We cannot handle pressure?

[kabira]

is it true that we "Indians" dont handle pressure well?? I believe its not true. Imagine those days when you were in 10th standard or 12th Standard and you know you have one shot at this exam, if you are successful, you have shot at becoming doctor, if not, you have to go for lowly ranked colleges and even go for different option.. There is lot of peer pressure, parental pressure...I have gone thru those. Inspite of this heavy pressure, lot of ppl have succeeded, even though it was just one shot just like do or die cricket games. We are competiting against 10000s of student who have similar pressure and aspiration..same goes with IIT entrance tests and IIM tests... And if you compare with American system, there is nothing like 12th board exam. Even you fail you can always get another chance.. Most indians are always under pressure to perform in any situation. Most of them do exceedingly well.... The team that represented us in WC has gone thru such pressures in life. Lot of them come from lower middle class or even poor familes. I am sure at every level they would have encountered pressure and expectation... But can we judge them by one or two failure. Its like you have worked hard for this test and test is 3 hours long, but somehow something goes wrong and you fail htis test, should you be considered failure....all your hard work is gone in that 3 hour...On similar lines, can we judge our team based on 2-3 failures. These the same team and leadership which chased 17 times in a row and created Wrecord. In One day cricket there are lot of things which are not in your control. for example, Silva gets lot of accolades, but he was really lucky..atlest twice his inside edge missed stumps and went for 4. And similarly Sachin's edge went to stump..So is Sachin a failure?? Yuvi was run out..So is he failure?? One day cricket is cruel...we all admire Sachin's desert storm..but if you watch it carefully, he had inside edge that went to 4...and then one of his airy-fairy shot went to no-man's land..Batting sometimes depends on 20%-30% luck..and on some days you dont have it. In short we had one real bad day and we are out of WC. ODI cricket is creul.

[Guest BossBhai]

Re: We cannot handle pressure? -- Removed on request of the user --

[kabira]

Re: We cannot handle pressure? Uthappa was going great guns..but Vaas pulled off an spectacular catch...again not our day..

[Zooter]

Re: We cannot handle pressure? Our ATHLETES DO NOT LIKE TO COMPETE. Period. They like to demonstrate acquired skills--completely different thing. First of all--they're not even athletes--they're weak, slow, not muscular, not conditioned, etc.; and second: they don't relish competitive matches--they would rather avoid them. If in the story of David and Goliath, you would rather be Goliath, ... ... go home, ... ... because you're a pussy--I don't care if you middle the bat on a flat Delhi sand pitch.

[Aditi]

Re: We cannot handle pressure? I think sporting pressure is much different in nature than the pressures of school, exam, parental, etc. And its not as if every Indian can handle these pressures well....you know the whole scenario of kids committing suicide after flunking SSC/HSC.

[kabira]

Re: We cannot handle pressure? >I think sporting pressure is much different in nature than the pressures of school, exam, parental, etc. And its not as if every Indian can handle these pressures well....you know the whole scenario of kids committing suicide after flunking SSC/HSC. yeah but our system does churn out few ppl who can handle the pressure...similarly in cricket we have best 15 playing for the country..they have gone thru different level of competition and handling lot of pressure in their life..

[yoda]

Re: We cannot handle pressure? you can't generalize. each person is unique. each group is different. yes, this bunch which represented us in the world cup couldn't handle the pressure. it doesn't mean we never had players who couldn't handle it, or these same players didn't handle it better during other times.

[gs]

Re: We cannot handle pressure?

One day cricket is cruel...we all admire Sachin's desert storm..but if you watch it carefully' date=' he had inside edge that went to 4...and then one of his airy-fairy shot went to no-man's land..Batting sometimes depends on 20%-30% luck..and on some days you dont have it.[/quote'] It was 10 years ago and SRT was in his prime. It cant be the same always and age/injuries take its toll. The wise thing to do is accept that and move on. SRT should have retired from ODIs couple of years back and concentrated only on tests. If things work out really well, he can always come back from retirement - its not as if its irreversible! But a string of miserable performances in the recent past has done no favors to Team India or SRT's career/persona. :chin:

[kabira]

Re: We cannot handle pressure? SRT averages 44 in last 10..including zero in Lanka game..

[veer]

Re: We cannot handle pressure? talking about pressure, we didnt let karthik and santh play who can handle pressure really well.. and also there is lot more pressure on batters compare to bowlers..

[gs]

Re: We cannot handle pressure?

SRT averages 44 in last 10..including zero in Lanka game..

I have no stats, but I wonder how many of them have contributed to a winning cause. The SAF tour immediately comes to my mind. 4-0 whitewash in ODIs and an once in a lifetime opportunity to win a test series was let go. The last time he totally imposed himself on a series against a quality side which led to a win was probably against Aus in 1997. Then he used to target the main strike bowlers in the opposition team and absolutely butcher them. That's the SRT we all love!

[DesiChap]

Re: We cannot handle pressure? Tendulkar stats in last 10 ODI's Ave 44 Tendulkar in last 10 ODI victories Ave 53 Tendulkar in last 10 ODI losses Ave 22 I guess we need Tendulkar to fire to have a chance to win. Somethings never change and here we have people wanting to drop him. We will be far worse without him than with him. That being said he HAS to open in ODI's.

