As Greg Chappell told this writer recently, most of these kids have not played too much high-level cricket, and they will break if too much is asked of them. Someone like Lakshmipathy Balaji – India’s best pace bowler in two consecutive series against Pakistan – still has a role to play, and the larger the pool of talent, the better. With the schedules as they are, none of these young bowlers should be playing more than 10 Tests and 20 ODIs in a year.

As for the next step needed, I’d like to believe that small ones have already been taken. The National Cricket Academy and its feeders, the MRF Pace Foundation and other clinics conducted by the likes of Frank Tyson, are producing cricketers whose skills and fitness are comparable to their peers anywhere in the world. Time was when Indian fielding, with a few notable exceptions, was a joke. No longer. When Chappell reckons that Suresh Raina has the potential to be as great an allround fielder as Mark Waugh, you know that things have certainly changed.

General fitness has improved too. Look at someone like MS Dhoni, and the way he batted in the infernal heat at Jamshedpur. The running between the wickets is purposeful, the youngsters employ methods like relay throws, and most importantly, they look naturals out there.

As for being coach, well, those would be very big boots to fill after the sterling work done by John Wright and Chappell. Firstly, a settled selection panel to replace this ridiculous 12-month system. There’s only one place to look, and that’s Australia. Trevor Hohns may have gone now, but he and the likes of Lawrie Sawle put a system in place.

Secondly, we need to get rid of the celebrity syndrome. Great players don’t necessarily make great coaches or selectors. Most of them are not even remotely interested anyway. I find it laughable when people take potshots at the likes of Sanjay Jagdale because he wasn’t some legend in his playing days. At least he watches cricket, and is passionate about the team’s progress. How many so-called legends can put hand on heart and say the same thing?

The other area with obvious room for improvement is domestic cricket. You do get better contests these days with the Elite-Plate system in place, but a way has to be found to ensure that the best players in the land can play at least the final stages of the Ranji Trophy. If the BCCI really wants to flex its muscles with regard to the Future Tours Programme, these are the kind of issues it should be focusing on. At least have a month in February or March when the top players can play for their sides. You only need to look at Uttar Pradesh, and the presence of Kaif and Raina last season, to see the benefits.

Another thing a lot of us would like to see is transparency. Whether someone’s dropped or selected, all it needs is a line from the selection panel explaining exactly why. It stops the innuendo and the conspiracy theories. When someone like Sourav Ganguly, who led the side with distinction for years, is cast aside, the least he deserves is a good reason.

The last ingredient? Well, something that’s constantly missing thanks to the multitude of TV channels and newspapers who feel a pressing need to create a crisis even when there is none – patience. India has never been the best team in the world, and this team – good as it is in the one-day format – still needs a lot of work. A lot more appreciation of the efforts put in, and a little less effigy-burning, would be a good place to start.

I agree with most of the points Dilip made.
A few other areas we need to focus on
1. The BCCI needs to give more importance to test cricket and strive for a semblance of balance with ODis.
2. We should identify a pool of people for test cricket just like we have done for the one-dayers.And they need not necessarily be part of the one-day team
3. The reason why warne/mcgrath has got so many wickets is because their slip catching has been very good. We have fallen woefully short in this respect and need to identify specialists for slips and other close in positions
4. The BCCi needs to prepare greenish bouncy pitches at least for domestic competition so that we are able to produce better backfoot players and good players of short/seam bowling

This is reference to above, i would like to ask why L Balaji was not picked.
I like selector to pick him in coming series, Balaji is better than sreesant/munaf and vrsi
Even balaji bat well apart from bowling.

Any thing written wrongly pls excuse.
What about VVS Laxman, he should be give ample time in test and ODI,
one more things that Good seniors cricketer are left out,laxman is match winner in both form cricket.
After Greg chappel took it is evidend that he doesnot like senior cricketer like laxman/ashis/z khan,balaji.
These are the players played well in pakistan and other countries. why kiran (selector) does not keep in the mind or does he wants his people to play int.
It is was surprising that they are good players in Tamil nadu and hyderabad they were left by giving few chances.
That means even viru should be droped why more chance are given.
Selector say we are building a team for world cup, if the team doesnot perfom well in the world cup, will selector ready resign, it is eye wash story told .

Who are them to ban cricketers , even all level their is coruption is there.

Hoping we have good team and good selection comittee and wish indian team all the best coming series.

Nice article. I'd like to add one more comment. The current team management has definitely put a lot of priority on the development of fast bowlers. It is also necessary to look into the issue of developing high quality opening batsmen.

An excellent article. This is right on target and is the first article to truly recognise the huge strides India has made without exaggerating them.

