What is the answer?
We will, say the hundreds of advertising hoardings, clippings and the brains behind them. We can, offers the coach. We should, say the players. Perhaps, the real question that needs to be chewed on is why this Indian team, so desperately, needs to win the World Cup.Beyond the obvious, the truth is that never has a cricket team gone to the World Cup with so much at stake. And here’s why.• You have a coach who is at the end of a contract, hoping that the BCCI would ask him to stay on for two years more. For Chappell, a semi-final slot is the least he needs to bring back to the table when talks for the future start. The hard-talking Aussie has, by and large, managed to push his gameplan through over the last year, but if there’s one area where he has stumbled, it is his communication with senior players like Virender Sehwag and Harbhajan Singh.An early end to India’s World Cup will mean the simmering tension is bound to pop up again —something that Indian cricket could definitely do without. And of course, there’s his vision still waiting to turn into reality, his process of forging a new Indian team, one that will emerge from the shadows of veterans like Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly.
• You have a captain who is eager to establish his leadership with the biggest prize ever after the slump that followed a dazzling beginning. Dravid’s captaincy was the toast of the country during the amazing 17-match chase streak. But thereafter, it was a string of uncomfortable moments in the West Indies, Malaysia, during the Champions Trophy and of course, the rout in South Africa.
All of a sudden, questions were asked within the team and outside, about his conservative leadership style, his ‘aloof’ nature, even his hunger to lead. But the warm-up series this year against the West Indies and Sri Lanka has brought that shy smile back on the gentleman skipper’s face. It’s a smile that millions of fans will hope remains till the end of April — for the team’s sake, for the skipper’s sake.
• You have Sachin Tendulkar, named vice-captain, desperate to stamp his seal once again in world cricket during what will surely be his last World Cup. If India fails, and Sachin too, it will mean the beginning of the final chapter of one of the greatest cricketers ever.
After a nightmare date with a series of injuries, Sachin just about came into form in South Africa, but never quite managed to survive those blips in focus that cut him down in mid flight. He missed out on two Test centuries, barely salvaged a horrendous start in the one-dayers, and finally got going in the twin series against the Windies and the Lankans. Oh yes, Tendulkar has a lot left to prove.
• You have Sourav Ganguly, desperate for that final blaze of glory after the trauma of being dropped and then having to virtually gatecrash his way back into the team after a year. Surely, all eyes will be on Dada, whose comeback is already one of the biggest fairy tales of Indian cricket. But Ganguly, it is believed, is far from satisfied, and is eyeing that one big score that will cement his place in the team. Already, this master of man-management has made an impact among the juniors with “valuable tips” and suggestions. He will play a key role, says Chappell, but even Ganguly knows that a flop in the West Indies would have the knives out again.
• You have Virender Sehwag, struggling to come to terms with a clutch of demons hovering over his head. Sehwag’s story is the most bizarre to have come out of this Indian book in a long, long time. Everyone agrees he is the match-winner that India needs, even Chappell says he can turn a match on his own — but except for that flicker in Vizag against Sri Lanka, he has done little to keep the faith. As chief selector Dilip Vengsarkar remarked, “He keeps getting out in the same way (slashing to slips) again and again.”For Sehwag, a bad World Cup would virtually mean a full stop—even the few senior players who have been backing him over the last few months may not be able to help. Not with a powerful section of the BCCI, livid over his strident stand on the unresolved contracts issue, gunning for his head.• You have Harbhajan Singh, still struggling to come to terms with a coaching manual that he has never come across before. Harbhajan, an extremely emotional character, has had his problems with the blunt style of Chappell, often struggling to get on the same page with the coach. He may believe that he knows better about the art he purveys, and has often been baffled about why the thinktank does not seem to share the supreme confidence that he has in his capabilities. He may not rate his competition very highly, too, but he knows this World Cup is his best chance ever to turn the corner—in every sense.
courtesy:Hindu
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