Failure has no Friends

Post the World Cup Debacle, the media, the fans and just about every one remotely associated with Indian cricket were busy in venting their anger on the Indian Cricket Team. After the disastrous World Cup campaign, some fans were in shock, most were gutted and the sense of sadness will linger long after the dust has settled and the players and coach were dead and buried (couldn’t think of any better fate that could await the lot).
India as a cricketing nation has forever been overtly passionate (which isn’t wrong) about the game. While the love for the game is always welcome, the knee-jerk reactions have always been quite disappointing. Targeting the players and the coach, attacking their houses, burning their effigies and posters may be termed as an outlet for the disappointment, rage and frustration welling amongst the fans. But is it justified?
Equally disappointing is the role of the media – every single channel and newspaper have left no stone unturned in lambasting the Team’s performance.

On the other hand, the undeniable truth is that the Team put up a shoddy performance – a performance way below par and they certainly have let themselves and the whole country down.
Whatever the reasons may turn out to be, whatever the ramifications of this loss will turn out to be, another fact remains – some of the best cricketers the country ever produced, some of the best talent the world ever got to see, have scripted themselves a most sorry end to their glorious careers.
Sachin Tendulkar. Rahul Dravid. Saurav Ganguly. Anil Kumble.
They probably won’t get a chance for a swansong. No riding away into a glorious sunset. Their showcase always sans the one medal of glory that every child growing up wanting to be a cricketer – aspires for. World Cup glory shall never be theirs.
At this point, I’m filled, not with rage or frustration, but a sense of deep sadness.
While everyone else may loathe the lot, I beg to differ.
It is true that the players are commercially oriented. Endorsements and advertising have reached never before seen peaks. But if you tell me – The players are not motivated or committed enough to play for the nation and that they’ve been lured away by the luster of the moolah, I would not believe you.
Playing for the nation is the highest honor in sport and I certainly believe that these 15 men understand the significance of that.

Yet they lost.
Yet they surrendered to weaker opponents.
Yet they were swept away without a semblance of a fight.
It happens! That’s all I can say.
That’s the way the game goes. That’s the way life goes.

There are times when every nerve and sinew wills for something but yet the result is something different.
What do you do when you see your heroes fall thus?
Sling mud at them? Loathe them?
We have only proved that Failure has no friends.

I would rather stand up and put my hands together for some of the best cricketers I will ever see in my lifetime. Feel sorry that they fell the way they did. Share their pain of not attaining the sport’s coveted glory. And hope that Indian cricket will see better days in the times to come.

Don’t know about others, but I will always proudly say –
I lived in the times of Tendulkar and Ganguly.
I lived in the times of Dravid and Kumble.

- Strider