Was this India's greatest era .....

[socafighter]

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An end of an era is meant to be, at the very least, monumentally resonant, or to carry a few final traces of splendour at least. Not this heavy, unremitting silence, marking what must be the lowest point in Indian cricket.

Between June 1959 and January 1968, India lost 17 consecutive away Tests. It is the worst stretch by any team in history.

Yet Adelaide 2012 marked Indian cricket's rock bottom, because a decade of progress was signed off with a staggering paucity of performance. In an age of abundant experience, talent and resources, Indian cricket ended up rattling empty.

Whether 0-8 was because of injuries and scrambled batting orders in England, or the meticulous evisceration by Australia, India's constant over the previous six months has been the heavy margin of every defeat.

All through the tour of Australia, Sourav Ganguly, the former India captain, fully entitled to gripe about India's lack of fight overseas, has pointed out that the batting trends seen in England had actually repeated themselves in the home series that had followed, against West Indies.

India won 2-0 but against inexperienced opposition their batsmen conceded first-innings leads twice, their highest opening partnership was 89, and in the third Test, they came close to being dismissed when chasing 243. India were showing that they couldn't be clinical with the bat. We should have believed them.

In England, against tough opposition in unfamiliar conditions, the scorecards alone showed us that India's resistance had eroded. We should have believed them. In these eight away defeats, India's narrowest loss was in Melbourne, by 122 runs.

The most runs scored by anyone in that top five over eight innings in Australia is 287, by Tendulkar. His average of 35.87 is sandwiched between those of Virat Kohli (300 runs at 37.50) and R Ashwin (163 runs at 32.60) at the top. This series has shown us the collective waning of the influence and impact of the Indian batting. It has shown us evidence of the fading powers of the Dravid-Tendulkar-Laxman trinity.

The future has already arrived and kicked down the door. What it finds on the other side, representing Indian cricket, is merely uncertainty. There are several young players itching to play, led by the bristling Kohli and a clutch of quick bowlers. The uncertainty arises because the link generation between Tendulkar and Kohli has gone rusty very quickly too.

India play no away Tests outside the subcontinent till the end of 2013. The worst they - team, players, selectors, officials - could do in this period is to believe the publicity around home Test victories. Indian cricket has switched back into its bad-tourist avatar after Australia, a place where they lost 0-3 in 1999-2000. The players of that time became the most important characters in the decade that followed. In 2012, it is the men who pick the next bunch of India's cricketers who will have to take over.

[AFRO]

It probably was, when that famous batting order was at it's peak, Singh and Khan bowling well etc they were very tough to beat, especially at home, but they only had success for around two or three years so it just goes to show what a brilliant achievement it was for the great WI and Australian teams to dominate for so long.

[socafighter]

It probably was, when that famous batting order was at it's peak, Singh and Khan bowling well etc they were very tough to beat, especially at home, but they only had success for around two or three years so it just goes to show what a brilliant achievement it was for the great WI and Australian teams to dominate for so long.

Any Team is only as good as the men leading it . Management .

We see it daily in the Caribbean for the last decade , its now showing in India .

Look At CA , they changed retooled at the top ...... success on the field within 3 years .