Great article Dileep, you have hit the nail on the head here. What we as supporters of Indian Cricket need to do is to not turn on our players when they are not performing as well as they were. An example of this would be Virender Sehwag, the toast of the nation upto about 12 months ago and now the butt of many an office-cooler joke.

We are quite possibly the most passionate supporters in the world of cricket, if not world sport, however we need to be careful to not let this passion translate into fanaticism, because thats where problems will occur and the ability to make unbiased judgements will start to whither.

As regards to this Indian team, hats off to the way Dravid and Chappell put faith in the youngsters. When two of the great thinkers of the game have a policy they feel will succeed it is our duty as followers to support them through the process. The last few months have shown ample evidence regarding this, save for a mistake or two.

I fully agree with Dileep regarding the selection panel. Lets get rid of this ridiculous zoning system, it belongs to a bygone era. Get rid of the idea that being a selector as an honorary profession. If you want someone to do their job well, you have to pay them for it, and its not as if the BCCI is exactly lacking for money.

Lets be patient, lets be a little less fanatic, we are the best supporters in the world and lets show other countries that we do not delve into the depths of hooliganism. Be patient, the seed of a good team has been sown, the rewards will surely come.

good article. Spot on. Assesses the need for Indian cricket

Even though desultory in nature this article does bring up important points. Though I feel the author could have expanded on what needs to be done on the domestic front a bit more.

Some areas of improvement on the playing front are pitches we need turning tracks as well as fast and bouncy pitches in order to develop well rounded players. Also needs emphasis is the presence of adequate training facilities for domestic associations ( just guessing here, not having seen any particular facility in person).
BCCI can with its newly acquired wealth and with some help from coporate sponsors make state associations own their stadia. This would facilitate implementation of all the above neccesities

very well written article...I saw da topic and thought ohh no!! another reporter taking a shot @ da indian team....but this article is superb...cheers

I don't think the selectors need to explain their decisions, so long as we pick honest, rational men to do the job. The whole imbroglio with Ganguly's dropping was because the selectors didn't want to come out and say "We don't think he's good enough. Batting-wise, bowling-wise or fielding-wise." If they had come out and said that you can imagine the situation, bad as it is, would have been a whole lot worse. Since you cite the Aussie selectorial panel as an example, I'm sure you're aware they aren't compelled to explain their decisions to the public.

Pratik
http://yorker.wordpress.com

And how about professionalization of BCCI? Having full-time fixed-term paid & accountable professionals will go a long way in benefitting Indian Cricket. Personal score-settling by politicians masquerading as sports administrators harms the sport no end.

Dileep's article gives a good view of the progress made by this young Indian side.Let us all remember that this side has not played much on true and bouncy wickets against top class fast bowling. It is likely this team will struggle and will be cast as "domestic/subcontinent kings" and failures abroad.

BCCI should put in more effort in developing good wickets which are true. This will encourage more fast bowlers and improve the technique of our bastmen.Else apart from Darvid all of this team will be running for cover against the likes of Brett Lee or Nitini.
Indian cricket administrators should cast aside their greed and look at the larger interest of the game. BCCI should mandate International players to play atleast 3-4 matches for their home team. This will raise the standard of domestic cricket and give time off to improve the cricketer's technique. Else Indian teams will continue to live with the tag "Kings only at home".

There have been a few posters that are questioning while guys like Laxman, Balaji, and Nehra aren't in the ODI or Test team?

Well, here are very clear and obvious reasons: Balaji and Nehra have both been injured. Also, if Balaji comes back from injury successfully, I expect him to be back in the team. Nehra, however, shouldnt even be in the squad considering his slopiness in the field. As for Laxman's absence in the ODI team, its expected. He is certainly a huge liability with his fielding, and his batting is inconsistent at best. He can't catch in the slips, and him chasing a ball on the boundary would be a funny sight. With Sehwag, atleast he is a safe pair of hands in the outfield, and although inconsistent, he atleast gets starts and takes the game away from the opponents when he fires. I wouldn't say Laxman is unlucky, because its his inability to field well in both Test and ODI that is causing him to lose his place. Our middle order is too strong and too talented to give him a place, and the only way he can come in is with his bat.

Well said Dileep

It is rather bewildering to know how some people still harp on Ashish Nehra, Zaheer Khan and for that matter, Balaji too. They have done well but as Greg Chappell and co have rightly suggested, it is time to look beyond and thats where new talent like Munaf Patel, VRV SIngh, RP SIngh and Sreesanth have come to the fore. I expect similar trends to follow in Chappells tenure and I would presume that careers for Ganguly,Nehra,Zaheer and If unfit, Balaji too are almost over.

