It seems churlish to point out that the questioner hadn't asked why India hadn't won the World Cup, though this is the question Chappell chose to answer. He was merely asking why we had been slung out in such short order and given the fact that we had reached the finals just four years ago, it was a reasonable question. Be that as it may, Chappell and his admirers were setting out a preliminary sketch of their history of our decline.

It goes like this. The base of Indian cricket is the first-class game. The Australian school (to which Chappell and Dravid belong) argues that there are too many first class teams. These make the Ranji Trophy unwieldy and the huge difference in the level of cricket played by, say, Mumbai and Jharkhand, makes the first class game uncompetitive. Indian cricket at the very top can only improve when this system is reformed and a premier league created that will feature a maximum of six or seven teams following the Australian model. In addition Indian cricket needs paid selectors unconnected with the politics of zonal cricket, professional managers, and curators who can produce the pitches that India encounters overseas.

Once this reformed structure is in place, the skills of top-tier players have to be professionally honed by putting a process in place. Process became something of a totemic word for Chappell and Dravid. It was generally invoked to defend changes in the batting order and team selection and its purpose was to indicate that the choices made were not random but determined by a process that would, in the fullness of time produce a strong and versatile team. Which brings us to another part of Chappell's press conference.

Q. Another word that has been mentioned a lot is 'process'. What went wrong with the process?
A. That's an inflammatory question and I'm not prepared to answer it.

Even allowing for a natural defensiveness, 'inflammatory' is a curious description of the question. It's a pointed question, even a sarcastic one, given the mantra-like significance of 'process' in the team management's jargon, but inflammatory? Chappell's thin-skinned reaction to the question is probably explained by his feeling that the assembled journalists were trying to get him to take responsibility for the debacle when he clearly thought the responsibility ought to be shared around. Feeling as he did, that the Indian press was trying to assign blame (rather than analyse the causes of failure) Chappell took refuge in the longue durée.

The problem is that structural explanations don't really explain success or failure at the highest level in team sport. Brazil has won the soccer world cup four times. England, with one of the richest and best organized football leagues in the world has won it once. The Dutch, who systematically implemented a 'process' called 'total' football for years never won it at all.

The real difference between the Australian team and the Indian team in structural terms is that the former is thrown up by a population which routinely plays outdoor sport into adult life while the latter is chosen from a population where a statistically insignificant number of people do. The despairing references to a nation of a billion people failing at every sport are beside the point.

So are ambitious plans to restructure first class cricket. I don't think anyone has plausibly demonstrated that the infirmities of the present system have led to the wrong players being systematically chosen for India's Test or ODI teams. There has always been debate about the selection of Indian teams and dark aspersions cast on the corruption of the selection process, but I don't see any Tendulkars or Kapil Devs blushing unseen in some cricketing desert. If anything the number of players to make the Indian team from obscure provincial sides has risen steeply in recent times. Think of Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Irfan Pathan, Munaf Patel, Mohammad Kaif and Suresh Raina and it becomes apparent that as far as throwing up talent is concerned, the system's working.

In any case, it's the same system that got us to the final in 2003, so perhaps we should look for explanations in the shorter term and focus on policies and personalities, rather than structure. It's a form of history writing that used to be unfashionable but is making something of a comeback.

I think we lost because Chappell, with the best possible intentions, tried to shake the team out of its settled routines by recruiting new players and rotating their roles. He bet on youth and fitness, on developing the all round skills of players like Dhoni and Pathan, and on undermining notions of seniority and hierarchy. He made an example of Ganguly to this end, made his indifference to slow-moving specialists like Laxman obvious and built up players like Raina on the strength of their fielding skills.

All of these policies are theoretically defensible: the problem is, they didn't work. Raina wasn't ready for prime time as a batsman, Pathan's bowling fell away, the experiments at the top of the order failed and by the time the World Cup came round, the Indian team looked remarkably like the one John Wright had handed over. Ganguly was back and he rejoined a team that had been stirred and shaken so hard that it was an anxious bunch of individuals with no esprit de corps. It didn't help that its captain was so tense and care-worn that his batting form declined.

If the atomization of the team was the medium term cause, the short term trigger was daft team selection. It still isn't clear what Uthappa was doing in the team or what Laxman was doing out of it. Or why the job of bailing India out in the crunch game against Sri Lanka was handed to a rookie instead of being given to Tendulkar who has scored nearly all his one-day centuries opening the batting.

It's in choices like these that the causes of India's embarrassing exit from the World Cup should be sought. A seven team Ranji tournament, the art of total cricket and paid selectors may well be useful in the long run, but it's unwise to base a coaching process on that projection. In the long run we're all dead.

This piece first appeared in the Telegraph.

Hi!

Sorry for digressing from the current theme. I just want to remind the readers about what I had said in the same blog just after the victory over Sri Lanka (before the world cup)at Vizag.

Posted by: ramana on 02/18/2007
Hi!
1. Our fellows crumble in pressure is a well known fact.
2. Bowling and fielding department is not that great. This is a open secret.
3. The top bowlers of top teams have already sorted out Sehwag, Ganguly and even Tendulkar. Dhoni, Uthappa and Karthik cannot be considered solid... they are still immatured... If they click they click... that is all.
4. Only Rahul is a very dependable player... But he also because of his work load as captain is not shining consistently nowadays... and
5. with lot of self doubt, lack of form, intensity, and lethargy (see how Sehwag got out last match)i do not believe Indians to make anywhere even near to semi finals...
Guys! be realistic. stop day dreaming... Best of Luck atleast for 2011.

A mad fellow called Anish wrote back the following lines...

Posted by: Anish on 02/18/2007
Dear Ramana,
Thank you for pointing out the various faults of the average Indian psyche. It gives me immense pleaseure to know brave and intelligent people such as yourself( top performer that you must be) would have a brilliant idea of how 15 gentlemen have found a place for themselves out of one billion. Indian batting lineup has had collapses and so has every other teaem in the world. Lack of self confidence is a personal huma weakness. Perhaps you relate to it. The rest of don't. Not that we have delusions of winning this cup hands down, but we certainly have the talent as well as temperment to match the occasion. We require consistency. None the less, thank you dear Ramana for showing us that you belong to that class of dejected .....who think the know whats going to happen before it does. I'd love for you to post your resume on this. Perhaps it's credibility stretches beyond your tongue. Good Day sir. You may hide in your hole. The rest of us still look forward to a scrap.
Anish

Now where is he? Where is he hiding? fans in india are emotional not intelligent. Very optimistic but not realistic. Let him eat his own words and appologize if he has some self respect.

Thanks for allowing me to write the above piece.

The comparison to the Brazilian, English and Dutch national sides is a bit flawed since national sides in Football do not play as often as they do in cricket.

Most of the Brazilian players don't play in Brazil, they ply their trade in Italy & Spain which have the two best leagues in the world.

The Premiership may have players from all over the world but it should be noted that barring Liverpool,the best players at big clubs aren't English.

The Eredivisie has become a breeding ground for some of the best young talent in The Netherlands but most of these players hardly get to play each other.

What many people (including you) don't recognize is the fact that after vengsarkar took over, chappel's process/policies were no longer in force. Dravid moved away from chappell and sided with seniors.

You exhibit a bit of immaturity in declaring Suresh Raina as a failure. Raina was out-of-form no dounbt, but was a he a failure ? Very hard to say; Raina is too young to be called a failure yet.

How can you blame chapell for WC failure given that we loaded 80% of this team with slow movers; I don't think this was his first choice team.

Who should be really blamed for this ? I think it should be the selectors first for bringing in a new policy of "seniority and reputation comes first and youth matters little". I think we expected unrealistic things of this old team. One day cricket has changed (and it'll change more due to 20-20 influence), and if we continue to stick to the old methods indian cricket will head in the same direction as indian hockey.

Maybe you should look at your piece to see why India failed? A 'catastrophe'? Saying it will be analyzed like a bloody rebellion? Maybe, just -maybe-, if you let the Indian players go out there and enjoy the game without the fear of a loss being turned into a deadly catastrophe that must be disected, your players wouldn't choke so badly when the heat is turned on.

It's a sad and pathetic day when sportsmen have to *fear* the reaction of their fans.

Dear Ramana,

Although I really don't have any reason to respond to your comment based on observation by a certain individual I don't think that you should indulge in setting personal scores with Anish or whosoever . In a way even your comment was a little pessimistic when you mentioned that India was not that strong in most departments of the game. However I beleive that there were a few selection issues if we had played sreesanth instead of Agarkar we would have had a good attack with Sreesanth probably giving us a wicket taking option and also if we had selected powar instead of harbhajan , I am sure we would have won the match against Bangladesh and entered the super eight . The problem is not with the team as a whole but with the seniors who are against any change and want the same set of non performers like harbhajan , agarkar and i will also put tendulkar here. I am sure that this defeat was a boon for Indian cricket because if the team is revamped and some new guy like probably yuvraj although i am not sure about his captaincy and his attitude but we don't have options made the leader, then there is a possibilty we can be better. Drop Tendulkar and ganguly among batsmen. Replace them with Somebody from domestic cricket doing well and test him for some time without insecurity. Drop Harbhajan singh and Agarkar get Powar and sreesanth in . Drop anybody who is not performing and i am sure that we can really perform. Pick some more fast bowlers like VRV singh and Abid Nabi who have some good pace ; blood them for some time on the international scene and see how they go. We canm then have a good fast bowling pool. Also look for another good spinner apart from Powar and drop harbhajan from the one day scenario altogether. Get the confidence of Irfan Pathan back as he is crucial for the balance of the side.I am sure with these changes India can go a long way.

Chappel's response at the press confrence after the SL loss reminded me of that Ganguly-Chappel email episode, but now the roles were reversed. Chappel's SMS and divisionary politics have been all over the media (curiously only after India was ousted)
I still think that India got of to a bad start, another group or even another ground and the story might have been different. In short I am not sharpening any knives, would rather wait and see how the IND-AUS series goes later this year.

Agree with you on Laxman having missed out.
I could visualize the dismissals of Sehwag and Tendulkar.All the bowler had to do was bowl the right length outside the off and sehwag would slash at it and hole out. Tendulkar on the other hand would be done in by one that goes through the gap and he would go down on his knees to create the illusion that he was unlucky that it kept low.
For me this is a measure of how consistent the batsman is. Sure, there is the possibility that on his day Sehwag/Tendulkar can bludgeon any attack into submission but that is the flaw in the thinking. Laxman may not be a gazelle between the wickets but he relishes an attacking field to score boundaries off with some delectable wristy shots.

It is sad to see someone like Mukul invoke the fallacious "X in, Y out would've done the trick" argument. Does he seriously believe that Laxman in and Uthappa out would've made a difference here? C'mon, this is tish-tosh.

Point is Chappell's agenda got derailed with More's exit, Ganguly's re-entry (thanks to Pawar Himself). It is a shame if we fail to note that GC consistently said in the build-up to the WC that "India got the team IT wanted!".

SRT, batting in ANY position, dammit, is expected to read an arm ball from a no-name Bangla bowler! Ditto, he is NOT expected to make Dilhara Fernando look like Waqar Younis on song! Why no mention of this, sir?

Likewise, SG is NOT expected to get bogged down, or play a loose frustrated hoik. Coz what SRT and SG is NOT ACCEPTABLE from senile..er..senior cricketers. Add to this the culpability of Bajji and the wanton run out of Yuvraj and the picture is complete.

The cause of this debacle lies NOT in choices made by the captain or coach. They lie squarely with a bunch of unfit, on the wane players whose retirement is way overdue. But then, we can't really blame the BCCI or the selectors, can we? For, who could really resist the temptation of having a "Superman" or "Phantom" in your team ? :)

I do not see any reason to justify your explanation for failure of indian cricket in WC. If you think Raina is a failure, then look at Sachin who probably scored first century in 70 more ODI. Can any of these new player afford that luxry. It's true that the old player has a role to play. But to revise their role and not to take things for granted is a different case which is rare in Indian cricket. Thanks to the late initiative of Moore and Chapel regime. Stick to the old tradition and fail to adopt and face the near extinction of crickt as it happened to Indian Hokey. Probably, this is a wake up call for BBCI to go for quality than quantity, otherwise I will not wonder if you will have to struggle to find supporters (fan and money)in long run.

Good luck!

Well to me it basically boils down to who can handle pressure? I was just going through the CricInfo website in which the wins were listed for minimum number of runs and minimum number of wickets. And it is not surprisingly to see that India was nowhere to be seen in the winning team cloumn though its name did appear in the losing team column. The fear of losing is just too much in this current Indian team. For a while when Ganguly was at the helm it was gone but it seems to be back in Dravid's tenure may be due to excessive changes constantly made in the Indian team. The key is to play to your potential and don't worry about the results. Look at Australians and South Africans, do they get bogged down if they have lost a wicket, they just continue on as if nothing has happened. The difference can even be seen in the Bangladesh and India match. Had there been a different partner to Yuvaraj there would have been more singles and twos and the pressure could have been enforced on the opposition. Yes we need youth, and if Chappel wanted to enforce that he wasn't wrong in doing that. Everyone says Tendulkar is a great player, no doubt about that as you won't be scoring so many runs if you are not a great player, but it will be really interesting to see the stats which will show us how many times Tendulkar has actually contributed in a winning team or how many times he has actually taken the team from nowhere to a win A LA Steve Waugh. These guys should go now and should be replaced by young potential match winners. Chappel and Dravid should be there and if paid selectors, elite team in the domestic games, and better pitches work in Australia than we should just follow it rather than questioning the proven ideas.

Mukul makes a great case for not looking at systemic and cultural excuses but looking at the heres-and-the-now. Fair enough! But, the reason so many people are asking for far-reaching structural reforms is because we need them! And knowing the Indian psyche and bureaucratic political tortoise that the BCCI is, there may be very few moments when such change can be demanded vociferously.

We need a Premier League (maybe 7-8 super teams comprised from the provincial sides), we need professional sports administrators and trainers, we need a cultural change where brilliance is only an occasional passport to the team while effort and temperament get valued more. But, radical action can only be triggered by tragedy, and we have a way of missing the boat. Lets not do it now.

If you look at the team we had this year, aside from the curiosity called uthappa, we had one of the finest, most experienced batting line ups. Our team severly lacked hunger and fire this time - that's all. the root cause to me was the dravid-chappell combination. For all his ideas, chappell didn't achieve the intended results. He must go. We need to retain our captain, but Dravid needs to toughen up and put the fear of god in his men. He is too placid - and needs more iron and fire.

Mr.Kesavan's " more of same" solution has the merit of at least being clear.But one wonders then why does he wish to waste hid undoubted writing skills on the same rusults and ,presumably,same solutions to the conundrum of the gap between potential and performance.True,we are all dead in the long run: but why is that any different from being comatose on a recurring basis? And please remember, long after his death, Keynes and his ideas are alive and well.

Mukul:
India's shambolic performance and the context couldn't have been more aptly put. It's pleasing that Chappel's ultra professional approach/methods/processes are countered with erudition and a relavant philosophical contruct that applies to India/Indian sport.

It's a vindication of sorts for leaving a player like VVS....it might sound sadistic but very true.

It somehow proves that great players cannot be great coaches despite the very best intentions....the facilitator should never be the enforcer. The whole process of melding all the contituents into 'one' vision of just one individual has fundamental flaws. Mr. Chappel was indeed a great batsmen and very articulate and firm coach but a winning coach......nahhhh. India needs a performing/fighting/winning team without getting too muddled into processes and theories. We need at least one Kapildev for any sorta real resurgence.

Come on Mukul - Please tell me you would keep this structure if you were in charge? It seems we have a plethora of batsmen at the Ranji level who have batting averages of 50+ but have not been able to replicate their feats at the international level (Names like Vikram Rathour come to mind). But look at the two newest batsmen that Australia have brought in - Hodge (a double century to his name against SAF) and Hussey. Same would go for bowling (Clark). I sometimes envy that they have a very stable test team with 1/2 changes every year, and the changes they bring in produce tremendous results...Is this not a product of their system?

I would agree with ramana above. We cricket crazy fans think emotionally than being rationale and being realistic.

People were angry with the Indian loss, and many were burning effigies without realizing the fact that these are the same people who made the Indian Team members as heroes. Everybody will agree that this team lacked conviction, temperament, and more importantly the commitment, and attitude to win a match which better teams possess. The bonding was clearly seen missing. Somehow, i always felt tht this current indian team under Dravid was a bunch of 11 players than a Team, and that showed up in none other than the biggest cricketing extravaganza.
And after the Indian debacle in this world cup i realized one thing.
Unless, the system is changed,
unless players are paid based on performance, unless players are restricted from endorsements in the first 3-4 years of their gaining entry to Indian team untill they fully establish themselves, (This would mean the players will be well established for every world cup and we will have lot may players to choose)
unless we have a system where there is relative pay to the players based on the number of matches won by India and within that counting the performance of the player (say if india wins all matches in a year and a player A contibutes consistently well in all these matches while if India loses however well he may have performed, his quota should be less)
Unless cricket board removes the current grading system, and brings in a sole performance based pay as said above,

India will be found wanting to Win the World Cup and evry World Cup will throw some disappointment or the other for the cricket crazy fans of the country.

Burning effigies and being angry is neither practical nor a rationale thinking, because as said better late than never, this World Cup has thrown Team India into a reality check as to what they were capable of.

Unless the mindset changes, there will be lot more disappointments for the fans.

With that I sign off, and hopefully when the World Cup returns to the sub continent next time, things would have changed within the Indian Crikcet System and hopefully BCCI is taking steps in the right direction.

I think Chappell's 'process' was subverted when the adequate no. of wins did not turn up within the desired period of time. Everyone knows that no 'process' is foolproof and if it involves young men with large egos, yes it will have its failures. What was needed was to rework it, but keep the essentials the same: concentrate on fitness, youth and aggression. The aggression disappeared with the first series loss. The youth with the second. The fitness naturally followed. Never mind that in getting five-six feel good wins we have now completely lost direction in our One Day cricket.

What is needed is not an overhaul of Ranji trophy. A little more streamlining with more divisions and less of Mumbai v. Jharkhand will be better, but the system does work, and in a country like India, you cannot restrict first class cricket to about 6-7 teams, whatever the benefits of the same are to Australia or South Africa.

The plan must be for World Cup 2011. Never mind series losses in the middle. Never mind humiliating defeats now. We need a pool of 15 players, experienced, but not too old, hungry, fit and skilful to challenge the very best in the World.

Of the present lot, only five will qualify: Yuvraj, Dhoni, Dinesh Karthik, Uthappa and Sreesanth. The others will be too old or just too jaded. We therefore need to find two quality spinners, three quality fast bowlers, plus an all rounder (Pathan maybe), another opener and three solid middle order batsmen. Players must be given a good run before assessing whether they are good enough to make it at the international level. The goal must be for the next four years. The process must be put in place now.

It is no use blaming the team when they start off on the wrong foot in the first place. Maybe they took Bangladesh for granted. They are the only team not to have played tests in India because of lack of commercial appeal. It certainly was the starting point (remember we have always beaten Pakistan in every World Cup to date) as we get familiar with their players and system by playing them more often (not that it helps against stronger teams, but you have to start somewhere). In any case, the opening match would have made a better case if the singles had been converted to twos or threes (I find it absolutely appalling that the Indian batsmen walked their singles most of the time.) And talking about the Bangladesh fielding, remember all those sliding saves for boundaries (hmmm....some dreams do never happen! in India..)

With this kind of attitude, it is no surprise that we couldnt cut it against the better teams.

Instead of trying to pinpoint or apportion blame, the Board must relook at the entire "process", "structure" and team selection and stick with it irrespective of other considerations. Then four years may be sufficient time to entertain ideas of another tilt at the crown.

Great cricketers don't necessarily make great coaches. Look at Greg Chappel's record with South Australia before taking the coaching role with India. The coach has to be a people person, more like a psychologist, understanding the dynamics of the team etc etc.

The Indian players past & present, barring a few, cannot play on a pitch that has bounce & movement.

Everyone in India wants to be a Tendulkar, NOT Kapil Dev, NOT the great spinners of the 70's. I'm guessing this is partly because of the money & partly because of the glamour in India.

Someone said India reached the final of 2003 WC. Yes they did, but did you also see the way they got flogged by the Aussies?

My belief is that "YOU ARE ONLY AS GOOD AS YOUR BOWLING ATTACK".

A few responses:
1. Regularly people mention about the passionate fan. Burning effigies, blackening houses, breaking windows, et.al. Even Mukul mentioned the same in one of the previous posts. Till date I have not seen any fan doing any of those things. I have seen people feel privately happy or sad, share sms messages, crack jokes but not do any of the above. Dhoni's house was damaged by JMM activists and not fans. Fans as a word is being used a bit too loosely.

It is also not wrong to expect after all we pay for the billions that they earn. If the stars are not used by, say, Pepsi the cost of a packet of Lays would come down by a few paise at least, if not rupees. So we are all paying for their riches and happily at that.

2. I am not sure if a player here or there would have made such a huge difference. If the other 10 are useless the 11th would make no difference. True, India has the maximum individual records on paper (highest runs, centuries, blah, blah...) but it is all history. What percent of these great scores came in the last 2 years. Other than Dravid the greats have been generally in decline. If we have to play on historical records, might as well take Kapil and Sunil G with us.

3. Greg is wrong in saying we haven't won anything. Champions Trophy 1 and 2 come to mind. However, it is less about winning and more about reaching the final or late stages. We have done that regularly.

The cricket establishment is a palace of intrigues. Everyone is a victim and everyone is a suspect. Can't trust anyone.

First, this is not a catastrophe. Woolmer's murder is the real tragedy, not India's ouster. Second, let's not blame Chappell blindly, the BCCI hired him for the job, chose him over Amarnath, Moody and Haynes. Third, the real culprits - the BCCI - will take no blame, no responsibility and overhaul nothing. India, with all those mountains of money in cricket, needs a Kerry Packe-like figure. Set up a
professional league (like the PHL in hockey), get players organized into clubs (enough of the archaic Ranji-Duleep format), use performance
linked incentives, improve player quality. Send the BCCI out of business. The examples (Aus, South Africa) are all out there.

It is really good to see that so many people are wriring into this forum, whatever views they have, instead of blatantly protesting on the streets. I am really appreciative of the healthy debate.
On a more specific note, why is so much of your collective energy and passion directed upon a sport( the oxford dictionary describes it as a game played as pastime). I might be blamed for not being in touch with the ground realities, to not understand the psyche and emotions of my countrymen, but what is it that hurts? Defeat, manner of defeat or the defeat inspite of the money earned! I find it a real apathy that a sunbathing sport of Englishmen,(I am a hopeless romantic when it comes to cricket) has been brought(reduced, shall we say) to such ignomity, by the collective passions and an impending ignorance of the games glorious history.
I believe that, we will do well understand that, a sport as it passes through ages, there is bound to be temporal variations in every aspect of the game. Cricket is increasingly turning the way of fitness, energy, mental strength etc. Gone are the times when a bowler had the corage to appreciate a good stroke, or a batsmen acknowledge a great delivery. One look at the SA vs Aus match would have revealed to us how much we lag behind in terms of the physical demands of the game. We are still in the era of touch artists but sadly cricket has no more remained to be an intimate contest between bat and the ball.

To look for reasons of defeat, is healthy, but defeats were to a team that played better than us on that given day. Why can't we appreciate it? They could have of course played worse than us and lost the game, but they didn't. Isn't it?

All I wish to say is that, sport must be given its due place, it definitely must be appreciated but not with a passion which might prove to e harmful.

As a last note, if only my countrymen had the good sense to question each one of their elected representatives( who are legally bound to answer, while the cricketers are not even legally bound), lets start from our area corporators, MLA's, millions of politicians, houses of whom in front not a single dharna is staged for the right reasons, than my country would have been a far more better place to live in.

WHY DO NOT WE QUESTION THOSE, WHO RIGHTFULLY SHOULD BE?

Hi Guys, Given below are the contents of what I posted in this space when Indian tean was selected:

Hope it works for India.But look at the following selection blunders:
a) u have one spinner in kumble/bhajji as back up-OK
b) u have one seamer sreesanth as back up-OKc) how can you have Karthick and Pathan as back ups? It may be a gamble to start with Sehwag as he is taken on repuation.Sehwag coupled with Ganguly n Uthappa against top 8 teams is not the ideal combination and it is more like a lottery hoping for the best.They may score 3 boundaries but to be 30 for3 in 5 overs does not augur well for India.The best match for them could be Bemuda. Dravid,Scahin,Dhoni, Yuvraj combo is fine but top 3 to me is a worry!It may be OK to start with them.The backup Plan B should have been to have two capable batsmen in the reserves.Lamxan for Pathan and Kaif for Karthick would have been the best selection and would have ensured good cushion.we would have definitely reached semis and with little luck and team spirit could have gone all the way.The current set up does not inspire confidence of making it to semis.This ofcourse if they reach second stage coz vs sl it is 50-50 game.Murali and Vass are back.If we relax and B'desh shocks us then we are OUT!!!

Hope it made sense now!

Cheers

It is high time for Ganguly, Sachin, Kumble to retire and Sehwag,Dhoni,Agarkar and Harbhajan dropped.

Karthik can keep wickets.

Bring in youngsters and give the captaincy to Laxman. Kaif can be Vice captain
Laxman and Dravid will be the seniors.
Yuvraj and Kaif the young but experienced batsmen and good fielders.

Let the team be filled with new players like Uthappa,Piyush, Sreesanth , RP singh any Iam sure there are many more names.......

Uthappa, Gambhir, Laxman, Yuvraj, Dravid, Kaif, Karthik, Piyush, Sreesanth, RP, munaf Patel,zaheer. This looks a more balanced and helathy team which can win many matches.
More importantly I expect better team spirit in this unit!

Here is the best solution to the woes of Indian cricketers' and their fans.
Invite Bermuda/Kenya or Zimbabwe (don't make the mistake of calling Bangladsh or any other team, it may backfire) for a best of 7 match one day series in India.
It will have the following benefits:

a) Ganguly will get an opportunity to score a century after 4 years that too at run a ball (the last 2 were against Kenya in WC).
b) Sehawga can fulfill his ambition to score a double
c) Dhoni can score a 20 ball hundred
d) Bhajji can get a 5 for
e) Tendulkar can add a few more to his 10000+ runs.
Infact the aggregrate runs, averages, strike rates etc.. will get a real boost.

After a thumpping 6-1 win ,(when India loses that one match, dejected fans would skip thier meals, ofcourse not the players) sponsors will gift apartments worth 1crore+ each to the team members.All the players would divulge which soft drink is the secret of their energy.
All channels would interview the players to find out how much milk they drink, which shoes they wear, which mobile they use etc............
Indian fans will joice and be happy with the win.
The media will calim that we are the no.1 team in the world and that ours is the best batting line up in the world ON PAPER!

God forbid if they lose the seires you have a few scapegoat players like Laxman, Agarkar, Kumble!
Three chreers to the Indian team and JAI HIND!!!

Have to completely agree with Ravi from Oz - Batting wins Fans, Bowling wins Championships....

No Doubt. India has the Talent and a very strong batting line-up. Where we lacked was Fielding and body language. Dravid and Chappel clearly underestimated Bangladesh and chose to bat first hoping to get some batting practice for the out of form Sehwag and others. But Bangladesh kept it very tight by bowling and superb fielding. Indian batsmen didn't try to rotate the strike and ended up with a paltry score.

In the match against Srilanka, Despite geting their top three batsmen, we let them off the hook and self destructed ourselves by batting carelessly

Disappointing piece- Mukul. It seems the media dislike for Chappel has spilled over in your column. Yes he could have dealt with the press conference better but to point all the fingers at him just because he doesn't much care for the media is narrow minded viciousness.

The media has itself been very immature and selfish in it's coverage of cricket and am afraid not altogether honest either. Thus instead of impartially analysing the defeat and embarrasment it has as usual taken it's own axe to grind. So how is it any different from Chappel, BCCI or the players when it is also behaving in the same selfish and immature manner?

I have yet to read a proper balanced piece from the "informed" journalists/meida on what should and shouldn't be done on Indian Cricket and beleive me there is lot's to analyse and effect, instead we have to read your immature comparisons with Australia etc. which are neither constructive nor am afraid have much substance. It clearly reflects your lack of thought and application to the game and overzealousness and unfairly targetting Chappel and his protege's like Raina.

So the " Fourth Estate" is no better than the other Three!!

What is very encouraging to see is that most of the public (the informed and educated ones) and a hanful of writers/ journalists haven't bought into your biased and one dimensional point of view and instead have actually suggested some very apt, honest and constructive ideas/points.This, not only in reply to your blog but in other articles/ pieces as well.

Please desist from such immature articles it doesn't befit Cricinfo' class in general and may I say your's in particular- otherwise you will be no different from the common journalists who don't seem to know and worryingly, care for the game but are more interesterd in pursuing their own narrow and selfish agenda! And if such articles are repeated I would request Cricinfo not to publish them as it will reflect poorly on them.

Regards,

Nirbhay Singh

Hi Mukul,

I dont understand what you really want. In the last article you described the exit of India and Pakistan from World Cup as good for the game and now your back crying over spilt milk. If India's exit is good in your opinion then why have you written an article evulating causes of India's early ouster. I mean after that last article you should have stop writing about Indian cricket totally. Doesnot make sense to me.

For Ravi from OZ : while your point that India needs strong bowling attack makes sense but your belief YOU ARE ONLY AS GOOD AS YOUR BOWLING ATTACK is totally stupid.

To be a great team you need to have strong batting as well bowling line up. West Indies team of 80's ,SA team of 90's and present day Australian side is pretty much strong in both areas.Pakistan always have had strong bolwing attacks ever since I remember but still their win percantage is only 55%. That isnt great wither. They were a great team in late 80s and for sometime in 90s simply because they were strong in both departments batting or bowling. Balance is the key.

