Selfish cricketers

Matthew Hayden remarked that players from the subcontinent are selfish. I do not disagree with him completely. Because I would be in denial-land if I did so. But when I read Hayden’s views a couple of days ago, I instinctively thought that it was due to the fact that Indians have the expectations of a huge country weighing down upon their shoulders. Added to this is the fact that with so many players making huge scores in domestic tournaments, the pressure is always on the players in the national team to ensure that they have scores in international tournaments to match the scores of the domestic-circuit players (which is unfair, really). In any case, being selfish is not a bad thing!

Harsha Bhogle states the same point in a much more articulate manner…

It is my hypothesis that in over-populated, and therefore insecure, countries the self will always dominate. Feelings of comradeship, of surrendering the self to the wider cause, can only arise in either a highly spiritual phase or where the performer has ascended to a level of personal calm about his achievements.

Where you are in a mob, and we are in a mob, self-preservation will always prevail; whether it is catching a bus, or getting out of a movie hall or getting admission to a professional college.

So too with Indian cricket, where unless you are selfish you cannot make a mark. We have 27 first-class teams and it is impossible for anyone to monitor individual players. At one level lower, it is even worse. Young players learn very quickly that it is their score, and not the manner in which it was scored, or indeed the situation that warranted it, that counts more than anything else.

[source: Indian Express]

Touché!!