Nice article
But would like to comment on what one of readers has written above
Where does this Tamilnadu and Hyderabad come into to picture everybody who deserves an opportunity has been given a chance to prove himself, I don't understand this when people don't find a reason they just start bringing regionalism into the picture,stop writing such stupid things and appreciate what Greg is trying to do

great awesome article by dileep especially the fact that we have never been the BEST side it takes some honesty in 24media culture to say that just one for thing that i think dillep premachandran missed out is to perhaps on ground level to expand the talent pool try and weed out any sort of neopotism or favoristism in u-16 u-13 etc and make this so called TRDO of NCA more accountable not just travel and take pay checks but be honest to job

Dileep's article is very well-written. While the Indian team's recent performances in One Day Cricket have been excellent, there are still areas of improvement when you consider that they are still to play dominant one day teams such as Australia, South Africa and New Zealand who have genuinely quick fast bowlers and also very aggressive batsmen. To combat them, we need a settled bowling and batting lineup and a clear selection policy. Packing the team with youngsters cannot guarantee success, and the team definitely needs a good blend of youth and experience..casting aside an inspirational captain like Ganguly who has scored more than 10,000 runs in the one day game is ridiculous to say the least. Kumble can also hae a lot to offer in the one day game...Also, quality players like Laxman cannot be ignored especially in the Test arena. The bowling could also do with players such as Nehra and Balaji being considered..Kiran More's approach of not giving proper justifications for players being included or dropped is absurd and such an attitude could prove detrimental to Indian cricket in the future.

I don't know why some of us keep going on about VVS Laxman and Sourav Ganguly, Zaheer Kahn, Ashish Nehra and Balaji. Fair enough we are still talking about Ashish Nehra and Balaji they haven't done anything wrong and they should be back in the indian team. But talking about Ganguly and Zaheer Kahn is totally digraceful especially in Zaheer Kahn's case who has been nothing short of pathetic in his last few outings. And since ganguly has left the indian team they have been very succesfull. And what's the deal about VVS Laxman its not like he has been dropped from the indian team permanently he was only taken out of the side for greater balance he should be back soon, this debate has been very interesting, it started off with India's supposed decline in test cricket and now it has drastically gone to Indian cricket's treatment of its players.

We are all wondering about the development of cricket in India. howver, the main strength for winning test matches home and abroad had been spinners. since kumble, we've had no one who could stand up and be counted to win matches day in and day out. the bhaji's and kartik's have left much to prove, a lot to ponder about. with all the development in the pace bowling, we fall short in the spinning department. still think we need one good spinner - (worst case) even the Giles kind of bowler in out team.

First and foremost, the infrastructure of the cricket stadia should become better. We need lush grounds, wickets with good bounce and spin and most important of them all, we need to bring the crowd back to domestic tournaments.

Former international players, instead of opening academies and providing sound bytes, should become a coach for state-level teams. I don't understand why certain ex-players keep criticising the current crop of cricketers without trying to imrpove the pool from where they come from. The BCCI can certainly afford to pay good money to these gentlemen to ensure that they have proven players as coaches for domestic teams.

The BCCI can also have matches between the current Ranji trophy champions and the winners of the PURA cup/county. This will help sides gauge how well they stack up with international domestic sides.

The senior side needs to be involved in the domestic season as well. Unfortunately, because of a packed schedule, most cricketers are not able to represent their state unless and until they are dropped from the side. This is also an area the BCCI needs to look into.

Dileep that's a very well written article. But therein lie the problems why is there a constant rehash of this dropping issue. The selection panel has been given a job to do and thats what they are doing.As for zaheer khan ,ganguly and the rest, the question should be "Ask not what the Indian team can do for you but what can you do for the Indian team."What most people keep forgetting is that it is team India and not team Ganguly or team Tendulkar or Team Chappel. Why is it that we regard individuals more than the collective unit.Also no matter what the team goes through the inception of youth has given the team a cutting edge look which has been lacking for quite a few years. So Kudos to the selectors,chappel and Dravid for doing the unthinkable.

Nice Article. I must say this Indian team of the last 18 months has been a real refreshment to us die hard fans. One of the most fascinating and prosperous points is that the team has been performing quite well without out any real input from almighty Sachin.

Chappel-Dravid India have finally foudn something that India has been looking for for some time - Multiple Matchwinners. The Sachin-Sourav-Rahul triangle has seem to have broken - but the latter is aguarbly in the form of his life.Out have gone the slackers who couldnt't even catch a cold in the field and is now replaced with young legs, fresh minds and more than your faur share of charisma.

India has uncovered a lethal weapon in Irfan 'Pistol' Pathan who is has now developed into an outstanding opening bowler who is more than handy with the bat. The future should be built around him as well as the 'Prince of Punjab' Yuvraj whom has finally converted rare moments of brilliance into consistancy of match winning standards. Chuck in the ICC's number one One Day batsman MS Dhoni whom has shown he has as much Cool Hand Luke as he is smasher and basher and india have a real solid core for the next 8-1O years.