Regards.
Ruchit.

I am an aussie - so my views are obviously tinted. However, from my point of view Greg's "process" is the right one. One day matches - world cups in particular - are won on a combination of all skills. All the potential winners have that - led by Australia, South Africa a close second, with Sri Lanka, West Indies and New Zealand chasing.
India may field a potentially wonderful batting lineup, but its bowling is ordinary and fielding possibly the poorest on show. Both Dravid and Greg are on record some effort must be made to "compensate" for the poor fielding.
So India start below all other contenders from the start. Added to that, while Australia or South africa can have an off-day with the bat, they are confident some magic with the ball or in the field still gives them a chance. India can't. Poor batting means that match is automatically lost.
So, what is needed?
A good first class structure is important not only to spot potential stars. It is important to bring them up the right way, to be athletes and cricketers. Jaques, a superb batsman, misses out on selection because his fielding is considered not up to scratch. Cosgrove - another talent - is considered a bit overweight. They are both at home honing their skills and not even in the 15. Some exceptions exist - like Lehmann - but they are remembered BECAUSE they are different.
So, why has Sehwag not been sent back until he is a bit faster between the stumps? Where are the openers who have played at least 100 real first class matches before getting the nod and making it to the real world? Why are 18 year old bowlers selected to open the bowling, while 35 year old champion veterans look on?
This is the "process" that needs to be in place.
Once the system churns out 40-50 top first class talents all the time, the selectors can really do their job and select the best 20-25. The coach then hones the edge and combines the players together, and the captain leads them into the field and calls the tactical shots.
Currently, India fields some fine individual players, mixed with some very ordinary others to complete the makeup. If anything, India's previous world cup success (and lets not forget what happened in the really important match - the final) is more a testament to the ability of those few individuals, then to the team as a whole.
In tests - those few can win you matches and series. In ODIs, you need to rely on everyone to shine on a particular day.

There is one more point I want to raise. Merely copying the tactics used by Australia is not going to help. The reason why Australia has been the world's best side now for several years is because they had led from front when it comes to innovative ideas. The Cricket Academy set up in 80's, the concept of scoring faster in test matches, emphasis on high quality fielding and running between wickets etc. are just examples. I mean Bob Simpson and Dean Jones changed how one day cricket was to be played by emphasizing on taking lot of singles and doubles.

Sri Lanka when the really mastered the concept of hitting all over the place in 1996 World Cup went on the win the cup. I mean it was an innovation from their side and it paid wonderfully well.
We might say Greatbatch and Sachin started doing it before Jayasuriya and Kalu but the fact is that hitting out in first 15 overs was made an integral part of ODIs by Lankans. Pakistani developed reverse swing and Saqlain introduced doosra.

I mean when we look from this aspect Indian contribution is not really that much in terms of innovation. Why just follow others whether it is sports, economics, infrastructure development,science and technology whatever. I dont remember of too many gifts given to mankind by modern day India other than a huge jumbo population of 1 billion. Not talking about Indians working abroad coz they have access to better facilities but strictly about Indians in India at any given point of time. I mean we need create ideas and products not just use existng ones.

Till 70s Asian teams reigned supreme in hockey then Europeans got astro-turf- a change I might say a kind of innovation and see where they are today and where Asian teams are.

Better than aping other countries cultures it is high time we start developing our own concepts. What worked in Australia may not work in India.

Regards.
Ruchit.

I totally agree with Mukul that there are just too many teams at the domestic level. As far as the future of Indian team is concerned Rahul Dravid and Greg Chappell should be retained and Tendulkar and Ganguly dropped. Sachin has not been performing outside the subcontinent for quite some time now. May be he is putting too much pressure on himself. Sourav has not scored a century in ODIs' for 4 yrs and always scores at less than a run-a-ball rate. The only time I have not seen him do so is when he scored 183 against SL in the 1999 WC.

Your piece makes sense to me. While the failure of the Indian team to get to the Super Eights could be attributed to bad luck, Mortaza, failure of the batting line-up etc etc, there are some home truths about ourselves that you hint at, which bear repetition:

1) We do not have a mania for fitness, sports and the outdoor life. There are good reasons for this - the sheer economic pressure on all of us to get an education and work hard, overcrowded cities, climatic conditions, etc. By the time most of us are in our 30s, we are paunchy and unfit. I am not knocking us - but great sportsmen are produced by large numbers of young people indulging in sport and discovering what they are good at, and excelling in it into adult life. Cricket lends itself to our current national way of life because it is primarily a sport of hand-eye co-ordination. Our lack of a fitness culture is also why we do not do well in football, now field hockey, volleyball, basketball, etc.

2)Assuming cricket is our only national sporting vehicle, an overhaul of the system that produces a 100 India Possibles is necessary. Here I agree with the Chappell/Dravid mantra. I would go further to say that privately funded clubs are the way to go.

3) For private funding to get into first-class cricket and convert Bombay into Bombay United, we need our people to be interested in cricket and not in the stars, so that they can pay to go watch games or subscribe on television. Attendances at most first-class games in India is appalling.

4) Assuming we have a system, and we do not win a World Cup ever, I would still prefer us to be known as the Dutch of cricket akin to the place the Dutch have in football. No one takes the Dutch lightly, and the athletic, energetic football that the Dutch play is beautiful to watch. Even if we lose, I would like us to lose gloriously.

Thanks

Mukul, I know the fate of your book it will be bigger flop than the indian team. YOu obviously have no understanding of cricket or football like someone already pointed out about your anology. Sad thing is Bcci thinks exactly like you thats why indias record for past 15 years is what it is.
Dont forget when chappell implemented his ideas india had a long winning streak and breifly were ranked no 2 in the world. They did it with agressive batting, and great feilding. If you remember In sereis against srilanka in 2006, lankans said they lost becuz they couldnt match indias fielding. India didnt follow thru with chappels vision. Chappel shouldnt be blamed for anything. he didnt get what he wanted. vengsarkar and tendulkar and all the senior bozos in the team overruled his ideas and should be the ones to blame for this world cup fiasco

Chappell refered to history but only he got it wrong. India won at Sharjah&Dhaka in 1988,inEngland in 1990,SriLanka in 1994,Sharjah in 1995,Dhaka,Sharjah (twice)& Lanka in 1998,West Indies and England in 2002 and joint winners in Champions Trophy in 2002.India had made it to the finals of the Champions Trophy in 2000 and the finals of the World Cup in 2003. India had also made it to the semis in the World Cups of 1987 & 1996 &the Champions Trophy of 1998,the Nehru Cup of 1989the super six of World Cup 1999, apart from numerous successes against top notch teams like South Africa and Australia at home and in neutral venues. Clearly , India has performed reasonably and at times spectacularly but rarely absymally.
In the Chappell ear, India played tournaments in Sri Lanka,Zimbawe, Malaysia, Champions Trophy at home and in the Carribean and lost every where.India plummetted from bad to worse to absymal during the Chappell era.In a triangular at Kaula Lumpur india failed to make the final, in the Champions Trophy , India failed to make it to the semis (first instance at home) and failed to make it to the last eight (worst ever)in the World Cup.In between, India had been thrashed 4-1 by the Windies,and blanked 4-0 by the Proteas.Indias record outside the subcontinent reads a dismal 3-15 (a historic low). In the three victories, New Zealand and the Windies had rested their key players in inconsequential matches and the lone live victory came in the last over . Indeed, India could not play the 50 overs in 15 of the 18 matches.
At home Indias successes came against teams like England, Srilanka & Windies ,arguably, not the feared teams and arated below it and whom India have invariably beaten at home. It lost to Australia and drew against the Proteas (Indias worst performance). The win over Pakistan in Pakistan was the only silver lining and this too had been done in 2004 before the present regime took over.

Indias performance during the entire tenure of Chappell declined marginally at home and alarmingly abroad.
Chappell, read history again & learn some grace.

I dont know if any one is going to read this comment or not. But here are my views on Team India's failure and some suggestions

1) Selection issues
a) Should have Romesh powar instead of Kumble as Kumble has been a non-perfomer against teams in the recent few years in ODI's which was the prime reason for Harbhajan to be the number one choice in the team. However, even H.Singh has not been able to create much of an impact on opposition teams. Powar atleast would buy his wickets by encouraging the batsmen to have a go at him, where he would have subtle variations in length and pace & turn.

b) If Team India had any vision of going through to the semifinal or final stage of the world cup then, they should have had Pathan given a run at the intial stages of the worldcup to get his confidence back so that he could have added that crutial bit of balance to the team thats been missing over past few months.

c) Should have dropped Sehwag right after Bangladesh match seeing the same old manner in which he gets out { Delivery jagging in to the stumps or giving catching practice to slips and gully}

d) Should have had Sreesanth playing against Srilanka after 2 unimpressive performances by Agarkar.

e)Given a clear message to Ganguly not to waste time out in the middle. He was trying to hit a big shot after wasting 10 to 12 deliveries. Can't really understand after all these years of playing cricket..if u r feeling the heat all u have to do is just turn over the strike or go for it. Whats the point if u can't take singles or even hit out against spin when he already knows he cannot handle pace.

f)Time has come for our cricket god Sachin to dethrone himself before some one says u are not going to be in the starting eleven. By god, he has been making comebacks every year right after year 2001 when india toured srilanka. I cannot understand this player for all that he has been.
A young bowler ( Chawla/Sreesanth) gets rid of him in the Challenger series and he tries to go after him in the next match and succeeds against them and shows he is a hero..When it comes to international level...he becomes a bunny to bowlers of every kind and he seems to have lost the self belief of playing big innings against bigger teams. He has turned from being the only genius in the team to the biggest choker in a team of chokers who seem to indefintely choke when they see this choker choke.

One Important point to be noted on all these points above is that these people have been playing for so long that they are atleast expected to make sure india win about 6-8 matches out of 10. i.e about 70-80 per 100 on an average. and all these very well equipped players have been doing only 45-50% or even worse over past 12-15 months. Thats the reason we need to gather some new pool of talent and Stay with the new talent and mark my words "Stay with the new talent" for a good period of time even if Team India is going to Struggle intially for about a year or two.

-----------------------------

2)Suggestions
Drop Sehwag[needs to sort out his weakness]
Saurav, Kumble,Agarkar[Vision 2011..they don't fit in]
Sachin[Can't hang on to him even after all that genius he has been.
Harbhajan --> when as the last time he even had a 3 wicket haul to help win a match..i can't remember.. do u?

Get some new players[Piyush Chawla, VRV singh, A Rayudu to name a few. There can be many more players waiting ] and give them a decent run.

Also test the likes of Pathan, Uthappa,Venugopal Rao, Suresh Raina,Dinesh Karthick, Sreesanth, RP singh, Powar for a few more months.

The above players along with dravid, yuvraj, zaheer, dhoni hope that they click.

Otherwise cricket's fate is going to be the one similar to that of hockey's -- Dead.

--------------------------------------

Dear Rahul, (not Mukul)
It is not worth it. To captain a team with members who continuously undermine your authority, supported by a bunch of jokers (sorry selectors) who dont give you the team you want, harrased by a gaggle of columnists (many having seen the ball from 200m away) who will find fault with whatever you do and attacked at by group of fans who are willing to break up anything when the team loses - It definitely is not worth it.
For a person who has given all (Wicket keeping, Offspin, No1 to No 7) to the cause of your Captains, it is a pity that no one showed the inclination to grind it out that you have demonstrated over the years. Its also a pity that you were expected to do all these again by yourself, just to satisfy the above bunch, gaggle, pack, group etc...
Resign, play your game, and let others stew, in a mess of their own creation...
Your greatness cannot be undermined by this loss, whatever the pack/gaggle/bunch/group says or does...
You were always and will be a Stranger in a Strange Land...

Deepak

Mukul, all of us indians have been full of comments borne out of frsutration & anger from the time indian took the field for their first match in the WC. A few changes in personnel (i personally think Laxman & Powar should've been in instead of Ganguly & Harbhajan) wouldnt have done anything for the team as they clearly lacked the commitment & desire. They looked like going through the motions and the oomph just wasnt there - one has to only see murali & jayasurya & their enthusiasm. All our players had the glum hangdog expression on the field and they werent enjoying what they were doing - the point is, why did they go there in that case? The seniors were aloof and the juniors just went through their routines. How can someone like agarkar be in the team after playing that atrocious shot against SL? Couldnt he just stay there as Dravid was there at the other end? What was dhoni thinking when he played that millionaire shot against murali, which was the first ball he was facing. Ganguly had no business to be in the team and what was he doing with so many dot balls and that appalling strike rate against bangladesh. He increased the pressure on the others and it was clear that yuvraj was clearly frustrated at not getting the strike & singles not taken. Yuvraj himself has questionable attitude - he might think himself to be a star but he hasnt quite reached there yet. What went wrong with our seniors need to be analysed from the south african series onwards - St & RD played like novices with their strokeless display on the last day of the 3rd test making a debutant like harris a super bowler - what are these guys thinking? win or save matches by playing negatively? Where is their pride & joy of representing india? This indian team clearly looks divided by internal strife - ST wasnt the vice captain that RD was when Ganguly was the captain. Were they all revolting against Chappell? or maybe chappell & dravid? Why werent they even practicing & when they did it was low intensity? Many many questions & no answers - we the cricket lovers are scratching our heads while the palyers themselves might be signing for another commercial. Our players lacked commitment & Chappell was light years ahead for this team. If a man that was one of the main characters in getting aussie team to where they are now is nto listened to, they need to rethink if they want to represent india.
Regretfully, VJ

experiment 1:forget chappell's comments.yuvraj must be the captain.his aggressiveness and cocky gait make him ganguly 2.his cool run scoring makes him dravid 2.
experiment 2:sachin must be dropped.he may be a god.let us be atheists for sometime atleast.
experiment 3:harbhajan must not be picked for overseas matches.
experiment 4:let all of us indians forget cricket till 2011.enjoy v anand being no 1 in chess.enjoy jeev milkha singh,sania mirza and others.

I think the senior players are very much to blame for what can only be called a debacle. They are thoroughly pampered and totally over lionised by the indian public. Look at the arrogant way Ganguly batted - he scarcely wanted to run opting instead for the glory shots. Sehwag showed in his lazy run out in India and his poor stroke selection vs Bangaldesh that he is nothing but a one dimensional player. I have huge respect for Sachin but he is well past it and Dravid for me is the only grafter with the talent and energy to contribute (though he should stand down as captain and give Yuvraj a shot).

I was in India watching the cricket upto the Sri Lanka match and I have to say that it was incredibly annoying that even in between balls there were adverts. The commercialization of this sport and the transformation of sportman into brand merchants shows where priorities lie.

I am totally disgusted with indian cricket and the whole scene surrounding it.

Come on Mukul you always want to say that we indians have wrong perception than the foreigners. I totally disagree with you. We all know we have some reasons why we are often not winning abroad since 1985. It is a coach's job to find out the reason and make the right.

Putting the right thing in a right place isn't a coach Job? But what did chappel do? He didn't do anything. He wants india to be in below par always so that India will never think of beating his own country (Aussie). So far in any country coach never had such a previlage to be part of selection panel and have is own pick without any dispute (Ofcourse kiran more is good noddy fellow for him where vengaskar is not; Kiran more shakes his head and silently picks those people whom greg was wanted.)

He is a person who demoralized the indian cricket along with kiran more. He said we will experiment and pick up right (persons)combination for the world cup. I think he experimented in WC too. By keeping the key bowler Irfan Pathan and Kumble(is a very much key bowlwer in WI pitch)idle in important match.

I agree we cannot blame him alone for the loss. But the Captain also. Dravid made a wrong decision by picking up Sehwag while there is already 3 combination availble for opening slot.(Sachi, Ganguly and Utthapa). If you see the other teams combination they have a recognised batsman until no:7 (Aus - Mike Hussey; S.africa - Kemp; W.indies - Dwayne Smith; Srilanka - Arnold ; etc..).

I dont know what they thought of this WC; I think they did not realize that this World Cup we are expecting for and still experimenting in the WC.[:)]

Talking of senior batsmens except ganguly no one is played. Sachin always never performed under pressure. He can silent all critics regarding his batting except this one. Now, he will score 2 consecutive centuries and will silent the crictics on him; But, still he can't make silent of critic that he will not perform when team is needed (or) under pressure.

There is lot more to tell this a just a part of occean cry.

Team India's loss is mainly attributed to political process involved in selection and the power/influence of the "star players" themselves.This process is evident in the film world as well where ageing stars still get major roles in movies especially in the South....donkey years and we still hear of Chireenjevi, Nagarjuna, Mohan Lal, Mammooty etc.
Even in securing roles in the civil service, its about power & influence and not merely on merit. Not suprisingly,this process flows into cricket as well.
With a load of earnings from Sponsors, money controls everything now days in Indian cricket! These star players though ageing and wilting away still seek fame by being in the team and are powerful enough to urge selectors to keep them in the team. The selectors themselves are personal friends of these start cricketers. Then there is the issue of close friendship among players and the star players where one supports the other irrespective of performance. End of the day, we land up with a team of selfish players not giving up their places to others with more talents and greater cricketing skills. The word "passion" for the game is missing as age catches up.
If the playing 11 included Kaif, Raina, Rayudu, Sreeshanth, Powar, Karthik in replacement for Tendulkar, Sehwag, Bhaji, Kumble,Ganguly,Agarkar...then we would still be riding on the world cup.
Indian needs a change in process where performance, youth, talents & passion are looked upon rather than historical averages and star sponsored players! Can't blame the coach...
Perhaps my dream team after world cup:
1.Dinesh Karthik
2.Rahul Dravid
3.Mohd Kaif
4.Yuvraj Singh
5.Ramesh Power
6. S Sreeshanth
7. Suresh Raina
8. Rayudu
9. Irfan Pathan
10. Munaf Patel
11. Robin Uthappa

Brilliant piece by Mukul. I am amazed that most of the comments w.r.t his post are critical of his views, seems like the "process-worshippers" in the media have succeeded in brainwashing much of the public(the cricinfo-reading one atleast) about how "the process" is the best thing to happen/waiting to happen in Indian cricket.....why doesnt anyone answer his question- how did the team in 2003 reach the final without a process, whereas this team dint even reach the super-eights?

Another point, there is no way on earth that Chappell,in his capacity as coach things such as improving domestic cricket etc, if he wanted to do that he shud have taken up a different role, chairman of NCA(national cricket academy for instance)....a coach is judged by the results he produces and on that front,chappell has failed.Period.

Indian team has always been a team of glorious uncertainties. So this pathetic display does not pain me as much. I feel the basic reason for our failure was inexplicably poor batting. It could be seen coming too. We lost the one day series in WI due to poor batting, we lost i Malaysia due to poor batting, we lost in South Africa due to poor batting. All our stalwatrts were struggling for runs. The bowling which was supposed to be the weak link, actually performed very well. Even in the world cup I thought the bowlers did pretty well excpet for harbhajan. The overall fielding continues to be bad.

We simply could not correct the batting problem despite wins against WI and Sri Lanka at home on dead tracks. Deep down there was a feeling that come little bowler friendly tracks and we will struggle which is what happened against Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.

I think Harbhajan's failure cost us a lot. While spinners were making merry (3 innocuous ones from Bangladesh, Brad Hogg, Murali, Dilshan etc.), Harbhajan could neither get wickets nor stop runs. He continued to bowl poor middle and leg line at a fastish pace. Ramesh Powar with his loop and slow pace through the air would have been really handy.

A lot is mentioned about including Laxman in the one day team. Whoever watched him play in the domestic matches (Ranji trophy and the one dayers) will support this view. Not only he struggled for runs, he scratched around like a novice many times and his fielding was terrible to say the least.

I am not sure there are quick solutions. I think changing Ranji Format may help. We need to invite some of the foreign teams to participate as many times the opposition is just too weak. Participation from say top counties from England or australian domestic teams should help a lot. The quality of the pitches needs to improve drastically.

Coming to greg Chappell, I think he will be made a scapegoat though after he took over, his approach saw us winning record no. of games at a stretch batting second and were ranked no. 2.

Here go the reasons for India s exit :

1) Poor captaincy : Mr Wall doesnt bring his batting ideas to his captaincy. Though he defends and plays every great bolwer spell with defiance, the same doesnt come in his captaincy. He runs short of ideas when things go wrong. Created the rift back in the team which Mr Ganguly dissolved in his 5 yrs of tenure. He doesnt have strong instincts...Generally doesnt set attacking field when a wkt falls. Great example in SL game when Silva got out, Vaas edged next ball to slip for 4 and a slip wud hv got him....

2) Tinkering in batting : Sachin plays best when he opens, for unknown reasons few weeks before WC he s shifted to #4 or # 3 or #6 too. Sehwag is selected as a middle order batsmen. All proven n tested batsmen in openers slot are middle order batsmen now and Dravid himself opens, fails. Uthappa is prefered partner to Saurav on basis of a flashy innings vs WI in Chennai...

3) Weak bowling : Zaheer came back much later in the lead up to the world cup. Lot of dependance on new young faces led to a weaker attack, with Bhajji reduced to a container than an strike bowler and Kumble out of favor. Munaf reduces his pace suddenly when he was the fastest bowler in the country, Santh is maverick, Pathan s bowling failed in worst of times and so the balance got affected....

4) Batting failed : The singlemost reason why india got out was the famed batting failed. They couldnt handle very ordinary Bangla bowling but disciplined. A spin basher like Ganguly played to hands of Rafeeq, GTendulkar continued his weakness against left arm spinners (Vettori, Giles, Price etc ), Dhoni failed to live his reputation, Sehwag -- all know abt him, Dravid -- maintained his glum faced throughout the cup........

5 ) no point in blaming the coach, the domestic cricket or the # of teams in the circuit. All the great batsmen have been product of the same domestic system. When the team was winning, every one said how smaller cities r catching up......now when they hv failed they say number of teams r more...When India was only team who competed well with Aussies in Tests, the same team was gr9, but now they r flop stars and lesser guys like effigy burners, guys like Karim, Jimmy , Maninder and many more, say tht this team is good for nothing.......

Wholesole changes wont be good for the team and it wont provide the booty. Are the replacements ready ? Try young players in phases.....Take more young players to tour like Bangladesh in May and make them ready for int'l cricket with right mix of youth and experince........

Truly, a run-of-the-mill article from Mukul.
Presenting the same analysis again and again and at times over-analysing replies and words eg. inflammatory. I won't be surprised to see a letter by letter analysis in his next article.

The reasons are so many, it starts with the domestic league which is definitely crowded and has less quality. The players are selected based on political and geographical considerations. Young players who perform well have never been considered to graduate and represent the country. I think Chappell had a good process in place and when Vengsarkar came in, he seemed to have his own ideas and we were then back to the old players. Ganguly, Sehwag should not have been considered based on scoring some a century in a domestic tournament.

Where was Irfan Pathan in the World Cup? He should have been played in at least one game.

The team definitely needs a makeover and there should be youngsters in the team. Give them 5 matches to prove themselves and we will see results.

All these comments are fine... but has anybody looked at a conspiracy theory here...After watching the SL match, I have come to believe that these seniors had a sharp axe to grind in ousting Chappel as coach, given that his contract was up and the seniors wanted to make sure that Chappel does not come back for a 2nd term!!! But in doing so.. they forgot that the coach does not play on the field, players do... My 1st job if I was a selector would talk to Board in keeping Chappel for a year.. place the senior players (SRT, Gang, Bhajji, Kumble & Sehwag) on stand-by and pick a fresh team for the BD series with Dravid as captain and Yuvraj as his deputy.. The BD series will the best time to test the youngsters like Kaif, Raina, Gautam Gambir, Chawla etc...Give them a entire series both Tests and ODI and let them perform..

Mukul, your attitude sums up that of 90% of Indians. We want the result instantaneously, we never can wait an year or two or a decade. Whether it is matter of going abroad, or making money or winning cricket matches. We know that to invent something will take ages so we copy from others because we can't wait. Sure! we do not know if we would live that long to see GC's or XYZ's process is successful. For that matter we do not even know if we would live tomorrow. With your logic everyone of us should build our homes in oneday and not take a mortgage and plan for our future. Mr.Kesavan, Rome was not build in one day. I don't care whether Greg Chappel was right or wrong. I think failure of Inida was a collective one. Rather than priding our past or crying over the failures we should look to learn from our failures and also learn what not to do from others failures. Sports are played with a lot of commitment and passion. Sportsmen needs to be athletic, commited and passionate, with fire in their hearts to match a warrior and with a cool and calculated head. Could you tell me did any of our players exhibit anything like that on the ground in three matches they played. They were pegions in the two matches they failed and only looked like big bullys with poor those poor minnows. My appologies I even for their country name. One more thing, please don't call this a calamity. There are bigger calamities happening around the world like Iraq War, Global Warming, real estate inflation in India etc., etc.. Anyway let us all hope Indian cricket, this includes: board, selectors, coach, players, journalists and fans all learn something with this debacle.

Cheers

I think there is plenty of blame to go around but in particular I am critical of role Greg Chapell has played. Lets ask ourselves that in tenure as a coach what has Greg done for the players.

Some very good players have lost form e.g. Sehwag, Pathan, Dhoni ...

No real talent has been groomed to be a match winner. Sreesanth is the only one I will count as good and he was not good enough to play in WC.

Chapell should take a big responsibility for bringing Indian cricket in the state that it finds now.

I think the main mistake is not choosing Players like VVS Laxman and Suresh Raina. If you want to blame anybody blame the selection board first. Another reason is the lack of captainship and COACHING. The team need to learn how to play in pressure. The team that can play in pressure is a team. Indian fans are not asking you to win every tournaments of every worldcup they are simply asking indian team to perform well so we can be proud of our team.If this team dosn't change their performane Bangladesh will beat them reguarly.

A well written article Mr Kesavan. While the mud slinging and emotional reaction goes on, I wonder how many will actually appreciete the best point you made (at least according to me), i.e: despite India being a country of a billion, only a miniscule fraction end up playing outdoor sports in adult life, a situation which is vastly different in all of the top sporting nations - whether Australia and South Africa in cricket, or Brazil and Germany in soccer or New Zealand and USA in rugby/american football.

To be honest the reason for this is obvious to, and beyond the hands of cricket board right now. In India, because of the teeming billion, often survival itself is a problem. In a game like cricket, to do well one and make a career out of it needs to at least come up to Ranji level; now we are talking of being in top 400-500 amongst a billion, a scenario tougher than even India's famed "tough nut" exams like IIT JEE and CAT (for IIMs).

No wonder kids who are good at the game often feel the pressure to stop playing and keep poring over text books so that they eventually get into a decent college and have some assurance of scraping a survival.

One has to accept this fact. And instead of seeking refuge in history of India's sporting failures, the coach has to work with what he gets. If Chappell feels India's history is the root cause of its present woes, he may be right. But that also indicates he is not the man for the job. Its high time we had a change instead of bandying words and phrases like "process" and "long term".

As you rightly say: "In the long term, we are all dead"

Hi,
We should have included Laxman in the team.It would certainly have helped the team as he is a capable no.3.

I would make him the test captain & would include him in the ODI team for the next 2 years alteast.

WHY TEAM INDIA FAILED ??????

Firstly we should ask ourselves is this really a TEAM?
A Team is a bunch of people who work towards achieving a common goal. TEAM INDIA did not have a collective goal, it was and will always be personal goals that they want to achieve. Here we have too many players thinking they are Stars while actually speaking they are no where near it, except for Dravid and Tendulkar.
Take Ganguly's example, after being ousted from the team and after all the cancellation of his endorsements and sponsors this fellow went ahead and worked hard towards regaining his position in the team. He could do this only because he had the spare time to work hard towards it. If you read John Wright's book he clearly mentions that at times he had verbal duels with players like Shewag and Yuvraj who had a "who cares" attitude and never were serious about Practice.
The solution towards making Team India a top performer is to have an iron fist attitude and make them work hard for their money. After all ain't they representing the country, fighting for Nation's pride. So are those brave guys up there at the Border defending our country and look what are they paid and look at what these nincompoops are being paid.
Unless and Until BCCI does not curtail and restrict the number of endorsements and adverts that a player can do this is always going to be the case for India and we will read “ INDIA LOSES” more often. Also it should be important for BCCI to have a programme for the players to attend practices sessions, play domestic Cricket and based on Coach’s report on these attendances will the selection be based on.
We can keep on writing and giving our views on what went Wrong, but the bottomline is that India lost and it feels shameful that the Team which was termed PAPER TIGERS have been successful in proving the term to be correct.

Mukul , Shwet and all the others have opened up a great discussion. Few points that didnt get a mention was the place of Robin Uthappa in the team. He was picked based on a single destructive inning. Even agarkar hit India's fastet 50. Pathan Delivered at the top. Does that mean they ought to bat at the top??? The batting order had to change to accomodate him.. The Result.. Sachin had to Drop down the order and Sachin,Robin both failed!!! Would it not have made better sense to include a Solid Player like Laxman or even brilliant fielders like Kaif/Raina. The WC2007 team's nucleus is the same as that of 2003 WC team. It is not that the team lacks the talent. The captain who takes stock of the situation in the middle clearly was not upto the task.Seeing the fear of losing in the team, appears that Dravid had clearly failed to inspire the team. Ganguly did that when he took over after the big catastrphe of 2000 Match Fixin Scandal. Dravid took over after SG and Coach spat. The downfall started there!!! The victories against Srilanka was because Vaas,Murali, Jayasurya didnt tour india.Otherwise flaws would have been imminent there. We must accept that Dravid is not even a good leader. In the wake of Ganguly Chappel Fiasco , rather than being a bridge in making the foreign coach understand the indian style of teamwork,work culture they've adopted a radical approach which doesn't suit the indian style. And add Kiran More to all this!!!! Alas!!! A selector charged of asking money from Abhijit Kale for selection was speaking of setting Indian Cricket Right.. It was a failure of team management. No point blaming the system. The batting was obviously a bigtime failure. But he major disappointments are the lack of seasoned players like Powar ( > 100 FC games) , Laxman ( Very Very Special) , Kumble (played only against Bermuda). Unfortunate Sreesanth missed out in the playing 11. Apart from that its only a poor lack of strategy & innovation from the team management, ridiculous application of technique that led to the downfall. Indian Cricket needs a captain who can motivate the players on the field ,be aggressive, be agile on the field. Greg Chappel's methods have not clearly suited Team India. He was a great player. He has never understood abt managing normal players. This is evident. So its high time we dont appoint coaches by their Stature. Players like Wright,Whatmore,Woolmer were not great players. But they were able to deliver. I believe that failure is just a manifestation of the many stategic blunders, the coach's predujices against Class players like Laxman, a poor captain and Appaling Batting Display.

