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India lose their maverick menace


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In cricketing terms, the Indian subcontinent conjures up images of stylish, wristy batsmen, canny swing bowlers and beguiling spinners, writes Simon Hughes. More... India lose their maverick menace By Simon Hughes Last Updated: 2:14am BST 20/07/2007 Video: The Analyst from the first day at Lord'sIn pics: Andrew Strauss calls the tuneLive Scoreboard In cricketing terms, the Indian subcontinent conjures up images of stylish, wristy batsmen, canny swing bowlers and beguiling spinners. Certainly if you happened upon a city maidan (common) on an average weekend you'd see those things. Diminutive batsmen dancing up the wicket and whipping the ball to leg, strapping Sikhs pinging the ball down from muscular frames, wiry back-of-the-hand spinners. The Cricket Star talent search I was involved with in India last winter unearthed two good leggies, a left-arm chinaman and googly bowler and a Muralitharan-like offie, as well as a couple of decent quickies. The problem for India is that such individuality doesn't reach Test level. Devilish Indian bowling is a modern myth. Since the retirement of Kapil Dev in 1993, the country has produced only one paceman of note - Javagal Srinath. The current crop are an assemblage of honest medium pacers led by the feisty but inconsistent Zaheer Khan, whose first spell rarely demanded a stroke, and the inexperienced Shantha Sreesanth. Both would be portrayed as good triers, which is probably damning them with faint praise. Neither is in the ICC top 20 of world bowlers and the first change, Rudra Pratap Singh, is Wasim Akram with half the pace and an iota of the menace. It was an admission of their impotence that Sourav Ganguly was bowling his little dobbers soon after midday, and took the first wicket. Munaf Patel, a lively operator who arrived on the scene when England toured India, would have been a better bet but has been left at home to get fit. The only other seamers in the party are the pony-tailed Ranadeb Bose, military medium with a capital M, and 18-year-old beanpole Ishant Sharma. Certainly, their quick men lack penetration. If anything though, the Indian spin crisis is worse. Anil Kumble still plugs away valiantly from one end, as he has relentlessly since 1990, and the dismissal of Paul Collingwood was his 139th lbw, a record in Test cricket. But unless a pitch is breaking up, Kumble is not a big threat abroad, as batsmen are generally wise to his changes of pace and his attempts to snake a quicker one into their pads. He has had moderate support from Harbhajan Singh, but now he is surplus to requirements, the Indian spin cupboard appears bare. His replacement, Ramash Powar, is a stocky chap who bowls the kind of amiable off breaks that modern Test players have almost rendered extinct. It says something about the paucity of your slow bowling resources when Sachin Tendulkar has to ask MCC to provide left-arm spinners in the nets. Why, I wondered, don't India produce spin wizards any more? ''Too much coaching,'' observed Ganguly, and he may well be right. There is an intolerance of maverick slow bowlers, who are obviously regarded as an expensive luxury. The tender loving care that all spinners need is scant and unique idiosyncracies are smoothed out. Reliability is valued above sleight of hand. The obsession with quick bowlers - symbolised by the Dennis Lillee foundation in Madras - may be denying India traditional raw material. With the England attack also below full strength, and the three Test pitches likely to be blemish free, the series is already shaping up as the battle of the blades. Whatever your allegiance, I'd pity the poor 5½ oz piece of leather if I were you. It's in for a rough ride.

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What sort of article is this ? Blatantly calling Indian pacers with names such as "medium pacer with a capital M" , "Beanpole" ! Its obvious the guy hasnt come out of the colonial mindset, for him to have mentioned about dimunitive batsman and strapping sikhs ! What pathetic prototyping ! And the worst part is for him to have called the MRF pace foundation as "Dennis Lillee foundation". And he makes little cricketing sense anyway in the entire article which was punctuated with an archetypal mindset and schoolboy logic. And for an englishman to make mocking comments about India's lack of spin-bowling talent is amusing. Considering the fact that their current best spinner is a sikh and the guy who was in the team before him would struggle to skittle out an Indian college team. Oh well.. I have seen the best , now i have seen the worst too.. And Dhondy , just to let you know - You write a million times better than this guy. You should consider a career switch.

