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Polly wants a cracker!

Indian cricket coach Anshuman Gaekwad, before leaving Madras, says that the team is looking forward to the second and final Test against Pakistan beginning at the Firozeshah Kotla, New Delhi, on February four.

"Yesterday's defeat is best forgotten, we have put it behind us and will face the next match with a positive frame of mind," 'Anshu', as he is known to players and cricket insiders alike, tells the media.

"What we could not reconcile to was the fact that we couldn't pull off a win after having got so close to it," he regretted.

With all due respect, Gaekwad needs a new speechwriter in a hurry. Ideally, of course, Gaekwad, and the team, need a new mindset -- but let's not ask for miracles here.

The speech writer is necessary because this thing is getting a bit repetitive. After the defeat in Zimbabwe, Gaekwad told us that it was "one of those things", that it could "happen to any team", that the side had put it behind them and were looking forward to the challenges looming ahead.

Then we had the New Zealand tour. And at the end of another Test defeat, we were told that the team had "put it behind them, and was looking at the ODI series."

We drew that one. And were told that the entire New Zealand tour was now behind the team, which was concentrating on the challenge posed by Pakistan.

One Test in Madras, one more defeat, and we get, "That defeat is behind us, we are looking forward to the next Test in Delhi."

'Polly wants a cracker!' is slightly more original, I would think.

Sarcasm aside, the comment underlines one of the problems intrinsic to this side -- we don't seem to learn from our defeats, we merely "put it behind them" and go on to another game, another venue. Which is good enough for the bank balance, but doesn't do much for results.

Gaekwad does not agree that the batting was inconsistent. "It is not so, we have been batting positively, such things happen in a game," was his verdict.

Contrast this, however, with Azharuddin's end of match analysis. When asked whether he thought the side had done the best it could, he said, "I think on the fourth morning, we approached things a bit negatively."

That showed -- in the faint trickle of runs that came in the first session, in the exaggerated defence that saw three wickets fall during the session.

The question, though, is why was the side negative, in the first place? With Tendulkar and Dravid at the crease, with Ganguly and Azhar to follow, if the side is not confident of getting around 240 runs in the 180 overs remaining, aren't we talking serious attitudinal problems here?

Further, Gaekward is asked about the bowling, and he says India had a problem in that regard. "We gave away too many runs, we have to sort it out," is his comment.

What was the problem in New Zealand? Refer back to the post-match comments, and it is deja vu time: 'we gave away too many runs, we have to sort it out.'

I think the coach and captain of India need to realise one thing in the heck of a hurry -- you may or may not agree with the media, but you cannot treat it like a bawling tiny tot. The attitude here seems to be, hell, these blokes come clustering around after every match, we have to tell them something, so let's just trot out those patented lines, send them off with something to put under their bylines...

'We have put the defeat behind us'.

What is forgotten here is that the mediaperson is merely an extension of the cricket fan. It is the fan -- who, with commendable patience, has been supporting this side through as miserable a run as any in its history -- who wants to know what went wrong, what lessons have been learnt, what corrective measures have been applied. And that fan, frankly, deserves more than to be fobbed off with soundbites.

In Zimbabwe, in New Zealand, now in Madras, we are told that the fielding is letting the side down. Obviously, no corrective measures have been thought of -- dropped catches, with all the rest, are 'put behind us'.

In Zimbabwe, in New Zealand, now in Chennai, we are told that the bowlers gave away too many runs. That, too, has been 'put behind us'.

So what, then, lies ahead of us? Another Test in which catches will be dropped, runs will be given away, batsmen will walk out with a negative attitude (attested to by the captain himself) and, at the end of it all, a post-match comment that 'the defeat has been put behind us, we are now looking forward to the Asian Test Championships'?

It is not anyone's contention here that Gaekwad -- or even Azharuddin, for that matter -- needs to answer to the press, take the media into confidence about everything they are doing.

It is, however, our contention that when the same excuses are trotted out over and over again, it indicates that there has been no attempt to rectify the perceived faults, that the team is content to just stumble along, doing its own thing in its own way, and if the results are not forthcoming, oh well, too bad, we can always put that defeat 'behind us' and look forward to the next one.

Surely, Anshu, the long suffering cricket fans deserve more at the hands of the coach, and the players?