Indian Team: Will they ever learn

India are virtually out of the
World Cup, thanks to yet another dis-spirited batting
display. India won the toss and putSrilanka into bat. The Indian pacers especially Munaf did a very good job, they got Jayasuriya out early and they beat the bat several times without any luck. The match seemed to be interestingly poised in the 32nd over when Srilanka were 130+ for the loss of 4 wickets. But thanks to unimaginative captaincy courtesy Dravid, India allowed Srilanka to reach 254/6. Dravid made the fatal mistake of not using Yuvraj and Sehwag while bowling. As a result, Chamara Silva and Tillekaratne Dilshan build a solid and quickfire 83 run partnership, while Vaas provided the firepower to help Srilanka to 254.

India lost the game due to their negative approach while batting. What was Ganguly thinking when he played so sedately and all of a sudden threw away his wicket????

If Ganguly went for a poor shot, Yuvraj got run-out going for a non-existent run(thanks to the pressure created by Dravid). Dravid has to learn the art of taking sharp singles, he sometimes tends to irritate the non-striker by playing 4 or 5 dot balls at a stretch(Which ain't good). If Yuvraj's runout was disastrous, Dhoni got out LBW trying to play a incoming delivery from Murali. I have no idea what Dhoni was thinking at that point, he could have atleast played it on the legside or just defended. THe only positive was Sehwag. In spite of being out of form, he played some lovely shots especially the Six of Vaas. Sehwag
was going great guns(Good sign for the future). The rest of the Indian
batting collapsed as usual. The tail didn't even bother to wag and so
India thus got bundled out for 185 in the 43rd over.

Muralitharan and Vaas
once again proved why they were top-class bowlers, they bowled a tight
line and length, attacked the batsmen and bowled some unplayable balls.
The Indian batsman, yet again, helped them to build pressure by playing
negatively. When will Indian batman ever learn the art of rotating the
strike. It seems not even Foreign coaches can help India in this regard.


India
have yet again proved why they are just Tigers on their home ground and
cats away. It's time that we take some desperate measures, even if it
means kicking out non-performing world-class players. If we need to
become World Champions, we need Team Spirit and Killer Instinct. Indian
team needs these two qualities desperately and the only way they can
achieve this is to play as a team(not depending on just one or two
players).

Indian Fans: Please stop wasting your time analyzing
this defeat. Teach Team India a lesson, by not watching their matches
till they play good cricket.

For all Sachin, Dravid, and Ganguly fans: Please stop treating players as gods and treat them as normal human beings. Please understand that Sachin or any other player can't perform well every match. Hey! After all, they need to act in Ads like Pepsi, Reliance,Gillette, SUnfeast etc. Am i right? See yaar, they play cricket just as a hobby.

Well,to conclude it, there are some very valuable lessons to be learnt from
India's WC campaign. 1) The only way to win is to play positive and
aggressive cricket.
2) Never to be complacent against any Minnow in the future.
3) Play as a team, not as
a unit of 2 or 3 star players.
4) Most Important: Don't ever hire Foreign Coaches again. They can just improve your basic skills, the rest is left to the players. Go for an Indian coach who can
motivate the players. Remember, only an Indian coach can understand an
Indian players mentality, the pressure that they face and their needs
properly. Don't believe me, AskGanguly, Pathan and others.
5) Stop commercializing cricket. This is a game and not a business. (Hope BCCI and Indian players realize this.)


I am sure that Chappell is going to be chucked out for this defeat Well! we now have a very difficult task ahead of us. We need to groom good and talented players
for the future.Sachin, Dravid and Ganguly can serve India only till 2007 or perhaps 2008. They must understand the situation and pave the way for young and deserving players.
We need mentors like Kapil Dev, Mohinder Amarnath and Krish Srikkanth
to coach the state teams and pick really talented players. If we can
take the right steps, maybe India can become a World-Class team by at least 2011.