Gideon Haigh: Abject Indians oblivious to their own failings

[Needforspeed]

This guy may be an India hater...but we cannot but agree with what he says especially this:

The eeriest aspect of India's absolute pizzling by Australia this summer was that these routine sights and sounds of defeat were missing. If it is possible to cruise to defeat, MS Dhoni's team did so. Over four Tests lost by colossal margins, India made just one unforced change - and that, replacing the handy all-rounder Ravi Ashwin with the 10th-rate trundler Vinay Kumar at Perth, was probably a mistake. Their permanently dysfunctional top six remained unaltered in personnel and positions. Long periods passed in the field with little semblance of plan or purpose.

The thing that most infuriates most Indian cricket followers is not that the team lost, but their 'so what?' attitude to their defeat and a total paralysis of ideas regarding any changes or experimentation.

[Bumper]

I dont know who is more shameless anymore. Our cricketers walking aroung with such impunity treating their spot in the team as if its some kinda personal property or the BCCI, for the eternal incompetent fools that they are or quite simply us fans, who follow this team like an iron to a magnet. This is the most shameful moment for me as a fan. Not even in the 90s when we lost every game overseas or during the match fixing era i have felt so disinterested in cricket. Back then, there was always something to look forward to (if not for anything, at least a Tendulkar special was on the cards). Now i draw a blank when i think of Indian cricket. This is easily one of the lowest of lows. Lot of these cricketers have lost my respect, more so for the way they reacted to this drubbing. It just seems like no one cares. For the good of Indian cricket, I wish the IPL is a complete flop and the BCCI goes bankrupt. Poverty has to strike our cricketers, shock them out of their comfort zone again. Will never happen and i guess it'll be hard for me to pull myself to cheer for this team in a while. I dont care anymore what these fookers do! Dont know, why i even bother posting this, another 5 mins wasted on Indian cricket.

[CG]

Obviously, Indians are oblivious to their failings and worshiping mediocrity. Someone like Dhoni who is neither good enough to be in the team as a captain, wicket keeper, or batsman is being sold as a "package" and our junta is lapping on to it. The first principle of building a test match team is that you don't build it on bits and pieces cricketers. But we do and we love it, when Kaptaan Kool twirls a bat after Gambhir wins the World Cup. It's just so much in the psyche of India - worshiping mediocrity. Not good enough, let's try the Bhagwaan - He decides when he plays ODIs and when he doesn't without giving any indication of what his future plans for the biggest trophy in ODIs is. Rahane is supposed to sit at home watch Him get his 100th 100. He averages 35 (with most of the runs coming on pattas in lost causes) , but He deserves to call his retirement. At the same time we castigate performers like Zaheer, who have been able to lend some amount of respectability to the Indian team. The entire structure is messed up, but it's so convenient to blame Haigh because he does not hold an Indian passport.

Agree with most of your points except.He still is indias best batsman.

[NeutralCat]

Can someone tell me how is GH anti Indian? Seems to me like this is thrown around too easily on this forum.

[achilles]

Success has many fathers' date=' while failure is an orphan.[/quote'] :winky: Anyone who speaks against Sachin, Dhoni and Co. is anti Indian. The day is not far away when Sunil Gavaskar and Ravi Shastri are billed to be "anti-Indian" by the junta. We Indians like to run away from reality.

[ZodiaC]

I can hardly disagree with him on most parts here. Just because he's not an Indian he's a hater now? Epic rant and pretty much echoes my thoughts too.

[goose]

Have these players forgotten how AUS very nearly won the game in Mohail? Have they forgotten that ENG were in the box seat until the last sessions of day five in Chennai?

[NeutralCat]

Obviously they have, even the WI series we were lucky WI are so bad, if they were slightly better, they would have beaten us at home as well.

[Ultimate_Game]

I am beginning to like Gideon Haigh! The guy is spot on and loved his description of Vinay Kumar - "10th-rate trundler Vinay Kumar" :hysterical: He hit the nail on the head. This is team full of players who feel they are entitled to be in the team and the focus on IPL is worrying for the Indian fans, I mean Indian fans who follow and appreciate Test cricket.

