Is the ICC title obsession hurting Indian cricket?

[zen]

India has not won an ICC world cup title since 2011 and if one considers CT, 2013. In the media, with players, and among fans, the drought of titles appears to have turned into an unhealthy obsession. 

 

I am from the school of thought that believes in focusing on playing your best cricket in conditions that are sporting and where every team has a similar chance of success. A title is a result of playing good cricket and challenging yourself. 

 

However, with India, the focus appears to be "titles", and how you get there is not considered. This has meant overvaluing experience, not committing to developing youngsters, developing an intolerance to losses (even in regular games), trying to prepare unsporting pitches (and justifying that through whataboutisms), focusing on short-term, etc. 

 

Cricket itself appears to have taken a back seat. Is the ICC title obsession hurting Indian cricket? If so, how do we get back to enjoying the sport more than the titles?

 

[wanted_desi]

Players don't care! 

[LordPrabhzy]

52 minutes ago, zen said:

India has not won an ICC world cup title since 2011 and if one considers CT, 2013. In the media, with players, and among fans, the drought of titles appears to have turned into an unhealthy obsession. 

 

I am from the school of thought that believes in focusing on playing your best cricket in conditions that are sporting and where every team has a similar chance of success. A title is a result of playing good cricket and challenging yourself. 

 

However, with India, the focus appears to be "titles", and how you get there is not considered. This has meant overvaluing experience, not committing to developing youngsters, developing an intolerance to losses (even in regular games), trying to prepare unsporting pitches (and justifying that through whataboutisms), focusing on short-term, etc. 

 

Cricket itself appears to have taken a back seat. Is the ICC title obsession hurting Indian cricket? If so, how do we get back to enjoying the sport more than the titles?

 

Lol what obsession are we talking about?

 

by the BCCI? - I think they are obsessed about IPL and frankly don’t care about ICC titles as long as they are getting their revenue.

 

by the players? - I don’t think there is one player who will sacrifice the IPL or anything else to ensure he is the best possible player for any condition.

 

So that leaves fans- are fans unreasonable to demand trophies from a team that 1. Has the the richest board with Billions of $ 2. The competition being a very small number of teams . Despite this failing to win ANY trophy is somehow seen as obsession on the fans part. 

[zen]

8 minutes ago, LordPrabhzy said:

Lol what obsession are we talking about?

 

by the BCCI? - I think they are obsessed about IPL and frankly don’t care about ICC titles as long as they are getting their revenue.

 

by the players? - I don’t think there is one player who will sacrifice the IPL or anything else to ensure he is the best possible player for any condition.

 

So that leaves fans- are fans unreasonable to demand trophies from a team that 1. Has the the richest board with Billions of $ 2. The competition being a very small number of teams . Despite this failing to win ANY trophy is somehow seen as obsession on the fans part. 

 

IPL is like the backbone of Indian cricket so there would always be a focus on it. Players of other teams play IPL and other such tournaments too.

 

The discussion is on ICC titles. I have heard many players say that their dream is to win the world cup and so on. 

 

"demand" trophies  

[Vijy]

4 hours ago, zen said:

India has not won an ICC world cup title since 2011 and if one considers CT, 2013. In the media, with players, and among fans, the drought of titles appears to have turned into an unhealthy obsession. 

 

I am from the school of thought that believes in focusing on playing your best cricket in conditions that are sporting and where every team has a similar chance of success. A title is a result of playing good cricket and challenging yourself. 

 

However, with India, the focus appears to be "titles", and how you get there is not considered. This has meant overvaluing experience, not committing to developing youngsters, developing an intolerance to losses (even in regular games), trying to prepare unsporting pitches (and justifying that through whataboutisms), focusing on short-term, etc. 

 

Cricket itself appears to have taken a back seat. Is the ICC title obsession hurting Indian cricket? If so, how do we get back to enjoying the sport more than the titles?

 

If BCCI had a title obsession, they would be focusing on winning titles by putting together the best possible team and not playing many have-beens. the sole mantra of BCCI is making money via its golden goose, the IPL

[singhvivek141]

5 hours ago, zen said:

India has not won an ICC world cup title since 2011 and if one considers CT, 2013. In the media, with players, and among fans, the drought of titles appears to have turned into an unhealthy obsession. 

 

I am from the school of thought that believes in focusing on playing your best cricket in conditions that are sporting and where every team has a similar chance of success. A title is a result of playing good cricket and challenging yourself. 

 

However, with India, the focus appears to be "titles", and how you get there is not considered. This has meant overvaluing experience, not committing to developing youngsters, developing an intolerance to losses (even in regular games), trying to prepare unsporting pitches (and justifying that through whataboutisms), focusing on short-term, etc. 

