Lanka Lost but Cricket at its best..

The Series that India just won…

The game was never looking like a contest in the second half despite the fact that India had lost its valuable openers in Sehwag and Sachin.. the only time that Sri Lanka probably had some thing to smile about..

These days with so much of improvement in the batting skills.. so much working out the strategies to garner a win from almost a defeat.. that can not take away any credits from the kind of batting display that the Delhi duo put up in the middle of the cricket Mecca of India.. Eden Gardens has always been special.. Eden Gardens will always remain special.. Eden Gardens tonight witnessed the highest score by the team batting first but only too easily defeatable score..

I would like to put to rest the speculations that the day night cricket brings along with it.. the teams that get to chase have double folded advantage so to say.. first the bowlers especially the slower ones find that grip is missing.. the second factor that goes against the side batting second is the slippery ground conditions which make fielding around a bit uneasy if not outright difficult.. so in cases where two teams are more or less equal in their batting and bowling resources… I would say that team batting second has a distinct advantage..

Not much can be done about to quell such factors that are natural and leave little scope for adjustments.. yet would say that having restricted Lankans to 315 runs was a great battle won in the first half itself.. if one could just leave the third game aside where despite fluent start Lankans failed to cross 250 mark the other three games proved that cricket has far more bend in favour of batters than bowlers.. and what can one really do to avoid that.. batsman have been aided by the technological advancements in video training and finding out better stamina and strategy to extend their stay at the wickets and if one of the batsman has to be of the kind of Sehwag or Dilshan a couple of dropped chances turn the whole complexion of the game..

Of late fielding world wide has come to a stage of stagnation.. the batsman have found it easier with known blocks improvised shot playing and better understanding of bowlers.. the game had never ever been so much so favourable to batsman not even in the days when Bradman or Richards were crafting their innings to perfection.. that batsman like Miandad, Gavaskar and Aravinda or a Border or Gower or even modern times Sachin and Dravid.. all had to build their innings in sensible rather than with the ruthlessness of Sehwag, Afridi or Jayasuriya and not to forget Dilshan in this particular year that was 2009.. they have all collectively changed the way the batsman score runs.. only old timer who played his cricket in this manner successfully could be Adam Gilchrist.. and if it is credit to the game it has to go to Twenty20.. you like it or not the day is not very far when teams would not only make 400 runs but like Lankans almost showed at Rajkot those runs wiould be chased down too..


There is far too little to pick up from which team is best.. I don’t believe in ranking.. especially not in a ranking system that has much less vision to incorporate margin of victory as a criteria.. if a team looses narrowly it can not be same as team loosing by huge margin of wickets, runs or balls to spare.. I know India had been loosing by huge margins in the ld days..but just look at the statistics barring one or two exceptional games they have been doing fairly well.. they did so well against Australia just a few months ago and still lost the series should not go to pull their ranking barometer terribly down.. they might have lost but they were almost there to win two games that they had lost.. Australia of late is not the same force as it used to be a couple of years back.. for whatever reasons yet Australians dominated the first two editions of IPL like none other..


The time has come that if we want all the three formats of the game to survive we have to have parallel cricket taking place.. I mean teams like India, Pakistan and Australia and South Africa for that matter could have parallel teams for Tests and limited over versions..

I being an Indian can easily pick 30 players who could be assigned the jobs of representing my country in international cricket comprising of five days Test cricket and Limited overs cricket.. in fact I can compose three teams if the ICC allows a three way participation of India in cricket at different formats..

Let us first talk of Test team –

1. Sachin Tendulkar
2. Manish Pandey
3. Dravid
4. Laxman
5. Rohit Sharma
6. Dinesh Karthik
7. Harbhajan Singh
8. Zaheer Khan
9. Ishant Sharma
10. Munaf Patel
11. Iqbal Abdulla
12. Piyush Chawla
13. Balaji
14. Ajnkya Rahane

I think the team looks quite balance and could possibly be led by either Dravid or Laxman in case Sachin does not want to lead India. It has good batting as well as bowling options that are more suited to Test cricket.

