I'm starting to write my first blog today, a day that was long expected (at least by me) - a day when the vicious power-play in Indian Cricket came to the limelight (again), a day which tells the tale of a selfish betrayal...
Sourav Ganguly was unceremoniously expelled from the Indian Cricket Team. Oh, I should mention - this team does not represent the Indian Nation, officially this is the BCCI XI. Time and again, I have thought that I should stop following cricket - because it has created stars and not heros, it has emptied the pockets of millions of Indians, and have not given anything in return. But well, this is not cricket's fault. This is how cricket has been run in India - rather than being a sport, it has been treated as a business. And, we are all drawn into the whirlpool...not following cricket...well it's like quitting smoking, which I have done countless times...
Anyway, so where was I? Yes, Sourav Ganguly being axed from the BCCI XI. Yesterday, the news created quite some activity on the major blog sites, TOI had several blogs published on this issue, I'm sure other forums did too. What bothers me is the attitude of people on these forums. In most cases, the debate turned into un-civilized rants against a person and a community as a whole, and this is what bothers me most. Do we lack respect for each other? Certainly we do, or so it seems. Blogs being mostly open forums, the frequent use of four-lettered words actually tell about the user...it speaks about you, about your background, about your attitude. The venom spitted out by you tells me that even though you reside in the same landmass which you call India, for which you sing Vande Mataram, in reality you do not belong there...
This is what bothers me...this is why I started this blog today.
May be within a few minutes, this post will receive similar comments from others - I do not expect much more than that. But I will keep this blog on. Each such message will harden my thoughts and my beliefs. And perhaps one day, you will be able to see yourself in the mirror.
Now back to cricket once more. Was Sourav dropped only for cricketing reasons? This is a question you really need to ask yourself.
A few days ago, in another blog, I saw a nice bit of statistics...comparison between two individuals, X and Y (before the series with Sri Lanka and South Africa).
2, 2, 2, 39, 19, 11, 2, 67, 93, 9, 123, 6, 2, 4, 47, 19, 16, 74, 18, 78, 82, 11, 18, 37.
31, 2, 19, 20, 5, 26, 51, 18, 4, 9, 0, 22, 55, 22, 0, 48, 0, 90, 90, 7, 24, 25, 79, 39, 60.
The total of the first row is 673. The total of the second row is 746. The don't differ much, do they? Rather the second total is more that the first, but still Mr. Y is dropped from the team.
Another set, tests this time:
16, 41, 52, 52, 94, 36, 32, 20, 3, 55, 248, 5, 2, 8, 1, 8, 2, 194.
16, 101, 2, 1, 12, 12, 21, 88, 71, 40, 57, 9, 5, 45, 77, 73, 144.
The total of the Mr. X is 869 and that of Mr. Y is 774. Not a great deal of difference here either. And Mr. X scored his 248 against the "giants" Bangladesh, while Mr. Y scored his 144 against "novices" Zimbabwe. So, we drop those two - and it turns out that the total of Mr. X is 621 and that is Mr. Y is 673. And now if I can reveal the identities, Mr. X is the great Sachin Tendulkar, and Mr. Y is the worthless bong (as coined by numerous blog-readers) Sourav.
I'm not saying Sourav is better than Sachin - not even for a moment. What I just want to say is when you talk about performance being the criteria, you need to be consistent - otherwise, people like me would call it "double standards". So, Sourav, with similar figures like Sachin is dropped, asked to prove himself in domestic matches (when did Sachin last play domestic cricket?), brought back again, and then again dropped (I should not repeat the whole plot here - every news site, every blog site has vivid descriptions) - and this time the intentions were more obvious - Greg Chappel and Rahul Dravid played the good-boy role in front of the media (before the selection) and turned on their heads within the meeting!!! I am least concerned about the selectors' role here, because they were and still are what Mohinder Amarnath said more than two decades ago - a bunch of clowns. And, firing of all the three who voted for Sourav soon after the BCCI elections were over speaks volumes about the whole mess.
I am concerned about what Dravid and Chappel thought. Did either of them really think about cricket? Did the selectors think about cricket? Are we thinking about cricket?
Sourav Ganguly was unceremoniously expelled from the Indian Cricket Team. Oh, I should mention - this team does not represent the Indian Nation, officially this is the BCCI XI. Time and again, I have thought that I should stop following cricket - because it has created stars and not heros, it has emptied the pockets of millions of Indians, and have not given anything in return. But well, this is not cricket's fault. This is how cricket has been run in India - rather than being a sport, it has been treated as a business. And, we are all drawn into the whirlpool...not following cricket...well it's like quitting smoking, which I have done countless times...
