Readerspeak: Agonising loss to Lanka

The author, Avradeep Pal, emailed the article to ibnlive.com. The views expressed in the article are his own.

As I switched off my television my set on Friday night, a terrible sense of disgust and anger gripped me. I woke up on Saturday morning to find out that the emotions have changed.

It was no longer the disgust that persisted, but there was a discomforting grief - the grief of realisation of the shattering of dreams which were never to be transformed to reality, the grief of an inexplicably disconsolate loss, the grief of shame and the grief of the of the fear of the anticipation of the worst coming true.

March 23, 2007 will be a day that will haunt the mind of Indian cricket lovers for ever. Four years ago, it was on this day that "we" meekly surrendered to the might of the Aussies in the finals of the World Cup. And four years later, "we" succumb even more pathetically to the Lankans.

Now the ostriches will raise their heads, only to find themselves at a point of no return (an ostrich buries its head in the ground when he sees the enemy. He thinks that because he cannot see the predator, he is safe, but the fact is that the predator comes and makes merry over his prey).

The damage to Indian cricket has been irrepairable. But the realisation of this inevitability should have been there right from the day when we lost to England in a test match on the best of spin pitches in Mumbai.

Note: The word "we" here signifies not only the 11 representing us in the field but the 1 billion eyes that followed them on television, the crores of people who prayed for Team India, the lakhs of students who gave up their studies to watch the match and the person who sold his kidneys to follow the team to West Indies.

And all that the Indian coach, had to say about us - the "we" of Indian cricket in the post match conference, and I quote - "I am least bothered about the reactions and emotions of the billion fans back in India. The BCCI is my employer and they pay me for the job I am doing." A remark which at best (even trying to be the gentlest of a gentleman) can be termed as "callous" to say the least.

This gentleman from down under - (read the secret agent from Australia) - has successfully accomplished his mission in a masterly fashion which mostly seems innocuous in nature. If you think that I have made a sensational statement, then let me explain further.

Lets compare the two Indian teams - the one in 2003 and the one in 2007.

The 2003 batting line up was: Sehwag, Saurav, Mongia, Sachin, Dravid, Yuvraj and Kaif.

In 2007, the line up changed to: Sehwag, Saurav, Utthappa, Sachin, Dravid, Yuvraj and Dhoni.

There have been only two changes since 2003. Utthappa and Dhoni replace Kaif and Mongia - some would say two indeed better inclusions in terms of talent and match winning capabilities.

Also in the last World Cup, we had a make shift wicketkeeper in Dravid. That too was changed to an advantage in bringing a specialist keeper in Dhoni.

Now lets look at the bowling in 2003: Zaheer, Kumble, Harbhajan, Nehra, Srinath.

In 2007, the bowlers in the team were: Zaheer, Kumble, Harbhajan, Agarkar, Munaf - a bit weaker, but then Munaf performed well so no loss here.

So as we see, we had almost the same side, but the same side was a world beater four years ago and now they are miserable losers (they are losing consistently - except at home where they merrily beat touring teams with half depleted sides).

So a question automatically arises that what has made the difference?

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Firstly - as I always say - talent was never been a problem in the Indian team in the past two decades, but we must admit that the attitude has been. This was something that was instilled in the team by then coach John Wright and at that time they were led the unfathomable fighting attitude of then captain Sourav Ganguly.

The team then had a certain “X” factor or "josh" that led them to believe that failure was never an option. The team management were like alchemists who continuously showed how to weave gold from any material available. And eventually great performances followed. The team looked like an organised unit where everyone was aware of their roles and played them to perfection.

Now - from 2005 onwards a different story starts. The man arrives from down under and totally dedicated to his mission, starts his job in the most perfect fashion possible by sending that notorious mail from Zimbabwe - which ridiculed the (at least statistically) best-ever captain of India.

The timing was perfect - as at that time - he was suffering miserably for lack of form.

The roots of slavery and respect for the white skin (quite natural after a 200 year rule by the British) are impregnated so deeply in the blood of Indians - that we still blindly believe in what they say. And so the was captain sacked.

The roots of fighting spirit and never say die attitude were rudely uprooted from the Indian cricket team. A meek, calm and cool man, Rahul Dravid (mind you, I have a lot of respect for him, the batsman. He is undoubtedly the “God” in terms of batting consistency) was put at the helm of affairs. The Australian agent knew that this was the most suitable arrangement for him, as this captain would obediently agree to all his descisions.

It did not end there. What followed was a mockery (to say the least) in the name of experimentation. The balance of the side was compromised with worthless youngsters brought in, the batting order being tampered, bowlers were made batsmen and batsmen all rounders just for the sake of naming them.

These experiments left deep irrecoverable scars in the team. Subsequently when everyone understood that these experiments were leading us nowhere the old combinations were again sought after.

Eventually we again have the same team as before picked for the cup. But if you break a big piece of glass and then reunite it even with the best of adhesives the cracks are still visible.

And so are they now. The team is no more organised. The hunger to win is no more visible. The "Josh" lacking and thus the inevitable has happened. And see what a masterstroke that man has played. You cannot blame him for his experimentation as almost the same team played in both World Cups.

But at the same time he was successful in his mission. The Indians are no more a threat to Australia and the coach still gets a handsome salary at the end of the month!

But still we say that the coach has no role to play when the team looses. Wake up. There is much more than what meets the eye.

Apart from this there are many other things that he has done - mocked the Indian public by saying that he is least bothered about their emotions; abused our Parliament; showed the infamous middle finger to Indians. In short, showed disrespect in every possible way to our nation.

Party to all this are a few more people like Kiran More whose role in building of the present "great" Indian team is known to all.

So, what has turned out to be agony for a billion Indians has turned out to be huge success for a few vested interests.

A billion Indians today will feel disgust and suffer from grief but their best wishes will still be there with Team India.

They will show contempt but yet the next day India plays another match they will be glued to their television sets.

Hope will live on and they will live on with their hopes!