Indian Cricket - Who are the One Likely to Blame for the Wc 2007 Debacle?

The BCCI hired Greg Chappell to bring us success and may be to bring in some of Australia’s magic formula in Indian cricket. How far is the coach responsible for the team’s performance? I believe he has a major responsibility — the only way to stay ahead of the game is to prepare a step ahead and that’s what the coach is for.

As a strategist Chappell is considered one of the best. But the saying, ‘a captain is only as good as his team’ applies equally to the coach. At junior level, a good coach will crucially instil into his pupils a good work ethic; he will also correct potentially crippling flaws in technique. At international level, technique usually needs only fine-tuning, so the coach’s main job is to methodically analyse and interpret data obtained from actual match situations. During Chappell’s tenure, out of 30 ODIs, India won only 13.

Chappell says that he is answerable only to BCCI. Wrong — he is answerable to the entire nation. He should organise the team preparation and help individuals to grow as people as well as develop as cricketers. In his article “Change Cricket’s Coaching Model”, he gave an example of John Buchanan that “John Buchanan, for instance, has not taught any of the Australian players how to play but he has helped them to develop as individuals and he has played a big part in the development of the group”. If he believes in team development, then why has there been a lack of development in Indian cricket during his tenure? In fact in his nutshell the team has reached to this great stage that we can’t even beat Holland or Kenya for that matter.

Another bone of contention has been in the selection of captain. The selection panel failed to understand Rahul Dravid’s inability to lead. I believe he is a complete failure as skipper. A good batsman needs not to be a good captain. The captain of a cricket team is a player who, during the course of a match, has several additional roles and responsibilities over and above those of a regular player. Dravid has failed in this and other respects.

Beyond seven wonders more wonders are in India. Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar is the President of BCCI, thus making India the only country in the world where a politician is in charge of cricket. One of the critical reasons why politics has vitiated our cricket and the players is the archaic zonal selection system, but this selection system based on nepotism doest not work. Perhaps in no other country do zonal considerations are a factor in selecting the national squad. Added to this there has been always the constant chopping and changing the Indian team. It is well known that Chappell has been making too many experiments, sometimes even at the cost of the team’s performance. But the BCCI has chosen not to interfere with Chappell’s methods. In the end, how can a player feel confident if the fabric of the team is disturbed every now and then? It just goes to show that this Indian team is on edge and the players are very insecure about their future. Due to this the all-consuming hunger to win seems to be missing in the current lot. Consistency has always been a thorn in India’s flesh. A few wins here and there, some sparkling individual performances don’t make for a world class side. A team needs to win international matches as a habit to be taken seriously by its rivals. Moreover, there is a complete lack of recognition of state players which is indeed one of the main reasons which prevent India from being the best cricket team in the world. We’ve a bunch of gifted young and experienced players, but let me reiterate that there is no substitute for collective performance when it comes to a team sport like cricket.

After the World Cup humiliation, the BCCI should select team players based on merit and not on their past records. In short, if selectors go by name and popularity of the cricketers and fail to encourage first-class cricket, results similar to those in the World Cup are bound to happen again.

Indian Cricket Continues to Rule the Heart of Cricket Fans in the Subcontinent

Think cricket and you have to think of India. The two seem to be inseparable pair that share a love and hate relationship. When the players come home after a stunning victory over their rivals in field, the whole of India is seen cheering. The scenario is completely reversed with a single loss. Overnight the heroes change into villains of the story who have let down their fans. However, the grudge against the cricketers is not long lasting, only until the next victory. Another interesting characteristic of the Indian cricket fan is his unlimited views and opinions about how a game should be played or should have been planned. The fickle nature of the fan adds to the unpredictability of the playing style of the cricketers. Players who perform astonishingly well in a particular match can fail miserably in the very next.

Indian cricket, however, has successfully survived the various difficulties of each player’s career as well as the fickle nature of the fans. The game of cricket continues to be the unofficial national sports and favorite past time of most Indians. Consider the scenario of empty streets and shops, high number of students playing truant from school, office attendance hitting an all time low. Yes, you guessed it right, blame it on a cricket match, especially if our home country is playing. Any true cricket enthusiast can be seen glued to his television set or found with ears glued to the live commentary on radio, whenever a live match is being played.

