Cup-less
The world cup for India was over even before it started. Or atleast it felt like that. Many be we were looking too far into the Super 8 stage that we forgot about the qualifying round. But I would still say that Bangadesh were something else on that day and that day only. I would not be surprised a bit if India would trash them 2-0 and 3-0 in the series that starts in May.
Dismantelling the loss (euphemism for blame game, scrape goats being named, 'inflamatory' questions) is now over. Many good things are in the pipeline for Team India. Some of them necessary and some of them self inflicted by the players. Anouncements like professional selectors, professional team management and no zonal system are all good news. Where the Board sucessfully duped everyone was that there is no improvement announced in its own functioning. So there will still be ad-hoc series announced, ad-hoc marketing deals signed. The player-borad conflict will still be there.
One of the announcements was of restricting players to doing 3 endorsements at a time. I look upon this a depriving an individual of potential earning opportunities. Many believe that players spend more time doing endorsement commitments than playing cricket. Well believe it or not but the players have less than 7 days of shoots every year. The shoots are arranged according to the players schedule between series. The board has not only put a cap on the number of endorsements but also put a clause of no shoots 15 days before a series, which is btw interesting. When do you remember Team India having more than 15 days between series? Never. Because the board has signed them up for more cricket. So any former player who comes out saying that current players are more interested in endorsements...and compares how they were patriotic during his playing days is basically bitter about having had less opportunities during his time. These are the same players who had to be given a laundry incentive for diving while fielding.
Allegations against Gangully about his playing for himself were also made. Well....should I remind that the current incumbent manager/coach was almost hooted out of cricket for his snail paced scoring, a cartain player decided to walk the team off when he was not given proper treatment onfield, the greatest allrounder India has produced was also alleged to have hung in till be got to a world record. I would say Gangully played per the situation and played well. Plugged one end...to be precise!
You have to accept victory and defeat as a part of the game. A true cricket fan is a fan of the game and follows his team. He likes and appreciates good cricket.
Dismantelling the loss (euphemism for blame game, scrape goats being named, 'inflamatory' questions) is now over. Many good things are in the pipeline for Team India. Some of them necessary and some of them self inflicted by the players. Anouncements like professional selectors, professional team management and no zonal system are all good news. Where the Board sucessfully duped everyone was that there is no improvement announced in its own functioning. So there will still be ad-hoc series announced, ad-hoc marketing deals signed. The player-borad conflict will still be there.
One of the announcements was of restricting players to doing 3 endorsements at a time. I look upon this a depriving an individual of potential earning opportunities. Many believe that players spend more time doing endorsement commitments than playing cricket. Well believe it or not but the players have less than 7 days of shoots every year. The shoots are arranged according to the players schedule between series. The board has not only put a cap on the number of endorsements but also put a clause of no shoots 15 days before a series, which is btw interesting. When do you remember Team India having more than 15 days between series? Never. Because the board has signed them up for more cricket. So any former player who comes out saying that current players are more interested in endorsements...and compares how they were patriotic during his playing days is basically bitter about having had less opportunities during his time. These are the same players who had to be given a laundry incentive for diving while fielding.
Allegations against Gangully about his playing for himself were also made. Well....should I remind that the current incumbent manager/coach was almost hooted out of cricket for his snail paced scoring, a cartain player decided to walk the team off when he was not given proper treatment onfield, the greatest allrounder India has produced was also alleged to have hung in till be got to a world record. I would say Gangully played per the situation and played well. Plugged one end...to be precise!
You have to accept victory and defeat as a part of the game. A true cricket fan is a fan of the game and follows his team. He likes and appreciates good cricket.
posted by Sachin Phadnis at 1:30 PM
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