Many top experts are missing the point that streak of winning is required to get the top position in world cricket. Australia has been there for quite long and has managed to stay there. Did they too peak early??? They didn't peak only but have managed to keep that position with them. Then, why there are so many speculations if India winning most of the matches now. They too need to learn fetching top position and keep it with them. Let them do their job. Cricket is not only the world cup.
RE:Staying on top needs you to peak first
by Anand on Apr 25, 2006 10:44 AM
I agree with you. To be in the top a team needs to learn to win first. No team can ever peak "too early". What is Gooch trying to say? Just peak during world cup and fail for the rest of the time? England cricket must feel lucky not to have him in the team anymore. This fellow Gooch always has some fishy attitude about him. When England toured India in 1993 and went on to lose 3-0, he blamed the fog in Calcutta and bees in Chennai for defeats !!! Now he says teams must lose till world cup takes place and then suddenly start winning during world cup. As mentioned by you already, Aussies always keep winning, the only way to be the best team is to keep winning every tournament. India have definitely taken the first step in the right direction, but now must not experiment too much and stop the winning streak. They must learn to keep the momentum going and sustain the winning habit.
Gooch was a phenomenal batsman. He talked about 1992 world cup final. Give me a break. They blew-up a sitter and too be precide Mike Gatting. He unnecessarily tried reverse-sweep and was out. This English team did the same mistake sweep shots too many times. What you need is strong self-belief in own ability, not on someone else's abilities. If you have too much faith in someone else's belief then you get demoralized if that person fails.
India has not peaked yet, should not be afraid of "peaking" early. In fact, as the Australian team has shown over the past few years of domination in World cricket, there is no such think as peak, so long as u continue to find room for improvement at one place or other, and focus on getting better day after day.
India is no doubt a good team now, but the string of victories in the subcontinent have led to already being touted as a proof of its "top form". A good number of the youngsters who have raised our hopes recently are yet to be tested in the tough & varied conditions at pitches outside the subcontinent; we can only hope that the likes of Dhoni & Raina will be able to live up to our expectations in the hot sun of Abu Dhabi & the bouncy pitches in the Carribean, and even in South Africa later this year; that will really tell us whether we can still depend on our young blood, or it is worthwhile to call Ganguly back in..
Bollocks, Goochie talks as if he played in 3 world cup finals and coached his team to another two finals. These are comments by just another retired cricketer. We are playing good cricket and our players are doing well. That does not mean that we have peaked or will peak too soon. We still have lot of problems and in the next 20 or 25 onedayers before the world cup will give us enough time to sort out and rectify all the problems and make our team into a well oiled machine prepared to take on any team in the world. Yes especially on the day of Finals of the World cup 2007.
I disagree with Gooch here. Although winning the World Cip is important, I don't want to win the World Cup as Pakistan did in 1992. I would rather like India winning consistently till and beyond the World Cup and in the process if they win the World Cup as well then thats like a cherry on the cake.
Australia has been able to do right from late nineties up until now. They have been the most consistent team in last decade and that is how should try to be in next few years. No one talked about Australia peaking soon. They have been the best for more than 5 years now and no one talks about them peaking too soon, They have been on the peak for more than 5-6 years. I would like India to emulate Australia in terms of winning consistency.
World Cup is important but its not the ultimate goal.
