The recent thrashing of the Indian team in the test series in England has come as a surprise for one and all. England were always expected to be a tough bet in their home conditions but a 4-0 annihilation, that too when the team was sitting atop the ICC Test Rankings, riding high on the laurels of last 2-3 years (including the recent World Cup victory) and boasting highly of the most envied batting line up in the world was a real tragedy, in fact a massacre for the true Indian fans. And what was even more tragic was not the final score line or the margin of defeat but the lack of intent and competitiveness shown by Team India. Barring the 1st session of the test series England outplayed, outclassed and dominated India in every single session of the series and that pretty much summarizes the reason for a 4-0 score line.
Though the postmortem of the tragedy has already started in all corners, be it TV shows, Newspaper columns, Blogosphere or Office Canteens, with every party ready with its own reason(s) for the debacle, to single out one particular reason for the failure would be gross injustice to the magnitude of the disaster itself. So if not one, what are the primary reasons for this out of the blue bolt?
Poor Scheduling. Back to back international series, no gaps between the tours, lack of practice matches before the series, rakes up as THE most important reason for the drudgery.
Horrible Injury Management. BCCI’s inability to manage injuries of its key players is another key reason for this sudden dip in potency of the erstwhile no.1 team in the world. Players kept on playing in far less important tourneys like IPL and West Indies tour despite their injuries that lead to their breakdown at this crucial juncture.
IPL. Every critic’s favorite punching bag is certainly a big contributor in the team’s failure at the highest level. On one hand where players from the countries like Australia and England abstain themselves from the lucrative but inconsequential IPL matches, all the Indian stars actively participate in the event and eventually drain themselves out before the much more important fixtures of the year.
Lack of sightedness. When countries like England, Australia and South Africa identify the iconic series like Ashes well in advance and prepare and rotate their players accordingly to keep them fighting fit for such high profile clashes, BCCI has no such vision. No wonder half of the superstars find themselves fatigued with no bench strength to back them up.
No Prioritization. With all the boards setting their priorities right by giving Test cricket the utmost importance and managing its players and domestic setup accordingly, BCCI has only one priority and that is to rake moolah. And since the board is successfully able to do so through IPL, its priority clearly seems to be T20 cricket when it should always have been Test Cricket. No wonder the times to come would be even more worrisome for the Indian cricket.
A plethora of reasons can be identified but unless the board (read BCCI) changes its attitude from being the top grosser to being the top team (in cricketing terms) in the world, the plight of the Indian cricket team is only going to get worse. Though a section of self proclaimed cricket pundits also feel that for the betterment of Indian cricket, veterans like Tendulkar, Dravid & VVS should call it a day and make way for the young Turks but the simple question is, do we have able replacements for these stalwarts? Forget replacements, do we even have players with half the talent and temperament these guys possess(ed). And it’s not that the youngsters haven’t got the desired chances, players like Yuvraj and Raina have got handful of opportunities but every time this big stage (read Test cricket) has looked too big for them. Naturally in few months or at max in few years the trinity will fade by eventually hanging their boots and the mantle will then pass on to the young brigade. But unless the focus changes from the bang bang cricket and money minting spree to a much more demanding and testing grind of Test cricket, the future will remain to seem bleak.
On the hindsight, things did change after the 2007 debacle (read ODI world cup early exit) and triggered a golden era of Indian Cricket, only if the 2011 debacle (read 4-0 Test thrashing in England) can also trigger a similar era. But this time the tide seems to be turning the other way round!
Viewpoint – Till the point, a T20 playing Suresh Raina earns more than the Test playing Rahul Dravid, odds won’t stake in favor of Indian Cricket! A pointer too simple yet too complex for BCCI to comprehend!
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