Vandalized Indian hopes...

So the grand finale for India has already got to a halt much before it has even started. A humiliated drubbing by the minnows and then a fiasco against their neighbor, has really defaced, "Men in Blue". They have come down from the cover page of “Page-3” to the main pages of almost all daily newspaper. And these days, no matter what, you just click to you inbox and you can see number of mails with new joke on our “beloved” Indian cricket team. Well all those stories will go away with the next series win for India (probably against their current competitors Bangladesh, right after this World Cup), but can we/they (Indian team) really wait for another 4 years for the next grand Finale.

Probably in next world cup Indian team will be come on the stadium with some new faces and the "Masters" will be either watching the game from 15 rows back from the ground. I mean from the stands OR probably they will be giving their expert comments sitting next to our hip-hop sexy lady Mandira Bedi, where nowadays Arjuna Ranatunga and John Wright are enjoying their World cup sessions. Well, If I go by the words of my colleague's then the only good thing they liked in the Indian matches, perhaps every match, then it’s only those first 2 hours before the match, then that tea-break after the first inning and finally, Extra-Inning at the end of the match. No need to tell the reason why!! :).

I have heard many TV interview of so called "Experts" of the game in past one and half week, read many news columns on the same old story, and every time, some way or the other, each and every line goes against the Indian team. Well, it should be, even I think the same way, I am not an exception either. But have we ever given it a thought in a healthy environment, probably by doing so will give a clear picture that only few Critics talk sense on TV, only few reporters write sense on those columns. There were mistakes, mistakes at all level of games, right from the scratch, but according to them the mistake has started much before someone can really make it as a reason for the defeat of Indian Team. They say, “It starts from grass-root-level. (GRL)”. Let it be the selection procedure or more importantly the effort made by the players at state level tournaments excluding those who really play well but could not make it to the team because they don’t have much political support behind them. Otherwise who can believe that in past 4-5 years there were many new faces but none of them really matches with the international level of cricket which is being played nowadays. Well everything has its own story for the contribution to the selection of this final team.

I may be wrong somewhere in my perception, but I am just jotting down the facts I think can really make next World Cup a better one for Indian. OK let's start from the first level, as they said it, GRL. Where do these players come from? Well it’s not a gully-Cricket which leads to such players who can represent Indian on an international stage. If someone really wants to be a cricketer, he has to start at the age of at least 10-12 years. Then comes the District Level cricket, then the State level Cricket and after some couple of recognized state level tournaments, these players are actually selected for the team. So far so good!!

Now come down to the basics, do you really think that out of those 50 K people who actually start at age of 10, and then among them 10 K who actually end up playing the district level Cricket, and then around 5 K who appear for the State level cricket, and finally some 500 who are selected all over India for representing their State, there is still a crunch of selecting 11 top players amongst them, who can perform better than the country who is having the team with the average age group of 22 years. Whatever may be the case, this was never possible, but as they say "Cricket is a game of uncertainty", this has happened in this World Cup where the "Masters" on the papers were ripped apart.

I really think that there are many such cricketers in the state level cricket, who didn’t even get a chance to be nominated on papers for the Indian team even though they have performed much better than many others, OR better then our new discovery, young & talented, “Robin Uthappa”. Then why are they not selected? Why don’t we even know their names? Why have they not been ever taken in the limelights? Well, nothing to say much about this. Reasons speak themselves. Ok! Let’s even assume that the system is fair enough to keep a watch on the selection criteria which is being followed by BCCI, even then the problem lies right here at GRL. If our assumed 50K people start playing cricket to pursue their carrier as cricket only, then why can’t they seriously do the things according to their plans? Why can’t they increase their level of cricket right from their practice matches they play for their district or their states? Why they only perform their best only before they are selected in final squad of Indian Team. Well, now the fingers will starts pointing on to the current advertising market which has become a lucrative reason for some who want to become cricketers “Get into the team and get an advertisement free” as the bonus of 1st year in Indian team. No good reasons to smile on!!

I am impressed by few of the past interviews of Kapil Dev who have repeatedly related his religion with Cricket in all his media appearances. He says “If you are playing for India, then you representing India as country (that’s a big enough reason) and then you representing rest of 1.2 billion supporters for you sitting in India. If this is the level of responsibility you have then this is not a mere game for you, it’s a religion for you and you have to fulfill you responsibilities for both, your country as well as your country mates”. And I really agree on that.

Our tigers are old now, they did their best at their time, and even we have appraised them at their best time. But now let the next generation of tigers to come in the jungle and learn hunting before the old tigers eventually die. There is a transition phase for each generation rather for each individual and Indian Cricket team has surpassed both of them. If we do not start introducing new faces or more specific young faces in our Cricket then one thing is for sure, that when the time will come for these old tigers to say good-bye, there will be no one behind them to take the crowned with the tag of “Masters”, nobody will be left who can wear the t-shirt number “10”and then Indian team will remain masters only in the story books for much longer period of time.

To finally wind up all my extra profound feelings after this World Cup disaster, I think I have rightly put down all the points I have in my mind, and now the inference can be easily made out. I guess few people will agree with me and other may not. Fair enough!! All have different perception and these ones were only mine. Well feedbacks and discussions are always welcomed. So you can also contribute to this discussion as well, through the comments section :).

Anyways, no hard feelings now. Whatever happens happened for good. But we can learn from our mistakes, we can make things better, or better to say “don’t repeat our old mistakes”. It’s the best time to revamp the team ladder along with our R&D expert “Greg Chappell", and this World Cup result was a buzzer for that.

Few last words to end this, from my "tuti-footi" shayari :)

"Har raat ko ek subhe ka intzaar hota hai,
Har tilism ko ek chirag ka intzaar hota hai

Badalne ko to, hum bhi badal sakte hai duniya,
Bas har kisse ko, sahi waqt ka intzaar hota hai"

The time has come. Let’s start before it's too late to even start with!!