Deja Vu for Bangalore Royal Challengers ?

Ray Jennings coach of Bangalore Royal Challengers has gone on record saying that he is disappointed in the performance of his players, on being asked to comment on the dismal showing by BRC in the ongoing IPL. He has also singled out players by name, stating that the dropped catches by Utthappa and Dravid have cost the team dear. Defending his role in the team he says that the coach cannot be blamed for the poor performance of the team since the players have been bought for their skills and it is up to them to execute in the field the plans discussed in the dressing room.

What plans ? On one hand we have players like Uthappa, who in spite of failing match after match continue to find a place in the lineup whereas on the other hand we have in form players like Van Der Merve and goswami who are not being played. Ryder and Steyn are being dropped arbitrarily while we have kallis being continuously trusted with the ball even after taking only 1 wicket in 4 matches at the rate of 10 runs per over. We have an in form batsman like Dravid coming 5 down, whom jennings refuses to promote up the order since he believes that Rahul is best suited in that position (what good can Dravid do if he comes to bat after the top order has collapsed is something which Jennings is keeping to himself) whereas Praveen kumar is sent in 1^st Down. In spite of all this Jennings says that there is nothing wrong with his strategies as he has made all the right cricketing decisions.

I can understand that he might be having difficulty in speaking around the foot in his mouth, which he brought on himself by criticizing the “old” players in the team at the beginning of the series. The very same old players have been the top performers in his team till now and the highly priced Pieterson (1.5m!!) has done little to justify his price tag. It is time for Jennings to stop playing the blame game and relook at some of his “right cricketing decisions” else he might end up facing the same ignominy as Charu sharma in the last season.