The Michael Holding column

PANKAJ JAJU: apa@bom2.vsnl.net.in: Smart Guy, this Michael Holding. No wonders, he is one of the most respected commentators around!

Srikanth: bhuvana67@aol.com: As Mikey Holding says, India is definitely packed with talent. But what use is it if it is not used to full potential. If the last few matches are any indication, I won't place a bet on India even clearing the supersix league matches. What we need is strong leadership, motivating each and every player to play to his full potential, the captain leading by example. I don't see that happening now. I hope I am proved wrong, though.

Shilpa: Shilpa-d@usa.net: I agree with Michael Holding.

Prasad Shetty: prashe99@hotmail.com: Yes, But the warmup games are crucial . A feel for the conditions will be a make it or break it with some of the new guys and also Tendulkar and Azar both having been rusty of late and the key bowlers being in the injuries list of late .

Sunny: sunny123@netzero.net: I believe what Mike says about the starstudded Indian team is really true. With sachin and ganguly forming the best opening pair in the world, with the most experienced Azhar coming in and beefed up middle order of jadeja, Robin and Mongia- we got a solid batting order. Srinath, Agarkar, Venkatesh and Mohanty as a backup with Kumble is also a good bowling order with occasional jadeja, Robin or even sachin with his offbreaks fooling batsmen. If all them prove their worth in the world cup, India has won it! And with recent showing of Sri lanka casts a doubt at their chances in the super six, but you can't just ignore the world champs! But India again with South Africa and Australia has a really good chance at the trophy. And mike thanks for telling me where to put my dough;-)

Krish: kitcha@rediffmail.com: Let the Indian team buy ticket to England via Sharjah & go out & out to get as much acclimatization possible, Indians could never play well in cold English climate.

Srini: Srin@hotmail.com: Nonsense

Gururaj.K.Parvati: Gururaj.K.Parvathi@tek.com: He is sounding really over optimistic. Indians I am afraid dont have the capability to excel under stress condition. This they have proved time and agains Pakistan. My vote goes to Pakis. I pray GOD and hope that India wins but as far as my money is concerned I would put it on Pakis. ALL THE BEST TO INDIA. GOD HELP INDIAN CRICKET.

Dr. Gurmukh Advani: dradvani@vsnl.com: It all depends on India going to Engkand early, acclimatisation and acquaintance of the conditions and pitches is a must. The batsmen are there, so i guess the bowlers are they key and need to perform in the conditions. Roger Binnys, Amarnaths, Sandhus won us the last world cup. Any Sandhu here who can castle the likes of Greenidge with a wicked inswinger to castle his gates.? If yes, Put my money along with you Mikey when the bookmakers open, I am with you

Puneet Kapoor: vwwipl@hotmail.com: i think Micheal Holding is very much right about the Indian Team.



dravid: dravid1@hotmail.com: Jadeja seemed good at first, but azhar sure is the better one at the moment. I want India to win badly. I have bought the semi finals tickets and I want to see with my eyes Sachin and Ganguly shake UK. God, please be with us this one time.

shivendra gupta: shiven@rediffmail.com: Holding is actually speaking the truth when he says India has the right combi nation to lift the Worldcup.



The Michael Holding column:
Sunil Talwar: stalwar782@aol.com: Yes,he is very much justified, but we lack on three counts. 1. We lack the intensity to win. 2. Azhar is nither very aggressive nor a great motivator. He cannot be called even a shrewd captain. This has beemaking a big difference between wunnung and loosing and will matter a great deal in WC99. 3. Besides Sachin, we do not have real blaster, who can accelrate.

Anand Rao: parao@hotmail.com: Good Lord !! Michael Holding must have received $100,000 from BCCI to talk this. India making the II round will mean more than winning the championship. If the Bookies have sense.. they should go for SA ..even Scotland but not India. Bye.

