Horses for courses

 

Afer a long, painful delay in international sporting activities, suddenly, this June has presented us, the sports lovers, with a plethora of sporting events. A few months back, I had to watch a few matches of the IPL, which I would have never done -- as I hate that circus passed off as cricket-- had my plate been not empty. However, the situation is completely different now. Making the proper choice has become quite tricky, as we have had England vs NZ bilateral test series, ICC World Test Championship Final, Euro, Copa America and WWE Hell In A Cell.

As cricket is the most popular spots in India,  let's talk about it first. The WTC Final is now over, and you all know that India has been humbled by the Kiwis. But, what you don't know is that the Indian captain Virat Kohli is a great fan of Odin. You must have watched the film Thor: Ragnarok. In this film, Thor had to cause rebirth of Surtur to stop Hela from harming the people of Asgard. In the process, the people were rescued in a spacecraft, but Asgard was destroyed.

If you are wondering what's the relationship of this film with Virat Kohli, I will remind you of the famous dialogue of Odin which he said to Thor in his vision. He said Asgard is not a place, but it's the people. Virat Kohli also believes India is not a place, but wherever the Indian cricketers go, the place becomes India. That's why he chose 2 spinners -- he would have chosen the third one  as well had there been anyone left in the 15 member squad -- on a pitch which was very unkind to the spinners.

It was not as if that the NZ was a formidable side. In fact, I would say, both India and NZ are no where to the alltime great test teams of Clive Lloyd or Steve Waugh or Ricky Ponting. There is no great cricketer in either team except Virat Kohli, who is terribly out of form in the last year or so. NZ is a mediocre side with lots of guts and grittiness. They have got a very good thinking captain, who lead from the front. They strategised very well, too.

On the other hand Virat made a huge mistake in choosing the playing eleven, apart from losing the toss, which you can however say was not in his hand. But, these two factors decided the fate of the match even before the first delivery was bowled. In other words, India had no chance whatsoever from the beginning. The other factors are non significant. If Virat is going to show the same kind of adamant attitude of playing two spinners in the forthcoming 5 test match series against England, I am afraid,  the results of 2018 (1-4) maybe repeated.

Now, let's move to football. The timings of the Copa America do not suit me. So, I am watching EURO, where very exciting football is being on display. The teams like Italy, Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, France, Croatia and Germany have shown great skills, scoring some breathtaking goals. However, if I am to pick only two teams, I would choose Netherlands and France as the favourites to win the cup.

 Finally, let's talk about the WWE Hell In A Cell, and to be particular the WWE title match between Drew McIntyre and the All Mighty Bobby Lashley. This match reached great heights, and is one of the best that I have ever seen. Drew dominated the match, but victory was stolen from him by the machinations of MVP. I felt very sad for Drew. Adding insult to injury, he lost his match against the Riddle on next day on Monday night RAW.

India's shocking defeat against NZ

This must be a heart-breaking moment for millions of cricket-crazy fans in India and across the world, as NZ defeated India by 18 runs in the closely-contested first semi-final of the Cricket World Cup 2019. Heart-breaking, indeed! India finished top in the round robin format by winning 7 out of the 9 games quite comprehensively, losing one against England and splitting point with NZ in a washed out match. NZ finished 4th in the table with 11 points with 5 wins, 3 losses and 1 tie. Indian batsmen like Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul and Kohli were on great form, while bowlers like Bumrah and Chahal were doing wonders. On the other hand, there was no particular superstar, whom one could place one's bet to win a match single-handedly among the Kiwis. Therefore, India was the firm favourite to win this match.

Then why did India lose? Let me try to find the answer. First and the most important factor in my opinion is the inability of the Indian players to cope with swinging balls. I was astonished to see the balls hardly swung in the previous matches that India played. In other words, Indian  batters were lucky to get favourable conditions in the earlier matches. But, they got out of luck in their first crucial match when both Boult and Henry got both swing and movement off the pitch in the first ten overs. All the top order batsmen had to do was to repeat what NZ did in their innings, that is to play very cautiously without worrying about the run-rate. It was not as if our champions didn't try to dig in, but their technique against the swinging ball failed them.

Second point is the ordinary captaincy of Virat Kohli. He has been leading India in all the three formats for quite sometime, but still he looks like a greenhorn. He doesn't know the art of putting pressure on the opposition. He should closely watch the captaincy of Steve Waugh or Hansie Cronje to get some clues. NZ's total could have been curtailed by quite a few runs, had he been shrewd.

