Still like a house of straw

Sujata Prakash

One of the most exciting tournaments seen for a long time has come to an end. The Mini World Cup is held to be the second most important competition after the World Cup, and Steve Waugh had stated before the start that the Australians want this feather in their cap too, so notwithstanding his excuses of the Aussies losing due to a sudden attack of holiday moods, we know for sure that the teams did not take it as just another meaningless one-dayer.

It bought out the best in the Indians, even overshadowing the loss at the end due to a touch of complacency and jitters. I firmly believe that no one can instill romance and heartbreak into cricket the way Indians can, and this time the ride was a sheer roller coaster drop that lasted for a long, long time. You want romance? Just think back to Yuvraj Singh's 84 against Australia or those perfect yorkers which came from a man not that side of the LOC but this side. How about heroics? Nothing to beat the splendid fielding display in the same match or Ganguly's unbeaten 141 to put the lid on South Africa's hope of reaching the finals.

Now the question being asked, even by cynical watchers who had vowed never to get taken in by cricket heroes ever again, is, are we going to get more action replays of this kind of competitive play? No matter how wonderful the wins, how exhilarating the thrill of seeing India reach the finals, somewhere at the back of a lot of peoples minds was the uncomfortable realization that we are still like the house of straw capable of being blown down with a puff of wind.

Let's take our bowling for instance, which, as anyone will tell you, is our weakest department. 265 runs on the board is not a small target to chase. It's what Australia were made to and couldn't. Why? Because Zaheer Khan had nothing to lose and thus bowled his heart out to take two vital wickets. In the final, you couldn't blame him if he tried too hard to live up to a reputation suddenly enhanced, and lost it. He's new, and hopefully he'll learn how to keep a cool head under hot conditions. Something Ajit Agarkar should have by now. If he hasn't what is the point of persisting with him when promising bowlers like Santosh Saxena could be given the chance to prove themselves? As we all know by now, the faster the talent gets tapped the better.

But that would mean great selection and managerial capabilities, which brings us to the BCCI. If anyone has had the good fortune of seeing some of the members up close they will understand how difficult it would be for the gentlemen to spell those words, let alone care for the meaning. Do they break out in a sweat when they think how close they came to relegating Zaheer Khan to just another Mumbai hopeful, and how perhaps many better than him have already bitten the dust? Somehow, no one thinks so.

To digress a bit, I read one Letter to the Editor which advised that we should not let Khan be a flash in the pan and have former players like Ravi Shastri, Sunil Gavaskar and Mohinder Amarnath as talent spotters for pace bowlers, and to ensure objectivity they should be responsible for zones other than the ones they come from.

Judging from the feedback I'm getting the team's rejuvenated look has many an optimist thinking that despite the malignant presence of certain outdated and useless board members, we will see less of that blundering along attitude in our cricket: brilliant performances one day, inexplicable collapses the next, improper coaching and near total apathy from the board.

One of the reasons for such optimism being the government's willingness to discreetly pull the BCCI back to ground level when needed. It speeded up the matter of the coach, otherwise Kapil Dev would have been in Kenya last week and we would have continued to witness farce after farce.

Another reason being the coach itself. The past few days highlighted the fact that we are not less than the best when it comes to talent. But we are amongst the worst in using it to full potential. Whoever the coach will be, he will undoubtedly be an experienced professional. Now if only he can incorporate into the Indian psyche that a) winning is all that counts b) sporadic winning is meaningless unless you have a goal and you aim for that, like the Australians aimed for the World Cup, and c) a goal is meaningless unless you are willing to work for it.