England vs. India: We are still under British rule!

Top dogs

It was the 15^th of August and the whole of India was ready to celebrate the occasion of our Independence Day. All the television channels were telecasting movies and songs propagating the spirit of freedom, patriotism and devotion. Then as I shuffled over impatiently with my remote control, I came across this sporting event which completely drove me into a state of depression where the recently crowned world champions and a top notch side in test cricketing terms was being plundered and ravaged like an innocent little lamb by the overpowering purchase of a lioness. Only one thought sprung into my mind and that was that the British were still ruling over India.

I have grown up watching our Indian cricket team shattered many a times by various opponents and hence have been acclimatized to the ignominy of defeat much like this series whitewash. However the sorry plight of our batting and bowing woes has been embittered by the callous display of attitude and spirit by this group of aged boys.

The Wailing Wall

Will we ever be able to find the replacement to this genius?

The Jews, for centuries, have been heading to this site to weep and bemoan about their grief. The Indian team for more than a decade now has been going to one man for all its SOA (Save Our Arses) calls and this silent guardian and watchful protector is also our wailing wall. Rahul Dravid is this batsman who has been our team’s go-to guy during all our tours abroad, and this one has just been a another case of old wine in a new bottle. The level of application that this veteran has shown is quite exemplary and has proven that even a God king like Sachin can bleed and there so much for this genius to learn from Mr. Dependable. The way Dravid donned the role of a keeper and walked in as a opening batsman, all goes to show the commitment and spirit of sacrifice. The other ten members of this team had to just do their jobs and we could have averted this mishap. The problem with this team is that they have tasted so much of success; both as individuals and as a group that they fail to realize the value of playing second-fiddle. The reason Dravid stands out is because he does not crave the limelight and he just wants to do his job right. The newer crop of batsmen like Raina and Yuvraj and Kohli will find this concept hard to understand and adopt. We might be light-years away from finding a replacement for Dravid (batting wise) but we would be doing a great favor to ourselves if the cricket board can impart all the wisdom of patience and perseverance more than power and prowess into these youngsters.

The usual suspects

Nasser Hussein among many of slurs and caustic comments on the light of Indian cricket said that if Praveen Kumar is leading the bowling attack for India then it says quite a lot about our team strength. I remember when bowlers like Srinath, Prasad and Agarkar have troubled the English batsmen with their swing and serve. This attack has looked meeker than the ones that boasted of David Johnson and Paras Mhambrey. But I believe the real problem lies somewhere else, and that would have to be our lack of responsibility among the batsmen as well as tail-enders. Though the English batsmen caused enough damage to our pride, their all-rounders like Bresnan, Broad and Swann dented it further. Leaving aside Amit Mishra, the rest of the batsmen lacked spine and substance. There were a couple of occasions during the first two matches when we could have easily turned things around, but we are horrendously short of fighters in our team.

The Quick fix

1. Drop players like Suresh Raina and Yuvraj Singh who need to value their place in the side and learn that consistent under-performance will not be tolerated.
2. Harbhajan Singh needs to pick up his socks and start becoming more attacking. So he should be asked to bowl in domestic tournaments for a while.
3. Sachin Tendulkar should be cajoled to give up all forms of cricket like IPL too, so that he can focus on his Test career. But the coach could let the master blaster know that once he crosses century of century mark, then the selection process could be quite stringent and harsh for him too.
4. Dhoni has to be emphatically told that he cannot be another Mark Taylor who cements his place in the side purely based on his captaincy record. Matt Prior has been extremely agile in his ‘keeping and very dependable in his batting and Dhoni needs to learn a thing or two from his compatriot. His place is no longer a certainty, the earlier he realizes this, and greater will be the benefits to Indian cricket.

Permanent fix

1. Provide youngsters like Pujara, Rahane, and Rayudu chance to play in the Test Arena through some kind of a rotation policy soon rather than waiting for Sachin, Laxman and Dravid to retire. If we do not do this the transition will be that much harder.
2. Snatch control of IPL from the hands of our BCCI and let a private organization run it. BCCI has more pressing issues to concentrate on
3. Make a rule such that youngsters will only be allowed to play in IPL after a certain minimum number of years or matches in Ranji trophy. Only Test matches give the solid foundation required become a player of tried and tested quality.

There are many more solutions that can be devised but the sooner the better.