2010- the worst things for India in the year.

This is not a year ending blog. Am just writing this so I remember which were the events or things that messed up 2010 for India.
1) CWG- The players, the work staff and the Indian audience, gave their heart and soul for this. The players had only India’s pride in their mind, and winning, their only motto. And win they did!! The support staff had just one goal in their mind- to help the players achieve their goals. The Indian audience took these 2 to their heart, and enjoyed every moment. But what went wrong was the administration. The bad top guys and their corruption cost India 70,000 crores of rupees!! They completely rot these games, cost India big, and gave a big dent to brand India.

2) Adarsh- real estate and housing have always been at the centre of corruption and power. Adarsh, quite contrary to its name, is probably the biggest real estate related scam. Who knows how this will end, and who will LAND up where. But for now, this is a very big, very big blot on the business and commercial capital of India.

3) 2G- Not many will even understand what this is all about, barring what they have read in the media, and barring a few names. But it suffices to know that in money and impact terms, this is probably much much bigger than the previous two put together.

4) IPL: Yes, it is a big money scam. Ok, it has REVOLUTIONISED the concept of 20- 20, and even generally, cricket. It has given India, what it claims, a cricket version of EPL. But at the end , and probably at the centre of it all, is CORRUPTION.

5) CVC- Not a scam as much as a moral issue, but issue it sure is.

6) Inflation- naah, this one doesn’t help. This just doesn’t help. The problem may not be under control, but the steps to solutions are.

7) Big Boss- The WORST thing to happen to India, the television, and to its people. Period.

The T-20 fiasco- The IPL angle

A lot has been written about India's recent cricket failures- the loss to Australia, the 2 match loss against Zimbabwe, and most of all, the T-20 World Cup debacle. Too much analysis has been made and all the points are the same.

Ok, first of all, I would really like to congratulate the England team for winning the t-20 IN STYLE. The way Aus was playing, I really appreciate England nothing less than winning the finals. This nation has given us the game of cricket, and represents great professionalism and grace in handling things. For them to have not won any major tourney in the recent past was an upsetting thing for someone like me, who is a fan of the country itself. Collingwood's men showed great character in dominating the tourney and winning the finals against the strong Aussies really sweetly.

Back to the Indian drama. Lazyness, partying, lack of seriousness towards fitness, arrogance, over confidence etc are the commonly cited reasons. But like Aamir Khan mentioned in a beautiful scene in TZP, these are symptoms, not causes.

As I believe, the real causes for the debacle are tow fold-one, the recent success in both the one day and test format, and, two, the IPL. The recent success, has caused some pretty natural arrogance and overconfidence, collectively termed complacency.

The IPL, the phenomenon that we know, has been a mixed blessing I would say. As much a fan as I am of it (I track it only when Mumbai play), I do think its not a mere coincidence that the last major multi team tourney India won- the T-20 2007 WC, was a year before the IPL. India has had tremendous success in tests and 2 nations series since then, but multi team tourney remains elusive.

Here is why I believe the IPL has been variously responsible for the failure. Ok, the IPL does reveal new players. But then, how many of those have actually made their mark? Barring Yusuf Pathan and Ravindu Jadeja, none of the others have been seen in any form of international cricket ever since. Whatever happened to the "talented" Abhishek Nayar or Dhaval Kulkarni?

Fine, the IPL, just a week before the T-20 WC, gives good match practice and is the perfect rehearsel, when competing with, and playing alongside, world players. Well, not quite. Firstly, most of these so called international players are retired and play only to earn more money in retirement. Gilchrist, hayden, fleming, pollock, warne, etc are all out of international cricket, but have played in IPL. Playing against them is no match practice for the younger world players taking to T-20. Its no good either in playing against each other, because that is not helping.

Look at it this way. Before every major graduation exam, we have a preliminary exam. This exam gives an indication about how well prepared we are, but can never replace the actual studies. Therefore, there is a gap of about a month between the preliminary exam and the final one. Studies happen in this month.

The IPL is similar to this preliminary exam, although with a rider. It is an OPEN BOOK preliminary exam. So, although the exam does give us a feel of how the main test is gonna be, because it is open book, we are never really tested. The IPL does give us an idea of how the players are going to play, but not completely. Also, there is not time between the IPL and the WC, which means the actual studies- the NET PRACTICE, which is oh so essential, does not happen! This is where I think the IPL causes a problem in its concept and being taken for granted as the perfect pitch for the world cup. It is so far away from it.

Thirdly, and more importantly, the IPL gives too much exposure to world players of Indian cricket strategy. Consider this. Barring Jacques Kallis and Boucher, we do not have too many SA Players playing in the IPL. So, the Indian players playing along side or against them, learn about the strengths and weaknesses of only 2 SA players. The 2 SA players, on the other hand, come to know about almost every India player participating in the WC. Same holds true for the couple of Englis players Boparra and Peterson., or for Mahelam Sangakarra and Mendis- the 3 SL players. My point here is- the Indian cricketers are getting too less in return for the tremendous amount they are giving away- game strategy, strengths and weaknesses. The world now knows a lot about the India cricketing strategy, while we know very little. This becomes very important in global competitions.

Concluding, I believe the Indian cricket is certainly undergoing a change with the coming of IPL, but the effects of this change could be massive and huge if not checked.