Be smart, be professional! (In defence of the Indian Cricket Team)
I guess this post is in a way influenced by the fact that I am a big-time supporter of the Indian cricket team. People may find it really odd and might even go to the extent of tagging me as a jobless fellow and all, but still why I felt the need for such a post is because, this experience has taught me the importance of being a smart, professional cricketer. It applies not just for cricket, and this is the biggest take-away here, but for each and every profession, in each and every point in our lives.
Coming to the core-idea, I guess the Indian players have got it all wrong in prioritizing the matches. After having won the world-cup, after a grueling 45 days of cricket, they "Ideally" should have taken some time off to enjoy, relish, cherish the moment of glory. Instead what followed, in just 5 days time after the finals, was the big IPL dhamaka. With it came the injuries, along with the big-bucks and attention.
Looking at the turn of events, I think, the players thought was to take some time off during the WI tour so that they could have a nice time, infact have time to think about the WC glory; and they wanted to come back and play their part in the English tour. Meanwhile, the English were licking their lips and were waiting for their opponents to come home to face some music. In strange waters, Indians found the going tough. To add to the lack of preparation and match-practice is the fact that not many were even match-fit, courtesy taking time-off the WI tour to bask in WC glory; Waist-lines of Harbhajan, Yuvraj and Zaheer is a testimony to this fact.
And so here is the moral of the story: Ideally Indians should have skipped the IPL and should have come all guns blazing for the English series, and who knows the results could have been slightly different. But, its easier said than done. So, the Indians failed to be smart, failed to show professionalism, which cost them the No 1 ranking.
And the problem I guess is deep down in Indian mentality. I always had a feeling that we are emotionally attached to so many thing that we come across in our lives (atleast majority of the people that I have come across in my life, so far) that we fail to act smart in most critical of the times. I believe it is going to take some time for the Indians to overcome this emotional hurdles and to display some smartness during tough times. Ofcourse, I am not saying we are not being smart at all, always. But however, I do think that we could be much better off controlling our emotions and display our smartness instead!!!
(May be I am talking to myself :D, I don't know honestly!. This post came out of the chat I had with my brother over the weekend. Felt like making a blog-entry out of it.)
(Added "In defence of Indian cricket team" in the title, to grab the attention of the casual-onlookers :) )
I guess this post is in a way influenced by the fact that I am a big-time supporter of the Indian cricket team. People may find it really odd and might even go to the extent of tagging me as a jobless fellow and all, but still why I felt the need for such a post is because, this experience has taught me the importance of being a smart, professional cricketer. It applies not just for cricket, and this is the biggest take-away here, but for each and every profession, in each and every point in our lives.
Coming to the core-idea, I guess the Indian players have got it all wrong in prioritizing the matches. After having won the world-cup, after a grueling 45 days of cricket, they "Ideally" should have taken some time off to enjoy, relish, cherish the moment of glory. Instead what followed, in just 5 days time after the finals, was the big IPL dhamaka. With it came the injuries, along with the big-bucks and attention.
Looking at the turn of events, I think, the players thought was to take some time off during the WI tour so that they could have a nice time, infact have time to think about the WC glory; and they wanted to come back and play their part in the English tour. Meanwhile, the English were licking their lips and were waiting for their opponents to come home to face some music. In strange waters, Indians found the going tough. To add to the lack of preparation and match-practice is the fact that not many were even match-fit, courtesy taking time-off the WI tour to bask in WC glory; Waist-lines of Harbhajan, Yuvraj and Zaheer is a testimony to this fact.
And so here is the moral of the story: Ideally Indians should have skipped the IPL and should have come all guns blazing for the English series, and who knows the results could have been slightly different. But, its easier said than done. So, the Indians failed to be smart, failed to show professionalism, which cost them the No 1 ranking.
And the problem I guess is deep down in Indian mentality. I always had a feeling that we are emotionally attached to so many thing that we come across in our lives (atleast majority of the people that I have come across in my life, so far) that we fail to act smart in most critical of the times. I believe it is going to take some time for the Indians to overcome this emotional hurdles and to display some smartness during tough times. Ofcourse, I am not saying we are not being smart at all, always. But however, I do think that we could be much better off controlling our emotions and display our smartness instead!!!
(May be I am talking to myself :D, I don't know honestly!. This post came out of the chat I had with my brother over the weekend. Felt like making a blog-entry out of it.)
(Added "In defence of Indian cricket team" in the title, to grab the attention of the casual-onlookers :) )
