In between, series were drawn away in England, at home against a New Zealand team that played the percentages beautifully, and a Pakistan team that escaped defeat in Mohali to inflict a final-day mauling in Bangalore. There was a shellacking at Australian hands on home turf in 2004 – with the captain bailing out half an hour before the toss in the decisive Test – and also the now-familiar capitulation in the West Indies, against bowlers who wouldn’t even have been allowed near the nets in Caribbean cricket’s heyday. A good team with three or four batsmen that had legitimate claims to greatness? Perhaps. World-beaters? Only if you were blinded by patriotism and under the influence.

The one-day side’s descent into hell was far more worrying. Having reached the final of the ICC Champions Trophy in 2000 and 2002 – when they shared the trophy with Sri Lanka – India were second only to a magnificent Australian side at the World Cup in 2003. Thereafter, they could put away only the minnows, with an abysmally ineffectual bowling attack and a batting order living on hype being no match for the world’s finest.

The reversal of fortune engineered by the team management since the home season started has been little short of astonishing. The dead wood has been ruthlessly chopped away, and some of the new faces introduced like Suresh Raina and S Sreesanth have the potential to be big players for years to come. But change being a painful process, there has been much resistance, both within the system and without. The resounding success of the one-day side has vindicated those that instigated it, and the relative failure of the Test team is just further proof that you ignore precocious talent at your peril.

India’s dismal defeat at Karachi had a lot to do with an innings for the ages from Kamran Akmal, but it also owed much to the fact that the team management were not given the team that they asked for. Had a Sreesanth or another right-arm pace bowler travelled across the border – those whose reputations were at stake had pleaded the case – there would have been no three-man left-arm attack of mind-numbing sameness. And had those in the know been allowed their way, there would have been no tampering with the batting order to accommodate individuals at such a cost.

What has been especially heartening about the one-day renaissance has been the journey away from the cult of the individual. Each man has been called upon to perform so many roles that it leaves little room for prima donnas or the lazy ones who hold those around them back. While Yuvraj Singh has grabbed the headlines with several innings of incandescent brilliance, the support cast of Tendulkar, Dravid, Raina, Pathan and, especially, Dhoni has been just as influential. The bowling spoils have also been shared around, with the likes of Pathan, RP Singh, Harbhajan, Sreesanth and Powar all producing match-turning performances. And while the lack of form of Sehwag and Kaif has been a worry, the cohesiveness and sense of purpose has been such that the team has endeavoured to nurse them through the rough patch.

Australia’s conservative approach, especially the failure to play the in-form Michael Hussey, cost them the Ashes a year ago. If it can happen to the best, you can imagine what a stick-in-the-mud approach will do to a team like India. Those that contemptuously dismiss the one-day game as an irrelevance also tend to be ignorant of recent history. Australia’s trek to world domination was based on the self-belief instilled by a World Cup win on the subcontinent in 1987, and three of the cornerstones of the side – Steve Waugh, David Boon and Geoff Marsh – were handpicked out of obscurity by a selection panel that included a certain Gregory Stephen Chappell.

At the same time, those that label Dravid a puppet captain haven’t a clue about the team dynamics. Dravid, as evinced by his sterling displays in times of crisis, has always had the ruthless streak that separates the very best from the merely good, and his captaincy, save for the odd blip like the Mumbai toss, has been clever, proactive and characterised by his leading from the front. If McGrath, Warne and Flintoff don’t think him a soft touch, we can safely conclude that those who do are either peddling a certain agenda or a little soft in the head.

Past glories may be recalled and celebrated, but cricket teams don’t win matches on the back of them. The sooner the winds of change wafts through the Test team – Munaf Patel and Sreesanth have already provided a welcome lungful of fresh air – the sooner the chances of it being as competitive and sharp as the one-day version. It would also help if people didn’t kid themselves with delusions of a grandeur that never was.

absolutely correct,a very precise article, specially highlighting the fact that the drop in the team`s one day standards was certainly a worry,none of the test wins recently were fooling anybody, beating sri lanka in a test series at home withthe side completely in rebuilding mode doesnt make us world no. 2 many a times india has lost a test match whenever put under the pump,but this one day side hasnt been like that it has played well under pressure and only augers well for the future

Love is blind, and so is hatred. ofcourse i am not alien to authors dislike towards Ganguly, but i now find it laughable that after all this while, he chooses to blame Ganguly for the Karachi defeat when he batted better then all batsmen other then Yuvraj. The author seems to find fault with Ganguly for all of Indias defeats, may be india lost the mumbai test to England because ganguly was watching the match on TV in calcutta, which made dravid concious of being watched. some hatred you have, Mr. Premachandran!

Chappel with able support from people like Dileep had been successful converting a bowler to a batsman(Irfan) , a wicketkeeper to a batsman -gradually he will become an opener(Dhoni) - and that they call experimentation !!!!

India has got a captain in Dravid who even takes a beating in his statistics as a captain by loosing in the name of experimentation .. Why don't you jsut face the truth - he does not have enough guts to say "No" to Chappel .. does not have that backbone !

All others except for Dravid are making money out of their performances scoring an average < 25 ... India has been lucky in one dayers that they played teams like SA,Eng SL with their class B or C teams!

Dileep - For once pls open your eyes before comparing these teams with Australia without Mcgrath !

Wait for one match where both Irfan and Dhoni fails !!!

Well written...Thanks.

Excellent article and a very accurate analysis. India had never reached the pinnacle in test cricket, notwithstanding the achievements of Ajit Wadekar's side. At best we were a team with dangerous players but we never really had a complete test side with at least two world class fast bowlers (which I think is a pre-requisite to becoming no. 1 team in test)

However, in one dayers we have performed brilliantly in patches and certainly during the period 1983-1987 we were arguably the best side in one day cricket. Then again we did extremely well in 2003 and looking at our crciketing strengths as well as the crave of the masses it is more important for India to become the No. 1 one day side in the world- which I believe is much more pausible than trying to become the No.1 side in test cricket which can only be a distant dream.

Superb article Dileep. But unfortunately the average Ganguly/Indian fan doesnt have the cognitive capacity to understand such a brilliant observation. The fact is that India was an average team because of all the dead weights and only now has the clean up begun. Only in India will you find a team upset its balance to accomodate a batsman like Ganguly (in the Karachi test). I firmly believe that the current thinking in the Indian team is more because of Dravid than Chappel. Finally he has got an opportunity to create a team that can win series abroad and he is doing an awesome job at that. I think in 2 months time he will answer all these nitwits with a series win the WI, but then these crazed Ganguly fans will still say that it was a victory against a B/C/.../Z grade team. Once again thanks for a brilliant article and certainly a zillion times better than the previous post.

India's obsession with past glory has been portrayed extremely well in this article. For years we have put an individual, the charismatic, the poster-boy ahead of the beleagured Indian team. Gavaskar's centuries, Kapil's five-fors, Sachin's sixes and Azhar's brilliance have provided a mask to a monotonous Indian loss. I personally disagree with the handling on the Ganguly affair, but it was time heads rolled when performance dipped. Ganguly's offside brilliance was negated by his weakness to quality seam bowling, his in-your-face attitude had metamorphosed into bending the law (how many times was he reprimanded by the ICC match refree in his last year?) and it was "dada-giri" towards the end. Greg Chappell came with a task and is doing well. And, finally a man who has doned the gloves, opened against Shoaib and had a role in each of the significant victories India posted in the new millenium deserves our support !

Prior to the the Karachi Test defeat, Rahul Dravid gleefully leaked the news to the press that how he leads from the front, and he opened the the innings in the two tests, and scored centuries.he gloated and accepted the Kudos for the those two tests in Pakistan.
By the way, in the second test GANGULY was not playing,Still Dravid made a choice to OPEN......meaning he was confident as a opener.And why not most of the time in his test career, he has semi-opened, because India did not have a decent opening pair.
So, in Karachi Dravid gets 2 and 3 runs and then promptly blames Ganguly for the loss.
Dravid is a south Indian, Dileep Premchandran will ofcourse support Rahul Dravid.Only proves what we have known for years,Its better to immigrate to the US, if you want to escape nepotism in India.

