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India’s recent failures in one-day cricket have raised doubts about Greg Chappell’s tactics and Rahul Dravid’s authority, writes
Abhijit Chatterjee
Team India’s preparations for the upcoming Champions Trophy (and the 2007 World Cup) suffered another setback as Rahul Dravid’s side failed to reach the final of the cricket tri-series in Kuala Lumpur. Playing their first tournament since the stunning 1-4 series loss to the West Indies, the Indians were again unable to regain the form that made them a formidable one-day team in the past year or so. The much-vaunted batting line-up failed to chase a modest Australian total of 213 in the last league match. A win would have taken India, the hosts of the off-shore tournament, into the final against the West Indies. But that was not to be. The Indian team collapsed like the proverbial house of cards in a replay of an all-too-familiar situation. A full-strength India lost to Australia even though the latter were without some of their key players, such as Adam Gilchrist and Mitchell Johnson. India were able to reach a total of 195 largely due to the efforts of comeback man Dinesh Mongia, who made his presence felt with an unbeaten 63 after bowling a tidy spell of nine overs in which he claimed one for 43. One feels that the selectors have not exactly been fair with Mongia in the past. The Indian top order — the envy of other teams — failed three times on the trot in the tournament. The main reason for India’s poor show — one win in four matches — was the miserable display by the batsmen, barring an odd sparkling performance. Now it is for the team think-tank, particularly coach Greg Chappell, to find out what exactly went wrong with the batting in Kuala Lumpur. Was it lack of match practice since the Indians had not played competitive cricket after their return from the West Indies? Or was there some other reason for the batting fiasco? Of course, the good news is the return of SachinTendulkar, who after missing 13 one-day matches due to a shoulder injury, cracked his 40th one-day century in the first match against the West Indies (The knock went in vain as the Windies were adjudged winners according to the Duckworth-Lewis method). Throughout the tournament, Sachin displayed excellent form and temperament, which augurs well for the team as it prepares for the Champions Trophy at home and the 2007 World Cup in the West Indies. The person who should take most of the blame for India’s poor show is Chappell. The way he kept changing and shuffling India’s batting order is a cause for concern. Asking Rahul Dravid, arguably one of the best one-drop batsman in contemporary cricket, to open is not showing good cricketing sense even if the Indian captain has had some success in this position. Maybe, the time has come for the Indian captain to be more assertive just like his predecessor Sourav Ganguly. As former cricketer Ravi Shastri said after the tournament, the Indian captain ought to speak his mind and not let the coach decide everything for the team both on and off the field. Chappell’s handling of Irfan Pathan has been shoddy. The speedster has lost his confidence while bowling and now apparently does not know whether he is a bowler who can bat or a batsman who can bowl. One wonders whether Chappell is doing anything to boost the player’s morale. It will take quite a while before the Baroda speedster regains his form. He is undoubtedly India’s pace spearhead (bowlers like Rudra Pratap Singh look pedestrian for most of the time). Pathan has great potential and it is up to the coach to use him most effectively. But more important than all this is the miserable run Virender Sehwag is having with the bat. Sehwag’s last one-day century came 43 games back, against Pakistan on April 2, 2005, at Kochi. Since then he has groped and fumbled with the bat, adding to the woes of the Indian team. In Kuala Lumpur, his batting order was repeatedly shuffled, thanks to Chappell’s experimentation. Experts and former Test players are of the view that the coach should let the Delhi batsman play his natural game, and that too as an opener, a position he is most comfortable in, because the day he comes good he can win any match for India single-handedly. A batsman of the class and calibre of Sehwag cannot be ruled by the coaching manual and he should be left to bat the way he does. Players like Yuvraj Singh, Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Mohammad Kaif will have to bring in more responsibility into their game and they might as well take a leaf from the book of Suresh Raina, who has made the most of every opportunity. The way Dinesh Mongia came good after replacing his out-of-form Punjab team-mate Yuvraj is a good lesson for all concerned. Mongia, who was playing international cricket after 17 months, held the fort against Australia even as other batsmen failed to get going. The knock should do wonders to the confidence of the Chandigarh player, who knew he had to deliver for securing his place in the squad. It seems that his stint on the English county circuit has done him a world of good. Despite the hiccups, India have the strength to bounce back. They will get a chance to do so in front of home crowds in the Champions Trophy. The focus will be on the batsmen on the placid strips, while the bowlers, who performed reasonably well in Kuala Lumpur, are likely to play a secondary role. However, for starters, Chappell should take a hard look on the fringe talent on display in the Challenger Trophy, which begins tomorrow, for building a reserve pool. The coach can come up with innovative training methods prior to every tournament, but he has to produce results when it matters the most.
