Indian Cricket

The Indian cricket team is an international cricket team representing India. It is governed by the Board of Control for Cricket in India, the cricket governing body in India. The Indian Cricket Team is currently the highest paid sports team in the world (in terms of sponsorship).

Debuting as Test cricket team at Lord's, England on 25 June 1932, the Indian cricket team became the sixth Test playing team. For nearly fifty years, India was weaker than most of the other Test cricket teams, such as Australia and England, winning only 35 of the 196 matches it played during this period.The team gained strength near the end of the 50-year period with the emergence of players such as Sunil Gavaskar and Kapil Dev and the Indian spin quartet. The Indian team has continued to be highly ranked since then in both Test cricket and One-day Internationals. The team won the Cricket World Cup in 1983 and was runners-up in 2003. The current team contains many of the world's leading players, including Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly and Anil Kumble, who hold numerous cricketing world records.As of November 2006, the team is ranked fourth in the ICC Test Championshipand in sixth place in the ICC ODI Championship.In December 2006, it played and won its first ever Twenty20 international in South Africa, becoming the most recent Test team to play 20-20 cricket

HISTORY OF INDIAN CRICKET

The British brought cricket to India in the early 1700s, with the first cricket match being played in 1721.In 1848, the Parsi community in Mumbai formed the Oriental Cricket Club, the first cricket club to be established by Indians. After slow beginnings, the Parsis were eventually invited by the Europeans to play a match in 1877.By 1912, the Parsis, Hindus, and Muslims of Bombay played a quadrangular tournament with the Europeans every year.In the early 1900s, some Indians went on to play for the English cricket team. Some of these, such as Ranjitsinhji and KS Duleepsinhji were greatly appreciated by the British and their names went on to be used for the Ranji Trophy and Duleep Trophy-two of the major domestic tournaments in India. In 1911, an Indian team went on their first official tour of England, but only played English county teams and not the English cricket team.India was invited into the Imperial Cricket Council in 1926 and made its debut as a Test-cricket-playing-nation in England in 1932 led by CK Nayudu.The match was given Test status despite being only 3 days in length. The team was not strong in its batting at this point and went on to lose by 158 runs.Indian team continued to improve throughout the 1930s and '40s but did not achieve an international victory during this period. The team's first series as an independent country was in 1948 against Sir Donald Bradman's Invincibles (a name given to the Australian cricket team of that time). Australia won the five-match series, 4-0.

India recorded their first Test victory against England at Madras in 1952 and later in the year won their first Test series (against Pakistan). They continued their improvement throughout the early 1950s with a series win against New Zealand in 1956, however they did not win again in the remainder of the 1950s and lost badly to strong Australian and English sides. The next decade developed India's reputation as a team that is considered very strong at home. Although they only won two series (both against New Zealand), they managed to draw home series against Pakistan, England and Australia.
The key to India's bowling in the 1970s were the Indian spin quartet. This period also saw the emergence of two of India's best ever batsmen, Sunil Gavaskar and Gundappa Viswanath. Indian pitches have had tendency to support spin and this was exploited by the spin quartet to create collapses in opposing batting lineups. These players were responsible for the back-to-back series wins in 1971 in the West Indies and in England, under the captaincy of Ajit Wadekar.

The advent of One-Day International cricket in 1971 created a new dimension in the cricket world. However, India was not considerably strong in ODIs at this point and batsmen like captain Gavaskar were known for their defence-based approaches to batting. India began as a weak team in ODIs and did not manage to qualify for the second round in the first two editions of the Cricket World Cup.

