During 1994-95, In the Kanpur match India were 195 for five, chasing the West Indies total of 257 for six in 50 overs, when Nayan Mongia joined Manoj Prabhakar, who along with Sachin Tendulkar had opened the Indian innings. The two —Manoj and Mongia —instead of looking for quick runs, with India having to score 63 runs for a possible win off 43 balls, were content in picking up the odd single or the two and the asking rate, which was around seven when the fifth Indian wicket had fallen, rose first to eight and then to ten. But the two Indians made no effort to go for the West Indies bowling and were content to just bat along. Manoj Prabhakar ended the match with 102 runs to his name off 154 balls (his second hundred in one-day internationals) while Mongia scored just four off 21 balls as India slumped to a loss without even giving a game fight.
I supported Cricket Baord's decision to Drop, Prabhakar and Mongia. Today, In the year 2007, When I saw the game, There was no difference in the attitude. Throughout our second inning, the moment India lost the first two wickets, There was no effort to win the game.
Infact, I know people would hate me for this, but whenever India have lost key wickets and Dravid has came to bat, India has always always batted like that. They think, Lets Save the Wicket and If Time Comes, we will go for Win. With that Attitude, more often or not, Time Never comes and More Often or not, India looses.
India was stronger one day side, when Dravid was keeping the wicket and Ganguly was the captain. Reason was not Dravid was Wicket Keeper, but the Reason was, Dravid was batting at number 5 Position. Invariably, Dravid cameinto the batting when India have good score on the board. If India has 100 runs and then Dravid comes into Bat with 20 overs are gone, He bats differently.
I am not criticizing Dravid as a Batsman but his perspective changes. His Effort, His game plan everything changes, when he comes onto bat,@ 10 for 2 or 100 for 3.
When India is 100-3, Match is not won or lost, and Dravid would still be a key, but then Dravid would blossom and India would win more matches. The Situation Demands Dravid to bat at number 5 and finishes the game.
Yesterday's game, Same Thing Happened, The moment India lost, Ganguly and Gambhir, Dravid and Tendulkar became defensive. They thought, if they can see few overs together, they can launch later on. Bad Attitude.
You play according to the merit of the game, Same Situation Put, Ponting and Hayden and they would attack the opposition and win the game for Australia. Sachin and Dravid are better batsman than Hayden and Ponting but what lacks is the Attitude and Game Plan.
Dravid, whenever has batted at any position, if comes in when not even 30 runs have been scored, India has failed to reach over 250. At least in most of the occassions it is True. It is definately true when India is chasing the score of above 250 runs.
What makes it more disappointing is, Younger Generation Players are looking and learning. They look at their Captain and want to immitate it. The way your captain leads, the way your captain thinks , the way your captain bats, leads the rest of the player. The moment, Dravid ties down, that ties Tendulkar, that approach is carried forward in Yuvraj and Karthik. Dhoni also slows down.
It took lot of effort from Ganguly to insert that killing instinct into Indian Team. The joy and winning desire Ganguly inserted into the likes of Yuvraj/Kaif/Dhoni/Zaheer is disappearing. India might be playing good technically or improving but they attitude is going down badly due to our Captain, Dravid.
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The Attitude of Dravid is much better than Attitude of BCCI. BCCI has so far ruling the Indian Cricket more like EAST India Company or Congress I. They are just sucking the blood of Indian Players and money from Indians. In Turn, They are not giving anything back.
how many new stadiums are created, How many good fast bowlers they are able to produce, After Sunil and Sachin Tendulkar and dravid, Why we are not seeing any more youngstars?
I am not saying Indian Cricket League is an answer to BCCI but ICL has definately post few questions to BCCI. I am in full support of ICL.
What makes me support them is my belief of Businessman's are not good people but they are good people compare to Politicians.
ICL would be a group of professional people. BCCI, has failed to invite foreign professional to play in India. Over 100 years now, English County games are being watched and one of the many reason being, people from all around the world are playing there.
Top Class Bowlers, like McGrath, Warne, Murli, Saqlain, Wasim, Kapil everyone has played in the County games and learned a lot. That also improves the class of youngstars and I am sure many Indian Players who have decided to join ICL, would learn a lot.
My only question left for ICL is the GROUNDS? To Promote the game, they need to organize them in the Metro's like, Bombay, Delhi, Chennai and Calcutta.
I would be in full support if ICL goes global, Have those players play in India in the month of September, Let them play One month in England , one month in Australia etc and Let them make a parallel League of their Own.
Lets See, What Kerry Packer couldnt do, Can Subhash Chandra do or not!!!
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3 comments:
ICL is a good thing in the short term. The domestic cricketers are getting paid a lot more than they were earlier. Just goes to show how much the BCCI could afford to pay and how much they were paying. The BCCI was just sitting on the money. But, in the long run if ICL takes off we will lose out on some good cricket. Imagine a situation where Sachin was playing for ICC and Akram and Donald were playing for ICL. And of course ICL is nothing like playing for your country.
Its typical of us Indians isn't it? we play safe and only few of us play to win. And win when we cant - we play so we don't lose.
At least the current captain had the temerity to accept and say it was a woeful fifth day. Things are looking up I'd say.
ICL - will never be the equivalent of playing for the country. But what it has done is pulled money down to the lower levels of the game - levels from where our "stars" come. And hopefully help give the domestic game the respect it deserves.
Karthik
Now what would u say abt Dravid's batting after the 2nd ODI? His innings made the diff between win and loss... Not that i am a fan of him...
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