Another Post-Mortem

          In the wake of the Indian cricket team's drubbing by England, the country saw a rush of post-mortems and possible reasons from interactions with friends, newspapers, magazines and, most importantly, the television. A particular channel even gave seven possible reasons and conducted a poll to find out what people think was the real one.

          The fact is, it can't be one single cause like 'IPL' or 'injury' or 'careless BCCI'. A combination of all these contributed to India's downfall in England. The team lost the strike bowler, most ruthless albeit unpredictable batsman, star spinner and some others due to injury. That said, had these men given the cash-rich IPL a miss and taken a well-deserved break after the World Cup, they probably would have remained fit through the series. Even our demigod Sachin Tendulkar skippered his side to the last three in the IPL and chose to pass playing for his country in the Caribbean.

          With the absence of a window for the IPL in the ICC calendar, the players are simply playing too much. Dhoni, two-time IPL champ, conveniently chose not to blame it. The men in blue are human too, and choose the big cash over a badly needed break for the sake of family, form and fitness.

The BCCI also need to build a strong B side. The big names of Indian cricket are aging and we do not want to be caught napping when they retire. England is reaping the benefits of a balanced side and we need to learn from them. After all, they just won a series against the World Cup-winning side rather convincingly to say the least.

          Harsha Bhogle said he was looking forward to the ODI clashes. As a supporter of my country's side, I can't honestly agree, but if they step up their game it could be a little less one-sided.

Let the Countdown Begin!

          The countdown to the London Olympics 2012 has begun. And I think many would agree that India is not at all in the best possible position at the moment.

         After all the euphoria and hype around our good showing in the Commonwealth Games in our backyard and the Asiad at our populous neighbour's place, our bubble has been burst rather cruelly. Many of the athletes we liberally glorified are now being tested positive for steroids. The media are looking for whom to blame, their usual job.

          Our national game has two perpetually warring federations. A dozen merger deadlines have come and gone and a single united association still looks distant. The current Indian hockey team looks a faint shadow of the glorious side of the Dhyan Chand time. They finished sixth out of seven at an event in Malaysia and the Olympic scene, if they qualify at all, may not be too different.

          The shooters, wrestlers and boxers look like our best hope, again. If we want an improvement from 2008's 50th place in the medals tally we need some dramatic changes.