I can hardly remember an occasion when I have been pained to see India play. This time round I was. India was listless, lacklustre and deflated. It hurt all the more because we were expecting the side to make the semi-finals, if not defend the crown. A much vaunted batting line up literally collapsed each time they went out to play and a skipper, who till recently had the ?midas? touch looked jaded throughout. It was an Indian team that looked completely un-Indian.
Many have said we overreact if the team loses. Perhaps we do. However, we are the ones who parade the team round Mumbai and present them with crores of rupees if they return home victorious. If super stardom is acceptable and praise of this nature isn?t an overreaction, criticism, however stinging it is, cannot be decreed over the top as well. There?s little doubt that we are an emotional country and we take our players very seriously. It is because of us that television companies pay the billions they pay to the board. It is because of us that the International Cricket Council perceives India as the proverbial golden goose. Also, it is because of us that Mahendra Singh Dhoni is worshipped in Jharkhand. It is we who create heroes. If heroes haven?t played to potential, there?s little we can do but call them fallen angels.
Interestingly, the Indians weren?t able to counter the real fast short pitched stuff in their first two super eight games. Fidel Edwards and Jerome Taylor made a mess of Suresh Raina and company in the first game and the English bowled 46% short balls to India at Lords in the do or die encounter. Justifying their billing as flat track bullies, the Indians weren?t able to counter the pace and bounce and got knocked out. What followed was even more comical. At Trentbridge against South Africa, the South African spinners, who aren?t the greatest by any stretch of imagination, made the Indians look like novices. The result was yet another dismal capitulation. In effect, it turned out to be a team that wasn?t able to negotiate the fast stuff, nor was it able to negotiate spin. For such a vaunted batting line up, it couldn?t get worse.
The question then is: where does Indian T-20 cricket go from here? Victories in the one day fifty over format against the West Indies in the coming weeks can?t just heal the wounds of this defeat. The two formats simply don?t compare. In fact, while we have played really well in the Test and fifty over formats over the last year or so, our T-20 performance has consistently gone downhill. With the next T-20 World Cup just nine months away, it starts in the Caribbean on 30 April 2010, fast relief should be the order of the day. Should the players play the 14 Games of the Indian Premier League in March-April 2010 just days before the World Cup or should they, as coach Gary Kirsten says, leave the lure of the IPL for the sake of national duty? The club versus country debate will rule Indian cricket circles for the next nine months. Having promoted the IPL and having garnered tremendous praise for doing so, the BCCI will find it hugely difficult to sacrifice the tournament for reasons of nationalism. On the other hand, yet another dismal T-20 in the Caribbean and the BCCI will find itself in an unfamiliar territory with fans tending to move away from the game.
For me personally, there can?t just be a comparison. Nationalism should always come first. Nothing compares to seeing players play with India written on their chests. For the Board, however, things are different. The lure of the dollar is equally strong amidst the gloom of recession.
In playing the way they have, Dhoni and co, have opened up a series of questions, which look like having no immediate answers. In fact, they aren?t any less difficult than the question?is Dhoni?s honeymoon with the captaincy over as well?
The writer is a cricket historian