Thirdly, carrying the burden of Dhoni didn't help the team at all. He is just a shadow of his former self. Pant could have replaced him, and a good batsman like Ambati Rayadu should have been selected. The selection of Kedar Jadav was indeed very bad.

Fourthly and lastly among the important factors is the absence of the X-factor, the outside influence, which played a very important factor in India's 2011 world cup win. Do you remember the dropping of crucial spinners by Sri Lanka or the missed catches in the Pakistan match? Sorry folks the patriotic influencers could not do anything this time.

Disappointing performance in Rio Olympics

While we should not have been too critical and demeaning like Sobha De at the start of the Olympics, there is no reason why we should not be critical about the performances of our athletes after the tournament is over. While we need to encourage our sportspersons, we must point out their flaws too, lest they stop improving.

The level of competition in the Olympics is the highest among all tournaments, because here an athlete competes not only for his personal glory, but also for the honour of his country. Winning in Olympic is not as easy as winning a cricket match, where a bunch of corrupt individuals can be easily purchased. So, commitment and love for the country are the two minimum qualities that an athlete must possess to do well in the Olympics. Can you say that all the athletes in the Indian contingent in the Rio games showed these two qualities? There are definitely more than one, but I will name only one individual, who most people thought would win a medal. I am talking about Saina Nehwal. Despite being the number 5 in the rankings, the way she capitulated to the 61-seed Maria Ulitina of Ukraine was indeed shameful. At the end of the match, we were told that an inflammation in her right knee was to be blamed for the meek surrender. Whosoever has played any game could easily notice that she didn't give even her 50%, despite the injury being mild in nature. Saina should be thankful to PV Sindhu for taking away the attention from her.

The near escape from death of the marathon runner OP Jaisha clearly demonstrated our lack of professional approach. We don't take our sports seriously. The officials seemed to have been on a fun tour.

In the 74 kg weight free-style wrestling we had a good chance of winning a medal. But the internecine off-the-field battle between Sushil Kumar and Narsingh Yadav ensured that none of the wrestlers could participate in that category. The allegation made by Narsingh is of a very serious kind. It should be thoroughly investigated, and the culprits must be brought to book. I don't know why some experts pinned their hopes on the 33-year-old Yogeswar Dutt, who not only looked out of touch, but also looked fatigued.

The terrific form Sindhu was in, had it been anyone other than the flamenco queen Carolina Marin, she would have walked away with a gold medal. But the top seed Marin was a cut above Sindhu. There is no shame in losing to a champion player. Sindhu made us proud. So did Sakshi. Dipa's performance was very inspiring. Next time, if she can improve her landing, I see a very bright prospect for her.

We should not forget Abhinab Bindra's valour, who missed a bronze medal by a whisker.

8 years ago, I wrote a blog suggesting few measures to improve India's performance in sports. Here is the link

http://kahlar.blogspot.in/2008/03/revive-sports-policy.html

Pictures taken from net

Sehwag the best Indian cricketer

He sent shivers in the spines of even mighty bowlers of the likes of Shoaib Akhtar, Muralidharan,  Bret Lee etc. He always rose to the occasion against our arch-enemy Pakistan. His scintillating drives made the balls reach boundary lines before you could bat your eyelids. He brought life into the otherwise boring  test matches. Yes, I am talking about none other than the Nawab of Najafgarh, the Sultan of Multan, one and only the swashbuckling Sehwag. He has recently announced his retirement from the international cricket and the IPL. So, it's time to evaluate him.

The statistics says everything. Only Indian to have 2 triple hundreds, 3 highest scores in the history of Indian test history, fastest three hundred ever, test strike rate  of 82.2 top among players with 2000 plus runs: what else do you require to brand him as the best Indian test batsman ever? Test average of 49.34 with that kind of strike rate is simply amazing!

He was not the guy who played for personal records. He was a match winner, a great entertainer, who did not hesitate to go for a six even at the score of 94 in a test match. That's why his number of test hundreds did not go beyond 23. In the modern day test matches it is not only necessary to score runs, but also to score them quickly. Virender Sehwag exactly did that.

In the odi format, his average of 35.05 looks excellent when you combine that with the strike rate of 104.33 (second highest after Shahid Afridi among the odi batsmen who scored more than 2000 runs). India won 14 of the 15 odis where he scored centuries. Isn't that astonishing?

Some critics point fingers at his unorthodox techniques. It's true that the best weapon in his armourery was his hand-eye  coordination. Great footwork was not his forte. However, I will prefer Sehwag rather than those technically solid players who will play for personal records.


