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***Official*** India in Australia 2011/12

Daemon

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Wish I did.

Anyway, if India wins the ODI series, will they claim they have exacted revenge, as some fans of theirs have with regards England after bearing them 5-0 in an ODI series?
Nah, we're even at the moment. Australia were just taking revenge for the World cup QF loss.
 

silentstriker

The Wheel is Forever
Anyway, if India wins the ODI series, will they claim they have exacted revenge, as some fans of theirs have with regards England after bearing them 5-0 in an ODI series?
Yea, probably. I don't care for ODIs so I wouldn't, but it would make things a lot easier on Dhoni back at home if they win in ODIs. Would definitely be claimed as a 'not such a bad tour' if they did well in ODIs in the eyes of many, including the BCCI.
 

Burgey

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Yea, probably. I don't care for ODIs so I wouldn't, but it would make things a lot easier on Dhoni back at home if they win in ODIs. Would definitely be claimed as a 'not such a bad tour' if they did well in ODIs in the eyes of many, including the BCCI.
A confluence of good-to-great players can paper over a lot of cracks, can't it?
 

Burgey

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In other news, chances of the T20 being free of rain are about as high as me kicking Miranda Kerr out of bed
 
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silentstriker

The Wheel is Forever
A confluence of good-to-great players can paper over a lot of cracks, can't it?
Yea. Though I think you can't have a good team without having at least a few good to great sides. Unless you want to be an all time dominant team, I think every team has had those. The Indian ones have existed since independence. Without seeming overly egostical, I will quote what that 10 year anniversery article said about me: "the future light cone of the next Indian fast bowler is exactly the same as the past light cone of the previous one".

Actually I'm jealous since they managed to verbalize my beliefs much better than I ever did. :laugh: It's sort of like Warner more Sehwag like than Sehwag himself :p.
 

stephen

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
In other news, chances of the T20 being free of rain are about as high as me kicking Miramda Kerr out of bed
Burgey finally admits to being Legolas, which also explains how he can still remember WG Grace in his pomp.
 

Burgey

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Yea. Though I think you can't have a good team without having at least a few good to great sides. Unless you want to be an all time dominant team, I think every team has had those. The Indian ones have existed since independence. Without seeming overly egostical, I will quote what that 10 year anniversery article said about me: "the future light cone of the next Indian fast bowler is exactly the same as the past light cone of the previous one".

Actually I'm jealous since they managed to verbalize my beliefs much better than I ever did. :laugh: It's sort of like Warner more Sehwag like than Sehwag himself :p.
Oh sure, I meant the crop of players performing well on the park can hide cultural/ institutional problems which only become apparent after the team declines. India reaching number one masked a number of attitudinal issues which only became apparent after they began to struggle.

Much like it took the Ashes shambles for a review to take place here.

What's interesting to me is Dhoni's attitude to it all. He really sounds like a bit of a downhill skier. The test of any skipper is when the team struggles, as Ponting found out and. I doubt Clarke will at times too. They all mostly do eventually. Dhoni has looked bereft of ideas and any inspiration.
 

Burgey

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Burgey finally admits to being Legolas, which also explains how he can still remember WG Grace in his pomp.
I noticed you mentioned in the coaching forum that you were hit in the head a few times while not wearing a helmet.

Context is everything.
 

stephen

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
Oh sure, I meant the crop of players performing well on the park can hide cultural/ institutional problems which only become apparent after the team declines. India reaching number one masked a number of attitudinal issues which only became apparent after they began to struggle.

Much like it took the Ashes shambles for a review to take place here.

What's interesting to me is Dhoni's attitude to it all. He really sounds like a bit of a downhill skier. The test of any skipper is when the team struggles, as Ponting found out and. I doubt Clarke will at times too. They all mostly do eventually. Dhoni has looked bereft of ideas and any inspiration.
It really wasn't all that long ago that everyone was saying how great of a captain Dhoni was for lifting India to #1 in the rankings with such a poor bowling attack.

