Indian cricket – on a journey to nowhere

Surely, this is the clearest indictment of the state of Indian cricket.

While Pakistan, trounced at home by a rejuvenated Sri Lankan team, have thrown up some exciting match-winning teenagers, South Africa have unearthed the likes of the fiery Nantie Hayward. On the other hand, India look like a team going nowhere in particular.

Barring Sachin Tendulkar and Saurav Ganguly, none of the others looked capable of punching the ball. Worse, all the batsmen, including Tendulkar and Ganguly, have been sorted out and their scoring avenues, strokes and areas blocked. And without a counter strategy to fall back on, they looked like a startled hare caught in the headlights.

NO-WIN TEAM: It is becoming increasingly clear that this Indian team is incapable of striking a winning streak. It might win the odd match every now and then. But by and large, most nations would have a measure of India on most surfaces. That is the sad bottom line.

The batsmen are struggling even against the white ball, which is more batsman-friendly than the red, while the bowlers, barring Anil Kumble, are nowhere as efficient as their counterparts from Pakistan, South Africa or Australia, to name just three. And this, with less than three years to go for the next edition of the World Cup, is truly worrying.

As it is, with defeats in Tests having become regular, and glaringly brought into the living rooms by television, disgusted spectators have generally stayed away from stadia, as was evident during the series against South Africa. Now, with successive one-day defeats, even television viewership is dwindling.

Indeed, interest in Indian cricket is at bootlace level. In fact, an entire industry out there (cricket magazines, sponsors, dot com companies, advertisers, advertising companies, agents) is in shambles because of India’s poor cricketing record of late.

WHERE TO FROM HERE: Indeed if World Cup 2003 in South Africa is the goal, then some hard decisions need to be taken now. To start with, only Tendulkar, Ganguly, Rahul Dravid, Kumble and may be Ajit Agarkar look likely to last till then. Replacements need to be immediately found for Azharuddin and Robin Singh, who would both be in their 40s come 2003. (In any case, even with them around, India is not winning anything!).

Javagal Srinath, India’s fastest bowler, should be preserved only for Tests. Venkatesh Prasad should be used intermittently and only for key tournaments in order to groom the next generation of new ball bowlers. Nikhil Chopra, with his up and down stuff, does not fit into any eleven, whether now or in 2003.

Obviously, there ought to be worthy replacements for all these players and others. This is where the selectors play a key role. The present batch have done nothing that they can be proud of. They have little to offer Indian cricket. Had they been in Pakistan or even Sri Lanka, they would have been sacked by now. They must gracefully bow out in the larger interests of the game.

Besides a change of selectors, India urgently need to deploy talent spotters in each of the five zones. These talent spotters could travel the length and breadth of their zones and look at under-19, under-21, University and even Ranji Trophy cricketers in action in match situations.

Who knows, with some training, and grooming in first class cricket, Challenger Trophy, Wills Trophy and India A and B teams we could still come up with two or three outstanding players before the next World Cup. Surely, in a country as huge as India and as devoted a cricket following, there must be talent out there simply waiting to be discovered.

Why not empower and unleash talent spotters like Roger Binny, Ashok Mankad, Daljit Singh, Arun Lal and half a dozen others? May be, they could bring in the sort of results the current, warped system seems incapable of.