You can not critisize Laxman. I feel nobody there in the world to match his Caliber. He is the most Perfect Player . If You want to enjoy the cricket you have watch Laxman Defensive Plays, Wrishty shots, Pulls, Drives.
If we Compare Afrid and Laxman both are Same Ht but technically ,Laxman is the Best. Our People do not know how to make afrid out . Thats way he became famous. I do not need sixes or Fours but beuatiful drives, defensive shot which makes the bowler to bite nails
Under the guidance of Skipper Saurav Ganguly, India has found the best of 11 and even the worst of 11. If Players who dont play properly for a minimum of 3 matches (Like Lakshman who plays only once in a century), should be kicked out in public. This should also apply to Ganguly. All Adverstisements should stop featuring the cricketers. There should be a ban that cricketers cant take part in advertisements or movies. then u will get to see the best of Indian 11, irrespective of the captain.
Take my word Mr Woolmer and all cricket fans and pundits: Australia will win World Cup 2007 as convincingly as they did in 2003!!! Based on current form Pakistan seems the only threat to Aussies. India is no where near to posing a threat to the top teams like Aus and Pak. Mark my words, India will not even make it to the semi-finals. Unless something major major major happens, it would be the Aussies all the way!!
Mr. Woolmer, not only Irfan can bat, all of the 11 can bat. All of them have scored runs at some point of time even Nehra. I would call him the weakest batsman. The problem is the tail is not given enough batting practice. good idea would be to promote tail enders to up the order when batsmen like ganguly are tottering..... atleast like a situation when the series has already decided. this would be better than giving chances to newbies.
Mr. Woolmer I had an opinion that you are keen observer of every single thing. It is only now you realised Irfan can bat ? Harbajan can bat, Balaji can bat, Zaheer can bat, Nehra i would bet 50 50 . Vivek
Bob has summarized the essence of the cricket in one piece. After these endless debates about India's performance it is refreshing to read somethig which is so objective, realistic and free of emotions and preconcieved notions.
I think what India needs is to have players who can win the matches as a team ,and not individual greats. We do not need any comparison of our players with any great player of the past or present, but individually they should feel that their individual score does not any meaning unless the team wins the match. Players like Shahid Afridi or Salman Bhatt ,Mathew Hayden or Adam Gilghrist or Ricky pointing do not figure in any of the top rankings for a long time nor they do bother . But here the accent is given to top individual ranking and not to team winning relating to that score. Even if every player score 50 or so ,still the match can be won by giving a collective performance. Cricket authorities should consider giving "men of the match" instead of " man of the match".
Following batting lineup start will solve all the problems: 1. Sehwag (lefty-righty combo, depth in batting, dada's form will improve) 2. Ganguly 3. Dravid (solidity to batting) 4. Tendulkar (will strengthen the middle order, will get more time to rethink the strategy, tendulkar factor) 5. Yuvraj 6. Kaif (no comments) 7. Rest ....
Both Bob and Javed.....our friends from across the border have great insight into what the Indian team has in terms of strengths and weaknesses. I appreciate their honesty and openess. Hopefully our coaches, managers and the selection committee take to heart what is being said by them. I think either Javed or Bobbie would make superb additions to our coaching and managerial staff. Frank Cherian, USA
I am sorry Wolmer, most indians are three dimensional. What India needs is thinking cricketers.
They do what the coach tells them to(like the old English cricket team. Paper work). Cricketers need to improvise in the field. The bowling department is especially worse. They are in a soup with different kinds of pitches.
Also team select is poor. Most batsman in the world dont know how to play away going delivery. Thats why Warne, Vettori and Murali(Doosra) are such great bowlers. India does need either a genuine leg spinner(no no not kumble. Enugh he has played a lot) or a good left arm spinner(no no not murali karthik. Neetu David flights the ball much better than Karthik).