Coming next to Limited Overs team –

1. Virender Sehwag
2. Gautam Gambhir
3. Mahendra Singh Dhoni
4. Yuvraj Singh
5. Suresh Raina
6. Virat Kohli
7. Irfan Pathan
8. Ravindra Jadeja
9. Praveen Kumar
10. R.P. Singh
11. Ashish Nehra
12. Pragyan Ojha
13. Yusuf Pathan
14. Abhishek Nayar
15. Pradeep Sangwan
16. R. Ashwin

If there are people who want to play both the form of the games I would not mind the top four batsman of Limited over games could choose to switch their roles with their equivalent counterparts and some specialist bowlers from Test could also be allowed to play a few games in the limited version.

The players which could shuffle are well known to all.. the experienced batsman in limited version and bowlers with rich Test experience could switch sides to maintain the balance.. In case of people like Sachin, Sehwag, Dhoni and Harbahajan could be allowed the freedom to choose one team from the other.. the other rotations could well depend upon the kind of opposition teams the test and Limited version teams are likely t be playing at the same time.

I can still name few of the reserve players for either team:

Test: Mohammad Kaif, and Parthiv Patel, Vriddhiman Saha
Limited Version: Manoj Tiwary, Shikhar Dhawan, Mahesh Rawat and Venugopal Rao

The connoisseur of cricket would say I have been more tilted in favour of Limited version. That is not true. I do foresee a mixing up of players from one team to another from time to time so that Sachin if he plays five Test matches in a year also gets to play atleast 6 to 7 Limited version games as well. Similarily if Sehwag plays 20 Limited version games he also gets to play atleast 3-4 tests in a calendar year. I have just choosen these two senior players as an example.. the numbers here are only exemplary than being exact. I would love that some of the players are always engaged in the playing eleven of one or the other team – i.e Gambhir, Yuvraj, Sehwag, Dhoni, Harbhajan and Praveen Kumar.

I would also love the limited version team to play more number of Twenty20 games. Say one could play equal number of ODIs and T20 games. With so much mileage available for having two teams India could easily take part in 7 to 10 Test matches and as many as 20-20 games each of ODI and Twenty20 in a particular season. This would also allow them to take breaks as an when they want or to apply to play cricket in teams from other countries.

The board could allow 10 days leave to senior cricketers (Five players at a time) to play in some premier leagues of other countries (During the times when they are part of one of the above two teams). The non-member players i.e. the cricketers who have not been considered for playing in one of the teams could simply apply to be allowed to play in International Premier leagues ( something similar to IPL).

The senior players should however also make a commitment to participate in the domestic cricket tournaments where they must play in atleast any of the 5 games, if selected, and not playing for one of the above two teams. However, the 5 games need not compulsorily be of Ranji Level. Playing in national IPL league could be counted as one of the games. I had talked earlier about national and international versions of Premier leagues.

I think the issue of captaincy could rest with only few people and preferably I would love Sehwag, Gambhir or Dhoni to lead the Limited version teams when some of them are not playing in the side. In Test cricket the choices could rest between Dravid or Lakshman if one of the Sehwag, Gambhir or Dhoni are not into the Test side. Yuvraj Singh and Suresh Raina could be their understudies.

I wish India also sends promotional teams ( comprising of the other available talent) into countries which want to participate and progress in cricket in future say the upcoming teams like Netherlands, Ireland, Canada, UAE, Kenya, Bermuda, Scotland et al. and help organize atleast 3 International games in countries which offer to support cricket and host the games featuring the top world teams or even top IPL teams. Developed countries like US, China, Germany, France, Japan may thus be allowed atleast to have a couple of T20 International games.

If the BCCI and ICC pay heed to such suggestions I think cricket could definitely be far more widespread than its presence base of just 9 Test cricket playing countries. Let us hope then that sooner or later the game of T20 finds its way into Olympics. India would have a chance to win Gold with so much of talent available at their disposal.

Abhaya Sharma

Mumbai 25th December 2009 1.50 AM IST

My Preview - Third ODI at Cuttack

My preview - Third ODI at Cuttack..
Virender Sehwag gets to captain India by default.. Dhoni has been served a two match ban.. it is all right.. team India if they play as a unit should not solely depend overtly on its captain or any player for bringing home the positive results..

