India at World T20 — What went wrong?
By: Siddhesh Joglekar
Tags: Cricket, Dhoni, Ipl, Sport

As a fan of Indian Cricket, it was hugely disappointing to see what happened at the World Cup. The team has failed on all fronts — batting, bowling and fielding. The team which was joint favorite at the start of the tournament along with SA has literally fallen apart in the space of 100 highly forgettable hours for Indian cricket. So, what went wrong? Here’s my take -

1. Excessive cricket — Whatever excuses maybe given by the BCCI, Lalit Modi or Dhoni, I feel the biggest reason for this debacle has to be excessive cricket. It is extremely tough for players to get to peak motivation levels after a high stakes tournament like IPL. Note — Even SA was playing cricket continuously for so many months now, infact they were playing tougher cricket than India — back to back against the Aussies. But then, they were atleast at home and have far better fitness levels than the Indians.

2. Makeshift Opener — This has been India’s problem for God-knows how many years! India had taken only 2 openers — Sehwag and Gambhir . Rohit Sharma had batted in the middle order for Deccan in the IPL. To his credit, his form itself was so brilliant that he looked menacing during the warmups, but when it came to the crunch time, Rohit was a batsman wasted at the opening slot. He simply couldn’t continue the form. Only other batsman who could have come for opening was Dhoni. But then, he wasn’t in form as well.

3. Erratic fielding — Players who were supposed to be good fielders were having torrid times in the field. Right from Raina to Yuvraj, everyone gave away runs and in a T20, even 5 runs are crucial. Remember, we lost to England only by 3 runs. Players simply didn’t care or weren’t fit enough to dive. Yuvraj, inspite of all his batting heroics, didn’t look fit on the field.

4. Form factor — To quote Dhoni after the match,

It’s not about what you can achieve, it’s about what you do achieve. We were not really up to the mark or at 100 per cent. Our performance was not up to the international standard. There never was a time when the majority of the guys performed in one match, it was usually two bowlers in one game or three in another, with an off-day for a couple of them, or one man scored and the rest didn’t so we never performed as a unit.

Bottomline, IPL perhaps brought the foreign players into better touch than Indians, because they had to keep their place in their IPL teams with the 4 player restriction in effect.

5. The BCCI — The BCCI found this hen that lays golden eggs in IPL. However, it did not take care of its players, in the quest for money. I am sorry to say this, but I believe the BCCI and its greedy ways is as responsible for the World Cup debacle as the players themselves. They just cram in cricket, cricket and more cricket in their calendar. They keep selling those rights to TRP hungry TV channels and crush rivals like ICL, but do nothing to protect their assets — the players. But then, who gives a damm for the players? BCCI as an organisation, I am sure doesn’t look at its players as anything but agents of minting money…

Finally, to quote the fake IPL player, perhaps the Indian fans didn’t see this coming. India was too arrogant to recognise that the team simply isn’t fit enough. Had Yuvraj not played against Bangladesh, I am sure India would have lost that match as well. Now in India, the blame game will start. All those who sang paeans of Dhoni till now would ask for him to be dropped as captain, even from the side perhaps.

The saga of Indian cricket never ceases to amaze one and all, doesn’t it?