Well written, incisive and balanced article from Dileep. Its guys like Dileep who makes Cricinfo a very interesting website. Even his latest write up on Ricky Ponting is really good. Hopefully he will be our answer to Peter Roebuck. Way to go Dileep.

First of all congrats on starting an enthralling discussion.

I have to agree with Mr. Dileep Premachandran, India was never a great test side. They haven't won enough overseas series to even contemplate being called a great test side. So the question of decline is irrelevant.

The Indian ODI side is however in peak form these days. This is partly becuase Chappel has experimented with a few players in different roles, thus increasing the versatility of the team.

However it is worth noting that Irfan Pathan's bowling in test matches has suffered due to his increasing role as a batsman. Also I think in the long run Dhoni's wicket keeping will suffer due to his prime focus on batting. This was evident in the last test match of the series against England in which he missed crucial chances.

Chappel has done most things right. I feel sick when some of the past cricketers wait for him to commit a mistake and they jump all over him. These Ex- cricketers really out dated in thinking. As far as saurav is concerned one cannot say whether his playing capabilities are iver. But him coming back to the team will for sure disrupt the team unity.

Ooh. I could feel the vitriol ooze through the computer screen. That chip that you carry on your shoulder against Ganguly allied with that torch you hold high for Chappell is really weighing down heavily on your writing Dileep. And clouding your judgement too boot.

If Ashok Malik was a shrill man, you are a high-pitched parakeet.

If you don't see any difference between drawing with Australia in Australia (give or take a McGrath), and drawing with a C-grade England in India on spin-friendly surfaces, you are so blind that I wonder how you locate your underwear in the morning.

Do you need a high-powered torch to explore that drawer?

Good luck.

Hey saurabh u dont seem to watch cricket or u dont know a shit about cricket.South Africa are not a weak one day team by any stretch of imagination.And dont forget India could'nt even win a single series for a year.They are winning,appreciate and shut up.

Ravi Manchandan's comments above is not in good taste - probably should have been blocked. Good he went to the US - given his mindset,looks like Indians living in the US should be wary for he will probably bring in nepotism in that great country and bring India a bad name. Confused Desi.

Indian team needed to change its psyche. There is a famous saying in Australia " legends in their own lunchbox". I feel this would aptly describe the Indian team of old. Change is painful as Mr. Premachandran has correctly pointed out. I think Greg is going to be a good thing for India. Till you can develop some formidable fast bowlers, fit players that are not living on past glory and a sense of purpose for each time you wear the Indian outfit you can't seriously challenge the best. I don't beleive that as a team we have ever been any good in the past because we have lacked consistency and our away record has been abysmal. Surely those unhappy with Greg must see that or they are just blind?

When will Ganguly lovers realize that their beloved's time was up even before Chappell came in the picture? No doubt, Ganguly's place in Indian cricket history is cemented with his leading from the front attitude and awesome batting. He changed the Indian cricket mentality, for the better, thru his captaincy. However, like all good things must come to an end, his tenure in the Indian side did too. And Mr. Sunil Gavaskar has an agenda against our Greg. As soon as there is a loss, he is all over our coach blaming him for everything except the weather. Like an English cricketer said, Gavaskar is like an old fine wine that turned sour. Most of the cricket lovers I know, fully agree.

I agree with Dilip to an extent. We definitely improved our test record under Ganguly, but he is right, we were never world beaters. If that were the case atleast we could have won in zimbabwe and West Indies. Both the series were there to be taking, but we simply did not have bowlers to do the job.

Chappell is atleast trying to identify test class fast bowlers who can win matches abroad.
Just look at pakistan. even though it doesnot have class batsman, still they win abroad due to very good bowlers.

So to be a great test team, we need to have good bowlers and in time we should be able to get them. Not the left handed variety who spray the ball as if it is a farmhouse.

Couldnt have been more precisely written ! I am no SG basher, i am a "Team India should win" guy, and i think those who think that either Dravid is a puppet, or that SG was ousted because of GCs ego, are not even worth being countered. They do not know what they are talking about, and certainly do not know what professinalism is all about. Instead of being angered by these persons, i feel pity at there state of reasoning. This article is perhaps the best i have read in near history, and i am not the one to over rate something frequently, so i really admire the balance and sanity in the article. Thanks, and please keep on writing..how about an article for those baying for Sehwag and Kaif s blood? Sure they are going through lean patch, does not mean every time they go out to bat you keep on reminding them. Also, i worry about the mental states of reporters who shout SG every time they see GC, knowing very well that its an insult to such a good, professional and honourable man to keep on stepping on his raw nerves.

Ganguly played a great innings in karachi? when? i did not see it. As far as i can recall the last great innings i saw from the dada was against australia in australia it has all been down hill since.

DP is right on the money let us face it and admit it we were never a great team we were always a team that had a few great individuals here and there.

It has only been since we have had foreign coaches that we have started to be a team in the true sense of the word. Might be a bitter pill for some but that is how it is.

If we were in the first gear with wright and ganguly we have just shifted gears with chappell-dravid and who knows we might be a really great team when we have another combination few years hence like waugh-dhoni.

Let us not forget that it will be a long journey which will require planning and nurturing especially at school level.

The future definitely looks bright and the future could be lightblue as oppossed to baggy green or orange for that matter.

I wouldn't mind pointing out to Sameer Kaul that Dileep did not "blame Ganguly for the Karachi defeat". In fact he did not even mention Ganguly, he merely pointed to Akmal's blazing ton! Please can we keep the emotive Ganguly issue out of the headlines when it is not relevant.

Unofortunately, the indian media has always found a sapegoat, but they failed to understand a shrewd professional aussie who cares a cropper about things around him. Why dont those so-called ardent fans of Ganguly try and see how Chappell has instilled a new vigour and a new culture in this Indian team. His philosophy is very simple, perform or perish which is the way to go! thaks dileep for refuting the argument made in another article by a ganguly patriot

A typical southie habit of backing up southie, even if it's a insignificant ones. Here to take dravid up he or maybe most of the southies will even make Habibul Bashar a great coach, if he is coaching india and supporting dravid. And it's also typical views that they know the best in cricket atleast so their views should be taken as gospel, as he asserts thru his writings. We shouldn't blame one dileep, he is not at fault, it's typical southie habit. When there were so many west zone player in Indian team and Sunny was the captain, they'd pulled Sunny down, by showing Kapil as greatest Indian and Sunny a mere pedestrian. Now Dravid is theirs, so obviously they'll do this to Ganguly. Just winning now in Indian subcontinent. Let them go abroad and prove then we'll do it. Leave aside test, even one day performance shouldn't be judged when they're played only in India, with , A, B, C teams. So much with experimentation, result, Sehwag failing, Kaif is insecured, venugopal rao is a zombie, pathan is pinch hitter who can bowl, so on and so forth. Thanks God that yuvraj hasn't become a quality spinner who can bat a bit, else we would've been in trouble. And finally, if everything is for world cup Dravid shouldn't be in the team, as he is not fit as a one day player. It's only because to put him in ganguly fought with selectors to pick him as wicket keeper, so that he can be in the team, and indian suffered by missed catches and stumping. If Ganguly hasn't taken him in the team, the fate of Dravid would've been exactly like Laxman.

dont be so parochial ..you're an indian before you're a southie, northie , kannadiga, bong.......if only people like you were never born ...India could be what it deserves to be ...shame on you shitface

Dear Mr. Premachandran,

I think you have stretched things a tad bit to prove your point. You do slight injustice to India's tour of England. Of course England was crap then, but then again, they were crap all through the nineties and we did'nt find it hard to lose to them then (In England ofcourse). I'm sure all of us would agree that that upto the Pakistan tour in 2004, the team was making a steady and noticable move forward and were all looking forward to better days ahead.

