Author: Bobji

Chennai Super Kings and Dhoni’s comment

Posted on by Bobji

I have tried as much as possible to resist my urge to write about IPL because, first, I do not consider IPL as a tournament and second, T20 is not proper cricket. However, the events over the last couple of days has made me want to write about IPL and especially, about the Chennai Super Kings and Dhoni’s comment.

Unchanged team for a longtime

Chennai Super Kings is a team that has been captained by MS Dhoni and MS Dhoni alone from the time of IPL’s inception. It was back in the year 2008. With the exception of a couple of years when CSK was banned over fixing charges, Dhoni has led the side in 10 IPL editions. It is a very long period for anyone to be the captain of any team. Leave alone cricket. It seems that Srinivasan, the owner of CSK, does not want to make anyone the captain of CSK. He probably wants continuity in the team.

He probably has a lot of faith in a few players who have played for CSK for a longtime but in this case, I think his faith is misplaced. Srinivasan failed to change the coach either. It is still Stephen Fleming. He maybe a good coach but certainly beyond 5-7 years, he would have had very little to offer. It is not a surprise to see CSK’s horrendous run in the on-going IPL. It is not the number of defeats that matter but the manner of those defeats.

Immobile players

CSK is a team that has the most number of aged players. Dhoni & Watson are 39. Faf, Rayudu & Kedar Jadav are 35 or above. Imran Tahir is 41 though he hasn’t played a game yet. Piyush Chawla and Karn Sharma are relatively young but just a look at them, one can easily tell how unfit they are. Piyush Chawla looks like a pumpkin and Karn Sharma looks like an overgrown potato. Watson looks like a WWE fighter than a cricket player. No team can hope to win anything with such an aged team.

None of them can run quickly and as a result, rotation of strike takes a sound beating. The batsmen either will score a boundary or a six or just play dot balls. Watson, Dhoni & Kedar Jadav are incapable of hitting the ball to the boundary and they are incapable of rotating the strike. Dhoni’s struggle against decent spin is a well known fact in international cricket. So much so that whenever Dhoni walks in, the opponent will employ one spinner and sometimes even a couple from both the ends.

This ensures that Dhoni will end up wasting a lot of deliveries. In T20, this is magnified manifold because of the less number of overs. It actually means that either CSK will end with 30-40 runs less than par or will not be able to chase scores in the range of 7 per over. To make matters worse, none of old men will be able to cover the ground which means the opponent will always score 15-20 runs more than they should have. With such severe shortcomings in his team, I really do not understand what made Dhoni to utter such nonsense comments like the one after their loss against Rajasthan Royals.

Dhoni’s stupid comments

“This season, we were not really there. And, also, there were a few chances to the youngsters and maybe we didn’t see the kind of spark that they could have given us to say, okay, push [out] the experienced guy and maybe make some space for them (youngsters).”

Does he realise that out of the 3 games won by CSK in this season so far, one was because of Sam Curran who is 22 years old? Srikkanth has rightly lashed out at Dhoni. Srikkanth is someone who will never say anything against the established players. He more than worships Dhoni and for such a person to come out and say what he said, brings a lot of attention on the so-called Dhoni intelligence.

Krishnamachari Srikkanth’s comments about Dhoni’s unwarranted comments

“I will never accept what Dhoni is saying about this process,” Srikkanth told Star Sports Tamil. “This process he keeps talking about is meaningless. You keep talking about process, process… but the process of selection itself is wrong.”

“What is Dhoni’s deal? He says Jagadeesan doesn’t have spark, but does ‘scooter’ Jadhav have that spark? This is ridiculous. I will not accept this answer today. All this talk of process, and Chennai’s tournament itself is over.

“Dhoni now says that since the pressure is off, he’ll give the youngsters a chance. Come on, yaar. I don’t understand this rubbish about the process at all. What spark didn’t he see in Jagadeesan? What spark did he see in Jadhav and Piyush Chawla?

Nothing more needs to be said

Conclusion

It is a known fact that Dhoni has always cared about process rather than results. When he was the captain of the Indian cricket team, he laid so much importance on process that results took a backseat. This resulted in such humiliations in England & Australia repeatedly. If a process takes beyond a certain time, it means that that process has failed. It is a pity Dhoni never realised this when he was the Indian captain. Now he is back repeating the same while being the captain of CSK. It is time Dhoni realises that he is the biggest drawback for CSK and he must gracefully leave the field.

Srinivasan must realise that continuity is alright but if the players are not able to pull their weight, it is time to let them go. A sportsperson’s tenure is always finite and beyond a certain age, they will not be able to contribute. I do respect Srinivasan’s appreciation of loyalty despite being the managing director of a private company whose only motive is profit and in this case, trophy but it is time revamp the team entirely. He will have to bring in quite a few youngsters and a captain who is not that old. It is time CSK gets a new spark to challenge the other teams in next year’s IPL.

By the way, memes on Kedar Jadhav are hilarious

Of Karthik resignation and Ponting 2005 Ashes Revelation

Posted on by Bobji

Over the last 4 days, a couple of interesting things happened in the cricketing universe. However, only one of them seems to have captured the viewers imagination whereas the other doesn’t seem to have bothered that many outside of Australia. First, we will discuss about Dinesh Karthik and then we will come to the much more interesting news about Ponting’s comments about the 2005 Ashes loss to England. Hence, the title Of Karthik resignation and Ponting 2005 Ashes Revelation.

Dinesh Karthik’s IPL decision

It has taken awhile but it has to happen nonetheless. Dinesh Karthik, who had been the captain of Kolkata Knight Riders in the IPL for a long period, has resigned his captaincy with immediate effect. The reason that he had given for resigning was that he wanted to concentrate on his batting. Karthik said “with a view to focus on his batting and contributing more to the team’s cause”

However, a closer look will reveal that that was not really the case. Karthik when he played for Tamil Nadu, was considered a player who could play for India for a longtime. He made his debut as a wicket keeper batsman and really struggled both with the bat and behind the wicket. With the advent of Dhoni, Karthik’s chances were next to none. Despite that, because of his class, he was tried as an opener. Except for a handful of decent performances he wasn’t able to hold on to his spot in Test cricket. He was also tried in the middle order in the shorter formats and he wasn’t able to perform there either. Karthik can definitely not complain about lack of opportunities. Now he has aged and his reflexes have slowed as well.

