India is out !! Who is responsible ?!!

The title reflects the frustration of Indian fans, who've waited four years for another glimpse of an Indian victory... But little did they know what was in store !! Let's here it from one amazing fan, who happens to be one of the prime followers of Indian Cricket...

India is out of the world cup leaving millions of disappointed fans and few suicides. The discussion in drawing rooms, chats, mails, etc continues to be cricket as it has been for the past month in the buildup of world cup.

However the topic has now shifted from "whether India would win" to "who should be blamed for the defeat". Discussions range from Dravid’s flawed captaincy to Chappell’s experimentation to Sachin’s no show in the two crucial games to the hundreds of ads the cricketers are doing nowadays.

But what are the real reasons? Perhaps the answers are not so easy. All over world top sports persons earn more money single-handedly than the whole Indian team. Eg. Ronaldinho, Federer, Woods and Beckham. And their performance on the field does not seem to vary with their brand commitments.

One factor the Indian public seems to ignore for the debacle is BCCI itself. No doubt that BCCI has always given best of facilities to the Indian team but that has got more to do with the money involved in cricket rather than anything else.

But this involvement of huge money along with the glamour quotient is what is causing the involvement of politics & politicians in BCCI. Since India has failed to make it to super 8, the people in BCCI have been blaming the captain and coach and players, but they are careful not to raise anything on the way BCCI is run. A good case in point here is that even before there is a review meeting on 6th and 7th April on the debacle, Sharad Pawar has unilaterally announced that India would have 2 teams now India seniors and India blue (reference to Pepsi??) so that youngsters would get enough experience. This decision not only seems to be an arbitrary and knee jerk reaction, but an immature one too. After all who is Sharad Pawar (a man who has not played cricket at any level) to decide how the team is run. There are scores of other examples where the involvement of BCCI is seen. For example Indian team has a new manager on every tour and it is a prize posting to people who are in good books of BCCI ruling junta. BCCI president was supposed to leave for WI with 30 other officials (had India made it to super 8’s), ostensibly to cheer team India up. One can only wonder why such a large contingent is needed and whether the cricketers would really have been interested to party with board officials. Also, all major cricket boards have their headquarters at one place or the other. BCCI meetings are held all over the country and sometimes abroad also. I don’t know how much does all this cost.

90% of the money in world cricket is generated from subcontinent. Therefore is it not little confusing that the best stadiums and facilities for the practice are found in Australia and England. Why can’t we have all the giant replay screens and better stadiums like they do?

In any field, the best way forward is to look at the leader and benchmark your practices against theirs. Indian team and board can hence, look at the Australian system and see what makes the Australian team better than ours. A robust domestic system, better pitches and more international exposure for domestic players by allowing 2-3 members in a Ranji team to be foreign players would serve Indian cricket better by making Indian cricketers better experienced and mentally tough (one area in which Indian team seems to lag miles behind Australian team).

Guest Editor : Vivek Gawri
(Thanks Vivek, for this lovely article, and for keeping the blog alive :))