While there may not be a decline in India's Test fortunes, they're certainly a better one-day side than a Test side. This is partly because the skills required for the two forms of the game are somewhat different, and you need wicket-taking bowlers to win Test matches. Except for brief periods of time in their history, India haven't had consistently match-winning bowlers, particularly outside the subcontinent.

So my first question is: Is this something endemic to India that they produce world-class batsmen all the time, but never enough world-class bowlers at the same time? If so, are they condemned to being a second-rate Test side? And if not, do you hope in the new breed of young Indian bowlers that is coming up now?

Since this millenium began, there has been a change in the values of the Indian team. There's been a premium on fitness, on fielding, on, running between wickets, on psychological toughness, and so on. India's taken a noticable step up, but not enough to be consistent world beaters. So my second question is: What do you think is the next step that India need to take to get there? Do you think they're on the way?

My third and final question is this: if you were the coach of India, what are the first five things you would do to make this team even better? Particulars please: don't stick to generalities like "I would play more youngsters in the team." Who would you bring in, who would you leave out? What are the hard decisions you would take? C'mon, put yourself in Chappell's shoes and lay it out!

I would first get back into the habit of playing 6 batsmen. If pathan and dhoni make that look like 8 so be it. thats true of all world beaters..their batting will go till the end.

assess whethe a players technique is good for test / one dayers consistently. YV Rao looks far better a test player and too slow for one dayers ? but he has played 10 one dayers and nil tests.

play players when in form. when dinesh mongia was in tremondous form, he never got a chance..so did kaif..but kaif gets pots of chances when not in form ? so will mongia eventually... and is mongia not a better test player ?

dont have too many players who cant play horizontal bat shots . sehwag may be an exception..but adding Uthappa who cant play on backfoot ?

develop another leg spinner..dont play him for one test as the third spinner.. he will not develop..if it is amit mishra or piyush chawla ..they should get to play in tests atleast in the dead rubbers and definitely against weaker teams?

and finally, the dravids. sehwags and tendulkars should not play against teams bangladesh and kenya .they should be compulsorily rested in such matches..that would whet their appetite for better performance against the better teams

India's recent ODI success is making us believe that we have also arrived as a Test team. Easily forgotten is the fact that in ODI's it is the batsmen who throw their bats at every thing! In Test matches, they do not do it.The bowlers have to earn each wicket.

My recipe for a three notch improvement is:

A captain must inspire other players by showing his faith and trust in them both on and off the field.
A coach is required to make substantial constructive sugegstions in the way the players should adapt to a certain situation.
Both these factors are variables that must always be focussed upon. Most importantly,when a coach assumes a greater image than the captain, it is not going to help.
The selectors must show respect to players that they select and also to those they do not select. Loose talk by the Chairman of the selectors, about the former skipper has caused the most damaging effect on the moral of the general cricketer. If this can happen to the most successful Indian captain - then where is the rule of the rationale ? Arbitrary and biased opinions expressed in the media cannot be helping the cause of the team very much, notwithstanding the efforts of the captain.

So, get a new band of selectors in the first place.
Improve the wickets to encourage the bowlers to develop into test match bowlers.
Let the coach only provide substantial suggestions regarding playing aspects and not deviate into other activities.
Let the captain set good examples on and off the field and be honest in the press conference when asked awkward questions.

All these are necessary to improve the performance of a Test team.

I thoroughly enjoy these discussions, I agree with you in that we need to step aside from looking solely at the personalities involved and look at the situation objectively. Take for example Australia, they have had great players for a long time, genuine match winners. These players have come and gone, only for new ones to emerge in time, yet there is one constant, their dominance of the world game regardless of the personnel. This I think is due in large part to the culture, a culture that puts a premium on winning, no matter the cost to the egos involved or the expense. I'm an Indian living in Canada and I've played at the club level in Mumbai and now in Canada. It's amazing to think back at the wealth of talent India has in cricket, and I truly believe that we can dominate the world game much the same as Australia have, but first we have to change the culture. The culture of instant gratification. We have to be prepared to go through growing pains in order to reach greatness. My first suggestion, and I think the most important one, would be to change the way we select our teams. We need to do away with the Zonal systems and establish a paid panel like they have in Australia. Secondly the BCCI needs to spend its money to revamp facilities, employ more coaches, better pitches with even surface and a decent bounce. I don't advocate giving up our home advantage in the spin department but unless our batsmen, who are constantly being lauded as worldbeaters only to succumb on pacier tracks, learn how to counter bounce and movement we will forever be lions at home and lambs abroad. Another department we need to work on is our bowling, as your piece suggested. We have the funds now, why shouldn't our young bowlers have someone to help them, focus on them and mould their talents? And lastly, I would say we as Indians need to realise that the road to change and progress is paved with many hardships and sure it'll be a bumpy ride, but whats the alternative, the same mediocre overseas record while we champion our home series? I think India has everything going for it and as an ardent supporter of Indian cricket I for one, once in my life want to see India be world champions in both forms of the game, not just one day cricket.

The first thing that Chappell is doing wrong is the over insistence on the youth players. Its always good to have youth players in the team, but the dangerous ways he s brooding them is out of this world and completely illogical. When Chappell took over from Wright, India were a good test side and weak ODI side and now the fortunes are reversed. Why ? The first reason was again -- weird experimentation. In Pakistan for 3 tests we had Dravid and Sehwag as openers. Besides 2 openers were cooling heels in the dressing room. Besides former skipper was ruthlessly dumped though he played better than most of his esteemed colleagues in the team in Karachi test. And just for a duck in Nagpur, Laxman was dropped for the next 2. We need to have proper mix of youth and experince. Thanks to heaven, Chappell is not fishing with Kumble in Tests, else to promote Chawla, he would drop Kumble -- the lone Indian match winning bowler since Kapil.

