Indian Cricket – My View

Indian Cricket team has generally evoked some strong emotions from all insane Indians like us. We just love to hate this game and the more we hate – the more we talk about it and the more we talk about it – the more we hate it. There is a special bonding between this set/bunch of 15 different players at different times and this bond keeps getting stronger. Did you notice the word “Hate” in the above sentences? Well – that is only because we just lost a major tournament. This word will be replaced with “Love” in all the above sentences the moment our team wins a major tournament again. Till then – “Hate” expression is “in”.

Post mortem has begun and has indeed been going on for some time now on the “whys and hows” of our loss in the 2007 World Cup. I had been disturbed by some blatantly atrocious views of people. Well, I had to go back to some statistics/figures to really look for answers. Unfortunately, not many News channels, experts and the big talking analysts have cared to go into the statistics of Indian performances in the last year and hence all their arguments are bordering on vagueness and their own personal choices. I have collated some data for you to ponder. Once you have seen the statistics ask yourself – did we really look like a team that could win a major tournament? I hope the statistics would show you why I even bothered to collect them. And mind you – I have taken all the One-day series that India has played under our “Great” coach Greg Chappell. Read on.

First Series under Greg Chappell:

-          In Aug 2005: India Tour to Zimbabwe:                  ODI Played – 7; Won – 5

Rahul Dravid named the new captain, replacing Saurav Ganguly:

-          In Oct-Nov 2005: Sri Lanka tour to India: ODI Played – 7; Won – 6

-          In Nov-Dec 2005: South Africa tour to India:         ODI Played – 5; Won – 2

-          In Feb 2006: India tour to Pakistan:                      ODI Played – 5; Won – 4

-          In Mar-Apr 2006: England tour to India:                 ODI Played – 7; Won – 5

All seemingly going well for India while playing IN India (exception being the Pakistan series). Now check the following trend from May 2006 onwards:

-          In May 2006: Indian tour to West Indies:               ODI Played – 5; Lost - 4

-          In Aug 2006: Indian tour to Sri Lanka:                   ODI Played – 3; Abandoned – 3
In Sep 2006: Indian tour to Malaysia (DLF Trophy with West Indies and Australia as other teams):                                                ODI Played – 4; Lost – 3

-          In Oct 2006: Champions Trophy in India:             ODI Played – 4; Lost – 3

-          In Nov-Dec 2006: Indian tour to South Africa:       ODI Played – 4; Lost – 4

Return of Saurav Ganguly

-          In Jan 2007: West Indies tour to India:                  ODI Played – 4; Won – 3

-          In Feb 2007: Sri Lankan tour to India:                   ODI Played – 3; Won – 2

World Cup 2007

-          In Mar 2007: World Cup:                          ODI Played – 3; Lost – 2

Let me ask you again then – did we really look like a team (with the past performances listed above) that could win? Do you see a trend in the above statistics? Warning bells should have started ringing from May 2006 itself. Don’t you agree? Look at the figures given above all over again. C’mon there is no rocket science here. The figures “are”, and dare I say, “were” glaring at us for last 10-11 months. Our wonderful people in Selection Committee and the great BCCI kept following the famous Gandhian principles (The one’s that tell us not to “look”, not to “say” and not to “hear”) and hence never rose (in unison) against this falling trend. And when they did – it was too late. The damage had been summarily done.

Before I move on, let us also recollect the reasons/logic that Greg Chappell, his stooge Rahul Dravid (who also is our Team’s Captain still – unfortunately) and the Lilliputian “Chairman of Selectors” of those times (our very own “Vibhishan”, Kiran More) gave to the country for persisting with the members of the losing team, series after series; losses after losses. They said – “…We need to build the nucleus of a young team and we need to persist with them to give them confidence…”. We were also told about the records of some of these youngsters, and how the team consists of Match Winners and how well they had performed “earlier”. We were told that the young members had “class” and they will succeed “inevitably”. Class? Hmmm… This bunch of classy players (that these people accumulated) sadly never delivered the “inevitable”. Huh. We were banking on players who were not able to score a single 50 in more than 2 years? Or the bowlers who had not taken a five wicket haul in more than a year or so? On top of everything – they kept playing some atrociously average players in the name of them being younger and better fielders than the one’s being ignored for selection. They kept playing this bunch of non-performing idiots for five continuous series (from May 2006 onwards) without even contemplating the repercussions of their actions. They lived in hope of performance, which (looking at the “class” of the players we were “persisting” with) was evidently not going to come through.

