NEW DELHI, Aug 23, (Agencies): With fans and critics losing interest in a one-sided series, India’s usually vocal media opted against panning the national cricket team on the front pages of newspapers and consigned yet another test defeat to England to the sports pages instead.
Only one major newspaper carried a substantial front-page story Tuesday in response to the Indian test team’s humbling 4-0 series whitewash, with most space taken up by news stories.
India’s dismal test tour of England was completed Monday when it crashed to an innings defeat in the final match at The Oval, and slipping from the world’s No. 1 test to third in the ICC rankings.
The Indian Express carried the headline “The agony ends, India lose series 0-4” on its front page as it, and other Indian newspapers set about the task of dissecting the reasons behind the poor performance just months of a limited-overs World Cup victory at home.
“Whitewashed” read the lead headline on The Indian Express’s sports page with a match report titled “Swann applies finishing touch.”

England offspinner Graeme Swann returned figures of 6-106 in India’s second innings at The Oval, including the important wickets of man-of-the-series Rahul Dravid, opener Virender Sehwag and nightwatchman Amit Mishra.
The newspaper also criticized preparations for the series in an article titled “Undercooked bunch spoiled the broth” in which it highlighted the lack of first-class outings as well as injuries to prominent players Zaheer Khan, Virender Sehwag, Harbhajan Singh and others in recent weeks.
The Times of India was scathing in its criticism, calling the debacle “a crying shame” and the “worst defeat since 1959,” while The Hindu announced “The humiliation is complete.”
“Finally, it’s Oval and out” said the Hindustan Times, which dubbed the tour “an English bummer” and blamed the openers, spinners and captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni among others for such a disappointing result.

The newspapers did offer praise to veteran batsman Sachin Tendulkar (91) and Amit Mishra (84) for a 144-run fourth-wicket stand at The Oval, but made little mention of the fact that Tendulkar had missed out on a 100th international century.
Former captain and opening great Sunil Gavaskar, who called India’s defeat an “abject surrender,” said a hundred from Tendulkar in a losing cause would not have given much joy anyway.
“The hundredth hundred is going to come, but it has not come here because England is a much superior side,” Gavaskar told the NDTV news channel. “They were superior not just technically but tactically too.”
Former test batsman Sanjay Manjrekar said on his Twitter page: “this is one situation where it makes sense to press the panic button...”
India now plays England in a Twenty20 game on Aug. 31, which will be followed by five one-day internationals.
Meanwhile, local media lashed out at the cricket board on Tuesday, accusing the governing body of pursuing riches instead of developing the test team.
Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s first series defeat as captain pushed India down to the third place in the rankings, described as “A Crying Shame” by the Times of India, which held the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) responsible for the debacle.

“BCCI stands for Board of Control for Cricket in India. It could even be referred to as Bombastic, Callous, Chaotic and Incorrigible,” it blasted, a day after England secured a fourth crushing win by an innings an eight runs at the Oval.
“Post India’s world cup victory, the board had the ideal chance to show the world that it was serious about not just generating 70 percent of world cricket’s income but about creating a congenial environment for the team to prosper in the longer format too.
“Instead of giving new coach Duncan Fletcher a side that was fighting fit to take on a buoyant and in-form England outfit, they made all the key players go through IPL (India’s lucrative Twenty20 league) just six days after an emotionally and physically draining World Cup.”
The Hindustan Times called the body a “Board of No Control”, lamenting its lack of professionalism and providing graphic details of how Australia, England and South Africa run their cricket boards.