There are an assortment of culprits who are to blame for India's horrible exit from the WC 2007. the most visible and obvious culprits are of course the players and the board. So we boo them, stone their houses, let the beasts within us rage. And when they win a game, we shove the beast deep underneath and burst firecrackers of joy.
The next culprits are, of course, the Board. Culprits simply because they seem more interested in drawing itineraries that ensure the BCCI retains its status of Numero Uno cash cow in the world. I don't see the logic of this, because being the numero uno cash cow should give it the advantage of leverage. And yet we see white men belittle us, spit at us, white umpires turn the other way when such things happen, and fine us for 'bringing the game into disrepute' when our players appeal excessively.
Then there is the media and the corporate sector. These are the biggest culprits. The media more so because they are the ones who are mainly responsible for whipping us into a frenzy by airing those insane ads that the corporates shove on their platter - World Cup Cola being the worst example. What did Pepsi hope to gain out of that ad? Not the sincere wish of every Indian that the players make the words of the ad come true; they hoped to gain the 20 bucks or so that each of us would shell out to buy the same trashy pesticide-filled cola in a golden hue. The media is the one that promotes these frenzies, and the moment India loses, they put on their hangman's masks and go about vilifying the players. They have nincompoops in the name of anchors who make it their agenda to ensure that everyone hears what they feel - that Dravid and Chappell should be sacked (check the CNN program called Tryst with Disaster - an insult to CNN that it actually aired a program of that kind).
And lastly, we have ourselves, the fans - we burn, loot, stone...that to me sounds like a 15th century hun's behavior than a 21st century cricket fans. We are a nation so starved of winners that we tend to elevate a bunch of young cricketers who have no clue about handling pressure - that is of course a very indian trait - to the status of gods, and when these poor guys fail, we let the beasts within us emerge. Instead of that, if only we could work at the grassroots to ensure that we had more than a bunch of young guys, maybe hundreds of them, to choose from...it would have helped Indian cricket a lot. But we are what we are, and this is how it will always be. We chose foreign coaches because the Indian ones were found to be good for nothing...now we are saying sack the foreign coach. You can hire God as the coach of the Indian team, but as long as someone does not work on the mental side of things, it will always be how it has been. Bleak, with flashes of inspiration. I would not call it brilliance. Just every dog having his day.