I don't pretend to understand the structure of Indian cricket, and I am not sure that wholesale reform to an Australian system would necessarily work, but it does seem clear that something has gone wrong with India over the last year or so. If you look back to England winning the last Test when they toured, you can see the same phenomenon (and by much the same collection of players) - that is, a bizarre collapse by a "strong" batting line-up that should have had no trouble getting a draw. It does seem that India's morale is shaky, for whatever reason, and this ought to be investigated. I suspect that Chappell made a mistake in beginning his reforms with a massive fight with Ganguly. Maybe there was no choice - we don't know how open Ganguly was to change - but it still left an obvious division in the ranks. That said, India's one day form looked excellent for about a year, and the decline to pitiful inadequacy is quite recent. My guess is that India made the classic mistake of beginning the reforms, going through some pain and division - and then effectively went back to square one. Ganguly came back to the team, the old guard were brought back for one last fling - and the divisions and anger remained, without the positive results that the partial reform had produced. For this, I suspect the BCCI/selectors are mostly to blame. I do think that Chappell's attempts to manipulate the media have made matters worse, causing more bitterness and more division. For the future, India should give the coach more power, spend less time cashing in on the game and do more to develop it. Improve grounds and training programs, spend less time on political infighting, and make it clear that a place in the team depends on consistent performance, discipline, and results. Finally, stop cossetting the non-performers. How long did India put up with lazy mediocrity from e.g. Sehwag? Does one good day counterbalance a bad year? This would be my set of suggestions for India's future....

Most of the guys who want Laxman back and Yuvraj to Depute Dravid are out of mind.

Laxman is a spent force, he WAS good but over the years his refelxes have gone slow. BCCI shld be loking at getting new blood.

While it comes to Mr. Yuvraj Singh the less written about him the better. He surely does not have it him to become the future captain of India. It takes more then Film star looks to become a Captain.

Everyone......Why India lost....its simple and easy.

1. Indian players are fat and unfit...Sehwag, Tendulkar and company are unfit and fat. Unfit equals not enough oxygen going to the brain due to constricted fatty blood vessels thus not having intelligence to make good batting shots and strokes.

2. Indian players are arrogant. They live in India and are treated like Gods and they start believing they are gods who are entitled to win a match just becoz they are India? They got there behinds whipped 5-0 in South Africa at the end of year tour last year. Have all you people forgotten that whipping? Where was the arrogance of these Indian gods then?

3. Indian bowling attack is pathetic. Agarkar and Zarheer Khan are the worst bowlers ever to represent India? How can a fairy like Agarkar represent India? South Africa left their 2 fastest bowlers (Johan van de Wath and Dale Steyn) at home and are still a poer packed team. South Africa has 48 million people and has many good fast bowlers, how can Indian with a population of over a BILLION not find 2 fast bowlers that are better than Agarkar and Zarheer Khan? Does India suffer from a lack of reality?
The bowling is pathetic, end of story.

3. India is not a team. One for all and all for one does not exist in the Indian team. Ganguly and his arrogance along with his pet players who all never perform but still represent India should be fired and sent somewhere to learn some humility. How can people in India idolise Ganguly, he is an arrogant and disgraceful person and should never ever have been given the Indian cricket shirt to wear on his back.

India loosing is the best thing EVER to happen to India....maybe now they will select the best players based on merit and performance and not on political reasons.

I am a South Africa Indian and i have always supported India, but after this world cup looking at the rot that is Indian cricket i cannot bring myself to support Indian until they decide to play with honour and humility.
Indian cricket is like the blind following the blind....The blind indian supporters following the blind indian players....

im tired of supporting a team of disgraceful players and a disgraceful Indian cricket association which has no respect for the Indians globally that support them....

Go Sri Lanka....a professional and well managed team.

Hi All,

It is interesting to see the various explanations and analyses of what India needs to win in cricket. No one seems to have grasped a fundamental point - cricket is a GAME, which is largely dictated by the rules of probability, albeit not as much as games of pure chance. On any given day, any one of the two sides (who are not vastly different in their skill levels) can win. This is just what happened against Bangladesh. An event that had a small, but not very small, probability actually happened, and India lost. It is as simple as that. To look for deeper reasons and agonize over selection, strategy, etc, is really useless. Could we have replayed our 3 group matches a million times, we would have beaten Sri Lanka 550,000 times, Bangladesh 900,000 times, and Bermuda, 999,000 times - yes, we could actually lose to even Bermuda some times even if that probability is low. I hope you guys get the message and stop agonizing! Cricket is a beautiful and highly complex game where chance plays a crucial role, and this makes it all the more interesting. So let us just sit back and enjoy the rest of the world cup.

Hi All,

It is interesting to see the various explanations and analyses of what India needs to win in cricket. No one seems to have grasped a fundamental point - cricket is a GAME, which is largely dictated by the rules of probability, albeit not as much as games of pure chance. On any given day, any one of the two sides (who are not vastly different in their skill levels) can win. This is just what happened against Bangladesh. An event that had a small, but not very small, probability actually happened, and India lost. It is as simple as that. To look for deeper reasons and agonize over selection, strategy, etc, is really useless. Could we have replayed our 3 group matches a million times, we would have beaten Sri Lanka 550,000 times, Bangladesh 900,000 times, and Bermuda, 999,000 times - yes, we could actually lose to even Bermuda some times even if that probability is low. I hope you guys get the message and stop agonizing! Cricket is a beautiful and highly complex game where chance plays a crucial role, and this makes it all the more interesting. So let us just sit back and enjoy the rest of the world cup.

Lets bow out from the sport and focus on Kabadi.

Hi All
India is not in the same league as say Australia or SAf in today's cricket. We sent a team "hoping" that we would reach the super 8s and if the other teams dont perform well then the semis.
They have a method to their cricket we dont.We leave everything to luck and the ALMIGHTY to get us through.
The aussie fielding their power hitting cannot be matched by the Indians in the near future.
Cricket is moving forward while we are stuck with the old methods.
Sadly if we dont learn now we would be left behind like in hockey when the grounds changed from natural surfaces to Astro.

Excellent article!

I think the coach is responsible for making too many changes to the batting order to support his so called FLEXIBILITY mantra. At the crunch time we saw what BS this mantra is doing.

At the sametime I do agree with Chappell's comments about paid selectors, premier league etc. But those comments can not be used to justify Indian team's world cup exit. We still had a lot of talent and experince in this team. The fact is our players are not mentally tough. They crumble under pressure. Mr. Chappell made their life even difficult by making frequent changes to the batting order.

Aniruddha.

Let's face it. The Indian cricket team has never been great. The 1983 World Cup win was a fluke, a gift from an over-confident windies. Sure, the Indian cricket team was been good at certain periods, but those occasions have been few and far between, and all too short-lived. The fans obviously remember those rare good times better than the frequent bad times, esp. about their favorite players. Even the current middle order has always been more about hype and numbers, rather than performance under pressure, which is all that really matters. What this quick exit will do hopefully is to clarify once-and-for-all to the consummate and forgetful and forgiving Indian fan that Indian cricket has been dead for a long time, the hype and the money notwithstanding. Only Indian fans talk about Indian cricket. The only reason other nations care about Indian cricket is because of the money that Indian cricket fans bring in.

As a Pakistani fan I can understand your pain. India's exit from WC is like the Exit of France from Soccer WC 4years Back. I dont think you can blame so much to Dravid and Chappell. I think it was the bad luck and overconfidence India had. They won the practice games such a heavy margin that they thought BD would be like a cake walk. There they were wrong. BD is waiting for such a day for along time. They executed the plan very well. Dravid put them to bat was a blunder. He probably thought that his batsman would make 300+. It is eating your humble pies. never consider your opposition weak. The match against SL was always hard. you cant beat that strong team in such a crunch after you loss in earlier game. The other problem India came back in comfort zone after winning two home series prior to WC. in 2003 they were lost in NZ they learned a lot from there and reach in final of 2003 WC. The other problem with both Pak and India we didnt bring our youngster and didnt groome them. can you imagine we played in a tense junior WC final and none of our youngster are included in the side. if continue relying our current players we cannot fight these westernteams and our cricket would be like Hockey which was our game now adopted by other teams. What we are seeing is that cricket is fitness sport and need young blood specially for 50over and 20 over games. if you keep relying tendulker, ganguly,sehwag, laxman you never progress. in the affair of Pak team exit it is pretty clear after a humilating loss from Ireland and death of Bob Woolmer that team made money on this game like they had done before on many occasssion. but india's lost is sad and dishearting. They only lost because of overconfidence.
Dr. Rehman

I may or not may agree with this piece by Mukul One thing I am sure about is - Kick Chappel from anything to do wit Indian Cricket. India's WC 2007 is all about batting debacle.Between 2003 and 2007, the batting composition has largely remained the same.If a man takes a batting team from being WC finalists to a sole victory that too against the minnowset-if I may say so-minnows,and in the process costing a fortune, we do not eedhim any of his "process", "vision", we may be better off without such a person. Sack him right away!!

Hi,
I dont know why the people wants Indian pitches like that of overseas. Has anybody heard that Australia or South Africa or preparing pitches like the Indian pitches to make them play spinners well. Yet they manage to win test matches and series in sub-continents. Its not the question of pitches but the attitude of players to win matches.

Sorry to be pedantic but Brazil have won the World Cup five times, not four (1958, 1962, 1970, 1994, 2002).

I always find your comments interesting and your blogs are well thought out. However, in ascribing the blame to Chappel and the think tank, I think you've missed the boat. First, to Raina: In all the games I've followed, the poor chap has come in with less than 15 overs to play himself in because none of the senior players care to sacrifice their slots for a young player. How is he to develop in such an environment? And yet you criticize his batting! With the exception of a couple of games in SA, he never really had a chance to prove his mettle. I find it comical to read your suggestion that the game against Sri Lanka could have been won if Tendulkar had opened the batting. He made his contributions. They were impressive and they will stand the test of time. But he needs to know that he must move on. He can't play any left-arm spinner, other than Leverock, to save his life and he gets routinely bowled through the gate by fast inswingers or leg-cutters. The gap between bat and pad is growing with each passing day. Cricket isn't a game for those with diminishing reflexes. We saw this with Viv Richards in the latter part of his career as well as with Krish Srikkanth. These were players who relied on seeing the ball early and this is what allowed them to get away with flaws in their technique. Sehwag and Tendulkar are cut from the same cloth. They were once superb players, but with each passing day their contributions will be minor because unlike Dravid, their batting depends more on intuition rather than superior technique. If you move Ganguly, Sehwag, and Tendulkar aside, and promote younger players with some consistency, then the "process" might actually work. Instead, if you reach for the panic button and harken back to players who are past their prime, you get the result we saw in Port-of-Spain. Clearly a process does need to be in place. There need to be four bowlers, two medium / fast bowlers who can attach early on and defend in the death overs, two spinners, one who can contain and who can actually take wickets, and one all-rounder who can bowl a probing, inexpensive spell in the middle, and throw his bat around and get quick and useful runs without throwing his wicket away. From a batting standpoint, we need the right blend of scorers and anchor men. With a simple plan in place, the process needs to ensure that the right players are groomed for each spot, with 2-3 options available per spot. There is very little that goes right in life without a plan. Otherwise, all you get is my grandmother's kichdi, which for the record was as bad as the current team under pressure.

I am not sure I really agree with everything Mukul wrote in his piece. Similar to a comment made earlier about cricket in India and football in Brazil not being the best of analogies, I think it also has something to do with the physical make-up of the players from Brazil and those from India. While football is still a sport which is a lot dependent on skill, cricket is not so anymore. Thats one reason I can think having a good domestic structure in place is critical. I agree to Mukul that talent is being thrown up by the current set-up but whats the point if these talented young players cannot deliver where it matters. Tendulkar and Kapil Dev happen once in a lifetime, or maybe not even that. Others need to work on their skills and hone them to be able to compete at the highest level. Australia, a case in point, are able to do so because of their very strong domestic structure. Players like Hussey and Hodge, capable of just walking into any international side, have to wait 10 years (the number might be inaccurate but thats not the point) to play for Australia and look at the impact they made once they did get their chance. I am not saying we should make a Raina or Uthappa wait for that many years, but let them work on their skills further so they are really ready to face Australia and South Africa.

By all means, remove Greg Chappel, because no matter how good his intentions were his methods were not effective. But in the aftermath of all the knee-jerk reaction one can expect, lets not overlook the fact that Indian cricket, be it the domestic structure or the administration is need of a major overhaul. This will take time, maybe years together, and maybe at the end of it we'll still not win the World Cup, but we will not go down like we did this time.

i have long been seeing people posting messages. but nobody talks of inclusion of ranadeb bose who took 58 wickets during the ranji season.height of provincialism .drop dravid and chappel the first place.chuti dono ko bahar hatao.

Mr. Kesavan, I'm disappointed in you. You seem to be one of the more objective bloggers out there, but you're always negative. As an intelligent observer of the game, I expect you to be able to comment on the plusses and the minuses, especially when there are plusses. I understand that this blog is mostly about the World Cup, but before we summarily dismiss Chappell's work as an overwhelming failure, let's atleast recognize the nice job Chappell has done with our test team. The same Chappell who is being blasted for ruining the one day team does not get any kudos for the improving test team. After all, isn't test cricket still the ultimate gauge?

Its pity that you are asking these questions now.India started doing badly long time back (WI,SA,Champions trophy)but that was not just the fault of RAINA's,KAIF's even the so called great batsmen of india played those games.Why did not any1 question Tendulkar or Dravid when they failed so miserably in SA. I understand juniors did not play well but seniors were equally bad ....so what u do push the issue under the carpet by removing some youngsters and play some home games and say we are the best. Compare with those senior players playing for different teams ..the opposition fears for them.people like ponting,lara,jayasurya,hayden as they play more cricket they stamp their authority but our players still get goose bumps whenever there is slightest of pressure.
History tells us whenever we won a crucial match most of the times it was the youngsters that did it for us (yuvraj,dhoni,pathan,kaif in some cases, raina in odd cases,Uthappa in few,Karthick in few), and then we had two best players of spin in SA and we had the match all wrapped up but they went and gifted them to SA.So out come Sachin Tendulkar is the Vice Captain of india.

INDIA has only true MATCH WINNER and it is KUMBLE and he is fading away too and he will retire.

I bet even if against bermuda if the batting order was same as that for Sri-lanka we would have puffed and huffed and made close to 300 as dravid and tendulkar would immedietly go to damage control mode.

Think its time for seniors either to take responsibility or retire. BTW, I am an all time fav of Dravid and Sachin but more than that I am a die hard fan of TEAM INDIA .
It hurts to see dravids and tendulkars miss direct hits even after standing in the same position almost their entire career.

I am happy taht this team did not make it to next round or else nobody would have worried this much and also i cant see teams like Aus,SA,NZ maul us really bad.

I can support this team till my death even if they win or loose but if they do not show any fighting traits on the field... then i am sorry

Has anyone noticed that the Sri Lankan team was applauded and glorified by many on this website after their victory to eliminate India. They were considered different from the fallen Asian giants. When all of a sudden South Africa came around, they fell apart. Yes, they fought to the death but it wasnt the batting that fought.
Which brings us to another point, where is Irfan Pathan and why didnt Kumble play against Sri Lanka? Why were they allowed to post 254 when their batting lacks the skill to post a total in excess of 210?
Then ofcourse, there is the fact that it wasnt team Sri Lanka outplaying India. It was team 'French cuts, inside edges and lbws not given' that won the day.
Chappel's team, which, indeed is a shaken up and crestfallen version of John Wright's team (8 players from the last World Cup final) failed in bowling and batting.
Heres a list of what Chappel has done with the team:
1> Senior batsmen were forced to concentrate more on fielding and not spend enough time batting
2> Pathan and Dhoni were turned into better batsmen at the cost of their skills
3> Senior players who would play their natural game without the pressure of possibly losing their spot in the side were reminded that their position wasnt permanent. Emotionally shattered, they played under fear
4> The most successful captain after Azhar was pushed out of the squad and when he came back in on account of his performance the new captain was bound to be ruffled leading to poarity in the team.
5>The old practice of finding new genuine talent was given up in place of grooming medocre players like Raina and Utthapa into what they werent ready for.

If Chappel is so keen on Raina and other youngsters why doesnt he find them contracts in Australian domestic cricket for a season or two? Im sure they'll be ready for anything when they come back from there.

It is better if Mukul continues to write fiction and not any article on cricket. Like other one billion Indian fans, he is keen on cricket but his knowledge is limited to gully cricket and not enough to write a serious article on cricket. One day cricket needs youthful energy and Chappel was trying to bring that into the team. He was stopped in that process by the new selection committee and was not given a free hand.
We all know how much our team, loaded with experienced players, scored against Bangladesh and Srilanka. All Bangla players together may not have scored the total number of one day runs in their career that an individual experienced player like Ganguly has scored (10,000 + runs in ODI's). But what is the verdict even after having experienced, aged players in the team? Standard answer these days is, India had a bad day. Why can't an experienced team wriggle out of a bad day, against team like Bangladesh?

India early exit from the ICC Champions, The Malatia tour and now the World Cup is a total disgrace on all Indians. Some may say, its just a game....No think again, its our pride, our game. What else do Indians good at?.....???? Hello....
Frankly the Indian players don't seem to have common sense when playing cricket. They could have win that game against Sri Lanka by scoring 4 single runs per over. Instead, everyone want to hit over the fregen boundary. Australia is good because they have A sensible good coach and captain. Chappel interest is about enjoying good Indian food, nothing else - and the morons at BCCI can't see it. He should be fired, as for the team - folks like Dhoni, (Mr Dummy ) and Ajit should be also fired.

PROCESS... I would take te process that was in 2003 and get to the finals and loose to a BETTER team than have the current process and get kicked out by Bangladesh.
If GC did not get the team he wanted.. it was his fault. Instead of SMSing his intentions he shud have made it public to the selecters. dada returning and playing the way he did (SLOW), sachin playing as if the world was on his shoulders, pathan in the 14 but not in the 11 since his bolwing had fallen away... were all Gcs fault. First he made sachin come down the order. Any person who watched WC03 shud know that there were 2 reason Y we went to the Finals - Sachins batting and Indias pace battery. Both did not show up in the Finals and we lost... period. GC came into the Indian setup with his PROCESS and messed everything up. He made a selfless team india (Sacrifices that seniors like dada, rahul, shewag, tendy had made in the past... dropping down the order, keeping wkts, opening respectivey) into insecure selfish players.
Divide and rule is what the Britsh did. That is what GC has done and got an ally in Dravid who always has thought that he was an intellectual. One needs to just see his captaincy against SL to see what a FOOL he is as a captain.
No Slip in place for new bats... Chamara silva edges thru slips and then rahul gets in a slip. Same with Vass. Has his 5th+6th bowler bowl 12 overs that too in the slog. No log off and no deep fineleg in over 48. Clearly the bolwers were trying to bowl yorkers.. any cricketer worth his salt knows that deep fine and log on and log off are where the ball will go even if you get u yorkers even slightly off.
and funnier was where the fileders were stationed... Muaf at short cover... give me a break... all this from a man who talks as if he is a genius... no point in reading management books... Cricket is not project management... and captains like dada, Imran, Kapil were not book worms.
Rahul is a great bat but a horrible spineless cappo and he bought into the GC vision which was never going to work in the short term.
Maybe 10 yrs down the road it may have produced an Indian team like AUs... but does that mean .. break a decent team... and kill crikcet in India b4 we get such a team.

"Indian cricket at the very top can only improve when this system is reformed and a premier league created that will feature a maximum of six or seven teams following the Australian model. In addition Indian cricket needs paid selectors unconnected with the politics of zonal cricket, professional managers, and curators who can produce the pitches that India encounters overseas." --> I heard this right from the day I started following Indian cricket's many embarrassing defeats...its been 15 yrs since...and quote-to-quote we have the same suggestion. Oh my God!...and no one cares about the game, the only game INDIA cares about.

Hi
I think that we should not blame the India Cricket Team, and burn their effigies- after all it is just a game. I think that they didn't play their level best- but they played well against Bermuda. I think that they need to be more determined, have more stamina and be in better fitness. When India played against Bangladesh, hardly anyone bothered to run to get the ball, which i thought couldve made all the difference. I was annoyed with Dravid, as he didn't run, when Yuvraj was already three quarters of the way down. Hence Yuvraj was out. This happened when India played against Sri Lanka. But there is the next world cup, which i am eager to watch. Instead of dissing the india team, we should cheer them up and show our support.
GO INDIA!!

I disagree most vehemently with the author. The cricket system in India is not working, period. Four years ago, all the "senior" players were at the peak of their form and game, and most matches were won on the basis of our bowling strength. Remember Sri Lanka & England matches? Against Pakistan, we came up against a unit that wasn't at the top of their game, and that leaves Kenya as the only nation we labored to defeat.

I don't think Chappell is wrong. Instead of saying that we don't see talent anywhere in the horizon, say why we don't see it, inspite of cricket being such an obsession in the country.
We don't have a proper structure in place that throws up good all round players. We make superheros out of very ordinary players. Dhoni, Irfan, Kumble, Harbhajan, Ganguly being prime examples of such a build up. We refuse to throw out folks who're clearly past their use by date, take Sachin or Agarkar for example. The guy hasn't put up his hand for the last 8 years in a crunch game. Great teams are made when everyone thinks about the team, puts their heart into it and realize that they have to give their all to it. Indian players seem reluctant to take the field and put in a good fight.

I don't think that apart from Dravid, Sehwag and to a small extent Yuvraj who's more of an impact player we have batsmen that should get into a World XI. But these guys need to rediscover the joys of the game. Yuvraj almost seemed disinterested and aloof when he was batting.

Their are problems galore that need fixing, and someone responsible needs to step up and fix these issues. But, given the enormous amount of $$$ riding on the reputation of these players, will anyone stand up? I wonder...

There are many many problems with sports in India. You have Sports ministers, officials who have no vision and facilities all over are extremely poor. Crooks and corruption is/was/are an Indian instituations. I'm of Indian descent living aboard.. God bless

My observation on team members and thier respective performance as follows:
1. Dravid - He is the best available choice to lead the team. He should have continued to wage the battle in the srilanka game. He got emotional and threw his wicket.
Ganguly - He has crossed his prime and fought his way back only to prove a point. Chappel should have spoken to the BCCI and organised a decent farewell. I think he deserved a better treatment and not a place in the team.
Sachin - Again, he has seen it all. I doubt if he has any motivation to play for the country. Infact he is the richest sports person ever !
Uthappa - Only performed in a few matches leading the world cup. Being a Bangalore boy, he had the unfair backing of Dravid.
Shewag - Bolwers have sorted him out, but he still is a great talent. He should be preserved.
Yuvraj - Kept away from the team during the entire preparatory season due to injury. He got himself forced into the team. He nourishes hope of being the next captain, hence may have intentionally underperformed. He should not be handed the next captaincy.
Dhoni - He just had a few bad day's at office, he should be trained and persisted with. He has certainly brought in a lot of glamor to the sport.
Agarkar - I don not remember the last time he took 5 wickets or score 50 runs. He is purely there on infulence. He should go.
Harbajan: Preserve him for test matches, he should be replaced with Powar as soon as possible.
Zaheer : Did his best, should be persisted with.
Munaf : Did his best, should improve his fitness and speed.

Karthik, Irfan and Sreesanth are good talents, they can be retained. Kumble should be given a grand send off for his glorious contributions to the game.

Conclusion: Sachin, Ganguly and Kumble should announce their respective retirement asap. With a few changes here and there we should be back in action very soon. World had been a bad dream, lets plan for Aus-IND tour later this year !

I am not bothered anything about cricket. It is after all a sport. I do take objection for your use of term "rebellion of 1857". It can be called that way only if one is seeing in the perspective of imperialist power. But, for those who fought and became martyrs, it was "Fight for Independence" and is not a "rebellion". I know this is a cricket blog, but when we write an article it is better to be techincally and politically "correct". Why should we assume a blinkered vision - which is what we set out to prove that others through this article (e.g. Chappell)?

From all the blogs and comments here, I'm gonna deviate a little and talk about how India became champions in '83. The first and most important factor was a man called 'Kapil Dev'. There was and never will be a player like him. He led from the front and led by example. I mean, after that 175n.o. who would not want to lay his life down for the captain !! even Sunny would and did !! by benching himself for 2 games (which btw we lost!!)i still remember the BBC commentary of that momentous innings which my brother and bunch of my friends just enjoyed. John Arlott and Trevor Bailey, I think !! could not themselves believe such an innings had been played. And after playing thru the 60 overs Kapil came back and opened the bowling !! that's passion and commitment for you. since they travelled mostly on the road in england they spent more time together on the bus rides chatting, and having fun (this as told by Srikanth). although the expectations were not high, the team jelled together as a cohesive unit. this was what won us the WCC in aus in '85 too. India misses both the dynamism of a Kapil and a glaring lack of cohesiveness. Ganguly brought in some artificial attitude and that took us all the way to the final of '03 and that's about it. he could never lead by example. Pakistan in 1992 and SL in 1996 can also be attributed to their dynamic captains Imran and Arjuna who led by personal example. We south asians need such personalities to lead the team if we want to emerge as winners !! the game now has become a lot quicker and the hitting more powerful but then the decline of WI as a powerhouse means that we will never know if a Hayden or a Gilchrist could bat the same way against a Holding or a Marshall or a Garner !!

Seems to me that most people think of change as immediate. We are dealing with a country of a billion and attitudes that have been passed on for many millenia. We are not a "sporting culture" period!! Unless we can inculcate that into our grass roots, starting from schools and colleges and in our communities, the winning attitude is something that will be very difficult to find. Our current system has an obvioius leaning to "natural talent" and very little emphasis on "developing skill", hence a mistaken priority of being strong in the basics of the sport. The "process" is critical to developing and grooming and cementing the "basics" which only bolsters the "natural talent". The current Indian "sporting culture" places too great an emphasis on "natural talent". Hence a "Sehwag" or a "Laxman" or a "ganguly". Dravid is probably the only rounded cricketer in our team. Someone who has constantly proved himself by sheer hardwork and "developing skills". We just need more people who are committed to "excellence" (not perfection). This does not happen overnight. This can only be developed from the grass roots. If you want to make a tree healthy, you don't fix the leaves, you fix the soil and the roots!!
SR

I just want elaborate on few points. The author claims that "In any case, it's the same system that got us to the final in 2003, so perhaps we should look for explanations in the shorter term and focus on policies and personalities, rather than structure. " .

He totally forgets that, the only true team which has its cricket to a totally different level was Australia. And, if i am not wrong India was second ranked team and WC 2003 finals showed exactly on whats the difference between Number 1 ranked and number 2 ranked team. So much for boasting about success.

Secondly, he said "well India made it to the finals" which he presumes to be winning combination, but hasn't Ganguly and his team still face the harsh reality of 50% percent success rate in ODI and a pathetic display in games overseas and Australia on the other hand just go to other countries and dominate them ?

Thirdly, he says "India has churned out so many talents, Sachin, Sehwag, Pathan ", If they are true talents we would never had such dismissal records outside sub continent and on crunch games would never perform so badly.

Lastly, he claims, " England, with one of the richest and best organized football leagues in the world has won it once" he doesn't realize the fact that how many International players are in that team (clubs) ? secondly, these games played in England is more for monetary reasons that just churning out the true talents.

And until they do a vigorous make over in the domestic cricket ( No bias, good wickets, good stadium with lush green out field). India will never ever get to touch the world cup again.

An absolutely great piece of writing. I would agree with the rationale 100 percent.

Excellent stuff from Prashant. Definitely the best one on this page....
It is really good to see that so many people are wriring into this forum, whatever views they have, instead of blatantly protesting on the streets. I am really appreciative of the healthy debate.
On a more specific note, why is so much of your collective energy and passion directed upon a sport( the oxford dictionary describes it as a game played as pastime). I might be blamed for not being in touch with the ground realities, to not understand the psyche and emotions of my countrymen, but what is it that hurts? Defeat, manner of defeat or the defeat inspite of the money earned! I find it a real apathy that a sunbathing sport of Englishmen,(I am a hopeless romantic when it comes to cricket) has been brought(reduced, shall we say) to such ignomity, by the collective passions and an impending ignorance of the games glorious history.
I believe that, we will do well understand that, a sport as it passes through ages, there is bound to be temporal variations in every aspect of the game. Cricket is increasingly turning the way of fitness, energy, mental strength etc. Gone are the times when a bowler had the corage to appreciate a good stroke, or a batsmen acknowledge a great delivery. One look at the SA vs Aus match would have revealed to us how much we lag behind in terms of the physical demands of the game. We are still in the era of touch artists but sadly cricket has no more remained to be an intimate contest between bat and the ball.

To look for reasons of defeat, is healthy, but defeats were to a team that played better than us on that given day. Why can't we appreciate it? They could have of course played worse than us and lost the game, but they didn't. Isn't it?

