Outstanding cricket by humble champions!

India skipper Suryakumar Yadav sits alongside the T20 World Cup trophy as photographers capture the moment in Ahmedabad last Sunday. Pic/AFP

India's loss to South Africa in the first game of the Super Eight stage of the ICC T20 World Cup is the perfect example of the kind of wake-up call champions need to get rid of any complacency and tighten up their game for the next rounds. It happens in individual sports too, where a higher ranked player may try cruising against an unknown, well below the rankings player and suddenly find the match slipping away from him. He then brings his ‘A' game on the table and turns on the heat to win a match that lasted longer than he would have expected it to, when he entered the arena.

In India's case, it was more the margin of defeat that would have rankled, having beaten the same opponent in the final of the same tournament a couple of years earlier. Whatever it was, the loss was just the recharge that the team needed and after that, the team played superlative cricket leaving no doubt in the minds of even the cynics from the old powers that they are the best white-ball team in the game.

Staying grounded

The cricket that was seen all round from this team was simply outstanding and what was even more enjoyable was to see throughout the tournament the humility of the players, who fronted the media at the end of every game. It's generally the game-changer who is sent to meet the media at the end of the match.
Whether it was the skipper Suryakumar Yadav with his humorous interaction a la Rohit Sharma, or Axar Patel with his down to earth and self-effacing retorts or Sanju Samson showing the same patience as he showed awaiting his reinclusion in the playing XI as well as his gratitude to God Almighty, or Bumrah who credited his fellow bowlers or Ishan Kishan, who won over the media with his admission of struggling to cope with being left out for a couple of years or Varun Chakaravarthy who never made any excuses and was humility personified, they showed that winners don't have to be arrogant. That you can play a hard, tough game without mouthing off and showing that it's best to let the bat and the ball do all the talking.

If there are any budding cricketers (including a certain 12th man of the Karnataka team) who were watching, hopefully they will have learnt that respect is earned by performance, not by posturing. That you can win and still stay grounded as this wonderful Indian team have shown us. Winning trophies is something this team will continue to do and they are winning even more hearts and admirers by the modesty with which they are conducting themselves after these wins. For old timers like me, who played in an era where there was not much spoken on and off the field, this has been the highlight of recent Indian victories and may it continue forever.

The furore created by the acquisition of a Pakistani player by the Indian owner of a franchise in The Hundred is hardly surprising. Ever since the Mumbai attacks in November 2008, Indian franchise owners have simply ignored Pakistani players for the IPL. Although belated, the realisation that the fees that they pay to a Pakistani player, who then pays income tax to his government which buys arms and weapons, indirectly contributes to the deaths of Indian soldiers and civilians is making Indian entities refrain from even considering having Pakistani artistes and sportspersons. Whether it is an Indian entity or an overseas subsidiary of the entity that is making the payment, if the owner is Indian then he or she is contributing to the Indian casualties. It's as simple as that. Daniel Vettori, the coach of the team in The Hundred who hails from New Zealand, may not understand this simple dynamic and so may have wanted some Pakistani players in his team, but surely the owner should have had an understanding of the situation and discouraged the purchase. Is winning a tournament in a format that no other country plays in much more important than Indian lives?

Fan backlash possible

It won't be a surprise that for every game that this team plays, whether at home or away there will be massive demonstrations by Indian fans protesting at this hard-to-believe buying. In fact, it won't be a surprise that despite having some of the most attractive stroke makers in their team the crowds may stay away and show their disapproval of the decision.

There's still time to undo the wrong and hopefully wiser counsels will prevail.

Professional Management Group