It is not about the initial performance or the position you are in, it is more about the momentum you can gain in discrete phases.
We usually suffer initial setbacks every once a while, and can collapse after brilliant starts. That is way too common in life, and cricket. You must understand that life works in unspecified phases where you must focus on the right momentum.
Cricket is not just a sport in the sub-continent, it is an emotion. The fans in this part of the world are quite emotional about the sport. When players have a good day and the side wins, fans always make sure to transpire their love to the players.
It was February 2003 and I was a kid having my annual exams in school. Also the era was ‘Lalu Raj’ which had an inimical relationship with electricity. We weren’t that privileged to have 7-8 hours of electricity daily, hence at times TV was out-of-bounds for us and Akashvani served us well.
Sourav Ganguly was leading a young Indian side in the 2003 Cricket World Cup in South Africa and the team’s performance was very much commensurate with our electric supply. In their first match against Holland (later came to be known as The Netherlands) the team somehow escaped with a win. India got a reality check in the next match against defending champions Australia bowled them out for 125 runs and India lost the match very poorly. This didn’t go well with the Indian fans as they started protesting and stones were thrown at the houses of India team members back home by several enthusiastic supporters.
Dad was quick to remember the 1996 World Cup semi-final, when fans at Eden Gardens had started rioting as India slipped from 96 for 1 to 120 for 8. However, he missed reminding me of the golden words which were reiterated by several liberal minds a few months back – “What Bengal thinks today, India thinks tomorrow “.
Again, it was 23rd January, 2007, team India’s coach Greg Chappell (who also happened to be a guest and his co-religionists are accorded minority status in India) was attacked by an activist of the Orissa-based political outfit Kalinga Sena for something he had nothing to do with – the non-inclusion of Oriya players in the Indian cricket team.
Once again, in the 2007 cricket World Cup, Rahul Dravid‘s team was the No.4 in the rankings and the team fell flat in the league stage itself after India slipped to a loss in their first match against Bangladesh and in the last league game, they lost to Sri Lanka and were knocked out of the tournament. Once again, fans didn’t take it lightly. Stones were thrown at the houses of players and their dummies were burnt on the road. The outrage was quite disheartening to watch for the players.
What MSD, Yuvraj and Kohli endured
Unlike the previous incidents, this time the entire team wasn’t targeted. In line is the infamous incident with Yuvraj Singh after the 2014 World T20 Final. India had gone into the final as the only unbeaten side. India batted first but managed to score a below-par total of 130. However, Yuvraj Singh’s knock was heavily criticised as he had come in the middle at a crucial time. As Kohli was building the innings at one end, Yuvraj took too much time. He played 21 balls and scored just 11 runs. His innings was touted as the reason why India didn’t find any momentum in the middle and death overs. Stones were thrown at his residence and a lot of people called out for his retirement.
Again in 2013, Australia was playing a seven-match ODI series against India. India had lost the first and the third ODI. However, they had won the second match in Jaipur and kept the series alive. Going into the fourth game of the series, there was a lot of anticipation as Dhoni was playing at home ground. India won the toss and put Australia to bat first. The visitors posted a competitive 295 runs on the board. However, four overs into the Indian run chase, the rain came down and the match had to be called off. After the match, stones were thrown at Dhoni’s residence in Ranchi. Later, it was revealed that the fans weren’t happy with Dhoni’s decision of opting to bowl first. Others were offended that the match didn’t get a result yet their money was not returned.
Similarly, when CSK was performing poorly in IPL 2020, the some idiots were booked of hate speech for issuing rape threats to MS Dhoni’s daughter.
Then there are certain people who trolled Virat and his then girlfriend, who also happens to be a female actor, for being present in the stadium when India lost the match.
The Classic Case of Ajit Agarkar
When you are integrally involved in bitter team defeats, there is a whole negative vibe built against you, the individual player.
Let us take the case of Ajit Agarkar. Starting his career with the promise of an all rounder, and possessing brilliant outswing abilities, he just couldn’t make himself a permanent player. Because when India have their bitter heartbreaking defeats, this fellow stands out in his poor performance. Such things tend to leave permanent scars, and as such this bloke unfortunately collected a lot of negative points. This is why his stats look so good and yet his erratic nature of bowling and him performing poorly in critical phases led to him being ousted from the Indian team.
Same in the 2007 World Cup defeat, he scored one of his standard ducks after Yuvraj, Dhoni, and Harbhajan fell, around Ganguly, who was desperately trying to hang on while struggling immensely. He can bat (and hence should have done ample justice to that), but when he gets those ducks, dear me, they are ugly!
Point being, when you, sometimes, are on the verge of being the fall guy, take immediate, rapid action!
The Fuss Over Shami
In a country of 130 Crore individuals, it’s not elusive that there are 130 cricket fixated people who put one game over another. This isn’t first whenever Indian fans have responded dumb to a cricket match result. At the point when India took off from the 2007 CWC, a lot of nitwits annihilated the divider wall close by MS Dhoni’s home, and similar pack of boneheads came and remade the divider when similar MS Dhoni won the 2007 T20 World Cup a couple of weeks after the incident.
It would be a bigoted mindset if someone sees Shami being trolled for his poor performance through a distinct set of lens which fits to their political and venomous agenda. Irfan Pathan, who was part of 2007 squad too was booed for poor performance of the team, but since the government at helm was “overtly secular” they didn’t to make it an attack on minorities. Hence, even physical attacks were part of a secular helluva which fostered brotherhood and communal harmony.
This sort of disconnected false manufactured idealism is so passe to construe a bunch of Don Quixote’s fighting windmills. At any rate, kudos! Upon the dark doctrine of the chauvinist, the light of reason and mutual respect is destined to prevail, if only belatedly. You regard thy honour not in backstabs, but head-on confrontation.But the dark doctrine of the pretend liberal is more difficult to overcome, for he leaves a positive mark on impressionable minds, and, devoid of such notions as honour, is prepared to backstab. Reams and reams of paper, thousands of bytes and lakhs of social media messages must have been exchanged in less than 24 hours on how to divert the issue of bursting of crackers in certain pockets of the country celebrating the win of Pakistan and some verified Twitter handles equating the Indian team’s loss to that of Narendra Modi.
For them, the tall talk of a “New India” has degenerated into a sleight of hand because of euphemism for a bunch of highly individualistic, self-destructively competitive, and thoroughly uninspiring leaders. The aphorism seems tailor-made and the people’s eulogies were only about dabbling with the subjects and penning reflections. Their theories have been so exhaustive that sometimes the reader misses the wood for the trees.
Conceding my absence of intellect, I must nonetheless venture to say, that it seems quite elemental to me, that if for long the state as an institution either lies about history or prepares a selective version of history on an industrial scale, some people by sheer merit would eventually discover the truth or the hidden aspects as the case may be, and be curious and audacious enough to pose, “Why?” In that event, does the inclusion of hitherto ignored events constitute a ‘foolish act’? My greenhorn self says ‘no!’ Perhaps the elevated ones know better. In that event, the word ‘rewriting’ is incorrect. It is rather an addition which renders it the clearer, just as connecting pieces of a puzzle gives us a clearer perspective.
In conclusion, one must remember that it is possible to deplore attacks on cricketers, verbal or otherwise, unequivocally, without allowing political considerations to take priority. For such a position would be driven by consistent principles and is therefore of sounder footing. So soon as selective criticism is seen, one must be wary of politics at hand.
Click here to subscribe to The Commune on Telegram and get the best stories of the day delivered to you personally.