Just imagine and appreciate

[The Outsider]

After the 2007 WC debacle there were all sorts of noises from the fans and media - some pensive, some hysterical, some downright derogatory. Now imagine the Indian media, commentators, and the fan contingent if Dravid had captained India to the T20 WC - which was his prerogative - in company of Tendulkar and Ganguly and India had been knocked out in the first round. Can you imagine the mass hysteria against the oldies, the selfish, and the mafia? Just that happened to Australia. After losing rubbers to India in India and South Africa in Australia, Australia persisted with the wholesome T20 trio of Ponting, Clarke, and M Hussey in the middle order and got promptly knocked out. In fact, Waugh was removed from the team for losing a tri series. Are we too harsh on our players, are the Aussies too lenient, or is my analysis wrong?

[Viraj]

The Aussies trust their players...why shouldn't they. The Aussie team has been the best around for a long time. The idea of knee-jerk reactions just doesn't exist. They know that their best players should be good enough for any format of the game. They just still havn't got the hang of T20 and are still in the habit of not taking it seriously. Instead of participate in the IPL and get T20 practice, they chose to rest for the Ashes. With India, we suffer from impatience. The lack of major achievements in the sport which we put most of our efforts in has led us to become this way. If we fail once, we don't have the trust that the Aussies have that the player will come good - we crave instant success because we have been starved of it. We have a vindictive media too, who do not give a **** about the team at all - just wants to stir up controversy after controversy to sell papers which start these hate campaigns.

[Anakin]

After the 2007 WC debacle there were all sorts of noises from the fans and media - some pensive, some hysterical, some downright derogatory. Now imagine the Indian media, commentators, and the fan contingent if Dravid had captained India to the T20 WC - which was his prerogative - in company of Tendulkar and Ganguly and India had been knocked out in the first round. Can you imagine the mass hysteria against the oldies, the selfish, and the mafia? Just that happened to Australia. After losing rubbers to India in India and South Africa in Australia, Australia persisted with the wholesome T20 trio of Ponting, Clarke, and M Hussey in the middle order and got promptly knocked out. In fact, Waugh was removed from the team for losing a tri series. Are we too harsh on our players, are the Aussies too lenient, or is my analysis wrong?

I for one miss the excessive exposure of some ugly legs, misdiagnosis, objectivity and twisted interpretation of numbers, it was fun in some ways.

[King]

Rahul Dravid continued to lead after the WC'07 debacle and it was his decision to quit. He was not sacked as a captain. That did a world of good that's a different issue. Tendulkar is still persisted with in ODIs and if he made himself available he would have been in the Twenty20 squad. I'm glad he opted to sit out. In fact none of the senior pros wanted to be part of Twenty20 WC. All of Rahul Dravid, Ganguly and Tendulkar ruled themselves out of Twenty20s. Anil Kumlbe and Ganguly weren't sacked. They called it a day. Quite sure Ganguly would have been forced to retire if he didn't but the Indian seniors are smart enough when to call it quits these days. The Aussies cling on but eventually they will be forced out. On another note, do you reckon Aussies would have lost if they had the likes of Hayden and Gilly were still playing? Bottom line India at the moment is churning players as Australia used to a decade ago. India can sustain playing the oldies or the younger brigade with the same effect in any format (perhaps not in Twenty20).

[umpire]

no no no problem with australia is you need good spin option and they have none. They had good score in both the games. Good spinner (even Brad Hogg) would have won the game.

[f.b.m]

I think your analysis is wrong. The main reasons they lost those series against India and SA was because of the loss of a huge number of players of a high calibre. That mixed with a stupid captain brings you these losses. As far as the 20/20 world cup goes, I got a feeling that they didnt care about getting anywhere in the tournament or took a super 8s spot for granted. Either way, they should have had Hayden, Gilchrist, etc play this one. It would have gotten a lot more tv revenue, left some space for the ashes squad to prepare and win more often.

[veer]

punter and clarke look out of place cuz they play too conventional cricket.. and T20 is anything but conventional.. they didnt have practice games.. didnt play in IPL..I couldntnt have imagined saying this but even Dravid is better T20 player than those two.. also, they didnt use hussy brothers properly.. they both are lot better for T20 games than punter and clarke.. looking at warm-up games, I bet you would have never imagined Ozzies to go out like this.. it was gayle power in the first game... and mendis in the second.. its just one of those days.. this time, they got two of those days back to back..