playing well for a year;but once he became ‘popular icon’;he did not care to play so well.
By the way Adithya and Sundeep;
We Indians;Srilanka;Pakistan and Bangladesh share
similar blood and attitude.
//when it comes to Cricket they are not nearly as corrupt as India.The good thing in their favour is they don’t have any regional politics to deal with. Otherwise they wouldn’t have replaced many old players with promising youngsters.//
Unlike our old players;their old palyers did not carry any ‘weight’ of ‘past greatness’.See corruption and mismanagement sets in when popularity of such a thing increases.Leave alone World cup winning;now that they’ve reached ‘Super 8′;that itself will increase the people’s interest there;and what happened in India will happen there in a bigger scale.
//Dave watmore must be the best coach for upsets, nobody gave a penny for sri lanka to win the 96 world cup and they won. I guess he creates immense confidence and self-belief in the team.//
If he’s so great;how’s it that they’ve been even ‘knocked’ out of 1999 WC in the league match?
In 2003;they even lost to Kenya!After winning in 1996;they showed their ‘supremacy’ only for a year or 2.There;too Ranatunga;Kaluwitharana and Roshan Mahanama were removed only ong after they deserved to be removed.
So Australia infact is the only team which deserves to play cricket.For;their players’ career graph is never just for some ‘show-off’;i.e to say,in the ‘past’
if Gilchrist or a Ponting had an avge. of 40 or so;you can be assured that even today under pressure too; they’ll score atleast more than 40 each.
Even South Africa(Gibbs recently.);New Zealand(Astle) are accused of shielding thei non-peforming seniors for a long time;wile Australia was never acused of such a thing.
That’s why they win constantly.
Good Summary, sir! I think we cannot get remove Dravid from the captaincy. There is no one else as you point out. Sachin/Sourav and Sehwag should, should go the Inzy way and restrict themselves to Tests. Anil anyway is going. I think we seriously need to also consider if Bajji is a good team person or not and get him out as well. Now we need to fill in these vacancies and maybe get in a more down-to-earth coach as you mention Whatmore or maybe Buchanan (he should be available now).
With 20-20 increasing in popularity and fitness becoming the biggest asset, we should eliminate any and all prima donnas and only get in the work horses.
lol!! apt description…
and got this as forwarded mail – that was before Ind-SL match –
Inzi to Dravid: Kuda-afis bhai, hum chalte hain.
Dravid to Inzi: Wait till Saturday we will also join you… :P
Sundeep:
For once, I don’t have any difference in points of view with you! Agree totally despite what S. Ganesh Kumar has to say!! ;)
S. Ganesh Kumar:
Strangely enough, I seem to agree with you too! You make all valid points. And I think we need to do whatever is necessary to improve the game in our country.
Murali Partha:
Absolutely agree! We might also want to have Steve Waugh as one of the options for coach. He will be great I guess.
The prima donnas need to be told to perform or stay out.
Prashanth:
Lol! Even I read that one! Hillarious!
And unfortunately turned out to be true! :(
Simply brilliant! A laugh riot through and through!
“Harbhajan, the only flight that you know is that one which takes you back to India from the West Indies, right?”
That’s oh so true! Heard on the news that many of India’s fallen heroes are planning an extended stay in the Caribbean, whilst others are heading off for jaunts elsewhere in the region. All this to duck the wrath of furious fans back home!
One of the main reasons is that, we have been giving too much importance to cricketers and results rather than cricket and hard play.
Unpredictable results can be understood; but not unpredictable performance. We have been seeing the latter.
We need to get realistic about the capability of our team. Is it not just an average, middle level team capable of winning a few matches when conditions suit?
Anand Balaji:
Thanks! They will need to extend it to quite sometime. Last heard, some jobless idiots were actually taking out a real time funeral with the effigies of these cricketers. And actually saw on TV, a man getting his head shaved as if he had lost a dear one! With this level of fanaticism, they will have to take a slightly long break to forget this nightmare!
Pradeep:
No. This is a team of cricketers who had just one bad day at office and that proved to be their Achilles’ heel. The format was such that there was no scope for recouping and hitting back. A game against the Lankans was the only chance which they screwed up again. But upsets do happen in sport and need to be taken with a pinch of salt. Losing belief in the character of these players is not right.
