Monday, March 26, 2007

Cricket First...

At last the dust has settled and as predicted by one too many Indian cricket team got the battering they deserved. All the hype and hoopla before they marched to the world cup event was a mere bubble burst effortlessly by cricketing minnows - Bangladesh. While every other cricket team has innovated and come out with new techniques and tactics for the world cup, Indian cricket team had gone in with false and bloated egos thinking they were invincible, boy!! were they wrong?

The biiiiggggeest problem with our cricket team is very simple and only ONE - they play a lot more outside the field then inside. How can anyone expect Indian cricket team to work hard, sweat it out and win matches while they are making easy money with their multi brand, multi million, multi year endorsements???? They practice delivering punch lines and posing for the camera while they actually should be playing cricket and honing their skills. Post Sri Lanka match, Kapil Dev's analysis of our team performance is absolutely on the mark. Our cricketers have become bigger then cricket and that is the problem

And, if you notice ads at all the world cup venues, they are - for INDIA, from INDIA. Even the umpires are not spared, the logo on their shirts is from an Indian construction co. Now that India is out of the world cup, it will be intersting to see how the corporate world which has pumped in millions in hope of grabbing a few million eyeballs and mindshare will respond....

All that back and forth justifications by various talent management cos that ads dont affect a players on field performance is just blah blah blah... gimme one good reason what difference does it make as long as each players is raking it up!!!!

I hope and pray that in the same way a leading telecom service provider dropped Sachin from its ads, a few others too will take the cue and drop all these guys from the high throne that they think they deserve and are untouchable

The RIP note written on Indian team will stay that way for a long time to come if some dramatic and drastic measures are not put in place

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