All I wish to say is that, sport must be given its due place, it definitely must be appreciated but not with a passion which might prove to e harmful.

As a last note, if only my countrymen had the good sense to question each one of their elected representatives( who are legally bound to answer, while the cricketers are not even legally bound), lets start from our area corporators, MLA's, millions of politicians, houses of whom in front not a single dharna is staged for the right reasons, than my country would have been a far more better place to live in.

WHY DO NOT WE QUESTION THOSE, WHO RIGHTFULLY SHOULD BE?

Sachin should have been opening the innings. Why wasnt Dhoni coming in at 1-down? He has always proved best at 1-down.

Lack of planning as well as mental toughness let India down.

They should sack harbhajan before droping anybody else even useless agarkar. Harbhajan should retire from all kinds of cricket i dunn wanna see his face anymore.

Here are my points:-1. every good team is having atleast 7 or 8 good fielders along with their captain. But for india only two(except our captain). 2. We don't have many allrounders like autralia or nz or srilanka. Our 1983 team had many allrounders(kapil,binny,yasphal,amarnath,madanlal ...-all spirited). Now we don't have any-don't think abt agarkar,schwag etc..(only pathan). 3. No one is ready to stay until 50th over against big teams. We won some matches but most of them are in india.not in abroad. 4. Don't talk about laxman and kaif- laxman did the captaincy for south zone. Just won only one match(thats because of badri). and kaif scored only two fifty and one hundred scores in local matches(out of 8 or more).
5.A good Captain should lead from the front and should take risks. But our captain did that one or two times.
6. We have more back foot players or no footwork than any other team.
7. Our bowling is not consistent like others. Same bowling same techniques to all teams. A coach can give ideas but only it is upto players to adopt to it. Example: agarker's bowling of full balls in the last five years.
8.Finally you need to have on spot thinking players. Attacking is not like trying to hit all balls. you have to be wise in terms of ball selection. But our openers or players(uthappa,schwag,dhoni etc.,) always play their style of shots without thinking about ball length and speed(particularly with no footwork).

Under john wright we won only one final out of 12. But under GC, we won 4 series in india. So it it not related to coach only players they need to have wise, speed, technique and team mentality. Thay can say anything as ' we will win'. but they should show it in action. Until they can be paper tigers.

Replication of the Ozy way in every way will not in India - becuase India is different in terms of our culture, physical and mental setup.

I once read somewhere that Mathew Hayden and Darren Lehman were stuck in the ocean 4-5 miles away from the shore as their boat ran out of gas or something and the two tied the boat to thier back and swam all the way back. Their physical and mental strength is completely in a different level compared to ours. Can you imagine any sub-continent person leave alone the players doing anything like this. No, becasue as said 'IT IS WHAT IT IS'. We don't eat like them or our physical strenght is like theirs. No I am not saying that you start eating like what they eat or like that. All I am saying that we may not be able to match them in terms of physical strength completely however we have a way around it to make up to it have a stronger 'Mental Strength'.

Mental strenght is what is lacking in our team more than anything else. They are highly talented individuals who on their day will rip apart anyone in this world. But to do this on a regular basis day after day against the best of the teams you will need both physically and mentally strong. (I also associate the same mental strength as 'Killer Instinct' too.) Look at the number of games when our bowlers were able to cleanup the tail enders in some of the matches including Bermuda.

With the introduction of the trainers we took a right step towards the getting the physical part right but we missed the mental side of it. This is where the coach comes in. All the players in the team have some or the other kind of talent of course barring Ajit Agarkar, the coach can only help pointing out whats wrong if someone is having a bad form or techinques other than that the coach should basically work on the mental aspect of the players than looking at their game. This is where sometimes I feel a foreign coach may not be that good enough for our players. What we need is an Sandip Patil, Kapil Dev, Viv Richards or even Imran Khan or Javed Miandad (I am not pro pakis either) mould who imbibes an 'eye for eye' attitude on a consistent basis.

On an another note about picking a side, if picking either the experienced or a completely young side isn't working , why not invest time on the youger side and hope they can come of rather than investing on the old. The only thing you will gain out of this is some more records being added to the 'old and experienced' self than anything else.

And lastly, I don't hope to see any drastic changes from BCCI especially against old white elephants (Sachin, Sourav, Dravid, Harbajan, Agarkar, Sehwag) and if they do surprise me I shall donate $100 to charity for every player they drop and never get them back.

Good post. The first post on this blog that makes sense, i must say. Although the reference to the 1857 rebbilion( or the First war of independence, to be PC) was a tad silly.

Ive been a fan of the Dutch national team for years now and I actually cringe when anybody mentions the phrase "total football". Rinus Michels and Johan Cryuff were outstanding individual sportsmen who could pull off total football. Nobody since has, not at the international level anyway. And only Ajax did it in the mid-90s with home grown players. Victories nowadays in international football is achieved through pragmatic, turgid football. Thats what Indian cricket team needs too, not management mumbo jumbo.

And you are right about player participation.The number of people playing cricket in India is lower compared to Australia, and ultimately thats what matters.

Just a final thought. We got beat. It happens.

hello everyone..
no doubt it was a poor show which broke billion hearts but there are some questions that need answers.
Sachin Tendulkar who can be rated as the best opener ever why wasnt he opening. Dont forget 2003 finals was possible becoz he fired at the top. Final game is an exception. We have the world best openning pair in Ganguly and Sachin still we dont use them.
Is form more important or past records?
Sehwag who has been a disaster since an year and half at the top is still there and karthik who work hard for his place was kept out. Everyone knows that he is a master player but has no technique to play at the top. And to win the world cup you need to beat teams like South Africa and ofcourse Australia who can easily exploit your weeknesses.
At the start of 2006 when india was winning consistently all the experimentations were working then why did it suddenly stopped.
Harbhajan and Kumble are no more that effective like murli in ODI then wats the point persisting with them, better get an allrounder who can atleast make 20 runs per game (someone like robin singh whose fit and agile). With so many part-time spinners in the team do we really need bhajji or anil?

Do we really need Chappell?
A country where cricket is not just a game but a religion can a foreigner understand or realize what cricket means to us? Can he be so patriotic, so passionate, so emotional and so united like and indian coach? I say NEVER. Sorry to say be Chappell and Dravid could never make the time look like TEAM INDIA of Ganguly and Wright.
If Chappell tried to implement australia system in India its not gonna work. Its India and you have to take it as it is. No rotation police works here.
You need an INDIAN coach for india...!!!

True, a reformed domestic system is not a panacea. But those of us who are harping on the domestic system are basically right I think. Around June 2005, there were 10-15 contenders for the batting slots, plus 2or3 unknowns who might crop up between then and 2007. If having a good domestic system means anything, it means having a way to sort out the relative rankings of the 10-15 contenders, in a way that gives as fair a chance as possible to everyone, and perhaps just as important, in a way that the players perceive is as fair as possible. Maybe our players whine and gossip a lot, but maybe they do that because the system is capricious and unpredictable, and it''s hard to depend on anyone for anything.

Its just my opinion, i don't want any one to take offense to this. first things first. Lets not talk about politics/policy differences, internal/external with respect to the Team/ Team composition. Lets talk about what we have been seeing from the past four years.ODIs ONLY PLease. What kind of team we had, where did they play and aginst whom did they play and more importantly how did they perform?(not neccessarily in win, but also in a loss) When i look back it tells me there is no cricketing sense associated with a decision to root for TEAM INDIA. I Kind of related it to my emotional sensors when i said to myself that "Its good if INDIA atleast reaches Super 8" before the start of this World Cup. Again i repeat i think there is no point talking about negative gameplans, negative startegies, or negative selections etc. I honestly think its all about the ATTITUDE of the individuals within the TEAM whomsoever were present in the TEAM from the past four years. Its not enough if you have few people talking about Team efforts/ Spirits. All the playing/ non Playing members should think/ talk in those lines. Mind you, not just talk, but also do something substantial(perform, show results) to assert what they think and talk. The " TEAM" i am referring to in the past statement inlcudes playing 15+ coaching staff+ manegerial staff+ selectors.
I have been passionate about INdian cricket ever since i was a kid and have been following it since 1992 WC. I am afraid i won't be doing that. I pray good things should happen to TEAM INDIA. May be he is right, Kamran Abbasi, when he said that "how Asian superstars have this habit of getting humiliated on the brink of their retirement" or may be Mark Waugh is partly right about how we go about our cricket (Team/ Win comes second). Finally i hope to retire from Indian Cricket Veiwership in near future. I would love to quit it today, but it is not possible. A life time of passion, it would definitely take some time to completely eliminate indian cricket out of my system. Frankly lets not waste time (folks) as nobody significant would care our thoughts, and we are just wasting our time by investing in a useless thing of repsonding to this blog/ or having a petty quarrel with some X on his/her thoughts. Lets get more productive and do something what we want to do or be in our life.

The best part of Indian cricket team was Ganguly was back in the team. If he hadnt score 66 against bangladesh i guess India wouldnt have crossed 100 also. The worst part was removing Ganguly from captainship. If you see Stephen Fleming is not in form, but as a captain & leader of the team his aggressive, thats what Ganguly is. His aggressive, his decision are quick. We need an aggressive captain & not a kind hearted like Dravid. I agree Dravid as a gud player but not a great leader. The biggest mistake done by Chappell was shuffling the Indian team bringing Sachin to play in the middle order. That didnt make any sense. The opening parternship shuld have been Sachin-Ganguly or Sachin-Sehwag. Sachin is a player who likes to play through the whole inning. I bet he would have performed much better if he was opening. Agarkar wasn't confident with his bowling. They should have taken Irfan Pathan who can bat as well as bowl. Robin Utthappa after failing in two matches should have been rested & Karthik should have played. The match between India-SL was decisive.. Karthik holds the innings together.. Atlast i would like to say was watsoever the team was they were not in form.. I am happy they havent reached the Super 8's were they were gonna play teams like Australia, SA, NZ..

Good grief guys, get a life. Is cricket that important in a country where people still dont have running water 24hrs a day 60 years after independence. Disgraceful.

As there are lot of blame rockets thrown all over the place ...I would like to add my 2 c ..

I think no individual alone can be held responsible for the debacle ....but the onus of the debacle lies on the 12 players that are on the field. They are the one who are responsible for each event that occurs on the field and leads to the result of the game..

We all know that Indian players are very good athlete and lack physical built and strength ...may be its how we are raised ...But It all boils down to the level of commitment that all the players have on the field....

If you have closely observed each Indian player during the Bangladesh game on the field ...you would have noticed the lethargy they have shown on the field....there was no real commitment from any of the players ....I have noticed yuraj singh who is supposed to be the young blood in the team ..Yawning on the field when india was in crunch sutiation ...this was disgusting to frustrating to watch ....

I think there is a notion of taking things granted in the indian cricket team ...there is a feeling that once you get into the team ..you are the star and for the billion people you are the god ....

If you have seen the indian practice sessions ...they lack the enthusiasm and energy in the field...indian players think they are born cricketers and have magical powers ...they dont have to work hard to get it right ....this is not the case with others teams...they work really really hard for what the are on the field in crunch conditions .....

So unless and untill this attitude doesnt goes from the indian camp ...there will be no success for India

~~Vish

I dont know why you refer 1857 as rebellion,when it was a fight for independence,maybe your job with your foreign employers requires you to say so,if not i would suggest you to take History lessons.
Coming back to cricket,I was not at all impressed with Greg chappell or woolmers performance,I dont know if Greg Chappell had any past coaching experience but a coach is responsible for correcting the flaws of the players, also
it is the coaches responsibility to provide the team with a game plan against every team,and to train every player how to adjust their game under
changing scenarios and conditions,every player should be able to read the game and adjust accordingly as it progresses,the biggest problem with Indian and Pakistani teams were they lacked planning and tactics they didnt come with the right combination into the tournament meaning that their selection was not right they both failed to induct Good young aggressive players and paid the price for not doing it.The teams they played were more suitable for test matches.
I dont know if each player was aware and trained about his role they certainly didnt exhibited that
skill,these foreigners know how to sell themselves
I think the next coaches should be domestic ones
as these foreign coaches certainly didnt do their jobs.
The game has changed and Aus, SA and to some extent NZ are playing at a very high level,whereas the Asian teams are still playing the old game where the top order tries to build the innings and preserve the wickets and lower order goes for the runs in the last 15 overs these teams are maintaining their runrate from the word go,and are effectively using the powerplays,the approach with which they are playing is highly aggressive, when the bowling is tight,or they lose a wicket they start playing safe shots but they donot stop the runrate,if India and Pakistan have to come up to this level they will have to raise their game no
more defensive cricket there is a difference between test cricket and ODI,they might have to develop specialist ODI teams.The skills which these coaches were expected to bring to the table
were clearly not there.So its high time that these
countries start learning from their mistakes rather expect somebody else to fix their problems for them.

Hey Ramana, you are agenious. Seriously, I am not kiddingg. Remarkable foresight. Now, can we not ttake itt easy andrelax? Its a sport afterall and why do we all have to get sttessed out so bad? We win soe and we lose some. Thats the law of nature. Greg is just an incidental fill-in. Cool it guys.

2007 Cricket World Cup will be/should be the turning point in Indian cricket. Out with the old, in with the new. Time now for new administrators in BCCI , professional team selectors, coach with a track record, shrewd captain & young talented players, all in preparation for the 2011 WC in Asia. All personal involved should be remunerated in line with the results on the field of play.
Looking forward to the next WC 2011.

P.S. This is India we are talking about. Anything can happen but then again Nothing might happen.

Chill Guys ......... Read this article and you all will feel very happy that india is out of world cup ..

"
THERE’s a brighter side to India’s exit from the World Cup. Something that can cheer up disappointed fans and angry advertisers. Sri Lanka has done a great favour to Indian economy by ousting the cricket team from the World Cup. There are about 80 million cable and satellite viewing homes in India. According to TAM ratings, the average viewership of all World Cup matches held till now stands at about 3%, with India vs Bangladesh touching a high of 7.25%. To reach the finals, India would have played at least seven more matches. Considering a TV Rating of 7.25%, at least 5.8 million people would have watched the match. This would have resulted in a productivity loss of 371.2 million man hours (5.8 million x 8 hours x 8 matches), apart from stress faced by mothers during exams.
About 3% of 81 million TV viewers (2.4 million) were ardent cricket fans and would have sat through all eight hours in the remaining 28 matches. Thus overall, Indian team’s ouster would result in a productivity gain of 481 million man hours of work (28x2.4x8 man hours), if put to use. The Sri Lankans have given a boost to the Indian economy by saving 54,902 man years of work (one year = 8,761 hours). Indians can build seven phases of the Golden Quadrilateral connecting Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai spread over 5,846 kilometres all over again, with this time saved.
A daily wage skilled labourer in Delhi earns Rs 17 per hour. If put to productive use, the 481 million man hours can produce Rs 817 crore of GDP, which is 63% more than BCCI’s annual revenues of Rs 500 crore, last year. It’s 401% more than the Rs 163 crore losses, corporate India has predicted to incur due India’s ouster.
The state electricity boards are also thanking Sri Lanka for the great favour. A TV consumes 45 watts per hour. Assuming a viewer will now switch off his TV by 12 midnight, it will save Rs 135 watts at least per viewer (not considering the electricity consumed by other appliances running simultaneously.) This will save the electricity boards 324 million watts of electricity ( 3.24 lakh kilowatts) in just 28 days. According to estimates, SEB losses in India will touch Rs 1 lakh crore by 2008. If disappointed viewers completely switch off their TVs for eight hours, it will save the government at least 8,64,000 kilowatts, along with many more lives — at least three Indian citizens have been reported to die due to cardiac arrest or suicide after India’s defeat at the hands of Sri Lanka. "

A large part of the blame lies with the Indian public. How can you expect the players to perform well if at the back of their minds, they are worried about lynch-mobs waiting for them back home should they fail to move forward? Instead of baying for their blood, we (the Indian fans) must learn to back our players even more when the chips are down. After all, it's just a game and has little significance in the real world.

The golden era of Indian cricket was between 1970 to 1990. Most of India's most notable accomplishments took place in that era. The regular players of that era (Gavaskar, Vishy, Vengsarkar, Venkat, Kapil, Mohinder etc.) might not have as high an average as Tendulkar or Dravid. For all the centuries and mountains of runs scored by Tendulkar, Dravid, Ganguly and others of the modern era, what do they have to show as a TEAM?

To digress a little..

I stopped being unhappy with the Indian team's loss to Sri Lanka right after I saw the Aus - SA match. It was very clear that these two teams have shifted the paradigm and were almost playing a different game. Granted that we should have beaten Bangladesh and Sri Lanka but no amount of wishful thinking can convince me that this Indian team would have beaten either SA or Aus in this tournament. Ergo I don't really care that much any more that we ended up losing to bangladesh and Sri Lanka who to my mind are playing the same game as Aug and SA - the difference is in degree not in kind. This is aside from the question whether the game that Aus-SA is cricket any more but to compete and win in this forum; this is how you need to play.

Again, questions about aging players, wrong players chosen etc are not really relevant anymore. I don't know of ANY players in India who can display a combination of attitude, supreme athleticism and power that these two teams display. Talk about our wristy talented players is all very good but but probably doesn't apply to this kind of game. As I said I am not sure if this is the kind of cricket that I really want to watch but to compete in this game this is how it needs to be played.

More and more when I look at the Indian cricket team, I think of the Indian Hokcey team.

Has Australia raised the game or lowered it?

Doesnt this WC remind anyone of Baseball where you have to hit every ball and run as hard as you can after that? Was cricket ever meant to be about Strength and Athleticism as it is now?
W.G.Grace would refuse to leave upon getting out since the crowd wanted to watch him bat and the opposition would agree at times. Imagine Sachin asking such favours from the opposition captain even as a joke!
Its no longer a game of timing and strokeplay. Im afraid, the days of copybook cricket and style are over. This new system will never breed a David Gower, Mark Waugh, David Boon, Lara, Gavaskar or Tendulkar again. Instead you'll have batsmen like Jayasurya, Gilchrist, Symonds, etc, who are no delight to watch at all.
The oneday game has already become very mechanical with boundaries coming only during Powerplays.
And thats why its a relief to watch India or Pak...or, on occasion, the West Indies. Only genuine individual brilliance can overcome a highly mechanical and extremely professional team like Australia or SA. Teams like SriLanka, Bangladesh and England may make it into the super8s on their professional strength but can they produce the magic needed to beat Australia, the Michael Schumacher of Cricket?
The only ones with potential are West Indies, if they pull off something big or, perhaps New Zealand with the power of Bond.
Im putting all my hopes on these two.

This is hilarious. A coach's performance is decided by "what he has to say in an interview?"

Is is that a coach has to be articulate? - answer point to point - the whole article is based on answers to two questions. Good judgment :-)

I am very surprised with all the comments are made by various players and suporters. One thing everybody misses is that Indian players who appeared in world cup game against Sri Lanka are very very talented and good stroke makers. Since Greg Chapplle became Coach, batting has gone in reverse. We all have seen India won most of their games in last six to seven years because of their sheer class of batting rather than fielding and bowling. Greg Chapplle supposed to improve batting of Indian players instead all the players became worse and the worst of all against Bangadesh and Sri lanka. It was Greg Chapplle who supposed to bring decipline in shot selection instead of brought nervousness and insecurity while playing attacking cricket which was trade mark of Sehwag, Tedulakar and many other players. Since Greg became coach, I have not seen any top players have played beautiful cover drives which was trade mark of likes of Dravid, tendulakar,Sehwag and many other players. Our bowling has impoved but batting is worse. This is because all our major batsmen are not playing straight as they used to before Greg took over. Indian Players have plenty of talent but these so called coaches are brain washing them with too much rubbish to justify their stupid salary. Please, Please let them play naturally let them feel proud of showing their abilities and many things will fall in place with proud supporters cheering them.

We need to plan for the future. Our new team needs to be for the future and should have only few seniors who will guide along for a while before moving on. Now that the world cup is over, we don't need all the experience in the team. Here is what I'd recommend for the ODI team:

1. Gambhir
2. Sehwag
3. Dravid
4. Yuvraj
5. Kaif
6. Dhoni
7. Pathan
8. Joginder Sharma
9. Powar
10. Z Khan
11. M Patel
12. Sreesanth
13. M Tiwari
14. P Chawla
15. Uthappa / TM Srivastava

Captainship is the difficult choice. We might as well persist with Dravid for a while or give it to Sehwag. I think we need a player like Sehwag. He is inconsistent but worth the risk. I don't know enough about Yuvraj but he does not jump out to be captainship material. I think we might as well groom Dhoni or Kaif as the vice captain. The problem with Kaif is he is not even in the team right now.

is there any possibility of Sachin being dropped...however, being realistic wht are the cahnces of him being dropped... causes, consequences

I am an Indian fan living in the UK. Like so many other we have seen the Indian bowling attack get hammered everywhere in the world. Since the days of Kapil Dev i have followed them and we all know this is our weak point. We all knew this is our weak pint. Did anybody do anything about this - Players, BCCI administrators etc? No. They just let it happen and carry on because it didn't hurt their pride or in their hearts. Would the Pakistanis, Aussies or SA let this happen? I doubt it. Nothing has changed lets face. I am part of the Bharat Army and spend a lot following our boys but this i feel where the problem lyes. there is so much support, money, celebrity status for these guys that they lose sense of reality and responsibility. You see it in their body language and interviews. Its so easy for them. Give it another week and all will be lost and forgotten. It doesnt hurt them enough and the BCCI is the main culprit - money and status is all they are really interested in. this unfortunately wil not change for a long long time in India. It saddens me to say it but our mental psychi has become like this. This situation reminds me of Aussies and that Kim Hughs interview when he was in tears. It hurt them and they did something about it. Will we - somehow i doubt it.

sometimes trying to be someone you are not can kill you,India trying to be like Aussies so on and so forth.It will take enternity for Indians to become like Aussies atleast a decade,by that cricket in India would have been killed.You need a coach who can connect with the team,Greg honestly killed the team than he did any good to it.In the later stages Greg and Dravid became defensive and stopped trying experimental process as it truly killed the morale of the team.Being like an Australian means being born in the country and culturally being brought up with that mind set for your whole life.So it is a meaningless exercise to imitate to Aussies(and kill the Indian Cricket).I do not mean keeping the politics and not improvising our infrastructure,you do not have to copy Aussies for that ,one just needs professionalism and an honest approach towards that objective and it still could be Indian.I think we are going over board and obsessed trying to become someone we are not.This is not being blind,this is about who truly you are and still being able to make an impact and compete with other nations.

And lastly I agree with pingopin just take it easy folks,after all there is another day.

Sack Greg Chappell and get Ray jennings as India coach. I'd love to see that. One lap for every no ball bowled. Indian bowlers will never be unfit ever again nor bowl noballs or wides.

Seriously I think Jennings will get sum discipline into this team. Anyone agree with me.

As far as Sachin is concerned he got u to the 2003 WC finals opening the batting. And was the man of the series in the last ODI series he played. Both the times he was dismissed he got beauties. Arm ball against Bangla and a 142kph incutter from Fernando. Cmon that would have taken out any batsman forget tendulkar playing his 3rd ball. Give the team some support guys.

Greg-More combination worked worked out well. More was able to give young talent to greg, out of which he was able to form a young team. But after vensakar came it was reverse. He gradually trimed out young crop and brought back the old team with one or two new players. Greg is not to be blamed. He works on with what ever given to him. Every one has to realise one thing, Greg cant go to senior player and tell them how to play...its not possible, coach will alway respect senior in the team, thats how it is and will be...whereas he can go to dhoni, uttappa, karthik, sreenath to tell his ideas. There is enough room in a young players mind to grab new thoughts and change. Vensarkar made it difficult and he should answer the world why he took such a step. while talking to media once he asked them show me a performing young cricket I will take him - when More was able to see why did vensarkar failed to see it. Greg-More combination had lot of young crop tried out and it should have gone till the WC, unfortunatly it did not happen. If given full hand to gregs vision- he would have not taken back sewag, ganguly, harbajan into this WC team. They did not perform well to get a berth into WC team.
Talking about sachin - he told the media once that his body is maturing and he is altering his cricket to his aging body. I think he should go do some yoga and open his mind. He has stopped himself mentally. Look at Ponting and lara - they still have the old aggressive touch. Sachin should open his mind and come out of his self-pitty. He is one of a class who can go and explode with his bat, like ponting and lara. Cant sign him off too soon. If he persists with self-pitty any more - he should be shown doors.

It is quite obvious that India failed for the obvious reasons:
1. Wrong team selection. Why did anyone play Agarkar when Pathan was available? He could have provided better bowling and also aded the much neeeded runs. He also had the ability to win a game. Rememeber his partnership with Ganguly when he scored a centuary in a warm up game? It was his fast scoring batting ability that aloowed the victory.
2. There is no passion in the players. Somehow everyone seems to be scared stiff? Is it the pressure of the fans back home? Is it the pressure that if you don't perform in 1 or 2 games that you will be dropped? Again Pathan is an example of what can happen to a premier player and how his confidence can be affected by mistreating him.
3. Too many seniors in the team affects not only the fielding but also running between the wickets. You need exceptionally fit palyers with good reflexes. Raina, Kaif should have been included. Sehwag should not have been selected nor Kumble.
4. Too many players act like superstars when they are not. Yuvraj and Dhoni are examples.

It was a sad day for Indian cricket and the 2007 world cup was a disaster for both India and Pakistan.

It is surprising you never even mentioned the crazy amount of cricket the Indian team plays. Or the money-madness shown by the BCCI. Or the fact that Chappel couldn't possibly have much to do with Irfan's bowling form and Raina's batting (because both were still performing badly in domestic cricket after being dropped from the team). But yes, I do agree with you that the present captain, although no doubt India's best player, does not seem to have much leadership ability.

I Think TEAM CHEMISTRY is not good. They did'nt try the correct combinations.....they r a little bit over confident....

Article mentions that current domestic format has produced talent such as Irfan, Dhoni, Munaf, Suresh..but these guys won't even make it to the state level in Australia and thats where the difference is. Most of indian national squad isn't even on par with state state cricketers of Australia.

Not sure about the point the article is making. But you're right in pointing out that the team to the WC was basically back to what was handed over to Chappell by Wright. But let's hope that there is not too much change at the top. Give Dravid and Chappell a chance. AND err .... someone please tell the selection committee to get rid of Ganguly .... this time for good ..... Check out his stats, ie vs Bermuda, vs Kenya, etc etc and then vs Australia, NZ etc. Bring back Laxman instead - AND THERE YOU have a TEAM player, something we totally lack.

once again tendulkar blinked when India needed him most .True GREATS like Kapil Dev( remember the catch to dismiss Viv Richards and THAT 175) Jimmy Amaranath( the most important 30 runs EVER scored in any match) , Viv Richards , Clive Lloyd ,Imran Khan , Wasim Akram , Inzamam Ul Haq , Aravinda De Silva , Steve Waugh , Shane Warne and Ricky Ponting have the ability to ABSORB PRESSURE and SINGLE HANDEDLY win IMPORTANT matches . In this aspect Tendulkar has time and again failed the acid test on BIG matches . Sachin’s supporters claim that his 98 against Pakistan in the 2003 world cup as a shining example of his big match temperament , but let me REMIND you that even BEFORE the match was played India had qualified for the Super 8 whereas , for Pakistan it was a ‘must win’ situation . i.e. India had nothing to lose and all the pressure was on Pakistan , so Tendulkar comes out blazing all guns in yet another INCONSEQUENTIAL match but fired only blanks in the final , whereas Ponting played a blinder and for god’s sake he hit 8 sixes in a world cup final ! Now, that is a record that will never be broken ….a good batsman can hit a hundred in a world cup match or hit 8 sixes , but to do BOTH is no mean achievement and a feat that is impossible even in Sachin’s dream.

Sure , there are 11 players and it’s a team sport , but the afore mentioned LEGENDS have the ability to SINGLEHANDEDLY turn a match on its head and affect the outcome in a HIGH PRESSURE WINNER TAKES ALL encounter . Sadly , Tendulkar has not been able to raise his game in crunch situations.

There is no point in having a high average and the highest no. of centuries if a champion cannot win on the biggest occasion. Mohammed Ali will not be Ali if he did not win the world title thrice .

This obsession by Tendulkar to have a good average and playing for records and posterity should stop . Winners do not trot out excuses for their failures nor do they expect help from a team mate , they just go out and do the job ……When Steve Waugh had to bail out his team against South Africa in the 1999 Competition , he scored 120 priceless runs as did Aravinda by scoring 66 in 1996 semi final against India, in addition to the century in the final. Champions do not buckle under pressure . Even in the test arena , Sachin unlike Dravid or VVS LAXMAN , has not played LONE RANGER in big matches against big opponents . In this aspect Lara , towers head and shoulders above Sachin by virtue of making match winning centuries against the best team at home and abroad ( N.B key words , match winning , best teams, home and abroad ) .

It used to be sacrilegious to criticize Sachin , and for this reason he has been mollycoddled and protected , whereas similar courtesy and RECOGNITION was not extended to Kapil Dev , Jimmy Amaranath , VVS Laxman , Dravid or the tireless and genuine match winner Kumble . Also what a waste Kambli is , here was a rough diamond that the public and the selectors did not take to heart , for whatever reasons . But Sachin was the golden boy who could do no wrong and given money , fame and national awards et al , but has he given India what he should ? Anyway Who cares about a world cup win as long as Sachin has the highest no. of centuries and a good average ! LONG LIVE RECORDS AND AVERAGES. INDIA IS NO 1 and WORLD CHAMPS IN RECORDS

Mr. Kesavan , you are right on the money. Whatever you wrote in your blog is 100 % valid. But reading the various comments posted here makes me think that We Indian can never agree on anything. Even when it is an obvious and simple thing. If you say , 10+10 =20 , people start questioning that statement too. Somebody will say , you didn't specify whether you are talking decimal , hexadecimal numbers. So don't worry about the comments. Of all the articles analyzing the WC debacle , your analysis is the correct one.

