 As only to be expected, cricket fans have over-reacted to India's early exit from the Twenty20 World Cup. Having been installed as favourites largely because they were the defending champions, the Indians were constantly under pressure and as we have seen so often in the past the Indian team do not exactly cover themselves with glory in these situations.
In a way there was a feeling of deja vu for much the same thing happened in 1987. Installed as favourites again because they were the defending champions - in addition to enjoying home advantage - Kapil Dev and his men failed to retain the World Cup they had won so gloriously in England four years before.
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If anything the mood this time should have been one of caution. For one thing almost every country has come to terms with the intricacies associated with cricket's newest and shortest format with so many matches being played over the last couple of years. Secondly the format itself is a gamble, a lottery. While we have seen that Twenty20 is not just slam bang cricket but one where there is scope for matters of strategy and tactical planning, there is also a huge chunk of luck involved. One has only to look at the close finishes in the IPL or even the ongoing World Cup. Seemingly small errors get magnified in a result that goes down to the wire or is decided by the last ball and I have always maintained that predicting results in Twenty20 cricket is a mug's game.
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Predictably the post mortems have started and as usual a balanced perspective has not been maintained while analyzing the defeat. In India we have this tendency of going overboard when it comes to both praise and criticism. We raise ordinary players to the status of demi gods when they do well and rip them apart when they make a couple of errors of judgment.
The blame game is being orchestrated in almost hysterical fashion and the experts are finding fault with anything and everything for India's defeat - from the mental fatigue created by the IPL to Virender Sehwag's absence, from Dhoni's inept handling of the team and situations to batting, bowling and fielding errors. The fact is that the team did not perform up to its potential for various reasons and it was a collective failure though not unexpectedly Dhoni has been getting most of the flak.
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Despite the roles played by the coach, the support staff or the players the buck stops with the captain so it is not surprising to see Dhoni getting most of the brickbats. But then he also got most of the bouquets for the gloriously unexpected triumph two years ago.
Yes, mistakes were made and with the passage of time Dhoni will probably realize this. He has already admitted that the team let the country's cricket fans down. After two years of doing little wrong - indeed there were times he could walk on water - he has found out that cricket, like life, is a great leveler. And while I hold no brief for his tactical errors and his failure to lead from the front in the World Cup I still feel a proper perspective should be maintained. Here is a charismatic young man who has led India to many notable triumphs in all versions of the game at home and away - he is still to lose a Test as captain - and to damn him beyond reasonable limits for one failure, however important the competition might have been, is not taking a balanced view.
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Moreover it must be admitted that despite the glorious run the Indian side has enjoyed over the past year or so this is not a team that can be compared to the great West Indian teams led by Clive Lloyd and Vivian Richards in the 80s or the formidable Aussie squads led by Mark Taylor and Steve Waugh in the 90s and the first few years of the new millennium. I have no doubt however that the team will soon put this failure behind them and with Dhoni still in charge good times, believe me, are round the corner again for Indian cricket.
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