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NEWS ICC Champions Trophy 2006>What went wrong for India in the Champions Trophy 06th Nov 2006 22.00 IST By Manish Kumar Playing at home, India were amongst the favorites to win the Champions Trophy, but couldn’t even qualify for the semi-finals. Led by Rahul Dravid , the Indian team defeated England but lost to an in-form West Indies and Australia to the disappointment of millions of fans.
No other team had such a big gap between matches, but the players are not to be blamed for the scheduling and one wonders how much say the Indian cricket board had in the itinerary as Champions Trophy is an International Cricket Council-owned tournament. The Indian batting came a cropper in all three games, except maybe in the crucial match against Australia, but even that effort was not enough as the world champions easily won in the end to seal a semi-final berth. Bowlers, on the other hand, came good as they restricted England when they bowled first but did not get the required assistance from the batsmen, in terms of competitive totals, be effective against the West Indies and Australia. The Indian fielding was largely effective but, the batting failures nullified all the other advantages, including the familiar home conditions, crowds and weather. The pitches weren’t flat ones and one wonders again that how much say the Indian cricket board had in the preparation of the pitches. The Indian batsmen are unstoppable on pitches that suit their styles but most of them remain seriously suspect (except Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar ) when the ball starts moving off the seam – which it did in the Champions Trophy, as the pitches had enough juices to let the bowlers do the talking. In last year’s ODI series against South Africa , India lost at Hyderabad and Kolkata where the pitches had seam movement, the Proteas had the bowlers to exploit it and India lost both the matches in the first 15 overs. At Hyderabad, India were 35/5 and at Kolkata 71/5. Shift to the recent tri-series in Malaysia where again lively pitches were used and the Indian scores read 35/5, 69/5 and 50/4. As Sachin and Dravid showed collectively in Pakistan, Dravid alone in the West Indies and Sachin alone in Malaysia, when the conditions favour the bowlers, batsmen who have the right techniques are more likely to succeed. Virender Shewag is getting dismissed either clean bowled through the gate or leg before wicket repeatedly – a fact that shows a serious chunk in his defence. Yuvraj Singh has been out caught behind the wicket innumerable times because of his tendency to play away from his body without moving his feet. The Indian domestic cricket is conditioned to breed flat-track batsmen brought up on lifeless tracks and it is only a miracle that India has managed to produce exceptional all-conditions batsmen like Sachin and Dravid in the present generation. The Indian cricket board – the richest in the world – should create pitches at the domestic level that can produce the best cricketers in the world, otherwise the Indian record abroad will remain as abysmal as it has always been. India will in a few days leave for South Africa for three Tests and five one-day internationals. Having never won a Test match in South Africa, one wonders how Dravid & co. will perform. Also View In-Depth Coverage: ICC Champions Trophy 2006 Team Page: India Team Page: Australia | LIVE CRICKET COVERAGE NEWS ~ Gilchrist has no plans to retire after World Cup ~ Ganguly's new batting approach may cost him sixer record ~ India 'squash the Orange' in World Cup warm-up game ~ Symonds gets a new hairdo for World Cup ~ Dhoni readies himself for stand-up act at World Cup (more in NEWS) FACE-TO-FACE ~ 500-mark a possibility in World Cup: Hayden ~ Minnows add charm to World Cup: Dravid (more in FACE-TO-FACE) COLUMNS ~ Will Sri Lanka replicate 1996 World Cup success? (more in COLUMNS) OFF-THE-FIELD ~ Ganguly again the darling of corporate world ~ Ganguly roped in as brand ambassador of Puma (more in OFF-THE-FIELD) PLAYERS Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid, Anil Kumble (more PLAYERS) TEAMS India, South Africa, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Australia, West Indies, Zimbabwe, England, New Zealand, Bangladesh, Kenya, Holland | 
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