Nidahas Final

However, Karthik seems to be under the impression that because of his one innings in the Nidahas Final, which was brilliant, he can do wonders on the batting crease. Atleast in this year’s IPL has been batting a couple of positions outside of his capabilities. It is utter ridiculous on this part to be batting at Number 4 and that too ahead of Eoin Morgan and Andre Russell. Morgan, who is the white ball captain for England, should not only have been made the captain right at the start of the tournament but he must have played at the crucial number 4 position because of his experience. Better late than never.

Ponting’s comments regarding the 2005 Ashes loss

Anyone who has seen the 2005 Ashes series will definitely remember that series for the rest of their lives. Such was the impact that series generated. An all-pervading Australians brought down by the tough Englishmen. It was a case of the David against Goliath. The series had so much drama that it could have gone either way.

It certainly was one of the top three series ever to have played over the last 35 years. Until that series, the Australians always had a grand measure over the Englishmen. Every series between 1989 till 2005, the Australians not only outplayed England but they actually annihilated them. Margins of 4-0, 4-1, 3-0, 3-1 was quite common and England except for one test under Nasser Hussain, never won a live test during this period. A period of 16 years of total Australian domination.

Towards the start of the 2005 Ashes, only a handful gave England a slimmer of a chance. All Australia had to do was to turn up on the ground and they will emerge victorious. Infact, the first test went exactly according to script. Australia won that series by 239 runs despite scoring only 190 in the first innings. However, the rest of the series was anything but according to script. The England team certainly believed that they have what it takes to defeat Australia. They were marshalled pretty well by a very good captain in Michael Vaughan. A young player was introduced into the team which seems to have rejuvenated the entire England team. Kevin Pietersen. They believed because a year or so ago before the Ashes, England had defeated South Africa in South Africa which was not a mean achievement by any standards.

McGrath’s misfortune

All they needed was a stroke of luck that they were given on a platter by Glenn McGrath’s twisted angle right before the start of the 2nd test. From then on, we know what happened. One of the greatest series was played right in front of our eyes. The whole world saw that the Australians were brought down to earth when Ricky Ponting was jubilant after having drawn the 3rd test.

Now, it has emerged that some of the Australians were quite complacent during that tour. This was revealed by none other than Ricky Ponting, the Australian captain of that 2005 tour. Ponting has not revealed any names.

“we tailored our training … we were trying to find ways to make our training less time consuming, but everyone walking away feeling like they got a lot of work done.

“Some guys, without mentioning names, wanted to go down early and get work done and not be there for four hours.

“We just lost a little bit of the fabric of Australian cricket if you like … a lot of guys started to shy away from that side of it. You know, ‘I don’t want to face the new balls today, I don’t want to face the bowlers, just throwdowns’. A lot of that sort of stuff started to creep in.

Ponting did concede that they were against an excellent England side who were playing at their best and who wanted to win the series after more than 16 years. This against a team who were casual and the result will always be one way only.

Conclusion

What this little revelation by Ponting goes onto show is that, no matter how many brilliant players you have in the team, no matter how many games or how many series have you won against a specific team, no matter if you had won across most of the cricketing world, no matter if you intimidate the opponent just by your presence, if you are not well prepared, if you are not disciplined and if you complacent, tasting success in sports or in any walk of life will be extremely difficult.

I just hope that the Indian board, the Indian cricket team & Saurav Ganguly reads this revelation by Ponting to understand the magnitude of their next series and the mistake they have made in playing IPL thereby depriving vital match practise.

Some of the other good reads

What is the point of standalone ODI series

A tribute to Dean Jones

Bowler friendly pitches

A joke called BCCI volume three – NCA and mindless schedule

Posted on by Bobji

This is part three of the 4-part series that evaluates the lack of success that the BCCI is. Please do go through the first part and second part before proceeding with this one.

In the first part, I had given a brief of how rich The Board of Control for Cricket in India is. An estimated revenue of the board. An approximate estimate of how many players will be playing the game the whole of the country. How the board failed to produce multiple replacements for a single position in every format etc. In part two, I analysed the BCCI’s greed for money which appears to be unsatiated and also the lack of facilities for the spectators in almost all the cricket grounds. In this part, let me try to throw some light on the non-functioning of the so called National Cricket Academy and how BCCI’s greed for money has led to the Indian team being engaged throughout the year.

National Cricket Academy

The so called National Cricket Academy was established in the year 2000. If anyone thinks that this is a brainchild of the BCCI you will be mistaken. This academy was established at a time when Australian cricket was at its absolute best. They won anything and everything and in every country. It was at that point when the Australian Centre of Excellence came into the limelight.

It was found that most of the Australian players who were part of the world’s best team had at one point or the other been to the CoE. Suddenly, the Indian board wanted a cricket academy. They seemed to think that all that is required to form a world class team is to have an academy and that is the end of it. The Indian team will be world beaters after an academy is started. This surely must have been the thought process in the BCCI because what followed was comedy of errors.

CoE was never meant to be an academy for the upcoming cricketers. It was meant to be a finishing school for cricketers who were already part of the various state teams and who were on the verge of breaking into the Australian team.

After the NCA was instituted

The way the NCA was conceptualised was the biggest of all the comedy of errors. The board started 5 academies. One per zone. They called these the Regional Cricket Academy. On top of that, a National Cricket Academy was also instituted. The NCA was given so much publicity that it became a hot topic in news channels on the day of inauguration. The idea behind having regional academies was for these regional academies to train the players and to send their wards to the national cricket academy for conditioning. Till date, I cannot recall even a single player who can say that he benefitted because of NCA. Such is the condition of the NCA. It is not clear what happened to all the regional academies. Whether they are all closed or still functioning without being in the limelight is unknown.

Once instituted, the NCA never had dedicated coaches. It seemed that whoever was free at a certain point, were asked to coach at the NCA. The director of NCA too kept changing regularly. Brijesh Patel, Sunil Gavaskar, Anil Kumble etc. Absolutely no one has any idea what is happening at the NCA or what is the need for NCA. This is probably because the NCA hasn’t done anything worthwhile for it to be noticed and it has been 20 years since its inception. The Australian CoE at the sametime had produced multiple international stalwarts. The classic case of Wriddhiman Saha & Bhuvaneshwar Kumar comes to mind whose dialysis the NCA had completely messed with. It was because of mismanagement on the part of the NCA the careers of those players were set behind by a few years.

