Loss would have been better

Indian Cricket team will never learn from its past. They just made the precise point I had raised in my last blog. Did they deserve to win the Sunday’s match? Once you have thrown the match, then don’t chase it. South Africa deserved the win. Earlier 75 runs were required from 48 balls with 2 wickets remaining and cricket nuts were talking about 50 – 60 odd runs win for India. Only nine runs were required from final over to win the match. India should have done better. Getting your rank on the top on some sponsored ratings is not an achievement but an aberration. This match clearly indicates towards the malpractices in the game of cricket.

With practically no bowler who can help India to win a match. India’s current team is overweight on batsmen, if you win, it is because of batsmen and if you lose, batsmen just felt short of the responsibility to score in abundance. 50-50 is also following practices of 20-20. Zaheer and Harbhajan are injured and family commitments respectively and put on rest for the next tournament. The bowlers who made a difference for the Indian cricket team were Ravindra Jadeja and Yusuf Pathan, the make shift bowlers and to some extent, Praveen Kumar, did tell us, he is a bowler as compared to the other two duds (Sreesanth and Ashish Nehra). Runs matter in a limited over match, we just need to restrict the other side. Lets see how far this Team goes with their batting prowess and bowling disasters.

Love him, Hail him, Adore him…. No HATE him

Well the topic is very controversial and I can be badly beaten by the Cricket fans/lovers in India. Everybody must be wondering why, Sehwag has even brought the trophy home. Sehwag made the 4th December afternoon so interesting that stock brokers in my office switched from CNBC to Neo Sports, which is lethal for their profession. Sehwag missed the World record by a whisker. First batsman in the world to score three triple centuries in Test Matches. I always used to think, how an Indian player can create glory under the shadow of Sachin Tendulkar. Sehwag has clearly taught us the way to be different.

Sehwag is born with sheer wit and determination to hit every ball offered to him. If he is not able too, he will be resting in the dressing room after scoring a quickie of 30-40. On 4th December, Sehwag forgot he was playing in a Test Match. His batting style seemed as if he is playing in an extended T20 match. Do you think this is healthy for the game in the long run? People idolized Sachin Tendulkar and wanted to become one now if they start wishing and playing Sehwag style, it will kill the game. Nobody would want to become bowler.

I felt pity for the Sri Lankan bowlers besides the joy of watching Sehwag. It was like you are struggling, stumbling at the work, after putting days and nights together for a presentation and all you are getting is a volley of abusing and screaming from your boss from morning till evening without any fault of yours’. The person says I don’t wish to work, I am off for the day. I don’t wish to be respected, it’s ok if you yell at me but don’t abuse me, just show a little amount of courtesy.

T20 is great, esp. IPL. It has created an entertainment format of Cricket. It is offering more first class players to showcase their talent and earn a livelihood. But on the hindsight, it is going to hurt the sporting format. English County players say early start in T20 by Indians has taken their game to a different level. But may need to bring one more format favouring the bowlers. We need bowlers. Practically iconic bowlers have ceased to exist, esp. the likes of Courtney Walsh, Glenn Mcgrath, Curtly Ambrose, Shane Warne. Of course, there were great’s like marshalls, richard’s, merchants, engineers and vishwanath’s in earlier times of cricket. We may not find any in future with the present level of progession of the game.