CHENNAI: For a state where the association is headed by one of India’s sharpest cricket brains, Bengal’s achievements in domestic cricket are not the sort that grab headlines. They continue to float like a mid-table outfit, impressive one day and dismal the other.
Tuesday’s Vijay Hazare match against Services saw them at their worst, as they suffered an eight-wicket hammering after being bowled out for just 129 at MA Chidambaram Stadium. The pitch was slow, but not the kind where teams fold up in 38 overs.
After becoming president of the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) in 2015, Sourav Ganguly has tried out a few things. Other than hiring a coach from Mumbai (Sairaj Bahutule), a fast bowling consultant (TA Sekhar) and another consultant to interact with players from time to time (VVS Laxman), CAB also sought the help of a psychologist before this season.
More than lack of skills, application seemed to be the problem, as a number of Bengal players perished to ordinary shots. This was unbecoming of a batting line-up where five of the top six have played for either India or India A. The attack was spirited, but far from menacing. Yet, there was an inevitability about the Bengal collapse that would worry the team management.
“Looking at our record in the last few years (Vijay Hazare final in 2016-17, Ranji semifinals in 2017-18), I don’t think you can call us inconsistent,” said captain Manoj Tiwary. “But we still tend to give it away in pressure situations. Today, our batsmen played irresponsible shots on a surface decent for batting. It’s in the mind that something goes wrong every now and then. That’s what makes us look inconsistent.”
To address this issue specifically, CAB roped in Mumbai-based psychologist Mugdha Bavare, who had one-on-one sessions with the players before the start of the season. Bengal may not be the only domestic team to hire the services of this kind of a specialist, but they are one of the handful to do this. Their performance on Tuesday suggested that if this goes on, Ganguly may have to ask Bavare to have another session after this competition.
“We tend to lose concentration. The psychologist told us how to get rid of that. She taught us techniques to focus on a particular thing so that this doesn’t happen. But listening to her is something and practising what she says is another. Looking at how we threw our wickets away, it’s evident that not much of it has been learnt,” said Tiwary.
Ganguly’s boys has six more matches to show that this Services loss was an aberration, and that lessons have been learnt. atreyo@newindianexpress.com