Most of us have heard the term 'self-fulfilling prophecy'. Few know it is a psychological term. A psychologist Robert Merton introduced it in 1948. He defined it as a two-phase process. In the first phase, an individual defines the situation incorrectly. In the second phase his or her subsequent actions cause the original misconception to become reality.

Translated in simple language, players, artists, writers or any public performers when they begin to doubt their ability to perform or lose confidence in it, that prompts the performance to become worse. The worse performance in turn affects the confidence further. This sets a vicious loop of the self-fulfilling prophecy.

A well-known example from the commercial field is about the bankruptcy of a normal healthy bank. A rumour begins that the bank is nearly insolvent. Depositors queue to take their money out. More depositors join the queue as they see the queue. Everyone wants to withdraw all they have at the bank. The bank really becomes bankrupt.

The Indian cricket team is currently on their 'self-fulfilling prophecy loop'. The players  do not believe they can perform; they cannot perform as a result, shattering the confidence further in the process.

There are three possibilities:

The first possibility: the players are convinced through a talk by their psychologist or through hypnosis (!) that it pays to have a high level of self-confidence unrelated to past performance. Higher confidence enhances performance. The same is true about fans, critics and media. When parents or teachers are continuously critical of the child's performance, the child performs worse.

The second possibility: this is my own suggestion. Drop Ganguly, Dravid, Kaif and Khan (the four, deepest on the prophecy loop) and replace them with Bangar, Patel, Agarkar and Nehra. Make Tendulkar a captain. Whilst the substitutes are worse in terms of capability, they are psychologically better suited to give a performance.

The third scenario is most likely, because I do not see the first happening, and the second is unlikely to be taken seriously. Therefore, my conclusion as a psychology student is that India will get knocked off the tournament before the super-six stage. Take my word for it. The current Indian team is a classic example of the 'self-fulfilling prophecy'.

Mail Ravi Abhyankar