Blame Game | Retirement | BCCI | IPL | BIG 3 etc thread

[SachDan]

By Sreeram Veera (Mumbai Mirror) In Perth It was a comment that Rahul Dravid made in West Indies that springs to the mind now. Å¢t this stage of your career you play because you love the contest, and [want] to make an important contribution to the team. ItÃÔ also good for me because we found ourselves a bit against the wall, and I had to fight my way through it. Dravid without a struggle is like McEnroe without pizazz. ItÃÔ like a drink thatÃÔ gone flat. It doesnÃÕ feel quite right. Intensity and struggle are the words that often tag him. ItÃÔ his battle, but you can feel the intensity. He is closer to Steve Waugh in that respect. He makes you romanticise struggle. Struggle and crisis are the theme of his Australian tour right now. The murmurs are slowly growing: Age, retirement, reputation are some of the themes bandied about. ItÃÔ been puzzling to see the pattern of his dismissals on this tour. Throughout his career, if there is one image that you associate with his batting, it was that big stretch of the front foot. He wouldnÃÕ lunge like a Dhoni, he wouldnÃÕ stride like a Ponting, he wouldnÃÕ make a precise forward movement like a Tendulkar, but he would stretch. Not many get as close to the ball and meet the ball as early as he does. It kills the potential venom in the delivery; he kills the swing or the seam movement. And yet, it has been his greatest failing so far on this tour. That front foot seems to be frozen. ItÃÔ bewildering. The first hint One saw it first in Melbourne. He was just taking a tiny step forward and you told yourself, âh, itÃÔ just start of the series, he is just feeling his way in? The moment it hit you as a possible problem was the phase after he was bowled off a no ball from Peter Siddle. It was a full-length delivery but he stuttered on the front foot and the stumps went flying. Now, you thought, he will change. He has been shown the problem, its outcome, and now surely, he is going to adjust. He didnÃÕ. Soon, another good-length delivery came and he was bowled again. ItÃÔ when he doesnÃÕ quite come forward, as he usually does, the bat and pad gap tend to get bigger. You watched him eagerly in the lead-up to Sydney Test. You saw him in lead-up practice sessions talking to Duncan Fletcher, you saw him bat in the nets and you wondered whether he has worked it out. In Sydney, however, overcompensation for the error happened. It was fascinating to watch it unfold. Dravid had played 32 balls for his five runs when that ball from Siddle arrived well short of a length. Even if he had stretched forward, the in-form Dravid would have held his pose, awaited the ball to come to him and knocked it down quietly. That day, Dravid stretched forward and realised the ball wasnÃÕ there. And he went searching. The bat was pushed way in front of the body, almost as if he was groping in the dark for the light switch, and unfortunately for him, the ball cut in a touch which meant it collided with the inside edge and bobbed away to short-leg. It seemed that the Melbourne debacle was in the back of the mind; he was trying to overcompensate for it by almost forcing himself to get forward. Jail break? not really You awaited his second innings and all seemed good for a while. There was a shot that he played against Ben Hilfenhaus that made you feel Dravid was back. It was a short of length delivery, and unlike in first innings, he leaned back and punched it ever so sweetly, with a lot of panache, through covers for a four. It should have been the jail-break moment but it didnÃÕ quite work out that way. A sequence of deliveries happened in the over before his dismissal when things started to go topsy turvy. Siddle hurled one full and Dravid, slightly late in getting forward, checked his drive and the ball bounded off towards short cover. The next ball was a bouncer that rushed past his face. The next one was a slower one, a clever little delivery in the scheme of things with a short cover in place, but Dravid was up to the task and quietly killed it with a dead bat. The follow-up was a screaming bouncer and Dravid allowed it to pass. Now came that good-length delivery that cut in and Dravid, slow in getting forward, made a short step, relatively short by his standards, and stabbed at it and the ball went perilously close to the stumps off the inside edge. That was his cue to adjust but he didnÃÕ. The next delivery Dravid faced was from Hilfenhaus. It landed on a good length and cut back in, the delivery that Hilfenhaus, the outswing bowler occasionally slips in every now and then to keep the batsmen honest. Dravid again didnÃÕ quite stretch forward and left a big bat and pad gap as he pushed out tentatively. This time the leather found the wood behind him and he had to walk back. ItÃÔ going to be utterly fascinating to watch Dravid bat at Perth. The pitch should make him think of going back or at least hang at the crease. Surely, the Australians will hit a fuller length and try to cut one back in to catch him on that iffy front-foot movement. The battle is on, the trap should be obvious and Dravid will get what he wants: A contest. Will he come out triumphs? Or ?

