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To be fair to Indians, they barely had any match practice. Fleming ordered a fast and bouncy pitch. Seaming conditions didn't help either. On this wicket any batting line-up would have struggled on day 1. But the only difference is they would have played reasonably well in the second innings.

Also NZ would have been shot out for 100 runs in its first innings. The chill and windy conditions cannot be simulated in India to practice. You can prepare bouncy pitches. That's it. After playing on flat tracks it is slightly difficult to adjust. Even though it is little hard to digest this humiliation I think India have learnt some valuable lessons like "Agarkar is a real pain in the foot" which Ganguly is willing to carry, "Laxman is grossly inconsistent" which is embarrassing, "Sehwag is not a solid opener" as he is better suited against old ball, "Ganguly is incompetent against moving balls".

The funny thing is when NZ visits next time they will be greeted with square turners where they will be humiliated inside three days just like South Africa invited Sri Lanka with fast and bouncy pitches. NZ will continue to lose in India. India will continue to lose in NZ. This trend will never change for quite a long time. This trend is going to continue.

The only way Fleming can think of beating India is by containing free stroking Indian players. He has managed to succeed. The only difference between this team and past teams is this team wants to win desperately. They just don't know how to win. That is a big improvement compared to Azharuddin's XI which never cared about anything. We have to accept the reality that Indian batsmen can be highly incompetent on fast and bouncy pitches. Until they keep playing on those surfaces they will keep suffering. Instead of signing contracts with county cricket in England our players should play for small leagues in Australia. There is no point in crying over incompetency.

We all agree this is the best possible top order Indian can send. When they fail there is no point in crying. We just got to be patient until they turn things around just like Pakistanis doing now. Only recently they got out for 59 and 53. Look where they are now. They have come up a big way beating Zimbabwe in Zimbabwe something India yet to do. They even decimated South Africa in an One dayers. Let us be patient until we get up.

Uthaman

Glad to see you write about cricket again. I am also glad that you have moved on to try something else. Just wanted to say one thing, please do come back to cricket when you realize whatever you are doing now is not good for you. Just a wish of a fan.

Now a few thoughts.

1. Why didn't Sachin go to NZ much before the Indian team as he didn't play one dayers here? What stopped him from practicing in the seaming grounds of NZ before the Indian team arrived there> He would have been able to give valuable suggestions to the team as well. I don't question his commitment as I am no one to question that, but when a Hayden can come and play in india long before OZ arrives here and when a Hussain can fly his pregnant wife to Perth so that he can lead his team, why didn't Sachin go a couple of weeks ago to make sure India wins the first away series in 16 yrs? I am more frustrated after witnessing one of Sachin's worst 50s in Test cricket and also his countless TV programs, which can't be worse.

2. Do you know of any technological breakthroughs which will help simulate the wind/weather conditions so that we can have indoor stadiums in india that can resemble Aus or NZ or Eng by touch of buttons? I mean, the problem is not only with the pitches right, its the conditions. Imagine a pitch like the one in Wellington in Chennai or Mumbai. The ball coming on to bat nicely, it would have been a belter. The only place I know of where the team can practice is in Bangalore or maybe during the early hrs in Delhi.

Pari

Prem Panicker responds: As an employee of Rediff, I basically go where I am sent, and do the work that is required of me - the choice, as in any organization, does not really vest in me.

The point about Tendulkar going ahead of time is interesting - though somewhat moot, since the reason he did not play ODIs is because of hamstring problems, so I don't quite see how he could have, with the same hamstring problem, gone and practiced in NZ. And this is not to be interpreted as a defense of Tendulkar or whatever - I hadn't considered that question, in all frankness, till you posed it.

Please please do not lambast the team when it predictably loses and praise it to the sky when the odd win comes through...

Be even with your analysis...But then asking for too much...You wouldn't have a job if you called a spade a spade.

I envy your job.. Its so easy.....I bet you have a standard template by now that you recycle over and over and over again....

If I have some more time...I could even fine-tune the template for you.

Srikant

This is the first time I'm mailing you. I have always liked your articles and make it a point to read each of them. This article is very good and indeed I do agree with all that you say.