Axe non performers, but then have same criteria for all. Kaif is been retained in the team for what ? I bet Saurav has a better scoreline than Kaif in last few ODIs. Why is Sehwag dropped for 2 ODIs in row now ? To brood Uthappa ? Or to have a slow scoring Rao in the team who cant improvise, who cant run hard, who cant accelarate.

Time to sit and have a fresh plan for TESTS. Have same line up that won us so many historic tests in this decade. I dont feel there is any need to tamper with the test side that last played against SL at home.

First question: The fact that India had not produce that many world class bowler as it is producing fluent batsman is nothing to do with player. It has something to do with the reluctant attitude of BCCI to make fast track pitch to suit bowler. Again, it might be partly due to the inclination of public toward great batsman than bowler. Of course, public enjoy high score matches than low score matches. But there need to be a balance in this continental pitch to suit fast bowler. There are definitely talents in India, but it might not have right environment or support to make a world class bowler as they are doing for batsman.

Second Question: In order to be a world bitter, it would be better if they will not go by name, rather by performances. No matter who are they, if they are not performing well, they should step down to give other more chances until they have gained their form back. Cricket at domestic level always plays a great role in building a player’s game. Unfortunately, the facilities and training currently available at domestic level is not enough to develop the skill required for international level match.

Third Question: This is little bit hard and requires more expertise to answer which I don’t have. But the basic rules are always true for anyone. Few of them are outlined below.

1) Find the flaws in the players before other team find out and work on them.
2) Give performance more priority than name of player
3) Don't neglect fielding
3) I (specialist in batting) will recommend separate coach for bowling if the bowler found it hard to improve under my guidance.

i thihk india have started to improve their attitudes about certain aspects of the game. They still have long way to go but they have really started to improve

The first five things the Indian team should be doing are-
1. Do not pick Ganguly. Forget his past glories, its not going to get any easier for him even if he comes back, not to speak of potential fractionism rearing its ugly head again.
2. No harm playing Laxman for the tests. Like Ganguly, he is not getting any fitter, a no go for the ODIs.
3. Players with fitness problems should not be in this team, whether its Sehwag or a newcomer. The fielding has to set EXTREMELY high standards- everyone should be as good as Kaif or Yuvraj, to just name a couple.
4. Players like Sreesanth, Munaf, Powar, etc. must be given a long rope to prove themselves. They could also try and be better batters, so at least they won't resemble Srinath and Prasad in that department- allow them as much batting as possible too.
5. PLEASE change Indian pitches. The earlier we start developing bouncier pitches, the better it will be for Indian cricket.
The next step for India would be to visit places like South Africa, Australia, etc. regularly.They might not do well the first time, but remember that the Africans and the Aussies too achieved test series wins on Indian soil after a LOT of matches on Indian soil. See how regularly Australia has been visiting India in the last decade- there is a huge lesson to learn here!
Bowlers win matches, no secret there. We need to find both spinners as well as fast (not medium fast) bowlers. Again, these barren times will change when we start improving the pitches for the bowlers. There's always been plenty of encouragement for batsmen in India, hardly ever for the bowlers. How can we produce the bowlers we need if we don't even give them the pitches they need to hone their craft on? There's only so much a teacher like Dennis Lillee can do if his students are not given the proper environment.

As far as the first question was concerned, I believe that in the short term we have the firepower but not quite enough to consistently bowl out teams. Therefore a long term strategy has to be put in place. I would force the BCCI to spend its money buying infrastructure and honing new talents in the rural and small town centres with a specific goal of unearthing new bowlers and I would hope that this would bear fruit in 2 years time.

As far as the 2nd question is concerned, I think our fielding standards have improved considerably and it will only improve further. Laggards in the field will have no option but to shape up or ship out as has already been demonstrated, irrespective of thier considerable skills.

Thirdly, as Coach of the Indian team , I would do the following 5 things:

- Force the BCCI to open a state of the Art Sports Injury treatment and rehabililation centre in India (preferably in Bangalore to go with the NCA)
- Swallow my pride and bring back Ganguly for the West Indies tour with a clear caveat indicating that his fitness and fielding have to be top notch and that he will put to the cleaners on that perspective.
- Bring Suresh Raina and Mohammed Kaif into the test Team
- Build a good reserve wicketkeeper batsmen - Dinesh Kaartick maybe a choice. Dhoni will have an injury sometime or the other and we cannot afford to have emergency replacements at that time who doesnt have adequate exposure.
- Hire a bowling Coach and have periodic stints at the MRF academy for all the existing bowlers (Sreenath, Irfan, Munaf, Agarkar, R Singh, VRV Singh)

Have a fast bowler as selector, even better as captain...
when was the lat time india had decent pace attack??? during 80s..who was the captain?

It is imperative for sub continent teams to have fast bolwers at the helm to produce the batteries..

what would I do first five things...

1- Get dennis lillee as the fast bowling coach, if nt available

2- Ask sachin to retire from ODIs and concentrate on Test cricket replaced by saurav in ODIs.

3- Jaffer and sehwag to open till the end of 2006 in Tests.

4-

5- Tell irfan pathan - he is not an allrounder till he takes 250 wkt in Tests.

Q1: Its always difficult 2 get world beater bowlers (ask W.I or Aus now). Prudent thing 2 do is try available resources (which v r doing now, pity v didn't do that when Kuruvilla was in his prime).

Q2&3: Yes. I would just continue Chappells good work,, that is to work on the weaknesses (which every1 can c),Strength: Middle order,Spinners,Good keeperbatsman. Weakness:Openers,Facing Pace Bowling, Pace Bowlers, Improve all around fielding.

Chappell is doing a Sterling job bro.

First question

Yes India are condemned to be a second rate Test playing nation as they have never produced and not in the forseeable future will produce a genuine fast bowler. Forget a fast bowler, not even a genuine match-winner spin bowler. I know lot of people would say that we have Kumble, but Kumble is not in the same league as say Shane Warne and Murli.

