Analyse This ...

Well India snatches another extraordinary series defeat from the jaws of victory against archrivals Pakistan. Millions of heart broken. A dream shattered. That's what they call the Indian Cricket team. Cricket is such a passion in India that one of the first few things a kid learns early in his life is to play cricket. In a country where a cricket match is as important as a festival, where cricket stars are not only revered and adored but worshipped, the fanataicism of cricket is such that a match featuring India is greatest event of any day not to forget the excellent TRP ratings fetched by them. A country that eats, sleeps , drinks and virtually lives cricket... that is craze of cricket in India. And such disastrous results do not do justice to the passion and dreams of the million cricket loving Indians. Where does the real flaw lie in the much hyped Indian team that cannot even gift a fitting tribute to the coach, who reinstalled the much needed confidence in the team, on his farewell? The answer lies deep inside the way cricket is handled in India. First things first. The selection procedure is indeed flawed. What can you say when a player finds his place in the team just on the virtue of past performances and being the captain. Also when certain players' star stature prevents them from being dropped from the team. Whereas the new players normally get one or two chances to prove their mettle. If they don't perform well, they have wait for ages to get another call. And if they perform well, then they are assured a place for, atleast, the next few series even if they perform badly. Because of this the Indian team normally ends up as a one-man army. Take a look at the best team in the world , Australia. They are a perfect example of team spirit and individualness does not exist as evident from the Darren Lehmann case when he offered to step down so that the back-from-injury captain Ricky Ponting would play. Secondly, the money mindedness of Indian cricketers does affect their onfield proceedings. The numerous endorsements are not expected from the players and it seems they are better off endorsing than playing cricket. It appears shameful when their ads are screened during a match where the team is losing. The performance of Indian team always yields suspicions of match-fixing schemes. After all a team performing brilliantly in a couple of matches doesn't just make a U-turn and start performing this badly unless ,ofcourse ,the match has been fixed. Another element responsible for this bad performance is the media. The way media handles Indian cricket is a crash course in bad management. It is higly illogical to glorify the team on success and then with a single defeat start criticizing that very team. The way media makes a hero out of the players and then suddenly makes them appear as the baddies is real immatureness. Lastly, the greatest culprits of all, are the foolish Indians wasting their times watching cricket. It is the numerous hopes that the people have pinned up that results in this frustration. The over emphasis laid on cricket has sounded a death knell on other sports and made the cricketers take their job for granted. So the best thing that can happen to India is that this terrible defeat opens the eyes of the ignorant mass and they start investing in other things minimising the hyper-addiction to cricket.