BCCI finally seems to getting it's act together.

[Furball]

Didn't Kirsten bring a Mental conditioning coach in Paddy Upton with him?Sehwag said himself he helped him a lot. If the players lack hunger,feeling under pressure or lacking motivation then the coach can certainly help. And even when they are lacking confidence.

As for fitness, the coach should be responsible with dieticians, fitness experts etc.... to get a training schedule for individual players that improves their fitness. I think someone probably needs to push the BCCI to get a program where they can track players fitness when they have a break too like the English do. Actually, the coach is less responsible for injury recovery than this because players go to NCA for that.

The coach can devise whatever he wants, it's not going to achieve anything if the players aren't putting in the required fitness work and eating cheeseburgers.

 

[Shri]

The coach can devise whatever he wants, it's not going to achieve anything if the players aren't putting in the required fitness work and eating cheeseburgers.

This isn't the USA ffs. More like a **** load of naan and butter chicken.

 

[Black_Warrior]

The coach is not responsible for player motivation but he can certainly help with that.

 

[Arjun]

Drop Sehwag. Drop Gambhir. Drop Laxman and Dravid. Drop Dhoni. Drop Ishant. Like you dropped Irfan, Bhajji and Mishy, with inadequate replacements in sight. Is this what you call player management? Losing matches, losing ranking, then losing the players you need to get back to the top. It's not one or two players who are dragging the team down, but the whole team that's sinking, including the core players who brought you to the top!

Some of the things Fletcher preaches are utter rubbish. He thinks spinners are no more than mere passengers, and wants them to stay that way. Then there's been a steady stream of maiden overs choking the Indian side, which is questionable. Fletcher's fascination for 90mph bowlers was a subject of jokes, but he's done scratch with the bunch at hand.

My supposedly less-encouraging comments on Kirsten are more to do with the fact that he's not quite the kind of person you'd want to have in a volatile post in world cricket as this, his comments on fitness not being taken seriously (or him not pushing hard like Chappell) and that we seem to be shedding copious tears on his farewell and making a national hero out of him, just because he was a successful coach. He wasn't that special.

Nor are our Indian coaches any pushovers. Nobody gave Chandu Borde credit when India won a Test series in England. Nobody gave Lalu Rajput credit for the World T20 win and also winning a tri-series in Australia, no mean feats at all. There's a sentiment that all Indian coaches are region-biased, which is a fatally flawed argument. Would you call Kumble, Ganguly or Dravid regionalistic? Hardly.

And we want a long-term policy. There's the A team. Hang on, the A team. No tour abroad has been scheduled for India A. Fatal flaw. What was the BCCI thinking?

 

[Furball]

Drop Sehwag. Drop Gambhir. Drop Laxman and Dravid. Drop Dhoni. Drop Ishant. Like you dropped Irfan, Bhajji and Mishy, with inadequate replacements in sight. Is this what you call player management? Losing matches, losing ranking, then losing the players you need to get back to the top. It's not one or two players who are dragging the team down, but the whole team that's sinking, including the core players who brought you to the top!

Some of the things Fletcher preaches are utter rubbish. He thinks spinners are no more than mere passengers, and wants them to stay that way. Then there's been a steady stream of maiden overs choking the Indian side, which is questionable. Fletcher's fascination for 90mph bowlers was a subject of jokes, but he's done scratch with the bunch at hand.

My supposedly less-encouraging comments on Kirsten are more to do with the fact that he's not quite the kind of person you'd want to have in a volatile post in world cricket as this, his comments on fitness not being taken seriously (or him not pushing hard like Chappell) and that we seem to be shedding copious tears on his farewell and making a national hero out of him, just because he was a successful coach. He wasn't that special.

Nor are our Indian coaches any pushovers. Nobody gave Chandu Borde credit when India won a Test series in England. Nobody gave Lalu Rajput credit for the World T20 win and also winning a tri-series in Australia, no mean feats at all. There's a sentiment that all Indian coaches are region-biased, which is a fatally flawed argument. Would you call Kumble, Ganguly or Dravid regionalistic? Hardly.

And we want a long-term policy. There's the A team. Hang on, the A team. No tour abroad has been scheduled for India A. Fatal flaw. What was the BCCI thinking?

No he doesn't.

 

[Shri]

Drop Sehwag. Drop Gambhir. Drop Laxman and Dravid. Drop Dhoni. Drop Ishant. Like you dropped Irfan, Bhajji and Mishy, with inadequate replacements in sight. Is this what you call player management? Losing matches, losing ranking, then losing the players you need to get back to the top. It's not one or two players who are dragging the team down, but the whole team that's sinking, including the core players who brought you to the top!

