Dravid, Azhar, Sachin and other subjects

The Rahul Dravid interview
L Suresh Kumar: lskumar@hotmail.com:

This Indian team's dependency on one or 2 or 3 persons has been an ongoing policy right from the times of gavaskar, yashpal_sharma, kirmani et al.

this must change. team spirit and team effort must be inculcated in the cricketers' minds. may be, should we cut off their pay+perks so that they will play well ??

its a shame that a team of 11 and a nation of nearly a billion depends on one person for many things in our areas of interest - be it in cricket or politics. how sad !!

Anshuman Gaekwad
Shailesh Mungikar: shailesh@ureach.com:

Nice try to defend the incapables. The problem is the people in authority keep denying that there is a problem somewhere. Unless they don't do the introspection, we will go through the such motions. And what is this myth of Azhar being the most successful caption of India. U give him favorable conditions; home advanatage, dusty turning pitches, insanly voiceferous crowd bordering at the level of rowdyness and weak opponents agains spinners. Only then has he managed to win. Do u call it success. When a small boy plays among big boys, he is given a favorable treatment (he is called as limboo-timboo), that kind of treatment India enjoyes when having above conditions met. U don't require a caption to win in such conditions. So let us keep it straight, these wins don't matter much except for statistics. A team is goes from strength to strength when it wins. What do u find with India. That it heavily relies on Sachin and Dravid. That when Kumble fails (he invariably fails on foreign pitches) we don't even manage to get the opponents all-out. This is shameful. And u call it biggest success. Bullshit! Abt Gaikwad, I guess he should resign, why should we win only when Bob Simpson joins out team and gives them a pep-talk. It happened in Newzeland and in Sharjah. It clearly indicates that Gaikwad fails miserably when it comes to motivate the team. Abt strategy-planning nobody in Indian team have an inkling what is it abt. So what is he doing. Merely conducting press conference.

There has been a constant talk of talking nice words now when we are abt to lauch world-cup episode. Why should I when I feel ashamed of our performance. We will do fair only if we are mighty lucky otherwise past experience shows we will fail miserably. Then why should luck come to our rescue. Luck favors the brave. Are we brave? I pray to god, we fail miserably, then only we will learn something otherwise this saga of incompetence will continue. I don't want luck to favor a bunch of losers.

Anshuman Gaekwad
Raghuvir: raghuvir@hotmail.com: Did u notice the contradiction in the last answer - about Agarkar not being available in NZ?

Faisal had earlier asked about lack of bench strength, to which the reply was in the negative !!!

Indian cricket team IS pampered and without accountability. If some was to threaten the positions (as in Australian teams for ODI & Tests)then I guess our 'boys' will grow up.

Sachin versus Bradman:
SANTOSH PAWAR: santi@mcbl.iisc.ernet.in: Dear Arvid Lavakare, Your article gives good statistics but does not convey the real situation, because statistics can only tell whether a player is good or bad but cannot tell if he is the best among the good. TENDULKAR IS UNDOUBTEDLY THE BEST BATSMAN IN THE WORLD TODAY. Your article is unfair because it compares the failures of Tendulkar with the successes of Bradman and Gavaskar, and then trying to make a point by giving the statistics.

For, one Bradman, Gavaskar have played in very different eras themselves as to what Tendulkar is playing now. The game is so competitive today more than it was at any other time before. Moreover one important point that you have failed to note or mention is that in today's age of instant cricket, test cricket has been sidelined even by the cricketing authorities. India played a record 41 one-dayers last year compared to just 4-5 tests. How can you expect players to adjust so fast and so successfully between these two forms of the game?

One-day cricket need the batsman to score too fast in too less time, which is why we see that Tendulkar plays aggressively even in test matches. Due to his aggressiveness, he tends to play risky shots and sometimes loses his wicket cheaply. But that doesn't mean he is not committed and doesn't help in India's wins, in fact, he has single-handedly won tournaments for India. Also due to his risky play, he is not able to score big innings, as you say 200s and 300s. But these days we can see a different Tendulkar who is not ready to give away his wicket cheaply and wants to stay in the crease for long. So your doubts about his "staying ability" will also be cleared soon. Tendulkar will not only score, double hundreds but a few triple hundreds as well.

Everyone knows what Tendulkar's calibre is and Mr. Lavakare, you can't show statistical figures to disprove that. At the age of 25 Tendulkar has 36 centuries to his name in international cricket(one-dayers as well as tests) which no other player has ever scored, including Bradman and Gavaskar. He has a long way to go and many, many more centuries to hit. And at the end of it he will have achieved much more than what you thought was lacking and he is not able to deliver. TENDULKAR'S BAT WILL ANSWER ALL THE DOUBTING THOMASES LIKE YOU, Mr. LAVAKARE. And you won't have to wait for very long for that.