I see this as a great opportunity for the team who is likely to have a different look than what we had been used to.. I for one have the opinion that India should use its players judiciously.. no, no, not the way the IPL has imposed a 12-match for India players.. first how do you decide which players come under that definition.. there are some of hem who get to play only in the few games.. there are some who rarely miss a game.. yet again there are some who are playing pivotal role for their IPL teams.. it does not make sense.. probably IPL is not willing to cut down on the total number of games as it directly equates with their earnings in ground as well as broadcast merchandise.. it is unfair to have two games at the league level and have just one game at the closing stages of the tournament.. I don’t like that..

If I were Lalit Modi I would not only add two more Indian teams I might just ask four more teams from other countries one each from Australia, South Africa, England and Pakistan (or even a team each from the other test playing nations i.e. Sri Lanka, New Zealand, West Indies and even Bangladesh) . In that scenario there would be either 14 or 18 teams depending upon whether four foreign teams are allowed or eight foreign teams take part. It would be worthwhile to retain only eight teams and making way for two or four groups in the league stage picking either two teams each or one team each depending on number of groups. These four teams could then be allowed to play a super league where they each play the other twice and the top two teams alone fight it out in a best of three finals. To serve a 12-match restriction on Indian players seems like telling them who is the boss.. the administrator or the players.. I vote against such a scheme of things even if I am ridiculed by the players themselves who may love to play just 12 matches and earn what they deserve as endorsements.. it could mean lack of commitment too..

Coming back to the third one day cricket game Virender Sehwag may not find much options in case Yuvraj fails to clear the fitness test.. though sources say he should be playing in all probabilities.. that would make balance in two sides.. if he does not get to play Viru’s India would decisively start as underdogs.. their bowling and fielding has come under scrutiny even batsmanship will get affected severely if Yuvi too is present as a spectator..

My choice for team may for the first time match exactly with what XI would be doing the service at Cuttack later in the day :Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Sachin Tendulkar, Yuvraj Singh (Virat Kohli), Suresh Raina, Dinesh Karthik, Ravindra Jadeja, Praveen Kumar, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan and Ishant Sharma.

I have preferred to give a chance to Ishant as both Nehra and Khan have been far too expensive I could not drop the in-form Khan so I included Sharma in place of Nehra (though I would have loved if selectors had picked Irfan instead of Sharma.. it is all right).

Abhaya Sharma, Mumbai

Post Script: I wish Sehwag very best in today’s game. I hope India could still strike a balance if they play the above XI.. more so if Yuvraj is fit enough.. a half fit Yuvraj should not be included as it could backfire in the absence of Dhoni as well.. I feel it is time that Sachin and ganbhir come to the rescue of India in the hour of crisis.

Addendum

IPL reformulation- Another way for conducting IPL

India could host a version of national IPL where state teams could all participate in say eight top teams first taking part in a shorter format- like four teams in each group playing out each one in their group just once. The top four teams qualifying for finals and for international IPL league where eight more world teams lock horns making international IPL a total of 12 teams divided into six teams each in a group playing just game each at league level. The top three teams from each group then playing a super league to decide the winner by playing a best of three finals between the top two teams of the super league. That should be in interest of the game globally and in the interest of players.

However, I would not mind if players are allowed to play for whichever team they like to represent in the International IPL. Some Indian players too could be allowed to play or take part for other countries. Say Yuvraj Singh playing for Pakistan and Praveen Kumar for England or Virender Sehwag playing for Australia and Dhoni for South Africa, that is just to enunciate my opinion and plan. It is nearly in the same spirit as Kallis plays for Bangalore or Lee for Kings XI. The decision must be lying with the team owners and willingness of players to switch sides and it must not change during a season of IPL so to say. That could be some great excitement. That alone could pave way for far more teams in the world to make a competent XI by hiring players from other cricket playing countries.

It should also be emphasised here that International IPL matches be then counted at par with Twenty20 Internationals by ICC. I only wish that these suggestions are taken as positive suggestions and not as criticism of IPL administrators.

India posts the highest second innings winning total..