Some of the things Fletcher preaches are utter rubbish. He thinks spinners are no more than mere passengers, and wants them to stay that way. Then there's been a steady stream of maiden overs choking the Indian side, which is questionable. Fletcher's fascination for 90mph bowlers was a subject of jokes, but he's done scratch with the bunch at hand.

My supposedly less-encouraging comments on Kirsten are more to do with the fact that he's not quite the kind of person you'd want to have in a volatile post in world cricket as this, his comments on fitness not being taken seriously (or him not pushing hard like Chappell) and that we seem to be shedding copious tears on his farewell and making a national hero out of him, just because he was a successful coach. He wasn't that special.

Nor are our Indian coaches any pushovers. Nobody gave Chandu Borde credit when India won a Test series in England. Nobody gave Lalu Rajput credit for the World T20 win and also winning a tri-series in Australia, no mean feats at all. There's a sentiment that all Indian coaches are region-biased, which is a fatally flawed argument. Would you call Kumble, Ganguly or Dravid regionalistic? Hardly.

And we want a long-term policy. There's the A team. Hang on, the A team. No tour abroad has been scheduled for India A. Fatal flaw. What was the BCCI thinking?

Borde and Rajput were managers ffs.

 

[Daemon]

Drop Sehwag. Drop Gambhir. Drop Laxman and Dravid. Drop Dhoni. Drop Ishant. Like you dropped Irfan, Bhajji and Mishy, with inadequate replacements in sight. Is this what you call player management? Losing matches, losing ranking, then losing the players you need to get back to the top. It's not one or two players who are dragging the team down, but the whole team that's sinking, including the core players who brought you to the top!

He didn't drop any of those players though..

Irfan, Bhajji and Mishra deserved to be dropped and when they were, there were adequate replacements in sight.

 

[L Trumper]

He didn't drop any of those players though..

Irfan, Bhajji and Mishra deserved to be dropped and when they were, there were adequate replacements in sight.

Especially those replacements are the ones that are actually playing well.

 

[Furball]

I think the problem with Fletcher's appointment is that he was appointed to help with the transition because he's suppsoed to be good with the youngsters. But the oldies are still hanging on, and he hasn't had the canvas all to himself yet.

He's gotten rid of Harbhajan and Sreesanth, two perennial underperformers who have flattered to deceive for years now. There's no doubt in my mind that Yadav and Ashwin/Ohja represent a massive improvement on those two.

For whatever reason teams seem to be far more reluctant to drop batsmen than bowlers, and it doesn't help that Fletcher is dealing with some particularly sacred cows. There's only going to be one winner if it ever came down to Fletcher against Tendulkar.

People looking at his record with England and wondering why exactly India seemed to have turned to **** really ought to look at how England fared in Fletcher's first couple of years in charge. Whatever Fletcher's remit was, you don't sack the guy after 6 months before he's been given the chance to fail on his own terms.

 

[G.I.Joe]

He's gotten rid of Harbhajan and Sreesanth, two perennial underperformers who have flattered to deceive for years now. There's no doubt in my mind that Yadav and Ashwin/Ohja represent a massive improvement on those two.

For whatever reason teams seem to be far more reluctant to drop batsmen than bowlers, and it doesn't help that Fletcher is dealing with some particularly sacred cows. There's only going to be one winner if it ever came down to Fletcher against Tendulkar.

People looking at his record with England and wondering why exactly India seemed to have turned to **** really ought to look at how England fared in Fletcher's first couple of years in charge. Whatever Fletcher's remit was, you don't sack the guy after 6 months before he's been given the chance to fail on his own terms.

Yeah, I'm not saying he needs to create the canvas he needs, it's the selectors that have to do the providing.

 

[Arjun]

He didn't drop any of those players though..

Irfan, Bhajji and Mishra deserved to be dropped and when they were, there were adequate replacements in sight.

Especially those replacements are the ones that are actually playing well.

That is really hard to believe. No bowler in the country, bar Ashwin at present, can bat as well as Irfan. Every seam bowler has faced the same problems as him, and is hardly established in the side. Most bowlers are bunnies or clowns with the bat, and that's reduced the possiblilty of India playing five bowlers and worse, Dhoni's batting is a national issue.

Bhajji and Mishra are the top two spinners (with Kartik) and should have been helped back into form, but were dropped instead. Bhajji may be a bit of a pampered star, but he still has his utility. Mishra had a horror tour of England and is hardly as bad as that suggests. Their replacements are hardly good enough- Pragyan Ojha averages over 30 playing all his Tests inside the subcontinent (and was over 40 until lately), and was eaten up by Aussie academy teams, while Ashwin, who fared well against them, was levelled on a flat deck, and in danger of losing his place.