During the 1980s, India developed a more competent batting line-up. Batsmen like Mohammed Azharuddin, Dilip Vengsarkar and all-rounder Ravi Shastri were prominent during this time. India won the Cricket World Cup in 1983, defeating the favourites West Indies in the final, owing to a strong bowling performance. In spite of this the team performed poorly in the Test arena, including 28 consecutive Test matches without a victory. In 1984, India won the Asia Cup and in 1985, won the World Championship of Cricket in Australia. However, India, remained a very weak team outside the Indian subcontinent. India's Test series victory in 1986 against England remained the last Test series win by India outside subcontinent for the next 19 years. The 1987 Cricket World Cup was held in India. The 1980s saw Gavaskar and Kapil Dev (India's best all rounder to this date) at the pinnacle of their careers. Gavaskar made a Test record 34 centuries as he became the first man to reach the 10,000 run mark and Kapil Dev who later became the highest wicket taker in Test cricket with 434 wickets. The period was also marked by an unstable leadership, with Gavaskar and Kapil exchanging the captaincy several times.
The addition of Sachin Tendulkar (aged 16 at the time) and Anil Kumble to the national side in 1989 and 1990 further improved the team. The following year, Javagal Srinath, India's fastest bowler since Amar and Nissar Singh made his debut. Despite this, during the 1990s, India did not win any of its 33 Tests outside the subcontinent while it won 17 out of its 30 Tests at home. After being eliminated by neighbours Sri Lanka on home soil at the 1996 Cricket World Cup, the team underwent a year of change as Rahul Dravid, Saurav Ganguly, later to be become captains of the team, made their debut in the same Test at Lord's. Azharuddin was replaced by Tendulkar as captain in late 1996, but after a personal and team form slump, Tendulkar relinquished the captaincy and Azharuddin was reinstalled at the beginning of 1998. With the captaincy burden removed, Tendulkar was the world's leading run-scorer in both Tests and ODIs, as India enjoyed a home Test series win over Australia, the best ranked team in the world. After failing to reach the semifinals at the 1999 Cricket World Cup, Tendulkar was again made captain, and had another poor run, losing 3-0 on a tour of Australia and then 2-0 at home to South Africa. Tendulkar resigned, vowing never to captain the team again, with Sourav Ganguly appointed the new captain. The team was further damaged in 2000 when former captain Azharuddin and fellow batsman Ajay Jadeja were implicated in a match-fixing scandal and given life bans.

India's performance in the remaining World Cups has been considerably consistent. In the 1987 Cricket World Cup, the team advanced to the semi-finals as favourites, they did the same in 1996; both times they suffered defeats in the semi-finals. India was weaker in the 1999 Cricket World Cup, and did not make it past the Super Six round. In the 2003 Cup, India lost only two games (both against reigning champions Australia) and advancing to the finals, where they were defeated by Australia.

Since the year 2000, the Indian team underwent major improvements with the appointment of John Wright as India's first ever foreign coach. India maintained a very good record against Australia and, and had not been beaten by them in a test series in India since 1969. This was the reason for Australian captain Steve Waugh labelling India as the "Final Frontier".India also won a historic test and ODI series against arch-rivals Pakistan.

Since 2004, India has suffered from lack of form and fitness from its older players. During 2005, India lost series' to Australia and Pakistan. Greg Chappell took over from John Wright as the new coach of the Indian cricket team following the series. However, India continued to be unconvincing. The tension resulted in a fallout between Chappell and Ganguly and Rahul Dravid was installed as the captain, triggering a revival in the team's fortunes and discovery of new young talent such as that of M.S. Dhoni and Irfan Pathan. The team also beat the Sri Lankans in the Test series 2-0 to displace England from its position in second place in the ICC Test rankings, but India slipped back by losing the high-profile India achieved the world-record of winning 17 successive matches chasing the total. However, after a series loss against a weak West Indies, India once again was questioned abou it's capability to win the 2007 Cricket World Cup in the Carribean.India since continued bad form, losing the DLF Cup, ICC Champions Trophy and being whitewashed in ODIs by South Africa

India's traditional strengths have always been its line-up of spin bowlers and batsmen.Currently, it has a very strong batting lineup with Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag all being selected to play for the ICC World XI in the 2005 "SuperTest" against Australia. In previous times, India was unique in that it was the only country to regularly field three spinners in one team, whereas one is the norm, and of the fifteen players to have taken more than 100 wickets, only four were pace bowlers from the last 20 years.However in recent years, Indian pace bowling has improved, with the emerging talents of Irfan Pathan, Munaf Patel and Sreesanth and many more playing in the national team.

