The Hindu : Sport : Twilight of the idols

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Tuesday, Mar 27, 2007
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Twilight of the idols

The high expectations placed on Team India were largely hypedriven, writes Nirmal Shekar

It was with a feeling of trepidation that I stepped out onto the balcony in the early hours of Monday and emboldened myself to peer into the night sky. Exhaling deeply in relief, I went back inside. India had been knocked out of the ICC World Cup, yet the sky wasn't falling down. And, shockingly, a few hours later, the sun did rise in the East. Thank Mother Nature for small mercies!

In the long, frenetic media build-up to this World Cup, you might have come to believe that anything short of an Indian triumph at Bridgetown in Barbados on April 28 would trigger the sort of global panic that terrorism, climate change and every other major threat faced by humanity put together cannot match.

No national team in the entire history of organised sport might have been at the centre of such unabashed, ritualistic, `patriotic' hype as was Team India ahead of the Caribbean carnival.

Now, even before the colourful carnival procession hits the streets, so to say, even before the first resounding drumbeat, Team India members may be busy checking with their travel agents for secluded holiday spots where they can drown their sorrows.

Ah, cricket, capricious cricket! How cruel it can be to its demi-gods!

There is place for Ireland and Bangladesh in the Super Eight but not for India in a sport played seriously by close to a dozen countries. As sporting ironies go, it is tough to beat that.

Great leveller

But, let me tell you this: sport has always been like this. It is a great leveller, and in its court, the Judges don't take note of your bank balance, endorsement-value, star-power or fan base. The mantra at the highest levels of sport is often simple: perform or perish.

And it is a mantra that successive Indian cricket teams have often struggled to deal with. While they have always been capable of gloriously pulling off the unexpected, when it comes to doing what is expected of them day after day after day — like the Australian cricket team does, like Roger Federer and Tiger Woods do — our boys are just not up to it.

This is precisely why the secret of success in a team sport is not in assembling an array of so-called superstars whose combined worth might match the Gross Domestic Product of Bermuda. Eleven megastars do not necessarily make a winning team.

Tough task

Sport is a strange business. Pulling together is easier said than done. And, quite often, when a team is packed with superstars, pulling together is doubly tough.

Good teams function as cohesive units. On any given day, when the going gets tough, there are at least two or three men who get in the trenches and beat the odds. But Team India couldn't find the men for the occasion even against Bangladesh.

There has been a lot of talk about pressure and how it got to Rahul Dravid's men. Pressure? What pressure? What sort of pressure are you talking about when you needed to beat Bangladesh and Bermuda (population: 65,000) to make it to the eight-team second phase?

Handling pressure

Then again, pressure comes with the territory. If you cannot deal with it, you are a misfit in high-profile international sports.

Wasn't there pressure on the Australians going into the World Cup after being thrashed by both England and New Zealand? What did that do to them? They ran up 370-plus against the No.1 ranked side in the world. That's the character of a great team.

The point is, the so-called `high expectations' placed on this Indian side were largely hype-driven. In the high noon of commercialisation of sport, there is too much at stake for too many people to settle for a fair assessment of Team India's chances in any major event.

It may be a smart business move to set off a shrill cacophony and scream from roof tops that Dravid's men are potential world beaters. But, when the boys come back home, tails between their legs, before the business end of the World Cup has begun, then the tribal, atavistic frenzy whipped up in support of the team seems ludicrous.

It is all the more so when the team loses without a fight, as India did against both Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.

Eknath Solkar, S. Venkatraghavan, Chetan Chauhan, Mohinder Amarnath... not really a line-up that might tower above Virender Sehwag, Sourav Ganguly, Sachin Tendulkar, Yuvraj Singh and Mahendra Singh Dhoni. But those were men who loved a good fight, who enjoyed the uphill climb for survival and success.

Skills don't matter

There are men who might bedazzle you with batting or bowling skills; you can celebrate all you want their glorious gifts. But, on the big stage in sports, when push comes to shove, skills don't matter as much as character.

Talent is over-rated in sport. On the big day, when all seems lost and the end of the world appears imminent, it is character that matters.

Ever watched a man named Steve Waugh when Australia was four down for 20-something? Modern cricket has not seen more exquisite demonstrations of character than those produced by this man. Dravid comes close but, alas, his team itself lacks character.

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