What’s wrong, they crumbled like a pack of cards!

Ever since I started blogging over a year ago, Indian Cricket Team has not won a single Championship. And in the ongoing Twenty20 World Cup, India could not win a single match at the Super Eights stage. They are now returning home with the dubious distinction of being the last of the Super Eight teams in the world. Of course this is the same distinction they achieved for the country in 2009!

Our electronic and print media project our national cricket players as the mightiest in the world, despite all these regular defeats. Their endless debates and articles on Indian cricket quote individual records or some rare victories to present Indian Cricketers as super heroes.  They rarely project the long list of losses and non-performances, and this is obviously to satisfy the cricket loving viewers and increase their viewership and circulation. They made us believe that this year’s Twenty20 World Cup Championship is ours when we could not reach even the Semi-Finals stage and are at the last position – the eighth. After India lost to Australia and West Indies it was out of the Championship. But Indian media found all possible backdoor means and methods with lots of ifs and buts and mathematical calculations to project Dhoni’s team as certain World Champions. But with their third defeat, that is with Sri Lanka late in the night of 11th May they are not critical of the defeat or analyzing the team’s performance but are trying hard to blame the earlier IPL T20 matches for draining the spirit and talent of our cricketers and the selection of the team. Why has the all intelligent and powerful Indian media not come out with these probabilities, reasons and solutions before, so that India could finish with a respectable ranking if not the Championship. With inputs from the media we build glorious castles with our Cricketers and they crumble like a pack of cards for innumerable reasons which we are unable to solve.

BCCI should realize that pride of the nation is more important than making money out of Cricket. What we need is not individual record making players or prima donnas but teams that can put our country at least in the third position and not the last. BCCI should ensure that the players should dedicate more time to hone their skills with regular team practice under the best of coaches. In our country people mostly perform due to threat of losing an income. With all the money BCCI has, it has to find means to develop young upcoming players and axe the non-performing and arrogant seniors. Smaller and less populated countries like Sri Lanka, Pakistan, West Indies, South Africa, England and New Zealand have been constantly beating us; can we not find some answers from this simple truth to our defeats and disappointments?

Winning and losing is a part of any game but not being in the top three positions is a big disappointment.

Sincere thanks to the creators of these cartoons. They aptly reflect the feelings of a disappointed nation.