But I do have one more point which I feel nobody seems to have noticed. While the fault of the second inning debacle should be placed at the feet of our batsmen, I would like to point out that a bigger offender than our batsmen is the BCCI. I say this because of the way the itinerary has been drawn for this series.

Let me start by pointing out the very obvious. Conditions differ from country to country and India has its own distinct atmosphere - be it pitches, climate, crowds, etc. Even the mighty Aussies were beaten in these conditions. A like example can be given of the West Indies team that just toured India - they were beaten, rather routed in the first two tests, but by the third test had got used to the conditions and gave India a run. Due to being brought up in these conditions, our batsmen find it difficult to acclimatize to foreign conditions very quickly. They need a bit more time than other teams.

I cite the example of the Headingly test which we won. We started our tour with a one day game on June 22. We had a total of 3 practice one day games, then had the tri-series of seven ODIs, then had two first class games, the first test, a third FC game and then the second test, then a fourth FC game and then the third test - which was played from Aug 22-26. So by the time we got accustomed to the conditions it was two months and comprised 10 one-dayers, 4 FC games and 2 tests. This shows how long it takes our players to acclimatize. I point out to the time taken to acclimatize not out of disrespect to the players, but to show that it is indeed difficult to change ones game from our domestic conditions to a foreign one.

Now Wellington was very much like Leeds, but all our players got was one FC match!! This is what I blame the BCCI for. Had the people running theaffairs of our board been more serious about our test record abroad, they would have arranged atleast three FC games before the first test. By having three practice fixtures, all the members of the touring squad would have got atleast two games and some three.

This would have ensured that our players were given enough time to adjust. This would also ensure that the fringe players could push their claims and no one would just be passengers on the tour. Also this was supposed to be a three test series, but again our board decides to make it a two Test series and increase the ODIs. Again I refer back to the England series, remember we won the third test, after losing the first and just managing to draw the second. Moreover look at most of our away series, invariably we have lost the first test and it would turn out to be the decider (I'm talking about most of the times).

So given all this, our board still does not give our players enough time before the first test, the players (read batsmen) flop as a result and we blame only them, while the board gets away. This has been happening all these years and with the new crowded Test championship schedule, it will keep on happening. As such expectations of an away series win will be high on the start of a new series and sink at the end of the first test.

The BCCI increased the number of ODIs on this tour, citing the World Cup as a reason. But I find it just an excuse. Just think had we won the test series in New-Zealand, our confidence would have been much higher going into the world cup. Hence I say increasing the number of ODIs is just an excuse.

Well even after all this debate nothing is going to change within the BCCI and as such, there is no point in us pinning our hopes on an away series victory - at least in the near future.

Anoop Moras

I read your article on Rediff.com. Excellent and well said. It just flashed through my mind. We sit here in the united states and talk about who is doing well, who is not, who is to be in the team, who should be dropped... etc.. but have you ever given a thought about this - do the players, the coach, the manager, the selection board really see what we are writing? What use does such good articles do? Should not there be a response from the team towards this? I think they should be forced to read every column that reporters write about the team, no matter how derogatory it might be. If they were real players who wanted to improve their performance and have a motive to win, then this has to be done. Else there is no way that a team that is filled with politics, prejudice and what not, can ever win a match.

Last, i really did not mean to disrespect the team or anyone, but  then this is what an Indian supporter feels about the team, watching them lose from a foreign country.

Padmanabhan Arunachalam

Prem Panicker responds: Actually, several members of the team read the articles on Rediff, that I know because in between tours, when we meet them, they bring up things we have written. The board also reads - we know that because after our criticism of their actions, they reacted by putting us on a blacklist and ensuring that we do not get media passes for the games; also, when recently we asked Mr Dalmiya for an interview, he flat out told us that he would not talk to us because we are too critical of the board. We know the selectors read, too - thanks to the criticism of previous selection exercises, they have now reacted with a new rule - here on in, once the team selection is over, they will simply read out the team list, but will not answer any questions. So much for that. And in passing, I do not mean to imply that it is only Rediff articles that they read, and that it is only because of us that all this happens.

Your article was really good and .... different!