[Desi Cartman]

I dont know who is more shameless anymore. Our cricketers walking aroung with such impunity treating their spot in the team as if its some kinda personal property or the BCCI' date= for the eternal incompetent fools that they are or quite simply us fans, who follow this team like an iron to a magnet. This is the most shameful moment for me as a fan. Not even in the 90s when we lost every game overseas or during the match fixing era i have felt so disinterested in cricket. Back then, there was always something to look forward to (if not for anything, at least a Tendulkar special was on the cards). Now i draw a blank when i think of Indian cricket. This is easily one of the lowest of lows. Lot of these cricketers have lost my respect, more so for the way they reacted to this drubbing. It just seems like no one cares. For the good of Indian cricket, I wish the IPL is a complete flop and the BCCI goes bankrupt. Poverty has to strike our cricketers, shock them out of their comfort zone again. Will never happen and i guess it'll be hard for me to pull myself to cheer for this team in a while. I dont care anymore what these fookers do! Dont know, why i even bother posting this, another 5 mins wasted on Indian cricket.

These people are neither administrators nor cricketers, they are politicians and are involved in cricket to make money. I dont know if many people remember Rajiv Shukla from his days when he was a 3rd grade TV host on EL TV. Somehow in 10 years he became a politician and is now running IPL and most of BCCI operations, how and more importantly why ?

[Robelinda]

You know, i really feel for you guys with your crazy BCCI messing so many things up. It must be very frustrating.

[Ponka]

What a lovely piece of writing and it shows how Indian pride is hit hard but thats a fact. Hopefully seniors will have self respect and they will never show their face again on the field after making a mockery of Indian pride on the field.

[NeutralCat]

Lots of Indian egos getting kicked hard here, no wonder the "he is just anti Indian" comments are starting to flow freely. I call these people ostriches, there heads are buried so deep in the sand they can't see anything, at least he has the balls to speak the truth about Indian cricket and where it is heading.

[Aussie-r-best]

Can someone tell me how is GH anti Indian? Seems to me like this is thrown around too easily on this forum.

Because he has the temerity to call Indian cricket out on its failings... Reading posts here there is constant discusion about the poor job BCCI hasdone and is doing, the lack of commitment and input consistently from the superstars (generally because they know their position is safe - no chance of being dropped). If he says what all of the Indian supporters are saying he is anti Indian. I suggest you review a broad cross section of GH articles especially those not involving England. This guy is a world class writer and is not scared to call it as he sees it which is a dying art these days.... He has been very critical of Australia post the Warne/Gilly/McGrath etc era and CA... It is unfair and grossly inaccurate to label him an Indian hater... The accurate position is while everyone hasa right to disagree in part or in full with his vies and analysis but without putting forward any alternate suggestion to the researched submission raised by GH, comments in detraction are nothing more than mindless, misinformed, uneducated drivel. I am not suggesting you are following this line but some of the positions here against are just plain baseless... If a person disagrees with GH say why he is wrong and debate that point...

[Old guy]

Because he has the temerity to call Indian cricket out on its failings... Reading posts here there is constant discusion about the poor job BCCI hasdone and is doing, the lack of commitment and input consistently from the superstars (generally because they know their position is safe - no chance of being dropped). If he says what all of the Indian supporters are saying he is anti Indian. I suggest you review a broad cross section of GH articles especially those not involving England. This guy is a world class writer and is not scared to call it as he sees it which is a dying art these days.... He has been very critical of Australia post the Warne/Gilly/McGrath etc era and CA... It is unfair and grossly inaccurate to label him an Indian hater... The accurate position is while everyone hasa right to disagree in part or in full with his vies and analysis but without putting forward any alternate suggestion to the researched submission raised by GH, comments in detraction are nothing more than mindless, misinformed, uneducated drivel. I am not suggesting you are following this line but some of the positions here against are just plain baseless... If a person disagrees with GH say why he is wrong and debate that point...

ok tell me how is ipl to blame..don u think players were safe and rich even before? do u know how much dhoni or tendulkar make from advertisements endorsements ? thats one point i disagree with but tenth rate tundler aka vinay kumar he had guts to say it :hatsoff: hope this opens the eyes of our bored from test cricket captain sigh this article was gr8.. but there were some points i think were baseless i dont have time to re read have some work.. but tbh these guys do get there fair share of criticism some times even unfair but right now they deserve every bit of it.. bcci and whole sructure is bad but thing were never this bad its frustrating enough for me to think thati should stop supporting this team the bcci eleven

[Manny_Pacquiao]

These people are neither administrators nor cricketers' date= they are politicians and are involved in cricket to make money. I dont know if many people remember Rajiv Shukla from his days when he was a 3rd grade TV host on EL TV. Somehow in 10 years he became a politician and is now running IPL and most of BCCI operations, how and more importantly why ?

correct. politicians love LEECHING off indian cricket. take for example, what happened after india won the 2007 world t20. they hijacked the victory parade and used it to make speeches to the massive crowds that wanted to welcome the players. they turned a celebratory event for the indian cricket team into a POLITICAL RALLY...