Anyway, so where was I? Yes, Sourav Ganguly being axed from the BCCI XI. Yesterday, the news created quite some activity on the major blog sites, TOI had several blogs published on this issue, I'm sure other forums did too. What bothers me is the attitude of people on these forums. In most cases, the debate turned into un-civilized rants against a person and a community as a whole, and this is what bothers me most. Do we lack respect for each other? Certainly we do, or so it seems. Blogs being mostly open forums, the frequent use of four-lettered words actually tell about the user...it speaks about you, about your background, about your attitude. The venom spitted out by you tells me that even though you reside in the same landmass which you call India, for which you sing Vande Mataram, in reality you do not belong there...
This is what bothers me...this is why I started this blog today.
May be within a few minutes, this post will receive similar comments from others - I do not expect much more than that. But I will keep this blog on. Each such message will harden my thoughts and my beliefs. And perhaps one day, you will be able to see yourself in the mirror.
Now back to cricket once more. Was Sourav dropped only for cricketing reasons? This is a question you really need to ask yourself.
A few days ago, in another blog, I saw a nice bit of statistics...comparison between two individuals, X and Y (before the series with Sri Lanka and South Africa).
2, 2, 2, 39, 19, 11, 2, 67, 93, 9, 123, 6, 2, 4, 47, 19, 16, 74, 18, 78, 82, 11, 18, 37.
31, 2, 19, 20, 5, 26, 51, 18, 4, 9, 0, 22, 55, 22, 0, 48, 0, 90, 90, 7, 24, 25, 79, 39, 60.
The total of the first row is 673. The total of the second row is 746. The don't differ much, do they? Rather the second total is more that the first, but still Mr. Y is dropped from the team.
Another set, tests this time:
16, 41, 52, 52, 94, 36, 32, 20, 3, 55, 248, 5, 2, 8, 1, 8, 2, 194.
16, 101, 2, 1, 12, 12, 21, 88, 71, 40, 57, 9, 5, 45, 77, 73, 144.
The total of the Mr. X is 869 and that of Mr. Y is 774. Not a great deal of difference here either. And Mr. X scored his 248 against the "giants" Bangladesh, while Mr. Y scored his 144 against "novices" Zimbabwe. So, we drop those two - and it turns out that the total of Mr. X is 621 and that is Mr. Y is 673. And now if I can reveal the identities, Mr. X is the great Sachin Tendulkar, and Mr. Y is the worthless bong (as coined by numerous blog-readers) Sourav.
I'm not saying Sourav is better than Sachin - not even for a moment. What I just want to say is when you talk about performance being the criteria, you need to be consistent - otherwise, people like me would call it "double standards". So, Sourav, with similar figures like Sachin is dropped, asked to prove himself in domestic matches (when did Sachin last play domestic cricket?), brought back again, and then again dropped (I should not repeat the whole plot here - every news site, every blog site has vivid descriptions) - and this time the intentions were more obvious - Greg Chappel and Rahul Dravid played the good-boy role in front of the media (before the selection) and turned on their heads within the meeting!!! I am least concerned about the selectors' role here, because they were and still are what Mohinder Amarnath said more than two decades ago - a bunch of clowns. And, firing of all the three who voted for Sourav soon after the BCCI elections were over speaks volumes about the whole mess.
I am concerned about what Dravid and Chappel thought. Did either of them really think about cricket? Did the selectors think about cricket? Are we thinking about cricket?
1 comment:
I am surprised why such an informative and thought provoking blog has not invited any comments so far! You hit the nail on its head! The selections in Indian cricket are NEVER done on merit, its purely done on zonal basis. Sure, the way Dada's been treated of late must rank as one of the murkiest episodes in the history of Indian cricket. I am no fan of Dada, but the manner in which he's been treated rankles me, more so after the Middle Finger episode.
But I do have to say one thing though. It will be difficult to fit Dada into the scheme of things as far as the 2007 WC is concerned. He will be above 35 and may not be in his prime. Plus the wickets in windies are always fast n bouncy, on which tracks, Dada's never been good. I still feel that after the Pak series Dada should hang his boots while the going's good.
No one is indispensable, not even Sachin or Dravid. So if its found that somebody's getting old and holding up a deserving youngsters's place I think the concerned should see it positively and relinquish his position. Even players like Darren Lehman and Micheal Bevan of Oz and Nathan Astle of NZ have been sacked just bcoz they happen to be on the wrong side of 30! But as you pointed out, the SAME STANDARDS SHOULD BE APPLIED TO EVERYONE IN THE TEAM.Thats all I had to say HAPPY BLOGGING!!!
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