Predictions for the final test match

[Seamer]

Originally Posted by Tendlya

Since India's disastrous tour in 1991-92, the teams have met 21 times in Test cricket; the numbers now stand at 10-8 in Australia's favour. In the corresponding period Australia's record stands at 27-9 against England, 12-2 against Pakistan, 15-4 against South Africa and 9-1 against Sri Lanka.

The scoreline 10-8 does not surprise me. Take away the last two tours and we come to 6-6. India always seem to rise to the occasion against Aus. If they want to be no1, they will have to rise against all the rest too.

[sanketh84]

i'll tell u why this is so seamer...why the scoreline is 10-8 after 1992 and interesting statistic of 6-6 when we take away the last two tours. adelaide, sydney, melbourne(to an extent) are batting friendly wickets, perth this time was a revelation with people expecting a lot of pace but i kept wondering if india were playing in england with all that swing. usually when the aussies come to india, they are treated to spinning tracks but batting friendly nevertheless.ive seen instances when australia went in with warne and mcgill on australian pitches, those would have to be turners so i think the australians are comfortable with spinners to a decent extent. but when the indians go to england there is swing, very recently have we discovered decent swing bowlers so we did well in the england tour. west indies was a revelation on our last tour with slow tracks otherwise they have fast and bouncy tracks, south africa has difficult batting conditions with the wicket crumbling on the 3rd day. australia on the other hand adapt themselves to all these conditions quickly which is what makes them the best team and deservedly so!!!.... the indian team performing well against australia in australia isn't surprising with batsmen friendly wickets, if there wasn't as much swing in perth and more pace and bounce the indians would've struggled!!! we need to perform more consistently, but I think the retirements of the trio will affect indian cricket leaving a huge void which they have no clue how to fill, none of the young batsmen look solid enough for the test level. go figure BCCI..!!!!!

[sanketh84]

oh and btw seamer...come on we're not sore losers...if u beat us in adelaide fair and square, so be it!!! i'm not a sucker for drama and say what if we drew that sydney match, what if we drew the adelaide one after winning perth or better yet won in adelaide.what if situations in cricket... is like losing a bet, u know u lost the gamble but cant help but wonder how money could've made. i'm happy we won atleast one test match...i just dint want india to lose 4-0. i think any team would take a 2-1 result in australia.

[Seamer]

Originally Posted by sanketh84

oh and btw seamer...come on we're not sore losers...

I remember Ponting walking off abusing the English dressing room in 2005 after being run out by the 12th man. He then went on after the game about how it was they were cheating and so on. Many Australian jumped on the bandwagon.

Australia are certainly not angels in this matter, and are basically as bad (or good) as India.

[sanketh84]

yeah i guess ur right...nobody is an angel...and cricket is no longer the gentleman's game...its a question of livelihood of the players with increasing commercialization of the game. every loss is scrutinized which adds so much pressure on the players.... and rightly so...if u look at the money invested by companies in the IPL with each team going for around 100mill USD...lots of stakes... are u even surprised more then half the international players want to play for IPL?...every loss or lack of performance means losing big money, advertisement and endorsement opportunities. gone are the days of pure cricket where players enjoyed their cricket and played for the love of the game...players back then had other jobs, businesses to fall back on...now cricket itself is an industry by itself...far worse in india than anywhere else in the world!!! it just makes impossible for anyone to imagine being in the shoes of Sachin Tendulkar, carrying the hopes and aspirations of an entire nation and delivering fairly consistently

[Tendlya]

I feel cricket needs something like IPL. It provides some good enough reasons for the game of cricket to shine. A promising kid in west indies need not go take up basketball / soccer just coz cricket is not lucrative. Promising cricketers from non test playing countries who show up once in every 4 years need not give up as well. Someone like craig mcmillan need not try selling paints if he is not selected for NZ.

[sanketh84]

i have been to jamaica during the world cup and people couldn't care less that a world cup was being staged in the WI, they r much more interested in soccer nowadays. i understand that cricket needs to be promoted,but to say that IPL is the solution is meaningless, its just the corporate groups and BCCI who rake in the money. IPL will not solve the problems in grassroot level cricket as much as BCCI promises to use the revenue to improve infrastructure. if u were a corporate group would u put ur money on a Sachin Tendulkar or a Zimbabwean player??...who would people come to watch? u have no salary caps either....atleast the ICL has decent ideals when it comes to making money... they dint put teams for sale..they made it mandatory for upcoming players to play with retired cricketers. i agree with you on the fact that IPL helps people like craig mcmillan make money. i still dont know how it'll help the young west indian kid...if at all he gets to know about IPL, maybe it'll motivate him that there's so much money in the game.... but will IPL create infrastructure for coaching, training in his country???