layperson
April 19, 2007, 10:23 PM
Fans have lauded the performance of the Tigers in this world cup and rightly so. People have pointed out that according to expectations at the beginning of the WC, we have exceeded them. I agree whole heartedly. If people had told me would you take a super 8 position, defeating two powerhouses on the way before the WC I am sure most fans would say yes. This is where my whole lot of congratualtions come in for the Tigers.
Now for the pinch of criticism. Maybe not a pinch but a lot more. First if we look at the first round performance we defeated India and Bermuda to move into the super 8s. HOwever our batting was good only in the match against India and we even struggled with the bat against Bermuda. The Sri lanka match was a complete disaster for us. We got elevated to the secon round. Fans were happy , players were happy, the coach, the management everyone was happy because we achieved our target set for the WC by moving into the second round. All good so far.
Moving into the second round, there were lots of fans who tried to take things too positively and saw the matches as extra games we got with defeats bringing in supportive arguments such as we have achieved our target so this is a learning experience. My problem with the whole super 8 approach from fans and the team alike was the inconsistent result and the blatant condoning of it just because we had achieved our initially set target. Once we were in the super 8 we should have performed much better than what we did. We should have won our matche against England and the WI today. Ireland I would not count as any team can have a bad day. Our batting let us down most of the times. I was disappointed to see some fans willing to overlook these shortcomings and term our super 8 fairly successful since we had one good game and we did not finish last.
We could have actually finished much higher and I feel let down by the team. I read in cricinfo about some comments Bashar made and they were very straight forward and to the point. No matter how rubbish of a player he has become recently, he has said the right things mostly. He said there were no excuses and that the batting had let them down. We should have done much better in the super 8s. The point of this thread and the criticism is not to take away anything from the achievment of going into the super 8 but to look at the underachievment once we reached the super 8. Just because we did good in the first round does not mean we can and should overlook the horrible display in the super 8. Many fans might come at me saying we got SA but for me that was not consolation for the overall terrible show at the super 8. I think our team management has to come up with a solution for this achilles's heel called batting. We have been let down by the batsmen time and again whereas our bowlers have done more than a good job in the whole tournament.
The only match I felt we performed outstanding was the match against India where we got everything right. I think it is time to make some very important changes in the team and bring in a specialist batting coach and a psychologist for the team if we do not have one already. If we have one now then we need to change this one. Maybe we can hire professional motivational speakers to talk to our team batsmen before each match. Motivational speakers are used in the corporate world to make the labour force more productive so why not use them on our batsmen?
Finally, I realize there is an abundance of thread evaluating our performance in this WC and had earlier even said that we see way too many threads at this time of the year. But with so many evalutation threads I did not know where to fit my post, hence this new thread. Hope we can have a lively discussion on the issue of our performance in the super 8s and some fans lenient attitude which has disappointed me because it means that because of the past good(1st round) the present bad(super 8) can be overlooked which I cannot support at all.
Now for the pinch of criticism. Maybe not a pinch but a lot more. First if we look at the first round performance we defeated India and Bermuda to move into the super 8s. HOwever our batting was good only in the match against India and we even struggled with the bat against Bermuda. The Sri lanka match was a complete disaster for us. We got elevated to the secon round. Fans were happy , players were happy, the coach, the management everyone was happy because we achieved our target set for the WC by moving into the second round. All good so far.
Moving into the second round, there were lots of fans who tried to take things too positively and saw the matches as extra games we got with defeats bringing in supportive arguments such as we have achieved our target so this is a learning experience. My problem with the whole super 8 approach from fans and the team alike was the inconsistent result and the blatant condoning of it just because we had achieved our initially set target. Once we were in the super 8 we should have performed much better than what we did. We should have won our matche against England and the WI today. Ireland I would not count as any team can have a bad day. Our batting let us down most of the times. I was disappointed to see some fans willing to overlook these shortcomings and term our super 8 fairly successful since we had one good game and we did not finish last.
We could have actually finished much higher and I feel let down by the team. I read in cricinfo about some comments Bashar made and they were very straight forward and to the point. No matter how rubbish of a player he has become recently, he has said the right things mostly. He said there were no excuses and that the batting had let them down. We should have done much better in the super 8s. The point of this thread and the criticism is not to take away anything from the achievment of going into the super 8 but to look at the underachievment once we reached the super 8. Just because we did good in the first round does not mean we can and should overlook the horrible display in the super 8. Many fans might come at me saying we got SA but for me that was not consolation for the overall terrible show at the super 8. I think our team management has to come up with a solution for this achilles's heel called batting. We have been let down by the batsmen time and again whereas our bowlers have done more than a good job in the whole tournament.
The only match I felt we performed outstanding was the match against India where we got everything right. I think it is time to make some very important changes in the team and bring in a specialist batting coach and a psychologist for the team if we do not have one already. If we have one now then we need to change this one. Maybe we can hire professional motivational speakers to talk to our team batsmen before each match. Motivational speakers are used in the corporate world to make the labour force more productive so why not use them on our batsmen?
Finally, I realize there is an abundance of thread evaluating our performance in this WC and had earlier even said that we see way too many threads at this time of the year. But with so many evalutation threads I did not know where to fit my post, hence this new thread. Hope we can have a lively discussion on the issue of our performance in the super 8s and some fans lenient attitude which has disappointed me because it means that because of the past good(1st round) the present bad(super 8) can be overlooked which I cannot support at all.