FAN FOLLOWING

Cricket is the de facto national sport of India and has a very wide following among the population of India.As a result, stadiums are generally filled to capacity at matches on home soil. Due to large Indian diaspora in nations like Australia and England, a large Indian fan turnout is expected whenever India plays in each of these nations.

There have been a number of official fan groups that have been formed over the years, including the Swami Army or Bharat Army, the Indian equivalent of the Barmy Army, that were very active in their support when India toured Australia in 2003/2004. They are known to attribute a number of popular Indian songs to the cricket team.

Fan rivalry and cross-border tension has created a strong rivalry between the Indian cricket team and the Pakistani cricket team. This has made matches between these two nations the subcontinental equivalent of the Ashes. In tours between these two nations, cricket visas are often employed to accommodate for the tens of thousands of fans wishing to cross the border to watch cricket. This intense fan dedication is one of the major causes of the Indian Cricket Board's (BCCI) financial success.

However, there are downsides to having such a cricket-loving population. Many Indians hold cricket very close to their hearts and losses are not received well by the Indian population. In some cases, particularly after losses to Pakistan or after a long string of weak performances, there have been reports of player effigies being burnt in the streets and vandalism of player homes. In many cases, players have come under intense attention from the media for negative reasons, this has been considered as one of the reasons for Sourav Ganguly being left out of the Indian team. At times, when a match is surrounded by controversy, it has resulted in a debacle. For example, when India slid to defeat against Australia at Brabourne Stadium in 1969, fans began throwing stones and bottles onto the field as well as setting fire to the stands.A similar event occurred during the Cricket World Cup in 1996, where India were losing the semi-final to Sri Lanka at Eden Gardens. In this case, the fan behaviour was directed at the Indian team in disappointment at their lacklustre performance. An armed guard had to be placed at the home of captain Mohammad Azharuddin to ensure his safety.Indian fans have also been passionate in their following of Sachin Tendulkar, who has been commonly thought of as one of the best batsmen in the world. Glorified for the bulk of his career, a riot occurred in early 1999 in a Test against Pakistan at Eden Gardens after a collision with Pakistani paceman Shoaib Akhtar saw him run out, forcing police to eject spectators and the game to be played in an empty stadium. In more recent times, a string of low scores has resulted in continued impatience amongst fans. In front of his home crowd, against South Africa, Tendulkar was booed by the crowd when he got out.

Often, fans quickly come to the defense of players who have been accused of wrongdoings or dropped from the team. In 2005, when Sourav Ganguly was dropped due to lack of form, Ganguly's home state of West Bengal erupted in protests.India later played a match against South Africa in Kolkata, West Bengal. The Indian team was booed by the crowd who supported South Africa instead of India in response to Ganguly's dropping. Similar regional divisions in India regarding selection have also caused protests against the team, with political activists from the regional Kalinga Kamgar Sena party in Orissa disrupting the arrival of the team in Cuttack for an ODI over the lack of an Orissan player in the team, with one player manhandling coach Greg Chappell.Similar treatment was handed to India's Marathi captain Sunil Gavaskar in the 1980s by Bengali crowds, with consecutive Tests in Calcutta requiring police intervention due to crowd rioting.

However, it should be noted that a successful string of results, victories against arch-rivals Pakistan or victory in major tournaments such as the World Cup are greeted with particular ecstasy from the Indian fans.

NATIONAL RECORS (INCLUDES WORLD RECORDS)

Sachin Tendulkar is easily the batsman with the most national achievements. He holds the record of most appearances in both Tests and ODIs, most runs in both Tests and ODIs and most centuries in Tests and ODIs. The highest score by an Indian is the 309 scored by Virender Sehwag in Multan. It is the only triple century in Test cricket by an Indian. The team's highest ever score was a 7/705 against Australia in Sydney, 2004, while its lowest was 42 against England in 1974. In ODIs, the team's highest was 376 against New Zealand in 1999.