Dear Auro the commentator (Extra Cover)

A good performance from you as well as the team India!

I was bemused to find that you did appear on commentary box along with Murali Kartik.. it was quite some fun.. es[pecially when you said gaya, gaya and I don't like that man in the red shirt..

The best part was the googly that you bowled about your observation about the wides.. I would say what a great observation about assigning the reason for so many wides in such a short format.. very well said sir.. the bowler does try to dislodge the concentrtion of the batsman by conceding a single.. moreover when a batsman is predetermined to hit everything that is hurled at him.. these wides are likely to produce wickets in this format.. no, no, you were perfect in your observation even if both kartik and Attapattu could not read your observations.. they see everything from pure cricketer's angle where as these wides have human angle to it.. chauka maarega.. ab maar..

Well, I am extremely jubiliated for the win.. I did my part well.. at the beginning of the Indian innings I did walk out to get milk and smoke a cigarette.. later I tried to hang the clothes that were lying in the washing machine.. in the meantime India had started off well.. tobe frank with you did not believe ndia had much chance to start with but I remembered what you said to a request hurled at you to say something to Sehwag and Gambhir and you said chhakka maaro, chhakka maaro.. good that the team heard your answer.. ther were as many as ten sixes in the Indian innings and five from the birthday boy Yuvraj Sixing..

When I really found that India was doing not so bad I asked Amrit to put on the Television Inda had just then lost the Gambhir.. I was tempted not to watch the game lest Sehwag gets out.. apane dil ko arra karake maine socha jo higa dekha jaayega.. Dhoni continued to bat at number 3.. no problems.. I crossed my fingers when Viru was nearing his only second fifty in his entire T20 career.. when he did manage that I was satisfied.. I had thought that if he scores 50 off 30 balls India had fair chance of taking the game and he did get it in some 28 balls.. when I started expecting too much from him a century or atleast surpassing the highest score by an Indian (75 by Gambhir) he just disappeared from the scene while playing for another six and was caught at mid-off.. it was a charactteristic Viru knock.. 64 from just 36 balls.. and he laid a good foundation with two fifty run partnerships first with Gautam and then with the skipper.. that Dhoni and Yuvraj nearly won the game with their third wicket partnership of 80 runs.. it was quite evident that partnership matter in every format of the game.. that India could post the highest winning total in the short history of T20 cricekt when they surpassed Lanka's 206 and making 211 for four they had won a T20 game after 4 straight losses..with five balls to spare.. and with six wickets intact..

There were sixes in every top three scores of the Indian innings 64,46 and 60 * while India won the game by six wickets chasing Lanka's 206 for 7..
It was a memorable game.. I would not mind going out every time Sehwag has to bat.. He did play some commendable cricket.. Good team work..

Earlier Three wickets to Yuvraj singh and a wicket during your commentary had made some dent to Lankan innings which appeared to get past 215 that they made last time.. Kumar would always ask himself why he did not toss the ball to Sanath.. probably he answered it too well in the end..

A great contest now seems to be in the offing for One day series soon after..
Love and Thanks to Sehwag, Dhoni and Yuvraj for a memorable Indian win at last after a long time..

Abhaya Sharma

The Question of the Hour! Cricket!! Auro!!!

Dear Auro

I assume that you are playing Guru Gary and Abhaya Sharma poses these Questions to you which are are not exactly questions but some sort of premonitions about team India and the rise and rise of cricket not in India but in the world as well..

1. Is Sehwag going to make the fastest century in the game's shortest format. He must be determined to make it look possible. He may need to last just 30 balls for that.

2. Would Ganbhir be a better choice for leading the 20 compared to Yuvraj Singh in place of Dhoni. irst Dhoni must admit that he does not mind handing over the reins to another man.

3. Is there some scope for a true all-rounder to emerge in India for T20 games. Praveen Kumar and Irfan Pathan could both fill the bill. They need to be in the 15 before they can make it to playing XI.

4. Was India's victory in the first edition a gift of Misbah ul Haque. That only Haque could answer best. The man who accounted for him is another all-rounder Joginder Sharma, who is best forgotten by team India despite being a brillaint fielder.

