India's 'royal' fielding a 'mockery' of the art

[rahuldravidfan]

A veteran Indian cricket writer on Tuesday lashed out at the national team's poor fielding standards, saying modern players reminded him of the lazy royals of the past.

Suresh Menon, writing in the Mumbai Mirror newspaper, compared Mahendra Singh Dhoni's men to the royals who would only bat and bowl and left the fielding to the servants.

"In the early days of Indian cricket, the Maharajahs thought nothing of actually having their servants fielding for them," Menon wrote.

"Fielding was for servants, not masters, of the less fortunate who, for reasons of class or caste did not find a place in the real scheme of things.

"At the higher levels, it allowed the batsmen to have a prolonged rest, and the bowlers to come off the field after every spell.

"Our modern maharajas are thus merely continuing a tradition. No running, no diving, no hitting the stumps."

Menon doubted whether any fielding coach could make a difference - he would be up against history, geography and, perhaps, economy.

"History - India's tradition of poor fielders; geography - the hard grounds (where diving is fraught with danger in the early days); and perhaps economics - why take a chance on an injury when fielding which might lead to a fall in earnings?", he wrote.

India's cricket chiefs recently sacked fielding coach Robin Singh, along with bowling coach Venkatesh Prasad, after the team's first round exit from the Champions Trophy in South Africa.

Misfields, clumsy catching and poor outcricket marked India's four-run defeat by world champions Australia in the first One-day international in Vadodara on Sunday.

"If the Vadodara performance is any indication, then Indian fielders have a problem with anticipation (even those near the boundary sometimes look surprised when the ball is played to them), with movement, with stopping the ball, with pick up and with throw," Menon wrote.

"This is a series of shortcomings that makes a mockery of the art of fielding at the international level.

"Dhoni was strangely silent about the fielding in Vadodara. Or maybe he has talked about it so often now that he is sick of it. Some things never change."

The second game of the seven-match series will be played in Nagpur on Wednesday.

Source- Cricket Nirvana

A bit harsh but very frank. Agree with every word said by Mr.Suresh Menon

 

[jkartik]

drop dead, on the money, call the cops ; perfect ! :hpraise

 

[rahuldravidfan]

Yea. He writes a bit like I do. I'm a big fan of his

 

[SaiSrini]

Perfectly true! Even Pakistan seem to field better than us these days, although once they used to do worse than us. Our fielding during the time when Yuvraj and Kaif broke into the side was exceptional. Yuvraj after that knee injury has lost hopes on his fielding and Kaif is out. And from then on, the fielding has nosedived. Its because our selectors (all the teams) decided to focus more on specialists in bowling and batting and didnt give importance to fielding. Only a player who is a decent enough fielder should then be considered according to his respective specialist area. For example, Munaf should never be considered until he becomes a decent enough fielder (which he never might be). Same with Nehra (I never thought he would be this bad a fielder).

Hope something is done about it. We will stuck like this for many more generations to come if nothing is done now.

 

[Cricketman]

I think people still perceive Yuvraj as the great fielder he used to be. He isn't, he's probably below average by international standards now. The knee injury has hampered his agility and his put on some weight, making him more vulnerable on the field.

Raina's a terrific fielder but IMO isn't utilized properly - he should be in the point/covers region but we usually see him squarer like at mid on. RP Singh, to my surprise, spends much of his time close in catching and in the covers.

Sai picked some good points. We've focused on specialists to bolster our batting and bowling, but the fielding has been sacrificed; prime examples shown in Nehra's inclusion and Munaf Patel's comeback. Ishant Sharma is a pretty subpar fielder as well.

The good fielders in our side are: Gautam Gambhir, Suresh Raina, and Virat Kohli (although he gets cocky at times). The average list is too long - Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh, Harbhajan, Sachin...etc.

There's not much we can do really. Kaif is excellent but is his batting good enough to warrant a spot? No. Dinesh Karthik is a fantastic fielder (but has his fair share of blemishes) but the selectors haven't really favored him. Then there's the obvious choice: SUBRAMANIUM BADRINATH.

 

[pcfan123]

Yea. He writes a bit like I do. I'm a big fan of his

It's probably more of a case of you writing like he does.

 

[shravi]

Fielding was excellent today.