Cricket- the World Cup, India's agony and Woolmer

Anyone who has been reading my blog knows how big a fan I am of the game- have been for three decades and will always be. The game itself is as at an interesting cusp with this World Cup. India and Pakistan crashed out early, Bob Woolmer, Pakistan's coach was murdered, India's coach Greg Chappell quit, and with very few spectators watching the game right now, this World Cup is likely to be a disaster for sponsors and commercial entities that support the game. While this is certainly a concern, the Australian juggernaut rolls on as it has been in the last decade ( and barring a huge upset), they should win their third title in a row, New Zealand has been playing great cricket, Sri Lanka are waving the sub-continental flag, and South Africa are in the best position to reach the Finals they so richly deserve and have never managed to reach. So with one eye on the game itself, what do I make of it.

At the very macro level, three observations bear mentioning.
One- the Aussies are way ahead of the rest of the pack in terms of skill, talent, succession and "pool" of players that are mentally tough to win in any situation whatsoever. By the same token, the Indian sub-continental teams have a long way to go in terms of consistency and balance of their teams apart from mental toughness- for Indians (including me) to think we were a serious threat in this World Cup was nothing but jingoism gone wild. So there are lessons to be learnt from the Aussies in terms of their system, their training, their domestic cricket structure etc.
Second- Woolmer's death has exposed the ugly underbelly of cricket in the sub-continent- the pressure, the stakes, the bookies, the analysts, the commercial interests- it all got to the point whereby unfortunately, it takes the murder of an honest man for us to all realize it is only a game after all- this tragedy calls for a clean-up of the system as also a rational fan following-not a maddening, fanatical following that swings between ecstacy and despair at wins and losses respectively.
By definition, fans are not objective and dont need to be, but they (including me) need to understand that victory and defeat are part of the game and if your team is not good enough on the field, the passion of fans in the stand does not compensate for lack of mental toughness or skill on the field!!
Third- I really think the combination of events above, however tragic they are, will be good for the game in the long run. There is opportunity everywhere- and to paraphrase two former cricketers, all of us have been shown the mirror- from Sachin Tendulkar (who is way past his best and has been for a good three years), to the average sponsor, to the average fan across the world.
Whilst we do not want to take away passion and rabid following for the game on the one hand, when that translates to mass hysteria, we just to step back and think- its a game that is meant to give us all joy by the nature of its beauty, its subtlety, the ebbs and flows as runs are scored and wickets fall, as batsmen craft their well paced innings, as bowlers out-think the batsmen- and that joy is timeless for the true connoiseur of the game. The game of cricket will come out stronger from this crisis- I not believe feel but sincerely believe that.