***Official*** West Indies in India 2013

[Burgey]

Bharat Ratna announced for Sachin!!! First sportsman to be awarded the highest civilian honour. Not sure how to feel about it. Reeks of politicians trying to take advantage of Sachin.

Is that like an AC or something? Jono to confirm

 

[Cruxdude]

It is India's highest civilian honor. From what I found on Google AC does seem to be the equivalent. There is already talk of the ruling party trying to get Sachin to campaign for them. So kind of suspicious.

 

[Burgey]

Interesting. There's been a few sports people here get an AC, Bradman the most famous.

There's two schools of thought with it here, I think. One is sports people kind of don't deserve it because all they do is entertain, and usually for significant tax-payer funded reward. The other is they provide a large amount of joy to a lot of people and deserve it for that contribution as much as anyone else.

Anyway, probably not a discussion for this thread, but if there's to be sportsman in India to be the first, it really should be him you'd think.

 

[Cruxdude]

If a sportsman is to be awarded it probably makes sense Sachin is the first. Dhyan Chand, hockey great, could have been a good choice too and Vishy Anand once he retires would be a good candidate.

 

[Beamer]

Thanks for the memories Sachin! I loved watching him bat and will miss that peerless straight drive.

Random musings on our 'performance' or lack thereof:

We should never accept last minute invitations to play 2 match test series with little or no time for preparation. At least if we do, I won't bother watching it. The last time we did this was a 2 test series in England and our performance was very similar. Awful batting showing a complete lack of commitment to the cause alongside the inevitable technical problems that some players have. The application shown by our batsmen in this series was a travesty and it's so sad that Sachin's last series only saw 6 days worth of action. I don't care how well we play in the limited overs stuff coming up, nothing can make up for the effort shown in this series. Play like that and we'll lose to New Zealand which, in my mind at least, should be unacceptable given the talent we have at our disposal.

Our bowling did ok given the circumstances (massive injury crisis) and was completely let down by a batting lineup that is capable of so much better.

 

[honestbharani]

How sad is it that such a likeable and nice bloke like Sammy also happens to be such a ****ty test cricketer???

 

[Beamer]

How sad is it that such a likeable and nice bloke like Sammy also happens to be such a ****ty test cricketer???

I don't feel any anger towards him. He stepped up at time when our cricket was in complete and utter turmoil politically and he stood tall. He's just completely out of his depth at test level and his mere presence in the side is going to stop us competing against the top sides. So it's now time for him to go. Simple as.

Thanks Darren. Stick to 20-20 where your little medium pacers and enormous pinch hitting are extremely effective.

 

[OverratedSanity]

If a sportsman is to be awarded it probably makes sense Sachin is the first. Dhyan Chand, hockey great, could have been a good choice too and Vishy Anand once he retires would be a good candidate.

Dhyan Chand's been robbed. Few months ago it was announced that he would be nominated ahead of Sachin. Now when Sachin's retired all of a sudden it's given to him. Strange to say the least

 

[harsh.ag]

Sachin, Vishy, Dhyan Chand all should get one. A couple of others from the Hockey Team from the 30s.

 

[Woodster]

Thanks for the memories Sachin! I loved watching him bat and will miss that peerless straight drive.

Random musings on our 'performance' or lack thereof:

We should never accept last minute invitations to play 2 match test series with little or no time for preparation. At least if we do, I won't bother watching it. The last time we did this was a 2 test series in England and our performance was very similar. Awful batting showing a complete lack of commitment to the cause alongside the inevitable technical problems that some players have. The application shown by our batsmen in this series was a travesty and it's so sad that Sachin's last series only saw 6 days worth of action. I don't care how well we play in the limited overs stuff coming up, nothing can make up for the effort shown in this series. Play like that and we'll lose to New Zealand which, in my mind at least, should be unacceptable given the talent we have at our disposal.

Our bowling did ok given the circumstances (massive injury crisis) and was completely let down by a batting lineup that is capable of so much better.