5. Is there an analogy between India's lack of form in T20 Internationals and launching of IPL. The kind of money some individuals have made without proving their worth requires a review of their endorsements.

6. Would IPL open up itself to foreign teams participation in future to promote T20 and cricket on global scale.

7. Would BCCI allow some of the Indian players to play for other teams if they do not get enough opportunities with their present franchisees. Manish Pandey not playing all the games in Champions T20 league!

8. How and when would ICC allow more teams participation into world T20 cup instead of just picking top 2 teams from the non-test playing countries. I would love to see 24 teams participating in the next world cup. I know format and fixtures are already up!

9. How does BCCI take this proposition to have parallel cricket i.e. having Test and Limited overs cricket simultaneously. Say The Test team playing in England and Limited overs (ODI and T20 sides) playing in South Africa. people could choose to play one of it at a time and be allowed to switch roles.

10. Whether BCCI could allow an Inter-city Twenty 20 criceket featuring some top 20 Cities in the country and featuring only players f Indian origin. India could exhibit far more talent and unearth some of that for national duities from that large database of players. See, one does not have to depend upon some 30 to 40 players for national duty all the time though out the tournaments round the whole season and for years together.. Let them face competition from New Kids on the Blok.

Abhaya Sharma

Include Kumar if possible..

Respected Brother
Sadar Charan Sparsh

I think India should not mss the opportunity to replace Sreesanth with Praveen Kumar as the former has tested positive for swine flu. India should be allowed with the lasy minute replacement for the strike bowler who missed the first game due to Diarrohea..

If Dhoni, Srikkanth and Guru Gary put up the request I think ICC or Sri Lankans for that matter should not object..

In such an eventuality of inclusion of Praveen Kumar in the T20 team, India would be somewhat reinforced in the bowling department and have a slogger available to them during the batting..

I would then love to play the following eleven later in the day..

Gautam Gambhir, Virender Sehwag, Rohit Sharma (or Praveen Kumar), Yuvraj Singh, MS Dhoni, Suresh Raina, Praveen Kumar (or Rohit Sharma), Ashwin, Nehra, Sudeep Tyagi and Ishant Sharma.

I would have loved India to bat second.. the other day they did quite well.. only Lankans played much better cricket and the Indian middle order faltered more than the usual.. India should bat second and try to restrcit the Lankans within 200.. They can win if they are able to get Praeen Kumar.. in case it is not possible.. I would love to keep Yusuf Pathan in the side in his place. Ojha and Pathan need to be rested. I would like Sehwag and Yuvra to bowl a couple of overs each if need arises.. which I know would definitely arise when Lankans get in command..

Play your natural game and I would only say that Sehwag could be little less ruthless in the beginning and take few more balls for his initial 20 runs say 20 in 15 balls and then gear up to fifty.. it is quite surprising that he has only 1 fifty from around 13 games that he has played for India n T20.. he could make a substantial difference to the scheme of any Lankan Plans with his batting powers.. only if he displays them at all.. I would not be happy with 30 from 10 balls from him I wish that he makes 50 from 30 balls.. still a 10 runs per over..

I also pray that Yuvraj is able to keep captaincy issue of Kings Xi Punjab.. I am sure one day he would lead India in T20.. it could be very soon.. but he should apply himself better to the task assigned to him.. foremost is his batting and fielding skills.. he should not drop sitters any more..

Good luck to team India and whatever be the result of the game I would definitely watch the game.. I missed nearly 70 percent of the first T20.. I would not miss even a single ball.. I would not even miss the extra cover for a meeting with Auro.. Is that you brother who is going to go to Chandigarh..

Love
Abhaya Sharma

PS If for some reasons Kumar can not be included there is absolutely no harm in calling the state man Harbhajan to do the services for India.. though I would prefer Kumar to take care of Kumar.. If India has to bat first they should at least register 200 plus runs on the board if they have to really make a fight of it..

I am not disappointed with the first Twenty 20 result..

I am not disappointed..

The result of the first Twenty20 game is not a cause for disappointment for India. It should not be. Yet we have to learn lesson from every game and there were a few things that immediately come to the mind specially in the team selection and execution of plans.