The cricket mania has further extended to include other mediums of communication besides the television, radio and print. The new media also could not escape the charm of the game. Many online sites are exclusively dedicated to the game. On these sites, you can find not only easy access to live scores updated constantly, but also every tidbit of the players, past cricket records, discussion forums and chats regarding cricket, posters and photographs of the cricketers and so on. Hence Indian cricket fans who may not be able to sneak out to the stadium each time a match is being played, can now comfort themselves through the cricket websites on the internet.

A new format of cricket, Twenty20, which was recently introduced to the world, has captured the fancy of fans across the globe. Cricket enthusiasts, who were great fans of Indian cricket, had been disappointed with the team’s dismal performance in the World Cup. The Twenty20 World Cup being won by team India has set the records straight and once more Indian cricket finds itself on top of the popularity chart. In a country where cricket is religion and the cricketers are gods, it is not easy to displace the game from the heart of Indians who have put the game on a completely new pedestal. The level of attachment is so strong that every aspect of their cricket heroes affects the fans. So, as long as Indians share this strong bond with the game, cricket is definitely here to stay for a long while to come.

Indian Cricket That Can Drive Fans Crazy

Cricket is the game of passion and enthusiasm; almost every country participates in cricket; be it as a team or as a viewer every country has developed taste for cricket. In fact, it the charm of cricket which made it so popular all over the world; as a result popularity of cricket is increasing by leaps and bounces and tournaments like world cup and T-20 are getting incredible response. India is one of the most admired participant team in world cricket; Indian cricket has its own flavor in world cricket since legendry players like Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and Sunil Gavaskar are there to make it more wonderful. Indian Cricket is the great combination of national and regional cricket teams. Each state in India has its own regional cricket team and all these teams participate in many tournaments like Ranji Trophy and Duleep Trophy. The best players from these regional cricket teams move forward and get opportunity to prove themselves at international level. Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is the biggest cricket authority for India; it bear the responsibility of selection of national team and also undertake all other decisions regarding sponsorship and role determination of every player in national cricket team. Apart from BCCI, each state has its own cricket board that conducts and control state level teams and also prepares good players for future responsibilities. No doubt, that these state level cricket authorities play a vital role in deciding future of national team; in fact our team has now get many young and energetic players like Dhoni, Harbhajan Singh and Pathan with the effort of these state level authorities only.

Indian cricket team got approval as test team in 1932 that was a subject of great honor for every Indian; in the same year, the team played its first test cricket match against England at Lords and really proved their potential as a good test team. After that day Indian players never looked behind and went the on track of making and breaking records. In order to that, India won the cricket world cup in 1983 and T-20 world cup few months back this year. India got its first test victory against England at Madras in 1952; afterward the same year, the team won first Test series, which was against Pakistan. That was really an indescribable experience for entire nation and after their starting victories the team improved their game throughout the decade.

In 1971 the arrival of one day international cricket shaped a new dimension in the cricket world; initially India was not very much strong in ODIs, that caused consecutive loss of matches therefore, they did not manage to qualify for the second round in the first two cricket world cups. However, every Indian cricket fan knows that there is nothing that can stop the team from getting what it deserves; perhaps, it is their heartily wishes and support that made Indian team the world cup winner in 1983 and gave all Indians a reason to celebrate cricket.

Indian Cricket Has a Balanced Team in the World Cup

The game of Cricket is not as popular as football, but in countries where the game is played, it is very big. Cricket in India is a huge affair and fans are crazy about the game. In fact players of the India cricket team are given the status of gods. Craze for the game is such that you will find the game being played in every nook and corner of the country. If there is any spare space at any place, cricket is the one game that one can find being played there. As far as the Indian cricket team is concerned, this is one team in the world that is always under tremendous pressure, so you can understand how difficult it is to be the part of India cricket team.

The current India team that is taking part in the world cup looks well balanced and if they are able to perform well, the team can well go on to win the world cup. Indian Cricket in recent times have been performing well in patches, but the Indian cricket team has not been consistent in their performance. In fact consistent well performance by the team is one thing which has been lacking with the Indian cricket team. The Indian cricket team has been hiring foreign cloches to help them and John Wright was the first foreign coach to be appointed to help the India team. The current coach Greg Chappell of Australia has made use of many new game plans to help the India cricket team to win matches.

The one thing which has been hampering the India Cricket team is their performance outside the sub continent. They play like tigers at home and it is almost impossible for any team to beat them in their own backyard. In fact the former Australian captain Steve Waugh has gone one record team has gone on record saying that India was the final frontier and he would like to capture it before he retires. Sadly Steve has not been able to do this before his retirement. But the bottom line remains that performance of the India cricket team needs to improve drastically when they tour other countries.

