Letter of the Day

It is indeed a sad commentary the way the Indians played and also much sadder the way the match was reported on tv and the media. One could forgive them for not bringing the actual shortcomings before the viewers and if only they were not paid to do their job they would have taken the next flight back home than watch Indian cricket. No one really dwelled on the fact that although India had made a good start, they were going too slow and were not inclined to take singles and two and there were numerous occasions where we did not put pressure on the feilding side by not trying to run the extra run.

This seems to be a problem of Indian cricket and most cricketing nations other than Australia who are always aggresive in their running in between wickets which help them put pressure on the oppositon into resorting to a defensive field once they start to get those ones and twos.

The attitude of relying on boudaries in one day cricket is carried over to the Test matches and our batsmen find it really difficult to get the boudaries which are easily available in the first 15 overs of a one day match.The result is if one looks at the scorecard in the two innings one will be surprised to note that India took 95 overs to score 189 and in the second we took 74 overs to score 180.

It does not take an expert to say that no matter how good an opposition, to score at this rate and just surviving without any purpose has been the problem of this side.The Lankans knew that it was just a matter of time before our batsmen would get themselves out. Add to this our consistent short pitched bowling by srinath and co aides the opposition in building up a decent total without any pressure.

It is time the selectors removed all players including the skipper who can hardly set an example in feilding or running in between wkts and take a bunch of inexperienced but disciplined lads who can be moulded to the desires of the Indian coach.

This change alone will bring about discipline and remove the arrogance that is displayed by most of the players. More than addressing the problem it will also set an example for future players that by just being good you cannot take your place for granted in the Indian team and that one needs to show some pride and commitment in delivering the goods.

Sekhar Krishnan

Previous letters:
2nd July - 4th July - 7th July - 12th July - 16th July - 23rd July
27th July - 8th August