This was followed by a decline that should be acknowledged.

Ofcourse it's obvious (to those who don't have wet dreams' featuring the ex- captian) that Dravid and Chappel are doing a fantastic job in stemming that decline and improving. One doesn't need series wins' to know that.

Hi Prema,
I believe you have a power in your pen rather than in your brain. Do you know it is only the Ganguly who has started inclusion of new and young lads in the teams,he only started to drop the zonal quota systems, during his tenure, most of the young players started to get chances to show their mettle, he led the team single handedly to be a runners up in the World cup with a complete new Team India made by him only. There were no Mohinder, no Gavaskar, no Srikant, no Kirmai, no Madanlal. Hi Prema, do you realise the value of these cricketers or understand the quality of these cricketers. Ganguly had no quality palyers like these but the spirit, generated by him in team India, is an unprecedented issue for us. Greg Chappel, following his way with a little bit of more tricks. I strongly believed, Dravid has become today's dravid only due to Ganguly because once he was so out of form in ODI for such a long time or he was so unfit for ODI that he would not get a chance in team eleven had Ganguly followed Greg's performance policy. Since Ganguly had no good quality wicketkeeper-batsman and since he had enough trust and good relation with Dravid, he continued him in ODIs. Who can forget those days.People like Prem can apparently seems to forget all glorious days of our past but most of Indians are not same. That is why, flooding supports from all over the India is coming up for Ganguly, not only from Bengal. We should not be extra happy by beating England or Srilanka or Pakistan because everybody knows that opponents were very weak due to many reasons and still we didn't face opponents with full squad of first eleven players.

A very well written article, which correctly points out we were never a great test side, more so towards the end of Ganguly/Wright era, something which most Ganguly obsessed fans don't realize. However, after opening in two tests and having good success, Dravid didn't think of too much of danger in opening, so the Ganguly factor wasn't the main problem in Karachi. Overall, whether something has been little unfair to a single person (Ganguly) doesn't matter much as the team should be given more preference, which is happening for the first time in last 15 years.

Mr Uttiya's comments are a joke. In this day and age he prefers to divide the country and burdens India's recent ressurgance with a term i like to use as "Southern Backing". He fails to realise that in the end, an Indian is an Indian no matter which part of India he comes from. I am disgraced by his thinking.
Questioning Dravid's place in the team is absurd. Dravid has been the architect of his own fate and deserves his place in the team more than anybody else.
I admire the guts Ganguly showed and by far he is has been the most courageous captain we have had over a long time. But I personally feel that his place in the team has to be questioned due to his lack of performance. At the end of the day, the best eleven must represent the country. Steve Waugh and Ganguly can be spoke of in the same breath as far ruthlessness is concerned. But even Australia did not spare Steve Waugh when he failed to deliver.
Change is a permanent feature and I am sure that this Indian team will traverse great heights in the upcoming years. If Ganguly can get his act together, I am sure there will be a place for him in the team. But only time will tell us of his fate.
And let us all as Indians stop branding our fellow countrymen and take pride in them no matter where they come from. Move forward as one.

Dear Uttiya Misra,

Really accurate analysis. Hope you go on to win the Nobel prize.
Yeah, we Southies are one narrow minded race. We even support Chappel because he hails from South of the equator. We think he's an honourary Southie.

And yeah, Dravid sucks in the one day format, and thanks for opening our eyes to it. For years I supported him for being a fellow Southie, when he's averaged only 47 with the bat in the ODI format over the last four years. Even the current winning streak is a conspiracy hatched by our Southie Gods.

Thanks once again for opening my mind. I wish I were a Bong Dada fan (ooh, many apologies for redundancy). Then I too could have had wet dreams about him.

Dileep is arguably the best writer on cricinfo and this latest article of his presents a very balanced view (in international perspective) of the recent past and the present state of affairs of Indian cricket.

Ganguly lovers (I used to be one) must accept the fact that he probably had lived on the cricket arena beyond his "use by" date.

wll written..gr8 article

What crap is Mr. Uttiya talking about.
southie backing up southie..? and they brought down Sunny for the sake of Kapil..?
Just read your comments once more and you yourself will realise what illogical load of crap its is...

i believe there was an article recently on this site showing dravid as the most consistent captain/batsman in ODIs... with an average close to 50. and recently, with a pretty decent strike rate too, his achilles heel in the past. and he is a team player- he is vital to india's success, especially overseas and i am confident we will see that in the coming months.

those coming out with "typical southie" comments... maybe you should look a bit closer to home for evidence of nepotism. I was an am a ganguly fan, i really hope he can get himself back in the side (as an opener, he has no place anywhere else in ODIs), but fact is india is winning without him. not in the tests, but he has had no significant contribution to our test team ever since that brilliant century in brisbane- he did not deserve to be in the side.

as for sehwag and kaif... if you remember, sehwag has been failing in ODIs for a long, long time. and hasnt been doing great in tests for a while either. kaif was doing brilliantly under chappell until recently, he's just in a run of bad form and i think its a bit ridiculous to blame that on a coach. i do think laxman should be given a fair go in ODIs again though.

brilliant article mr premachandran, keep them coming.

Very well written article,and those morons going southie supports southie ,dravid is from maharashtra.Ganguly supporters should go and get a mental checkup,absolutely no tactical brain and supported ppl who were willing to clean his boots.Akash Chopra,Sanjay Bangar,Murali Kartik were a few players who were chucked out beacause they didnt catch Dada's fancy.The current series win is due to Dravids captaincy now when did i see ganguly exhibit tactical brilliance ... Biting his fingers ..!!

I stand by Dileep.

We shouldn't turn a blind eye to the change in the players' attitude. In the past, we were celebrated chockers when we chased. We have blown away matches for the sheer lack of method in the chasing madness. But now don't we see a difference? Yes, Chappell is a tough nut to crack, and haven't we had too many soft nuts all these years? Man-management is an art, and managing Indian cricket stars calls for supreme skills. Chappell has it in him, be it shrewdness or arrogance.

It is time we kicked the southie-backing-southie argument right in the butt. Come on, for 16 long summers we have been praying for a Mumbaikar.

It boils down to India, and to a winning India. If it takes an Aussie to turn these bunch of players to winners, so be it.

No one wants to take the sheen off Ganguly's glory. No one can delete his numbers -- Chappell cannot retouch Ganguly's or Indian cricket's past.

Some argue that Chappell wants India to win because he is at the helm. Precisely so.

Patriotism apart, when was India giving the best side in the world sleepless nights? We have to accept facts as reality. India have largely been a team hinged on a few brilliant players.

Recent series wins force us to believe in a change.

And, a true fan must hope that the recent performances are not some flashes in the pan.

Dravid is a good captain, and Chappell is no country pumpkin.

Love is definitely blind, or so it seems. Stats don't tell every thing but they do represent "FACTS". Ganguly, the captain averages 33.42 in his last 15 tests. This includes substantial amount of cheapest runs. He should have been dropped long back. At the same time I would like to add that no-one is immune from being dropped.

NO performance => NO Position.

Doesn't matter whether it is Tendulkar, Ganguly or Dravid.

I think that the problems in test cricket have stemmed up from poor batting in second innings. Dravid for now matter how good he is, cannot do a Ponting or an Inzaman in the second innings. We simply don't have it in us to bat it out on the last day of the test. Further, the reason that Pakistan escaped in Mohali (and same with New Zealand) is the poor quality of pitches. The pitches were slow even on the last day offering nothing to Kumble or anyone else. A year ago, Sehwag filled in some of the cracks in batting, but with him failing, those cracks are more evident than ever. I love Tendulkar but hope that he is not shown the same disrespect as Ganguly. Moreover, the poor form of Harbhajan in tests (after his finger injury) has also been worrying. I think that the Test team too needs some revitalization by infusion of young talent something which comes under the perview of the selectors. In that sense, Tendulkar's injury and Kaif's poor form are a chance to see some new talent (Raina???). Lets hope it is not the tentative Ganguly. If he is back, I would prefer vintage Ganguly!

