Mida’s touch of dirt ...

You may have guessed, I have done the unthinkable. I used my wild imagination to find a self explanatory title to this post (basically to evade reader’s curse). If I missed the trick by whiskers then I deserve a pardon. The pregnant pause since my last post was dedicated to restrict “yours sincerely” from doing what he disliked most, but not savoring the fabulous prospect provided by KK’s KR would be almost committing crime. Now for those who do not know KK’s KR, please hold your patience, soon it will be sans veil.

The recent elections brought us some surprises. UPA got a walkover through the courtesy of opposition parties. I wish, KR could mimicked the same politeness and offered a win to RR’s, if not of respect for the defending champion’s then at least for sake of the world renowned and stunningly beautiful owner. An ardent fan like me can hold tears if a team lose repetitively again and again and again (exaggerated? my count of “again” is minimal against their number of losses), but could hold no more, to find the gorgeous in disarray. Offer of my shoulder would cost me more than a fortune, hence a bad idea. What an irony, till the previous week, I was angry because of their performance (do I need to prefix it with “bad”) same goes for this week, just because of scoring a win. KR’s have found a way to dishearten fans, they lose it when it is much required and win it when they could do with a loss. Yes Lady, I agree they are the only reason for your plight. A win for them was inconsequential whereas for you, it meant a semi-final berth. They have been such a spoil sport, spoiled your party. Accept my deepest sympathies for their mischief.

Anyway, let me not beat around the bush and get to the point. Since all the quacks are doing a postmortem on KR’s failure I thought I too will contribute. My findings may sound funny but at times the solution of a complex theorem resides in the simplest of explanation or vice versa. So, let us begin the journey to unthinkable.

Holding the playing XI accountable for the results will be cruelty. See, it needs a brave heart to accept defeat match after match and still prepare self for next occurrence. Therefore, I will be anything but cruel, so bear me.

Have you observed a herd of sheep grazing at different place everyday? The owner completely depends on border collies (sheepdog) for herding and directing the herd to a new place day after day. Now replace, sheep with playing XI, owner will not need any replacement and border collies with coaching staff. Next time when you see a breach in cordon (sheep herd) you will know who is accountable.

What do you say if the native sheep which promises to be the best in future is not taken out for grazing and left on its own to die with passing time? A team can just not win with talent hired from outside. Of course they are expected to play well and they may, but at the end, local talent has to be tried before it is tested. Moreover playing local talent is the best option because they will always be available (anytime of year) and will not depend on the window to play after serving the national team. Players from other nations (on rolls of national team) will have inconsistent attendance during tournament matches, do not even think of their presence during practice sessions. The team which does not breathe together can never win together.

It also has to do with our affinity towards anything that we import from outside, even if the quality is substandard. It is high time that we start believing in ourselves, our products, and feel we are the best. Do we really need imported director/coach for a team? Can’t we see within to find the persons who best suit the job, when we have such abundance of talent? Before directing (or guiding) a player (team) a coach has to identify the talent (in each individual) and to do that it is important to understand every players psyche. For a coach bred in different nation, it is a daunting and haunting (after the series of loss) task to understand 7 local players (IPL still has restriction of playing only 4 outside players). I have heard, to overcome this, a self deficient director has requested to raise the number of outside players to 5. If such requests are granted year after year, I am afraid in next 7 years, IPL will only be a misnomer or the abbreviation will stand for “International Premiere League”.

Now few pointers for the owner, circulate a copy of your movie where you enacted a coaches role. Needless to say that your act was fabulous, use it to your advantage. The only drawback, players from abroad will not understand unless it has English subtitles. But, think if you do not provide subtitles it will again benefit you, they will start taking Hindi lessons that in turn will give them a feeling of being one among the locals. One word of caution, also force your support stuff to attend the classes regularly.
Why would you devoid yourself of taking some lessons on behavioral aspect either? Displeasing big shots of cricket, using insulting words will only help you and your team to attain martyrdom. In your bad days (or team’s bad days) these experts of the game will bail you out. So, watch your words and control your behavior off the field. Accept the fact, in this jungle someone else is “The King”.

Nevertheless, nothing can take away the credit for entertaining us from KR, they showed us many ways of losing a game. I think, for this year’s league this was all they had for us and that is end of it. I am definite they would save much time during retrospection because success was sporadic and it remained elusive thru the tournament, whatever they touched, it turned into dirt. If they don’t stop building pillars of failure, someday all the golden colors of their jersey (and rest of sporting gear) will turn to dirt brown. The fire on the helmet will give way to diminishing smoke.

Closing thoughts - an owner can sell a team if it does not do well, a director/coach can move on (or let go), a player can also switch loyalty but where does a fan go? All stakeholders except a fan, play for money. A fan just plays (read as follows) for heart. Like others I too will still stick to my team “The KR”, hoping, next league they would finish in top 2, as DC did this year.