Reader Response
Responses to Prem Panicker's column:
Change in attitude needed
Great piece about the need for a change in attitude.
Just wanted to add my 2 cents worth - along with a change in the players and selectors attitude, I would like to perhaps encourage a change in the fans attitude as well.
What change? Just this: a change in the expectations. Lets stop kidding ourselves. We deserved to lose.
Let face it: our batsmen just don't have the skills when it comes to facing a fast, bouncing, seaming ball. And probably never will (consistently), ergo the deja vu you mention.
And how can they - given the pitches, preparation and selectorial "decisions" we make at home.
We might as well stop playing Test cricket and concentrate on ODIs if appropriate corrective action wont be taken, perhaps a way to do this is for the fans to stop following the game with such unrealistic expectations.
The 'vaunted' batting line-up is a sham abroad.
Lets call a spade a spade: our batting (and probably bowling except Zaheer) really sucks under those conditions. Shrirang Ranade
Prem Panicker responds: No quarrels with your assessment, Shrirang, though I wouldn't say `Let's stop playing Tests'. I believe that much of what ails the team can be turned around if the administration and the players can actually work together - there are enough outstanding examples of such mutually beneficial relationships to learn from. Unfortunately, the only time the board and the players talk to each other seems to be when money is involved.
I feel disgusted. I don't even want to start writing about how I feel about the Indian defeat under two and half days.
Only question in my mind is how the hell are we supposed to get rid of these lead-heads administering cricket? Or at least, how do we make them stop thinking only about money and home victories? How do we make them do good to Indian cricket by at least building some pacy and bouncy wickets?
I won't blame any of our batsmen or bowlers, even if they deserve it. How the hell are they supposed to adapt with one super-max screw-up and a three-day game? If I find any of these so-called administrators, I will personally throw stones at them, or may be at least a couple of eggs.
Every country has a right to play to its strengths. So, we should keep those dirt tracks and roll those fools on them for the joy of it, but I suggest we should convert half of those tracks to pacy and bouncy wickets.
Do we need soil engineers from New Zealand for that!? What are they implying?, We can't make fast wickets with people in India?, whom are they kidding?
How about writing something on the science of making fast wicket? And, yeah whether it is feasible or not really to prepare those wickets on the 'sun baked grounds' of India or whatever! I hope someone in India, why not the public, take up this issue en-masse with the administrators.
This is my bet, India will at most reach the semis this world cup, with lots of luck! And then we will talk about preparing for fast and bouncy wickets in West Indies. And just before the World Cup in WI, Indians will be playing in India against Bangladesh and Zimbabwe I suppose?
Rajeev.
Prem Panicker responds: How will the administration learn? Good question. The short answer is, it won't, until the pocketbook is hit - and that won't happen because no matter what tracks we have, no matter who we play against at home, the money comes pouring in. So I am afraid we are in Catch-22 territory.
As for preparing fast tracks, no, we don't need Kiwi experts - I can off hand think of at least three curators of major grounds in India who can produce a fast track if we ask for one. There really is no rocket science involved and no, there is nothing to say that it cannot be done in Indian conditions - we can produce a track as good as Perth if you want one; just about the only difference is that the grass will brown sooner given the greater heat, so by the second session of day two a genuinely quick track will settle down into one where the ball will come on at pace, but which also allows competent batsmen a chance. And yes, it will turn a bit more, towards the end, than Wellington would have.
Honestly I saw it coming!! I expected this to happen in England, but the English bowlers would not rank 4 on a scale of 1 to 10.
If they (Caddick, Hoggard and co) could not get Bangar out (and no discredit to Bangar at all, he's a heck of a fighter) at Headingly on a seaming pitch with uneven bounce, then the attack wasn't worth a dime.
This NZ attack was lot more disciplined and all it took was an hour or two of sustained hostile but disciplined seam bowling and them famed (should be damned) Indian batting folded up like pack of cards.
But lemme tell you I wasn't amazed , maybe mildly surprised. Know why? 'Cause but for Rahul Dravid nobody and I mean nobody is really well equipped against great lateral movement.
Somebody like Boycott who played well forward or well back would have had the answer.
