India's turn to dominate world cricket?

[vvvslaxman]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/oliverbrett/2011/04/indias_turn_to_dominate_cricke.html India's turn to dominate world cricket? Post categories: Cricket Oliver Brett | 16:01 UK time, Monday, 4 April 2011 Like British politics, world cricket has seen two formidable and dominant dynasties take shape in the last 30 years. The West Indies, in an uncompromising fashion that may have impressed Margaret Thatcher, were peerless in the 1980s, with their fearsome fast bowlers and that most awe-inspiring batsman, Viv Richards. When the Windies then spiralled into decline, Tony Blair entered Downing Street at a time when Australia had already taken hold of the sceptre of power that made them the pre-eminent side. But with the third of Ricky Ponting's three Ashes defeats still fresh in the memory, and two changes of Prime Minister since Blair, a watershed moment has arrived. I'll leave the politics out of this blog from now on, and instead concentrate on India, whose coronation as World Cup winners on Saturday could put them on course to establish themselves as the next great superpower in world cricket. India's win was achieved in spite of several factors that could have made their task a tough one in the ICC's flagship event. Dhoni (right) will not be able to count on the formidable Tendulkar (left) for very much longer (AP) This was a tournament in which favourites (generally South Africa in recent editions) had not enjoyed a good record. But this time India started as favourites and found a way to win. Furthermore, no previous team had won a final on home soil. Shrugging off that weight of expectation was all the harder for India, whose fans are both notoriously passionate and notoriously fickle. Mahendra Dhoni's Zen-like serenity, and ability to inure himself to external factors, helped him rise to the challenge with some accomplished captaincy. Dhoni also ended a run of poor form by delivering the coup de grace with the bat against Sri Lanka on Saturday. His legacy is secured a generation after Kapil Dev, who led an underdog Indian side to glory in 1983, wrote the first chapter in the modern history of Indian cricket. In Dhoni's case, the journey can go to even bigger and better places and for the next 12 months the onus will be on protecting the number one Test status they earned over the winter. So how do India's finest players prepare for the important tours of West Indies, England and Australia that lie in wait for them later this year (plus a home series in November against West Indies?) Oh yes. The Indian Premier League starts on Friday. That's right, this Friday... and goes on until 28 May. With two new franchises, Pune and Kochi, and 74 matches squeezed into less than two months, players will have to suffer a stressful regime of practice-match-hotel-flight (repeat ad nauseam) week-in, week-out. Remember: in the IPL, the performance of India-qualified players is key. Seven players in each starting side have to be Indians, and there will be no instances of the national board pulling players out to give them a break (as happens in county cricket). Seven days after the IPL final, India play a Twenty20 international in Trinidad followed by five one-day internationals and three Tests, finishing on 10 July. Time for a rest after that? Oh no. It's straight on to the tour of England and a warm-up against Somerset starting on 15 July. Quite what shape any of these players will be in come the Lord's Test match on 21 July is anyone's guess. One way round would be to rest a number of key players for the tour to West Indies. But that could be a dangerous tactic on pitches that have become lifeless, and under new captain Darren Sammy the Windies are showing glimmers of potential. One for the future: Cheteshwar Pujara has already had a brief taste of Test cricket (Getty) Either way, Andrew Strauss's England will start that Test at Lord's with a huge in-built advantage on a ground where they are unbeaten in their last 10 Tests. I mention all this because the single biggest threat to India's bid for world cricket domination is not the quality of their opponents but the daft scheduling. Administrators everywhere are good at talking a good game when it comes to easing the physical and mental burden on players. But when it comes to agreeing deals with rival boards and broadcasters, the dollar signs tend to loom larger than the latest alarming bulletins from the physio. Another negative for India is the age of some of their top players. Sachin Tendulkar (37) is playing some of the best cricket of his life in his fourth decade as an international cricketer. But even the finest wines have a quantifiable shelf-life, and before very long he will have to be replaced. More holes in the batting will open up when Rahul Dravid (38) and VVS Laxman (36) also make way. There are some very fine young batsmen in India. The 21-year-old Saurabh Tiwary is an extremely exciting player while Cheteshwar Pujara, who has played three Tests, comes with all the right credentials and appears to have a long career in front of him. Virat Kohli, an important if unspectacular performer in the World Cup, also looks like he could play some fine innings in Test cricket. At 32, Zaheer Khan is significantly younger than Tendulkar, Dravid and Laxman. But he is a fast bowler and the sad truth is that they age faster than batsmen. Zaheer is also demonstrably the best seamer in both the Test and one-day sides and will require careful management in the years to come. Ishant Sharma looks the best of the rest, while too many others (notably Irfan Pathan and RP Singh, plus Sreesanth, to an extent) have seen highly promising careers fizzle out alarmingly. Injuries and indifferent form have stalled the careers of Irfan Pathan and RP Singh (Getty) The list of other young fast bowlers coming through is a thin one, but that's hardly surprising. The Indian nursery is effectively the IPL. And if you're a young bowler trying to rise to the surface then having to bowl at the most aggressive batsmen in the world in 20-overs-a-side cricket is far from ideal. Scoff all you like at the County Championship. But when England were forced to adopt Plan B in the Ashes and produce Tim Bresnan and Chris Tremlett halfway through the series, they acquitted themselves very well indeed. If fast bowling is a concern for India, spin bowling is not, or should not be. Harbhajan Singh (30) has many miles left on his clock, and other spinners like Pragyan Ojha, Piyush Chawla and Ravichandran Ashwin all look pretty useful. With their enormous resources, both financial and in terms of raw numbers of players, and the belief the World Cup win should give them, India have a fighting chance of doing something similar to Clive Lloyd's West Indians and Steve Waugh's Aussies. But they must do so at a time of innumerable, compressed tours, and amid the distractions of the IPL - plus the imminent retirement of some superstar players. It will take something very special indeed for Dhoni's India to become a benchmark for long-term cricketing excellence