Now we also need a change in the team. Agarkar and Nehra were miserable. So, what do we do? Replace them with Yohannan and Kartik. Now, since Harbhajan had caused the New Zealanders some trouble on the seaming pitch why not go in with two spinners. Anyway Agarkar and Nehra have not been effective. Also, spin is their weakness. They fear it. Especially Indian spinners!! So, why not capitalize on it!!!

Also, we have a specialist opener SS Das. Bring him in. Sewang was out of place on the seaming track. Bring him down the order. Drop Laxman. Another alternative is, let Sewang bat one down. It may be a risk, but if he gets going and gets at least 50 it would be very helpful. Also, there is a chance of at least two of the three (Das, Bangar, Sewang) clicking. Are we not looking at seeing off the new ball? So, let's open with three batsmen rather than two.

Also, if quick wickets fall earlier, send Parthiv Patel up the order. He has shown ability to stay out there and play.

So, assuming that we will be losing early wickets, here is my batting order: Das, Bangar, Sehwag, Dravid, Parthiv, Tendulkar, Saurav, Zaheer, Harbhajan, Karthik, Yohannan.

Your thought????

Vipul Gupta

Prem Panicker responds: Actually, I have in earlier responses talked of the team composition, so I'll pass on repeating myself. One thing though, I do agree entirely that we should have played two spinners. The point when picking the team is to pick your best bowlers - for instance, if an Australia were to tour India tomorrow, I don't really see their selectors saying, ah, these are spinning tracks, no point going in with our fast bowlers, and putting in the field a lineup of Warne, Stuart McGill and Colin Miller with Steve Waugh bowling seam. Instead they reckon, McGrath, Gillespie, Lee and Warne are our best bowlers, so we back them to do well.  The same is true of say South Africa. Or in fact of any other country - they play to their strengths, and ours is spin. Ironically, when India has won in NZ before, it has been spinners who have done the job - but then, we never learn from history.

Well, like millions of other cricket fans it hurts the same way to me when the Indian team losses so badly and especially the manner they lose it. Every time they lose there are lot of comments made by the TV commentators, journalists, news channels and a common person like me.

The most common of these is the cause of their defeat and the persons blamed for it. I am not give excuses in anyone's favor but every time they fail it is like batsmen didn't bat well, bowlers didn't bowl well. We all know and accept this proven truth that except Sachin and Dravid no other India batsman has been consistent on foreign tours -- forget about consistency they hardly do anything.

But what has happened, nothing. Laxman played the innings of his life in Eden Gardens and now he is in the team for a life time -- who can challenge him? Ganguly is our captain, it doesn't matter how he gets out in every match in the same fashion, like he is giving slip-catching practice. Sehwag has played wonderfully in one dayers and according to some very intelligent ones he has all the ingredients to replace Sachin -- doesn't matter whether he has any technique or not, everyone knows that he is a hitter who can do wonders if everything is going his way, otherwise he is nowhere to open a Test innings.

Bowlers can't be blamed for not batting if the top five doesn't perform, Parthiv is too young to perform and according to our captain Sanjay Bangar is lucky so he has to play. So, who are left to bat and take the blame inspite of their performances, only Sachin and Rahul. Sachin fails in an innings and all of us are after him finding faults in his technique. You say why is the media blamed for all this. Don't you think that media is there to be blamed, yeah media can't be blamed for India losing shamefully but for other reasons.

Instead of asking about Sachin's capabilities on his every single failure and writing pages about Sachin's performance in second innings or his failure to win matches for India -- don't you think that media can write about lifetime place for Laxman, Ganguly or Agarkar or Sehwag.

Anita

Prem Panicker responds: Actually, I thought the media is merely an instrument to provide, for the reader, information and analysis regarding events they were in no real position to witness themselves. And while I appreciate the anguish behind your letter, I am not clear why this is addressed to me - you see, I don't have the authority to write on behalf of the 'media' in its entirety - I write what I believe, in all honesty, and when I am asked questions about what I have written, I respond.

Your article was excellent. I'll mail u some of my views shortly.

Krishna

How are you Prem? I just read your article and there are some things that come to mind. When we talk about attitude, one question comes to mind is where does one get this right attitude from? We are always praising the Aussies for their fight and grit and overall consistency. The same can be said about the South Africans except when they play the Australians.

