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expression and perception of Indian cricket
Victory is always sweet. It has an encouraging and electrifying effect on the winning team. It may seem ridiculous to imagine that victory may not have positive consequences. The first major casualty of success is reflection and retrospection, a very vital ingredient. One does not find many a thoughtful faces on a victory lap or deep furrows on the forehead while lifting a trophy.
India has had the fortune (or misfortune) of being a victorious side many a times. It has recorded spectacular results in both the versions of the game, albeit inconsistently so. It was natural that nobody ever sat down to analyze these victories and take steps to make them a permanent feature. It was only after a thrashing that the post mortem was conducted and only after a serious malady was diagnosed that a remedy was suggested.
We have won yet another series and added yet another feather to our cap if not another jewel in the crown. This victory is bound to give us a feeling that everything is fine and we can jolly well continue the way we are. All the past and recent defeats and humiliations will be forgiven and forgotten. A victory at home. It does have a special meaning for every country. But not when it is India. The way India has defeated, destroyed and demolished every single side at home with a monotonous regularity that the entire exercise appears mundane if not a farce. We could not have avoided winning even after fixing a couple of them. A decade of unbeaten record at home. But abroad?
Till date India has won only 14 Test matches abroad and three in the past fifteen years. We needed a debutant like Bangladesh to record our first 'overseas' victory in seven years. There were a couple of very near misses but like all would-have-beens, they should be allowed to rest. The stunning regularity and predictability with which India has catapulted overseas is shameful. But we made up for that by breaking all records at home with series after series of brown wash.
I would not be solving a mystery, if I say that the ineptness of our batsmen against fast bowling is the root cause. Every frontline Indian batsman has performed brilliantly, even abroad, but that was never enough to provide us with more than 3 victories in the past 15 years. The spineless displays of these very batsmen comprehensively outnumber the occasions when they had stood their ground to ensure a draw let alone a victory.
Not knowing the cause is one thing and not taking any steps to rectify the disorder is another. Our cricket system falls in the second category. For an entire decade it ordered doctored pitches as a tonic for a defeated team. And the team never disappointed. A tacit quid pro quo. You give me a doctored pitch and I will give you a victory, to distort one of our famous national slogans. All kinds of suggestions and theories have been floated in order to get rid of this chronic problem. Ideas ranging from harshly realistic to absurdly idealistic have been provided but little has been done apart from setting up of a couple of academies and pace foundations.
A common suggestion is to prepare sporting pitches for a domestic series. That will rob us off an opportunity of making up for abroad losses through home victory and disappoint the fans. We know what has happened to us at Mohali. The Kiwis scuttled us for less than hundred and earlier we squandered the golden opportunity to end the unbeaten record of West Indies. Even the morning dew is enough to account for our collapses as Donald and Kasprovicz have proved on two occasions.
The second idea is to prepare sporting tracks for our domestic cricket. Nothing could be more welcome than that except for the risk of running out of batsmen who can play spin and bowlers who can tweak the ball. Nonetheless one finds that something quick and far reaching must be done. The least we can do is to give our batsmen more exposure to fast tracks and hostile bowling with regularity. A test in Mohali once in three years will not do.
I understand the need to prepare a turner, when the Kangaroos and the Proteas visit us. But when less lethal sides like Zimbabwe, Sri Lanka and New Zealand come calling, then we must have green tops, at least in some matches of the series. A victory at any such venue would do our batsmen a world of good. Similarly we can have a quota of fast track matches for every Ranji side. Say one of the four Round Robin ones. Or the Knock out round to be placed on fast pitches and so on.
Unless we give our batsmen a feel of genuine fast bowling, nothing is going to help. What about having Dravid or Ganguly play for Tasmania or Transval for some of their matches? Which side would not want to have crowd pullers like them? Conversely we can have a Donald or Lee bowling in our domestic championship. I am sure that the state associations are rich enough to afford that. To say in short, why do not we have a foreign player quota like the English have? Apart from breathing in a new freshness to our boring championships, it would give our youngsters a nice idea of the world outside. I seriously place this propositions before the board for consideration. Six months of Ranji Trophy may be too much. But we can certainly have the services of foreign players in the knock out stages or at least in the Duleep Trophy.