[SachDan]

It's going to be utterly fascinating to watch Dravid bat at Perth. The pitch should make him think of going back or at least hang at the crease. Surely, the Australians will hit a fuller length and try to cut one back in to catch him on that iffy front-foot movement. The battle is on, the trap should be obvious and Dravid will get what he wants: A contest. Will he come out triumphs? Or ?...

13.5 Siddle to Dravid, OUT, Dravid is bowled, yet again! It wasn't the movement this time as it had been on previous occasions this series, that was a yorker aimed at the legs, Dravid was struck on the full outside leg and it ricocheted off the pads onto the stumps, quicker from Siddle and Dravid's bad run this series continues R Dravid b Siddle 9 (35b 1x4 0x6) SR: 25.71

[thevortex]

There is a reason why he is not stretching and reaching to the ball. That is the root cause of the struggle of Dravid - in my opinion

[Vikas Bhatt]

BCCI alone is to blame for the mess the Indian team now is in! Mauled at Melbourne, Screwed at Sydney, Pathetic at Perth and soon it may be that Indian test team will be All finished at Adelaide. Nevertheless even Azhar at his shaky start as captain and his team on tours of SA and Aus at start of 90s wasn't crap as the current Indian team. We are headed back it seems to notorious 90s where we were lions at home and lambs abroad. But not quite. The last few good results at home is still due to the much maligned overnight old guard. The time of Laxman and Dravid is still not up simply because in this case the solution is worse than the malaise and the likes of Kohlis, Yuvrajs, Rainas, Uthappas, Dhonis [a flop bat outside subcontinent by and large and inconsistent in tests for a long time now], Pathans etc are much worse and completely exposed in foreign conditions. Sadly the disasters of England and Aus will be forgotten with the start of our home season where we might win again and BCCI has already showed it's priorities by preparing for the next IPL, the root cause of our decline with excess of games and easy money in T20 cricket. There was never any doubt that we would struggle even at tests in home pitches after the legendary 3 batsmen would retire and the signs are omnious. Its amazing that our youngsters have been playing T20s in IPL while the India A tours designed to groom them for future were completely stopped. So right now hate as I might with the idea the time for Lax-Dravid's retirement is still not near. If anything the present IPL obsessed BCCI should be retired for killing the game completely with their excessive greed. I had warned all those who were on Dhoni is God bandwagon that winning a WC in one dayers won't make him great and that he would be tested severely once the backbone of our legendary batting is gone. That said if Dhoni is serious at retiring from test cricket at the age of 30 for playing more one day and T20 matches then the sooner he is out of the side the better for cricket.

[Vikas Bhatt]

I also blame a large part to our stupid fans and especially media. No nation outside of India would drum up SRT's possible 100th century a whole year there by putting him under undue pressure and making him excessively finicky about achieving it. Aus or Sa would never drum up a statistic match after match demanding that Sachin achieve it that same match. These ***kers have ensured India remains distracted and Sachin remains mis-focussed too. Thanks but no thanks guys.

[Vikas Bhatt]

I have already lost 80% interest from our cricket already due to the carp JAMODIs and T20s [never saw a single IPL match too date]. Now with our age of test team also coming to an end I can say 100% Indian cricket is finished and in a year from now we will be battling the likes of Bangars, WI, Pak and NZ for the wooden spoon stakes.

