ICC World T-20 debacle: Mera bhaarat mahan!

Hi again. I am back. Your Great Indian Cricket Team Lover-Hater (=me) is back.

And this time, Im upset.

Not because we crashed out of the T20 WC 2010. Not because Gary Kirsten (finally) unleashed on the wannabe players in the squad. Not because the BCCI still looks unfazed and bored about all the controversies shrouding Indian cricket. Not because Dhoni might be sacked from his position as captain. (I am tired of just listing down all that’s wrong with Indian cricket right now, and I haven’t even come to the IPL yet)Also, not upset because Indian cricket suddenly has no standing in the world.

Doing all kinds of things, i guess they should jump from a cliff!

I am upset, because I am bored.

Bored of everything that I just mentioned, because it really is just a deja-vu. The latest T-20 debacle isn’t our first one, we already did that June last year. Gary Kirsten’s outburst against the slackers in the team isn’t recent either. Similar reports had indeed emerged in the past, before the BCCI gagged Gary and rather dubiously, but efficiently ensured that none of the Indian dressing room’s frailties would be known to the world. The lesser said about the BCCI, the better. For all you know, they might just gag every website that writes about them. Given their financial clout, nothing for them is impossible.

Yes, Indian cricket had a pre-Dhoni era, and we could go back to it if the BCCI decides so. With the ongoing unofficial probation bridled on Dhoni, it isn’t exactly unimaginable that the Indian team will travel to Sri Lanka this June with a new captain for the Asia Cup. And no, that mostly won’t be a young, promising player who ought to be groomed for captaincy; it could well be Virender Sehwag, if he accepts the thorned crown of Indian captaincy, or scapegoats Gautam Gambhir or Suresh Raina.

But what about ME? I am BORED!

Mind it!

I am your quintessential passionate Indian cricket fan. I stay up late nights to watch a match in the Carribean, and wake up at 3 AM to catch one in Australia. I adore my team’s talent, and pop about 10 abuses per delivery to the opposition player(s). I refer to the boys by their nicknames (Tendlya is my favourite; Mishy for Amit Mishra- I don’t like). Sometimes, I forget to take a meal or make a call, because I was too busy trying to crack what Bhajji was saying to the batsman. I am all the drama and the works that a typical Indian cricket fan really is.

And therefore, Im thoroughly disturbed and disgusted by all the happenings that define Indian cricket right now. Like I said earlier, the T20 exit hasn’t perturbed me much, since it was more or less expected given the team that was sent. Add to it the perennial couldn’t-care-less attitude of our ‘youth brigade’ and the rare captaincy blunders that Dhoni committed, survival through the Super-8′s itself became a mini-victory. Not that I endorse the exit, but I really genuinely didn’t expect this team to do well in the Carribean, and thus I am unaffected by their early back-door re-entries into the country. What does hurt however, is the Team itself.

My mad mad boys!

It’s just sad that Gary Kirsten has to coach the team he does. The South African legend deserves a whole deal better, and I don’t mean it in terms of just performance. It’s okay to drop a catch, miss a run-out, or get smacked for 36 runs in a single over. All teams at some point have players who’re going to be hammered by the opposition; most teams have more than half of the line-up filled with such players (England’s T20 team in 2007, for example). Hence, it’s okay if Jadeja is taken to the cleaners in both his matches, or Yusuf Pathan can’t live up to the expectations from him. Their lacklustre performances are clearly a short-term niggle, and the easiest way to sort them out is to pick newer players in the team as replacements. What is, however, a bother, is the attitude of the Indian team.

As I have written before, there’s no denying that this team is over-hyped, within the country and outside it. I also held them not-responsible for the same, because they don’t choose to endorse Pepsi or MAK Lubricants; the companies want them, the advertisers want them. I also mentioned that the nation treats them as demi-gods. And there’s no denying it’s gotten to them.

The Team, is definitely lost. It’s vulnerability is exposed, and the chinks in the Indian armour lie open for everyone to target.Technicalities up first; they can’t play the short ball, can’t field to save their life, and have a new ball attack that could possibly crumble against a school cricket team. MS Dhoni does nothing to deny that his side can’t play the short ball, albeit appreciates their ability to play spin. As a captain, he has done, and continues to do enough to defend his team from the media’s brickbats, which can hurt a side that looks down on confidence and unsure of itself.

Ishant Making great progress!

Indian fielding standards have always been below par, and the influx of youth in the Team consequently brought with it a surge of hope for better field business, which was obviously – as we’ve seen over the past few months- a huge let down. Indian fielding has always been a touch-and-go issue, and it would be safe to say that Indian bowlers in the past accustomed themselves -and even altered their bowling styles- to a quality of fielding that would never match that of the opposition. The bowling attack, of late, has looked queasy without a spearhead to guide it. Anil Kumble’s retirement in 2008 could well be where it started from, but Zaheer Khan and Harbhajan Singh have disappointed with their apparent lack of leadership qualities -and it’s only the bowling they’ve to control, really!

These nettles are an inherent part of Indian cricket. Captains have come and gone, players have changed, records made and broken, but these three problems remain a part of the Indian Cricketing Family. An important change though, that has made these problems credible is the new Indian team at fore. More specifically, their attitude towards these problems.

Sunil Gavaskar feels the Team ought to get back to the NCA and practice playing against the short ball. That doesn’t seem like a very liable option -why would a Yuvraj want to humiliate his reputation by going back to an academy where he played his under-19 cricket? Won’t that make him look small? Defeated? And obviously the Prince of Punjab doesn’t want to look that. Hence the apprehension attached to the suggestion.

And I feel as much pity for Mike Young as I do for Gary, if not more. At least Gary is used to all the gaffes that Indian cricket is. Why, the Team even won a couple of tournaments for him, just as consolation. Mike Young was thrust into the Indian cricketing arena in a way that surprised him as much as the viewers. I am not too sure his arrival has affected Indian cricket in a way he would like, yet if Yuvraj’s shift from point to mid-off was his call, then I am backing the man to stay on. Just for the sake of more such decisions – if you can’t do away with the fielding position, do away with the fielder. Touche. Only Yuvraj doesn’t seem to be very bothered -maybe that’s because his almost-ancestral fielding position went to his prodigies Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma?

Me and my sisters!

Zaheer Khan and Harbhajan Singh look out of sorts without a senior to guide them. But with 10 and 12 years of experience behind them, one is compelled to wonder how many years more they have to go before they assume the role that Anil Kumble and Javagal Srinath did within almost 5 years of their international careers. Ishant Sharma and Sudeep Tyagi have not lived up to their domestic reputations, and Pragyan Ojha and Amit Mishra are constantly overlooked by the selectors. What hits hard below the belt is that neither Ishant nor Sudeep appear to care. They’re busy playing in the IPL and updating their facebook statuses and profile pictures, instead of playing in a domestic tournament or two.

And our oh-so-prolific bowling all-rounder Jadeja changed his profile picture, and added three pretty looking women to his facebook list, before boarding the flight back home. The Indian bowling is, as it has always been, awry and in the shambles. As a fan, I can only hope that we don’t witness a crumbled attack bowling in the 2011 World Cup at home, but then, when did Indian cricket promise to live up to our hopes anyway?

And this was why I am bored.

Same story; day in, day out. Lagged, lazy, unfit, fat cricketers. Vulnerable, targetted, defending captain. Exasperated, irritated, gagged coach. Unaccountable, silent, evasive cricket board. Angry, harsh, corrective critics. Hopeful, deflated, ashamed, hopeless, let down cricket fans. Indian cricket fans.