Of Early Exits and Puzzling Problems

http://www.cricinfo.com/magazine/content/story/459511.html

Read that. I completely agree.

After India's unglamorous exit from a world event, I always avoid cricinfo for a few days, because I know that it will be full of finger pointing articles, complaints from former players and excuses to justify the lousy performance of the team. I go back there after a few days have passed so that I can read articles that have slightly more thought put in, and are written after the writer has calmed down from the maddening frenzy that such early exits cause.

Indeed the wrong team was picked, and I was saying that from the start. Praghyan Ojha should have been in the team, Nehra shouldn't have, Yuvraj and Gambhir shouldn't have either (look at their current form, they were picked purely based on past glories). Why the World T20 team was picked before the IPL was even halfway through baffles me still. In 30 matches anything can happen. A player can get injured, form can be hopelessly lost or marvelously gained, a new hero could emerge, a match-fixing scandal could put an old hero out of the picture forever, ANYTHING could happen. And yet, they picked the final WT20 team with about 30 IPL matches still left. If that's not befuddling, I don't know what it is.

And I hate how India won't give a player more than two chances if he's not thoroughly established himself. Nowadays at least. I know there's a lot of bench strength to test out and everything. But come on. In the olden days, players weren't dropped after 1 lousy match or two, doomed forever to be playing state cricket unless they perform amazingly well again in some tournament, after which they won't even be picked immediately, but only a series or two later, by which time their form would have deserted them again. The logic evades me.

But then again, how many people take me seriously when I say things like this. Cricket is after all, a men's game. What would I, a 20 year old GIRL, sitting in a country like Singapore (whose national team just got DEMOTED), know about this grand old game? Or so they think at least. Agreed, I'm no expert. But I am a passionate fan, and I love and scrutinize the technicalities of the game. And hell, if I was on one of those cricket shows, I'd probably do better (cricket knowledgewise) than Mandira Bedi or Archana or that Shonali woman.

But I digress. This was supposed to be about India's shortcomings. So yes. The Indian media. Goodness me, they swing wilder than someone with bipolar disorder. One day they'll raise the Indian team onto a pedestal and worship them with flowers and aarthis and gifts and gold and whatever else. The next day they'll tear them down, and stone their houses and ravage them down to the ground and treat them worse than dust under their feet. Can't they average it out a little? It's very overwhelming for a fan to deal with. And IPL IPL IPL it's high time India stopped blaming IPL for every loss. Grow up guys. You're international cricketers. If you can't deal with the amount of cricket being played, then SAY SO. But no, you guys want to play the IPL for the money, you want to play World T20 for the pride of playing for your nation, and then you whine that the events are too taxing blah blah. If you can't deal with it, BRING IT UP EARLY. Tell the board. Use your position as leverage! If you want to play all of that, then don't complain afterwards. Yeah and what's with the "IPL had too many parties and hence we could not play in West Indies"? What is the connection, geez.

Yes, I'm rambling. But hello, I'm as irritated as the next fan that this team seems to be completely paralysed against the short ball and that they can't stop boundaries or take catches. And as Harsha said, they were completely ineffective with the new ball. I can't deal with watching my team mess up like that. They need to pull their socks up, buckle down, and train their asses off if they want to succeed in these departments. And maybe India should seriously look into the problem of fast bowlers quickly losing their sting. What is it that they do wrong in training them up? Why is it that people like RP and Irfan have become dispensible when they were once hailed as the best prospects for India in the future? Why are we depending on bowlers who've been kicked out a few times and made comebacks in their 30s, when we know that that is a dangerous age fitness-wise? And WHY OH WHY can't they stop making flat, ineffective pitches in India? Like I said, baffling.

Well, Indian cricket will recover as always. But I just feel like I have said that one too many times.