Jan 04, 2003 06:54 PM
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(Updated Jan 04, 2003 06:54 PM)
A Spotless room , a white centre table , a pompous man in his late twenties comes and places a plate of steaming idlis on the table .. suddenly there’s a shout of Dada … batting practice. Going back with a Poker face , he returns and pops the idlis into the microwave oven and just when he’s going to eat there’s another shout … Dada Team meeting.
The Pompous man is Ganguly and the Microwave Oven is LG. As a Child I was a great fan of cricket and I still am but the way these stars are being overfed with money, one just cant help but realize that the average cricket fan is being taken for a royal ride. Cricketers earn money through commercials and sponsorship and pay their servants through money earned by playing in the cricket field.
Being a lover of Cricket and having played the same there are some situations wherein you think aloud .. “ Hey was it necessary to play that shot ”. When the Betting scandal surfaced Cricket lost some of its fans except many like me , optimistic duds are what we are made out to be believing in the fact that our Cricketers still do not take bribes .In the Windies tour the ODI series was predictable , except the last game wherein we were supposed to show are caliber on home pitches which … we didn’t.
The fire in the belly , the desire to win has disappeared. Back in School we have read about how Sunil gavaskar fighting a toothache hit his Double century and there is a list of players who have fought physical exhaustion and played out of their skins. Nowadays a graze on the knee and they don’t play .. where has that dedication gone.
4 Matches in the New Zealand ODI series and mind you , I haven’t started talking about Tests , the maximum score the Indian team has managed batting first is 123 and that was today. I thought the 108 runs mark has been patented by some FMCG Brand. Except a blazing 100+ plus by Sehwag the other seem out of Sorts.
Bowling is Strictly ok with Zaheer being the best and Agarkar helping a bit , Nehra Sprays the ball around like an amateur rifle shooter missing his mark. Bangar and Ganguly can do a lot if they want to … and bowl stump to stump patiently but that doesn’t happen. Groundsmen , Pitches, weather all are blamed but our Men in Blue.
Batsmen are Predictable and as Sunny Gavaskar puts it “ They don’t know where their off stump is “ .Play to your strengths , if you know you are susceptible in a particular area don’t fall in the trap time and again. Sehwag is highly inconsistent , Ganguly has not struck a purple patch but a purple crater. The great maestro Tendulkar is nursing his wounds. Dravid tries hard , Yuvraj is slowly improving , Kaif has lost his way .. and Dinesh mongia well… lets see.
Judging by this performance the World Cup chances look bleak , I am wary whether we will walk over Nehterlands in the first game or not , leave alone the Super Sixes. These guys have to put their sad exploits, restaurants , Pepsis and Cokes behind them if they need to do anything at the World Cup. We have won the World Cup once but rather than reliving 1983 its time to look forward to 2003.