Swings and roundabouts I guess.
 

silentstriker

The Wheel is Forever
Oh sure, I meant the crop of players performing well on the park can hide cultural/ institutional problems which only become apparent after the team declines. India reaching number one masked a number of attitudinal issues which only became apparent after they began to struggle.

Much like it took the Ashes shambles for a review to take place here.

What's interesting to me is Dhoni's attitude to it all. He really sounds like a bit of a downhill skier. The test of any skipper is when the team struggles, as Ponting found out and. I doubt Clarke will at times too. They all mostly do eventually. Dhoni has looked bereft of ideas and any inspiration.
I definitely agree with you on all counts. It's hard for a captain to lead when even his place isn't really all that justified in the Test team on cricketing ability.

I think he is a terrible strategy guy and has always has been but he's a good man manager - I think a lot of it is simply the knives coming out when you're doing badly, which is something you'd expect.

There is of course no one else who could be captain so India are stuck with him. I think his greatest asset is that distance that he keeps to try not to let the good things over excite him or the bad things overwhelm him - which was greatly admired when they were doing well but is criticized as not caring or not having enough 'fire in the belly' when you're doing badly.

I think that's why Ganguly was so successful as captain. He wasn't a great Test player either but Indians loved him because he was the first captain in history who was really hated by the opposition because he acted like an arrogant ass - to a people who always thought their teams always were too meek and surrendered and were intimidated too easily when going got tough (not having any imposing fast bowlers was a big part of that of course), he really inspired everyone. I don't know if you know this but before Kapil Dev, Indian fast bowlers were told not to bowl bouncers because they were afraid they'd have to cop some in return when it was their turn to bat. That kind of **** just pissed everyone off. Ganguly wasn't a great tactician either. Rahul, IMO, was a really good tactician but he seemed too cerebral while Ganguly seemed more 'working class'.

Which by the way is completely ironic because Dravid was much more 'working class' background than Ganguly (remember the **** he pulled when he said he was too good to carry drinks for anyone?)

Anyway that's a bit of a rambling answer but I think regardless of the captain, I think there are deep structural issues that were never addressed and frankly (and as I said at the time), I was shocked and elated when India reached #1 despite those issues. Once was enough and I am content as I don't expect them to reach those levels again.

I do think there are some things that are changing, including fielding standards for example, but to counter that, you also have a devaluation of the FC system in favor of high paying IPL. Which if you're just struggling in FC cricket with little hope of the national side, IPL is the only way you can help guarantee your financial stability after you retire - so you can't blame the players for choosing it. I don't know which way it will go.

I know people have been saying this for 30 years (usually old 'get off my lawn' type players) I don't expect India to be really playing many Tests 20-25 years from now. And if Indian money goes out of the TV contracts, it's going to have a major effect on the rest of the countries and their ability to play a lot of Tests too. But hey, everyone else has been wrong about that before. We'll see.
 
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Jono

Virat Kohli (c)
It really wasn't all that long ago that everyone was saying how great of a captain Dhoni was for lifting India to #1 in the rankings with such a poor bowling attack.
That all ended in South Africa when he turned a team that should have won a series in South Africa to a team that ended up drawing.

Feel like digging up my post in that tour thread but cbf. But I did see an email I sent around January 2011 to my best mates saying "I will never forgive Dhoni for costing us a series win in South Africa".

3 months later the **** wins us the World Cup and its hard to be angry with him again.
 

Burgey

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Err, I just read that post and I have no idea what my point was. :p
Lol.

Harsha Bhogle in the post mortem after Adelaide said the FC cricket in India is too diluted and the standard isn't high enough. Said its many, many levels below international standard in general, and cited the Ranji Trophy final as an example of what's wrong in terms of mindset.

Obviously I don't watch it so I wouldn't know, but they were interesting comments.
 

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