***Official*** Sri Lanka in India

[Sanz]

Actually Sanz, captaincy is not just about tactical ability. Sachin has always had a good cricketing brain. If you had noticed, even during Sourav's reign, Sachin will always come up and offer his bit of tactical advice, almost all the time. It was his man management and spotting of talented cricketers that was the problem, alongside his inability to handle all the politics of being a captain. This is not something new. I have always believed he was like an unofficial vice captain in the side.

I dont know how much you have followed SRT's career when he was a captain, I used to watch cricket regularly, here is a quote on his captaincy :-

" Sachin's strategic acumen is not, demonstrably, of the greatest. Go through the scorecards of India during his captaincy, and you will see what I mean. There is never an attempt to innovate, to do the unexpected thing. Bowling changes are by rote - the two quicks first, then Kumble, then the reserve medium pacer, then the second spinner, then himself. And this is irrespective of pitch and weather conditions, or the form or quality of opposing batsmen, or even the state of individual games. And the same holds true of his batting dispositions - a lineup is decided upon, and adhered to rigidly, regardless of the state of an individual game. "

He came up with the idea of him bowling around the wicket to squeeze the runs against Pak etc. Obviously there are days when his tactics or ideas don't work, like in the last game when he gave his inputs and they obviously didn't work.

I cant believe you are praising SRT for such a tactic, after all didn't we chastise Ashley Giles for the same thing..Let me guess..SRT is above all that and he must be praised even if it is against the spirit of the game. I guess where was Sunny Gavaskar during all this ? Did he think that SRT was playing cricket which was only good for people suffering from 'insomnia' ?

He has a good tactical brain and can offer some new ideas to the captain, can cheer up the youngsters by talking to them (as you said, he is the GOD of Indian cricket and so many guys get motivated just because of him talking to them). You cannot disregard all that. Yes, he can improve on his play in the big matches, but CHOKER is too big a term. It is not like the knock out games are the only ones that have pressure.

Obviously I have never denied SRT's impact on cricket, on youngsters, etc but I dont know why we are bringing all this here. What has that got to do with his failure in pressure games ? I hope you are not justifying his failiure by saying all that.

You are right, Knock out games aren't the only games with pressure..I have never said that..games where we are chasing a good score are pressure games, games which are deciders are pressure games..games where we have lost early wickets are pressure games.. And That is where he has failed more often than he has succeeded especially since 2000-2001 season.

 

[Sanz]

HonestBharani,

Sorry forgot to post the link of that quote, here it i, it was written during his first stint as captain :-

http://www.rediff.com/sports/may/30a.htm

 

[Pratters]

Selfish, choker, Mr. Cannot handle pressure Tendulkar to play next game as well.

http://content-ind.cricinfo.com/indvsl/content/story/223842.html

 

[Sudeep]

Of course Dravid said that..but the way media has gone crazy after that is really shamefull..Does the media report all the bad moves SRT has suggested in his career ?

And besides what is the big deal ? SRT is a senior member of the team, he has always given his suggestion, it's not like something that happened for the first time. It is the captain who has to decide what is best for the team and he should be getting the credit not SRT because SRT wont be willing to share the blame when Agarkar bowls crap, is he ?

If he suggested Agarkar to bowl in a particular situation, and then the latter bowls crap, I think he would be willing.

You accuse of him being a choker. Now you're accusing him of being amoral/immoral? Someone who wouldn't accept his faults?

And even if you're not, it's a ridiculous line you've just uttered there...

 

[Jono]

Sree Santh playing in place of Kartik, and Tharanga replacing Jayawardene.

 

[Jono]

Agarkar has Sangakkara out LBW!!! HUGE WICKET!

AA has done it

 

[Jono]

AA has Jayasuriya LBW too!

Both SL openers gone. Despite the run rate being above 6, SL in trouble here.

 

[khandelwal]

3 wickets now

 

[SJS]

Sri Lanka in trouble. India continue their utter dominance of their southern neighbours.

Hasnt Saurav-da really contributed to this effort .... by his absence from the scene ?

 

[SJS]

Mr Dalmiya, Mr Gavaskar and others like them,

Sirs,

Couldnt you have been wrong in the first place ? If yes, Isnt it time to look at other areas where you might be wrong too ?

Just an humble opinion.

 

[Sudeep]

***Newsflash*** Tendulkar WAS the backbone of Indian batting. Now a days he is just another batsman, Rahul Dravid is the back bone of Indian batting.

Quite ironically, since January 1, 2002, Dravid averages 27.55 in all finals and 24.75 in grand finals. Tendulkar, on the other hand, averages 34.75 in all finals and 29.83 in grand finals.

Move over Sachin, we've a new choker. Rahul Dravid!

