Lawrence Booth: IPL not to blame for Indian failure
June 17th, 2009 by Lawrence Booth in IPL, Twenty20, Twenty20 World Cup
If cricket can make mugs of us all, Twenty20 heightens the effect. Your blogger recently took part on Sky’s Sunday-morning Cricket Writers on TV show and semi-confidently predicted India would win the World Twenty20. The reasoning? Because their players – all their players – had just been exposed to the pressure cooker of the Indian Premier League and would therefore have no problem getting tough when the tough got going. Well, it was a nice theory.
What I failed to factor in was that the Indians were starting to believe their own hype too. Sure, the defeat to a Dwayne Bravo-inspired West Indies could have happened to anyone. That, as they will one day doubtless be saying, is Twenty20. But the loss to England was the classic hubris-nemesis one-two.
Not only did their fans boo the English as they finished their practice session on the Nursery Ground before the game, but their brains trust cooked up a scheme whereby the debutant Ravindra Jadeja was allowed to play one of Twenty20’s great match-losing knocks. Even to an Englishman apparently anaesthetized over the years by watching his own team, it was painful to behold.
Before the tournament started, most observers agreed India’s IPL war-wounds would trim off the rough edges. Now, their coach Gary Kirsten says the IPL tired his boys out. Pakistan, meanwhile, were supposed to have been off the pace because their players were banned from taking part in this year’s IPL. And England, whose cricketers had a bit-part role only in South Africa, were arguably only a random thunderstorm away from the semi-finals too.
The point is this: Twenty20 yields to no easy explanations. The IPL is a hero one minute, a scapegoat the next. Just as we use it to justify our preconceptions (and TV punditry), so we realign the senses with the benefit of hindsight. Sport, like everything else, craves coherence, but Twenty20 denies us. It may be why this tournament has been so gripping.
Of course, the process will continue. Tillekeratne Dilshan’s excellence will keep being attributed to his stint with Delhi Daredevils, even though I don’t remember seeing his ramp shot once out in South Africa. Roelof van der Merwe’s miserly slow left-armers will be put down to his experience with Bangalore Royal Challengers, as if he didn’t know how to bowl before then. Bravo must thank Mumbai Indians and Sohail Tanvir still owes Rajasthan Royals a debt of gratitude after starring for them in 2008.
Or possibly they’re just all very good players who are able to adapt their game to a situation. If India blame their feeble exit on the IPL, they are only fooling themselves.
Lawrence Booth writes on cricket for the Guardian
Posted in IPL, Twenty20, Twenty20 World Cup | 4 Comments »
June 18th, 2009 at 10:13 pm
Well after reading your article i felt you are a saint ..any ways english supporters (foot ball esp) have been booing (infact hitting also) the other team supporters and teams alike so booing a bad team no big deal secondly let me get this thing straight that england is just a pathetic team in comparison to India and India will beat england 9 out of 10 times ..its just a matter of fact that India lost to itself.So stop preaching when the good team has lost and saying things about booing etc when you as a writer also not missing an opportunity to put down the fans of opponent team.Good luck for ashes though I am sure you wont say anything about aussies fans now only if they loose you will come out with your hidden gems.
Please publish this reply
June 19th, 2009 at 8:16 am
Beautiful article Lawrence! Totally agree! I would also say that during the previous T20 world cup, things were still evolving, but now T20 is closer to a finished product. There is room for a solid batsman as well as a six-hitting batsman, room for a restrictive as well as a wicket-taking bowler and lots of room for spinners! Who would have thought an year ago, that teams would play two spinners in their T20 team! That is the beauty of cricket
June 19th, 2009 at 10:42 am
The problem that people are ignoring is the team. In 2007 T20 was finding its feet and the Indian team brought something fresh. Now the Indian team is packed by big hitters and game changers. The problem is this: they are not the best players in the country. Yusuf Pathan has not yet played a match-winning knock in any form of the game for India. Rohit Sharma has barely done enough, Raina has had one good series and the rest wasn’t good enough. The only players who deserve to be in the side are: Dhoni (one bad tour does not make a failure), Yuvraj, Sehwag (alas), Gambhir, Zaheer, Harbhajan, Ojha. The others: Ishant is tired and should have been rested, Rohit, Raina and Yusuf have been mentioned. As Dravid epitomizes, a good players plays well in any form of the game. A Jadeja will sometimes struggle to find his feet or timing. So I hope that when India’s true next generation of batsmen: Pujara, Rahane, Pandey, Kohli, Tiwary come through on their FIRST-CLASS records (not T20 IPL) then they are considered for T20 team.
June 21st, 2009 at 2:25 pm
I suspect India’s inability to handle anything but flat pitches might have had something to do with their failure. But then, who would have thought they were also incapable of playing spin?