“I swear by my god, by my wife, by my native country Australia, by my children and by Rahul Dravid that i will experiment, experiment and keep on experiment till i ruin Indian cricket”, Greg Chappel. I saw him yesternite in dreams quoting the above statement. This is not good time to blog, afterall India is winning but his experiments has seriously troubled Indians much like Pak ISI.

Indian team has faced some of the serious debacles recently, and it all started with WI tour. A tour, very crucial prior to world cup to get acclimatised to WI conditions proved a disaster. We were expecting a tough time in Tests but an easy triumph in ODIs. We were at 3rd rank and WI were 7th. ODIs started, we won first game and our coach gave the statement, “WI have forgotten how to win”. Players can afford to be complacent and they can make such remarks to create any kind of psychological pressure on the field, but a coach making such remarks is nothing less than absolute nonsense. We got humiliated in the next 4 matches and lost by 4-1.

We then had Test matches and we managed to clutch that series by 1-0. This time, he again made statement, “The loss in ODIs was a boon in disguise”. Need i say anything ? Mr. Chappel, you are great. This is heights of optimism !

The crucial series against RSA was ahead. Indians have never made good impression at SA. Previously there were players like Allan Doanld, Gary Kirsten who invariably enjoyed Indians as opponents much like Saeed Anwar of Pak. India was completely whitewashed in the ODIs, with the result being 4-0. Coach once again gave some comments to media openly like after loss in 3rd ODI, he said “The team is in such bad form. I don’t know what to do ?” He is getting a fat endorsement just to know the reasons. Team management took some steps and Ganguly and Laxman were called back, but still we lost by 2-1. Ganguly was the highest scorer.

Doing experiments is good, but even best players take caution when not in good form, it directly affects the motivation level and especially in a  nation like us where cricket is everything, we can’t afford to loose every day owing to silly mistakes and whims. Afterall there are only few things where we do good.

By now, if you can extract that i am huge huge fan of Saurav Ganguly. He is the man. I guess after Azhar and Jadega match fixing controversy and Sachin’s poor performance as a captain, he was the man behind Indian cricket revival. I consider his shirt gesture at Lords to be second most proud moment in  Indian cricket after world cup win. Its shows the aggression, spirit, passion, a sense of proud and a feeling to rule which we Indians have always been devoid of. He fought for Greg’s appointment and Greg condemned him for fragile mental state.Mr. Greg, he is the strongest willed man i have recently seen.He entered Indian cricket team after a whole lot of odds and did better. He is simply the best left handed batsman, India has ever produced. You can’t question the mental state of India’s most successful captain nor the temperament of 10000 ODIs run maker. To be in-form and out of form is altogether different issue but questioning a person’s intrinsic capabilities is not acceptable.

By the statements, i have jotted above, one can easily understand the mental state of coach. When WC is just 3 months ahead, our preparations are nowhere and we are still expeimenting like resting our three key players in today’s match including Ganguly. Today Uthappa has played a brilliant innings of 70 runs in just 41 balls,  but he can’t be assured of his place, afterall the team’s of 11 only. This will directly affect player’s mental state. The person who doesn’t have fit mental state is producing similar others.

In all this where Rahul Dravid fits ? I have sympathy for this fellow. He is good batsman but i never find him fit for captaincy. I respect him as i respect Dr. Manmohan Singh too but wished that he should not have been the captain and Manmohan Singh should not have been the PM !