Indian team making 'mockery of the art of fielding'

[The Realist]

Indian team making 'mockery of the art of fielding' A veteran cricket writer has criticised India's poor fielding standards, saying modern players reminded him of the lazy royals of old. Suresh Menon, writing in the Mumbai Mirror newspaper, compared Mahendra Singh Dhoni's men to the royals who would only bat and bowl and left the fielding to the servants. "In the early days of Indian cricket, the Maharajas thought nothing of actually having their servants fielding for them," Menon wrote. "Fielding was for servants, not masters, of the less fortunate who, for reasons of class or caste did not find a place in the real scheme of things. "At the higher levels, it allowed the batsmen to have a prolonged rest, and the bowlers to come off the field after every spell. "Our modern maharajas are thus merely continuing a tradition. No running, no diving, no hitting the stumps." :haha: Menon doubted whether any fielding coach could make a difference – he would be up against history, geography and, perhaps, economy. "History – India's tradition of poor fielders; geography – the hard grounds (where diving is fraught with danger in the early days); and perhaps economics – why take a chance on an injury when fielding which might lead to a fall in earnings?", he wrote. India's cricket chiefs recently sacked fielding coach Robin Singh, along with bowling coach Venkatesh Prasad, after the team's first round exit from the Champions Trophy in South Africa. Misfields and clumsy catching marked India's four-run defeat by world champions Australia in the first one-day international in Vadodara on Sunday. "If the Vadodara performance is any indication, then Indian fielders have a problem with anticipation (even those near the boundary sometimes look surprised when the ball is played to them), with movement, with stopping the ball, with pick up and with throw," Menon wrote. :agree: "This is a series of shortcomings that makes a mockery of the art of fielding at the international level. "Dhoni was strangely silent about the fielding in Vadodara. Or maybe he has talked about it so often now that he is sick of it. Some things never change." http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/cricket/international/india/6448045/Indian-cricketers-making-a-mockery-of-the-art-of-fielding-at-the-international-level.html Hilarious stuff but also plenty of truth there. Some of the fielding is laughable. The likes of Nehra, Kumar and Sharma are club class at best. Add Munaf Patel into the mix and you have the fielding skills of a retirement home team. Question is how do you improve the standards? :hmmm:

[Guest Hiten.]

Oh please, barring few SA and Aussie players show me players who hit stumps on regular basis ? who does not misfield the ball ? I agree Indian fielding is mediocre but its not that bad as people are making it out to be. People talk about SL being a terrific fielding unit is just bullocks as the only decent fielder in SL side is Dilshan. Pak, Ind, Eng, WI can be bracketed together as they can be very hapless fielding side to a decent one when everything tends to go their way.

[The Outsider]

Fielding will improve now that Robin Singh has been sacked just like the bowling magically improved in a week after Prasad's sacking.

[Laaloo]

Fielding will improve now that Robin Singh has been sacked just like the bowling magically improved in a week after Prasad's sacking.

:lightbulb:

[The Realist]

Yet another article lamenting Indian fielding standards: India are hamstrung by their fielding failures If India come out on top in the one-day series against Australia it will be despite their efforts in the field, not because of them http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2009/oct/28/india-australia-one-day-series

[Params7]

I think all the criticisms towards our fielders is well justified. Bhajji didn't dive to save that boundary, we lost by 4 runs. Some of the athleticisms you see even in teams like Zimbabwe is above Indian standards right now.

[kooljatt]

It may improve if parveen & nehra start eating butter chicken

[punjabi_khota]

It may improve if parveen & nehra start eating butter chicken

Yeah but only if they catch the murgis themselves...:yay:

[ViruRulez]

Yeah but only if they catch the murgis themselves...:yay:

:hysterical::hysterical::hysterical::hysterical::hysterical::hysterical: BTW did you watch Praveen's misfielding yesterday ... I dont know but it was looking exactly like he is trying to catch a murgi especially during the second part of the misfielding.. just watch the video and you will notice the murgi pakad sequence :giggle:

[kooljatt]

Yeah but only if they catch the murgis themselves...:yay:

:cantstop:

[fineleg]

A year back we were a decent fielding side (not great, but not the pathetic fielding unit either). The main guy who sucked was Daadaji Munna Bhai Patel. But now :dontknow: Munaf, Nehra, Pravin Kumar, Ishant Sharma, RP Singh - all buffoons in fielding!

[punjabi_khota]

A year back we were a decent fielding side (not great, but not the pathetic fielding unit either). The main guy who sucked was Daadaji Munna Bhai Patel. But now :dontknow: Munaf, Nehra, Pravin Kumar, Ishant Sharma, RP Singh - all buffoons in fielding!

One year back we also had Munaf,PK,Ishant,RP with same poor skills in fielding ...so I don't know what you crying about . Infact we have added Raina who is a good fielder. :eyedance:

[The Outsider]

One year back we also had Munaf,PK,Ishant,RP with same poor skills in fielding ...so I don't know what you crying about . Infact we have added Raina who is a good fielder. :eyedance:

Raina is the best all round fielder in the team, IMO. I have not seen him field in the slips, but his ability to hit the stumps is much better than anyone else in the side. The time when Yuvraj(the days when he used to be a superb fielder), Kaif, and Raina were playing together were perhaps the best days of Indian fielding.

[Little_Master]

This team is capable of fielding better....i guess we'll see better performance in the next 5 games.

[Temujin Khaghan]

Raina is the best all round fielder in the team, IMO. I have not seen him field in the slips, but his ability to hit the stumps is much better than anyone else in the side. The time when Yuvraj(the days when he used to be a superb fielder), Kaif, and Raina were playing together were perhaps the best days of Indian fielding.

For WCT20 '07 we had ms, uv, karthik, uthappa, rohit, sehwag and gambhir (with rp, irfan and bhajji doing a decent job in the outfield) that was our best fielding unit.

[The Outsider]

For WCT20 '07 we had ms' date=' uv, karthik, uthappa, rohit, sehwag and gambhir (with rp, irfan and bhajji doing a decent job in the outfield) that was our best fielding unit.[/quote'] I was talking about ODIs.

[Temujin Khaghan]

I was talking about ODIs.

I was just saying when was the last time we felt proud of our team's fielding prowess.