Lack of vision for the NCA

It looks like the board never had any vision for the NCA. All they did was copy the Australian CoE and hoped for the best. It will be better if the BCCI thinks of completely overhauling the NCA, appoint a few coaches of repute and instead of concentrating on the players who are on the verge of being selected to play for India, the NCA must concentrate on the promising youngsters who have a chance to play for India in 5-6 years.

The NCA must not only work on their cricketing skills but more importantly on fitness, diet & mental aspects. Players like Padikkal, Jaiswal, Nagarkoti, Mavi etc must have ideally underwent a stint for 3-4 years in the NCA. More importantly, the board must have a vision for the NCA. Hopefully, with Rahul Dravid at the helm, things will begin to improve and the NCA may start to contribute towards the betterment of the Indian team at all levels.

Mindless schedule

I have been saying this for many years and I will say this again. The Indian cricket team is playing way too many meaningless games throughout the year. This is purely because of the BCCI’s stupid schedule. It is hightime the board realises that they are dealing with humans and not with machines. Just a casual look at the number of games the Indian team has played over the last 4 years reveals that the team has played on a average 50 games every year.

This includes Tests, ODIs & T20s but this does not include IPL which is a further 14 games. These are only match days. Once the constant travel, hotel stay, practice games, the period between the games, IPL etc are taken into account, the number of days the Indian team is on the road will easily run over 200 days. This is a competitive sport and it is impossible to be competitive if the players are on the road for 200 days every year. None of the other teams plays this many number of games. Australians on an average plays 45 games a year which is also on the higher side but the general fitness levels of Australian sporting teams are way over any Indian sporting team any day.

Players unable to work on their weakness

It is precisely because of the high number of games, the players are not able to work on their weakness. The bowlers are not able to develop consistency in hitting a certain line and length. Neither are they able to learn to bowl in different conditions. The batsman are not able to eradicate a technical issue that has suddenly cropped up. The classic case of how Rohit Sharma and Ishant Sharma learned the game at the international level comes to mind. The Indian players are left to that. To learn the game at the highest level. This is because of the BCCI who do not give them a proper time off to work on the weakness.

Not only the number of games matter but the timing of these games also matters a lot. A couple of years ago, just before an important series in South Africa, the Indians were made to play 3 tests against a Sri Lankan side who were not even competitive. These games were played in India. Indian wickets which is completely different from the kind of surface that the team will eventually face in South Africa. This time could have been spent properly by playing a few meaningful first class games which would have prepared to team to face a South African team not high on confidence.

Missed opportunity

India missed a golden opportunity to win their first series in South Africa and to be the first Asian team to win in that country. Just because of that one nonsense series against Sri Lanka, the team did not have anytime to prepare for the tour and promptly went on to lose the series easily. The fact that the last test was won showed everyone what a bit of preparation would have ensured.

Take the current scenario. An important series is coming up in Australia. The Australians are extremely confident with a brilliant bowling attack and the batsmen having scored lot of runs last year. What did the board do? They have organised a full blown IPL and that too in Dubai. The conditions and pitches in Dubai are a far cry from what the team will encounter in Australia.

Nostalgia

Gone are the days when the Indian team actually had an offseason between March and August. It gave plenty of time for the players to spend some quality time with their family and friends and at the sametime work on their skill. With the increased contractual obligation with the broadcasters, the board need not provide such a lengthy offseason but atleast 3 months must be mandatory. It will reduce the number of games and it will also ensure that the players look forward to the season. For the spectators too, this will be better they too many games leads to boredom even for the spectators. Will they board wake up to this much needed necessity? Will the board understand that the success of the team is what will ensure continuous flow of funds for the board?

A joke called BCCI volume two – greed for money and lack of facilities

Posted on by Bobji

This is part two of the 4-part series that evaluates the lack of success that the BCCI is. Please do go through the first part before proceeding with this one. In this, I will talk about BCCI greed for money and lack of facilities.

In the first part, I had given a brief of how rich The Board of Control for Cricket in India is. An estimated revenue of the board. An approximate estimate of how many players will be playing the game the whole of the country. How the board failed to produce multiple replacements for a single position in every format etc. In part two, I will analyse the BCCI’s greed for money which appears to be unsatiated and let me also analyse the lack of facilities for the spectators in almost all the cricket grounds.

BCCI knows only one language. Money

As we have seen before, BCCI is among the richest sporting bodies in the world. Yet, the board never ever says no to a revenue stream even at the cost of the national team. A severe pandemic has completely overhauled the sporting calendar of every nation. So much so that the Olympics and the T20 World Cup stands postponed to next year. A lot of boards have lost a major source of revenue. International Cricket. The situation is so bad that whatever little cricket is played, is played behind closed doors. This shows that the boards world over are concerned about the safety of the players and the others.

The BCCI has gone ahead and have staged a full blown IPL in a foreign land albeit behind closed doors. Fair enough. However, just before an important series in Australia, is the BCCI really justified in staging IPL? Certainly not. The national team’s performance in Australia is much more important than the board losing a few millions. However, the board seems to have its priorities wrong. The very fact that the IPL will certainly leave no time for the cricket team to be engaged in a few meaningful practice games before the first test is a case in point. The board has proved once again that for them money matters. To make matters worse, IPL has ensured that a couple of important players, Ishant Sharma & Bhuvaneshwar Kumar will not be involved in the series in peak fitness.

Will BCCI ever stop their greed for money?

The Hundred. Now, BCCI is very much interested in this concept. This is not really a surprise because where there is money you will be able to find BCCI. Over the last 15-20 years, BCCI is much more interested in making money from every source possible rather than improving the performance of the national team and the standard of the first class game. Why would BCCI want to invest in such a concept is beyond me. They are already the richest cricketing board and probably among the top 3 sporting bodies in the world.

The board does not seem to be satisfied with the millions that they earn through TV rights for bi-lateral series, they are not satisfied with the millions that they earn through IPL and not to mention the exorbitant share that they receive from the ICC from global tournaments like World Cup, T20 World Cup & Champions Trophy. Still, the BCCI’s greed never seems to be satisfied.

It is not that The Hundred is BCCI’s own concept. For that matter, none of the concept is BCCI’s brainchild. Tests, English invention, ODIs England & Australian, T20 English and now The Hundred, English. I could have understood the need to create a brand if The Hundred was conceptualised by the BCCI but it is not. They are merely copycats.