It's indeed unfortunate that he didn't get any chance to play for India after March 2013. This simple guy didn't know the tricks to remain relevant. So, he was denied chance to entertain the crowd in the last 2 years in international cricket. It's really unfortunate that he had to retire in such unceremonious manner which didn't match with his glorious career.

In my opinion he is the best Indian cricketer so far. If I am to rate top 5 Indian cricketers I have seen, my rating would be 1. Sehwag 2. Kapil Deb 3. Sachin Tendulkar 4. Sourav Ganguly 5. Anil Kumble

Pictures are taken from net. He sent shivers in the spines of even mighty bowlers of the likes of Shoaib Akhtar, Muralidharan,  Bret Lee etc. He always rose to the occasion against our arch-enemy Pakistan. His scintillating drives made the balls reach boundary lines before you could bat your eyelids. He brought life into the otherwise boring  test matches. Yes, I am talking about none other than the Nawab of Najafgarh, the Sultan of Multan, one and only the swashbuckling Sehwag. He has recently announced his retirement from the international cricket and the IPL. So, it's time to evaluate him.

The statistics says everything. Only Indian to have 2 triple hundreds, 3 highest scores in the history of Indian test history, fastest three hundred ever, test strike rate  of 82.2 top among players with 2000 plus runs: what else do you require to brand him as the best Indian test batsman ever? Test average of 49.34 with that kind of strike rate is simply amazing!

He was not the guy who played for personal records. He was a match winner, a great entertainer, who did not hesitate to go for a six even at the score of 94 in a test match. That's why his number of test hundreds did not go beyond 23. In the modern day test matches it is not only necessary to score runs, but also to score them quickly. Virender Sehwag exactly did that.

In the odi format, his average of 35.05 looks excellent when you combine that with the strike rate of 104.33 (second highest after Shahid Afridi among the odi batsmen who scored more than 2000 runs). India won 14 of the 15 odis where he scored centuries. Isn't that astonishing?

Some critics point fingers at his unorthodox techniques. It's true that the best weapon in his armourery was his hand-eye  coordination. Great footwork was not his forte. However, I will prefer Sehwag rather than those technically solid players who will play for personal records.


It's indeed unfortunate that he didn't get any chance to play for India after March 2013. This simple guy didn't know the tricks to remain relevant. So, he was denied chance to entertain the crowd in the last 2 years in international cricket. It's really unfortunate that he had to retire in such unceremonious manner which didn't match with his glorious career.

In my opinion he is the best Indian cricketer so far. If I am to rate top 5 Indian cricketers I have seen, my rating would be 1. Sehwag 2. Kapil Deb 3. Sachin Tendulkar 4. Sourav Ganguly 5. Anil Kumble

Pictures are taken from net.

Ten Reasons for Tendulkar to Retire

Now that the paeans praising the demigod of cricket for achieving the so-called 100^th 100 have been sung and the effervescence of celebration almost subsiding, it is good time to pay attention to the retirement issue. It is well-known that the Little Master has rubbished everyone suggesting his retirement after reaching the milestone. He conveyed the message, “Yeh dil mange more”. He thinks he has a lot more to offer. Though I have high regard for him, I don’t agree with him in this respect. In my opinion, he should retire because of the following reasons:

1.        
Last one year’s poor performance: From 28.3.2011 to 28.3.2012 (the date of writing this blog), Sachin scored only 418 runs from 12 odis, averaging only 34.83 (this poor show has brought down his average from 45.13 to 44.83). Averaging 34.83 in the prized opening slot with a strike rate of 81 is, by no means, the work of a god. During this period he scored only one hundred against Bangladesh with a dismal strike rate of 77.55, resulting in India’s defeat. Judging from his pathetic strike rate from 90 to 100, there is reason to believe that India’s win was not his primary consideration.

During the same period, he played 11 tests, scoring 778 runs with an ordinary average of 37.04 (this performance has brought down his career average from 56.94 to 55.44). During the same period, Rahul Dravid played 14 tests scoring 1225 runs with an average of 51.04. While Sachin failed to score a century, Dravid scored 5 centuries in the last one year. The irony is that Sachin thinks he is on top.