India also has very strong bowling figures, with spin bowler Anil Kumble being a member of the elite group of 5 bowlers who have taken 500 wickets. In 1999, Anil Kumble emulated Jim Laker to become the second bowler to take all ten wickets in a Test match innings when he took 10 wickets for 74 runs against Pakistan at the Feroz Shah Kotla in Delhi. India's strength has traditionally been with its spin bowlers, which explains the records achieved by Anil Kumble and Bishen Singh Bedi.

Many of the Indian cricket team's records are also world records, for example Sachin Tendulkar's century tally and run tally. Mahendra Singh Dhoni's 183 not out against Sri Lanka in 2005 is the World Record score by a wicketkeeper in ODIs. Roy and Mankad's first wicket partnership of 413 is a world record for the first wicket, although it was close to being broken by Virender Sehwag and Rahul Dravid in 2006.The Indian cricket team also holds the record of 17 successful run-chases in ODIs,which ended against the West Indies in May 2006

Sachin Tendulkar

Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar is an Indian cricketer who was rated in an article by Wisden in 2002 as the second greatest Test batsman ever, after Sir Don Bradman. He holds several key batting records, including the most Test centuries, most ODI centuries and the most runs in ODI cricket. He is also the most capped player currently playing international cricket. He received the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna, India's highest sporting honour, for 1997-1998, and the civilian award Padma Shri in 1999. Tendulkar was a Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1997. He's ranked 23rd in both Tests and ODI's by the ICC.

Personal life
Born in a middle class Rajapur Saraswat Brahmins community in Bombay, now known as Mumbai, Tendulkar was named after his family's favourite music director Sachin Dev Burman. His late father Ramesh Tendulkar was a Marathi novelist. He was encouraged to play cricket by his elder brother, Ajit Tendulkar. Sachin Tendulkar married Anjali Mehta, the paediatrician daughter of Gujarati industrialist Anand Mehta, in 1995, some years after they were introduced by mutual friends. They have two children, Sara (born 12 October 1997) and Arjun (born 23 September, 2000). Tendulkar sponsors 200 under-privileged children, every year through Apnalaya, a Mumbai-based NGO associated with his mother-in-law, Annabel Mehta. He is reluctant to speak about this, or other charitable activities, choosing to preserve the sanctity of his personal life despite the overwhelming media interest in him.

Career
Early days of cricket
He attended Sharadashram Vidyamandir School where he began his cricketing career under the guidance of his coach and mentor Ramakant Achrekar. While at school, he was involved in an unbroken 664-run partnership in a Harris Shield game in 1988 with friend and team mate Vinod Kambli, who also went on to represent India. At the time, this was a record partnership in any form of cricket and in 2006 it was broken by two under-13 batsmen, Mohammad Shahbaz Tumbi and B Manoj Kumar, in a match held at Hyderabad in India.

Domestic career
In 1988/1989, he scored 100 not-out in his first first-class match for Bombay against Gujarat. At 15 years and 232 days he was then the youngest cricketer to score a century on his first-class début.
Sachin Tendulkar is the only player to score a century while making his Ranji Trophy, Duleep Trophy and Irani Trophy debut.

