What is the Indian cricket missing ?

[mekin]

I am an avid cricket fan, and right now a disappointed Indian cricket fan.
After 2 losses & a potential exit from the World cup, its easy to find faults with the Indian cricket team. A lot of people are doing so 24X7, but to me most of their "analysis" seems shallow, just like out cricket board president's statements - "we need youngsters". If the

Comments

[priyatam]

The bottomline is, there isn't a passion for the sport anymore. Money, Fame, Religion, Community and Politics is all that makes this sport in India, where emotions are plenty and professionalism is fading

An all new 11 member-team picked from a Ranjis all over in India could perhaps do better with their passion to win. They are the real players.

[mythrocks]

Instead, he acted like a true politician, well its our fault that a politician and not a cricketer is heading our cricket board.

:] It is? Isn't the BCCI a private body, with no government affiliation? Isn't the Indian team technically the "BCCI-team"?

[rileen]

Ironically, were there to be such an election, the turnout may be much higher than that for the usual ones :-p

Good points, i'd add the need to provide testing conditions for batsmen while they are learning at the domestic level.

But we could add many things, the frustrating bottomline is that no substantial (and meaningful!) changes are likely to happen.

[mekin]

I agree ...
Way too many points..

What irks me most is that the BCCI shirks responsibility of this debacle & blames the 11 players & the coach.

The entire infrastructure needs a major overhaul.

Junior players need to get a lot more international exposure - counties, playing other A teams (or even minnows).

The Indian national team should not be the grooming ground for young talent. Right now, I don't know the name of a single promising youngster who might be tomorrow's Sachin or Dravid.

We, as a country, need to make cricket what it is - a sport. Play a lot more if it, watch a lot more of it - not just the national team's outings. Have a lot of good local competitions. Like an NBA or even the english county.

I wish some big media house starts seeing things this way & they get the Board officials under the scanner.
I wish ...

[rileen]

Play a lot more of it? Debatable - if you compare the domestic set ups in Australia and England, it can be argued that too much cricket could actually make it more of a "job" and reduce the passion/enjoyment.

As for watch more of it, again - not sure. Firstly, i'm not too keen on seeing the kind of "rivalry" that holds sway here among football clubs. Drunken supporters often behaving like bloodthirsty mobs. More support for local cricket, yes. But one would have to think of ways of making that happen.

Secondly - what of other sports? Cricket already dominates the money, media, public support, .... practically all important aspects in making a game popular, and attractive to future sportspersons.

Wouldn't playing and watching a lot more of this actually make it even worse for the other sports?

[mekin]

I meant play & watch more of it at the domestic levels.
Not just the national teams.

How many ranji/duleep matches see 5000 crickets sold ? None if no big stars are playing.

What I mean to say is that:
1. Stop hero-worshipping our national team.
2. Put up a system in place so that watching & playing cricket at all levels is more enjoyable - 20-20 might be the answer, I dont know.

Secondly - what of other sports? Cricket already dominates the money, media, public support, .... practically all important aspects in making a game popular, and attractive to future sportspersons.

I cant agree more.
We worship cricketers who are not in the top 8 teams, of a sport played barely in 14 countries.

We forget our world champions in Billiars, Snooker, Chess, Boxing, weightlifting.
We dont even compete in more global sports like Soccer.

Its a shame, but Indians are poor athletes, and again, I dont see much happening to change that.

Watch College Basketball

[grimknight]

I like it coz if a kid messes up on gameday, i can find him in class and whack him upside the head. its that simple. and ofcourse we can also get the coach drunk and kill him.

[anomalizer]

With all due respect, didn't everyone know the team sucked? Yes, we wanted to win but that should not preculde the fact that they sucked in general. I was never into cricket and it was kind of obvious that team is packed with slackers. To an average enthusiast, that didn't seem obvious for whatever reason. Watch Australia play and you see the sheer energy. Hit hard, hit hard everytime, run everytime. Watch the Indian team play it looks like the family astrologer has given standing instructions on when to do anything and the players won't act otherwise. You don't need to know one bit of cricket to spot the difference.

Again, I've been both anti Indian cricket and anti "pro Indian cricket folks" forever, so it is easy for me to say these things.