*Official* India Tour of Australia 2018/19

[ishqiya]

NZ cricket has a pittance compared to Indian cricket (and probably has had for a while) and has a domineering competitor in the form of Rugby.

Yes, and they are an inferior team to India. What's your point?

They have been one of the weaker teams in the history of cricket and are having a peak now as they have in the past and then they will go down and they will come up etc etc. Teams do that (Belgium in football for example being no 1).

All three of NZ, Eng, Aus are first world countries who will keep having good and bad periods as they have throughout history.

My argument is that India will pull away completely and will never have a bad period but just one huge great period.

 

[BeeGee]

Congrats India.

I'll be interested to see if there is any fallout on the Australia side from this result (personnel, etc), or if everyone is just pinning their hopes on the return of Smith.

 

[ishqiya]

You don't get it do you, actually try answering the question. Cricket has historically been much more popular in England than currently, so address his question.

Historically when? Football has been numero uno in England for the last 20-30 years if not more.

 

[Burgey]

What's happened to them genes now? :P

Got lost in the Marshes

 

[Chrish]

What was WI's population and they managed to boss it for so many years. SA too and up until recently, only Afrikaans and English Saffers who were tiny minority of overall population cared about the game and they have managed to produce so many ATGs.

Cuba has population of 11 million vs 300+ million from USA and still they have won more babseball gold medals; despite USA being crazy about the game and having far more resources/ training facilities at their disposal.

There are several other examples. So, I don't see any direct correlation between population/ economy and the quality of output.

 

[shifty_eyes]

What's happened to them genes now? :P

They are wet. Rainy season.

 

[BeeGee]

What's happened to them genes now? :P

They haven't been eating enough red meat.

Exhibit A - Siddle.

'Nuf said.

Too many new age wimps. Need more hard men like AB, Big Merv, Boony, etc.

 

[Cruxdude]

Can't believe we have finally won a series in Australia and especially after the start we had in the first test Also what an exciting team we have now and with some exciting guys on the verge of getting in!!

Shaw, Mayank, Pujara, Kohli, Rahane, Gill, Pant, Ashwin/Jadeja, Shami, Ishant, Bumrah

 

[shifty_eyes]

Perhaps pressure on Australian team without Smith and Warner was much more than what Sachin had with 1 billion gazillion fans behind him.

 

[ishqiya]

What was WI's population and they managed to boss it for so many years. SA too and up until recently, only Afrikaans and English Saffers who were tiny minority of overall population cared about the game and they have managed to produce so many ATGs.

Cuba has population of 11 million vs 300+ million from USA and still they have won more babseball gold medals; despite USA being crazy about the game and having far more resources/ training facilities at their disposal.

There are several other examples. So, I don't see any direct correlation between population/ economy and the quality of output.

There is an interest multiplier too.

SA will keep getting better as their economy still has room to grow plus now black people are also coming into the game.

Just like Afrikaans/English only a tiny minority of Indians could actually be cricketers back in the day (from the big cities). All pre 2000 good players/ATGS from India except Kapil are from the big Ranji teams. Players from other smaller towns/teams did not have the resources necessary to go to the next level. So India's huge population was pointless as most were poor and were more focused on where their next meal would come from rather than playing cricket. Now as poverty rates have declined, more people are being brought into the middle classes etc. the available pool is way larger hence India becoming better. This pool will keep getting bigger and bigger in the coming years.

The best example to justify the population/economy and quality is to look at the Olympic. It has a myriad number of sports so it takes care of the interest factor. Some countries like one sport, some like another sport. Olympics have many. The Olympic medal tables are always in the order of resources X population.

 

[Burgey]

What was WI's population and they managed to boss it for so many years. SA too and up until recently, only Afrikaans and English Saffers who were tiny minority of overall population cared about the game and they have managed to produce so many ATGs.

Cuba has population of 11 million vs 300+ million from USA and still they have won more babseball gold medals; despite USA being crazy about the game and having far more resources/ training facilities at their disposal.

There are several other examples. So, I don't see any direct correlation between population/ economy and the quality of output.