[cricketlover]

one day cricket yes,,, test cricket.. unless they can find a world class strike bowler who can consistently go upwards of 87mph my reading is that india will always be in a scrap to consolidate their no1 rankinf

[vvvslaxman]

Should zak selectively play IPL?

[Sachin=GOD]

Zak should not play IPL. There is a very, very hectic schedule in the coming months for India - West Indies, England, Australia in the nest 6 months would be very demanding. He should take a very well deserved rest IMO. Sadly there is no chance of any such thing happening :((

[vvvslaxman]

As the Author mentions India's quest for world domination will be hampered by outrageous schedules.

[Karan114]

Back to the article, author is spot on with respect to scheduling. Ideally, you'd like a six to seven week period in the off season when players can recuperate from niggles and the like. Unfortunately that period is taken up by the IPL and that's not going to change.

[Manny_Pacquiao]

like i said in a previous thread, india will own in ODIs. nobody can beat a full strength India. look at how india pushed south africa to the brink in their own backyard with half their batting lineup missing. in tests, its much more complicated. senior batsmen will be gone soon, and we need replacements. the younger batsmen are there, but will need time to find their feet at test level. india also needs a few good bowlers to take some of the burden off zaheer khan's shoulders. we were a bowler short of closing out the cape town test last winter. that should have been easy indian win after we had them reeling in the 3rd innings but after zaheer got injured, we couldnt clean up the tail and they made 340. definitely need 1 more strike bowler. we find that bowler, and we will have a better team than ingerland for sure. it could be a spinner or a seamer. whoever. just find him.

[ganeshran]

I think we need a better bowling attack to even think of domination. Domination was what the windies and aussies did. Their even one loss was celebrated by the whole of rest of the cricketing world. If not a seamer we need a great wrist spinner to replace Kumble. But the only prospect selectors can find is chaiwala

[Sachin=GOD]

I think we need a better bowling attack to even think of domination. Domination was what the windies and aussies did. Their even one loss was celebrated by the whole of rest of the cricketing world. If not a seamer we need a great wrist spinner to replace Kumble. But the only prospect selectors can find is chaiwala

Chalwa was'nt that bad when he burst on to the international scene but sadly, like many of our prospects, faded away in years to come. I think what we need to do is to simply concentrate on all the bowlers we have currently - Sreesanth, PK, Ishant, RP ,Irfan and some of the upcoming ones like Aaron, Unadkat, Umesh Yadav, Deepak Chahar etc and try to improve them rather than trying to manufacture talent out of nowhere.

[Zelig]

We are two good bowlers short.

[Cricket Tragic]

We need a good 3rd seamer to win test series consistently overseas.

[Karan114]

Chalwa was'nt that bad when he burst on to the international scene but sadly, like many of our prospects, faded away in years to come. I think what we need to do is to simply concentrate on all the bowlers we have currently - Sreesanth, PK, Ishant, RP ,Irfan and some of the upcoming ones like Aaron, Unadkat, Umesh Yadav, Deepak Chahar etc and try to improve them rather than trying to manufacture talent out of nowhere.

True. Most of all, we need to get Ishant back on track. He is just 22 so has a potentially long career in front of him and has had some success at Test level (so we know he is capable unlike some of the other guys who have only played FC) and has the tools to become a really good Test bowler, so his regression is the biggest concern.

[vvvslaxman]

I rarely see fast bowlers run through a batting line up in domestic matches on a true pitch. Not under-prepared pitches. That is when i will call them as potential. Simply clocking 145 k is not potential if you ask me.

[yoda]

Our bowling situation has always been like this, don't think it is going to change anytime soon. Good prospects turned trundlers, recycled back till more prospects are unearthed. We just need to extract 2 or 3 decent bowlers out of that (re)cycle and chalao with our batting.

