Racket before wicket
It's something the BCCI is unwilling to admit
Kanishkaa Balachandran
25-Feb-2013
It's something the BCCI is unwilling to admit. If it's not obvious already, India have been eliminated from a World Twenty20, immediately after an IPL, for the second time in a row. The inability to tackle the short ball in the T20 format is projected as the main reason for the debacle, but the real reason is the awful, awful timing of the IPL, writes Shekhar Gupta in the Indian Express.
It isn’t just that the IPL is leaving players injured or fatigued. Players, as Sangakkara had the good sense to state, have the right to decide whether or not to play IPL. But is that a decision you can leave to individual players? Maybe a Tendulkar or a Dhoni can afford to sit out of a future IPL to preserve himself. But a Rohit Sharma, a Piyush Chawla, a Zaheer Khan? I mention those three names in particular because, if you go back to your T20 world cup footage, theirs are the chubbiest cheeks and they are some of the people Kirsten is complaining about.
Merely questioning the Indian players' commitment towards the World Twenty20 isn't going to solve any problems. The BCCI should also be held accountable and reassess itself in the way it treats its players and prepares them for a big tournament. The blame should be spread out, writes Partha Bhaduri in the Times of India.
If you share the spoils, then it’s only fair that you share the blame. For the BCCI, which has stoked systemic greed, there are two ways forward: it can either let things be and hope India’s batsmen blast everything out of sight on flat home pitches in next year’s 50-over World Cup. Luckily, the event precedes the IPL, offering a perfect opportunity to brush things under the carpet. Or Shashank Manohar & Co can start identifying areas which need overhauling. It’s all right asking players to be professional, to be committed to a level of excellence that goes above commercial considerations, but the Board should remember professionalism is environmental. A look in the mirror wouldn’t hurt.
In Cricketnext, Gaurav Kalra writes that Indian supporters should stop wasting their time mercilessly crucifying the players and instead focus more about how to make them better players.
Fleeting as it may have been, even in the West Indies we witnessed sparks of special skill. Raina's ton against South Africa and Rohit Sharma's back to the wall belligerence against the Windies gave us little saplings of hope. We must urge and pressure the our administrators to find ways to help that talent flower. Must they be sent away for a couple of months to overcome the kinks in their technique? Could we pick up the phone to Jimmy Amarnath or ask Sunny Gavaskar to take them away for a couple of weeks and train them in the art of facing up to the short ball?
In the Hindu, Peter Roebuck feels half the team is over-rated and a few big names ought to be ditched.
The fielding was dreadful, the bowling was wayward and the batting was inept. Only a few players survived the examination. The rest looked like pampered millionaires more interested in sweets than sweat. And let's not listen to any idle excuses about pitches or parties. Players are not forced to stay up all night whilst the tracks in the Caribbean were superbly suited to rewarding the genuine. Better to acknowledge the scale of the defeat, examine its causes and seek immediate remedies.
An editorial in the same paper says that every facet of India's game bore signs of the malaise.
Also in need of attention is scheduling — the off-season has disappeared as has the break between assignments; with no time for reflection and skill development, is it reasonable to expect improvement?
Kanishkaa Balachandran is a senior sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo