Indian cricket for beginners

[The Phantom Ram]

Obviously England will soon be touring India and as someone who has recently refound his love of cricket I would be the first to admit that my knowledge of Indian cricket is sketchy. Can people help me by using this thread to tell me about the test grounds in India, your current squad information, recent form, history and top all time players. I'd love to learn and will probably ask more questions as the thread goes on.

Cheers in anticipation.
(I will also start a similar thread in the Pakistan forum)

[Notts Exile]

I've been to three of the Test Grounds in India: The Chidambaram Stadium at Chepauk in Chennai (Madras), The ****hede Stadium in Mumbai (Bombay) and The Chinaswamy Stadium in Bangalore. Most of the grounds are, in effect, concrete bowls, rather large ones at that! Those three can all manage up and above 40000 spectators and generate a great atmosphere. The stands all have roofs to protect from the sun. The crowds are often rowdy and really enjoy their cricket, when the home side is doing well. They don't have seats like we do, more small pieces of plastic stuck on the concrete! Foodwallahs prowl the stands selling samosas, sweet things, pepsi and water. Bottles aren't allowed as they would be used as missiles and thrown onto the outfield or, more often, at the players. Home players aren't safe either, if they're having a bad day!

I saw the India vs West Indies Series back in 2002/3 and the crowds weren't vast due to the fact that the Windies were poor and didn't put up much of a fight. The locals will be looking forward to the visit of England next year, those matches will attract large crowds.

[Doink]

The seating arrangements are good even though we have the richest cricket board in the world! But you can be sure that you'll have a good time as people really enjoy their cricket here and would ofcourse turnout in huge numbers to see how KP and Freddie handle the spinners! KP has toured India with ENG-A and even made a century. It'll we very warm out here so make sure you have a lot of liquids!

[Colourful Chaddi]

Batting
Well let me start to you off with India's best 3 batsmen Sunil Gavaskar, in my opinion the best opener of the modern era, the little master Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul 'the wall' Dravid. These great batsmen all average over 50+ and have more than 20 centuries to there name.
Sunil Gavasker, also known as 'Sunny' is arguable to best opener the game has seen and is definitely the best batsmen from the Sub-Continent. He holds a joint record with Sachin Tendulkar for the most amount of Test century’s International level and was the first batsmen at test level to score 10,000 runs. He has at the moment 10122 runs at an incredible average of 51.12. An average of 51.12 is amazing considering he was an opener facing the likes of Dennis Lillie, the quartet of West Indies, New Zealand ace Richard Hadlee and Pakistan's best all-rounder Imran Khan. It is also impressive because he was normally batting in a weak Indian team and he was also batting on uncovered pitches without a helmet. Statistics can’t really explain how important he was for the Indian team at that time, he earned respect for Indian cricket and he taught his team-mates the virtue of professionalism. The self-actualisation of Indian cricket began under him.His game was built around a near perfect technique and enormous powers of concentration. It is hard to visualise a more beautiful defence: virtually unbreakable, it made his wicket among the hardest to earn. He played with equal felicity off both front and back foot, had an excellent judgement of length and line and was beautifully balanced. He had virtually every stroke in the book but traded flair for the solidity, which his side needed more.

Sachin Tendulkar, the ‘little master’. Well what can I say about this Indian legend? He made is debut at the age of 16 against a strong Pakistani attack including Imran Khan, Wasim Akram and fellow debutant Waqar Younis. From then on he has been in the Indian team for over 15 years, but at the moment he is injured with a tennis elbow. He for the most part of the 90’s before Saurav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid, was the key to India’s loses or wins. He had a incredible world cup in 1996 when world cup victory was pleaded by the home crowds but sadly India were knocked out in the semi-final because of crowd problems, but Sachin was not blamed he was rather praised for his brilliant efforts. He also named in late Donald Bradmans favourite XI of all time. He at the moment from 123 test matches he has 10134 runs at an impressive average of 57.25, and is joint with fellow Indian great Sunil Gavaskar with the most test centuries with 34 tons. He is equally impressive in the ODI format and is arguably the best batsman in the shorter format. From 348 matches he has 13642 runs at an average of 44.43, he also hold the record for most centuries with 38 tons to his name. Sachin Tendulkar is also a very reliable part-time bowler in ODI’s with 139 victims from his wrist spin.

Rahul Dravid ‘the wall’. He averages more in the no.3 spot then anybody that has played the game barring Donald Bradman. Rahul Dravid has a near perfect technique with an extraordinary defence but he has also got flair to his bating. He made his debut in England in 1996 and hit an impressive 95. But his career really sky rocketed when he hit 180 against the Australian in 2001 supporting VVS Laxman who hit at that time Indian record 280, to set up one of the best matches the cricketing world has seen. He then hit more runs with some glorious double centuries, and one that keeps in every Indian cricket fan is the 275 he hit in the 3rd test in Pakistan to give Indian there first victory against them in 15+ years. Rahul Dravid has scored 7696 runs at an amazing average of 57.86 from 89 matches. He is also a very handy ODI batmen who plays the anchoring role in the batting line up and he has also shown his loyalty to the Indian team when he took the wicket-keeping gloves. In 262 ODI matches Dravid has played he has scored 8383 runs at an average of 39.54.

Bowling
In my opinion the best bowlers that India has produced are Kapil Dev and Anil Kumble. So I will tell you about these Indian legends.
Kapil Dev is the best seamer Indian has ever produced and is India’s best all-rounder. He played in the era with other 3 all-rounders, England’s Ian Botham, New Zealand’s Richard Hadlee and Pakistan’s Inspiration Captain Imran Khan. Many people remember one innings when he hit 4 consecutive fours to save the follow-on and that incredible 175* against Zimbabwe in the World Cup. He also inspired India to world cup victory in the 1983 world cup. He was once the world leading wicket taker when he went pass Richard Hadlee and ended up with 434 wicketsfrom 131 test matches.