First team selection – India did not have even one quality all-rounder in the current team. No, no, it is not that we do not have one or two of that kind, it is only that we did not play them for this important version. In the current scenario Twenty20 is more about having one or two all-rounders not necessarily of Kapil Dev’s caliber Praveen Kumar, Ravindra Jadeja, Irfan Pathan and Virat Kohli can all fill that bill. It was only that not even one of them found a place in the 15 forget in eleven. The second most important point to be observed is about the fielding skills. Sri Lanka won the game more because they fielded like a champion side. They not only held catches they did cut out several boundaries which made a great difference to the outcome. Thirdly, India for some reasons, went for more runs than was expected or anticipated by the captain and he did not have faith on his earlier support to Yuvraj with the ball. I know Yuvraj or Sehwag might not have made too much difference yet if the score was below 200 India could have given it a fighting reply instead of the 29 run defeat.

The middle order crumble was the most authentic reason for the defeat. From 93 for 1 to 105 for 5 to 129 for 7 only batsman could be blamed after such a fluent start provided by the openers. Gambhir now becomes the only batsman in the world to have 6 half centuries against his name. Sehwag should have decided to take it easy after two near chances. I know the catch that was dropped and the run out that Lankans missed did not make much of a difference as Sehwag failed to capitalize on these chances that he was offered. He did not have much choices seeing what the target was on the board. If not 40 extra runs, India did give away atleast twenty runs more than they should have. Sharma for a change bowled his first spell magnificently yet none other could control the flow of runs and India had stiff challenge on the board when they went in to bat second. It is all right, I must also add that India were outplayed by the visitors in every department. It was not only Kumar the skipper who made life miserable for Indian bowlers Kapugedera’s 47 from 20 and 22 runs from one of the Nehra over by Sanath were as instrumental in crafting and drafting of an imposing 215 runs at the end of 20th over.

I know there is no point in crying over spilt milk yet fielding was below par and having a long tail, though it quite wagged to take Indian total to some respectability were the main reason for dismal if not a disgusted show by Indians. The batting order also has some errors. It seems Yuvraj or Raina might have been the optimum choice at the fall of Sehwag’s wicket. Gambhir had to take upon the role of Sehwag was not that good an idea, we all know Gambhir is the best batsman who if he hangs around can accelerate his innings almost at will despite his registering the second fastest fifty in T20 Internationals and by becoming the first India batsman to get past the 500 mark he had done a commendable job to keep India in the hunt. The sudden middle order collapse made life difficult for Indian spectators. That is cricket though at its uncertain best. Who could think that Nehra could hit the leather as hard as he did to hit two huge sixes.
This is not the end of the world, Indians can still make amends and if allowed to make a few changes should try to inculcate atleast Praveen Kumar in place of Sreesanth if not anyone else for his upset stomach.

It would not be possible for the India to play the XI that I am going to talk of here. I shall however say that Guru Gary has done few things right by making people like Nehra learn few traits required for this format of the game. I know what Nehra’s batting skills were for all his career yet he did not appear the same with the bat though he did not appear the same with the ball earlier when he conceded some extra runs to Sanath. It is T20 cricket and I can not say nothing about bowlers. It is a batsman and fielding oriented version. Yet full marks to Ishant for his first three overs yielding only 7 runs. The target otherwise would have been far more than the 215 for 5.

Here I state what Gary Kirsten should expect from his team collectively, first and foremost comes the fielding abilities second comes consistency with the bat and last but not the elast scope for inclusion of as many all-rounders in the side, no, non, not the makeshift all-rounders like Yuvraj, Rohit or Raina, the genuine ones.