Why did india fail? Because they tought coming to the west indies and getting through the first rounds would have been a stroll in the park, didn't you realise it was going to get tough out there, the writing was on the wall. Just about a year ago when you lost a one day series 4-1 to the West Indies, and this is not the the 80's and the early 90's any more, this is the weak w.i. team of the new millenium getting blows from everybody except zimbabwe and bangladesh who gave you a whooping in the first rounds by the way, but i'm not here to insult, i just want to say by excluding players such as Laxman, kaif, raina...those are players that could have made a difference, that are suited to the one day game.I dont think the inclusion of players such as uthappa and beleive it or not an out of form sehwag was making sense despite how explosive or great a talent he is, his poor form has been around for a while now, that century against bermuda counts for nothing and he neeeds to get back in the nets and put in the hard work like Ganguly. India will get out of this eventually,somehow. They have the capabilites to do so, but correct selection and ensuring players keep physically fit and put in sufficient practice time are just some of the things india have to do to get back in the game properly. I say this as a west indian actually, i have great admiration for the indian style of cricket and their players.

Tere is no point in blaming anyone. It will be much better if we can learn from this.To win a match you need a strike bowler. We simply do not have one. Agarkar is supposed to be our strike bowler. He will not even get into the second eleven of a county side in Enland. And the Bombay lobby calls him an allrounder!He starts off by bowling wiides and buys his wickets. Rarely does he bowl accurately or economically and he still gets selected over and over again.been He should never have been taken and instead Powar should have been given a chance. Till we get out of our regional bias we are not going to win big matches.
YIf we want to win start looking for a bowler who can consistently bowl at 145-150 kph. Till then we can keep dreaming about winning.

I agree with Ramana more than the author who wrote the article. I wished a non Indian has written this article. The author was comparing the 2003 finalists to the team now and was wondering what went wrong. And the only difference he could find between the 2003 n 2007 side is Greg Chappell. Ultimately he claimed that Chappell’s process, rotational policies and plans to create flexibility in the team are to be blamed. I completely disagree with this. What chappell was tryig to do will be done by any coach and any where in the world. Chappell tried it do the Australian way. But one has to understand that most of the players in 2007 team are getting old and all of them have crossed their prime. Sehwag, Ganguly, Sachin, Dravid, kumble, harbhajan, zaheer. All of them are bad fielders when u compare them to Australian and South African standards. Their fitness levels are only falling each day. This is the very first reason why it becomes tough for indians to win matches. They give away 20-30 runs in field and dont take another 20-30 runs while running between the wickets. This will make a huge difference when you are playing against a better fielding team. After you cant win the matches with 4s and 6s alone. The author has never touched this point.

And second is players like sachin, ganguly, sehwag lacked any motivation at all. Ganguly is playing numbers game which dont help the team cause. Australians would have laughed at the fact that Ganguly was brought back into the team bcos he hasn’t done much. He is merely trying to protect his team. Sehwag is a lethargic sloth one would ever see. And he neither has the commitment nor the motivation. Sachin still wants to cling to his place. All Indians know that no selector can dare to replace sachin. But as a responsible player and citizen you should give way to youngsters when you can't deliver the goods. And sachin is the biggest choker if u compare him with the likes of Lara and Ponting. One should also look at Damien Martyn, Gillespie, Langer and Lehman. They all gave way to youngsters when they were in the prime. But thats not the culture in India. Australians feel that no one is bigger than the game but Indians feel it the other way.

If you keep looking there are so many faults with Indian team.
Mentally very very weak, lack of adaptability, low fitness levels, lack of motivation (the fact that one is playing for a country alone should motivate a player), attitude problems (ex Ganguly, Harbhajan, Yuvraj) gets complacent easily, no aggression whatsoever. If you go like this you can get more and more.

When there are so many problems what can a chappell process do. Is chappell responsible for the pace coming down of Irfan pathan. Look chappell has no grudges with us. He is here to help us not ruin. The problem is with us. And if you are openminded to know where the fault lies you will know the answers. Otherwise there will always be some scapegoats available to blame.

Karthick, spot on bro! Brilliant, could not agree more. Raj, very well put, am sure Haydos in his right mind could not even dream of either standing outside the crease or walking down the wicket to my WI heroes of yore! Anyone who tells you otherwise, dream on. Macho, Mikey and Andy R, Big bird etal (and beinga Surrey boy, who could forget Sly Clarke!!) never mind where were these Aussies when "7 for 1" special Culrtley Maan was in his pomp?? GC talks a great game, indeed was a great bat, but that does not make him a good coach! Why did Aussies go to Bob Simo & Marshey and not IC/GC?? RD is a spineless ass and much as I like him is clearly a corporal not an officer! Also much as I am angry at Sachin, make no mistake he will be back. But it is impossible to have 1 bn plus people screaming their ass off rooting for you and not feel the pressure. Let Imran say what he wants re Viv and SRT etc, but Viv never had the burden SRT carried all his life!! SRT is unlikely to deliver in big games, leave him alone. If he does, that is a bonus. Also RD rooting for Veeru, what ODI record was he citing?? DBV knows the game as well if not better than Captain Marvel, and knew that Veeru is a down market ODI version of Michael Slater!! But RD was still pining for Veeru and Bangla boys proved his folly in the first few overs. Also bat on an unknown new track? Wow, what a fine piece of intellect that!! Dump RD and bring back SG? Groom Kaif and not Yuvi as he does not have the nouse, mark my words. Kaif needs lots of TLC so to speak, so does Irfan beta! Finally just get Munaf and Irfan off to a boot camp and get their average speeds to 85mph and all will be well on the bowling front soon with ZK being taught a lesson. Other than Lara, no one jumps down the wicket to out and out quicks like Sean Tate, Brett Lee etc! But the new kids from Bangla did that to Queen Agarkar and ZK (huffing and puffing at 84miles) in their first 2-3 overs!! The immediate future does look gloomy. Re BCCI, I won't even go there.
God bless us all. And good luck India as they are going to need that in spades. Mukul keep up the decidedly good work, but a bit less of Brit/Aussie ...licking please bruv!!

If Indian Cricket has to progress, first of all remove the influnce of .... Sunil Gavaskar and Ravi Shastri. They should not be close to any cricket administration. If you read Sunny's column, nowhere he has criticized senior players but instead he made chappell a scapegoat. On top of it he mentioned that Indian players never had fighting spirit since 70's. It means Indians lost fighting spirit after he joined the Indian team. I am from Mumbai and I have followed Mumbai cricketers and seen that they are interested in politics ..... They are not fighters like north, south or east players like Kapil Dev, Kirmani, Madan Lal, Mohinder Amarnath etc. In 1983, India won the world cup and good showing thereafter was because of these players. I am not expecting any exciting future for Indian Cricket as long as Pawar, Gavaskar, vengsarkar or all the kar's are part of Indian Cricket will be there. We need fighters and not losers who are afraid of Media or Corporate Money.

I agree with some of the comments above. The game plan was lacking. In the first game India fielded Sehwag fully knowing that he is out of form. Losing his wicket in the very first over put lot of pressure on the other players. Uthappa who has showed lot of promise, succumbed to the pressure and soon perished. He is a great prospects, but he is too young. So in the matter of couple of overs, there came the time again for our master batsman to walk in to the crease. We all have to agree that, Sachin doesn't like to play in the middle order. When he plays in the middle order, he puts lot of pressure on himself. One of the reasons could be that, a no. 4 batsman walks in to the crease only when two wickets have fallen. It is such a normal thing in Indian batting line up to lose early wickets, Sachin has to normally take the guard in the first couple of overs of the Innings knowing that India has already lost two wickets. So this move of strengthening the middle order with Sachin, actually is a result of weakening India’s opening pair. This to me hardly makes any sense.
In the match against Bangladesh, after a successful partnership between Ganguly and Yuvraj, both “Maharaja” and “The Star” played poor shots. We lost wickets in heap for the addition of a single run on the board. To me it was poor planning and as well as poor execution of the plan.
Till date I do not understand why Ajit Agarkar is being picked in the team. He hardly looks like a wicket taking bowler. To add to that anguish, his bowling line is always on the leg side giving easy chances to the opposite batsmen. Does he stop at that ?? No ..he has to then pitch the ball short. What an irony ? The problem with Agarkar is that, he forgets that he is not bowling against a state Ranji team.
Harbhajan Singh was another poor selection for the world cup. He has lost his spin and also the confidence. The move to drop in form Romesh Pawar to the famed spinner fired back. In the end, because of some players, the team spirit got affected and it showed in their body language. Rahul Dravid is a great captain. But he chose to back the wrong players. So in a sense he is himself to blame for the poor team selection.

The other reason I think is, India lacking a bowling coach and a fielding coach. It is difficult to believe that the richest Cricket body on the earth can not spend some money on a fielding and bowling coach. The main coach can be strategist, but when it comes to the finer points of the game, we definitely lacked the resources. So here goes the blame to BCCI. They were too busy fighting for the Nimbus TV rights with the government. BCCI definitely lacks vision.

Coming to Greg Chappel, - he never got his team. But his fault is, if he never got a team which we wanted why did he travel with the Indian team to the West Indies.? He might have worked hard for the last 16 months with the team he wanted. But when it came to the nick of time before the world cup he was given a team he never wanted.

Looking at the future, I would say that Rahul Dravid or Sachin Tendulkar should lead the team. But at the same time we need to groom a young leader. In the present team, there is not a single person who can be entrusted with the responsibility. Just like how South Africa trusted Grem Smith with the captaincy, India needs to find a solid vice captain. To my mind, the only name which comes close is:Mohammad Kaif. He has enormous potential as a leader. He has been wasted in the last year by dropping him even when he was playing at his best. It is difficult to digest the fact that, a player who scored the maximum runs for India in the last year on the West Indies tour was found not fit enough to be included in the DLF Cup in Malaysia and then later in the ICC Champions trophy. Mohammad Kaif is aggressive and has past experience in leading India’s Under-19 team. In my view, it is a risk worth taking. Yuvraj is not a captaincy material, at least for now. Sehwag …I have my doubts on him.
Then Indian needs to find a young coach. My choice for Indian team’s coach would be Robin Singh. He is already coaching the ‘India A’ team. He is aggressive and a fighter in his playing days. He would do a better job as long as he is unbiased.

Coming to the World Cup, it is sad that Indian team is not there any more. But there is hope. Let’s hope for the best.

IF THIS HAPPEN TO AUSTRALIAN TEAM..COACH WAS GONE IN WEEK.......
GREG IS 12TH MAN(SELECTED BY ALL AUSSY ONE CRICKETERS)
GREG HAS HABIT OF UNDER ARM..
HE IS MILKING 250K..
ASK WARRNY GOOD PLAYERS DO NOT NEED COACH..

GET PATIL OR VIV RICHARD OR STEVE WAUGH AS COACH.

Guys get a grip! India lost because they were pathetic in their batting, fielding and bowling! I am a Bangladeshi. I never questioned why we lost to Srilanka so badly after beating India so comprehensively. Its cricket guys! India deserved to loose to Bangladesh on that day! No one, I believe, will protest against that seeing how lethargic they were in their movement on the field. They were like this because of the pressure you supporters put on their shoulders. Look at the Bangladeshis again. They were young and so full of life. They knew there was no problem if they lost the game. No one would go to their places and throw bricks at them and their families. And that is the key. Someone like Tendulkar gets the pressure of being dropped from the side after doing so much for Indian cricket! These guys are humans. But the amount of pressure you Indians put on these guys is the primary reason for their failure in crunch situation. Take it easily! Give them some breathing space. People like Tendulkar, Dravid, Ganguly deserve it. Grow up a bit as supporters only then you could give them more chance to win for you! Piece!!

Mukul Keshavan has put some sensible thoughts. I am an ardent or even obssesive fan of (Indian) cricket for now more than 50 years. 2007 episode has been the most disappointing one. After all we havw failed more often than have succeded.

Cricket is perhaps the only game which requires team work to win but at the same time provides ample opportunity to excel personal records with out the team actually winning. Often don't we hear complaints that greats like Gavaskar or Tendulkar have scored well when the team has lost.

After the final's exit in the last world cup I remember persons like Gavaskar suggested that we should plan forthe next cup from then onwords. We did and the result became much worse. Is this an example of law of diminishing returns?

Now I read BCCI Chairman saya there will be two teams (a senior & a junior?) and young players will get more international exposure.

India is supposed to tour Bangla Desh in May. BCCI, Greg Chappel & Rahul Dravid should wait for the out come of the tour before they carry out post-mortem on the past.

kotur

I disagree that Ranji needs to change and pitches need to 'change' to replicate 'overseas' conditions - after all australia doesnt practice on dead or spinner friendly tracks - what we need are competitive pitches, transparent accountable board and selectors and players who fight always- it isnt wrong to lose as long as you tried

Mukul,
I have been a fan of your writing for a number of few years. I am sorry to say, but this is the worst article you have written till now. What are you trying to convey? Greg Chappell should take the complete responsibility for this disaster? Sachin would have performed miracles if allowed to open?
Laxman would have powered us into the finals (and I am his biggest fan)?
To any perceptive observer of the game (and I considered you as one), it was clear that the bunch of superstars (or rather has-beens) have been holding out against the hungry youngsters. They (the list includes Tendulkar, Ganguly, Sehwag, Harbhajan, Zaheer) have been feeling the heat from the coach whose vision was to get a team of players desperate to succeed without worrying about personal records.
Let us look at Ganguly who has been hogging the headlines ever since that infamous, sly remark to Harsha about the coach wanting him to step down from captaincy. None of the points raised by Chappell in the email about Ganguly has been debated by our sensation seeking media. The fact that he faked injuries (backing out of a green top in Nagpur against Australia, divided the team by keeping players insecure, especially the middle order (look back at Laxmans outburst in Zimbabwe). It has always been portrayed by the media (dominated by parochial and hysterical Bengali journalists) about a "Bengal tiger" who has been wronged by a coach who wants a pliable captain.
And what about Tendulkar, whose record obsession is as legendary as his batting ability. It is not in sync with the way an Aussie plays the game. Sachin has consistently failed for the past few years. When Chappell wants him to take on responsibility as a middle order batsman, he goes into a sulk. A schoolboy denied his favourite treat.
A Sehwag who wants a net at 6:30 in the morning. The coach turns up to find that this superstar is missing. Explained away later by Sehwag that he didnt feel like it.

With all this baggage in the team, you blame Chappell for stirring things up? If you do not want to stir up things, there are many men who will do the job. John Wright comes to mind, who let the bunch of superstars do what they wanted and kept a low profile himself.
If you do not need a man of passion, vision, commitment, integrity to his chosen profession, you need to look elsewhere, not at Greg Chappell.
-Rajeev

I liked your article,it puts in a very reasonable thesis for India's disasterous performance at the world cup. At some level you have this sense of what happened was destined to happen. Lets examine
why.
1.The wunder kids Raina,Pathan after promising much faded towards the world cup. So the 'slow moving seniors' everyone is fingering as a cause of our failure, had to be persisted with.
2. Ganguly out of the side for over a year staged a remarkable comeback. But by the time the world cup had come around he was still batting like he had to secure his place in the side(which was true).
3.Robin Utthappa by all accounts a front foot bully on flat tracks hit a purple patch just before the world cup.
4. Everyone thought they knew what to expect from the wickets based on our trip to the Windies from a year ago. It was not to be, newly laid wickets and a 9:30a start meant that the ball did enough early on to quiten a watchful Ganguly and Utthappa/Sehwag did'nt last long enough to give us a clue as to their approach.
5.I know that nobody in India will agree with me, but we never fully utilized the batting skills of Zaheer and Agarkar.
6.Tendulkar, someone we have expected both brilliance and consistency over the years, has turned inconsistent beyond recognition.
8. The pressure simply was quite simply overwhelming especially after the loss against Bangladesh.
9.No one in the team anticipated what was to come against Bangladesh. Few imagined the improvement in the Bangla side, since we had'nt played them in
a while.

India's recent one-day record is not good, especially overseas and mor so, in one-day tournaments. We guys were hoping they'd do well and have Gods on their sides, might even win the cup. Other than that, most people are being unfair in their comments on individual players. True, they had bad games. But, they had a very uninspiring captain who looked like death even in the 1st match. No aggro, no confidence, no game plan. They just lost out to the occassion, overwhelmed by it. Sorry, in my view there is nothing more to it. These guys just had a bad time, those two games.

Beautifully put Mukul. Few could have summed things up as has been done in your article. You are definitely right - I know each one will try to point out the subtleties in there, but you probably encompassed everything in one hell of a terse little analysis. I think the ones at the helm of things were Chappell and Dravid and their combined strategies certainly didn't pay off. Chappell wasn't an inspiring coach and Dravid wasn't an inspiring captain. On top of it, his batting form vanished too. The rest of them were merely trying to pretend they were good enough to justify their mere inclusion in the WC squad. Needless to say, they more than justified it.

guys
we all r jumping the gun to find reasons for our failure, i point to one reason GREG CHAPPEL, i have been saying for a longtime that he is not worth a penny as a coach.
let us look what he has achieved in his coaching career, finsihed second last in shefield shield for number of years with 9 test players!!did we hire him for his pedigree as a batsman or a coach!!
A coach is one who gets max out of available resources, whether the resources are great or average, like dav did with srilanka and bangladesh now.
i dont thing greg did a SWOT analysis of the players he had and how h e could have got max. out put.
for me Dravid is not a great captain, he is timid in his thought process and moreover he doesnt have that leade charisma which ganguly or kapil had, im not sure team trusted him too much for him being too close to greg. moreover tendulkar and ganguly dont see in a good relationship with him tendulkar after dravid declared the team when he was in 190's and ganguly the way he sided with greg, he is a great bat but his thinking is on a different level to his team mates.
indian cricket will laways have politics, and greed, its like brazialian football, but brazil still wins world cup!!
its not any good to winge about what u dont have but its better to utilise what you have and make most out of it.
i think thats where greg and dravid failed, greg wanted to be like krishan in mahabharat but ended up like shikhandi!

I agree with you as to why Uthappa was in there and Laxman out of it. We had four openers in the team and atleast two of them Viz Sehwag and Uthappa are entertaining but unstable at the crease. Tendulkar too is not that consistent there and Saurav lucklily is the only one who has been scoring runs for sure. So with four openers you have let the middle order unstable with Mercurial Yuvraj and Dhoni too who may get out anytime falling prey for slog shots. In the case of Yuvraj, he did not have enough match practice too. And with inconsistent bat swingers like Harbhachan, Agarkar and Zaheer, how can we expect to chase any reasonble total when the opposition have a disciplined bowling and fielding? Can this so called balanced team withstand a strong professional outfit like Australia for that matter even New Zealand and South Africa. In fact the absence of Dinesh Karthik or Raina and even Kaif has exposed our fielding limitations. Teams like Zimbabwe, Bangla Desh are doing better in fielding departments than us. Experimentation at the cost of stability and non-execution of devised plans on the field has cost us.Perhaps we have over relied on seniors. Bowlers like Harbhachan have lost sting and we dont give chances to the likes of Powar and Dravid's adamancy has also caused us more problems.

Hello All!
All suggestions, comments, analyses will be put to rest after the Bangladesh series. Does anyone even remember the South Africa series??

Pray can anyone tell why we went to the final of 2003 WC with all these slow movers. It was because of grit and determination after the showdown during the first two matches.
This time the grit was missing and also the confidence. Indians are always slow movers barring a few like Kaif and Azhar. Even the 83 WC team weren't a gr8 fielding side. So why are you making it sound so big. In cricket batting and bowling is the primary and fielding is secondary. Greg Chappel laid impotance to fielding and tried to excel that department than what happened the batting or the bowling collapsed. Several youngsters were tried during the last 18 months. But after the debacle at West Indies, South Africa and Malayasia had to return back to the discarded. Greg Chappel hadn't any choice as his strategy was faulty from the start itself. Can anyone tell why he was experimenting with every position. Can you name any player in the world who can play in any position and come out with flying colours consistently.Each batting position in cricket has its roles and responsibilities attached. Batting doesnot only mean to strike the ball in the bat. We needed to fit every batsman to a position and that should havebeen decided atleast 6 months before the cup so that they knew what to do. We should select batsman and bowling keeping in mind the batting slots and considering all probabilites. Say Ganguly and Sehwag/uthapa opens Dravid should have come down in no1 . Dravid fits the role if a wicket falls early. After he stabilises the innings depending on over left Tendulkar/yuvraj could have followed with dhoni. Dhoni and Yuvi should be left scot free to play their carefree shot as they are best in that role only.
even in bowling the bowlers should have been selected depending on the time they come to bowl. Opening should be done by Irfan, Zaheer or RP followed by Munaf/Sreesanth.Spinners should be selected depending on pitch conditions rather tha team. Ramesh Powar/Harbhajan/Kumble. The fifth bowler should be a genuine bowler like Sreesanth or Balaji.

Even the fielding position should be decided before hand and it is wellknown that some palyers are specialist in some position. Imagine Jonty fielding at 3rd man will you accept?. You can always shield 4 not so good fielders depending on the fielding pattern you selct be it agressive or defensive or attacking.So you need to have 7 good fielders.

Systems, processes, team selection and all those mantra's that have been bandied about as to India's dismal exit from the World Cup come to nought. No one has looked into the fact that Cricket globally is controlled by the Indian bookie mafia, just as football is controlled by Malaysian betting sydicates. One only has to visit Tendulkar's sports bar or Ganguly's bar to see the people who frequent them, a good number of illegal bookies! Match fixing is as common place as drinking a nice masala chai and so far we have had two tragic deaths Hansie Cronje and now Bob Woolmer both been alluded to as symptoms of match fixing allegations. The ICC, The BCCI and other cricketing boards in collusion with respective national governments have to stamp out this gangrene that is consuming the higher echelons of cricketing teams and nations. Lets not sweep this under the carpet,under the guise of bringing the game into disrepute the ICC has brushed this under the carpet. We followers of this game demand prompt action against this malaise. Stop pulling the wool over our eyes.Enough is enough.

You make some good points. However, I don't get the bit about blindly following the Australian model for domestic cricket. India has many more states than Australia and our population is certainly much bigger. Why do we have to stick to only six or seven teams? Our Ranji trophy is already divided into Super league and Plate league. So the 'Mumbai vs Jharkhand' matchup can only happen if Jharkhand qualifies for the Super league. If it did, it deserves to have a go against the top teams. The problem is not that we can have a Mumbai vs Jharkhand or Delhi vs Tripura matchups, the problem is not much is being done to develop the infrstructure, find the talent and provide the training in the domestic arena.

Speaking of Jharkhand, what is happening with Bihar vs Jharkhand issue anyway. It's a shame BCCI so far has not been able to sort out this problem and allow the two teams to play.

I have nothing against a premier-league style setup, however, considering the history of corruption, mismanagement and regional politics in Indian cricket, we need to make sure that every part of the country gets a chance to show-case their talent. One thing that'd ceratinly help is if the inter-college level tournaments are advertised and popilarized at the national level.

You dont need a rocket scientist to figure out why India didnt progress in the World Cup. 1) lack of comittment from the palyers (How can a coach motivate a bunch of players who think no end of themselves) 2) Too much of Money earned from endorsements making playing cricket not that motivating.
Remedy - Commercial endorsements only with BCCI approval and earnings to be limited and a pecentage to go to BCCI.
All central contracts to be removed and performance based contracts issued.
This has to be done immediately as the team have fallen of their throne or pedestal. Ideal time to make them more humble and simple. When your head is too big there is never room for improvement.

Mick Ward ... what the hell are you talking about ..?!!! Your argument has nothing to do with the subject of this article. Other than that, are you suggesting there is nothing wrong with the Indian team/players in the way the approached the world cup and it had something to do with them wanting to throw games away? And somehow Sachin Tendulkar and Saurav Ganguly and/or others benefitted from doing so. One thing that is certain, in my opinion, is the fact that for many of players in this team this was their last chance to sign off their careers with a world cup victory. Are you suggesting that they did not want to do that for some reason such as money from bookies, anger with coach, rift with skipper. Btw, do you realize that if the Indian team had won the cup, they would have been showered with much more than the betting syndicates would give them to play badly in a match. Come on, these guys just did not play well on those 2 days. They went in with a negative approach and paid for it. They did not fight. They were not mentally fit to take their team through to the next round or to the last stages. Too many players failed trying to bat or chase a not so big score. That's it. This will be a different team if they try to play without this enormous pressure on them. Do not put down Sachin or Dravid. They just did not click this time. Give them a life.

All these comments would not have been written if Dravid had not chosen to bat first with 3 seamers in the team against B'desh. With the kind of bowling lineup he had, it doesn't make sense to bat first on winning the toss. Also, his facial expression and body language was most unbecoming of a leader whenever the opponent would hit a four or there is a minor slipoff in the field. You need encouragement and involvement to build a team and not a scorn. There are other questions also, that the public had been asking, to the point that they have become an eyesore now. Let me not get into those here...

india's loss is tragic although technically india has gone backward in the game the reasons being many lack of passion , no fitness are not a good fielding side.even netherlands fielded pretty nicely although they were whitewashed by the SA
I think the problem lies in the BCCI . Indian politics ,red tape is very much in vogue there
if u cant get rid of bcci a solution would be to import Australian players to India and ask them to win the world cup for a nice price this way we get to win the world cup and see some quality performance batter yet make the austalians honorary citizens of india ,they would perform much better than any current indian team

It would be unfair to point fingers at GC alone. I would say that the senior members of the team didnt have the heart for a fight. Sometimes the way they play make you think do they ever take those practice sessions seriously..? Sehwag's weaknesses against the incoming ball and his frequent swishes to slip have been his downfall for a while now. SG looked so out of sorts against bowlers like Mortaza and Rasel, who are not a Mcgrath or Wasim by any means. And talking about one of the two greatest batsmen of our times.. SRT is a great player no doubt, but as far as I can remember he has had this weekness against the incoming ball. Cant believe that he has not tried to work on this, its been his Achilles heel for the past 16 years! Again, its not much the quality of the ball or the bowler that got him out against SL, and Fernando is no Lee or Akhtar, its been the mindset that contributed to his downfall.
Footnote: Ramesh Powar should have been in instead of Harbhajan, Sreesanth should have played in at least 2 games, all this talk of having Laxman in is silly, he is no better than Sachin or Dravid on the field, and we have been pointing fingers at these seniors for being lethargic, what chance does Laxman have??

It is a reflection of the Indian malaise that we make fun of systems and processes. I am a management consultant and I see this day in day out at companies. We pay scant respect to what is agreed and do what we want, irrespective of what has been agreed. A few months ago. I had the privelege of sharing dias with Vikram Kirloskar, who commenting on the differenece between India and Japan said (I quote him vernatim) "In Japan PDCA means Plan in the conf room, Do in the shop floor, Check in the conf room and act in the shop floor; In India we plan in the shop floor, Do in the conf room, Check in the shop floor and Act in the conf room"

Indian team has been no different. All the plans have gone through the window. we took veterans who dived after the ball crossed them, never dived for catches (hence you can't accuse them of dropping catches) and never attempted singles. We were the worst fielding side (No one could match Leverock of Bermuda) and the worst in running between the wickets. We were down 50 runs while fielding (every side stole atleast one single an over, which should not have been conceded) and down 50 runs when batting (most sides would have managed atleast one single more every over than what we managed). With a deficit of 100, there was no way we would have bet any of the leading sides. Atleast Raina's, Kaif's and Karthik's were saving runs, while the current vetrans can't score against a good side and neither can they save. Just look at Sehwag and Tendulkar's record (forgive me criticizing god; but then this is just to prove that god doesn't exists) in the world cup. The only score of substance was against Bermuda.
All our stars must now be forced to play in the domestic league, we will then know hoe good they are. My guess is that none of them would top the averages. None of them would last the entire season. All of them are living on past laurels

Throw these so called senoir and past use-by date cricketer needs to be thrown out. They will not see reason for themselves. This is because cricket is a money making machine for them. Just by staying in the team they ensure a few endorsements coming thir way bad performances notwithsatnding. They are so used to earning big moola, naturally they find it hard to let it go. We would rather have young players and lose matches than have those fat paper tigers and, yes lose again. At least in losing the young players will get valuable experience and improve.In my opinion the blame for instilling fear of defeat in players mind lies with TV chanels fighting for eyeballs find cricket to be the only vehicle in this nation which lack any other sporting achievemnt.Many people wilt under such unfounded hype.

I have read many articles analyzing Team India's failure in WC 2007. There are many passionate fans, jounalists, Ex-cricketers writing their opinion - identifying the cause, identifying the individuals for future team etc..

We have seen many countries hand the captaincy to the Senior most member and top performer in the team. Take the example of India (Dravid), Pakistan (Inzamam), WI (Lara). All three are great players from the respective countries, all three have miserably failed to lead their team to glory on a consistent basis, because they failed to motivate the team and build confidence in their team members.

Where as Teams like NZ (Fleming), SA (Smith), to some extent Aus (Ponting) and India (Kapil in 82-83) handed the responsibility to young team members. At that time it was puzzling to me, looking at those teams now, the selectors have done a great service to their country by taking the bold decision.

Cricket is now a professional game. Guys draw huge retainers (salary), and other compensation for playing for the country. It might be a nice idea for the CricInfo Staff/Journalists to do some reasearch, look at the past and present successful captains and come up with a comprehensive JOB DESCRIPTION for each role in the team starting with Captain, Vice-Captain, and Coach. This should include, Job duties, Minimum Qualification, Other Requirements including Soft skills, etc.

