TO ERR IS HUMAN
There is a very thin line between a superb strategic move and a blunder, and this IPL season saw many great names make mistakes
Anil Kumble, Mike Hesson and Brendon McCullum not to forget MS Dhoni- top names each one of them and leading figures of the game in their own light. How can such people make mistakes, more so basic mistakes that can alter the result of a match? No one will doubt their cricketing sense or knowledge. Yet such mistakes are committed. We have seen them happen this IPL and we have commented on them. That’s the beauty of this sport which humbles us all. No one commits a mistake knowingly. More so each of these men named above. These are strategies that have gone wrong. Frankly, there is a very thin line between a superb strategic move and a blunder. That’s what has happened and that’s what adds to the aura of this sport. While such mistakes do not make any of them a bad coach or player, it shows even greats are fallible. It shows the very human element of the game which has been at its core for over a 100 years.
What explains sending Prabh Simran Singh ahead of a Glen Maxwell? Or holding back AB De Villiers after he had lit up the Sharjah stadium with his dazzling array of strokes in the previous game? What explains MS Dhoni’s decision to bat 5 or 6 and send Jadhav or Jagadheesan ahead of him? How does McCullum explain dropping Tripathi to number 7 when he has won KKR a game batting at the top of the order?
As I said some of these decisions are inexplicable but that’s the whole fun of it. Each one of us have made mistakes in life and went on to learn from them. In sport there are no retakes and that’s what makes these mistakes more pertinent. Games have been won or lost as a result and I am sure they won’t be repeated again.
Sport is unique in the sense it results in one failing in public and having to pick up the pieces. Kumble was trolled for the Prabh Simran call. So was Dhoni. But what sport also does is it allows its devotees to come back and win in public again. And when that happens fans hail such acts and make heroes out of the protagonists. That’s what will happen with Dhoni and Kumble and Hesson. Mistakes will be made and rectified. That’s how things are
and that’s why sport isn’t played by robots. Humans will make howlers for that’s why they are human. And the same people will then-make up for these howlers with calls that will be hailed as strategic interventions which won their teams the games. The moot point is who makes the lesser number of mistakes. In a tournament that lasts two months the team that makes the lesser number of mistakes will win. And with injuries happening, the mettle of the captain and the coach will surely be tested going ahead. It will show their cricketing nous and add to the charm of the IPL. That’s why each game is of interest irrespective of the result making the tournament what it is — world cricket’s most trusted brand.
KXIP head coach Anil Kumble was trolled for sending Prabh Simran Singh ahead of Glen Maxwell against KKR.