Sep 25, 2007 05:51 PM
4082 Views
It is said, “Lacking a sense of responsibility heightens all your other senses.” It might have been uttered in jest, but, it does carry a profound truth. As a corollary to that, I would go one step further and add that lack of expectations of any kind improves performance too. This is an accepted fact and applies to cricketers as much as it does to others.
The World Cup in the West Indies ended before it even started for India. The Indian team carried high expectations of a Billion Indians with it and therefore the responsibility on the shoulders of Dravid and the entire team was way too much. They had proven quality players in the team; yet they cowered, faltered and got kicked out. The platitudinal excuses that followed for their utter lack of performance were many, but the main point had been missed. Champion teams take pressure in their stride and in fact use this as an opportunity to intimidate other sides. That is the major reason why Team Australia has been champions for so long in almost every format of the game.
When the Indian team for the Twenty20 tournament was announced nobody really paid any attention. I suspect even the selectors weren’t as serious about it as they normally would be. In fact, the BCCI reluctantly agreed to send a team to this tournament citing the reason that there was no domestic Twenty20 setup, and that India had played just one match until then. With the big guns opting to give it a miss the Indian team was devoid of star value save for Yuvraj and Dhoni. The lads assembled in South Africa (some from England and some from India) to pickup the nuances of this game and to enjoy the experience while they were at it.
The only match they were expected to win was against Scotland and when that match got rained off most of the supporters including me believed that even getting into the super eights would be a difficult task and so it proved against Pakistan. Only, a novel bowl-out helped India progress into the super eights. If the first tie ever in a Twenty20 cup proved to be a morale booster for India, the next match against New Zealand turned out to be a damper on India’s chances of moving ahead in the tournament. Every match thereafter presented India with a do or die situation.
The Indian team had, of late, developed a tendency to play badly in the beginning. When presented with a familiar situation where they had to win to stay in the race, they would do reasonably well only to fade away in a final, or a decider. The team was known to carry emotional scars of previous battles that had gone awry which naturally prevented the players from playing to their full potential which begs the question – Are the Indian players mentally strong? If previous history is anything to go by, then it is clear that the Indian team failed miserably in the area of mental toughness and had squandered many a winning position to end up on the losing side.
Admitted, one needs luck and all relevant things that contribute to a success to fall in place at the right time. But, it has also been proved that talented teams that have confidence in their own ability and stay mentally strong under pressure create their own luck, and their own destiny. Sometimes, it helps to have young audacious players who know not what fear of failure is to succeed at the highest level. But, such prodigious talent must also need a strong leader who leads from the front not only to synergize the talent at hand but also to plot the downfall of the opponent. Dhoni, in this regard, has been a refreshing, and welcome choice.It is clear that Dhoni is not only leading from the front but is also enjoying the captaincy and the pressures that automatically come with it. How long this honeymoon will last only time will tell but Dhoni has made a significant impression by his astute leadership qualities. He not only comes across as a natural leader, but he is also charming and clear in his mind when it comes to decision making. Then began the dream run for Dhoni and his Dandia wielders, they kept winning every match they were expected to lose by playing a brand of cricket that suggested they had nothing to lose.
The average Indian supporter is fickle and can shift from extreme idolism that can make players look like demigods to the other extreme of spewing hatred and make them look like traitors to a cause. Dhoni, himself, has experienced this post World Cup debacle in the West Indies when his house was attacked by vandals. If you thought only the average Indian supporter is fickle, well, think again. The media is not far behind. In a bid to spruce up the TRP ratings the TV channels joust with one another to come up with programs that are long drawn and run for hours repeating the same visuals again and again and using every superlative they can find in the dictionary not to mention some of their own hastily created on the spur of the moment. One bad defeat is all it takes to unleash a torrent of embarrassing questions that harbour doubts over the skill, attitude, and integrity of players. The media works overtime in bringing down the players oblivious of the fact that they could be inciting fickle elements in the public to take action against the players as they deem fit. Come on… it’s just a game! People must learn to appreciate a good game no matter who ends up on the losing side. A win needs to be celebrated but it is more important to take a defeat stoically.
Dhoni and his fearless marauders have given us many memorable moments playing scintillating cricket throughout the Twenty20 tournament and finally made India proud by lifting the Cup. It was indeed champagne stuff and none in the world can begrudge India the victory in the finals. After playing hard-nosed cricket throughout, India were truly the deserving winners. But, the true test of Dhoni, as a leader, will come in the longer versions of the game where the captain needs to marshal his resources astutely and to a plan. Agreed, Dhoni had the Midas touch in this tournament. But, dame luck is as fickle as the Indian supporter. Can Dhoni lead India to victory against an Australian side that will have Ricky Ponting back at the helm, and still smarting from its defeat to India?
Can he inspire the rest of the Indian team to be consistent in their performances and beat the Awesome Aussies at their own game? More importantly, can he make his own luck? That’s something to ponder.
For the present, let us celebrate the tag of ‘Champions’… so what if it is only Twenty20.
Mbfarookh