Murali: murali@ihpc.nus.edu.sg: Good nice article. Yes. Holding justified. This new feature is very good for sending any feedbacks. Thanks for this. K.Murali

CricFreak: crickFreak@excite.com: Absolutely not. He is just over-exaggerating things. But, again, all of this is not new to us. Is it ?

Manoj: mano_j@hotmail.com: I think Mikey is very optimistic. Our Bowling Department is still flaky and our batsmen very unrelaible. Offcourse our fielding is quite a concern AG has got lot of work to do.

Thirupathi K Narayanan: tks86@hotmail.com: Yes! I completely agree with Holding's conditions with the only doubt being inexperience in English conditions

vkris: venkat_krishna@hotmail.com: oh ya very much ,every alphabet in the article needs to be taken cared of like fitness,english conditions ,and seamless coming together of players ,i can already see the cup on it's way to india ha ha ha

Abhijeet Bagade: abagade@bigfoot.com: I sure agree that Inida needs to be in England way before than what they plan to do.

Umar Chaudhri: ufchi@eden.rutgers.edu: WEll..Indian batting has always been strong on paper...but what results have they produced over the past five years or even beyond? I think the Indian team's biggest weakness is their lack of temprament and steadfastness under pressure. Also, the Indian bowling is quite vulnerable Srinath, Prasad and Kumble (and Agarkar) might be very good on their own day but are difinitely not consistently good. Also, if India's dependency on Tendulkar's batting adds to their vulnerability. I would put my bets on South Africa and Australia as the top two contenders and PAksitan as ranked third. But, one team to watch out will be England. Though, they have performed dismally in the past I think they'll be the surprise team for the tournament.

Umar Chaudhri: ufchi@eden.rutgers.edu: WEll..Indian batting has always been strong on paper...but what results have they produced over the past five years or even beyond? I think the Indian team's biggest weakness is their lack of temprament and steadfastness under pressure. Also, the Indian bowling is quite vulnerable Srinath, Prasad and Kumble (and Agarkar) might be very good on their own day but are difinitely not consistently good. Also, if India's dependency on Tendulkar's batting adds to their vulnerability. I would put my bets on South Africa and Australia as the top two contenders and PAksitan as ranked third. But, one team to watch out will be England. Though, they have performed dismally in the past I think they'll be the surprise team for the tournament.

ajay : ajay@hindu.com: i think "mikey"maan was drunk when he wrote this article. maan should know we just got our behind kicked by pakistani team. i wish he is right, but it's just but i dont think so

Ad: chessmaniacs@yahoo.com: No, I do not think that things are very rosy for India. After the recent series of defeats at the hands of Pakistan, the lesson to be learnt is that the Indian team not only needs a lot of practice but also concentration and the will to really make it. The Indian team really lacked badly, the killing instinct as also the concentration required to make it through the matches. So I personally feel that India wil not stand a clear advantage. though it might be a good team to be reckon with.

Sudheendra G Sampath: sudhe@hotmail.com: I absolutely agree with the great Micheal Holding. But the main thing that is missing among our Indian Cricketers is the killer instinct that Pakistan players has. That might prove to be a important factor.

Vivek Chopra: vivek_ntu@hotmail.com: Yeah I guess he is very much right in what he says and its all truth but then it depends on the indian board and their strategies. Once Indian players come to know about the pitches there, I think they can do wonders this time and there won't be any problem in getting the trophy "WORLD CUP" to India once again after 16 years.