Lack of facilities for spectators

BCCI has on its rolls some 25 state boards that depend on the grant given to them by the BCCI. It runs upto 30 crores per state association. The state association then distributes this money to its affiliates and other dependents. This is not a one time payment. On the contrary, this is the total funds each association will receive every year. This definitely is a substantial income for the state associations.

They can easily afford to maintain the main ground at their disposal after disbursing all kinds of settlements and provide the paying spectators with top quality facility. With such a huge windfall, are the state associations really providing the paying spectators a return on their money? The answer sadly is a big fat NO. I have been to quite a few grounds in the country to watch the international games. The condition inside the stadium is so horrible that the spectators if not for their love of the game will never ever want to watch the games sitting inside stadium.

One – Food items barred

No one is allowed to carry anything inside. It can be water bottle or food packets. Absolutely nothing is allowed. This is understandable because of the behaviour of a certain set of spectators in various grounds who have the habit of using these bottles as missiles and throw them onto the ground or on the players. The board does not allow these water bottles to be carried into the stadium because of safety concerns which is perfectly understandable. Same with food packets too. We Indians are notorious for strewing food everywhere and thereby converting the entire area into a garbage dump. Hence these are not allowed. Quite rightly so.

Two – camera not allowed

I can understand the restrictions for food items but I just cannot understand why are cameras not allowed to be carried inside the stadium? Any camera, be it a DSLR or a point and shoot one, nothing is allowed. Why is the BCCI afraid to allowed these? Surely, no one is going to throw away their camera inside the ground. It is ridiculous not to allow cameras inside. I am sure grounds in the western world will certainly allow cameras in every sporting event. The only possible explanation for this could be that the match pictures are the exclusive rights to the BCCI. Anyone who wishes to procure these will have to pay the board.

Three – 15th century structure

The moment you enter any stadium in India, you will not be wrong to think that you have entered a medieval dilapidated structure. The grounds are not maintained at all. You can easily lots and lots of cobwebs throughout the grounds. Parts of the structure would have already fallen off. Looking at the structure, you cannot but cringe at your sense of shame.

Fourth – Poor seating

There are still stands in every ground in the country where spectators are made to sit on the floor rather than on a chair. Granted that these are the cheapest but they are a shame nonetheless. The floor will be covered in so much dirt and mud that it is impossible to even think of sitting on the floor. It is akin to sitting in a corporate dumping ground. Just a look at the floor will confirm the fact that it has never been cleaned from the time of stadium’s inauguration.

Fifth – lack of options for food

It is fair enough that food items are not allowed inside the stadium. This makes it all the important for the board to ensure that sufficient eateries are available inside the stadium. In most of the games that I have watched from the stadium, I have hardly seen any decent eatery within the stadium. You will be lucky if you find a small shop selling sandwiches. Apart from that, if you are looking for a variety in food, it is non-existent. Cricket is one full day game. How does the board expect the spectators to survive just on sandwich is beyond me.

Sixth – Horrible toilets

Toilets. This is the ultimate shame on this country. The toilets are shabby, smelly and downright contagious. The problem is compounded especially when the stadium is packed to the fullest capacity. There will hardly be 3-4 urinals for 500 people in one stand when there must be atleast 50. The toilets in Indian cricket stadiums are the filthiest. We are living in the time of Corona. Even Corona will be afraid to enter the toilets in the cricket stadiums around the country.

Seventh – Lack of facilities for the disabled

If someone is handicapped, in the sense, unable to walk, it is not possible for him or her to watch the game from the stadium because I have never seen any facility that will carry the handicapped person to the top tier or to the tier lower. There aren’t any lifts or walkways where that person will be able to move on the wheel chair.

Lastly – parking facilities

The minimum capacity in every stadium in India will be atleast 30K. There will be lot of spectators who will drive down to the stadium but where will they park? This is a question that no one is asking. The grounds must have multiple levels of parking capable of accommodating atleast 15K vehicles. The reality is, it is difficult park even 100 vehicles. That is one reason spectators would rather take a cab to reach the ground rather than park the car some 2KMS away from the ground and walk all the way. If you have to find a parking spot within the stadium’s parking lot, you will have to ensure that you reach the ground by 6AM for a game that starts at 10AM.

to be continued………

The BCCI brought down to its knees

Posted on by Bobji

The Indian tour of Australia towards the end of this year, is quite significant in more ways than one. Not only will it bring back international cricket back to Australia but it promises to be watched by a good number of audience which will mean that the Australian board will be much happier because of the financial windfall that a series against India will bring about. It will be an understatement to say that the Australian board is desperate for this series to go ahead.

Ofcourse, this will also be a closed series in the sense that the general populace will not be allowed to watch the games from the stands. However, the money that promises to flow from sponsorship and advertising will be enormous. If this series is cancelled, Australian cricket will be shattered. Having said that, the Australians do not want to compromise on security standards related to the pandemic. This is something that must be appreciated by everyone involved with the game.

The Board President’s request

It is a well known fact that the President of the Board of Control for Cricket in India, Saurav Ganguly had placed a request sometime ago to shorten the quarantine period to about one week.  

“we don’t want the players to go that far and sit in hotel rooms for two weeks”

It is a fairly accepted fact that a request from the most powerful board in the world is usually a nudge on the hosting board to fall in line. However, the Australians are not in a position to bow to pressure this time around because the rules when it comes to any foreign team visiting Australia is quite clear.

The Queensland health department is not in a mood to entertain BCCI’s request. They are all set to impose the strict quarantine rules on the Indian cricket team should they choose to go ahead with the tour.

Rules are not meant to be broken

It is a fact that resumption of sporting tournaments and bi-lateral series were approved by various governments only if the hosting association agrees to follow certain prescribed rules of which 14 days quarantine is mandatory. Bio-secure bubble is another rule which must be followed strictly as well. It is not that these rules were prescribed recently. They are in vogue over the last 3 months. Every sporting event follows such procedures. The BCCI only know too well that the Indian cricket team will have to undergo the same procedure and their team will not be exempted. Yet, the board did not care because the board does not care about the team’s performance on the field. They are least bothered weather the Indian cricket team loses reasonably or annihilated in the series.

They do not care about the fans because of whom the BCCI is this powerful. All they care about is securing their revenue. That is the reason the board went ahead and scheduled a full blown IPL. The IPL is set to complete on the 10th of November. Assuming that most of the Indian players will be playing in the IPL atleast till the 1st of November with a few playing even on the 10th, the team will not be fly to Australia before the 15th.

