The cup runneth over

The Indian team's moment of truth is over. And they came out of it not like the phoenix, but more like a scared novice debuting in a war exercise. The lack of a tactical approach and the lack of application is something I've already talked about and will not care to elaborate further. What hit me in yesterday's match was the lack of self-belief among the Indians. Had it been a team of WC greenhorns, the self-belief factor would've been more understandable. But here was a batting line-up that boasted of the "holy" (not anymore though) triumvirate of Sachin, Saurav and Dravid - three batsmen with more ODI runs between them than any 3 batsmen in the history of ODI's put together. Skipper Dravid had proudly proclaimed a couple of days earlier that Sehwag is back in touch. So, we also had two of the most murderous willows active today - Sehwag and Dhoni. Add to that the youthful exuberance of Yuvraj and Uthappa, what more do you need? As a bonus, they had a record smashing outing in their last match. And although 255 was atleast 20 runs more than the target India should've eyed half-way through the first innings, it was very much doable.

Anyways, lesson learnt. As my friend black_beetle put it when I spoke with him in the morning, "Never support mediocrity in such tournaments.". I wouldn't say that my support for the men in blue stemmed completely from motives of nationality. I had faith in the talent and experience of the team. Though a stray thought in my mind pointed to the inconsistency and docile on-field demenour of the Indians, the optimist in me invariably got the better of it. Alas, the men in blue let me down, along with millions of their supporters worldwide. Am I feeling bad about it? The Indian in me is. He's feeling extremely upset about the fact that his team is out of the showpiece event. The logical thinker in me is trying to temper down these feelings. He says that I shouldn't have kept my bar of expectations so high - I was one of the very few who sincerely believed that the Indians had it in them to get the coveted cup back.

But one part of me is also happy about the goings-on. The cricket lover is happy that so far, the wind has stayed in favour of the talented and the brave. I'm happy about the fact that teams like Bangladesh and Ireland would get the exposure they need at the biggest stage of the game - something that'll do good to them as well as to the game. He's also happy that till now, every match has been won by the better team on the day and that's what the game is all about. India didn't perform, they paid the price. And quoting black_beetle again "The future rounds of the cup would be better off without India".

There's also a scary aspect of the goings-on though. And that's the aftermath of yesterday's result. For starters, heads are going to roll. The skipper, the coach, the selectors. One or more of them are certain to be replaced soon, if my understanding of the way of functioning of Pawar, Shah & co. is correct. The top contender IMO, as things stand now, looks like guru Greg. And yesterday's match was something like a commercial watershed. Industry talk has hinted that Sony will have to take heavy cuts in the ad revenue for the future rounds in the absence of India. And this won't stop just at that. The result is going to bring a sharp downfall in cricket viewership in India, thus affecting the revenue coming from the game in a big way. And since an overwhelming majority of cricket moeny worldwide comes from Indian companies, the aftershocks will be felt all over. Does one see a relationship between this scenario and what I referred to as responsible reporting by the cricketing "elite" in my last but one post?

Anyways, time for some fun now. Did anyone ever give a thought to the small snippet that India still has a theoretical chance to go through to the next round? If Bermuda manages to beat the Banglas, India would tie with B'desh on points and scamper through on NRR. With the kind of money involved, doesn't it give enough fodder for the conspiracy theorists to come up with the idea of the Bermuda-B'desh match getting fixed?