Then we can really see for ourself who in our Indian team would fit to be the next Captain, Coach. A more informed decision rather than a passionate one.

hi all,i read most of your writings.i got lots of fun.most of you forgot that cricket is only a game.but you all try to up your collar when india win any match and start to cry when india loose any match.cricket is not the only thing that reflects the whole indian nation.but whenver i powered on my TV to see the indian channels i really got horrified to see-all the commercials have indian players to sell their products(before india kicked out of the world cup).you can clearly see that what happening to the team india.only those players are in the team which are in the commercials.the whole indian team is controlled and selected by the business company!!you can't tell a team with so poor bowling attack-"world cup co-la".why your expectations are so high?only munaf patel show some fire,but what about agarkar,zaheer khan,harbhajan?and what to say about the batsmen!!!i think they only know how to chew biscuits and drink soft-drinks!!!!you can't win the race with old horses.tendulkar is a fossil of the pasr tendulkar.and i must ask what the old tendulkar did for team india?he gathered a lots of run,but was all of them effective for india?ganguly-a man playing for his own,not for the team.dravid-i have sympathy for him.he is not good for captaincy and this burden caused damage to his batting.uthappa-who is he?yuvraj-he must join bollywood.dhoni-he should join a tennice ball cricket team.and at last sehwag-i like his batting,but don't know what happened to him.
on the otherhand-batsmen like kaif,raina,laxman,dinesh-kept out of the team,why?
bcoz i think these players don't have contracts with the companies.so they don't have the opportunities to show their either in the tv commercials or the WC team.
there is nothing to blame the coach and captain.all the cricketers of indian team play for money not for the pride of the nation.they have the confidence that-it doesn't matter how bad we play,we will be in the WC bcoz the commercial companies need their representatives in the indian team.they don't think themselves as the representatives of the nation.ask them why their face was gloom and sad.i think the reason is that they may loose the contracts with those companies,it's not for loosing in the match.
i have something to say to subbu iyer--razzak is not a no named bowler.keep your eye on the WC and you will see how good he is.but i think you won't see WC bcoz india out of it.
and thanks to VIV for his nice comments.
Indian team will only improve if they kick out these business men players out of the team and select real fresh,young and patriotic players,who will play for the nation.
i was a great fan and supproter of India bcoz of their batsmen.Gavaskar,azharuddin,old tendulkar,dravid,laxman-i like them for their pure grammatical batting.but what all this dhoni,sehwag?are india out of good grammatical batsmen.
and what about genuine fast-bowler?don't they have enough strength to bowl fast?not that-it's only bcoz their slow low pitches.here all the bowlers want to become spinners.at the end of the day they will round their arms and the bowl will automatically turn.but you can't win matches without fast bowlers.fast bowlers bring the initial break through which make the pressure.so india must have to think about their pitches.
they are tiger in country but cat in outside their country!!!
wish india will do well in overseas and in WC2011.best of luck indians :)

Its quite interesting the whole indian cricket scenario. I frankly wouldnt be too harsh on GC. You can only go so far as to identify inform and illustrate what is wrong with a player. And inspire! Beyond that as a coach you can only sit back and see how much theyahve picked up. Senior players in the team failed to perform and going with too young a team wouldnt have helped much either. A minor shake-up and ship-out has to be done especially with the senior players incl. sehwag, sachin, ganguly and dravid. Also i wouldnt be happy to see players like laxman, gambhir, kaif and even powar brought back. Laxman, gambhir and kaif have got enough opportunities under the sun and powar would only be a short-term fix as he wouldnt last uptil the next worldcup besides an unfit player in the field can become a liabitly.

I'm a die hard sri lankan fan and i would like all you indian fans to read the following article from a fellow indian and tell me y all your cricketers apart from dravid act as if they are too important to live in this planet.

Down-to-earth behaviour makes Sri Lankan cricketers popular.

By K.R. Nayar, Staff Reporter

Georgetown, Guyana: Humility and the Sri Lankan team always go together.
Despite being considered as world class performers, what impresses one and
all is their down-to-earth behaviour.

As soon as the players arrive at the stadium, all of them are seen lining
up to collect their kit bags from the bus. Right from Sanath Jayasuriya to
Chaminda Vaas to Muttiah Muralitharan, everyone is in the queue.

At the Providence stadium, Jayasuriya was seen dragging his kit and waving
at the crowd waiting to catch a glimpse of the blaster batsman.

While at Trinidad, I had requested Jayasuriya for a chat before net
practice. But he suggested that we meet after the nets. And promptly after
his practice, he came to the edge of nets and waved out to me asking me to
come in.

Had it been any other team, most likely I would have had to request the
cricketer again after the nets.

On Monday, it rained heavily and their skipper Mahela Jayawardene had to
wait till the rains subsided after the official press conference.

Caring approach

Without any hang-ups, Jayawardene came out and began talking to scribes
who were also waiting there. He enquired about our stay and wanted to know
what we thought about Guyana.

The best thing is that some of their seniors even remember what language
we speak. Russel Arnold and Muralitharan do not hesitate to talk to you in
Tamil. All of them sport a smile while talking to you with hardly any
airs.

There are teams with lesser cricketing experience, but arrogant enough to
walk around ignoring everyone around them. After all, for a fan, a smile
is all that they expect. In Trinidad as well as in Guyana, the Sri Lankans
have won the hearts of the people. In fact, many West Indians would like
to see Sri Lanka win the World Cup.

"They should win the World Cup for their behaviour. They may be the very
few gentlemen left in the sport," remarked Robert Rees, a volunteer at the
stadium.

All senior players in the team join in to help a youngster at the nets.

Jayasuriya was seen correcting Upul Tharanga's backlift. Moving around
like a family, their team spirit is clearly visible. Though the team is
not as strong as the 1996 squad that won the World Cup, they do possess
the spirit and willingness to work hard.

Win or lose, the Sri Lankans will leave this island winning more fans than
any other team.

Well, I wouldnt blame GC and Dravid atall.
And when people talking about why Tendulkar didnt open,,,and why so many changes in batting order...i think so called great players would be able to perform at any situation, well if master class can not play at certain positions and under certain circumstances....who else could.? We have to agree to the fact that even if our team was coached by Buchanan and was lead by Ponting we would still have lost. Cos its not the one man sport.....For me our team has lacked the confidence and they didnt look like a team atall. Afterall anything could be said, but the fact remains the same..Our team is too old to face the energetic and enthusiastic teams out ther. Sachin is no doubt a great batsman,,,,but i think he should now step out and help the youngsters to develop in some way if he can.

That comparison of Brazil and EPL is a joke. Nothing less. All promising players of Brazil end up in Euro leauges. AND the South American leagues are not Ranji either.

What a disservice Mukul does to Indian cricket by arguing against the structural changes totally necessary for Indian cricket's betterment.

Sir How can u say that youngsters policy has failed? In South Africa even the experienced Sachin, Sehwag failed to fire. Only Dravid was standing tall holding. I think it was the selectors who are mainly responsible for this poor show, because they feared that youngsters like Kaif, Raina would fail. Then u lost one more point. We couldnt nail wickets in middle overs. Selectors went for experienced Kumble & harbajan. But in last 20 odd matches Powar was far better than them who a handful of wickets in West Indies. He was good with bat also. Selectors shouldnt have brought ganguly they should have opened sachin with Uthapa or sehwag. I think if this team has to move forward greg should be retained as coach and give him the team he needs & wait for results. If the results arent coming still we can blame him.

Why are we all trying to discuss the failure of
indian team? Do we need just victory or we need
a better quality of cricket? How many of us will seriously discuss the 'mistakes' during a game
which india wins? Surely, it is not that everything is done perfectly in a 'won' game.
Truth is that all of us "cricket fans" just want to see our team win and do not care anything beyond that. In that case we should play against
Kenya, Scottland, Canada, as someone already suggested, this way we can achieve two things.
We can win matches, and we can also make cricket
a more popular sport worldwide, because surely
after a few years these small teams will begin to
beat us and then we have to look for new 'non cricket playing' nations.
There is another point about cricket which makes
it a tricky sport and we all should 'keep' it in mind during these 'post match' discussions.
In cricket, there is no way for a viewer to judge
how much effort a player is really putting.
I was in Germany when Germany lost their Soccer WC
semifinal against Italy. I did not hear anyone
complaining 'A' did not do this right etc.
Truth is when you see a soccer game, you clearly
see how much effort each player is putting on the field. They are all running like mad, making tackles, risking their bones. Tendulkar was out
playing an incutter, how do we judge his effort in
the game? When I watch a game, i truely believe
that all the players are putting their best effort, it is just that in cricket we cant see it like in soccer or other games. If you start to believe in this point of view you will not be so
frustrated after defeats. Also remember that there
is another team which is trying to win! and only
one can win. It is as simple as that.
I have sympathy with GC. He was given the job but not the freedom. If he had a fresh team, it
would not have won the WC but it would have surely
gone to the next round and it would have played with passion.

Lets discuss things equally seriously about improving our team, when the team wins matches!

spot on Vinod and Cricketlover....
SRT and his blind supporters and backers like Shastri, gavaskar should be ashamed of his performance.I was shocked when instead of giving a thought about retirement, the lobby started tyring to keep him in the team by making him captain.... Sachin has never played for the country..... He has enough money.. he can probably go and settle in scotland and have a nice life there.. parttime he can play/coach scotland team......

if we really want Indian team to perform Laxman should be made Capatian of both one day and test teams... he is a Good captain, Experienced, Team man(no ploitics), Kaif should be groomed as VC....
KO: sehwag, ganguly, SRT, Kumble, harbhaja, agarkar and Dhoni...
keep Piyush, Powar, Murlai karthik, uthappa,at rayudu, raina, tiwari, dravid, yuvraj, sreesanth, rp singh, vrvr singh......

If not just switch off the TV or change your channel!!!

Dear Friends

Considering that the shock raving and ranting has partially subsided over India's WC exit, i wish to share the following thoughts:

1. Was the team good enough to play international cricket? NO...
2. Was GC solely responsible for the debacle? NO..
3. Are the players responsible for the debacle ? YES
4. Is the Baord responsible for the debacle? YES
5. Are the selectors responsible for the debacle? YES

Some of my comments may evoke strong emotional outpour and i guess indian cricket at least will not go unsung like Indian hockey. Our fans care for the game and are sometimes quite carried away by success and failure but these are required to ensure that no one assumes himself as greater than the game itself.

Now coming back to my questions, i am sure all of you will agree with the following:

1. The quality of cricket by the top three teams is way ahead of the quality of cricket played by other ICC playing nations including the minnows

2. India, is way, way behind in class, fitness, attitude and ability to win crucial matches (not to mention tournaments)

3. No indian batsmen run three runs for six consecutive balls.

4. SRT is past his prime and cannot reach previous glory... unless we agree.. we will be condemned to watch our old warhorse perform wretchedly.

5. RD, SG and VVSL are not of one day cricket class.. whether we all agree or not...

6. Younger players are not encouraged to fulfill their potential..remember how Andrew Symonds was backed till his memorable innnings against PAK..

Unless such deep rooted changes are done, we can only pray and watch our disgraced team win once a while in our backyard.

GOD SAVE INDIAN CRICKET...PLEASE...

hey guys relax, dont forget when we all were proud for the indian cricket team. its afeter all a sport and these things do happen and they are happenning with our team rather too often. now, lets not get into the superficial aspects like coaching process, selection process, domestic cricket, batting orders and all that crap....lets not forget it is this system wchich has gifted the game some highly talanted players and as many as four of them in the current team are branded as "all time greats". what indian players lack is the determination to win and guts to stand the challange. when last do you remember any one of our 'great players', won a game single handedly. just to put things in perspective, statistics make only stars and our stars must go light years to become great players.

saying this, i dont mean our system is flawless, what i mean is that just replacing the players and changing the process will do no gud without the men action exhibiting the grit to win.....and win at any cost. the only person to induce that spirit in the team is skipper, so the writing on the wall for the selectors is to look out for a skipper who can convert the talent into victories. if choice be, lets get our skipper from down under, for steven waugh is still playing fit compared to half of our current players. what do u say greg?

I agree about tendulkar should have opened. When tendulkar opens he always scores boundaries in the first fifteen overs and from 15 to 40 over he grafts. If he comes in middle order he is not clear with what approach to take .Whether to bat aggressively or graft for runs, this dilemma eventually gets him out. It is good to test various combinations but why tamper combination which was proven before Ganguly- tendulkar.

The problem with trying various combinations (batting) is it often works in sub continent as pitch doesn’t have carry or movement in the initial overs but in the away tours more often than not it exposes batsmen technique. Utthappa would have been exposed if he played in South African one dayers.

Well in india, cricket is not just a game..they see cricket as a relegion, sachin as their god...Even people who works from corprate services to fruit saler everyone wants to know how india played. we hold the most number of world records in cricket ,we have the best three men who had scord 10000 runs in international cricket ,we have a good infrastructure, and the facilties given to the indian team is unlimited. but why this happend?
sachin failed? Dravid was sense less? Greg was under low confidence? or Over influence of media?? or abscence of commited players like kapil dev and robin singh, people answered all these questions.every body has solid reasons to criticise their views. but we say they were not spirited rite from the begining. i remain about the first match against bangladesh. india was not energetic. that is only reason they had reached this kind of obscene scenario which india ever had in their career. we know they are talented, they themselves know they are very good side in international cricket. so please reform the team , the only way to make them confident play more onshore cricket that is only way we can estimate the team. we are very sorry to say this,we lost interest in cricket .

Mukul, your article raises some deep questions.

1. Can you explain the abrupt and gradual 'loss of pace' by the Indian bowlers ? Before 'the process' came into the picture, Pathan was bowling at 125-132 kph, we read reports from MRF Pace that Munaf was touching 150 kph mark, that Lillee was hailing him as the 'Indian fast bowler'. In the World Cup warm-ups, Pathan operated in the 110 kph range, Zaheer and Munaf at 125-129 kph. How exactly do you expect an opening attack to make serious inroads at that pace ? In the UK and in OZ, Troy Cooley has proven the virtues of utilizing biomechanics to make bowlers bowl 'several yards faster and straighter' than what they were doing earlier. I am surprised seeing our pace bowling attack 'dropping pace' rather than bowling faster.

2. The batting, laden with 'stars', has failed time and again. The last time it clicked was in Australia 2003. Do we seriously need a psychologist here more than a batting coach ?

3. The standards of fielding,ground catching, slip catching have NOT improved, even as the 'process' has caught on. Teams like NZ and Ireland play purely on the merits of basics like these, and end up saving 30-40 runs per innings.

4. The number of extras bowled per innings remains at an average of 27-32. I would expect it from a team that has 4-5 Shoaib Akhtars operating in the 145-150 kph range, but certainly NOT from trundlers who operate in the 120 kph range . What exactly is going on with our pace bowling ?

Quite a few ppl were asking India had almost same team as in 2003 and why did we loose. Guys get a grip, in 2003 we went to finals mostly because of Sachin and our bowlers. Between 2003 and 2007 four long years have passed. Those same old players have got older and lost their reflexes. Can anyone tell me if Saching 2003 is Sachin 2007? For the last two years he was just an average player who could only score on a good day (I mean when the ball was not swinging, turning or bouncing). After 2003 our fast bowlers became fat bowlers. One good thing GC did was to kick them out and look at Zaheer he came back with a vengance. Common guys we have to admit after 2003 WC final our players became a pamperd lot. They got more money and fame and stopped training. I am not a sportsman but recetely I have taken up playing gold and I can see what difference a fit body can make. After taking to fitness and Yoga I could hit my drives longer and posture falls in to place and I could concentrate better. Even at work I can sit longer hours on a chair without niggling back. Look at what happend to our players. They grow big tummy's and become lazy. The result is less reflexes when they are on the ground. People like Sehwag depend on reflexes for their shotmaking. What happend to his reflexes? Take a case of Pathan, when he started he used to bowl at 135kmph as average and what is his average now? 118kmph ridiculous speed even I can play a bowler bowling at that speed now matter how much she can swing the ball. Munaf patel, he was touted as the fastest Indian bowler who could deliver toe crushers. What happend to him? bowling at an average speek of 127kmph or even lesser. I think these guys are very insecured. They want to stay in the team no matter what and make their livelyhood rather than live that day and fight for victory. The reason is so obvious these guys do not want to burn our on every single match because if the are injured it would cost them a fortune. It is the big money Guys that is killing cricket in India. There is dearth of talent in India there is no question about it but BCCI needs to address how they will tacke this insecurity situation. Some suggest that player would play better if there position is more secured in the team. I doubt it, however it is just my opinion. As many ppl said Chappel should be removed as a coach however is approach should not be removed. Bring in a new coach, give him a free reign. Let him kick the backs of players who get complacent and let him mould the youngsters and let him get the senior player to take more responsibility.

Indian team doesnt have the belief that they can do well, and they dont have the motivation. why? well what motivates players? money, fame, respect etc. most Indian players now have all of these, they get paid really highly, they have fame, and they have respect. Nothing else is left to motivate them. What the BCCI need to do is give them performance related pay. If the indian team looses a match, pay them nothing, if they win pay them alot. Also if individuals play well, pay them good money, if they dont perform, dont pay them at all. This would motivate them alot .Unlike Australia, South Africa, Pakistan, indian players dont play for India, they play for them selves, they play for individual records, the dont play as a team. Aussies play to win as a team, while indians play for personal records. Pakistanies play with pride, with a never say die attitude most of the time. When indian team is loosing, they loose all hope, while if pakistan was loosing, they would most of the time fight back, while indians just give up hope. Also the structure of indian domestic cricket is pathetic with waay to many teams in the competition. They should cut it down to around 6 teams which only includes talented cricketers. If India wants to be competitve overseas, they should get rid of slow, low pitches in india, and refurish them with hard, fast, bouncy pitches. This would benefit India in the future because they would have players who will perform really well overseas, and hence improve there chances of winning as a team. Why cant India produce a fast bowler like shoaib Akhtar or Brett lee. Every country except India have a furious fast bowler now, Australia = Shawn tait, and brett lee. Pakistan = shoaib and sammi. Sri lanka = mallinga. New Zealand = Bond. South Africa = Nel, Ntinni. England = Harmison and Flintoff. West Indies = Edwards, powell. All of the main cricket nations have a furious fast bowler. Out of billion people, India cant even produce 1. I bet you India has plenty of fast bowlers who can bowl over 150+km/h, but they dont get the opportunity because of the corrupt Indian life style and system. Also why do Indians take their cricket seriously, Its just a game, the fans put sooo much pressure on India to do well. Putting less pressure on India, would lead the players to perform naturally. Putting heaps of pressure would result in players playing within themselves. India needs to change, if they want to be competitive overseas.

Hi guys,
I have been through the article written, what my take on how to improve our cricket is that: We have to consider the positives and negatives in what has happened. The positives are bcos of this poor performance we now know that our domestic cricket is not up to the standard and the whole revamp has to me made in the domestic structure starting frm the selectors. Now to the negatives part of it. Our Coach Greg Chappell did nothing right frm day one except for damaging self confidence of our players he should be changed immediatly and should be fined for such a poor show. The next thing that raises is the performance of Our Greats( RD, SC, ST etc) Cricket in India is a passion and people like our greats are generating cash out of it giving us such heart breaking results. Players should be stripped of their right to go for endorsements and should be fined for each loss that India suffers. If some players quit playing seeing these rules i am sure for every player that goes out we can find atleast a Lakh replacements. These rules should be strictly implemented as our players just lack professionalism in their game and nothing else. Greg was poor coach who cared more for him being the dominating figure rather than the teams performance. I dont think he deserves a single rupee that bcci has paid him. I think players like
Steve Waugh or an Allan Bordar who made Great Leaders Suit the role of being the coaching India as both the roles are similar.

Don't defend players. It is nonsense to say Sachin would have batted well if opened. You list down no. of matches he failed as opener when chasing big total including lat world cup final. He bats well as opener if India bats first, that is too, if in India.
I think the BCCI must to do some serious analysis to revamp the team. Our team looked pathetic. There is no real performers. Look at Dhoni. He scores against some mediocre bowling in India but bats like a rabbit against quality bowling.
We should concentrate in finding bowlers and batsmen who could pose serious threat to opponents. Our team presently non of that sort. Our bowlers choke in the first over itself. In the match against Bangladesh, we could have easily defended that score had we got bowlers like Akram, McGrath, Bond etc. We are yet to find a bowler like Kapil. Have you ever seen Kapil bowled wides for four in the first over of a match? We need that sort of desciplined player to win internationally.

Conclusions.
1. Next world cup should be held in India and we should be given +150 runs as bonus to start with.
2. What ever the result of the match be, we should always be declared winners.

Now jokes apart. We have lost and exited evem before reaching 2nd round. It is very clear what went wrong. The team was not the best. We went for statistics rather than form. We were the paper tigers. We crumbled under pressure. We were not well prepared. Just a few weeks before the world cup, there is a crash course and few matches, it reminds me of those students who study in feb-mar with special series books and past year questions papers to pass an exam. Unfortunately they are never in merit list. So are we. Let us look at hockey now after the disgrace in cricket.

Greg's repeated experimentation has failed and world cup is a showcase for that. Ian Chappell's article requesting Sachin's retirement is biased towards his brother, instead Greg should retire from coaching teams of any national teams. Instead he can coach domestic teams, wherein the "processes" which he constantly refers works better.

One of the weakness of Indians in general is: Divide and rule, and that is what Greg tried to do, initially he faulted Saurav, than Saurav got in, he faulted Irfan, than Sehwag, and latest Sachin is being targeted. Top 11 performers when they fail miserably in a marquee tournament, one should not question their reflexes and skill sets (which they have in abundance and have displayed in abundance), but one should question the team spirit, the team management which has shattered the team. I will request every Indian to stand against this imperialism, is this why we brought Greg as a coach in the first place? He can talk and present and has international backing, but has he delivered? In his statement he said India has not gotten anything till 1985, fine. Reaching the finals in 2003, is not a small achievement. He took a team which reached the finals, and made it fail in the first round.

I do not understand why the followers of cricket have earnestly started the blame-game and the reporters sent by Kolkata newspapers are carrying on with their passion towards Sourav Ganguly who scored 66 off 129 balls against Bangladesh and is hailed for this remarkable (!!!!!) feat.

Indian cricket per se has largely been ``individualistic''. The media, the agents of the players and corporates always portray their favourites as the greatest creation on earth. I am 75 years old and I sorry to say that today's media -- print and electronic --- doesn't have the depth of the knowledge of the game as it was prevalent in the 1960s thru to 1980s. Today's media can be described as fans masquerading as well-informed (!!!!!) journalists.

It's time the parochial media of the State of West Bengal also keeps the readers informed about the game and not just gloating over the success (sic) of Sourav Ganguly.

Hi!
My team would be

1 K.Goel
2 R.Dravid
3 A.S.Jain
4 Y.Singh
5 A.M.Nayar
6 D.Karthik
7 S.Raina
8 R Powar
9 Z.Khan
10 I.Pathan
11 Sreesanth

K.Goel has performed wonderfully during this domestic oneday ranji matches. He can be rotated with R.Uthappa, with Dravid taking the mantle of Opener.
One down i would prefer A.S.jain from rajastah. he too has performed well. I would send him in One down when there is a good opening partnership. If the first wicket falls down soon, i would prefer to send dinesh karthik to go in as one down, followed by Jain.

The next comes Y.Singh, followed by A.M.Nayar. He has done wonderfully for Mumbai during this season. He is a good bowler too, chipping with some good wickets. He should be followed by Raina. This gives stability to the batting.

I would opt for Zaheer and pathan to open the attack, followed by Sreesanth. Well, if the rate is high, i would pitch in Powar and A.M nayar to slow down the run rate.

The other people who can be considered for are R.R Bose from kolkatta and Y.pathan from Baroda! These two players are good. In the middle order we have M.Tiwary, from bengal.

I think its time for clear out of seniors and assemble a pool of young talent,viz:
shikar dhawan
c.pujara
r.utthappa
s.badrinath
m.tiwari
yuvraj
kaif
pathan
dhoni
d.karthik
sreesanth
p.chawla
m.patel
vrv singh
rp singh
s.raina
r powar

Now the trauma of Indian Cricket Team is Over...
Now it is turn of drama inside indian cricket team..sharad pawar only few days indicated that stern action will be taken against non performers.Only to change the statement that the defeat in world cup is not a debacle,"it is after all a game..." well done mr. pawar for your comment..If it is after all a game..then why mr.Pawar and erstwhile team is invloved only in cricket rather than other games..guess what..?This game has more money..that is why...people may think i am writing out frustrationof team defeat. not at all.cricket is game..defeat is part and parcel of a game. I got frustrated only by the actions of the administrators,selectors and the great players of the team.
i have the following question to chariman of selectors.(He had commented the best possible team was selected..)
my questions to him..
1.Was the squad the fittest team available..?
(people can attribute number of reason to india's defeat..but i can sense the foremost reason is ..The Indian squad was the least fittest squad among the world cup teams(even taking minnows and pakistan in to consideration).
He and his board president said that it was only one bad match against bangladesh that had caused exit.. )
2.Then what have going to say for the defeat against srilanka.(another bad day in office..srilanka had already qualified and ideally indian team should have more hungrier than the lankan team..what one witnessed was other way around..Here also mr.pawar had come to the defence of the team. They was unduly pressurised by the media.so they had lost the match.If they are not going handle such pressure why should they be playing international cricket..club cricket may be..)
The most baffling comment After the defeat by the chairman of selector is this team is very young team..All of them are in their early twenties and mind twenties.. It is good crop of talent and promise a lot for the future..)
3.chariman you say the team is young when consider the average age is of the squad is nearly twenty eight.if the next world cup in four years.the average age will be 32 for a guess.if u retain the same squad.. leave their batting and fielding skills what will be the fielding and fitness.)
My next question will be to the current set of great players(sachin,dravid,sourav,,,.
sachin and dravid 34 , sourav is nearly 35....)
Agreed you are were great players..what u will achieve by playing odi cricket anymore...can u last till next worldcup..All of you will be around 38 ..what will be your contirbution then..You may get a century in the next set of matches...and cement your place..but at what cost..? Realistically you all can play next two years..Pack your great stats.and goodbye to cricket. with leaving the team in doldrums andby blocking youngster chances and meaningful exposure.you all were great in your own way(despite your flaws),do not outlive your purpose that will only stains in your great career..)

i know i had asked too many questions..but these are honest questions of a true cricket fan of indian team..

finally things in indian cricket team will never really change.. oh Great fans of the team..Get ready! To see the saurav and shewag walking in the middle to mascarre the bangla attack in dacca ,with sachin and dravid padded up,agarkar opening the attack and indian fielders gasping for breath to chase down the ball in the field with statements which do not make sense from chairman and president of bcci...

I believe, there is now double standard being adopted in selection procedure.
Statistic-the scores and centuries , are playing major role than the real-time in form status.
Thus statistically, Sachin, Dravid and Ganguly will always be ahead and thereby sustain their term in team at the cost of team's performance.
Similarly, fitness is other area where games are being played. I believe, fitness should not be judged on physical parameters only. A Tendulkar of today is 'technically' not fit because of various injuries he carry and thus unabale to perform the 'lethal' way. So,to accomodate him, he is given berth in middle order!! Jesus, whats going on??
Preservance of berth in Indian team seems to be driving force for most of our Team-Inda players.
Thus the signals at the top management of BCCI is similar to the one we see among the Politicians. Promise and than forget-seems to be motto.

Simple otions could be 'inviting' rejected, dejected and outshined Australian player to india and offering them citizenship.Making team out of them would at least promise and deliver of place,say, berth in super 8 of world cup.

Or else, Sachins and Sauravs will be at helm of affairs shining in advertisments and failing at cricket pitches.

It all comes down to the fact that w played badly.Whatever we say about selection ,the bottomline is that we were not upto it.In every team,for a big score to be achieved,atleast 3 of the top 5 have to click.This never happened against Bangladesh or Sri Lanka. A major shakeup of the team wont do anything suddenly.If the selection committee is planning on bringing new boys they must persist with them because they are likely to be the future.
Chappell experimented too much as was written in the very first piece,and when you experiment you must have something to fall back on.Chappell probably had ideas but once in a while its good to be orthodox in the approach.

My team would be
1 sourav ganguly
2 sachin tendulkar
3 virendar shevag
4 rahul dravid
5 yuvraj sing
6 mohammad kaif
7 ms dhoni
8 irfan pathan
9 ramesh powar
10 zaheer khan
11 sreesanth

Of all the interesting views presented here, I think that 'A Bangladeshi' is the one that hits the nail on the head.

Amid all the ashes from India's World Cup debacle I can only see an opportunity to finally build a team to compete with the likes of Australia and South Africa. In fact this is probably the best thing to happen to Indian cricket in a long, long time. Here is a logical suggestion.

First of all, I think everyone has to stop acting shocked and put an end to this blame game culture that surfaces all the time India lose, and actually look at the facts. The fact is that we were never good enough in the first place. A lot of people are saying we need to look at the negatives and sort them out first, but I am going to put a different spin on that and say let us look at the positives and keep them in place as that immediately begins to lay the foundations for the future. While cricket is seen to be complex it could not be any simpler.

For the immediate future we simply cannot afford to drop Dravid as the captain. I have seen this man’s name being drug through the gutter back and forth by the Indian public and media. What a shame that our country’s best batsman is being savaged for his captaincy skills and also his minute slump in batting form. This is the same man that has won us the majority of games single-handed over the last 7 years. He is the same man that brought indestructible assurance to every fan when he walked out to the crease. I would even go as far saying that Dravid is the only player in our current line-up that could walk into the Australian team with ease. The reason why Ganguly was so successful was because he had a vice-captain like no other in the form of Dravid. Theirs was a deadly combination - mental aggression with the perfect application. We still have the application, but just as Sir Viv Richards pointed out, we have lost the mental toughness. This was the toughness Ganguly instilled in each player and we went out to play without fear. I am telling you, if we can get the mental side of things correct 90% of the job will be done. I say give Sir Viv Richards the job of coaching as he is the only person that seems to see some sense.

