Our Cup Runneth Over

Its over. Or almost so. At the time of going to press, Bermuda could still beat Bangladesh and India could still go through to the 'Super' 8 (Yeah, I know, NOT happening, but i did get an award for optimism in high school). When the WC pools and fixtures were announced, nothing seemed so 'super' about the eight teams that would make it to the next round. It seemed terribly obvious and the pools were laughable to say the least. Yet, now it seems that a super effort was required, which of course our team rarely delivers when needed. We flex our muscles and show off our might against poor Bermuda and we bow down meekly in front of the ever competitive Sri Lankans.

Murali, Vaas and Jayasuriya continue to be thorns in the collective Indian side(pun very much intended). The number of times Murali has beguiled the Indian side and made them look as confused as Mika would be at a Beethoven recital or Rakhi Sawant in an art film(i.e. as clueless as a child in a topless bar) is perhaps just fewer than the number of man hours wasted in India over all these matches. Hence we have the number two batsman in the world, Mr Dhoni trying to cut an offspinner bowling around the wicket (Either the victims of the reported heart attacks during the game were of weak heart, had a lot of cash riding on the outcome or were real cricket purists and could not stand such blasphemous flouting of the cricketing manual) and we have Sachin, the Boss, the Master Blaster, the man closer to being God in our country than many of the gods themselves being bowled through the gate for the umpteenth time in his career. The above mentioned Lankan players are going to give many die hard fans nightmares for a while to come, and they'll probably still be playing 15-20 years later and give our kids the same nightmares too.

In an earlier post(Just Not Cricket) I had compared global cricket to a circus and Indian cricket to a masala movie. This current WC goes well beyond these descriptions. Its a soap opera, a whodunit(It really is tragic about Bob Woolmer. Nobody should lose their lives over a game. Unless its football.) full of drama and suspense, but sadly devoid of good cricket. (Thus far, at least)

So what happens to the Indian team now? Is it the end of the road for Sachin, Rahul, Saurav and Kumble? Do we get a radically overhauled team? Does BCCI do what the South African Board did after the last WC, and appoint a captain out of nowhere - Kaif or Raina, perhaps? Chappel of course, has to go.(An SMS doing the rounds suggests we give him away to the Pakistan team) Not for his coaching or management, but for his arrogant press conference after the Lanka game. I agree that he is not employed by the junta but he should have the grace, the dignity and the humility to accept his faults and responsibility in this debacle rather than come out swinging at the reporters and appearing like a petulant 10 month old who's all day sucker's been taken away and is throwing toys out of his pram.

As a corollary to this question, what happens to the Indian fan? Do we forgive and forget? Do we stop the unreasonable business of the yagyas, sangeet mehfils, and prayers for these random 11 people who are 'not employed by us, but are employees of BCCI' (which in a way makes them the BCCI XI and not 'Team India')? Or do we still continue to shower our adulation at them also making them targets of our spite when they fall short of our exacting standards? Do we still continue to say "Match fixed hai, these guys are selling the country" just because its easier than admitting, even to ourselves, that maybe, just maybe, we weren't good enough?

To quote an old classic song, "The answers my friends, are blowing in the wind". Till then I switch my support to the Irish team for the 'Super Eight'. May the best team win.