Suneer S. Chowdhary
Arnold
Tash Jayasinghe
Dexter
CibbuanoSublime mix of Youth and Experience win the day for India
March 5th 2008 09:25
India has inflicted a defeat to Australia in the final game of the Commonwealth Bank one day tournament and in the process won it. It is the second time in a row the Australians have lost the finals 2-0.
Much has been made of the controversies that have plagued the summer of cricket - racism, sledging, the IPL player auction and now the tackling of a nude spectator - sometimes the actual cricket has gone unnoticed which is a shame.
India won this series because of the magnificent blend of youth and experience. There are many stalwarts of Indian cricket that have been neglected for this tournament - batsmen the calibre of Raul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly and VVS Laxman and bowlers like Zaheer Khan and Anil Kumble. But what dropping players like this means is that India has been able to blood a very very exciting generation of new, young cricket talent. The young dynamo batsmen Gautam Gambhir (26), Robin Uthappa (22) and Rohit Sharma (20) have developed under the watchful eye of master batsman Sachin Tendulkar and what a thrill it must be for those youngsters to bat with someone of that stature.
The Indian bowling has been equally blessed with new young talent - Man of the match Praveen Kumar is just 22 years old and Sreesanth is just 25 years. Irfan Pathan is 23 years old and injured find of the series Ishant Sharma is 19!! Couple those quicks with the most exciting young leg spinner in the world 19 year old Piyush Chawla and the future of indian cricket is very very bright. My only concern is 19 year olds making millions of dollars playing 20/20 but kudos to indian cricket for finding and getting those youngsters into the team.
The Australians haven't had much to be happy about since the lucky win in the Sydney test right back at the start of the year. In the one day arena they started with all guns blazing but had their form desert them at the crucial moment.
The one shining light I think it should be said was the bowling of Nathan Bracken. He has been the outstanding bowler in international one day cricket for the past few years and it was good to see him recognized as the player of the tournament. Looking back at his career it seems strange that he has never found a regular berth in the test team. With Brett Lee's express pace partnering Stuart Clark it seems to me that at this stage Bracken would be the ideal change bowler. Australia has been obsessed since th retirement of McGrath and Gillespie to find the quickest bowlers possible rather than the best. Shaun Tait and Mitchell Johnson just don't bowl accurately enough often enough and I feel that Bracken should be in the test team.
So a season of intrigue has ended and we await with some interest to see if the Indian Premier League 20/20 tournament will be the saviour of cricket or an exercise in corporate profitability.
Much has been made of the controversies that have plagued the summer of cricket - racism, sledging, the IPL player auction and now the tackling of a nude spectator - sometimes the actual cricket has gone unnoticed which is a shame.
India won this series because of the magnificent blend of youth and experience. There are many stalwarts of Indian cricket that have been neglected for this tournament - batsmen the calibre of Raul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly and VVS Laxman and bowlers like Zaheer Khan and Anil Kumble. But what dropping players like this means is that India has been able to blood a very very exciting generation of new, young cricket talent. The young dynamo batsmen Gautam Gambhir (26), Robin Uthappa (22) and Rohit Sharma (20) have developed under the watchful eye of master batsman Sachin Tendulkar and what a thrill it must be for those youngsters to bat with someone of that stature.
The Indian bowling has been equally blessed with new young talent - Man of the match Praveen Kumar is just 22 years old and Sreesanth is just 25 years. Irfan Pathan is 23 years old and injured find of the series Ishant Sharma is 19!! Couple those quicks with the most exciting young leg spinner in the world 19 year old Piyush Chawla and the future of indian cricket is very very bright. My only concern is 19 year olds making millions of dollars playing 20/20 but kudos to indian cricket for finding and getting those youngsters into the team.
The Australians haven't had much to be happy about since the lucky win in the Sydney test right back at the start of the year. In the one day arena they started with all guns blazing but had their form desert them at the crucial moment.
The one shining light I think it should be said was the bowling of Nathan Bracken. He has been the outstanding bowler in international one day cricket for the past few years and it was good to see him recognized as the player of the tournament. Looking back at his career it seems strange that he has never found a regular berth in the test team. With Brett Lee's express pace partnering Stuart Clark it seems to me that at this stage Bracken would be the ideal change bowler. Australia has been obsessed since th retirement of McGrath and Gillespie to find the quickest bowlers possible rather than the best. Shaun Tait and Mitchell Johnson just don't bowl accurately enough often enough and I feel that Bracken should be in the test team.
So a season of intrigue has ended and we await with some interest to see if the Indian Premier League 20/20 tournament will be the saviour of cricket or an exercise in corporate profitability.
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