What Went Wrong?

As a lover of cricket, as do every third person of our country, its hard to believe that WC-07 is over for us before it has actually started (the super-8). And like any one of the cricket followers in the country I have a question in mind n heart and most of us have a varied no. of answers (or solutions) to this Q- WHAT WENT WRONG? Well most of us will say "what is left to debate?" over or may be "there's no point in discussing over such a useless topic", but I know and most of us will agree that we can't help but to think over it and have an opinion about it. And that each one of us has a feeling deep in our hearts that India will win the WC. And each one of us has view on how to improve things which come up either during a discussion with friends in the lobby, or watching TV and giving a tip to the Men in Blue on how to improve their running betw the wkts, how not to give away extra in crucial matches, how to contain opposition in slog overs, how should the superstars play and even the minute of the tech faults like playin on front or back foot, moving the feet , etc. So like each of us I too feel very much disappointed after India's exit from WC-07. But what next-who is to blame?- the coach (for excessive expts), the captain(not inspiring enough), the senior members(letting the team down at imp. occasions), the selection committee(not picking the right blend of players),the pitch(not much help fot the spinners :)), the playing conditions(why didn't it rain?), or Bermuda(why did they lose to BANGLA), BAngladesh(why did they played so well), the followers (why they didnt pray with intensity?), LUCK (why didnt Sachin survive the Lemon cut while every other batsmen did?), or any other TOM, DICK and HARRY for reasons of no sense. But blaming a single person, condition or factor is like slauter of a cow for the sake of rain. And I feel even blaming the whole team would not be appropriate. So who's to blame? the answer lies in one of the observation of Imran Khan. He pointed out the difference in the level of domestic cricket in Indian sub-continent (particularly India n Pak) and some other nations like Aus. even at the lowest level the ground conditions are of international level in Aus- that is the place and time for a player to learn slinding on the field.If a player has been playing cricket from his childhood on poor grounds then either he has to stop thinking about sliding or end up in the hospital. We have a large no. of teams competing at the domestic level(nearly 28 odd) as compared to about six in Aus and that is quite logical as the population is also propotionately higher. But can we ensure quality cricket with so many regional boards which depend soley on the BCCI for funding and despite BCCI being the richest of all cricket boards in the world, its impossible to maintain the standards with such a large no. of boards. our domestic cricket system is also quite individual performance based- mostmatches end in a draw not because there are only four days to play but because every team wants to bat for most of the part and score points on the basis of 1st innings lead and in the process players aim at not scoring runs but occuping the crease. There no feeling of a team at that level mostly beacause all of them know that one good season and they will be the the 'TEAM', TEAM INDIA. And that is why most players play for themselves rather than for the team. ANd if the sense of team spirit is not aroused in the players at the initial level then its hard to imbibe it when they play for the country. But the feeling eventually comes because of the driving force of playing for the nation. But they are not able to express that inner spirit because they simply dont have the skills- fielding, running betw, etc.So what needs to be done?- the best way out is to avoid the same cycle being repeated over n over. Start from the teenagers.Change the way players grow from initial level onwards. There is a need of individuals with the in built passion for cricket in the BCCI so as to mobilize changes.And mind you it is one of the least popular sports in the world and god knows what will happen to the system when it becomes popular in Europe, if that happens and the changes in India dont then cricket might become another sport like hockey in India.