The almighty West Indies Lost their charm once the likes of Michael Holding, Joel Garner, Courtney Walsh, Gordon Greenidge, Viv Richards, Garfield Sobers, Desmond Haynes retired. There was a time, and it lasted for decades, when the West Indies cricket bowlers used to send batsmen scurrying around their homes looking for extra padding and protection and to check if their life insurance policies were up to date. There was a time when opposition bowlers tend to stay as 12th man rather than getting brutally hit by them. Each of these men was a truly great cricketer and the reverence they held is monumental. But how times have changed!! Nobody with genuine love for cricket will take any satisfaction from the current plight of the west indies team. But why the West Indian cricket has fallen dramatically is a million dollar question. Its almost 15 years since Australia toppled them to become best side in the world. There are many reasons for this, some of which the west indies cricket board is accountable for. They didn't plan their future properly. When you sit on top of a pedestal you tend to forget or turn a blind eye to a lot of different things. When they were winning, there was a lot of celebrating and pushing out of their chests, rather than thinking how they were going to maintain this run and how were they going to ensure that they continued to produce good cricketers.
Similarly Australian team was pushed down from invincible status after the likes of Matthew Hayden, Adam Gilchrist, Glenn Mcgrath and Shane Warne retired. Starting from mid-90's to 2007 they nearly conquered anything and everything that came in their way. Their Dominance transformed to Arrogance at one stage. But, as the time progressed the decline seems inevitable. One feels that Australian downfall is quite similar to West Indian decline. Both the teams when they were in their respective summit positions failed to churn the youngsters.
Coming to the Indian Perspective, they are holding the No.1 Spot in Tests and have recently won the world cup. It seems impetuous by saying India dominated the rest in this short span. But at least no team is able to overshadow them in terms of rankings. They managed to be unbeatable at home in 2008–11 Period, and they managed to draw a series in South Africa, Win against Sri Lanka, Newzealand and West Indies. The critics refused to applaud their achievements as they failed to sheen any dominance in this regime. On one side Team India is still in its nascent stages of being a true Champion,but the journey seems to be bound with hardships.
The on going test series against England itself proves this point. With the absence of Zaheer Khan, Indian bowling line up is as bad as Bangladesh bowling unit. It is not because we lack potential bowlers, but due to the lack of leadership in bowling department. The Performances of Ishant Sharma and Sree santh with and without Zaheer Khan largely varied. With Sehwag and Gambhir’s absence, the top order looks more fragile, as our batting line up is not much accustomed to these kind of situations. Normally Sachin and Laxman don't focus much on how to bat in the first session of the test match which seems inevitable in this series.
Adding to the agony, Indian Selectors selected Dravid for the ODI series who played his last match in champions trophy 2009. This clearly exploits the Poor planning of Selection committee. Team management should plan for the long run rather than persisting with short term success. In turn retirement announcement drags many accolades. Rather than taking a step backward, the selection panel should have given this chance to some youngster.
Sachin Tendulkar, the man who has given you all that you can wish for is on the edge of his career and so are Dravid and Laxman. It is intimidating that Indian Cricket might Crumble (atleast in tests) once they retire. We can expect them to play hardly for 2 more years. So INDIA should start churning out the youngsters, with a vision of making them fit for International cricket.
BCCI should take care that cricketers don’t get deviated by glitz, glamor and IPL parties in their nascent stages. The Selectors should inculpate rotation policy by clubbing up the seniors with youngsters so that they don’t feel the burden once these players retire and they gain a considerable amount of experience to play at the international level by that time. Technically sound players such as Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma should be encouraged to play more Ranji and first class cricket. Players who are already 30 years old should be used as transition players. In the meantime there is an opportunity to discover young talented batsmen who will prove helpful in the long run.
After all, lets hope Mahendra Singh Dhoni , Duncan Fletcher and co., wont allow INDIA to step down from what we call as “Champion status” which came with lot of sedulous effort and hardwork.
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