03-25-2007, 08:05 PM
Rajesh
Yuvaraj has no captaincy experience. He is aggressive but too flamboyant. Kaif was the captain when we won the junior WC. To be honest, Kaif was around 20 yrs + at that time. I track quite a bit of domestic cricket and A tours and Venugopal Rao is quite a good captain and a good test batsman. He lead India A vs The Indian team and his captaincy was brilliant. The issue with him is that he doesnt seem to have the god father and media support as he comes from one of the lower teams i.e. Andhra ( not Hyd). Sehwag would be a good captain (aggressive, out of the box)
I think there was a conflict of Interest b/w the senior players in the team and Chappell especially in the lead up to the WC. Chappell wanted to work with youngsters and build them. The problem is that they all tasted success very early with the 17 victorious run chases and failure followed later with West Indies, South Africa & Champions trophy. Looks like the failure prompted the return of the whole gaurd and people who supported Chappell during the early good run, ditched him and I get a feeling he got undermined by the senior think tank. He wanted Sehwag dropped, Pathan & Sreesanth to be played more often. I would also contribute Yuvaraj's growth as a batsman to Chappell. On the flip side, his refusal to acknowledge the need for a bowling coach was one of the biggest mistakes. That contributed to the decline in Pathan's bowling form, Sreesanth not able to control the economy and using Patel as a stock bowler (ala stuart Clark) instead of a tearaway (like a Malinga).
Bringing back dada as captain is also not going to cut as he was the one who chickened out seeing a green top in Nagpur against Australia and faked an injury (this was true). After WC 2003 he seems to have lost the interest and motivation until Chappell let him know where he was. The credit for coming back should go to Ganguly and Chappell, Dravid and More should be credited for showing him the door. However I do feel that they should have given him the respect and treated him better while dropping him. The political points that Pawar and Co wanted to score against Dalmiya was the reason for his shabby treatment as against the selectors.
I think the solution is something like what SA did with Smith or NZ with Stephen Fleming or Sri Lanka with Jayawardana. The candidates are
Sehwag -- If he is able to regain his batting form (he sort of reedeemed himself towards the last two match)
Yuvaraj -- Unknown with the captaincy but should be made VC so that he gains some exp so that he can replace if Sehwag does not do well either with the cap or with his batting.
Kaif - Can be a good captain but he should prove himself in domestic circuit (how do you take him if he avg 38.00 in Indian Domestic circuit?
Pathan- Seems to have a good cricketing brain, may be a captain in the long run but should sort out his bowling problems first.
Sachin, Dravid and Dada should say farewell to the ODI game. They can remain in the test arena for one more year and if they are unable to contribute they should go out or shown the door though gracefully. In the test team, they should get Karthik, Venu Rao and Badrinath as understudies. We need to get some good openers. The cupboard is bare nowadays. Shikar Diman, Gautam Gambhir should be persisted . May be Karthik with his technique and temperament can be tried.
Yuvaraj has no captaincy experience. He is aggressive but too flamboyant. Kaif was the captain when we won the junior WC. To be honest, Kaif was around 20 yrs + at that time. I track quite a bit of domestic cricket and A tours and Venugopal Rao is quite a good captain and a good test batsman. He lead India A vs The Indian team and his captaincy was brilliant. The issue with him is that he doesnt seem to have the god father and media support as he comes from one of the lower teams i.e. Andhra ( not Hyd). Sehwag would be a good captain (aggressive, out of the box)
I think there was a conflict of Interest b/w the senior players in the team and Chappell especially in the lead up to the WC. Chappell wanted to work with youngsters and build them. The problem is that they all tasted success very early with the 17 victorious run chases and failure followed later with West Indies, South Africa & Champions trophy. Looks like the failure prompted the return of the whole gaurd and people who supported Chappell during the early good run, ditched him and I get a feeling he got undermined by the senior think tank. He wanted Sehwag dropped, Pathan & Sreesanth to be played more often. I would also contribute Yuvaraj's growth as a batsman to Chappell. On the flip side, his refusal to acknowledge the need for a bowling coach was one of the biggest mistakes. That contributed to the decline in Pathan's bowling form, Sreesanth not able to control the economy and using Patel as a stock bowler (ala stuart Clark) instead of a tearaway (like a Malinga).
Bringing back dada as captain is also not going to cut as he was the one who chickened out seeing a green top in Nagpur against Australia and faked an injury (this was true). After WC 2003 he seems to have lost the interest and motivation until Chappell let him know where he was. The credit for coming back should go to Ganguly and Chappell, Dravid and More should be credited for showing him the door. However I do feel that they should have given him the respect and treated him better while dropping him. The political points that Pawar and Co wanted to score against Dalmiya was the reason for his shabby treatment as against the selectors.
I think the solution is something like what SA did with Smith or NZ with Stephen Fleming or Sri Lanka with Jayawardana. The candidates are
Sehwag -- If he is able to regain his batting form (he sort of reedeemed himself towards the last two match)
Yuvaraj -- Unknown with the captaincy but should be made VC so that he gains some exp so that he can replace if Sehwag does not do well either with the cap or with his batting.
Kaif - Can be a good captain but he should prove himself in domestic circuit (how do you take him if he avg 38.00 in Indian Domestic circuit?
Pathan- Seems to have a good cricketing brain, may be a captain in the long run but should sort out his bowling problems first.
Sachin, Dravid and Dada should say farewell to the ODI game. They can remain in the test arena for one more year and if they are unable to contribute they should go out or shown the door though gracefully. In the test team, they should get Karthik, Venu Rao and Badrinath as understudies. We need to get some good openers. The cupboard is bare nowadays. Shikar Diman, Gautam Gambhir should be persisted . May be Karthik with his technique and temperament can be tried.