Was glued to my television set last night watching India taking on Australia!!!
Like it said in the promos that close encounters guaranteed it definately was a close affair with both teams playing some brilliant cricket and India taking the honours!!!
The match was fascinating to watch partly because both teams went with some young players in order to test them for the upcoming ICC World Cup 2011 and to groom their bench strength!!!!
The refreshing part was that we had on show the importance of experience in a team and what the younger lot could achieve with the flair that they have in them!!!
Michael Clarke the stand in captain played a captain's knock an his partnership with Hussey was the key for the revival of the Australian innings who were really struggling at one stage with the immensely powerful Cameroon White Finishing the Innings in a whirlwind innings that totally caught India unawares at the end of the innings!!!!!
It was Clarke,Hussey and White's contribution(the most experienced trio in the Aussie line up) that made sure that they managed a really competitive total to defend!!!
Now the Indians chased and they did it so brilliantly!!!!
Take nothing away from the inexperienced bowling lineup of the Aussies but the young Blood of India was too hot to handle!!!!!
The youthful and Aggressive approach of Virat Kohli and a Mature knock by Yuvraj Singh and a Flurry of runs by Suresh Raina Got them across the line!!!!!
Now you must have been wondering that what this match summary and my description has anything to do with us!!!!
Well if we look closely and observe it definately has a lot to do with us!!!
We must learn from the ones above us that what we need to do in order to achieve what they already have!!!!
like Benchmarking their qualities which have made them achieve such great heights!!!
We share a lot of similarities with all the people in the sub-continent,be it Indians,Srilankans or the Bangladeshis!!!!
We for instance are immensely talented!!!
We have the right approach in the youth that could take us a long way to a road of glory previously unachieved,unimaginable and unbeliveable at times!!!
But are we groomed properly????
Sadly enough we are not!!!!
Is the cricket in safe hands at the moment???
No it isn't
And do we have the right management???
No we don't
but before that we need to take into account!!
We had 5 different Captains in the space of two years!!!
which is quite astonishing and absurd!!!
Younis Khan,Shoaib Malik,Mohammad yousaf,Shahid Afridi and Salman Butt!!!!!
The funniest thing is that all the recent captains stated are unsuited to atleast one of the 3 forms of the game we have today!!!!
Younis no doubt a brilliant one day and test batsman but he in no way can be classified as even an average t20 captain!!!
Yousaf also has the same problem with him!!!!!
And now the captain is Misbah who wasnt in the scheme of things for a year in all the forms of the game!!!!
Imagine hin being made captain!!!!
What a joke that is!!!!
So how can u expect consistency under these circumstances!!!!!!
Further more our dilemma is that young players are tried and tested under the harshest of conditions!!!!!
Like we played Aamir in the T20 worldcup,Umar amin made his test debut in England in conditions allien to us!!!!!
and then they expect the youth to perform!!!!
Where the Pros failed how can you even think that the younger ones will do it for you!!!!!!!
The Elders have to show character and strength in leading the younger ones forward and be the calming factor where flair and aggression is not the appropriate option!!!!
But at the moment i feel sorry to say that at this critical juncture our team and the management behind that is going nowhere with its thinking!!!!!
And we are in no shape for the Worldcup around the corner!!!
and if it goes in the same vain then i guess it wouldnt be suprising for us that we would be addressing the same problem when the the next cup in 4 years comes!!!!!!