Perspective and Positives

[igby]

I am new to this board and I am seeing a lot of knee-jerk reaction to India's exit from WC today. If we were to look fairly at the capabilities of this Indian side, they could be described "at best" as semi-final worthy. By that standard, this is a premature exit - so what? Every cricket side has gone through a hellish WC and come back strongly a better side next time around. Too many examples of sides tanking after strong showings in previous WC: Aus in 92 (after 87 win), SL in 03 (after 99 win) and so on. Remember, we went to 03 finals when nobody expected us to. So this is the WC where we got burnt. And to use a cliche, a Phoenix always rises from the ashes. Ultimately what I (and probably we) would like to see is an Indian side which is *consistently* good and dominating like the Aussies. Even if we had scraped through to the finals (or even won the WC), I don't think it would have helped indian cricket to achieve that goal in the longer term. This loss will be a catalyst for much needed changes: 1. accelerate the transition to the next-generation of players who are younger, fitter, *mentally strong* and motivated. What we need is a "team" where everybody does their job and not a group of superstars - remember our WC83 was such a team. For this, I would like Chapell to stay on. 2. A change in our cricket-scheduling priorities. I would like to see more diverse home pitches, more foreign tours and less home-cricket where we bully everybody. 3. The disillusionment of the Indian cricket fan can also be channelled to draw attention to other sports in our country. I personally follow tennis (currently following ATP Miami tourney) and so I am taking this loss quite well.