We can at best hope to win a few test matches here and there against sundry oppositions at home and should be content to draw series abroad

Second Question

This tough one what with a greedy board everything else except profit booking takes a backseat. If we really want to be world beaters we need to model our domestic cricket on Australian lines. We need more competitive wickets and yes for one days we need more domestic tournaments. Also, we should spot players with exceptional talent rather than ones who score heavily in domestic circuit bu clearly have technique shortcomings to make it big on international level. And please only bouncy and grassy pitches that encourage fast bowling. Also we need to lay more stress on physical fitness in junior level as fast bowlers need more fitness and grooming and ofcourse a planned diet. India hardly has bowler with muscles to throw at 150 kmph.

third question
1. Play less matches so there is no cause for burnout like we are now seeing with Indian team at abu Dhabi
2. Drop players who do not perform so that they can go back to play domestic cricket
3. Ask all players to keenly contest in domestic matches as that will always help them in keeping their techniques up to date. They can experiment more to fix their shortcomings w/o pressure of international matches
4. Fix the batting order. Constantly rotating the batting order is sometimes detrimental. Yes in exceptional circumstances you may tinker but you need specialists for each position in the batting order.
5.Fielding is still a concern. Need more drills to improve that esp catching in close positions
Also, need to improve running btw wickets and how to rotate strikes. Remember not all pitches are conducive to strokemaking and infact one of the biggest drawback of Indian team in both versions is the lack of rotation of strike either when anchoring or when attacking.

Come on cricinfo. Please get away from this INDIAN CRICKET obsession. There is more to cricket than India. Bring up some other topics. Wicket to Wicket is too good to be only for Indian cricket.

**Is this something endemic to India that they produce world-class batsmen all the time, but never enough world-class bowlers at the same time? If so, are they condemned to being a second-rate Test side? And if not, do you hope in the new breed of young Indian bowlers that is coming up now?** - The twist is that the current 'downturn' in Indian test situation has more to do with batting failures (whatever reasons) than bowling. I don't think we've produced any less bowling stars in the past 5-10 years as batting ones. For Rahul, Saurav, Yuvraj, Sehwag we also have Harbhajan, Pathan, Kumble, Zaheer, Srinath.

**So my second question is: What do you think is the next step that India need to take to get there? Do you think they're on the way?** - in ODIs yes, in tests no. Because they still don't believe in their abilities so much in test matches. Often we find captains making same on-field mistakes, being defensive and reactive. And too much importance is given to individuals rather than team performance. Fans and media don't help either.

**If you were the coach of India, what are the first five things you would do to make this team even better?** - I would talk of tests, for in ODIs I think we're ok (except that we cannot play five regular bowlers, even if we have Pathan, against a strong opposition). In tests I would (a)Check out which 5 of my 7 batsmen are in best form in nets and give them a whole series. No changes at all. (b) Make the situation clear to each batsman - where they stand, and whether their place is on the line. If not, make that clear as well. (c)Force the BCCI to get a first rate bowling coach (not a prima-donna, a real coach) (d) Make sure that the bowlers, atleast the top 4 permanent ones, get to work with the bowling coach for a long time. Plot exactly for every opposition batsman..and work on the bowlers accuracy to bowl as per those plans (I have the English attack, and their rise in recent times, in mind) (e) Get the BCC to work on a better balance between tests and ODIs. Specifically not to alternate between high intensity test series...then ODIs..then another high intensity test series. Doesn't help the momentum of the players. I understand that we do need to play a certain number of ODIs..but they can be planned better.

Our bowling looks promising, we have some classy bowlers now. All we need is little application from other batsmen in tests. We can bring in Ganguly,Laxman and the rest of India but it wont work till they are not consistent. Maybe a little coaching from Dravid and a more planned approach to building a total!

Got to agree with Sarith. This obsession with India is annoying. Cricinfo have these long articles berating the ICC for going after the money, but since India is probably the biggest market for cricinfo, India seems to have taken over the whole of this site. Seems a case of pot calling the kettle black. When was the last long debate on what ails the West Indies which will be a greater loss to test cricket than if India are third or fourth. Maybe there is no money in that and so no debate.

Experiment with attitude too - if we can experiment with composition, why not with approach?

For example, we all know Sachin likes to attack the bowling, and usually, with his technique, bowlers are ruined within the first ten overs in ODIs, when he attacks. If that's his natural game, what in heavens' name is he doing playing slow?

Today's bowlers are not as fit as Kapil used to be, so rotation is a good policy. I would keep them all on their toes, by keeping a solid bench strength and playing any bowler only if he is 100% fired up for each match. Bowlers win matches.

I would also make India constantly play to its strengths. WHY should we prepare bouncier pitches, when many other countries already offer that? Sure, our players would get better at playing outside, but there is no need to be ashamed of slow turners. If that is our strength, to bowl slow and grind out oppositions on our spinning pitches, THAT is a great way to nail the opposition teams in tests.

We don't see South Africa and Australia preparing slow turners so they can play better on subcontinental tracks, do we?

First things first, let us not disrespect the achivements of people who we adored not so long ago. So with due respect to the previous regime, I start my observations from Chappel's views.
1. We have too many stroke makers in the team, which is good for one dayers but not for tests. So I would get a couple of grafters in the test team.
2. Primary job role would be defined. If you are a bowler, then your first job is to bowl well. If you score well its an added advantage, but that in isolation wont secure your place in team.
3. I would request the board to prepare different pitches in different parts of the country, depending on conditions. For example, Mumbai would be a spin paradise, Mohali for seamers, Chennai for sportive wickets etc. First class matches should be played in such diverse conditions and a player would be assessed on his performance on all these pitches. This also developes our bowling dept.
4. I would stay away from controversy and concentrate on the job in hand.
5. I would have a grading point system to assess a player's performance in a match. It would also have points for basics that needs to be followed by every player like feet movement, pacing his innings etc., for batsmen and maintaining line and length for bowlers and alertness for fielders.

