From: moonunit@tartarus.uwa.edu.au (Benjamin Ruse)
Subject: Indian Cricket:--> JOKE OR WHAT????!!!!?!?!?
Organization: University of Western Australia
Date: Sat, 15 Aug 1992 06:56:18 GMT


   I am writing in response to P.V.Rao's questionnaire about 
   the make up and captaincy of the Indian cricket team.
   I found this article particularly interesting as it appears
   to be a demonstration of an idea, or perhaps a delusion common
   to many followers of Indian cricket. Namely that the Indian side is 
   being stopped from achieving its rightful spot as the world's top

   team by a combination of poor captaincy and team selection.
   This is obviously ridiculous.
     A look at India's ecent test record shows that it has one only
   one of its past twenty test matches, and that against the Sri Lankans
   on a rather dubious Chandigarh pitch. Furthermore India has never in
   its short history as a cricketing nation been anywhere near the top.
   It has produced many fine players ( Mankad, Chandresekar, Gavaskar )
   but has never been able to field a full team capable of challenging
   the world's best, this situation has been particularly true in the
    past decade.
   It was particularly interesting to note the virtual stampede by the
   Indian Cricket Board to organize a test match against Zimbabwe.
   The temptation of increasing their record to two wins from 21 tests
   and proving themselves capable of defeating TWO other Test playing 
   countries was obviously too much.
   
   The problem with the current Indian team is not selection or
   leadership, but the simple fact that, with the exception of a few
   good players their side is utter pigswill. The only players of Test 
   quality in the team are: Kapil Dev the magnificent all-rounder,  
   Azharuddin who must be the most stylish player in the modern game
   and of course the magnificent Tendulkar. Players such as Kiran More
   and Manoj Prabhakar and of course Ravi Shastri show grit and
   determination   in all facets of their play but apart from these few
   the Indian term shows all the dependability of the proverbial
   chocolate teapot.
   During their recent tour of Australia I had the "privilege"
   of watching them through a whole summer.  Beginning with a One-dayer
   against West Australia in which they folded like a hideaway bed
   in the batting department (All Out 64) and then proceeded to bowl
   like a wheelbarrow full of Amputees.  I watched with disgust as their
   bumbled their way through a 4-0 thrashing in the most depressing Test
   series I have ever seen.  Time after time their batting collapsed
   against McDermott,Hughes and finally Whitney. Srikkanth, Sidhu,
   Manjrekar and Vengsarkar played in 16 Tests between them without 
   scoring a single 50 between them. The Indian bowling was workmanlike
   but with the exception of DEV never looked like taking many wickets.
   (Perhaps something to do with the fact that Australian beer is
    generally sold in tins with ring-pull tops rather than
     in bottles? )
   Even India's much vaunted spin bowling attack appeared reduced to two
   innocuous trundlers one headbanded and looking like the archetypical
   "Nerd" from an American Sit-Com and the other a grimacing Rowan
   Atkinson look-alike.
   Excuses were everywhere for the shocking performance, no sooner had
    the team got over "Jet-Lag" then they were afflicted with a bad
   case of "Homesickness" and even after 4 months in Australia they
   still appeared to be "Troubled by the unfamiliar bounce". 
   
   This may be an unfair reflection of the tour but it is not out
   by much. And more worryingly it appears to have been the history
   of every indian team over the last few years. 
   Why is it that a society that loves its cricket as India does, and
   has such an enormous population to choose from is unable to find a
   team that doesn't play like the Keystone Cops on LSD? Why is it that
   players of the calibre of Sandeep Patil, Sadanand Viswanath, 
   Arshad Ayub, Chetan Sharma, Laxman Sivaramakrishnan and Vivek Razdan
   to name but a few tend not to live up to their early promise?
   If I appear to have been harsh during this discussion I apologize.
   But I feel that it is important to impress upon people that there 
   are deep problems in Indian cricket and that pages of discussion
   on such incidentals as captaincy and selection are only wallpapering
   over the cracks in the Indian side.
   The belief that a new captain and a few changes in personnel will
   herald a brave new era is a self-deluding one, the positve effect
   of the many captaincy changes over the past years has been exactly
   nil. The insecurity and disruption they have caused is immeasurable
   Indian cricket must begin a program of reconstruction, improving
   facilities starting youth clinics and talent identification programs
   and drastically altering the current infrastructure improving both
C  pitches and umpiring.  Idle chatter and malicious attempts to
   undermine Azharuddin's hold on the captaincy will not help if India
   is to gain the position at the top of world cricket that should be
   her birthright.

                 ((( the end ))) p.s Replies are welcome.

   pitches and umpirin
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