Indian Cricket - where to from here?

4 - 0. Two innings defeats. A team series batting average that is half as much as England achieved. 3 double centuries scored by the opposition batsman in 4 games. India has been absolutely walloped by England. Enough said.

The outcome and its causes have been analysed to death as well - its the lack of preparation, its the IPL, the players are jaded, the bowling attack is weak.

Lets face it - India had a good run while it lasted, but there was only so long that we could ride on the back of having a solid though temperamental opening pair, a world class though ageing middle order and only one truly world class bowler (for Harbhajan to be considered world class he needs to pull his weight on overseas tours - if Graeme Swann, with far fewer variations, can achieve consistently good results in all conditions, then so can Harbhajan - but he has not, and hence is not worthy of being labelled world class).

Coming back to the topic on hand, lets revisit the facts of India's humiliation in England:

1. India entered the series without its number one opener, and soon effectively lost the services of its second.

2. Of the reknowned middle order, one was forced to open the batting in 5 innings out of 8 and was magnificent in the way he went about his task - hats off to The Wall. But that meant that VVS Laxman was forced to bat at number 3. Now don't get me wrong - Laxman is perhaps the best back-to-the-wall batsman in the world, but putting him at number 3 in seaming and swinging conditions against a rampant Jimmy Anderson was almost sadistic - it exposed the weakest area of his game and gave him the least chance of success.

3. Sachin Tendulkar was off-colour - period. A couple of unlucky dismissals did not help either. But after a resurgence that has lasted over 2 years, he was bound to go through a dip sooner or later. He may deny it, but if history is anything to go by, the impending 100th century may have also had a role to play in his lack of fluency and focus. More is the pity - for a couple of solid innings from Tendulkar's blade in the company of Dravid would have done a lot to lift the team and fan morale.

4. And finally the bowling - the less said the better - having lost Zaheer Khan early, the series just exposed the lack of bite in the rest of the attack. This is still a young attack - but India does face a serious issue to deal with in this department.

Consider these, and add to this the purple patch that the England team is going through, and the end result is hardly surprising. Yes, we would have liked to see a bit more fight. Yes the body language was poor. Yes the fielding was terrible. But when you are having a bad day in the office, you quite often just try to somehow get through the day and crawl back into bed - you don't really have a big positive smile on your face and a skip in your step do you? Now imagine going through 3 weeks of this (as also sometimes we do) - with egos shattered, self belief at rock bottom and a merciless opposition hammering you relentlessly. This Indian team has shown a lot of fortitude and resolve in the past, but with the odds stacked against them, they had really found their Waterloo.

The question then is, what are the lessons learnt, and how does Indian cricket pick itself up, dust itself off and recover from this debacle. This is not the first time India has undergone such a tumultuous period, and I doubt it will be the last. Lets revisit one other such painful period in Indian cricket history to perhaps serve as a guide to how we might recover this time.

The time was December 2000 - under Sachin Tendulkar's captaincy India had a disastrous tour of Australia. The test series was lost 3 - 0, with no one but Tendulkar himself, and Ganguly to a lesser extent, providing any resistance to the Australians. Laxman provided something to cheer about at the end of that series with a glorious 167 that revived his career.

India then went on to lose 7 out of the 8 one-day internationals it played in a tri-nation series Down Under, involving Australia and Pakistan. The then coach, Kapil Dev, said the players were 'not enjoying the game' (sounds familiar?), and after India's only win in the series, Sachin bravely declared that the team was 'rediscovering its winning ways'. If all of this was not enough, India then suffered the shame of being defeated by South Africa at home in a 2-0 in a 2 match test series. Tendulkar took personal responsibility for the defeats and resigned as captain of the team. It was indeed a bad time to be an Indian cricket fan.

All of this though paled in comparison to 'Prabhakar Gate' which followed. The scandals and the reverberation it sent through Indian cricket were unimaginable. Mohammad Azharuddin, one of the pillars of the batting those days, was banned for life. Ajay Jadeja, the life of the one-day unit, was later banned for five years. Allegations were thrown left right and centre and the team spirit seemed to be at its lowest ebb.