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You could say the same to England too. Where are their bowlers? Apart from Hoggard, their fast bowling cup board is pretty bare. Harmison is no better than Zaheer and the likes of Sajid, Tremlett, S Broad have been no better than the likes of RP, Ishant and the rest. The only bowler for England that has shown lot of skill is Jones but he hardly plays a series. S Jones is England's Munaf. India did have pretty decent bowling attack in Zaheer, Nehra, Balaji and the rest but most are injured anyways. Monty has been good for England we will have to agree.

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The tender loving care that all spinners need is scant and unique idiosyncracies are smoothed out. Reliability is valued above sleight of hand. The obsession with quick bowlers - symbolised by the Dennis Lillee foundation in Madras - may be denying India traditional raw material.
That simply is unpardonable :angry_smile: Lillee is just an employee there. BTW isn't Madras now Chennai? Looks like this fella wants to stick with the Pommie given name for the city. I don't want to sound OTT but it seems it's a deliberate attempt by the author.
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Guest dada_rocks
Why, I wondered, don't India produce spin wizards any more? ''Too much coaching,'' observed Ganguly, and he may well be right. There is an intolerance of maverick slow bowlers, who are obviously regarded as an expensive luxury.
dada is so right on the money
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Since the retirement of Kapil Dev in 1993, the country has produced only one paceman of note - Javagal Srinath. The current crop are an assemblage of honest medium pacers led by the feisty but inconsistent Zaheer Khan, whose first spell rarely demanded a stroke, and the inexperienced Shantha Sreesanth. Both would be portrayed as good triers, which is probably damning them with faint praise. Neither is in the ICC top 20 of world bowlers and the first change, Rudra Pratap Singh, is Wasim Akram with half the pace and an iota of the menace. It was an admission of their impotence that Sourav Ganguly was bowling his little dobbers soon after midday, and took the first wicket.
Ahahahahahahahahahahahahaahaha!!! Simon, Simon, it's good to see you squirm, mate!!
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Gotta be fair at all times, Ravi, and not let my heart rule the head. I genuinely feel that the Indian bowling attack is underrated. Just as I feel the batting is overrated. Gotta state my whole position, otherwise I'll end up as an opportunist.

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Fair enough, I reckon Indian batting is way over rated by the English media too. They look at overall number of runs scored by the combination of batters and marvel. I have to say our batters now will be feeling way confident now that England's been out for under 300. It makes a huge difference to the confidence after having bowled out the opponent for way less than they thought. This morning Gower, Hussain and the rest had pretty much taken 500 runs for granted.

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If you think that article was scathing, look at this, Ravi. http://sport.guardian.co.uk/englandindia2007/story/0,,2130763,00.html Excerpts:

There were times yesterday when India resembled a circus troupe. There was Dinesh Karthik And His Amazing Dropped Sitter, Lord Snooty (aka Sourav Ganguly) And His Incredible Dive Over The Ball not to mention RP Singh And His Mind Boggling Wides. Circuses are in decline in India, as elsewhere, but yesterday the old ringmaster Rahul Dravid was overseeing something of a revival. There was no exploding car or trapeze act and it was tempting to check the ticket in case a refund was due.
And then:
India's three main seamers failed to take a wicket between them until late in the day. On this evidence Anil Kumble is in for a busy half-summer. The ball swung. At least, it did so until they changed it in the 36th over, after which it went as straight as an arrow. And no one had any pace. Zaheer Khan, Sri Sreesanth and Singh need assistance and this pitch gave them none. In the field, India scarcely look a Test side. Take away their three all-time greats, Tendulkar, Dravid and Kumble, and they would be very weak indeed. All this would not have mattered very much were it not for the fact that this stillborn cricket season was meant to come to life yesterday. Lord's looked as grand as an ocean liner, humming with expectation, anxious to forget bad memories. The season, so far, has been sodden and anti-climatic. The West Indies were awful, at least until the one-day stuff started. India, we were promised, would provide a sterner challenge. Unlike the West Indies they had played significant cricket. But they were poor yesterday. And the weather forecast for today was bad enough to persuade one to go in search of ark wood.
Harsh, harsh words. Premature and foolish as well. I hope Mr Weaver is feeling proud of himself.
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Harsh is an understatement. Pommies calling India a circus company is a joke indeed. The Pommie media is one of the harshest I've seen I have to say. They really get into the skin of a lot of players. Viv Richards was one who was constantly under the scanner too. Sometimes you feel the journos are a sadist bunch and revel in someone's down fall.

