Cricket lessons from England's FIFA fall
I am not saying this to extract a roundabout adulation (I told-you-so-kind) for what appears to me to be an elementary forecast any perspicacious sports-lover should be ideally capable of; you can't have the cheesecake and eat the chocolate fondant too. Of course, we are all fully aware of the disastrous ramifications of the IPL expo reflected in successive knock-outs in the T20 World Cup. Too much sugar, sweethearts! But things changed dramatically just a few weeks later. For instance, after a much-deserved break and the consequent resuscitation following the 24x7 cricket schedule (particularly the IPL) that the senior players took after the Caribbean fiasco and the failed experimentation in Zimbabwe, India hit fine form and outplayed all their ferocious neighborly rivals in the Asia Cup. Predictably, MSD's return to winning ways was lost amidst the overwhelming cacophony generated by the vuvuzela in the FIFA World Cup, but it was good to see the Men in Blue regain their magic mettle somewhat.
By an interesting coincidence, I found this straightforward and palpably no-holds-barred article written in the Daily Telegraph, UK by ace England striker Michael Owen following England's tragic capitulation against Germany 1-4 on Sunday evening June 27, 2010 which gave John Terry a grand opportunity to watch the Wimbledon final from the Royal Box while savoring on strawberries and cream.
Writes Owen, "As for the wider issues, I think the question of a mid-season break and the demands of the fixture list is something worthy of debate. You look at some of our players who have been playing all season and we do not look fresh. We do seem to go into World Cups with a lot of injuries."
"The Premier League demands a lot more effort than any other and your body cannot keep doing it and doing it over a full season. You cannot have everything. You want the best league in the world, you want fast, entertaining football which we play all season through any weather. You get all that in England, so there has to be a sacrifice somewhere and maybe it is taking its toll in the tournaments."
"In the longer term, you have to fear for the future of the game. Football is massively popular in England but, when I was a kid, I never had a computer or anything. I drive along the road now and look at parks and they are empty. When school was finished I would be straight to the park at 4pm and my mum would be dragging me by the ear at 9pm to get home to bed."
"Life has changed and kids cannot be getting the same practice as my generation. Yet look at the beaches in Brazil and the streets of Africa and you can see why so many players come from abroad."
What's interesting is that Owen was a serious contender for a place in Fabio Capello's team , and failed to climb the British Airways flight to Johannesburg because of an ill-fated injury. Yet, he has candidly expressed himself, taking the bull by the horns, and in fact, outright decried the excesses of the EPL. Like many other contemporaries of his, Owen also earns his millions from EPL and in fact plays for Manchester United, but he has had no reservations in telling the truth as is.
Can you imagine a single IPL cricketer blowing the whistle on its mindless excesses, its puerile DNA and speaking his mind out? But even there, they have a valid excuse, the BCCI's draconian gag order, which is frankly so infantile. But more on that later. For the moment, are we willing to learn some hard lessons from the humiliating losses of the others? Or are we going to continue to live in that glitzy ivory tower located in the fashionable Park Avenue on fool's paradise?
