Infinite Thoughts

Recently i have been browsing through some interesting statistics about captaincy record of Indian captains when palying outside India and I digged out some interesting numbers. Following is the comparison between captaincy records of Ganguly, Dravid, Sachin and Dhoni. I am not considering old stalwards like Pataudi, Gavaskar and kapil because that was totally a different era for India cricket and it would not be fair to compare with modern era. Matches played outside India are only considered S.Ganguly- Matches- 25  Won- 11  Lost- 10 (excluding matches against Bangladesh & zimbabwe  Won- 06  Lost- 09) Achievements - Won a test match (in 2003/04) in Australia first time after 1986/87. Won a test series(in Pak 2004) outside India first time after 1992/93 (vs Srilanka) Won a test match(in 2002) in England first time since 1985/86. R. Dravid- Matches- 17  Won- 05  Lost- 04 (excluding matches against Bangladesh & zimbabwe  Won- 04  Lost- 04) Achievements-

Who would have believed, if told few months back that India would be facing back to back whitewashes? At least I would not have. I find it hard to believe this is the same team which achieved numerous accolades over a last 2-3 years. This team looks like a pale ghost of that team which attained number 1 test ranking and won the world cup. Sport, particularly like cricket, is a cruel thing. Just few days back we were dreaming about attempting a rare series win and subsequently dislodging England from peak of the ranking. After just 10 days of test cricket, we now fear for teams like New Zealand  and Zimbabwe would dislodge us if provided with Fast and bouncy pitches. In just a span of 2 weeks our whole base of faith and beliefs has been challenged. Dhoni, who was thought to be a shrewd captain and supposedly a greatest captain India has ever had, has now become a villain, brainless, clueless captain. (In my personal opinion he was always like that, waiting for things to hap

Fan in me (and in millions of Indians) is disappointed; furthermore fan in me (and in millions of Indians) is angry, anger which has been fuming in there since the tour of England. Why are we disappointed? Yes, because we lost the match and a golden chance to win a series in Australia. But why are we angry? Not just because we lost the tests. Wins and losses are the part and parcels of the cricket, or for that matter, any game. We are angry because the way and the manner of defeats. If you go down fighting, we have no complaints whatsoever. We would be disappointed for sure but not angry or ashamed. If anything we would be proud of fighting spirit on display. But when your no. 8 batsman (which essentially a bowler and should have no business doing batting let alone fighting.) showing more fighting spirit (and better average) than few top order batsmen, you know its not a fighting spirit on display and if anything at all it’s only a spirit of earlier Indian teams which used to succum