A 'cricket manager' - Again ?

Between now and 8th of Sepetember, India will play 13 ODIs and 3 Test matches (see schedule). 11 of these are against England and South Africa, both of which fared way better than India at the World Cup.

It will be seven months by the end of September during which Indian cricket team is without a coach but only a 'cricket manager'. I always think of a cricket team's coach as a mentor. Or a Chief Backroom Officer (CBO) if you will, who knows exactly what he is supposed to do, and is not scared to take radical decisions. The CBOs in the modern days draw up the strategy, discipline the players, shape the younger players' careers and help the senior players with their wisdom.

For a moment, think of the Indian team touring England/Ireland as a company whose shares are traded on the BSE. Other than the captain Dravid, the entire leadership team is made up of people who either do not have a clear mandate to do their job or have not been given enough time to make any significant impact. During this time, the CBO of the 'Team India' will be an intern, or a 'temp' employee at best.

Worse, the bowling and fielding coaches (Venkatesh Prasad and Robin Singh) have played with all the senior players of the team selected for the tour. Though both of these coaches will be able to immensely help the younger players in the team, I don't see them making any difference with playing styles of the senior players. This is like hiring one of the retired regular employees and asking him or her to come back and lead the same bunch of people he/she used to work with. Why would a Sachin Tendulkar or a Sourav Ganguly listen to his former colleague who has been away from the thick of the action for the last 5 years. Even if they do, what would Venky and Singh have to offer to the senior players ?

Both Venky and Robin have been given 1 year contract. That means, to add to the confusion, they will be working with at least 3 different bosses during their tenure - Ravi Shastri during Bangladesh tour, Borde during England/Ireland tour, and hopefully a new coach after that.

Take nothing away from Borde, Venky or Robin Singh. They all are worthy people and would be able to help the players under a strong setup. The point I am trying to make here is that there is something fundamentally wrong with the way the leadership team has been put in place. Again, if Indian team to England/Ireland were a company, I wouldn't take chances on its shares.

McGrath's bowling figures in WC semi finals

Here is how well McGrath did today in the second WC Semi FInal (Aus vs NZ)

Bowling Figures

Bowlers	O	M	R	0s	1s	2s	3s	4s	6s	W	Wd	Nb	Econ
Nathan Bracken Runs Per Over Total THIS IS THE CONTENT	7.0	0	15	30	11	0	0	1	0	1	0	0	2.14
Glenn McGrath Runs Per Over Total Glenn McGrath 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 6 4 1 0 0 4 0 9 8 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 10 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 12 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 31 2 0 0 0 0 1 3 33 0 1 0 0 0 0 1	8.0	0	18	39	7	1	0	2	0	3	1	0	2.25
Shaun Tait Runs Per Over Total THIS IS THE CONTENT	10.0	0	39	45	8	0	0	5	1	4	5	0	3.90
Shane Watson* Runs Per Over Total THIS IS THE CONTENT	8.5	0	49	24	19	1	0	7	0	1	0	0	5.76
George Hogg Runs Per Over Total THIS IS THE CONTENT	10.0	0	24	44	15	1	0	1	0	1	3	0	2.40
Runs Per Over Total THIS IS THE CONTENT

And here are the details on the overs he bowled (The leftmost column is the over numbers in South Africa innings that McGrath bowled).

2	0 0 0 0 0 0 1	1
4	0 0 0 0 0 0	0
6	4 1 W 0 4 0	9
8	1 0 0 0 0 0	1
10	0 0 1 W W 0	1
12	0 0 0 0 0 1	1
31	2 0 0 0 0 1	3
33	0 1 0 0 0 0	1

Even in over #6, were he was hit for 2 fours, he took the wicket of Kallis. And in Over #10, back to back wickets of Prince and Boucher ! Go McGrath !

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cricketernews.com's LiveScore BETA launched !

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We have had live scorecard in alpha testing for more than a month now. Since this past weekend we are officially in Beta mode. This is an important milestone for us as we have worked extra hard over the past month to make this possible. Our goal, right from the get go, was to create the best Live scorecard on the www. I think we have come really close to reaching that goal. For starters, check out the Sri Lanka vs New Zealand semi final match.

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Milestone reached on the eve of World Cup 2007

Today we reached a milestone - CricketerNews.com went live with next generation Live score card - Livescore Beta, thanks to efforts of our developers. This score card has various features like the dynamic run rate graphs, runs scored in previous overs, etc. It also offers quick access to player's profile and other score details without refreshing the whole page. We hope this will enhance the user experience to a large extent.

We all must have enjoyed the opening ceremony of the World Cup 2007. Let this spirit continue throughout the world cup.

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