Back to square one

Indian cricket is back to square one from the journey it had started when Greg Chappel took over. Team india is still strong only on papers. When it comes to deliver at crunch, they all fall like pack of cards. Many feel its the strategy that brought the team down. Nobody understands its the poor form which is the actual cause for the bad outing.

Any simple criketing brain can see Sehwag's feet is not moving. Its quite surprising to see how the genius in Greg failed to notice or help. Retaining Sehwag in the one day squad is a decision which is bound to draw lot of flak from the public. One of the best kept secrets in the world is inclusion of Kaif in the team.

The saddest truth is that we cannot pick the best eleven from a country with 1 billion people where cricket is more than a religion.

Shame on indian cricket

Dropping ganguly for the third test once again proves indian selectors use different yardsticks to measure different cricketers. Its a shame on indian cricket. Gautham gambir is not deservered for a place in the team. He managed to score only 5 runs in two innings. Its hard to see ganguly being dropped inspite of scoring 79 runs in the test.Its clear and evident that politics plays a bigger role in indian cricket.Selectors and media are obssessed with sachin, yuvi,dravid et la.

I am already surprised to see ganguly left out of the ODI team. He scored 10,000 runs in no time, faster than any cricketer in the world. He is no doubt one of the finest one day player india has ever produced.

With all this dirty politics hanging around, i sincerly hope india will loose the thrid test badly ...

Angels and Demons

Happened to read this book last week. One of the best novels i have read in the recent times. Looks like Dan Brown has mastered the art of writing controversial novels. It was interesting to read about Illuminati and other secret socities. I feel he should have been more descriptive about those secret societies. Anyways am planning to grab "Rule By Secrecy" by Jim Maars.I will keep my fingers crossed till i read that book.

100 for Dada at last

It was so good to see the bengal tiger roaring again... though gangs is not at his best, the 100 would not have come in a better time.

As a die hard fan of ganguly, i hope he will silence all the critics soon ...

c'mon dada

Ashes -- It really lived up to the hype it had created. I won't say it was closely fought as england dominated the last three tests. Australia were rusty from the day one. It all started when they could'nt even defend a huge total against sommerset. It raised lot of questions about the ageing aussie attack. I could'nt watch the tests as i was struck in a place where cricket na ethana goal nu kepanga.

It was so sad to see the pillars of aussie attack mcgrath and warne bidding adieu to the english cricket.But the game is bigger than any individual.

praveen

Lara -- a class act

What to say about this legendary southpaw, already millions of articles and blogs have come out about this greatest batsman. For my satisfaction i am writing one...

Lara , a magician with the bat and a nightmare to the bowlers. Its a treat to watch him, when he is on song. The sound of ball hitting the middle of his bat is a music to any cricket lover. He is one of the cricketers who had never tried to tamper the way he bats just to stay in the crease. It was great to watch him hitting 28 runs in a over bowled by pieterson against south africa in a last over of a day in a test match. How many batsman will do it in the last over of the day ? Thats why he grabs all the credit. I rate him more than Tendulkar, who is known for taking a lot of time to get his hundred after getting into 90's.

His classy hundred against south africa in 1996 world cup quater finals which would have come in no better time saw WI reaching the semis.He scored 5 consecutive boundaries of pat symcox.His 400 n.o against england showed how much concentration he has when he plays the longer version of the game.

"winning a match is important than scoring 400" said ricky ponting. With the line up what ricky is having, even my gradma can lead that team and win matches. With the team what lara had, it would have been difficult for them to win even against a school team !!!

I feel lara's feat will be a inspiration for all youngers who wants to achieve something. He is very unfortunate to be a part of the side which has plunged from great heights. He hold a dubious record of scoring most number of runs and still ending up in a losing side.

Lara does his bat to do all the talking most of the time. I still feel he is one batsman in world, who can watch bowler's eyes and swear him. Aussies, notorious for doing dirty tricks on the field never does one against this guy.They know, he is a class act.

I hope to watch this livewire, with bat in hand dancing before the wicket, before he hangs his boots ...

Praveen

Greg the coach

This may well prove to be one of the best things happened to indian cricket. Good decision by BCCI. It's unfair to doubt the credentials of amarnath, but i strongly feel that greg had great edge over him.

Its important to the arrest the slide what indian team is undergoing now, which has the hit the rock bottom in the recent times. Virendra Sewag, Sachin, Dravid, Ganguly who else we want to become world beaters. It looked like a dream team at the start of the season before the asia cup and no doubt its a dream team. But what happened was quite contrarary to my expectations. We lost the season's first final badly failing to chase 231. I think that had a great impact on the indian team. Then we lost badly everywhere in the world and the aussies rubbed salt on the wounds by winning the series.

I still strongly beleive that the indian team could have easily pulled test series victory over aussies.One innings that made the difference is that of Damien Martyn's in chennai. That's his determination what saw australia lifting the series. I rate that ininings high b'coz the ball was turning like mad and sun was frying everyone on the field. Even though the test was a draw, india already lost the series in mind by then.The rest is history.

75% of cricket is played in the mind.Its a mind game. Mind and the body is inseperable.One man's(Ganguly) depression pushed the team to abyss. So what difference a coach can make ? am sure greg need not teach Dravid how to play cover drive or Sachin how to pull a short ball. Its all about the attitude. It will be great to see greg rubbing some aussie attitude on the indian team. Greg, considered as one of the greatest legend of the modern day cricket has infact earned this credit after retiring. http://www.chappellway.com.au/ visit this link to understand cricket and greg's view about the game.

Am sure greg will bring in great values to the team, which is no short of talent. Lets pull a great victory in 2007 world cup.

All the best Greg !!!

Praveen