India is playing good cricket for last few years. Not only the stats but the quality is also justifying the same. And the credit goes to the bunch of young cricketers. The competition has forced the seat warmers and lifetime berth owners to stay on their toes and perform. This is working in the favor of the team, and we are performing.
But again if we see the records, the performance delivered so far, was in the competition involving 2 or 3 teams (And was good enough to jump at the top…...tragedy). But what about the Tournaments where we were competing against more than 3 or 4 teams? Except the T20 WC win in South Africa 2007, we didn’t turn up to the expectations of our people. In the last 5 years we participated in quite number of ICC competitions, the 3 T20 WC's, a 50 over WC, Champion's Trophy, Asia Cup, however apart from the final berth in Asia Cup 2008 and T20 win in 07, we have completely bogged while facing serious competition. Our strong batting tigers on papers remained on papers and on the days they performed, the bowlers turned up to contribute to the loss.
And the West Indies T20 WC was no exception. Again the team was out (rather thrown out…...) of the competition in the similar fashion, what they did in 2009. We Indians are really good at repeating things again and again, don’t we, even though we know that we are not supposed to? Many things have been spoken about the Indians early exit from the competition. Tedious schedule of IPL, lack of team bonding, list of unfit players, inability to tackle short pitch deliveries blah blah blah. And I believe all the reasons cumulatively were responsible factors. Were the frequent parties necessary in IPL? Shouldn’t the players be responsible for there fitness? Don’t we think over cricket is ruining us? Our captain said just before the WC T20, the long schedule of IPL wont affect their performance and the kind of form Indian players are, we are likely to perform better. Then what happen to us on the judgment day. After the tournament he contradicted the statement saying long schedule did the faith (I think he needs to record his statements and preserve for future references). IPL was fun, but the overdose lost the taste. The format should be given a second thought and the number of games should be reduced. BCCI must have learnt a lesson, no selection unless you are completely fit. And why can’t we find a solution for the short ones. We need to implement some plan to overcome this weakness. And I think the people sitting out there are smart enough to understand all these issues.
The most important factor, we need to understand that its time to reduce the kind of pressure these players are facing. They are not a software to function right all the time. They are not machines to work hours and days without resting. They are humans with few limitations. And if given a chance to grow under right circumstances, will come up with the right and required results. Now for the Tri series with Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe, the board has come up with the new combination. Hope they flourish and provide few more options for the Selectors. The 10th WC is approaching and we need to have the best team to compete. Its gonna be on our home turf and we need to deliver our best. All the Best ............Team India
