In whole of my ‘aware-of-cricket’ life I’ve never seen
my home team in such a pitiable state—in absolute doldrums, no directions
pointing anywhere, no will of any sort, a complete absence of a ‘management’
and no team building efforts—since the 0-3 drubbing by New Zealand on home turf
till the present moment down under, except, of course, the lone wonder in
Perth. Therefore, I’m rather drawn fatally to an arguably merciless mindset of
comparing Team India to a national museum. The reasons thereof are very easy to
detect: all the preciously historic set pieces are still on a grand display
irrespective of if people of a cricket loving nature do grace those with generous
footfalls or not; the timings and the duty hours are fixed irrespective of the ‘weather’
conditions as the controllers continue to feel that they must ‘learn’ from
mistakes; and that some of the old pieces are only being adjusted here and
there without giving any thought to bringing in new and newer pieces of
interest or even the time-tested older pieces that have been put
unceremoniously in the backburner.
In easier cricketing terms I mean to say that a few of
the veterans of Team India are irreplaceable or un-droppable thanks to their gloriously
historic past; they keep on pushing the team to defeat after defeat and yet the
‘managers’ still consider them too precious for any ‘unworthy’ action. Members of
the team or of the management defy common sense as they think some of the
previous decisions were mistakes to be unlearnt: the team under the most successful
bowler won the toss, elected to bat and won the Test in an unbelievable way,
and then the set-piece skipper coming back after attending to domestic duties
to lead the team again still won the toss, elected to bat again and lost the
match in a grand way; and since in both the occasions Team Indian batting
faltered and tottered to pathetic totals the set-piece skipper felt, perhaps
inspired by the managers, that those were grave mistakes, and therefore, he
elected to field first on a perfect batting strip at the Gabba after winning
the toss yet again. Thus encouraged and enabled, Team India has allowed ‘Headed’
Australia to pave the way for another thumping win as the hosts knew the
visitors’ recurring batting accounts, leaving the patriotic fans with the only
option of praying for the rains to continue.
No doubt, the set-piece skipper does have a glorious
past as an aggressive opener; but since he failed repeatedly against New
Zealand and since another in-and-out veteran, promoted to the opener’s slot, played
fairly well the apparently cowering captain demoted himself to a much lower
order which was magnanimously described by self-interested experts/commentators/mediapersons
as ‘selfless’, and that terrific act to no avail. The ‘managers or selectors or
coaches’ got totally befuddled as to who in the reserve should be brought in
place of whom: one spinner was dropped after the Perth Test despite him playing
relatively well and a veteran spinner was given the charge in the Adelaide
Test, and then, that spinner was also dropped despite him playing relatively
well and another veteran having a glorious past has been given the
responsibility in the ongoing Brisbane Test who has so far gone wicket-less. Several
other players including those who are much younger as well as promising and
also those time-tested older ones we spoke of above have been treated helter skelter
for no fault of theirs.
The signals from the Perth Test have been totally lost
on the obfuscated skipper/veterans/managers/coaches or the mandarins. A young
vibrant team led by an inspired achiever delivered a terrific win, reliving the
memories of the 2020-21 Border Gavaskar Trophy when a new skipper led a young
vibrant team to a memorable Series victory after the set-piece skipper left the
team in a lurch to attend to domestic duties. Perhaps, the museum pieces in the
team and the new coach have joined hands in a huge mutual collaboration to keep
their respective positions safe and secure, and maybe therefore, the new coach has
been seen throwing stones in a dark blind alley in gay abandon.
And all the
experts/commentators/mediapersons back in the country, called India, continue
to be utterly conscious of a possible absence of perks/benefits/packages/tours
in the near future with the upcoming bonanza of the IPL-2025, if they decide calling a spade a spade. Brace!
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