Cricket India

The failure on the part of Bermuda to upset Bangladesh in the last preliminary match of this World Cup has sealed India’s slimmest chance of sneaking into the Super Eight stage. This becomes all the more agonizing as it comes in the wake of very expensive and exotic preparations through the last few seasons when the fulcrum of all the efforts was the Caribbean conquest. .

India had three matches to play in Group B, two of them against Bangladesh and Bermuda. Results of which everyone took for granted. Thus a corner in the Super Eight was India’s rightful place. So the shock of finding itself replaced by a pretender was simply too much for this nation whose humiliation knew no bounds. To be pushed out by a country which viewed with envy the Plate level stars of Indian cricket.

Of course what happened was and is not to be brushed under the carpet. We cant allow things to go on as if nothing untoward has happened. India without doubt bungled in more than one way. The toss which has at least in the early stage influenced the games unduly went India’s way. Instead of looking back at the warm up games and the behavior of the pitches for those matches, Dravid, covering the angle of giving batting practice to even the lower order batsmen, chose to handle the early life of the track. And we now know how hard was that blow! To crown the whole thing we initially batted without an apprehension of the nature of track and played into the Bangladeshis’ hands. It is quite evident that India has yet to master the art of managing its innings on bowler-friendly pitches. The Sri Lankan innings against India was an example worth remembering. Luck went a long way to help them but they showed enough resilience to pull the chestnuts out of fire when they got half a chance to do so. In both cases  India failed to do well in its stronger department making things very difficult for the team’s cause. Against Bangladesh, the pitch had lost its venom by the afternoon and they made full use of it. But our batsmen against Sri Lanka muffed up the glorious chance of ensuring victory on a placid afternoon track. And in both the matches the rivals made Indian fielding look pathetic. Our steady catching was overshadowed by the run-leaking ground fielding. The combined effort of hesitant running between the wickets and poor fielding contributed about fifty runs to the opposition putting so much more pressure on our batsmen.

These on-the-field negatives were aided by some dressing room decisions like refusal to play Pathan, hesitancy to give a chance to Sri Santh etc.

Yes there were shortcomings on the part of the captain, players, perhaps coach, selectors. Look how the Australians who went down to the Kiwis and the Englishmen recently bounced back with enthusiasm and confidence in the World Cup matches? This is called character. I am not an expert in suggesting clues for character formation. But one think I know like you all that it is not available off the shelf!

While acknowledging the tragic failure to live up to the dreams of the fans, it should be realized that such things do happen in life. We call them upsets or shock results because we never thought they would have happened. We get angry, form reactions not in proportion to the crime. That also is natural. But we should be quick enough to realize our off-the-tangent fury and check ourselves. Otherwise we will harming whatever we feel we are trying to save.

The credit for the hue and cry about the miserable performance and its possible motives should rightfully go to the media, especially the visual variety. Trying to make the most of this once-in-four-years festival, they geared up for the mega event in their own innovative ways and hyped up the India’s chances, the exotic stroke play of our superstars, the non-existent penetration of our bowlers. The advertisers trying to cash in on the occasion tried to make tigers of ordinary mortals. Things were proceeding in a comfortable vein when everything collapsed. Ratings would surely take a nose-dive, the momentum built so assiduously would dissipate. So the only way ahead of them was to switch over to the failed saga of the Indian team ( with a bonus of Woolmer’s murder). I am not blaming any body for his disappointment. But many went beyond that and tried to cash in on the misfortune. They painted it as a tragedy. It in a way was a sporting tragedy which affected the stakeholders more than the couch potatoes. The channels which laughed all the way to the bank created a funereal atmosphere in the minds of the ordinary cricket fan. There of course were many informative discussions but several channels stealthily moved over to the tempting territory of sensationalism. They still do. No serious attempt was made to tell the viewers and readers that such things do happen and let us take corrective measures and try to continue to move ahead. Moderation seemed to be passé.

Many went to question the integrity of the players. I am not trying to hold their brief in this case. If a black sheep indulged in some foul play he has to be handled with utmost severity. But to envy a player’s appearing in some ads is stretching things a little to much. Let us realize that the companies won’t use these players as models unless they are sure that thy have the influence over you and me. If we refuse to be swayed by their personal glamour and still like their game, companies will look for others for celebrity advertising. We make them big and then we try to bring them down to earth for their natural, human limitations. Which batsman does not want to score a century in every outing! Who wants to go wicket less and who wants to drop a catch? Even a dropped catch tends to affect his ability to persuade the millions.

Now are our players in any way responsible to the fans except in a moral way? They are in the team because of their talent, hard work and because of their ability to handle immense pressure created by us. We have nothing to do in any of these things. If they get fame, if they make money the credit should go to them alone and of course to the personality of the game.

Then about their failure. They fail often and boy, did they fail this time! But who does not?. Our politicians? .We who are often less hard working than these maligned stars?. .Nothing could be funnier than that. A whole truckload of uninformed criticism from a lot of no-gooders!