Of Humiliation in the "Manchester of the East"

It was shameful. A horrifying performance by the Indians at Motera, an anticlimax to the spirited performance against the hosts Aussies and the batting plunders at Chepauk. They collectively failed to show any cricketing acumen against the South Africans, from deciding to bat first on a green top after winning the toss, managing to put up a dwarfish score, batsmen coming and going like what one sees with the best of counsel on Mondays and Fridays in the Supreme Court of India; and then thanks to the bowlers who had already given up on winning the match, conceding a 400+ run first innings lead. To be fair to the Indians, they could never have avoided a thrashing after a first innings score of 76 by a famed batting line-up – possibly just deferred it to the fourth day, which in all fairness, they tried their best to; or prayed for rain, which also attempted to do its bit, but like Indian batsmen, couldn't persist.

In the bargain, they got embarrassed to an innings and 90 run defeat, their biggest at home in almost 50 years, with Dale Steyn, being my man of the match (though AB De Villiers was the official man of the match for an unbeaten double ton).

As one of my classmates observed, now I see why people in India are so glued to cricket and not to the national sport, hockey, because the well-fed men in blue are so erratic and the result so unpredictable that it never gets boring, just humiliating at times, while with Indian hockey, the result never challenges the anticipated.

Sad, Sad World Cup

Everything went wrong with the script this World Cup. From the abnormal length and boredom to the empty stands to Bob Woolmer’s murder to a 74-over final game, partially played in pitch dark.
I’ve seen atleast four editions of the competition (that is after discounting the ’92 edition, because I was five then and the matches were usually at wee hours of the morning). Here's why this World Cup will go down as my saddest Cup:
1. March 17, 2007: The brisk anticlimax to the hoo-ha (or Ooh-ah!) being that India getting knocked out in the preliminary stage precipitately primarily because of losing to Bangladesh, and their close friends losing to Ireland on the same day.

Virender Sehwag's feelings in this image pretty much sum up the disappointment of seeing India losing to Bangladesh.

2. March 18, 2007: As if the previous day wasn’t saddening enough, the depressing demise of Bob Woolmer in mysterious circumstances.
3. Australia’s brash, obtrusive, monotonous, unadulterated, uninterrupted, unblinking and unblushing victory. Add to that so many one-sided and unexciting games.
4. But most of all, for the mass exit of so many great players, that it almost seems there’s no one left to admire in world cricket. Both my personal favourite batsman (Brian Lara, who incidentally turns 38 tomorrow) and bowler (Glenn McGrath) retiring, apart from so many others (Anil Kumble, Inzamam-ul-Haq and starlets like Russel Arnold and Ian Bradshaw) leaves this World Cup fit for cursing. It might also have been the last World Cup in all probability for Hayden, Tendulkar, Ganguly, Jayasuriya, Atapattu, Muralitharan, Vaas, Mohd. Yousuf, Fleming, Shaun Pollock, Craig McMillan and the list seems to be endless.
5. I wasn’t at home, didn’t have the luxury of a TV set to follow every game, which I would have, in spite of the terribly boring matches as well.

Goodbye, Prince!

Cricket and Optimism

Cricketers received a largely cold welcome, and had to be provided a thick security cover to avoid any mishap.

I have great respect for the journalist in Kuldip Nayar. He has always been one of my favourite political commentators. However, as he rightly says, he rarely strays from politics, one such occasion is this article on the Indian cricket team's dismal performance. In the first paragraph itself, he has criticized the failure of the team at the World Cup in harsh, impassioned and almost violent terms. Like most other ordinary people, the great Kuldip Nayar does not seem to realize that in sport, especially with cricket in India, it is not fair to come down so harshly upon the team. For one, as this editorial in the Hindu points out, it is not entirely surprising or shocking to see a dismal performance by a team ranked no. 6 in the world, and considering them favourites in the first place is utter folly and unrealistic expectations. I myself saw anger raging in the common room, where I watched the India-Bangladesh and India-Sri Lanka matches, spectators calling players names, slamming chairs, and getting violent and depressed about the team's failure. A broader issue is whether such an obsession and passion associated with cricket in India is justified at all when it is not the world leader in the game, or for that matter, probably never has been. Even the '83 World Cup win was a huge upset, almost minnows going on to win the Cup.
The need of the hour is to diversify public sport attention to other sports, which does not seem to happening despite various efforts (like PHL in Hockey).
Undue hype and overoptimism always results in unrealistic expectations, which is always a great gamble, because the odds simply aren't favourable. Hence, living in the reality and having reasonable expectations is optimism and not driving at 200 mph hoping that nothing will happen.

Of Zimbabwe, Sri Lanka and World Cup '07

It is extremely sad to see the turmoil in Zimbabwe, or more proximately in Sri Lanka. The situation in Zimbabwe is quite disturbing, with a 'galloping inflation' rate of 1700% and consequent political disorders. It is surprising to see how little is talked about the situation in Zimbabwe, considering it is a show of a failure of 'democratic' setups. Opposition is, according to me, the most important player in a democracy. Without an (active) opposition, democratic government ought to fail, which it has in Zimbabwe.
The situation in Sri Lanka is quite shocking and serious. Demand for separatism is as much a problem in India as well, possibly more widespread, but more dangerous in Sri Lanka because of its smaller size and it being a nation with greater unity and lesser diversity. With a prayer that order is restored in both Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka in the nearest possible future.
I can think of one thing in common between Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka. Cricket teams from both countries have been minnows for a long time, the former being still considered one, while the latter proved itself by winning the Wills World Cup in the subcontinent in 1996. That World Cup, being a decent one for India, saw the peak of Sachin Tendulkar as also of Anil Kumble in One-Day cricket, who announced his retirement from limited overs cricket yesterday. Talking of World Cups, this world cup will be remembered mostly for wrong reasons, although it is a little too early to draw the highlights from the Cup. Bob Woolmer's death (possibly murder), India and Pakistan's first round exits, small grounds-high scores, bad weather and rain resulting in short games or one-day games becoming two-day ones.