Wanted: A 'good' team
Karthick Krishnan
I am kind of mystified as whether to congratulate or condemn the recent
Indian victories over their under-rated opponents. Well, they deserve both.
I am bound to congratulate them for not having lost those series and am
forced to condemn them because the past hasn't really taught them anything.
The facts behind the victories were more of an individual performance than that of team effort. Which is what differentiates a good team from a great one.
The Indians have always been looked upon as a group of brilliant
individuals. This has been the prime reason for the inconsistency of the
team. They play like superstars when their star players perform and the
other way when they don't. All said and done, Indians lack team effort. An
Indian is as good as ten Japanese, ten Indians are poorer than one
Japanese. This has been proved right in cricket as well.
Secondly, the Down Under tour had no long-term impact in their planning. We
still see domestic teams playing on flat pitches making 300-plus runs, above
all the chasing team successfully gets past this target. This does not just
prevent the making of batsmen of international class but also fails to
raise quality bowlers. Which is never a good sign for the future of Indian
cricket.
The organizers, team management and the BCCI are to be blamed for
this. They just think that they should win this match, this series but not
beyond. Inspite of several academies and foundations the basic underlying
concept still remains the same.
Thirdly, we boast of talent in India, which we really should reconsider. If
a country like Sri Lanka, can produce a team that is so competitive, India
should, at least, produce 25 such teams considering the magnitude of the
landscape and population.
When countries like Zimbabwe, New Zealand, where people hardly play cricket, can present well-disciplined teams, India should
challenge them in multiple folds considering the fact that cricket here is
regarded as a religion.
Finally, these are not words of discouragement. These are pure emotional
and thoughtful outburst of a true cricket loving Indian. Let us first accept what we are, which will really help us move further. We generally hype ourselves, never hesitate to create heroes and zeroes in no time, ignoring
the fact that every one is human. Let's realize our potential and work towards eliminating the negative qualities in us. Let us build a 'good team', the keywords here are both the words team and good.
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