Short bowling the cause for India's exit?

Don't think so. Agreed it was our nemesis, but these guys lost out against Sri Lanka at the slow pitch in St. Lucia too. People are forgetting that the 2007 T20 World Cup was in South Africa (they had faster pitches than the one at Barbados) and the games against Pakistan (group stage), England, South Africa and Australia started with all the teams bowling short pitched stuff. We got only 140 against Pakitan, close to 150 against South Africa because of that. But what was different then was that we fielded well, played fearless cricket (made Yusuf Pathan open on his debut in the finals, Uthappa batted at 3, drafted in Rohit Sharma during the middle of the tournament and weren't afraid to change our batting order), took ALL our catches (including a stunner by Kartik against SA), some amazing run outs (Rohit Sharma ran out Kemp in the South Africa game, Uthappa ran out Nazir in the finals). Here, Dhoni dropped Gayle, Jadeja was crap, Yuvraj looked jaded, even Raina (our best fielder) didn't look special. Compare it with Australia and England, they hold onto everything. Both of them have been the best teams in the tournament so far and both have struggled against quality spin. (Australia scored only 15 from Harbhajan's four overs and also struggled against Sri Lanka till White came in. Ajmal troubled England too). These teams struggle against quality spin, tour India consistently and still struggle against Bhajji etc, here there's no attitude problem.

The actual reason for India's exit would be, that they did NOTHING right. From team selection, fielding, not playing the short ball, planning and whatever else you may add. I know it's two World T20 disappointments in a row. But give the cricketers a break who bloody play bloody 50 ODIs (win most these days), IPL (entertain us to the core and still are accused of match fixing, etc). 6-7 Test Matches ( other than the loss to SA earlier this year, we haven't lost a Test match under Dhoni), Ranji Trophy cricket (it's back on track after the last finals) and other form of cricket benefit games. There is no reason to change your game if you're doing as well as this.

The team selection was an issue. In-form players like Virat Kohli (exceptional fielder), Robin Uthappa (better back up keeper/batsman than Dinesh Karthik), Manish Pandey ( with the exception of a few IPL games a better player than Murali Vijay in T20 cricket). When Sehwag was injured there was no way one of these guys wouldn't have got selected. When the team was selected, none of us gave the team a chance anyway. Why cry now? I'm sorry but I still don't blame Dhoni and co. entirely. It's more of an error on Srikhants side.

I don't expect a player like Suresh Raina to learn how to play the short ball and remain the same kind of player. Ganguly struggled with the short ball for almost the length of his entire career until a trip to Australia. Please tell me after this how many times did you see Ganguly come down to a spinner and loft him out of the ground( in 2003/2004 against Australia).

Enough with the bashing, lets back these guys, afterall you don't reach no.1 in Test cricket without talent and hope to see Dhoni lead us to more success in the future.

Time up for Rafa?

Let me start of by saying, I've been a fan of Rafa Benitez's way of managing Liverpool and have stuck by his decisions all along. I also think a manager is as good as his team plays on the day and maybe some of the criticism faced by them is a little unjust.

Rafa Benitez joined Liverpool in the summer of 2004 from Valencia. He came with a huge pedigree after doing a lot of good things with Valencia at the Mestella. Known as a master tactician in Europe, the board and supporters at Liverpool hoped he would bring it with him to Liverpool. He took over when Liverpool finished fourth under Houllier. Liverpool's stars then were Michael Owen, Djibril Cisse, Milan Baros (who came off a brilliant Euro 2004 with the Czech Republic), Steven Gerrard, the enigmatic Harry Kewell, Dietmar Hamann and Sami Hyypia. Benitez had budding talent to work with in french youngsters Anthony Le Tallec an Florent Sinama Pongolle. Money wasn't an issue then and Benitez was given a decent transfer budget to start of with. He sold Heskey to Birmingham, didn't have a say in the Owen move to Real Madrid and got rid of fringe players like Cheyrou on loan. He brought big name players in Xabi Alonso and Luis Garcia that season. A 5th place finish in the EPL, elimination in the 3rd round of the FA cup all thanks to brilliance by Djimi Traore, a final appearance in the Carling Cup and the Champions league win was what Benitez accomplished in his first season in England. The following summer he did well to hang onto Steven Gerrard, as Steven Gerrard was extremely close to signing a contract with Chelsea. He added Fernando Morientes and Peter Crouch to his striking options which consisted of them and Djibril Cisse then. He always maintained he wanted 2 options for each position. He played a 4-4-2 formation then and therefore having 4 strikers for 2 positions were required. Garcia gave them the 4th option as he could play upfront too. He went on to sign Robbie Fowler in a shock deal in the January transfer window. He was signed for free and certainly gave us a good finisher then and the move also helped win over Liverpool fans. We went onto win the FA Cup that season. 2 years for Benitez with 4 trophies! (Liverpool won the Supercup and the Charity shield as well). Dirk Kuyt and Craig Bellamy were added to the Liverpool attack as Morientes and Cisse left the club. It all went well and surely more trophies could've been expected under this genius from Spain. Another dream run in Europe followed as Liverpool were finalists at Athens that season. A tactical masterclass helped Liverpool beat Barcelona and also eliminate Chelsea on route to the finals. A loss to AC Milan in the finals did hurt Liverpool fans, but we knew the club was going in the right direction. Liverpool finished third in the Premier League too. Liverpool's number 9, Fowler's contract expired and Benitez replaced him with the most exciting striker in the world then in Fernando Torres. Ryan Babel and Andriy Voronin were added too at that time, with Bellamy leaving the club after a bust up during the season with team mates. When all players fit, Liverpool's team consisted of stars in Torres (Europe's most exciting striker), Steven Gerrard ( arguably in his best form and one of Europe's best midfielders), Xabi Alonso ( did Europe have a better passer then?), Jamie Carragher ( Benitez transformed him from being a good player to a legendary status at Anfield), Sami Hyypia and Pepe Reina. They also had talent in Ryan Babel, Mark 'Speedy' Gonzalez and Momo Sissoko. Pundits said this team needed time and could do wonders. They finished 3rd that season in the premier league. They lost to lower division opponents in the FA Cup, in the quarters to Chelsea in the Carling cup and to the same opponents in Europe in the semi finals. It wasn't a bad season for sure and everyone expected Liverpool to progress in the next season. The stars of the club stayed with Liverpool. The youngsters stopped showing promise. What followed was, Liverpool being alive in the title race in May for the first time since 2002. With a little bit of luck, they might well have been champions. But champion teams create their own luck as demonstrated by Manchester United that season.

