Now that the T20 inaugural world cup is over, it's time to look back and look forward at the same time. I'm not a 'pure blood test cricket only' supporter, but I think that T20 is not really serious cricket. Fireworks, DJs, Dancers - come on.... Cricket is a game of gentlemen dressed in sporting whites demonstrating technique and style and not a game for all the wild goings on, indiscriminate destruction of bowler's egos and gyrating dancers!! (am I growing old?)
I'm an Indian. Cricket is not just the unofficial national sport, it is also our national religion. Infact, the love of cricket is probably the only thing we have with our dodgy neighbours on the west. I grew up watching all the matches that were telecast by doordarshan and I fell in love with cricket. Sachin's explosive batting and the finesse of Azhar and Dravid just reinforced that. I started seeing the class behind the 5 day tests and loved the fast paced limited overs cricket. Which is why this T20 thing horrifies me.
T20 or Twenty Twenty started off in England a couple of years ago, probably to get English football supporters with attention deficit disorder whose idea of sport is 90 minutes of sport with 2 days of rioting, into the fold of cricket. With attractions like cheerleaders, DJs and live music - the game of cricket was changed into a fun-fair and an entertainment event. Nooooooo.... Don Bradman, W G Grace, Ranjitsinghji would be turning in their graves now..
I'm sure Packer's ideas would have met with similar criticism 35 years ago, but limited overs cricket is still a very decent game that is decided over 50 overs, unlike this game where one over could make or break a game. True, this game is fast paced and has it's share of moments, but, on the whole, this appears to be more a game of nerves and luck rather than a game of skill. But I'm sure the psychologists who will now counsel all the bowlers who've taken a beating throughout this contest won't be complaining... and more T20 means repeat business for them!!
However, a lot of interesting changes have come about because of this new format. The BCCI, which, up until now monopolised cricket in India, has a new rival - the ICL - an Indian 20-20 league. Regional players and others who the BCCI used, abused and discarded, now have a league of their own to play in (and more money). As with it's usual high-handedness, the BCCI has banned players from playing for the ICL, but I hope the Supreme Court of India will put an end to this monopolising madness.
India, despite having the largest population amongst all cricket playing nations, has never really been able to produce a consistent world beaters team. That has mainly been because of the regionalism in cricket and idiots like Sharad Pawar and Dalmiya at the helm who care more about the money than producing a world class team. With leagues and clubs and players getting paid good money, and with proper professional management, the ICL should be able to produce a pool of talent. It is just unfortunate that the BCCI has chosen to turn it's sorry back on this opportunity.
The IPL, the BCCI's answer to the ICL is just another sorry attempt at trying show power. This won't help anyone. We might end up having two groups of cricket with a talent pool that cannot be merged for national interest. The cricket fans in the country are going to lose out because of a power struggle between the 'official' BCCI and the 'private' ICL. However, like Packer showed in the 1970s, this might be a new beginning.
The T20 world cup highlighted a few things with the Indian team. Despite being without it's pillars - Dravid, Sachin, Ganguly, Kumble - the team showed an amazing desire to win. The last 3 matches we won - against South Africa, Australia and Pakistan had not much to do with talent as much as with a rare quality missing from all our teams so far - Nerve. We held our nerve till the last ball, last wicket. Normally, the Indian teams of old would have folded under conditions where the oppostion looked like they had won the game. Harbhajan's bowling of the penultimate over against Australia and Joginder's bowling of those wonderful last overs against Australia and Pakistan are things we normally expect from the likes of Australia and South Africa - and not India. The Indian cricket team has finally started behaving like winners.
Now that the T20 World Cup is over, we need to look back. We need to look back at the ODI World Cup where India had to exit shamefully without even reaching the Super 8s. The ODI performance against England too was mediocre at best. But, we can also look forward to the fact that we have plenty of youngsters waiting in the ranks to fill shoes that have been filled by giants like Sachin and Dravid. Rohit Sharma, Joginder Singh, Robin Uthappa, Gautam Gambhir have proved their worth. The return to form of Yuvraj, Dhoni and Harbhajan now means that the selectors will have a tough time deciding the team that will face Australia later this year. We still do not have a team coach, and that issue needs to be resolved quite quickly as well.