Two weeks quarantine from then will lead to the end of November with the test series starting on 3rd December. The team will not have any volume of time to play 2-3 proper first class games. As such, the team will be like lambs to the slaughter house. Thanks to the BCCI and its worst president.

The ridiculousness of the BCCI

We are in the midst of a once in a millennia pandemic. India is one of the country that has been ravaged by the pandemic. Infections are more than 50L and deaths more than 1L. This means that anyone travelling from India will be under serious scrutiny everywhere in the world. The Queensland Health department must not be dissuaded from its stance. They must strictly impose the restrictions on the Indian cricket team. In a way, the will also help the Australian team in dismembering the Australian teams opponents by not allowing them to play meaningful games. The BCCI and the Indian players deserve what they are likely to endure.

Ganguly can still hope

However, the last statement has not been made on this yet.

“We have worked closely with Cricket Australia to ensure players have access to appropriate training privileges under strict quarantine conditions. We have a number of dedicated medi-hotels in South Australia and the team are accommodated in one of these.

Further, “We consider each exemption request on a case-by-case basis and determine the most appropriate accommodation option,” an SA Health statement read.

Hence, the BCCI and Saurav Ganguly may still try to arm twist Cricket Australia’s hands.

Kumar’s injury during the IPL

IPL has claimed its first casualty on the Indian side. Bhuvneshwar Kumar has injured himself during the ongoing IPL. He may very well miss the Australian tour. I am least bothered about whether he plays at the IPL or not. Kumar whose presence in the playing eleven in England could have very well tilted the games in India’s favour in a couple of close tests is now injured for Australia where he will be a major player. Both for his bowling and more than competent batting.

The BCCI will have to be blamed for this. For their mindless scheduling of IPL just before an important series. I shudder to think what if a few major players like Kohli, Bumrah, Shami, Rohit & Ishant injured? If that happens, the board must be taken to task. The BCCI has often proved that it is probably the most inefficient sporting body in the cricketing world among the major nations and they continue to prove that.

The Queensland Health is well within their rights to impose quarantine on the Indian players. Let us hope that they are not coerced in anyway from imposing the various procedures strictly either out of fear or favour.

Importance of the South African Cricket Team

Posted on by Bobji

It is not that easy to describe the importance of the South African Cricket Team for world cricket. They are alongwith Australia the most competitive team in the world. Any games that involves South Africa against an opponent of equal calibre will always be good to watch. Games in the 90s and 2000s between Australia and South Africa was always a treat. Almost all the games were fought equally by both the teams. It is another matter that South Africa never won a home Test series against Australia since the time of their readmission until very recently in 2018 but they are the only team to have won 3 consecutive series against Australia in Australia. It is a feat other teams will struggle to achieve. Probably it may never ever be replicated. However, South African cricket seems to have descended into a mess as discussed earlier.

A brief of the controversies surrounding CSA

The South African board was removed by their Olympic committee, controversy regarding the Black Lives Matter movement, the main sponsors, Standard Bank and Momentum have ended their support for the federation, serious allegations for mismanagement against the former chief executive Thabang Moroe and various other controversies surrounding the South African cricket board.

Yes, South African cricket is really in the crossroad. Hence, it is all the more important that the players are allowed to play. It has been more than 8 months since South Africa had played at the international level. Their last series against India was in March. A short one day series that was cancelled after the first game was washed out because of rain. One of CSA’s independent director Dheven Dharmalingam said “If our players don’t play, we don’t earn any income,”. Cricket South Africa have invited the England cricket team for a short series of ODIs and T20s. However, the sports ministry is yet to approve which makes this tour highly unlikely.

Any tour that involves India, England or Australia is actually a boon for the hosting nation. India brings in its supporters from around the world alongwith more than a dozen sponsors. England & Australia brings along their travelling supporters. All these means that the hosting nation will be able to recover their loss or settle their debts.

South African cricket needs help

The main reason why South African board and their team needs help is because of the range of exciting talent at their disposal. Starting with Allan Donald, through Jacque Kallis, De Villiers, Dale Steyn to Rabada. It is exciting for the paying public to see these players in action. Just one glance at the number of players in IPL will prove the strength of the cricket team. Not to mention the fact the number of players who migrated to England through the Kolpak route. Kevin Pietersen who could have become the South African captain after Smith retired and who could have stayed as the captain for a longtime alongwith scoring tons of runs in a conducive atmosphere will always remain the shining example of talent within South Africa.

A strong and confident South Africa is good for world cricket. The standards of world cricket certainly have slipped. Australia are not the same as before. Remove Steve Smith from the equation, the team is ripe for the taking. India still remain tigers at home and lambs abroad. England always have this habit of playing brilliantly well at one moment and playing horribly the very next moment. New Zealand seems to have improved but they will always have a question mark. The less said about the other nations the better it is. South Africa, for a large part over the last 30 years were extremely competitive in all conditions and in every country. They have definitely fallen from such heights, especially, after losing a series to Sri Lanka at home. Once they pick up their game, they are one of the most exciting teams to watch.

Test captain not appointed yet

South Africa will do well with appointing a captain for their test team. They already have a captain for the shorter formats in Quinton De Kock but are yet to name a captain for their test team. It has remained vacant ever since Faf du Plessis resigned after the series defeat to England. Unfortunately, without a proper functioning board, the appointment is taking time. Hopefully, a test captain will be announced soon.

Boucher talks of regaining the top ranking

One good thing to emerge out of all these gloom is that the South African coach, Mark Boucher, is taking about regaining the top position in all the formats. At the moment, they are among the mid-range teams in all the formats.

“We don’t want to be a nice group of guys and be eighth in the world. I’d rather be a challenging group of guys and be competing for the number one spot and they all want that as well‚ which is great to hear‚” said Boucher.

This is actually a good start for the coach to think along those lines.

Conclusion

Whether they have the players to achieve that ambition of becoming the top ranked team in the near future is debatable but any start that the current team towards that goal will be good enough. There are reports emerging out of South Africa that international cricket will return to the country soon enough. If and when that happens alongwith the closure of the Kolpak window, South African cricket will certainly begin to improve and will once again prove to be competitive in every condition. This will only benefit the world at large.

