India's bling-bling brigade exposed

It is called a “bling-bling” thing. All about the modern image that goes with the wraparound sunshades, the earrings and the sauntering dude look at first slip, fancy hairstyles and the attitude problem.

Whether the latter is what is known as a “bad” attitude or a “positive” attitude depends largely on the player and the success ratings. Defeat comes with a shrug of the shoulders and nod with the saying there is always tomorrow.

As India learnt at Lord’s in the ICC World T20 - (Question: why do the Indian media insist on calling it a World Cup when it’s not?) - there is no tomorrow. Now in the West Indies, Mahendra Singh Dhoni and the sky blue boys are learning a little more how the sky is no longer the limit.

As for misreading the pitch, where did we hear that one last from Mr Dhoni? Why, it was in New Zealand in March, and it follows the same comment he made to journalists in Dambulla, Sri Lanka in August last year after losing the first game on a difficult pitch in a series eventually won 3-2. There was none of the attitude problems as the batting skills required to win those games is where the difference lay between quality and success or abject failure.

And, unlike some recent TV programme with the fatuous question of whether because of T20 the longer 50/50 over version still has any relevance, it should be realised that the longer game will always have as much significance as say first-class (Test and Ranji Trophy) games. It is all about the development of skills.