Why Australia Beat India in the World Cup, And It Will Happen Again

Yawn. Australia has won the World Cup. Again. The final was a pretty much a one-sided affair. Millions of hearts were broken since the support for New Zealand was massive. Indians wanted New Zealand to win because Australia had ousted us from the tournament. And the others wanted New Zealand to win because, frankly, it’s getting boring to see Australia win all the time. Reminiscent of Michael Schumacher's winning streak in the early 2000s. Borrriiingggggg…

India had a stellar World Cup. We set a world record by claiming 70 wickets in 7 successive matches. We were unbeaten until we faced the only team that could defeat us. Post defeat, it’s that  time when we claim that the Indian team is incapable of matching international standards. Again (Yawn?). Dhoni is destroying Indian cricket, Kohli is irresponsible, Anushka Sharma is a bad omen… blah blah blah blah blah.

Not to sound like a prophet, but I had sensed that the final would be between Australia and New Zealand by 19th February itself. And after the dog fight between Australia and the co hosts in the league matches, I was certain that Australia would be world champions again. Don’t ask me why. The explanation will put you to sleep.

Many Indians are disappointed because we couldn’t beat Australia despite having spent 95 days in the country. I’m not. We were beaten by a substantially better team. And this trend of Australia being dominant in world cricket (not just over India) will probably even outlive us. Why? Well, it’s because of the difference in quality of cricket - not just international, but domestic too.

See, the Australians are driven by excellence. Nepotism, red-tapism, preference to the minorities and other petty squabbles don’t plague them. ’Perform or perish’ is their mantra. And did I mention the military-esque discipline? How else do you explain a match winner like Andrew Symonds being dropped? And they train bloody hard - physically and mentally. This is why they not only play spectacular cricket but also raise their game many levels when the pressure increases.

Watch the KFC T20 Big Bash and other domestic Australian matches, and you will be stunned by Australia’s talent pool. Their domestic players are better than the international ones of most countries. And yet, most of those guys never make it to the international team. Can you imagine the quality of the international players then? Australians don’t just want to be number 1 compared to their rivals. They want to be better today than their own yester-selves. If other international teams are a 6, Australia doesn’t aim at being 7.5. They aim for a 10, which is why they are always above 9. 

India, on the other hand, is driven by vested interests. I’m not talking about the current cricket team - it’s the best ‘team’ we’ve had since I can remember. And those who believe that Dhoni is the captain of the best team, please remember that MS Dhoni has made this team the best. Which of these players would you called match winners about 6 years ago - Kohli, Rohit/Mohit Sharma, Dhawan, Ashwin, Raina, Shami or Jadeja? And how many of our players were considered among the best fielders in the world? 

MS Dhoni has brought about a fundamental change in the way players think. Contrary to your belief, politics does not decide which player makes it to the team. When asked what it would take for India to win more tournaments, Dhoni promptly responded, “10 men who are ready to stand in front of a moving bus if I ask them.” And he doesn’t want them to do something because he demands it, unlike most corporate bosses. Dhoni has an in depth understanding of the game which is beyond your and my mortal brain’s comprehension. His vision and ability to bring out the best in each player has made India an outstanding cricketing unit, one that we are proud of.

If there is something wrong with Indian cricket, it is the IPL and domestic cricket. Here are some stats: Between 2007-08 and today, Ishant Sharma has bowled 240+ overs in domestic matches and 220+ in the IPL. 500 overs! 3000 more balls! That’s more than what I have bowled underarm all my life. Shami, Zaheer and Mohit Sharma are overworked too. And before you go around blaming only the IPL (though I would rather have the IPL banned too), keep in mind that domestic cricket is also contributing to pushing fast bowlers towards the brink of breaking down physically. If a bowler declines domestic obligations citing lack of rest, the domestic boards start grumbling saying things like “since you play for India you don’t want to play for us anymore”. You get the drift, right? India doesn’t have the infrastructure to support fast bowlers or promote budding talent, despite the BCCI being the world’s richest sporting body. All India has is greed and selfishness. And that is why our fast bowling department sucks.