[BeautifulGame]

:hysterical::hysterical::hysterical:

[Vikas Bhatt]

:pray:

[achilles]

Hey Vikas. Welcome back. Long time. I agree with you on the subject. You will be happy to know that Gideon Haigh even openly named the BCCI President and VP, while others were simply doing one lap after another in the race of nonsense.

[lovish]

I agree Love is eternal - Albus dumbledore

[Vikas Bhatt]

Yeah Achilles. Haven't been too frequent so apologies. I follow less and less cricket as is and the rubbers against WI don't excite me at all. Plus I was really demoralized after what happened in England. Maybe I will be more regular. But sadly these days I find myself in situations where I have to write about our team's obituary as we head from one overseas disaster after another. I think it was obvious when these highly vaunted batsmen failed to chase a modest 240 odd against WI in the last home test and failed to win 3-0 as a result. The ominous signs were flashing loudly, but the significance was lost amidst 10 boring back to back one day matches against England. The sad part is that this one season of arrogance following the WC win has undone completely a whole decade of hard work and reputation that Ganguly/Dravid's teams had built with a lot of hard work.

[wobblydoggy]

Mauled at Melbourne' date=' Screwed at Sydney, Pathetic at Perth and soon it may be that Indian test team will be All finished at Adelaide. Nevertheless even Azhar at his shaky start as captain and his team on tours of SA and Aus at start of 90s wasn't crap as the current Indian team. We are headed back it seems to notorious 90s where we were lions at home and lambs abroad. But not quite. The last few good results at home is still due to the much maligned overnight old guard. The time of Laxman and Dravid is still not up simply because in this case the solution is worse than the malaise and the likes of Kohlis, Yuvrajs, Rainas, Uthappas, Dhonis [a flop bat outside subcontinent by and large and inconsistent in tests for a long time now'], Pathans etc are much worse and completely exposed in foreign conditions. Sadly the disasters of England and Aus will be forgotten with the start of our home season where we might win again and BCCI has already showed it's priorities by preparing for the next IPL, the root cause of our decline with excess of games and easy money in T20 cricket. There was never any doubt that we would struggle even at tests in home pitches after the legendary 3 batsmen would retire and the signs are omnious. Its amazing that our youngsters have been playing T20s in IPL while the India A tours designed to groom them for future were completely stopped. So right now hate as I might with the idea the time for Lax-Dravid's retirement is still not near. If anything the present IPL obsessed BCCI should be retired for killing the game completely with their excessive greed. I had warned all those who were on Dhoni is God bandwagon that winning a WC in one dayers won't make him great and that he would be tested severely once the backbone of our legendary batting is gone. That said if Dhoni is serious at retiring from test cricket at the age of 30 for playing more one day and T20 matches then the sooner he is out of the side the better for cricket.

Excellent post and points. Whilst thje BCCI is banking lots of money, Eng, SA and Aus all have performance squads and A teams of younger players playing in foreign conditions to get experience. Where is the Indian A team or training squad, playing IPL most of the time or other one day crap. Unless you sort this out it wont be long before you are facing young lions in Aus, Eng and SA teams all used to playing on SC pitches and not frightend by a bit of spin

[Sir_Afridi]

Poor excuse by Indian fans to blame BCCI for their team short failings. BCCI only give to fans what they want to see. Indian fans flock to stadiums for ODIs and 20/20 tamasha league. If Indian fans are really angry and want to protest , they should boycott IPL this year.

[someone]

Poor excuse by Indian fans to blame BCCI for their team short failings. BCCI only give to fans what they want to see. Indian fans flock to stadiums for ODIs and 20/20 tamasha league. If Indian fans are really angry and want to protest ' date=' they should boycott IPL this year.[/quote'] Oh, for the first time it was looking like I am looking to agree with you based on reading the first line. But afterwards,:hysterical:. Totally bitter, tamasha league:hysterical: Blaming IPL is a totally pathetic thing.