I would give the following suggestions

a) Scout for genuine fast bowlers with talent. Get them to practice with the main team. Abid nabi, Munaf patel to name a few
b) Venugopal Rao, Is a better test player than Yuvraj singh. So let us get our priorities right.
c) We know that test cricket is getting exciting as more players play their shots. But we need players with good defensive technique as well. Thus This should be the first criteria before selecting the test team for abroad.
d) Coach has to actively work with Indian coaches to scout talent and spot them early. Just like Imran used to do. If not for Imran's vision, Wasim Akram would never had played for Pakistan. We should forget about the triple centurions at the domestic level. There are far too many of them.

I would like to add my 2 cents worth .
I compare the form of India with NZ. Since John Bracewell tok over the reins , it seems the NZ team is amazing in ODI's but dissmal in tests. I think the same is with India. dont know but unless the Indian Team start to Win test matches or even be competitive , i guess the slide will continue....
Cheers

Greg Chappell has heralded a new level of work culture in the team and this has to be improved on. Results matter and not names .
Fast bowlers are going to be the matchwinners most of the time abroad unless you have players like Warne or Murali.Kumble has been a great contributer to Indian cricket but cannot compare with Warne/murali.
Spinners should be groomed but not pampered by preparing vicious turners . This will only expose them when they bowl elsewhere.
Fielding should be a priority as is the case currently.
Players like Sehwag should take more pride in scoring runs consistently rather than being flamboyent.

short answer..

india is not capable of doing anything.

Five changes I would make to improve the test side:

+ Play ODIs first. In form players then get a lookin for the test side. No more than 5 matches in a bilateral series.

+ Sachin has to open. Its time. He has been protected long enough and needs to take matters into his own hand.

+ XI in India should be Sachin, Sehwag, Dravid, Laxman, Yuvi, Kaif, Dhoni, Pathan, Kumble, Bhajji, Munaf / Sreesanth / whoever is in form from the ODIs. Overseas substitute Bhajji for a fast bowler while developing Sehwag and Yuvi's spin bowling. Sachin, Dravid, Kaif and Pathan are the cogs around which natural stroke players such as Sehwag, Laxman, Yuvi and Dhoni will flourish.

+ Pathan doesn't have to be Flintoff. He needs to be Jason Gillespie. When you get in, get set for bed and breakfast. He is a bowling allrounder regardless of role in ODIs.

+ Keep the likes of Raina, Gambhir, Rao in the XV to build confidence and add much needed zest to the team. They will keep the Laxmans, Sehwags and Kaifs on their toes.

And can we collectively forget about Sourav Ganguly. Yeah, dada was great and he showed that India belonged. Now its important for India to go to the next stage and play consistent, attacking and attractive cricket.

With regards to the first question, I don’t think that there is a shortage of young talented bowlers coming through. The only problem is developing that talent and realising the potential shown. The hype over current bowlers such as Sreesanth and Munaf Patel seems similar to that shown in the emergence of Zaheer Khan and Nehra and where are they now? The problem lies in the development process. It seems that these talented bowlers are thrown in at a young age and from then on given very little guidance to aid development. The Australians, obviously the best Test team in the world, spot talent early and rather than throw then straight into the test team they send them to a training camp, send them on A tours and give them County experience. In this method, they eliminate the ‘false hopes’ and when the players are brought into international reckoning they are the finished product.
The second question required a lot more thought. The turn-around of the India team has been noticeable and the focus on fitness has been crucial to this. Also instilling a winning and tougher ‘never say die’ mentality is starting to show through. Although this has been the case in the International Arena, it is rarely shown through the regional matches. For India to be a world beater, the focus on fitness, fielding and mentality has to be spread through the game in India all the way down to grass roots cricket.
The first five things I would do to make the team better?
1)bring in a full time bowling coach of international quality (see the affect that Troy Cooley had on the England Bowling)
2)Drop Kaif for the one day team and bring in Uthappa and allow Sehwag to bat in (what I gather to be) his favoured position in the middle order
3)Bring a clear conclusion the the Ganguly issue (can he come back or not?!) as this is obviously a disrupting factor
The other 2, I don’t know. That will have to depend on where the India team goes over the next few months.

To begin with, the way i see it Greg Chapell is doing a good job with what he has been entrusted. Let us not forget that he was made coach to help india win the world cup, there were no other targets set for him. In essence his strategy of experimenting in home matches and checking out the bench strength resembles what the aussies having been doing for years in the VB series or C & U series, whatever they were called at the time. When touring away as India will to the West Indies will be the time when we will see our best 11 take the ground everyday. Although i wouldnt get rid of Laxman and Saurav so soon, i would start grooming youngsters to take their place. The whole idea of filling the dressing room with kids is not that good, coz it is necessary to have sane heads in the room. Agreed Rahul, Sachin & Greg are pretty sane themselves, a few more wouldnt help.
Also a bit more concentration on the spin bowling department, i think the way Greg is going about trying to build up a good bench strength of fast bowlers is good for the team if the world cup were held in Australia or SA. In the West Indies pitches will be slow and helpful to good spinners, therfore it is would not be too foolish to get Anil Kumble back in, afterall the man is in form and his pedigree cannot be questioned.The way the youngsters are being groomed it seems we are already planning for 2011, a bit more big match experince is needed at the world cup and that is in abundance with the people i have mentioned above, although i am not questioing the undeniable potential of Raina & Co. i would like a bit more experience in my team any day.

The first thing I would do is to drop Harbhajan and bring Piyush Chawla into the side in his place. Harbhajan has been bowling the wrong line and lenghth consistently for the past year.Another thing that needs to done is to give the vice-captaincy to Yuvraj which would also send Sehwag the message that he can't take his place for granted in the side. And I think we only need to play 4 bowlers. Yuvraj, Sehwag and Sachin are competent enough to bowl 10-15 overs amongst themselves if not probably more efficient.

First Question- Easy India has forever given more gloss to their past batsman than any bowler so kids want all the glory, most turn to batting, pitches in India favour batting and batting only until we fix the pitches there is no way we will produce any world class bowlers.