Lol white South Africans had a monolpoly on all the weath and resources until the 1990s. Of course they’re going to produce elite cricketers.

Sadly I think the WI was an historical accident, frankly. Just an enormous number of amazing players in one 15-20 odd year period. Though they were awesome in the 60s too. Lack of resources and Arthur Ashe for the sport has really hurt them since that ATG era.

 

[stephen]

Looking over the series stats, two stick out like dogs balls - Finch and Handscomb. Both played 3 tests and combined made less runs than Rahane, India's 4th highest scorer. The averaged 16 and 21 and that's really not good enough.

Harris and Head both had what we would consider ordinary series in ordinary circumstances, both averaging under 40. But they were our two top scoring batsmen.

5 centuries were scored this series, all of which were by Indians.

This is really inexcusable at home, regardless of who got left out. We could have fielded a 3rd XI from the 90s and won this in a canter.

The last thing I want is to see this mediocre side given a go against the Sri Lankans.

Burns
Harris
Khawaja
Maxwell
Head
Wade
Paine

As the top 7 for the Sri Lanka series.

Interestingly, Lynn called Renshaw the best test batsman in the country and said he'd be an all format player for Aus in the future.

 

[OverratedSanity]

Lol white South Africans had a monolpoly on all the weath and resources until the 1990s. Of course they’re going to produce elite cricketers.

Sadly I think the WI was an historical accident, frankly. Just an enormous number of amazing players in one 15-20 odd year period. Though they were awesome in the 60s too. Lack of resources and Arthur Ashe for the sport has really hurt them since that ATG era.

Yeah, freak concentration of talent. The possibility of that these days is no doubt stunted by a lot of them choosing other more lucrative sports.

 

[stephen]

Got lost in the Marshes

Best comment of the thread.

 

[silentstriker]

My proudest cricketing memory! I can’t believe this actually happened! Historically, this is the toughest achievement in cricket. Kohli can retire today and he will go down in history. Beats WC and 2001 vs Aus wins as the most important wins I’ve ever seen.

 

[Starfighter]

Historically when? Football has been numero uno in England for the last 20-30 years if not more.

I wouldn't say cricket has ever been more popular but it's been historically very close until very recently, yet England wasn't any better compared to Australia. And you're fooling yourself if you think cricket has no competition in Australia, VFL/AFL and Rugby League have been strong competition for a long time.

Yeah, freak concentration of talent. The possibility of that these days is no doubt stunted by a lot of them choosing other more lucrative sports.

I don't think the role of their terrible administration gets enough credit sometimes, they've had it bad for a long time but it's made the decline much worse than it should have been.

 

[the big bambino]

Your assumption is wrong. China doesn't win the soccer world cup for the same reason USA doesn't win the soccer world cup. They just don't care. China has been no 1 or 2 in medals in Olympics for years now. The sports that they are interested in - table tennis, badminton etc they are best in the world. Similarly US is the best in the world in basketball, a sport that they care about. For India that sport is cricket.

Pratfalls everywhere ...

Nah..

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sport_in_China#Football

 

[Burgey]

My proudest cricketing memory! I can’t believe this actually happened! Historically, this is the toughest achievement in cricket. Kohli can retire today and he will go down in history. Beats WC and 2001 vs Aus wins as the most important wins I’ve ever seen.

How good is it that your proudest cricketing memory took place in an empty stadium with rain falling and no one watching?

 

[stephen]

How good is it that your proudest cricketing memory took place in an empty stadium with rain falling and no one watching?

It's oddly appropriate.

 

[ishqiya]

I wouldn't say cricket has ever been more popular but it's been historically very close until very recently, yet England wasn't any better compared to Australia. And you're fooling yourself if you think cricket has no competition in Australia, VFL/AFL and Rugby League have been strong competition for a long time.


I don't think the role of their terrible administration gets enough credit sometimes, they've had it bad for a long time but it's made the decline much worse than it should have been.

Even if cricket has competition it is still one amongst equals. Might not be no 1 like as in Asia but still popular. Even the average casual Aussie knows something about cricket. /in england football is way way bigger. It's like hockey in india compared to cricket. Only diehards follow it.