Mornings these days are turning out to be the same big disappointment, last Saturday was no different! It has now become part of the routine to wake up, switch on the TV and see India being hammered by the Aussies. And this time the cherry on top of the icing on the cake was that by the time I switched on the TV... the Perth test was over!!
Wrapped up in a shiny gift paper with a cute satin bow and handed over to the Aussies on a silver plate along with the series win. People like Clarke, Ponting and Hussey who were struggling for form couldn't have asked for a better holiday season to kick off the new year.
Lot has been said, some sensible most of it just venting out of frustration, on why India have surrendered so meekly overseas by former captains, the media, general public etc. Ideas ranging from dropping Dhoni as captain of the test team (fueled more so by his own stupid comments) to withdrawing from test cricket for 2-3 years thus covering the whole gamut from practical to crazy!
But what gets my attention today is this... in the storm of comments coming up on social networking sites there are views which probably provide a piece of the answer to this puzzle.. DENIAL and FALSE PRIDE!! Pure Aussie bashing just for the sake of it.
Few examples of some of these 'gems' are as follows:
A status message:
"Australian media bashing Indian team for their performance in test series against Australia.. Bloody a**holes, if u want to praise Aussie team then do that, who has given u the right to criticize India.. Remember that the Indian team comprises of players who have played more test matches that the articles written by your editors..
Where was the same media when Ponting dint score a century for two years??.. Where was the same media when Australia suffered the second straight defeat in Ashes??.. Where was the media when there were racial attacks on Indians living out there??.
First put your house in order, ask permission from Indians to criticize their team and then only open your holes.."
A pic posted by a Sachin Tendulkar fan page on FB:
Pictures speak more than a thousand words, at least the one above surely does!
And no, it does not speak about how great Sachin Tendulkar is... it speaks about how we as a public convince ourselves that things are hunky dory!
Disclaimer - nothing against the people who put up these posts... just two striking examples out of many that I have seen in the past 2 days.
I don't know whether this is the Indian mentality or temporary bursts of frustration (I hope it is the latter at best)
Most people who would end up reading this [mostly my friends and people who I specifically ask to read my blog ;-)] are people who work in competitive organizations in competitive set ups in life. To them my question is this... Is this attitude acceptable at your work place? If yes, then for those I rest my case.
If no, then why do we apply it to our lives and things around us? Of what use is basking in past glories and false notions when the present in unheeded and the future full of challenges?
Have we as a people, thanks to this India shining feeling that is propagated by the media and other sources, succumbed to these tactics when it comes to accepting our flaws, accepting that we are not the best instead of believing that we have the ability to be the best even if we are not? After all, being #1 is about always striving to stay there. Its not a interim station but th final destination.
Well, this is bigger debate for another day. For now we mere mortal common people will stick to the Indian team and its performance (or non performance) down under.
I believe that. success comes from within. The best example of this is Sachin who competes with not anyone else but himself day in day out. In sports and in life you become #1 only by defeating the you of yesterday. And the bigger the margin of victory, the faster the climb to the top.
When we see that things are turning out to be too difficult to handle is when we take cover under own past achievements. But guess what, the past is more or less always irrelevant as far as today and tomorrow are concerned
My take on the whole issue is this... lets first face the facts. We sucked in England and we are continuing that tradition down under. Why anyone should have a problem with the Aussie media bashing us is something I cannot fathom. I mean, Cmon, atleast some one is giving us the stick that we deserve which will compel us to think about what next :).
The point is to really think about what we need to do. The crux is to accept the facts and work on them. It is a fact that the core of our batting is the big four but they are not getting younger by the day. Worse is that we do not seem to have any succession plan for these people. One has to understand that the averages of these players are 50 odd because for every hundred they score they also get out in single digits. And that is why we need a good bench, worthy successors who are groomed for the big stage.
It is after all a team game... we have to select the 11 players who have the best chance of making sure that the law of averages will work in their favour. Currently we do not seem to have a clue about that.
The BCCI prides itself on running like any top professional corporate. Making time count and generating big profits year on year. One key element of driving a corporate culture is missing here... the Vision! It is not for anything that the best companies in the world spend considerable man hours on developing vision and mission statement. They really mean something if they are driven as a part of the work culture.
Gary Kirsten had set a vision of winning the World Cup after 28 long years and the rest is history. What next is a question that seems to be still unanswered and until that is done we will try hundred new things, most of them in good spirit but still fail to understand why they did not work.
What is our Vision for the future? How do we plan to get there? Until these questions are answered the only light at the end of the tunnel is that of a freight train.
Sure, these are difficult questions to answer given the ambiguity right now. Of course, carving out this vision and executing it will include its share of tough decisions to be taken. But then, isn't it better to do that for a bright future, to answer that question than keep harping about past glories and dig our own grave??!! Isn't it the right thing to do?