Second Question in my opinion is not a pressing matter and not important to answer.

Third Question- My 5 changes as India coach will be.

1. Make the hard decision we need to drop Tendulkar from test match cricket now before he embarasses himself, i'm a great fan of Tendulkar perhaps my favourite player of all time but he is just not performing in test matches and he has to go.

2. Bring Mohammad Kaif into the test side it seems like the time is ripe for him to be a permanent in the test team though his one day form has been nothing short of pathetic he has performed well in his minimum test chances.

3. Stop trying players like Venugopal Rao and VRV Singh the board has to think some players aren't good eough for international cricket. Though Rao has been a prolific scorer in first class matches there is a big difference in Indian Ranji Trohpy and Internantion matches and VRV Singh touted as India's fastest bowler has been in the team without any real good performances we need to realise something pace is not everything you also need the accuracy.

4. Encourage Pathan to increase his speed. Though i did say earlier speed isn't everything, Pathan has the accuracy and swing but the reasons he has been ineffective in tests is that he bowles Shaun Pollock speed and thats just not gonna cut it.

5. I would turn my back on players such as Ganguly and Laxman there time is over and now its Yuvraj's and Kaif's and Suresh Raina's turn.

I haven't thought long enough to post 5 suggestions, and will get back if I have. But I would like to suggest something very specific - the position of Virender Sehwag in the batting order.

This is not an reaction to his recent problems against the rearing short pitched delivery. Even if he manages to start hooking brilliantly, what I would like to see is Sehwag bat in the middle order - atleast in the ODI's. He has never been great shakes as a ODI opener. A Sehwag in the middle order would be brilliant. His unorthodox stroke play and also his penchant for stroke play will mean that he will make sure India wont get bogged down in the middle overs. And also if he stays till the end(which he rearely manages to do when he opens), he can be devastating in the end.

In this context I would also like to bring Ganguly back as an opener in ODI's. (If his fielding is a concern, then so is Sehwag's). and I would drop Kaif. Even if his fielding saves 20 runs, scrapping single digit scores is not going to be enough. Besides, there is no suitable slot for him in the ODI's. He dosent have the power to play the big strokes and so is useless batting at No. 5 or lower, unless the top order collapses and then too he is normally a part of the collapse.

And besides, you cant ignore the class of Ganguly, or the 10000 ODI runs. I would pick Ganguly ahead of Kaif anyday.

And this would also mean getting back the Ganguly - Tendulkar combine, easily the most succesful openng pair in ODI's ever - with 25,000 ODI runs between them.

So this would be my ODI batting order.

1) S. Tendulkar
2) S. Ganguly
3) R. Dravid
4)/5) Y. Singh / V.Sehwag
6) S. Raina
7) M.S. Dhoni
8) I. Pathan
with Pathan or Dhoni to be used as floaters batting at 3,4 or 7,8.

The argument that India doesn't produce world class bowlers due to lack of fast pitches is rubbish.

Pakistan has similar pitches and look at their record.

Wow, this is some oppurtunity. I have little idea about how Greg does his coaching but if I was in his shoes :
1)Introduce new fielding drills for the team, decide on players specialist fielding positions in advance like silly point, short leg point and having specific drills for the players. Practice hitting the stumps from point cover, mid on, mid off etc.
2) Work on the mental side of players probably use a specialist, I believe India had one for a short time. Basically hammer the thought "Winning is everything" everything else is secondary.
3) Make sure the team has enough practice pitches of all kinds turners, bouncy, seaming, also suggest BCCI to have different pitches in all the cricket centers in India.
4) Set bowling drills or better hire a bowling coach.
5) Make sure that anybody who thinks he is more important than the team, does not play for India again.

first i dont see the reason why we playing these mickey mouse tourneys in abu dhabi etc and still we aspire to be first rate test side ... if only we had not wasted sachin tendulkar in sharjah maybe ponting would never have come close and now will go on to break sachin records
next we need to develop cricket at grassroots whats the use of having billion dollars focus on cricketers who are at cross roads like 16-19 who will have to ponder over job and cricket
then more talent will come across ignore 24 channels who go over moon with u-19 world cup coz its shown live whereas say 21 yr old performer in ranji trohpy is ignored since its not on tv hope board is not so silly
finally protect fast bowlers like munaf sreesanth and vrv from odi develop a system where every fast bowler can reach next level in india after one season bowlers drop unlike ntini or harmison who after ordinary start become good bowlers

World class bowlers: hard to find, current crop is good enough.

India are on their way to being world beaters, but need time. We need to wait and see.

1. Improve the pitches throughout India. Until we produce a good variety of pitches that support both pace and spin bowlers, our bowling potential won't quite be achieved.

2. In general, introduce batsmen through one-day cricket and bowlers through test cricket. This will do their confidence a world of good. VRV Singh is the latest example.

3. Have a regular A team for fringe players so that there is stiff competition for places in the national squad. Select the players who are most likely to earn a call-up in this A team, not worn out done deals like Badani, Bahutule and Mongia.

4. Conduct occasional specialist camps for pace bowlers, spin bowlers and batsmen. These can be used to assess and develop raw prospects in the mold of VR Singh, Abid Nabi, Cheteshwar Pujara and Piyush Chawla.

5. Play 5 batsmen in one-day matches right now. Develop talented part-timers such as Yuvraj, Raina, Rao and Sehwag. If we have a good group of part-timers, we can play 6 batsmen and have the deepest lineup in world cricket. In tests, play 6 batsmen until Dhoni and Pathan have proven themselves as test-class #6 and #7 batsmen, respectively. Munaf and Sreesanth need to play, so a 3-2 combination should only be used if Powar or Chawla are included as handy lower-order bats to partner Pathan and Kumble.