I have my own thoughts on the subject and I hope you will spare sometime to read them.

So, we did go wrong, but where?

Firstly, I think we lost time by NOT dropping the non-performers straight away. However young a team member is – if he is not able to perform with the bat and/or bowl – he will not win you matches “regularly” with his fielding ability alone – however great he is on the field. And no, we still do not have anyone like Jonty Rhodes in our ranks – so stop dreaming. Moreover, even if you had a brilliant fielder – you also needed him to contribute either with bat or bowl. Even Rhodes used to score an odd 50 and a hundred while batting and was lightening-quick in scoring those runs. I mean what is the point of having a good fielding side when they can’t bat or bowl when required of them? I am sorry to say – but by saving 10 runs (at an average) per match and by scoring only 10-15 runs (at an average) makes your score only 25-30. I don’t think these are enough runs against a player’s name to justify his selection in any international team. And the likes of Suresh Raina, Venugopal Rao, Md Kaif etc looked out of the major league frankly. They SHOULD have been dropped in favor of either Saurav Ganguly right in middle of 2006 and/or replaced with some other so-called “younger” players. Similarly, Zaheer Khan should have been brought long back into the team. Irfaan and Ajit Agarkar type of bowlers should have been dropped. But we persisted with them, and persisted too long, at the cost of the team’s interest.

Secondly, I strongly felt we should have thought of removing Greg Chappell as a coach or at the least should have asked him to fall in line, to bring back some sensible order to the team’s progress. I have had some strong feelings about this man from day one of his assignment and have always felt that his acceptance of assignment as Indian Team’s coach had more to do than met our eyes. I have always had this uncomfortable feeling about him as if he was out here on a mission to destroy the winning combination that we had till the last world cup (2003). I will try and justify to you the basis for such thoughts. History shows that by 2003 – we were the ONLY side that looked like the one that could beat Australia. We were the number 2 ODI Team in the world, and were closing in on Australia. But – as history will also record – it took just one wrong move from the BCCI to destroy the fabric of that team and made it into one of the worst today. As is famously said - He came, he destroyed and he left. Yes Sir, he destroyed the Number 2 side of the world and converted them into a bunch of losers by the time he left. As any tactician would tell you, the best way to demoralize/destroy a group is to kill or deface the leader/most popular man in that group. Well, Mr. Greg started his stint with some unsavory comments about Sachin Tendulkar. Unfortunately, he picked the wrong guy to target and had to retract as soon as he landed in India for his assignment. He then picked the Captain of the team and called him all the “names” that any honorable man would not tolerate. He publicly humiliated him by “leaking” the famous “e-mail” and gave a couple of interviews, which he later conveniently disowned as not being his. All this was done to firmly set an impression in front of the world of a mad man in charge of the Indian team. Things would still not have gone bad had our board/selectors seen the cleverly orchestrated moves of this brilliant tactician and had thwarted his attempts by either continuing with Saurav Ganguly as captain or removing Greg as coach. None of that happened though and that for me was one of the major turning points in the history of Indian cricket. Saurav was humiliated and removed. Greg Chappell was praised for his outlook and “Vision” for Indian cricket. He then went on to continue to play and support the bunch of some non-performing players till the very last. Backing them in the name of his now famous “Process”. It will hence not be an exaggeration to say that the much talked about “Process” of his, was primarily meant to break this Indian team into a lame unit, filled with ever conniving team members with average abilities and in the “process” making an energetic fighting unit into a bunch of losers. Today he has left the job he had undertaken 18 months back, satisfied in the thought that he has done what he had come for. Just look back at his backing for Irfaan Pathan, Suresh Raina, Md. Kaif (till the very end), Virendra Sehwag, VRV Singh and even Harbhajan Singh. Perhaps then you would start seeing this the way I look at it. And friends, do not forget that his backing for such players was not limited to a game or two. It went on for match after match, series after series, till such time that a new Chairman of Selectors had to shut him up and force the return of Zaheer Khan, Anil Kumble and Saurav Ganguly. But again, this happened too late and too close to the start of the World Cup 2007 and hence was rendered almost ineffective. We lost badly in the World cup. Thus, Greg’s mission, of bringing down the side that had challenged the Australians (our Coach’s motherland) in the last world cup was successfully achieved. With his job done – he promptly resigned and is happily on his way back home – satisfied and content. We, however, are left back collecting the ruins lying around. We still have not gather enough courage to blame him for the loss and the BCCI has (strangely) gone ahead and showered praise on this man for his vision, his help, his gestures, his methods, his co-operation etc etc. Has anyone asked them a simple question – “Why”? Are they scared that he will write a book and expose the lethargic functioning of BCCI and hence don’t want to instigate him? I mean on one hand we put all the curbs we can on the players who play the game and shower praises on the Coach of the side who incidentally is, for me, THE primary reason for the shocking state of Indian cricket today. And yes, for people who feel a coach is helpless if the team does not perform on the field, I say – shut up. I mean, how can we take this crap? If the coach cannot go and play in the middle, he cannot inspire the players to play well, he cannot help the players struggling for form, he cannot help the team bond together and win – what is he good for anyways, only to make impressive presentations? Why have a coach at all then? I am sorry, but such argument feigns cowardly traits. How long can we take such sick arguments anyways? Strange. Absolutely bewildering to say the least!

