Great win, but easy on the chest-thumping

[Gambit]

[h1]Great win, but easy on the chest-thumping[/h1] World Twenty20 victors India need to beware of the gathering parasites if they are to prepare properly for the 2011 World Cup. [h2]Dileep Premachandran[/h2] September 26, 2007 11:56 AM "We are the world," roared the Times of India's headline. The sub-head stayed true to the once-worthy newspaper's policy of pandering to the lowest common jingoistic denominator. "Pakistunned," it read, slightly better it must be said than the grossly insensitive "Karachi Captured" in the wake of India's victory in the opening one-day match of the 2004 Pakistan tour. You only need to browse through the papers, with very few exceptions, to realise just why Indians have become so reviled in other parts of the subcontinent. The self-congratulatory air, chest-thumping patriotism and a nouveau-riche swagger that would shame Chelsea FC evoke disturbing comparisons with another country across the Atlantic that thinks the world begins and ends within its borders. India's Twenty20 side deserves every word of praise that comes their way for the manner in which they strung together four back-to-back victories - against clueless England and then the three best teams in the competition, South Africa, Australia and Pakistan. But it grates many that opportunistic politicians and opinion-makers are so glibly linking the feats of 15 heroes who went to South Africa rated no-hopers to the alleged national character. "This team symbolises India," trumpeted the Economic Times. "It has loads of aggression, tonnes of determination and a feisty fierceness that can crumble the strongest of opponents." Echoes there of 2004 and the aftermath of the victorious Pakistan tour, when a certain political party tried to link the triumph to its India Shining campaign, only to come a cropper in an election that only proved you can't fool all of the people all of the time. The biggest danger Mahendra Singh Dhoni and his team face now are the parasites that will gather round - the politicians, the hangers-on, the agents and the movers and shakers hoping to cash in on a win that is already being equated with the World Cup triumph of 1983. Several careers were ruined or stalled in the wake of India's run to the World Cup final in 2003, as players took their eye off the ball and grew fat on celebratory champagne and sinfully rich advertising contracts. With its greatest players on the wane and on their way out, Indian cricket can't afford a reprise. While a sense of perspective is needed to keep the players focussed, the scale of the achievement also needs to be acknowledged. India held its first domestic Twenty20 only last April, in the weeks following the first-round World Cup exit. Most of the top players skipped it, and the majority in the team that went to South Africa had only played one international, at the Wanderers last December. India also journeyed to the Cape of Good Hope without a coach, more than five months after Greg Chappell walked away from the job. If the Indian board tries to claim any credit for the success, the peals of laughter are likely to crescendo. Whatever Dhoni and his boys have achieved is despite the system, despite abysmal lack of planning and foresight. It makes you wonder what they might accomplish if provided with the sort of environment Australia function in. One thing that can be taken for granted is the future of Twenty20. No matter how much the traditionalists sulk, the format is here to stay, and the deserted evening streets on the days of the Australia and Pakistan games told their own story. The 50-over version no longer captures the imagination of the vast majority, with the middle overs about as much of a spectacle as watching a tooth being extracted. Twenty20 was also perfect for the office-goer, who could get home, put his feet up with a drink or otherwise, watch the game and then head for dinner. The ICC has indicated that no team will be allowed to play more than seven Twenty20 games a year. But in most countries apart from India, one-day attendances are on the wane. At some stage, nonsensical five-match and seven-match one-day series that tax the patience of even the devout follower will have to be pruned, and it's safe to guess it will be Twenty20 that fills the vacuum. For the moment, Indian cricket has no such worries. Saturday's opening one-day match against Australia in Bangalore has already been sold out, and the only hand-wringing will be over the composition of the side. Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly and Zaheer Khan are all slated to return, and that could mean a return to the fringes for Twenty20 heroes like [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RmSCdePAC2c]Gautam Gambhir[/ame]. [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLr_fvMKCuQ]Rohit Sharma[/ame], a revelation in the victories over South Africa and Pakistan, hadn't even been picked in the squad for the first three ODIs against Australia, and the selection panel will have a lot to answer for if he and Bengal's Manoj Tiwari don't play at least half the games against Australia and Pakistan. Rafael Benítez's favourite word, rotation, is the answer. With the batting trinity of Tendulkar, Dravid and Ganguly having no chance of making it to World Cup 2011, there's no need to play them in every game. Playing alongside them will certainly benefit the likes of Sharma, but accommodating them at his expense will be as ludicrous as England picking Ashley Giles ahead of Monty Panesar. As Ravi Shastri, who coached the team in Bangladesh in May, said recently, the results don't matter, grooming a team for the future does. The pot of gold is not some bilateral series win, but the World Cup in 2011. And the preparation for that has to start now, against the team that still sets the (green and) gold standard in one-day cricket. http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/sport/2007/09/26/great_win_but_easy_on_the_ches.html