Fortunately, in spite of all that has happened, the true Indian cricket fan (and a cricket lover) still bleeds blue... the question is, really, is our cricketing system ready to bleed in return for these fans and the future of Indian cricket?? I surely hope that the answer is a YES!!
Wrapped up in a shiny gift paper with a cute satin bow and handed over to the Aussies on a silver plate along with the series win. People like Clarke, Ponting and Hussey who were struggling for form couldn't have asked for a better holiday season to kick off the new year.
Lot has been said, some sensible most of it just venting out of frustration, on why India have surrendered so meekly overseas by former captains, the media, general public etc. Ideas ranging from dropping Dhoni as captain of the test team (fueled more so by his own stupid comments) to withdrawing from test cricket for 2-3 years thus covering the whole gamut from practical to crazy!
But what gets my attention today is this... in the storm of comments coming up on social networking sites there are views which probably provide a piece of the answer to this puzzle.. DENIAL and FALSE PRIDE!! Pure Aussie bashing just for the sake of it.
Few examples of some of these 'gems' are as follows:
A status message:
"Australian media bashing Indian team for their performance in test series against Australia.. Bloody a**holes, if u want to praise Aussie team then do that, who has given u the right to criticize India.. Remember that the Indian team comprises of players who have played more test matches that the articles written by your editors..
Where was the same media when Ponting dint score a century for two years??.. Where was the same media when Australia suffered the second straight defeat in Ashes??.. Where was the media when there were racial attacks on Indians living out there??.
First put your house in order, ask permission from Indians to criticize their team and then only open your holes.."
A pic posted by a Sachin Tendulkar fan page on FB:
Pictures speak more than a thousand words, at least the one above surely does!
And no, it does not speak about how great Sachin Tendulkar is... it speaks about how we as a public convince ourselves that things are hunky dory!
Disclaimer - nothing against the people who put up these posts... just two striking examples out of many that I have seen in the past 2 days.
I don't know whether this is the Indian mentality or temporary bursts of frustration (I hope it is the latter at best)
Most people who would end up reading this [mostly my friends and people who I specifically ask to read my blog ;-)] are people who work in competitive organizations in competitive set ups in life. To them my question is this... Is this attitude acceptable at your work place? If yes, then for those I rest my case.
If no, then why do we apply it to our lives and things around us? Of what use is basking in past glories and false notions when the present in unheeded and the future full of challenges?
Have we as a people, thanks to this India shining feeling that is propagated by the media and other sources, succumbed to these tactics when it comes to accepting our flaws, accepting that we are not the best instead of believing that we have the ability to be the best even if we are not? After all, being #1 is about always striving to stay there. Its not a interim station but th final destination.
Well, this is bigger debate for another day. For now we mere mortal common people will stick to the Indian team and its performance (or non performance) down under.
I believe that. success comes from within. The best example of this is Sachin who competes with not anyone else but himself day in day out. In sports and in life you become #1 only by defeating the you of yesterday. And the bigger the margin of victory, the faster the climb to the top.
When we see that things are turning out to be too difficult to handle is when we take cover under own past achievements. But guess what, the past is more or less always irrelevant as far as today and tomorrow are concerned
My take on the whole issue is this... lets first face the facts. We sucked in England and we are continuing that tradition down under. Why anyone should have a problem with the Aussie media bashing us is something I cannot fathom. I mean, Cmon, atleast some one is giving us the stick that we deserve which will compel us to think about what next :).
The point is to really think about what we need to do. The crux is to accept the facts and work on them. It is a fact that the core of our batting is the big four but they are not getting younger by the day. Worse is that we do not seem to have any succession plan for these people. One has to understand that the averages of these players are 50 odd because for every hundred they score they also get out in single digits. And that is why we need a good bench, worthy successors who are groomed for the big stage.
It is after all a team game... we have to select the 11 players who have the best chance of making sure that the law of averages will work in their favour. Currently we do not seem to have a clue about that.
The BCCI prides itself on running like any top professional corporate. Making time count and generating big profits year on year. One key element of driving a corporate culture is missing here... the Vision! It is not for anything that the best companies in the world spend considerable man hours on developing vision and mission statement. They really mean something if they are driven as a part of the work culture.
Gary Kirsten had set a vision of winning the World Cup after 28 long years and the rest is history. What next is a question that seems to be still unanswered and until that is done we will try hundred new things, most of them in good spirit but still fail to understand why they did not work.
What is our Vision for the future? How do we plan to get there? Until these questions are answered the only light at the end of the tunnel is that of a freight train.
Sure, these are difficult questions to answer given the ambiguity right now. Of course, carving out this vision and executing it will include its share of tough decisions to be taken. But then, isn't it better to do that for a bright future, to answer that question than keep harping about past glories and dig our own grave??!! Isn't it the right thing to do?
Fortunately, in spite of all that has happened, the true Indian cricket fan (and a cricket lover) still bleeds blue... the question is, really, is our cricketing system ready to bleed in return for these fans and the future of Indian cricket?? I surely hope that the answer is a YES!!
