Time for a change.

[Parth]

I feel, after years on relying on men like Tendulkar, Dravid, and Ganguly our country have started to rely on them too much. Players like Kaif, Raina, Uthappa, Rohit Sharma are waiting in the wings to come and revitalise the team. Any thoughts.

[Ram]

Yes. But the transition must be gradual , not sudden.

[Holysmoke]

kaif :hysterical:

[Chaos]

KAIF Is MUCH MUCH BETTER THAN STUPID KARTHICK WHO CANT BAT OR FIELD!

[King]

The likes of Kaif, Raina and the rest haven't done enough. That is why you still see the 10 year old opening combination still intact for India. I'm not sure if the likes of Raina, Rohit Sharma and the rest can bat any better but they sure can field better or catch better. India will have probably be chasing 250+ as against 280+ if the likes of Raina, Kaif, Rohit Sharma and the rest were playing. Tendulkar and Rahul still are good enough to play though.

[Anakin]

I find it hard to believe fielding is bad because of aging players. Although didn't see the whole match, I saw srt preventing a 2 from the deep even with the shoulder which isn't supposed to be good for throwing anymore, on the other hand no matter where munaf is, 1 extra run is there for the taking. KKD drops catches for fun even after being a keeper (may be he needs gloves), dhoni missed stumping today, catches in the last game. RPS isn't all that great either, aggy can beat him anyday as a fielder and thrower. Ganguly is bad, has always been, but not worse than munaf.

[monkeyfood]

Yes i mean when tendulkar , ganguly , dravid and kumble are gone we just cantt expect ms dhoni and yuvi to pulls us through after that we should train all the youngsters to be alll rounders like sharma and chawla they are good feilders and chawla with the ball great he just needs to work on the batting mohammad kaif looks like he has potiential eventually these young boys can come with a strong attack like the greats

[Anakin]

Kaif has been proven useless for too long

[Zap_Brannigan]

What we need is a bowler who can actually bat a bit in the International level or a batsman who can bowl a bit instead of always goin in with 5 bowlers. But mainly we need a captain who doesn't have more brain farts on the field than Inzi has biryani off the field. Edit: Since this is my 300th post, i have to say the obligatory "Madness ? This is Indian Cricket............."

[fineleg]

What we need is a bowler who can actually bat a bit in the International level or a batsman who can bowl a bit instead of always goin in with 5 bowlers. But mainly we need a captain who doesn't have more brain farts on the field than Inzi has biryani off the field.

This is kind of like what Greg Chappell wanted - "multi dimensional players". To be successful team, for each player atleast 2/3 (batting, bowling, fielding) should be very good. There are a whole bunch of uni-dimensional players in the 11. Can bowl, but cannot bat, and *will not* field Can bat, but cannot bowl, and *will not* field etc.

[King Tendulkar]

KAIF Is MUCH MUCH BETTER THAN STUPID KARTHICK WHO CANT BAT OR FIELD!

:hysterical::hysterical::hysterical::hysterical::hysterical::hysterical::hysterical:

[meemumbaikar]

The problem with our cricket is that we suffer from a collective TINA syndrome wherein we are reluctant to try new things and at the right time. Raina, Sharma, Uthappa, etc etc are all quite raw and lets face it we never get fully trained players at the highest level ever we get some that have displayed some talent, have had some luck or have had gall to grease their way through to get selected. Players like these blossom to wither away and die in the intense heat of international cricket, Virender Sehwag is a stellar example , he shone for a while then got found out and has since struggled, Dhoni is another he is slowly but surely getting found out. This brings us to the question of what next? how and when do we augument our bench strength? Time for change as is the title of this topic is well neigh upon us and we need to make changes right now. The most important change to be made in my humble opinion is that we need to change the approach to this sport right at the under 16 level and bring in more science into the sport. Make the under 16, under 19 and under 21 leagues more competitive and even televise the same so that selectors dont have to travel all around the country looking for talent. Similarly we need to make the Ranji and Duleep trophy robust by primarily allowing 90% of the players to be those that have graduated from the under 16, under 19 levels (no direct entry to Ranji's unless the player is a overseas player with a proven track record). This way by the time a player is 23-25 we have a fully ready and complete player who can easily take on the role of playing international cricket (even this is no guarantee for success). Can we imagine the current situation, We are a nation of a billion people, of which probably a minimum of 25% follow the sport which is a about 250 million people and of that about 1% would be playing the sport which is about 2.5 million people. Even if we assume that 1% of these players are those that have a remote chance to play for India, we are talking of about 25,000 players. The surprise is that we are trying to choose from a field of less than 250 players and moan and cry that we don't have talent. How will we have any if we don't even spot the available talent!!!!!