 

Ashwin should not have warned Finch

Posted on by Bobji

Ashwin should not have warned Finch. An interesting scene happened in The IPL between Royal Challengers Bangalore and Delhi Capitals. Ashwin who is now famous for running out Buttler in last year’s IPL at the non-striker’s end, did not runout Aaron Finch in that game. Instead, he just stopped bowling, looked at Aaron Finch and then returned to his bowling mark. Ashwin wanted to send a warning to the batsman that he must not go out of the crease before the ball is bowled. Should Ashwin have warned Finch? Wasn’t Finch taking advantage?

The game situation

It was a high scoring game. Delhi Capitals had piled up a mammoth 196 in their allotted 20 overs. An asking rate close to 10 an over is a tall order in any format of the game. Royal Challengers Bangalore will have to score more than a run every delivery. They cannot afford to waste too many deliveries and as such must always be on their toes for a quick single. This will result in the non-striker taking undue advantage of the perceived breaking the spirit of the game of not “mankading” the non-striker while he is in the process of cheating.

Aaron Finch, the RCB opener in his hurry to get back to the batting side, went out of the crease far too early. If one looks at the picture, he was at the least 2-3 feet away from the crease when Ashwin was still in his bowling stride. If he had continued, he would have reached half the pitch by the time the batsman gets to play the ball. In the case of a tight single, Finch would have easily reached the batsman end assuming that it was his call. As a result the opposing team would have lost an opportunity to take a wicket. This is plain cheating.

Ashwin’s warning to Finch

Ashwin instead of running out Finch, ended up warning the batsman. This is ridiculous. Presumably, he has been influenced by Ricky Ponting. Ponting, the saint who upholds the spirit of the game at all times that suits him. It seems Ponting seems to have threatened Ashwin not to repeat the Buttler incident again this year in the IPL. As we have seen before, Ponting is the worst offender of the spirit of cricket. He played in an era when the Australians were known the world over as the Ugly Aussies. I have given links to his various upholding of the spirit of the game in the other article.

To top this, there was an article in news.com.au written by James Matthey that Ashwin was rather afraid of Ricky Ponting. This really made me chuckle. He is someone who is defending Ricky Ponting who is the epitome of betraying the spirit of the game regularly. He seems to suggest that Ashwin will have to play wthin the rules prescribed by Ponting. Fortunately, Ashwin does not seem to be too bothered about Ponting and what would he do if he runs out another batsman at the non-striker’s end. He has since tweeted with the following comments.

Ashwin’s warning

“Let’s make it clear!! First and final warning for 2020. I am making it official and don’t blame me later on.

“@AaronFinch5 and I are good buddies btw.”

Kapil Dev supports running out non-strikers

One of the greats of the game, Kapil Dev, has come out in support of Ashwin and in favour of running batsmen out if they are backing up too far. This is something good to see. Likewise more players will have to support this so that this type of dismissal is not seen as a stigma.

“If a batsman is leaving the crease early, a one-run short rule is a must to stop this menace. I am personally not in favour of mankading and had warned batsman in South Africa for leaving the bowling crease early. If someone is mandaking, I can understand the ethics of the bowlers, where is the ethics of the batsmen?” he asked.

 “When we call that cricket is a gentleman’s game and such unethical stuff is happening, it should be applicable for both bowlers and batsman. The stakes are so high today in cricket and to make it a fair and square thing, you have to make it a level playing field,” Kapil Dev suggested.

“Both ICC and BCCI should make a rule that if the non-striking batsman leaves the bowling crease early, it will be counted as one run short. Just imagine if you leave the team needing one run to win a game off the last ball and if the non-striker leaves the crease before the bowler delivers the ball, it is nothing but cheating. It is time that the world governing body takes a good look at it and makes it mandatory to stop this Mankading,” Kapil Dev exclusively told Sportskeeda on Thursday.

Conclusion

Also, read this wonderful article on “Mankad”

 I would love to see Ashwin runout a few more batsmen in this IPL in the same fashion. To hell with the spirit of the game as long as batsmen do not respect the same.

As argued in these pages before, non-strikers must not be allowed to leave the crease until the ball has left the bowler’s hand. If he does so, the bowler must be free to run him out at the bowler’s end. The stigma attached to such a scenario must be completely removed. Only when that happens will the playing field will be slightly more balanced which is already heavily loaded in the favour of the batsmen.

Pay-cut for the players good or bad

Posted on by Bobji

Let us discuss about the fact that Broad supports pay-cut for the players. It is a fact that the entire world is living in the midst of a terrible pandemic. It has left thousands all over the world jobless and a few millions receiving reduced pay. Almost everyone, from the richest of the rich to the poorest of the poor are affected because of this pandemic. The sporting bodies of the world are not an exception either. Most of the games and tournaments were cancelled. It has resulted in huge revenue loss to the boards as well as to the players and competitors.

The problem is so acute that the Olympics which was supposed to have been held this year is postponed to next year. So many games are held behind close doors. Cricket is not an exception either. Almost all the boards with the exception of BCCI, have suffered heavy loss. England to the tune of 100M GBP. So much so that the boards are talking about job loss within the administration. A lot of players will have to accept pay-cut. I have not read anyone complain about the financial loss. Jonny Bairstow has also agreed for his pay to be downscaled to a lower level.

Broad’s comments

“I think 100% there’ll be pay cuts,” Broad, who won the Test player of the Summer award at this season’s NatWest Cricket Awards, said. “The players are very aware of the situation. With the ECB having to potentially lose 60-odd staff, it would be wrong that the players stay on a similar pay. I’ve not heard any official sort of numbers.

“The players are very open to that sort of thing. I don’t think you’ll be getting any players complaining about taking more pay cuts because it’s sort of in line with the world, isn’t it? It would be a really average feeling to have that we were not making sacrifices like the rest of the world. So I don’t think you’ll get too many people complaining of whatever comes our way.

This is how most of the cricketers around the world are reacting for their reduced pay. Most of them have agreed if it can help someone else will not lose his job.

Agreeing for a pay-cut will not be a problem for most of the top players. Firstly, they were well paid for most of their career that one year’s reduced pay must not affect them. Secondly, a lot of these top players will be involved in various franchise cricket held throughout the globe. They will easily be able to mitigate their loss. It is the not only the well paid cricketers that needs care. The wider support staffs like groundsmen, scorers, women cricketers etc needs much higher support than the cricketers.

Will Indian players follow as well?