[Vikas Bhatt]

Poor excuse by Indian fans to blame BCCI for their team short failings. BCCI only give to fans what they want to see. Indian fans flock to stadiums for ODIs and 20/20 tamasha league. If Indian fans are really angry and want to protest ' date=' they should boycott IPL this year.[/quote'] Would it help if I said that there are fans of the stupid T20s and Bollywood tamasha league and then there are also genuine fans who care for tests? Would it help if I revealed I never saw a single IPL match too date in it's 4 editions as I had sensed it would lay our cricket off track with BCCI's greed and excess of money? That I have stopped watching ODIs almost completely since 2007 WC. That the only ODis I watched were against good teams like SA, Aus and WC matches? [ODIs against Lankans, WI, NZ etc have not been cared for and that includes even the last ODI series we played against Pak]. I don't know about other fans, but thats been me all along. Sadly now at this rate soon even the tests of India may go off my list. :((

[wobblydoggy]

Would it help if I said that there are fans of the stupid T20s and Bollywood tamasha league and then there are also genuine fans who care for tests? Would it help if I revealed I never saw a single IPL match too date in it's 4 editions as I had sensed it would lay our cricket off track with BCCI's greed and excess of money? That I have stopped watching ODIs almost completely since 2007 WC. That the only ODis I watched were against good teams like SA, Aus and WC matches? [ODIs against Lankans, WI, NZ etc have not been cared for and that includes even the last ODI series we played against Pak]. I don't know about other fans, but thats been me all along. Sadly now at this rate soon even the tests of India may go off my list. :((

Sorry mate, I know how you feel. I am 50 and an England fan and so if you wait, like 30 years in our case, hopefully a better side will emerge

[Vikas Bhatt]

Thanks wobblydoggy. Nice to see some fans who cans till see through T20s and JAMODIs and see where the darkness lies.

[Sundar88]

The IPL and CL may or may not have contributed to our abysmal showing in England and Australia however we have 2 big problems that prevent us from winning in those countries. 1) We are not able to produce enough genuinely quick fast bowlers. 2) Our batsmen look like fish out of water in those conditions. Yes the big 3 used to do well there but now they're way past their prime and none of our young players are able to bat in those conditions. Until we find long term solutions to address those 2 problems I'm afraid we will never win series in Australia or South Africa. We will be able to win in New Zealand and England occasionally because those teams aren't as consistent as Australia or South Africa but until we take long term measures we will never win in Aus or SA.

[deathmonger]

The IPL and CL may or may not have contributed to our abysmal showing in England and Australia however we have 2 big problems that prevent us from winning in those countries. 1) We are not able to produce enough genuinely quick fast bowlers. 2) Our batsmen look like fish out of water in those conditions. Yes the big 3 used to do well there but now they're way past their prime and none of our young players are able to bat in those conditions. Until we find long term solutions to address those 2 problems I'm afraid we will never win series in Australia or South Africa. We will be able to win in New Zealand and England occasionally because those teams aren't as consistent as Australia or South Africa but until we take long term measures we will never win in Aus or SA.

Kohli is looking good. Rahane also looked good in Engalnd. Same can be said of Pujara and Rohit. As for fast bowlers Yadav and Aaron are showing promise. All this is in a very early stage but I believe things will improve a lot just like what happened with our ODI setup.

[Old guy]

Kohli is looking good. Rahane also looked good in Engalnd. Same can be said of Pujara and Rohit. As for fast bowlers Yadav and Aaron are showing promise. All this is in a very early stage but I believe things will improve a lot just like what happened with our ODI setup.

wht this england and australia series has done is.. made it 100 x easer for new guys cos really u cant go worse then this an people wont sya new guys suck.. now we dont have a choice.. we would have to persist with youngsters and eventually they will improve there is no shortage of talent ..every one knows this would take us 2-3 years but after that we will be back like before but ya need positive selections and once selected need to give players a good run