Published by Nanda on 26th January 2008
Well, its time to give out my opinion on the squad that has been chosen for the ODI series involving India, Sri Lanka and Australia. A lot is being said about the exclusion of some “Big” names from the squad and that the players selected are not right for this series. The selectors have flat-out cleared their criteria - Fielding. In a country where people are completely crazy about their stars, this is not a good enough reason. In my opinion, hats off to the selectors for finally putting a greater emphasis on the fielding capabilities of ODI players.
For years we have seen our team to be the worst in fielding, on paper and on Live TV. The bungling old players have had over a decade of playing experience, yet there has been absolutely no improvement in their fielding. Yes they are good in catching, and catches win matches. But catches don’t come every other ball. Every single run counts in ODI cricket, and every time the ball is placed to Ganguly and Dravid, the batsmen always take an extra run.
Well what about running between the wickets. It would be an understatement to say that both Ganguly and Dravid are the worst runners in the Indian squad. Saurav Ganguly has played 311 matches. He has been part of 145 losses. He has been runout 13 times averaging 34.92 every time. Almost once every 11 matches that India have lost. Almost always after getting a good start. Overall he has been runout 23 times. Dravid, on the other hand, has played 333 ODI matches. He has been involved in 160 defeats and got himself runout 20 times. That is once in every 8 defeats. He averages 30.65 and just like Ganguly gets himself runout after getting a good start.
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Published by Nanda on 18th September 2007
News coming from India seems to point that Mahendra Singh Dhoni will get the ODI captain’s job. If sources from the BCCI are to be believed, it seems that Sachin Tendulkar took himself out of contention declining the offer to lead the team.
This does not really come as a surprise as Dhoni is currently leading the team in South Africa.
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Published by Nanda on 17th September 2007
The BCCI is going to announce the successor to Rahul Dravid today. It is still unclear if the board is going to name two captains - each for one day and test matches. There is a lot of speculation that Dhoni will be named the ODI captain as he is already leading the team in the Twenty20 World Cup. This may very well be true as Dhoni does have the right attitude to lead the team. His work ethic and brain are second to none in the Indian team.
As for the test captain, there seem to be three candidates - Tendulkar, Ganguly and Laxman. This is where the board needs to be careful in their decision. Ganguly seems to be the right candidate at the moment. Sachin can barely last 5 days of intense cricket and to pur extra pressure of leading the team may further shorten his cricket career. Ganguly has already proven himself as the most successful Indian captain. Although his attitude came into questioning just before his sacking, I think he has learned more and is now even better.
As for Laxman, he can barely find a place in the playing XI so his being a captain is not going to be an decision. Although he is the best middle-order player for India, he doesn’t come across as a wily customer who can make the tough decisions.
Published by Nanda on 14th September 2007
At first I thought that this was a joke, he couldn’t be serious. But it turns out that Dravid had asked to be relieved of the job minutes before the India vs Scotland match in the Twenty20 World Cup. This is indeed a shocking piece of news, just when things had started to go well for India. It seems to me that there are surely internal politics involved here.
Indian board is going to be in a spot of bother, as they not only have to select a coach but a skipper as well. This actually could be a blessing in disguise for Indian cricket to have a new coach and a new captain. The board officials should learn from the Ganguly-Wright era and opt for a young captain and a hard-working coach. I will continue to post more on this as more information becomes available.
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