Much Ado About Nothing!!!

This very expression of Rahul Dravid speaks a million words of India's dismal exit of the world cup. I never believed they were favorites, unlike the millions fooled to believe the same, but yes if all guns fired, we sure were talented and damn experienced. Sport has long lost itself as being a pure entertainer, with match fixing, murders and such debacles its surely as interesting as a thriller movie and is script for the longest TV serial ever made. Too bad Ekta Kapoor doesn't buy scripts with too many men in the lead roles. And she surely is not at loss, with team India's dismal failure. Its only Rs 2500 crores of losses for the Indian economy, but its ok, the market's anyways in a slump. And the true cricket fan, can watch the real teams battle it out. It might be Australia or South Africa, but I believe West Indies, Sri Lanka and New Zealand are looking good too.

I don't seem to understand one thing ever. How can Sachin Tendullar be branded as the greatest living cricketer or at least of the current era? I wouldn't deny his finesse in cricket, his ability to manhandle any bowler on his day. But in his long long career of 18 years, never has India won any significant tournament! And nothing at all overseas. Take a look at Lara(who in my opinion is the greatest batsman of this era) who delivers when West Indies needs him. A team that everybody thought was turning into a minnow, now is fighting a mega tournament and seems at least a Semi finalist, thanks to the able guidance of Lara. I Still remember when Lara played for over a hundred overs with Ambrose and then Walsh on one side, to save a match against the mighty Aussies. If Lara was with India, and gets to be chosen into the Indian team along with Sachin I am sure he would have landed up much higher than what Sachin has achieved. And most importantly any sport is won in the mind, not in the field, and Sachin never won a match in his mind. Ponting, Inzamam, Jayasurya are certainly far better players, as they delivered when it mattered to the team. Ponting lead his nation to one world cup win and is on his way to steer his team to another one in 2007. I am not undermining Sachin's exceptional ability to play the game. He is truly a genius and by far, one of the most gifted talents of the game. But is ability and talent enough to make someone an icon? Its unfair to make him a demi god, and now call for his retirement. Remember, he never delivered when India needed him most, and don't expect him to do so. But expect a few fireworks now and then, he's a player for the average Indian, the advertisers and of course the BCCI who would never imagine taking of a Maharastrian out of the Indian team with Sharad Pawar ruling it.

What really is baffling is that though this collapse happened now, its premonitions were visible long long ago. We always boasted of the best batting line up, as we have many match winners, I mean many guys who have won matches independently, on their hay days. Apart from Sachin, Dravid, Ganguly and Yuvraj, not a single Indian batsman has the required technique to hold a cricket bat properly, let alone winning matches. Out of them, at 34 years age, Sachin is on a downward spiral, ganguly trying all his best to save his spot in the team, Yuvraj just recovering from an injury and Dravid, well I love him as a player but captaincy is eating up his playing abilities too. So that means, team India was to win the world cup with the Dhoni's. Sehwag's etc. Gosh, Isn't that stupid. Actually I realized Sehwag plays against only team's of his caliber, thats why he pummeled Bermuda. There was clearly the requirement of one batsman with god technique to hold the innings together. Someone who can perform when you want him to, someone who has a track record of doing well, and what is that person doing... he's sitting with us watching cricket with us as a true Indian fan, after being let down by the BCCI four times.. VVS Laxman. I am sure if India had laxman in the team, India wouldn't have faired so badly, cause unlike the icons of cricket like India has, he will perform when the team needs him, not when he wants to. But unfortunately team India has no place for players that play with pride and for the nation. And how on earth could Robin Uthappa be picked over Laxman, when India had decently good number of people to open the innings. India normally playes with ten people unlike eleven, as anyways Sehwag will not perform, with Uthappa in it seemed like we were playing with nine players! I don't intend to let down the young chap, he's good. But I wonder what Tendulkar was doing down at number 4 when the ball was swinging and wickets were crumbling in front of his eyes, surely he should have opened with Ganguly or Sehwag(well we can't remove him, he has a contract till he is 70 to play in the Indian team)and the other one coming at number 3, Laxman at number 4(or even 3), Yuvraj at 5, Dravid at 6 and Dhoni at 7. If Laxman failed Dravid would have been there to save the game, and vice versa. We only had match winners, no team players and thats why India failed miserably, and we blame the coach, the captain etc. In the bowling too, we had one more KAR, Agarkar. This guy deserved a boot from the Indian team long long ago, but well he is from the same state as oof the BCCI president. With Sreesanth and Irfan Pathan sitting on the bench, we have this guy throwing his ball here and there. Look at the opening bowling attacks of other teams and of India, its no wonder we could not pick wickets which even Bermuda could pick. In 2003, one of the strongest point of the Indian team, was the presence of 2 left arm seam bowlers,who were so different and worked well as a team. What in the world happened to Ashish Nehra? And even Irfan with some grooming or Sreesanth would have been a better bet than Agarkar. Irfan would have brought some depth into the batting and more choices too. Oops I forgot, they aren't from Maharastra, right.

So now with the last nail hitting Indian hopes with Bangladesh routing Bermuda, the head count will begin. Firstly, Chappel will go, after all he's the scapegoat. And maybe his tactics don't deserve to be used with a team less team. We need a coach that will groom individuals and provide them with safer haven, but not someone who tries grooming a team. Dravid might also been show the door, but unfortunately he doesn't have a proper replacement. I would hope and pray Dravid plays on, with Yuvraj being given the vice captaincy. And places of some players will be shaken, some younger guys will be coming in and lets hope they aren't made icons.

There still remain a thousand questions unanswered... Why doesn't the board prepare seaming and bouncy pitches in India? Out of the thousands of crores the BCCI earns, a few crores can change the shape of Indian pitches. But it cant risk team India loosing at home too, and that would dent its earnings. So we have cement grounds as pitches and hence, when we are overseas we fail.Why aren't younger players like Pathan etc not protected by not playing them in onedays? Oneday internationals can ruin a good cricketer with pressure. Why isn't the BCCI first reconstituted, enough of 'Pawar' play instead of Power play? Why isn't there more efficient selection systems for the zones and states also?

A similar situation happened in West Indies too about 2 decades ago, when great players like Vivian richards etc just stepped down from cricket. And those greats played like a team, but the nations that make the west Indies could not groom replacements for them. If we don't address these similarly grave issues, we could go down the downward spiral that west windies went into and take another 2 decades to start getting some international respect.