Who wants to follow a losing team?

They say that if you fail to prepare, you must prepare to fail. This couldn’t be truer for sports, for there’s always a time to think and prepare and then act and execute.

Cricket also functions on the same premise. This preparation, which is both physical and mental, must happen in the pre-match stretch, while the implementation is left for when the contest begins.

The most important pre-requisite of good preparation is honesty, for a less than 100 per cent truthful appraisal is akin to not preparing at all. It’s imperative to identify your strengths, weaknesseses and have a plan B ready in case of an unlikely event. If you’ve done your homework, nothing should come as a surprise.

Unfortunately, preparation has never been India’s forte. Instead, Indian players and officials alike have developed a unique ability to constantly live in denial. Even before one starts to probe the slip-ups, it’s important to remember all the changes, however cosmetic, that were made months and years ago. Things that were beyond one’s control, like the pitch, the opposition, the umpiring etc, all as possible explanations for that particular failure, must also be remembered. If you refuse to accept that there’s a need to change, the results are unlikely to change either.

When India got hammered in Australia and England, ‘the people who mattered’ used the theory of ‘fast’ pitches leading to our downfall as a cover-up for the debacle. They never conceded that these failures reflected a collective decline of the team. They were still bullish about their enviable home record. They even vowed to ‘teach’ these teams a lesson in playing on dusty pitches the next time they toured India.

Well, England learnt their lessons after their drubbing against Pakistan and came well prepared. On the contrary, India continued with a woefully out-of-form batting line-up hoping that they’d come good against England. And just to make matters worse, India’s captain Dhoni started demanding a rank-turner everywhere he went.

Lack of preparation and planning has thus illustrated, barring the first Test match at Motera (which feels like light years ago), that England have comprehensively beaten us in all departments. Their batsmen displayed better application and temperament, their spinners performed with a better technique and proved that legacy counts for precious little if it isn’t protected and passed on to the next generation. Their fast bowlers also exploited and squeezed out every little drop of life from the ‘lifeless’ Indian pitches. Their relentless aggression with the ball made our batting look really ordinary. Alastair Cook led the team by example and showed his batting unit how the job is supposed to be done in India.

While England surprised all and sundry with their determination and skill to conquer the final frontier, India’s cup of woes has been overflowing for a long time, and hence another failure shouldn’t come as a surprise.

It confirms that perhaps we weren’t honest with ourselves while preparing for this home season. The time for action is over, now is the time to put the thinking cap on. Indian cricket has reached its nadir and making a few radical changes with regards to the personnel won’t change the fortunes (not suggesting that we stick to the same lot), but it’s time to do an in-depth analysis to identify the problems and address them.

After the England and Australia debacle, the average Indian fan was disappointed, but now he or she is turning angry and soon will become indifferent. If we turn a blind eye to this predicament again, it will alienate Indian fans completely. Who wants to follow a team that loses all the time?