Between Devil and The Deep Sea

The Indian cricket team has lost to Sri Lanka thereby practically shutting themselves out of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2007. The thin thread that keeps it from being final is the hope that Bermuda might defeat Bangladesh (indeed, cows could fly). If somebody takes the trouble of thinking the issue through following logic evolves

1) What is the use sending this type of players/team for World Cup?From May 2005, when Greg Chappell took over as Indian captain, there have been many attempts to bring in new players into the Indian cricket team. They tried out players like Gautam Gambhir, Dinesh Karthik, Romesh Powar and many more in between. However India had to settle to more-or-less the same team that lost in the finals of 2004 World Cup to Australia. Does it not point to the fact that this is the best team that India could have at this point of time? That being so, why can’t we take this to be the best that we could do, and accept the fact that we require to improve the quality of our players for future?

2) The players are more interested in advertisement then in Cricket.Does anybody remember Bhagwat Chandrasekhar, India’s Murali? He had to be helped out by Transworld International to meet his medical expenses. Thirty years later, this might (god forbid) happen to an Anil Kumble. If they can make the hay while the sun shines, by all means they should. Also note that the players are the worse victims if they are dropped from team – remember the Saurav “Hu Ha India” advertisement, asking “Mujhe Bhul To Nahi Gaye?” Lately in how many advertisements have you seen Mohammad Kaif?

3) Hypothetically, let us assume that the BCCI cracks the whip as promised. They sack the entire Indian team and replaces it by a fresh junior members, with experience tending towards nil. They also announce upfront that the team is not expected to win any matches in the next three years. Will we be able accept that?

4) Corporations in India have found out that only two things have universal appeal in India – Cinema and Cricket. Now on television there are many cinemas being shown at a time, but only the Indian cricket team captures the viewers. Irrespective of the quality of tour, the teams playing it or the level of competition, advertisers will back any given series involving Indian cricket team.

The bench strength of India is the most worrying factor. New crop of younger players are very hard to come by in India. The sources have dried out some where, and unless somebody takes care of this malaise quickly, India cricket could very well go the Indian hockey way.