Suresh Raina has recently taken over the mantle as the 'next sachin' and to be honest whilst glimpsing at the last few ODI's I too was caught in the hype. Robin Uthappa bashed his way to an excitable 86 on debut in a very Chris Gayle meets Andrew Symonds manner. With the experience of Virender Sehwag and Momo Kaif India's batting line up is looking as good as ever.

But perhaps the biggest surprise is our current crop of young raw fast bowlers. Sree Santh has impressed with the new ball, swinging it half a yard with that inner angriness. A bit more control and he could be a find. Munaf impressed in the tests and then struggled in the ODI's, but remember he is in his early 20's. VRV is big and raw and can only improve. Munaf and VRV...who knoes? It rolls off the tongue as nicely as Courtney and Curtley.

So with the Wright-Ganguly partnership seemlessly years away, this India team is finally putting the correct foot forward. It may only be one step at a time, but those steps add up and who knows how many miles Chappel-Dravid India will walk?

Interesting article! Well written..

Nice article. I agree with all your views. But I dont understand why everyone keep on saying that India should develop good pitches. I don't see the Batsmen from the subcontinent complaining about the pacy pitches in England or Bouncy pitches in Australia, neither are we.
Does anyone have a definition for a good pitch? I don't think so. All pitches that produces competitive cricket is a good pitch. I wonder why no one criticised about the pitch in wanderers that produced almost 900 runs in one day. If you had asked any of those bowlers who bowled that day, they would term it as a graveyard. But since it produced competitive cricket it's not critizised
If the batsmen from outside the subcontinent want to win here they should learn to play in these conditions. I would definitely agree that India has to prepare a few pacy and bouncy pitches for practise and not for the sake of the complaints from the other countries.

I am somewhat disappointed after reading this piece. I believe that the main issues have been skipped in the article.
1. Who has ever stipulated that the two formats of the game should look for ONE COMMON POOL OF RESOURCES? Why are we following this flawed line and developing our cricketing resources following this axiom? Why are we not realizing that we need to build two types of teams for the two formats? After all, are we also not rich in human resources as far as cricket is concerned?
2. Our current coach has made several sweeping statements on the performance of the previous coach and the previous captain and got away with these. A coach is like a guru.If the guru is perceived to be a guy who criticises his predecessor, on arrival, he can never leave a deep impression on the players,no matter how skillful he may be in the art of coaching. Value prevails over vanity and venom.
3. The pitches in India are underdeveloped and very little is being done to correct them. By having this type of pitches,we leave a hole , almost as an alibi, to hang on to, when our team does badly in an overseas Test match.It suits the coach very well. Why have we not heard the AUstralian coach say - GIVE ME PITCHES LIKE IN AUSTRALIA?
4. Double standards and favouritism are showing their signs in team selection - I need not give names - but why are we subjected to this cricketing anarchy in the name of .....?
5. If our selectors can sack a captain who had returned from an overseas tour after a series has been won, I wonder if anything harsher is possible by way of punishment of a professional player in a civil society. This must be an unprecedented example in the history of this game. Dileep is dead right on this one when he says, albeit very mildly, that there should be transperency in all dealings.

The answers are not all that simple when it comes to fast bowlers and India. We have to mould these fast bowlers into matchwinners in a short time because the World Cup is less than a year away. It will be almost impossible to win the 2011 World Cup without a lot of seniors like Tendulkar, Dravid and a many others.
We should try and win the upcoming WC and not something which is 5 years down the road because God knows who will be actually playing at the time and how good or bad the one day team would be.
I am tired of following Indian cricket because we are known as world chokers. We have never performed well on a big stage except for the 1983 WC.
Winning the WC to me should be the primary objective of this Indian team and every other team on the planet. In an ideal situation I would agree to give time to these bowlers to develop but we don't have time. Greg Chappell and Dravid should be investing the little time that they have to devel,op these matchwinners and not give funny excuses come WC time.
I would like India to win every cricket WC there is out there but if we do not win this one I can guarantee you that it wil be a long time before we actually do.

I read this article and I had to re-read it just to make sure I read it correctly. Why? Because there is no mention of "Batsmen".
Come on, we are discussing why India is "hot in ODIs and cold in tests". And its been our batting that has failed us in recent times. The once strongest batting lineup has been reduced to a mediocre one. How many "genuine" test batsmen do we have apart from Rahul and Sachin (who is again, struggling for too long)? With all due respect to Sehwag and Yuvraj, I dare not classify them as pure test material. (Why do I say so? Because honestly there are flaws in their techniques. And unless you improve on them, today's bowlers and coaches are smart enough to exploit those flaws.) Moreover, opening partner to Sehwag is still not established. How many different opening pairs did we have in past year? Just too many.
I would like to see someone addressing this issue?

good one by dilip.I would also like a fast bowling programme drawn up .we need specialist bowling coaches who have a good working knowledge of biomechanics and perfomance analysis systems.there should be atleast five such coaches(one for each zone).what worries me is that young indian bowlers tend to lose pace after the first season or two unlike their english counter parts.flintoff started his career bowling military
medium but is now one of the fastest bowlers around.clearly our bowlers need a" cooley".