Thirdly, as is very evident – the BCCI and the selection committee should accept the blame and apologize to the people of this country. They spend time in politicking rather than doing something worthwhile for the benefit of the game. The spineless people who are part of the BCCI and the selection committee should either resign or alternatively, they should get their act together to come up with “meaningful” steps to kick-start a new beginning for Indian Cricket. We Indians however have lost all sense of that “famed” moral value that we once possessed (and for you who don’t agree to this judgment can look in the mirror and tell themselves that they do). Hence, to expect these scoundrels to vacate the space for more honorable people would be a futile exercise. So the least we can expect them to do is that they do something sensible for the good of the game. To take one example of how spineless they can get – consider what happened in 2005. The bunch of selectors in 2005 and 2006 were really a shameless bunch. I mean, they did not flinch even once before disowning their own player in favor of a damn Australian, who we could see was conspiring against our own Captain. As I have already noted above and as I am sure history will record - that one act (of removing Saurav Ganguly, both as Captain and as a player, at the insistence of Greg) created the much talked about rift in the team. A team that was known to have gelled together pretty well till then suddenly became a disjointed unit. The originators of the famous “huddle” were lying in ruins. And all this was because our selectors believed too strongly in the “Atithi Devo Bhava” slogan. A typical case of we Indians putting our tails between our legs and running after everything that a foreigner threw at us – and yes – with our tongues hanging out. It is often said – an ally of a conspirator is an equal party to a shameful act and hence these selectors (Rahul Dravid included) cannot escape that blame. We perhaps are the ONLY country in the world that followed advices of a Foreigner coach to crush our own heroes. And the likes of Ganguly, Tendulkar are heroes of this generation, have no doubt about that. Its no wonder then that people are scared to be named as heroes in this country now. No body would want to live in the fear of being conspired against and stabbed. Would they? I felt awful seeing our new Captain and that Lilliputian, Kiran More, demeaning our own cricketing heroes at the insistence of a foreigner. I could not help but feel disgusted. The feeling of repugnance I am sure was same for all the freedom loving Indians during the British rule, when they would see the Britishers using our own men to beat us up – making it more humiliating. Such Indians are a disgrace to the nation and anyone who supports them are adding to the disgraceful powers.

