Poor shape of the Indian cricketers

[Nostromo]

It was very sad to see the pathetic way in which what was once a very talented and successful unit go out of the 2007 World Cup. Without taking anything away from the excellent victories by Bangladesh & Sri Lanka, I felt enraged at the slackness that seems to be prevalent in most of the Indian players in this tournament. I think too much of good-living, lucrative sponsorship deals and hero-worship back home has taken its toll. Tendulakr, Sehwag, Ganguly and even some of the younger players looked sluggish and out of sorts compared with the lithe athleticism of their Sri Lankan counterparts. Age cannot be used as an excuse; Jayasuriya, Murali, Vaas etc are no spring chickens and yet they were as active and mobile on the filed as their younger colleagues.

One area where Indians have always been weak and where almost no improvement has taken place is running between the wickets. With very few individual exceptions like Dhoni and the absent Kaif, Indians are hopeless in that skill. By my reckoning, Indians miss out on at least 20 runs for every 100 scored solely because they have not taken that single or the second run. That works out t0 50 or 60 runs for their innings and add to that another 25 to 30 conceded because of fileding inferior to the average opponent, and we are some 80 runs in arrears. How can anyone expect to win major tournaments with that sort of performance?

[vvvrulz]

I think part of the problem is the over loading of home games for India. By blowing away touring oppositions with some fiery batting, they are really only kidding themselves as world beaters. The instant they head overseas it all turns to custard, take a good look at the South Africa tour for example, they were nothing short of pitiful.

The likes of Dhoni, Uthappa, Yuvraj and Raina are reduced to nothing but weaklings, and this World Cup was no exception. Forget the Burmuda match, everything else was pretty ordinary batting wise, yet this is a batting sheet thats supposed to induce fear in the oppositions. I say its time they FINALLY nurtured the batsmen to play overseas, more tours, more specially prepared pitches. Its not a big ask !!

[Django]

The problem lies with BCCI. Making money is its only focus. Development of cricket and cricketers in the country is totally ignored. Agreed that cricketers like Gavaskar, Vishwanath, Hazare, Dravid and Tendulkar, all top class players, came up from the existing system. But then now cricket has changed and is no longer a game. To succeed the cricketers have to be clinical and robot-like - like the Australians. And to achieve this the governing body has to
take appropriate measures. Loot at what the Australian cricket board did in the mid-eighties when the Australian cricket team was at rock bottom. Can anyone even imagine a professional approach from the BCCI?

I doubt very much whether anything will change even after this fiasco.

The media is also responsible for making "super-humans" out of these cricketers. Dhoni is a classic example. A few runs against weak opponents on slow/low Indian pitches and the media started comparing him to Gilchrist...