Sitaree (Stars) lose their glow!

Media watch on Sunday

If you are a loyal friend, blind admirer, or really (rather real) close relative of an Indian cricketer, reading newspapers today will be as tough and soul-sapping as watching the stars in ‘royal inaction’ yesterday. The papers were full of criticism and advice for the rest of the series.

The Times of India had an interesting one, ‘Sitare Zameen Par’’ where the paper wrote that the ‘’Indian papers, long dazzled by the glitz and glamour of international cricket, showed once more that they do not have the stomach for fight when odds are staked against them.’’

Well, this blog had indicated this very fact during the Pakistan series itself when it criticized the Indian defensive mindset during the third test. Please read the links below

http://atulsondhi.blogspot.com/2007/12/india-end-contest-with-48-overs-to-go.html

http://atulsondhi.blogspot.com/2007/12/imran-criticises-late-declaration.html

So India being defensive is nothing new!

Skipper Kumble now says that it is a collective batting failure and the team needs to find the answers collectively. He wants them to be relaxed and positive.

Well, that should have been the advise before the tour started. One fears it is too late. Batsmen, barring Tendulkar and Ganguly, did look too tense and in negative frame of mind. There was simply too much pressure on Dravid, who did not want to fail as opener, and Yuvraj, perpetually on trial and this time more so as an opener had been sacrificed to accommodate him.

HT had ''Suffocated, India Self-destruct’’. It started with Anil Kumble’s quote as to ‘’I wish I knew what went wrong.’’ He only has to see another article in the same paper where HT analyses whey India failed to stretch Australia at Melbourne. Of course, arguments (the ten reasons) are nothing new and we have been hearing them on TV and Print ever since the tour started, but the writer has compiled and argued them really well. That one page needs to be read by the whole Indian team.

HT also has a quote from Kumble saying ‘’if Veru and Karthik were in great form, we would have thought differently.’’ Come on skipper, even Dravid was not in 'great form' during the Pakistan series and by excluding an opener, Laxman and Dravid were forced to play in unfamiliar positions against a lethal attack. Laxman has not been at number three for very very long time and the strategy was as much counter-productive for him, as for Dravid.

The Indian Express had not much surprise by way of ‘’Early New Year’s Party for Australia as India Crumble.’’ It has a graphics which showed the India’s three worst ever defeats (in runs) had come in last three years, beginning the one at Nagpur in 2004 when Australia had humbled us by 342 runs followed by the one at Karachi in February last year, when Pakistan beat us by 341. And now 337.

Well, we seem to be losing by a mile of late, which shows how fallible we are in the fourth innings. That should be a big matter of concern.

The Hindu’s headline seemed to have been made by tea on the fourth day. Australia victory march continues was simple, a matter of fact statement without too many emotions attached to it.

Viewers who chose not to watch the match on the fourth day and rather went for a fun trip on Saturday, must have felt the same way before giving the telecast a royal ignore.

Related Link
http://atulsondhi.blogspot.com/2007/12/india-look-doomed.html