It was from these ruins, that Saurav Ganguly had the task of rebuilding the side. And what a mighty fine job he did! There were, to my mind at least, 3 key factors that led to India recovering from those depths, and then rising to the number 1 position in world cricket:

1. The appointment of John Wright as coach - this was a masterstroke - John was exactly the sort of coach India needed at that point - he worked behind the scenes on building fitness, mental strength and attitude. He worked wonderfully well with Ganguly and the other senior members in the team (despite the occasional differences). The key was John Wright's appointment was based on a consultation with the senior members of the Indian team (Rahul Dravid in particular was a big supporter of John after his stint with Kent).

2. A revamping of attitude within the team - the Indian team till then had been a rather docile team - we had one fast bowler in Srinath who apologized to the batsman after bowling a bouncer, and another in Prasad whose face expressed more fury than his pace. The introduction of youngsters such as Yuvraj Singh, Mohammad Kaif, Harbhajan and Zaheer Khan did a lot to improve the look and feel of the team. These young guns were confident in their ability, and had no reservations with sticking it to the opposition, in word and deed. The 2001 series against Australia was a watershed series as far as a change in attitude went. Ganguly himself led from the front, with aggression beyond that we had seen from any other Indian captain. (I will never forget the bouncers he bowled to the Australian fast bowlers in a classic tit-for-tat response!) The attitude shift was a key reason for India revamping its image in world cricket. The shift also inspired the senior members of the side to pursue their dreams for Indian cricket and themselves more aggresively.

3. A focus on fitness - this was perhaps the most important change brought about in the Ganguly-John Wright era. The team which played the 2003 World Cup was perhaps the fittest Indian side I have ever seen. No surprise that it showed in their fielding and their ability to bounce back after a couple of early set-backs. Again Ganguly led from the front - he was always a safe catcher, but his ground fielding was always sloppy, both before and after his reign as captain. But as captain of India, the guy was Jonty Ganguly! He was diving, rolling and returning the ball with amazing accuracy! And that was an inspiration to his wards - the levels of fielding exhibited by India during those years were incredible. In an inspired move, Yuvraj Singh and Mohammad Kaif were appointed 'fielding captains' during the 2003 World Cup - this gave the youngsters real responsibility and leveled the playing field, by giving them the power to 'admonish' the seniors during training if the fielding was not up to standard - an innovative idea that was so simple, yet so effective in buiding the spirit of the team.

Fast-forward back to the present - where to from here? What lessons can we take from that period of Indian cricket to help us pass through this? Well, heres a shot:

1. Fitness, fitness, fitness! - Stop making excuses like 'We have always been an unfit team - we work with what we have got' - fitness has got to be the number one mantra of the team. And just like England have done with guys like Samit Patel, India needs to take some hard stands against players who do not pay attention to fitness. Its downright shameful to see the paunches that guys like Sreesanth, RP Singh and Zaheer Khan carry. Its no wonder then that these guys break down so often. A strong message was sent to Rohit Sharma, and look at the way he is come back - leaner, stronger and hungrier. Particularly, in the bowling department, you need lean, fit individuals who are hungry, not overweight chaps who can occasionally get prodigious swing.

2. Blooding in the youngsters - I disagree with all those who say that the debacle in England was because the team did not play together in West Indies. I believe it was a very good decision to blood in youngsters on that tour - and couple of them did show some promise. Tours like the West Indies, Zimbabwe and Bangladesh need to be used to blood in youngsters. When they are not on such tours, there is no point carrying them as passengers in the Test side (to those who believe sharing a dressing room with senior pros helps, I think you can learn as much from a senior pro playing in the domestic circuit or the IPL as you would sitting in the dressing room). Instead, when there is little or no chance of the youngster playing, send him off to play on India A tours (for some reason these seem to have dried up lately). Even if you do want to carry a youngster along, make arrangements for the youngster to play for one of the local sides while the team is touring. He can always be called upon to play for the Test team if the need arises, but at least the rest of the time he is getting some real exposure to the local conditions and players. Guys like Abhinav Mukund, Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli need this exposure now, in order to serve Indian cricket well in 2 or 3 years time.

