Fletcher aloof as team divided

Either the coach should explain Indian team’s downfall of late or the Board should sack him and find an experienced alternative.

New Delhi: The calls for his dismissal have been growing among the Indian cricket fraternity, and yet, Duncan Fletcher doesn’t look like anything is affecting him too much.
This unflappable temperament would be appreciated if the results were going in his wards’ favour, but with India sinking further and further with each passing match, it just comes across as indifference from a man who takes home a reported $250,000 (Rs 1.37 crore) per year plus perks.
On Friday, a day after India succumbed to a humiliating series defeat against Pakistan at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata, the Indian dressing room was a disjointed place, and that neither the coach nor captain MS Dhoni were giving the team any direction.
MAIL TODAY understands that there was no team talk after the massive 85-run defeat, and neither were the team members given any dressing down for the consistent failures across all formats, surfaces and oppositions.
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Instead, Dhoni had hinted at the post-match press conference that the side would take it easy, saying emotions were high so the team “should” stay calm. Moreover, it is learnt that more than half the team doesn’t even talk to Fletcher, let alone get him involved in solving problems in their techniques or strategising.
The record speaks for itself — ever since Fletcher took over as coach after the victorious 2011 World Cup campaign under Gary Kirsten, India have won just six of 20 Tests, 21 of 38 ODIs and nine of 17 T20 Internationals.
While in Tests, it would be unfair to compare it to Kirsten’s period, when Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman were still active and in form, Fletcher’s record in ODIs, with virtually the same core of players, just shows how far Indian cricket has fallen. With the South African at the helm, India had won 62 of 101 ODIs.
Fletcher came heavily recommended by Kirsten himself, and with a track record of turning a weak England team into an Ashes winner in 2005. The former Zimbabwe captain and all-rounder was known to be a coach who could sort out a batsman’s technical flaws in just a few sessions.
But now, Gautam Gambhir keeps inside-edging on to his stumps, Virender Sehwag keeps perishing to incoming deliveries, Rohit Sharma can barely score a run and Yuvraj Singh seems to be struggling against both pace and spin at the start of his innings, Fletcher can’t seem to do a thing about it.
Then there is the strategy, for which the captain should be held more accountable than the coach, but as a lot of former players have said, it is the coach’s job to brainstorm with the captain and guide him where he thinks a decision could be detrimental to the team’s cause.
At present, members of the Indian team seem to be so directionless that there is no team cause. They seem to be pulling in different directions and cancelling out each other’s efforts.
There’s no doubt that the Indian team needs a complete reboot. And it has to begin by asking Fletcher to step out from behind the omnipresent dark glasses and explain himself, or to simply hold him responsible for the results and sack.
Secondly, the Board of Control for Cricket in India must appoint a successor to Fletcher very smartly, and someone with a lot of international experience and universal respect (like Kirsten had) should get the first preference.
This would help the team galvanise itself, like it did in the build-up to the World Cup and the preceding years, and stop being a collection of mutually exclusive superstars.

Remembering the Nawab: Tiger Pataudi: First Among India’s Great Captains

Mansur Ali Khan 'Tiger' Pataudi: Jan 5, 1941 - Sep 22, 2011

Mansur Ali Khan 'Tiger' Pataudi: Jan 5, 1941 — Sep 22, 2011

‘Tiger’, as Mansur Ali Khan Patuadi was often called, was the son of Iftikhar Ali Khan Pataudi, who had the distinction of playing Test cricket for England and India.

Born into royalty, Mansur Ali Khan was the ninth and final Nawab of Pataudi, a princely state which merged into India in 1947.
Cricket was in the family. Pataudi Senior made a hundred on Test debut for England before his playing days prematurely ended when he opposed his captain Douglas Jardine’s tactics in the 1932 Bodyline series. He later captained India before he passed away on his son’s 11th birthday in 1952.
It is said Pataudi Senior had asked bat-makers Gunn and Moore to manufacture a small-sized bat for his son, who was five at the time. Gunn and Moore didn't make bats for kids, but they agreed to make a special one for the boy who would be India's youngest Test captain at the age of 21.
India’s Finest Captain
Pataudi, an Oxford alumnus, went on to play 46 Tests for India, and was captain in 40. This makes him and Iftikhar the only father-and-son duo to captain India.

Pataudi in action for Oxford against Surrey, June 1961.

Pataudi in action for Oxford against Surrey, June 1961.