It was extremely refreshing to see Dhoni leading from the front and the happy-go-lucky attitude of the Indian players. Dhoni's enthusiasm for cricket seems to have infected the players. They played without pressure and played their natural games. Yuvraj's 6 sixes, 70 off 30 balls, Joginder's last overs, and Gambhir's gritty innings of 75 are things legends are made of. What was also great to see was that, in Sreesanth, we have a player capable of dishing out attitude and abuse to the Australian players. His attitude, which has been criticised in the Australian media just goes to show that the Australians which, up until now, felt free to dish abuse without much coming back their way, were now on the recieving end - and that was fun to watch. (Does anyone remember Venkatesh Prasad telling Amir Sohail off)
What India pulled off in this last match was nothing short of miraculous. With a mediocre target of 158 to defend on a ground that saw the first ODI 400 score being made and then successfully chased on the same day, the Indian team stood their ground till the very end. But then we won because Pakistan lost... and they lost because their poor captain was under the delusion that muslims all over the world were supporting his team. Poor deluded fella had no idea that the Pathan brothers, and 200 million other Indian muslims weren't exactly rooting for them. Aaah.. so that's why they lost. Poor poor Pakistanis - but I guess we can forgive them for losing - LOSERS !!! (yeah, you can stick your tongue out at them as well)
Then again, this could also be a lucky fluke win... but somehow, I suspect, that while T20 is here to stay, India has taken a brave new step towards playing cricket the way it is really supposed to be played - like winners. This is a new beginning, a bold new step in a direction where we have been unable to step before - attitude. The fun starts in the next couple of days when the Aussies stop by for a few quick games.
Whether or not we convert this opportunity to make a team of winners remains to be seen, but till then, here's a small piece of my mind - winning is not as important as being able play a good game and then to stand up to the best of opposition cricketers, bowl them out then look them straight in the eye and calmly tell them to f**k off !!
I'm an Indian. Cricket is not just the unofficial national sport, it is also our national religion. Infact, the love of cricket is probably the only thing we have with our dodgy neighbours on the west. I grew up watching all the matches that were telecast by doordarshan and I fell in love with cricket. Sachin's explosive batting and the finesse of Azhar and Dravid just reinforced that. I started seeing the class behind the 5 day tests and loved the fast paced limited overs cricket. Which is why this T20 thing horrifies me.
T20 or Twenty Twenty started off in England a couple of years ago, probably to get English football supporters with attention deficit disorder whose idea of sport is 90 minutes of sport with 2 days of rioting, into the fold of cricket. With attractions like cheerleaders, DJs and live music - the game of cricket was changed into a fun-fair and an entertainment event. Nooooooo.... Don Bradman, W G Grace, Ranjitsinghji would be turning in their graves now..
I'm sure Packer's ideas would have met with similar criticism 35 years ago, but limited overs cricket is still a very decent game that is decided over 50 overs, unlike this game where one over could make or break a game. True, this game is fast paced and has it's share of moments, but, on the whole, this appears to be more a game of nerves and luck rather than a game of skill. But I'm sure the psychologists who will now counsel all the bowlers who've taken a beating throughout this contest won't be complaining... and more T20 means repeat business for them!!
However, a lot of interesting changes have come about because of this new format. The BCCI, which, up until now monopolised cricket in India, has a new rival - the ICL - an Indian 20-20 league. Regional players and others who the BCCI used, abused and discarded, now have a league of their own to play in (and more money). As with it's usual high-handedness, the BCCI has banned players from playing for the ICL, but I hope the Supreme Court of India will put an end to this monopolising madness.
