Too much cricket: The most brilliant excuse ever created

Dhoni blames 'too much cricket' only when the team loses

India captain MS Dhoni is among those few people who see the face of failure very rarely. Some attribute Dhoni’s success to his cool head, some give credit to his good luck and the rest credit the team Dhoni has got as a captain for all the successes. Whatever may be the reason of Dhoni’s success, the only reason of his failure is ‘too much cricket’. At least, Dhoni believes so. Dhoni who seems to be out of form as a batsman, keeper and the captain in the current series blamed the phenomenon of ‘too much cricket’ for the failure of team India. MS Dhoni wants us to believe that ‘cramped schedule and lack of rest’ caused the embarrassing losses. Dhoni, after the second defeat in as many games in the ongoing test series, said in the press meet,

[quote]Somebody said time is of essence here. We came straight from the Caribbean and didn’t have time to play more than one (practice) game. So we are playing seven and not four matches back-to-back. It is a continuation of the West Indies tour and we haven’t really had a gap. You need to prepare differently (for England tour). In this respect the next 10 days are very important[/quote]

No doubt, rest is always a boost for any team but is the schedule really taxing? Or is this whole ‘too much cricket’ argument nothing but the most brilliant excuse ever created? Let’s see.

The reason I doubt Indian captain’s argument is that this poor scheduling is the only point he makes whenever he fails. Remember MSD’s response after Team India’s humiliating exit from the last T20 world cup. It was the IPL which was scheduled just before the T20 world cup got all the blame for the poor performance. Dhoni even went a step further to blame the after match parties of IPL for the fatigue in the players that caused India’s early exit from the world T20. But the only problem with this excuse of ‘too much cricket’ is that this argument is only made when India loses but never when it wins. If cramped schedule indeed wears out the players, then how the same ‘tired’ players win tournaments for you?

Let’s take an example. If cramped schedule deteriorates a team’s performance, then surely the Team India would have got enough rest before the ODI world cup 2011 which it won. Let’s check India’s schedule before the cricket world cup.

October, 2010:

Australia vs India, in India,

2 tests + 3 ODIs

November, 2010:

New Zealand vs India, in India,

3 Tests + 5 ODIs

December, 2010-January, 2011:

India vs SAfrica, in SAfrica,

3 Tests + 5 ODIs + 1 T20

That makes 4 months of continuous cricket before the start of the world cup. And all of these series were full series including test matches and one day games. The team could rest for around 15 days before the start of the world cup and still managed to win the tournament. Similar arguments can also be made with respect to the IPL. The champion team Chennai Super Kings (captained by MS Dhoni) consisted of many Indian players who has been regular members of the team India. So add 1.5 months of world cup cricket to these 4 months and the CSK was able to win the IPL with players fatigued by around 6 months of continuous cricket. Why the ‘too much cricket’ argument not valid then when the team was winning despite the weariness?

There can be a counter argument that now there is almost 7-8 months of cricket without any break behind the team India and Dhoni is right about ‘too much cricket’. But the reality is that none of the player in the team is not playing continuous cricket. It should be remembered that the big names took a break during the ODI series in the West Indies which was just after the IPL4 and got the much needed rest of around 15-20 days after the IPL (exactly the amount of rest they had got before the World Cup). Sachin Tendulkar skipped the test series along with the ODI series in the Indies. If rest of 20 days is not enough to recover for professional players playing at the international level, then what is?

Then why does the ridiculous excuse of ‘too much cricket’ is propped up every time after mortifying losses? Simple. To hide own faults and pass the buck. It is true that India plays more cricket than other teams and everyone knows that the over scheduling is done by the ‘greedy’ BCCI, so it makes a popular excuse to blame the scheduling. BCCI is already a villain in the eyes of the public, media and other boards for its other acts. So any excuse that can show BCCI in poor light sounds reasonable to the public and the people who actually are responsible for the disastrous performances successfully transfer the focus away from themselves.

An angry Sourav Ganguly lashed out at such statements. He said to a news channel,

[quote]I’m too fed up hearing this “time to recover” (excuse) – don’t play for India then, you know this is what it is, you have to come back and play a Test series. You have to put it behind … You are 28, 29, 30, you won’t get to play for India all your life. Make the most when you get it, once it goes, you won’t get it back, even how much you want it.[/quote]

The current captain must realise that it is all right to fail. Just because your career has never seen any failure, you can’t pass the buck making absurd statements. If you and your team was unprepared then there is no problem in standing up and accepting the fault. But using your genius for creating the ‘most brilliant excuse ever’ is absolutely unacceptable.