The defence of the 'Crown' was half hearted, more than knowledge of conditions our past reputation and self belief were to be the main weapons ... but once the leader of bowling attack limped out in the first session, things started going downhill. After two heavy defeats suddenly our talismanic leader was under attack, in the third test he responded with a couple of gutsy knocks. I noticed a tweet at the end of the test saying "finally India's captain showed up but sadly the rest of the team didnt" as we hurtled towards yet another heavy defeat.
More than defeat, the way we folded with minimal fight has led to a lot of talk. Perhaps some of the criticism is justified, we have done poorly no denying that, but the expectations were very high. Lot of the hype was created by media of course, but when a team is ranked no:1 in the world you do expect them to win more often than not. But again we all knew England was no pushover, beating Australia home and away is a feat unmatched in last few decades and add home advantage plus players peaking at right time. It made all the difference compared to India's unsettled lineup which was hampered by players not adapting , untimely injuries(we need to remember tht we played first two tests with just 3 bowlers) and sheer bad luck. Curiously some time back people were questioning the whole world no:1 thing saying the system was not proper. But suddenly in this series the whole world seems to think the ranking is all that matters and India is pilloried for doing injustice to world no:1 billing!
This is not a post aimed at criticizing Indian team nor justifying their capitulation. There are enough number of articles/people doing that. What captured my interest was the reaction of public to this, people of facebook, twitter, friends I keep in touch, colleagues in office and any random conversation I happen to hear in office cafeteria or while travelling to work.
Everyone is disgusted with the team and some swear not to follow cricket anymore, but quickly check the score at start of Indian batting to see if Viru might return with a bang! Everyone is clear on what is wrong, in fact a few days back I heard a lot of conversations questioning Dhoni's leadership ability and whether he merits a place in test team. This is a man who had never lost a test series before this tour and has the best track record for an Indian skipper and only one in a long time who seemed to be handling captaincy without letting it affect his batting. I dont think I need to waste any time pointing out his numerous successes but just how fickle is public memory! Just 3 months back when Dhoni smashed a six to seal the world cup people were cheering wildly, sporting "Bleed Blue" buttons and proclaiming from rooptops that we are champions and this is the best Indian team ever. But the moment they lose some matches people turn their back and start attacking the same guys. Again I'm not saying winning World cup means they dont need to win anything henceforth. But such drastic reactions are totaly unwarranted, media seems to be playing an active role in this with extremely critical articles in which reporters get very judgmental and sometimes seem to be worse than your average cricket fan. Also the opinions carried of former cricketers also fuel the fire with every 'expert' condemning team, so cant really blame the man on the street who thinks Dhoni lacks 'dynamism' as captain and needs to be replaced! Everyone has quick fix solutions and their own diagnosis of the problem. Funny thing is most of the problems noticed were there in the team for a long time now, with these very problems we became world no:1!
Its really strange, as a nation we go through life with zero accountability from all authorities and we hardly seem to care about the corruption, bad roads, poor administration and what not, but somehow demand total accountability from cricketers!
2 comments:
We are all media slaves. Either the billion slaves need to get wiser or the handful of media houses need to start doing their job.
Can't help it. 24/7 media gets its time. This is as abject as the 99-00 series in Australia when we were thoroughly destroyed.
Having said that, the bowling has been top-class from England. Their only weak link has been Swann and it's not like we have given him wickets. If you look at Anderson and Broad bowling in the SL series they did seem pretty indifferent. This series however, they seem hungry. There have been a lot of the 'unplayable' stuff, which is technically those that are more likely to get a wicket than anything else. You keen bowling there like McGrath did and eventually something will fall.
To give credit where it is due, Engand have bowled well and most importantly they've been at the other end of the spectrum - almost everyone hitting peak form and injuries getting in players who are also hungry. It helps that it is their home conditions. If Bhajji were injured in India, we could always draft in Ojha for the second spinner and get on with it perfectly fine.
About this England side, they seem a really good unit. But how good, we'll have to see only when they tour India or SA. You can't jump up and rank them as world beaters like the Aussies of Waugh or the 80's WI teams yet. They need to win in India, SA and in SL. Aussie test side is a spent force too from what we saw in the Ashes. So yes, they are not doing anything different than what Azhar's team did in 1993 against Eng in India. Am pretty surprised at the calls that this is the best test side in a long time etc. We can reserve judgement on that for later.
As for Dhoni, I think he is going through what every captain goes through. You can't always plan for mass injuries to key players. You just can't. The media is always unfair to the players, that's how it always has been. Can always say they could've given more fight and all that. Maybe, but I kinda feel they just want to pack their bags and come home. England have capitalized and been relentless.
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