 

[Arjun]

He's gotten rid of Harbhajan and Sreesanth, two perennial underperformers who have flattered to deceive for years now. There's no doubt in my mind that Yadav and Ashwin/Ohja represent a massive improvement on those two.

For whatever reason teams seem to be far more reluctant to drop batsmen than bowlers, and it doesn't help that Fletcher is dealing with some particularly sacred cows. There's only going to be one winner if it ever came down to Fletcher against Tendulkar.

People looking at his record with England and wondering why exactly India seemed to have turned to **** really ought to look at how England fared in Fletcher's first couple of years in charge. Whatever Fletcher's remit was, you don't sack the guy after 6 months before he's been given the chance to fail on his own terms.

Harbhajan is hardly a perennial underperformer- he's sometimes pulled his weight for the team. It's just that he isn't gobbling up batting sides abroad, so we think he's been poor. What's pulled him down, however, is his fitness. Sree was hardly a regular in the national side, and eventually the new Agarkar- the quick fix man.

But the replacements are not adequate either. Yadav's fitness is poor- way below international standards. It took one flat deck for the Indians to remember he's not assured of his place in the side any more than Gautam Gambhir. Ojha and Ashwin are hardly head and shoulders ahead of Bhajji- both are poor on flat decks, Ojha struggles even inside India and gung-ho top batsmen on a flat deck smashed Ashwin enough to question his place in the side.

 

[Daemon]

Players improve you know. Ojha was great in the CC and was good against the Windies at home, albeit against guys who weren't very good players of spin.

 

[Arjun]

Ojha should have finished that CC season. He did well against the Windies, but they're at present a terrible Test side, worse than stereotypical England in ODIs. Ashwin did well in his very first series, that same series. While Ashwin is needed for different reasons in the national side, both are still too raw to be considered Test standard, as this Aussie tour has proved. Ashwin's superior strike rate seems to take him ahead, but let's not forget what happened to Ajantha Mendis- a bowler of which Ashwin is a fraction, gobbling up batting sides, until a flat deck was his undoing, and struggled in Tests thereafter, only to be replaced by ageing Herath and Randiv.

That apart, here's a little task for all of you thinking about India's long-term plan. Look for any tour of India A in the near future. A proper tour, full of actual FC and List-A games, of eleven against eleven. You'll have to try really hard to find one, particularly this year. Wake up, BCCI! This is the core of your long-term plan!

 

[Arachnodouche]

Are you screaming while typing this stuff out? Bulging veins and all? Just asking..

I think we can go back to Bhajji provided he shows some real improvement in terms of flight and speed/trajectory. He's still quite young so no way can one count out a guy with 400 Test wickets.

Ashwin shows plenty of mongrel for mine so he gets to have a decent enough go at it.

 

[Black_Warrior]

He didn't drop any of those players though..

Irfan, Bhajji and Mishra deserved to be dropped and when they were, there were adequate replacements in sight.

Not sure about Irfan. He played his last test in March-April 08 after winning India the Perth test match in Jan 08.

 

[Furball]

Harbhajan is hardly a perennial underperformer- he's sometimes pulled his weight for the team. It's just that he isn't gobbling up batting sides abroad, so we think he's been poor. What's pulled him down, however, is his fitness. Sree was hardly a regular in the national side, and eventually the new Agarkar- the quick fix man.

But the replacements are not adequate either. Yadav's fitness is poor- way below international standards. It took one flat deck for the Indians to remember he's not assured of his place in the side any more than Gautam Gambhir. Ojha and Ashwin are hardly head and shoulders ahead of Bhajji- both are poor on flat decks, Ojha struggles even inside India and gung-ho top batsmen on a flat deck smashed Ashwin enough to question his place in the side.

Harbhajan has been average for years.

 

[honestbharani]

Busted his knee a few years back and his fielding ability went with that. Might be prick with his attitude but he is also an unlucky prick.

He was damn good in the WC as a fielder..

 

[honestbharani]

I think the problem with Fletcher's appointment is that he was appointed to help with the transition because he's suppsoed to be good with the youngsters. But the oldies are still hanging on, and he hasn't had the canvas all to himself yet.

This. Give him a young team and then judge him, FFS. Chances are, he is not that good but at least give him the sort of team he is supposed to be good at coaching and then see.

 

[nsniks]

And since getting dropped harbhajan has picked only 2 wickets in the 3 domestic matches he has played before getting injured so its not like he is performing and can be called back