India loss to South Africa: a loss that was meant to be

India today lost to South Africa in the third one-day international cricket match after fielding a relatively inexperienced team owing to its decision to rest 'senior' players.

True, that we had already won the three match series by wins in the first two matches. Also true that we need to give youngsters a few chances and try them out. But nothing can explain the apathetic approach to the match that the team had made. One cannot call it just another bad day. Because this was a loss out of our own making. It shows how lightly the seniors of the team take international cricket. I for one would not have uttered a single word if there is a big international series in the offing which makes it necessary to rest the best players of the team.

What is coming up is the IPL - the Bollywood (-ised) version of cricket. The money churner which nobody wants to miss even if it meant that the national team's prospects are at risk for sitting out.

The team management's endorsement to the decision to rest the players is not surprising at all given that they themselves are more inclined to money churners than serious international cricket.

The result of such tendencies is there for all of us to see. A depleted team with a depleted all round performance.

The only thing to cheer about today's match is the rare synchronization between the various departments of the game of our team: bowling, fielding and batting, all of them being pathetic.

One has to realise that beyond wins and losses there is something called 'commitment', the lack of which made sure we lost the game miserably.