The current world cup has brought cheers to some countries and despair to some of the biggest followers of the sport that is cricket. While it is nice to see nations like Bangladesh and Ireland, we also need to realise that it is also because of the lack of application from their highly ranked and over-hyped opponents i.e. India and Pakistan respectively.
Status before the world-cup
India before going to the world cup had won 2 one day series one against West Indies and the other against Sri Lanka. However both these victories were on home soil and also against second-best teams. Sri Lanka did not have Vaas or Murli while West Indies were also not having some of their key players like Sarwan. On the other hand we fielded our best sides against them as well.
If you go back little further in time, you will realise that we had lost to South Africa and West Indies before that and also to Australia in Malaysia. So we are not performing upto our abilities since the past one year now. So it shouldnt come as a surprise to us when we lose a few matches in the world cup...instead they should be expected from our team.
Reasons for the downfall
While it is difficult to point exactly where the problem lies, there are a few reasons that come to mind quickly
- Lack of motivation: The team needs motivation to perform. Our team no doubt had goals and objectives but when you are under tremendous pressure, you are bound to falter at some point in time and unfortunately it happened at the wrong time for us.
- lack of sporting culture: A nation needs to have a sporting culture which we simply do not have. A very good example would be the Australians. It is not just in cricket that they excel but also in hockey, rugby, swimming, tennis and athletics. Similar is the case for other nations like New Zealand and South Africa.
- Over dependence on one sport: In our country we only concentrate on cricket. In contrast other nations concentrate on other sports equally as well. While having such a case is not a problem, for a large country like India in terms of population it also means that we simply do not excel in other sports at all and bring back the previous point
- Excessive hype: It is fine to label our players as stars, care needs to be taken that they are not over-hyped and raised to demi-god status. Unfortunately in our country where there is lack of real-life heroes, we quickly make a hero out of a player even if he has one good innings.
- Media hype: Media is responsible to a large extent for this hype. especially the Hindi news channels. I seriously doubt about their journalistic qualities when they call for extremely harsh measures like removing the entire team just on the basis of one or two losses. Have they made any analysis before coming out with their suggestions. If they are so good at making comments why dont they themselves become cricket administrators
- BCCI: The Indian cricket administration is equally responsible for the current mess. The entire setup is wrong which allows for many inefficiencies to creep in. Good cricket requires good infrastructure (Coaches, grounds, training materials, etc) and other facilities. No doubt about the raw quality of Indian cricketers but if they are not polished further, there is no scope for them to excel at the highest stage.
There are many more but let us now also look at the reactions from various quarters of the Indian public.
Reactions from the Indian public and my responses to them:
- BCCI: Only one thing to these group...shut up and resign. This would be the biggest gift to Indians. Let cricket be administered by cricketers not politicians and businessmen.
- Sponsors and advertisers: Please reduce your spending on cricketers. There are better things to do in life other than getting these blokes to advertise for you. Even if you want to make them your brand ambassadors, make sure they dont become complacent.
- General public: Please be rational in your responses. I know it is bad to see our team lose but that doesnt mean they are not humans. Please protest peacefully and protest in meaningful ways (Described later in the article). Burning posters, pelting stones, processions and detroying public property simply shows that we as a nation are not yet civilised. It also shows that we are still an uneducated society when it comes to such issues. We are simply making the players move away from us rather than support them in this hour of crisis. Do remember that these same players have played some really wonderful innings in the past and under tremendous pressure. Just because of one or two bad innings we cannot simply drop them from our team.
Ways to protest:
Use Gandhian means to protest against our team's dismal performance
- Do not use the the services and products endorsed by cricketers. There are many substitutes available. A realisation will dawn upon all of them- cricketers, sponsors and the media giants that nothing can be taken for granted
- Avoid watching matches
- Avoid going to grounds if possible
There will be many more ways to protest.
Message to Indian team:
Team India, it is okay if you lose matches after fighting hard for victory. But abject surrender is not acceptable. Do realize that you are here to play for the country and not for your sponsors and other businesses.
Lets hope that the team rises from the ashes and starts performing even better from here on.
