African tour a biggest challenge for team India

Once the home series with New Zealand gets concluded, Indian cricket team will tour South Africa. India will play three tests, five ODIs and a T-20 in a 40-day venture. In many ways, this will be a very important series for team India keeping in mind the upcoming 2011 World Cup to be played in the sub-continent.

What makes this series very special is the fact that both the teams India and South Africa are at the top in the ICC test ranking holding number one and two positions, respectively. The Africa series will test team India’s sustainability in the long run as far as ICC ranking is concerned.

But there are some apprehensions among the Indian cricket fans regarding the schedule of the series and there are some valid reasons which support the fear. The foremost thing the BCCI should have thought of the forthcoming World Cup series. The mega event will be played in the subcontinent so it would have been better if the board would have decided to host a series in India.

If we take a look at the Indian squad for the South Africa series, there are lots of youngsters feature in the team and most importantly they will be up against some quality fast bowling with some of the juicy and bouncy wickets in the world. As the past record indicates, Indian team hasn't had a good experience in South Africa as far as a bilateral series is concerned. So if the history repeats itself, how crucial will the series be for the morale of the younger players who dream to play World Cup tournament. How will the young brigade recover from the setbacks if any takes place?

On the other hand, had the board gone for a series in India it would have given chance to players to get accustomed on the flat turf, typical sub-continental pitch, and the move could have given an edge to team India over other teams. If we remember, when Cricket Australia scheduled series away in India, several Australian players including Ricky Ponting had shown displeasure about the timing of the series as they were seriously thinking about the Ashes series that time and nobody could disagree with their concerns.

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Biography - Tony Dodemaide

Anthony Ian Christopher Dodemaide or Tony Dodemaide was a former Australian cricket player. He was born in 1963 at Williamstown of Melbourne. He was the Chief Executive of Western Australian Cricket Association in Perth for three years. After that, he joined as the Chief Executive for Cricket Victoria.

Dodemaide started his first test match against New Zealand in 1987 played at Melbourne Cricket Ground of Australia. In that match, he scored 50 runs in the first innings and hunted 6 wickets in the second innings. He began his ODI career in 1988 in a match against Sri Lanka at the Western Australia Cricket Association Ground of Perth. In that match, he got 5 wickets bowling total 7.2 overs giving only 21 runs.

Dodemaide has played a total 10 test and 24 one-day matches in his career. His highest scores are 50 and 30 in the test and one-day matches respectively. He has obtained five wickets 1 time in the test career and 1 time in the ODI career. Again he got four wickets 3 and 1 times in the test and ODI career respectively. He hunted total 34 test wickets and 36 one day wickets.

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