5 reasons why Indian cricket has lost its track
Two nil down, Down Under: It all seems like a familiar tale. India is under the bus again, struggling to cope with the conditions outside the sub-continent. But the worrying part is that it is happening again. MS Dhoni and Co. were whitewashed in England, blown apart in Australia and thrashed in New Zealand.A rejuvenated side was again sent to England this year, to salvage pride. After scripting a historic victory on the sloping pitch of Lord’s, India crumbled to lose the series 1-3. And the same is happening in Australia now. Keep in mind that we are supposed to defend our World Cup title in two months, in Australia.So what exactly is going wrong? Why are the current ODI World Champions struggling outside home conditions? Here is a look at the factors that are choking Indian cricket from within:
#1 Sentiment and the selection committee
The craze for cricket in India is something unseen in the world of sports, perhaps comparable only to football in South America. I am not exaggerating when I say that cricket is a religion in India. The hustle-bustle of a billion people is silenced when Sachin Tendulkar misfires. The anger is visible in the streets when a critical catch is dropped. The whole country celebrates every victory and berates every loss.
This following line from Harsha Bhogle probably describes Indian cricket the best: “When Sachin plays well, India sleeps well.”
And this very sentiment is affecting our performance. The emotion attached to cricket is so strong that it clouds the selection committee, and that is where the problems begin. We fail to drop non-performing stars. Why? Because they are stars. Indian cricket is corrupted by this Bollywood mentality where players are held as god-like figures, and we are reluctant and scared to drop them from the team.
Yuvraj Singh is a hero and an inspiration and one of the major factors in our World Cup victory in 2011. But that is in 2011. Why did he play the 2014 T20 World Cup? Because he beat cancer? As inspiring as that may be, it should not be a yardstick to measure sporting performance.
Why did it take the BCCI so long to drop the under-performing stars like Harbhajan Singh, Gautam Gambhir, Virender Sehwag or even Sachin Tendulkar for that matter? Because we were waiting for Tendulkar to complete a century of centuries? We need to detach sentiment from the sport if India has to return to winning ways. The selection committee needs to be ruthless, and consistency in performance has to be the qualifying criteria to get into the team.
There are 1.2 billion cricket fanatics in this country. We are not short on backup. There is enough talent, so there have to be enough opportunities.