No Future

Beating Bangladesh in sub-continent conditions is no big deal. No offence to the Bangla boys, they may a hard working one day outfit but when it comes to multi-day cricket, they are only slightly better than a club side. Now India wanted this tour to test out new players, well has that really happened? I don’t think so. For starters when you look at the test line up, our middle order has remained the same for the last decade of so. Yuvraj Singh was the only new player who managed to be in it for a very limited period. Others like Dravid, Ganguly and Tendulkar has become a permanent fixture there. Apart from Dravid, the other two are one a steep decline and more or less playing only to improve their personal records. I am sure Tendulkar and Ganguly cannot win matches against quality bowling. All they can do is nudging around the Bangla boys and make some scratchy runs. The dropping of Laxman is a sin. Why the hell should guys like Tendulkar and Ganguly keep getting opportunities to make runs against weaker sides and seal their spots while Laxman has to slug it out against the very best to keep his spot. This is dirty Indian politics at its best. Ganguly for long has been protected by the Bengal Circle and now the Mumbai circle is playing it ugly cards. The only good things about the tour is that the emergence of Karthik as an opener. But again we should not get too excited about his performance against this weak team. Let him score against England in England, then there is cause for making him the long term opener. As far as the bowlers are concerned, without Kumble the team looks lost and Zaheer is too patchy and inconsistent. The likes of VRV Singh, RP Singh and I Sharma do not instil fear among the batsmen and I guess we could end up having the worst bowling line up within the next few years. India has often been compared to the Brazil soccer team, which is sad. Yes both the sports are religion in their respected countries but when you look at the records it’s just plain ridiculous to compare them. Indian team is an over hyped money making machine and its population is filled with people of non-sporting culture.

A Few points

India has won its REVENGE tour of Bangladesh. The board promised a young side and well if Dinesh Mongia was part of this young side, then god save the team.

Australia is going to boycott its tour of Zimbabwe, well what about China, India, Burma; the list goes on....India? Many may be confused, but serious Quota system people!

Michael Vaughan is injured again, why the ECB can’t just ask this guy to retire and collect his pension

England 20/20 Side

This world cup saw one of the worst performances by an English team which managed to beat all the minnows and the West Indies cricket team. The team had one star in KP and the rest were there to just make up the numbers. They never had a settled opening pair and they had Vaughan (no serious cricket since Ashes 2005), Strauss (hopelessly out of form), Bell (A Sheet Anchor) and Joyce (never opened for his county Middlesex). None of them were aggressive and they had one the worst starts that teams can have. While all the other teams had stroke players, England has a bunch of grafters. Their best player comes in at 4 while their hardest hitter was wasted at 6. It’s not that England do not have big hitters, but Duncan Fletcher selected guys who are no good at playing one day cricket and the worse is that not one of them played in their usual role. With the 20/20 WC coming later this year, there are chances that England may get a similar drubbing in a game which was popularized by them. Ali Brown, a former English One day player with an international century not to forget 2 scores of 200+ in domestic one day matches smashed a 176 which helped Surrey boost a world record total of 496. England has players and its time instead of sticking to the bubble, England experiment with some new players. Mal Loye, a guy who sweeped Lee, one of the fastest bowlers in the world for a 6 could not find a spot in the WC squad. England has to change and with the 20/20 WC fast approaching, they should take some tough big hitters rather than take grafters. If Vaughan finds his spot on the team, I am sorry to say this but England deserves to be knocked out in the first round. My English team for the 20/20 WC - Marcus Trescothick, Mal Loye, Ali Brown, Kevin Pietersen, Paul Collingwood (C), Andrew Flintoff, Ian Blackwell, Paul Nixon, Darren Gough, Jon Lewis, James Anderson. The Reserves – Ian Trott, Vikram Solanki, Michael Yardy and Stuart Broad.

WC Post

I am posting well after nearly a week after the finals, the reason is very simple. This world was one of the most boring world cups and the timing also did not suit all. Staying up so late to watch dull one sided cricket was not at all worth watching. It’s time the ICC does something about it. Well I suggest stop one day cricket once and for all and embrace 20-20. Looking at all the one day matches played, the greatest of games could be counted by hand while each season of EPL produces more brilliant matches than this. Congratulations to Australia for dominating the world cup like no other team before and they were not once troubled by anyone. The only positive thing about the world cup is the performance of Bangladesh and Ireland. Bangladesh reminds me of the Zimbabwe team of the 1990s where with a few world class players they could give trouble to any one side on their day. Ireland’s performance shows that talent exists in the non-test playing nations and its time ICC do something to encourage the sport there. Cricket will die in its current state if one country dominates the sport and the hand full of others wants to preserve the sport. This will be my world cup XI, well a majority of them are Australians after all they won the championship with no one to trouble them.

The XI – Hayden, Gilchrist, Ponting (C), Jayawardene, Pietersen, Lara, Styris, Hogg, Tait, McGrath, Malinga. Kallis will be the 12th man.

Honourable Mention – Jayasuriya, Smith, Clarke, Bracken, Bond and Rankin.