A reply to a SOS

Having come across Beau Peep's call for a SOS to save the Indian cricket team, I was compelled to respond in one way or the other. Largely because I disagreed with it.

I will leave the positives aside. After all they will only benefit the team and overall system in the long run. My grouse is with the stated negatives. So heres a response to some of them.

1) Ganguly was as much to blame for his exit along all other parties involved in the controversy. For better or for worse, he is now gone, so lets leave that there. His last century came against a pop-gun attack Geoffrey Boycott's mum would have fancied a crack against. He found it hard to justify his place in the lead up to that series. So lets not leave ourselves under any illusions, rather delusions, about his worth as a batsman at the time. First series win in 20 yrs over Zimbabwe is nothing worth writing home about!! The very series India contrived to draw after being 1-0 up a few years back. The defeat sparked by a batting collapse led by none other than the captain himself, Ganguly. So lets not kid ourselves about beating Zimbabwe being an achievement. The case 'against' is long. But I will stick to the points mentioned.

2) Zaheer Khan - one only had to see his performance, rather his approach, attitude, mentality and bowling, in Pakistan earlier this year to draw conclusions about the reasons for his absence. His decline had begun under Ganguly, but merely reached its completion under Chappell.

4,5) Yuvraj, Sehwag and Kaif, if I may add - this trio continue to be as consistent, rather inconsistent, as they were under Ganguly. So we should blame Chappell for not having discarded one of them soon enough rather than blaming him for their lack of form. Yuvraj and Kaif seem to have spent eons in the team and have yet to produce a single consistent season of batsmanship.

6)Dravid - to label Dravid as a Chappell puppet is an insult to ones intelligence. I haven't seen a cricketeer don the India cap with more dignity and professionalism than Dravid has over the last few years. The bad start to his season is magnified due to the alarmingly high standards he has set for himself. Second fiddle?? It doesn't matter at what fiddle he performs. The fact is that he has had a contribution and role in shaping every significant Indian test win in the recent past. Because we have been accustomed to Ganguly's brash approach does not mean we should discard Dravid's more sophisticated methods. And a series victory in the West Indies, now thats something to write home about. The first genuine win outside the subcontinent in a long time.

7) Dhoni's rise was fuelled to meteoric proportions by a sensationalized media and a hero-craving public. His technique is inherently flawed and he remains a crude slogger of the ball. So talking about his fading away is naive given the fact that he is yet to rise to levels of consistency, failing which people can talk about a decline.

It was noticeable that all of Beau Peep's positives were to do with the setup and attitude within which the team operates. And all the negatives were player related. My point being, players are expendable, the system is not. The Yuvrajs, Kaifs and Dhonis can be replaced. The system cannot.

Also, lets take Chappell's appointment at face value, a BCCI appointee with, ironically, Ganguly's backing. Not a delusional conspiracy theory by the Aussies to engage in subterfuge and take over the world of cricket.