Even Sachin, genius as he is does not have a iron clad forward defense, so vital to survive on these kind of pitches. You got to play full forward for good length balls and full back for slightly short which means either kill the movement on pitching or play after the movement. Very very basic in theory but so very hard to do, without enough exposure/practice (got only 1 warm up game!).
Frankly, no point playing Sehwag and Laxman for the second Test. Especially Laxman's leaden footed technique has not a ghost of a chance. He's a tremendous striker/timer of the ball and will do very well on other tracks even in Australia and S.Africa. Unlike what others are saying, it's not the bounce that undoes him but the lateral movement, especially sharp and late cutters 'cause he has nothing to offer in terms of either going well forward or back and across to judge the changing line on pitching.
Normally Sachin's strength is he plays early, but here, with the abnormal seam movement, it's a undoing. You need Sunny's technique of playing very late to counter the movement, and Vishy's twinkle toes movement of back and across, getting behind the line. And using pad as second line of defense is pretty dicey as the ball straightens at times.
This line up having Ganguly, Sehwag and Laxman would not have made it to 42 that morning at Lord's in 1974. Can bet my house on it. If Hadlee or Botham or even Arnold were bowling, imagine!!! A combined effort of Sunny + Dilip + Vishy + Jimmy would have fared much better 'cause of their footwork and temperament.
Hemant Nayak,
Prem Panicker responds: I agree with the technical points you raised. Actually, I don't know if it is just me, or do you guys too notice that two shots - ironically, the first two shots that are taught in cricket school - are no longer played in textbook fashion by the modern cricketer?
One is the classical forward defensive shot, angled bat, head over bat and ball under the eyes at the point of contact. And one is the equally classical backfoot defense, the one where you square up, bat angled and high, just under your eyes, looking to play the ball dead at your feet. None barring Dravid, in this lineup, has played the latter shot even once; none barring Dravid play the former the way it is supposed to be played. And yet, these are the two basic building blocks of cricketing grammar. Weird!
Another disappointing loss abroad. The strongest batting line up in the world just crumbles like a pack of cards in front of fast bowling. I believed that this lineup will at least survive against New Zealanders - but now I am quite sure that this Indian team has no way capability, potential to win back World Cup. They don't have attitude to stand in the middle. I don't know why the players like Tendulkar, Ganguly are considered in top ten listing when at crucial moments they always succumb under pressure. To cap it all I can only say hats off to Shane Bond, as I turn my back to the "world's strongest batting line-up".
Pankaj Mittal
Prem Panicker responds: I understand the angst, Pankaj, but I wouldn't mix up the performance at Wellington with our chances in the WC. And no, I am not saying I believe we will bring back the Cup - far from it. Merely suggesting that the events of last week do not really make a good pointer towards what is to come in SA.
This is entirely a different kind of report that you have published.
The reason I say this is you have summed up all your earlier reports and put this one together. I can see your point that India is getting nowhere in cricket, but isn't this in every field and not only cricket? Change in attitude is needed not only by cricketers, as Indians we all need change in attitudes. I can save this for another email as it is a separate subject. Anyway coming to cricket, your philosophy today (the dejected tone from you) is my feelings on Indian cricket ever since I watched India play cricket.
I am tired of reading articles from people like you. Its only the fans that believe in these guys and get disappointed every time, I'm sure we are going to watch the next match India plays. There are purple patches like the 5 wicket haul of Zaheer and the ever improving Sanjay Bangar and his willingness to stay at the wicket for a long time. But the reluctance of Saurav Ganguly to utilize Zaheer and Sanjay Bangar's reluctance to play for runs hurts Indian cricket.
Your words are true, its a long way to win a series abroad and make a consistent effort to gain recognition among the cricketing world, lastly the to raise the hopes of the cricket fans like us.
Paari.
Prem Panicker responds: Um well, let us, as you suggest, leave the greater question of the nation's attitude aside for another day. I am somewhat puzzled when you suggest that you are tired of reading articles from people like me, who get your hopes up and then disappoint them again. I don't know, I thought the whole point of my piece here was to show you that all that happened in Wellington is merely history repeating itself - we have, many of us, written about these issues (dead home pitches, batsmen without the requisite technique, the need for application, whatever). So it is not like we glossed over all this and went blah blah about the batting lineup. Anyways - I guess I can put this down to the disappointment of watching a team go down without a semblance of a fight?
Next >
Mail Cricket Editor
