UGLY:Our million dollar Coach hinted that “Hard decisions would to be taken”. My question, did he have any remorse in chasing away Ganguly? After all, due to personal politics Chappell kept Ganguly out of the team , however today irony is such that, Ganguly scored the most number of runs for India. The Coach gives him a left hand appreciation,. “He was here to do a job and he did it well”, so may I know the job portfolio of the coach and other batsmen in the team? If anyone should be sent home , the first axe should be Greg Chappell . Right from the day he became the coach, players morale has been right royally low. One of the TV commentator mentioned that he spoke to Chapel l during the morning golf session, What? how can you? When your team is facing a tough situation, our coach is gone golfing, what can you say?. He have never understood the Indian chemistry, and will never. The first tough decision should be to fire the coach. Seriously get someone [like T.A Sekar] who has better coaching resume than Greg Chappell.
Next the boasted Indian batting potential, it is high time to stop boasting about it. IMMPOE [ In my most perfect opinion ever] Sachin’s and Dravid’s innings was the main reason for the final test debacle. What the heck was the game plan in their mind? Why Sachin and Dravid played like Allan Knott facing Abdul Kadhir? was it that hard to push for singles. Who suggested to Dravid to play for a Draw? Why did he use his pads more than his bat? I feel this batting partnership ruined our victory chance. I wish Dravid and [especially] Sachin had used their potential to take on Pollock and the damn new unknown spinner. Sachin got into a crab shell for some unknown reason, I am trying to find a lower word than tentative – may be I can use the word “unsure”. Sachin played his most “unsure” innings of his life., even his staunch bakthas [like Yours faithfully] were totally disappointed by this approach.
Dravid Captaincy was very well below par, . At 3.00am sitting in front of my, was able to think better bowling changes. I was surprised, when he over used Kumble. Why try hard when he was not effective enough. Why did he not try Viru and Sachin in the morning session? Viru was just given one while Sachin comes to bowl when everything was over and to my shock ball was spinning like a fan. Poor Karthik was screaming “the Magic Man is back” , however it was too late. There was no “prestige” for the magic this time. Dravid’s XXL size blunder to split an opening pair that gave the only century partnership of the tour. There are reports out today that it was Dravid who wanted Viru in the team. Colonel Sarkar was very particular in dropping him. Dravid had the same soft corner for Kaif who recently received the most boring player of 2006. Kaif broke more eggs than Wendy’s breakfast parlor. Dravid should be more aggressive, in fact I would get back Ganguly to be the captain. Dravid and Sachin are good resources, they can do tasks for you and but cannot not manage resources. A captain must be good manager. Time to Drop VVS and recall Utappa . Utappa is been scoring lot of runs in domestic games or even Tamil Nadu captain Badrinath deserves a chance more than VVS or Viru.
BAD:Umpires, umpiring was pathetic during the serious. Indians had lot of crucial decisions going against them, Boucher, Prince in particular who had no LBWs, in fact Kallis was out caught behind test , but was never given by the umpire. If this had gone in our way, things would be different. In the first innings Karthik got a very poor decision, while in the previous test Dravid was not out in the both the innings. Another shame, the last wicket taken by South Africans was of the 7th ball, What is the purpose of having a 3rd umpire?, a score board?, a ball counter?, a TV scorer?, an official scorer?, none caught this? I doubt it. I feel Smith is a one lucky dude to get such umpires. Generally Indians were at the receiving end.
(Few) Good (Men) Dinesh Karthik , a class act. He proved that he knows how to accelerate and decelerate at will, seriously I am seeing another GRV here. Other batsmen had no clue while he had the guts and the technique to take the bowling on, more over scored some important runs. In the first innings he got a very poor decision from the umpire. Imo, Dinesh Karthik is a better keeper than Dhoni, as an added bonus he was really chirpy behind the stumps. He kept the spirit alive, often our players would resemble a baboon woken from hibernation. Karthik was screaming words of encouragement in Tamil to Kumble, in Malayalam to Sreesanth and in nice Sowkarpet Hindi to other players. I have never seen Dhoni doing such things. I wrote in one of my earlier blogs that Sreesanth should be trained more and given more responsibilities than working with Agarkar. Sreesanth should be made permanent in the team. Sreesanth apart from his bowling, he brings in a fiery attitude, after S.Vishwanath I have never seen anyone in the Indian team with such an aggression. He is a genuine seamer , has taken 18 wickets and hats off to his attitude and energy. Our bowling department has improved a lot, I wish Zahir and Sreesanth are made permanent.
All said and done, The WI series starts soon, The Board of Cricket Control India will plough a car park and call it a pitch, where the ball has no chance to raise above the ankles, our players without proper foot work, using their hand eye coordination will slam about 350 runs per innings. We will be proud!
