Tuesday, April 8, 2014

Yuvraj Singh and the frustrated Indian citizen!

Who can forget Yuvraj Singh crying after the World Cup win of 2011. It still gives goose bumps thinking about that campaign.

The seething anger at Yuvraj Singh over India’s surrender at the finale of the cricket World T20 shows a lot about the state of mind of the current Indian.  To put it in a harsh way, it shows a lot about ‘what is wrong’ with the state of mind of the current Indian citizen. The stress of elections 2014 and the hope of better governance is taking its toll on the average Indian. Let us look at cricket first and then move on to Indian psyche.

The rise of Sachin Tendulkar coincided with India climbing up the global success ladder giving it confidence to be world-beaters. The era of the Gangulys, Dravids, Laxmans came to an end with the meteoric rise of current India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni and present heart throb Virat Kohli and in-between we had Yuvraj Singh and Virendra Sehwag. The contribution of out-of-favour Virendra Sehwag has been exemplary but it does not match the heroics of a Yuvraj Singh. Yuvraj has been the darling of the masses starting from his exploits in India’s win in the under-19 World cup followed by a dream debut against Australia in 2000 in Kenya consolidating it at the Natwest series in England in 2002, catapulting himself with six-sixes in an over in World T20 in 2007 (which India won) and the ultimate pinnacle of World Cup 2011. It would not be exaggeration to say that the kind of influence he has had over India’s success is unmatched. Don’t compare his individual records with others because individual performances matter less in a team game.

Yuvraj’s personal fight with to overcome cancer and his subsequent return to International cricket is nothing short of a miracle. He has not been the Yuvraj of yore though. We can draw parallels to the state of economy that India finds itself here in 2014. India also was a darling of the International investors not too long ago and the eminent rises of the Indian economy never ceases to the hopefuls. We have flatter to deceive more often than not. As the world comes out of a trough after the highs between 2002 & 2007, India does not seem to find favour with those who form the bulwark to get the world economy back on track. Yuvraj and India seems to follow a similar path. Just like Yuvraj who finds favour with the captain and selectors based on past performance and talent, India too finds favour among the international community on basis of past performance (namely the importance of BRIC) but this does not translate into on-field performance.


The suppressed energies of India’s youth due to an overall letdown of the incumbent government over the last decade find its outlet with the seething anger at Yuvraj. Cricket has always been passionately followed in India but the expectations surrounding the grand entry of India into the World Cup final turned into a damp squib. Yuvraj found himself at the centre of attention when he unintentionally turned out to the anti-hero with his hapless performance. But the Indian fan who had sky high expectations could not bear the loss. A team failure was attributed to one person who bore the brunt of freedom-of-speech on social media. It doesn’t augur well for the incumbent government considering the kind of restlessness among the citizens. Sports and movies are an escape route for the citizens of a country who are under stress of under-performance and lack of satisfaction in daily life. When this escape route meets a dead end, it is bound to create repercussions. And the seething anger at a failure in sports is one such repercussion.