"India have a handful of good fielders, but some of them field like donkeys" Nasser Hussain.
Now then, what's wrong with that? The way the Indian media and the BCCI are reacting, it would seem as if Hussain has accused India of some heinous crime. Had the BCCI reacted with the same level of passion after a disastrous performance, it would have at least sent out the message that the BCCI have taken note of the poor performance by team India and are serious about taking steps to improve. Instead they have decided to vent their frustration on comments that if anything were 100 % true. The fact is that India's fielding right through this series has been a joke and it's about time somebody does something about it.
The other major talking point has been GG's naming in the KKR squad for the champion's league. One would think that a player who has been ruled out of the current ODI series and has been advised rest for a minimum of 10 days, would decide to skip the champion's league and ensure that he is fit for the upcoming India matches. India have a busy schedule ahead and it is hardly unreasonable to expect their top players to put India before any club matches, however attractive the remuneration may be. Priorities have changed!
In the middle of all this discouraging news, the second ODI between India & England was washed out. India will consider themselves unlucky as for the first time on this tour, they looked on top. Parthiv had set India up and cameos from the impressive Rahane, Dhoni, Kohli & Raina had given India a competitive score. Praveen Kumar had then taken out two England wickets to leave the home team in a difficult situation. However, rain had the final say and no further play was possible.
Rahul Dravid continued to make the headlines although this time around it was not for his imperious batting. For those of you who missed it, Dravid fished at a moving delivery outside the off stump. Despite a vociferous appeal by the English, the onfield umpire ruled in the batsman's favor. England reviewed and to the astonishment of everybody watching, Erasmus, the third umpire, overturned the decision despite have absolutely no grounds to do so. Hotspot showed nothing and it later emerged that Erasmus based his decision on a sound that he claimed to have heard when the ball passed the bat.
I have been a vocal critic of the BCCI's anti-DRS stand. It is only recently that a compromise was reached with the BCCI agreeing to implement the DRS provided ball tracking technology is not used. Decisions like this is likely to give the BCCI more fuel to consign the DRS to the bin. To be fair, can you really blame the BCCI if such decisions are made?
One thing that such decisions have shown is that despite the availability of the best technology, unless there is consistency it is not going to work. By giving Dravid out, umpire Erasmus effectively overruled hotspot. What purpose does hotspot then serve? If a consensus cannot be reached, I believe it would make far more sense to revert to the system that existed before the introduction of all this new technology. Let the onfield umpires be the masters and as long as we accept that there will be the odd bad decision, it should still be fairly smooth sailing. After all cricket has survived for all these years without technology. I have no doubt that it will continue to survive with or without it.
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