England’s Jos Buttler walks off the field as Indian players celebrate his wicket during the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023 match between India and England in Lucknow on October 29, 2023
| Photo Credit: PTI

Sometimes an early defeat in a World Cup can be a blessing. It rids the team of complacency, it focuses attention on weaknesses that might have been covered up by victory, it re-motivates the players, it shines a light on team selection since non-performers have no place to hide. Australia, who began with two defeats at this World Cup now look like one of the favourites.

It can go the other way too. Champions England are at the bottom of the table two-thirds of the way down the league. This puts their qualification for the 2025 Champions Trophy in jeopardy. Only the first seven teams will make the grade — the criterion was one of the best-kept secrets when the World Cup began. Perhaps nothing succeeds like failure.

India have won all their matches convincingly at this stage, making them strong candidates to join Australia (2003 and 2007) as the teams to go through undefeated in this century. Perhaps television is right: there is only one team in this World Cup. For some, however, that team might be Afghanistan who have now beaten three former champions convincingly.

Before India won the World Cup in 1983, they lost to Australia and the West Indies. In 2011, another year of triumph, India lost to South Africa before getting it together.

Discovering alternatives

Successful teams learn from defeat and disappointment lessons that are not readily available in victory and contentment. The injury to Hardik Pandya threw India for a bit, but in playing Mohammed Shami and Suryakumar Yadav, they have discovered alternatives they might not have otherwise. When Pandya returns, both these players are likely to remain. Pandya will probably replace a batsman, something which might not have been the obvious move earlier.

If England is a shining example for its approach to Test cricket, their One-Day International approach is a warning. The lack of flexibility, the reluctance to drop heroes of four years earlier, the inability to stick to a plan have all played their role in this.

Skipper Jason Buttler looks like he wants to wear an invisibility cloak at the mandatory post-match interviews. You almost feel sorry for the team — Australia’s captain seemed to be hiding his disappointment at England’s plight behind a brave smile!

Similar predicament

If India win the World Cup, they will face the same problems England are facing now, four years after their triumph. The temptation to hang on to a once-victorious team now four years older and giving the impression that turning up to play is all that matters is likely to affect India in 2027 if they don’t learn from England’s problems.

Till recently, the mantra of a defeated captain was: “Let’s forget this bad performance and move on.” Defeated captains at this World Cup don’t want to forget. “This hurts,” said Buttler after the defeat against Afghanistan, adding “I think you’ve got to let these defeats hurt. There’s no point in just trying to move on very quickly. Let it hurt for a bit, let’s reflect….”

It was a sentiment echoed by Temba Bavuma who said after his side lost to the Netherlands that South Africa should “feel the emotion of today.” He clarified: “You’ve got to let the emotion seep in. Don’t think there is any point in trying to forget what’s happened. It is going to hurt, it should hurt.”

Objectively speaking, it was necessary for England to have performed this badly to ensure things change. India had the same issue in 2007 when they lost to Bangladesh and Sri Lanka and bowed out in tears. Four years later, under a new captain and without many of their seniors (Sachin Tendulkar was an exception), they won the tournament.

Even the best team in the world needs only one off-day in the knockout to ruin their plans. For India in 2003, that day was in the final. In the last two tournaments in 2015 and 2019, that day was in the semifinals. Teams can peak too early, but sometimes they can get caught up in the hype about momentum too. There is no such thing as momentum in sport. Every match is a fresh start.

There are lessons in defeat and victory, but you have to learn the right ones.

Indian cricket fans watch the match between India and Pakistan in the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023, at Narendra Modi Stadium, in Ahmedabad on October 14, 2023.
| Photo Credit: ANI

India’s cricket in the World Cup so far has been excellent. Things are falling into place with a rapidity that must worry the other teams, although one hopes that New Zealand get a fair tilt. They were denied in 2019 when they lost the final to England through a combination of bad luck, bad rules and bad umpiring.

However, in denying visas for fans from Pakistan, India have displayed a churlishness that sits badly on a nation of its size and influence. The Board of Control for Cricket in India has been acting like an arm of the government since the Home Minister’s son took over as its secretary. In India, sport is politics.

The most telling comment after the much-hyped but ultimately one-sided India-Pakistan encounter came from Pakistan’s team director Mickey Arthur. “It didn’t seem like an International Cricket Council (ICC) event; it seemed like a (domestic) BCCI event,” he said referring to the lack of Pakistan supporters in the vast Narendra Modi stadium in Ahmedabad.

The website ESPNcricinfo calculated there were just four American-Pakistanis to cheer the team. Only a handful of journalists got visas. In 2011, about 6,500 visas were issued for fans from Pakistan for the semifinal in Mohali where India and Pakistan met.

Sport can divide peoples just as easily as it can bring them together if that is what the government of the day wants.

Pakistan has been painted as India’s ‘other’, the enemy who encourages terrorism. As a political entity, Pakistan have lived up to this image often enough, with the attacks in Mumbai in 2008 and the wars fought between the two countries a matter of historical record.

The worst insult a politician (and the trolling fraternity) can deliver to a dissenting citizen is: “Go live in Pakistan!” Nuance is not a quality either possesses. You can, however, cheer for an India win while bemoaning that fans of the other side were not allowed into the country. Once it was decided that the cricket team was welcome, visas for fans should have followed.

That the visas for the team were delayed, as was the visa for the Pakistan-born Australian opener Usman Khwaja when that country toured earlier points to a pattern.

Sporting competition is not just about two teams facing each other. If that were the case, we wouldn’t need big stadiums. Supporters play a role too, cheering and living vicariously through the feats of those actually performing.

Whenever Indian and Pakistani fans have got together to watch their teams, they have been grateful for the chance. Many wear outfits with half the colours of one team and half the other’s. Some carry flags stitched together to emphasise oneness. Each group has supported its own team. Some sections from both groups have tended to overdo things, but that is not unusual.

Player-taunting

Pakistani players were taunted with religious chants in Ahmedabad. This is in keeping with the attitude of the visa-denying authorities. Pakistani fans have taunted Indian players too in the past. In fact, player-taunting is a traditional sport in stadiums around the world. There are rules in place to handle racism in the chants, but none that deal with religion or gender identity.

It is ironical that for all their animosity towards Pakistan, the authorities love an India-Pakistan cricket match. It is a huge money-spinner, it gives politicians an opportunity to be seen by millions on television (the Home Minister was seen waving the victory sign once it became clear India were winning), and there is the feel-good factor which distracts from political, social and economic issues. It is the same in Pakistan too.

The fond hope now is that the two clash in the final at the same venue. It will be interesting to see politicians appear or disappear depending on how their team is faring. There is a chance that the teams might meet earlier, in the semifinal; if they do, then obviously only one will play the final.

Now with India hoping to bid for the 2036 Olympics, they will have to work on ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam’ (the world is one family), the theme that was given yet another airing at the G20 meeting recently. The International Olympic Committee may not take kindly to selective hosting.