Fan in me (and in millions of Indians) is disappointed; furthermore fan in me (and in millions of Indians) is angry, anger which has been fuming in there since the tour of England. Why are we disappointed? Yes, because we lost the match and a golden chance to win a series in Australia. But why are we angry? Not just because we lost the tests. Wins and losses are the part and parcels of the cricket, or for that matter, any game. We are angry because the way and the manner of defeats. If you go down fighting, we have no complaints whatsoever. We would be disappointed for sure but not angry or ashamed. If anything we would be proud of fighting spirit on display. But when your no. 8 batsman (which essentially a bowler and should have no business doing batting let alone fighting.) showing more fighting spirit (and better average) than few top order batsmen, you know its not a fighting spirit on display and if anything at all it’s only a spirit of earlier Indian teams which used to succumb to surrender the match at the first hint of the bounce on the pitch. But this team was supposed to be different than those teams, wasn’t this? This team is a World Cup winner (albeit, in ODIs), at the top of the test rankings just a few months back (or was that in my dream, sweetest dream?), this team has a batsman on the verge of making a century of centuries, this team has a middle order which tallies 450+ tests and 36000+ test runs, this team has a opener which has two triple centuries and strike rate of 80+ (yah! In tests.), this team has supposedly a captain with a golden touch. (Midas of cricket!). Then why is this shameless, flightless performance, that too, repeatedly? Its like watching England series all over again, only replacing poor Raina by Kohli with his raised finger (you know which one!)
According to British scholar C. S. Lewis ‘When things go wrong, they usually go on getting worse for some time; but when things once start going right they often go on getting better.‘
Indian cricket team under M.S.Dhoni’s captainship is live epitome of this. Only difference is that they have experienced the latter part first and now it’s their turn to familiarize themselves with bitter former part. After experiencing the ,what we can call as, a golden run in Indian cricket, India has now slumped to the defeat in overseas tests in straight 6 tests. Not since 1967/68 India has lost straight 6 tests overseas. (In between 1959-1968, they lost 15 tests in a row.)
As an eternal cricket fan, we can only pray that this nightmare gets over soon and we can see the other side of the Indian team, a fighting spirit which is definitely there hidden inside, again soon.
After all, when things beyond your control go wrong, the only thing you can control is your reaction to them.
P.S. all anger and dejection is because of the tremendous amount love and expectations we have for Our Team and cricket.
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