Indian cricket

 

 

  When you travel down history’s lane, the fact surfaces that almost 300 years ago cricket was played in a form that is greatly similar to today’s game. Cricket was imported from the British and as early as the 18thcentury, the game was played between the Indians and Europeans. The first official test match was played in England in 1932 and India after gaining independence, played its first official series against Australia in Brisbane. It goes without saying that the heroes of Indian cricket were CK Nayadu and Lala Amaranth. 1952 was a wonderful year for Indian cricket for not only did it register a test victory against England but also had in its bag a series win against Pakistan. Its first overseas victory was against New Zealand in the year 1968. Vinoo Mankad, Adhikari, vijay hazare, vijay merchant and the match winning leg spinner Subash Gupte dominated the 1950’s and 1960’s. It was then that spin bowling came of age and the 1970’s saw the entry of the famous spin trio --Bishen Singh, Prasanna and Chandrasekhar. Venkatraghavan also entered the fray in this period.  The batting department also produced some prolific run getters like Sunil Gavaskar and Vishwanath. A good batting line up and some good bowlers ensured a series win not only in the West Indies but also in England.



In the 1980’s Vengsarkar, Azharuddin, Ravi shastri, Srikanth, Manjerakar and Maninder Singh became the reigning champions of Indian Cricket and India miraculously won the World Cup in 1983 after defeating the West Indies in the final. Kapil Dev emerged as a quality all rounder and went on to take a total of more than 434 wickets in Test cricket stealing a march over Richard Hadlee. Of course records are made and broken and this record is no exception. Shane warne of Australia and Muralitharan of Sri Lanka have since broken that record. Sunil Gavaskar notched up 34 centuries that was recently broken by batting maestro Sachin Tendulkar. Anil Kumble took off from where the spin trio left and even gained the distinction of having taken all10 wickets in an innings. Javagal Srinath emerged as a good medium pace bowler and along with venkatesh prasad did succeed in taking wickets in the early stages of the game.

Sachin tendulkar, Rahul dravid, Ganguly and Virender Sehwag added strength to the batting lineup and Sachin set many new records. In spite of this their performance abroad was mediocre. Around the year 2000, Indian cricket revived a bit and the team did fairly well against Australia and Pakistan. The year 2001 was good for Indian cricket when it beat Australia arguably the best team in the world. Then there was a slump when India did not perform well in the One-day internationals. The inform batsmen and bowlers did not perform up to their actual potential. It however has revived slightly under the aegis of Coach Greg Chapel and in the year 2005 India beat SriLanka in the one-day series by winning 6 of the 7 matches. Irfan Pathan had some good seam bowling to his credit while Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Suresh Raina strengthened the batting department. Against Pakistan, while India lost the test series, they triumphed in the one-day series. It remains to be seen how they perform against England in the ongoing matches and against the West Indies when they tour it later this year. .

Apart from test cricket and one-day cricket, domestic cricket is also played. The Duleep Trophy, which surfaced in 1961-62, has a league format and helps the Indian selectors to identify budding players with talent. The Ranji trophy fixtures, which commenced as early as 1934, have teams representing various states battle it out for the trophy. The teams are zonal in nature and initially the games are played on a league basis and in the final 2 or 3 teams engage in a knock out competition. The current one-day cricket competition is the Deodhar Trophy.

What India needs now is a couple of really good fast bowlers to open the bowling attack and good pitches in India, which help seam bowling. This is definitely an area that needs to be worked on. Merely preparing tracks, which help the spinners, would handicap the Indian team when they go abroad. Another thing that needs to be strengthened is their fielding. While it is good in patches, consistent good fielding has always evaded the Indians. A “Do or die” attitude towards all matches be it big or small will definitely help. The Indian Cricket team is paid handsomely by way of sponsorship and The BCCI (board of control for cricket in India) is the body, which is the governing body. India has many first class cricket grounds spread throughout the country, which are home to both test matches and one-day internationals and has players who can tackle the best in the world. With a slightly altered approach in attitude and performance, Indian cricket can make it to the top. :: Authored by M. Hemdev.2006

 

 

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