3. Off season - all of us need holidays and time off from work. There is no reason why a top class cricketer should not get time off from the game. But when a top executive is taking time off, he still has one eye on his business. He is still in touch with his staff, or at the very least is contactable if something comes up. He still keeps abreast with the market and global events, and all-in-all is still keeping his skills and his awareness tuned, in case they get called upon. Most importantly he applies for a specific period of time off work, and is expected to return to work once that time is up, irrespective of whether there is a major project running.

Similarly, a top-class sportsman must ensure his mind,body and skills are in tip-top shape to return to the game after his break. This is largely a personal choice, but the BCCI needs to hold these cricketers accountable. A fitness regime needs to be planned for each of the cricketers in their time off, and those who have quite obviously not stuck to it should be banned for a period of at least 3 months for them to whip themselves back into shape. Also, just as organisations do, cricketers too should have to apply for a specific leave period. Once their leave period is up, the cricketers need to return to playing cricket, whether in domestic tournaments, or club and county cricket in other countries, or at least return to training at academies.

4. Preparation - Its actually shocking how little value is given to preparation by cricket boards these days. Gone are the days when teams would play at least 3 warm up games before the start of a test series, and play perhaps one or two more in between games. These warm up games are not only a great way for the touring team to acclimatize, but also provide a fantastic opportunity for domestic players to shine against quality opposition. But preparation is not just about warm up games, its also about camps leading up to a test series - for teams to get back into the groove of touring and playing together.

5. Leadership - just as Ganguly and Wright led Indian cricket out of its dark ages at the start of the millennium, MS Dhoni and Duncan Fletcher now have a trying task on hand. I think its perfect that India is now going to play a few one-dayers and then play the Windies at home. This team desperately needs a jolt of confidence - hopefully these games can provide them with that opportunity.

But more importantly, Fletcher and Dhoni need to go about setting exacting standards of excellence. Dhoni himself is a supremely fit man - there is no reason why he should not push his team-mates to achieve similar levels of fitness. One gripe I do have however against Dhoni is that his batting and keeping in Tests at least leaves a lot to be desired. Dhoni is at a stage now in his career where he needs to decide whether he wants to be remembered as India's best captain or as MS Dhoni, plunderer supreme. I believe he is capable of being both.

Its been a humbling experience, watching India being humiliated like this (my desktop background at work has changed from a photograph of Dhoni slamming the six that won India the world cup, to a beautifully scenic picture of Whitehaven beach). But there is far too much talent in the country for us to suffer the shame time and again. Its time to pick up the pieces and plan for the next phase of Indian cricket. The big 3 in particular, would do well to have a heart to heart discussion with captain and coach, so the team can put a succession plan in place. A core group of 15 bowlers needs to be identified, trained and rotated so that India always has a solid, if not spectacular, bowling line up.

Interesting times ahead.....

Lessons from the Indian Premier League

The Indian Premier League has been a success. There is absolutely no doubt about that. The stadiums have by and large been filled to capacity, and the TRP ratings of channels have gone up a notch or two, with even other prime time shows in India suffering due to the live telecast of IPL games. Even grudging viewers such as yours truly have been seduced by it and have stayed up till wee hours in the morning to watch the final game between the Rajasthan Royals and the Chennai Super Kings.

This however, is not an exercise in showcasing the financial and media success of Lalit Modi's baby. The IPL threw up some interesting insights on teams, leadership and success. This is what I'd like to explore further.

No one who watched the final game of the IPL could have missed the cool demaneour of MS Dhoni. This is one of Dhoni's most striking qualities as a captain - his calm under pressure. The man himself claims that he hides his emotions in order to relax his bowlers and fielders. The nonchalance probably does help in relaxing everyone on the field and allowing them to put up their best effort. He even managed to flash a bright smile when the equation came down to 1 run required to win off the last ball of the innings. Here was a man who was not about to let the situation get the better of him. He was bent on keeping himself and his team calm and focussed.

