I have been saying this for almost two years now I think that Tendulkar is not past his best. During the period more people have started believing he is past it.
Today’s inning cannot put the doubts away from every one. But even the few who would have changed their minds or at least appreciated Tendulkar in full flow today makes me happy.
Ganguly has never been a complete one day player. Yet at his best he has been a very good one day player. So the aspects regarding the fielding, running between the wickets, his test weakness creeping in his one day batting (the off drives seem horrible when he doesnt hit them, brilliant when he hits them) are all not as important points.
What is of vital importance to India is to have Ganguly back as a quality one day batsman. I think people will agree he is a proven one day batsman. Ganguly, for his own and India’s sake, should concentrate much more on his batting than he ever has.
I think he should leave the captaincy troubles to Dravid for at least 6 months. We can see where it goes from there. Ideally I would like Dravid or some one else to be announced captain till the world cup but it is not going to happen.
In the next 6 months, Ganguly should let his bat do the talking and leave no alternative than for the selectors to bring him back to the one day side. Dravid did it and made his way back to the one day team.
Ganguly obviously has problems with his batting right now. But I think it is not over for Ganguly as a one day player. If he can come even close to the Ganguly – the one day batsman of the past, he would do India good in 2007 as a player.
Looking back, I will not say the super series was a bad idea. I will speak regarding the test match because it is the cricket which concerns me much more than most one day cricket.
The match saw brilliance in parts. The bowling of Murali, the bowling of Warne, some tight contests. But where the match failed – lies in the fact that it was a match rather than a series.
It was really clubbed in the cricketing calendar which is really not the way to go about it. A proper cricket tour by the ROW would have been much better wit 3 tests, a few first class matches opening with a match VS the Prime Ministers XI maybe. People may argue that this is 2005 and not the 70s.
But all I am asking for is a space for the ROW like any other international team would have had. It would give players more team, focus their efforts properly at the right moments.
The World XI could have had more time to gel as a TEAM – the common arguement against the concept till now. And regarding the players not taking the whole thing seriously – this is cricket at the top level. Can they, despite being the best players, just create magic if they want to?
Even the best need preparation.
It had nothing to suggest it is going to be what it ended up in. The Guyanese batted a few more overs since I last posted and it looked,, with 7 wickets in hand, that it is going to be a comfortable victory. Certainly the commentators were laughing that its all but over but any thing can happen in one day cricket, despite not believing there was any thing left in the match except the last rites.
A few more overs down and we come to the end of the 46th over. People kept getting out to rash shots. The situation thus came to 3 wickets in hand, 4 overs and more than 6 runs an over required.
To add to the drama of the situation it was extremely dark. Bulbs in the guest pavilion where the crowds sat could be seen quite distinctively. No lights offerred to the batsmen to the astonishment of the commentators.
The 46th over gone and 3 overs to go, it was a tie by D/L system (Guyana would have won on past record in the tournament) and yet no light offered despite the batsman trying to flick to the leg side on two consecutive balls on the off side.
The 48th over finishing, the commentators put their money on Barbados. Light finally offered to the batsmen but they of course did not take it because they were behind in D/L.
And Benn, the tallest left hand spinner I have ever seen, who was sensibly bowling flat balls till then, decided to give a ball some flight to experiment. Lo and behold – a six! Guyana ahead on D/L now.
The umpires offer lights. The Guyanese batsmen go off to the dismay of the Courtney Browne and other Barbados players!