Then there is the case of Yuvi. When you are delivering by the bundles, arrogance is something people will put up with. If the team is winning and you are leading them towards that win. You are motivating players, helping them out on their errors and you are really the leader, everyone will put up with your arrogance. But when you are doing none of those, you are stuck in your own world.
After hitting those 6s, Yuvi now has earned the ability to remain arrogant and stupid for the rest of the decade. This is the travesty. Dhoni during their recent conversation on NDTV talked about how Yuvi talks to younsters and how he is arrogant.
The thing about India is that, we think that is not only acceptable, it is required!!! We assume that if he does not show that kind of arrogance, he is useless. I dont really think Yuvi undestood how that smile on his face when Dhoni was describing things gave away his attitude.
It is the same with what Dhoni said after the 6th game. He thinks it is his job to protect his players. "we fieleded as well as we could". Well that shows the attitude. We cannot improve now. There is no point working on it. We are too set in our ways. If we win because someone had a great day, we will take credit for it. If not, we will continue to lose this way. I dont really know how Indians got into this kind of culture. I see it in practically everyone. "It is always going to be this way, I cannot change it!" seems to be the genral attitude.
RE:Unrealistic Expectations
by Sarath Chandra on Oct 15, 2007 10:55 PM Permalink
Some excellent observations there Jim. I especially liked the first part, and the first half of second part.
As for the parts I disagree with, I don't think Indians consider arrogance is required. Indians, like everybody else, like confidence and hate arrogance. The problem is, we are "vertically" structured society. Elsewhere, a brick-layer or a house-keeper is in no way inferior to a software engineer. However, in India, we have an intrinsic understanding of what is inferior to do and what is superior (I personally think this is the result of the vertical Hindu caste structure; but that's different matter). So most of us don't really care if we are rude to the "uneducated", "labourers","mass" etc. This is actually arrogance, but not so recognized by any of us. The people who perform better, automatically think they are superior, because of the Indian environment.
Also I don't think Indians don't work on their games. Unfortunately, India has a unreasonable "craze" for the non-working genius. For example, we love a easy looking innings of 80 ball 100 from Sachin/Sehwag laced with boundaries, while we scoff at a workman like similar score from a Pravin Amre or Dravid. Dravid, ofcourse, like Waugh before him, managed to catch the public imagination by superlative performances. But remember they were not loved on their way up; only after confirming that they belong there. This creates people unwilling to work hard in the team. But I don't think everyone is like that.
RE:RE:Unrealistic Expectations
by Jim on Oct 15, 2007 11:49 PM Permalink
Hi Sarath,
I agree with you on the thoughts around the caste system. But, I believe that caste system is actually a morphed one as we see it today. It went through a whole bunch of changes over time and now has come to what it is.
But overall, there has to be a way to change what the guys are doing. This should be fixed.
RE:Unrealistic Expectations
by Sarath Chandra on Oct 16, 2007 12:36 AM Permalink
Jim, the key here is, most of us love telling everybody else what to do. In a tough situation, everybody has an opinion about what somebody else has to do, but rarely does anybody think about what he can do to help the situation.
For example, during a tough series like the ones against Australia, the team and specific individuals are bound to be under pressure at some stage or the other. Logically, if we really want to help our team beat Australia, we have to support our team or individuals during tough times, and give them mental peace and support to get through these periods. We, on the other hand, go on an abusing spree, and demand for sacking of anybody and everybody with barely a thought about what this kind of behavior will have on the psyche of the struggling team or batsman. Even if they change the team as per the "fans" demands, the incoming players would be under similar pressure right from the beginning. A failure there would again increase calls for recalling "experienced players".
Simply, it would be a lot better if individuals decided what they could do to achieve the ends they want, than deciding to tell Dhoni/Dravid/anybody else about what to do.
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