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For Hanif Khan, the mere mention of Pakistan’s glorious hockey past brings tears to his eyes and he is briefly unable to discuss the sport he still loves. “Don’t talk about hockey. I am so disappointed that I play tennis now,” says the 49-year-old Khan, a member of Pakistan’s last Olympic gold-medal winning team of 1984. “It’s useless to talk about a sport where signs of improvement are like sighting a polar bear in a desert.” Yet Khan still travels around 80 miles a day from his office in the remote town of Hub to the southern city of Karachi to train and finance some 40 up-and-coming hockey players, in the hope they will rise to represent Pakistan. Khan was part of Pakistan’s team during their golden years, which saw them winning three Olympic and four world titles. But the past decade has seen a major slump, not only in Pakistan but throughout South Asia. “Asia was the dominant force but politics, lack of planning and following the European style have led to hockey’s downfall, especially in Pakistan and India,” said Khan. The region’s continuous slide at the international level continued at the recently concluded World Cup at Monchengladbach, Germany, where none of the Asian teams finished on the podium. Germany clinched their second successive world title, while Olympic champions Australia finished second and European champions Spain secured the bronze medal. South Korea finished as the best among the Asian nations in fourth position, while Pakistan were sixth, Japan ninth and once-great India slumped to 11th. For a nation with the most Olympic hockey titles — winning the gold eight times but not since 1980 — players and fans say India’s abysmal hockey run is little short of tragic. “The Indian team’s performance in the World Cup is bitter to swallow. Far from fighting to be the best in Asia, the team is now fourth among the continent’s challengers, even behind newcomers Japan,” wrote former Olympian Pargat Singh in a newspaper column. He said the authorities must stand up and take the blame. “While this is a wake-up call for the whole fraternity, there should be somebody up there ready to take the blame for this pathetic fall,” he wrote. Despite calls to step down, India’s hockey chief KPS Gill has remained adamant that the future is bright and has refused to relinquish his post. Former Pakistani Olympian Mansoor Ahmed said the governments of sports-mad India and Pakistan needed to step in and take combined action to stem the rot. “Governments should appoint people who know hockey,” said Ahmed. “India has a hockey supremo who doesn’t know the sport and as the famous adage goes: a victory has many fathers but a defeat is an orphan. Hockey has lost fans,” said Ahmed. “Both governments should give jobs to hockey players because youths will not take up a sport where they can’t earn money. Instead they play cricket where they earn a livelihood,” said Ahmed. Cricket’s huge popularity in South Asia has pushed hockey hard. The streets of Mumbai, Kolkata, Karachi and Lahore are full of young people playing with crude makeshift bats and taped-up tennis balls, whereas hockey sticks are nowhere to be seen. It was not the case once, but a number of factors have pushed hockey into a tight corner, including (in Pakistan) the rock star-like fame in the 1980s of cricketers such as Imran Khan and Javed Miandad. The lack of expensive Astro-turf pitches has also been a problem. But not everyone blames cricket for the decline in hockey standards. “It is a fact that cricket is more popular than hockey, but has cricket stopped hockey from flourishing,” questioned former Pakistan captain and coach Islahuddin Siddiqui. “Players and hockey authorities are to blame for the downslide and if we don’t take steps quickly, the game is in serious danger because South Asian hockey needs a lift for the betterment of international hockey,” stated Siddiqui. No Asian country has won an Olympic gold since Pakistan’s 1984 triumph in Los Angeles. Pakistan’s 1994 win in Sydney was the last time an Asian team won a world title.
— AFP |
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IN THE NEWS Wonderful” — that’s how former world number one Martina Hingis described her experience of playing in the Sunfeast Open in Kolkata. Enjoying a lot of crowd support in the City of Joy, the “Swiss Miss” said her most memorable moment during the tennis tournament was playing against Sania Mirza in the semifinal. “You could just feel the atmosphere, the intensity. It is for moments like these that athletes long for,” Hingis exclaimed. Having only won in Rome after her comeback, she said: “This is only my second title this year and so naturally it is special. Being my first event in India makes it even more special.” Asked whether she will be back next year, Hingis said with a smile: “Next year is a long way off. But it’s only logical to want to defend a title.” She has taken back great memories from her first trip to India, including a visit to Mother House. “There are lots of memories, but in the end it is the sport that
matters,” she said. Sania, who won the women’s doubles title in the tournament with South Africa’s Liezel Huber, said she looked upon Huber as a close friend and mentor. “She is a great friend and a great doubles partner. I learnt a lot from her, though she hates me for saying that she is my mentor. She has taught me how to carry myself, on and off the court. As far as doubles goes, you learn such a lot when you play with people with so much experience,” said Sania. The Hyderabadi girl hoped that she would claim the singles title in the next edition of the Sunfeast Open.
— Agencies |
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Poor show in World Cup The Indian team’s poor performance in the World Cup has been a big letdown for hockey fans in the country. The only sport which has fetched India several gold medals at the Olympics, hockey is now at its nadir. In Monchengladbach, the team could not win any of its five group matches. The only win came in the playoff against South Africa (1-0), whereby India avoided the booby prize — a poor consolation. A “postmortem” of the team’s performance reveals loopholes and shortcomings on all fronts. Foremost was the lack of stamina, obvious from the fact that initial advantages were frittered away by conceding late goals. Solid defence, killer instinct, coordination and discipline were conspicuously lacking. The forwards were largely unable to force penalty corners or convert them when opportunities came their way. It is high time the present set-up at the helm makes way for another. D.K. Aggarwala,
Hoshiarpur Batting fiasco The Indian cricket team failed again to deliver the goods when they had got a golden chance to beat three-time world champions Australia in Kuala Lumpur. The top-order batsmen again came a cropper and were out cheaply, be it Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid or Mahendra Singh Dhoni. Dravid should lead from the front and avoid blaming others for the team’s failures. Greg Chappell’s contract should be cancelled and his job should be assigned to a former Indian player. Subhash C. Taneja,
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