International career
Sachin played his first international match against Pakistan in Karachi in 1989, facing the likes of Wasim Akram, Imran Khan, Abdul Qadir, and Waqar Younis. He made just 15 runs, being bowled by Waqar Younis, who also made his debut in that match. It was an inauspicious start, but Tendulkar followed it up with his maiden Test fifty a few days later at Faisalabad. His One-day International (ODI) debut on December 18 was equally disappointing, where he was dismissed without scoring a run, again by Waqar Younis. The series was followed by a tour of New Zealand in which he fell for 88 in the Second Test. John Wright, who later became the coach of India, took the catch that prevented Tendulkar from becoming the youngest centurion in Test cricket. His maiden Test century came in next tour, to England in August 1990 at Old Trafford. Tendulkar further enhanced his development into a world-class batsman during the 1991-1992 tour of Australia that included an unbeaten 148 in Sydney (the first of many battles against Shane Warne who made his debut in the match) and a brilliant century on the fast and bouncy track at Perth. He has been Man of the Match 11 times in Test matches and Man of the Series twice, both times in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy against Australia.
Tendulkar's performance through the years 1994-1999, coincided with his physical peak, at age 20 through 25. Tendulkar was told to open the batting at Auckland against New Zealand in 1994 . He went on to make 82 runs off 49 balls. His first ODI century came on September 9, 1994 against Australia in Sri Lanka at Colombo. It had taken Tendulkar 79 ODIs to score a century.
Tendulkar's rise continued when he was the leading runscorer at the 1996 Cricket World Cup, topping the batting averages whilst scoring two centuries.
This was the beginning of a period at the top of the batting world, culminating in the Australian tour of India in early 1998, scoring three consecutive centuries. These were characterised by a pre-meditated plan to target Australian spinners Shane Warne and Gavin Robertson, to whom he regularly charged down the pitch to drive over the infield. Following the series Australian spinner Shane Warne ruefully joked that he was having nightmares about his Indian nemesis.
A chronic back problem flared up when Pakistan toured India in 1999, with India losing the historic Test at Chepauk despite a gritty century from Tendulkar himself. Worse was to come as Professor Ramesh Tendulkar, Tendulkar's father, died in the middle of the 1999 Cricket World Cup. Tendulkar flew back to India to attend the final rituals of his father, missing the match against Zimbabwe. However, soon he returned back to the World cup scoring a century (unbeaten 140 off 101 balls) against Kenya in Bristol.
Tendulkar, succeeding Mohammad Azharuddin as captain, then led India on a tour of Australia, where the visitors were comprehensively beaten 3-0 by the newly-crowned world champions. After another Test series defeat, this time by a 0-2 margin at home against South Africa, Tendulkar resigned, and Sourav Ganguly took over as captain in 2000.
Tendulkar made 673 runs in 11 matches in the 2003 World Cup, helping India reach the final. While Australia retained the trophy that it had won in 1999, Tendulkar was given the Man of the Series award. The drawn series as India toured Australia in 2003-2004 saw Tendulkar making his mark in the last Test of the series, with a double century in Sydney, which was also the last test appearance of one of cricket history's most successful captian Steve Waugh. Tennis elbow then took its toll on Tendulkar, leaving him out of the side for the first two Tests when Australia toured India in 2004. He played a part in the facesaving Indian victory in Mumbai, though Australia had already taken the series 2-1, with the Second Test in Chennai drawn.
On 10 December, 2005, at Feroz Shah Kotla, he delighted fans with a record-breaking 35th Test century, against the Sri Lankans. But doubts were raised once again when he averaged a mere 21 over three Test innings when India toured Pakistan in 2006.
On 6 February 2006, Tendulkar scored his 39th ODI hundred, in a match against Pakistan. He followed with a run-a-ball 42 in the second ODI against Pakistan on February 11, 2006, and then a 95 in hostile, seaming conditions on 13 February, 2006 in Lahore, which set up an Indian victory.
On 19 March 2006, after scoring an unconvincing 1 off 21 balls against England in the first innings of the third Test in his home ground, Wankhede, Tendulkar was booed off the ground by a section of the crowd, the first time that he has ever faced such flak. While cheered on when he came for his second innings, Tendulkar, was the top scorer in the second innings and yet was to end the three-Test series without a single half-century to his credit, and news of a shoulder operation raised more questions about his longevity.
Tendulkar was operated upon for his injured shoulder forcing him to skip the tour of West Indies in 2006.
On 23 May 2006, after deciding not to undergo a scheduled fitness test, he announced he would miss the tour of the Caribbean for the Test series. However he agreed to play 5 games for Lashings World XI in order to regain fitness for a possible August comeback. He had scored 155, 147(retired), 98, 101(retired) & 105 in the 5 matches for Lashings XI with strike rate of well above 100 and was the top scorer in all the matches.
Also in his first Twenty20 match with international opposition, although unofficial, Tendulkar hit 50 not out off 21 deliveries to blast the International XI to 123 after 10 overs against the Pakistan XI.
However as of July,2006 The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced that the longest-serving international cricketer has overcome his injury problem following a rehabilitation programme and is available for selection.
He then came for the DLF cup in Malaysia and became the only Indian batsman to shine. In his most recent comeback match, against West Indies on 14th September 2006, Tendulkar responded to his critics who believed that his career was inexorably sliding with his 40th ODI century. Though he scored 141*, West Indies won the rain-affected match by the D/L method. Tendulkar now has 18 more ODI tons than the players who are second on the list of ODI century-makers, Sourav Ganguly and Sanath Jayasuriya.
Wisden named Tendulkar one of the Cricketers of the Year in 1997, the first calendar year in which he scored 1,000 Test runs. He repeated the feat in 1999, 2001, and 2002. Tendulkar also holds the record for scoring 1,000 ODI runs in a calendar year. He has done it six times - 1994, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2000 and 2003. In 1998 he made 1,894 ODI runs, still the record for ODI runs by any batsman in any given calendar year.