One-Day: Sehwag, Tendulkar, Dravid, Yuvraj, Raina, Dhoni, Pathan, Powar, Harbhajan, Munaf, Sreesanth
Reserves ~ Uthappa/Dhawan, Kaif/Rao, Agarkar/Paul, RPS/VRV

Test: Sehwag, Jaffer, Dravid, Tendulkar, Laxman, Yuvraj, Dhoni, Pathan, Kumble, Harbhajan/Munaf, Sreesanth
Reserves ~ Gambhir/Dhawan, Raina/Kaif/Rao, RPS/VRV, RPS/VRV/Paul/Powar, Karthik overseas

I think we lost the last one dayer to Pakistan due to the change at the no 3 position in the batting lineup. I think Dhoni should definitely bat higher in the order and should have come at no 3 instead of Irfan. I think that was a mistake by Dravid.

The Chappell-Dravid era, if it can be termed that, has been experimenting a little too much. I am sure a lot of people will agree. Such an approach should be reserved for a successful team like Australia and not for a team whose fortunes are forever fluctuating in both forms of the game. Today Dravid is acting as an opener in ODIs!
Since I am free to express my views in a forum (I am sure people will diasgree with some of my views), here goes:
1. Stick with a core of 16 players from today with an eye on the world cup 2007.
2. STOP experimenting
3. Let the team watch a video of the SA-AUS match where the South Africans dared to dream about chasing 400+. This Indian team is too timid led by a captain who is happy to stonewall and avoid defeat rather than push for victory. e.g. He did not want to chase 350-odd on a dead pitch at Nagpur against a third-rate English team. He has undone all the good work done by his predecessor, a man who answers to the name of Sourav Ganguly. Trust me, had Sourav been at the helm we'd never have lost at Mumbai and would have triumphed 2-0. Think about it.
4. Stop ill treating VVS Laxman, the man who has produced the greatest innings in modern cricket.
5. Dravid should not forget the second tenet of batting - don't waste scoring opportunities and kill the game with a dead bat. He follows the first tenet very well - occupy the crease. Unless he does this he will not be a great batsman only a good one. What is the point of being technically sound when you cannot force the pace of the game?

Sehwag should stop opening in the one days. He has shows signs of weakness against short pitched deliverys and pace bowling.

One person who has been able to tackle short pitched deliverys is no other than....Dhoni.
Remeber the test against pakistan when he scored 148?, hooking shoaibs bouncer when the whole top order had been devastated.

So here is my point Dhoni and sachin should open in the one days.

Also if you think about it...saching and sewag are both right handed...both about the same size...and have very similar attacking style.There is not enough variety in the pair.Ideally a left/right combo would be perfect but Dhoni being much taller than sachin and having a diffrent batting style would do.

So here is the team (One day)

Sachin Tendulkar
Mahn. Dhoni
Rahul Dravid
Yuvi
Sehwag
Kaif
Raina
Pathan
Sreesanth

2 from below, depending on the pitch.

Harbajan/ Powar / Munaf Patel/ Rp singh.

Also Kumble should be picked for the world cup.We need him.

DO YOU GUYS AGREE?...LET ME KNOW.

I am starting to get really irritated by fellow Indian 'fans' as well as the incessantly loud and trumpeting media. The media obsession and Star News 'match-ki-mujrim' type stuff has GOT to stop.

And You know, I often wonder if Indian team selection meetings are a bit like some of the blog and forum debates on Indian cricket - countless people spewing forth verbiage, a whole plethora of arm chair cricketers (who insist that not playing the game makes them all the more objective and qualified to comment on the team situation!) each with their genius plan on what needs to be done to change the Indian team. Lots of people presenting thesis, and everyone going way over eachother's heads. I really do wonder if Indian cricket is run just like this.

indian batting lacks flexiblity thats why they fail if the pitch has some thing to offer to bowlers,and that also contributes to there failure in second innings of tests which in addition to ordinary test bowling (excepts kumble) they are not at par with pakistan or england in tests.
indian quickies can't handle the old ball well which is obvious in tests...
so if id be chappel i would hunt for geniune quickies like munaf patel who is a good find and for batsmen i would make them practice in seam and spin friendly pitches.

My plan would be..

1) My team is not confined to 11 or 15 it would be 30.. All 30 should attend all the camps before series whether particular player is playing the series or not. let every one know that whether they are playing or not.. they are selected for Indian team and should be proud about it
2) with dravid constantly watch their fitness and form of each player.
3) spend time with players who are outof form.
4) rotate the players from the pool depending on opposition, conditions (like Rao in bouncy conditions) and form. let the players know where they stand and what needs to be done to get a revard.
5) If 15 are selected for the series and the rest should also visit different countries to play with A teams
5)give powar and Rao a chance in tests (in india) and find 2-3 leg spinners who could replace kumble in next 2-3 years.
6) convince BCCI for Spin acadamy
7) keep the video library of all the recent and old matches at the BCCI office and any player(1st class) could borrow it.

Nothing wrong with the talent..it is just the team spirit and pride to play for india

In my opinion fielding and running between the wickets should be the prime objectives along with bowlers who can bat.
Munaf Patel and VRV Singh should be encouraged to improve their technique, pace, batting and fielding in domestic and India A games before being thrown into one dayers. Bowling squad seems fine though I'd like to see Amit Mishra and Piyush Chawla more.
In one dayers we need players like Yuvraj and Sehwag contributing with the ball so as to accomodate an extra batsmen. We only need 4 main bowlers, Pathan and Bhajji are proven while Sreesanth and Agarkar also look the part.
In Tests, need the quicks to be more aggressive, RP Singh looks like a flop and he will only be a backup player so need Pathan and Sreesanth to lead the attack (possibly Munaf Patel).

India has a powerful Test Batting Team , an average bowling team , this is the primary reason for the average performances in the tests. In the one dayers you can survive and win with such weakness, not in tests.

Pace bowlers hunt in pairs;we need 2 really good genuine pace bowlers. This is the key to our success;in or outside the subcontinent.We always had one good bowler and then a not so good support act.This will kill both the team and the one good bowler.The recent English team showed how a team with a good bowling attack can test and even win against a powerful star studded batting team.

