Did the IPL contribute to India’s early exit from T20WC?

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Did the IPL contribute to India’s early exit from T20WC?

7 Comments

Varun Hotanakatte 12 May 2010

"The Indian team played like a bunch of office workers having a game on the local maidan - without care or responsibility" - Ian Chappell

Yet another early exit from a premier tournament! Yet another bunch of defeats to gulp down! For some reason, the vaastu of the latitude and longitude of West Indies doesn’t seem to be working well for India (it happened 2 years ago too). Perhaps, we can organize a puja there before we embark on the next image-saving tour!!

I can’t help but compare the Indian team with RCB. Both teams are loaded with talent and yet, at the end of the day, a billion fans have defeats forced down their throats. Why does this happen to an India but not to an Australia? I just can’t get it. Now, I expect a lot of knee-jerk reactions once the team returns….Dhoni’s posters will be burnt, his house will be stoned, Kris Srikanth will go into a self-imposed exile in The Vanuatu Islands, Gary Kirsten will steer clear of Indian shores until the Asia Cup. And Lalit Modi will heave a sigh of relief as the attention shifts from him temporarily to the national team.

But the question remains……why did we underperform? Honestly, I believe that the IPL may have had a large part to play in it. 60 matches on the trot a month and half before the World Cup. Intense pressure-filled event. Heavy expectation. Big stakes. I’m sure as heck that it must have been a physically, emotionally and psychologically draining journey for all players. Ultimately, they are humans too and if any one of them says they weren’t fatigued at the end of the IPL, we all know they’re trying to sing a politically correct tune.

A tired and weary Team India reached WI just a day before the WC began, while other teams had landed there at least 5 days in advance. And played warm up matches!! Heck…..Zimbabwe even managed to defeat Australia and Pakistan in those matches. They had been stationed in WI for close to a month before the event began. If anything, those defeats served as wake up calls for both Aussies and Pakistan. According to a report I read, India didn’t even opt for before-match practice during our first match!!! But we carried with us “the experience of IPL”, didn’t we? And you guessed right….this experience came to a nada, as Australia, Windies and others rained bouncer after bouncer at our stiff batsmen. And the façade that India carried got shattered in a space of three matches.

For the second time running, we haven’t won a single match in the Super Eight’s stage. Last year, I clearly remember Kirsten mentioning that team India was indeed fatigued by the IPL before the WC. I don’t understand why the reason would change this year. But what’s making me restless is the attitude of the players. They seemed lifeless on the field during large parts of the game, against Afghanistan included. An entry into the semis of IPL-3 prompted an emotional Dhoni to exclaim, “Your franchise pays so much money for you, you should at least make the semi-finals. After that, you can say it is a lottery..” So where did this emotion go while representing the country? The last I heard or felt, I thought country came before anything else. We had the best players across all IPL teams come together to form the national team, and yet we fell short. Asking for Kris Srikanth’s blood is just immature. Selection of the national team would have been a joint decision of his, Dhoni’s as well as Gary Kirsten’s.

Now don’t get me wrong about my opinion here. I’m not saying that the IPL is a bad thing. Of course it isn’t!! It’s probably the single best thing to have happened to Indian cricket since Dhoni became captain. In his own words, “I've had no setbacks because of the IPL but at the same time players need to be smart because IPL is not only about cricket. You have to respect your body and if you don't do that then IPL is draining. If you play late games and go to the parties and travel the next day it takes a toll. But if you take care of yourself, 45 days of cricket shouldn't affect you because we play 200 or more in a year." So, what do we infer from this?? Alright …… so Dhoni’s got a head on his shoulders and realizes where to draw the line and where his priorities lie. I trust him. He’s been a brilliant captain over the years.

But I’m not sure I feel the same way about some of the other players. Somewhere down the line, the gala of the IPL, the monetary benefits, the huge acclaim and fan following, the after parties and things-that-are-not-so-cricket, seem to have diluted the importance of playing for the national squad. To win a world class tournament, a team needs the hunger for victory. After a 45-day-energy-sapping sports event, can you expect this hunger to sustain from a bunch of players?