Indian cricket players are probably the most paid of all the cricket players. They not only earn through their annual contracts with the board but most of them are involved in commercials through which they earn in the millions. Yes I do agree that not every Indian cricketer is involved in commercials but most of them are. Hardly an hour goes by without 4-5 of the players advertising some product. With IPL in full swing, this has become every few minutes. A few like Kohli, Dhoni, Rohit are in multiple commercials. They are all some of the biggest stars this country has and it is absolutely fine for them to earn in the millions because they have really sacrificed a lot to come up to the level where they are currently.

The time in which we are living calls for these biggest stars to fulfil their obligations towards persons who are involved in the game. It is time for them to give back something to the society that has made them into mega stars.

First, the Indian first class season will not go ahead this year. This essentially means that the first class players will not be paid for the entire season. For a lot of these players, cricket is the only thing they know of. Especially, the younger ones who have sacrificed much of their childhood to play in Ranji Trophy hoping that it will pave their way into the Indian team. These players will stand to lose significantly. Most of them will be having a lot of commitments that they will find it hard to survive without the funds from the board.

Indian cricket’s support staff

The second is the precarious position the coaches at the National Cricket Academy in Bangalore are facing. All the 11 coaches were laid off just when things seemed to improve at the useless NCA after Dravid took over control.  It is not clear whether they will be taken back once the situation improves. One of the coach

“Rahul had handpicked all of us (coaches), and it was done with a plan in place. We have made plans and programmes together, to try and take Indian cricket to the next level, become the best in the world for a long period,” one of the coaches said. “We have had meetings twice every week through the pandemic too. Work has been going on.

“Maybe we will be taken back later, but there are no guarantees.”

Thirdly, a few days ago, there was one other report of scorers, groundsmen and the rest facing an uncertain future because they were not paid.

Responsibility of the board

The BCCI being so rich has lot of responsibilities not only towards the players but towards everyone connected to the game. They will be perfectly justified if they have to reduce the pay structure for the international players but at the sametime they must ensure that the money saved as a result of such restructure must be distributed to the players, scorers, coaches, groundsmen etc at the lower level. BCCI with its riches can easily afford to do so. It is time for BCCI to stand up and show everyone that they do care about everyone involved in the game and not just the huge stars.

Do you think BCCI must not reduce the salary of the players? Please leave your comments.

Other interesting article

South African cricket is at the crossroads

Posted on by Bobji

It is a fact that South African cricket is in the crossroads. Off late, there are lot of news coming out of South Africa and most of them are negative. A few weeks ago, there was the controversy regarding the comments made by Lungi Ngidi regarding the Black Lives Matter movement and the opposition from some of the former South African players. The CSA board and its executive were asked to step down. Their replacement is still unknown. Lack of international cricket at home or away which has meant heavy loss for the South African board. Former players like Thami Tsolekile accusing Smith of racism during his playing career.

Talented players seeking opportunity elsewhere in the world. So on and so forth. All of these means that South African cricket is in the crossroads and there doesn’t seem to be light at the end of the tunnel. It is not a secret that the cricket world needs a strong South African team.

Coming back after years of isolation

South African cricket came out of international isolation in the year 1991. Right from then, till about a couple of years ago, South Africa has been an exceptionally strong team. Winning in South Africa was tantamount to winning in Australia or winning in West Indies during their prime. It was that difficult. Especially, for the Asian countries who invariably go onto lose all the games played. I distinctly remember their first series in 1991. It was against India. They had the ferocious pace of Allan Donald, the leadership skills of Hansie Cronje, the excellent support to Donald in the form of Brian McMillan, Fanie de Villiers and not to mention the exceptional fields skills led by probably the greatest fielder the game has even seen, Jonty Rhodes. It felt like they were never really out of the game for close to 30 years.

All the players were fit and they were in form. Their performance in that series and in the subsequent series was enough to convince the world that South Africa will be a threat to Australia’s domination of world cricket. Especially after 1995.

Except for the extraordinary Australian team of the 90s and early 2000s, no other team managed to win in South Africa consistently. There was one occasional England win but that was about it. Only Australia were able to defeat South African regularly. Every other team that went to South Africa, promptly lost the test series.

The absolute peak of South African cricket

Not only were South Africa unbeatable in their own country by teams other than Australia, they were extremely competitive in other nations a well. South Africa remained the only team not to lose a single test series in India for 10 years starting from 1999. They are the only team to win three consecutive series in England apart from Australia. They are the only team to win three consecutive series in Australia. I do not think any team will ever replicate that record. The number of excellent and great players that South Africa churned was certainly on par with Australia.

There was Smith the competitive captain, Jacques Kallis whose exploits on the field be as a batsman or as a bowler or as fielder will probably never be matched. Hashim Amla extraordinary run accumulator. The mercurial A B De and last but not the least, the greatest fast bowler over the last 25 years, Dale Steyn. Some of these players are all time greats of the game.

The racial quota system

Suddenly, something seems to have gone wrong. It is an open knowledge that every South African sporting team will have to work towards satisfying the reservation policy. Cricket is no stranger to that rule. The South African cricket team is required to field a minimum of 6 players of colour with atleast 3 black players. This was introduced to help the black players. However, this seems to be having an opposite effect on the deserving white cricketers. So much so that, there has been a player exodus from South Africa and mostly through to the English county system through the Kolpak route which makes them ineligible to represent South Africa. Kevin Pietersen, who could have had a successful and a much better career with South Africa was among the disillusioned cricketer.

South African team’s struggle in recent years

This has left the South African cricket team to play with players who are that good at the international level. Temba Bavuma, Dane Vilas and a few others comes to mind. As a result of that, South African began to lose series regularly. Recently, they were hammered 3-0 in India and in the previous series, they were again humiliated 3-0 in 4 tests. If not for rain in Bangalore, they would have lost that series too. Last year, they lost to England 3-1 in South Africa. They won a series against India 2-1 but if only India had prepared better, India could have easily won the series 3-0. The absolute nadir came against Sri Lanka when South Africa lost a 2 tests series 2-0 having lost the previous series between these teams in Sri Lanka 3-0.

These are results that South Africa have never seen from the time since their readmission. The repeated failure to win even one World Cup, be it T20 or ODI is another case in point. Not only their test performance, even their one day performance have nose-dived. This is a format in which the South African team had a superior win ratio even when compared to Australia. It is the same team that still holds the record for successful chase in any One Day International.

Conclusion

It is absolutely essential that a strong South African cricket team is a necessity for world cricket to thrive. One good thing is that the Kolpak window will close by the end of this year with Britain’s exit from the European Union. This means that South African talent will remain in South Africa. The talented players will have to struggle with the quota system and the best will raise to the top. It is not clear what will happen to the players who have already signed Kolpak deals. If they are to return, South Africa will be a much stronger than how they have been over the last 2-3 years.