2.       Responsibility as the senior most player for team’s horrible overseas performance: India’s last two overseas series of England and Australia cannot be called anything but nightmares. Blaming a particular person for this dismal show will not be proper, as cricket is a team game. But as the most senior pro in the team, he should take the maximum blame. His one or two good innings could have turned things in India’s favor. But he failed repeatedly to make a century. Previously, he had been playing odis selectively against stronger teams. But repeated failures and greed for making the 100^th ton had gone into his head, making him to block a place for the deserving juniors in the Asia cup odi side. At that juncture, some section in the media predicted that he would retire after scoring the 100^th ton. Clearly, they failed to understand the psychology of the Little Master. I am quite sure he has the 50^th 100 in odis in his mind.

3.       Lack of motivation: Sachin claims he is madly in love with cricket. Even his worst critic will not disagree with this statement.  Love for cricket is essential for any successful cricketer. But the bigger factor is motivation. Recently, in an interview, Sachin said that he has no more targets to play for. Clearly, targets were his motivation, and there are no more targets to chase. Also, after participating in 188 tests and 462 odis for long 23 years, he can be compared with a squeezed lemon with very little juice left inside. So, instead of pressing the lemon harder, it should be placed in the basket of peaceful retired life.

4.       Age factor and injuries: Tennis elbow took a heavy toll on Tendulkar. When he recovered from it, he was just a shadow of his former self. The injury turned him from a beautiful stroke player to an awkward accumulator of runs. This is precisely the reason for his failed centuries (since 2004, Sachin has scored 13 odi hundreds out of which on only 5 occasions India has won). He was one of the main culprits for India’s shameful exit from the odi World Cup 2007 in West Indies (he had scores of 7 against Bangladesh, 57 not out against Bermuda and 0 against Sri Lanka). At that time some commentators called for his retirement. But the public opinion was not that vociferous. Now, he is 39 years old (born on 24 April 1973), even though he thinks he is 37.  He has been getting bowled frequently (even by the rookies), indicating a decline in reflex and eyesight. Therefore, it is high time for him to go.

5.       Blocking young talents: After repeated failures of the old warhorses during the recent overseas tours, Gavaskar argued that had the juniors played in place of them, they would have gathered vital experiences for the future. Also, they could not have performed worse than these guys. It can be argued that the juniors have to earn their place in the team. Pujara, Tiwary, Rahane etc. have been doing very well in the domestic arena. Tiwary was denied any match even after scoring a century in his last one day international match. The problem with Sachin is that he has reached such a legendary status that the selectors do not find enough courage to tell him that it’s time to hang up his boots. So, until the he decides it’s enough for him, a deserving youngster has to cool his heels.

6.       Strong public opinion for his retirement: A glimpse of the public opinion can be found from the comments written in Internet. Not only in the net, but also in public places, people are talking about his retirement. Even his ardent fans have become disgruntled with his lackluster performances, and they want him to retire. Former greats like Kapil Deb and others have also suggested him to retire. But Sachin is so enamored with his records that he simply cannot gauge the public mood.

7.       Chances of declining record: I have shown in the first reason paragraph that how his performance has been declining and how it affects his record. As Indians, we feel proud about his record. If the decline in the averages continues its down slide, we will definitely feel sad.

8.       More important role to play for cricket: It is time for him to contribute to the development of Indian cricket in other capacities. He can become the coach of the under 19 team or he can play any important role in the NCA, or he can do anything for the betterment of cricket.

9.       Shameful current ICC ranking: Can you believe that the “God of cricket” is placed at 27^th position in the current ICC ranking for the odis? This is shameful, and should be enough reason for him to call it a day.

10.   Pay attention to the other aspects of life: Like Rahul Dravid’s case, it’s time for Tendulkar, too, to pay attention to his family. He could not pursue higher education because of cricket. Does he want his son and daughter to be also like him? Isn’t it time to personally look after the family?

Sources of information: Wikipedia and ESPN cricinfo
Picture from the Internet

Century of centuries

On 16^th march, 2012, Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar made Indians proud by registering his 100^th International century at Mirpur in Bangladesh. In celebration of this incredible feat, the frenzied Indian media started anointing the Little Master with all kinds of eulogies, zillions of congratulatory messages poured in from all quarters, the fans became ecstatic in joy, the demand for awarding Sachin with Bharat Ratna got fresh impetus, and one overenthusiastic columnist even compared his feat with Pele’s achievements. Having saluted the Maestro for this monumental accomplishment, I am going to raise a few critical points that may sound cacophonous to those who consider cricket as a religion and Sachin as a God.

