OPINION POLL ON INDIA

                         OPINION  POLL  ON INDIA’S CHANCES IN SOUTH AFRICA

ANOTHER LACKLUSTRE,SPINELESS AND ABJECT FAILURE TO COPE WITH THUNDERBOLTS DELIVERED AT   140+ kmph SPEEDS HAVE MARKED THE BEGINNING OF THE INDIAN CRICKET TEAMS SOUTH AFRICAN SOJOURN. NEWS AGE HERALD GOT DOWN TO BANGALORE’S STREETS AND ASKED ITS CITIZENS TO ASCRIBE REASONS FOR INDIAN BATSMENS PRONOUNCED INABILITY TO HANDLE SHEER PACE.

DEBASHISH DASGUPTA: SOFTWARE PROGRAMMER; To be blatantly honest and forthright, I don’t think any other batting line up with the notable exception of the West Indians during the heady seventies and eighties has shown any kind of marked consistency in the face of a constant barrage of leather whizzing around your ears and throat.

I would blame the rotten system for India’s debacle for India’s failure rather than pointing fingers at our batsmen. As the great Aussie Ian Chappell once said it is always easier for a batsman accustomed to high bounce pitches to adjust to a lower bounce environment rather than the inverse. The abject lack of  bounce in India’s pitches render our batsmen impotent against pitches that are conducive to fast bowling. India will always continue to struggle abroad unless we start producing fast and furious pitches in our own backyard.

NEETU DHADWAL:CENTRE HEAD :A surfeit end surplus of T20 cricket is to directly blame for India’s rather sorry state of affairs on its current tour to South Africa

While T 20 cricket may provide an impetus to innovative and breathtaking stroke play it  has sounded the death knell of the old fashioned virtues of grit, gumption, dedication, perseverance technique and temperament  .The current lot of batsmen with the notable exceptions of Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar do not have the requisite techniques and mindsets to cope with a sustained barrage of short pitched deliveries .One shudders to think of the fate of the Indian team once the above mentioned stalwarts hang uo their boots for good

SHIRAZ MOHAMMED IBRAHIM:  ENTREPRENUER : I think we are making a mountain out of a mole hill ,one failure does not mean that the Indian batsmen do  not have the where with all  to cope with an all  out pace attack.

India has started promisingly in its second innings and managed to reach a score of 190 odd for two at the draw of stumps on day three .I have no doubt whatsoever in my mind that Messrs. Tendulkar , Dravid ,Laxman and Dhoni  will be more than successful in pulling India’s chestnuts out of the fire and succeed in  drawing  the test match currently underway at Super sport park , Centurion.

SHWETA SHARMA : HOMEMAKER: I am more at home in my kitchen, supermarkets or malls rather than in front of the television watching the trials and tribulations of our cricket team.

Yes , I did  manage to catch a few fleeting glimpses of India’s subjugation in the face of the unrelenting South African pace attack and the monkey like attacks of our woeful apologies for batsmen did certainly make me hang my head in sorrow and shame.

PRADEEP KURUP:FORMER FIRST CLASS CRICKETER: Our batsmen have more often than not found themselves reduced to sitting ducks in the face of a fast and furious pace attack that allows very little respite and space for comebacks.

While the utter lack of application and abject surrender of our batters in the face of what is basically a two man South African pace attack did catch me unawares. I think it would be totally unfair to apportion the entire blame at the doorsteps of our batters as some amount of blame needs to be apportioned to a system that continuously fails to produce fast and bouncy pitches in our backyard despite numerous warnings to the contrary.

HANAN ANDRABI: EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT; I have always believed that this exotic game of cricket is more or less a mirror image of our lives. This glorious game of uncertainties has its ebbs, flows, vicissitudes and high points a la life. While the Indian team finds itself down in the dumps right now, I am more than optimistic about its ability to rise from the ashes sooner rather than later and deliver the death blow to the domineering South Africans in their own backyard.

So there you have it folks, Bangalore’s denizens have expressed a range of divergent views on the fates awaiting to befall this Indian cricket team. Will India rise from the ashes like the proverbial phoenix, let’s all hope and pray that this miracle does occur during the course of the second test match of this tour.

                                                                                        SUNDEEP CHOPRA.