[Cricket Tragic]

Coming back to the schedule, can we expect to dominate when it is so ridiculous? The only option is to pick the big series and then rest the main players for the others. For instance, we could pick a team like we did against NZ for the WI ODIs.

[vvvslaxman]

We need more zaheers who is able to operate at optimum pace and still be effective. I think we grossly under-rate Praveen as a test bowler. 38 matches 172 wickets. 71 innings 13 five wicket hauls. It is almost like every 5.5 innings he gets a 5 wicket haul.

[flamy]

Our test bowling has Sree and Ishant. Irfan will soon make a comeback. :yay: Praveen Kumar in ODIs just needs another bowler to step up. Overseas, RP Singh will be awesome. The world is ours.

[Sachin=GOD]

Our bowling situation has always been like this, don't think it is going to change anytime soon. Good prospects turned trundlers, recycled back till more prospects are unearthed. We just need to extract 2 or 3 decent bowlers out of that (re)cycle and chalao with our batting.

thing is, for the last 15 odd years, at least in Test cricket we had Dravid, Gangluly, Laxman and Goddy - Ganguly is already gone and in a few years, we may see the rest of them also moving towards retirement. These were the guys you could bet your life on that in 9 out of 10 matches, at least 1 or 2 of them will almost certainly bat well and compensate for the lack of good bowling. When these guys are no longer there, I don't think we could be so sure of the newcomers that they will as consistent in bailing the team out of trouble. We will invariably have to develop some kind of a bowling attack that can now start supporting the batsmen.

[Sooda]

I mention all this because the single biggest threat to India's bid for world cricket domination is not the quality of their opponents but the daft scheduling. Administrators everywhere are good at talking a good game when it comes to easing the physical and mental burden on players. But when it comes to agreeing deals with rival boards and broadcasters, the dollar signs tend to loom larger than the latest alarming bulletins from the physio...Quite what shape any of these players will be in come the Lord's Test match on 21 July is anyone's guess. Its so sad isnt it. Why cant the players kick up more of a fuss. As he says though send a A team for the Windies ODIs and T20 at least. The fact is we will not really be a dominant force in ODIs for too long as key players are past the 30 year old mark. And really itd be nice if the sit out ODIs altogether and focus on test cricket- namely Tendulkar, Zaheer and Sehwag. Now is the right time to start grooming for the future, gradual transition... He talks of Ishant being the best of the rest, but it was clear to all how poor he was in SA

like i said in a previous thread, india will own in ODIs. nobody can beat a full strength India. look at how india pushed south africa to the brink in their own backyard with half their batting lineup missing. in tests, its much more complicated. senior batsmen will be gone soon, and we need replacements. the younger batsmen are there, but will need time to find their feet at test level. india also needs a few good bowlers to take some of the burden off zaheer khan's shoulders. we were a bowler short of closing out the cape town test last winter. that should have been easy indian win after we had them reeling in the 3rd innings but after zaheer got injured, we couldnt clean up the tail and they made 340. definitely need 1 more strike bowler. we find that bowler, and we will have a better team than ingerland for sure. it could be a spinner or a seamer. whoever. just find him.

I actually think the reverse is true- i.e that we are likely to be a good test team for longer. The likes of Tendulkar, Laxman Sehwag and Zaheer will remain quality test performers for a while hopefully- at least a year or so. ODIs are a younger players game, they should pick and choose ODIs to play in, or better yet retire from the format. Senior players are likely to be gone sooner from our ODI team...

[Cricket Tragic]

I mention all this because the single biggest threat to India's bid for world cricket domination is not the quality of their opponents but the daft scheduling. Administrators everywhere are good at talking a good game when it comes to easing the physical and mental burden on players. But when it comes to agreeing deals with rival boards and broadcasters, the dollar signs tend to loom larger than the latest alarming bulletins from the physio...Quite what shape any of these players will be in come the Lord's Test match on 21 July is anyone's guess. Its so sad isnt it. Why cant the players kick up more of a fuss. As he says though send a A team for the Windies ODIs and T20 at least. The fact is we will not really be a dominant force in ODIs for too long as key players are past the 30 year old mark. And really itd be nice if the sit out ODIs altogether and focus on test cricket- namely Tendulkar, Zaheer and Sehwag. Now is the right time to start grooming for the future, gradual transition... He talks of Ishant being the best of the rest, but it was clear to all how poor he was in SA I actually think the reverse is true- i.e that we are likely to be a good test team for longer. The likes of Tendulkar, Laxman Sehwag and Zaheer will remain quality test performers for a while hopefully- at least a year or so. ODIs are a younger players game, they should pick and choose ODIs to play in, or better yet retire from the format. Senior players are likely to be gone sooner from our ODI team...

No, I think that our ODI team will remain strong. Even the more experienced ODI players are quite young (MS, Yuv, Sehwag) but the experienced ones in the test side aren't. I can see the test side's batting collapsing badly overseas without the big 3 in the middle order.