Very well written article indeed!. But a lot of comments still hover around Ganguly, which makes me feel sick. And to add to that there are a couple of hypocrites who are talking about 'Southie habits'. I fail to understand why these comments are published. Some Misra says southies supported Kapil because Gavaskar was not from South. Its hilarious.

But let me not get into it. The article was a very objective one. And although we should be very proud of India's great performances in the Test arena under Ganguly, we should also realise that we never won a series abroad except for the Pakistan series, when the Pak team was definitely at a low. But if anyone thinks that I am taking away credit from Ganguly, they are very much mistaken. If anything, it was a series triumph authored by Dravid who captained in two of the tests and scored a match winning 271 in the last test that Ganguly participated/captained.

I completely agree with Dileep here !!! In fact I've been wondering how this reality hasn't occured to people for this long !!!! Ok, let's forget the improved showing in the last couple of years in Test matches, but when have we really consistently competed/ challenged the top sides ?? I haven't really heard of an incisive indian bowling attack for god knows how long ??????? !!!! When have we consistently kept good batsmen in check ?? The likes of Inzamam, Younis Khan, Yousuf seemed to literally toy with the attack more recently. As for the Indian batsmen, there's no doubt they are world class, but they definitely struggle the moment the ball does even a bit for ordinary bowlers. Boy...I've been thinking that something has been wrong with my honest assesment all along, but Dileep has echoed my views.......however, all this having been said, how do we explain India's ranking as 3rd best in the past few years ??? Surely there's some credibility in this.

Whassup DP? Dont you as a veteran journo want to keep an escape route or two open when things turn to go sour for Team Chappell-More? Maybe save some ammo for yourself when the Team plays away series and in the longer run proves that it is no better or worse than its predecessors, winning some and losing some.
Can your superlative imagination picture an Indian coach (legend, to boot) for the Aussie team, and if you can, then conjure up visions of the coach being eulogised after manipulating the ouster of the Aussie skipper, fingering the Sydney crowd, and experimenting wholesale with the team slots and dismissing the defeats as a part of the eventual winning process? The day you can honestly do so, that day you will stand vindicated.
Meanwhile, I suppose, we have to continue to suffer your one dimensional, logic defying diatribes against a successful ex-skipper and equally prejudiced support for GC and extended to KM and RD. In fact, I suspect, Rahul probably would like to see Saurav back, having mutual respect and trust in each other's performance and support. It is the Team More-Chappell that is afloating, not Team India.

And GS Chappel won more tests for Australia than both Gangully and Tendulkar combined. As much as i love sachin, he was NEVER a matchwinner (the big but crucial contrast with the genius Lara)and seemed always too conservative to do"a Laxman". Some of his devoted fans will say that he could have -well maybe -but the fact is he didn't and it now time to look to the future. As Australia did with Stephen Waugh India must do the same with Gangully and Tendulkar.

I really wish you hadn't named Ganguly in your article. I wager half the comments (I really couldn't read all of them!) are about you being unpatriotic and blaming everything on Ganguly. Of course, your article has nothing to do with it!
India have never been world beaters on the test stage because apart from Kumble, we have never had a single bowler who could really run through sides. Pathan, Sreesanth or anyone else who is performing in one dayers, would probably fall flat on his face in tests. Reason...? Probably a lack of speed. I wonder how Munaf will perform, but I wager in couple of months he too will go Pathan way. Hey - you got to conserve your fitness and you can't bowl fast and still manage to play all the matches!

not quite a great article that people are making it out to be, but some observations are interesting.

Interesting thoughts. I can relate to Premachandran's point of view because I have felt much like him myself. But in India and Pakistan, it would take another 100 years before we stop putting indiviuals above institutions. But absolutley no harm in getting your thoughts across. Very well written too.

Agree with Dileep on the fact that having Chappell has helped move India forward. That does not take away from the fact that there is still lot of room for improvement - the most heartening aspect in recent times has been the fact that the lower order has contributed a lot over the past year or so (yes we need to sort out the batting at top /middle order really quick). With Pathan / Dhoni - its like one more batsman - add Bhajji / Kumble / Powar and that really helps. All of the above have shown the willingness to tough it out which has been noticeable more so in the Chappell era. To give the devil his due - Ganguly / Wright started a tough journey right after the match fixing scandal (Champions Trophy 2000) and Dravid / Chappell are carrying it along. Theres been a few stumbles along the way - but with Ganguly as captain - Indian cricketers visually shed the soft player tag. Chappell and Dravid are making sure that continues but not at the cost of performance.

As a final note lets not be communal in our approach - in the end its all about India - not North / South / East / West.

What becomes clear from all the comments posted is that we as a nation are a confused lot.

Essentially we love mediocrity, we are an emotional bunch who love or hate. Cold logic is as much a part of the Indian psyche as cold cereal is a part of our breakfast.

Rahul Dravid or Saurav Ganguly, Anshuman Gaekwad or Greg Chappell, here are a few unalienable truths:

Cricket is a sport
It takes talent first and then commitment, attitude and hard work to become a good cricketer
It takes a bunch of 11 to 15 good cricketers to make a great cricket team
All great cricket teams will not be so great anymore in a matter of a decade

Great Cricket Teams:

South Africa in the late 60’s
West Indies in the Late 70’s early 80’s
Australia in the late 90’s early 00’s

We were never in that league and still are not. Hence, what’s all the fuss about? Myself, I’m very pleased to see an Indian team winning a one day series where most matches were won by a different cricketer and I don’t have to switch off the TV when Tendulkar gets out or Kapil’s spell is over.

Well , we have been debating on team india's success in the sub continent..
Lets wait & see how they perform outside the subcontinet before labelling all the great experiment.
I personally find GC an [bleep - deleted by editor] & do not think he will servive more than a year...
Lets be honest ,no sporting legend has ever been a great coach,all look good as commentators & post match analysts.
Be it Gavaskar,CG or Bycott..
Most of the legendry coaches have been ordinary players & thus the reason for them to understand & motivate newcomers to believe in themselves & inspire for greatness..
Please DO NOT RUN DOWN SG & JW because there inning is over..
I wish the very best for DRAVID & team India..

Nice article. Here I would like to make a few points. I think both Chappell and Dravid have done a very good job with the team. Also as far as test cricket is concerned ita a specialist task and the team's performance will only improve over a period of time. I also feel that people always pay tributes to the Chappell-Dravid combination and forget that for a change the selection committee also seems to be putting the team's intrests at the forefront rather than there own zones.
Kiran More and the rest of the selectors also need to be appreciated for a job well done!!

There are two issues which are not being touched by many.

First our recent one day victories. All these have been in the sub-continent. Of the 24 matches since Dravid took over as captain, only 5 were played in Pakistan and the rest in India. So i feel it is a bit premature to judge how well we are performing in the one-dayers. Maybe the West Indies tour will give an idea. It is not a perfect idea, the fact that the next World Cup is being played there makes it a useful parameter.

The pitches and the conditions, by a common consensus of experts that mostly consist of past cricketers of the current England series is sub-standard.

On the other hand what the Ganguly-Wright combination achieved was a Test victory in every tour abroad except South Africa. Just recollect the times when Tendulkar gave up captaincy and people will understand what I mean. So berating those victories does nobody any good.

What we now need to achieve in the Test arena is series victory abroad with a higher level of consistency. From the kind of playing eleven that is being chosen for Test matches, I am not sure we are on the right track.

