Wednesday, March 28, 2007

Bye Bye India!

Right now, the most common topic of discussion for an average Indian would be the performance of the Indian cricket team at the Carribean world cup. An endless list of adjectives will easily ooze out on the slightest provocation. A country of close to a billion cannot find the right combination of eleven to succeed in the most passionate sport in the country. Truly disgusting! Where are we getting it wrong? Is the selection committee not able to find the right eleven to represent the country? We do not care about how we fare in the other sports, but when it comes to cricket, the common man is ready with his views.

India has been knocked out of the first round, thanks to the ignonimy of losing to the minnows of world cricket Bangladesh, and to Sri Lanka, who have improved leaps and bounds in the last few years. The lack of pride was so evident in the way the Indians played on the field. There was no sense of passion or commitment to enforce their way to winning positions. One felt that they were there on the field not due to their own will, but due to some myriad circumstances that have propelled them to play cricket for God knows what reason. It was pathetic, outrageous and shameful. It is easy to argue that it is a game, but it is the manner in which they lost that irks the fans. The media has to be definitely blamed for what is happening out there. One win and the Indian players are raised on the pedestal, with heavy adjectives that can give a complex even to the Australian team. We elevate them to Godly status as if they have achieved the impossible. The way they played in the league games, it certainly did not beckon a place in the super eights. Thankfully! I had the pleasure of watching the Australia-South Africa encounter, and it gave me all the more reasons to convince myself that India was lucky to miss out in the super eights stage. The professionalism and the athleticsm in the two sides just astounded me. They have taken the level of cricket to new heights. We do not even have the right to compete with such wonderful sides in the competition. People like Gavaskar should stop criticizing the way the Australians play their cricket. As Ricky Ponting rightly pointed out, we should concentrate on how we play the game rather than accusing the Australians of playing it hard. After all, one is representing the country and so should take pride of the fact. So, Gavaskar better concentrate on the way Indian cricket should by played rather than telling the Australians how not to play cricket. He surely has a tough task on his hands!

India really has to get its basics right to find the right solutions. Are we so incapable of finding eleven players to play world class cricket. Sachin Tendulkar is a pale shadow of his former self. But on a serious note, where has Tendulkar won matches for India from crunch situations? Where has he won when the chips are really down? You can handpick very few matches to help his cause. What is the point in scoring 30000 international runs when you cannot win matches for your team? The Indian selectors should take a tough stance and show him the door. It is high team we drop players who rely on past performances to be in the team. Rahul Dravid is a great player, but as a captain he gets into doubtful shoes. Ajit Agarkar is one player whom nobody can fathom. He is trying his level best to be out of the team, but it looks like nobody wants to drop him. Harbhajan Singh was bowling as if his only option in life was to contain the batsmen and not to take wickets. Totally outrageous!!!! Chappell may be good at making power point presentations, but that is not sufficient to win matches for India. He should have worked from within the system to extract the best out of the players.

The bottom line is simple. Indians at this point of time should be thankful that they haven't qualified for the super eights. Imagine the results. India would have lost six games in a row including to Ireland. The schoolgoers should send a big thank you note to the Indian team for its abysmal performance as it would not affect their performance in exams! The fans should also keep their composure as it is not a do or die situation in life. There are other pressing problems for all of us, and cricket is after all a game. We should learn to keep our emotions in check and continue with our lives.

1 comment:

  1. Lessons...

    "Please do not expect the tortoise to always win the race". I never think our cricket was good enough to be calculating the path to World Cup. Those who did can be called crazy or fanatics. Not being able to exploit the talents of Raina, Kaif, Powar is itself an indication. Further, Ganguly being recalled shows the state of Indian cricket and its selectors!! I personally follow domestic and county cricket and I could not see any reason for him being recalled. I have never seen the captain or coach so very irresponsible and clueless - keep apart the times of SRT!! What we need is the common sense - I have never seen Dravid giving a break to the PP - no change in the field - no change in the batting line-up. Indian bowling has to be 20 overs flat PP which is inexplicable.

    All in all - it is SRT, Rahul, Kumble who play and not the media and hype. We were never destined to win the world cup leave aside the match against Bangladesh! I wonder if we play the ICC Trophy we would ever qualify for 2011.

    Do not be over-confident and never under-estimate your opposition...Learn to accept defeat. Realize that we are just not good enough and start building before it is too late. Agreed it is a country of 1 billion, does that mean we will win the WC?

    ReplyDelete