Team India

Each of us has a theory about why India got knocked out of the World Cup. We also know who is to be blamed for the failure. The coach and the captain are the obvious contenders for the top spot in the who-is-to-blame list. Sachin, Sehwag, Sourav, you name it, follow. BCCI chief Sharad Pawar has graciously said that he will reveal his preference only after a few meetings. That's how they do it in the agriculture ministry.

As with farmer suicides, a few task forces and committees could be set up to deliberate on the World Cup fiasco. But we need to ask ourselves if we deserve a team of winners. Eleven talented players do not make a successful team. They need to bind together and transform into a collective. The Men in Blue most often fail to make this transformation, which is essential to achieve and sustain excellence. Sport mirrors society.

There is a parallel to be drawn between the cricket team and the nation. Team India is not merely 11 cricketers, but a nation of a billion-plus people. This Team India is a nation of underachievers, despite the islands of excellence. Can the cricket team be any different? It is not at all surprising that Sachin Tendulkar, and before him Sunil Gavaskar, has epitomised individual excellence on a global scale in a team sport without ever being part of a great team.

It is often said that India has cities, but no citizens. The chaos that our cities represent is representative of the failure to build a civil and civic world. This country has the engineers to build a world-class metro. But the chief of Delhi's metro workforce is also forced to despair that commuters aren't willing to use it in a civilised manner. The commuter is concerned about user rights but isn't willing to exercise these rights in a responsible manner.

Indians tend to forget that citizenship is as much about responsibility as it is about rights. The two have to go together if the well-being of the collective, of the team, is to be realised. The Indian cricket fan is like the metro commuter.

His craving for Team India's success is almost an infantile obsession. Success has to come, but without any sacrifice on his part. Indians desist from investing in sports, largely because that is a domain which demands hard work, recognises talent, and rewards only excellence. Team India has a long way to go. Who'll take the first step