 

[honestbharani]

I dont know how much you have followed SRT's career when he was a captain, I used to watch cricket regularly, here is a quote on his captaincy :-

" Sachin's strategic acumen is not, demonstrably, of the greatest. Go through the scorecards of India during his captaincy, and you will see what I mean. There is never an attempt to innovate, to do the unexpected thing. Bowling changes are by rote - the two quicks first, then Kumble, then the reserve medium pacer, then the second spinner, then himself. And this is irrespective of pitch and weather conditions, or the form or quality of opposing batsmen, or even the state of individual games. And the same holds true of his batting dispositions - a lineup is decided upon, and adhered to rigidly, regardless of the state of an individual game. "



I cant believe you are praising SRT for such a tactic, after all didn't we chastise Ashley Giles for the same thing..Let me guess..SRT is above all that and he must be praised even if it is against the spirit of the game. I guess where was Sunny Gavaskar during all this ? Did he think that SRT was playing cricket which was only good for people suffering from 'insomnia' ?



Obviously I have never denied SRT's impact on cricket, on youngsters, etc but I dont know why we are bringing all this here. What has that got to do with his failure in pressure games ? I hope you are not justifying his failiure by saying all that.

You are right, Knock out games aren't the only games with pressure..I have never said that..games where we are chasing a good score are pressure games, games which are deciders are pressure games..games where we have lost early wickets are pressure games.. And That is where he has failed more often than he has succeeded especially since 2000-2001 season.

With regard to the around the wicket line, he only did it in ODIs, where anything outside the leg stump is wided. And he turns the ball more than Giles.

 

[honestbharani]

Anyway, Sanz, I don't want to get into a nitty-gritty argument here. Sachin has always had an impact on the team, and he was always missed when he wasn't around. That is my point. With regards to his tactical ability, I am not saying he is the best, but he has a pretty good cricketing brain. Maybe he was worried about having to face flak if he did innovative stuff as captain. Maybe he feels freer to offer his inputs as non-captain. But really, that is not something you can hold against him. But if I am not mistaken, he did push Sourav to open for India in ODIs and he played Laxman as a no.3 instead of an opener when he was captain. Like I said earlier, there are instances when his ideas have worked and there are instances when they haven't. I don't know who wrote that piece about his captaincy, but honestly, given the side he had with him, he couldn't have done too much more. He has done a few things out of the ordinary like promoting Saba Karim to the top order, Robin Singh to the top order etc. Maybe the players weren't taking the experimentation well at that time. Maybe the selectors and the coach were against it. All this is only speculation.

 

[Jono]

Quite ironically, since January 1, 2002, Dravid averages 27.55 in all finals and 24.75 in grand finals. Tendulkar, on the other hand, averages 34.75 in all finals and 29.83 in grand finals.

Move over Sachin, we've a new choker. Rahul Dravid!

Oh I love it Sudeep, I LOVE IT!

This is in no way denigrating the great Dravid, but just shows that Sachin's failings in finals are quite exaggerated.

 

[Arjun]

You're talking of Sachin and Rahul choking in finals since January 2002. Do you know that Agarkar's bowling average in ALL finals is a massive 44? Strangely, the Sachin-baiters and Dravid-critics seem to ignore that, but often have a crack at some very important people, who have shown that they can come good in finals.

 

[Sudeep]

You're talking of Sachin and Rahul choking in finals since January 2002. Do you know that Agarkar's bowling average in ALL finals is a massive 44? Strangely, the Sachin-baiters and Dravid-critics seem to ignore that, but often have a crack at some very important people, who have shown that they can come good in finals.

Errr... seems you failed to get the joke?

 

[honestbharani]

Anyways, Dilshan is gone. Bhajji keeps up his wicket taking form.

 

[honestbharani]

Atapattu gets a 50. Well done. Much needed knock under pressure. Remains to be seen if he can take Sri Lanka to a competitive total.

 

[Pratters]

Tilak Road End and Pavilion End.

I mean please some effort could have been made in naming the ends?

 

[SJS]

There is a lot of talk of Sachin as captain and of him being a bad or not a good captain. This is not true in the sense in which it is interpreted by most.

Sachin is a great student of the game.
He is a great reader of the game and match situations.
He is a great tactician.
He is very strong from inside (the strongest choker ever !!!!)

Yet he performed less, much less, successfully than was widely anticipated. This is not a surprise. There have been other examples of players who are champions in their game and carry all the attributes normally associated with good captains and yet fail. Lara (in his first stint particularly) is another recent example. These are players who are so much above the rest of the team that they expect very high standards from others. Sachin's intensity on the field was frighetening when he was captain and when they find things not working as they expected, they tend to try and do it themselves.

If Sachin had been more relaxed when he bacame India captain he would have done far better. But these attributes are also important for a captain and he lacked them. There are many who believe that Sachin would make a very successful captain if he was to take up the job today. It may be correct but its not required and so India is not going that way. If Rahul was not available as such a good option and if Sachin was willing, it may have been him leading again.

I am not sure it is such a bad thing for Indian cricket that he is just batting but I think it is silly to say that he was a bad captain tactically or he did not know enough to be a good captain. There is no one in the Indian team who comes close to him in these two areas according to those who have talked to him.