Cricket: Tell me if I'm overthinking
Don't you feel there is inbred, slow simmering rivalry among bowlers of our national team
Not healthy competition, pull each other down rivalry
It was evident in WC final, Shami, Siraj and Bumrah were not putting efforts in saving runs for each other. They were very close to being highest wicket takers
Now today's match Mukesh had the same look. What he couldn't get in first super over, Ravi Bishnoi made it look like piece of cake in next
I feel we aren't being the team, that feel like Cup winners. Remember Dhoni's era?
No you are not overthinking. It has come to this by design.
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In cricket, we are gradually moving towards the football model of operations : clubs/franchises over national team.
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Indian media rights constitute close to ~80% value of media rights, (be it BCCI rights, IPL , ICC or Board rights such as Cric Australia, England , SA). Same for viewership numbers, ~70% viewership comes from India and close to 85-90% from SEA countries (Ind + pak + Bangladesh + Sri Lanka )
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Indians love to watch Indians play, (proven by Viewership numbers of India vs Non-India matches in WC 2023,2022,2021, Asia cup 2021 & 2022).
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Limited spots available for Indian players when compared to population.
Combination of all this creates an environment wherein you can succeed by pulling each other down and get a higher share of the revenue available. (Refer to paid PR pages of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli during each match where they both are playing).
Hope this helps.
Don't think that's the case.
We don't win World cups because it means too much to us and we can't really keep our cool.
And I think it originates from our population still at that stage where we seek external validation(Indians hoarding at any YouTube video which talks about India). We just don't still have a core that exuberates confidence.
Thala for a reason