Peeping back into the beginning of Indian cricket history was in 1932, on 25^th June. It is a memorable day of Indian cricket history when the journey initiated on the playground of Lords, England. Lord’s possesses a special place in the cricket of Indian history that did not reduce with time. Therefore, today standing into the age of IPL it shoves back to dolce and experience about the Indian test cricket to IPL.

The victory was not at all possible to the first call, after 20 years of delay to win the first cup was in hands of the Indian team.

King of the test match, Indian cricket team

For long years of cricket in history, Bhagwat Chandrashekhar is known as the King of test cricket. His average runs of 4.07 is still a record with 23 ducks after playing about 80 test innings.  A leg spinner former player suffers from polio on his right hand from a young age. He is known as the Wisden cricketer of the year from 1972.

Victory in the Indian world cup

Till 1983, until Kapil Dev’s captaincy, the Indian team did not rank globally. Continuously in the international career for 50 years were the weak teams playing 35 test matches. After the arrival and captaincy of Kapil Dev, the Indian fast bowler in 1983 the Indian cricket team was home with the world cup. This was the first moment to cherish when believing as the weak team turns to “Go-great-guns”.

First ODI match

The first one-day match in cricket history was in Melbourne cricket ground, it was between Australia and England. The sudden change in the schedule to play ODI was due to the rainfall and wet ground. After which the conception grew favorable in cricket. Now One day was growing with reducing matches of Test Matches.

Test match scoring is always been a hard job when comparing with the ODI’s and IPLs. But the time consumption is the less and the maximum team can play. Hereby in 1974, the Indian cricket team stepped in ODI’s against England.

Transformation to IPLs

The ODIs have not lost their charm and enthusiasm with the transformation to IPLs. The India cricket team plays both international and national tournaments that are Twenty20. The innings reducing to mini-leagues introducing young energies to the India cricket team. Creating opportunities for the young teens who want to play cricket.

The first Indian Premiere league was in 2008 organized by the BCCI in Bangalore. Dhoni is known as the King of the IPL in 2020. Though there is less difference between the rule of ODIs and IPLs but the preference for both are variable. ODI’s own the 50 overs per innings while the IPL have 20 overs per innings.

Once again the players are playing for less time with 20 overs each team comparing to the 50 overs. Though the Indian cricket team is facing transformation each segment has its own caliber and proximity to attract and influence their vast crowds of fans and followers.

The post The Journey from Indian Test cricket to Indian Premier League appeared first on Youngisthan.in.

We all know by now how amazingly Virat Kohli and his team of boys ended India’s overseas winning drought in test matches.

Apart from that, the records being broken, the sweet victory on Sri Lankan soil after 22 years is all going to be a part of cherished memories for years to come. It is not every day that a team full of such youngsters and players who are in and out of the team come together as a unit and give a stunning performance like this.

What exactly happened here? What changed?

There will be a detailed analysis obviously and the team management is going to find out what actually worked so that the same formula can be repeated in future as well. Next test match series is with South Africa and that will be the real challenge. But let’s first focus on how things have worked out at the moment and have that somehow made M S Dhoni irrelevant to the team?

First of all, it is all about Virat Kohli’s persona, charisma and the aggressiveness that has rubbed on his team members. Most of them are around his age and somehow can relate to his body language as well as mental attitude. The hunger for winning a match has somehow been clearly visible. Instead of being passive and trying to avoid losing a match, the players seemed in a mindset to go out and conquer the world! The fear of losing is out and passion for winning is in! Whether it is Ishant Sharma who bowled his heart out or Amit Mishra’s come back with such a beautiful spell or Ashwin’s phenomenal performance, the credit goes to them as much as to their captain Kohli who has been able to support them and give them the freedom to give their best.

With Dhoni, the team looked jaded, tired and in a reclusive mode even before the match started. It used to look as if they were touring to draw the series or to save their face, instead of showing the mindset to win. Also, Dhoni’s tactics in a test-match usually looked defensive instead of attacking or aggressive, the way he acts in a one-day match or T20!

It is just one series and the jury is still out whether the same set of boys can repeat this feat against stronger and tougher teams like South Africa, England and Australia, but the change is in the air. Dhoni is definitely an amazing captain and player in one-dayers, but the kind of change Virat is bringing in, would it be possible for the boys to perform under two different captains in two different formats of the game? Would they be able to give their best in one-days the way they performed in test matches? How would the team composition change under different captains?

All these questions will pose a challenge for Indian cricket per se and it would be interesting to see how Dhoni copes up with the changed dressing room! We still need Dhoni, but going by the trends, soon he may not be missed much!

Better days are ahead, for sure!

The post Should M S Dhoni Retire Now? appeared first on Youngisthan.in.

Cricket as a sport is more than a 100 years old!

However, in the past two decades the gentlemen’s game has shifted its centre of attraction from England and Australia to India. Rightly so, for it finds its biggest audience group in Asia, especially in a billion-plus population of our nation!

As the game has grown by leaps and bounds in past two decades as far as its financials are concerned, so have the controversies surrounding it. Never before in the history of the game has it been maligned so badly, not only in India, but across the world.

The long format of the game, the tests, is dying a slow death anyways and all possible plans to revive it, including the world cup of the tests, lie in a trash! Then comes the one-dayers and again money is doing the big talk here. Instead of involving more and more nations into active competition, International Cricket Council (ICC) is restricting the big tournaments only between the eight major cricket playing nations so that a regular stream of revenue is maintained. Their logic is that a match between a big team and minnows doesn’t get enough eyeballs so there is no point in planning a series! How lame is that idea? If a minor team is not given opportunities, how is it going to grow and learn?

If that is not enough, IPL in India is generating enough amount of news for all the match-fixing and scandals associated with it. Add to it Mr. Lalit Modi’s latest revelation of creating an alternative cricket authority of the world that’ll align itself with the Olympic movement and will only have Tests and T20s associated with it!

So multiple leagues, limited cricket playing nations, host of controversies and everyone eying the same revenue stream! It is like everyone is out there to kill the goose that lay golden eggs!

No doubt cricket is a rich sport even if it is played in just a few countries, but if it is exploited like this, how long will the sport retain its charm? The fans are already getting disillusioned by all the scandals and all the politics surrounding it. That is one reason why other sports like Football, Hockey, Kabaddi etc. are gaining importance and fan base in India! It is good for sports to have fans that love all kinds of games, but if they are losing interest in one sport due to wrongdoings of a few, then it is a sad state of affairs!

It is high time that all the different voices go silent; there should only be one voice, one uniform view about the development of sport and all the parties involved be it the administration, players or fans, work only towards preserving and nurturing the sport that has been entertaining us for a century now!

The post Does Cricket Has A Future Or Is It Dying A Slow Death Due To All The Ongoing Controversies? appeared first on Youngisthan.in.