Thursday, November 03, 2005

Bravo Chappell, Dravid

The Indian cricket team just made short work of supposed world #2 Sri Lanka. What a breath of fresh air after the stink that Mr. Ganguly created. It was heartening to see Chappell and Dravid experiment with Pathan, Dhoni and Yuvraj in the batting line-up. Two of those bets paid handsome dividends. Not so evident, but indicative of the mind-set, were some of the fielding arrangements: Dravid set a 7-2 field for Pathan/Agarkar vs. Jayasuriya/Sangakkara with 3 slips! This aggressive take-no-prisoners mind-set is what has yielded consistently superior results for the Australians. Further, Chappell's religion of fitness is a welcome change. Maybe Sania can join in too :-) . Watching the Indian cricket team is fun again!

What a difference some decisive leadership can make. It's hard to believe that Chappell had to deal with Ganguly's gutter behavior less than a month ago. The backbone shown by Chappell and the Selectors (as opposed to the disaster that is the BCCI) is commendable. And of course winning never hurts. It's a long road to the World Cup in 2007, but Team India's made some promising first steps.

ps. Jaffna, don't expect you to wax eloquent given that the victim is Sri Lanka ;-)

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I heard the Lankans have dropped to #4 and with India on rampage, SL is gonna end at #6 by the end of the tour!

kautilya said...

What a breath of fresh air after the stink that Mr. Ganguly created.

Very well said. "Mr." Ganguly was behaving, in all these years, as if he was above the game itself. There was no accountability of his own performance and his attitude both on and off the field was far from sportsmanlike.
I must say the spat between Chappel and Ganguli was a blessing in disguise. It acted as a trigger for what should have happened atleast a couple of years ago. Indian captains, barring a few, somehow start behaving as if they are a God sent gift to the team. I hope captainship and initial success does not go over Dravid's head.

libertarian said...

Jaffna, thanks for the welcome. Will be a very interesting next 3 matches.

kaunteya, couldn't agree more on the attitude part. Also, don't think it's restricted to the captains alone. Many of them behave like they're doing everyone a favor by playing - last I checked, they made more money than most. Hopefully some tough love and discipline from Chappell and the Selectors will bring in the professionalism that the IT, BPO and auto-parts industries display.

doubtinggaurav said...

Gentlemen dont you realize that cricket is a opium of masses

Anonymous said...

Saurav's captaincy followed Azhar's script to a T, except for that public spat and show of strength.

I still cant believe headlines go "When/how can Saurav make a comeback?" or "Saurav not in the team!" and with a very sympathetic ear for Saurav.

Rediff has this one:
How can Sourav make a comeback?

Saurav is "Abandoned by the Indian selectors", it says.

Anonymous said...

Chappell and Dravid have made a great team. To turn around a team languishing at the bottom of the rankings so convincingly is amazing.

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