The Indian cricket team has won the world cup only once and given the craze that fans have for the game, the team deserves to bring back the world cup. The players of the India cricket team owe this to their fans. The Indian cricket team that has been selected this time to represent the India cricket team in the world cup looks a very balanced side with the right mix of youth and experience. While youngsters like Dhoni, Pathan, Yuvraj and Munaf Patel give the team the much needed aggression and agility. On the other hand player like Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid provide the India cricket team with the much needed balance for a cricket team to succeed at the highest levels.

The prospects of many teams in this world cup looks bright like the Indian cricket team. One thing that can work in favor of the India cricket team is the presence of the bets batsman in the world Sachin Tendulkar. Well it is not that every time the India cricket team can boast of having such a great batsman in its team.

Indian team for World cup T20, year 2009

What are the integrands to win a world cup? No trainer can list the whole thing with exactness but a good all round team, combine of youth plus experience and memories of previous success can surely help. India is the defending champions of Twenty20 World cup and their present squad contains 10 out of 15 players who were part of that exceptional victory couple of year ago. Not only that, Indian Premier League (IPL), which is also a T20 competition, completed just a week ago where all of these 15 Indian cricketers toned up their skills to the maximum. . The only minus point can be burn out. None of these cricketers have had enough rest coming into this second T20 world cup in England and quite a few of them will be playing under shivering cold English condition for the first time in their life! Who are 15 cricketers selected to represent India? Here’s a brief introduction:- MS Dhoni : Age = 28 years, captain, total T20 games played = 13, runs = 215, highest score = 45, strike rate = 103. 86, skills = wicket keeper, hard hitting right handed batsman (who plays according to situation) and one of the best leaders of a cricket team in his generation. India won inaugural T20 World cup under Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s captainship and man from Jharkhand will be leading similar squad to defend the title. Yuvraj Singh : Age = 27 years, total T20 games played = 10, runs = 262, highest score = 70, strike rate = 164. 77, skills = left handed batsman who is one of only 4 batters to hit 6 sixes in an over. Yuvraj has also developed his left arm orthodox bowling in recent times which made him pick not one but two hat-tricks for Kings XI Punjab in IPL tournament just 2 weeks ago!Virendra Sehwag : Age = 30 years, total T20 games played = 12, runs = 223, highest score = 68, strike rate = 144. 80, skills = right handed opening batsman, ideally suited to utilize 6 power play over at the beginning of every innings. Sehwag also bowls some off-spin but hasn’t been in form of late. Suresh Riana: Age = 22 years, total T20 games played = 4, runs = 99, highest score = 61*, strike rate = 126. 92, skills = left handed number 3 batsman who has been in fine form of late. Riana, an exceptional fielder, is one of the best young batsmen to have come from India in recent time as he can mix aggression with caution with perfection. Riana also bowls tight off-spin in limited over cricket. Gautam Gambhir: Age = 27 years, total T20 games played = 12, runs = 328, highest score = 75, strike rate = 126. 64, skills = left handed opener who was prolific scorer in inaugural T20 world cup that India won. Although Gambhir didn’t score too heavily in recently concluded IPL tournament, he’s one pillar every opposition much dislodge as he plays spinner very well in middle over!Rohit Sharma: Age = 22 years, total T20 games played = 8, runs = 107, highest score = 50*, strike rate = 122. 98, skills = right handed middle order batsman who generally takes his time to get set but can hit big sixes when needed. Rohit is also a useful off-spinner and a very good fielder. Ravindra Jadeja : Age = 20 years, total T20 games played = 2, skills = left handed middle order batsman, left arm orthodox bowler and a good fielder. Jadeja is a whole hearted cricketer with good work ethics and he’s seen as next best thing in Indian cricket. Yusuf Pathan : Age = 26 years, total T20 games played = 4, strike rate = 203. 57, skills = right handed batsman who is one of the hardest hitter of cricket ball in current International cricket. Although not a very good player of swinging ball, Pathan can kill any attack anytime if they don’t trick him out. Yusuf also bowls tight off-spin when required. Irfan Pathan : Age = 24 years, total T20 games played = 13, runs = 120, highest score = 33*, strike rate = 120. 00, wickets = 15, economy = 7. 81, skills = left arm all rounder who can swing new ball like banana, specially in helpful conditions and also a hard hitting lower order batsman. Since this T20 world cup will be played in England’s early season, new white ball is expected to swing and hence, Irfan becomes a trump card for Indian side. Harbhajan Singh: Age = 29 years, total T20 games played = 12, wickets = 11, economy = 6. 55, skills = an off-spinner at peak of his game. Harbhjan has been playing International cricket for over a decade now and understands his plus and minus points. his control over line & length and Yorkers are very hard to hit!Pragyan Ojha : Age = 23 years, total T20 games played = none, skills = left arm spinner who may not have played a single International T20 games as yet, but has performed very well in his 30+ IPL twenty20 tournament. Ojha is also an acrobatic fielder. Zaheer Khan : Age = 30 years, total T20 games played = 4, wickets = 4, economy = 6. 18, skills = left arm medium pace bowler who is spearhead of Indian bowling for last couple of years. Zaheer is the oldest cricketer in this India’s squad for T20 world cup 2009, not a very agile fielder but he has earned his place cause of good record in swinging English conditions. Ishant Sharma : Age = 21 years, total T20 games played = 4, wickets = 2, economy = 9. 00, skills = right handed fast bowler capable of generating speed of over 145kmph regularly. Ishant, 6 feet 6 inches tall, has a specialty to out swing the ball at good pace and he also has good control over his Yorkers. Rudra Pratap Singh: Age = 23 years, total T20 games played = 8, wickets = 13, economy = 6. 82, skills = left arm swing bowler who was one of the leading wicket taker in first T20 world cup couple of years ago. Due to some injuries, RP Singh stayed out of Indian side for over a year but now has made a successful comeback through good performances in IPL 2009 tournament. Praveen Kumar: Age = 22 years, total T20 games played = 1, skills = right handed medium pace bowler who can in swing and out swing the ball at ease if not off he same delivery. Praveen is a surprise selection in Indian squad for T20 world cup but his swing might just do the trick as his country defends its title! For more info:http://www. indyalive. com/