I hope that this post has made you realize that we didn’t lose the semis because of false shots or cracking under pressure. We lost to a team that has been virtually invincible since more than a decade now, even after all the veterans retired. This match was more than the Indian cricket team being beaten by a superior team. It was a reflection of the Indian culture’s demolition at the hands of a superior one. 

The ICC Champions Trophy 2013 Winners

This post is dedicated to my favourite team – the Indian Cricket Team. It’s come late; a week after they’ve won the Champions Trophy 2013. India is now the only team to have won the 20, 50, and 60 Over World Cups and the Champions Trophy. The only team that can match them is West Indies, but them winning the 50 over World Cup in the near future looks farfetched.

This trophy is even sweeter because of the lack of big names. The big 3 (Sachin, Sourav, Dravid), Zaheer, Kumble, Yuvraj, Sehwag, Gambhir... no one was part of the team. Yet it went on not only to win the Champions Trophy, but stay undefeated throughout (7-0). Remember when the Aussies started sliding downhill? When they lost McGrath, Warne, the Waugh brothers, Gilchrist, Hayden, Fleming and others.

Until a few days before the tourney started, the Indian media was busy slamming Dhoni for holding a stake in some firm. Match fixing allegations had surfaced in the IPL, and while everyone sympathized with Dravid, they chastised Dhoni and said his team should be disqualified. We conveniently forgot that he captained our team to the 1^st ODI series victory in Australia after almost 2 decades, the T20 World Cup victory, whitewashing the Aussies 4-0 at home (which was the last team that achieved it?), the Asia Cup and many other victories.

India - The ICC Champions Trophy 2013 winners

The Aussie and British media are die-hard supporters of their teams. We, on the other hand, are never satisfied. If India loses, that’s how we always play. If India wins, the match was fixed. Plus the media comes out with stories completely unrelated to cricket bashing its own players. And we lap it up like gluttons. Dhoni’s stake becomes the point of discussion in trains, on lunch tables, Facebook, Twitter and everywhere else. We care more about the IPL than the Indian cricket team. Come on guys... use your brains. Where do your loyalties lie? With your national cricket team (all of whom are Indians) or with your IPL team, ½ the side of which comprises of foreigners?

The media now is glorifying Dhoni. He’s on the front page of most papers. They’re publicizing how he built his biceps on a litre of milk every day. Suddenly Dhoni is God, while he was the Devil some days ago. Convenient? We lapped up their shit a few days ago. We’re lapping up their bullshit even now. Guess who’s the fool here?

We’re euphoric because the Indian team has won the Champions Trophy. But this feeling won’t last long. One mediocre series and we’ll be screaming for heads of our players again. Our memories of their bad performances outlast the good ones.

Dear fans, our team has achieved so much in the last ½ decade. All this while they’re on the road the most. They are humans too. They suffer from fatigue, homesickness; they miss their loved ones, monotony sets in... the list can go on. Please cut them some slack. The next time they have an average series remember all the good they’ve done. And for God’s sake, stop caring about how a cricketer does business. Their personal life is none of our concern. We must care about what they do on the field, and they are doing a fabulous job right now. Jai Hind.

The Indian Cricket Team: Familiarity Breeds Predictability

The Indian cricket team lost the One Day series 2-1 to Pakistan and the Test Series 2-1 to England. They tied the T20 series 1-1 with each team. They lost all matches against England & Australia when they visited those countries. We can’t remember the last time the Indian team won a series comprehensively after the World Cup. This team is just a pale shadow of the one that won the World Cup and probably one of the worst title defenders, right?

We could go on and on. But one thing to factor is the amount of time the Indian team has spent on the road. Before the World Cup in 2011, India was constantly playing since November 2009. New Zealand, South Africa, Australia, Sri Lanka, West Indies and other countries were toured, apart from the series of matches played at home. Injuries, fatigue, loss of form and frustration become a norm at such times. And knowing how much the BCCI cares about these aspects, combating them becomes very difficult. Most people say these are mere excuses, but it’s important they put themselves in the players’ shoes.

