How NOT to handle defeat

1) Tear up the wicket keeper's house - According to this article, a mob in India attacked the under-construction home of wicket keeper Mahendra Dhoni. It's crazy how they literally build up and tear down their stars. In a country with a billion people, it's understandable that there will be a few people who go to extremes, but again, this group took it way too personally.

There's an informative related post on Cricket 24x7.

I should add that this sort of issue is not a uniquely South-Asian problem. Even in ultra-polite Canada there have been riots after hockey teams lost. In my native U.S. there are sometimes riots when a team wins a championship. In the most extreme case, a soccer match in El Salvador resulted in a war!

2) Lead a drinking expedition the night before the next match, followed by a pedal-boat excursion - Of course this is the odd news about England star Andrew Flintoff, which cost him the vice-captaincy. This may also be a case of taking things too personally. One would expect Flintoff to have the occasional drinking binge, but not the night before a match. I'm sure that disappointment about losing to New Zealand must have clouded his judgment a bit.

3) Murder the coach - This is really the extreme logical extension of taking wins and losses too personally. Valuing victory in a sports event above human life is quite simply insane and evil, but it's not that far beyond valuing victory over sportsmanship or common courtesy.

This shocking revelation also presents another problem for Pakistan cricket. How does one recruit a new cricket coach when the last one was murdered for performance reasons? Who would want to take that job?

There's a certain irony to this awful tragedy. In recent years there have been security concerns surrounding teams touring Pakistan (New Zealand cut short a tour after a bomb blast, and other teams have had concerns as well), and in 2003 there were security concerns in Africa. None of that crossed anyone's mind with the Caribbean, where the main concern was whether the venues would be built on time. This is the biggest security incident in the history of international cricket, and it's not linked to terrorism or political instability.