Of indifferent attitudes on the field and off it

The latest thrashing at the Twenty20 World Cup should not be taken on either too seriously or lightly. We were thoroughly outplayed by Australia, West Indies and the Sri Lankans and the inaugural T20 champs bit the dust for the second successive time in two years. While many would mull the primary reason of India’s ouster being the ubiquitous presence of IPL in the calendar that finished days before the start of the Worlds, the debacle also stems from the indifferent attitude of our team once they reached the Caribbean islands.

No practice sessions and worse still, television channels showed footage of our super stars playing volleyball on the beautiful beaches. No wrong doing there, but the very point that the ‘so-called team bonding’ exercises were in no way getting the best out of our stars once they stepped onto the field. How many times has a volleyball team or a rugby side or even a football team played cricket during their practice sessions? Well, we all know the answer to it.

Secondly, the attitude and the fitness levels of most of the cricketers in the side is way below-par to be put lightly. The practice sessions will more often than not have pitiable few players who actually undergo the fielding drills with players (God! Do I have to use the term Player for them?) such as — Praveen Kumar, Ravindra Jadeja, Munaf Patel have more excuses up their sleeve than the amount of runs or wickets taken by them during their miniscule career. If that is not enough, the constant injury niggles which the players carry must worry coach Gary Kirsten who is still fit enough to represent Proteas or so he claims. Players such as Yuvraj Singh have been given a long rope by the selectors while many remain on the sidelines despite having performed well on the domestic circuit.

If that’s not injustice, what is then? Players such as Rahul Dravid who did admirably well in the limited opportunities at the IPL have always been neglected for T20s, why? The Indians were bounced out in England in the last T20 Worlds and the result was the same even at the Caribbean. Have we not learnt our lessons? Isn’t it plain logic to be able to practice the rising deliveries before you leave for such a global event? This again brings us to the point of having a practice session (and here I strictly mean batting, bowling and fielding and not other games) before leaving for the tour. BCCI missed more than a trick or two by staging the IPL just concluded days before India left for the Worlds.

Many might say that the IPL has nothing to do with the Worlds but cricketers are all after all human. While late-night parties may not directly affect the performance of the players, but it did play a part in the downfall of the much-famed Indian side. Attitude is not about staring at the batsman after having foxed him for a delivery in an over and being thrashed over in the next five balls, it is about knowing your limitations and playing accordingly.

A lesson which our players haven’t learnt from the Tendulkars, Dravids and Laxmans who have done remarkably in Test cricket and for decades now. The trio go about their business in a workmanlike precision and show their so-called attitude only through their bat and statistics are an ample proof of that.

Attitude also comes a lot from what is called upbringing. Players of current crop see instant stardom without having to work too hard to earn it. With money comes power and with it arrogance. Words such as humility, humbleness does not exist in the Indian stars’ dictionaries anymore. Also, as Australian legend Ian Chappell puts it across, failure teaches you more than succes does. But nothing can teach the Indian team anything if they are turning a blind-eye to everything.

If they ‘dream’ of bettering other sides in any format of the game, the attitude must change and if some players need to given the boot, then so be it. Often, the Indian fans are blamed for going over the top when the team does well or poorly, the problem is with the demi-god status enjoyed by our cricketers. Time for them to be treated as humans. Can we?