1.       Strange logic behind this century of centuries:  “Century of centuries may be a catchy phrase, but I find it slightly simplistic and irrational. We know simple addition can be performed on quantities having the same unit. But, here we are adding quantities which have different units, namely, test centuries and odi (one day international) centuries. It may not be as bad as adding one mare plus one donkey is equal to one mule. But it is almost like adding 51 meters with 49 centimeter and coming with the erroneous answer of 100 meters. We have to understand that one odi century, by no means, is equivalent to one test century. The difficulty in scoring a ton in a odi match is much lessened by a) strict wide ball rule which restricts swing bowling, b) maximum quota of 10 overs for strike bowlers, c) fielding restrictions in the power play periods, d) restriction of bouncer law, e) designer pitches made to suit the batsmen etcetera. Therefore equaling a odi century with a test century will be highly fallacious. However, with this argument, Sachin’s credit cannot be taken away as he is highest century maker for both versions of the game.

2.       Relation between Sachin’s century and India’s win: For the last few years a rumor has been gaining momentum that whenever Sachin makes a century India loses the match. Obviously this is not true. However, it is very important to examine the degree of truth in the rumor if we are to compare him with other greats of the sport. However, I am not going to make a comparison with the legendary footballer Pele, as football and cricket should not be compared: football is played by almost whole world and the level of competition is very high here, whereas cricket is played by only a handful of nations and only 7 or 8 nations can be termed as strong. However, Sachin can always be compared with two of his contemporary greats: Brian Lara and Ricky Ponting. In the odis, the percentages of winning centuries for Sachin (33 wins out of 49), Lara (16 wins out of 19) and Ponting (25 wins out of 30) are 67.35, 84.21 and 83.33 respectively. However, since 2004, Sachin has scored 13 odi hundreds out of which on only 5 occasions India has won. Probably, this poor 38.46% has originated the aforesaid rumor. However, in the overall tally, Sachin’s score of 53 percent surpasses Lara’s 43%, but falls far behind Punter’s 77%. As per my opinion, winning is more important that personal achievements. In this regard, I rate Ponting and Lara (considering the weak side he was playing for) more useful than Sachin.

Source of information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_international_cricket_centuries_by_Brian_Lara;

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_international_cricket_centuries_by_Ricky_Ponting;

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_international_cricket_centuries_by_Sachin_Tendulkar
Picture from the Internet

Learn from Dhiraj Parsana how to stab the nation

So, India suffered a humiliating defeat at the hands of South Africa by an innings and 90 runs. This is the biggest loss on the home turf in the last 49 years (Australia led by Richie Benaud, beat India by an innings, and 127 runs in 1959). But there is hardly any surprise in the upshot. If you could not predict this result, then you are not a good follower of Indian cricket. When you hand a green top with lot of moisture on a silver platter to your enemy, who has a lethal fast bowling attack, this is the only outcome that could have resulted. I predicted the result with the precision of pointing an innings defeat from the very beginning of the match to my friends. Admitting the facts that our over-hyped batting line up could not live up to its reputation, our team management made a blunder by electing to bat first, and our bowlers lacked sharpness and zeal, I have to blame the pitch curator as the main culprit behind this shameful defeat. The following are the main reasons:

1.Treachery of the curator: Treachery is nothing new in India. In 1192, Indians could not resist the invading Turks, led by Muhammad Ghuri, because of treachery of one of the very powerful ruler of an Indian state, Jaichand of Kannauj. In 1757, the British could conquer Bengal in the battle of Plassey because of the treachery of Mirzafar, the most senior General of the then Nawab Siraz-ud-Daulla. There are plenty more such examples. Before the freedom struggle began against the British from the late 19th century, the concept of a united Indian nation was missing. But slowly the concept of nationalism began to found a strong base. We are aware of the role played by Sardar Patel in uniting the princely states after India obtained Independence. Since then we never looked back, and grew stronger and stronger as a powerful nation. Anyway, let us come back to the issue and examine whether the curator is indeed a traitor or not. In my opinion, the curator, who has been given full support by the Gujarat Cricket Association, is a traitor, because he presented the visiting team a green pitch as an early X-mass gift, which ultimately resulted in an innings defeat for the home team. There can be mainly two possibilities for keeping a green top, ignoring the requests from the selectors and the team management: either the curator might have thought that it would not harm India, or he might have done it intentionally to humiliate India. Not only the curator, but also anyone who had thought that India could cope with South Africa on such a green top must be an idiot of the highest order. Some foreign commentators were intentionally overestimating Indian's ability to play on a green top, so that the fool administrators fall into their trap. It is almost certain that the curator did it intentionally knowing fully well about the consequences. Now the point is why did he do it? There maybe several reasons for that. Firstly, the curator might have been under the influence of some external betting agencies, which wanted to fix the result of the match in an indirect way, without involving the cricketers. Those who knew what the conditions were going to be must have made huge amount of money. Secondly, there could have been some politics involved here. In the Dalmiya era, we saw how his opponents provided a green top in Nagpur against Australia in 2004-05, or how a green pitch was gifted to South Africa at the Eden Gardens by the sympathisers of Ganguly in the ODI series in 2005. So, it is nothing new in Indian cricket to settle personal scores at the cost of the nation's loss. Here in this case this particular possibility is very thin, though. Thirdly, the curator might have wanted to earn some praise from the foreign press. Some Indians, even after 61 years after independence, could not shake off the colonial hangover, and still today they are beggars of some kind words from the "gora sahibs". Fourthly, some people might have wanted to discredit Anil Kumble so that he could be removed from captaincy early. Fifthly, the curator might have had some personal grudges (see his profile at http://www.cricketfundas.com/dhirajparsana.html), which he settled in this manner. There maybe some other reasons too, but my gut feeling says, it is the first reason that was instrumental behind making such a deadly pitch against Indians.