He is widely recognised as one of the finest tacticians of his time, a trait which helped bring spin bowling to the forefront of India’s gradual rise to the top. It was under him that India registered their first Test series win abroad, in New Zealand in 1968, by a 3-1 margin. India have never won three Tests in an away series since.
Pataudi realised spin was India’s strength and he built upon it. He’d often play three spinners in the side. This is best reflected in the fact that Bishan Singh Bedi, Erapalli Prasanna and S Venkataraghavan all had better averages and strike-rates under Pataudi.
Attacking Style
Pataudi was an attacking batsman. After his schooling in Dehradun, he went to Winchester College, where he made over 2,000 runs in a season. It helped him that his coach George Cox was also an aggressive stroke-maker and encouraged Pataudi’s style of play.
At a time when keeping the ball along the ground was batsmen's mantra, Pataudi loved his lofted drives. His reflexes were sharp and his fielding quick-silver.
In 1960, he made 131 for Sussex against Cambridge at Lord’s. He was Oxford’s captain the next year, becoming the first Indian to receive the honour. This is the time he was involved in a car accident near Brighton beach and lost vision in his right eye.
Describing his post-accident style of play, Author Dean P. Hayes wrote: “As a result of the injury, he preferred a two-eyed stance. His backlift was therefore from the direction of third man, but the bat in the downward swing passed close to the right leg with elbows tucked in, thereby eliminating any chance of gap between bat and pad. In spite of two eyed stance, his off-side play remained a delight, because he quickly positioned himself for the strokes.”
Once asked by a journalist about how he played with one eye, Pataudi said, "I see two balls. I hit the one on the inside." Experts often wonder what he could have achieved as a batsman had he not been impaired.
Successful Debut & Captaincy
He later made his Test debut against England in the Delhi Test of December 1961. In his third Test of the same series, he made an attacking 103 to round off a series win.

Pataudi in 1961.

Pataudi in 1961.

In 1962, midway through the West Indies tour, captain Nari Contractor was famously felled by a bouncer and never played Tests again. Pataudi, in just his fourth Test, became captain. It was a tough tour for him, and he failed to cross 50 in six innings, and India lost all five Tests.
After a brief slump in form, he hit the high notes again by making his highest Test score — 203 not out in Delhi — when England visited in 1964.
His finest innings is said to be the 75 he made in Brisbane in 1968, coming out to bat on a green-top with India 25-5. He had a hamstring injury which impeded his front-foot play and this innings is thus recalled as the one played with one eye and one leg.
Differences with the then chairman of selectors, Vijay Merchant, and India’s historic wins in the West Indies and England in 1971, brought Ajit Wadekar’s captaincy to the forefront. But following the ‘Summer of 42’ disaster in England in 1974, Wadekar was forced out, and Pataudi returned to lead the team again.
Pataudi played his last Test in 1975 — as captain — and made 9 and 9 against the West Indies at the Wankhede Stadium, a game India lost and surrendered a tightly-fought series 2-3.
He also won the Arjuna Award on 1964 and Padma Shri in 1967.
After Cricket
Pataudi worked as an ICC match referee and sports columnist. In 1974-75 he was India's manager. He also dabbled in politics. Earlier this year, he parted ways with the Indian Premier League and sued the BCCI over non-payment of dues.
The only major controversy he courted was in 2005 when he was arrested for killing an endangered animal.
Pataudi, 70, breathed his last today at a New Delhi hospital after a prolonged infection of his lungs. He is survived by wife, former actress Sharmila Tagore, son Saif Ali Khan, and daughters Soha and Saba.

RSS chief says rapes occur in India, not Bharat

SILCHAR, Assam: Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat criticized 'western' lifestyle of people in urban areas, and said without empirical evidence to back such a claim, that rape is prevalent mainly in cities where Indians are deeply influenced by western values and not by rural India.
Addressing a citizens' meet in Silchar recently, Bhagwat said: "You go to villages and forests of the country, and there will be no such incidents of gang-rape or sex crimes. They are prevalent in some urban belts. Besides, the new legislations, Indian ethos and attitude towards women should be revisited in the context of ancient Indian values."
The RSS chief, however, said that he wanted stringent laws in sexual crimes against women and will favour capital punishment for those convicted of rape.

RSS defends Bhagwat
Defending Bhagwat's controversial remark, RSS spokesperson Ram Madhav on Friday said "we have great respect for women."
"The statement of RSS chief should be taken in proper perspective. He (Bhagwat) has already demanded strict punishment for rapists and even called for death penalty if required," Madhav said.
"All that he said is that in Indian tradition we have great respect for women and we should learn to uphold this tradition. If one goes away from this tradition it will result in rise of crime against women,' he added.

Brinda Karat lashes out at Bhagwat
Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader Brinda Karat on Friday lashed out at Bhagwat saying this reflects the mentality, which refuses to accept the reality of caste oppression or class driven exploitation of women.
"I have read that statement and it seems to me that Bhagwatji does not know either India or Bharat. And, if he had even cared to just look at the government statistics, he would know that the largest number of rapes actually occur in rural India, on Adivasi and Dalit women, on agriculture women workers, on rural women workers where there is neither any justice nor any access to justice," said Karat.
"And a statement like Mr. Bhagwat has made only gives strength to the criminals. I think this reflects the mentality, which refuses to accept the reality of caste oppression or class driven exploitation of women," she added.

