Indian cricket: the last five years in a nutshell

The buzzword for any human tendency, for as long as it can be remembered, is convenience. What to say, whom to blame, where to meet among many are some of the facets in our daily lives that evoke the tendency of convenience and our intrinsic urge to get the benefits of the same. It seems to be the most desirable method which does not make a person break a sweat, and the conclusion is customized as per the person’s choice.

All that said and done about the paradigm of convenience, we can’t ignore another pertinent concept of looking at the bigger picture. This is something that does press some of our chords, and it does make us a mathematically direct proportional equation consisting of a balance between the vision, hard work and the desirability of the outcome to be accomplished.

What next?

For the past five years, Indian cricket has come a long way, with a fair share of speed bumps playing a merry go round based on the involved parties’ convenience. To look at it from a statistical and a fact based point of view, you can’t ask for a more populated reading than a segment populated with the No.1 Test status, two World Cup wins, eight straight Test losses overseas smothering the No.1 ranking on its face, a Test series loss to a vulnerable England at home and how can I forget, the wonderful and the cash rich phenomenon named IPL growing leaps and bounds.

If we look at the aforementioned as a generic reference point to all of our concerns, we will feel that we are staying in a mansion with a running cost exceeding the pleasures that we intend to receive from the former, ultimately leading to a substantiation or a liquidity crisis.

But if we follow closely, there can be a trend that is very imminent from the facts stated above. The success that has been prevalent is definitely on the higher side in the shorter formats of the game, whereas the dumping part has been left to the poor old Test Cricket. And of course, when I say the shorter formats, a lot of choreographed entertainment is definitely a part of it in the form of the IPL, howsoever inanely bird brained it might be.

When we get into the books of any working team or organization, the questionnaire session always starts from the top of the perch hierarchically. So, it wouldn’t be irreverent to take a top down approach and start performing a trend analysis about the role that has been played by our very own Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

When you have two World Cup victories to boast of as a starting point in your delightful career as a leader, there wouldn’t be many who will go about questioning your credentials, which is not entirely wrong. However, it’s only sensible to realize that fibrous exterior of a fruit is just one part of it, the core is another pertinent, and an equally (probably more) important facet to the pleasurable taste and aroma of the fruit.

Henceforth, it’s important to look at Dhoni’s career as a leader from more than one solitary perspective. The eight straight Test losses, and the home drubbing from England recently, are the other sides of the fruit that I previously mentioned. Although it will be unfair to blame Dhoni entirely for the losses, a close cricket observer with some years of following the game can easily notice where the inclination of our captain lies. Some statements that clear up the blurry picture of our captain’s priorities are:

“We play 80% of our cricket in the subcontinent, what’s the big deal about overseas losses” , after the 4-0 loss against England

“World cup 2007 exit was a much bigger disappointment than this”, after the recent home Test series loss to England

“I might have to quit one format before 2013 ends to play the 2015 world cup”, in the middle of the drubbing down under in 2011-12

For a layman, these might just be statements, but for a keen observer, there is a definite inference to be drawn. Paying no heed to overseas losses, treating two bad days in limited overs cricket as a bigger disappointment than a Test series loss at home, or hinting at Test retirement during a Test series drubbing overseas. These meanings do imply a sense of priority within the individual quoting these. And it wouldn’t be tough for a novice to understand that the most important role a leader plays in a hierarchy is promoting a thought process, and a thought process it is.

Then there will be a counter argument as to India’s No.1 Test ranking came within this period. But, there is an urgent need to realize that the position India achieved in 2010 was due to lot of success that the team achieved before that (including overseas success) under different captains. All that we need to draw from all this is the fact that a captain’s vision becomes team’s mission, which ultimately leads to development of individual priorities.

To blame the captain and not the management is like dressing up partially. The inadvertent promotion of the Indian Premier League and the redundantly long schedules eating up a major chunk of the itinerary, including the Champions League T20, has really not helped. Although it has made the sport financially a much more secure option for starters, it has definitely diluted a lot of priorities from all sides of the spectrum.

Is the IPL to blame?

Some of these priority adulterations include, player selections for longer formats on the basis of the IPL rather than the domestic Ranji or Irani Trophy, lagging motivation amongst purists considering their relative trailing behind in the IPL bounties, or the choreographed celebrity angle with private investors turning the genre upside down to “Sports Entertainment” symphonic to the WWE.

Conclusively, it has to be mentioned that criticizing something is the easiest thing a human can indulge in, and there has to be a solution centric approach. There has to be some clear prioritization amongst the requisite personnel, and proper bifurcations need to be done for all forms of the game, whether it requires player identification for various formats (including quality based compensation) or a method to make quality the single merit to earn the best and lucrative bounties or any other thing that solves the mess we are in.

The past five years might have brought a lot of printed glory to our beloved team, but the gruesomely painful dumps that have been reached in the same period might just have a bearing for the coming decade if they are not taken into account.