In one dayers, Sachin was a hit out or get out case till recently. It *was* Ganguly who used to carry his bat to near full quota of overs. Moreover, these days, no one knows who is going to bat beautifully on a given day unlike yesteryears. Of course, Ganguly does not bat that well these days. In any case, Sachin cannot match Ganguly in man-management skills. We don't need lakhs and lakhs of run from an individual that does not fetch anything to the team's cause. We only need contributions from all that wins the match for India. And everyone in the world knows who is the master who made India look like a *team*.
Someone MUST take on the EXTRAORDINARY bias and downright unprofessional and unethical maligning and brain washing carried out by the Australian mediain general and Tony Grieg in particular.
They simply misrepresent and downright lie while accusing the Indian team and players of all sorts of non-existent crimes, sins and weaknesses. While the Aussies can do no wrong !
How can the Indian media leave such people alone. And now they have clearly been joined by Bucknor (and some would say his West Indian compatriot Clive Lloyd).
Someone should remind them that if it wasn't for the sub-continent they would all be UNEMPLOYED. It's time Pakistan-India-Sri-Lanka existed their hard earned clout to DEMAND fairness all around ! And the Indian media MUST STEP UP. (A. Sharan from the USA)
No dought in my mind that yuvraj is excelent talent see the Indian Team in 2000 and 2004 its much more simillar team as we have there but main diffrence is in that tour we have youngsters who doesnt perform that well on only in that tour but in the era of Azhar and in todays team even deebutant like Rohan Gavaskar use to perform ... The main diffrence to me is Captain.. why in Azhars and even when Tendulkar was captain Youngster aren't able to perform and why in Gangulys era they are performing just like a matured palyers Captain Captain Ganguly shows faith on his youngster and they triedd there best to perform well and he is using there talend well and most imp this he is supporting them its main thing everybosy knows what happens with Yuvraj when he got lots of failure after one or two excellent innings he just lost his rithem but ganguly supports him ver very very well and its the Ganguly only who was responsible to cont. him in the team and now everybody is watching result.. no dought today we have sandy groden but we should give due credit to ganguly for excelent work of his India rarely has such a Captain Hats off to Sourav Chandidas Ganguly and party keep it up
Isn't anybody going to say anything about the fact that Australia hadn't been docked a single over for being almost 25 minutes over their RAIN ADJUSTED end of innings while they were bowling?? What was Clive Lloyd doing? He can be strict when it comes to ball tampering charges against the Indians, but even such a basic match refree duty escapes his attention. All because the all-white Aussie team is the culprit!
And what about the obvious hostility shown by Bucknor towards the Indian camp? When Yuvraj pulled out of a delivery while Symonds was bowling, Bucknor gesticulates wildly and ridicules Yuvraj with his expressions. Yuvraj is within his right to pull out if he doesn't feel that he is set for the delivery.
And the basic right of the batsman to change is bat was denied to Yuvraj by Bucknor. He was told to return to the batting crease in an unneccessarily peremptory and arrogant fashion.
I'm not even going to go into the wides that were given to the Aussies and denied to us. The few runs here and there in the end made the difference.
If the ICC does not remove Bucknor from his lordly perch, then the BCCI should not allow him to stand as an umpire for India.
I firmly believe we play better without Sachin. The team without Tendulkar shows better fighting spirit and it is heartening to see that even today we lost the match, we fought tooth and nail till the last ball, and this is what matters. We like players who produce the goods when the chips are down and not only play well when all is going well. I wish the team a lot of hard work and of-course better luck (better than the kind of rotten luck the team had today- please how many more chances does Mr Patel have to let go before being replaced, why is he being persisted with, it is embarresing for us viewers to see him keep wickets) Nakul Goswami Xavier Institute Of Management Bhubaneswar Orissa
Prem, Faizal: Look who is talking. Guys like Tony Greig and Peter Roebuck damning Dravid looks like Satanic Versus. Tony I remember was the captain of the MCC team that toured India with John "Vaseline" Lever and Peter always have saddistic pleasure in finding fault with the touring team rather than focussing on weak points of their own side, but his comments that "many australian players were wondering how indian bowlers are able to swing the old ball, and now we know why"...seems a bit too far...if the TVs can catch actions now, why did not they catch anything when they got hammered in the test matches and all of a sudden, they find excuse for their loss...please write a piece on this (if you think it is required)...but we are very much upset the way the issue is blowing out, particularly when our team is doing well and Rahul did not do any crime...regards.
RE:Ball tampering issue
by Ajay Balan on Jan 23, 2004 10:44 PM
I agree completly. Why did Bedi lose his county contract after he exposed Tony Grieg and John Lever? those losers in the BCCI will never stand up for our players. Look at how CA stood up for Mark Waugh and Shane Warne after the betting scandal. I think as the country which provides most revenue to the ICC in terms of TV rights and Sponsorship, we should have more clout and influence..
Did I just see you write, "Time was, if this team had no Tendulkar in it and Ganguly went cheap, it would fold in abject fashion."
Since when is Ganguly the second most reliable batsmen in the side? NEVER. Can you hear me ... N-E-V-E-R!!!!!!!!
It has always been Sachin and Sachin alone. I agree with all the other points made. Still, you could have avoided the 'ganguly' bit. It was unnecessary.
If it hadn't been for Lloyd's arrogant remarks, one would have let this incident past. His contention that Dravid had tampered with the ball because he was found guilty is putting the cart before the horse: It is like saying that he was guilty because he was punished. But a lot of innocent people are punished; this is another instance of miscarriage of justice. Lloyd concedes that saliva and sweat could be applied to the ball. What if you had a coloured soft drink just before applying the saliva and some of the colour stained the ball. Or, what if you had a cough lozenge in your mouth (as happened in this case) and the colour from it ACCIDENTALLY (meaning, unintentionally) stained the ball. Of course, Dravid was foolish in trying to remove it himself; the easiest thing would have been to take it to the umpires and let them deal with it. Or let Clive Lloyd remove it. As Prem Panicker wrote in ReDiff, we don't seem to have learnt from Sachin's experience in South Africa. These are the areas in which the BCCI should give the players some lessons. Ponting is right is saying that no Australian player would ever be caught doing anything like this. Australian Academy trains them in dealing with the media, with stress, with sledging, and a host of routine matters in addition to cricketing lessons. There should be standing instructions to the Indian players: anything to do with the ball - let the umpires worry about it. There is another lesson to be learnt from this incident as in the Mike Denness affair (By the way what ever happened to that. Why has that never been resolved?) There is another lesson for all of us. Many of these great cricketers we have admired over the years, like Clive Lloyd, have feet of clay. They are petty bureaucrats; give them the tiniest bit of authority, they will abuse it. We had better learn to choose our Gods with greater care. I am sure Dravid is strong enough to brush this aside and go on with his game.
