The Cricket Thread

[Sawyer]

I agree it is absurd; it has been so for a long time. The Harsha Bhogle story is another example.

But what is disappointing is that someone like Vinod Rai, with the backing of nothing less than the SC of India, is unable to make any dent in this state of affairs. He needs to go before anyone else.

[Chetan_Rao]

Reminds me of something a police constable told me years ago when the young and naive me refused to pay a bribe during passport verification and wanted to complain.

"Sir, ye desh sahab log nahi, benaam babu log chalate hain. Kuch nahi ukhaad loge complaint karke. Aapke note ka hissa sabke paas jaata hai".

Translates roughly to: "It's not the big guys, but the nameless bureaucracy that runs this country. Everyone has a share in your (currency) note".

[PPS]

Originally Posted by Sawyer

The Ramchandra Guha resignation letter paints a sorry picture about the state of Indian cricket today.

Supreme Court can very well pass orders & ask the committee to oversee the functioning but this letter of Guha makes the COA appear almost toothless!

It will be very entertaining to see what happens as soon as Kohli stops leading the team to wins. I have long felt that the team deserves a better leader.

What options do we have apart from Kohli?
In this whole Kumble-Kohli spat, i feel really sorry for Kumble. I've always admired him for the way he went about his business during his playing days, this whole episode must be hugely embarassing for him.

[Sawyer]

It is a common failure we have as a nation to say this of people in leadership positions in all spheres - what option do we have? It just allows people with visible leadership defects to stay in the position.

[DigitalOne]

We have a culture of electing film superstars to high government positions. If you have a superstar status in Cricket you can get away with anything. And yet we say the game is bigger than the players !!

[Sawyer]

Excellent article on the subject: http://www.espncricinfo.com/india/co...y/1100724.html

As one sees all the time, those in authority are utterly shameless, those granted the power to check their abuses are powerless and toothless for a variety of reasons, and the rest of us just want our bread and our circuses - as the Roman mob did in exchange for tolerating rule by despots/tyrants two thousand years ago. In Roman times the circus was the gladiatorial games. Thankfully, cricket doesn't need to be that violent.

[PPS]

Credit to the Sri Lankan batsmen for the win today! Don't think anybody gave them a chance. India while batting were 170 odd at the 30 over mark, considering we had wickets in hand, we should have got 340.
But this loss is a good thing,we can't afford to have a bad game in the knockout stage.
Against SA, Ashwin surely will get a look in considering our bowling performance today & also because we'll be playing on the same ground, not sure what the weather conditions will be like.

[jbpanda]

With due respect to Kohli's captaincy and in fact he is doing very well for the team which as a whole is doing well, however, somewhere I feel that during Dhoni's captaincy his reaction during pressure situations was much matured and decisions much more effective. Kohli tends to give up quite easily when succumbed to pressure situations.

[Sawyer]

Kohli has never passed the big test for a captain - handling failure. He barely passes the one for winning graciously and his captaincy isn't very intelligent or inspiring.

His qualification for the position is because he is one player that merits automatic selection in every format and is fit to always play. I give him full credit for that, but not for being an astute captain.

[C300]

A good wake up call for the team. I am baffled by Shami's absence. He is our genuine wicket taker. Fitness might be an issue but he was ok in warm up games. While Bhuvi is a good T20 bowler, IMO Shami should be picked ahead of him in ODIs.

[PPS]

Originally Posted by C300

While Bhuvi is a good T20 bowler, IMO Shami should be picked ahead of him in ODIs.

Bhuvi has greatly improved as a death bowler, most of our bowlers had an off day on a flat pitch. Umesh Yadav's success in the last many months has been in Test matches, in ODI's he hasn't always been as consistent. Shami hasn't played much International cricket in last many months but he's a good alternative no doubt.

[C300]

Originally Posted by PPS

Shami hasn't played much International cricket in last many months but he's a good alternative no doubt.

That is possible explanation for his absence. His ODI record is superior to both Bhuvi and Yadav. If fully fit, he should be the fist one to be picked.

[pratyush6]

I think almost everyone is baffled by the lack of swing and seam for almost every bowler even when the conditions 'look' like they would aid such a thing. I could not believe when we did not play Ashwin yesterday, with SL having so many lefthanders (and we tend to bowl badly to them).
Still, it is probably a one off (I hope so). I do think that including Kathik in place of Jadhav will shore up the lower order and fielding. Jadhav looks horribly out of sync for a modern Indian player, also Shami in place of Bhuvi and Ashwin in place of Pandya.

This will put a bit more pressure on Yuvi & MSD but that's all right. And MSD looked really good yesterday, I think he should ideally come anywhere between 20-30 overs, he has a decent platform and can explode towards the end.

Even though he isn't the captain, you can see that MSD puts pressure on himself and plays like a finisher, even now. Some have commented on Kohli captaincy, I think its too early, I am impressed with his aggressive wicket taking style, but sometimes is it better to hang back and let the opposition commit mistakes. He would probably learn with time. Rest SL really played well, they deserved to win and they did so, rather comfortably.

PS. I am a big Shami fan, I will pick him, when he is fit, over anyone.

[harry10]

It's ok. SL played brilliantly and won fair and square. All credit to them cos not even SL supporters would have given them the chance.

As for Virats captaincy he made 2 big mistakes.
When mendis got out he didn't brought a front line pacer to apply pressure on new batsman.
He persisted with jaddu even when he was the most expensive.
But, these things happen. Jaddu has been awesome this season so one off happens. Kohli is doing all right as captain. He can't be MSD so let us accept that and move on.
I won't make any change in playing 11 for SA game except for Shami instead of yadav. Even, Ashwin for Jadhav will be a good swap. SA is always bad against spinners. Bhuvi and bhumrah have been consistently good so they can't be dropped.
Yesterday's loss has made this tournament damn interesting otherwise rain has made it too boring for everyone.

For a change I hope we win the toss and elect to field. Chasing is always our great strength.

[carwatcher]

Did someone notice that Dhoni was struggling to score during the death overs, after he got out Jadhav took the score past 310. Dhoni as a batsman is not very threatening as he used to be.

WRT captaincy Kohli doesn't look creative or risk taking like Dhoni. We won numerous matches from hopeless situations under Dhoni, so can say luck also favored him like Azhar.

If SA has to win CT, they have to win three back to back knock-out games.