Dileep says India is not a good test side...that is true. However, is it improving in the ODIs? Still to be decided! Yes, they have been under pressure from England...but England are not a good ODI side to begin with even if Trescothick, Vaughn and Giles had been included. Also England places much more emphasis on its Test side than on the ODI as noted by Hoggard. We should not jump to conclusions that India are able to play under pressure just because they win on home ground against a weak England side. India are still building the fundamentals and I think Chappell is taking them in the right direction. The litmus test will be the ultimate prize, the World Cup which is not being held on home conditions. If we get that, then people can celebrate. I think after that time, it will be time to drop Tendulkar from the team and infuse some new talent for the future. We have to be ruthless in order to win. The Aussies did it to Steve Waugh so why do we have to hang on to players who live off past glories. Hopefully more victories in the ODI setup will rub off on the Test side. I also believe we need to give Dravid some time to mature as captain...we gave Ganguly more than 5 years. There is no reason not to think that with all the money that the BCCI have raked in recently (and hopefully will spend wisely) and all the talent that is available in India and the love of the game, that we cannot produce a side as good as the Aussies.

1.This business of cricket being a 'team' game is a bit overrated. I can't think of many sides that scored 400+ without someone getting a hundred. or running through opposition without someone taking 5 wickets. I mean, Aus is supposed to be the ultimate 'team', but everytime Warne and McGrath don't play they look vulnerable...so isn't it all about Individual brilliance?

Having said that, big scores make us tend to forget smaller, yet important contributions in the matches. Taking Dileep's example of 2001 - True VVS dominated minds in Kolkata and rightly so. Dravid's contribution too was huge. Let's not forget, we had a decent opening stand in the second innings - not spectacular, but Das and Ramesh did more than just see of the new ball. Ganguly hung around to get 40+, and Tendulkar grabbed the critical breakthroughs post tea on Day 5. Let's look at the Chennai test. India built the first innings lead thanks to several good scores - Dravid, Sachin , VVS,...in fact in the end a sixer hit by Bahutule in the first innings, Dighe's little knock in the chase, and Zaheer Khan's 0 (yes 0) saw India home.

So, this thing about India's victories being about individual brilliance alone is a bit of nonsense

2. It's a little early to talk about where we are headed as a team - we haven't played outside the subcontinent in a very long time - and that's the real test.. I think the Windies trip will reveal a lot!

Well..we were never really a world class team,ALSO we don`t have any good strike bowlers to take 20 wickets to win a test match.....so there is no question of decline.....BUT the fact is we haven't faced quality teams in ODI's (and if u call ENG,SL,Pak (ODI) good teams then gimme a BREAK)..try doing such things in name of EXPERIMENTS and see what will happen to you against the AUSSIES.....

I am afraid I disagree with Dileep here that India will do well in tests also given time. Its quite appalling that a team who is winning gloriously in ODI's is actually being thrashed around by visitors like mere minnows, where at one point even Australia called it a frontier which it yearned to conquer. But it seems possible now for everyone who comes to India to play tests. It is just because of playing on the flat tracks of one day cricket that batsmen are so used to that they cannot play on seaming tracks at all. Even bowlers struggle to bowl sides out twice because they just dont know how to get batsmen out cheaply. I strongly suggest that this experimentation business should be put aside and team has to be trained or otherwise a minnow will come and embarrass India which will be a real shame.

Good article.One thing i can't digest is the tactics of using 5 bowlers in a one day game which our team is doing now.I can't remember any cricket playing country doing it.Will Dravid and Chappel do the same playing against Australia or Pakistan.This was one of the reasons why we failed in the Jamshapur game.Had Uthappa been played,the story might have been different.

Wonderful article. As far as the question of "world beaters" is concerned, yes it would be people who are "under the influence" who would believe that .... The author might have wanted to make it "under the influence of Ganguly". India's victories abroad have been talked of with great aplomb by Ganguly .... but what were those victories - ONE test in Australia in a DRAWN series (sans McGrath and Warne - no Perth and no lively wickets), ONE test in England in a DRAWN series, EVEN a DRAWN series in Zimbabwe a few years ago, ONE test in WI, in a SERIES LOST no one loses to WI these days), ONE test in SL in a SERIES LOST (Ganguly was livid as I remember as a Kaif inside edge travelled to the boundary for India's winning runs in the Test they won - Ganguly was left 98no ....), an absolute hammering in NZ, and as far as the win in Pakistan is concerned, we all know Dravid captained part of the series. I think it is Ganguly who somehow has the public believing that he had developed a team of world beaters.

And as far as the individual writing about how blame could be apportioned to Ganguly for the Karachi loss .... simple answer - Dravid had to open when he simply isn't an opener - we all know that he failed. At No.3 he might well have guided the innings to safety and the match to a draw.

One of the best articles and straight to the point... Great!!! This current team under GC and RD has a vision and is heading in the right direction. I get irritated by the pro SG unwise comments, Agreed, he had his moments of glory, India's performance improved overseas, but we still did not win a TEST series (other then the Pakistan series). Besides NATWEST we never won a ODI series, and the World Cup run in 2003 was almost 3 years ago... yes we needed to realise that CHANGE was needed & that's now happening.... KEEP IT UP GC and RD....!!!!

Good article...However, I do see Ganguly coming back in the team. If he gets enough practice in his restaurant as a waiter. Maybe he can get a water boys job as a 12th man.

Well said..very well said. Great analysis.

I believe India's performance in tests have been found wanting due to the performance of its batsmen especially in the last day of a test match. Most of India's wins have come when either of Dravid, Laxman, Tendulkar, Sehwag have been able to produce good innings. But of late only Dravid seems to be batting well. Tendulkar's defensive mindset has not helped the team's cause. One does not remember the last time , Tendulkar produced a defining innings which changed the Test Match in India's favor. I agree with Dileep when he says that in a one day match, a fresh face can engineer an immediate turnaround. But for India to win test matches consistently, it is imperative that atleast 2 of the above 4 (Hope that Wasim Jaffer/Yuvrajy are also able to perform more consistently) are able to make good innings.

just wait in case we lose two mickey mouse matches in abu dubai then all these bongs will pounce on us "sothies" the problem is with "them" not us they want ODI success not test success and they are being given ... and yeah for once dileep premachandran hit nail on head saying we have never been close to no1 team in world never closest was probably few years back in australia and pakistan with dravid's runs and certain ganguly "captaincy " sad fact thet even with billion dollars in the kitty unlike ECB in early 2000's who set their stall out to make england the best and now closer then ever before india only money no performance tough times ahead with west indies and south africa in horizon dear sehwag yuvaraj dhoni etc god knows what will happen

This is an interesting article. I am a strong supproter of India (although not from India) and followed most of the games since Wadekar's time. Unfortunatley the selections had to be aware of political consequences which did not help India to do better and select the best from anywhere from India. It looks like it is changing. We should welcome this. Ganguly was great when he was at his peak and it is only fair that he moves on and give an opportunity to an upcoming youngster. Same with Dravid who is doing and excellent job and has to go one day. Greg Chappel with his philosophical touches makes cricket more interesting. I think all the teams undergo a cycle of ups and downs and India cannot be exceptional. India is doing well (as most of the other teams are). We should appreciate and make all the cricketers who are playing for India happy even after they quit. Hope Greg Chappel doesn't need to teach this philosophy to the people who has a long history of philosophy.

Excellent Article Dileep. Always to the point and unbiased.

India was never a consistent test side even under Ganguly. Great sides win consistently. Due credit should be given to Ganguly for imbibing spirit into the team which resulted in wins against Australia and Pakistan and a creditable draw against Australia in their den. What was missing under Ganguly was the foundation to become a great side. Foundation of fitness, discipline, strategy etc. He did not have any of the three. While some may argue that he at least had some strategy I think he was more a man of instinct rather than strategy. If we had the foundation we would not be losing one day and winning the next day. We would be expecting to win (like Australia) rather than hoping to win.