When we broke the record for the most number of successful chases, everyone was harping on about how well the team is doing and that the ‘processes’ and ‘experimentation’ are working. Now the same people are saying exactly the opposite. Can you answer this question – who else is mentally tough enough to lead India? Dravid can handle the pressure and his batting. Let us not try and teach the true master of batting how to bat.

The building of a new team has to be phased. The experienced players must now accept that they are not going to be available for the next World Cup and therefore dedicate their time to help the new comers to settle into their roles in the team. I do agree that experimentation needs to be limited to certain players whilst others are settled. The middle order (3,4, and 5) need to be the most settled as they are the backbone of the batting in any team. I also believe we need one settled opener. This, therefore, brings me to the question of Dhoni.

A player such as Dhoni who is deadly with the bat, needs to be a contender for the opening slot. He can get the team more runs in the power play overs because he is the only player who knows how to go over the top. If he comes at 7 and the top order has collapsed, we cannot get maximum use out of him. There are plenty of other players who can provide firepower at the death of an innings. Where does this leave Sehwag? Well just as Dravid has been the hero, Sehwag has been the villain. The number of times Sehwag has got out in the first 5 overs and put the pressure on the rest of the team is unbelievable. India has a self inflicted handicap because they know they are going into bat every time with one player short. I say this and yet I am a great fan of his. When Sehwag gets his eye in he can be like a maniac. We need to have openers who are going to see through the first 10 overs more often than not. This will help the middle order greatly. Sehwag needs to asses the pitch first and then start playing his shots. The way he bats will no doubt allow him to catch up to maintain a great strike rate. Finally I come to Tendulkar. If he says he does not need others to tell him how to bat then fair enough. He is a legend in the game already. But what is true is that what he is offering the team at the moment is not what we need. Tendulkar cannot be like Dravid because he is Tendulkar. He was known for his shot making and not ‘steadying the innings’ ability. Dravid is the most complete batsmen, Tendulkar is not. If he wants to remain in the team for much longer then he has to do what he does best and that is to annihilate bowling attacks. We know he can do it because we have seem him do it. I therefore would choose Tendulkar to be the settled opening batsmen as he has the experience and knowledge of how to see out the opening overs of an innings while picking of runs.

The power play overs are the chance a team has to stamp their authority on the opposition – it is where the game is won and lost. Look at Australia and South Africa, they are bulldozers. I read somewhere that one can get bored of seeing too many sixes. That is nonsense because that is what makes you win. The game is on another level now and we have to adapt fast because stylish stroke play is not the order of the day anymore. It is efficiency and ruthlessness.

The fielding is well below par and for this reason I think the team needs to introduce a new generation of youngsters. At the moment we have three generations of players. The old generation includes the like of Dravid, Ganguly, and Tendulkar. They cannot field, it is as simple as that. Then we have middle generation with the likes of Yuvraj, Kaif, and Dhoni. These guys introduced the fact that Indians can field exceptionally well. Then there is the younger generation with the likes of Dinesh, Uthappa, Sreesanth, and other younger players such as Tiwary, Sharma, Dhewan, Pujara, and Dhiman who can all be trained intensively to field well especially as they are young. These unheard of youngsters are all potentially good batsmen as well – watch out for them.

I need to go now as I am at work and they do not pay me to give management tips to India…lets hope common sense and logic prevails. 2011 cannot come quickly enough!

singles singles if they learned how to take singles this team would have been good

This is the best batting line up in the world.May be except Tendulkar in batting and Agarkar in bowling this team would have made a good combination. But what the team was lacking is the confidence and common sense which even the Bermuda has it more than enough. Tendulkar and Dhoni getting out for Duck is not acceptable.But Dhoni is young and this is his first world cup. Things happen.But Tendulkar has lost his aggressiveness. And he is shivering just by looking at bowlers. This is not the original Tendulkar. It looks to me like a fake. He should save india by quitting and by giving youngsters a chonce. India can not wait until you are done with your records. He was a world class Batsman may be he still is.But I don't think he remembers it now.

Hi,
Reading the comments it looks like india as a nation is divided. Some of the readers feel that Dravid is dependable which is true but then to critize some of the good players is not fair. Again those some people are all belonging to southern zone. So my point is zonism is there in our country and is not going to go away. So take on the chin (as Dravid once said) and move on. I still have faith in the current players except Ganguly because he is using his political connections (remember parliament) to get into the team. Now about system it is working and is good it just need some professionalism. I would say be professional and get the chappel and gangully out for the good future. They both are playing politics one using media as a source and other political parties (once again left parties of bengal).

In the 1999 World Cup, the Aussies got off to a bad start against Scotland but somehow they managed to gang in and win. Then they lost to NZ, and just scg WIraped through into the next round by beating WI.
India seemed to be having a similarly poor start to that Aussie campaign. The only difference is they could not hang in and blow away Bangladesh. Even if the batsmen failed, can't the bowlers be expected to win us a match single handedly. The batsman have done it often enough, coming up with scores of 300+.

Why we want our cricket team to be accountable to the public?
Answer: A certain cricketer wanted to claim tax exemption to import a Ferrari a few years ago. Exemption from taxes that I have to pay from MY hard earned money, which is way less than what he earns. I wouldnt justify his claim to exemption whether he won India every match or not, but Im sure some others would, if he did. But when he doesnt perform, they want their money back. When they cant get it, they attack the player's home. It may not be justified, but atleast its a good reason why, unlike others, our fans are more sentimental. An article on this website described the subcontinental fan as a couch potato who claims propreitership of the team. This is true, we are couch potatoes who pay money and subject ourselves to an overdose of advertising in the hope of watching our team win...and we are upset when we dont get results!

Mukul,mukul,mukul. You say that india's failur in THIS world cup cannot be due to structural weaknesses as we got to the final of the last. World cup aside, though, what have the india team done in the last decade in ODIs in general? today's game is becoming ever more competitive and the ability of Australia to consistently win ODI series and the world cup (not lose in the final) reflects its' structural strength. Never mind the world CUP,india has never been a world BEATER, consistently, even when we won the cup in 1983, were we world beaters? no. Why? because we don't have the structural depth to replace a Symonds with a Watson, a waugh with a Martyn....as you say yourself, we replace a laxman with a Raina...vah!

Yes, everybody those who doesn't have knowledge about cricket (including me) these days talking about tendulkar ,but one thing is clear that tendulkar is not same as the tendulkar we used to see 2-3years back. One main factor contributing to this (self implied) batting pattern of the tendulkar is that he is coming on to the pitch by having some preconceived notions, when I say preconcieved notions I mean that he is not treating the every ball he faces on its merit, just simply he is thinking about the situation the team is in at the given point of time during the match and trying to copy somebody else(read dravid) which he cannot be for sure. I would to see the tendulkar who used to bat(to annhilate the bowlers) whatever the situation may be and I think this WC debacle is just one of the anecdote he needed to rejunavate himself. The tendulkar will bounce back with vigour coz all legends have this capability to do so and I think tendulkar is one of them.

Just for the record... Brazil has won the soccer world cup five times, not four. More on cricket later.

Sports and India

Are they opposites?

If I had power like Indian sport minister..
I would have made league matches more professional and popular.
Statistics would go forward from 3rd or 5th standard students and matches at that little age would involve parents and spirit.
Have professional team coaches and selectors.
Introduce the hi-tech techniques at school level sports and make it more professional.
Cricket needs to go beyond ONE team sport and the matches between the states needs to have great importance to bring up the talent.

Out of Billion people if we are sending OLDIES above 30 to play the game feels more like Bermuda team! I mean it, Sachin, Ganguly, Agarkar, Dravid are old.

People, victory is not accident or surprise.. VICTORY COME WITH DEDICATION, LOTS OF HOURS OF PRACTICE AND BY TAKING ON CHALLENGES ONE AFTER OTHER

Sachin has failed for years and made his money, no motivation and same goes for lot of other seniors, they need to get out, NOW.

Each qualifying batsman should be able to hit 100 sixers in 100 loose ball thrown at him. Look at today's cricket, batsman hit 10-15 sixes in one game after running so many runs..

Each qualified fast bowler should be able to bowl above 90 mile for 20 overs to test in 2-3 hour duration.

Put them to test before you take these loosely fitted team to international cricket.

I think the system needs to change, come on people IT'S TIME TO EVOLVE CRICKET IN INDIA..

Otherwise don't expect to have consistent victories

Good article sir. Chappel and Dravid killed the spirit of Indian team. The worst part was the way India went out. There was no fight shown by Indian team at any point

Fear of failure is always unnecessary pressure, the moment India felt Bangladesh can surprise them they went into a shell of what if we loose, when they played to Bermuda they know for sure they will win so they went fearless, although its a pretty below ordinary team, still they went on to score 410. Indians by nature cannot handle pressure well, on top of it the FEAR of failure simply killed them. I feel its a good thing that India got an exit, as they can now do some through process rethink and execution (IF THEY DO THAT).... Bring in Talented and Inform people, young old doesn't mater, just don't take off a 34 year old player if he is constantly scoring 60+ runs and the same time do not be afraid to bring in a 15 year old to team if he is performing well.
Also we should have a TRANSPARANT and well defined process and the selection committee should always explain in detail what was the process and parameters they considered.
Lets say if he is a Sr player like Tendulkar or Dravid, they should score at least 2 50s in a 4 or 5 match series, if not drop them and ask them to play in the domestic cricket and in domestic cricket they should score a 50 every other match (Since they are very experienced) to be considered back to Team.
If they are youngsters/starters they should score a 50 at least in a series or something like that in Averages ( an average of 35 for Srs and an Average of 25 for freshers should be the bench mark). Similar measure for bowlers and fielding also should be taken care...
Something on those grounds a thorough professional process in place, no Jonal selection, NO Reservation PLEASE ....... Let the Talent rule the game, not politics...

first of all thanks to god.

definately you indian team boyz are old and unfit like me. Definately time is for you boyz to retire from ODI like me.

Seriously, this has been a massive wake up call for both the Indians & Pakistan. Its time to move forward and build young and fit teams who are are hungary for success on the field.

For too long India & Pak have relied on individual brilliance; those days are gone when a when a young Sachin or ganguly would have won the game against the Bangladeshis single handedly or Wasim or Waqar polish of the Irish tail off to get into the super 8.

Those of you who want VVS or Powar in the team-come on, they are the worst fielder. Forget them and bring back kaif, Raina and Pathan. I like the look of uthappa and kartik-they are your future.

Do not worry about sewag, a series against us pakistanis and he will soon be smashing a couple of double hundreds and will return to form.

Sachin should concentrate on Test cricket only and ganguly is past his shelf life.

however your bowling is a massive concern; too many mediocre and not a single world class bowlers (except Kumble)

The British has left India but the Colonial ways are still there...Tendulkar is passed him used by date and no one wants to drop him for fear of how the Indian public would react..he needs to be dropped and prove his mettle back in. With fitness, fielding speed and scoring runs. The need to incorporate fitness and speed is here, it's been here...to compete at international levels you need International standards and ways of preparation. The countries that had great talent and do poorly in the international stage are very clear,India, Pakistan, West indies, etc...Talent without Fitness and mental toughness is useless...if you are not mentally tough you will be exposed...India and Pakistan were exposed by teams that little talent, Huge Hearts and self beliefs...

Hi,

India has never produced great one day bowlers ( except 2 or 3) and in all probability they never will. India's strength has always been its batting. Few of the major reasons we made the WC 2003 finals were :
1) We played 7 batsmen with Sachin and Sehwag opening. We had the confidence we could chase nay total
2) Great bowling of Javagal Srinath and good backup of Nehra and Z.Khan

At the end of the 2003 WC India were definitely the 2nd best team in the world. And they were fast closing in on Aus. Then came Chappel and the Indian team got gutted. It would seem that it was a plan hatched by the Aus board and has succeeded.(just conjecture..:-) )
First he brought disharmony among the team. He changed the winning formula and muddled the thinking of most cricketers. A bowler like Pathan who is just 22 and is highly talented cant just go awry in a matter of months! His mental confidence has been shattered thanks to the way he has been treated by the team (read Chappel)! For Sachin Bashers here is a thought. If you u think why India reached the WC 2003 finals,it was mainly because of Sachins great batting. When the guy has scored tonnes of runs opening why do u want to push him to the middle order? Also players like Matty Hayden and Lara have gone through bad patches but did the Aussie or WIindian crowd flog them? Indian public dont know how to support their heroes during the bad times! Accepted Sachin will never be the one we remember him from Sharjah..but I am sure he will give many a good start if he is back to opening for the next few years. The public,media and ex cricketers just put too much pressure on the little master.

If India have to return to winning ways we need to play 7 batsmen plus Dhoni. Sehwag,sachin,yuvraj and Saurav are more than capable of bowling 20 better overs than Agarkar or Harbhajan. Get rid of Chappel as coach and let us revert back to the formula that started working so well for Indian cricket!!

One simple comment.
Chapel had a wonderful solution. But it was not for the problem.
Why was Pathan selected if he was not going to be used? Why do u pick a player if u do not have confidence to play him? I think he should have played the SL match. If not in batting, he would have helped at least as a pinch hitter... definitely better than Utthappa.
Why did Sachin not open when the ball is doing a bit? Is this Utthappa anything better than a gamble? Should he have opened instead of Sachin when we were chasing a mere 250 and not a 300+?

Could they have not used Saurav to counter Murali, making him bat down the order?
Did they ever have a plan against Murali?

More than anything else, when u chase 250, is there a necessity to go afer the bowling from over 1?

Why was Pawar left out?

Dhoni seems to have a sensible mind. Why is he not moved to somthing like No.4?

India has to start afresh. They need a new coach. Someone like John wright.
They need a new captain.. some one like Ganguly (the old one not the current one)
We also need new senior players... yes like Yuvraj.
He has matured as a batsman. So will he as a captain. Did Mahela Jayawardhane not mature with time? Otherwise do we have options? No... not Kaif!!!

We need fresh blood. Blood we know for sure will still stay young till 2011.

Anyone with big personal scores are not considered.
The performances at home should never again be taken into account.

Into that heaven of cricket..let my country awake.

India played badly in the world cup & were shown the exit, period. Now comes the easier & the tougher question of fixing the responsibilities. Easier because each one of us (including me) seem to have an answer, tougher because any answer is not an answer until proved so in real-time.
However I have tried to resist this temptation of coming up with an answer, I'd rather do the even easier task of pointing at the faults of all & sundry.
Sack the seniors - seems to be the call of the majority. The two series in the build-up to WC had Sachin (against WI) and Sourav (against SL) as the men of the series. They weren't as bad then as it seems now. 3 odd matches (WC or no WC, they will remain 3 ODIs, we'll discuss the largeness of stage later) & they turned into spineless, teethless, selfish aging tigers - this is a fact beyond logic. Yeah, I can hear the counter coming : they were played on featherbeds against mediocre bowling attacks. Snap back to Ind-BD match : it was the same track where Tamim Iqbal was effectively charging down the pitch to Zaheer who in his own might is less mediocre than Mortaza. Mortaza on his part didnot let Sourav that freedom. The bottomline is that you can not dismiss a Tamim, a Mortaza, a Sachin, a Sourav on the account of a pitch, an opposition. They failed when they failed, they succeeded when they succeeded. The same Sourav was much villified & his glories wasted because he seemed to score against Bangladesh & kenya & Zimbabwe......he failed (not really against BD, but then he is a senior player & what not) & we lost, what does that speak about the rest of the team.
We need young legs, hunger & dedication : very valid point!! Sachin failed because he is aged, Sourav did not get the tempo going because he is not as hungry blah blah....what about Uthappa the marauder, or Dhoni the gladiator, or Yuvraj the lion or.....
Why do we tend to forget that this was the best team selected by the people entitled to select? Why do we tend to forget that Ganguly earned his place in the team by sheer dedication & hard work : age or no age? Why do we tend to forget that Sachin is still unparallelled in India (yes, not in world for the past few years, but then the squad to be selected is for India not World XI)? Why do we overlook the fact that if & when Sachin has played domestic cricket, the difference has been for all to see? Why do we seem to remember VVS & Kaif & Raina & Debashish Mohanty (I'm joking, no regionalism please) only when they are thrown out of the team, more often than not for valid reasons?
Why do we tend to behave as reactioneries & mercenaries when a cool head is the demand of the moment (this has something to do with our psyche, I suppose)?

PS : I am aware that some of my remarks here might seem disagreeable to some, but to all of them, my request would be "Please do not miss the woods for the tree!!"

The curious case of fast bowler that bowls slow..

Over a period of time Indian players loose edge. Munaf and Pathan in three years loose between 10 and 20 kms. per hour. Batsmen loose their speed between wickets - all including the highly lamented VVS are examples of this. UB 40 song - every hour of every day I am learning more... just dont apply. Analyze this Mr. Keshavan

Hi all,
I was reading the comments and people seem to miss the point and that is we cannot decide the future but can analyze some basic problems. Also the discussion is getting a bit off subject as the subject is "Greg Chappel and long run". Mr. Keshawan talks about changing the domestic structure of the cricket but it works. So what is wrong players are run hungry but politics is killing the team spirit. Clearly one can see the clash of ideologies in the team. Coach wants to un-nerve seniors that is fine but not to the extent that team just splits into parts. Again coach is carefully and tactfully using media as some players and some selectors are afraid of it. Players are using their connections to stay in the team. I truly believe that what Mr. Moore did was wasted as youngsters were dropped even Dravid aknowledged that by saying one cannot expect everything to go right if we need experience than fielding and lethargy is the parcel to be accepted. I truly believe get rid of chappel and gangully the team will once again be fine. I strongly believe Dravid is the right man to lead the side.

Hi,
Don't you think that Harbhajan Singh has played major roll in India s defeat. Is he a World class bowler who failed to get a single wicket in the whole tournament. If he had got even a single wicket against Bangladesh then we would have won the match. It is he who failed to break the partnership when his turn came. Even 192 was a big target for teams like Bangladesh,that too by having class bowler(?!!) like Harbhajan. Just see the spinners in any other team. All of them manage to take atleast one wicket.
I think first of all we should drop Bajji.....since we have lot of other spin options especially Ramesh powar.

Dilip Vengsarkar is now saying that the best possible team was picked. Earlier he had said that Sehwag got selected only because Dravid insisted on it. Can we derive the conclusion that if Vengsarkar had his way, the best possible team would not
have been picked.

Along with the coaching staff we need to change the selection committee too. No one is taking any responsibility of their jobs. The coach blames the selection and the selector blames the captain. We need a coach who can take control of the team and we need a selection committee that takes command of the selection process.

Absolutely spot on(like chappell said).I liked the point that Indian team was shaken.The chief person responsible for India's loss is chappell.He has changed the team many times unnecesarily.And in the end India chose the best team much similar to 2003 team(But they should have had Laxman instead of Karthik).But they were just back in the side and they wanted to prove themselves.Consider what would've happened to Ganguly if he hadn't made any runs in the world cup).They were all individual players trying to stick their place in the side.There was no team.But it's not the fault of players.It's the fault of the team management,coach and captain.Vengsarkar did a good job.Everybody is blaming him.But you should remember that he took charge only 5-6 months before.If you want to blame the selectors,blame More.Where is he now?
Evenif I'm an Indian I've been waiting for this moment to happen.That is bcz of the injustice done to Saurav,Laxman,Zaheer,Nehra,Kumble,Balaji and Das.
Vengsarkar should continue.Saurav should be the captain.Wright should be made the coach

I dont agree that a process approach does not work; or its vague inconsistency with the Indian psyche.

As far as process is concerned, first outstanding talent such as Tendulkar is less process dependent than normal talent. They do not prove or disprove the point. An example of the Australian success is Hussey, who now looks classy, but has honed his skills over many years.

A process is about maximizing (a) talent and (b) performance. This simply has not occurred. When you prepare for exams, usually the best way to do so is to replicate exam conditions, ie close your books and do the questions in three hours. The more practice in an environment close to the actual environment you will face. I think there is a problem in the Indian "process". It doesnt have to go the extreme of say the English systems, which can be so rule-bound as to eliminate natural flair. But there is a problem.

Insofar as Greg Chappell is concerned, I catch up on cricket via cricinfo and tv so have no on the ground understanding of Greg Chappell. But I agree, although he may have had the best of intentions, but may not have been the right choice for coach. Someone like Tom Moody, a gentler character, would probably be a better choice.

Mr Chappell's process issue is (a) bigger than the Indian team; (b) wont occur immediately, and (c) certainly wont occur without requisite support. He was probably given the wrong role.

A coach focused on fostering team spirit will probably be more effective. I think another failing is not to encourage traditional Indian strengths. Where have all the spin bowlers gone?

Is it just winning that matters, how about deftness, the art of skillful touch play, delicate wrist-work etcetera. Over the years it has been enjoyable watching this art form displayed by many Indian Cricketers. Wake up people, it is not just winning that counts, it is how you play the game.
In recent times One Day cricket is looking more and more like Baseball,brute force.
A Salute to Indian Cricket.

The BCCI did not seek services of Greg Chappel for long time strategic studies on Indian cricket and subsequent policy implementation.There are enough people of calibre but few people of dedication or will to do that.We know.Let us not loose focus. The fact remains that the team lacked the spirit, the motivation , and the drive to compete at the highest stage. Some of the same players had showed their mettle in the last world cup. Agreed, this was a ordinary fielding side by top standards. However, the potential to bat and bowl was certainly there.And, dont complain about the age of the players. That is pure rubbish. Look at the age of the Aussies and many of the best in the world. Age is no excuse. The players did not perform as a team. Dravid is not the captain material he is made out to be. He is certainly not. But, going back to Ganguly will not help us in the long run. At this point of time, perhaps , a youngster may be groomed quickly as vice captain to take over quickly, within a year or less. About Mr Chappel, the much less said the better. It is one thing to utter leadeship and managerial jargon.( In fact, there are enough people in the stands to give the team a lecture on results through strenghtening of processess. The BCCI may hire the services of IIM's or other similar institutions to provide all people attached to cricket including palyers and administrators the basics.That is more about reminding them rather than telling them anything that they do not know.) It is quite another to remain unbiased, dispassionate, level headed and most of all a true motivator. These are some true leadership qualities which are not so easily acquired. As for the mediamen, You all ought to be ashamed. Do not insult our intelligence by posting us sermons on processes and strategies. If we do not have even the bare basics in place to generate decent players. Then to hell with cricket. Lets go back to the grass root level and forget about the next world cup. That is the true implication of what many of u mediamen are trying to convey. The truth is that there are players, there is a system already in place( can be improved as any other system can be,normally) , the BCCI has to be a more professional body, fitness and skill levels are really not major issues when there is enough talent and finances- focus on the same will get results very soon. Yes! very soon. Let us not hookwink ourselves any more. Tendulkar has not delivered during the last three years. Do not resort to statistical jargon once again to disprove this statement. Let us be honest to ourselves. Raina is a poor batsman and do not be surprised there will be better young batsmen with equally good fielding abilities in queue. Sreesanth has been a good find. There again nurture him. It is time to find the truth about carrying on with unfit players. Pathan and Munaf with fitness below par for long periods of time were on tours earlier. Munaf has come back but he is far from the strike bowler he can be, potentially!. Do not make comparisions with Glenn McGrath. Glenn was also a fast bowler to start with and evolved over a period of time. Hence, do not hide the bowlers lack of peak fitness under the cover of bowling at lesser pace to acquire better control and all that crap...The truth is Pathan is a victim of exploitation at levels of sub par fitness. During the last time the Aussies came to India for the test series, we know he touched speeds of 140 and little more.Thereafter, he broke down.Chappel and party have not been honest. The malady was inflicted much before the world cup. Corruption practices in the process if i may say to put it across better. All is not lost. Do not blame the fans. Blame the hype and misinformation. Even , major elections can be won by whipping up a wave through hype and misinformation. Why blmae them.?

I have been tracking Indian cricket for over 35 years, and have seen entire careers of Gavaskar, Vishwanath, Tendulkar and Dravid evolving.

We seem to have the same problems again and again. The system ( which includes the followers of the game) makes players hard and cynical.

Gavaskar - though playing with distinction for India for many years - was often harangued - accusations similar to Tendulkar today. The result was to turn Gavaskar into a sullen and resentful person. Vishwanath ( similar to Dravid today) just had to have 1 serious failure for him to be condemned and withdraw from this world.

The natural jealousies and whimsical behaviour of the Indian public that makes them want to pull down successful people in any field works against cricketers too.

As long as there is no balance between success and failure and the Indian public ( not just in cricket but in all other fields) are not able to reason intelligently all success will be shortlived and not sustainable.

The new cricketers will watch the insults to Tendulkar by people who do not understand what he meant to the poor cricket fan during his glory days, when he lifted up the psyche of the nation by his brave knocks 9 despite Azhar and his antics) If Tendulkar can be insulted like this, then nobody is immune and the capacity of India to produce brave and confident sporting individuals will never be a reality.

too much is being made out of this debacle. blaming dravid or chappel for the defeat is nothing but finding scapegoats. this is the precisely the job of the media (and also some former cricketers with inflated egos and personal agendas on their minds all the time). in any case its an unspoken rule that whenever a team loses the captain and the coach are always the ones to get the flak(whether reasonably or not).

i blame the fanatical indian fans for the indian performance. it had to happen. we praise the team to the moon when it is performing well and we deride them like cheaters when its not performing well. both are over reactions and are bound to have effect on the players at some stage. i wonder how somehow it has missed every one that even if u combine the rest of the world, indian cricket fans would be greater i number. any team (even the aussies), if it plays under such immense pressure is bound to cave in at some point. cricketers are only humans and emotions affect even them. it just puts into perspective how great a batsman sachin has been(and not just for the number of runs he has scored). i wonder, if only the indian cricket fan backed its team in defeat as it does in victory, what a difference it would have made to these cricketers' confidence and self-belief. at the moment the indian cricket fan is just like a bullying father who cannot tolerate his son's failures. so its bound to have a paralysing effect on the son in the long term.

as rightly pointed out in the column the system always has some flaws and there is always room for improvement, but that's for the long term. we cannot pin the blame on the system for the world cup debacle. we do have a sea of talent inspite of the system. it can only get better if the system is improved.

whoever brands raina and uthappa as failures is only being ignorant. they are very young, very talented and they will learn from their failures and come back stronger. its a learning curve for them and it can happen to youngsters. how can we forget, how yuvraj when he came in was so highly immature and even had to be dropped for a while. and today he is our best batsman.

Just going by ICC ranking before the world cup, it was obvious that most Indians were against hope hoping for nothing short of miraculous.

DD came up with a very poignant reminder in their scedule for today's Super 8 match between Aus and Bangladesh.

The pre-match program starts at 5:30pm. It will then, apparently, be followed by a match between Australia....., and India.

My mother takes the cake for optimism, however. Finding me awake till 5:30 in the morn (I live in Perth), this is what she said:

"NO MORE LATE NIGHTS TILL THE SEMI-FINALS!"

To dissect the current debacle relative to the previous World Cup is absurdity at its height. With a similar format, India would have been packing its bags in the previous World Cup too (Remember Holland, Australia & Zimbabwe). It is something in the basic psyche which prevents them from starting tours well something witnesed in hockey too. I believe this is where the pressure and media scrutiny comes into play. Poor old Rahul Dravid was an epitome of that. As Kumar Sangakkara said, " I don't envy any of the Indian and Pakistan players". Team selections, 'bad' coaching and captaincy can go only so far.

SACHIN RAMESH TENDULKAR was never the same after 1998, his best year.He prepared to face Shane Warne by practicising with L.Siva.Mind you he was already a Senior pro with Nine years.It is no longer the case now.He is taking things for granted.Others,less said about them is better.
What we need is players with commitment and desire to perform
THE MOTTO should be PERFORM or PERISH
If that doesnot happen, irrespective of who plays and who coaches, the resuts will be no different from that of WC07

IMMEDIATE STEPS TO REVAMP INDIAN CRICKET

ADMINISTRATION
a) Any one in India can write a huge book on improving cricketing administration. There is much to offer. I think BCCI is greedy. Because of their greediness they are killing cricket as well as players careers. Volume of one-day cricket played should be reduced. What is the use of playing 7 one-dayers in a bilateral series? It is boring for fans and draining for cricketers. Then our leading cricketers can play more domestic cricket and domestic cricket is strengthened.
b) Conduct regular clinics for local coaches in India. They must be equipped with latest methods and training. They must have interaction with leading coaches in the world. (Also conduct regular clinics for umpires)
c) Every time our player is seriously injured he is flying to Australia for rehabilitation. With so much money under the coffer we can build world-class medical rehabilitation centre for sports persons.
d) Similar to MRF Pace Academy in Chennai we can also constitute Spin Academy. It can be managed by a prominent ex-spinner.
e) Competitiveness in domestic cricket and accustoming to tough pitch conditions are the two major factors affecting Indian players. These issues must be addressed: Duleep trophy must be made premier first-class tournament instead of Ranji Trophy. Each zone must play each other twice instead of once. We must have regular junior tours to countries like Australia, South Africa and England where pitches are unfamiliar. Pitches for domestic cricket must be sporting. (Sporting means not hard and bouncy. It means it should be conducive for batsmen, pacers and spinners alike)

CAPTAINCY
a) Persist with Dravid as Captain.
b) Appoint Yuvraj Singh as Vice-Captain. For Test Cricket VVS Laxman may be the Vice-Captain till Yuvraj establish himself in that format. Hopefully Yuvraj will establish himself in Test Cricket sooner.