1) No zonal selectors. quality should rule
2) Sporting wickets at domestic level
3) Focus on building infrastructure to produce genuine fast bowler
4) Never appoint local coach. Give foreign coach a freedom. He may do thing better even if unpopular
5) reduce media/marketing focus on players so that they are not too much carried away

I agree with dileep,
what i would like to add is that why cant India have a league system that is on par with the NBA or NFL for cricket. Make the domestic competition more colorful and get forgein players into the system. Let these matches be telecaste live and add publicity and BCCI can make more than 1 billion it is making today. Why give our money to ICC. We should make the domestic games more popular and the Indian International team should be picked from the stars of the domestic teams. This would be india all star team.

Cricket is our obession it is time we are more obessesd with it

Nice article and excellent responses as well. But one thing that we have seen is that most of our recent victories have been in the sub-continent (i'm not even saying for a moment that we will not win abroad), with the 5th and 6th bowlers being slow bowlers i.e., taking the pace off on an already slow wicket. It will be interesting to see if we can develop the 5th and 6th bowlers who can bowl medium pace just like a Robin Singh who was more than a handful one day cricketer. We need that variety too in our team to get the balance right.

hello

i agree with all that DP says. i also feel that people should be banned from mentioning Ganguly and co. honsestly it is getting monotonous. RD and GS are doing a great job and for once we are looking like a team as oppossed to sachin and ten others.

i also agree with the need for a League type domestic cricket. another isuue one predominantely of pride is the need for a couple of genuine (i mean guys who can consistently bowl over and above 100 miles per hour)pace bowler.

come on it is a shame that we always find it difficult to produce real fast men, from a population of over one billion whereas our neighbours seem to have set up a factory.

I think domestic cricket needs to be professionalized. Think of the NBA or the NFL in America. They are wildly popular and generate loads of revenue for the leagues. The BCCI could start a National Cricket League for limited-overs cricket (50/50 or 20/20 OR both) and have teams (states/major cities/other?) compete against each other on a 6 month calendar. With a cricket-crazy population in India, I'm sure it will be a runaway success IF marketed appropriately.

Well Dileep,
You have spoken about the aspect of bowling , fielding etc.
Some of them that still INDIA needs to improve is on
1) Batting without the dependency of Rahul Dravid.
2) One more all rounder in the team, they are trying to bring up Ajit Agarkar but I d on't think so Agarkar has really understood his responsibilities.
3) No successor after Dravid, we had hopes on Sehwag but looks his captaincy is going along with his batting (very patchy)..

When Mohammad Kaif fails miserably in ten straight innings, reaching double figures only once, he is still an 'asset to the team'. Sure, Laxman isn't an athletic outfielder, but that's because of a dodgy knee. He's a great slip catcher, so it pains me when he's called a poor fielder. But what's indisputable is his class, and the fact that he's a big match player who scores runs when India needs them the most. He's been in pretty decent form recently too, and another big hundred will make it look almost like his best form.

Selectors need to know what each player can offer. They should be honest, rigorous, work with captain/coach and make the correct judgment calls. Their work is for all to see. I liked the idea of playing Duleep trophy matches on bouncy/ seaming pitches, the Challengers on slow pitches and Ranjis on sporting pitches (like Mumbai/ Mohali tests). Indeed a variety of pitches should be used. Domestic scheduling has been good, except for not choosing a stronger 6th team for Duleeps. India A tours, in the off-season, throws up talent (e.g. Dhoni) as well adds interest. India's u-19s has distilled the best talent. Talent scouting, U-19 tourneys, junior setup, NCA etc has helped. Fielding has been emphasized. However fitness and injury prevention/ biomechanics could be improved. Equipment for training could be improved. More can be done, especially on the administration and infrastructure. In the past, selectors picked domestic performers (like SS Paul/ Gagandeep Singh for Bangla 2004). It meant the senior team was full of medium pacers and lacked genuine fast bowlers.

"Patience" can be used as an excuse for doing nothing. India has adequate personnel to turnaround its test fortunes. It has enough time to work on its bench strength. Many fans want India to target the WC. Key to this would be develop its existing talent, esp. lower order batting from Powar & co. and better back-up pace bowling. Manuf Patel looks a bit raw and fields poorly. VRV Singh could work on no-balls, control, strengthening and playing more cricket. RP Singh should work on regaining his control and pace. The away tours to WI and SA will help in preparations. Success there will give a confidence boost to everyone concerned.

