Hope for 2012: Fan in despair, a rescue act from cricket heroes

2011 was the year of perceptions. Separated from reality by many layers of prejudice as they are, perceptions are never about truth. They are about the version of it we find agreeable. Thus we thought India was the best cricketing nation across continents. [caption id=“attachment_169310” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“We thought India was the best cricketing nation across continents. Reuters”]  [/caption] Thus we thought we had the best batting line-up in the world. Thus we thought that the magic mix of youth and experience works wonders for us. Thus we thought with Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and Zaheer Khan with us we are truly champions. After the World Cup victory every fancy notion about Team India looked believable. It was the die-hard cricket fan’s secret fantasies coming real. The failures of the past were forgiven in a hurry; all doubts on the skills of our players were swept aside as misplaced. With the supposed incredible talent pool the present looked wonderful and the future secure. The World Cup win certainly was no mean achievement. If it added swagger to the normally boisterous yet self-pitying persona of the cricket fan, he was not the one to blame. He’s a simple guy who usually does not understand the game though he pretends to. But he understands his heroes and trusts their immense power. He feels cheated when his heroes fail him but keeps the faith. They had delivered and met expectations, for a change. That was good enough. The IPL matches served to buttress his faith. The heroes hit sixes on demand, decimated reputation of bowlers from across the world and displayed the ruthless streak which the fan always found missing in them. Those were good times for Indian cricket and for the fan on the street. With India on top, the world was a normal place. However, the flash flood of happiness was only one perception of the actual. Perceptions, as a rule, are fickle. They change fast, in sync with failed expectations. In England, the team faltered, looking more miserable with every outing. From world-beaters to hopeless losers, it was big comedown in just a few months. The fan did not mind the losing part that much but found the abject surrender of the team abominable. The heroes failed him. Team India looked no different from Bangladesh. How could they sink so low? Soon the old, nasty compliments were back in circulation. `Flat track bullies’; `heroes at home zeroes outside’; `incompetent against swing and seam’ – well, they just kept coming. The fan’s world turned upside down. The swagger was gone so was the perception of his own infallibility. A bit of the fan’s self-image is constructed along the image of his hero. If the hero fails, that part of the self-image collapses too. Team India’s comprehensive victory over England in One-Dayers was not good enough to repair the damage neither was its victory over the West Indies. There’s no glory in winning at home. Victory against weak sides is no great achievement either. Greatness is in victories abroad and against competent opponents. If you are true world conquerers, prove it by winning abroad – that was the message from the fan. Australia was the perfect battle ground for that. But the heroes came crashing again. That was the last Test match of 2011. It left the Indian cricket fan with no happy memories of the year. The World Cup victory was too far back to arouse fond recollections. He wanted to move into the new year with pride not burdened with shame. In 2012, one hopes Team India makes amends. It has to win the series not only in Australia but also every series it plays abroad in the year. The task appears impossible given its penchant to oscillate between the sublime and the sordid in quick time. But the team has to try. It cannot leave its fans in a perpetual state of disappointment. Despite the many victories of Team India, one is never sure whether the team is good at all. It’s rather unfortunate. Odd victories don’t mean much. We need that stamp of authority on the game from the team. It comes from consistency in good performance. We would like to be the team to be more consistent. Of course, we want Sachin get his ton of tons and keep scoring. We expect the gap between reality and perception to get closer with the former matching up to the latter. We expect 2012 to be the year of reality, not illusions. We expect to be the best.