Finally I was caught up in this mess of writing something on cricket, which I try to distance more ’n more, but
being an Indian how come I can escape from it!!! So join the bandwagon of expressing frustration over someone!!
In this case its none other than my own team , right from Lele to manager to the 12th man.
Managers ’n coaches have come ’n gone , but has anyone made the difference? Frankly I dont know what is the
role of the coach at all.I see a player going thro’ a lean patch , but I dont see any professional help from any of the so called
coaches to bail him out from the weakness.The player continues to fall prey to the same chink in his armour , a classic eg being Kambli (did anybody try to rectify his problem, which was well known?)’n now Ramesh, who gets out in the same manner always.Has the hiring of foriegn coaches helped anything ? In first place what is the merit of Wright , over Gavaskar or Vengsarkar or any seniour cricketer here ?In first place NewZealand itself is/was a hopeless team , ’n India is taking the assistance of those veterans , what a tragedy!!What value addition is the professional coach providing to the sagging morale of the team? Has anybody tried to pinpoint the weakness of the opposition players ? Its simply rushing from SL to SA to Canada ... ’n getting thrashed royally everytime.Has anybody tried to talk to the new bowlers as to where to bowl , what strategy to adopt when bowling to a particular batsmen?Bowlers seems to bowl the same line ’n length , doesnt matter who is batting . The only thing what they r looking now at the moment is to catch hold of a dozen players ’n push them onto the field.If not srinath , take venkatesh P , if not him try Agarkar who wud have totally forgotten abt basic fitness ’n relaxing , ’n the next day they wud be put to bowl against SA.What I am trying to convey is the lack of professionalism ’n it doesnt come from blindly hiring foriegn coaches.They play like a bunch of skool kids.Have u seen Srinath running between the wickets at that level of international cricket ? What abt physical fitness ? Look at the players , they r so sloppy ’n fragile .I dont think cricket is just abt bowling ’n batting.Plannning , team strategy seems to have totally forgotten .Nobody seems to owe responsiblity to their actions , they just try to save their skin by hook or crook ’n doesnt matter whether team is doomed to hell.When there is a repeated failure there is no effort made to analyse the reason behind it, ’n they expect just some miracle to happen ’n things fall into place.So the ultimate scapegoat is the Captain .Has any captain so far in Indian cricket history had an authority or freedom like Imran , who just went to field ’n picked up Inzaman(or waqar I dont remmeber) into the team? It really doesnt make any difference if Ganguly is removed ’n Dravid is made a captain , until the basics r right.If a captain doesnt recive strong backing ’n is made to struggle to save his position , how can u expect team to prosper ? Captain should be able to psyche up the mentality of the team rather than keep his own sanity .Just look at the personality of captains like Border, Waugh, Imran Khan ’n the command ’n respect they had ’n the captains here receive from Lele, who control them like puppet.
Things can always go haywire , but who is trying to rectify it ? It needs a methodical approach, rather than trial ’n error approach ’n expect somehow things to click.Success follows when a proper tink tank core literate team is in place(MAny of the fine players ’n thinkers like Gavaskar, Amarnath, Vengsarkar..’n have maintained a fine distance away from the beauracratic bunch controlling the indian cricket ).It doesnt necessarily mean just 11 players , but everyone involved with it, coach, manager, selectors (what buisness politicians ’ve here ?) , ’n a whole plethora of proper support sytem .Rather than the physical effort on the field there is also a lot of mental brainstorming needed to iron out things, else ’’Luck’’ is the only factor one has to rely on .