This is the team that had the best batting line up on paper. Compare the batting records of all the players in this team with the records of any other team in the World Cup. I am sure they will rank among the top 3. That’s their capability. And the bowling department is as effective as it needs to be provided the team management got the composition and the pitch reading right. Dropping Anil Kumble for the match against Bangladesh was so suicidal that I suspect foul play in that move!
I think the team to be blamed for the recent Indian debacle is Bermuda. All they had to do was beat Bangladesh by a margin of either 450 runs or 47 overs. Reasonable ask, but still not carried out. Shame on you Bermuda.
I think as a country we should show our displeasure and boycott Bermuda shorts altogether. And kids, please forget about drawing triangles altogether. Draw circles instead… seems to be Sachin’s favourite figure.
Ramanan:
LOL! Excellent comment!
You’ve been blogrolled!
//Sachin, I don’t know who you let down more? Your fans or yourself?//
Sachin should’ve retired after 2003 world cup.
Because;till 2002 he indeed scored in ODIs when India had to reach a big target.If not a century(Like the one against Aus. in 1998 in Sharjah;or against SA in 2000);he atleast scored 50-60(Like in Titan Cup 1996;when India was 37-4;he scored 60+ to reach the 218 target against Aus.) and thus lead from the front.If not a leading scorer;atleast a supporting role.
Ofcourse;not all of them were victories.(India lost in ”96 semifinals to Sri Lanka;he scored 50+;while others faltered.)But;what matters is that he scored when others did not.
Whereas after the World Cup-2003;whatever 50s-100s;he’s scored they’re when India batted first. That’s to say;he became mentally weak to handle the pressure that appears;when you find that you’ve to reach a big target.
I’m saying this as a fan of Sachin.If he’d retired then;
we can say he retired at his peak and he was not a burden for the team.
One guy Ram has written it right.Read his comment:
//this kinda “looking good on paper, but not on field” is nothing new to Indian cricket…the famed Indian batting which boasted of the likes of Gavaskar, Srikkanth, Amarnath, Vengsarkar, Shastri, Patil and Kapil Dev could not take their team to a single Test win (let alone, a series) in the four years starting ’81. we remember them for their individual achievements but not for collective efforts…sure, we won the ’83 WC and the ’85 WCC but otherwise, we have always “looked” good.//
He was right because if Saurav was the most successful Indian captain;it means that even our ‘unselfish team’ of 1980s(Which played for pleasure,not money;as some say.) had a success rate of below 50%.I’ve watched cricket since 1994(When Sachin scored his 1st ODI century.). During the 90s, except Sachin and Azhar;no one played well.
(Rahul and Saurav played well from 1998 only.)
When India went out in super sixes in ”99,there was not a big protest because,no one thought our team was good.Also;we used to lose to West Indies,Sri Lanka and SA in our own soil!
So;it’s not a big problem.We’ve always been like that.Except that;guys of today are more talented,who won a good no. of matches during 2001-03,but became lazy since then,as they got the ‘popular icon’ status.
Fortunately or Unfortunately, longtime back i lost interest in cricket …and i think thats the only reason i wasn’t much disappointed with our Great MIB performance.
There was ZERO killer instict among the players..and sorry to say a Captain should be aggresive and Dravid is n’t suitable one.
I think the day Greg joined the team ..this was destinted to happen.
First immediate action i would love to see if to ban advertisements on cricket players for some certain period of time.
Anand Balaji:
Thank you Sir! An honour it is! Returning the compliment by blogrolling you! :)
[Due to technical reasons this might take some time to appear on the blogroll on the site]
S. Ganesh Kumar:
Regarding Sachin: You sound right in hindsight. But I strongly feel he will comeback harder and stronger after this defeat. He needs to see Lara batting to learn how to do it on a consistent basis.
Regarding today’s cricket team: You are right. 100% agree on this one.
Vamc:
Why blame Greg ra? What wrong could he have possibly done?
And apart from Dravid there is nobody else you can pick as captain!
Read my advt. and cricket rel. post:
http://sganeshkumar.blogspot.com/2007/04/world-cup-007-and-tv-serials.html