What Would You Have Done If You Were J.P.Duminy? by TIM HOLT

A Masterful Innings by Duminy!
With three balls to go, and 99 against his name, Duminy did not push the single. He instead looked for the straight six and perished in the outfield
That was the Cricinfo report of the fabulous innings of South Africa's J.P.Duminy against Ireland....
Though it made me think of how this innings would be viewed by respective fans across the Globe....?
For to us as Non Asian's we lauded the Team first mentality of Duminy and if in fact he had of pushed a single to grace himself with an individual accolade.Rather than do the Team thing and try to hit it out of the ground he would have been criticised in the extreme.Even to the point in some circles where his place in the next game would have been in question.
Lets change this innings a bit to say Sachin Tendulkar and the same circumstance and reaction....
The Indian's with the embrace of everything individualistic would have thought as soon as their Demi God got to 99....They would have foregone Team India and urged Tendulkar to dab a single to bring up 3 figures.If he perished like Duminy did it would have nearly sparked a riot in the Stadium.
Maybe this is a bit extreme but one can't ignore Asian's embrace of the individual over the Team....You can understand that on the back of all the Asian Teams struggles in their infancy in the game.Where they were the whipping boys for all and their source of glory was embracing the deeds of an individual.
This is the 21st Century though where all the Asian Teams are key players in the game and in many circles where India rules the roost.So why can't this embrace of everything individualistic be put to rest?
It's not to say that Asian players don't embrace the Team ethos,but rather the impact of the cricket crazy fans and jingoistic media has on their psyche.Even to the point where the iconic Saurav Ganguly saw this as the bane of the Indian game in this recent exchange with Bob Willis in commentary
Bob Willis The thing about India is there still a very good Team....They just need to sharpen up the fielding and in particular their out fielding
Sourav Ganguly: That's very difficult with the Indian Media and Indian fans

The background of the quote being how this key Team aspect of the game was being overlooked for the fans and Media were happy to bask in the run fests by Tendulkar and Sehwag.Like in this look at the Duminy innings and how if it was an Asian player sacrificing in the hope of benefiting the Team on 99.The inevitable regret would have followed

It makes you wander what would be the effect if you put say an Australian mentality in Asian cricket.Where no one cares about the individual and everything is about Team.....
Of course this is idealistic and maybe nieve taking into account the different cricketing culture of the people of the individual Nations.
Though if the learnt could be re learned-could you imagine the benefit...........?