Anil Kumble is India leading wicket-taker when he over took Kapil Dev in 2004/2005. He is one of the few Indian cricketers who tries his hardest and gives full effort shown when he bowled in a test match with a broken jaw! He is more of an orthodox leg spinner who bowls the leg spinner like a spear because of the way the balls goes in the air, and the ball then comes off the pitch with a kick rather than a kink. Kumble would have made a complete leg-spinner if he had a big turning delivery and would have challenged Shane Warne for the best leg spinner title. Even with this unorthodox approach he has had stunning success. From 95 test matches Anil Kumble has 461 victims at an average of 28.23-a true Indian great!

Indian cricket team at the moment
At the moment the Indian cricket team is not performing very well and I am always wondering what is wrong with the current Indian team and their winning record. This team has legends in the batting order with Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid, they also have very good batsmen in Saurav Ganguly, Virender Sehwag and VVS Laxman. India is blessed with world class spinners in Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh. Yes we all agree India’s bowlers are not great but each can be devastating on their day. Zaheer Khan, Irfan Pathan and Ashish Nehra can all be match winners, but why is India still not performing well? Below I have made a list of things I think is stopping India’s success on the field. At the bottom I have listed 3 reasons why I think this team isn’t performing:

Fielding
Indians fielding is pathetic, admit it guys it is horrible! Muhammad Kaif and Yuvrag Singh are the only decent fielders in the team but they are no help with the bat. In ODI cricket is crucial to stop the singles and restrict the batsmen, but India are constantly giving singles away, 1 runs become 2 runs, 2 runs become 3 runs and 3 runs become 4 runs because the lazy Indians don’t work harder and bend their backs. Fielding just doesn’t make the score board look good it also helps the morale of the fielding team, I know how it feels when your team members miss-fields and drops catches its no good for the team morale. Greg Chappel must talk to the Indians about this HUGE problem, India must improve in the fielding if they are to be world beaters.

Ego’s
I think all the Indian players have big ego’s which I think is killing the teams morale and morale is most important. The team must be like a unity like a family if they are to be a successful team, look at England, they all look like friends and they all call each other with nicknames like Freddie, lord brokect etc. The Indian players probably call Ganguly the Royal Highness! Look at Zaheer Khan’s performance with Asia XI, he was terrific but why doesn’t he perform like that with the Indian team? I think that it is due to the morality and the unity of the team. I know that when a team-mate is intimidating it is hard for you to perform. Guys have you ever so the Indian team in the field or when they are batting? The chewtiya’s are always swearing at each other, each other’s mother and sister etc. They are never happy, only when they take a wicket are they happy and that is only for the cameras. These guys need a counselling man, they need to know how to be friends and how to communicate with each other without using the word benchought.

Effort
I have supported India more, with a passion I cannot describe. The reason I used to support India with so much passion was the way they used to play, they would never give up and they always showed full effort, look at Kapil Dev who hit 4 consecutive sixes to save the follower-on, my dad still talks of that particular innings till this day. But that has all changed, I am no longer seeing the effort by the Indian players, look at our loss against Pakistan. Pakistan didn't even have their best bowlers and they still beat us because they played their hearts out, they played with full effort, I didn't see any effort by the players. If we look at the 3rd test of the series only Sehwag was playing for the win, the rest of the team played so crap, and put no effort in. when I looked at the world cup 2003 final where Australia and India played for the cup, India were trashed by the Australian batsmen, the score was 359-2 with only Harbhajan Singh taking the wickets, but even with this score I thought India could still win, but I was cruelly mistaken I saw no effort by the Indians to bat well, yes the Australians bowled well but I would have liked to see more effort, there was no effort by the Indians when Tendulkar was dismissed by Glenn MaGrath, I was deeply sadden when India lost that final, but I was more sadden that they didn't show that effort I and many India fans were looking for. The Indians need to put in 100% effort if they want to win.

[The Phantom Ram]

Thank you Waseem, that is a fantastic post and helps understand Indian cricket massively. Can I just ask about another batsman, Dilip Venesarker (may not have spelt correctly), is he up there with the greats you have menioned?

[Colourful Chaddi]

Originally Posted by The Phantom Ram

Thank you Waseem, that is a fantastic post and helps understand Indian cricket massively. Can I just ask about another batsman, Dilip Venesarker (may not have spelt correctly), is he up there with the greats you have menioned?

Dilip Balwant Vengsarkar is also one of the greats in Indian cricket but i had to miss him out with bishen singh bedi because this site only allows 10,000 chracters in one post so had to remove them two greats from my article. If you could write about him it would be a big help for other posters who want to know about Indian cricket.

[Doink]

Dilip Vengsarkar is amongst the Indian greats and is famous for his consecutive 3 tons at Lords!

[The Phantom Ram]

Originally Posted by Waseem

Dilip Balwant Vengsarkar is also one of the greats in Indian cricket but i had to miss him out with bishen singh bedi because this site only allows 10,000 chracters in one post so had to remove them two greats from my article. If you could write about him it would be a big help for other posters who want to know about Indian cricket.

What I know about Vengsarkar could be written in one word - his name - and I spelt that wrong. Please feel free to post a seperate post about him, and Bedi, and Ravi Shastri is another player I know of. The last post was fantastic.

[Colourful Chaddi]

Originally Posted by The Phantom Ram

What I know about Vengsarkar could be written in one word - his name - and I spelt that wrong. Please feel free to post a seperate post about him, and Bedi, and Ravi Shastri is another player I know of. The last post was fantastic.

thank you for the very nice words Phantom Ram, i will post about other indans stars later maybe in the weekend at the moment i am at school so i cannot.