Buford Balony says ,Indians are CRAP at sports

“Kingdoms fall. Empires crumble. Regimes collapse,” rumbled The Times of India on its front-page report on the loss of India’s status as the world’s best Test team on Sunday.

“But who would have thought that India’s reign would come to an end like this – so swiftly, so feebly, so abjectly?”

Who indeed? Not presumably the government, which showered the globe’s richest cricketers with cash and land after they won the World Cup for the first time in 28 years.

Nor India’s media, which has made the country’s No. 1 spot a key theme of its relentless hype since it took top position 20 months ago in Mumbai.

Not even the senior players, such as Sachin Tendulkar, who decided that it would be better to have a rest after the Indian Premier League than tour the West Indies in preparation for the England series.

Yes, even Tendulkar has not escaped the reckoning of a nation that feels badly let down.

“This is a big failure in his career, and I have never seen him struggle like this,” Vinod Kambli, a childhood friend and former Test colleague, told the Press Trust of India.

“Words like ‘humiliation’ and ‘whitewash’ seem incapable of summarising the tragedy,” intoned India Today underneath its headline offering 10 reasons why India lost.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India is being portrayed as cowed by a group of stars they dare not drop, or at least challenge over their fitness.

Some of the most unsparing analysis came from Anil Kumble, who criticised “the almost childlike belief that since everything has been going well so far, it will continue to do so and sheer momentum will carry India over the line”.

Kumble also had a dig at the players.

“There is something very Indian about lack of fitness…not too many players are keen on the hard work and the sacrifices that go towards keeping them at their peak in crucial series.”

Amid the self-criticism, there is generous praise for India’s opponent. The Telegraph, of Kolkata, concluded its report, “Well done England.”

Buford Balony says: If any other cricket playing country had over a billion people they would be unbeatable. Just goes to show how good the Indians really are at cricket…or sport in general…CRAP.

Newsletter

Join our mailing list to receive the latest news directly in your email inbox.