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The Inside View

Wednesday, February 19 2003

Welcome to "The Inside View". Written by Cricket Web India's Sangrah Bhatia, "The Inside View" focusses on all the issues happening in Indian Cricket. From the good, to the bad, to the unbearable. Today's article discusses the bad behaviour of the Indian fans and the enigma that is Sourav Ganguly.

And another thing, YOUR feedback is greatly appreciated. Every Indian and Cricket fan in general send all YOUR opinions, questions at: sangrah.bhatia@cricketweb.net
"The Inside View" articles will come once every two weeks, but in the middle of those two weeks, YOUR feedback will be published, and your questions will be answered by myself.

India is a vast country, the home to every religion on the planet, from Islam to Hinduism, Sikhism, Christianity and even athiest beliefs, India is extremely vast and renowned for its mixture of religions, cultures and langauges. But it's the ultimate dream which unites around 1 billion people, a World Cup win.

The World Cup is International Cricket's biggest tournament, and its the event that every Indian looks forward too with great pride and joy. The Indian fan dreams, that one day his country can show the rest of the world what they are made of. But when things go sour and downhill, things aren't as rosy and nice as they seem.

The Indian players are worshipped in India, you cannot walk through a city or a village without seeing the face of an Indian Cricketer endorsing something. Although for one, I think the whole situation is quite cheesy and ridiculous, the cricketers endorse all types of things. But when the going gets tough, the fans get going.

After India's humiliating defeat at the hands of Australia, fans have turned against their idols. No longer do they want to see these players endorsing products in cheesy or goofy commercials, but want these players to practice harder, and play harder, which I also believe is the correct thing to do.

I was just saying to my friend the other day, that the so called 'big boys' should stop focussing so much of their attention on movies, commercials and products and spend that extra half hour to an hour in the nets, or even play that extra practice match on the bouncy wicket. This is the only way things will improve, after all cricket is all about practice, and it is all about confidence, if one is short of both, one will fail.

Although I very much disagree what some 'idiotic' Indian fans have lowered themselves to. By splashing black paint and oil on Mohammad Kaif's house is cowardly, disgusting and downright stupid. It gives the people of India a bad name, and is lowering yourself to a immensly low and poor standard. After all, the players are human too, and your allowed one bad day at the office.

Another man who is under fire, left, right and centre, is skipper Sourav Ganguly. Some love to hate him, some adore him, some couldn't care less, but Ganguly is pivotal to India's fortunes. When he burst onto the scene, cricket had a modern day David Gower, ever so stylish, unbelievable powerful, and always graceful and modest, Ganguly had the world in the palm of his hand.

A quite, young and always a team player, Ganguly would dispatch the best of the worlds bowlers, and make superb bowling look ordinary. Rated as the world's best ODI batsman for a period in 1999/00, and in the top 10 test batsman in 1998, Ganguly was on the course to greatness, and possibly being the best Indian player after Sachin Tendulkar, after all he was only 25 and had another 11 years in his cricketing career left.

But as always the Indian team is undergoing the transitional phase, after Jadeja and Azharuddin were banned, Robin Singh, Nayan Mongia discarded, and Sachin Tendulkar fed up with the captaincy, Ganguly was the only man to take on the burden of captaincy. From being a quite, unassuming lad that let his bat do the talking, he became an aggressive, brash, controversial figure who couldn't even buy runs if they were on sale.

A test average of 51 dropped down to 41, and an ODI average of 45 dropped down to 42, and even the most die-hard Ganguly admirers have started to turn on him now. I feel that he has definitely wasted one of the most golden periods of his cricketing career, in which he really could've blossomed to be a great cricketer.

One feels though that Ganguly isn't the most popular bloke around the cricketing world at the moment, but he is the right sort of guy for the Indian captaincy. His aggressive outlook on the game inspires his own players, which was proved during the NatWest series final, where India chased down 325 to win in the second innings.

He has the support of the youngsters, whom Sourav supports immensely, and has the backing of his senior men. Although it would be extremely pivotal if he led by example. Sourav, give your players a chance to respect you even more. Ganguly needs to put in a spirited effort in the field, and a courageous captain's knock.

For one, many would suggest him to fix up his stubborn and aloof attitude which has given him the nickname of "The Prince", and once again be the humble and unassuming man he once was. I feel Sourav needs to be at piece with himself mentally as well. With hard work in the nets, analysing his own videos of his own glory days of 1998-2000, and just feeling good about himself, his team, the game and life in general, im sure he will come out of his lean trot and please all his fans.

Once again your feedback is greatly appreciated, send all questions, opinions and general feedback to: sangrah.bhatia@cricketweb.net

Thanks Everyone,
Until Next Time, Take Care,

Sangrah Bhatia


Posted by Sangrah