August 3rd, 2007 
Deepak WHAT IS WRONG WITH INDIAN CRICKET? Ever since Australia and England started playing Test matches, cricket has travelled a long way. Since then, a number of changes have also taken place in the structure as well as in the format of the game. The game of cricket took its birth in India when this country was under the British rule and thus, like English language, cricket too can be rightly called the legacy of the Raj. Right from C.K. Naidu to Mohd. Azharuddin and Sachin Tendulkar to M. S. Dhoni, Indian cricket has seen many ups and downs and has long since come of age. It was way back in 1932 that India had made its first official tour to England. But during all these years, Indians have never been recognised as good tourers of the game. During their foreign tours, Indian teams of yesteryears, as also of the present day, could never quite muster the confidence that they could ever play on equal terms with their foreign competitors. It was only in the year 1971 that a miracle occurred for the Indian team when Indian players, under the leadership of Ajit Wadekar, defeated both the West Indies and England on their home turfs. These were some of the great victories that the Indian team had ever managed to win abroad. There have been some great names in Indian cricket right from Lala Amarnath to Sachin Tendulkar-the men who have really dominated the Indian cricket scene during their heyday. Down the decades, Indian cricket has never been able to present a picture of strength and integrity for long. It is, therefore, quite natural for millions of thinking Indians to ask the billion-dollar question, “What is wrong with Indian Cricket?” Every now and then, the Indian cricket team has been accused of lacking in the killer instinct and mettle to pull it out at the right time. Many Indian cricketers are accused of playing individual cricket rather than playing for the team. During some of the events one gets the impression that various Indian participants in the event are competing with each other in winning individual laurels at the cost of their team-mates rather than winning the match for their country by defeating the opposite team- even the one from Pakistan. It is clear that Indian cricket is marred by individual rivalries leading to internecine quarrels. Who can forget the slanderous [...]
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