I see that foundation in the current one day team. It will take at least another 6 mo to a year before it starts to show up in the test side.

One of the readers posted a comment that while Dravid scored 2 or 3 runs, Ganguly batted the best in the Karachi test. Instead of opening himself Dravid should have made Ganguly open. Then he would have scored -5 (his runs – number of times he hops around for short balls). India lost the match because they did not take a regular opening batsman to take the shine of the ball.

While it is sad the way they dumped Ganguly, there was no other choice. The man did not want to leave so had to be pushed out.
Dravid has all the right qualities to be the best captain India had. Judging by the number of victories is not the correct measurement. It rather should the number of series abroad and at home as separate categories.

Dileep, kudos to you for writing a sensible article.

We all know that the Indian team with youngsters was groomed by the Ganguly-Wright combination. Ganguly did a great job and was one of the finest One Day players to have played for India and the best captain who looked into the future. But as someone has said we cannot live in past glory.

In our daily life we come across Managers who live on past glory and who do nothing worthwhile to justify their position. They just sit, earn the big bucks, praise their seniors and continue to torment subordinates and give no results for any growth.
We always think that we should blow the whistle and expose these guys to the upper Management and get in some new guy who could forge ahead.

When Chappel took over, Ganguly was in his past glory. And Chappel like a true professional, not caring about anything blew the whistle and wanted to look ahead. Appreciate the boldness in this approach and he has taken the hierarchial system by storm. It has given us positive results in the One day version. I am sure it is going to give great results in the test arena too.

Once we get the two fast bowlers who perform consistently, we have a great test side. I do not see any decline. There are only a lot of positives.

And please let us not talk about North-South divide atleast when talking cricket.

In today's world performance matters. Not past glory. Kaif and Sehwag if they are great players will fight back from the slump. I am sure Tendulkar and Laxman will be back in the test arena to the normal self. So guys a lot of positive stuff is coming out now which will definitely augur well for the future.

Cheers

Arun Paul

An explanation for the 'agitation': Many of these fans detest Chappell personally because Chappell has a personal agenda. They were shocked that Ganguly was dropped especially for the tests v England, after he had done more than enough at Karachi. The fault in that Pak test was poor individual form. These fans wonder why Chappell had not reversed the poor form. Instead he picked on some experienced pros like Ganguly and Laxman to humiliated and unstablised them. His preference all along had been to bring in ODI specialists like Yuvraj into the test team. They admit the ODI team had lost its way before Chappell. Now, having done well in ODIs, it seems his focus is entirely on the WC. Ganguly had presided over a great ODI team effort to reach the finals of the 2003 edition. These fans are not sure whether Chappell's team can even repeat that feat. Overall, they felt the test team was well led under Ganguly and had performed admirably. Now test performances are going to the dogs. By the way, Ganguly has been a great ODI player. Then why is he excluded from the ODIs?- Is Kaif worth more than Ganguly? Is Sehwag a better opener than what Ganguly has been and can be again? Chappell should keep an open mind about these things.

For all you Ganguly supporters (I cannot understand the blind faith or logic behind it) - let me ask you this - who made Yuvraj open in the Tests (we all know why). Who forced his way onto the tour of Pakistan at the expense of perhaps a Kaif or a youngster he likes to say he backed. And who stooped to the lowest levels to undermine Laxman's confidence in Zimbabwe in an effort to keep his own place in the team (by telling Laxman that Chappell didn't want him in the team). There are so many of these examples - these come straight to mind without too much thought.

When will you all realise that it was always all about himself and never about the team. YOUNGSTERS?? He'd rather be in the team by hook or by crook at the expense of any of the yougsters that he claims he backed.

Dileep Premchandran has hit the nail on the head. Ganguly overstayed by about 18 months. Zaheer and Nehra had the talent but never developed their all round potential. India as a test team has been average at best. Since 2001 India has had 6 great players but 5 average ones too and that dont make a good team. No test team cant afford average players and India has had 4 or 5! Dravid's team will achieve greatness in both tests and ODIs in the future, because for once India has a mix of GREAT and GOOD Players unlike in the past when there were a surfeit of average ones making up the numbers with the greats.

Sir

It is very disgraceful that Cricinfo is publishing comments such as those from Ravi Manchandani and Uttiya Misra.

I hope one day Chappell does not throw out a 'Northie' cricketer and make Irfan Pathan captain - And some poor kid named Iqbal writes in favour of that. The above individuals will be talking about how the team is being hijacked by some Islamic conspiracy.

Southie? Does that mean anything? Since when did people start being chauvinistic about a meaningless geographic entity like South India? It is as intelligent as saying that Tendulkar will support Sreesanth because they both smell the Arabian sea in their houses.

I hope individuals like this are a really small minority.

Guys

Dont u have anything else to do, why r v wasting our time on this...Do u think the cricketers or the coaches care to what we say...Worry about your job your family and your life, there are so many things to achieve...Lets watch cricket and leave there once the match gets over...

Mr. Dileep

i agree that mr. chappell has transformed our one day team by inducting young energy & zeal into it. greg has got da best out of pathan, dhoni etc. but do note that all these 1-day wins under greg have come in sub-continent (india, pakistan) where ball rarely goes above stump height.also it is not easy to chase scores above 250 in SA,NZ, AUS etc. like we hav been doin now.we cant be sure if dhoni, pathan, raina will perform abroad if promoted up the order . so it is too early to judge the 1-day team's performance.

but dont be so biased against ganguly. he was one of india' s best captains who took India to the No.2 side in tests & ODI in 2003-04. he instilled mental toughness in the side & had a gr8 eye for spotting talent. he backed guyz like sehwag, yuvraj, zaheer, kaif, nehra all the time & they delivered. probably, ganguly & wright failed to maintain the high standards they had set for themselves & the team,
but such things happen.

There are too many who have hopped-on to the "Love Ganguly, Hate Chapell" bandwagon. It's time these folks realize that in modern day cricket a player is only as good as his last performance. One simply cannot be allowed a free ride on account of past glories. Dileep's analysis is spot-on. India were never really a good test cricket team. There have been sparks of brilliance now and then but they've been due to individual accomplishments rather than the whole team performing. The transformation in the team in the one day game is yet to translate into success at the test arena but with the right set of players test cricket glory cannot be too far. To all the Northie-Southie bashers/hatemongers I have only one thing to say - "Please get back into the holes you've emerged from. Your stench is just unbearable". Keep up the good work Dileep.

dear arun, i ll leave aside my cricket credentials away for a while. i just want to make a suggestion. you were too excited to write your piece in which you say, i know a s*** about the game. well you might be right but you dint realise that what you were talking about was not posted by me at all. if you will see carefully the person who posts something, his name is written at the bottom of the piece not on top. i can understand, you probably got too moved by what the the next person has written.
some people have written that Dileep has not talked about ganguly at all, well, i feel quite sure that when he talks about, to accommodate certain individuals, he is looking at ganguly. plus if we visit cricinfo often we can understand. there are times when i have read an article first and knew, oh Dileep is at it again, and then checked the author to be Dileep. But the silver lining is, for every dileep there is a rahul bhattacharya. who wrote that wonderfully balanced article, praising and criticising Ganguly where it was due. and please dont react, Ganguly saga is not over. Fighter that he was and is, He will come back to play a "Test".

what may be a problem for india going forward in onedays and has been already a problem in tests is the obsession with playing 5 full time bowlers. Statements like we need 5 full time bowlers to win matches especially abroad do not appear to have been based on verification of facts of consistently winning sides. In one days if we have 4 full time bowlers and 2 good part timers like yuvraj and sehwag, where is the need for a 5th full time bolwer. Invariably the 5th full time bowler bowls not more than 5 overs and is usually the most expensive. The argument that you need 5 bowlers to win matches overseas seems even more faulty because pitches outside india especially in australia/england/s.africa tend to help bowlers more than subcontinental pitches and hence 4 bowlers should be able to do the job in such conditions. Infact, india has usually won matches where the batsmen have aggressively dominated scoring at more than 3.5 runs an over. this can happen only if we have 6 batsmen .. else if two wickets fall quickly the rest of the batsmen go into a shell ..as in the back of their minds is a long tail..and one has to just look back at recent indian batting history to note that indian batsmen have invariably lost their way when they go into a shell..

