Series in retrospect

Harsha Bhogle shares his thoughts on the Kotla fiasco and on the India-Sri Lanka ODI series that just concluded.

When we were doing the Champions League in October, it was clear that the surface at the Kotla wasn’t conducive to good cricket but we also knew that much could happen, if accompanied by intent, in two months. Obviously that has not happened and whichever way you look at it, this is reason for embarrassment but also an occasion for stock taking. Delhi has not been a particularly distinguished cricket association for a long time now and it has to get its house in order.

Intriguingly, it is also producing the best cricketers for India at the moment. Sehwag, Gambhir, Kohli, Ishant, Amit Mishra, and Nehra makes it six from there in the national side; and with Shikhar Dhawan in good form, there must be something about the city. Maybe they just learn to live with uncertainty and chaos and so become very good at seizing the opportunity that comes their way. Maybe the system creates disillusionment and allows only the strongest to come through and so young men coming out of the system are ready!

And so we either produce pitches that give bowlers no chance at all or come up with something like this!! It suggests to me that we tend to be enamoured by what is in the public eye and not care too much for other critical areas. And so pitch development, or junior cricket will go under the scanner.

It also meant India won the series comfortably and that was appropriate. They were the better team, more rounded and seemed to have the better bench strength. Sri Lanka have tough decisions to take with Jayasuriya and a replacement for the evergreen Murali. I suspect they are missing Chaminda Vaas too and while there are some impressive seamers around they are not as consistent. Consistency is a genuine indicator of class and they are struggling a bit there.