Maybe, if the time gap between the IPL and the World Cup gets more spaced, we might see different results, but I don’t know. Thankfully, there’s no World Cup next year. Which means we have 2 full years to get our priorities right!! And of course…..to learn to deal with bouncers!!

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What went wrong for the men in blue?

Few random pics during the IPL practice.

Latest comments

That cant be considered a major reason Prometheus. Wel, the travel and late parties can be tiring, but the parties could have been avoided if the players needed rest. I read that its wasnt mandetory everytime. The IPL was long, it caused injuries, there was high pressure...but i fail to understand how it can exhaust the player. A bowler bowls just 4 overs and most batsmen have batted below 50 balls. its just 3 hr game. thats hardly tiring! If the selected players are fit after IPl then i dont think there should be excuses about IPL fatigue. If the WC was held in India, our team would have done wonders. The bigger reasons for the downfall seems the captaincy, playing 11, mainly the inability to adjust to different condition and poor technique with shortballs. mayb 5 day b4 arrival and practice matches would have helped...All this about Ipl seem a small excuse

HOLMES on 13 May 2010, 09:24 AM

give them a break for 2 months (of course u will not!) and see the result.

If less matches are played, naturally talent will come out. otherwise just change in bank balance and more energy drinks/pills.

uthappaross on 12 May 2010, 06:03 PM

@T20Champs: How many Australians and English played in the IPL? Compared to the Indian team (the whole team played through the IPL), there were hardly any. Only the South Africans had major participation in the IPL. So, the fact that they are out of the WC too may not necessarily be a conincidence. During the course of the IPL, many of the Aussies and English would have got some rest and breathing space too, because of the 4-foreign-players-only rule. Dhoni led CSK to victory, and the whole 16-match ordeal must have been mentally-sapping. On the contrary, Michael Clarke is fresh as morning dew!! Dhoni definitely took some shocking decisions. And his lead-with-an-iron-hand charateristic and strategy were missing, no doubt about that. Maybe he should grow his hair back long enough until our luck changes!! :p

Prometheus on 12 May 2010, 05:38 PM

Even d Ausrtailian played, England players player played they did not have problem. What fuss. Do not give any excuses. dhoni has become Dhobi Ghat man

t20champs on 12 May 2010, 05:10 PM

I toatally agree with you..Our team was looking too tired..without blaming any one in common.Our team lost its spirit though some exceptions were there..! Zeal was missing.

Aruna-Desai on 12 May 2010, 05:02 PM

Yup, I agree. Dhoni's captaincy has always been an example of superb leadership and strategising. But some of his moves in the past two weeks left me baffled. I still can't understand how he chose Jadeja over Chawla. I sincerely hope Kirsten and he take a long breather and introspect about where we are coming from and where we are headed!!!

Prometheus on 12 May 2010, 03:29 PM

Yes, there is no World Cup next year but in 2012, it might follow the immediately follow the IPL. Then we will still have 15 zombies on the field who look as if they are just waiting to put their heads on the pillows...!

I am a big fan of Dhoni and he is an exceptional leader. But I feel this time he got everything wrong. We lost badly against Aussies and the whole world was screaming that the team composition was wrong. Only 3 front line bowlers and eight batsmen?? And Dhoni played the same 11 against WI! As if he wanted to win a game with the same team and prove to everyone that he was right with his composition. We of course lost again. I can understand that Dhoni didn't have confidence in Vinay but if he wanted a spinner, wasn't Chawla a better option than Jadeja?

Well, I know it is easy to be a coach on the couch and comment like I am doing. But for the first time I feel that Dhoni is either showing his arrogance or he is getting tired. For the sake of Indian cricket, I hope it is the later.

harsha-vardhan on 12 May 2010, 02:18 PM

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