The thing that struck me in the passages of play I saw, and worryingly for WI, is that a lot of the poor batting I saw didn't look like it was due to a lack of match practice, though I'm certain that will have played its part, but it was down to simply brainless cricket! The actual thought processes of the players seemed non-existent, there was no thoughts going into their batting and how they were going to construct an innings in these conditions. It genuinely made me worry for WI cricket.

The Darren Sammy situation persists, they played an extra bowler in the first Test as Sammy can just about get away with being a member of a five-man attack, but with Ramdin at six and Sammy himself at seven it looked woefully short of depth. So the following Test Sammy drops down a slot and they lose a bowler, and again they are then a bowler short because Sammy can't operate in a four-man attack. He seems a lovely bloke, but surely he has to lose the captaincy because his place in the side is affecting the entire balance of the team.

 

[Furball]

Given that the whole point of this series was to allow Tendulkar to retire after playing his 200th Test in Mumbai, it's beyond stupid that there's 3 ODIs to come.

 

[Shri]

Should let the reserves play and get to SA obv. Think there might be financial benefits to WI in it as well.

 

[Cruxdude]

Shillingford and Samuels reported for suspect actions. There was this faster delivaery from Samuels to Rohit just before he got to his century. Made my eyes bleed.

 

[JontyPanesar]

Lol WI. England were a far better opponent worthy of respect. Yes, his best series was vs England and Ashwin's best was the last series against Australia(stronger than NZ against whom he had a killer series). In fact Ashwin has always been better than Ojha bar that one series against England. Check this out:

Bowling records | Test matches | Cricinfo Statsguru | ESPN Cricinfo

Bowling records | Test matches | Cricinfo Statsguru | ESPN Cricinfo

Except that India actually struggled in that entire series v. WI

 

[JontyPanesar]

It's no surprise that Ashwin and Ojha struggled most at home in a series where they weren't given very friendly pitches for spin. The irony of that England series was that only Mumbai really turned.

 

[centurymaker]

Glad that they have started to consistently produce good spinning wickets.

 

[JontyPanesar]

Thanks for the memories Sachin! I loved watching him bat and will miss that peerless straight drive.

Random musings on our 'performance' or lack thereof:

We should never accept last minute invitations to play 2 match test series with little or no time for preparation. At least if we do, I won't bother watching it. The last time we did this was a 2 test series in England and our performance was very similar. Awful batting showing a complete lack of commitment to the cause alongside the inevitable technical problems that some players have. The application shown by our batsmen in this series was a travesty and it's so sad that Sachin's last series only saw 6 days worth of action. I don't care how well we play in the limited overs stuff coming up, nothing can make up for the effort shown in this series. Play like that and we'll lose to New Zealand which, in my mind at least, should be unacceptable given the talent we have at our disposal.

Our bowling did ok given the circumstances (massive injury crisis) and was completely let down by a batting lineup that is capable of so much better.

You did have an India A tour just before and a warmup match. I think the problem lies more with an inexperienced batting lineup and wasting a batsman/bowler on Sammy.

 

[Daemon]

It's no surprise that Ashwin and Ojha struggled most at home in a series where they weren't given very friendly pitches for spin. The irony of that England series was that only Mumbai really turned.

Tbf I think it was more a combination of factors like the quality of batting and Ashwin bowling poorly rather than the pitches not being spin friendly. Ojha didn't really do anything different from what he usually does.

 

[hendrix]

Ojha is miles better than Ashwin and I don't even think Ashwin has more potential, tbh. Just because he has a couple more variations doesn't mean he'll ever be very good.

Ojha is like Herath-lite, while Ashwin...well I want to say Mendis-lite but he's not that bad. He's just not particularly good.

 

[hendrix]

It's no surprise that Ashwin and Ojha struggled most at home in a series where they weren't given very friendly pitches for spin. The irony of that England series was that only Mumbai really turned.

The pitches weren't traditional spinning wickets in that there was not bounce at all for good, classical spin bowlers like Ojha.

They're the type of pitches on which Jadeja and Panesar do well - flatter, quicker, you-miss-I-hit type bowlers. Exactly the type of bowlers I hate watching.