If I were to select the team for T20 I would have picked the following eleven –
Gautam Gambhir, Virender Sehwag, Rohit Sharma, Yuvraj Singh, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Suresh Raina, Ravindra Jadeja, Irfan Pathan, Praveen Kumar, Harbhajan Singh and RP Singh.
My four reserves would be Virat Kohli, Manish Pandey, Ashish Nehra and Ishant Sharma

If one looks up at XI there are as many as five changes lower down the order but you would immediately realize that I have probably kept the best fielding unit as the topmost priority. Even if one does not allow me to change it so drastically atleast two changes in Praveen Kumar and Irfan Pathan are a bare minimum. Unfortunately the reserve players with the current team may not be having much desired qualities to make the replacements. I would continue with the same team or include Sreesanth, if he is fit on 12th in place of Dinda and accept the defeat as coolly as cool possibly can be. With this set of 15 players it is not even hypothetically possible to beat this Lankan outfit to be able to equalize the series. Yet, one must not give up the fight.

I sing the Bob Marley song for the team India. Get up, stand up, don’t give up the fight..

India is number one in Test Cricket..

India is Numero Uno..

India achieved what seemed to have alluded them over last 77 years of ytheir test cricket history.. I am proud of the achievement would be an under-statement.. I am really proud of their feat given the way they started this test series on the brink of a defeat or rather an innings defeat in the very first test at Motera.. that they did commendable job to turn the tables by not only saving the first test but also winning the next two at Kanpur and Mumbai by an innings.. how many times a team would have achieved such level of great performance.. even if India had not been adjudged number one in the test rankings.. this fact alone gives a great satisfaction..

Contrary to popular belief this team has not achieved something as big as India had achieved when it first beat West Indies in West Indies when Sunil Gavaskar arrived on the Indian cricket scene or India under Kapil Dev got better of the then cricketing giants West Indes in the 1983 World cup.. No, No, I am not taking away any credits from these set of palyers who have amongst them some of the best in the Test cricket History that India has played for 77 years.. India has not been at the bottom of the tables for last four or five years in test cricket in fact they have been always enjoyed being number two or three many a times.. so this escalation is not as good as the channels have been trying to tell us..

No doubt.. India under Dhoni has been doing well.. no doubt Indi has Sehwag and Gambhir as probably the best opening pair in the world.. nno dubt that India has had Sacin Tendulkar amongst them for 20 years.. No doubt India has had the services of wall the Dravid and Mr. Dependable in Lalshman.. No doubt India has been having far more medium pace options that Nehra and RP Singh do not even get a look in.. no doubt even after the departure of the Jumbo Kumble we still have the services of Harbhajan Singh.. yet I would suggest that if with the best eleven men available if India did not reach the mark a few years ago under Saurav Ganguly it has to be credited to Dhoni to get the best out of his star players under the circumstances..

Cricket in all its formats in the recent past has become overtly dependent upon batting skills and that is where team India has been bestowed with some big names.. as Kapil dev said India has nearly five batsman with averages above 50 in test cricket so they are definitely the best batting side at present.. the ranking does not appeal too much to me..I would have far loved Virender Sehwag to have achieved his third triple hundred as such opportunities do not knock at your doorstep every other day.. it is all right.. he plays his game the way he plays.. he is not to be blamed but I have right to feel upset about it.. even if he is not.. I have been following cricket more seriously since 1971 as a school boy at Kendriya Vidyalaya Port Blair where we used to play book cricket in the class.. sometimes even during the ongoing lessons.. I had always wanted to bat as Viswanath ahead of Gavaskar.. I know Gavaskar was far more talented than his later to be brother-in-law Gundappa Viswanath yet I had far more respect for the stocky Viswanath for his square cuts and cover-drives.. I know there have been many batsman in India and world who play better than him.. yet I would rate vishy the very best for me.. no, no, it has nothing to do with the meeting with him at Kotla dressing room prior to Australia tour..

I would not mind sharing a few thoughts about the present team.. Sehwag was very nearly not considered amongst even thirty players for an Australian tour.. not in very distant past.. when not because of me but for Ian Chappell and Imran Khan the selectors had included him at the very last minute.. such behaviour hurts me even if Sehwag says it is all right.. how could you not consider someone who had a triple hundred in Test cricket against Pakistan.. form is one thing and class completely another.. especially in test cricket.. There have been many cases of unfair selection policies in past .. who could be a better example of explicitly defining the wrong acts of Indian selection process than the man of series at the 1983 world cup.. Mohinder Amaranth was arguably the best hooker and probably had a strong defence against world’s best pace bowlers yet he had been in and out of the team several times.. Could Vengsarkar and Patil explain away their apathy towards Sehwag who was about to emerge the soul player to score three triple centuries.. and has maximum double centuries by an Indian.. I would like to ask Mr Bishan Singh Bedi taking a dig at his mother when talking of his cricketing abilities.. would they come forward and say in as many words what the feel of the batsman now.. it was quite ironic that Dilip handed him the man of the match or man of the series award.. what must have been going n in his mind thinking of his past assumptions of the mercurial opener.. it is all right.. let bygones be bygones.. but I know let Sehwag fail in couple of games over a year and their swords would again be dangling at his head..

