Colonel?s old guard backfired

[DesiChap]

Colonel?s old guard backfired By SHAMIK CHAKRABARTY Kolkata, April 2: "I knew this would happen. While the other teams hit the right combination (for the World Cup) by November, we experimented with the likes of Dinesh Mongia and others till the South African series. We lost some invaluable time in the process..." Sourav Ganguly was quoted as saying in a Bengali daily after India were knocked out of the World Cup. The former captain did not mention names. But between the lines, his prime target was the Greg Chappell-Kiran More combination whose "youth policy" kept some seniors including Ganguly out of the squad for more than a year. Dilip Vengsarkar was made chief selector after More finished his term in September 2006. By the end of the ICC Champions Trophy he bullied his way into the think-tank. The 4-0 hiding in the ODI series in South Africa led to huge protests hitting the youth policy for a six. Vengsarkar played to the galleries, called back the old guards which has been derided as the Dad?s Army. It was predominantly the Colonel?s team, apart from Virender Sehwag, that went to the West Indies. In Guru Greg?s heydays, India were a serious contender for the World Cup after a world record of 17 consecutive successful run chases. Now they are placed eighth in ICC rankings. "I fought for youth. The senior players fought against it and the chairman (of selection committee) went with them out of fear of media..." said Chappell. He made these comments a month before the quadrennial showpiece. The coach and chairman of selectors never worked in sync. Right from the outset it appeared a clash of egos. For Chappell, fielding was the key to the team?s chances, Vengsarkar preferred "proven performers" who could score 30-40 runs under pressure rather than save a few in the field. The axe fell on the Rainas and the Kaifs. It?s a paradox that Vengsarkar deemed V.V.S. Laxman unfit for limited-over cricket for fielding reasons. Former India captain Ajit Wadekar, however, refused to blame any individual. "We need to overhaul the complete selection process," he said. "We should give the coach the right to decide on the team. But the coach has to be an Indian," he observed. Former BCCI chief and chairman of selectors Raj Singh Dungarpur called for appointing a cricket committee to act as a bridge between the selectors and the team management. "I don?t think it would be fair to indulge in a blame game. Let?s put it this way, everybody tried their best, but even their best of efforts were not enough," he told this newspaper. He, however, admitted that the decision to recall the old guards did affect the side?s fielding. "I don?t think we have a team which could reign in world cricket consistently for a substantial period. Australia are the best followed by South Africa and New Zealand. This is precisely because their fielding standard is heads and shoulders above the rest. "If we are to set things right we must build an India A team and send them to Australia for exposure. We also need a cricket committee to look after technical things. I think the April 6 meeting, in which former captains were invited is a move in the right direction."

[The Outsider]

Re: Colonel?s old guard backfired And the blame game continues. :lmao: :lmao: The funny part is no one is commenting on their area of expertise. Chappell, instead of talking about coaching is ranting about attitude and selection. Ganguly, instead of talking about his batting, is talking about Mongia etc. etc.

[gator]

Re: Colonel?s old guard backfired i am surprised that Colonel is keeping his meow shut, after farrting so much everyday befoe the world cup..... guilt, eh?

[The Outsider]

Re: Colonel?s old guard backfired This brings me to the point of the rotten BCCI system. Its easy to pass the buck around and play the blame game but the root of the disaster is an ineffective system. When Chappell and Dravid were brought in, they decided to build an ODI unit for the WC with their approach with emphasis on young, multi dimension players supported by a few seniors. The earlier Indian aproach of blasting away at the start was shed a bit in favour of strong lower order hitters in Pathan, Dhoni, and Yuvraj. Not saying either approach was right or wrong because both brought their share of failure and success. Then the selection committee changed, certain key players went out of form and were discarded and what we ended up was a motley group of players who did not fit into either the captain/coach's vision nor the selectors and disaster struck.

[Inside_edge]

Re: Colonel?s old guard backfired If Vengy stays as chief until 2011, we'll have both Dada and Kaka (Rajesh khanna) in playing eleven.And..when Tendu fails and cries in yet another crunch game (may be against Maldives) kaka will console "I hate tears re..."

[gs]

Re: Colonel?s old guard backfired

If Vengy stays as chief until 2011' date=' we'll have both Dada and Kaka (Rajesh khanna) in playing eleven.And..when Tendu fails and cries in yet another crunch game (may be against Maldives) kaka will console "I hate tears re..."[/quote'] a la "Amar Prem" - ro mat tendlya, aaj tum jo ho jis jagah ho, tumhaare aankh ke paanii - saline water, I mean - namakiin paanii ke alaavaa kuchh nahiin hai. isaliye inhen ponchh Daalo tendlya, I hate tears. :lmao: :lmao: :lmao:

[gator]

Re: Colonel?s old guard backfired :lmao: :lmao: :lmao:

[yoda]

Re: Colonel?s old guard backfired In retrospect, Vengy's moves were a disaster, although bringing back Ganguly and Zaheer did seem to make sense when he did that.

