I was watching the post cricket match presentation ceremony after India had won the fourth one day match and series, the Man of the match awardee Gambhir in a fine gesture called up Virat Kohli to hand over the award. This was an amazing team spirit from the young lad to show such a camaraderie to another young lad. For my remembrance this was the second time when a senior Sachin did the same to another senior pro Yuvraj. What these incidents are telling us is that the team has immense confidence in each one of them. India finished the year and the decade on a winning note but made me to think what really transpired India to come on mountain top is nothing but this blog.
Any teams win either in sports or in business are the ones which play as ONE team in all conditions. Either home or away, snatching victories from the clutches of defeat, converting small window of opportunities into big wins, coming unscathed from the jaws of defeat are the hall mark of great teams. This decade from 2000-2009, India had progressed from the second last to No.1 in Test rankings. This could be possible only after started believing that they could win in any conditions. The way stroke maker Gambhir played for ten hours to save a test match in NZ May 09, the way Sehwag turned the match in Chennai in Dec 08 with a blistering knock opened up the victory for others to take on
If we observe any of the previous overseas tours, Indian Teams were submissive and hardly played for the win. Except few wins to be remember like the win in NZ in 60’s the first ever overseas win , win in ENG and WI in 70’s and win in ENG 80’s are the few remembrances. India was always seen as Tigers at home and Lambs at overseas; the reason could be pitches, system, quality of players, conditions, mental toughness etc. But things have changed in this decade, India went on to win 40 odd Test matches out of that 20 are at home and 20 in overseas in all Test playing countries. India has been playing Test Cricket from 1930’s , after playing for seven decades only last month India reached 100th Test win, out of this 40 Test matches had been won in this decade. This sums up the story of the Indian cricket journey in this decade.
This is a remarkable achievement for a Team that was at the bottom of the table. Thanks to the shift of the epicenter of the game from northern hemisphere to the southern. The quality of young talent that got produced after the 1999 youth world cup win in Srilanka. Establishment of National Cricket Academy in Bangalore made the system more robust. In this decade Team has been led by some great leaders like Sourav, Kumble, Dravid & Dhoni,. Some of the glimpses here mentions their leadership qualities like in case of Sourav, , the way he led in the Steve Waughs 2001 Last Frontier Series set the path for the decade,he pushed himself above Sachin in Brisbane 2003-04 to face chin music and match Aussies mental toughness, Kumble when he gave the famous statement in Sydney that only one Team is playing in true spirit and the way he handled the following fiasco and Perth Test is a perfect example, Rahul Dravid declaring a Test Match in Pakistan when Sachin was 196* was an example of how team is more important than an individual score, Dhoni, the current captain is the most shrewd and calm, just an example I would like to mention his post match conference in Hyderabad after India lost the match against Aussies inspite of a greatest innings from Sachin, I was expecting him to go over the top for the way Sachin fought but he mentioned his name along with other team members and showed his disappointment how the Team lost from a winning position. Business means Team win for him. These leaders had lead the path for India to be in No.1 position.
Definitely there will be a cat and mouse game for the top position in Test Cricket in the coming months but it is the time for us to celebrate and bid farewell to memorable decade for Indian cricket and hope we continue the same in the coming one as well…..
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