By Gasper Crasto / Kuwait
While the country is in a ballot fight for more than two months, another battle of 10 teams is ongoing in the world's biggest cricket league, the IPL which is being held in parallel.
In the middle of all this, I put this Headline question in several WhatsApp Groups of friends soon after the Indian team’s selection for the T20 World Cup to be held in the West Indies and USA this June.
IS CRICKET A TEAM GAME OR INDIVIDUAL?
Some of my cricket expert friends were quick to answer, “There are 11 players on the field, so it’s a team game.”
Others said, “Cricket can never be a one-man show as no one player can make you win an entire match – even if it is Virat Kohli or whosoever.”
Still, there were others saying, “So yeah it’s all about how the team plays never an individual player.”
Having been a great fan of Team India, and having played First-Division Cricket in Goa myself, am a still bit bamboozled by the answers to my elementary question.
MY TAKE
I did a double-take and made a quick analysis of the Indian squad selection, which everyone was convinced, was based on the latest performance of players in the prestigious IPL show.
Well, I haven’t come across any such scrutiny in the media, in the way I think, that makes me conclude Cricket is NOT a Team game but an individual one.
WHY? I HAVE MY REASONS:
• 6 players out of the 15 including the captain and vice-captain (Rohit Sharma (c), Hardik Pandya (vc), Suryakumar Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, and Virat Kohli, Mohd. Siraj are from the bottom 2 teams i.e Mumbai & RCB Bangalore (which is 40% of the squad)
• Top 4 IPL teams have only 3 players (Yashasvi Jaiswal, Sanju Samson (wk), and Yuzvendra Chahal) which is just 20% of the squad.
• IPL Teams standing at 2, 3 and 4 i.e Kolkotta, Lucknow, and Sunrisers have 0 representation in Team India.
SELECTION CRITERIA IN WORLD SPORT
Am a great fan of the English Premier League Football, and of course Cricket in general.
Although we cannot compare these 2 sports, we all can easily conclude football is a team game, and Cricket may be NOT.
Take the example of the selection criteria of England's FOOTBALL squad in the last World Cup – all their players were from the top 7 (out of 20 Premier League clubs) except 2 players outside the 7, and goalkeeper Jordan Pickford from the bottom - Everton Club.
If anyone says Cricket is a Team Game, please explain the logic behind the selection criteria of Team India.
Top it all, we have the captain and the vice-captain leading India when they are not able to see eye-to-eye in their own club – Mumbai Indians.
Let’s face it, not everything we read on Facebook may warrant interest or wisdom to comment or add a Like. My guess is that some may actually be withdrawing from clicking a ‘Like’ for this reason.