When the row between Eden Gardens’ reigning curator Prabir Mukherjee and the BCCI broke out, it was a bit miffing. And there is no doubt that the Cricket Board was more than miffed.
Their action in despatching the East Zone curator / pitch advisor Asish Bhowmick to assist Prabir Mukherjee to prepare the pitch at Eden Gardens for the 3rd Test starting tomorrow shows their displeasure.
At the best of times it is questionable strategy to openly ask for, and prepare a wicket which will behave in a certain way. In case of India, such a track can only be a square turner from the 5th over of the match, instead of on day 5 of the match.
Irrespective of the tactic itself - that is preparing a rank turner which spits, turns and strikes like an angry cobra - the open request or demand by the skipper M.S. Dhoni is absolute foolishness. What is even more puzzling is Dhoni (and the Cricket Board) haven’t seem to have learned any lessons from such open declaration of intentions.
Such paucity of ideas doesn’t augur well for the future of Indian Cricket. As it is we seem to have lost whatever flowering of decent medium pace and even marginally fast bowlers Dennis Lillee managed with the MRF Pace Foundation. Though the boys from that concerned, well thought-out initiative, weren’t strong or long lasting and were prone to frequent breaks and injuries, they provided much needed bench strength for team India to pepper the opposition with some pace.
Their absence is already being felt. Straight away we have been reduced to a cricketing nation which depends on a one dimensional spin attack.
Unlike the days before Kapil Dev, our spinners aren’t capable of turning a match on their own. We need not go as far back as Bedi, Prasanna, Chandrasekar & Venkatraghavan years to understand what I am talking about. The current crop of spinners aren’t as good as Dilip Doshi, Ravi Shastri, Shivlal Yadav or Kumble. Of late the world’s best spinners of cricket ball have been Sri Lankans, Australians and horror-or-horrors, Englishmen.
:-(
Perhaps we are mean and unfair to M.S. Dhoni when he demands a broken pitch for test matches. When the selection committee can only give Dhoni
In the same vein, we might be unfair to the Eden Gardens curator Prabir Mukherjee who stood firm against the wants of skipper, the Cricket Board and Michael Atherton.
Let us get one thing straight. Prabir Mukherjee is no saint. If Dhoni was foolish in allowing his hunger for win to swallow him and demanded turning wickets, Prabir Mukherjee did something even more unworthy of Cricket.
He called out Dhoni’s want as unethical, immoral and illegal. Pretty strong words. In the course of the controversy he also took an unnecessary dig at another pitch curator and cricket association by saying he won’t allow Eden Gardens to become another Ferozeshah Kotla (of Delhi).
That definitely isn’t Cricket.
But looking back, Prabir Mukherjee is known for making a stand against under-prepared pitches. He refused to prepare such a wicket for the 2nd Test against Australia in 2001.
When a man sticks to providing quality and set standard of wickets, irrespective of demands by home team, over a decade or more, we can definitely say he is consistent in that respect, saint or no saint.
O:-)<
May the best team win this Kolkata Test match.
(image courtesy manjul.com)
Their action in despatching the East Zone curator / pitch advisor Asish Bhowmick to assist Prabir Mukherjee to prepare the pitch at Eden Gardens for the 3rd Test starting tomorrow shows their displeasure.
At the best of times it is questionable strategy to openly ask for, and prepare a wicket which will behave in a certain way. In case of India, such a track can only be a square turner from the 5th over of the match, instead of on day 5 of the match.
Irrespective of the tactic itself - that is preparing a rank turner which spits, turns and strikes like an angry cobra - the open request or demand by the skipper M.S. Dhoni is absolute foolishness. What is even more puzzling is Dhoni (and the Cricket Board) haven’t seem to have learned any lessons from such open declaration of intentions.
Such paucity of ideas doesn’t augur well for the future of Indian Cricket. As it is we seem to have lost whatever flowering of decent medium pace and even marginally fast bowlers Dennis Lillee managed with the MRF Pace Foundation. Though the boys from that concerned, well thought-out initiative, weren’t strong or long lasting and were prone to frequent breaks and injuries, they provided much needed bench strength for team India to pepper the opposition with some pace.
Their absence is already being felt. Straight away we have been reduced to a cricketing nation which depends on a one dimensional spin attack.
Unlike the days before Kapil Dev, our spinners aren’t capable of turning a match on their own. We need not go as far back as Bedi, Prasanna, Chandrasekar & Venkatraghavan years to understand what I am talking about. The current crop of spinners aren’t as good as Dilip Doshi, Ravi Shastri, Shivlal Yadav or Kumble. Of late the world’s best spinners of cricket ball have been Sri Lankans, Australians and horror-or-horrors, Englishmen.
:-(
Perhaps we are mean and unfair to M.S. Dhoni when he demands a broken pitch for test matches. When the selection committee can only give Dhoni
- spinners who can’t flight, bounce or be mean in giving runs;
- a namesake pace attack; and,
- batsmen who are past their prime and don’t want to go or perform,
In the same vein, we might be unfair to the Eden Gardens curator Prabir Mukherjee who stood firm against the wants of skipper, the Cricket Board and Michael Atherton.
Let us get one thing straight. Prabir Mukherjee is no saint. If Dhoni was foolish in allowing his hunger for win to swallow him and demanded turning wickets, Prabir Mukherjee did something even more unworthy of Cricket.
He called out Dhoni’s want as unethical, immoral and illegal. Pretty strong words. In the course of the controversy he also took an unnecessary dig at another pitch curator and cricket association by saying he won’t allow Eden Gardens to become another Ferozeshah Kotla (of Delhi).
That definitely isn’t Cricket.
But looking back, Prabir Mukherjee is known for making a stand against under-prepared pitches. He refused to prepare such a wicket for the 2nd Test against Australia in 2001.
When a man sticks to providing quality and set standard of wickets, irrespective of demands by home team, over a decade or more, we can definitely say he is consistent in that respect, saint or no saint.
O:-)<
May the best team win this Kolkata Test match.
(image courtesy manjul.com)
No comments:
Post a Comment