Sid and the Id

Superego, ego and id were the names that Freud gave to the three driving forces that motivate human behavior, psychologically speaking. I am no expert on psychology or Freud, so I explain these three concepts in my own words. Super ego consists of all the rules and norms that society and authority figures impose on one's psyche. Ego is the selfish and self-interested part of one's psyche and Id is the playful and childlike part of one's nature. By now you may be wondering what this has to do with Cricinfo or cricket. I believe, this Freudian structure of psychology can be used to explain much of what goes on in the reporters minds writing for Cricinfo.

For them, Cricinfo the company they work for, establishment teams (particularly England and Australia) and ICC form their superego. The ego is perhaps the easiest to explain - their interest in the sport (watching it, writing about it, meeting the sports' stars) while getting paid to do it must be the motivation. Well this raises the question - what could their Id be, since they don't actually participate in the sports they write about and after all this is a job for them (so they cannot seem to have too much fun at it)? The answer is: bashing the Asian bloc cricket teams in general and the Indian team in particular.

In this respect, they have no compunction in pulling all the stops even if it means hitting below the belt (excuse the mixed metaphor). Let's take the latest article by Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (goes by the name Sid amongst the cricinfo circles and for brevity I will do the same henceforth). Sid writes this article right after India registered an emphatic victory over Scotland in a one off ODI. To be sure, Scotland is not a major league team but this is hardly newsworthy and all followers of cricket know this. Further, it is also a well known fact that India will be playing an ODI with the England Lions (the secondary English team) and 7 ODIs with the main English team.

Sid starts off by stating that India will not be playing its senior players against the England Lions (in effect resting them). Then he goes on and on about how the England Lions are fielding a strong team. Mind you the England Lions consists of players who have not been selected for the main England side. On the face of it, one would conclude that the match with England A cannot test India's mettle since India is not fielding its strongest side. But that does not deter our Sid's Id from playing the game even further. He goes on to say that India will have to use its resources carefully (given the massive workload that lay ahead) leaving aside so many facts that it makes ones head spin. (Incidentally, such advice can be had from any one of the billion people who support India - such is the obviousness of it.) For example, would it not be true that England would have to conserve its resources as well since it will be playing 7 ODIs against India? Would England not have to apportion its bowling talent appropriately so that it could be used most efficiently against a much touted Indian batting lineup? Does England (which lost the recent test series) not have the issue of which wicket keeper to use (given its keeper Prior failed miserably in the tests)?

In fact, one could make the argument that England had more to worry about than India. The only advantage that Sid mentions is the fact that the cold weather may benefit the English players and certainly there is some truth to that - but that would hardly qualify as a huge advantage given that the Indian players have been in England for months now and should be acclimatized to English weather by now (if one can actually do such a thing).

Mr. Sid, then switching roles from his Id to his Superego, now offers advise to the Indian players. India needs to spruce up its fielding skills apparently. India also needs to try out different bowlers in the practice games, else they may not know whom to turn to when the need arises. Further, apparently India is very rigid about using its part-time options thus opting to play five bowlers. And on an on it goes.... Sid the master strategist and captain par excellence knows it all. The wisdom of Cricinfo, ICC, England and Australia have all bestowed upon Sid the crystal ball to see through what India needs to do and what it needs to avoid. Of course, Sid in his superego mode has no advice for the English side.

Lest we forget, Sid, as far as I know has never played cricket at any competitive level. His knowledge of the game is superfluous at best. To appoint himself the judge of Indian cricket is bombastic at best. But there is an insidious motive at work here. There can be only one reason to write such a condescending article just before the start of the series - to cast doubt amongst the Indian team members and demoralize the Indian fan base. Before you dismiss the allegation as baseless let me remind you that such an article is one in a series - a concerted attack no less. I have written at some length about the bias of cricinfo writers on this blog and the article in question by Sid is just another example of the same muckraking that goes for journalism these days.

It is hard (almost foolhardy) to predict who is going to win the ODI series. To paraphrase Dravid (my favorite Indian player and Indian captain), "the one who plays good cricket on a given day will win." This begs the question, does India have what it takes to play good cricket. The answer is a resounding yes. Similarly, does England have what it takes to play good cricket and the answer to that is yes as well. In the final analysis, India have many advantages (I will not focus on disadvantages since the rest of the "journalist" seem to do it):

- they will be playing with a test win against England thus riding the confidence wave as it were
- they have tremendous talent that has delivered consistently for years (particularly in this decade with a few notable exceptions)
- they do not have a coach in the form of Chappell who singlehandedly destroyed the team
- from all accounts, they seem to have great team morale and great team spirit
- four of their premier batsmen will probably be touring England for the last time as representatives of their country and all four seem to be hungry, fit and eager to perform
- they have many match winners in the likes of Sachin Tendulkar, Zaheer Khan, Saurav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid, Ajit Agarkar, MS Dhoni and Yuvraj Singh.
- they have excellent young talent in the likes of Robin Uttappa, Gautam Gambhir, Piyush Chawla and Dinesh Karthik
- they seem to have excellent strategic and tactical thinking behind them in the senior players (Dravid, Ganguly, Tendulkar)

With all this behind them and a billion people rooting for them, success will most assuredly be there for their taking. I hope they do take it. I hope they do play well on the seven given days.

GO INDIA.