Liverpool lost Xabi Alonso to Real Madrid. The financial situation at Liverpool worsened. But still, money was spent as Glen Johnson moved to Liverpool for 18 million. He was joined by Alberto Aquilani a few weeks later as Liverpool conjured up another 15 million to spend on the injury prone midfielder. Benitez did well to hang onto Mascherano in the summer. That was probably the last good thing, Benitez did at Anfield.

This brings me to my point: After finishing 2nd in the league and having their best ever season, why were so many players wanting to leave Anfield? Something wrong with the management? There's certainly something wrong. Under Benitez, Liverpool have had strikers like Owen, Baros, Cisse, Morientes, Bellamy, Keane and Crouch. Going into this season, they only had Torres and Voronin as out and out strikers. Kuyt was converted into a winger and Babel into a non performer. Emergency situations brought in David NGog. So it was well document that if Torres got injured, Liverpool would be thin on striking options. Gerrard being played in advanced role meant Liverpool's 2 best players could be left isolated when the rest of the team didn't perform. When that happened, common sense said, Gerrard should be back into midfield and 2 strikers should be played. But all season, 2 defensive midfielders were played in Lucas and Mascherano. Even against teams like weak teams like Reading and Wolverampton do Liverpool need to play their 4-2-3-1 formation? With all respect to Mascherano and Lucas, they are not half as creative as Alonso, and after having them in midfield, Gerrard was always kept marked and hence wasn't effective in his advanced role behind the striker. Delivery for Torres was limited too and that led to Liverpool dropping points in abundance. From August to now ( writing this after losing to Reading in the FA Cup), nothing has changed. Weak teams or strong teams our manager wants to play a 4-2-3-1 formation. Even when Gerrard and Torres were off, he played the same formation with Babel uptop and NGog behind him. Benayoun and Kuyt were on the wings. Knowing how these players can play, the easy thing to do at half time would be, NGog and Kuyt upfront, with Benayoun on the right and Babel on the left. They would run at the wingbacks. Both are good enough to cut in and cause damage too. In 120 minutes of football against a team from the Coca Cola Championship, one of the top 4 teams in England created 3 chances only. They took none and were fortunate to get a deflected goal from a Gerrard cross in the last few minutes of the 2nd half.
In my opinion, Rafa Benitez did nothing to help Liverpool win that game. Also, he's given Insua a run in the team, that's costing Liverpool too. In the Reading game he was nutmegged for the cross leading to the 2nd goal far too easily. In an earlier defeat Liverpool suffered to the hands of Portsmouth, Insua was at fault then too. Aurelio is injury prone and suffering from a lack of confidence to play at LB. Infact, whenever he does start these days it's at a LM position. Why did our manager sell John Arne Riise? His bad defending led to Liverpool's exit in the 2008 Champions League, but he had certainly done more good than bad at Liverpool. Now Torres is injured again. Due to the cancelled games the last game week, there's surely going to be a fixture pile up. So it's going to be an extremely tough task for Liverpool to get past this period without their 2 main players (Gerrard's out for two weeks) and arguably their best player this season. ( Yossi Benayoun)
It makes more sense to make a change now, as he'll get to know his team over the next few months and then know the problems he needs to address in the summer.
Benitez has had his time now and seriously it's time to say thanks and bye bye to him!