Excellent article about what's wrong with Indian cricket

http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?279558


"Indian cricket has lofty ambitions but does not know how to achieve them. It has always seen victories like winning the 50-over World Cup, whether under Kapil Dev in 1983, or under Mahendra Singh Dhoni last year, as the equivalent of climbing Mt Everest. They should have been treated as more like getting to the foothills of Everest, not actually climbing the peak. In sport, you can only claim to have reached the top when, having got there, you stay there for a certain length of time, as both Australia and West Indies in their pomp did. This India never manages to do, and it is a cricketing fault-line that extends beyond cricket to national life."

Good article. They needed such an article from Mihir Bose after the world cup, not after two shambolic tours, during which time the said magazine was euphoric (albeit much less than others) about the team's performance.

As for his comments about India's "national life", I can't see the necessity for that in the article and it's a bit obtuse as well. (edit- unless I'm reading it wrong)

Finally, I also maintain that the lax attitude of the board and its officials is egged on by the media, which has given disproportional hype to average tournaments like the IPL and forgotten about cricket. One of the years, they showed the IPL players auction live FFS.

One of the years, they showed the IPL players auction live FFS.

I think they do it every year, don't they?

No, just 2010. Maybe Sony entertainment does it every year but I can't be sure.

india's basic problem, as always, is the lack of world-class bowling. put the current england attack or the aussie attack of 7 years ago in the indian team and you could very well have a world number 1. how india identifies these world class bowlers and develops them will mostly determine its ranking

Now I'm not prepared to jump to any conclusions, nor is it my place to analyse the state of Indian cricket, but I was talking to a couple of Indian colleagues at work today and they were telling me that the love of cricket in India at the grass roots level has to be seen to be believed. They said that anywhere you go, you see kids playing cricket in the streets. This is the case from the dustiest, most poverty stricken back alleys, to the manicured outfields of well-to-do cricket clubs.

I asked them why they felt India found it hard to produce a limitless supply of fantastic cricketers, with such a massive number of youngsters loving and playing the game. They basically said that it was very difficult for all good child cricketers to find a path to the top, with wealth generally required to get a place for your child at suitable cricket clubs and the right schools. They said it was a similar case in Pakistan.

Indian/Pakistani brethren, is this the case? Is it a case of bureaucracy and a lack of personal finances getting in the way of advancing all the available talent to the highest levels?

Caste system?

Well, I didn't say that, but the term was used today by my mates.

its correct in some ways. wealth does go a long way in providing better facilities, irrespective of the country. but most of india's test cricketers are either from middle class or poor backgrounds

i would say most of the population cannot seriously consider sports as a career choice. the vast majority needs a safe way to get food on the table and only once you reach the top in cricket can you provide for that

also since its a poor country there is a serious dearth of good facilities to provide for most of the population. most kids play cricket either on patches of dirt or concrete. many of them will never see a proper cricket ball, instead playing with rubber or tennis balls

Cheers TO.

Skulls, what your colleagues say is true for the India of 15 years ago. I know a couple of players (influential, not just rich, people who had contacts with major cricket sponsors like India cements) who've bought their way to one FC match but they don't normally get more than one match and that was some time ago. Most of the top first class players aren't who would be considered from a rich background. Also, most of the Indian team doesn't consist of Mumbai and major states' players unlike earlier, which could have aided in the "good school" system. I think that it may be a problem in South Africa (not sure).

Agree with most of what you say TO but the point about the lack of facilities. Yes, the civic authorities aren't flooded with resources and disseminating funds for playgrounds and cricket facilities is hard to do but the BCCI isn't a pauper's organisation and they could help the requisite authorities in development of cricket.

Rural India is a much bigger challenge and frankly, to get the riches of talent from rural India would require more than a bit of luck and great dedication from the authorities (something that's lacking in the BCCI). Personally, I'd rather see sports money invested in velodromes/ road cycling and hockey facilities than cricket. At least India's competitive in cricket (comparatively, on current form), we're sh!te in every other sport and even hockey has degenerated into a mess.