I think one point has been missed so far. The Indian test team is heavily reliant on two individuals, Rahul Dravid and Anil Kumble. Take Dravid out of the batting line up and there is not one batsman who can really play long innings consistently. Kumble's role in the bowling is vastly underappreciated: he is the only semblance of control in what is otherwise a powder-puff attack. Yes, a few young pace bowlers have had a couple of good games on home soil, but Kumble always exerts pressure, which creates wickets for other bowlers.

Take either of those individuals away, and India have the worst test team other than the West Indies and Bangladesh, maybe not even better than the West Indies. Dileep hit the nail on the head when he said that India needs to get rid of its celebrity syndrome - superficial charm gets exposed at test cricket level, and India needs to uncover less Dhonis and more Dravids.

While I agree with all the outlined steps, the bit about transparency and how it stops innnuendo and conspiracy theories is just plain bull. If you really do care about not propagating innuendo, then don't report it. You guys thrive on the mindless drivel spewed by present , past cricketers and administrators. During the Ganguly - Chappel spat, you guys did your fair share of spreading innuendo. While it is well within your right to do what you do, after all you are in this to make money, get off your high horse and give us a break about the need for more transparency.

Talking about a successor to Dravid, I think Kaif has the potential to take charge of the helm in the long run. He's proved it time and again (U-19, UP) and usually plays better when he's in control. Just food for thought!

Dileep, you have put in most of the points in your note. I would like to add some with no reference to any player

There are some I would like to add ::

* Selection panel should not
be based on rotation
policy. They should be
rated on some basis & if
deemed unfit, look out
for someone else.

No zonal treatment should
be allowed. They should
take pains of watching all
the domestic matches to
spot talent.

Once a talent is spotted,
send him to a talent school
where the skills are honed
for rigors of intl. cricket

* I am not sure if MRF pace
academy has done anything
great in the recent past.
We hear of bowlers who
bowled at a better speed
before embarking a
disastorous MRF journey
breaking their speed, swing

Inzy was very reluctant in
having PAK bowlers come
here for training. Md. Asif
mentioned that he learned
nothing with his stint in
the academy.

BCCI needs to develop an
in-house bowling academy
for both spin & pace,
nurture them, make them a
finished product before
they hit the main stage

* Make Ranji trophies to be
played on a better pitch
helpful to fast bowling
instead of giving
spin tracks.

* Develop infrastructure to
work on technicalities of
bowling, gripping the
ball, developing
un-orthodox shots,
playing with both hands,
developing all-rounders

Two comments have drawn me to write again. There is a pattern in these comments, if I see the names of the writers.These two, like many others, are particularly allergic to Dileep's mentioning of Ganguly in his article. One wants the name Ganguly to be banned from being mentioned and the other is vitrolic when "transparency" in the treatment meted to Ganguly is mentioned. It is people of such choleric disposition who will destroy the Indian-ness of Team India and will be very happy when ad-hocism, regionalism,parochialism and favouritism rule BCCI. These signs are already there and when Dileep refers to it in his article, there is an outburst!! To all rational cricket lovers, I say, open your eyes and you will see the grand design of such people.

Atlast the team India is freed from the tyranny of Ganguly and Dalmia partnership and doing extremely well. Hats off to Greg Chappel. If you want real quality you should not put up with nonsense.

The Team India which is not depending on any Individual Sachin or Dravid or Yuvaraj is an ideal team.

Youngsters are nice to watch. May God bless Team India to win the World Cup 2007.

ithank that indian selectors should soley be looking to encourage pace bowlers . india have great spinners ie harbajan who is still very young.
And i also think that they shouldbe looking to breed the great future allrounders and encouraging the youth to take fast nowling as a serious thing

The most important point mentioned above is the fact that India needs to concentrate on the grassroots and get its domestic cricket sorted out. BCCI should loosen up its sizeable coffers and help infuse some professionalism into Indian domestic cricket, especialy its management. The rejuvination of first class cricket in India, making it similar in stature to English County Cricket would be a strong step towards forming a sizeable crop of professionals ready to perform at the highest level. This would probably also help the Indian selection system become more performance based.

i think the days of vvs laxman is over......sm1 cannot be kept in da team only on the basis that he smtimes plays tht rare brilliant innings......get youngsters and draw blood even in tests.....

One comment on a very different issue: The BCCI has been quite hostile to the Twenty20 format for quite a while, and it looks like there is no prospect of a domestic 20-over tournament occuring anytime in the forseeable future. I think this is short-sighted. It is true that the 50-over format works extremely well commercially in India currently, unlike in the Western countries. However, with continued economic development and cultural change, and the resulting change in the characteristics of the domestic audience, India will be in the same boat as the Western countries within the next generation. Given its greater congruence with the entertainment demands of the population of industrialized and postindustrialized countries, there is no doubt that the 20-over format will eventually be the predominant shorter form of the game worldwide, and if the BCCI ignores this, the ability of the Indian team to compete in such a format will be hindered.

