Michael Holding launches another scathing attack on Indians

[SachDan]

West Indies pace legend Michael Holding has questioned the commitment of younger players in the side, blaming the Indian Premier League (IPL) for a drastic shift in their priorities. "I don't think the current Indian team is bothered about the defeat in the first two Tests. My only concern is -- are they giving any extra effort, or playing like 'supposed' world champions? Even after the Lord's debacle, the answer is a clear no! That's because, they will get more money to play in the IPL," fumed Holding, now a commentator for Sky Sports. Holding also wondered why most Indian players underwent surgeries and rehabilitation after the IPL, despite the tour of UK in close proximity. "Why does anyone not get injured before the IPL, you tell me." "That's because they are getting huge amounts of money (in IPL). Why would they bother about international commitments?" he asked. It may be recalled that the likes of Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir aggravated their injuries during the IPL owing to impending surgeries that they delayed. Even S Sreesanth, Zaheer Khan and Yuvraj Singh played the entire IPL but did not travel to West Indies due to various injuries and to undergo rehabilitation at the National Cricket Academy (NCA). Holding reckoned the younger players in the Indian side were prioritising IPL ahead of international cricket. "Except for Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar and VVS Laxman, nobody else in this team seems to be worried about the reputation of the country or of Test cricket. I am sure they are all aware about Test cricket, but are not bothered," said Holding. Holding further attacked the quality of Indian batsmanship. "If IPL was to be organised in a country like South Africa or Australia, where the ball seams and bounces, the Indians would again crumble. However, if the ball is pitched beneath knee-level, like it is on Indian pitches, they will murder the bowling," said the 57-year-old. Holding welcomed the inclusion of Virat Kohli in the Test squad. "I told you all along that Virat should have been part of the squad. If three out of the six batsmen (Abhinav Mukund, Yuvraj and Suresh Raina) have problems against short-pitched bowling, you cannot manage?" he said. "I do not have a problem if these Indian youngsters are multi-millionaires. But they are not good enough for Test level. And that's what counts," concluded Holding. link

[kabira]

same old ***** about IPL.. No one bothers to check we have not lost single series in last 3 years... Now suddenly we lost 2 games in a row and this idi0ts are back. How come if we are so bad we were able to hold nmber 1 ranking for 18 months, mind you we still are number 1 ranked.

[asterix]

He's right..I agree with him..It's because of IPL Sehwag was not ready for this tour on time. The players look spent after WC and long IPL. On top of that the young players are struggling with their batting techniques..

[TheWall]

somebody get him some f****ng job in the IPL...

[kabira]

"I do not have a problem if these Indian youngsters are multi-millionaires. But they are not good enough for Test level. And that's what counts," concluded Holding. Is he talking about Mukund?? Then someone tell him Mukund hasn't played IPL much.

[NareshK]

I dont understand why playing in Australia or England is considered by some people to be a higher level of cricket than playing in India. If playing in India is so easy, then why do Aus, Eng struggle to win in India ? Let's face it. These old school guys only see cricket in England, Australia as real cricket and cricket in sub continent as not so important cricket. If Indian youngsters dont deserve to play in Tests just because they cant play the short ball, how good are the seniors in Australia or England who cant play quality spin to save their lives ? Its obvious youngsters like Raina, Kohli havent played too much in bouncy, swing conditions and so it will be a while before they get accustomed to the conditions. About the IPL, even many Indians have reservations about it but I dont see how playing in it will decrease the quality of a player. Rahul Dravid has also been playing in IPL but he is the best batsmen in the team in tough conditions. What I'm observing is these people see IPL and the influence of BCCI as a major threat. They want to link injuries, quality of cricket to IPL and put pressure to bring it down so that ECB and CA can dictate terms like they did for most of cricket history.

[Trichromatic]

He's right..I agree with him..It's because of IPL Sehwag was not ready for this tour on time. The players look spent after WC and long IPL. On top of that the young players are struggling with their batting techniques..

Yeah, no one knows why players take rest after IPL and why not during IPL. Why Sehwag decides to play first 5 matches of IPL after long WC when he was already injured? Why didn't Sehwag go for surgery immediately after IPL? Same can be said about other players. Why it was necessary to play such a long tournament when you had already played a WC which had taken lot out of them both physically and mentally. Do they really care about the test matches?

[asterix]

"I do not have a problem if these Indian youngsters are multi-millionaires. But they are not good enough for Test level. And that's what counts," concluded Holding. Is he talking about Mukund?? Then someone tell him Mukund hasn't played IPL much.

Maybe he's talking about Raina, Kohli etc..

[pinkfreud]

If Indian youngsters dont deserve to play in Tests just because they cant play the short ball' date=' how good are the seniors in Australia or England who cant play quality spin to save their lives ?[/quote'] +1

[SachDan]

Maybe he's talking about Raina' date=' [b']Kohli etc..

Holding welcomed the inclusion of Virat Kohli in the Test squad. "I told you all along that Virat should have been part of the squad. If three out of the six batsmen (Abhinav Mukund, Yuvraj and Suresh Raina) have problems against short-pitched bowling, you cannot manage?" he said.

May be Raina and Mukund.

[kabira]

Maybe he's talking about Raina' date=' Kohli etc..[/quote'] It can't be Raina or Kohli. Raina just had one failure in 5 test matches, has been scoring runs on difficult pitches. Kohli is not touring. Definately Mukund.

[asterix]

May be Raina and Mukund.

Ok.. But I'm pretty sure even Kohli will fail too.. Just wait and see.. He doesn't has a defensive technique and most of the time goes hard at shots..He's a prime 'caugth behind' candidate..

[kabira]

^he will learn. Even Laxman used to go hard in his initial years.. We need all thsi guys to play 15 test matches. if they don't show improvement then they are no good.

[asterix]

^he will learn. Even Laxman used to go hard in his initial years.. We need all thsi guys to play 15 test matches. if they don't show improvement then they are no good.

Yeah, that's why I said, "wait and see"..

[TheWall]

why can't he talk about WI... or maybe what's there to talk about???

[Number]

much worse than this has happened to Indian Cricket even before IPL started. now IPL is there to be blamed for everything.

[DomainK]

Everyone blames everything on IPL. Somehow whatever is wrong with cricket is India's fault.

[vamos_rafa]

So this comes from the old man who went to play the Karry Packer Series inspite of being banned for an year by the WI board. The arguement given then was that they don't earn enough playing for WI. Then money was more important than playing for WI. And how does he know that people like MSD and all don't care for Test Cricket?

[achilles]

Calling a pen a dick a 100 times doesn't make it one.

[Sarkar]

Michael Holding shud first look at his West Indies team how to be famous ? always criticise India and the same holding was crying for match fixer like Aamir.