Monday, November 27, 2006

PHIR AYEGA INDIA

I have so far desisted from adding to the brouhaha over Team India's present and future, but the drubbing at Durban and capitulation at Cape town has forced me to break the silence.I am no cricket expert, just been an average player and die hard fan like the rest of India who has been put off by the team's performance on the pitch.I was thoroughly disgusted by the way Sourav Ganguly was and is being treated, but I didn't say anything lest it be construed as unwarranted criticism of Rahul Dravid's captaincy.The coach, I though, was behaving like a dictator, but in the initial sweep of the new broom everything was hunky-dory so I didn't say anything.But Wednesday's and Sunday’s drubbing makes me cry out in shame, enough is enough!Stop the bloody experimentations, the chopping and hacking of the batting order. A team that is confident of its status is the one that plays better. Insecurity doesn't revolve only around questions like if one will make it to the playing eleven, but also one's position in the playing order. Is Irfan Pathan going to come in as a pinch-hitter or lower down? Will Kaif come one-down or will he bat in the slog overs? Alas, matters such as this remain as confidential as the brahmanical rites of yore.Personally, it's been a case of the sublime to the ridiculous. Watching Brian Lara's mastery over Pakistan in Pakistan,was a primer in the magic of cricket. How old is he, 37? And still he shows that the fire burning in him has not been doused by the advance of age. There's a lesson in it for our younger players.Especially Sachin Tendulkar who, for a long time now, has belied his potential. It's with great sorrow that I say his reputation today is bigger than the man. Oh, how he has thrilled us with his exploits with the willow, and how one longs for a return to the Sachin of yore. Is it because he doesn't enjoy swatting the bowlers as he used to? Is the weight of one billion expectations pulling him down? Or, have the bowlers simply got the better of him?Experts can perhaps answer it better than a layman like me, but to me he still seems pivotal to the team's fortunes. Others may pitch in with the bat once in a while, but it is his consistency the Eleven banks on when he is playing. Maybe he should take a leaf out of Brian Lara's game

In the last 13 games it is the 10th defeats INDIA had to run against, more the defeats the manner in which it is been bestowed on them which is shocking and horrifying to say the least, I wasn’t expecting any magic to happen on this team right from the time they set out in their conquest of SWABHIMAN (good word to make us all ashamed of ourselves) and they are not proving me wrong by not creating any ripples there in SA

It was too much for me to digest to hear Pat Symox on air telling, SA and Aus tours are not for experimentation and they make men out of boys and he was only suggesting that Sourav, Laxman and Anil should have been playing, I wonder when the whole world knows what is good for us and only our five glorified JOKERS, Coach and Captain don’t think so, it is not mass hysteria or collective bargain against these players but a honest opinion of the fan.

I am sure even if INDIA wins one more match in this series, Sponsors and TV commercial will again shout back saying “PHIR AYEGA INDIA” (strangely this ad is conspicuous by its absence on the TV these days )

But I am not the one to loose hope on these guys as I am sure they can turn the things around as this is the team which won 16 matches on a trot, people don’t go bad all of a sudden, Just the mental state of our players,

SO GUYS BUCK UP, BLUE BILLION IS WATCHING, SHOW THE METAL OF INDIANS TO WORLD