I still remember when Lara surpassed the Hayden’s highest individual score in Test Cricket… He just showed his bat and acknowledged the cheers from the crowd. It is high time Indian players need a crash course on “Ethics & Behavior in the Cricket Field”..

For the amount of money they have been paid, Indian Team should win more matches than any other team in the world. They fail to remember the basic rule that they are out in the field to perform and get results.. They should be made accountable & responsible for all their actions. To make it very simple when you carry a bat you score runs , when you bowl you are supposed to take wickets in the field ?? field well (Sachin,Ganguly are they listening ??)
Krishna
Thiruvallikeni

Good post.

But, the day we started wearing pyjamas to play cricket, all ethics went for a six thru a non-cricketing shot.

Regards
R. Sathyamurthy

Were the Indians right on appealing for Inzy’s casual blocking the ball that was throwed by Raina?

I personally feel it as slightly unethical. I was happy to find that Michael Holding, who was commenting at that time also echoed my thoughts. He said that the appeal was not in the right spirits of the game, but rules are rules.

This is not the first time I felt Indian cricket hit an ethical low.. to my knowledge.. lemme put forward few instances I remember.

1. A One-day match in Mohali against the West Indies in 2002.. Vasbert Drakes dismissed Dravid with a genuine thick edge to the keeper. The only wrong act Drakes did was to appeal for that (but that is how instincts work, right?) and what Dravid did wrong was not to walk for those… agreed.. u can stand your ground till the umpire asks you to leave.. but for such noisy edges, gentleman cricket cries to you to better leave or let ethical cricket die. And on top of that, the umpire Hariharan, rather than turning down the appeal.. actually made a wild gesture to Drakes to come and bowl the next ball.. as if there was no drama in that delivery…

That day Hariharan joined my elite list of famous (or should I call the infamous) Indian umpires that includes SK Bansal and some Sharma who raised his index finger in a one-dayer against sri lanka and changed it later only to scratch his head.

2. Indians appealing for Michael Vaughan handling the ball against the non-violent vegetarian bowling of Sarandeep Singh in a test match in Bangalore in 2001. Mark Ramprakash did well that time as the non-striker in asking Vaughan to leave and let sanity prevail for the rest of the game rather than rubbing the dirt further.

3. Tendulkar’s ban in South Africa in 2001 for alleged ball tampering that put the match refree Mike Denness in bad light. Tendulkar was acquitted, but did Denness continue refreeing after the series?

It is simply a classic case of Indian cricket Vs Sanity in Cricket?

These are just few instances where I feel if Indian cricket improves.. we can be the world best. But, the corollary is alsways not true, Australia is not the most ethical cricketing nation to be on the top of the pedestal.

Let us call for ethical cricket and let sanity prevail.

Your comments are on-spot. I too feel that the team India missed out the strategy needed for that hour. I think on field creativity was missing from the Dravid. But still we cannot write-off the whole series that Pakistan will dictate terms.

India will certainly give a comeback. Remember, the power factory has not so far produced much of runs after the first Test match. If he starts firing then there will be a great difference between the two sides.

That is said. But Team India has to find some way or other to restrict the Pakistanis stupendous batting line which never gives up. The concluded One-day match is an evidence of their calibre to chase such a mammoth total. Whether India would have scored this win had they batted and chased this total is a big question to me.

They (India) made their first mistake even before the toss. That is making Harbhajan sit out. He would have made a big difference in the place of Murali Kartik. Harbhajan is not so old that you need to find a replace now itself. First Murali Kartik needs to learn not only to contain batsmen but also taking wickets at the crucial stages of the match. Harbhajan would have also added batting strength. May be he would have added 20 more runs to the total.

Sreesanth too is no exception. I would recommend R.P. Singh in his place. Also as you have correctly mentioned, the power play was not implemented or used to its perfection.

Let us all only hope that India rectifies its mistakes before the second ODI starts. Do you have any doubt that the tour series’ between India and Pakistan is fixed? I do have a small amount of doubt. I doubt the two country’s politicians are taking the field.

It is undigestable that the Indians, despite notching up a very good total, lost the match.

Poor planning and lack of clear strategies is evident in this loss.

Greg appears to be a good coach but not good a tactician/ strategist.

Bob Woolmer certainly scores better on this count. He has been able to give better strategies to his team.

We seem to be having no plan or clue for containing some of the Pakistani cricketers who perform consistently against India. The list is growing by the day – Kamran Akmal, Salman Butt, Afirdi, Younis Khan, Inzy, Mohd. Yousuf (Yohanna), Abdul Razack and so on.

That we folded up so meekly when we could have scored atleast 50 more runs (we were at one stage 285 for 3 with 9 overs to go and were all out for 328 with 2 balls remaining).

If you lose after scoring 328 runs, it certainly means the following:

1. No strategy to contain the opposition players, especially those who seem to have developed a liking for your bowling

2. Not building up pressure when wickets fall

3. Improper, unimaginative use of the power play option – all teams seem to have this habit of extending the power play to stretch it to 20 overs instead of spreading out thru the innings

We must urgently think of ways of restricting the Pak players who are upsettingly consistent against us.

Just see the number of hundreds these guys have accumulated exclusively against India, you will know what I mean.

We have the top ranking batsman with us in our team. But, we don’t have a strategy

Pakistanis don’t have many such high repute batsman / players. But, they have a strategy.

I don’t think other matches will produce better results for India, unless they change their mindset and have a plan.

Just go back and see when India dominated against Pakistanis. You will notice that after the last India visit to Pakistan, it is Pakistan that is dictating terms to us.