Dinesh: achari@hotmail.com: Mikey Holding is always correct in his assesment. But this Indian team lacks determination when it comes to crunch, you need something more than talent to win pressure cooker like situations. Dinesh

Venkatesh: vviswanath@rsc.ramco.com: I feel what Michael Holding says is very true on paper. But the reality is when it comes to the crux, the percentage of delivery from Indian Batsmen other than Sachin Tendulkar, has always been awfully low and examples of that could be the recent Pepsi Cup where Indians meekly surrendered without a fight. One more disadvantage is that most of the team members if not all have not played in England for a long time. This is very crucial as they need to adapt themselves to the wicket and ground conditions. The opening encounter with the giants (South Africa) is going to be tough. I would say that India will be doing well if they win their first match. But at heart, I wish and pray that whatever Michael Holding says comes true. Venkatesh

krishnanand: krish1224@aol.com: misplaced!!

shyam gadam: shyamgadam@yahoo.com: I think india is a good team but it needs a leader who will lead from the front, like sachin.

Sreeganesh: krsg@yahoo.com: It's nice to read the thoughts of one of the greatest players to have played cricket and understand that India stand a good chance provided they get accustomed to the english conditions But I'm sorry to say that it is not enough-agreed India has talent but they have not kept upto the expectation-Mental toughness is something that's required and the Indian team definitely lacks that. The Proof is there to see- we have been losing badly this year after a so called Good 98 winning tournaments only in subcontinent pitches. They have lost against Zimbabwe,Newzealand and allother second rank teams and the captain and the others still keep saying that we tried our best...we should have won... etc Now that doesn't show the mental strength at all. Unless something drasctically is worked out , India forever is going to remain as a team which are and can be good only at home and not anywhere else.Irony is , Palistan have beaten us at home in both tests and One-days. If there's one man who can do it - well everybody knows him and lets pray that he does some sort of a near miracle to get the team closer or even win the world cup Thanks

Rajeev Shrivastava: rajeev_sh@hotmail.com: Holding is absolutely correct but our team is strong only on papers,they niether consistent nor have killer stinct.

Ojas Patel : ojaspatel@hotmail.com: Mickey, Your unbridled admiration seems justified if the WC is given to the team with the most combined talent of its individual players. But alas, in my dear India's case the team's worth is actually less than the total of its parts. We usually funtion as super players waging lone battles. No team work for us. You'd be happy to know that Azza n Co are going to Brithy a full 3 weeks before the Cup. But that wont prevent you, my dear friend, from losing money to the book makers. 1983 comes only once. All my luck though, Ojas.

Geoffrey George: georgegeoffrey@netscape.net: I hope that his comments become the truth !!!

Asif Jiwani: asif_jiwani@hotmail.com: Wow, he is way of the mark. I think he is trying to be nice, afterall he is writing for an Indian newspaper. I would rather put my money on Zimbabwe than on India.

vikram sadineni: s_vikram@yahoo.com: I know india is unpredictable but a strong comment from this guy makes it more satisfying.

aditya : aahuja8111@aol.com: India have always been a strong team on paper.The problem arises when they get cocky. Also, they tend loose hope very quickly. I believe mental toughness, patience and planning are the key to our success.

aseem : aseem@fart.com: I think he is crazy!!! total full-to yeda! scope hai kya? be realistic!

Puneet Bajpai: pbajpai@hotmail.com: I think that Mike is justified in backing India to win the tournament. [But]are we not all familiar with the "choke" mentality the Indian team has always had? India winning the finals is a long shot, but hey this is one day cricket so you never know. Lets just all keep our fingers crossed.

Shaun: shaun@cyberpcs.com: I love and support Indian team all the way, but has Mikey Holding watched the Pepsi Cup performance against Pakistan where our batsman looked scared against Pakistani attack and the team seemed lost without Sachin?

Nirav: nchokshi@mailcity.com: I think Mike is being a little more optimistic. However I like his point of views.

sujoy de: sujoy@dtix.com: Is there some way that the people who are scheduling the England trip for the Indian team, be made to read the comments of Micheal Holding? Or can the press drill it in the minds of these "concerned" people that the games in England will be as different as possible from the ones that are going to be held in Sharjah. So the sooner the Indian team leaves for England the better, even if they dont get to play against the County clubs they can at least get accustomed to the weather and practise at the nets. Sujoy

more