India knocked out from ICC Cricket World Cup 2007 - Whom to blame?

From the early days of Cricket to till 1990, it was played for the honour of the country with enourmous amount of zeal and sincerity. But now the gentleman's game has fallen so much that they are playing for the money!.

Cricket is no more a game these days; it has lost its fame as a game. It is very clearly evident from the recent dastard incident of murdering Pakistan cricket coach Bob woolmer. We all have to hang our heads in shame after hearing the fact that, Bob Woolmer, a Briton who was manually strangled to death in a high security Pegasus Hotel, Jamaica. It's a game marred by match-fixing scandals and under the hegemony of underworld dons.

On March 17, 2007 Cricket fans all over the India stunned after the staggered performance of the Indian team against Bangladesh in Port-of-Spain. Bangladesh even ruled out India's last hope of being defeated by debutants Bermuda and showing a clear sign of closing the World Cup doors for India. All credit goes to Bangladesh players they remain undaunted against the big names Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly and others. We all agree, winning and losing are the two faces of a coin but what went wrong against Bangladesh was choosing to bat first on a juicy pitch, low score on the board, low quality of bowling and fielding.

There has been always extreme pressure for India, Pakistan cricketers due to high expectations from the country’s cricket lovers. Indian team is forced to bear both internal and external pressure. Internal pressure on the field and external pressure by the denizens of the country.

Winning a game is a matter of 90% mental and rest the physical ability. After a devastating defeat to Bangladesh, Cricket lovers in India started burning effigies of players, vandalizing their homes, performing mock funerals and government stepped up to provide security to their family. All such blight incidents are directly linked to player's mental rhythm and will applecart their mental calibre and finally the same is proved. Citizens must accept this fact and stop behaving off-puttingly (Team needs practice not prayers).

Coming on to the player's side:
A sport was meant to be a relaxing for players and spectators but over the years it gradually turned to be a source of major income. At least for some players in national team means an income from advertisements.

Do’s:
1. BCCI must ban players from participating in advertisements or else fetch more than 70% tax from the huge figures.
2. Media should stop hyping and unravel the unnoticed players who are doing well in other sports.
3. Powder-puff senior players must declare their retirement giving more room for youngsters.
4. Try to look for all-rounders, we don’t want lower order batsman to return to pavilion meekly anymore.
5. Cut-down the high match fee paid to the players.
6. Strict legal action against the players engaged in match-fixing scandals and etc.
7. BCCI must ensure no politics during player’s selection.

Don’ts:
1. BCCI members and players should stay away from lampooning each other.
2. Stop experimenting the batting line-up.
3. Never under estimate the opponents.

There is no I in TEAM, Individual records pay no importance when you are failed to perform as a team. It doesn't matter how many world records we hold, no matter how strong is our batting line up at the end of the day, No excuse if you are defeated badly. World class players like Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid, Zaheer khan, Yuvraj Singh and Kumble failed to perform when crunch time came and easily succumbed to pressure. Lot of prayers, blessings went vain and ruined the India’s dream to lift the World cup. That is where, the former west-Indian cricket player Sir Vivian Richards named as the best batsman of all-time, the greater the stage the greater was his performance.

As far as, Cricket coach is concerned, he comes as a gift for the teams who are just learning the critics of the game. I don’t think coach role would really matter a lot for the teams like India having Big names with more than 15 years of experience. Regarding the recent BCCI decision to replace Sachin with Dravid, Sachin can participate as a commentator not as a player in 2011 World Cup; Yuvraj Singh must lead the team.

Finally, World cup 2007 tamasha is over for India and it’s the time for all emotional lovers to switch off the idiot box and get back to work, saving man power and electricity. There will be a great sadness in the corner of our heart that, having crossed one billion population, we failed to produce 11 players winning team.

Let’s hope for the best and my best wishes for the Indian team ICC World Cup 2011.

Thanks for reading
Srinivas G