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Ravi, I saw these guys- Sreesanth and Zaheer bowl in SA, and under helpful conditions, they are one of the better new ball pairings in world cricket. Not many sides would have bowled out SA for 83 on that Jo'burg pitch. Quite clearly, they were overwhelmed by nerves yesterday. This morning they woke up to all round disadin from the English press, and were fired up. As I never tire of saying, there's nothing like a bit of anger, a bit of wounded pride to get the best out of a player. I have high hopes for Sreesanth. I feel he will develop into a genuine match winning bowler.

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I agree Sreesanth is a very promising fast bowler. He has the makings of a bowler we are going to see for a long time. Zaheer sometimes can be up and down but often he has done well since his comeback. Sure it helps a bit of anger, that is when the nerves are pushed into the back burner and the zeal to pull out something spectacular transpires.

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India emerge as the more ready at Lord's It was Armageddon at Lord's around midday yesterday. A morbid gloom hung over the ground, the rain fell in torrents and a small river coursed down the road behind the old pavilion, reports Simon Hughes. More... t.gif India emerge as the more ready at Lord's By Simon Hughes at Lord's Last Updated: 12:39am BST 21/07/2007 It was Armageddon at Lord's around midday yesterday. A morbid gloom hung over the ground, the rain fell in torrents and a small river coursed down the road behind the old pavilion. In more than 30 years association with the place I have only witnessed such a scene once before. It was a Saturday in 1980 and the sky was so black that they switched the street lights on in St John's Wood road. An extended cloudburst left a substantial lake in front of the Mound Stand enjoyed by a family of ducks. As it happened, it was my first class debut. We didn't bowl a ball for two days. At such times the players switch off from match focus and indulge themselves in favourite extra curricular activities. In those days it was cards or videos or corridor cricket. They would pig out at lunch and make a beeline for one of the bench seats in the dressing room for a post-prandial snooze. Yesterday some of the England players were a little more resourceful, utilising the time in the indoor nets and the gym, but none of the batsmen would have been mentally tuned in to the idea of play resuming any time soon. Indeed, that play began less than an hour after the rain abated took everyone by surprise. In keeping with the monsoon-like weather, the only people who reacted in time were the Indians. Their bowling was a vast improvement on Thursday, and England batted with sleep in their eyes. Of the six wickets to fall - for the addition of only 30 runs - three were lbw and two were bowled. And Kevin Pietersen experienced the humiliation of being out twice in the space of three overs. Well almost. On the first time he 'nicked' Zaheer Khan behind and was given out he had got three-quarters of the way to the pavilion before his about-turn and eventual reprieve by the third umpire. It set an unusual precedent and confounded long-held traditions that the umpire's decision is final. But the law states that an umpire can change his mind if the decision is prompt, which it was. The decision reeked of commonsense, an umpiring quality in short supply at the World Cup. It was a brave retraction by Simon Taufel and the right result was reached. Pietersen was out in similar fashion a few balls later anyway. The main talking point of the last session was Sachin Tendulkar's innings. With only one meaningful Test century in three years, he appeared tentative and uncertain. He fretted at the crease between balls, fenced warily outside off stump and played only one stroke of genuine authority in marginally surpassing his best score at Lord's. The majority of his 37 runs came behind square of the wicket, a dead give-away that he was sighting the ball a fraction late. That was true of Tendulkar's dismissal too, when he was beaten for pace by James Anderson. That might sound a trifle unlikely, but it was an unlikely kind of day.

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Here is an update from Simon Hughes "Medium pace with M" writer. The first day he absolutely put the Indian bowlers under the scanner. After the result on the second day there is not one mention of good bowling by India. All he mentions is Pommie players were not mentally tuned after the rains. Eventually he moves on to just concentrate on Tendulkar's knock but not one single mention ofPoms hapless batting or some really good bowling by India. This is pommie journalism at its best :haha:

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