Contrast this to the approach of the victorious captain - Shane Warne. Before the semi-finals and finals Warne was seen talking to each and every player on the team. While what he said is not known, it was clear enough that he was trying to ensure that every individual on the team was geared up and ready to go for the game. Even in the final moments of the tense final, Warne was seen talking in earnest to Ravindra Jadeja and Sohail Tanvir before their turn to bat came around.

Later it was revealed that even before the tournament had started, Warne had prepared a document called 'Whats My Role' for each and every member on the team detailing precisely the role of the individual with bat, ball and on the field. Warne clearly does not believe in auto-management. He ensured that every member in the team got his personal attention.

There were 2 major lessons I learnt:
1. Prepare every member in your team to the last detail
2. If things do not go according to plan, STAY COOL!

The Bangalore Royal Challengers and the Deccan Chargers finished the IPL at the bottom of the table. With the BRC one can argue that this was a team that was a misfit to this form of the game - with batsmen like Jaffer, Dravid and Kallis and bowlers like Zaheer Khan and Anil Kumble - all suited to the slower pace of test cricket. But what of the Deccan Chargers? This team had batsmen like Adam Gilchrist, Andrew Symonds, Shahid Afridi and Rohit Sharma. Even their bowling line up with RP Singh, Afridi and Pragyan Ojha seemed better suited to the helter skelter that is Twenty20.

I think the failure of these 2 teams highlighted what a huge role confidence and belief can play in the success of a team. BRC had it going against them right from the begining when the owner Vijay Mallya expressed his displeasure over the team selection. When your boss himself has no faith in you, its difficult to fight against other odds. Then came a few close losses for both the Royal Challengers and the Deccan Chargers. Add to this the scathing attacks on the teams by the media and you had two teams who were so low on confidence that towards the end of the league they resembled Zimbabwe or Bangladesh. Every victory was viewed as an 'upset'. The teams were hanging by straws.

How can such teams turn things around? A change in strategy? The Royal Challengers tried something new in almost every game they played - nothing worked. A change of leadership? Adam Gilchrist in for VVS Laxman made not an iota of difference for the Deccan Chargers.

Quite often its individual brilliance that can inspire a team out of the doldrums, as was the case with the Mumbai Indians. Shaun Pollock lead the way with inspired contributions with both bat and ball. When Sachin Tendulkar made his comeback to the side, the team was already on a roll and their confidence only increased. Sanath Jayasuriya then took centre stage and once again it was individual brilliance which caught the limelight.

While it came too late in the day, Saurav Ganguly also showed the way for the Kolkata Knight Riders. His heroics with bat and ball inspired the Knight Riders to some fine wins late in the league.

But individual brilliance alone is not enough. Once you have gained the confidence and faith of your teammates you need to use this to your advantage, squeezing more out of them. 'Heres what I can do - now lets see you do your bit' is the implicit message that should be delivered.

This is where Dhoni and Warne scored. 17 off Symond's over to win the game against Deccan Chargers elevated Warne to a whole new level in the eyes of his teammates. 65 off 35 balls only confirmed Dhoni's ever growing stature. The 2 captains leveraged on their own performances, cajolling, almost demanding bigger contributions from their teammates. With fortfified faith in their captains, the 2 teams produced some fantastic cricket to reach the finals.

Finally a word on team spirit. Its true that success breeds team spirit, but the converse is just as true. You only had to see Yusuf Pathan and Shane Watson embrace after the finals to know that this team had transcended boundaries and formed strong internal bonds during the course of the league. A team with strong team spirit always has an extra edge to its game.

A quick summary is in order:

1. Preparation
2. Inspiration
3. Leverage
4. Team-spirit ....and lastly...
5. Staying Calm

Your thoughts Mr Welch? Mr Drucker? Its true - sport is but a reflection of life. :)

Whats your Zahir?

