In a week, when there was no cricket action by India, so much happen off the field. It all started when the selectors announced the first XI for the one off T20 match to be held at South Africa on 30th March 2012. Dhoni leading this Team clearly indicates that the top brass are not inclined to give captaincy to Kohli even for a inconsequential match. I don’t know what is the message or to whom it is conveyed.
Is it a method of telling Kohli that he is not ready yet?
Is it a message to Dhoni-Kohli that Gambir is still in the scheme of things?
Is it a move not to humiliate Gambir right away?
Under these circumstances, there is a Greg Chappell making his presence felt by virtue of his comments on the Indian Cricket.
"It was obvious from the start of the tour that the Indians weren't really interested in Test cricket. After the Australians showed that they were going to be a formidable foe, I was very disappointed with the Indians. And having worked with many of them and having been in the dressing room with them, Test cricket was too hard for most of them. They can only make a lot of money playing 20-over cricket. Fifty-over cricket they can sort of put up with
Just to remind Greg Chappell, Indians can make lot of money playing any format of the game. It is always Indian Teams that draw more crowd than any other country while touring abroad. However it is just not Indian Cricketers who mint money playing T20s. Chappell should know that it is the Australians who make most of the headcount after Indians in IPL. That includes Coaching Staff too. After all, Cricket Australia also has its own version of T20 in the name of Big Bash for its players. I don't remember any Indian playing here.
However it is just not Greg Chappell, rather whole India is disappointed by Indian's performance Down Under. But the failures don't attribute to lack of interest. Obviously everyone knows the real cause.
Test cricket for a lot of, not only India, a lot of subcontinent teams, I think it's pretty tough. And the challenge for Test cricket is, without the sort of grounding that we [Australians] had as kids, Test cricket is too hard. It's very demanding mentally, physically and emotionally
If Test Cricket is so tough for Subcontinent Teams, how come Australia fails every time they visit India? How come Pakistan whitewashed England convincingly? Everyone is Lion in their own den.
The culture is very different, it's not a team culture. They lack leaders in the team because they are not trained to be leaders. From an early age, their parents make all the decisions, their schoolteachers make their decisions, their cricket coaches make the decisions.
The culture of India is such that, if you put your head above the parapet someone will shoot it. Knock your head off. So they learn to keep their head down and not take responsibility. The Poms (British) taught them really well to keep their head down. For if someone was deemed to be responsible, they'd get punished. So the Indians have learned to avoid responsibility. So before taking responsibility for any decisions, they prefer not to.
To my little knowledge, Leadership is a persona. It does not come with training, it is one’s Trait. Greg Chappell of all must know this. If one turns into a leader by virtue of seniority, the player is all set to bite dust if not gifted with the trait. It is for this reason the World did not witness a captain in Jacques Kallis or Michael Hussey or Mohammad Yusuf. We all know what happened when Mohammad Yusuf lead the side.
Finally, the news is out that Rahul Dravid is all set to bid adieu from International Cricket. Had he announced his retirement and played the Aussie Series, it would have been a icing in cake to his illustrious career. Never mind. Better late than never.
Here is a fantastic piece from a fellow blogger on Dravid's accomplishments.
http://vigneshopinions.blogspot.in/2012/03/june-20th1996-to-march-9th-2012.html
Dinesh
Cricket Lover
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