Fourthly, the great media cannot escape the “honor” of being major party to the sad state of cricket in India. These people are in the habit of grabbing any quote from a foreigner and justify the claims made by him/her. “Atithi Devo Bhava” again? Hmmm… Lets take a few examples of how they have contributed to the conspiracy. When Greg said “…Tendulkar is over and finished as a great player” – these media men ran around the world to look for the opinion of the former players. Aired those that corroborated Greg’s comments. They went ahead and did their own analysis. They juggled around with a lot of figures to finally conclude that Sachin was “indeed” not good enough anymore and should finally rest his bat. And mind you, this was way back in 2005 when Greg took over. Take another instance. Greg said – “We need to build the nucleus of the team with young players. Such young players would be more athletic and hence be better fielders”. Well, this was too long a statement to give to Indian Media anyways. The circus started immediately! These “we know all” type of Media men started jumping around. They collected some irrelevant data and deciphered them in their own way to show to the world how ineffective our senior players were and how poor our fielding was (again mind you, these same players had reached the Finals of the World cup just a year or so back). After all the heavily loaded analysis they concluded that Aah! These senior pros were indeed tortoises and hence should be removed. And here, seniors meant only Ganguly and Kumble. All the others like Rahul, Sachin, Sehwag were oh such swift fielders!! I mean, these media people can go to any length to make or break an image of a person. And to support them in their mission, there are any numbers of past players who are ready to say what the channels want them to. That gives credibility to media’s lopsided, unjustified reports/analysis. In all this, we should not overlook how effectively Mr. Greg used the powers of our media. All his e-mails, SMS, “personal views” to personal friends are part of now folklore stories. With the players not able to clarify their stand (due to gags against speaking to media) – Greg was free to play his games in getting his way. I must say here, the electronic media in India is lecherous. They need to be reminded of that famous old saying – With great powers come greater responsibilities. There is nothing much that can be said otherwise.

And finally, we as the patrons of the game are as much responsible for the state of Indian cricket today. Why – if I may ask, should we be so critical of the team that has but lost couple of games in a given tournament? Is it the fault of players that we did not see “it” (the loss) coming? We should have been more conscious of the statistics – shouldn’t we? Why blame the cricketers alone? That they were not playing well for a long-long time was there for everyone to see. If you still penned your hopes on them – it was your fault really. Why blame them so much? Again, why, if I may ask, are we jealous of the money they earn? Isn’t it ridiculous? How does it matter to anyone of us even if they earn billions? Have they ever questioned your earnings? You never give a damn about the companies that you jump around for 30-40% hikes? Why? If someone were to question you on the reasons that you left an “X” company to join a “Y” company – you would be shameless enough to tell everyone that “Y” offered you more money and hence you jumped the job. So? It is ok for you to get the right of earning as much money as you want – but not for these players? How lecherous can we get really? This is too bloody much. Also, are we all foolish enough to buy the argument that the players don’t perform well because they spend their time doing advertisements? I mean foolishness would be a mild word if you indeed would want to believe such crap. The problem is, we always believe that “we” are the people with best attitude and that our cricketers just don’t care about winning. Again, are you really of that mindset? Get yourself checked for devil’s sake. We will never know the feeling that one goes through while representing one’s own country. That is simply because most of us have never done that. So just stop questioning a player’s commitment to the team and their genuine efforts to win a given game. Look around friends, the game of cricket has changed and changed a lot. Haven’t you noticed? Gone are the days of players with 5’4”-5’8” height. Today cricket has become of game of powerful men, men who are taller and who are stronger. The talented, small sized players will win you some of the matches once in a while – but to win consistently – you need more players with good physique. Look at Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, England – they are teams with players who are almost all over and above 6 ft. Another proof of what I am saying is the list of top 10 raters in batting and bowling (in ICC ranking). They are 95% players who are physically well built and stronger. Till we find such players, we shall continue to have our bad days more often then the good ones. Getting the picture? Stop blaming the players for not trying then. They are just not physically up to the “changed” international standards at the moment. Can’t you see? So what do we do then? Throw away all the players at one shot would be your answer – wouldn’t it? But I say – No. Persist with the best in the lot and wait for that special talent to come through the ranks and then go about winning consistently. To demean a player is never the solution. They have worked hard to be a part of the Indian cricket team and they deserve respect for all the hard work that they must have put in to reach that level. If we keep abusing the players as we do in times of distress, and if we keep bullying them – they would be ashamed of being an Indian. Do you really want them to feel that because of your act of vendetta that you perpetuate on their honor? I say, be guarded against any attempt to question the morality, the commitment and the honor of players who represent the nation on our behalf. Put yourself in their place and perhaps you will know what they must go through when you raise such venomous slogans and noxious abuses on them. The least we can do is to have reasonable expectations from our players, and being their patron, be a part of their sorrow as much as you are a part of their happiness. Treat them with respect that they truly deserve and if we can’t do the basic minimum of showing respect – we better shut our mouth for good. And hey, stop talking about the constitutional rights of freedom of speech. If the makers of the Constitution knew that this nation would someday have poisonous creatures like us – they would never have allowed such a fundamental right to be a part of constitution. So shut up.