Discover the New Innova on Indian Roads

Toyota Innova debuted first in the car market in India in 2005. Since then, the car is admired and appreciated by car buyers across the country. Excellent ride quality and luxury, along with interiors, superior performance and security features world-class car makes a winning model in its segment. With the growing success of the company felt the need to reform the Innova with minor facelifts to meet fulfill the desires of car buyers in India. To advance the pace of changing desires of car buyers, Toyota has introduced the new Innova. It is redesigned with new and dynamic style that is sure to go ahead with a look of admiration and envy glances. However, there is no change in engine technology, both petrol and diesel variants. New Innova Team 2. 0-liter 4-cylinder engine in the petrol variant and 2. 5-liter engine with turbocharger on the diesel counterpart. Both variants of petrol and diesel are coupled to 5-speed manual transmission, double wishbone front suspension and four-link suspension in the rear. The combination of engine technologies, efficient transmission, sophisticated suspension system with a fantastic ride quality, versatile space, superior performance and excellent driving pleasure. Maintaining the value and demand of the car with refined technology, the new Innova attracts more attention with a completely new design. The style and new features of the new car are redesigned StylingThe Innova is even more impressive with new decorations outside the car. It is designed with passion and dynamism to give something that buyers seek. It has been designed taking into account the changing needs of the generations with the desire to gain the competitive market customer-oriented car. Lights updated version of the new Innova adorned with a new bumper, grille style, fog lights, cluster lights, body-color power outside mirrors, and new. Also decorated with stylish alloy wheels that make the car even more attractive. To ease the pain of terminal Toyota is also equipped with parking sensors in the rear bumper. Comfort and LuxuryThe New Innova is a vehicle especially for long distance travel. This helps meet the demands of comfort and moments of connection with a versatile and luxurious interior. The oldest variant of the Innova has all the functional, but the Innova reveals the inner beauty and functionality of the car with multi-function LCD screen, automatic air conditioning, multifunction steering wheel with controls colorimeter light control and advanced Car Audio with MP3, CD and FM. The atmosphere of the car is accented with wood finishing using a wood panel design news. However, the added features are found only in top end variants of the new innovations. Other interior features including a large glove arm, steering column position, power windows and locks on the doors remain the same in all the new variants. The car carrying eight people comfortably at home and has advanced security features, including antilock brakes, dual SRS front airbags, side impact door beams, safety belts 3 points for each line, and blocks the protector of the children.