After a limp display in Sri Lanka, the Indian team searches for momentum as it starts a season that stretches to April next year. Players need to lift themselves and someone needs to put his foot firmly on the pedal to get a move on. Captain Sourav, a proud man determined to raise respect for Indian cricket, is alive to the challenge.
He thinks for India and his team, and knows that players/teams are rated on the basis of their record abroad. In the last four years, Sourav has painstakingly nurtured the team. Dada is a concerned elder who rejoices with the family, happily distributes laddoos when someone lands a job, scores good marks in exams or wins a quiz in school.
Dravid, his able deputy, is a strong ally equally keen to leave behind a permanent legacy in Indian cricket. For him individual hundreds are valuable but not as significant as creating a system that produces sustained performance. The game, he will tell you with honesty and conviction, is bigger than any individual brilliance.
Last two seasons, the team has, as Sourav says, done wonderfully well but it's now time to step up, crank a gear higher. The seniors (Sourav and the trimurti of Sachin /Dravid/ Kumble) are into their 30s, all wanting to leave a strong footprint. All have set themselves individual goals with eyes fixed, at least for the moment, on the 2007 World Cup. That is a long way in the distance and international cricket is tricky.
In a crude sense they are daily wage earners where each morning is a fresh challenge and each game a new test, another battle for survival .
{{/usCountry}}In a crude sense they are daily wage earners where each morning is a fresh challenge and each game a new test, another battle for survival .
{{/usCountry}}This relentless uncertainty can destroy a player but strong individuals have learnt to turn this pressure around to their advantage. Tension, said a player, can make you determined or it kills you — depends which way you respond to it.
Players take pressure in their stride, just as they respond to the call of the coach to maintain intensity, the demand that everyone must be committed enough to die for India on the field. This means high energy levels should be maintained, which is a big ask considering the endless grind that diminishes enthusiasm and extracts a serious price.
Players put this in perspective: People talk of excessive cricket but that is no issue. What we dread is gym work and training, the unending drills.
But this, as they say, is part of the game where every batsman gets an equal dose of juicy half volleys and nasty short balls. Players, despite the cribbing, love this game. They are addicted by this nasha.