I agree with the previous poster on greener wickets for domestic competition, though variety in conditions should remain. The flip side is that India should still prepare spin-friendly wickets for International matches to take advantage of traditional strengths. Currently, the policy of the BCCI has seemed to be the complete opposite of this.

This is in reference to Dileep's article and in response to the comment posted by Sid Dasgupta at April 25, 2006 05:22 PM

First of all, many main issues can be missed in one's article coz every individual's main issues differ with other's. I agree with Dileep's article, a very well written simple and yet true to the core article. And Patience is definitely the one missed trick among us all. Its much needed in the Indian camp of Cricketeres as well as critics and supporters.

1. TWO POOLS of resources for ODIs and TESTs is a good suggestion, but is it feasible and practical? Knowing how things are done in India, neither me nor you are misinformed on this. If its possible it will happen eventually.

2. True about Chappell, and very true about what a GURU is and how he/she should be ideally to live-up to his/her responsibilities. But Chappell is also a human being and he has not committed a crime, he did do somethign wrong and he will pay by maybe making a similar exit from the position after doing lot good like his predecessor!! What goes around comes back. Again, no major issue, he is doing a sterling job and you cannot ignore that by bringing this up.

3. "The pitches in India are underdeveloped"....what rubbish!! They used to be...they are far better these days. I am a resident of Australia, the Sydney pitch is shocking!!! And Perth and Brisbane are both deteriorated over years and don't hold consistent for a ODI these days, not to mention tests!!

4. "Double standards and favouritism" - How are these evident at the moment sorry? Do u know the main aim of Greg Chappell and Raul Dravid currently? To develop another Inida A that can be as strong as Australia A. They may not achieve it but if they aim for the sky they will rise above their current level. And i think whatever is being done, it is done keeping that in perspective.

5. Transparency in dealings is a VERY FAIR CALL!!! Thumbs up to Dileep for raising it and you too Sid for supporting it. And even though this was lacking, and i believe i was one of those people who was very against Ganguly being dropped, i can see where this is heading so i forgive the board for it. But yes this will certainly HELP BCCI, being transparent and spell out clear reasons.

Well, lots of good discussions here and its really good to see Indian Cricket picking up the pace. Best would be to follow the following strategy:
1. Prepare local ranji tracks that match Australia and England in pace and bounce. These tracks should also be in matching conditions such as Simla, Dharamsala, mountain areas where there is plenty of moisture and breeze. This will help pace bowelers and batsmen to hone skills in India.
2. When we have home tour, play matches on turning tracks as we know that we have players who can spin and bat well, better than rest of the world.
3. Item 1 will help for overseas tours and Item 2 can conquer foreign tours.
4. Selection should be made on merrits of current form. No harm in keeping Sehwag & Kaif out for a brief time if they are not performing. Give chances to others so you test the bench strength aswell.
5. Keep strict rotation policy in the pace bowling department to maintain fitness.
6. Increase number of test we play as Indian players play fewer matches than the rest and it takes a toll on records.
7. Regarding Balaji and Nehra - If board was to consider these folks in future series, try them in the warm-up matches as well. Play few more of warmup matches. I still believe Nehra is better than any other indian bowler in One-dayers and he literally takes wickets in english conditions. Take a look at last world cup. This is the time to get him back in action.
8. Dravid should stop becoming an opner in One dayers and Tests. What is he trying to prove here? He is much needed down the order if collapse happens. If anything, use Dhoni for opening in One dayers with Sehwag/Tendulkar combination when we set targets. Always bring Dhoni down the order when we chase.

