Cricket

My Indian coloured thoughts about cricket.

Monday, October 11, 2004

Indian Cricket Team and Bangalore

Indian Cricket Team and Bangalore
India have lost another match in Bangalore. The last time I can remember we won anything here was against a weak New Zealand team. We could have even lost to Naseer's Hussain's England here in the infamous negative line test match but for the rain.
Why is it that India almost always do badly here? or is it that the opponents do well here? In this test match, it was certainly the opponents doing better here than us here.
During the tea session on the 4th day, Sanjay Manjrekar talked to eminent cricket historian Ramachandra Guha and he seemed to make a very valid point for our opponents performance here. That Bangalore's climate is so conductive and closer to home, that the city is comfortable for them, that the city being so cosmopolitan makes them feel at home, that with all the pubs they can party hard and play hard. Probably all these does make the opponents do well here.
However, it does not explain why we should not do well here? The pitch was probably one of the most conductive to our style of play - low, slow and conductive to spin. The weather comfortable to them is comfortable to us also. Cosmopolitan also helps India as most of the team would most certainly feel more at home than at Chennai or Kolkata. Then why our poor performance here? And poor performance it is. For eg, Dravid's highest score is the one he made in the second innings here. Before that it was something like 25 or so? Similarly the table of averages of the members of the current team at this ground, shown on TV during the test, revealed that Irfan Pathan had the highest average of 38. Our "top" order batsmen had averages in the teens here. But as noted in the last post, Sachin always gets loads of runs here - the only person in the current team who does well here. But still we lose.
Is Bangalore a jinxed ground for India? Does the fact that before any series the camps and training sessions are held here have a hand in this? Do the team members have some aversions due to this. Does this make the team members casual and believe that they are having a training session whenever they are here? Does the relaxed environment of the city get them too relaxed? Does the chaotic traffic make them more tense than they should be? Do we scrap the ground due to our non performance here?
Before anyone bays for my blood - I am a Bangalorean and would love to see India win a match here. Waiting patiently for that match.....

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