How does it matter who leads England

Well the breaking news is that England have named two different captains for two limited overs format of the game with Stuart Broad having to lead the side for T20 games while Alistair Cook will henceforth take care of England's one day games. Though this news hardly sparks of any sort of debate, people keeping their fingers crossed are just countable. At least as a cricket blogger, I have no other option but to shed some words regarding the selection or appointment. The tag "No Police State Girls blog" just doesn't seem to go too well with me whatsoever at this moment.

The result of the latest development in England cricket was due to the fact that their then captain Andrew Strauss wants to focus completely on his test career while Paul Collingwood has nothing to say about his T20 career. And, Paul Collingwood has every reason to justify himself when he bought home the country's first glory since decades of cricket that included failures, just misses and chokes. Collingwood's feat was achieved after England had three workld cup finals without a win along with an ICC champion's trophy that too ending up as runners-up. If South Africans would be reading this, they'd just breathe free.

The chokers tag is not totally restricted to South Africa alone and England also have an equal share in it. Coming to the point, one has to rather concentrate on the entire team of England which are in doldrums at present with their latest such thing evident in the world cup. England failed to win matches against Bangladesh and Ireland despite posting a stiff target of 327 on the board against the latter and having the opposition reeling at 111/5 at one stage. Of course, England were able to rarely regain and defend the Ashes on the previous two occasions but that is regarding their test cricket.

Right now, it has to be the entire England team and not just the captain alone whom the ECB needs to focus on. If not for their T20 win last year, England have gone back to their old ways of leaving things half way when they had just one T20 tournament against Pakistan and test series' against the same though which England won convincingly, their body language didn't speak for them. They beat both Pakistan and Australia with destiny favoring them by not having matches against other teams like Sri Lanka and India against whom their real myth is evaluated.

India to get chokers tag?

Well in the beginning of the tournament, India were ranked as favorites to at least be on top at the end of the league stage matches putting them ahead of South Africa, England and West Indies. But, with two out of the three matches slipping away from their hands, the only game left over is against the West Indies. It should not be a surprise if India win against the West Indies but all is hidden in the way they win and chances of losing are also on a high. India have most of the times been on the receiving end in big games and tournaments.

India should have won against England after there were big scores from the blades of Sachin Tendulkar, Yuvraj Singh and Gautam Gambhir. At one stage, it was as though England would get away with a win when equation read England needing 67 runs from 60 balls which were gettable with 8 wickets in hand. Finally, India should be relieved to have got away with a tie than to lose after faring so good with the bat if not the ball. India's wins against Netherlands, Ireland and Bangladesh can hardly be relished considering their loss against South Africa and England against which they were expected to win.

If one could take pains to go through the match Bangladesh, it was a one man show from Virender Sehwag though towards the end even Virat Kohli got a hundred. It would be tough to say whether Sehwag would have reached the magical figures had he not been gifted with a runner. Moreover, Bangladesh managed to score 283 which was not acceptable considering the caliber of both India and Bangladesh. Neither was the score satisfactory nor were the Indian bowlers able to take all ten wickets from the Bangladeshi side. I just happened to go through emanon, road to the unknown after seeing India's plight.

One can go through India's performance in the recently concluded world tournaments namely the world T20 2009 and 2010 and the ICC champions trophy 2009. India were successful initially in both world cups. In 2009 India as expected won the group stage matches against Bangladesh and Ireland and flunk in games against South Africa, England and West Indies in the super eights. So was the case in 2010 where India won games against South Africa only to lose in the super eights to Sri Lanka, West Indies and Australia. In the champions trophy 2009, India had a win only against a depleted West Indies with loss to Pakistan before the match against Australia was abandoned.

The only word that comes to my mind with all these facts is "CHOKERS".