[jf1gp_1]

Re: Colonel?s old guard backfired

In retrospect' date=' Vengy's moves were a disaster, although bringing back Ganguly and Zaheer did seem to make sense when he did that.[/quote'] but ganguly still returned as highest scorer (i think)

[Gambit]

Re: Colonel?s old guard backfired

If Vengy stays as chief until 2011' date=' we'll have both Dada and Kaka (Rajesh khanna) in playing eleven.And..when Tendu fails and cries in yet another crunch game (may be against Maldives) kaka will console "I hate tears re..."[/quote'] :lmao: :lmao: :lmao:

[yoda]

Re: Colonel?s old guard backfired

In retrospect' date=' Vengy's moves were a disaster, although bringing back Ganguly and Zaheer did seem to make sense when he did that.[/quote'] but ganguly still returned as highest scorer (i think)

probably, but his impact on our inability to put up a decent score against Bangladesh cannot be underestimated.

[The Outsider]

Re: Colonel?s old guard backfired ^Not only that, but the entire strategy of our team went haywire. Not saying Ganguly was the only reason for it but to have him at the top Tendulkar had to be brought in at number 4. Thats a move I have never been able to understand. He is the best opener in ODI cricket ever. If Jayasuriya at 38 can open successfully why cant Tendulkar. I think that was the single biggest factor behind our early exit. All the flexibility etc. also went to the bin when in the crunch match against SL he had to open. Ganguly/Wright had rectified their mistake of having Tendulkar down the order and turned out to be more flexible than the one purporting flexibilty.

[jf1gp_1]

Re: Colonel?s old guard backfired

In retrospect' date=' Vengy's moves were a disaster, although bringing back Ganguly and Zaheer did seem to make sense when he did that.[/quote'] but ganguly still returned as highest scorer (i think)

probably, but his impact on our inability to put up a decent score against Bangladesh cannot be underestimated.

True but he made 65 and the remaining 6 batsman combined made 77 with 45+ score from yuvraj alone ,with wickets falling all around you cant blame him from scoring at a slow rate.

[yoda]

Re: Colonel?s old guard backfired

In retrospect' date=' Vengy's moves were a disaster, although bringing back Ganguly and Zaheer did seem to make sense when he did that.[/quote'] but ganguly still returned as highest scorer (i think)

probably, but his impact on our inability to put up a decent score against Bangladesh cannot be underestimated.

True but he made 65 and the remaining 6 batsman combined made 77 with 45+ score from yuvraj alone ,with wickets falling all around you cant blame him from scoring at a slow rate.

51 SR against Bangladesh. C'mon. That was a pretty useless innings. We are were 3 RPO most of the game and had to "accelerate" to get to under 4 RPO.

[kumble_rocks]

Re: Colonel?s old guard backfired

^Not only that' date=' but the entire strategy of our team went haywire. Not saying Ganguly was the only reason for it but to have him at the top Tendulkar had to be brought in at number 4. Thats a move I have never been able to understand. He is the best opener in ODI cricket ever. If Jayasuriya at 38 can open successfully why cant Tendulkar. I think that was the single biggest factor behind our early exit. All the flexibility etc. also went to the bin when in the crunch match against SL he had to open. Ganguly/Wright had rectified their mistake of having Tendulkar down the order and turned out to be more flexible than the one purporting flexibilty.[/quote'] Good point you have raised here. But the question remains , was Sachin pushed down the order to accommodate Ganguly.If that was the case, then can't blame Chappell entirely for moving Sachin down the order because he never wanted Ganguly in the first place. Also, playing these two sheet anchors in tandem as openers would have been disastrous in my opinion.

[King]

Re: Colonel?s old guard backfired Anyways Ganguly has played better than most since the South Africa series. No way he can be blamed for the losses. In fact he was the better one among the top 7 batters.

[kumble_rocks]

Re: Colonel?s old guard backfired Ganguly had a S/R of 61 during the world cup.How the hell is he better than laxman then ?

[yoda]

Re: Colonel?s old guard backfired

Ganguly had a S/R of 61 during the world cup.How the hell is he better than laxman then ?

And 51 against the mighty Banglas. :hmph:

[kumble_rocks]

Re: Colonel?s old guard backfired

Ganguly had a S/R of 61 during the world cup.How the hell is he better than laxman then ?

And 51 against the mighty Banglas. :hmph:

Yep. And if it's true that he didn't accelerate inspite of being asked to do so by Dravid, then it goes to show his selfish attitude.

[King]

Re: Colonel?s old guard backfired Check his scores since he was selected for the South African tour and compare that with the rest of the batters.