Indian cricket must reinvent itself!

[Chandan]

Re: Indian cricket must reinvent itself! They can go for county cricket in England but every other country has its domestic cricket from September to April, when we have our domestic season too. Will the English counties accept players from India who've not represented the country? I don't think so. I know that Akash Chopra is only able to play club-cricket there. And even RP Singh will be playing just club cricket. Are English clubs-competition better than our our domestic competition?

[King]

Re: Indian cricket must reinvent itself! Nothing wrong in playing club cricket Chandan, even some of the international stars like Fleming, Bondy also play club cricket when time persists. I would prefer the players playing the domestic cricket rather. I've played in England and the club culture is pretty good. There is good bonding and usually the club members respect their club's history quite a bit. The grounds in India and England are vastly different. From what I've experienced a lot of grounds that the club cricket is conducted on in India are usually bare of grass. You only get few upcoming cricketers playing for the club in India where as in England you have few international cricketers playing at club level. Certainly Indian domestic cricket is way better than club cricket by miles. I forgot India plays its domestic cricket in winters. That's a bugger. Perhaps 'A' tours are the only way to acclimatize the upcoming cricketers to overseas conditions.

[Chandan]

Re: Indian cricket must reinvent itself!

Excellent thread, Chandan..... u filled it up pretty quick..... but good information digging..... seems like ONE of the solutions is more A tours.... some of Harsha's suggestions seem good.... especially reducing the number of teams and the dilution effects....

Thanks Gator. Some of Harsha's suggestions are good but reducing the number of 1st class team isn't going to be easy. Remeber, every state fielding a Ranji team has a vote in BCCI and how will you absolve that? For ex, we have 27 teams playing for Ranji trophy: * Assam * Goa * Himachal Pradesh * Jammu & Kahmir * Jharkhand * Kerala * Madhya Pradesh * Orissa * Railways * Services * Tripura * Vidarbha * Andhra * Baroda * Bengal * Delhi * Gujarat * Haryana * Hyderabad * Karnataka * Maharashtra * Mumbai * Punjab * Rajasthan * Saurashtra * Tamil Nadu * Uttar Pradesh How will you reduce this? Any idea?

[Chandan]

Re: Indian cricket must reinvent itself! Earlier, board had announced, apparantly, to revamp the Ranji format this year. But I don't find this idea very encouraging either. Ranji Trophy format to be revamped And I found this news after googling, but only in Indiatimes: Duleep Trophy to become non-zonal meet Tell me anyone, what do you make of this?

[Chandan]

Re: Indian cricket must reinvent itself! What is needed is complete reform of Indian cricket It says that we don't have the blue print of excellence, but we have, only if BCCI is willing to take it.

[Chandan]

Re: Indian cricket must reinvent itself! Is no one interested here in how to take India forward?

[Chandan]

Re: Indian cricket must reinvent itself! Kiran More puts some obvious points but some of them are worth pondering. Consider this...! By: kiran more April 6, 2007 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Former chief selector feels it?s not just about changing the captain and coach. The challenge of resurrecting Indian cricket goes beyond that First things first. If you think that the meeting today and tomorrow is going to change the face of Indian cricket, then forget about it. It will take more than a couple of days to change the fate of a country?s cricketing fortunes. At the most, a decision on the captain and coach of a team is going to be taken at the meeting. But, the fact is, the problem lies in not having a proper cricketing structure to fall back on and it?s time that the fans and the administrators realise this. Unless we have a cricketing structure, our cricket will always be up and down. Pitch for youngsters Last year, there were calls for seniors to be brought back and juniors to be dropped. Now, some of the same people are saying, ?we need some youngsters in the team.? A lot of things have been said about Greg Chappell. But, in my opinion he is one of the best coaches I have come across. From Day One his vision was long-term and 22 months is by no yardstick a good enough term to build a team. Everyone talks about Australians. But people forget when they were re-building, it took them five-six years to get a structure in place and had a long term coach in Bob Simpson. All the work done by selection committee during my tenure as chairman along with Chappell has been nullified now. We are back to Ground Zero. According to me the selection panel, which had worked closely with Chappell for 15 months, should have continued for five more months up to the World Cup. We had to discontinue because we finished our four year-terms. It is very unfair even on the new selection committee to get adjusted quickly. It takes time to build a rapport and once we had an understanding in place, we should have gone ahead with it. That?s where probably I feel the constitution of the board can be amended. Also, after losing to South Africa, we panicked badly and dropped some youngsters. The new selection committee was also under tremendous pressure from the media. Chappell did not come here to criticise Indian cricket or any player. With regards to today?s meeting, I am certain that Chappell will present his report in a professional manner and say things the way he sees them. Hard decisions Then it is up to the Board how they perceive it. If some hard decisions have to be taken and a few people are not happy about it then, so be it. There?s no use asking for a report and not acting on it. What we need to do now is work on our first-class cricket. That?s where the players will come from. The opinions of not only international cricketers, but also first-class cricketers and coaches should be taken. It will take time to get it in place, but if at this juncture we try to find stopgap solutions, then it will only be detrimental for the future of Indian cricket. Lastly, don?t panic. The country has a lot of talent. Just get a system in place to harness it and we?ll be consistently one of the top three teams in the near future. ---------------------------------------------------------- It perfectly makes sense that the selection committee which had gone on rebuilding the team keeping the coach's 'Mission 2007' in mind should have stayed till the WC and then would have been totally responsible for the performance in the WC along with coach, captain and players. All this was messed up because a new selection committee had taken place of the old one as apparantly their term was finished before the main task. This is absolutely funny. 1. Should we have selectors for a fixed term? 2. Should we have selectors working as honorary members, travelling the length and breadth of the country for nothing? 3. Should we have selectors from each zone or should they be chosen on their merit? 4. Shoould we have 5 selectors or just 3 paid individuals for as long as the board would want? Any of you would like to give your opinion?