Mr Premchandran,
Leave it or take it, ganguly was the best captain india ever had.He might be arrongant, he might be biased towards few players but he was never selfish. I am so distressed by the treatment given to ganguly, look at dravid, in his "hey" days he was pathetic as a one day player, so ganguly asked him to keep wickets so that he can be in the team and now dravid doesn't want ganguly in the team. Look at EX-master blaster shewag, he came into the Indian team because of ganguly ( ganguly always favoured shewag,bhajii, yuvraj )and now Shewag thinks ganguly is a closed chapter. I know I am diverting from the topic, but I just want to show how much hurt I am because of the treatment given to ganguly. Mark my words, ganguly will be back in team again...sooner or later.

It is a refreshing article after the bile juice we have had to endure about india's drop in test form.In all the hysteria we forget how india batted in the first 2 tests in pakistan and dominated england in tests in india.Maybe we still lack the incisive bowlers who can wrap up entire team and have some batsmen in their twilight years but as dileep put it ,it takes longer to build a test team and some deadwood choopping needs to be done which won't be easy.We have trusted chapell so far who has lived up to it admirably .There is no reason why we should't now

So, after bashing ganguly it looks like the article is also saying John wright is a good coach but he wasnt best at that time. I guess you couldnt find any other words to describe ganguly as everyone has used everybit of theirs and now it is the turn of Wright to face the music of words. Please, remember if not for john wright, we wouldnt have chappell today, we wouldnt have so called "Team India" today. Well, agreed India is doing well in ODI format, no doubt just that we will have new opener every game until sachin arrives, then we will have new one drop batsmen for every game which is hailed as strategy or experimentation. I am very surprised that we are yet to figure out the best 11 for the world cup which is a year away and we will hardly have 30 ODI's from now till world cup. As per DP article, under Ganguly/Wright era if drawing against England in England (DP calls it England B team - FYI it was almost the same team which had levelled the series when it toured India - remember flintoff did not shine in that series) , levelling series against Australia in Australia, winning against Pak were not good and cannot be considered excellent for a team that was only loosing away then i dont understand how can home series victory aginst SL and England (the current touring side is worse than the one that had toured India before), Pak series victory in Pak, drawn series against SA in ODI format which India is supposedly excelling now can be considered as an acheivement. Yes, India are doing better but in no ways these feats aginst SL, pak and Eng can be considered as an acheivement. DP had mentioned that in Aus (2003 series) they did not have Mcgrath and Warne, but can anyone point out any team that had levelled a test series in Aus apart from india. During that time even Pak toured Aus that too with sohaib on their side, but the result Pak was washed away in all the 3 test matches. Coming to Karachi test, people have said that Dravid was forced to open in order to accomodate ganguly, dont we all know about famous animation between dravid, chappell and ganguly on the eve of first test match in Pak, it was widely described as dravid asking ganguly to open and ganguly declining it. This comment was emphasized by Nasser Hussain who was commenting with Imran khan for a TV channell; But later all of us know that ganguly wanted to open and dravid wanted to take on the mantle upon himself. So, kindly stop the non-sense that dravid opened because of ganguly declining it. When dravid was so particular that he wanted to open inspite of ganguly willing to, i just dont understand why has he hesitated to do that previously. Does this mean he will lead by example only when he is the captain???? Sorry for these words on dravid but thats how it looks to be. How can all of a sudden even when the other person is ready to open, dravid decides against it and he opens the batting. The same thing is now happening in ODI, if Dravid is so reluctant to open and the current opener sehwag is not performing with sachin also there, doesnt it makes sense to give ganguly an opportunity. After all sachin and ganguly formed a formidable opening partnership until ganguly sacrificed his opening position for sehwag. Well if ganguly is not fit for ODI format, is it on the basis of running between the wickets or batting or fielding? If it is running between the wickets then please take a look at the cricinfo article for people involved in run outs(running himself out and running the opposite end batsmen out), you will get an answer to it. Then for fielding agreed ganguly is not a great athelete, is sehwag an excellent fielder??? If India is willing to accomodate and wait for sehwag to get back to form even for one year of not scoring a century, then i dont see any wrong in giving chances to ganguly who has been the second person to score more then 10,000 ODI runs. What is being asked here to give chances not to keep him team if he is not performing. The botton line is ganguly was not removed when he had to be and removed when he was showing enough promise. If people are talking about karachi test and ahmedabad test against SL, please refer to articles by Arjuna ranatunga and others they will tell you who batted better in both the test matches. So stop throwing tantrums on ganguly and ask Chappell's boys to move ahead by defining a role for everyone. One thing which strikes me is everytime chappell describes sachin role as mentor.... what is he meaning??? Wasnt sachin offering any advice to team members before chappell came, he is portraying it as though it was his new strategy and no one else who is as senior as sachin in other teams are doing it. The other side of it appears like even if sachin doesnt score heavily, he will be in the team because the team doesnt have any mentors apart from sachin. Please mark my previous words, i had referred as sachin doesnt score heavily and i did not say sachin not scoring, so dont pounce upon me that i am aginst sachin. No way!!!! had ganguly exhibited the same silence 5 years back as what dravid is doing now, i wonder who would have been the captain now?????????

Excellent article, Dilip! For once we have someone who can think, analyze and articulate well. For those Ganguly-lovers, remember that it was the same “Prince” who was reprimanded and fined more times than you can count. Whats so Princely about that? And Gavaskar… Well if you even remotely remember his times , he always played for his records and NEVER for the team. It was the same Gavaskar who said –back in 2000 ---that Dravid is not suitable for the one-day games. Gavaskar always had an agenda. First it was his record and now his son Rohan. For once, we have a team that thinks and plays as ONE unit and the credit goes (partially) to Ganguly/Wright and Greg/Dravid.

If we cant celebrate victory and give credit where it is due, we don’t deserve to be part of ANY sport , leave alone cricket.

Excellent article, Dileep. Indian cricket's evolution has been half dimensional over the past decades – and mostly headed south. There has been little or no evolution in attitude, culture or results. It has always been a few good, face-saving, performers amidst plethora of loses. Greg and Rahul are adopting an "evolution in a test tube" approach, to instill in the team all that it failed to nurture during all these decades, within the short period they have in hand. Kudos to the much improved selectors, team management, Team India and a growing breed of honest writers like Dileep. It’s natural for sports men to fall. But champions get up, dust themselves and move ahead, instead of rolling around.

Great incisive article Dileep..and whats necessary to remember is that the personnel in the team have remained more or less the same in both form of the games(with certain notable changes!!!)...hence them doing well in ODI's and not so well in tests means that are extraneous factors affecting the performance in the test arena...and we all know what they are don't we...do the alphabets SG and the meddling politics of the BCCI ring a bell??!

The article made lot of sense. Even then, I would argue that our one day success should not be hyped to this extent. It would make more sense for India to play tournaments with 3 or 4 teams and win a series.I personally do not see a point in playing 1 team 7 times and emerge a winner. It does not convey anything about how we are going to perform in the world cup.We need 2 more teams to compete against and a cup to play for.
All we are doing right now is decorating our stats.I wonder what new plans they would come for the same players 7 times and still lose the 6 th one day.It does not make sense.
I hope Sehwag and Kaif set an example right away by going back to domestic cricket and get their errors rectified. In sehwag I see a ganguly, some one who cannot come out of his comfort zone and try to improve as a player. I am sure kaif will.

