Watching the SUper 8s without India is just unthinkable. If you see the blog of sangakkara on cricinfo he has said that there is a bit of emptiness on the tournament without India and it is correct. As an ardent cricket fan, it is so painful that the remaining tournament will be without the global powerhouse of cricket. We, are not paper heroes, we have the potential to become world champs. Its only the preparation, lack of attitude that cost us dearly.Ofcourse, also, the itinerary of the tournament. This cup is unlike the last 2003 cup where you had a handful of matches to qualify for the next round.You had only 2 matches to play and Bangladesh is a team that can cause an upset.It defeated a full strength NZ team during the warm up. We were very confident when India won the warm up against WI. Would have been much better if the teams on each group had to play each other twice or if the committee had planned something that would have given the teams a breathing time to collect their thoughts. Never seen an Indian captain crying and do you people think he is acting? Just to rub salt in the wounds, rediff is publishing fotos of players swimming or taking a break or standing in the lobby. What do you want them to do? Just sit in their room and cry is it? Well i would say its just another bad day against BD and we lacked planning. Its not that Dravid lacks the motivation factor and he is not aggressive. I believe he tried his best and it was a collective team failure. Against SL, well our batting was simply pathetic. Going in a big tournament, our players are under immense pressure back home and after a shock defeat, our fans became ruthless and stoned Dhoni's house, burnt effigies. Its so pathetic to see that our own players' home were safeguarded by police. Its really a third rated behaviour and if you comment anything on that, so called cricket fanatics are coming hard on us.And there is this issue of Ad films, well all over the world, all cricketers are acting on ad films. Blame the ad makers who book the players to act for their commercial. When the players are on top, they just blindly book them. Well, wont you act for those ads, when you are approached? Now, Samsung, LG and Videocon have cancelled their contracts for Dhoni and Dravid. So its those corporates who play the game here. They book the players when they are on top and now cancelling their contract. Well those apart, its going to be a tough home coming for our team. As a true cricket fan, i really feel for the team. Well, world cups are going to happen once in 4 years. better change the pitches down here which is very important, make selection process transparent to all, it should be an open house discussion, consult with former captains, have a fielding coach, make the bowlers train in MRF pace academy. If we are not going to change pitches, i am afraid, we will have to rely on only a handful of players. playing on batsmen friendly pitches here, once our team goes overseas, they look like a bunch of school kids except 3-4 players. Never let a politician be a president of the board. and never play politics in selection. Now the blame game will start and each and everyone will point the fingers. yesterday there was a news that chappel was not happy with the team selection and he SMSed a journalist before leaving for WI. why was it not published before the team left for WI? just to create a hype, these so called journalists write some piece of shit. Those apart, the only way to fine tune Indian team is to inject some young blood for the ODI side, change the pitches back home, have two teams; one for tests and one for ODI; have a fielding coach,make our players work out physically and more importantly dont play politics, give due respect and identify young talents. SO long. Cheers India
RE:Just a thought
by Vikram Sagar on Mar 28, 2007 08:34 PM Permalink
btw, this spice-journalist is one dumb chamcha of chappel... raja balan... known for his hostility towards dada, and intimacy towards dravid!!! plain politics.
and, check out the text of the sms... it is 170 chars long!! and, the max len of an sms is 160 for all scientific purposes. and, these media guys publish it without a thought about its authenticity.
RE:Just a thought
by abhi on Mar 29, 2007 12:26 AM Permalink
dinesh karthick captaincy material???? ha ha ha. he has not played even 10 matches for india!!!!!
RE:Just a thought
by Soman Bhat on Mar 28, 2007 09:19 PM Permalink
AARay oh Kanna blind keya kikhha re itna kuchh, keya samajhta hai game ke baare mein. bat pakda kabhi. Kitna tarika se player out ho sakta hai kuchh pata hai tujhe. Duckworth Lewis system keya hai maloom hai tujhe. Hai to kikh de ssale. Main yeh saab kuchh samajh ta nahi, isi liye jada likhta bhi nahi. Tera samajh mein hai to suna mujhe. Nahi to bhag jaa, Chala aya bara bara messga deneko. 1 2 3 karke point bana, para mein baant de, saale adha dimag kambakht short wit.
RE:Just a thought
by Vikram Sagar on Mar 28, 2007 08:31 PM Permalink
1. The pressure was not on the players, until the first loss... they have this knack of creating pressure. 2. Corporates cancelling their contracts - it is just business for them. would you run a company that runs ads with sachin at this point of time? 3. Given the quality of cricket this team was playing, do you think they deserved to move ot the Super 8s?
And, here is this fraternity coming out in support of its heroes. For heavens sake, think objectively, and reorg the team... you could not have had a better opportunity.
RE:Just a thought
by S Anand on Mar 29, 2007 12:21 AM Permalink
I have mixed opinion on ur message. I agree with some parts (like change the pitches and make them more competitive and sporting, emphasis on fitness, fielding coach etc) but definitely disagree with the fact that fans are creating pressure on players. If these players were so worried about fans' reactions and pressure they would show it as performance. Do u think Aussies' fans will take it lightly if they had got knocked out of the world cup losing to Netherlands?? The same fans or fanatics make Gods out of the cricketers and that time the cricketers dont object. Infact it is this hero worship by fans that make advertising companies think that casting these cricketers in ads promotes their products. Let us face it, in our country achievements of Sachin tendulkar is bigger than that of Dr. Abdul Kalam because more people are passionate about cricket than science. In such a nation it is but expected that fans will react violently if they lose and that too lose to Bangladesh and get knocked out before the second round. Also I dont agree with your point that there needed to be two matches. I mean just because India got knocked out in the first stage one cannot call for a diferent tournament format. Everyone knew the rules before the tournament and this sudden death is not an unknown factor. Teams knew that if they lose two out of three they are out. Now if India and Paksitan had both made it to super eights as anticipated then the double roubnd robin would have resulted in more meaningless matches and more minnow bashings. I for one was not going to expect miracles in the super eights stage against the likes of Aussies, SA and NZ from a team which could not beat Bangladesh. So getting knocked out of super eights is a just reward for the bad performance put up by Indians. Nothing wrong with the format at all !!! I however agree with you on the point about rediff and journalists rubbing salt into the wounds. Like u said bringing issues like Chappel messaging journalists is futile and worthless exercise.
