After India failed to make it to the Super 8 in the cricket World Cup 2007 and its humiliating defeat by Bangladesh, I thought there was going to be a long spell of soul-searching to identify our mistakes and weaknesses. Instead, the blame-game is being played with full fury. I wish if the players had used the same power in the fields, the fate of Team India would have been quite different.
The media which was busy building hype about the cricket World Cup 2007 until Team India crashed out has landed itself in a ridiculous situation. Having put all its eggs in one basket (read cricket), the media does not know how to fill up its space when there is nothing of Indian cricket to write home about. So we continue to see in the front-pages of dailies the photograph of Rahul Dravid holding on to his towel at Kovalam beach. I thought India Team had already thrown away the towel at West Indies . Likewise, one national daily had devoted more than 50% of the front-page for ‘news’on Indian cricket today besides the four pages of daily news on cricket. All these appear to be desperate bid by some to put down cricket everybody’s throat. The advertisers, too, are also a worried lot for having put so much stake on cricket.
The sooner the realisation dawns on the media, the advertisers and the fans that it may be wise after all not to put all the eggs in one basket, the better could be the performance of India in the world of sports including cricket.
