Indian cricket - With one stroke of

genius it appears that the Indian administration is ready to send it back to the dark ages, assuming the article is credible !!!

http://in.rediff.com/cricket/2007/oct/27ten.htm

Although I wouldn't quite use Josh's words, Dhoni should be made captain in both forms.

dhoni hasnt quite established himself in the test side yet.

if true, its a good choice imo.

How much more established can he be? He's as good as any WK we have and far and away the best batsman among them.

his batting in tests hasnt been as good as it is in odis. avg mid 30s is something i expect karthik and patel to be able to emulate and karthik is arguably the better keeper so jury still out imo.

dhoni's test spot is far from secure imo. that might also be a contributing factor

case of TINA, with dhoni getting test captaincy if he survives the next 2 series

See nothing wrong here. But hard to see Dhoni ever being dropped from the test side even though he might not be the best keeper-batsman we have, owing to his position in the shorter forms of the game. They should start handing Karthik the keeping gloves and see how he performs under the double pressure of opening and keeping, else don't see how they can ever make a decision.

I have question marks on Dhoni's keeping and test spot too that does not mean that we go back to Tendulkar. Sachin with his record in the last 2-3 years does not deserve to even hold his test spot IMO. He most importantly does not have it in him to be Captain, how many times does he have to prove that ??. He is too self conscious and self centred, two traits that a leader should not have it in him. If things don't go his way becomes a bundle of nerves whether he is batting or leading. There are hoards of fans who cannot accept that and more importantly people in influential positions who feel the same which is dangerous. Again the passion and emotions towards an individual is set to override the team welfare ! that is under the assumption the article is true.

Problem is that if they do announce him for all the three series then they cannot really change it in the middle however nasty the journey turns out, meaning that the fans will be in for a rough ride against three of the toughest opponents. Ah well !! there is always the chance that a tearful Sachin will give it away after realising the inevitable, he has been there before.

In a nut shell I get the same nasty feeling I had prior to the 2007 WC.

Terrific. They drop a player like Dravid for failing a one day series but re-instate Sehwag based on absolutely nothing to show he is in form. When Sachin goes through 3 series of absolute bad patch, he is not dropped, but a more valuable player like Dravid is shown the door the minute he fails a few JAMODIs?

And now a coach will be announced right in the middle of the Pak series to shake things a bit. Couldn't they have finalized a coach before the Paksters arrived? Now that Pawar is President, The mumbai lobby is all over screwing Indian Cricket. Jokers like Shastri are the advisors, egoists like Gavaskar and Vengasarkar are screwing up with coach and player selections and now BCCI is determined to see India suffer more test igominies by bringing in Sachin as Captain. A man who is half the time losing matches due to injuries and who should be allowed to bat his last couple of years without responsibilities is being handled the pressure again. Like Lara, Sachin was simply meant to be a very good batsman and not a captain. Both were dismal failures as captain time and time again and yet BCCI refuses to see the writing on the wall. The only reason he is now captain is because Pawar and his Mumbai-Maharashtra lobby is calling all the shots. Regionalism over merit has taken precedence. We should now prepare to see Sachin struggling to cope with Captaincy worries, injuries and his batting soon and this is not the best way forward for Indian Cricket surely. The man cracked up under added pressure twice before so why spoil his last stretch of his cricket journey by hindering him with this responsibility? When will India Cricket ever get out of petty regional politics? Who will lead India in tests if Sachin gets unfit again? Couldn't they show some maturity and give the job to someone who can show some more consistancy as a leader? Sachin has never enjoyed the job in the past so what's the point? The last time he toured Aus as captain we were whitewashed 3 -0 and lost to Saffies at home 2 - 0 losing 5 consecutive tests. If Dhoni is the man according to the selectors then give it to him. Else give it to someone who has enjoyed the job better like Ganguly if they only want such stop gap arrangements. Why can't they just leave Sachin alone?

I also just don't get the Dhoni fixation. It has been my position before and I will repeat it again that he is a etter ODI player than a test player and has been helped by a huge amount of scoring on flat home tracks in no small measure. For tests I would prefer Karthick any time any day or Parthiv Patel provided his keeping has improved.

Some of the other articles I've read do put Sachin as the front-runner, but haven't ruled out Dhoni yet.

Dravid's only been dropped from the 'JAMODI' team, Vikas. So chill.

Saying this for the millionth time, Mohammad Kaif should be given the Indian test captaincy. Dhoni should be selected as a leading bat / second WK and DK given the gloves in the test arena. Not sure that DK is a long time opener either if he were to keep.

Why oh why do you keep going back to Kaif? Move on, really. There're other 'youngsters' out there.

Because we are talking about Captaincy here not simply batting strengths.

Why would anyone want to lumber Dhoni with the captaincy. The list of successful batsman/keepers who also did a tidy job as skipper is exceedingly short.

Kaif!

He is an excellent fielder and thats it. He is not in the top 15 bats of our country.

On what basis should he be given a place in test team let alone the test captaincy?

Agreed that going back to Sachin is not that great an idea.... but Kaif!!

What do you base your claims on ? He was doing OK with the bat in tests when he was last shafted. Prior to that he was brought in and out to accomodate for the bigger names even though he did quite well in those one or two opportunities.

He is an astute thinker, very competetive and the sort of team man who will take the next gen forward like he did with the u_19s

Average of 30 in tests for someone who only bats is not acceptable.

And his average was bloated by couple of big innings against a poor attack.

Being consistant is a must and he is not that either.

Being a thinker and being very competitive is very nice but he should be be good at his primary job, which is to bat and he is not that.

He adds value with his excellent fielding in ODI's, where a case can be made for his inclusion.

In tests though, big NO.

If you want to drop the big names, well and fine but why include a mediocre player? There are youngsters with much better talent than Kaif. Bring them in!! I would rather have Badrinath, Tewary, Raina or Sharma over Kaif.

Sorry but being OK in tests does not warrenty a place especially when there are players with talent and superb records waiting in the wings.

And though I do agree he is a captain who does make some very intelligent decisions in domestic cricket, that just isn't good enough to get you in the team.

You are entitled to your opinion. Historically one of the big problems of Indian Cricket is that averages and aggregates are overrated with very less emphasis on how and when the players got them. Also these batsmen are over glorified at the expense of other disciplines. That is one of the reasons why we have struggled to be a winning despite all thse numbers.

In the case of Kaif When I put together what he can bring in as Captain along with his ability to string it when it matters, he gets my vote. He is one of those rare breeds who can up his ante as he is given more responsibility, a very rare trait in Indian Cricket. Dhoni seems to pocess that trait too.

Well written that, prasad.

I agree Kaif is nowhere near reckoning in either forms of the game. There are atleast half a dozen more deserving bats in India in both forms of the game waiting for their chance to represent India.

But Josh wants him to captain India in tests. How about playing him as a non playing captain, as in Davis cup?

SG wrote:Well written that, prasad.

How about playing him as a non playing captain, as in Davis cup?

We can leave that option open for the ones who struggle with fitness

Having a fit body doesn't equate to being talented too.