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Sports by
Hari
Posted on Wed, Aug 10, 2005 at 10:34 IST (last updated: Sun, May 24, 2009 @ 19:23 IST)
Yes, this is my first Cricket post. It had to happen at some time. (Meta comment: whether I create a new Cricket category to accomodate a new Cricket section, however, remains to be seen.).
India lost to Sri Lanka in the Indian Oil Cup triangular tournament final yesterday (whether we need such meaningless triangular tournaments at all is another question altogether). I expected this after their struggle to victory against a rookie West Indian team. There was a depressing finality about the whole thing which makes for a sobering analysis of this current Indian team. Rather than sugarcoat the loss, I will be quite blunt about it: quite simply, the current Indian team played like a bunch of losers throughout the tournament.
Why such a harsh assessment? In the first place, I think that the whole team management has their priorities screwed up. Ganguly didn't deserve a place in the team in spite of his half century earlier (scored painfully slowly and with the sole intention of cementing his place in the team). Suresh Raina, a brilliant fielder was left out. Zaheer Khan has been woefully inadequate and ineffective at best throughout the tournament and yet Laxmipathy Balaji who showed promise in the one match he played, was left out of this match. We played both Kumble and Harbhajan Singh against a team that is renowned for playing the spinners well. We had a slow, immobile fielding side with people like Ganguly and Nehra patrolling the square boundaries. We had an "all-rounder" in the squad in JP Yadav and yet the team didn't consider him good enough to play him even against a weakened West Indian team. The whole credibility of the Indian selection panel is now open to question.
This raises a lot of questions. Granted, the selection of the playing eleven was screwed up right through all the games. But I ask a very simply question: would this Indian side have won this tournament with any other playing eleven? I don't think so.
You see, the problem with the selection policy for a long time now is that it has always been extremely conservative. India haven't really tried out any youngsters consistently. We have never been looking forward to the future. We've always preferred to go with tried and tested players who've failed to deliver at a consistent level at the International level. This situation reminds me a lot of England in the late 80s and the early 90s. Look at them now and look at the reasons for their current success. The key lies in the difference in selection policies then and now.
I seriously think that for India to be successful in the long term, we've got to go with youth over experience. The so-called "experience" has not really justified selection. Ganguly, Kumble and Laxman don't inspire confidence any more. Their playing days are over and I don't think they deserve a place any more after all their wasted opportunities. Moreover all three are quite immobile on the field and are a weak link in the fielding side. Ganguly may have scored 10000 runs. Fine. Great opportunity to tell him "Thanks for all you've done, mate. Congrats on scoring 10000 runs in ODI cricket. But sorry, it's time we moved on." Ditto with Kumble. I do think that Dravid needs to be an independent captain with a totally new side and for this Ganguly needs to bow out or be shown out of the Indian team. We need more youngsters playing regularly in the team. If nothing else, look at what it does to the team spirit. A look at the current West Indian team gives us some great answers. The old definitely needs to make way for the new.
The answer is quite simple: throw out the "experienced" non-performers and go with the freshness and spirit of youth. Indian Cricket needs to come out of its conservative shell. Failure should be dealt with mercilessly. There should be no leeway for the so-called "senior" members. Nobody is indispensable.
My appeal to the selectors now is to allow Indian cricket to move on leaving behind the baggage of the past. The current "senior" players should realize the writing on the wall.
5 comment(s)
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