These are my recommendations:

Form a team of experienced cricketers (primarily pace bowlers/bowling coaches)and send them around the country and assemble a group of 25 or 30 talented Pace bowlers.
Put them in a "Cricket Fast Bowling Academy" and teach them not just Pace bowling, how to be a pace bowler. What kind of character , attitude is required to be pace bowler.
We need Tall , Aggressive pace bowlers who can take 20 wickets consistently.

Conduct scheduled tournaments on Bowler friendly pitches. This will help every team to look for pace bowlers and will naturally bring in pace talent.
Have yearly Cricket matches between a team containing the best fast bowling talent within the country and the Indian Batting lineup on bowler friendly pitches.

To summarize:
If india had two 6 ft 5" genuine [90 miles/hour] Pace bowlers we will be world beaters today. The current pace bowling group is good , but they are only good as a support act not to lead a world class test bowling attack.

Possible answer to Ist question: In my opinion, to win matches abroad we need batsman who can play on foreign pictes. This curent batch of bowlers seem pretty good. We need to give them a good total to defend. More than anything else, I have seen Indian batsman fail on pitches slighly unfriendlier than they are used to (even at home like in Nagpur).

Second Question: I think the players who give high priority to their fitness and have right kind of temprament have to be encouraged. We need players who realize that playing for India is a rare chance and who can rise to the occaisson (more like Aussie rookies who are so good)

Finally, If I were the Indian coach, I would:
1) prepare Yuvraj (instead of sehwag) to be Indian captain so that he can fill in for Dravid when he leaves.
2) Bring VVS laxman back in the test side (and push him to be fitter).

3) push for the reduction in the number of matches being played or atleast form a core group of 20 players who can be rotated to ease pressure on everybody. This is esp true for the bowlers.
4) throw challenges at the players and see who are up to those challneges pretty much like what Draid and Chappell doing right now. keep the guys hungry for more and not letting them being complacent.
5) keep the curent bunch on their toes by giving people like Utthapa chances (sehwag hit a rare 50 after he wasnt played in the first match at Abu dhabi)

I would play more youngsters in the team.

How many domestic teams do India have, anyway? 28? 30? Either way, it's too many. Reduce the number of teams to say 10, with a relegation system at the end of each season and make it so that only the players from the top 10 are eligible for national selection. After all, if the domestic standard improves, then surely the international standard must as well. Anyway, that's just an outsider's view; I don't know how workable it is.

All the Woulda-Coulda-Shouldas lying in the sun
Talking about all the things they woulda-coulda-shoulda done
But all the Woulda-Coulda-Shouldas all ran and hid
From one little Did
-Shel Silverstein

I suppose I cant say anything better than Shel. However may I just add that speculations about what Ganguly would have done are worthless. The fact is he did'nt with what he had.

1st Question:

Perhaps, it is endemic in India.
I don't know which one came first -- focus of the national team on batsmen, or focus of the roots on batting.

Batting is most important at the very roots of Indian cricket [gali cricket, or inside the home cricket in Mumbai] - kids want a chance to bat. Only rarely someone wants to be in the team only as a bowler or a fielder! Teams that win the toss, almost invariably select to bat in most "friendly" games.

Other way round: For some reason, a Gavaskar/Tendulkar makes a wider impact than a Bishen Singh Bedi, or even a Kapil Dev. 100s of kids would aspire to be a Gavaskar, but only 10 want to be a Kapil Dev, less who want to be Bishen Singh Bedi. How many new bowlers say that they have been influenced by Anil Kumble? Compare that with the number of new batsman that say they are influenced by Sachin Tendulkar?

The problem is also predictions such as fast bowlers alone can win us matches. Right now, we might be coming up with a breed of fast bowlers, but we may not have the same number of spinners coming in. When the youth realiize that spin is the focus, automatically, getting a good number of good new spinners will be a problem.

Are they condemned to a second-rate test side? Yes, as long as we do not have players who are the real best - from 11 to 1. Too much one-day cricket is played and as long as good batting is equated with good strike-rate, we may have a problem in breeding players who are patient - which I think is the key to test cricket! Although exaggerated, "Test" means really testing cricket and one-day means "one-day wonder" kind of cricket!

But, as an Indian who has hoped (and sincerely believed) that India can win every single world cup and every single tournament and match that they have played, I believe that in another 5 years they will be a first-rate test side.

2nd Question:

I think that they are on their way. I believed that at most times we have lacked the psychological toughness and balance and ability and will to never give away. In the youngsters, I think that we are seeing some of that.

3rd Question:

These are my goals, really - not exactly methods and only 4. I had a hard time thinking....

1. Balance the amount of cricket that is being played by the cricketers.
2. I am a famous person (I assume this). Go to the roots and talk with youngsters about cricket and the future. Players need to play with fervor even for Ranji matches. Playing for India should not be the sole goal.
3. I also need psychological support and toughness to handle such a team and keep up the focus. I will keep a personal psych support at all times. If a Ganguly wants to come back and if he is good enough, I would like to have no problems with that. I have to be one in the team!
4. Cricket in India is a public pressure. I want to take steps to see if the people understand cricketers, their life and the fact that they are human.

Bring back sourav ganguly. He was the man of the series in WI last time. If selectors can back kaif and shewag for there past record, then why not sourav? After that ask sachin to open with sourav till world cup.

If these thinks are not possible sack more. He is bore.

Guru

I think we need to develop bowlers desperately from ourlimited pool of talent .Our major drawback is we got world class batsmen in dozens ,but these batsmen need support of match winning bowlers to win series consistently. Lets look back at Pakistan in the 90's. A combination of batsmen and bowlers who won tons of matches for them.

What we can do to develop bowlers is first of all pick up atleast a dozen promising bowlers and appoint a bowling coach ,who will develop them. Greg Chapell should consult him on who needs rest and who needs real time practice.This way we can develop a pool of players but still not burn them out as it seems the case with Irfan pathan might soon turn out to be.

