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[kban1]

Hard times, soft targets

Kunal Pradhan
 
"It’s not whether you win or lose, it’s how you place the blame" -- Oscar Wilde

It was easy to go into a nostalgia overdrive every time you thought about Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly. The curly-haired 16-year-old, the cover drive next to god’s, the decimation of Glenn McGrath, the ball soaring out of the stadium off a left-arm spinner, the radiant smile in the face of crazy adulation, the twirling of a shirt on the balcony at Lord’s. All these images rushed to our heads and made us fuzzy.

But now, as the gushing praise has vanished, as the two players are blamed for all of Team India’s negatives in victory or defeat by the masses and the media, the applause has been replaced by constant criticism. The propa*a against Team India’s two former skippers has reached a boiling point, fuelled initially by sms messages by Greg Chappell to his friends in the press and then taken forward by false allegations of ‘contractual’ corruption from certain irresponsible members of the BCCI. Even when they score test hundreds off 160 deliveries each, they are slammed for playing slowly.

Strike rates have somehow become the new obsession of Indian cricket’s opinion makers. Right from the World Cup, there have been some strong statements made about that statistical expression. When Ganguly had top-scored with 66 off 129 balls against that disastrous match against Bangladesh in Trinidad, there were some seriously upset experts. Not for a moment did they consider that India had not even managed to bat out the 50 overs. If not for him, they may have been bowled out with a drinks interval to spare.

But that’s just how it has been in these times of distortion. It’s amazing that a player who has six 50s in his nine ODI innings (India won four of those matches) is still being measured by the pace of his runs even though his team mates are way behind him in both aggregate and average. He was even dropped on instructions from the board.

We never expected much from the BCCI in any case. They haven’t really been known for their expertise on matters other than financial for the last several years. But what was really amusing this week was to read Kapil Dev, India’s best cricketer alongside Sunil Gavaskar (let’s not waste on the ‘who is greater’ debate right now), writing that Ganguly and Tendulkar had played slowly in Chittagong.

One expected Kapil to know a little more about how 60 is a respectable strike rate on dead sub-continental test pitches, about how the heat and humidity makes it trying to even spend five minutes at the crease in the month of May in this region, and about the futility of belting Bangladesh for 450 runs in a day (which, in the end, would be as meaningless as India’s 413-run massacre of Bermuda in the World Cup).

Why the comment borders on the hilarious is that Kapil’s last two years in international cricket — when he was trudging along to break Richard Hadlee’s world record haul of wickets — were not exactly a hallmark of ruthless intensity. In his last 10 test matches — seven of them against Zimbabwe and then-minnows Sri Lanka — he picked up 20 wickets with best figures of three for 35 and scored 283 runs with two 50s. He was trusted with only 25 overs as opposed to pace partner Javagal Srinath’s 61 in his final test at Hamilton.

This is not an attempt to take away from Kapil. Just a reminder that memories can sometimes become convenient — even for those who may have gone through worse times in the past.

Tendulkar and Ganguly are in the winters of their international careers. It may be fair to say that they have declined as batsmen, but is it fair to find reasons to blame them even when there are none? Despite a strong will to remove them from the side, they are still managing to hang on the basis of their performances and their ability to put their heads down and come up with centuries.

http://www.mumbaimirror.com/net/mmpaper.aspx?page=article&sectid=59&contentid=20070527024155921c189135a

[keep-it-cool]

I dont see what Kapil's record makes any difference to whether he should comment or not ... and his views.

My own views on this are - SRT and SG were not slow on day one of the test match .. they played exactly as was required. However, they clearly appeared to be playing for their centuries even when quicker runs were required.

And, SG's innings against Bangladesh at the WC was poor. He was the best among the poor, barring YS. But still poor.

[dhruvdeepak]

iz timez theyz hard, iz boyz not hard....

[Jai]

At the cost of repeating myself, let me again say that 9 out of 10 times any top team will bowl out BD for less than our total score against BD in that WC match. So although the batsmen incl. SG should share a fair amount of the blame, but why the performance of the bowlers are never questioned in that particular match?

[keep-it-cool]

At the cost of repeating myself, let me again say that 9 out of 10 times any top team will bowl out BD for less than our total score against BD in that WC match. So although the batsmen incl. SG should share a fair amount of the blame, but why the performance of the bowlers are never questioned in that particular match?

I agree ... the bowlers should take a fair share of the blame too .. not just for the BD match, but also for allowing SL to get to a 250+ score. Among the bowlers, I think HS, with his total lack of focus on taking wickets, was the main culprit.