India's Tests against South Africa cancelled (apparently by CSA)

[MS Dhoni]

LOL so India is not playing South Africa to preserve their ranking? Thats even worse than cancelling the series for 2020.

There are people out here who can't understand ENGLISH even if they are from english speaking country. How is giving ODIs instead of Tests to increase ODI ranking an efford to save Test ranking? Doesn't make sense to me. Also. if that is the case then Australia is doing the same. Tour of West Indies is as good as touring Bangladesh or New Zealand. If other countries are doing it then why not India? Also, India got the top spot by owning top countries so it doesn't make sense saying they are playing weaker teams to save rankings. If they achieved the rankings then they can defend it too. Since Dhoni took over the captaincy, Indian team has changed alot and mostly in tests. So I don't see any bowling attack being thread to India's batting lineup but I know no bowler wants to bowl against India's batting lineup.

 

[drainpipe32]

@Hmarka, we're also playing New Zealand in March!

This is ridiculous, no way to try to bring back some interest to a dying art in India.

 

[pcfan123]

This is ridiculous, no way to try to bring back some interest to a dying art in India.

Shorten it to 3 hours, make them wear some tacky uniforms and parade around some Z list celebrities and they will love it :laugh

 

[drainpipe32]

Yeah rofl, and they claim to be cricket's biggest fans

 

[Highlander999]

Yeah rofl, and they claim to be cricket's biggest fans

More like cricket's biggest temperamental fans. Love their guys when they do well, but if they dare have a bad day, we crack out the effigies and start calling for heads!!! :laugh

 

[King Cricket]

The Eden Gardens has been neglected because I suppose the BCCI are punishing them for their unpatriotic behavior when South Africa last toured us.

Nay. It's because of the ego battle between Jagmohan Dalmiya (CAB chief) and the Sarad Pawar group. These two parties are always at daggers drawn with each other. Remember that Dalmiya-Pawar episode a few years back? After Dalmiya lost the board elections? Those BCCI officials tainted Dalmiya's image severely, and brought all sorts of serious allegations against him without any proof. But now Dalmiya has returned, and the board fears that someone from his party might be the possible winner in the 2014 BCCI elections. That's why they are making him look unimportant in front of the whole world. And that's why no match to Eden.

While the Eden Gardens maybe an awesome venue and their supporters knowledgeable, they also do stupid things like what happened in that Kolkata game.

I don't support what they did. We are a bit emotional, and I guess we got carried away by emotions that day. But what makes you think that we will repeat the same mistake again? I live in Kolkata, and I know how severely each and every citizen of Kolkata supports the present Indian team. Not to forget that we all love Test cricket. The last time a Test was played here, it fetched a huge crowd in all the five days.

 

[drainpipe32]

Yeah haha, ala World Cup 2007!

 

[King Cricket]

Yeah rofl, and they claim to be cricket's biggest fans

The generalization was unnecessary.

This is ridiculous, no way to try to bring back some interest to a dying art in India.

It's not a dying art.

 

[drainpipe32]

Test cricket is dying in India.

And I apologize for my stereo typing.

 

[King Cricket]

Test cricket is dying in India.

No, it isn't. I live in India and I know what the condition is like. The BCCI does make it "look" to be a dying art though, by hosting matches in stadiums having ████ pitches, with nothing in it for the bowlers. And as I've already mentioned, you can't blame the crowd for not turning up if that's the case, as no one wants to see a lifeless high-scoring match, where bowlers would get smacked all around the park everyday, and where there'd ultimately be no result. Improve the pitches, make them conducive to result, arrange matches in proper venues; and we'll see which is a dying art.

 

[drainpipe32]

Well that's not my job. I don't live in India. If the BCCI gets their act together and something changes my view might too.....

 

[rahuldravidfan]

Decision-making is not like Maggi Two-minute noodles. There is lot more to it. We need to give this issue some time.

Also, decision-making is not a one-lane highway. South Africa tour us & the series is as much theirs as ours. They were a party to this decision and I don't see anyone saying, "Oh God, South Africa is killing the dying art of Test Cricket".

Blaming the BCCI for everything is really ridiculous. We don't decide the teams we tour, the teams that tour us and the matches we play against them. It isn't as ridiculous as it is being made to look.

And I still think the Tests against South Africa will be played

 

[sohum]

Test cricket is dying in India.

And I apologize for my stereo typing.

This just looks ignorant, in the face of the fact of the last Test series in India, that just completed. Pretty much all the days at all of the grounds were sold out, from what it looked like.

As an addendum to that, the grounds look pretty empty down at Adelaide in a match that has gone to the last session and where the Australians will need to save the game.

 

[mdoggie]

I don't see a reason for this Backlash over the cancellation of Test series against South Africa. One main reason I think BCCI did this is because India is already the no.1 in Test rankings so they want to give them enough matches to gain no.1 rank in ODIs not just by 5 or 6 points but by 15-20 points. India has alot of ODIs coming up and if we win most of them then we will be no.1 in ODIs too. India needs a break. we have been playing strong nations for a while now when other countries are gatting free bees. I mean what is the point of Australia vs West Indies? I am sure we cannot give all the players break for 2 months or so. It is better giving them easy opponents for at most 2 series to relax and then return to stronger team freshed up.

