I get the basic premise of your root thread post including the subtle thrust of the 'lower than dirt ' bit.
Thanks for your sincere congratulations, much appreciated!
As a long time indian supporter i have seen our guys snatch defeats from the jaws of victories several times over, several times in all my time supporting my team i have felt our guys lacked the fierce focus and intensity to get us across the line.
I always felt if we got our system right, we would do well. If you look at our civilizational history, Several empires have over run us, attacked us for our prosperity, our spiritual richness, our expertise in almost all fields imaginable of the times they were attacked in, yet we never subjugated, never gave up - we kept resisting, kept pushing kept trying harder. The reasons those empires came at us was our inherent richness and not monetary richness which kept running through us in every adversity every circumstance and that confidence took time but started flowing and flowering as time went by. On a cricketing front we started taking baby steps, 1967 winning in NZ, 1971 the twin wins over Eng and WI.
Came 1983 was when a sleeping giant awoke. 1985 World championship of cricket gave middle class india new aspirations. Finally in the late 90s and 2000's we started winning more, started producing champions in other sports. We graduated from the easy beats of the sport to yeah, they're good to one of the best teams going around. I can now confidently say, our recent test slump nothwithstanding when ever our guys take the field any country any conditions we go in as equals if not favs.
There is a fire for excellence and you can see this not only on the cricketing field but in the products we manufacture that are consumed world wide.
You can see this in the worldwide positive contribution an indian immigrant makes to any country they live in, i would wager Indians contribution to taxes, business entrepreneurship, corporate management leading roles, income generation to countries like UK, USA, Aus, NZ, Can, europe, if one were to reserch by ethnic groups contribution, would be in the top 5.
I'd wager Indian contribution to jail and prison population if one were to research by ethnic groups would not be even in the bottom five.
Absolutely no imposter syndrome, it never existed. We pay our own bills and absolutely deserve where we are.
It will get better from here.
@Suleiman
@ most rational indian posters....
Further to what i posted above....
i wish we would improve in the following 4 areas
- a ) Indian Crowds : We have to be more supporting of the opposition.
Be it the frenetic atmosphere-mahoul of a T20 or the slightly less tempo of an ODI or the unique rhythm and swings ups and downs of test cricket
- An oppo player who has hit a boundary, a six, a fielder who has dived to stop a single/changed a two to a single-3 to 2/boundary has to be applauded
* An oppo player who has taken a wicket/catch has to be applauded
These guys feed off our love, our encouragement, our vibes, our positivity, our good wishes.
We have to acknowledge their skills/efforts however miniscule even if they are an opposition player.
After our our civilizational value is 'Athithi Devo Bhava' - our guest is has godly status....Mehmaan jo hamara hota hai voh jaan se pyara hota hai....
i defo feel the reason Indian crowds fall quiet upon an opposition boundary or six or if home team's wicket falls is not out of spite or unsporting or not willing to acknowledge the oppo.
Its more more a feeling of 'hayy, ye kya ho gaya', a stunned gasp of air intake at whats happening.
Whats incredible is this happens day in and out, every match, every ball.....this is an indifference, ek alag emotion and not a planned attempt to down the opposition efforts or to spite them or diss their efforts.
But on the same token, we will applaud landmarks, ie a 50 or 100 and that again relates to the typical indian mentality for being fixated on landmarks but not for the process -any way a totally different topic/diff thread.
This is the same mentality as an Indian who will whist walking towards and approaching a door, opens it, walk through it but will rarely keep the door open for the dude/woman following immediately behind them, its not that they wanted to close the door on someone's face but more an indifference to the situation, a complete switch off once we walk through and yeah - its astounding in its scope, its magnamity, its repetiveness, and its consistency.
Secondly, i also feel as an Indian we get a much than deserved bad rap for this crowd non clapping the opposition.
If anyone visits the pak vs SL match super 8's played in SL, i did not see too many SL fans clapping when Farhan Son of Sahib got his hundred or praise for his incredible innings, i did not see too many SL fans clapping his boundaries or 6's
....so why do India only get bagged for this absence of oppo clap rap?
B) I feel our Indian talk shows do not praise the opposition enough, we need to improve big time on this. I love a particular pak anchor Tabbish Hashmi and his show, i feel in this show there is genuine appreciation, there are genuine cricket fans sitting, there are genuine passionate cricket fans expressing their opinion and this dude is awesome- has a fantastic sense of humour.
For example - i started following this show from the Champions trophy 2025 as my Pak mate sent me a link, i felt the sense of love, appreciation, fan following, respect, admiration for Virat Kohkli by pak fans was genuine, heartfelt and i was touched by this.
I have felt the same way in my time for IK, Wasim, Waqar, Shoib, Anwar, Mo Zaahid, Shabbir ahmad , aaqib javad etc for their cricketing skills only and i know this love has no boundaries.
c) lastly, the saddest part- I feel Social media is a toxic place. I am sick of the regular rundown of Babar, with the whole king thing and sad - indian media on social media is so toxic. I wish more respect was given to players. On Social media there is so much gaali galoch, so much running down....it makes my head spin. I am also sick of this whole 'baap baap hota hai, baap beta " thing. ye hamari sanskriti nahin hai.
d) lastly, i wish we were more humble and restrained in our victories and dignified in our defeats. In this aspect, i fear we are moving away from our basic civilizational tenets and focussing a lot on one up man ship.
I myself might be guilty of the above point D. I myself might have got carried away on many occasions, i plead guilty to this.
Just thought, i would get this things off my chest - sorry if you feel this is a rant!.