I think this article is more precise and less sensationalist than Ashok Malik's. I certainly disagree, as the author does, that India has failed or declined as a Test team since Chappell's arrival.

However, this is not, as the author suggests, simply because there wasn't anything to decline from, for one cannot simply throw aside the progress the Test side made under the Ganguly-Wright combination. True, the home record went a little awry, but neither Ganguly nor Wright are to blame for that. You can't expect touring sides to not be able to adjust to Indian conditions after 20-30 years of telling experience. However, if you look at our abysmal away record: not having won a Test abroad for time immemorial, the resurgence led by Ganguly and Wright was more than laudable.

Nothing has changed under Chappell really. There hasn't been a decline, to be honest. Let's not forget that the first two Test matches of the Pakistan series were played in conditions which were literally paradise on Earth for batsmen. And two-three sessions which cost us the Karachi match can hardly be labelled as decline.

What then remains is the recent drawn series against England. Again, this failure was more because England were more than inspirational in the last Test match...again, two sessions that sealed our fate.

At the same time, the same team tasted cake-walk type success against Sri Lanka at home last year. One cannot discount that... Chappell really hasn't done anything different to the Test team.

And also the fact that in series against pakistan, most of Pakistan Middle-Order was woefully out of form. The only man scoring runs was Shoaib Malik and still they chased 330 runs.

Well written article. There are some worrying trends in our test team. The team's inability to play Mohd Asif well in helpful conditions cost them the Karachi match along with Akmals fantastic fight back.

Apart from Dravid the rest of the team including Tendulkar based on his form over the last three years will always struggle against quality bowling in helpful conditions and worse we are unable to play spin in helpful conditions too as seen in last series in Srilanka.
Apart from Tendulkar's wretched form, I frankly cannot see Sehwag lasting any longer at the top of the order. He is not out of form -- he has been completely worked out. He will always struggle against good opposition and the sooner the team and he himself realises--it will be better for the team.

Hey guys It OK.
These are just comments, his comments its not possible that they might be true or right. Its OK to have opinions.
And yes he is right. I think dravid is the best thing that has happened to india in recent times he plays as if his life is on the line. Ganguly; good captian a fighting one, but made one of the biggest mistakes in his life by giving the world cup of 2003 to Ausies. He won the Toss and gave them a chance to Bat. Well that is the only descision I think he made bad. Rest this column is about the indian wins and losses and just like a pakistani writer he writes that when they win its against a B team and when they loose its like all hell broke loose. This is amazing..... Leave it man let them play. They play to their full potential. The play good cricket thats all. Tendulker the guy you ppl praise the most is not that good a winner as dravid. There is a joke that us friends have that whenever Tendulker makes a century against any big team India looses. So I sometimes curse them pakistani bowlers when they get him out in the 90s. Hey man let him make his hundred its a passport to our success. Cheers mate its all a joke thats all. I went to Karachi Test All the way just to see him play. He didnt play there for long but every single of his shots is a mastery of placement and power. Other than that i think leaving the old behind and thinking about the future is what all should do. otherwise England might not have never won the ashes. The key players of that side had never played a test against the ausies and did not know what defeat was all about. Thats why they were good. So we should accept new blood and give them time.

Dileep, Dileep,

How can you now forget the famous one at Headingley,
When you the speak of the greatest of them three,
For this was a match that had a certain mister crawley,
allegedly the best player of spin and turn in the old blighty
And though that was a song by the bat chomping ozzy,
We know that was a test match worthy,
of a mention in the greatest of them three.

surely, you agree?

Thanks for a great article, Dileep. While, as you say, the test team performance has not yet declined, it has to be recognized that it is in grave danger of doing so. The greedy and shortsighted BCCI effect (due to scheduling of an insane number of meaningless ODIs that crowd an already packed test schedule) is likely to dominate over the constructive efforts of the Chappel-Dravid combo.

The ODI team has been successful because of its bench strength - the only way to sustain performance with a crazy schedule. It is much more difficult to create a pool of 20 players for test cricket than it is for ODIs, as you need specialists for the longer version of the game.

DP, S Kaul, U Mishra and everyone else.....

Why is that we are unable to analyse the current Indian without bringing in SG and comparisons? Can you people respond to Dileep's piece without bringing in SG? Try doing that!

In comparison, let me also point out that the English supporters are looking at the ODI whitewash (immediately after their great victories in the recent past) in a different perspective - not bashing Nasser Hussain or bringing in Geoff Boycott or anyone else.

Grow up Indian fan / supporter!!!

Dearest CyberPunk,
As you said Akash Chopra,Sanjay Bangar,Murali Kartik never got dad's fancy but how come I don't see them in the team now ?
I think "Jammy" is very busy eating "jam". One last thing,
the only reason these guys didn't play because you can only play 11 players in a match.

The author is in an illusion. Look at the england team Trescothick, Vaughan, Jones, Harmison are out. With the bat and ball they can contribute significantly and a win against an English team without these guys cannot be treated as a benchmark for Indian Team. Imagine if Australian team scores more than 300 in the world cup finals will any of our players stand up to it and take the Aussie attack to swords. I think you are jumping into a conclusion very early. Our bits and pieces team is not capable of putting in desparate fight till the end and that too under this rate of experimentations and our major run machines out of order.

why drop only gc ????.drop sachin. in last 10 tests he averages 28.50 which includes a 100 against SL. but no 50s.in last 15 tests it is 34.70 excluding bangladesh.Just recall a test
in past 3yrs that sachin has won for india

ok that's fine with me that india never been a good test team, but atleast ganguly gelled some ordinary players and he was heading to become a world beater. but rash indian politics lead by bizzare dravid who was a mere pedistrian ODI player when ganguly included him in the team india being constantly opposed by giants. lets forget all, resurgence of indian team is not due to dravid or chappel, it is just due to four player
1. yuraj is in prime form
2. dhoni is great player
3. pathan is lucky getting away
4. harbhajan is unplayable on indian tracks.
but on the other end apart from yuraj they are ineffective in tests. i realy blame dravid and chappel for defeat in mumbai as they dropped inform kaif and included out of sorts tendulkar and sehwag. had kaif been in indian team they would have won the series. shame on chappel, drvid and particulrly management for this blamish.

Great article. I agree with most of what was said. Inda was good in test cricket for a while because of the big 5 and still did not win much apart from a few tests because Team india lacked test match winning bowlers. However though I am no SG lover, I think they shud have included SG atleast for the dead rubbers against END and the 2 odis in abu dabi. They could have seen what he is worth as a batsman and a part time bowler. If he failed they would have had reason to dump him for good and shut his followers up. If he had performed team India would have got back its greatest openeing pair of all time "Sachin and Saurav" and Shewag cud have been pushed back to the middle order. Oppurtunity wasted. Though I understand Greg's hatred towards SG (Who would ever like a person who talks to the media abt team talk.... it was a cheap stunt that too for a scratchy 100 against a club attack of Zim) I think Greg should learn to forgive SG and give SG one last chance for the good of Indian cricket.
If SG performs good for team India... if he fails then good too... SG can be a closed chapter and cant haunt Team India.
Anyone saying Dravid is a puppet and soft should just shut up. Listen to what yuvraj had to say abt Dravid. He said by openeing against Pak when the team was in trouble made the team envy and respect him. Who are we to sit at home and comment on a person whom we know nothing about. A person need to spew obscenities, strip naked and dance in a balcony, break the ICC rulings to be aggressive. Dravid has proved he is a rock and his opponents respect him for that. So all you Dravid bashers can just shut up and enjoy what he is doing for Team India. If not for Rahul Team India would have not won any of those famous tests that SG is taking credit for.

I believe that Dileep_Premachandran got it mostly right. The ICC test and ODI rankings may not be an absolute measure of the performance of the current teams but here is where it stood immediately after Ganguly was capta