Musings

Interesting events. The great protector of Tamils announces reservation for Muslims and Christians in TN. I'm not sure if this is in addition to the already existing 69% reservation or would it be part of it. This is in spite the fact that a similar proposal was deemed unconstitutional in Andhra Pradesh. One thing is pretty much clear in Indian Politics, India doesn't need any external forces to destabilize it. It's a miracle that the country has survived for so long with such divide and rule tactics.

On the cricket front, Chappell has submitted his resignation. Two events are worthy of mentioning. One was an interview by Virendar Sehwag's father and the outburst from Sachin. Sehwag Sr. interview was very childish, juvenile and a typical Indian dad doting on his Son. His statement that his son shouldn't be blamed when Sachin Tendulkar failed was really, well, kind of confusing. I think it's the typical subcontinental shift the blame.

The next event is Sachin Tendulkar's outburst against an SMS from Greg Chappell about how Senior Indian players are not allowing younger players to bloom. I'm completely with Greg Chappell on this one. And it's not just in Cricket. In all spheres of life in the subcontinent the oldies try to garner as much as they can, even when they are way past the prime. Whether it is politics or movies or sports or your workplace examples of seniors ganging up and not allowing young performers to share the limelight is all well known. Sachin Tendulkar's burst only confirms this attitude.

Any coach would love to start with a good young team and nurture it. That's what they are tasked to do. When you have Sachin, Dravid and Ganguly in the team his task becomes demanding as there is nothing that these guys can be coached in. Not to mention that these guys are way past their prime. The look on Sachin's face when he was bowled in the Sri Lanka match speaks volume about his commitment. Sachin, please retire when u still have a lot of respect left.

2007 World Cup Cricket thoughts

If Pakistan's exit from the 2007 WC was shocking then the fate that befell their coach was even more shocking. May his soul rest in peace. He did a wonderful job with the Proteas, his tenure with Pak was kinda mixed but that was more due to the internal politics within Pak Cricket than Bob's coaching.

Someone had commented on another blog about India and Pak going home early and starting a one day series. That would be truly comical but the reality is that ICC's worldcup would lose half its viewership. The news is that if India also exits the worldcup corporates would stand to lose Rs.250 Cr. Now can we say that some fixing would indeed happen ? Or may be it might seem too obvious so it may not happen and India may indeed get out and the corporates have to eat up the loss.

I was really surprised that I could only see advts of Hero Honda and LG dominating the field. I'm pretty sure no one outside India or may be the subcontinent would know about Hero Honda, Honda may be but not Hero Honda.

Some bloggers had commented about irresponsible Indian youth damaging the stars property in India. I'm not sure I agree with the bloggers. Emotion is part and parcel of Indian society. Losing against Bangladesh is ignomity that ordinary people cannot digest. The cricketers think that they hit a century in a match and are fully deserving a plot of land and a palatial house on it. How many of the fans can really afford this ? But it is exactly these fans that make the BCCI and cricketers see money. We make heroes out of them when they perform and villify them when they don't. There's nothing wrong in it. If the cricketers know they are out of form why can't they step out of the team by themselves. I was aghast at seeing Ajit Agarkar in the team. I think may be the fans should be targetting the selectors home.

Now if the same had been a premeditated distruction then that constitutes crime. Not everyone can be Brutus and by the way Brutus never achieved anything. Those who have emotions are the ones who will strive and achieve things closer to heart. Unfortunately the way India played that emotion was utilized negatively. I will never blame the poor fan, after all he wanted India to win against Bangladesh. But what he did not realize was that the Banga Bandhus played for the country where as the Indian elephants have already had their Scorpios and BMWs and Plots and houses not to mention all the advts money and don't have a need for anything else.

And then there will be some who will point to the teams performance against Bermuda. Was it a blemishless performance ? Heck no. Sehwag started shakily was dropped a couple of times. This Uthappa guy is only good for eating oothappams I guess. I would like to see his Ranji records. Dada also struggled against the Bermudans initially. The amount of inspiration and enthusiasm I saw on Leverock's face was more than the collective inspiration of the Indian team. I'll leave my thoughts there. Ofcourse my position is that India should not be playing Cricket at all. That'll be a seperate discussion.

The sledging bastards that they usually are....

Hey apparently they don't mind being called bastards and I didn't say that. I'm quoting the great Allan Border, the man who took them to a world cup victory way back in 1986.
Here's the quote “While a cricketer on the subcontinent or the West Indies may find an Australian bowler’s remark to a particular batsman of ‘you lucky bastard’ offensive, to players in other teams it’s not,” taken from here.

So my question to all the Aussies out there, if u fucking don't want others to take your sledging so seriously why the hell do you take Sunny's remark so seriously. Gavaskar had mentioned David Hookes as an example of what would happen in the bar if they used the same language as they used in the field. It's the truth and truth hurts real bad mate. You are sledger on and off the field. You are rally your country's press to undermine a visiting team and you don't hestitate to plan a body line and why do you expect others to respect your dead when you don't respect the living ?

And I fully agree with Sunny. The greatest cricketers so far have been the West Indians under Clive Lloyd. I will pay Million $$$$ (hehehehe when I have it) to see Viv Richards come out with just a cap and chewing his gum and hit that six as if it was a child throwing a pebble. Or the run up of Malcolm Marshal of whom Krish Srikanth once said that all he could do was to swing the bat aimlessly in the hope of making a connection. Now they never sledged but they won the worldcup twice consecutively. They won the cup purely based on their talent not. Now try to focus on doing that you dumb Aussies not pick on Sunny for his remarks, if you can.