[gator]

Re: We cannot handle pressure? trust me, there are plenty of malingas and waqars in india.... they dont get the chance or they dont play cricket seriously enuf.... u jus have to see the public transportation..... guys get in and out of the buses at 40 kph..... they literally hang from one arm for 5-10 mins at a stretch..... these guys are really resilient..... unfortunately, the ones who make it in cricket are the lazy ones..... the resilient ones become lazy after they make it....

[gs]

Re: We cannot handle pressure?

the resilient ones become lazy after they make it....

Well put :wtg:

[Aditi]

Re: We cannot handle pressure? These guys represent the country at the highest level and that too at the World Cup. Handling extreme amounts of pressure should be second nature to them already. They should know exactly what they have got themselves into. Is it too much for a fan to ask that they put up a semblance of a fight so that we can scrape through to the Super 8s?

[gator]

Re: We cannot handle pressure? pressure is, when you work hard 7 days a week on a low hourly wage, lifting heavy sacks or toiling in the hot sun and making jus enuf to feed ur family once a day and then your little son falls sick..... trust me, more than 70% of the country handles this pressure....

[Bumper]

Re: We cannot handle pressure? Kabz good OP, but unfortunately u are comparing apples & oranges, heres why: 1) Exams that u refer to, dont equate to world cup performances. They can be equated at best to player performances to break into the national team. Besides there is nothing unique about the successful students, who crack these exams, as there are millions of such successful Indians. 2) Performing on the cricket field is ongoing & continuous. Its like performing in your exams, time & time again successfully thru out your career 3) Cracking exams, requires a diff kinda skill level, something Indians are genetically good at. But Indians are not historically (perhaps, genetically) good at sports. We are a sport starved nation. Thats why the moment we see some above average talent, we hype them up to be some kinda larger than life personality.

And similarly Sachin's edge went to stump..So is Sachin a failure?? One day cricket is cruel...we all admire Sachin's desert storm..but if you watch it carefully, he had inside edge that went to 4...and then one of his airy-fairy shot went to no-man's land..Batting sometimes depends on 20%-30% luck..and on some days you dont have it.

Its possible to find an excuse for every failure of every batsman this way. For example, in the instance above, why did he edge an oridinary delivery to the stumps ? Perhaps, he was a bit tentative ? Perhaps, butterflies on his stomach ? Perhaps, he was more consumed about his survival and fear of failure than the task at hand ? Similar explanations can be sought for his dismissal in Ind-SA decider test (both innings), when he got out to Saffie's left arm spinner (cant remember his name). Sure the ball turned & bounced on him. But why did he let the ball bounce at that length ? Lara would not have let such a full length delivery go unchallenged. Look at what Dinesh Karthik did to the same spinner in the 2nd innings. Clearly SRT was guilty of letting the bowler dictate terms to him ? Thats where your attitude makes a difference. I have watched Tendulkar long enuff to know, his failures in high pressure moments are no coincidences. They are very much attributable to his mental weaknesses. One or two contradictory examples in a 18 year career span does not disprove that. They only highlight that. In the 90s, his genius of a skill, helped him overcome his mental weaknesses. Now that his batting skills are waning, his mental weaknesses are coming to surface. Theres a hard road ahead of him, he has to fight his waning skills (which he can to some extent), as well as his mental skills (which he cannot) this late in his career. I have come to a conclusion that Tendu must be accepted for what he is & not hyped up (after every performance) or stoned (after every non performance). He is neither pi$$ poor nor is among the greatest. He is merely a very good batsman & at his pomp, a great entertainer.

[King]

Re: We cannot handle pressure?

And similarly Sachin's edge went to stump..So is Sachin a failure?? One day cricket is cruel...we all admire Sachin's desert storm..but if you watch it carefully, he had inside edge that went to 4...and then one of his airy-fairy shot went to no-man's land..Batting sometimes depends on 20%-30% luck..and on some days you dont have it. Its possible to find an excuse for every failure of every batsman this way. For example, in the instance above, why did he edge an oridinary delivery to the stumps ? Perhaps, he was a bit tentative ? Perhaps, butterflies on his stomach ? Perhaps, he was more consumed about his survival and fear of failure than about the task at hand ?

He was way late on the ball and didn't all the ball to come on. No way you can say it was bad luck. It was tentative batting at its best. It is possible he may not have seen the ball coming out of the hand at all. It happens sometimes in cricket, it is not possible to see every ball out of the hands. Sometimes you don't see the ball well enough and before you can realize it could end up being the best ball you faced on that day.

[gloryof83]

Re: We cannot handle pressure? To say Tendulkar is mentally weak in very incorrect. We are talking of a boy who at 17 years faced the fastest and most fearsome bowlers. A mentally weak batsman cannot dismantle shane warne. A mentally weak batsman cannot dominate every bowler in the world for 15 years. A mentally weak batsman cannot dominate Australia. The problem with SRT is that he changed his game too much, instead of being attacking which is his natural game he is trying to play a safe game i.e. not take too many risks and play a long innings. This puts him in two minds and he gets out cheaply. So why did SRT change his approch? Did the team management change his role? Did the arrival of sehwag play a part? (sehwag takes over the role of aggressive opener). Or is it an attitude thing?

[gator]

Re: We cannot handle pressure? believe it or not... .the arrival of sehwag did coincide with his downfall as an aggressive batter.... the 2003 WC was only an abberration.....