2.Wrong decision of the team management: The decision to bat first on a green top, having moisture underneath it, and against the world's best bowling line up, is not at all a good decision, especially from the experienced person like Anil Kumble who had seen the team's performance on such lethal tracks over the years. In this regard, who can forget India's miserable surrender against Simon Doull's swing bowling in New Zealand in 1998-99? In that match too, the first two hours proved decisive. On such a grassy track, Indian batters have always struggled. There are plenty more examples. Here it will be interesting to note that in Australia, there was not a single grassy pitch in the last series. The decision cannot be backed up by saying that India wanted to exploit the spinning conditions in the 4th innings. Because in that case India would have had a third spinner instead of Irfan Pathan. Indian pacers could have also wrecked havoc, if they were given the opportunity to ball first. South African captain G. Smith, supporting Kumble's decision, at the post match conference, said that he would have batted, too. I think he is diplomatic here, because with the resource of such an ineffective spinner Harris, while having 3 great quickies, no body would have liked to waste an opportunity to go at the fragile batting line up of the opponent in such a pacer friendly condition.

For Kumble, neither playing with 4 bowlers in a placid track, nor playing with an extra bowler in a fast green wicket is a good idea.

3. Failure of the batters: It was indeed disappointing to find our batters having no answer to the excellent bowling of Stein, Ntini and Morkel. For the Indian batters, there were some technical drawbacks, e.g., the footwork was missing, but most importantly, it appeared to me from the highlights that they got nervous and afraid in front of great pace attack. Indians batters forgot Gabbar Singh's famous quote, " Jo daar gaya, samjho uoh maar gaya (The moment fear enters you, you are gone)" in the Hindi film Shole. Sachin's absence also denied the middle order the much needed resistance and stability. Though recently Rahul Dravid scored a century, I think he is no longer the dependable wall as he used to be. As far as Wasim Jafar is concerned, I don’t know on which extra-cricketing ground he is in the team, while Goutam Gambhir, who was in splendid form in Australia, is languishing in the dressing room!

4.Disappointing performance of the bowlers: Unfortunately, our pace attack could not live up to the expectation. Though Irfan did well with the bat, his performance with the ball was not at all satisfactory. The attitude was good for Sreesanth, but he lacked discipline in his line and length. RP's performance was lacklustre. Having said that, I must emphasise that I never expected them to match the South African bowlers, as they are far superior. At the moment, I suppose Stein is the best bowler in the world, supported by another two brilliant bowlers Ntini and Morkel. I cannot understand why our stupid cricket administrators do not understand this. If we are to beat them, we have to beat them by spin.

Recently, in an article the South African coach Mickey Arthur warned the Indian that their fast bowlers could prove equally deadly in an under-prepared spinning track, too. Though preparing an under-prepared track does not arise as per the guidelines of the ICC, I agree with him that there is always something for the pacers, even in the most spinner-friendly tracks. We saw how J. Srinath devastated South Africa in the same venue in the second innings in 1996. So, I suppose the South Africans will not fret, if they are given a spinning track. Finally, as far as pitch issue is concerned, I would suggest to prepare such green tops for the domestic competitions, or against weaker teams, in terms of fast bowling, such as Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, England etc, but not against a formidable team like South Africa or for that matter Australia.