India lost T20 World Cup but BCCI Won IPL

It is perhaps the saddest night for most Indian cricket fans. Their team lost to South Africa in the Super Eight stage of Twenty20 World Cup 2009. The way their team played perhaps reminded the fans of the bad performance in ICC World Cup Cricket 2007 that took place in West Indies. In that event, India had an early exit even in the first round. This time, they could go to the second round but lost all 3 matches in Super Eight stage against West Indies, England and South Africa.

It seems to me that the fans must now be prepared for more losses in the coming months of 2009. BCCI officials are perhaps not that much worried as they have already made huge money from IPL (Indian Premier League) 2009. The interesting thing is that we have not seen any reaction from any BCCI high official after dismal performance in T20 World Cup 2009. I guess that they are still celebrating from their financial success with IPL. Before the start of IPL, there was some concern that Indian players became very tired with nonstop cricket for nearly 5 weeks in South Africa. At that time, this matter did not get that much importance because most fans were hoping that India would repeat their success as the reigning champion.

Now, many fans are unhappy and they have started to blame Captain Dhoni and Dhoni and some other players took it lightly. May be they are right but they forget that most players were very tired. In fact, Coach Gary Kirsten has publicly stated that IPL was the main villain.

“We had a bunch of cricketers who arrived here quite tired and that’s not to make excuses, we were aware that we had a demanding schedule.

“We never really got ourselves to the level of intensity that you need at the international game with the standard of cricket obviously higher than what we would have experienced at the IPL.

“Fatigue was definitely a factor, as were many other things. We weren’t an energetic team, like we were in New Zealand.”

This is the idea of Kristen. Obviously, no one in BCCI and even in the Indian cricket team would agree with him. If they agree with him then they would have scrap IPL season 3 that is again going to take place just before Twenty20 World Cup 2010.

I would not get surprised if Gary Kristen is now blamed by BCCI officials and the players for poor performance in T20 World Cup 2009. In fact, I am expecting that criticism of the coach starts from tomorrow. This time, even former coaches and players may join in criticizing Kristen. I think that a lot depends on what happens next year. If again, IPL takes place before T20 World Cup 2010 and India performs badly then you can be sure that IPL will lose much of its popularity among cricket fans in India.