From: sitaram@quintus.com (Sitaram Muralidhar)
Subject: Re: Indian team -- What now?
Organization: Quintus Corporation, Palo Alto, CA
Date: Tue, 12 Jan 1993 17:48:25 GMT


I must commend you first on submitting an article without any of the
parochial diatribe that so infests this newsgroup nowadays. I must
however hastily add that you have missed the boat on a few issues.

To build a successful enterprise, be it in sport, government, commerce
or whatever, you need GOOD organization. Take the San Francisco 49ers
or the Washington Redskins or the Australian cricket team, English
soccer ... What India never had and still does not is a cricket body
which *thinks* of the betterment of the game.

They have treated players shabbily, not made any meaningful changes to
the domestic competitions, not done much for school cricket, not
improved the quality of the pitches, etc. Inspite of this Indian
cricket has provided its fans many wonderful moments. This is only
because of the pure talent of its cricketers. I am not saying that
they have done nothing right. They have just not kept up with the
times.

For instance, what is the Board thinking while appointing different
managers/coaches for each tour? Under what scenario would this make
sense? I can't think of any. It makes for a lack of continuity and
accountability. The managers are never given the chance to foster team
spirit, respect for each other, and a program, ingredients necessary
to build a winning attitude.

What is this rule about zonal selection anyway? Why should each zone
be represented in the national team? It is like saying that every
English county should be represented in a touring team! Its
ridiculous. Choose the best team you have regardless of where the
players come from.  Heck I don't care if they are from Pakistan!
(Seems like the only way we can win :-) )

Unless changes are made from the top, Indian cricket will always leave
something to be desired. It will continue to provide more lows than
highs, and will continue to pitchfork a very limited number of players
in to the international limelight.

All this is not to say that the players are beyond blame. They tend to
(from what I hear) take things easy when they should be breathing,
eating and thinking cricket all the time - working out during the off
season, studying film, trying to motivate themselves and so on.

You also don't mention fielding. I think fielding is the single most
important factor that the players themselves can improve and reap
immediate benefits from. I wonder how many of the SA-IND one day
matches could have been closer if our fielding was at par with the
South Africans.  There are many other examples - the Aus-Ind game
during the World Cup, the Ind-SA game in the World Cup could have both
gone the other way with a few more (or less) runs to play with.

Fielding also means taking a (very) high percentage of the catches
that come your way. Imagine how much better our bowling might look if
all the catches were held. (BTW, I think that the bowling did a heck
of a job in SA, though I don't think much of the SA batting. If we
were bad, they were on the wrong side of mediocre.)

You talk about spinners saving the day for India at some point. Spin
is very dependent on close catching. Close catching (and ground
fielding) HAS to improve.

Wouldn't it be nice if a complete study was done of the opposition
before each game? We should study the strengths and weaknesses of each
opposing player, their habits and customs, their attitudes etc - down
to the type of gear they use and the training they go through. We
should carry along (instead of one of the useless Board members) what
I call a logistics person. This person would be responsible for making
available video tapes, news paper reports etc., and would also be
required to maintain a dozier of each opposing player. All this
information should be carefully reviewed and used in formulating a
team strategy - much like the professional teams do in this country.
Wouldn't it be great to pass on polaroid films to batsmen and bowlers
in the middle (during drink breaks) to show them how their feet are
moving, field positioning patterns etc?

Finally, there is the attitude of the people. This really can't be
controlled in any form, but it is surely a factor. Take the people on
this group for instance. There are some who hurl obscenities at others
and immediately pounce on submissions from people from other
countries. There are those in India who deify Indian cricketers and
put immense pressure on the individual to perform. Worse still, there
are those that think that since Azhar is muslim, he is not performing
well for India. I wonder if that issue ever came up with Alan Lamb, or
Wessels or the countless others who played for other countries. What a
shame! This sort of thing can happen only in India.

So as you can see there are a lot of short and long term issues that
have to be addressed before cricket in India can live up to its
potential. In the mean time we will have to rely on the talent of our
cricketers to win a few here and there..

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  Muralidhar Sitaram      EMail: sitaram@quintus.com 
  Quintus Corp.           Phone: 415 813-3849       
  2100 Geng Rd.           FAX:   415 494-7608       
  Palo Alto, CA 94303                             
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