What luck?

This is what our high profile Chief Selector, Dilip Vengsarkar looks at the team's performance:

“Nothing but bad luck,” . “Who would have believed that India would lose to Bangladesh. India was tipped by most experts to win the Cup. It was nothing but bad luck. I am not trying to offer excuses but we must accept that it was a bad phase and proved costly because of the format of the tournament.”

It would be a pity if those who control Indian cricket start blaming luck rather than analyzing the performance. By the way, though our loss to Bangladesh contributed to our ouster from the competition, we had a chance to bounce back. The team almost did.  First by defeating Barmuda with huge margin, negating the net run rate risk.

We had to win against Sri Lanka. The bowlers did a good job restricting Sri Lanka to 254. A gettable score, specially for a side like India with such a strong batting line up.

We had no business losing to Sri Lanka. One, specially if he is the chief of the selectors, has to remember that competing in the world cup does not mean beating Bangladesh.

Hence, to properly analyse the performance the mai-baaps should forget about Bangladesh match and instead concentrate on the Sri Lanka match which, I repeat, we had no business loosing after we restricted them to 254.

In the same interview Vengsarkar says: “Let us accept it as a wake up call that could serve us well. We have to look at the positives from the experience and I think we should back the team. This is the time when they need us most. I am sure they will regroup and do well in the international fixtures in the coming season.”

Now that he has got a wake up call, I hope he walks the talk and remain awake. And yes, he better find some thing better than mere luck to rely on.