While Nehra's comments may be loosely dismissed as bragging, he deserves credit for slamming the mess that's plaguing Indian cricket. It's a perpetual "you scratch my back and I scratch yours" mentality, which hasn't helped them much, as can be seen from just two major ODI victories in five years. For some strange reason, the current crop of Indian players expect to be treated as stars and sadly, they actually are, by fans, mediapersons and even the people that matter.
A few such stars are Parthiv Patel, Ajit Agarkar, Irfan Pathan, Balaji- the list goes on. What great thing have any of these players ever done? For the team? Yet, they seem to enjoy a very high, holier-than-non-national-players status which shouldn't be questioned. But are they really worthy of that status?
Nehra, on the other hand, has had it rough- be it injuries, loss of form, inconsistency in selection and all the brickbats we hear of so often. But that has not stopped him. He's tried his heart out in every match he is given but doesn't make a big show of it. He just works hard on his game. His ODI form this year has been very good and he's outperformed the 'stars' in nine ODI's this year. He's bowled well in the final overs when he's given a chance. Whatever his captain has demanded, he's done it. Yet, his performances have often been ignored, while all the plaudits are reserved for one-innings wonders such as Irfan, Balaji and Agarkar. Clearly, status has been given a higher priority over performance, which is why we see extras and has-beens play in the side for far too long.
There is a lot of potential in the Indian bowling stocks and anyone who has been watching them would know it. They may not have done much of note, but there can only be good leaders and bad ones. The plans, the selection and the attitude of the people that matter have always been anti-bowler, when you look at the Indian team. Harbhajan was dropped for the match against WI because he didn't bowl well, but why were some of the non-performing batsmen still selected? A similar condition can be noticed in the Indians' tour of the West Indies in 2002- Kumble was dropped from the Test squad because he "couldn't adjust to the conditions", but we don't see a batsman dropped from the side for the same reason. It's not the players who are at fault, but the leadership.