When you look at the two teams mentioned above and the compare them to the teams in the sub continent, one thing that strikes immediately is the difference in their physique. Okay, fine we have a different diet etc and there are tons of excuses. But still, you can't deny the fact that they train a lot harder than we do. Just take Saurav as an example. This fella is our captain and our captain happens to be the worst fielder on the team. This is just a lack of effort on his part to work on his conditioning especially during off season.

Anyhow, what I am getting at is that attitude is really made on the practice field. You go out there and work harder than ever on your physical condition with the thinking that at the end of the day you have to be stronger than your opponent. Once our work ethic on the practice field changes, I know for sure that India will be a much better team. I think that it would be very interesting to put our cricketers through one of these American football workouts and see how quickly they barf.

Are we getting better, yes we are. Especially when you look at the young guns. But, I still feel that our senior players need to take leadership in this role also. I remember one of Dravid's interviews on Rediff and he said that he had never worked on his legs prior to being assigned the role of the wicketkeeper. So there you go, if you practice hard, then you can play hard and we won't have to hear comments like: it was just one of those games" too often.

Anish

Prem Panicker responds: But of course. In fact, at least in the one day arena, improved fitness is being increasingly cited by the players themselves as the reason for some of their very good recent wins. Which then raises the question - do you start focusing on fitness after half your cricketing career is over, or before you even make it to the team? I remember a year ago, Wright suggested that there should be state level coaches - working in tandem with the national coach - so that cricketers at the college, first division and state levels came through the ranks fully fit for international cricket. Like so many other sensible suggestions made down the years, this one is gathering dust in a filing cabinet someplace.

I always read your columns on cricket and it's right, your columns on cricket have significantly reduced. I appreciate your cricket acumen which is reflected through your columns.

I have a qurestion to ask: Even a 5 year kid in India knows that the reason of our miserable performances abroad is because of lack of fast and bouncy pitches in India. In spite of the reason being well known, what do you reckon our authorities still persists to make slower and more slower pitches in India?

Arun

Prem Panicker: It has become one of those vicious circles, actually. Take a state level captain - when he is getting ready to play a Ranji match, if the match is on his home ground, he tells the curator he wants the deadest pitch possible. Because he can then focus on batting on forever in the hope of getting the first innings lead, and the points that go with it - which is easier to plan for than winning a match by bowling out the opposition twice. Also, selectors pick players on the basis of how many runs they have to their names - so again, it becomes in the best interests of the batsmen (and most captains are batsmen anyway) to make sure the pitches they play on are the kind on which they can pile up triple centuries. Actually, consider this - every Ranji season sees a triple century or three. Yet, in all these years, we are yet to score a single triple at the top level. As for the authorities themselves, they don't do anything that smacks of hard work - and planning, then working towards, the character of the major grounds in India is hard work. If they want to, they can - check out the Patiala stadium, which is now comparable, in terms of ground and facilities, to the best in the world, as an example

Well, good to see you back, even if temporarily, in the cricket pages!

I have something related that I find very troublesome with our world-class batsmen when it comes to batting with our tailenders. In almost every other team, I noticed that the top order batsmen tries to shield the lower order batsmen as much as possible, and try to have more oportunities to score runs himself, for the team. Recently, Sarwan (I can't exactly recall who) in one of the Tests in India, batted fabulously with his tailenders, even refusing singles in the first 3-4 deiveries, thereby sacrificing his own total for the sake of the team. And Indian batsmen, even of the caliber of Tendulkar, take singles of the very first ball when the other batsmen is an Agarkar or Harbhajan or Zaheer or whatever tailender.

I just cant understand this mentalitly! And it makes me very very upset at these top order batsmen. They want to stay safe away from the Bonds and Tuffeys and let the tailenders face the music, even if it means these tailenders get out quick, much to the detriment of the team. Does the team management give strict instructions to *refuse* singles in the first 3-4 deliveries, even if it means having a lower personal score?

Dravid did that in the first innings here - I sent an email to your colleague Faisal recently when he was commenting positively on how Dravid, with the score being 50-60 something for 5 wickets, as a vice captain thought Parthiv Patel was playing the bowlers so good that he allowed Patel to face most of the bowling by taking runs of the very 1-2 deliveries.