 

Cricket itself appears to have taken a back seat. Is the ICC title obsession hurting Indian cricket? If so, how do we get back to enjoying the sport more than the titles?

 

It's just an excuse to ensure youngsters don't get chance, while seniors continue to get free ride as long as they want.

Every senior batter these days is jealous of new gen batters replacing them...likes of Sachin didn't play T20 WC in 2007 at age of 34 to allow youngsters to flourish. Here we have 35-36 year old batters doing nothing in ICC knockout games from ages, still they always end up crawling back to the team no matter what.

[nevada]

It's not just the lack of ICC trophies but the lopsided manner in which we keep losing knockout games that is highly frustrating. 

[nitinbwj]

Players dont give a ****. Neither should we. They will perform in the same shitty manner in the WC. 

[Vijy]

24 minutes ago, nitinbwj said:

Players dont give a ****. Neither should we. They will perform in the same shitty manner in the WC. 

they only care about IPL.

[Norman]

For most people, the whole point of following their favourite teams (any sport) is to see them win major titles. 

Especially in cricket, where 90% of it is meaningless bilateral nonsense and circus leagues which noone cares about. 

 

ANd India being the epicenter of world cricket and a financial powerhouse that pretty much funds and runs the entire sport , it's obvious that fans will expect the Indian team to win some big titles here and there. But to not win a single one in a decade where you had all the resources to do so will ofcourse leave a bitter taste in mouths..

[singhvivek141]

10 hours ago, zen said:

 

IPL is like the backbone of Indian cricket so there would always be a focus on it. Players of other teams play IPL and other such tournaments too.

 

The discussion is on ICC titles. I have heard many players say that their dream is to win the world cup and so on. 

 

"demand" trophies  

Their acts says otherwise, it's all just words.

Else they won't shamelessly choke in every iCC tournament...and still laugh maniacally as if nothing happened.

[Tillu]

China in a similar position as the BCCI would wipe the floor with every team in world cricket like they do in Olympics.

 

If you aspire to be the next China show it in actions where the BCCI enjoys such near monopoly with respect to talent pool and money.

 

As fans we expect silverware not participation prizes.

Edited June 10, 2023 by Tillu

[maniac]

2014 WT20- started as favs. were expected to walk over Srilanka- one bad unexpected knock by a player who is usually clutch hurt and literally knocked us out. Instance of a player singlehandedly losing a game for his team.
 

2015 wc- didn’t start as favs. Raised the game in the league phase. Lost expectedly to eventual champions Australia in their den. However the way we lost, hurt in semis as there was  0 effort.

 

2016 WT20- lost to Nzl on spin pitch, almost got knocked out by Bangla if not for one of the craziest T20 games of all time, lost to eventual champions WI. The approach in semis was pathetic however since WI is a crowd favorite people didn’t care much.

 

2017 CT: loss to Srilanka was a red flag even though we started  as pre-tournament favorites. Drubbing by Pak in finals will always hurt. However wrong decision making in the finals like toss, selection, internal rifts between captain-coach, laughing and frolicking with rivals after a sad loss etc made it worse.

 

2019 WC: started as top 2-3 favorites, lost to England in a pathetic chase attempt, got knocked out in semis yet again. The final was historic so fans moved on.

 

2021 WTC final: poor batting as expected and poor bowling by fast bowlers screwed us. We were not the favorites though against Nzl in those conditions 

 

2021 WT20: surrendered  the streak, got knocked out in first round. India were not the favs but were expected to at least reach knockouts

 

2022 WT20: expected loss in semis, lost to a rampaging England side. However the manner we lost hurt.

 

So basically fans are hurt because  

 

Reason 1: we squandered a couple of easy trophy wins  due to bad planning or good players having an off day at the worst possible time which can be attributed to temperament, bad team selections, poor strategy/ approach. Obviously credit were due to the opposition for taking full advantage. However, fans feel we lost the game rather than the opponent winning.

 

Reason 2: there were no expectations and we lost to better teams however there was 0 fight and a total abject surrender that disgusted the fans .

 

I can’t speak for the average social media fans who follow IPL or their fav players but as a cricket fan that’s the obvious reasons why people are frustrated.

 

[zen]

3 hours ago, singhvivek141 said:

Their acts says otherwise, it's all just words.

Else they won't shamelessly choke in every iCC tournament...and still laugh maniacally as if nothing happened.

Choking could be due to the pressure which the players bring on them to win the title.
 

At times, it could be the ability as well as in KO games, usually one gets to play against teams in form (at times, Ind has faced Kenya and BD too where it has done well) that can expose a weakness or two to put relatively more pressure.