The reactions of the cricket crazy billion fans and the performance of the team India, both have been disappointing. The very meaning of "Sport" is something which is forgotten when ever we deal with cricket in India. The media has its share too. It has been playing its part on who should be sacked, whom do u want to blame for the defeat and the list of questions go on and on. Then the educated majority of the billion come out with there findings that cricketers have been concentrating on the ads and not the cricket.Firstly I would like to present my perspective to this section of people. On an average an international cricketer is on tours abroad or playing in India for a period of 100-150 days. Then there are the training camps in India apart from the tours which he attends for 30-60 days. So from the remaining days of a year out of his personal time he utilizes for the ads. To my belief an ad shoot will not take more than 3-5 days. So even if he endorses 10 -15 products it does not cost him more than 30 days in a year. So in turn its his own personal time he has been loosing out. Just because an ad is telecast after every over or every hour it doesn't mean the cricketer has been concentrating too much on the ads. Do you still believe that these three to five days of the year are what the Indian cricketers are concentrating and not on the world cup. It looks " silly" for me at least to link the defeat to the endorsements. Obviously at the end of the day we will not pay them after their retirement. They get to earn when the opportunity is knocking at them.
Then comes the next section of people who have been telling the people who all should retire, what sort of strategies should have been opted. This section also includes the legendary cricketers of India and abroad. To me even the 1983 world cup winning team has not dominated the world cricket for such a long time to complain about the present attitude of cricketers. All the cricketers have had their set of highs and lows and should at least respect the present set in these crucial situations, instead of reacting like the normal crazy Indian fan who is very much impulsive. Its just one of the worst low of Indian cricket which has happened. Even all these people who are having these many complaints now are very much happy about the team jugs a week ago after completing the practise match against WI. Its just a couple of bad days where there was enormous amount of pressure and the same fear of what happened now which supposedly was on the minds of our team. On any given day you know that we can beat Bangladesh 9 out of 10 times. Its just that one odd thing which preservers the beauty of the sport. Thatz what you compete for. As Dr avid mentioned its also the cruelty of the sport.
Lastly how can we separate cricket in India from sachin. The debate is always on for his performance. I would like to point out just what we demand against him from how he has performed. There were days when we used to turn off the TV the moment he was out. Then we built a team of youngsters and senior players where we started boasting that the team India is no more dependent on Sachin alone. "But" for me once again when Sachin was out on the D 'day for the match against SriLanka, I to an extent felt that the match was over. Suddenly the revival of the Indian team over the years did not have much impact on my mind.All the stars present in the team and the youngsters who are tagged as match winners did not immediately pop up into my mind. I believe it is something which happens to most of us. Such is the expectancy from the little master. Deep in our hearts the billion of us cannot resist the failure of the master. You love him or hate him you cannot resist when he fails. It hurts deeply. To put up the stats in the last twenty matches including the three in world cup the master has got 4 fifties and a century. Does it any sense indicate the genius loosing out his skill set. He has just scored a lot low on the expectancy of the Indian fan. Then the other factor is that he has moved down the order. People should understand that he has been moved down to play a more supporting role than to be attacking. Still we claim that he is no more aggressive as he was earlier and want him to step down forgetting his present batting order. Such was the impact of the masters aggressive batting which is not erased from the minds and hearts of the cricket enthusiasts . He has been just short of the expectancy which he had developed all through this years. Mind you please set your limit on what you demand from the little master blaster.
To conclude we know the team and the fans will be back again in their same old terms with the team in a couple of months. Its just one bad memory for the typical Indian cricket fan. The media which lost out on the hours of match analysis has been doing its best to show the disappointed fan how frustrated his fellow fans are. Obviously they have to make out something for the 24 *7 schedule. Every move from the investigation of death of Bob Woolmer has also filled up many slots. Do you believe people are to be informed every movement in the investigation, Which does not make any senes atleast to me. I beleive we are supposed to watch something much better more constructive or productive to the public then the investigation. Its not a crime serial with twists and turns we want watch on a 24*7 news channel. Yes we do regret as an human for what has happened. But life did not stop there. Lets get on with life. Lets not show a disappointed fan how other irritaed fans are showing their grief . Lets back up the team. Lets not show all the possible ways to killing. Lets change the thinking to other major happening in the Nation or abroad to enligten our people as an responsible news channel. Lets atleast teach the youngsters how to take life sportively to handle the ups and downs and show them there are always supporters when you fall down. Not only those who demolish them when they fall.
PS: Do all these fans who have taken the extreme steps on cricketers houses, etc do the same on the politicians who do not fulfill their election promises.
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