This is appalling! When Tendulkar, Ganguly, Laxman, et all persihed so cheap just an hour ago, it is downright stupid for Dravid to think that an inexperienced Parthiv can be exposed to the same bowlers, on the same pitch, an hour or so later, and expect him to perform! And as it happened, Parthiv got out soon thereafter, followed by the tail (actually in this innings the tail did a better job than the head!).

In the second innings it was Tendulkar who did this! He was so eager to go past 50 so that *his* reputation remains intact (and if you look at how the commentators/columnists like SunnyG and Srikanth have lambasted every other batsmen except Dravid and Tendulkar after this frst test, it is so obvious that these players value their personal accomplishments more than the team's), that he was taking runs off the first 1-2 deliveries of the over, *even* when Zaheer or Harbhajan have just arrived at the crease!  Shame on such performance. The 51 of Tendulkar and 70 or so of Dravid in this match should be criticised for putting their performance ahead of the team's.

I mean, imagine you are Dravid batting with Harbhajan, with India at 90/7. Ok, harbhajan faced some 30-odd deliveries, and he seems to be hanging in there. Even seems confident. But what is the reality? Will he be able to remain confident for a long time and so should you let him face more bowling, or given your knowledge that Harbhajan has rarely, if ever, scored much in the past, and *you* being the better batsmen, should thank Harbhajan for being confident and giving you good *support*, thereby enabling you to score more by facing more bowling? Common sense tells me, if I am playing for the team, I will pat Harbhajan on the back for just sticking around, I will face most of the bowling, and do most of the scoring, and look to build the team total.

But not Dravid or Tendulkar. Let the weak face the music.

And the media also seems to not understand how important it is to shield tailenders (and it is ridiculous to say that just because Agarkar scored a century once, or Srinath scored 50 in 1988 or whatever, they are accomlished batsmen, and so *should* be made to contribute with the bat, even when playing along with a senior batsmen.)

In my opinion, if these bowlers make some runs, we should look at it as a bonus. If a senior player is playing with a tailender, he should take it as an opportunity to face more deliveries *himself*, and make more runs for the team, instead of running away to the safety of the non-strikers end and then blaming the tailenders for not contributing runs. How many of the batsmen actually contribute with the ball? And once-in-blue-moon performances dont count.  How come no one ever hears a hue and cry as how Laxman or Tendulkar or Ganguly never bowl much and take wickets? Their performance with the ball is as flukish as Srinath's with the bat.

There is no point saying the tailenders of Aus or SA contribute so much, so why dont we expect the same from Indian tailenders. Well and dandy to say so, but since the reality is otherwise, it is downright silly to not take any preventive/remedial action, or have a workaround. Our openers are equally pathetic, all our batsmen have no clue on how to bat on bouncy pitches, but we live with them. Similarly, our tailenders can't bat much, so live with it, and prepare to use your frontline batsmen more. Just cant throw their hands up and say I give up.

I hope Wright gives a diktat to these guys that if they do not shield the tailenders, then they will face the music or whatever.

Yeah, I know this is a long winded email, but this has really been bothering me, and I haven't seen much of the media taking the batsmen to task on this.

Satya

Prem Panicker responds: Hi, Satya, good to hear from you. It seems a shame, when you have written such a long mail, for me to simply say I agree. But I do - and there really seems little to add to what you said.

Is it really fair to bash Agarkar for every ill that is Indian cricket? What about nehra, the great swing bowler..who hasn't really delivered anywhere after the Zimbabwe tour. While conceding that Agarkar hasn't really set the world on fire one should also concede that he is extremely unlucky...getting catches dropped (Laxman dropped a sitter just the other day)..edges a plenty.one thinks he isn't being handled properly. Basically he is an attacking individual who must be given the new ball with a packed slip cordon..remember the first year of his debut when he took all those wickets was with the new ball, he seems to suffer from alack of confidence after all when you are on the verge of being dropped every other match you can't really perform.

Lastly one look at the list of the quickest to 50 wickets in ODIs(albeit a different version from test cricket) will tell you that not a single bowler in the list is a useless one..we have serious talent here and he needs to be nurtered and protected.