That's it ! Its curtains for India as we made the exit, rather officially, after Bangladesh beat Bermuda with few initial hiccups. What next? One thing is for sure, the World cup loses much of its viewership along with India's premature exit. More importantly it will hurt the organizers monetarily as much of sponsorship came from Indian companies, who may withdraw. In any case the World Cup which started with much hoopla, no longer will excite very many Indians,especially those in India, who have to sacrifice their sleep. At least with no stories of houses being flattened so far, I must admit that I am quite happy. But then, I am not oblivious to the fact that no such incident occured simply because people have resigned themselves to the fate.
I fail to understand what exactly spurs people to attack player's houses. I agree there are lot of expectations, but at the end of the day, it is just a game. It is okay to criticize someone, but totally another thing to bring down houses or pelt stones. I think the media should be blamed (well atleast partially) for causing so much hype. Probably it is time we rethink our philosophy. We should discontinue the National slogan,"Cricket is our religion and Sachin is our God." I am not saying this because the team does not deserve it, but if this 'religion' breeds violence then I do not want to embrace it.
I understand World Cup is the biggest event in Cricket today. Preparations for next World Cup begins the day, the current WC gets over. However, I think that we should treat all tournaments and series as equally important. It is not true here that you only have to win the war and not the battles. If you allow me to compare this with exams in school, one will definitely treat all exams equally, be it Quarterly or Half-yearly exams. Annual exam is important but then if you do not prepare properly for the other exams then chances are that you will not do much better in the Final exam. I strongly feel that we should stop talking about preparations for next WC, but just think of the next series at hand. Take it very seriously even if it is against a not so important team ! This attitude, I think, is the one big difference between the top teams and India.
There are talks of changing the captain already. I think it is stupid to change captain at this juncture. I know lot of captains were sacked after the 2003 World Cup, but I think there is no reason to sack Dravid. One major reason being I do not think anyone is capable of leading the country at this point, barring Ganguly. But I do not think it is in the offing. I also feel that Greg Chappell should be allowed to continue, but I can already see the axe hanging above his neck. I hope people understand how difficult it is to build a team in just inside two years. It will be very unjust to say that Chappell failed in his mission.
Some tidbits. This just occured to me. There is a recurring pattern, a pattern which can be called as an Alternate law. It is that India has been performing well in alternate WC's, which also means that we are performing badly every other WC. Consider 1992 WC, we fared very badly, just managing to beat Zimbabwe and Pakistan. In 1996 we reached the semi finals, only to be butchered by Lankans. In 1999, again we barely made into Super Six stage, even then, we hardly made any impact. 2003 is a year etched in all the cricket loving fans from India, especially people from my generation, because I was a toddler when India lifted the Prudential cup in Lord's. So 2003 is the next best !! And yeah 2007 was a bad dream. So is it going to be 2011, then? We will have to wait for 4 years for that...........
I fail to understand what exactly spurs people to attack player's houses. I agree there are lot of expectations, but at the end of the day, it is just a game. It is okay to criticize someone, but totally another thing to bring down houses or pelt stones. I think the media should be blamed (well atleast partially) for causing so much hype. Probably it is time we rethink our philosophy. We should discontinue the National slogan,"Cricket is our religion and Sachin is our God." I am not saying this because the team does not deserve it, but if this 'religion' breeds violence then I do not want to embrace it.
I understand World Cup is the biggest event in Cricket today. Preparations for next World Cup begins the day, the current WC gets over. However, I think that we should treat all tournaments and series as equally important. It is not true here that you only have to win the war and not the battles. If you allow me to compare this with exams in school, one will definitely treat all exams equally, be it Quarterly or Half-yearly exams. Annual exam is important but then if you do not prepare properly for the other exams then chances are that you will not do much better in the Final exam. I strongly feel that we should stop talking about preparations for next WC, but just think of the next series at hand. Take it very seriously even if it is against a not so important team ! This attitude, I think, is the one big difference between the top teams and India.
There are talks of changing the captain already. I think it is stupid to change captain at this juncture. I know lot of captains were sacked after the 2003 World Cup, but I think there is no reason to sack Dravid. One major reason being I do not think anyone is capable of leading the country at this point, barring Ganguly. But I do not think it is in the offing. I also feel that Greg Chappell should be allowed to continue, but I can already see the axe hanging above his neck. I hope people understand how difficult it is to build a team in just inside two years. It will be very unjust to say that Chappell failed in his mission.
Some tidbits. This just occured to me. There is a recurring pattern, a pattern which can be called as an Alternate law. It is that India has been performing well in alternate WC's, which also means that we are performing badly every other WC. Consider 1992 WC, we fared very badly, just managing to beat Zimbabwe and Pakistan. In 1996 we reached the semi finals, only to be butchered by Lankans. In 1999, again we barely made into Super Six stage, even then, we hardly made any impact. 2003 is a year etched in all the cricket loving fans from India, especially people from my generation, because I was a toddler when India lifted the Prudential cup in Lord's. So 2003 is the next best !! And yeah 2007 was a bad dream. So is it going to be 2011, then? We will have to wait for 4 years for that...........
5 comments:
I agree with you on most of the things u said..but not on dravid..he is not captain material..I seriously doubt that ganguly would have the same aggression he showed 2 years ago..also I think he said he would quit in 2 years...I think they have to go back to sachin..of course he is the only complete cricketer we have had in two decades.
The thing with Sachin is, you cannot make a long term plan now. He is not a permanent solution. But if u continue to stick with Dravid, you ca n try to groom another captain in say 2 yrs time.....
sehwag and yuvraj will fade away in a couple of years...sachin and or dravid will have to hang around till next world cup..look at lara..he is not at his prime either..
sachin can never be a successful captain. Let him play as a batsman. He will come back atleast to have a decent farewell.
And as Prahnesh said, Ganguly wudnt last long. Dravid,Sehwag and Yuvraj has to bring the hopes up for Indian Cricket team. Sacking dravid's captaincy is atleast somewat understandable, But Sacking Chappel will be the most idiotic and also political move.
I have a feeling Yuvraj wud lead the team very soonm, If not during the current year. Kaif & Raina shud come back despite their series of failures. And this is the right time to think about new set of spinners along with Powar.
I hope Sachin makes a decent exit. People will always rem the exit, however great the player is ! The thing is he shld go rather than being sent !!! So he shld ask his body if it can cope up untill 2011 !
Raina will def come bk to the team,he is jus 20. Kaif will come back too, but not sure how long he can last. There was a time when I thought he shld be groomed as the next captain. But its upto the likes of yuvi, sehwag, Dhoni, Pathan to take the team fwd, with support from youngsters like Dinesh Kaarthik, Raina. I feel that Dravid and Chappell shuld continue on what they started. Otherwise you go bk to square 1 and start from the scrath...
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