If you have similar opinion about the mess that South African cricket is finding itself in or if you think that everything is fine with South African cricket, please leave your comments?

Articles related to Black Lives Matter can be read here and here.

The Number Four Conundrum and the 2019 World Cup

Posted on by Bobji

The Number Four Conundrum. The Indian One Day team for a very longtime, were trying to find a player who will come in after Rohit Sharma, Dhawan & Kohli. They were looking for a player who will be able to score freely if the top 3 had set a wonderful platform or he will be a player who will be able to consolidate the innings incase the top three were unable to occupy a substantial part of the innings. More importantly, the team was searching for such a player for the 2019 World Cup.

When I think about this now, it is hard to believe that the Indian One Day team struggled for more than 4 years to find a suitable candidate for the vital Number Four slot because the number of candidates who will suit that position was certainly substantial than they searched for. I somehow feel that the team or more precisely Kohli, Rohit & Shastri, the management group, failed collectively to groom a player at the crucial spot.

Who were the potential candidates?

There were lot of players who could have easily slotted into the crucial number four slot. Rahul, Ambati Rayudu, Manish Pandey, Rahane, Shreyas Iyer. This is only to name a few. I am certain that there were far more potential candidates.

Lokesh Rahul

Everyone who has watched Rahul from the time he made his debut will know very well about this potential. Also, we know that he struggles when opening the innings. He is someone who likes to play freely. He is someone who can easily take the game away from the opposition. Witness all his innings from number 5 of late. He has batted so effortlessly that invariably India ends up with a score that is 15-20 runs higher than what was envisaged when he arrived at the wicket.

The mistake that the team management made was to consider him to be an opener and an alternate for either Dhawan or Rohit. They did not even think of sending him in the middle order. The fact that he is now playing in the middle order was not because of a plan on the management part. It wasn’t even that Kohli or Shastri realised that Rahul will be of much more value in the middle order.

It was because of an accidental discovery during the 2019 World Cup. He had to play at the crucial position of Number 4 because Vijay Shankar, the original incumbent to that position was injured before the first game. Rahul supported Rohit with a composed knock that eventually helped the team to defeat South Africa. In the very next game, he scored 11 of the last 3 balls which seems to have influenced Shastri and Kohli. That innings certainly made them change their rigid ways. Rahul in the middle order will win lot more games than at the top of the order.

Ambati Rayudu

The treatment meted out to Ambati Rayudu was something no cricketer must endure. Rayudu has had a difficult career so far. He was captain of the Indian U-19 team in the year 2004. He initially made his first class debut for the state team of Andhra. Rayudu was thought to be someone who will go onto to play for the Indian senior team and someone who will end up with lot of caps to his name. Unfortunately, fate seems to have had other plans for him.

He went onto to play in the now defunct ICL sponsored by the Zee group. All the players who were part of this tournament were subsequently banned and by the time Rayudu was allowed to comeback to the mainstream cricket, his best days were behind him. The ban ensured that he never played any competitive cricket for more than 5 years. This was quite harsh.

Eventually, he made his ODI debut in 2013 and became a regular only after the 2015 World Cup. He did average a healthy 45 and above albeit with the help of few Not Outs. He has quite a few successful games as well. So much so that, Kohli went onto comment that India have found their Number 4. He was beginning to shape himself and start contributing from the crucial number but after 3 successive innings failure against Australia, he was dropped. So much for Kohli’s announcement. He must have been persisted in the middle order. Maybe just maybe, he may have won that semi-final against New Zealand. He definitely would have proved much more valuable than the players who replaced him in the middle order in the World Cup.

Ajinkya Rahane

Rahane was one more player who was lost in the eventual line-up that India played in the 2019 World Cup. As argued before, Rahane has had a decent run in the one day team albeit as an opener. Rahane is a proper middle order batsman. Again, Kohli and Shastri muddled his thinking by publicly announcing that Rahane is much more suited as an opener than as a middle order batsman.

It was virtually impossible for Rahane to replace either Dhawan or Rohit because of their success at that position. He had to wait until one of them is not available. Inorder to suit the requirement for a middle order batsman in ODIs, he must have changed his game which seems to have affected his test credentials as well. Nevertheless, Rahane certainly would have fared a lot better than the players who eventually played in the middle order during the World Cup. Having said that, I do not fancy Rahane in ODIs any longer.

Manish Pandey & Shreyas Iyer

Manish Pandey is someone who will forever feel like a supporting actor. He made his international debut much before Rahul. He played a brilliant innings in only his third game against Australia to win the game. Guess his position in that game? Yes, it was NUMBER 4. Yet for some reason, he has only played a handful of games. Most of career, he has played lower down the order which means that he had to score runs quickly without the time to build an innings. If he feels let down by the management, he cannot be faulted.

Shreyas is someone who was identified as a potential Indian player long before he made his debut. Now that he has secured the middle order slot, let us hope that he continues to prosper thereby providing the team with a top-notch top 5.

Players who played in the World Cup at No. 4

Just look at the players who played at the crucial middle order position. Karthik, Pandya, Shankar & Pant. Shankar played a couple of good innings in the New Zealand series that just preceded the World Cup. He never ever had any great credential of batting in the middle order. Even for Tamil Nadu, he used to bat lower down the order. To play him in the middle order just because of a couple of decent performances was not only an injustice to players like Rayudu, Rahane, Manish, Shreyas but it was unfair on Shankar himself.

Karthik is someone who has been tried in various positions in all the formats and yet has proved to be a failure. He should not even have been in the original squad. His one innings in the Nidahas Trophy finals, seems to have tilted the scales in his favour.

Pandya was more of a circumstantial player at that position in which he was required to score quickly so it was alright but Rishab Pant should not have been considered for a middle order slot. He made a complete fool of himself in the World Cup. Kohli and Shastri chose the biggest stage in One Day cricket to experiment.

Conclusion

India lost the World Cup purely because of the failure on the part of the board and the selectors to select a proper team. Kohli and Shastri cannot escape blame for experimenting in the biggest stage. If only one of Rayudu, Pandey, Rahane, Shreyas had played in the World Cup, India could have won.

Who do you think should have played at the crucial spot of number 4 in the World Cup? Please leave your comments.