apart from the individual's merits which determines one's place in the team, the attitude, whether the team or the self is more important determines the success and the strength of the team.
People say that Kapil's era was the best of Indian cricket. That's laughable. How many Test series did we win during Kapil's era ? We were the punching bag of all teams at that time.
Our best era has been since the arrival of Sachin. Look at our achievements since then as a team -
1. We have won Test series against all Test playing nations. This is something we never accomplished previously.
2. We have won ODI series against all major nations.
3. We have won Test series in all but 3 countries - Sri Lanka, Australia and South Africa. We do have 2 Test series against South Africa coming up next year.
4. We have been the only team who defeated a full strength Australian team during the prime of their dominance. How many teams were able to win a Test series against the great West Indian team of the 80's ? India were whopped the West Indies in the 80's almost every time they met.
5. We have given the most dominant team of this generation (Australia) the biggest challenge among all other teams. Did India challenge the West Indian team of the 80's in such a way ?
The only thing people can complain is that we haven't won a World Cup in between. However, we do have the chance to win it in 2011. Then what will the critics complain of ?
Re: Some poeple are naive ........
by Maximus Meridius on Dec 06, 2009 12:35 AM
"Our best era has been since the arrival of Sachin": I disagree. I think Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman have had a much greater role to play in India's success abroad than SRT. Sehwag and SRT come second to them when it comes to wins abroad.
Look at Dravid's record: It's comparable to Ponting. The reason why he never gets the credit he deserves is that his batting leaves you with no sense of awe. You never think: How did he do that? His style is workmanlike, and hence people tend to ignore his contribution.
At this point, Sehwag also deserves credit for occupying the top order; for years, that was a huge problem, with INdia opening with the likes of SS Das and Sanjay Bangar... VVS was also tried, but he hated it.
SRT's first decade (under Azhar) had weak batting with Azhar, the next best batsman, a distant second. The bowling was also pretty bad, with only Kumble being a class bowler (Srinath would waste the newball bowling short-of-length on seaming pitches). I think the fast bowling attack is far better now (Khan, Sharma, Srisanth, RP, Nehra, maybe even Pathan).
The Aussies used to post huge scores at home and put the opposition under pressure. Dravid and VVS, aided by SRT and later Sehwag made sure that we could match their scores.
Re: Re: Some poeple are naive ........
by Maximus Meridius on Dec 06, 2009 12:38 AM
Oh, and having a WK-batsman in Dhoni also helps (though he is crap against the seaming and bouncing ball). Still, better than the likes of MSK Prasad or Ajay Ratra.
Re: Re: Some poeple are naive ........
by vamsi mohan on Dec 06, 2009 12:50 AM
Best era came not because of sachin or dravid or laxman.It is becuase of the team.We never had a wonderful opening pair like we do now i.e sehwag and gambhir.We never had such a strong middle order like yuvraj,raina,dhoni and above all we never had such a powerful seam bowling attack like zaheer,sreesanth,nehra and the most important thing is we never had a great captain cool who is aggresive and a great thinker of the game.(Ganguly comes closer to him)When all this things come as together that is when we started winning games and i.e when we adapted that killing instincts and i.e when we turned the losings into winnings.But if we have to continue in the top we need to really focus on our fielding which is crap compared to the next top teams like australia and south africa.We should also have pitches like south africa and australia so that we can practice on bouncy pitches.
Re: Some poeple are naive ........
by Dire Straits on Dec 05, 2009 11:54 PM
Add to those accomplishments -
6. For the first time we can be the # 1 Test team in the world if we win the current Test match. Only South Africa and Australia have done it previously. Did India ever reach the #2 spot, let alone #1 previously ?
7. For the first time we were #1 ODI team in the world. Apart from India, Australia and South Africa, no team has done it.
Re: Re: Some poeple are naive ........
by vamsi mohan on Dec 06, 2009 12:01 AM
I would give lot of credit to dhoni for being a wonderful aggressive,thinking captian for getting to the No1 Position.Ofcourse we have wonderful balance of the team a mixture of both young and experienced but we needed a guy who can be cool and manage this wonderful team and we got that in Dhoni.If India has to maintain this No 1 position then Dhoni needs to play a very crucial part in the coming days
Re: Re: Re: Some poeple are naive ........
by extreme on Dec 06, 2009 12:08 AM
we were the one who broke australia's winnin streak both in ODI and tests...in last ten yrs i ave seen many a times india thrashing asutralia in both forms
I am not sure why sachin felt bad when yuvraj called him grandpa.In my view he would have called him grand pa as he respects and loves sachin and he must have called him as he is grand pa in experience not the age.Every one has to emulate sachin that is what probably yuvraj must have thought.Any way sachin I am die hard fan of urs and urs and my year of birth is same and u r inspiration to me
Re: GrandPa
by Dire Straits on Dec 05, 2009 11:43 PM
Sachin was just having fun with Yuvraj about it. He was never angry over Yuvraj, it was just brotherly leg pulling.
Re: Re: GrandPa
by vamsi mohan on Dec 05, 2009 11:45 PM
If I understand sachin he is a kind of reserved person who want to keep the comments only to dressing room.When yuvraj told to the media he must have got the warning may be a friendly one.Any way let us hope they are together and be as brothers
There is inherent disliking in brothers, sisters, parents. U cant change it. People do feel uncomfortable with family performing publicly. Nothing wrong in it. As long as his brother does help him in preparation for game, give him feedback later. Thats all you need. Lots of brohthers in india just want to kill their brother and take away property. Sachin is better than them.
