We are all immersed in the world of IPL at a time the cricketing world is preparing for the World Cup. The stakes are high in IPL and players prefer IPL rather than playing an International event. With the result, the standard of the game going down considerably and confidence is shattered in repeated failures. The major players including captain Virat Kohli are facing a ticklish situation. His team Bangalore Royal Challengers lost all the 6 games on the trot and struggle for survival. Openers Dhawan and Rohit Sharma are repeated failures with the bat. Thus, the captain’s confidence is going down and the openers are not just a lamb to the slaughter facing the white ball.
IPL is a shame game of betting and why our players exert their energy there and fail miserably. Every VIP being talked about in real life is given a representative player, without his free-willed option to permit the same, to represent him in the game of cricket. When the VIP does something viral, the player hits a six, or performs well, due to the betting that goes on behind the scenes to boost the popularity of this VIP. But what happens, as a result, is another parallel betting goes on, by the opposite team betters, to devour or tarnish the lives of his loved ones or close friends. The culprit here in effect becomes the cricket match, which becomes the medium for both boosting the popularity as well as hurting. Thus the game suffers and the youngsters are misguided.
Both CSK and are RR were banned for two full seasons on the charges of match-fixing but still, the game takes the back seat. We blame the Indian team if the team loses and praise them too much when the team achieves some homemade wins. The wickets in India are meant for spinners and when we tour places like England our track record is very poor. We could not win a test series in England since 2007 and some of the defeats just like the one in Lord’s was disastrous. However, for Ashwin remaining top scorer in both the innings, we could not do much in the last tour. After winning the second test, we lost the next two and the series by 1-3 to England. The lateral swing trouble the openers and the steep bounce saw the middle order cave in. Then we expect the tail to wag and save us from certain defeat.
This year, the World Cup is taking place in England and the lackadaisical approach of the team is highly deplorable. We start to save the game and our long tail start rather early from Number 7. We need to rejuvenate the side with a balanced team and our home record is not going to help in any case, except that we can hold number one spot without a series in England for the last 12 years and not winning a test series in South Africa since 1991. It is time to resurrect the side and IPL defeats the purpose of our progress in International cricket. What is wrong with Indian Cricket? We bank on IPL show for World cup selection.
(The views expressed by the author in the article are his/her own.)