No teams being getting free bees. Look South Africa in the last two years has played England home and away, Australia home and away and India away. Australia have played India home and away, same with South Africa and India. everyteam has had a big year. Why play South Africa if you want to improve you ODI ranking, India could just as easily lose the series and that would dent their chance of becomming number one. If that was the case (that they wanted to become number one in the ODI rankings) then it is quite despicable. a good team holds on to a ranking, a bad team loses it.

Decision-making is not like Maggi Two-minute noodles. There is lot more to it. We need to give this issue some time.

Also, decision-making is not a one-lane highway. South Africa tour us & the series is as much theirs as ours. They were a party to this decision and I don't see anyone saying, "Oh God, South Africa is killing the dying art of Test Cricket".

Blaming the BCCI for everything is really ridiculous. We don't decide the teams we tour, the teams that tour us and the matches we play against them. It isn't as ridiculous as it is being made to look.

And I still think the Tests against South Africa will be played

Since India are the hosts, they would most likely make up the Ittenary.

 

[aditya123]

Test cricket is dying in India.

And I apologize for my stereo typing.

Absolutely not the case. We had sellout crowds on most days of the Kanpur and Mumbai tests in the most recently concluded series. At least far better crowds than the ones at the GABBA and Adelaide(except for the weekends). And all this despite of the fact that BCCI scheduled the second test to start on Tuesday and hence none of the days of the game fell on a weekday.

aditya123 added 7 Minutes and 40 Seconds later...

I don't see a reason for this Backlash over the cancellation of Test series against South Africa. One main reason I think BCCI did this is because India is already the no.1 in Test rankings so they want to give them enough matches to gain no.1 rank in ODIs not just by 5 or 6 points but by 15-20 points. India has alot of ODIs coming up and if we win most of them then we will be no.1 in ODIs too. India needs a break. we have been playing strong nations for a while now when other countries are gatting free bees. I mean what is the point of Australia vs West Indies? I am sure we cannot give all the players break for 2 months or so. It is better giving them easy opponents for at most 2 series to relax and then return to stronger team freshed up.

The most ridiculous justification of the farce and shows that you are ignorant of how the rankings work. Even if I`m to go by your logic, not playing test cricket will cost us the ranking (if that is such a big deal at all) as much as playing and losing a couple of games. You cannot defend your ranking if you don`t play test cricket and the other sides do. Its as simple as that because the other sides get more opportunities to win games. You cannot win matches when you don`t schedule them at all.

If anything, the rankings matter a lot more in test cricket than ODIs because we don`t have a `World Cup` in tests and the rankings are the only way we currently decide the best sides. Although it may not be the most perfect, it is the best we have and the ICC Test Mace is the test cricket equivalent of the World Cup Trophy.

aditya123 added 4 Minutes and 7 Seconds later...

No teams being getting free bees. Look South Africa in the last two years has played England home and away, Australia home and away and India away. Australia have played India home and away, same with South Africa and India. everyteam has had a big year. Why play South Africa if you want to improve you ODI ranking, India could just as easily lose the series and that would dent their chance of becomming number one. If that was the case (that they wanted to become number one in the ODI rankings) then it is quite despicable. a good team holds on to a ranking, a bad team loses it.

Your post itself shows that India have played tough opposition in the past 18 months. IF Australia played India home and away, then the same goes for India against Australia! India also have played England,SL,SA and Australia home and away in the last 2 years which is why we do not have anything scheduled for this year. In fact if anything we have played against the tougher sides far more than sides like WI and NZ.

aditya123 added 5 Minutes and 41 Seconds later...

Shorten it to 3 hours, make them wear some tacky uniforms and parade around some Z list celebrities and they will love it :laugh

Yeah rofl, and they claim to be cricket's biggest fans

More like cricket's biggest temperamental fans. Love their guys when they do well, but if they dare have a bad day, we crack out the effigies and start calling for heads!!! :laugh

Is it so necessary to have a go at the Indian fans when all of them in this thread are trying to discuss something very maturely? If you cannot contribute anything other than the stereotypical bull crap, please stay away. Funny how the Englishmen and the Aussies join forces when it comes to India bashing. Whether you like it or not, the Indian cricket fan is the most passionate one in the game right now, if you can only look at the small number of effigy burners which the media shows you, you are being fooled. You know very little about how we `live` the game here in this country and this has nothing to do with the T20s. Cricket would have been loved as much even if there were no T20s. It was the ECB who felt the need to reinvent the sport in England and invented T20s. India, in my opinion would`ve made enough money even without T20s because we would still fill up grounds in ODIs and even in Test cricket if properly scheduled. Its just that our board has been blinded by the T20 golden goose and you people have confused the Indian fan with the BCCI and come up with such stereotypical crap.