Reasons behind India's defeat in World Cup 2007

After the dismal performance by Indian team in the world cup, the question is being asked what was responsible for Indian defeats.

Well there can be many reasons. Dravid thinks the reason was the way the world cup was structured, "You have one day bad and you are out very quickly",he said after Indian team lost to Sri Lanka. But the question remains why should only Indian team have a bad day and not Srilankan team?One thing that was interesting in Dravid's speech was the fact that we picked up very slowly even in the last world cup. I clearly remember people cursing advertisers when India performed miserably in the first few matches in the last world cup. I heard one person say on BBC that time, "I am not going to drink Pepsi anymore." Miraculously Indians started playing better immediately. This time the anger was not directed towards the advertisers, for whateverreasons, perhaps that was the reason we did not improve our performance.We can even hold media responsible for this defeat, which keeps chanting some names like mantra, believing and making everyone else believe that we have the best batsmen of the world. Even the batsmen who most of the time play worse than tail-enders started to believe they were the best batsmen of the world.But one lie told million times doesn't become a truth. If we had to include some players in the team because they performed well in the past, we mightas well have sent the players who won the 1983 world cup for India.The only saving grace for India will be if both Srilanka and Bangladesh reach at least semifinals then Dravid can have another reason for defeat, "We were playing against the best performing teams."I know it for sure, that the cricket management in India will blame the coach first and he will be sacked. Well there are no advertisers for coaches, and the management can not be bribed to retain a particular coach. I don't know how can the coach be held accountable, the coach cannot go on the field to perform in place of the players.

The players who did not perform will stick to the team like leech, sucking blood of Indians. Isn't it interesting that in the beginning of this world cup Sachin Tendulkar said, "If my body allows, I will play the next world cup." He never said "ifI perform well".But, ultimately this is merely a game, we shouldn't lose our sleep over the bad performance of your team or very good performance of the other team, victoryand defeat are part of the game. Let us hope that nothing untoward happens to the members of Indian team when they return. People should be thankful toDravid and other players that now they can watch the world cup with sportsman's spirit, admiring those who perform well and not cursing those who performbadly, and enjoy every bit of it without any tension.They must realize"Hazaar gam hain zamane mein, cricket ke siva,Rahaten aur bhi hain Jeet ki rahat ke siva."

Copyright:
Taraprakash