I have been a very vocal fan of Team India as led by Rahul Dravid and Greg Chappell. The initial efforts, the thought process that was going in, was admirable I thought. Something simple like how a player had to be good in at least 2 things out of batting, bowling and fielding, was a very good idea, I thought. Also the youngsters seemed to be responding so well – Dhoni, Pathan, Patel, Sreesanth, Raina, etc. All of them seemed to be thriving in this new environ, it appeared.
So whats gone wrong suddenly? If it was just a 1-2 games loss, I would have not worried. I would trust the long term goals and efforts, and not worry about an occasional loss.
However its gone beyond that now, I think. Today’s game against Australia saw a lack of application in batting, very ordinary fielding for a supposedly young side, and extremely lacklustre bowling, with lots of wides and all.
This does not give me any kind of confidence in the team and its tactics.
Something seems to have gone wrong in the whole planning process. Somewhere there seems to be a lack of confidence in the methods or the players are just not able to cope up with the extent of effort that team Greg Chappel demands. If the sneaked out press report of Chappell’s firing to the team is any indication, there seems to be a disconnect between the players and the coach.
It would be easy to suggest that we change coaches then. But the fact is that the ones who are not delivering are the players on the field. The problem is there and not in the coach or the captain. So close to the world cup, we are in a sad state of affairs, it appears. To make things worse especially for our morale, we are going to visit South Africa and play 5 ODIs at the beginning. I wouldn’t be surprised if we lose 0-5! How will we then prepare mentally from that point on, to the World Cup, is beyond me!
A billion people can only pray.. the playing has to be done by the eleven on the ground, after all… !
Random Musings 
I would not say we should fire the coach, but I would (continue to) second guess the decision to appoint him as the coach in the first place. Looks like he is a taskmaster and that is good till the point that he is a “people person” too. I seriously doubt if he is a people person.
He seems to be thinking that it is either his way or the highway. And that is never a good thing for the team morale and when you have high fliers like Sehwag, Yuvraj and Harbajan who have enough money power to not get kicked out, you see what happens.
We do need a psychoanalyst to prepare the team for such tournaments.
But at this point, I think the batting seriously needs help. I am not sure what can be done, but we are just not able to put up runs (or chase them down) like we used to.
I have absolutely no confidence in this India team for the World Cup. We will be lucky to make it to the knock out stage.
Its clear that there are no easy answers. If, as you say, money power determines a place in the team, then there is no hope anyway! In that case mediocrity will remain. And if we go with that assumption, then there is no debate left.
In the (possibly unrealistic) assumption that merit does count, the questions on the batting talents are baffling. In terms of the second level of players, people like Dinesh Mongia and Suresh Raina looked pretty lost, against good quality bowling. I guess the inclusion of Jaffer for South Africa is a good one. On technique terms, he should be a better bet than Mongia and Raina, I believe.
When you see guys like Hussey, Clarke, Bravo, delivering well, with a lot of commitment, we realise that our bench strength is not so great, after all..