’Never Take A Backward Step’ is the slogan on which the Indian team is riding on these days. And it is not just a slogan for the sake of it but something that lets the players set their own benchmarks before each game and try to do exceed expectations, their own and that of the billion odd blue supporters. And the results have been astonishing. In the current VB series the average score for the Indian team is around 270. This assumes greater importance considering that the team had to be content with their regular explosive openers, Sachin and Sehwag missing half of their games. This has been the highest average posted by any Indian team abroad in the history of the game. Isn’t it a great step forward? In the recently concluded test series, the Indian team scored at almost 4 an over, a feat hitherto unachieved. That is a giant leap for any team which were earlier branded as ’Tigers at Home, lambs outside’. Recall the last match between India and Zimbabwe. India were 4/3 and yet managed to post a score of 280. How often have we seen an Indian team do that before?
Great teams are not born overnight but it takes a lot of hard work and time to come up with a winning combination that refuses to give up and takes the fight to the enemy camp till the last bowl of the match is bowled. And when things seem to be in place, the world starts paying attention. That the Indian team is making giant strides in terms of confidence and performance is widely acknowledged by all and sundry these days and the fan club is growing. Steve Waugh, Allan Border, Wasim Akram, Richie Benaud, John Reid, Peter Roebuck, etc seem to be the latest additions to the supporters of the billion member blue club.
What really drives the team to give it everything these days and what was amiss in the past? Lot of factors if you ask me.
Blue Crush:
’Go Blue, Crush ’em!!’. This is not to belittle the red cola giant, but the voice of the millions who cheer the Indian eleven whenever they are on the field. Every team needs support from the viewers of the game. The Indian team has been lucky to have the largest fan base in the world. It was quoted somewhere that when India plays an important game, the TV audience in India exceeds the combined population of Europe. Some of them are insane enough to act funny and do weird things like painting the players’ houses black or smash the wind shields of their cars, but most of them just want their team to win. And a player needs no bigger motivation than that, the prayers of a billion fans. Faith acts as the biggest motivator and all a player wants to do is keep it alive.
Global Effect:
The coach of the Indian team is a New Zealander in John Wright. The physio and the psychologist are Australians. The bowlers receive their tips from Wasim Akram, a Pakistani and Greg Chappel has no qualms about coaching Ganguly about how to play the short ball. There is a certain theory about playing the game in the sub continent and outside, about how players within can use their wrists to wield the willow like a wand but are at sea when it comes to the rising stuff. When the people assisting the team are from different backgrounds, it is clear to get the whole picture and fix weaknesses, if any.
Bend it like Beckham:
Fitness is the latest buzzword around. You can see it when Yuvraj takes a blinder to send the batsman back to where he belongs or Rahul Dravid, hit a ton after donning the gloves behind the stumps for 50 overs. Andrew Leipus, the current physiotherapist of the Indian team is not a doctor from your local Munnabhai’s clinic but a qualified sports scientist from the ’University of South Australia’ who also doubles up as a physio. He has managed to change the whole outlook when it comes to staying fit. Fielding standards have improved and players are more likely to adapt to the demands of the modern game which has ceased to be seasonal and is played round the year these days.
Unnatural Selection:
Back in the olden days, sights like six players from Mumbai or Seven from Karnataka in a single team were not too surprising. Today the Indian team has a near equal representation notably from Delhi (Sehwag, Nehra), Tamil Nadu (Balaji, Badani), Bengal (Gavaskar, Ganguly), Baroda (Pathan, Patel), Railways (Bangar, Karthik), Hyderabad (Laxman), Punjab (Yuvraj, Harbhajan), UP (Kaif) and the historical powerhouses Mumbai (Sachin, Agarkar) and Karnataka (Kumble, Dravid). In short, this team represents the country in all its diversity which means a lot for aspirants from their respective local teams, strengthening a belief that they would receive a fair deal in the selection process. Of course it is difficult to please everyone, but the current bunch of selectors need a pat on the back for their bold decisions regarding Pathan, Balaji, Gavaskar, Patel and many more. And the players have performed and how !
Mind Games:
India has always produced talented players but they stumbled when it came to playing the mental game. Five down with still 200 to chase, Kaif and Yuvraj created history at the Natwest Series. ’Now or Never’, the Indian team’s slogan for Feb’03 almost won them the World Cup. A certain sports psychologist who calls himself Sandy Gordon, has time and again helped the Indians to prepare before a tough series or worked with individual players to work out their mental weaknesses. It certainly seems to be working. Lead by Saurav Ganguly, no stranger to mind games himself, the body language of the players suggests a new found confidence previously missing from most Indian teams.
A Question of Leadership:
India have had good captains in the past, prominent among whom are Sunil Gavaskar, Kapil Dev and Tiger Pataudi. But there is a certain appeal in Ganguly’s leadership that calls for a lot of appreciation. He has the nerves not to get bogged down by the media or ex-cricketers. He has the courage to stand by his players and fight it out with the selectors to push their cases. He has the ability to extract the best out of his men in the field. A dynamic personality often mistaken for being snobbish, Ganguly has been the one of the best things that have happened to the Indian team as far as captaincy is concerned. He is so adept at mind games that he gave it back to its greatest exponent in recent times, Steve Waugh.
...continued in comments
Damo