[King]

Let's be honest, India isn't one of the better ODI teams and that is showing in the recent results in ODIs. India, England and Pakistan are not as good as the other top teams in ODI cricket. Indian test team is fantastic and that is reflected by the results over the last few years overseas. Now we all have to shred away denial and understand why India has lost so many ODIs overseas. The world cup loss was the writing on the wall after the defeat against Saffies 4-0, WI 4-1, not able to make to finals in the Malaysia ODI tourney and not able to make it to the semis of ICC champions trophy at home. Even in the ODI India had to struggle to win and that pretty much show where we stand. This series is not over yet but still India is way off the mark as for ODI cricket is concerned. The process of improvement is going to be slow as. There is no way half this team is going to improve in fielding. You can't teach basics of fielding to these folks. The likes of Munaf, Zaheer, Ganguly and the rest can try as best as they can but they will not make decent fielders. There goes the chance to improve in that department. As for batting there is still a chance. They need to sort out the batting order. You can't have an opening pair those scores at a little over 3 RPO in the first 10 overs. Obviously Ganguly has to make way at the top to a more flamboyant batter but I don't reckon that is going to happen. The bowling is in good hands and thanks to couple of fresh legs or three India may win few ODIs. I'm glad Harbhajan and Anil Kumble aren't still playing in the ODIs for India. Chawla and Powar may not have similar reputation but they are not that bad either. It is also good to see RP Singh preferred over the tried and tested Agarkar. All I want to see is few fresh faces get a go in ODI series even if they don’t win consistently. The current team despite all the stars doesn’t win consistently enough and there is no harm in shoving in some young ones. I think the time is just ripe for it. Meanwhile we folks should understand India isn’t a top ODI side and will continue to be less than consistent.

[King]

The problem with our cricket is that we suffer from a collective TINA syndrome wherein we are reluctant to try new things and at the right time. Raina, Sharma, Uthappa, etc etc are all quite raw and lets face it we never get fully trained players at the highest level ever we get some that have displayed some talent, have had some luck or have had gall to grease their way through to get selected. Players like these blossom to wither away and die in the intense heat of international cricket, Virender Sehwag is a stellar example , he shone for a while then got found out and has since struggled, Dhoni is another he is slowly but surely getting found out. This brings us to the question of what next? how and when do we augument our bench strength? Time for change as is the title of this topic is well neigh upon us and we need to make changes right now. The most important change to be made in my humble opinion is that we need to change the approach to this sport right at the under 16 level and bring in more science into the sport. Make the under 16, under 19 and under 21 leagues more competitive and even televise the same so that selectors dont have to travel all around the country looking for talent. Similarly we need to make the Ranji and Duleep trophy robust by primarily allowing 90% of the players to be those that have graduated from the under 16, under 19 levels (no direct entry to Ranji's unless the player is a overseas player with a proven track record). This way by the time a player is 23-25 we have a fully ready and complete player who can easily take on the role of playing international cricket (even this is no guarantee for success). Can we imagine the current situation, We are a nation of a billion people, of which probably a minimum of 25% follow the sport which is a about 250 million people and of that about 1% would be playing the sport which is about 2.5 million people. Even if we assume that 1% of these players are those that have a remote chance to play for India, we are talking of about 25,000 players. The surprise is that we are trying to choose from a field of less than 250 players and moan and cry that we don't have talent. How will we have any if we don't even spot the available talent!!!!!

