Re: The Cricket Thread I had no hope from this team and even then I am disappointed.
Heads should roll, there shouldn't be any ifs and but about this. Rahul Dravid in my opinion has always been more lucky than he deserves. He was never a competent captain and was media propped throughout his career just like srk who is an above average actor. Dravid does not possess the right acumen to handle pressure, he may have worked good at NCA because it where budding players are taught about techniques and he was too good at technical aspects. The problem with him is his laid back attitude, he is one of those who takes it as it comes. I wonder if he passed out this defeatist mentality to his protegees at NCA and kill the winning attitude at their young age.
IPL gets a lot of flack and it is purely strategically planned by elite cricketing groups who have ulterior motives. They would love to kill IPL and then re assert themselves at top of the ruling body as they did for whole previous century. We will see IPL bashing coming polemists of elite member countries with their articles and sound bytes/twitter posts. Money speaks and ICC has pimped out BCCI by forcing matches with PCB in WC's, this should not be allowed now and matches should be held on blind draws. BCCI should now stand its ground and ask for their fair share of money. We all know BCCI generates 70% of the ICC revenue($2.5 billion) yet gets only around less than 20%($410 million). BCCI also plays more with associate countries and so called minnows more than CA, ECB and NZC combined. Many boards like NZC survives solely on BCCI match fixtures and they hate it but they can not show it, so they along with CA, ECB and CSA try to sabotage IPL. BCCI used to pay money to CA , ECB and WICB to play with them 3 decades back and yet BCCI's generosity now is not seen as a favour but as a duty. BCCI doesn't take money from Asian Cricket board and gives it to other member countries, they should change that and claim what is genuinely their money. BCCI's pitches get a lot of flak but somehow the bad drainage and used pitches at CA and ECB's grounds are overlooked just like swing and spin tracks. Our players in past were forced to eat at footpath(eg. Brisbane test 2014) because CA doesn't permit outside food inside dressing rooms(the food served by CA was not up to mark). BCCI teams are not provided best hotels during tournaments but somehow they arrange best experience for foreign teams, this should all change and tit for tat rule should be applied. I would like to see Mr. Binny to enforce these conditions. ZC and BCB were made full members due to BCCI while CA and ECB were against it.
I feel for Mr. Amol Mazumadar, Mithun manhas, S.Badrinath, Priyank Panchal, Devendra Bundela, Paras Dogra and many more who were not given proper chance while many mediocre's were given extended years in hope they turned good. MSK Prasad during his role as head of selection committee totally killed the BCCI team with his many mediocre selections. Who can forget and forgive Vijay's last moment selection against Ambati rayudu. Mr. Chetan Sharma now has a big headache to rebuild the team and take it to new levels. Kohli's captaicy was mired with random out of mind chops and changes. He never played any consecutive team or an Odi tournament with same players, every next match had different team. He never let anyone settle in team except few. Few days back Shane watson spoke about team consistency and how he fared under Dhoni and Ponting who made players safe from sudden changes. Being persistent with Mayank Aggarwal, KL Rahul, Gill who are walking wickets as openers are not good for long term. Making Rohit a test opener instead of giving Shaw or others a chance is not justified. I wonder what specific crime Shaw has performed that he is out of consideration, fitness surely doesn't seem to be an issue as except Virat and Hardik, no body looks fit in this team and cough syrup shouldn't be an issue. He has been in limelight for almost a decade and to make any personality opinion about him, a 21 year old young, on the basis of someone like Ponting (who might not have best intentions toward future Indian players) is certainly preposterous. I bet Mahi will give everyone a run for money in this team. Bowlers did us bad, Express pace of Shami, Umesh and Ishant did wonders for 4 years along with Bhuvaneshwar, now they are not the same. Bumrah was sorely missed as was Jadeja (he may have last couple of years left). Khaleel is outright rubbish, Nadeem is another useless who has been in foray for too long. Saini and Natarajan don't inspire much confidence. Players like Sundar should not be in contention.
IMO whole team should be let go and every selection should be made afresh. Players across the formats should be selected on the basis of batting and bowling positions. A pool of 3 openers, 2 one down, 2 no. 4's and 3 middle order batsman should be selected. 2 wicket keepers, 2 pace all rounders, 3 spinners and 5 fast bowlers. Now do we have those 22 players. Who are the players today in contention across formats? Domestic players performance other than IPL players should be looked at first for tests and ODI's. I think it is times to change team as it was done in 2007 and infuse new blood. But do they have someone like Mahi in their arsenal? |