Hoo-Haa-India....

It was the 2003 world cup and India was shining. But there they made a wrong move by going for the New Zealand series while on the brink of the world cup. Now its 2007 world cup and India is again at a wrong place SA while just on the brink of the world cup. It seems India is repeating the same story but with just a little difference. Last time their temperament was high and it lead them in to the finals but this time every one is skeptical if they would make it to even the quarters? So it has been a tradition for India to be the wrong place at the wrong (or even right does not matter) time. Well if we make the analogy of the world cup with a D-Day in a student’s career then we can find what is needed the most is
1. The same or even more enthusiasm and Motivation.
2. More practice few mock tests and more practice on weak points.
3. Getting the resources
4. Hard work
5. Guidance And when the final day comes closer what is more important is

And on the D-Day what is more important is Stress management, zeal to perform and the patience and perseverance.
Similarly in cricket we develop a team with each player motivated to perform their best despite all adversity. Then the planning and strategies and the right leadership comes into picture. We find a guide in the name of a coach, and all these hard work. Then practice and the mock matches like the ongoing series.

But the Main Problem

The real problem lies in the fact that the Indian team should concentrate more on the practice and getting over the weak arrears like the poor bowling and fielding but what they are doing is they are playing too many matches and giving least importance and time to over come the hindrance they found in the earlier matches. They don’t invest time for Problem Solving but For problem Finding. So many of the problems persist and even escalate.

Most of the players don’t seem motivated for winning and it’s a problem that lies in the grass root of many others.
Just because of this lack of motivation they struggle to give effort towards the goal, winning.
So what we need desperately is consistent and motivated players and not just temporary performers.

We have to accept stress management does not come naturally to Indians. So we have to develop it by practice and work. We have to make it an attitude but not a single of our players seems to do so. They just give in to the situation and never fight back with a motive of winning. If we miss the first ball, we can never hit the second one and correspondingly it becomes a chain reaction of failures; this is the mind set almost all of the players pursue. Least they understand its always better to give it a shot at the best because if they don’t it will never happen any way but if they do at least there is a slim chance.

We are negative inherently as we see a half full glass to be half empty. But then we override it with our reasoning. But on the field it seems players never miss to see a half won match as half lost. So how come they win??

Down To Earth Reality

Now let’s look into the down to earth problem which is more superficial and can be invoked as short term changes.
1. Team selection and management
2. Getting accustom to playing conditions.
3. The clear hindrance of easy money and fame.

The current Indian team is ……….(TEAM NAME GOES HERE.).
Now with only 2 experience players and all others new does it seem they are ready for the world cup? This is the weakest team India has ever witnessed. But Why all these worthless experiments just before the world cup? We could have done it much before the season. The performance of the players are very poor. Raina has an Average of only 26.34 while he has already played 35 ODIs. Now is that the batting figure an ODI player should carry? Then why he is still in the team? Middle order seem to be dilapidated with Dinesh Mongia. He has never performed when it was needed but still no one has bothered to find a remedy.
The Indian cricket is highly influenced by politics and the internal disputes. The only thing they can leave over if they continue to be political is a good topic of case study for the coming generation management students.
Saurav Gangully whose individual records are very bright and comes second only to Sachin Tendulka in India is dropped out of the team. He has been the most successful Indian captain in foreign ground. He has got the second highest no of centuries and more than 10000 ODI runs just in 283 matches. But he is a victim of politics and he is out of the team. The coach is very bright as an individual and was a great cricketer but he never made a good leader. He has not resolved the differences but only escalated them and certainly that’s the opposite of what leadership accounts for.
Playing balls on a fast track and on the front foot is not natural for Indians. They are accustomed to slow and dry pitches of India. But the Caribbean wickets are hard and bouncy so its going to force the bats man to play in the back foot. And especially for Indian it will be problematic as they are not good at bounce and pace. Contrary to this what they are doing now is playing at SA with the same slow pitch and a completely different weather conditions. But shouldn’t they now try to catch up with these bouncy and fast pitches and the weather conditions? When ever they face these extreme conditions they give in and explain later how everything was different and hard. But again they never try to eradicate the problem with is always evident. Indian fielders are not good as Indians are not risk takers and the bowling is always poor. But the BCCI has never felt the necessity to employ a special coach for both these areas. India had many good fielders like Robin Singh, Azharruddin but they were never consulted for the training. It needs a huge reform and its high time we go for it. Most importantly we need a right decision maker. We can not blame the coach or the facilities. All we should do must come from with in. Every player should realize the gravity of the demand and develop skills to cope with it.
Players are more indulged in earning bucks from endorsement of brands. Rushing to quick fame and then overlooking the extra responsibility that comes with publicity. They fail to do “Impression Management”. Air-tel terminated the contract with Sachin just because his brand value is decreasing. They forget what they are getting as the brand ambassador and the face they are handling is just a result of their performance on field. If they fail to be consistent they are out of the game. In this highly competitive world. What we need is performance to be in the game. And as the spectators we just can’t raise fingers also its our duty to think with belief “I-Can-Do-Something-About-It.”. And we should encourage youngsters to play quality cricket by involving themselves passionately. If today we fail to make a robust team of 11 out of the 1.1 billion population then its just because we never contribute and think to be independent. And its not just about cricket… its about everything.