I think one more innovative idea would be to hold a challenger type of series where our best batsmen are pitched against the best bowlers of country.Lets say a series of 10 matches where we will have pitches of all different kinds for the bowlers and batsmen to practice against each other.

The real talented bowlers and batsmen who pass this acid test will definetly win us laurels abroad.

Players like Romesh Powar or bowlers who can bowl should be given extra practice to become hard hitting batsmen like Afridi. They should be assured that their batting wont chop their place from team if it fails. But imagine if we have two bowlers who are smashers of the ball. The opposition will be more worried about them most of the time.

I agree they will play a defining innings once in five matches maybe but isnt that what Afridi does.

Last but not least teams like Kenya , Bangladesh and others need to be developed ,but we have to rest our main bowlers and batsmen in those series.Why develop them at cost of our main players.This way our main players will be fresh and raring to go against the better teams.

First Question:

The problem in the past and present has always been not being able to produce fast/spin bowlers at the same rate batsmen are produced. The ratio has always been lopsided. If you go back from 1990 to current, India have produced 12 quality batsman (Sidhu, Manjerekar, Azhar, Srikanth, Jadeja, Kambli, Tendulkar, Ganguly, Dravid, Sehwag, Laxman, Mongia) compared to 6 fast bowlers (Prabhakar, Srinath, Agarkar, Zaheer Khan, Pathan, Nehra) and 2 spinners (Kumble, Bhajji). If you look at the batsmen list I have not included Yuvraj, and Dhoni who are quality batsmen. Then look at also Prabhakar who was a quality bowler and became quality batsmen in later stage before getting nubbed for bribe scandal. In fact at one point before getting nubbed he was opening batsman for India. Pathan is similar to Prabhakar who is quality bowler and now becoming quality batsman. How many batsmen from India have become quality bowlers? NONE.

Even though we have 6 quality fast bowlers, we had only 2, (Srinath and Prabhakar), up until late 90s that we got 4 more. But at that time Srinath and Prabhakar retired and left us with completely amateur bowlers. Also, in past 15 years India has only produced 2 spinners (that’s pathetic). The way to win the game is not just playing all veterans or all youngsters or mostly relying on batsman, but to have combination. Rightnow, India has very good veteran batsmen but none in bowlers. If you watch the game, when youngster is betting, veteran is there to provide him support psychologically and intellectually. When youngster like Pathan (who is now becoming veteran) is bowling and not doing well, you don’t have any support staff. Getting support for bowling from Dravid or Tendulkar who are batsmen never works. Well mistakes have been done, but we can avoid that in the future. In every game from now on India should have 2 fast bowlers (Pathan and 1 other) and 2 spinners (Bhaji/Kumble and 1 other) so that young bowlers can get their support and when Pathan and Bhaji retire in future these youngsters will be veterans providing support. I like Dravid as captain more than Ganguly and Chappell as coach more than Wright; however, Chappell and Dravid are experimenting without using any particular tactics. They want to experiment then they should always put 5 bowlers in test team. Although it seems that they can always win with their batting, you don’t want to play just for present, but play for future of the team also. By having 5 bowlers you’re including 3 veterans like (Kumble, Bhaji, Pathan, Khan) and 2 youngsters. Give the youngsters some chance even though they get beat up without any wickets in 1 match. Indian players don’t do well under pressure. So why put batsmen under pressure by asking them to bat watchfully. In fact, Sehwag and Dhoni should open every test match and mentally prepare them that this is 50 overs match, and watch them score at will out there. If they get out so what, you have Dravid and Yuvraj (who is now becoming excellent batsman under pressure) to come and cool things down.

SECOND QUESTION:

Dravid and Chappell have tried new experiments with youngsters but they’re without tactics. I love 2 sports: Cricket and Basketball. In basketball, team that does well usually has combination of young and veteran players and great communication between them. India has veteran leadership in batsmen but almost to none in bowlers. When I watch India play, I consistently notice that during batting 2 batsmen in between overs are always talking to each other during batting, but I have never seen 2 bowlers talking to each other in between over during bowling. I have always been told that it’s easy to find mistake in others rather than yourself. Why not use that as reward for ourselves and increase communication between 2 bowlers during bowling time. I have never seen Pathan giving advise to Sreesanth or Bhajji to Powar.

THIRD QUESTION:

1. During test match mentally prepare players like Sehwag and Dhoni that it is only 50 overs game and they have to score 300+ and see them unleash their wrath on opposing side. I know many people might think this is easier said then done, but if you never try to do it then you would never know.
2. Like many people who have commented on this forum, I strongly believe that India should utilize their money to get new bowling coach and fielding coach. Many times I in last year or 2, I have seen young bowler is really bowling well but to no avail as Indian players either miss catches or misfields.
3. As we make bowler into a good batsman (Pathan), make a batsman into a good bowler.
4. Continue with current Chappell’s strategy of working to improve weaknesses

what would i do if i were GC?!!!...

1. Bring Soaurav and Kumble back in ODI squad.SG to open with sachin and sehwag to bat in middle order.
2. Bring VVS back into test XI.Kaif being the extra batsman in the test squad..
3.Never abolish a proven player based on one season, rahter drop him for time being and sent him back to NCA/MRFPF as AUS did with Ponting when he was struggling.
4. Have Venkatesh Prasad as the bowling coach for the team at least on AD-HOC basis.
5.Forget about 5 batsman formula unless it is a completley dead-pitch.
6. Make sure none of the established players play in dead-rubbers and inconsequential matches vs ZIM/kenya etc.
7. Push the BCCI to limit no of matches(especially ODI's)per season.
8. Work on sehwag's technique.
9. Work with all madium pacers on squad to develop atleast 2 good slower balls and make them master bowling yorkers to counter batting pitches.
10. Follow AUS's lead in keeping a few players exclusive to one fom of the game(ex-VVS tests only etc).
11.Stop showing my finger or attributing ulterior motives(life and finances)..seriously..