"Zahir - visible, present, incapable of going unnoticed. It is someone or something which, once we have come into contact with them or it, gradually occupies our every thought, until we can think of nothing else. This can be considered either a state of holiness or of madness. "

The Zahir by Paulo Coelho is an engaging book. He pulls you into his world right from the onset by describing the sudden disappearance of his wife. It is unclear whether she has run away or was kidnapped or simply walked out on him because their marriage was falling apart. The story revolves around his obsession (his Zahir) of finding her and rediscovering the love that once was his marriage, his life. While the storyline is simple, and perhaps all too familiar, the messages he brings across are quite thought-provoking.

When I started reading The Zahir, I did it because this book meant something special to my girlfriend. And I was keen on finding out what that was. Now I know that the ideas of freedom and love that the book brings forth touched her deeply, and I am glad, because they touched me too.

But there is something beyond that, something which is more fundamental and stirring about the Zahir. And that is our idea about ourselves, and about what we want from life. Allow me to quote from the book:

"I went to a train station today and learned that the distance between railway tracks is always 143.5 centimetres or 4 feet 8 and a half inches. Why this absurd measurement? I asked my girlfriend to find out and this is what she discovered. When they built the first train carriages, they used the same tools as they had for building horse-drawn carriages. And why the distance between the wheels on carriages? Because that was the width of old roads along which the carriages had to travel. And who decided the roads should be that width? Well suddenly we are plunged back into the distant past. It was the Romans, the first great road-builders, who decided to make their roads that width. And why? Because their war chariots were pulled by two horses, and when places side by side, the horses they used at the time took up 143.5 centimetres.
So the distance between the tracks I saw today, used by our state-of-the-art high-speed trains, was determined by the Romans."

We all undergo 16 to 18 years of education, get into fine jobs, get married, have children and spend the next 20 years of our lives ensuring that our children live comfortable lives, then work for our retirement, and if our partner is still around (be it physically or emotionally) spend the last years of our lives in relative bliss (hopefully), always ensuring that the railway tracks remain 143.5 centimetres apart, because thats how the Romans lived their lives centuries ago.

We each have our 'purpose', but thats been pre-defined as well. You have a few choices:

1. Make lots of money/earn fame and adulation
2. Be a good husband/wife or family man/woman
3. Build an organization
4. Be charitable
5. Travel
6. Enter the realms of spirituality

Form any combination of 2 or 3 of these choices and you have your purpose in life defined. Any of them may become your Zahir, your obsession, your sole ambition and desire.

Do each of us find a purpose in our life because thats how we want to live our life or do we try and find some purpose because thats we have been told to do? Because the Romans and Aryans and Chinese all those thousands of years ago decided that for society to survive we each need to carry out certain roles, and we each need to find our purpose?

Animals in the wild seem to have no greater purpose in life than to survive, to mate, to reproduce and to pass on when their time comes. Is it simply our ego as human beings that pushes us to believe that we need a higher purpose or is that how nature deemed it to be?

I may be coming across as someone who would like mankind to go back to the wild, to the days of tribes and nomads, where we are free to chart our own paths. That however is not my point.

My point is this - without sounding holier than thou - its important that each of us do find our purpose in life, find that special someone, and maintain our relationships, but not because society dictates that we do so. We need'nt struggle with our souls in order to find our purpose. We need'nt struggle to keep our relationships alive simply because society and civilization have defined them for us. Let us not allow finding a purpose or maintaining and forming relationships become our Zahir as much as the writer in 'The Zahir' allowed his failed marriage to become his.

Instead if we each do what we want, what we desire, follow our gut, and most importantly give others around us the freedom and the space to follow theirs, we may find that railway tracks need not always remain 143.5 centimetres apart.....with any luck, your track and mine may converge.

Beyond Here and Now..

Well here I am again - and on the same day too!

I had time to read a fair bit today - am reading a book called Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts. I am sure a fair number of you would have heard of it and many would have probably read it too. Its a highly engaging book so far. The book is generously sprinkled with some very catchy philosophical lines that provide fodder for thought.

