1987 all over again

It was 1987 all over again. Playing under the pressure of being defending champions besides enjoying home advantage, Kapil Dev's men, against all expectations, failed to retain the World Cup they had won in England four years before. Similiarly under pressure, Mahendra Singh Dhoni and his squad crashed out of the ICC World Twenty20 and could not bring back the cup they won in South Africa two years ago.

As only to be expected the post portems have started and as usual a balanced perspective has not been maintained while analysing the defeat. In India, we have the tendency of going overboard when it comes to both praise and criticism. We raise ordinary players to the status of gods in India, when they do well and rip them apart when they make a couple of errors of judgment.

Needlessly, the Indians were installed as favorites in a format that is a lottery, a gamble. The shorter the game the more level the playing field as some of the results - Ireland shocking Bangladesh, Netherlands stunning England and Australia being knocked out at the preliminary stage itself - illustrated so graphically.

On the eve of the tournament, cricketers both from India and abroad made special mention of the Indian team being a balanced one. Opinion polls everywhere pointed out to India retaining the trophy they won in the inaugural edition two years ago. Much was also made of the fact that all the members of the Indian team participated in the Indian Premier League (IPL) and how that would stand them in good stead though they were the detractors who warned that the players would be mentally fatigued because of their exertions in the cash-rich tourney.

I was of the view that any one of half a dozen teams stood a realistic chance of winning the trophy in a very open field. If the Indians were a balanced side the same could be said about many of the other competing teams too. Ultimately, it would all depend on which team held it nerves better on the day. We had seen enough of cricket’s newest and shortest format to understand that it is not all slam-bang and there is a place for tactical planning and matters of strategy. But there is also a huge chunk of luck that goes into every Twenty20 game and under the circumstances there cannot be any real favorites. One has only to glance at the results in the IPL and the World Cup and see the number of close finishes. I have always maintained that predicting results in Twenty20 cricket is a mug's game.