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Sunday, Dec 03, 2006
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A few positives from the win

The seniors in the Indian side have not really helped, writes Barry Richards

India are finally off the mark, which must take the pressure off a little bit, particularly since India were playing their first ever Twenty20, and to win is definitely an achievement, regardless of the quality of the opposition. That the South African pace battery was not running in must have made a difference, but a win is a win, and India have derived a few positives from it.

The chief among them was the way the younger guys like Dinesh Mongia and Dinesh Karthik put up their hands and came to the fore. Twenty20 is a hit and miss game, really, so it was good to see these youngsters keep their cool and manoeuvre their way out of trouble.

In recent matches, it has seemed to me that India are increasingly losing their ability to know when they are in a good position. As a result, they keep allowing the opposition to get away. Twice now, they have reduced South Africa to two wickets for next to nothing at the start of a match, and then allowed them to build big totals. It was therefore good to see them apply pressure throughout an innings instead of only for about a third of it.

So now we move on to Centurion, where South Africa are back to full strength. The trouble is that most of the Indians are still playing the shots they attempt in India on the South African wickets. They are taking too long to get used to these conditions, or perhaps they don't want to? The overriding feeling seems to be one of: `somebody else, not me', instead of being `me, not someone else'. That is a mindset they need to get out of.

The seniors in the side have not really helped. Sehwag, though he showed some signs of a return to form on Friday, still needs to prove his mettle in the longer version. Sachin has seemed nervy and jittery, and because the others are so used to seeing him as the rock, his edginess is rubbing off on them and they are perhaps wondering whether they can unquestioningly rely on him as in the past. Even a senior player like Sourav, who has been drafted in under such pressure, may find himself in need of help. I think he was hoping for a recall on the lower and slower Caribbean pitches! So this call-up may have been badly timed for him. The trouble is that the younger guys are left with no one to turn to in moments like these. There is no real support within the team in terms of a counsellor, or even a nutritionist who will make sure the boys are eating the right things at the right times. Unless the BCCI takes an interest in nurturing players — they have the money to do it, certainly — the rot will not be stemmed. Of the 330 players in India's first class circuit — going by the 30 teams — not even 50 are good enough to make it to international cricket, and that ought to say something about the BCCI's attitude towards development.Ideally, this tour ought to have been followed by one to Australia, which would surely have been another disaster. The hue and cry about that would probably finally wake the bosses up to what the rest of the world can see: that Indian cricket has lots of money despite the system, not because of it.

Gameplan

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