Lions or Lambs

"Lions at home, but lambs overseas". This is what the indian cricket team was known pre-Ganguly/Wright era. What followed though was the best times for indian cricket. Under Ganguly and Wright the team won test series in West Indies, New Zealand and England and won test matches in Australia and South Africa. It propelled them to become the number one team in the world. That glory though was short-lived. Sigh.

It all changed within a span of 6 months. They lost 8 overseas tests in a row. And the manner in which they lost these matches is troubling as it evoked bad memories of the past. It feels like they're in the same spot as they were in 99/2000. The old saying is true again. The team has done a complete cycle. Sport pundits will tell you the team has gone through a cycle. All teams have to go through these cycles and most of them eventually manage to come out successful. Indian team did it once under Ganguly and Wright. So, they should be able do it again, right? The answer is not very easy. The challenges in front of this team are vastly different than ones faced by Ganguly and Wright.

Let's look at them.

• Packed Schedules and Player Fitness: Cricket schedules now days are packed. Gone are the days when teams used to get time to acclimatize to foreign conditions before an overseas series starts. Take Indian team's schedule in 2011. They played in the world cup at home followed by the IPL. It followed a full tours to West Indies and England. This was followed by a home ODI series against England and full series against West Indies at home. They ended the year with a Boxing day test against Australia. This kind of schedule puts extreme pressure on players bodies. Thus managing player fitness has become extremely important. BCCI needs to ensure its best players are always fit to play against the best teams. One of the primary reason Indian team failed so miserably against England was because it's best players were injured at the time. The English board managed their players effectively by keeping a close watch on individual player's fitness. Stuart Broad was made to play in a county game after missing games due to injury. It gave him enough match practice to get ready for the test series. Same cannot be said about Sehwag or Zaheer Khan.
• BCCI's Attitude: The BCCI has become a dominating force in world cricket today. They are the richest cricket board in the world. But, they forget that they don't have the best cricket team in the world. It was astounding to see BCCI's attitude towards their team's performances in England and Australia. These losses are being treated as a mere aberration instead of being investigated. The board needs to re-align it's priorities if the team has to regain the number one spot.
• Hunger: One of the primary reasons for India's success in the Ganguly/Wright era was it's player's hunger and resolve to be best in test match cricket. The same cannot be said in post-IPL era. Times have changed. Playing for 5 weeks in IPL earns a player much more money than playing in a hard fought test series. Young cricketers today need to have the same hunger & resolve that the Tendulkars, the Dravids, the Laxmans and the Gangulys had; if this team wants to taste the same success again.

These are difficult challenges in front of this cricket team. There are no easy solutions. Hard decisions will need to be made. Priorities will need to be re-aligned. Attitudes and outlook will need to be changed. The goal though remains the same: to become lions again.