[Chandan]

Re: Indian cricket must reinvent itself! I'm glad that the former captains have finally taken up the selectors issue. But it is yet to be seen whether it gets passed in the working committee or not. And it seems no one is interested in discussing this topic about what should be done for the Indian cricket to reinvent itself and how.

[Chandan]

Re: Indian cricket must reinvent itself! Climb to the top is a never-ending process John Wright April 09, 2007 First Published: 02:05 IST(9/4/2007) Last Updated: 02:18 IST(9/4/2007) As I watch events unfold after the exit of my old team from the World Cup, I can't help feel sad. Once Indian cricket gets hold of you, it's hard to let go. There are no winners in this saga: the coach, the players or the administrators. And certainly not the fans spare a thought for them. They don't care about the money from TV rights or sponsorship, what logos are on the uniforms or who the BCCI's office bearers are. All they want is a good fighting team, playing tough, playing well and one that makes them feel proud to say, "That's India, that's my team." If this World Cup has taught us anything at all about putting together a winning team, it is this: it's not about money. The truth is, it never has been, and never will be when you're talking about what happens out in the middle. At a time like this, I'm sure people are asking all sorts of questions: what will and who can work in India? Do you need a CEO for the BCCI? Does the team require a professional permanent assistant administrator or media liaison? How does the A-team touring programme get going? How many good, young fast bowlers do we have and who is keeping an eye on them? What about the selection process that I harped on? Should anyone who wants to play for India be first asked to run from Mumbai to Delhi? Who do the players or coaches talk to if they have problems with the itinerary or sponsorship shoots? Should the physio be tall or short? Are these goras any good? Now that you have to find another coach, it would be good to think about what is the career path for young Indian coaches or the programmes, if any, in place for them. Learning to coach doesn't happen overnight. A coach needs teams and players to work with all the time. You can't do the job for a year or two, go home, watch the bills pile up and wait for the phone to ring. But, surely, isn't this the moment when everyone who sits at the table of Indian cricket takes a deep breath, forgets about the vote and the political equations and asks themselves just one question: what's best for Indian cricket? This is not the time for settling personal scores. It's probably best to take some time to assess, study and determine what exactly is the best way forward. Go about things in a measured and clever manner and then look to get the best people for the job, whoever they may be. It is worth remembering that climbing to the top or winning is never-ending. It's a constant exercise in striving, in a never-ending pursuit. There is no one definite answer, there is no one person who has them all and there is no finish line. Whatever is decided on paper, needs to be followed with sustained action. If any ideas are needed, there seem to be plenty of models in Indian business that might be worth looking at. Surely there are some lessons that could apply to run of Indian cricket? ------------------------------------------------------ Oh Wright, how I wish you could convince the BCCI about it!!!

[yoda]

Re: Indian cricket must reinvent itself! Wright ran out of answers in 2004/2005. But the guy loves India and Indian cricket. You could see that in his commentary during our brief appearance this WC.