Why the Indian Cricket team can’t become the best team in the World?

I was watching the Sports news yesterday. The news reader was speaking about the achievements of Indian Sportsmen at the US Open and the World Boxing Championship. In the same breath, the reader proudly proclaimed that the Indian Cricket Team had moved to the Number 1 position in the ICC rankings.

While I was happy about the news, I wondered whether we deserve the number one team tag? A world best team needs to possess some crucial traits such as:
1) The ability to snatch victory from the Jaws of Defeat
2) The presence of world class players who perform consistently and perform to their optimum when most required.
3) A team of 11 players who perform as a unit.
4)The self-belief required to win from any situation.
5)The Ability to beat its opponents in their own backyard.

The only teams that possessed most of these qualities were the All-Conquering West Indians in the 80s and the Steve Waugh-Inspired Australians in the recent decade.

The Aussies dominated the game of cricket from 1999-2008 in every possible way. They won nearly a hundred test matches beating sides like India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, England, and South Africa, home and away. They hold the record for winning 3 successive World cups, the ICC Mini World Cup 2006, and possibly every other popular trophy in Test and ODI cricket.

Compared to Australia, we have won just 3 Multi-National Tournaments in the recent past. The last Multi-National Tournament that we won was the VB series way back in 2008 against Australia on their home soil. The second last tournament that we won was the Natwest series way back in 2002.
Apart from this, India just won a twenty-twenty World cup in 2007.

Let us see India’s record in Tests. We are yet to win a Test Series in South Africa, Sri Lanka, or Australia. We just managed to win a series against New Zealand (2009) and West Indies (2007) in the recent years thanks to the depleted batting of our opponents.

Inspite of having world class players like Saurav, Dravid, Ganguly, Yuvraj, Sehwag, Zaheer, Nehra, Kumble and Harbhajan, we have constantly under performed.

The brilliance of a team is always indicated by the number of tournaments that it wins. Stats indicate that Saurav Ganguly was India’s most successful captain in ODIs. But India won only 3 multi-national tournaments under him. Even Azharuddin, an average captain, captained India to victory in more than 12 multi-national tournaments.

Yes, it is true that Ganguly did lead India successfully to 19 consecutive finals in tournaments, but only one of them turned out to be a win. The point is that India lack the Killer Instinct to win when required the most.

Be it a Tri-series tournament final or a World Cup Semi-Final, India have mostly managed to only lose meekly rather than going down fighting. The saddest part is that even professionals like Sachin, Dravid, and Ganguly have fared very poorly in such crunch games.

Let’s see the next factor, consistency. When was the last time India won two consecutive test matches in a row??? A team which cannot win consistently can never achieve greatness.

Over-confidence, Lack of responsibility, Unnecessary Hero Worship: In India, we have this culture of worrying more about individual records rather than about the team’s performance. We worry about Sachin’s/Sourav’s/Yuvraj’s hundred rather than looking at our Team’s result. The players who shine in a few matches are given god-like status and soon falter into oblivion.

Inability to play Quality Spin/Pace bowling: In the recently held 20-20 World Cup, we saw that even average West Indian pacers frightened our so-called great Indian batsmen with decent pace bowling. If we cannot handle even decent quality pace bowling, how can be called GREAT? How can a team whose batting collapsed like a pack of cards against the Sri Lankans in 2008 be termed as the greatest One Day Team.

The current Indian team is certainly talented. But they have to win a large number of tournaments consistently against all World Class opponents to be crowned as the best

As they say, “Empty vessels make more noise”. The current Indian team is no empty vessel, but their achievements are too hollow to brag about.
As I say, India has lost miserably to Sri Lanka by a huge margin of 139 runs.
If India desire to be number one, they have to show a tremendous amount of commitment, discipline, and translate their talents into wins.
Plain records don’t count, only victories do.

How cricket's lawmakers can save ODIs from extinction

Cricket's wonderful one-day international format is now in peril. Its popularity started to decline from the 2007 World Cup which proved to be a great damp squib.

The tournaments preceding it proved to be one-sided as the toss decided the winner. To add insult to injury, the sudden success of the 2007 Twenty20 World Cup brought the fate of ODIs into scrutiny.

Now, most cricketers and commentators openly state that they want the ICC to scrap the ODI format. So, should Twenty20 replace ODI matches permanently? Will we lose those wonderful 50-over contests for ever?

Before we answer this question, let us find the reasons for the decline of popularity of the ODI format.

The reasons for the splurge in popularity:
1) As they always say, “Too much of anything is good for nothing”. The same held true for one-day internationals. Prior to 1996, the highest number of ODIs played by a team was 36 per year - and the average less than twice the number being played today. Teams such as Pakistan and India played 20-25 ODIs per year in the early '90s - and more than 36 during the mid 2000s. The quality of ODIs went down drastically as it increased.

2) Wear and tear: With the huge amount of cricket played in recent years, many old and upcoming players succumbed regularly to injuries. Thus, many matches turned out to be one-sided affairs due to absence of key players. The presence of key players in a team is vital for the interest of the audience. People would much rather see a New Zealand match where a Shane Bond terrifies the lives of opposition batsmen than a match where New Zealand bowlers get thrashed around.

3) The lack of sportive pitches: Fans invest a hell a lot of money and time to watch an ODI match. When they realise that a side batting first is going to lose the match because the pitch is a batting paradise and even a total of 350 is chaseable, they straightaway get disappointed. An ODI match played on a batting paradise is going to be as interesting as a pot-boiler.

4) Retirements of many great bowlers: In the golden period of ODIs, we saw many matches being decided only after the 47th over of the second innings. We also saw many sides defending modest totals of 150-160.

There were many nail-biting matches in the 1996 World Cup, nothing more exciting than the semi-final between West Indies and Australia, where a brave Shivnarine Chanderpaul batted brilliantly only to see Shane Warne and other Aussies bowlers induce a spectacular collapse paving the way for a five-run victory.

Then there was the 1999 Australia v South Africa semi-final, where Warne wrecked the top order until Lance Klusener threatened to finish off Australia only to be denied by a historic run-out. How many matches have the reverse-swinging duo of Wasim Akram/Waqar Younis won for Pakistan?

ODIs flourished thanks to presence of greats such as Donald, De Villiers, Ambrose, Walsh, Bishop, Warne, Cairns, Murali, McGrath, Srinath and others. Even a weak team such as Zimbabwe had strong bowlers such as Eddo Brandes and Heath Streak. Today, there is a severe dearth of good bowlers.

So, what steps should the ICC take to revive ODIs?

1) Restrict the maximum number of ODIs played by a side to 30-35 per year.

2) Create a global pitch report committee which ensures that only sportive tracks are prepared.

3) Bring in new rules that evoke interest.
* Allow bowlers to bowl two bouncers per over
* Allow dual run-outs (enabling fielders to run out batsmen at both ends if they are out of their creases),
* Award eight runs to the batsmen if he hits the ball out of the stadium
* Allow LBW appeals to be forwarded to the third umpire
* Allow substitute players to bat/bowl if required.

Follow a three-ball-miss rule: If a batsman plays and misses three consecutive deliveries, then he must face the fourth ball exposing two of his stumps.

4) Do away with the Duckworth-Lewis method which makes rain-interrupted matches a lottery (remember the England-South Africa semi-final in the 1992 World Cup?).

As great cricketers say, T20 is like the burger - having lots of burgers ruins your appetite and is hazardous to health. It is up to the ICC and fans to decide whether to kill or retain ODIs.

This article was published in www.sportingo.com.