India, despite having the largest population amongst all cricket playing nations, has never really been able to produce a consistent world beaters team. That has mainly been because of the regionalism in cricket and idiots like Sharad Pawar and Dalmiya at the helm who care more about the money than producing a world class team. With leagues and clubs and players getting paid good money, and with proper professional management, the ICL should be able to produce a pool of talent. It is just unfortunate that the BCCI has chosen to turn it's sorry back on this opportunity.
The IPL, the BCCI's answer to the ICL is just another sorry attempt at trying show power. This won't help anyone. We might end up having two groups of cricket with a talent pool that cannot be merged for national interest. The cricket fans in the country are going to lose out because of a power struggle between the 'official' BCCI and the 'private' ICL. However, like Packer showed in the 1970s, this might be a new beginning.
The T20 world cup highlighted a few things with the Indian team. Despite being without it's pillars - Dravid, Sachin, Ganguly, Kumble - the team showed an amazing desire to win. The last 3 matches we won - against South Africa, Australia and Pakistan had not much to do with talent as much as with a rare quality missing from all our teams so far - Nerve. We held our nerve till the last ball, last wicket. Normally, the Indian teams of old would have folded under conditions where the oppostion looked like they had won the game. Harbhajan's bowling of the penultimate over against Australia and Joginder's bowling of those wonderful last overs against Australia and Pakistan are things we normally expect from the likes of Australia and South Africa - and not India. The Indian cricket team has finally started behaving like winners.
Now that the T20 World Cup is over, we need to look back. We need to look back at the ODI World Cup where India had to exit shamefully without even reaching the Super 8s. The ODI performance against England too was mediocre at best. But, we can also look forward to the fact that we have plenty of youngsters waiting in the ranks to fill shoes that have been filled by giants like Sachin and Dravid. Rohit Sharma, Joginder Singh, Robin Uthappa, Gautam Gambhir have proved their worth. The return to form of Yuvraj, Dhoni and Harbhajan now means that the selectors will have a tough time deciding the team that will face Australia later this year. We still do not have a team coach, and that issue needs to be resolved quite quickly as well.
It was extremely refreshing to see Dhoni leading from the front and the happy-go-lucky attitude of the Indian players. Dhoni's enthusiasm for cricket seems to have infected the players. They played without pressure and played their natural games. Yuvraj's 6 sixes, 70 off 30 balls, Joginder's last overs, and Gambhir's gritty innings of 75 are things legends are made of. What was also great to see was that, in Sreesanth, we have a player capable of dishing out attitude and abuse to the Australian players. His attitude, which has been criticised in the Australian media just goes to show that the Australians which, up until now, felt free to dish abuse without much coming back their way, were now on the recieving end - and that was fun to watch. (Does anyone remember Venkatesh Prasad telling Amir Sohail off)
What India pulled off in this last match was nothing short of miraculous. With a mediocre target of 158 to defend on a ground that saw the first ODI 400 score being made and then successfully chased on the same day, the Indian team stood their ground till the very end. But then we won because Pakistan lost... and they lost because their poor captain was under the delusion that muslims all over the world were supporting his team. Poor deluded fella had no idea that the Pathan brothers, and 200 million other Indian muslims weren't exactly rooting for them. Aaah.. so that's why they lost. Poor poor Pakistanis - but I guess we can forgive them for losing - LOSERS !!! (yeah, you can stick your tongue out at them as well)
Then again, this could also be a lucky fluke win... but somehow, I suspect, that while T20 is here to stay, India has taken a brave new step towards playing cricket the way it is really supposed to be played - like winners. This is a new beginning, a bold new step in a direction where we have been unable to step before - attitude. The fun starts in the next couple of days when the Aussies stop by for a few quick games.
Whether or not we convert this opportunity to make a team of winners remains to be seen, but till then, here's a small piece of my mind - winning is not as important as being able play a good game and then to stand up to the best of opposition cricketers, bowl them out then look them straight in the eye and calmly tell them to f**k off !!
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