The dejected Indian cricket team

Let’s look at the time after the World Cup. India had a small break before they toured West Indies and then left for England. Something went wrong and we lost all matches there. That’s ok occasionally; even Australia lost both test matches, the ODI and T20 when they came to India. Then we began castrating our heroes; the very players who won us the World Cup. Everything they had done was suddenly washed away and we were back to calling them ‘incompetent’. The disaster at Australia and other places followed. Forgotten were the facts that this team had won us the Asia Cup crown in 2010 also.

The Indian team isn’t going through a good patch now either. Expected to win 3-0 in the test series against England, we lost 2-1. To add to that, we lost the ODI series to Pakistan also. But have we wondered why? It’s because of familiarity. The Indian cricket team plays maximum matches every year. Mini series are squeezed in between tours. Players are always on the road and barely have time to relax, recoup from niggling injuries (most Indian players play at 60% fitness), or add new weapons to their arsenal. Consequently, they become predictable. The same batting strokes, same bowling variations, same bowling options, etc. Oppositions are so familiar with the Indian team because of the amount of videos that must be available to study that they’ve dissected our team like a frog in a biology lab. They’ve broken down each batsman, bowler, fielder and probably know them better than our players themselves. That’s why Ashwin is being taken to the cleaners while Bhuvaneswar Kumar is successful; he’s relatively unknown. But I guess Kumar will go down a similar path of most Indian fast bowlers – dream debut, awesome performance for some time and then injuries and lack of infrastructure will make him toothless too.

The seniors need to be rested, but the BCCI won’t take that step because it will mean loss of revenue for the richest sporting body in the world. New blood should be given a chance and our calendar should become less gruelling. These aspects have been argued over rhetorically for ages now without any outcome. So we must understand where our players are coming from rather than being so harsh on them. Until the BCCI doesn’t take steps to correct this, or until our players don’t stand up for themselves the way they did before the Sydney Test, all we will see from our team is spurts of brilliance. We must ensure they have our support, not our criticism. Do you agree?

Image Courtesy: Google Images

Cheers India... 5 - 0

Did we really whitewash the Englishmen 5 – 0? You can bet everything you have we did! And we thumped them, mauled them, butchered them... you can put in all the verbs you want! We ran through their entire batting line up in 4 out of the 5 matches. Those 4 matches ended up being totally one – sided; only one match was closely fought viś –a – viś 2 matches when India were in England.

India were still missing their big guns. We were without, amongst others, Tendulkar, Sehwag, Zaheer, Ishant and Yuvraj. The average age of the team was 24. Quite a few youngsters debuted in this series. Gambhir was batting one down instead of his regulation opening slot. Mind you, all this with the British team at almost full strength. However, performances stood out in all aspects of the game; batting, bowling & fielding. Praveen Kumar batted for the 1^st time in the series in the 5^th ODI. Kohli, Gambhir, Dhoni, Jadeja, Raina and others were in sublime form. Aaron, Umesh Yadav, Vinay Kumar bowled with real pace (in the 140s) and successfully troubled a lot of English batsmen. Ashwin and Jadeja not only tied down the Englishmen with their spin, but also were some key contributors in picking up wickets. The fielding was one par excellence. Tiwary, Jadeja, Raina, Kohli led the way and all others (including the Indian bowlers) followed suit.

The team must have been under enormous pressure before this series. India had badly suffered at the hands of the same opposition a month ago and were still missing their big guns. The youngsters surely wanted to prove themselves. Many Indians were under fire; Dhoni for his captaincy, Raina for his batting, the bowling and fielding had been criticized. But none of that showed in the matches. Dhoni was the shrewd, nonchalant captain that he has always been. His mental toughness was commendable and rubbed off on all players and they delivered. He marshalled his troops beautifully in batting and bowling. The Brits were dismissed twice for below 200 and only once did they manage to score above 250. The English bowlers could not bowl the Indians out in even one match.

India showed why they deserve the World Champions crown. Many may argue that the team is a lion at home, but the same applies to England and Australia too, doesn’t it? How many teams have been able to beat India in our den? We salute you, dear Indian cricketers. You have been sensational, nothing short! We’re sure you will continue to give your best on the field.  We look forward to similar performances when you go overseas also. We will never lose faith in you. For us, you are INVINCIBLE! Thanks for this awesome Diwali gift. Happy Diwali everyone.