Many good points you make :top:A billion people doesn't really reflect the number of cricketers. I've read somewhere there are way more number of club/grass root cricketers in UK and Australia as compared to India. I guess the facilities are very much lacking in India at grass root level. Wonder how many club players can gain access to the academy in the NCA in Bangalore? In a place like Wellington or Auckland you can do as long as you can afford a nominal fee. From what I know people love to play cricket in India all right but not with hard ball. A lot seem to be happy enough playing with a tennis ball and on a make shift ground that will hardly catch anyone's attention. How can these cricketers be impressed upon to play hard ball cricket? Only by investing in the grass root level cricket. Proper grounds in not just bigger cities but smaller towns or country side are the way to go for India. Unless there is a drastic increase in the pool of players across the country the "billion people" phrase does not really ensure enough cricketers to choose from. BTW I would like to know how many are from bigger cities and towns compared to smaller towns and country side in the current Indian side?

[meemumbaikar]

Many good points you make :top:A billion people doesn't really reflect the number of cricketers. I've read somewhere there are way more number of club/grass root cricketers in UK and Australia as compared to India. I guess the facilities are very much lacking in India at grass root level. Wonder how many club players can gain access to the academy in the NCA in Bangalore? In a place like Wellington or Auckland you can do as long as you can afford a nominal fee. From what I know people love to play cricket in India all right but not with hard ball. A lot seem to be happy enough playing with a tennis ball and on a make shift ground that will hardly catch anyone's attention. How can these cricketers be impressed upon to play hard ball cricket? Only by investing in the grass root level cricket. Proper grounds in not just bigger cities but smaller towns or country side are the way to go for India. Unless there is a drastic increase in the pool of players across the country the "billion people" phrase does not really ensure enough cricketers to choose from. BTW I would like to know how many are from bigger cities and towns compared to smaller towns and country side in the current Indian side?

Very cursory glance at the current team Big Cities (Mum/Bang/Del/Chen/Kol) SRT/Sourav/Rahul D/KKD/Ajit A/Jaffer/Gambhir/Uthappa/ Small Cities Yuvi-Chg Dhoni-Jamshedpur Munaf-Ikhar SreeSanth-Trichur/Cochin

[King Tendulkar]

Lets all Panic. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH we lost one game. HEEEEEEEEEEEEELP. We are doomed. Sack the captain, drop anyone over 15 years old, sack the manger even though we dony have one. Basically lets all PANIC

[Sooda]

This is the quandry isnt it, in order to improve the fielding we have to bring in players who we dont really know are good enough or not. Uthappa should have been persisted with, bit of an FTB but he could have ironed out his flaws if persisted with. Same with Raina, he never looked out of place in international cricket, kept throwing away good starts - just those two will boost our fielindg up by a bit. Ganguly should go..he is still good enough a batsman- better than utahppa certainly but a liability in the field- sme thing with Munaf- when firing probably our best ODI paceman, but cr@ p in the field...what do we do... kartik is a good bat A fit Pathan will help the team greatly... A lineup like SRT Uthappa Dravid Yuv KKD/Raina MSD Irfan Munaf Zaheer Piyush Powar

[Sooda]

Lets all Panic. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH we lost one game. HEEEEEEEEEEEEELP. We are doomed. Sack the captain' date=' drop anyone over 15 years old, sack the manger even though we dony have one. Basically lets all PANIC[/quote'] thats not happening the fielding has been poor throught the tour- something needs to be done.

[King Tendulkar]

Well your team still includes Munaf and Powar who are our worst fielders with Gangs. No RP is nuts. He has been a revelation this tour

[varun]

Very cursory glance at the current team Small Cities Yuvi-Chg Dhoni-Jamshedpur Munaf-Ikhar SreeSanth-Trichur/Cochin

Dunno about the rest, but Chandigarh isn't a small city. As far as population goes maybe, but it's a very affluent city, and they've got great facilities for cricket, and I believe that was the purport of Ravi's question anyway.