Bowling
While not a regular bowler, Sachin Tendulkar has taken 38 wickets in 135 Tests and 143 wickets in 374 ODIs. He often bowls when two batsmen have been batting together for a long period, and can often be a useful partnership breaker. Though his Test bowling average is above 50 and his ODI bowling average above 40, he is considered as the man with the Golden arm who breaks partnerships. .
On more than one occasion , he has had a strong influence on an Indian victory with his bowling. Notable among his bowling exploits are:
5 wicket haul against Australia at Kochi in the 1997-98 Series . Set 269 runs to win, Australia were cruising comfortably at 203/3 in the 31st over. Sachin turned the match for India taking wickets of Michael Bevan, Steve Waugh, Darren Lehmann, Tom Moody and Damien Martyn for just 32 runs in 10 overs.
Final over control against South Africa in 1993 Hero-cup semifinals. South Africa needed 6 runs to win the match in the final over. Sachin, bowling 3 dot balls in that over, conceded just 3 runs to help India win the match and reach the Finals of the tournament.
Performance of 4/34 in 10 overs against West Indies in Sharjah where the Windies were bowled out for 145.
He single handedly won the ICC 1998 QuarterFinals at Dhaka to pave way for India's entry into the Semifinals, when he took 4 Australian wickets after scoring 141 runs in just 128 balls.
Tendulkar took three wickets on the final day of the famous Kolkata Test against Australia in 2001, which India won after following on, 274 runs behind on the first innings. Tendulkar took the key wickets of Matthew Hayden — who made a hundred in the previous Test at Mumbai and a double century in the next — and Adam Gilchrist, another centurion at Mumbai.

Cricket

Cricket is a bat and ball sport, played between two teams of eleven players each. A cricket match is played on a grass field (which is usually roughly oval), in the centre of which is a flat strip of ground 22 yards (20.12 m) long, called a pitch. At each end of the pitch is a set of wooden stumps, called a wicket. A player from the fielding team (the bowler) propels a hard, fist-sized cork-centred leather ball from one wicket towards the other. The ball usually bounces once before reaching a player from the opposing team (the batsman), who defends the wicket from the ball with a wooden cricket bat. The batsman, if he or she does not get out, may then run between the wickets, exchanging ends with the other batsman (the "non-striker"), who has been standing in an inactive role near the bowler's wicket, to score runs. The other members of the bowler's team stand in various positions around the field as fielders. The match is won by the team that scores more runs.
Cricket has been an established team sport for hundreds of years. It originated in its modern form in England and is popular mainly in the present and former members of the Commonwealth. In the countries of South Asia, including India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka, cricket is the most popular sport. It is also a major sport in places such as England and Wales, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Bermuda, and the English-speaking countries of the Caribbean, which are collectively known in cricketing parlance as the West Indies. There are also well established amateur club competitions in countries as diverse as the Netherlands, Ireland, Kenya, Nepal, and Argentina. (see also: International Cricket Council)
The sport is followed with passion in many different parts of the world. It has even occasionally given rise to diplomatic outrage, the most notorious being the Basil D'Oliveira affair which led to the banning of South Africa from sporting events. Other examples include the Bodyline series played between England and Australia in the early 1930s, or the 1981 underarm bowling incident involving Australia and New Zealand.