Friday, January 6, 2012

2012 - The End of the World (For Indian Cricket)

The recent years could be described as the zenith of Indian cricket. A world cup, the number one test ranking, an assortment of batsman averaging above fifty. For a while all was rosy for Indian cricket as they had all the money and the silverware. The problem is though, the higher you climb the tree the more gravity laughs at you, and awaiting this Indian team in the coming year is a crash course face down in the mud.

As we speak Australia are mauling India in a manner reserved not even for Zimbabwe. The so-called best batting line-up hasn't delivered, and we all know India has nothing else up its sleeve apart from the odd Zaheer Khan spell. The fielding is a joke, the bowling a gun loaded with blanks, Gambhir and Kohli (the 'future') are nowhere as good as they think they are, and special mention to the unimaginative and dire captaincy of the most worshipped man in Indian cricket. He may be a lot of things, but as a test captain Dhoni is a disgrace.

Unfortunately for India, the problems do not end here and it won't be long before we are back in the dark days of the 90's. Yes the days when Devang Gandhi was in the team and Agarkar was the king of ducks.

Quack.  © AFP

The powers are about to shift away, and the coming year will be a telling one for Indian cricket. Here are the events The Cricket Musings predicts for 2012:

The IPL Will Start Dying
This won't be the last we see of it, but it will be on its way down. The corruption is already exposing itself with teams having to drop out and players reportedly not being paid. The already poor quality of cricket will only get worse, especially when key players will retire and or opt out altogether. Audiences will wake up worldwide, and realise that Test cricket is the only true form, and that India are hopeless at it.

The previous IPL had a lot to thank Chris Gayle for.

Tendulkar Will Get His 100th 100
But by the time it comes nobody will care any more. Except maybe cricinfo who probably have tribute articles saved up and gathering cob-webs.

Dravid and Laxman Will Retire
A sad ending, because its tragic to watch Dravid miss straight deliveries and Laxman scoring less runs than Chris Martin. What the BCCI will do is rig a home series against a Zimbabwe and give them easy centuries to bow out with. I hope so because they deserve a farewell more pleasant than James Pattinson screams.

The DRS Will Live
Eventually the ICC will wake up when the credibility of the BCCI and Dhoni will decline. Common sense will prevail in the end, even though it was years too late.

More 200's
Sehwag and Sachin only completed the inevitable. For years many got mighty close, and others would have sailed to a double had the chasing target been larger (see Shane Watson). With flat pitches still not easing up, there will be more of these on the way.

A Return Australian Series
To restore dented batting averages and the pride of Virat Kohli. They did it against England, and with India having planned next to nothing in terms of forthcoming tours, they are (as usual) free to do what they like.


A plea to the cricket gods, please save us all.



Related Reading:
Australian Cricket In Trouble
Why Dhoni Is A Fluke
Why The IPL Is Ruining Cricket

2 comments:

  1. So typical to make criticism when India are WORLD CHAMPIONS. People like you have short term memory only.

    ReplyDelete