COACHING
a) In hindsight I feel that most successful & great cricketers don’t make great coaches. Past records are enough proof for that. Sir Vivian Richards, Kapil Dev, Javed Miandad, Malcom Marshall and Greg Chappell were great players but not successful coaches. There must be some psychology and other reasons for that. Chappell can be better utilized as professional consultant to cricket board if they are willing. If we want an Indian then likes of Pataudi and Gavaskar are there.
b) Appoint Robin Singh as chief coach. (Recently coached Indian ‘A’ team). Other choices may be Tom Moody, Sandeep Patil and Dav Whatmore.
c) Appoint Venkatesh Prasad as bowling coach. (Recently coached Indian under-19 team). Other choices may be Bruce Reid and Troy Cooley.

SACHIN TENDULKAR & ANIL KUMBLE
a) Sachin must emulate Lara. Should retire from one-day internationals. This great man should concentrate on Test Cricket alone. This would prolong his career and his effectiveness.
b) Kumble has already indicated he would retire from shorter version and concentrate on Test Cricket only.

ATTITUDE
a) Wicket keepers are the ones who cheer and encourage other team members in tough moments of play. Kiran More, Nayan Mongia, Parthiv Patel and Dinesh Karthick are very good at it. But I never found Mr. Dhoni cheering and encouraging his team members while keeping. He must change his attitude and also improves his wicket keeping skills.
b) Get rid of conservatism in our system. Not selecting Romesh Pawar ahead of Kumble and Harbhajan was a sign of conservatism. It clearly affected our fortunes in the world cup.

SELECTION ISSUES
a) Romesh Pawar must be the first choice spinner in shorter version of the game. Harbhajan is only restrictive not wicket taking in shorter version. So drop Harbhajan from one-day squad.
b) Groom Piyush Chawla, the young leg-spinner.
c) Young batsmen like Rohit Sharma, Chetshwara Pujara, Badrinath and Manoj Tiwary must be given opportunities. Not all at one go, one by one must be slowly drifted into the team.
d) Ganguly is a liability to the team in both forms of the game. Drop him. Don’t be fooled by his recent scores. When you score it must be counted and team must win.

"Ravi Shastri as Indian Cricket Team Coach"
Hello,Mukul Kesavan
I wish you raise a blog which should raise the question who should the Indian coach

I have my opinions here
India performed the best under John wright and inpart with sourav ganguly as captain
I think we have the brains and technology and no need to invest again for foreign coaches.
Ravi shastri would be a great coach,he has the brains,respect of the team and understands cricket to large extent and has indian passion and a spin bowling allrounder who can advice the team.the rest of others are not in my list
Now coming to captaincy,i feel dravid is good and and a change will not help the team.
No other options are available,one S ganguly is past his prime and is past and the same applies to sachin.
yuvraj is a flair batsmen and excellent feilder leave him with his work,no additional captaincy and i will be shocked if he is made one.

In summary
Dravid stays as captain
ravi shastri as coach.
Kumble off on day cricket, rest Bhajji,Agarkar and there you go can get three new members to team and I think raina,powar and piyush chawla come in.

I think team composition is the biggest cause for team failure in west indies,my opinion team should be as below....

tendulakar and uthappa as openers
Dravid
yuvraj singh
ganguly or sehwag(Only one weak link in team)
Karthik or Raina or pathan
Dhoni (Hopeful,he would learn from mistakes else)
Piyush chawla or Powar
Munaf patel
Sreesanth(as wicket taker inspite of runs)
Zaheer khan.

This is my new 15 member team,I wish no mass changes like removing ganguly,tendulkar and sehwag.this would not help the team and will have whole nation up in protest with huge regional shows.
I feel ganguly has maximum 1 year of one day cricket left and he should take a decision like kumble and sachin has 2 to 4 years and he takes his decision. sachin is a team player,he bowls,bats and feilds he is the only allrounder in team why should he leave the team now,never please let him make the decision.

if we leave the above team to play over 6 months and we should be back to winning ways and team management should be given more powers so that they can make ganguly,sehwag or dhoni sit on bench and watch while others perform.

sorry for some bias to sachin as I am his fan

please list this and Mukul i wish you create a blog on these lines and allow ardent indian fans like me to vent their opinions and forget dismal indian cricket team performance

alternatively,mail me back at docramki@yahoo.com

thanks for your blog

Chappells mistakes- personality, cultural and communications issues; indian cricket in particular is not ready for soccer type coaches; indian team basically wants a gora to do homework on opposition and tell them how great they are and be a scapegoat for non -performance; while encouraging youth, performance and a process was good this didnt fit in and also was inconsistent ultimately seemed to be pick raina no matter what; but hes more sinned against than sinning; captain and selectors oppted for experience for odi format that favours youth; indian coaches performed poorly abroad in 90s, team carries too many players past prime; and domestic cricket since ranji format cant be changed why not shift focus to 5 zonal teams duleep format compulsory for test selection with each team playing each other once home (4 games, 4 weeks), once away (same) and a final (1 week) totalling 9 weeks

Mr Varun, Could you please explain how India would have been knocked out of the prev world cup with a similar format?..AFAIK, India lost only to Australia and won both against Zimbabwe and Holland, so kindly substantiate what you've said

hi Rama KantamNeni:
If Shastri becomes indian coach there would be no Indian XI. It would be a Bomaby XI playing 4 India!

i think all and all the guy who call him self the great chappel should be sent home. because when he join the army he the one who made quarrels within the teamd and threw ganguly away and finally he took ganguly to the W/C without any explaination.

so if chappel is saying that the indians are losing ever since 1985 then why we need a chappel to mend this. we thought that chappel is here to improve indian cricket and take them to the world cup. and further indians had a choice when sri lankans volunatarily let them choose the right coach between chappel and moody. still they fail then i dont know who to blame.

and finally i think it is time to stop beleiving in idols such as 10dulkar, she wag etc.... and when you compare with sri lanka it is more than 100 times bigger and more populated and still difficult to find a 11 players who can play cricket??? its a shame

Pradeepkumar.Selvaraj wrote:
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50 Reasons why Team India failed in 2007 Worldcup Cricket
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1) Didn't play as a team
2) Lack of Morale
3) Lack of Winning habbit
4) Lack of Fire in the belly as a sportsman.
5) Lack of Mental Strength
6) Lack of Physical Strength
7) No unity amoung the team members
8) No enthusiam in the squad
9) Many old legs in the team
10) Conservative approach rather than natural play.
11) Lack of confidence.
12) Lack of great ideas from the captain
13) Many ex-captains in the team
14) Captain didn't bring unity in the team.
15) Captain is not strong in decision making on the spot.
13) Weak in fielding
14) No proper planning/decision making before the game
15) No detail study about the opposition (team/players) before the game
16) Experienced players didn't contrubute well.
17) Players play for individual statistics.
18) No youngsters in the team attack the opposition without fear (like Bangladesh).
19) Experience players play conservative cricket.
20) No attacking bowlers (who can take wickets at will, like Bond NZ, Mallinga SL).
21) No balance between batsman and bowlers (less attacking bowlers to defend small totals).
22) No good bowling squad to take all the 10 wickets (No attacking fast bowlers).
23) Bowlers bowl to restrict runs not intended to take wickets.
24) Not many real all-rounders, who can do well in bowling and who can do some good batting. (eg: Kapil Dev, Jack kallies SA).
26) Coach didn't mingle with the team.
27) Coach didn't contribute well on providing ideas to captain.
28) Coach left decision making to the captain and not willing to take responsibility on team failure.
29) Coach is very reserve and not easy for the players to get along.
30) Player spend more time doing commercials rather than developing their skills further.
31) Selection committee didn't select talented palyers instead selected players with past records (not in form).
32) Selection process in based on influential region (bombay get more weight) rather than finding players from all over the country.
33) Players are not paid based on the performance.
34) Players have no resposibility for any failure/defeat.
35) Over-confidence of the team when playing against minnow countries.
35) Lack of dicipline and consistency amoung players/team.
36) No shouting/screaming/hugging in the team to feel the enjoyment from the sport and get motivation to do well.
37) Loose and irresponsible approach of players in shot selection.
38) No real/alternative game plan when the team in critical situation.
39) Individual player always satisfy with normal performance rather than extra-ordinary performance.
40) Batsman never think to finish off the game on his own batting (to stay till end of the game).
41) Tumbling when the preasure is high.
42) No fighting spirit.
43) Not able to play well on the bouncing overseas pitches.
44) No clever wicket-taking spinner in the team.
45) Players didn't think as a sportsman intead think as a professional.
46) Lot of importance to the cricketer in the country creates more preasure to the player.
47) Senior players didn't guide the junior players well (lack of knowledge sharing).
48) No competitive cricket played in local matches.
49) No world-class standards set in the local matches.
50) Players are selected to the Indian team on infulence instead of his real talents.

First of all, I hope the moderators are unbiased. I don't like the idea of screening but for bad language.

If we were to talk about the "long run", then India needs to understand non-cricketing issues involved in a highly commercialised game.

It is no secret that Australia wants the leadership in many matters for the purposes of control and cricket is one of them. India has become a "highly lucrative" market and it needed to be controlled in the long term interests of Australia. An unorganised, fragmented, corrupt and demoralised Indian establishment will serve the strategic interests of Australian Cricket (and the English to extent) by the way better vantage position for contract negotiations, power brokering etc. Also, Australians are plain jealous about India's ability to produce great cricketers whose deeds they have to compete hard to match upto. In short, a weak Indian Cricket serves Australia well.

What is the best way to achieve destabilise Indian Cricket and its emerging financial dominance? Insert an Australian Coach into the system. Indians, as usual, was so naive to think that an Australian will work for the long term interests of Indian cricket. So they played right into the hands of Australian cricketing establishment and let them undo Indian cricket until the 2015 world cup. Objective achieved!!

The Indians are analysing, will continue to analyse, I can hear the Austrlalians laughing their bottoms off!

Sack the coach and get on with it!

too much money in indian cricket not enough patriotic players lack of discipline and self belief exagurated batting status and poor fielding and bowling, not enough fire.......... india will never be in the same class as australia, sth africa, and new zealand they lack the guts and the passion to do well at the highest level, they are being paid too much money and become stars to quickly therefore forget that they are in the team to play for their country..........half the players look like they are concentrating on increasing financial gains on the field and when off the field they think of how to improve pathetic from shame india shame give the other younger less fortunate boys maybe with half the talent of you but twice the balls and i will predict they would fair better than these wannna be models of the team........

India came to worldcup finals in 2003. This is due to the team-spirit & motivation (playing for their country). What was needed is to improve the performance of individuals or get fresh talent to fill the skill gaps. It is unfortunate that people started thinking in exactly opposite direction. They simply tried to derive strategy from a one-off game, the finals. Those who are critisizing are in panic, just not having self-confidence, trying to do everything in opposite direction - though to their hearts they know that is the wrong way of doing things. When Chappell was breaking the core strength of Indian team, the team-spirit & motivation, the media diverted the attention of readers - away from the subject. Though we could find the resources to fill skill gap (new fast bowlers to replace the great Srinath, wicketkeeper batsman Dhoni, bubbling and vastly improved Yuvraj), the motivation and strategy were missing. It is easy to critisize Sachin Tendulkar - but expecting him to be top rungetter, everytime he plays worldcup is wrong. Two batsmen Dravid and Ganguly taught us more than 10 years ago that we can win matches even when Sachin fails. That has taken off the pressure on Sachin and he could perform well in 2003 WC. Why are we forgetting the lessons learnt ? Why are we teaching our kids the wrong ways of doing things ? Sure Ambani developed his business empire without completing higher education. But, he sent his kids to finest business schools. Please don't let your emotions and odd defeats break your wisdom. Indian team is really capable and needs a better coach who believes in and develops the core-strengths of the team. Open your eyes and support them...

I agree with Mr. Spade. This was all an australian conspiracy. Greg Chappell was told to do just one thing. "DIVIDE AND CONQUER" and he did that. Wake up India!

I think, chappel shouldnt be blamed for the WC debacle. Its a collective responsibility spanning from BCC to the support staff. No one can pin point what went wrong. We lost bcz our opponents played better cricket on da day. Much hype has been created by the media regarding this indian team, which i think is an average team. We should be happy and proud by the occasional victories we have.. bcz thats what we can manage. Nd even if india had won the WC, im sure that they would have lost to teams around the world in shameless fashion time and again.. think are the worthy enough to be called world champions?? (im sure Australia or even SA would be a definite yes !). Changing captain or coach will not reap any dividends, lets lower the bar of expectations and focus on simple goals like improving bowling, fielding etc etc and then take it further from there.. to the final goal of being World champions. There are lot of younger players like Manoj tiwary, Rohit sharma who are definite future prospects, make a good A team and ask them to play matches irrespective of which zone they come from. BCCI is rich enough to hire a good coach and support staff for this bunch.. to be moulded. To round it off.. Let us have realistic hopes... dont expect too much from this bunch of cricketers... dravid is no ponting... sehwag is no hayden.. zaheer is no mcgrath.. nd dhoni no gilchrist.. they try to the best of their abilities... nd come up with success in their own ways... lets learn not to EXPECT great things from indian cricket team.. lets encourage them in the small achievements they have.. which might fuel future glories... amen !!

india lost because they played 2 good teams everyone needs to stop looking at what went wrong and start celebrating how competitive this game is getting bangladesh arent a team to disrespect anymore they have made many upsets they are still thought of as a minnow (small cricketing nation) but they have less history than zimbabwe and are better than any team they can beat on any day when you go out on the field to play a game you enjoy and have fun with your mates example the australian cricket team..... you will more than likely win a game or atleast get over the loss of a cricket game unlike this indian mangament acting like its a murder investigation.... india lost 2 games one of those of which was because they were playing sri lanka who have come into this tournament obviously with enough hunger to win and also remember why they are playing the game because they enjoy there cricket.... so stop pointing fingers and asking stupid questions and get out there and start watching cricket as if you invented the game yourself, how awesome is this game getting i'd like to think that watching everyone's 300 plus scores is something to show apreciation for i loved playing cricket as a kid but i couldn't hit the ball much more than 2 houses away you've got bowlers that can bowl at speeds of 85 mph or more and i cant even get close to that but i watch for the apreciation of the game its a unique game... that bitching about how bad someone plays is ruining it for the people who cant play and have to follow a negative sport

By God, after all that Sachin Tendulkar has done for Indian cricket, carrying the national team single-handedly through the moribund 1990s, that Indian fans would react like this...

Despite his superstar status, Tendulkar is one of the most selfless and productive members of the team. He is a mentor to almost everyone in the team.

If the Indian fans remain insistent on humiliating Tendulkar, I pray that the Indian cricket team does not ever win a cricket game, let alone a tournament ever again. I'll relish the "reactions" of Indian fans then....

First of all, Our world cup squad itself was wrong. We should have had better fielders playing and send out the out of form players.
People who should have been sent out:
Sachin Tendulkar: He is liability number one and was proving to be.
Harbhajan Singh: The second liability had taken only five wickets in the last ten matches and we still took him.
Robin utthappa: He has no experience in the West Indies and still we took him. There were more hitters than consolidaters.
Ajit agarkar: Our wide and no ball professional was taken even due to poor performances.
Mahendra Singh Dhoni: He knows to play only in flat pitches were the ball comes straight on to the bat. He does not know to bat in slow pitches and struggles to spinners and still taken.
People who should have played instead all of them in the three matches:
Dinesh Karthick: One fine keeper Best player for India in slow pitches did not play and is a good keeper/fielder.
Mohammed Kaif: A very good fielder and player was surprisingly not taken.
Irfan Parthan: A superb swinger of the ball and a good pinch hitter and finisher and is a satisfactorally a good fielder was not played.
Hence our team was not the right team.
this would have beeen my squad: Rahul Dravid, Saurav Ganguly, Yuvraj Singh, Mohammad Kaif, Suresh Raina, Dinesh Karthick, Irfan Pathan, Romesh Powar, Zaheer Khan, Munaf Patel, Virender Sehwag
Suresh Raina: A great fielder and player, young and energetic was not taken. What disgust!
Romesh Powar: One of the finesty turners of the ball is not taken, Instead we took four liabilities.

What Team India should do........... 4yr remidial measures.


1- Too much Politics.....Sharad Pawar and other polititians should resign and stay away from sports.
2- In order to qualify in International Team, a player should have an impressive Domestic and County cricket record. i.e Zaheer Khan, Dinesh Mongia, etc
3- Should have a pool of atleast 25 players, who should be rotated in every tournament. Only the players in best form should play.
4- Players should be restricted from doing ads or any other businesses of monetary gain when employed under BCCI. In other words, a player is BCCI's employee and should be refrained from endorsing any product outside of this contract however should have incentive on exceptional performances.
5- Remove the complacency factor from player's mind.
6- There should be a time limit on players like Sachin, Sehwag on how many time they can fail. Once out of the team their come back must be the same way as of a newcomer.
7- Media should realize not to over expose any player hence resulting in higher expectation of the public, resulting in pressure situations for team management.
8- Bookies should be smoked out and jailed.
9- Coach should groom the existing and future captain.
10- Teach young players not to choke under pressure.
11- India should play Bangladesh, Netherlands, Scotland at least once in 4 yrs to avoid surprises in events like WC, since the team will understand and deploy strategies against them.
12- Play 20Twenty matches so that batsmen can replicate the same performance in 50over matches.
13. Infuse young blood in team and inculcate winning attitude right from inception.

I know these are ideal situations, but we have 4 yrs to implement atleast some of them.

Despite of Indian loss in the world cup early stage,we learned why we need greg chappel,or dravid as a captain,ofcourse he is the best batsman for all the time.we have bring new bloods
in to the team.We have to move forward with new coach(dedicated indian who care about indian cricket not money minded)
A young cricketer between 21-23 of age with three to four seniors,to lead the indian cricket to next level.we don't need puppet captain. we need some one like ganguly,srikanth,sandip patel,vensarkar,robin singh(next coach).we had enough with greg chappel and his puppet,kiran more should realiase his miastakes,why he went for foreign coach,and why he spoiled the complete indian team.we hope vengsarkar is the right person to do the job as a selector.

Lets not forget that all this song and dance is for having one bad day against B'desh. The match against SL was 50-50 if both teams
had won their previous matches, it became 40-60 for India with
the added pressure, and chasing was probably a bad idea given that our batsmen do not do well under pressure. Lets not judge the quality of this team based on 'one overconfident' day against B'desh. Let me give another twist to the story, many may not like it: SG has won his fight against GC !! And he did it in a similar masterful manner in which he playes his off-drives (when in touch). Did I just give some fuel for discussions? Let me also add
that all the indian players have really betrayed their best-ever player. When Dravid played under another captain, you never feel for a single moment that the guy is trying to give anything less than his 100%. Do we get the same feeling for other guys when they are playing under Dravid? Not sure. Everyone tells tales of SG era when India was second best team in both tests and ODIs, take out Dravid's contribution from that and see what is left behind. Dravid deserved much more respect and 'payback'
from his seniors.

Chapple should be replaced by Siddhu as coach. someone with passion, the players right now need a motivator and he is the man.

My team following would be in order

1.V Sehwag
2.S Tendulkar
3.S Ganguly
4.R Dravid
5.Y Singh
6.S Raina
7.M Dhoni
8.R Powar
9.Z Khan
10.M patel
11.S Trivedi

I would choose these team beaucse it has a good mixture of youth and experiance like dravid tendulkar and ganguly would be experinced and good energetic players like kaif yuvraj and raina

Rahul, the team that you have mentioned above has almost the same batting line up which was the biggest problem along with poor bowling(courtesy agarkar/harbhajan). And most of all, poor captaining of the team by Dravid. Agreed, captain is as good as its team but atleast, captain should have authoritive over his team.. By reading at all the reports that are coming out nowadays, it seems that Dravid is torn between players and coach and that does not look good for future of indian cricket. Dravid had been the most stable batsmen in last couple of years and being the captain is the unnecessary burden that he can do away with. I would suggest changing the coach rightaway and bring someone who does not think of himself as superstar but has gr88 man management skills and is a shrewed thinker of the game. At the international level, representing for India, coach does not and should not have to teach the players to how to play cricket.. I hope BCCI tries to find a good coach this time...someone like Buchanan of aussie.. Next, rework on the team...atleast oneday team needs a complete overhaul..
It would do Indian cricket a world of good if Ganguly and Sachin are dropped from Oneday team. Rahul can still serve but just as a middle order bat. Uthappa, Raina, A. Raidu, Badrinath, Karthik, Dravid, Dhoni, Powar, Z.Khan, Munaf Patel, Sreesanth, Abid Ali, and Piyush Chawla can be faces of future(dravid kinda sr. most person, guiding the team). Yuvraj, once his attitude is in place and Sehwag (once he shows some dedication...I don't give a damn to his footwork...just clear his mind and start playing his natural game..) can be back in one day team after some hibernation.. Tendulkar and Ganguly can remove this black spot in their career by playing some good test cricket in final year of their career.

We expect miracle on 6th and 7th of this month when bcci top brass meets....but frankly, all I expect is bcci is to give some false promise and tall talks....With the way indian team has played and things have been worked around in indian cricket, I don't think I am being too pessimistic..;-)

I don't think that the point on Indians not being outdoorsy people is applicable at all! There are lots of fit Indians who are fishermen, carpenters, construction workers...aka not all desis spend their time in front of a computer - and I feel that they would be as fit as any outdoorsy Aussie person....In fact, people say the obesity levels are rising here in the US (what with the sedentary Cable TV-based lifestyles, and prevalence of automobiles), but still there are freaks like Michael Phelps...so I personally feel that there would be similar athletic freaks in India, and perhaps its just untapped....a personal opinion

India needs to replicate the Aussie domestic system, ie. less teams! 30 first class teams is a disgrace. Keep all the teams if you like, but just make the top 8 first class (ranji super league). With regards the team, drop Tendulkar, he looks disinterested. Bring in Badrinath from Tanil Nadu, he has some grit for once, very Dravid like. Manoj Tiwary could make an impact as well.

SK - I will disagree. The only captains where we had people contributing their 100% are Sourav Ganguly and Mohammad Azharuddin.

When Kapil Dev, Sachin Tendulkar were captaining the country or as Dravid now is going thru - we had this sensation that the efforts of people around him isn't 100%.

Is there a trend? message? in there. Your guess is as good as mine.

Well - my comment is related to the article but also takes up the Anand Vasu article. It amazes me no end that it took so long for Ganguly to be exposed as a selfish player, putting self preservation ahead of the team interests and hiding it behind reasons that he somehow found a way to explain away. Finally the Chappell email deservedly exposed all that. But here we are now in 2007, and back with the same problem. The team is comprised of far too many individuals who play for themselves and hardly any who put the team before their own interests. I am also glad that its is also being noticed that disharmony in the team seemed only to come alive with the recall of Ganguly. Perhaps if Ganguly had played in an era where there was no Kenya, Bangladesh, Namibia, etc, etc - his average would have exposed him for what he truely is - a moediocre player at best, with an average of about 30. What we need are team players without any agenda of their own. We need the Dravids, the Laxmans, the Pathans, the Kaifs, the Sreesanths, and perhaps then we will truely solve the mystery of Indian cricket. And perhaps we should follow the example of Sri Lankan cricket - popular as they are with the media for so many reasons.

poor article mukul,
compared to earlier ones, this one is at the wrong place at the wrong time...

Talk about wats more important.

It irritates me to see, folks still support Greg Chappell,he killed the team.He is not an honest person,and can never build a team.Team will do much better without him and 'senior players should be gracefully asked to quit in the next two years'.After all they got the Indian Cricket this far in the journey.

Finally BCCI should work out its heart honestly in improvising many things that is being well articulated in the discussions with relation to the infrastructural,managerial and many more things(developing talents) that BCCI should do.How come no one is talking about the fair share BCCI has in the event of this failure.The first thing before all of these things,let Greg Go,for all that I know,this same team can win the Twenty20 Championship,if it can play to its potential with few changes in the team.
For the past twenty years in a broader perspective,this has always been the way they swing from one end to another,truly!if they have only been loosing,I do not think fans would be this crazy.

Recruiting Greg was our biggest mistake. He talked about a “Process”. Our BCCI and ex-cricketers (Gavaskar Shastri & Co.) did not realize that the process he intended to follow was to systematically destroy Indian Cricket. As it is now coming out from no less a person like Tendulkar and other senior players, Greg meticulously destroyed the team. We Indians just stood and watched when he asked Sourav to step down as Captain. Is that his role as a Coach? Who gave him that power? The spineless impotent selectors at that time just remained mute spectators seeing their powers being usurped. That is where the seeds of discontent were sown in the team. BCCI and the above named ex cricketers also remained mute spectators. Greg understood that Sourav is not going to play his divisive game lying down. Greg found Dravid, a decidedly weak captain, a handy tool to take his divisive process forward. Wonder how our Cricket Administrators overlooked his process of systematic leaks to the press, the finger episode in Kolkata and allowed him to take us for such a humiliating ride for two full years. We failed to see through his sinister designs. Selectors like Kiran More should have resigned. I understand Sourav was initially responsible for selecting him and has deservedly paid a price for it. We should dump Greg forthwith and select an Indian Coach. Imran Khan rightly pointed out the other day that in Cricket a coach has a very limited role. Atleast an Indian will be able to make the Team gel together.

Hi All... I am from India... Now that the "mirror-like" coach has had enough, India are looking for another coach, perhaps a foreigner or someone like Sunil Gavaskar or Jimmy Amarnath. I am absolutely astonished to hear this. They don't have the slightest coaching experience in any capacity nor do they have the results to show for it. What about Robin Singh? He has coached our youngsters. Knows who is capable and who is not in our younger brigade and he has played with a lot of our senior players and knows their strengths and weaknesses pretty well. The media and our fan-fare don't realize how things are going to go forward. I think Robin is the sort of guy we need because most of our senior pros are going to go in 2 years time. But still no one voices their opinion on this sort of upbringing. Australia has their next coach who is handling their academy. England are along the same lines and luckily we are one of the countries to have quite a decent Under-19 program. But sadly no one recognizes modest and hard working people like Robin, who is absolutely a team man...

He is my first choice... Any suggestions guys and even Mukul??

Hi,

What ever we do India is not going to regain it's form and we are lost for ever. I say this because even after we lost senior players say that the coach felt that the attitude of the players wwas not correct.The coach was right because if the attitude of the players was right they would have readily agreed that they play for themselves and money and not for the Team and they are concerned about the cricket crazy fans bck home.

Chappell is the best coach we had and he has made a wise decision to drop out because he is already visulaised where indin cricket is heading and he does not want to be aprt of the disgrsce any longer. The BCCI is also not concerned because they are in hurry for a meeting after such a disater and they are just buying time to settle scores with their regional counterparts and oponents. INDIANS didnt deserve to win even one match because it was the worst team they ever had and they boosted by some foolish advice from some old cricketer called GAVASKAR and they were blown off by the praise and the false status they developed over the period of time.

Give Chappell complete freedom and ability to mould the team and he will do wonders for the team as he is the most experienced and more intrestingly he is an outsider so he does not understand regional politics within the BCCI and he opt for the best team based on sher performance and nothing else.

PLease Fire players: SOURAV,TENDULKAR,SHEWAG,HARBHAJAN,ZAHEER and please give players like SREESHANTH,UTHAPPA,JAFFER,RAINA.KAIF,VENUGOPAL RAO,RETHINDER SIGH SODHI AND OTHER BUDDING PLAYERS A CHANCE FOR ATLEAST 20-30 GAMES at a stretch and they should come good if not churn the talent pool.

At the end of the day what ever we say is gone to waste as the BCCI is already made the decision and thw cricket crazy fans of india are waituing to be fools again.

I am an indian but i am a fan of the AUSTRALIAN side because of their commitment when they play and they are a team to be learnt from.

Thanks

LETS US WISH AUSTRALIA ALL THE BEST

It was a pity that SL Ind and B'desh were in one group. A failure like that was possible as B'desh is now Sl team in early 80's under Warnapura. Thay can now do an upset in atleast evry 7-8 mathches. Unfortunately the latest one spoilt a more challenging world cup. The good side is B'desh got a wonderful opportunity for a quality exposure. yet the dammage to WC without India is irreparable. No head should fall because of this. If it did, it would show 'they' are only preachers, - This is the true nature of cricket, and it is the beauty of it. This time it is India, next , perhaps , even Australia- Such a leveller cricket is.

I've only come onto this site recently but it has been interesting reading. Some of the posters write like only small changes and a change of coach will help. RUBBISH.
Indian cricket is a festering wound. This has a lot to do with self serving, arrogant players. Sourav Ganguly must be made an example of. He may have picked his form up recently but he is a leech on Indian cricket and society. He is only there for himself. Apparently he could not accept criticism from Greg Chappell.
There may be cultural differences here but I think behaviour like this is intolerable. His agenda has always been divide and rule. Greg deserves credit for having the courage to stand up to this corrupt individual

Hi,
I've been reading and following the WC and other test series the Indian have being playing for some time.I love the game of cricket and hockey.I do not want to add to the chorus of the critics of our failures.Its good to positive of our failures and wins.Forget the past as to what has happened.Now either we forget the game we play or understand as why we want to play the game.Our resources are good, lets make use of it.We have many talented players.The BCCI in their recent jester of putting thing right is the right step to take and are beginning to understand we play cricket and hockey for the sake of a game and bring honour to our country.There is no place for complancey.Let's pull up our socks.

I would like to see Greg Chappell as the coach of the Australian team. Either his manipulations will not be tolerated and he will be shown the door, or he will succeed in pulling down the best cricket team to the standard of ordinary, as he has done with the World Cup Runners up team. Apologies, Mr Buchanann or Australian cricket team in general, I have little against you, just love the prospect of hearing Chappell's excuses THEN.