An awesome interview of Sehwag in cricinfo. Part 1 which was published a week back was good but part 2 takes the cake… An absolute must read for a cricket fan.
Part 1 -
Part 2 -
There is a wealth of information about the ones taking up the sport and more importantly, you get to hear a few inside stories on what happens in the field and a bit in his head.
He tends to brag a bit but that’s Sehwag, maybe a touch annoying at times but brutally frank.
Quite hilarious I say.
India finally won a tournament albeit a short one, in Sri Lanka and yet apart from the New Zealand side, which has truly hit rock bottom, shouldn’t find itself too proud or happy at the way things have panned out. Though on the losing side, Sri Lanka gained a lot more in this series in their quest to put together a good team in the near future.
To watch India’s bowling and fielding in the last few matches would be like that of an episode of ‘Teletubbies’. Seriously Painful!
After so many years of having a full-time fielding coach, physical conditioner trainers, mental shampoo specialists and other what not’s, the most glaring aspect of their fielding and catching abilities has been the complete lack in technique. Just what exactly has been the tangible change over the years? Previously, it was the sight of fielders in the deep who could almost never reach down to collect the ball on time, only to let the ball sneak in between their legs to the boundary and now they manage to reach down and knock it to another part of the field and concede the same amount of runs.
It would be of some acceptance if one sees the players adopt a sound technique though clumsy in implementation due to lack of practice or it being new to them but as it stands, it is ridiculous watching the Indian fielders attempting to stop a ball using the closest protruding part of their body to the ball, be it their head, belly or other unmentionables.
Robin Singh has always been a soft spoken and hard working cricketer, who kept himself fit from his playing days to his current stint as coach. Either due to his soft-spokenness, the players are not taking him seriously or he simply doesn’t possess the capabilities of teaching the technique and enforcing the players to comply. Robin had great success as the U19 coach, over the last few years before joining the Indian team. Some of the players during his stint as coach are by chance or by his design, India’s best fielders today. Yet none can be compared to the levels displayed by teams like Australia and South Africa.
Anybody who watched the recent U19 world cup, couldn’t possibly fail to notice how amazing the South African side were on the field. These were mostly 16-17 year old kids and were well-oiled machines on the field. No real chaos or hot and cold mediocrity displayed in contrast by the Asian teams. It was an example of how seriously South Africa over the years has taken the art of fielding to be nurtured and hard-wired into their junior cricket circuit.
The problem with India has been their obsession for predominately cultivating the batting department alone at the junior level. Over the last decade, significant in-roads in the development of pace bowling in the country took shape through the opening of world class academies and yet the nature of pitches offered in the domestic circuit does not in particular give credence to put to practice different methodologies that would shape the bowlers to adapt to different kinds of conditions. The positive side is the change that is taking place in domestic cricket though very slow, with variety in pitches and conditions being offered in the recent years.
What India really needs today is a proper fielding academy importing help from other nations where the art of fielding has been cultivated into an important and well-thought out process right at the junior level.
To start with… Dear BCCI, the richest board, how about some nice grass on our grounds? After all there are no shortages of cows on the roads to trim them. What a pleasant sight, the outfield in the grounds in many of the non-Asian countries offer. You almost want to get down there and roll in the grass in complete glee.
Secondly, we need fielding reforms starting right from the junior levels. You have the cash but do you have the vision? Oh, Let me guess… Sweep it under the carpet but remember, once upon a time the 8 inch floppy ruled the world and now it serves in most offices as a good coffee mat.
The season is finally open for folks in these parts. Sri Lanka, New Zealand and India are quite entangled in a triangular series, which is so incredibly short that you might as well call it the “mini-idily cup” or the “Ranatunga instant noodles cup”.
Speaking about cups and cup sizes, the digital trophy is a nice idea, where the winning captain can plug the gizmo in his cabinet and watch photos, videos and all the memorable moments of the series. I wonder if there is also a private viewing mode to fit in those “what happens in tours, stays in tours” moments too.
The fun part will be when the winning captain starts getting promotional spam for their products in a few months and as usual, the gizmo will traditionally conk out just a day after its warranty period, only for him to then face the true wrath of customer support, who would give him loads of incident ID’s after ID’s, that he would need another digital trophy just to store them.
Apart from the setbacks in the T20’s, Sri Lanka is surely but slowly fitting in all the pieces to form a good team with a consistent line-up slowly falling in. Dilshan is fitting into a perfect Sehwagish role scooping away runs merrily and getting out at times like a dodo. If he wasn’t on a cricket field, he probably will be making babies all night… Such is his form.
Finally a potential classical all-rounder in the Sri Lankan team. The new kid on the block Angelo Mathews has sure been growling for attention with some of his recent performances.
Could Angelo Mathews be as sweet to Sri Lankan cricket, as Angela’s voice in Arch Enemy? That’s one crazy voice isn’t it? But then Angelo is one tough kid too.
If only he could bowl as good as the Jedi master, Vaas and then throw in another good, highly under-rated potential all-rounder, Maharoof, it would well complete what was missing all these years in the batting line-up. Strong low order finishers and scrapers.
Cricket’s original Chenghis Khan and now the legendary Grandpa of Sri Lanka cricket, Sanath Jayasuriya is sadly well past his use-by date. His love for the Indian bowling attack might prolong his career further but he ought to be now giving opportunities for the new gen.
In recent times, New Zealand have done well in T20 cricket and been a total disaster in tests. Vettori may well feel like one of the Russian commanders in the movie “Enemy at the gates”, shouting through a loudspeaker on the battle field.
“One out of two gets a bat.
The one with the bat scores.
The one without follows him.
When the one with the bat gets killed,
the one who is following picks up the bat and scores!”
“One out of two gets a bat.
The one with the bat scores.
The one without follows him.
When the one with the bat gets killed,
the one who is following…
7 WICKETS DOWN ALREADY!!! GET ME THE FREAKING BAT!”
As for the Indian superstars/brats, they kept themselves busy cribbing about WADA and scaring peasants in the countryside with their new Hummers. Virat Kohli’s omission was a let down considering he came up with some fine performances in the Emerging Players tournament but he has the time. While Nayar did quite well, it didn’t fit the logic on having both Nayar and Yousuf Pathan in the squad. Ideally the trade-off should have been with either of these two in the utility all-rounder/finisher role and Virat Kohli drafted in.
With Dravid truly making a miraculous come-back in terms of selection recognition, the ideal scenario should have been the choice of featuring Dravid or Kohli in the middle order. With Kohli not in the squad, it makes a compulsory fit for Dravid to be featured and so no further opportunities given for Dhoni to fumble about under the media gossip scanner. As for the ones like Badrinath, it might well be too late and at the end of the road.
And yes, no sign yet of our secret weapon “Che Pujara”.
After a real long time, someone who hit it right on the head on where the sheer hypocrisy starts.
Gideon Haigh on how Gayle spake as he saw