Thanks, t.

The discussion came about after I (tongue-in-cheek) asked "How come you guys can't unearth a Wasim Akram with your massive abundance of talented kiddies?"

Has the IPL and the predominance of ODI/T20's increasingly made bowling an absolute mug's game for Indian cricketers?

Yes, that's one of the complaints non BCCI affiliated former Indian players make but the biggest problems are flat pitches for bowlers. Some kids are also now saying, I want to be an IPL star.

On the pitches topic, some Ranji teams are now bowler dependent. Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and a couple of others. These teams have come up with a lot of young bowlers with some promising starts recently. Hopefully they can get to the next level and succeed at tests.

On the money topic, money and media hype generated from Jamodis/WC and t20 are much more than tests. Yes, there are test fans around but we are outnumbered by the casual fan who says test are boring. Even then attendances should not be so low. The BCCI doesn't help this situation with their flat pitches ala the series against New Zealand and even the recent WI series (which would've been dull if WI could string two consecutive good innings) stupid ticketing rules. For example, a fan in Nagpur has to buy tickets for all five days to watch a test match and hence the stadia are always empty.

Yeah, you can hardly blame a kiddie for wanting to be a six-hitter after watching GG, Seaweed, Coaly and Yuvraj pasting net bowlers to all quarters for zillions of bucks.

The One wrote:india's basic problem, as always, is the lack of world-class bowling. put the current england attack or the aussie attack of 7 years ago in the indian team and you could very well have a world number 1. how india identifies these world class bowlers and develops them will mostly determine its ranking

17 of their last 21 completed batting innings being 300 or under suggests differently.

Another brief article on this same subject:

go to L>T.com

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So how many here think Bhogle is right in this interview?

So Gavaskar finally got paid to be IPL cheerleader by BCCI?



IPL cannot be blamed for batsmen's poor techinque: Gavaskar! - Link.

Henry wrote:"In sport, you can only claim to have reached the top when, having got there, you stay there for a certain length of time, as both Australia and West Indies in their pomp did."

Wise words that. Wise words...

Who's the queen Banalman is using for an avatar?

Poor Taips....

The One wrote:its correct in some ways. wealth does go a long way in providing better facilities, irrespective of the country. but most of india's test cricketers are either from middle class or poor backgrounds

i would say most of the population cannot seriously consider sports as a career choice. the vast majority needs a safe way to get food on the table and only once you reach the top in cricket can you provide for that

also since its a poor country there is a serious dearth of good facilities to provide for most of the population. most kids play cricket either on patches of dirt or concrete. many of them will never see a proper cricket ball, instead playing with rubber or tennis balls

India is not a poor Country. It's a f*cking rich country these days. What is it now- The fifth largest economy in the World? It's just that the wealth is so poorly distributed, the gap between rich and poor is amongst the World's highest.

From the outside looking in, it seems to be a Country with corruption completely ingrained into its culture, with countless people on the make, looking out for themselves, trying to get whatever they can take, and to hell with the greater good. Bribery, nepotism, a well established class system, and a lust for money.

That attitude reflects itself in the Indian cricket system, as well. Head Selector Srikkanth still pushes for his moderately talented son to be selected for IPL and Indian A teams at every opportunity, ahead of much better young cricketers. It's a joke. But too many Indians accept that kind of thing as a fact of life, so it's hard to see things changing anytime soon.

I'd still love to go there someday. Looks a fantastic country in many respects.

its not a rich country. the per capita income is quite low. the economy is large only since there are so many people. when you are talking about quality of playgrounds per neighbourhood you need higher per capita income, not a billion people earning a couple of thousand dollars a year

just as an example, amsterdam has more than 10 times the hockey pitches that all of india has

India urgently must deal with population increase ... needs to adopt Chinese one child policy