Delhi rape: Juvenile rapist could walk free in months

NEW DELHI: The law may bestow leniency on him but according to the Delhi Police, the juvenile associate of the men who executed the gang rape of December 16 was the most brutal of them all.
According to the charge sheet, the juvenile had subjected the 23-year-old physiotherapist to sexual abuse twice, including once when she was unconscious. He extracted her intestine with his bare hands and suggested she be thrown off the moving vehicle devoid of her clothes, it says.
Even as the five men arrested for the gang rape-cum-murder of the 23-year-old paramedical students face the possibility of a death sentence, if proved guilty, the juvenile accused could even escape a jail term.
The boy, who is seventeen-and-a-half-year-old, would not face the trial under the Criminal Procedure Code like his companions.
Though he faces the grave charge of murder, the juvenile would face proceedings under the Juvenile Justice Act that is more of a reform process instead of a criminal trial.
The juvenile can be sentenced for a maximum of three years if found guilty. Even then, he would not be lodged in the Tihar jail but at a reformatory home.
Indian law states that those below 18 years of age, have to be tried by a Juvenile Justice Board for any crime allegedly committed by them, and not in the normal court of law.
Two days after he was nabbed on December 28, the police had applied to the Juvenile Justice Board (JJB) for a bone ossification test of the juvenile - who, according to police, had subjected the victim to the most inhuman physical and sexual torture.
The Delhi Police, at the moment, is treating him as a juvenile purely on the basis of a school leaving certificate obtained from a school in Badaun, UP. In the test report still pending, police said, they were left with no option but to file charges and initiate legal proceedings only against the five adult members of the demonic gang rape.
"The JJB has to investigate and decide now," admitted a senior officer.
"We had applied to them two days after the minor had been nabbed. The whole process takes time," said the officer.
According to senior advocate Vikas Pahwa, the Juvenile Justice Act does not discriminate the gravity of the offense irrespective of its nature. "The objective of the act is to reform the child because it is possible that he may have committed an act under influence."
Pahwa further says that the procedure to treat juveniles and adults cannot be the same in criminal law.
"A juvenile has got some constitutional protections and therefore he has to be treated separately," he adds, stating there is nothing incorrect in the system that treats a juvenile differently even for committing a heinous offense along with his adult friends.
Public outrage
The public outrage has been based on allegations and the police version that of the six accused named in the Delhi gang rape case, it was the juvenile who inflicted the maximum brutalities on the victim.
Though the first law on protecting children from being prosecuted for having committed a criminal offense was put in place in 1850, constant amendments during the last three decades have compounded the problem.
The 1850 Apprentice Act provided for children in the 10-18 years age group, convicted by the courts, to be provided vocational training intended for their future rehabilitation.
The Centre made the first Children Act in 1960 but it was in 1986 that the first central law on juvenile justice came up.
Its definition of juveniles stated :"Juvenile means a boy who has not attained the age of 16 years or a girl who has not attained the age of 18 years."
In 2000 conforming to the United Nations rules, the government raised the age of juveniles to 18 years.
In 2004, the Supreme Court ruled that the age of a juvenile accused of having committed any crime, should be determined by ascertaining it on the day of the alleged crime.

"Nobody helped us for an hour" - rape witness

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Passers-by left the gang-raped student lying unclothed and bleeding in the street for almost an hour, the male friend who was assaulted with her said on Friday in his first public comments on the case that provoked a global outcry.

The 23-year-old student died in hospital two weeks after she was attacked on December 16 in a private bus in New Delhi, prompting street protests over the authorities' failure to stem rampant violence against women.

The graphic account from the man in a television interview is likely to add fuel to public anger over the death in a country where official statistics show one rape is reported every 20 minutes.

The woman's friend told the Zee News television network he was beaten unconscious with a metal bar by her attackers before the pair were thrown off the bus.

They lay in the street for 45 minutes before a police van arrived, and officers then spent a long time arguing about where to take them, the man said.

"We kept shouting at the police, 'please give us some clothes' but they were busy deciding which police station our case should be registered at," the man said in Hindi.

Delhi police spokesman Rajan Bhagat told Reuters GPS records show the first police van reached the scene four minutes after the police were called, and took the man and the woman to hospital within 24 minutes.

Neither the woman nor her friend have been named. Five men were charged with her gang rape and murder on Thursday. They must appear before a New Delhi court on Monday to hear the charges against them, the court said on Saturday.

TWITTER ANGER

The man's comments caused an renewed outpouring of anger on Twitter. "After reading and watching the Zee News interview i'm absolutely shocked and ashamed of being an Indian," said @BarunKiBilli.

The man called for the protests to continue, but said he wished people had come to his friend's help at the time.

"You have to help people on the road when they need help."

The male friend said he and the woman were attacked after an evening out watching a film.

"From where we boarded the bus, they (the attackers) moved around for nearly two and a half hours. We were shouting, trying to make people hear us. But they switched off the lights of the bus," he said, according to a transcript of the interview.

When they were thrown out, they pleaded with passers-by for help, he added in the studio interview, a blue metal crutch leaning on his chair.

"There were a few people who had gathered round but nobody helped. Before the police came I screamed for help but the auto rickshaws, cars and others passing by did not stop," the man added.