Indian Cricket Team

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 based on sponsorships.[1]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.[2] 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 and Anil Kumble, who hold numerous cricketing world records.[3][1]. As of October 2006, the team is ranked fourth in the ICC Test Championship[4] and in a tie for fourth place in the ICC ODI Championship. The British brought cricket to India in the early 1700s, with the first cricket match being played in 1721.[6] 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.[7] By 1912, the Parsis, Hindus, and Muslims of Bombay played a quadrangular tournament with the Europeans every year.[7] 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.[8] 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.[9] 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.[10] Indian team continued to improve throughout the 30s and 40s but did not achieve significant 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.[11]India recorded their first Test victory against England at Madras in 1952[12] and later in the year won their first Test series (against Pakistan). India were strengthened by the likes of batsmen Polly Umrigar, Vijay Manjrekar and bowler SM Gupte. They continued their good form 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 unbeatable at home.[13] Although they only won two series (both against New Zealand), they managed to draw home series against Pakistan, England and Australia. The decade starred the batting performances of Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi, Dilip Sardesai, Hanumant Singh and Chandu Borde as well as bowling performances from off-spinner EAS Prasanna. Most of the 1970s was dominated by India's bowling 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 Sunil Gavaskar were known for their defence-based approaches to batting. India could not manage to qualify for the second round in the first two editions of the Cricket World Cup. During the 1980s, India developed a long list of competent batsmen. Batsmen like Mohammed Azharuddin, Mohinder Amarnath and Dilip Vengsarkar were prominent during this time. India won the Cricket World Cup in 1983, defeating West Indies in hte final. In 1984, India won the Asia Cup and in 1985, won the World Championship of Cricket in Australia. 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 star batsman Sunil Gavaskar and Kapil Dev (India's best all rounder to this date) at the pinnacle of their careers. Gavaskar made 34 centuries as he became the first man to reach the 10,000 run mark and Kapil Dev became the highest wicket taker in Test cricket with 434 wickets, a record that has been surpassed since and is now held by Shane Warne. Historically, the Indian team has not performed as well overseas as it has in India. Since the year 2000, the Indian team underwent major improvements under the guidance of coach John Wright and captain Saurav Ganguly. The team drew a Test series with Australia in Australia, which is usually considered a tough tour. It was followed by a historic Test and ODI series win against arch-rivals Pakistan while playing in Pakistan. India has had a very good record against Australia and, before the 2004/05 tour, never being defeated by Australia in a Test Series in India since 1969. This was the reason for Australian captain Steve Waugh labelling India as the "Final Frontier".[16] The famous 2001 Australian tour of India saw Harbhajan Singh become the first Indian to take a Test hat-trick and started a good run for the team, as India beat Australia 2-1. India also came runners up to Australia in the final of the 2003 Cricket World Cup. Since 2004, India had not been doing as well in One-day Internationals. The players who took India to great heights over the past ten years such as Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and Anil Kumble grew older and did not maintain their form and fitness. Following the series loss to Australia, India collapsed on the final day in the Third Test in Bangalore in early 2005 against Pakistan to squander a series victory, and then lost four consecutive ODIs against Pakistan. This was exacerbated by the suspension handed to captain Ganguly for slow over-rates. Greg Chappell took over from John Wright as the new coach of the Indian cricket team following the series, and replaced Kumble and V. V. S. Laxman from the ODI team with younger players. India's unconvincing ODI form continued, scraping past a West Indian team depleted by industrial action in the 2005 Indian Oil Cup and a similarly depleted Zimbabwean team only to be defeated twice in the finals by New Zealand, continuing a poor ODI finals record. The tension resulted in a fallout between Chappell and Ganguly lead to a confidential email sent by Chappell to the BCCI being leaked, in which he condemned the leadership and performance of Ganguly. After a series of high profile board meetings and public jousting including some players, Rahul Dravid was installed as the captain, triggering a revival in the team's fortunes. The Indians subsequently defeated Sri Lanka 6-1 in a home series. An important part about this series was the discovery of the young talent of the team, including Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Suresh Raina, Gautam Gambhir 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[17] series to Pakistan. Indian team continued its good form in ODIs, beating Pakistan 4-1 in Pakistan. India achieved the world-record of winning 17 successive matches chasing the total. India convincingly won England's tour of India winning the series 5-1. After leveling the DLF Cup series 1-1 in Abu Dhabi, India travelled to West Indies where they lost the ODI series 1-4 to a weak West Indies team which was ranked 8th in the ICC ODI Ranking. The series loss again questioned the Indian team's ability to play away from the Sub-continent and the chances of the Indian team to win the 2007 Cricket World Cup.[18] The Indian team later clinched the test series against West Indies 1-0, the first Indian series win in the Carribean since Ajit Wadekar in 1971.

ganguly

Winning habbit

fair

management and ever changing team members

eagerness to win. Confidence to face the battle positive thinking

well its the self-confidence which is gone down...there are playing more for securing their spot in the team rather than just giving it for the team and being tension free...and i think its high time players need to tell greg chappell to change his policy...experimentation in a long run will ruin india's success....

they are not just lacking they are overloaded with some GREAT PLAYERS.. like SACHIN and SAHWAG.. indian team shd kick them out to win..

The team is lacking me. dats y its losing. hehe.