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Home > Cricket > Pakistan's tour of India 2005 > Report


Reader's speak out!

March 25, 2005 20:12 IST

Name: Amit Das
Subject: Resurgent Pakistan
Message: The Pakistanis before landing in India were seen as minnows in front of the formidable, star studded Indian team. They started the 1st test cautiously, were caught on the wrong foot at times, but managed to force a draw from the jaws of defeat. Kudos to Kamran Akmal and Abdul Razzaq. The next test they had their highs in the game, but the troughs they faced later didn't allow them to draw it to level & they lost.

On the first day of the third Test, the captain and the vice-captain proved to be the ultimate role models. The grit and determination could well be seen on their faces. They have alone carried the burden and expectations, of the sometimes hapless looking, Pakistani team, on their shoulders. It seems as if they are going to post close to 550 runs by tea, on the second day.

Well played Inzamam and Younis!

We need a hell of an effort on part of our superstars to enforce a result. Either good or bad.

Name: Pankaj Kandhari
Subject: Indian Bowling attack
Message: As I have said before Pakistan is a very talented team. But to add to India's problems, our bowling attack is very weak. We have seen this in the past many times that we do not have that killer bowling attack. On top of everything we have a captain who is useless. I guess, this will be an interesting match and day one surely belongs to Pakistan. Thanks, Pankaj Kandhari, Philadelphia, USA

Name: Abhay Kumar
Subject: About Ganguly's batting performance
Message: I would like to ask what is happening to Indian captain Sourav Ganguly [Images]. Why his batting performance is going down. I have never seen him bat confidently since the last 1 or 2 years. His old performance was far better than the performance of the last two years.

Name: Soumyarup Kahali
Subject: Indian Current Team
Message:
It has been a great fightback to put India into the current stature. But, the Indian captain should think how to score runs, as captaincy cannot retain him in the team, as there are players like Yuvraj Singh [Images], Mohammad Kaif, and Dinesh Mongia who are standing outside.

Name: Natarajan Srikanth
Subject: Bangalore Test real test for Ganguly
Message:
In my opinion, Ganguly is lucky to be in the team for the Bangalore Test since the selectors have made the decision of retaining him as the captain for the series, if not he should have been out of the squad. Infact, in no way he deserves to be in the team. Ganguly's excuses recently have been ridiculous, when asked about his performance he compares himself with other nation captains and the most recent one dragging V V S Laxman [Images] into the discussion. Infact, most of the captains are performing and scoring big hundreds, to name few � Graeme Smith [Images], Inzamam-ul-Haq [Images], Stephen Fleming [Images], Brian Lara [Images], Marvan Atapattu, Ricky Ponting [Images] and Michael Vaughan [Images]. Infact, Tatenda Taibu has also scored a hundred against Bangladesh. So, the only captain who is left is Bangladesh captain Habibul Bashar, but he is also performing slightly better than Ganguly.

Add to this Ganguly's horrible way of handling shot balls and fishing balls outside the off- stump which makes him like a ordinary club cricketer and in my opinion a person like Ganguly who has been with the best talent, coaching etc has never really improved the technique to negotiate the same.

If selectors play their role honestly and if performance is the criteria for selection and not the records and if Ganguly fails in the Bangalore Test that should be the end of Ganguly from Test cricket.

Name: Deepak Nair
Subject: Captain Sourav Ganguly
Message: There are lot of nasty comments about Ganguly floating around. These people have neither looked at comparative statistics of captains of different teams nor do they have any idea what Test cricket is all about. Ganguly may not be batting force that he once was, but he has played several key innings in the past few years and his captaincy has been spot on for most of the time. All these Ganguly haters should be asked whether they would want a Vaughan (amazing captaincy record, batting average 35 as captain) or a Lara (pathetic captaincy record, average 59 as captain)???

Only Steve Waugh has been able to balance the two but then look at his team!!

Name: Ninad Mehta
Subject: Do Ganguly & Laxman deserve a place in the team?

Message: Our captain has not performed with bat since a very, very long time. He was expected to play a good innings with Dravid in the second innings of the 2nd Test, but what a careless shot he played?

I feel that he is only in the team because of captaincy and not as a player. He is becoming overhead for the team and so is Laxman, who always looks in great form but then gives away his wicket after scoring 20-30 runs. I feel Mohammad Kaif deserves to be in playing in the team in place of Laxman.

Name: Nakul Kadaba
Subject: ICC [Images] being unfair on Harbhajan and the off-spinning family

Message: I believe that Harbhajan Singh [Images] has been treated unfairly to be reported again for bowling his doosra, just after he went to get his bowling action "made legal". This is just like the relationship between the ICC and Muttiah Muralitharan. The ICC should learn the doosra and what its purpose is before blaming people for bowling it. The officials of the ICC should revise their chucking regulations again, as it is becoming stupid, pointless, and senseless. Bowlers like Harbhajan and Muralitharan should be left alone to bowl in whatever action they can to produce the best results for their teams.

Name: P V R Sastry
Subject: ICC decision on Harbhajan's bowling action
Message: It is unfair to raise doubts about Harbhajan's bowling action after he is given a clean chit by the governing body (ICC). The reasons behind this should be investigated and the umpires who raised doubts about Harbhajan's bowling action had given Sachin Tendulkar [Images] out, when he had clearly missed the ball.

Name: Mohammed Ali
Subject: Chucking
Message:
This controversy of chucking is growing day by day. Australia has Brett Lee [Images], Pakistan has Shoaib Akhtar [Images], Shabbir Ahmed, Shoaib Malik [Images], England [Images] has James Kirtley and India has Harbhajan Singh, while Sri Lanka [Images] has Muttiah Muralitharan. How can an on-field umpire note to what extent or degree the elbow is bent? Anyone who has a suspect action that can be seen with naked eyes should be banned. Cricket is a gentleman's game and any unfair action should not be tolerated.

Name: Vinayak K
Subject: Dravid is the best
Message: I think Dravid is the best batsman India has ever produced, as he is so cool, calm, down to earth and patient. Hats off to Dravid!

Name: Sandhya Aidoor
Subject: Umpires
Message: If a batsman gets out failing to read the line or the bowler gets plundered bowling the wrong line, if a fielder drops dollies, why is the umpire penalised for an error? An umpire has to carefully scrutinise approximately 250 appeals per match. Come on folks 97% of the time they get it right. I feel it is deplorable when a batsman stands his ground when an umpire gives him not out inspite of nicking balls to close in fielders.

Name: Prakash R. Nanvani
Subject: Sachin Tendulkar
Message: There is no doubt to anyone that Sachin is one of the greatest players of all time, but I don't like him play in Tests since the last couple of years. He has been too slow, and too defensive, he has gone in to the shell, he is not at all the same Sachin whom people used to love so much, he is making the ordinary bowlers look great, whereas he has such potential and ability that he can make great bowlers look pretty ordinary and simple, and I think that the reason for his low performances in the Test matches in the recent past is that he is not playing his natural game at all and is playing very, very slow... I don't know why? People say and argue that he is playing slow because of his records, but I don't agree to this reason... true he is making records and everybody likes records but Sachin is a team man...for sure.


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