No, no, I am not blaming BCCI for not playing too much of test cricket.. they did play lot of cricket though.. I see no logic in holding an away and home games for the IPL teams in the league stage other than for making money.. otherwise how does one explain that India has only played only 18 T20 Internationals..

And to all the test supporting cricketers who say that they have far too little of Test cricket fo them in the coming days.. they should compare themselves with some of the world’s top teams about the number of test matches each would have played in the last two years.. India would definitely be ahead of many of them if not all..

I would love to see that India does give proper opportunities to the youngsters at the right time otherwise they should not complain about the slump that may arise when Sachin, Dravid and Lakshman disappear from world cricket which is very close on time scale.. I know that there is no dearth of pace bowlers in the country at present a fact that Nehra and to some extent even RP Singh do not find a place in their Test squad.. that is a healthy situation so to say.. every one is out to prove better than the other.. India talks of lack of genuine all-rounders yet Praveen Kumar and Irfan Pathan are sidelined without any serious consideration.. if you do not provide opportunities and express faith in the ones that are available where is the question of new all-rounders to emerge on the horizon..

I know few would take my writings as faithful and sincere and label me anti-BCCI or whatever better names they may get to.. yet the fact is that India has had good players all along yet because of the unfair selection process India had not been able to achieve the ranking which has come their way after 77 years.. Ask anyone India has been playing just too much of cricket.. if they have achieved it now it is a result of last three four years of commitment that the players have been displaying on the field..

I would rather want the team to do better in Twenty20 and even ODI than in test cricket. I do not agree with either Kapil, Sachin or even Sehwag that Test cricket is the best form of cricket.. with less than 10 countries playing test matches it is nt a big deal.. I know for sure that in 2012 if this earth survives then Twenty20 may have some 20 or 30 strong teams vying for supremacy in the world of cricket.. a format where India failed miserably under their most able and most talented players available in the world championship that was held in England..

If some ranking system is in place for T20 Internationals India would not be in top 3 despite the fact tha they were champions in the first edition of the world championship.. Wake up India and win the two t20 games on 9th and 12th of December and more importantly play the format more often at the international level than at premier level where money is the only criteria and glory of the country comes second.. IPL should definitely have more teams and a new competitive format that is not aimed at making money but promoting the sport at national and international level.. I do not like that IPL teams should represent India in champions league tournament.. where other countries did better than all the three IPL teams as probably they were more united by their nationalistic configuration.. Should we not have a national trophy for T20 where state teams could then go on to take part in world chamion’s T20 league.

I hope no one takes my comments as biased against anyone in the country.. I love India and I shall continue to love India.. take as much pride in the test rankings though I would rather prefer to have the similar feat being achieved in the other two formats of the game which according to me are far more popular amongst the cricket lovers as is evident by the gate money..

I wish Virender Sehwag has heard my plea to achieve something miraculous in ODIs.. there has no one who has scored a double hundred.. being an opener and given his style of batting he is far more capable Indian to achieve that.. if he also happens to be World’s first would be an icing on the cake.. So what are you waiting about Viru.. go ahead and smack those 200 runs in one of the five games and take India to number one position in the one day version as well..

Congratulations to team India.. I felt the money that has been distributed to these test players should have also been awarded to some of those who did contribute to India’s supremacy in the last three years if not last five years.. Important names that should have definitely been considered to be included in the list are Saurav Ganguly, Anil Kumble, Irfan Pathan and Ashish Nehra if not more..

Abhaya Sharma
December 7 2009 10:30 AM IST