Who will criticize the critics?

The mighty have fallen, and how? The Australian team reached a new low when they were bowled out for 98 in the first innings of the Melbourne test; but today they slid further down, thanks to some senseless rants by their captain Ricky Ponting directed towards a world class umpire. If at all one needed a proof of Australia's desperation and their journey through a hole which gets deeper by the day, this was it.

But this article is not to analyze the reasons of Australia's decline or ways of preventing it. This article is to take a look at the performance of those who analyze the game for a living. Yes, I am talking about the so-called experts of the game, mostly former players. How prescient these guys really are?

The reason I brought up the decline of Australia is to juxtapose it with reasons offered for the dominance of Australia in the last decade. "Australia has the toughest first class structure in the world. That is the reason why it churns our so many world class players", they reasoned. I wonder then, how come the "best first class structure" stopped producing world class players? Has the standard of the league declined? If yes, why? If not, how did Australia manage to produce so many world class players with the same standard? Clearly, there was more to Australia story than just a good first class structure, which most of the 'experts' missed

My objective of pointing out the mistake is not to bring down the these experts, some of whom are truly the greats of the game, but to just point out that there is no way to judge the opinions/predictions of these gentlemen. If the players can be judged for their performance, then why don't we judge those who judge the players?

Another glaring example of an error is a comment made by the former Australian captain and one of the most respected commentators of the game, Ian Chappell, when he questioned the motive behind the continuance of Tendulkar. In the early 2007, right after India were ousted from the world cup, Chappell wrote "At the moment he looks like a player trying to eke out a career; build on a glittering array of statistics. If he really is playing for that reason and not to help win as many matches as he can for India then he is wasting his time and should retire immediately." You can get more details on what he said by clicking here. In fact, almost everything he told in that article has come back to bite him. But nobody seems to remember that.

If so much air time and column space is provided to these experts, I wish they are also scrutinized like any other professionals, so that they think twice before they speak. Otherwise, a few sane voices out there will drown out in the cacophony of irresponsible views.

P.S - In spite of Ian Chappell's blunder he has got it right most of the time and I still respect him a lot. What rankles me that nobody remembers the blunder! If nothing else, it should be a black mark in his commentary career - the same way Greg Chappell's instruction to his brother to bowl underarm will always be held against him or how Chetan Sharma will always be remembered for giving a last ball six.