Why no buzz around cricket?
Cricket has managed to kill cricket in India, at least so it seems for now. The much-touted Champions League is over and out without even a whisper campaign for a promotion.
For Indian fans to get weary of cricket would otherwise have been unimaginable but that happens to be the case now, howsoever surprising and alarming it may look. Too much of anything is like familiarity and contempt, and cricket has become an unwilling victim of this syndrome.
Topping this ceaseless and tiringly unending season of cricket is the consistent non-performance of the Indian team, often lionised for wholesomeness.
Skipper Dhoni’s strange non-insistence on mandatory net practice is just one aspect that is yet to be fathomed by the game watchers. All through the last three tournaments, Team India’s fielding capabilities have shown up as pathetic.
Yet, the skipper has defended optional nets, be it all through the T20 World Cup or even the most recent Lanka tri-series. Dhoni has, without a stress on his brow, repeated in Press conference after conference that his team’s fielding is not up to the mark — that despite the world class facilities and coaches to help their cause! He has, however, failed to give a concrete reason as to why, then, is practice optional.
Not that the post-World Cup break, or sacking of the fielding coach Robin Singh seemed to have helped any of the players.
Our fabled batters are struggling for compact performances; our bowlers look more spent than currency in middle class pockets; Gautam Gambhir, our rising son, often sets without a preamble; blaster Sehwag is still in fits and starts; Tendulkar’s vintage has matured him too much for the shorter version; Dhoni’s invincibility has cuddled up to chinks and the general health of our strategy has deteriorated as much as the world economy, if not more.
For long, Indian cricket was worshipped for just the pleasure of the game. But now, one and all expect winnability too.
A down and out Indian team without the pyrotechnics of dramatic wins, explosive individual shows, daring outcomes and trophies on the mantlepiece is well on its way to resembling our hockey team which has been struggling on the sidewalk without being noticed.
So what is this ennui in the Dhoni brigade all about? In plain and simple words, it is the outcome of too much cricket being played and the players being milked to their bones with a horrendously packed schedule.
The Champions League was just one nail. There is hardly any buzz around even the high premium Australian team having arrived in India. Had it not been for the repeated defeats and the lacklustre performances of Team India, not to mention the failure of any of the three domestic clubs to reach the finals of CL, the buzz around the Indo-Aussie ODI series would have lifted spirits, not just of fans but also of TRP monitors.
But it is not so and even the Australian captain Rickey Ponting has pointed out how seven ODIs is a bit too many! Other than that are the strange venues that are being promoted for international series — Guwahati is more than remote and the new Nagpur stadium is 40 km from anywhere!
Both are non-descript venues when it comes to cricket. Imagine the already “tired, listless, spent” Indian Team travelling across the nation to play a resurgent Aussies. It would mean another loss and another nail. Indeed, India has a lot to learn from the Aussies — the yellow brigade stumbled badly but took no time to get back to their winning ways despite their team being in a painful transition which took away their best players.
For Indian fans to get weary of cricket would otherwise have been unimaginable but that happens to be the case now, howsoever surprising and alarming it may look. Too much of anything is like familiarity and contempt, and cricket has become an unwilling victim of this syndrome.
Topping this ceaseless and tiringly unending season of cricket is the consistent non-performance of the Indian team, often lionised for wholesomeness.
Skipper Dhoni’s strange non-insistence on mandatory net practice is just one aspect that is yet to be fathomed by the game watchers. All through the last three tournaments, Team India’s fielding capabilities have shown up as pathetic.
Yet, the skipper has defended optional nets, be it all through the T20 World Cup or even the most recent Lanka tri-series. Dhoni has, without a stress on his brow, repeated in Press conference after conference that his team’s fielding is not up to the mark — that despite the world class facilities and coaches to help their cause! He has, however, failed to give a concrete reason as to why, then, is practice optional.
Not that the post-World Cup break, or sacking of the fielding coach Robin Singh seemed to have helped any of the players.
Our fabled batters are struggling for compact performances; our bowlers look more spent than currency in middle class pockets; Gautam Gambhir, our rising son, often sets without a preamble; blaster Sehwag is still in fits and starts; Tendulkar’s vintage has matured him too much for the shorter version; Dhoni’s invincibility has cuddled up to chinks and the general health of our strategy has deteriorated as much as the world economy, if not more.
For long, Indian cricket was worshipped for just the pleasure of the game. But now, one and all expect winnability too.
A down and out Indian team without the pyrotechnics of dramatic wins, explosive individual shows, daring outcomes and trophies on the mantlepiece is well on its way to resembling our hockey team which has been struggling on the sidewalk without being noticed.
So what is this ennui in the Dhoni brigade all about? In plain and simple words, it is the outcome of too much cricket being played and the players being milked to their bones with a horrendously packed schedule.
The Champions League was just one nail. There is hardly any buzz around even the high premium Australian team having arrived in India. Had it not been for the repeated defeats and the lacklustre performances of Team India, not to mention the failure of any of the three domestic clubs to reach the finals of CL, the buzz around the Indo-Aussie ODI series would have lifted spirits, not just of fans but also of TRP monitors.
But it is not so and even the Australian captain Rickey Ponting has pointed out how seven ODIs is a bit too many! Other than that are the strange venues that are being promoted for international series — Guwahati is more than remote and the new Nagpur stadium is 40 km from anywhere!
Both are non-descript venues when it comes to cricket. Imagine the already “tired, listless, spent” Indian Team travelling across the nation to play a resurgent Aussies. It would mean another loss and another nail. Indeed, India has a lot to learn from the Aussies — the yellow brigade stumbled badly but took no time to get back to their winning ways despite their team being in a painful transition which took away their best players.
Published October 25, 2009, Sunday Pioneer; http://dailypioneer.com/211024/Why-no-buzz-around-cricket.html
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