Cricket’s new fangled myths

Glen Turner has written an excellent opinion piece questioning the wisdom of inculcating team culture in cricket.

He takes a dig at this emphasis on

 

"leading by example, role models, desired behaviours, opinion-shapers, trust and honesty, induction processes and so on. All this and more to get players job ready and in between times I suppose they can do some practice and play the odd game. I thought you only had to drink Speights to be the perfect man".

I believe he has it right and more than aiding in a cricketers development, these management theories has actually impaired it. For instance Greg Chappell's who appears to believe in the 'chaos theory' brought in some new fangled ideas and not only managed to shatter many a Indian cricketers morale but also managed to regress Indian cricket.

Can Cricket Australia sack itself?

Cricket Australia (CA) has embarked on a mission impossible.

 

David Crawford, will present a report to the CA board recommending a nine-man independent commission replace the 14-man board of elected state delegates.

 

The nine members will be chosen as follows: 

• Each state will nominate a board member with no state or club ties 
• The six new delegates will then appoint three other independents with specific expertise 

Undeniably, these recommendations have value. It remains to be seen whether CA can get the buy in from the state boards as earlier attempts failed because of the intransigence of the state boards. 

Cricket corruption: First ever-criminal convictions

Undoubtedly, a criminal conviction for cricket corruption is a major breakthrough, but where does it leave cricket?

I would say that cricket administrators, cricketers and cricket fans have a long way to go. The evidence of the past weeks confirms what we cricket lover's long suspected-cricketers are mere mortals and corruption in cricket has permeated corrosively to now challenge its existence.

Obviously, it is not the time for cricket administrators to rest and believe the game has been cleansed and inoculated from further remissions.

Similarly, it is not time yet for cricketers to believe there are no black sheep in their midst. In fact, it is the time for them to be watchful and on their guard.

Importantly, it is not time yet for cricket fans and fanatics to lose hope and conclude that every match is fixed and players corrupt. It is the time to support the game with renewed fervor and show the match-fixers and other assorted charlatans that in spite of their shenanigans they still love the game.

Are Indian’s natural cricketers?

According to Zaheer Khan, fast bowling does not come naturally. In an interview, he said, "It's not a natural thing. Indian bodies are not designed to bowl fast but that said, it's not very different from bowling outside India. Basically you have to spend a lot of time understanding yourself, your art, and then find out what works for you and what doesn't. It also involves a lot of hard work".

Though Zaheer Khan limited himself to fast bowling, I could not help but mull whether Indian's are natural cricketers.  Are Indian's built for playing cricket? Are they flexible enough to take the constant crouching and stretching cricket involves? Can their bodies adjust to long periods of inactivity and sudden bursts of activity?

I sincerely, doubt that we are as a nation natural at sports. Limiting myself to cricket, I believe Kapil Dev to be the only natural cricketer from India and barring him we are 'unaturals' at cricket.

Do you agree?