I can also go on and talk about the players and their performances that led to our losing the matches. But I do realize that no one has suffered more than the players and they know they have not done justice to their own talent and as a result have missed a big chance. I won’t dwell into that aspect anymore than is already obvious.

What can we do now?

Well for starters – stop thinking of being like Australians. You can’t be like an Australian when you are born in India and vice-versa. I don’t think Australians ever tried to be like West Indians when they started re-building their teams just because West Indies were the world-beaters then. They devised their own methods to succeed. And so should we. We can and we should build the team our own way. Again, there is no need for an Australian to tell us what to do.

It is time we learnt from the fate of our National Game, Hockey. We were world champions in Hockey till 70s. We had the artistry and the skill like no one else. Europeans came along and changed the way the game was played. The game became faster and more physical. We tried to keep pace with them and won some games through our skilled and artistic moves. But that was not to last for long. We started losing pretty much regularly over a period of time. We then thought of playing the way the Europeans did and started to imitate their training schedules and tried to match their speed. But their physical abilities were superior to us and hence we found that we could not keep up the energy levels for the entire game. So we then did the next best thing, we hired a European coach to learn some European tricks. That move failed miserably. Today we are in a state where we no more have the natural ability that we had in this great game of hockey, the artistry and craftsmanship have vanished, the skill has all but deserted our players and on top of that we have still not found stronger players to match the physical strength of European players. The result is – we mostly end up playing for last two positions in major tournaments. Reasons for me are very obvious; perhaps we were wrong in trying to replicate the methods of Europeans on ourselves. They could never have the skills in Hockey that we had in those times and hence they devised their own strategies (that rested more on the physical abilities and faster game, than rellying on crafty moves) to beat us. Lesson to be learnt here is perhaps to go back to our roots and pick up people who have the good old hockey skills and who are physically stronger. An Indian Hockey team with 5-6 physically strong, tall men and the remaining team having the best of hockey skills would be ideal match-winning combination for an Indian team. Till we do that – we will lose more than we win.

If we understand this, and put the lessons learnt in hockey to cricket, we shall be on the right path to start with. MRF Foundation created to train budding talent has been running in India for more than a decade and Dennis Lillee has been coaching there for all those years. We still don’t have a tear-away fast bowler in our ranks – do we? Hence, lets look at what best we can do with the players that we produce. That would give us some answers. In the quest of being like someone else – we are leaving our own identity behind and in a sense ridiculing our own abilities that are on offer. It is time we should start trusting our own selves really. It is time we re-invent that love for the game and stop looking at all things in black and white. Give the players who represent us in the team the respect and support they need and you will see that we will start producing better cricketers and better results in future. These people like Sachin, Saurav, Dravid, Kumble have given better part of their life to bring joy to our lives. Give them a chance to help resurrect themselves. We will son be among the top teams once again – there never was any doubt about that and there never should be any doubt even today.

Would like to end with an appeal though. All I would like to say is, it would be appreciated if you all were to be more cautious before demeaning your own countrymen (our own players in the current context) – especially when they are themselves demoralized. It does not reflect any good on us when viewed by the international community. Don’t also jump to adverse conclusions about your own people just because a foreigner tells you so. Cricketers in India have brought enough happiness in our lives. It is terrible on our part not to show our gratitude to them for such wonderful memories that they have given us. If we keep making their life miserable every time they lose – I am sure the parents of today will not encourage their kids to take up this wonderful sport (as has already happened to Hockey). That would, for me, be suicidal for the future of this sport in our country.

And finally, I hope I won’t be writing 15 years down the line repenting the state of cricket as a sport then, because of some insensitive handling of our cricketing heroes in this era. Let us save Indian Cricket from going the Hockey way. Its up to us

Think about it.

Mantosh Singh..

10^th Apr 2007’