India's thundering victory Down Under might have come as a pleasant surprise to a large number of fans in India, or as a shock to the cricket pundits in India who held a very sceptical view of the chance's of the team in the Commonwealth Bank series after the selectors had dropped some senior players, or as a slap in the face to the boastful Australian cricket writers who believed in the myth that India could not beat Australia in Australia. But to an analytical, open-minded observer, who has observed the performances of the team over the last 7 years, this victory was always on the card. This performance did not come out of the blue, as India has been doing well since 2002, though not consistently, outside the sub-continent. In the entire decade of nineties, India had not got much success outside the sub-continent, even though the team was strong. But since the winning of the NatWest Trophy in England in 2002, there has been some complete or partial success stories; the major of them are reaching the final of the World Cup in ODIs in 2003, drawing the test series in Australia in 2004, then winning the test series against West Indies and England on their home turfs in recent years, and currently winning the T-20 world cup in 2007 and now adding to the list is the winning of Commonwealth Bank series. So, a particular trend has been seen. There have been some common reasons behind these success stories. With putting particular stress on this series, let us analyse the reasons.
1. Economic strength: Economic strength generally has a direct bearing on the performance of not only cricket, but also all other major sports. Definitely, there are some exceptions (such as brilliant performance of the poor former communist countries), but exception proves the rule. The high GDP growth rate of the country had its impact on the performance in sports, with cricket having the lion share of it. With the arrival of more money in to the game, the infrastructure has been improved (proof, explosion of new talents at the under 19 level), the domestic set up has been given vigour (proof, arrival of cricketers like M.S. Dhoni, R.P. Singh, Praveen Kumar etc from small towns). Money has given the opportunity to build more cricket stadiums, prepare some quality pitches, purchase modern equipments, bring foreign coaches, trainers, physiotherapists etc. It has attracted the young talented cricketers to opt for cricket as their career without any hesitation.
2. Contribution of the foreign coaches: Their contribution has to be mentioned specifically. With the exception of the T-20 world cup win, all the major success stories happened in the tenure of the foreign coaches. I know many former cricketers in India feel uncomfortable to give credit to the foreign coaches, and some of them love to find fault with them at the first opportunity, some even think that cricketers at the international level do not need any coaching. No doubt India has produced some redoubtable cricketers in the past, but unfortunately not a world class coach. Ajit Wadekar's success at home was one-dimensional, as the pitches were tailor made to suit the home side. John Wright brought modern approach to the game, while Greg Chappel tried to lift the team to a new level with his special focus to fitness. I hope the current coach Gary Kirsten will keep up the good work.
3. Emergence of some good pace bowlers: Without a potent pace battery one cannot win on the fast bouncy pitches abroad. In the nineties, Indian cricket commentators always lamented the lack of a quality third pace bowler. But in this new era, India has seen the arrival of plenty of quality pace bowlers. Javagal Srinath, Zahir Khan, Ashish Nehra, Ajit Agarkar, L. Balaji, Irfan Pathan, R.P. Singh, Praveen Kumar, Ishant Sharma etc have contributed immensely to the success story. Unfortunately, some of the bowlers in the list have faded in to oblivion rather at a premature stage. As far as spinners are concerned, India never had a dearth of them.
4. Change in attitude: India being on her 61st year of independence, and the economy being healthy, the youth of the modern age have become more confident, fearless, and aggressive. They are mentally tougher than the former cricketers. They fight till the end, and more importantly they have developed killer's instinct which is essential for getting success in difficult situation.
5. Improvement in fitness: Saving 20 odd runs in an ODI by virtue of good fielding, or stealing 20 runs by dint of good running between the wickets can change the outcome of a match. The fitness of the Indian cricket team, under the guidance of the foreign coaches, has improved over the years. That is precisely why a fitter team was chosen for Australia tour in the ODI tournament.
6. Neutral umpiring: Agreeing that they too sometimes make gross errors, it must be said that up to a large extent they have brought justice to the game, nullifying grievances of the touring side. Previously, the Randells, the Emersosns etc were notorious for their blatantly biased decisions.
The aforesaid reasons are the main factors, which separated the recent success stories from the failures of the nineties outside the sub-continent. Thus we see while a nervous pair of Kiran More and Ravi Shastri had squandered a golden opportunity to win a close finish match at the 1992 World Cup against Australia, a nerveless Irfan Pathan or Joginder Sharma brought glory to the nation. Thus we see while the cricketers of the earlier decade had cowered under abusive sledging from the Aussies, this team paid them back in the same coin. Thus we see while the earlier board had seldom stood behind the cricketers, unfairly held guilty by the ICC, this financially powerful board did not hesitate in flexing muscles.
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