MUMBAI: One would have thought that the 15 cricketers who brought India the glory at the Twenty20 World Cup were the heroes being felicitated at the Wankhede Stadium, but a look at the dias would have suggested otherwise. The front row was filled with BCCI top brass and Maharashtra state ministers with skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni the only Team India member finding a place among the 'elite'. Also on the front row were BCCI Secretary Niranjan Shah, Vice-Presidents Lalit Modi and Rajeev Shukla and former Board President I S Bindra. In fact, the whole spectacle seemed like a carefully organised political rally with Board President Sharad Pawar, who is the Union Agriculture Minister and a political heavyweight of the state, playing to the galleries in his short speech as if it was an election rally. He was clearly trying to take full mileage out of the unexpected victory that Dhoni and his bravehearts achieved at the Wanderers in Johannesburg. Not to be outdone, Deputy Chief Minister R R Patil gave a speech in Marathi that seemed unusually long and out of place in the setting, with other state politicians also sharing the spotlight. When his turn to speak came, Dhoni could not help remarking "a lot has been in English and Marathi. Now let me stick to Hindi". The whole ceremony at the Wankhede Stadium gave an impression that it was only Mumbai and Maharashtra expressing their joy at the triumph and not the whole country. It seemed in stark contrast to the players' journey from the airport to the stadium when the public outpouring on the streets looked totally genuine and heart-felt. The plane from South Africa landed at the airport at 8 am and the 30 km-journey in the open top bus took upwards of five hours with the players reaching the stadium more than three hours behind schedule. Even as one marvelled at the public display of affection directed at the young team, one could not help notice the big hoardings which had a big picture of Pawar over a considerably smaller one of Dhoni holding aloft the trophy, which seemed to aptly reflect BCCI's priorities.

and another one:

New Delhi/Mumbai: If you thought the reception of Team India at Wankhede stadium in Mumbai resembled a political rally, you wouldnÃÕ be far from the truth. Meant to be the moment of glory for the Men in Blue, the platform to felicitate them at the saw the politicians eclipse the real heroes. While the ones who did the job for India at the T20 were relegated to the background, the politicians proved yet again that they never fight shy of appropriating glory. As if elbowing out the cricketers wasnÃÕ enough, Maharashtra Deputy CM R R Patil went a step ahead. "Sharad Pawar should be credited with the victory, he said.:hysterical::hysterical: ThatÃÔ not all. If the posters along Mumbai's roads were anything to go by, one would think that it was Patil or NCP's Awhad who knocked the stumps off Yasir Araft or took the catch at fine leg to dismiss Misbah. Ūt's been a fashion to criticise the politicians for everything, said Congress leader Rajiv Shukla.:hysterical: While the NCP looked to steal the show in Mumbai, the Capital could well see game set and match go to Congress. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress President Sonia Gandhi have already invited the team to Delhi. ThatÃÔ not all. Congress's timing and placement would be the envy of any batsmen. They were quick to draw comparisons between the just-anointed Rahul Gandhi with Dhoni, the man who led the cricket team to victory at the Wanderers. In hindsight, maybe Ricky Ponting and his boys were warned of the Indian politicians yearning to bask in the glory, possibly the reason for the infamous Pawar-push after the Champions Trophy last year. Moral of the story: as long as cricket and politics remain two sides of the same coin, you will be left craning your neck to catch a glimpse of blue in the sea of white.

and this is why india will never be a great cricket team. everything that they accomplish is in spite of this corrupt system.

[Late Cut]

I love the fallacy that this indian team will beat a good team in india; its pretty clear that they struggled to beat the West Indies, and will do much worse against quality opposition.

[NeutralCat]

I love the fallacy that this indian team will beat a good team in india; its pretty clear that they struggled to beat the West Indies' date=' and will do much worse against quality opposition.[/quote'] This. :bow:

[daryl1985]

Have these players forgotten how AUS very nearly won the game in Mohail? Have they forgotten that ENG were in the box seat until the last sessions of day five in Chennai?

Excellent point.