The Rahul Dravid interview:
Minu: minu@mailcity.com: Sachin&Rahul are my favorite cricketers as well as persons. Please conduct an inspiring interview with Sachin asking him about his source of motivation, quality thinking, cool&controlled self, focus........

Ask him something that would inspire today's beginners. Ask him his message to today's youth. I'll be grateful to you if this happens. Looking forward to it.



Anshuman Gaekwad :
Rohit Srivastava: pr_rohit@hotmail.com: Why is it that u all r dependent on tendulkar.... Is it that he adds moral support.... or is it that he does the entire work.... another thing y r u afraid of Pakistani Bowlers... i don't think there is any thing to be afraid of... if tendulkar would have been there he would have taken on Shoiab Akthar...



Sachin versus Bradman:
tsajay: tsajay@rocketmail.com: Hi all,

Please notice that in this article Tendulkar is being compared with a set of players with their best performances.

This comparison will fail miserably if we take each one of them & compare them individually with their performances in ODI & Test put together with that of Tendulkar's. Only Bradman may be better.

Someone has painfully picked all the instances where Sachin has failed.

Ajay.



Sachin versus Bradman:
Mani: manith@hotmail.com: Michael Bevan is truly the unfashionable, unsung hero of one day cricket. With an astonishing average around 62, how could you ignore him, Arvind?



The Rahul Dravid interview:
Amit: amitb@pentafour.com: I think the whole of your news section is temendous, complete with the big names in the game and uptodate news with analysis. Its the best site I got for news and thanks for the efforts. All the best and keep it up.

I can't say about the Indian side, but I think the morale of the country would be boosted if Azharuddin is dropped from the team and a more deserving player is allowed to represent India.



Anshuman Gaekwad :
Indranuj: indranuj@usa.net: I have always been cynical of Gaekwad's but this is simply too much. That man has the nerve to regard Test defeats as nothing and one-day series draws as decent results!! What will become of Indian cricket? While the world all over is clamouring for the best of coaches, haggling over the Woolmers, the Pybuses, the Whatmores...why do we have to bear this man?



The Rahul Dravid interview:
PANKAJ: Setiap@hotmail.com: hi Should Rediff on the net enter into the physical fitness busines? Pankaj



The Rahul Dravid interview:
Sajeev K V: sajeev_kv@yahoo.com: Good Admission by Dravid



The Sanjay Manjrekar column:
sukkur: sukkurma@eta-ascon.com: It is ridiculous to read this man (sanjay manjrekar)'s column. When this dont to know how to win they will write like this. First you learn how to play then write the team which is winning always.



The Harsha Bhogle interview:
jyoti shukla: jyoti_sh@hotmail.com: to mr. Harsha Bhogle, you want us to keep quite about azahar's captaincy? it was final match in sharjah. agarker was being hit all over the ground. Pakistani batsmen made half of their targeted runs off his bowling but azahar didn't took him off, neither he gave jadeja a chance to bowl. Jadeja, who in the previous two matches, had bowled 5 overs taking 5 wickets thus helping his country to win both the matches. Azahar, who is the most uncomunicative captain- if not in the history than at least in the present cricket world.Azahar, who in sachin's captaincy kept throwing his wicket by deliberetly getting run out- not once or twice but 4 times.

media is deviding cricket team? Excuse me, but under azahar's captaincy, the team already looks divided- between an aloof and detached captain and the rest of the team. "we couldn't win the sharjah final 'cause our batsmen have made an abject total of 125 runs"- and so it was no fault of azhar that we lost the match, right? i would like to recomend to every indian cricket lover (especially mr. bhogle) to read sunil gavasker's book "one day wonders" in which he has described how in the same situation, india had snached the match from Pakistan who were chasing the same total of 125 runs. Read, how sunil has described that how captain kapil dev boosted the moral of the team, brough them togather and turned a certain defeat into a dream-victory.

I was one of those lucky people who watched that match on tv, saw Imran khan ripping through the indian batting( he had come back after almost 1 year's rest 'cause of a shin injury) and then we saw our team bouncing back. later, sunny revealed what had happenned in indian cricket team's dressing room that day which made that win possible. mr. Bhogle, media is not "creating" something against azhar,its only echoing the sentiments of common people. i would like to tell you just one such reaction. During sharjah championship, i was in a remote, interior place of Madhya Pradesh where i came across a tribal boy, employed as home servent, who was very fond of cricket. this 20 year old boy was educated up to 7th standard. on the day of final he asked whether azhar was playing in the match(he had watched the previous two matches in which azhar hadn't played). when he heard that azhar was back in the team he slapped his forehead and said "ab har jayenge". how about that, mr. Bhogle? azhar may be a nice person but on war front, you need a soldier not a meek, nice guy who behaves as if even talking with his fellow "soldiers" is below his dignity.