Which got me thinking - philosophy, spirituality, discussions on ethics and morality - what prompts us to engage in them? That then shall be the topic of this blog.

The great thinkers of the past - men like Aristotle and Plato, or Confuscious or Gautama Buddha - have all turned towards spirituality and philosophy at a time when their civilizations were at the zenith. Materially there was no want for anything more - but people craved something more, something beyond, something metaphysical and ethereal.

We seem to be at a similar point in modern history today. Technologically we are fast approaching a point where it shall be difficult to conceive anything fantastically different from what we already have or know about. Materially we have all the comforts that we could possibly need. Most of our work is either completely or partially done by machines. We spend less time doing mundane activities that kept our forefathers (and mothers) occupied for most part of their day. Which only means we have more time for other activities - while some use the time to chase pleasures of all sorts, others use it for the 'softer' side of their development - be it the emotional or the spiritual quotient.

Our generation in particular - and here I do generalize - seems to have been brought up with most of our needs provided for. Most of our desires have been met, one way or the other. While our fathers and their fathers had their financial future and the well-being of their families to worry about, we seem to have more time and freedom to sit by the seaside and discuss the state of our civilization and our souls.

The bottomline is this - while our forefathers have all been men of action - essentially because of a pressing need to be as such - we are more driven by the quest for knowledge and higher thinking. We spend more of our time musing over matters that really do not have a direct impact on our everyday lives. While we still do study and work, we do so without any real worry of the future that lies ahead. Our fathers have ensured that we shall lead a life that is considerably easier and more comfortable than theirs has been. Our leaders assure us that global problems are being addressed, and that our security is their first priority. As Tyler Durden says in Fight Club (one of the must-see movies - but more on those in another blog) - "We're the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our Great War's a spiritual war... our Great Depression is our lives."

Whether this is a good thing or bad is a matter of perspective. One might argue that we shall only end up being fat and lazy with no real drive or purpose. But seen a different way - we may be approaching a point in history where we finally have a deep enough understanding of science and spirituality to be able to converge the 2 paths. We may find that the universal equation Einstein spent his life searching for may be more spiritual than scientific - or a combination of the two fields of study. Of course - I'm only musing.

In conclusion all I can say is that we are in a day and age where we shall find more and more people driven by a search for something beyond the physical and the present. What we make of it and whether we pursue it ourselves is a very individual choice. As always, it boils down to belief and faith. What do you believe in?

Cheers

Afterthought: The very fact that I had time to write this, and the fact that you have the time to read it is proof enough that we all do not seem to have too many pressing concerns in our lives today. :D What can I say - enjoy it while you can!

The Begining

Well - its finally happened. For many months now I have wondered about blogging - wondered about why it is so popular, and then been amazed at the apparent power of blogging - how it has sucked so many people in and has become as far-reaching a form of media as any other - and I wondered some more...

But like so many other things in my life, I thought about it, wondered about it, talked about it with peers..and did absolutely nothing.

A friend of mine here is a devout blogger. Not only does he post blogs regularly but is also an avid reader of many blogs. What really piqued my interest was the useful bits of information and the manifold points of view that he found on various blogs he frequented. He makes it a point to forward these articles to me and thats pretty much all the blog-reading I have done.

Quite frankly I am yet to become an avid follower of blogs. But I guess, like most other things in life, your interest only grows once you are involved in something. And that leads us to this.

So here goes - my first blog post.

I have always thought of blogging as being merely an extension to maintaining a diary. The only difference I suppose is that occasionally a blog may reply to your thoughts and views - through comments from you - the reader.

But both require two things - a genuine interest and the discipline that goes with it. Which again is so true of most things in life.

If you have'nt noticed already I do have a penchant for generalizations. But more on these in the blogs to come.

For now, let me just bask in the glory of having finally started something that I have been 'wondering' and 'thinking' about for so long. And let me thank you - the reader (are u still there?) - for taking time out to read this.

Cheers