Sports

Toasts That Burnt

T20 World Cup: India tripped, fell, never got up. Why? Tired bones, and a fickle format.

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Toasts That Burnt
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Much energy was expended in IPL

Most, though, were sharp as shards of glass. "All Dhoni's fault, he made mistakes through the match, through the tournament," bitter, angry and somewhat inebriated fans spluttered outside Lord's after the loss to England. "Why the secrecy about Virender Sehwag's injury? What happened between Dhoni and him?" Questions bubbled forth, as did fans' anguish. "Why did he send the inexperienced Ravindra Jadeja at No. 4? Why couldn't he hit big shots in the end? Why couldn't he do it?"

Just what happened? India lost all three of their Super Eight matches, cowering under the pace of West Indies and England and stumbling against the spin of South Africa. Couldn't play pace, couldn't play spin. The fielding, as Dhoni said repeatedly, was considerably below par. So, couldn't field either.

It may not be fair to blame Dhoni for all this. Perhaps his one action that did seem greatly ill-advised was to march the whole team to a press conference and read out a denunciation of a news story suggesting a rift between him and Sehwag. Thereafter, the team treated the media like the plague for days, creating needless tension. Perhaps it impacted on the team's performance.

Unpredictable cricket

In sport, unpredictability is highly desirable; in Twenty20 cricket, it's the staple fans feed upon. Expecting a mortal combat on every ball for 20 overs, they work themselves into a frenzy. Dhoni says fans don't realise what this game is all about, and he might be right. The shortest form of the game is the most fickle—Pakistan and England looked duffers headed for the bin one day, inspired geniuses the next. Australia got knocked out early. England lost to the Netherlands. Ireland pushed Sri Lanka. And India lost to two teams (West Indies and England) that recently played one of the dullest, most-unwatched Test series of all times. In T20, you need just a couple of batsmen to bat some 50-odd balls very well—and they'll knock any team out. Any team.

The throw of dice is of great importance in T20, after the skills, of course. Dhoni, for instance, earned himself a tactical aura that rivalled General Rommel after he got Joginder Sharma to bowl the final of the inaugural Twenty20 World Cup final against Pakistan. India won, and Dhoni's legend was born. In the Super Eights match against England, Dhoni sent Jadeja—playing his first match of the tournament—at No. 4 with India reeling at 24/2, needing 140 runs off 16-odd overs. Jadeja heaved, flailed and raged about, but couldn't score, getting 25 off 35 balls with one four. That, in hindsight, cost India the game. Yet, had Jadeja succeeded, it would have added considerable stuff to the Dhoni legend.

"I try to channel pressure to the players, I take the pressure and hand it to the batsmen or the bowlers," Dhoni says. The captain gets the credit for the plans that succeed, and he must duly accept the blame when they don't. Clive Lloyd, the legendary West Indies captain, told Outlook, "It's not right that the captain is either an idiot or a genius. But that's not the way people look at things. They might blame Dhoni in India, but I don't think that's fair."

No time to rest

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Much of the blame, actually, lies with the Indian cricket board. Before the tournament started, India were 11/4 favourites to win the title. It's not clear why. India's record isn't stupendous—they lost three of the four Twenty20 matches they played between the two T20 World Cups.

Perhaps India plays better as underdogs. Consider 1983 and 2007, the two times India have won global tournaments. Perhaps India were installed as favourites because the team had vast experience of handling pressure in the IPL. But because the IPL ended a week before the World Cup, it contributed more to weakness than strength. Coach Gary Kirsten said: "We came into the tournament without being able to connect with the players at all. A lot of international sides were missing players because they were at the IPL, but they were preparing a lot sooner than us." He said it might be sensible to withdraw some Indian players out of the IPL next year, before the World Cup, now to be held every year.

Dilip Vengsarkar, the man who decided to make Dhoni captain for the first time, says that it's worrying that the team has had little time to rest. "You can't play your best cricket if you are fatigued, mentally or physically," Vengsarkar, in London during the tournament, told Outlook. "The IPL lasted over a month; there was much travelling between matches. The Indians were burnt out." They are burnt out also because of the sheer intensity required of the players to stay at the top of their game (for a lucrative package next year). Kirsten agrees, "We never really got ourselves to the level of intensity that you need to at the international game. And here the standard of cricket was obviously higher than what we would have experienced at the IPL."

Dhoni didn't directly blame the IPL for India's ouster, but did admit that injuries were a problem. "There were few guys who were 100 per cent fit...somebody had a shoulder problem, somebody an ankle," he said. "That had a big impact on our fielding. Most of them were sports-related injuries rather than fitness-related." This means the players aren't getting enough time to recover from injuries or the wear and tear of international sport.

The IPL, interestingly, exposed the chinks in the Indian team. For instance, the West Indies strategy of pacy and slow bouncers—which baffled the Indians and was later emulated by England—was conceived during the IPL. "We realised the Indians weren't so good against the rising balls, and using the slow bouncer would be very effective against them," Denesh Ramdin, the West Indies vice-captain (not part of the IPL), told Outlook.

Are you serious?

One school of thought says T20 isn't to be taken too seriously. Indeed, many players have said this on record. Since there's much money to make, they subsequently reneged on their comments. Bishan Singh Bedi, who has no stake in T20 cricket, is brutally frank with Outlook: "T20 is the lowest denominator of cricket. Some people are treating the loss in England as a national calamity. It's not that—a loss in a Test series would be closer to a calamity."

Others disagree. Lalchand Rajput, coach of the Indian team that won in South Africa, told Outlook: "It's a big setback and we've got to find out what happened. The other teams are planning better, playing better, and we haven't developed." But even as this debate rages, the players will have to take the T20 World Cup seriously, considering the big money riding and the public frenzy about it.

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Mishit: The secrecy around Sehwag’s injury left a bad taste in the mouth

What now?

India are now off to another tour, the West Indies, for a pointless one-day series fated to be forgotten the moment it gets over. It is to be seen whether the early exit from the World Cup has impacted the psyche of the team, making it lose the winning habit acquired over the last year. Nine months later, the T20 World Cup will be up for grabs again. Another thing to watch out is whether the Dhoni vs Sehwag controversy will gather momentum, divide the team into factions.

Ideally, the players could have done without the West Indies tour, recharged their body and mind. The glut of cricket inflicts injuries that hobble, but gives the team a chance to win public favour. Dhoni says he's not excessively worried about the public anger, for he's seen it all. "Hamara toh antim sanskar bhi ho gaya hai, after the 2007 World Cup," Dhoni joked. "I'm really happy to play cricket for India even if I get booed, it is lovely."

The fans, doing a rowdy requiem for their dream outside Lord's, won't find it too lovely. But like the one who spent over £2,500 on tickets and travelling, they somehow dream on.

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