The step would help our players in their transition phase. We will not end up with a long list of players like Raman, Rathor, Martin, Kanitkar etc, who could not convert their triple centuries into 50's at the Test level. And of course avoiding the home series from becoming a fixed affair.
Matrimonial
India has had the fortune (or misfortune) of being a victorious side many a times. It has recorded spectacular results in both the versions of the game, albeit inconsistently so. It was natural that nobody ever sat down to analyze these victories and take steps to make them a permanent feature. It was only after a thrashing that the post mortem was conducted and only after a serious malady was diagnosed that a remedy was suggested.
We have won yet another series and added yet another feather to our cap if not another jewel in the crown. This victory is bound to give us a feeling that everything is fine and we can jolly well continue the way we are. All the past and recent defeats and humiliations will be forgiven and forgotten. A victory at home. It does have a special meaning for every country. But not when it is India. The way India has defeated, destroyed and demolished every single side at home with a monotonous regularity that the entire exercise appears mundane if not a farce. We could not have avoided winning even after fixing a couple of them. A decade of unbeaten record at home. But abroad?
Till date India has won only 14 Test matches abroad and three in the past fifteen years. We needed a debutant like Bangladesh to record our first 'overseas' victory in seven years. There were a couple of very near misses but like all would-have-beens, they should be allowed to rest. The stunning regularity and predictability with which India has catapulted overseas is shameful. But we made up for that by breaking all records at home with series after series of brown wash.
I would not be solving a mystery, if I say that the ineptness of our batsmen against fast bowling is the root cause. Every frontline Indian batsman has performed brilliantly, even abroad, but that was never enough to provide us with more than 3 victories in the past 15 years. The spineless displays of these very batsmen comprehensively outnumber the occasions when they had stood their ground to ensure a draw let alone a victory.
Not knowing the cause is one thing and not taking any steps to rectify the disorder is another. Our cricket system falls in the second category. For an entire decade it ordered doctored pitches as a tonic for a defeated team. And the team never disappointed. A tacit quid pro quo. You give me a doctored pitch and I will give you a victory, to distort one of our famous national slogans. All kinds of suggestions and theories have been floated in order to get rid of this chronic problem. Ideas ranging from harshly realistic to absurdly idealistic have been provided but little has been done apart from setting up of a couple of academies and pace foundations.
A common suggestion is to prepare sporting pitches for a domestic series. That will rob us off an opportunity of making up for abroad losses through home victory and disappoint the fans. We know what has happened to us at Mohali. The Kiwis scuttled us for less than hundred and earlier we squandered the golden opportunity to end the unbeaten record of West Indies. Even the morning dew is enough to account for our collapses as Donald and Kasprovicz have proved on two occasions.
The second idea is to prepare sporting tracks for our domestic cricket. Nothing could be more welcome than that except for the risk of running out of batsmen who can play spin and bowlers who can tweak the ball. Nonetheless one finds that something quick and far reaching must be done. The least we can do is to give our batsmen more exposure to fast tracks and hostile bowling with regularity. A test in Mohali once in three years will not do.
I understand the need to prepare a turner, when the Kangaroos and the Proteas visit us. But when less lethal sides like Zimbabwe, Sri Lanka and New Zealand come calling, then we must have green tops, at least in some matches of the series. A victory at any such venue would do our batsmen a world of good. Similarly we can have a quota of fast track matches for every Ranji side. Say one of the four Round Robin ones. Or the Knock out round to be placed on fast pitches and so on.
Unless we give our batsmen a feel of genuine fast bowling, nothing is going to help. What about having Dravid or Ganguly play for Tasmania or Transval for some of their matches? Which side would not want to have crowd pullers like them? Conversely we can have a Donald or Lee bowling in our domestic championship. I am sure that the state associations are rich enough to afford that. To say in short, why do not we have a foreign player quota like the English have? Apart from breathing in a new freshness to our boring championships, it would give our youngsters a nice idea of the world outside. I seriously place this propositions before the board for consideration. Six months of Ranji Trophy may be too much. But we can certainly have the services of foreign players in the knock out stages or at least in the Duleep Trophy.
The step would help our players in their transition phase. We will not end up with a long list of players like Raman, Rathor, Martin, Kanitkar etc, who could not convert their triple centuries into 50's at the Test level. And of course avoiding the home series from becoming a fixed affair.
Matrimonial
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