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Feature : Indian
Cricket cometh and gone |
A review of Indian
Cricket in 2005 by Sayak Roy,
Kolkata, published on Dec 31, 2005
 A
year has ended giving way to another year with
all its hopes and aspirations. The year 2005 is
past and 2006 is the future. And within this one
year, cricket in this part of the world has
changed a lot. In the beginning of 2005, Sourav
Ganguly was at the helm of Indian cricket, but
now in the present scenario, he is probably only
a backbencher in the Indian dressing room. If
the beginning of the last year saw the emergence
of a bombshell named Mahendra Singh Dhoni, then
at the end of the year, it is clear that he has
matured a lot, under the guidance of Greg
Chappel. The year 2005 saw the departure of many
heroes and 2006 is all ready to welcome Indian
cricket’s new godfathers.
Bengal had its place of pride in Indian cricket
for the past couple of years, but 2005 came only
to demolish Bengal’s pride. Whether it was
Sourav Ganguly or whether it was Jagmohan
Dalmiya, there wasn’t enough room for these two
to stay there right at the top. Ganguly gave way
to Rahul Dravid, and Dalmiya was compelled to
say bye, to Indian Cricket by Mr. Sharad Pawar.
Controversy regarding Sourav was one the biggest
issues to have raged Indian cricket after the
saga of match fi xing.
It all started when Ganguly pointed towards
Chappel in Zimbabwe after scoring his century,
saying that he was asked to step down by the
Indian coach. Then things started to settle down
in Ganguly’s favour, but the veteran was forced
to opt out of the Challenger trophy due to his
tennis elbow. And the selectors got a chance for
axing India’s most successful captain, and that
marked the beginning of Ganguly’s agony and
pain. Ganguly slapped back hard, by scoring a
century at Rajkot in a Duleep Trophy encounter,
but then it was far too late, as Team India was
gaining speed, under Rahul and Greg. And
according to the selectors, it wouldn’t have
been right to disturb a winning combination.
Ganguly couldn’t find a place in the shorter
version of the game, for twelve games in row,
but then he finally returned, but only for two
test matches. And again the controversy woke up,
this time it was due to the dropping of India’s
most successful captain after a reasonable
outing in Feroze Shah Kotla. But things settled
down at the end of the year, when Kiran More
decided to go for experience and included Sourav
Ganguly for the challenging Pakistan tour.
 The
year 2005 also marked the departure of India’s
first ever foreign coach John Wright. He had
gifted Indian cricket with gifts like winning
over Pakistan in their home soil, a prideful
second place in the 2003 World Cup, defeating
the Aussies in our home soil, and drawing level
against them in Down Under. The achievements of
John are galore, but 2006 will only provide fond
memories of that man and nothing else because
his departure had made way for the controversial
Greg Chappel to take over the reigns. The start
for him might not have been good against the
Lankans and the Windies, but he has definitely
made amends for it against the Lankans and the
Proteas. Well let’s pray that Mr. Chappel has
enough of his Chappel magic left to wonderstruck
the cricketing fraternity.
 Apart
form these off the field happenings, cricket on
the field has given the cricket lovers a lot to
cheer about, but of course this year things off
the field had received more attention than on
the field happenings. But the emergence of
Mahendra Singh Dhoni as a batsman wicket keeper,
and Irfan Pathan as a Bowling all rounder are
signs of the bright future of Indian cricket.
The return of Ajit Agarkar in the thick of
things for a continuous period of time shows the
fighting spirit this guy possesses. Then the
bench strength has increased a lot in the
present circumstances, with the surfacing of
young talents, like Suresh Raina, Venugopal Rao,
S.Sreesanth, Rudra Pratap Singh and V.R.V Singh.
These talents if nurtured properly can prove to
be assets for Indian cricket. And with the
exclusion of experienced pacers like Zaheer
Khan, Ashish Nehra and Lakshmipathy Balaji, the
new look Team India looks all set to have a
crack at the upcoming cricket World Cup. And
these left out pacers will also be hungry to get
back in the mainstream. The healthy competition
for a berth in the national side is something
good to see.
 Then
Sachin Tendulkar rounded off the year by
crossing Sunil Gavaskar in the number of Test
Centuries, and becoming the holder of another
world record. But then apart from individual
glimpses of class, success for the team wasn’t
satisfying at all. Winning 15 out of 27 one-day
internationals and 5 out of 8 test matches is
something we don’t expect from our motherland.
In case of Test matches, the record may look
good, but one shouldn’t forget 2 of those
victories came against the minnows of
international cricket Zimbabwe.
 So
we the cricket lovers expect, that the coming
New Year provides Indian cricket with lots of
cherishable moments, and Team India flourishes
under fruitful guidance of Rahul Dravid and Greg
Chappel. We also expect our cricketers, to come
into the headlines for their performances on the
field, and not of it. We also expect Sourav
Ganguly, to come back to form and serve Indian
Cricket, with his superb batting skills, and his
enormous experience. May the New Year bring good
luck for him and the Indian cricket team. And on
behalf of Cricketfundas.com, I wish everyone a
happy and prosperous 2006.
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