India's dismil performance in T20 world cup 2009

The death of another dream to be champions


Look at the beauty of sports, what looked next to impossible, actually took place on 30th September, 2009. The whole of India was cheering and praying for Pakistan to win its crucial encounter with Australia. Yes it was crucial, but not for Pakistan as it had already booked a birth in the semis of the champion's trophy. It was India who was looking at their arch rivals to beat the Aussies comprehensively, so that they may go through to the semis by beating West Indies by a massive margin, but all those prayers and cheers went in vein as this cricket crazy nation had to face another embarrassing exit from an ICC tournament. If we leave out the T-20 world cup win in 2007, India has been shown the door en masse in the very first stage of every major ICC tournament since the 2003 world cup.
I could see this coming, and had never put my money on India to win this championship; no doubt we were world number one coming into this series but there were a number of loop holes in India's preparation. There bowling heavily relied on Harbhajan Singh and as he failed, there was no plan B to do the rescue. Traditional strength batting too put the team down as the absence of Yuvraaj and Sehvag had already weakened the middle order, and with Tendulkar not firing, Indian batting looked vulnerable.
Indian team lacks the consistency required to be world number one for fairly longer period of time. Champion teams like the West Indian team of the 80's or the Australian team which won three world cups in a row from 1999 to 2007 maintained the same level of performance constantly. The reason why India lacks this regularity despite having all the talent and ability is largely put on fitness vows. In today's highly competitive scenario being fit is a major challenge for every international cricketer but the problem in Indian cricket is that the players hide their injuries and play games even if they are not fully fit, this is done in order to sustain their place in the team and these injuries are revealed only when things become worse.
But the players alone are not the only culprit here. It's also the BCCI who leaves no stone unturned in order to make money through cricketers, without thinking of their fitness it organised a superfluous tournament i.e. The Corporate trophy just before the Champions trophy. This caused injuries to key players which turned the team into a bunch of wounded warriors who faltered in the initial stage of the war. It was clearly visible that accept Nehra no bowler was fully fit to play competitive cricket. I think this has been the misfortune of Indian cricket from a long time.
It's high time that not only players but also the BCCI should shift its priority from money making to playing and promoting competitive cricket, So that the team can live up to the expectations. Otherwise get ready for a first stage exit of the team from the 2011 world cup as well.