Good article! My comments are about the way the team is selected. I do not know what Kiran More and the others are thinking and doing. Ganguly can be picked and then discarded after scoring 30+ runs in both innings against Pakistan in one test (mind that he was the only other batsman who resisted the Pak bowling for some time) and he was dropped. Kaif, Sehwag, Sachin all played several innings, and all failed miserably, and repeatedly. They are still in the team. Now, the same thing happens in the onedayers. Kaif and Sehwag failed over and over again and what does the management do? Sehwag is made captain for the 6th match (after failing not once but 5 times) and he is given a choice to keep himself out. And worse is that they let him say that “I think I should rest,…” Come on Sehwag, did the management allow you to decide if you need to rest? Who had fought to keep Yuvraj, Harbajan, Dravid, etc., in the team? Ganguly! Who is the 3rd highest scorer in one dayers? Ganguly! Yes! He took things a little too easy towards the end of his reign as captain, he got a little too rebellious. Everyone needs a lesson to learn ofcourse, but definitely not to be treated like this, as if he is junk. Kaif, Yuvraj and several others are still young and they will ofcourse keep getting their chances every year. They should be given chances. But not at the expense of one of India's best players.
Now India’s test performace. Most of the time, the bowlers do a great job. Batsmen fail regularly. India had been riding on a great deal of effort from Laxman and Dravid. And Sehwag too (when he clicks, because when he clicks he clicks big), Sachin occasionally (for the last 2 or 3 years). For some luck, Indians get away with their dismal performance against fast swing bowling, when they beat the other team pretty well in onedayers.
Now about the Indian pace battery. I still feel that Zaheer Khan is a lot too lazy. He must be a lot more serious about him being India’s pace bowler and believe me when he does, he is great (even if he is not too fast.) Balaji and Ashish are great players who have a greater zeal to play for India. But for now, Pathan, Sreesanth and Munaf are doing pretty well. They will only get better each time. RP Singh I think is doing good, not great, but will gain experience each time. VR Singh has not done well so far even if he is faster. But he will learn.
As one of the comments mentioned, Indian management is concentrating on pace too much and is sort of loosing the importance of spinners. After Kumble, Harbajan (thank God, Ganguly held him tight to the team) alone cannot do it. They should try to help Piyush and Powar, Murali and any other upcoming spinners in India a lot of encouragement. It’s good to see Powar doing well in the onedayers. He should be given a chance in the tests as well. Piyush is still too young and will and must learn.
Another thing I do not like is the way India shuffles the batting order. I am not sure why India goes with Pathan as opener at times, now with Dhoni. Having that flexibility in your batting order is something that must be used wisely, as a strategy against the opponent, to confuse them a little, but not always like India is doing now. And Dravid as some other comments said, must only come one down (most times), and if Kaif is in the team, he should come second. Kaif is no good when he is sent at the 40 over mark. But Yuvraj and Dhoni are. So Kaif should be sent in early and not 5 or 6 or 7. Well, another scary thing is that till now all these new players have played only in the Indian subcontinent. They are all yet to play in faster bouncier pitches. Wonder how India's batting would fare in them. Bowling should not be a worry I believe as the pacers must be happy there, if not happier. West Indian tour of India should prove very little considering WI's recent slump and their bowling is nowhere close to even Ambrose, Walsh, Bishop era (forget Roberts, Holding, Garner era). But we should be able to find some problems at least on that tour.
Our country's ad industry is exploiting the new players and hope they don’t get carried away in that "glory". They have done their jobs well to several of India's victories and hats off to them, that glory is greater than all. Hope our country’s cricketers (and other sports players) do the best and do India proud. And best wishes to them! But I need Ganguly back in the team! Like Dravid said once “On the onside there is God and then there’s Ganguly!” Watch his innings of 140+ against Australia in Australia (India’s best Australian tour). You will see why Dravid said that!

Indian team is a good bunch of some very exciting youngsters but can this talent win matches for India that is doubtful. Indian always have some stunning players. Gawaskar, Vishwanath, Mohnder Amrnath, Sri kant, shastri, vingsarkar, kirmani, bedi, kapil dev, madan laal. it is a long list. But indian crickters lack the ability to win on neutral and supporting venues. They look undefeatable on their own soil or to some extent on sub-continental grounds. They looked ordinary on bouncy and supporting tracks. It is the story for current generation of players. They can win against weak sides on placid tracks but their show against good team on supporting tracks is not of high quality. If this Indian team want to prove better than their seniors, they will have to play good cricket in all situations. Otherwise 'chokers' is a right tag for Indian team.

It is about performance. It is all about excellance with Greg Chappell. If you perform , you will be in the team. It is not about politics. He has no favour for past glory.

Some disagree with Greg chappell because they dwell on the regional politics and do not see things fair minded. It is fear talking. Like sunil gavaskar, he can't put his son in indian team as long as Greg Chappell as the chief. With ganguly he can push his son to indian team.

Thank GOD for sending Greg Chappell. Hope he atleast teaches indian mass to be PERFORMACE based mind set not politics.

Politics have destroyed Indian cricket in the past. Indian cricketers are always paper Tigers. They failed in cruch time.

With greg chappell , they fight. He has given indian team fighting qualities that lacked with previous indian teams.

Sourav ganguly won so many tests most of them against minnows. Even against australia it was dravid ,laxman ,tendulkar won the game. Not ganguly.

It is not about Ganguly vs chappell. It is abouut india learning to appreciate current performance and not past glories. Indian selectors should have the guts cut off the players who does n't perform even if it is tendulkar.

I think with greg chappell india understood something. It is pity a foreigner has to tell this to indians. But again it is better now than regional quota based selection.