India, still a one-man-army?

After being steamrolled on earlier occasions, Indians were yet again brought to their feet by the invincible Aussies in the 5th ODI at Vadodara. More than the defeat, the meek surrender of the Indians was the real cause of concern… Barring Sachin's valiant 47 and last minute resilience from the tail-enders, the score card wasn't a happy reading… It was an excruciating experience to watch Sachin left reeling for partners, as the wickets kept tumbling at frequent intervals… Had it been not for Sachin timely knock, Indians would have bundled-out themselves for a paltry 80 or 95… Adding insult to the injury was the derogatory 'monkey chant’ off-the-ground-heroics of the notorious crowd against Symonds… Denounce those uncivilized assholes!

Now here's the million dollar question…Is India still a one-man-army??? Can Indian cricket survive without Sachin…?

Even though Sachin's batting has always been found under the scanner, invariably Sachin's knock has helped India in many a victories… The recently lost 3-4 ODI NatWest series at England saw Sachin amassing 374 runs at an enviable average of 53.42, with 4 half-centuries (3 half-centuries resulted in India's victory) under his belt... Of course there is huge junta who wouldn't agree with me on this point… Here's another fact-file for them...India's only victory in the current and on-going Future Cup came in the 4th ODI at Chandigarh and the Master' piled a gritty 79...

Sachin has always been the savior, when the Indian batting has been in doldrums… And am sure when Sachin hangs up his boots, he’ll leave a huge void… And these bad-mouthing journalists will understand what a force Sachin was to reckon with and how indispensable he was... But then it would be too late…

And without Sachin Indian Cricket will never be the same…

P.S: Latest update is aussies have scored a massive 317/8 in the penultimate game… And if India were to win this game, Sachin’s intervention is mandatory…

Unethical Journalism!

I read this blog last week and was foaming at the mouth about this irresponsible-unethical-journalist, who's compiled a pile of shit and had sparked-off unwarranted debate!!!

T20 final between India and Pakistan, touted as 'Mother of all finals', did prove to be humdinger of a contest and the former managed to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat… A thorough edge-of-the-seat-thriller. Post match, during the presentation ceremony Ravi Shastri invited the losing captain Shaoib Malik to have a few words… This is what Shaoib had to say...

“First of all I want to say something over here. I want to thank you back home Pakistan and where the MUSLIM lives all over the world. We gave our 100%, India have a strong batting line-up. We did well to restrict them to less than 160 but our batting didn’t come through. The Indians bowled really well and we played some bad shots. That’s why we ended up on the losing side in this game.”

It is evident that Malik had uttered something repulsive… But what people should/must understand is the fact that it wasn’t just repulsive, but impulsive as well. Pakistanis have this dubious distinction of slaughtering English to agonizing levels, and Malik was no exception. But whatever he said wasn’t intentional and words popped out of his mouth on the spur of the moment...

Now that all is said and done, what is the role of media here? They should have ideally subsided Malik's words and should have engaged themselves with the match analysis and stuff…But what it has done??? Or rather what this Columnist had done… He's picked few words (Malik’s of course) and totally blown that out of proportion. During a time, when the peace process between India and Pakistan is scaling amazing thresholds, articles such as this, which threaten harmony, must be severely condemned.

Investing time in the 'Comments' section would best illustrate my point. If you read through carefully, you can find threads where people engage themselves in a war of words. It was chaotic, on one hand people defending Shaoib and reprimanding on the other… It was even more agonizing when I read oodles of comments appreciating the columnist for reporting this story… What kind of a show these people are putting out there? Fuck ‘em!

If the author had expected all of this hullabaloo and clamor, and had that been his intention, he's deemed to be forbidden from writing anymore!

A perfect solution to this menacing problem is to allow the players to honestly express themselves in their native language. Soccer does it, why shouldn't cricket embrace this practice and let the game be devoid of controversy.

Sachin is Back!!!

It was heartening to see, a write-up on Sachin (in THE HINDU) by renowned columnist Ted Corbett.

The Little Maestro is back amongst runs. Well, the LITTLE MASTER has always been amongst runs!!!! It's just the pace at which he scores matters and eventually amplifies speculation.

But this time around, he had no mercy for the England Lions, steamrolling the bowlers all over the park. Sachin was simply at his elements. Maestro piled-up a gritty 171 runs off just 236 balls silencing the ‘bad-mouthing’ journalists (or shall I say harpists), who claim Sachin's innings of late has become sluggish. I've just got one thing to say to them, he can’t be explosive each time he gets to the crease. He's also made of flesh and blood.

When Sachin came to the crease the Indians were tottering for 2/2, losing early wickets .Sachin waged a lone battle…And emerged triumphant!!! When the going gets tough, the tough(Sachin) gets going…

Hope he comes out blazing against the Englishmen in the Test Series which gets underway on Jul-19. It would be great to watch Sachin amassing 11000 test runs in the English soil. Can’t wait to see it...

Let the LION roar!!!!