So the West Indian side managed to start off the worls cup on the winning side! Pakistan seemed like a depleted side to say  the least! The bowling was supposed to be a weakness with key bowlers missing, but it was the batting that failed to fire!  This loss is going to stay with Pakistan when its time to qualify for the semi final! West Indians , if they win the remaining two group matches, will have an advantage going into the super 8s.

Lets see what happens.

They say what begins well, ends well! Well, in case of the Indian team, this has been the case! They won, the opening one dayer in the West Indies, lost the remaining 4. Then they drew the first three tests and finally won the last one! So the two end points  meet to make the complete circle!

This is a new generation Indian team! The team looses a few and wins some, but comes out stronger from each showing. Loosing the one day series actually brought out the best in the Indian Cricket. It finally brought Md Kaif and Sehwag out of the rut. Sreeshanth and M Patel aged a minimum of two years in these two months! A great bowler like Pathan actually warms the bench, and his absense is not felt even a wee bit! Harbajan sits out two tests, and the likes of Sehwag take over the spinner’s mantle!

And all this is held together by the man who is at the helm of it all – Rahul Dravid! This man makes one wonder, why he was not the captain before Ganguly! Both entered the Indian Cricketing era at the same time, and both came in with a bang! He had prooven earlier when he was keeping for India in the ODIs , that additional responsibility brings out the best in him. The added responsiblities of a captain, a responsiblity that got the likes of Tendulkar down, actually boosted his performance!

Ok now to the match in question. The final test. The complete game(all three days of it) could be summarized in one word – Dravid! Quoting an Article on cricinfo,

“The difference between a boy and a man is the price of his toys. In this case it was wickets”

How true! In reality, this match was very unfairly tilted toward one team (one person in particular) This was a match played by 21 boys and one man! This one man stood tall while boys fell at either end. In the end he scored a fifth of the total runs scored in the game!

*Running short of time.. post to be continued*

technorati tags:india, cricket, dravid

Blogged with Flock

Rain Rain Go Away

Come again some other day

Little Kumble wants to play

To Make it India's Day today

Rain Rain, Pour down

But, please select another town

Cause on this groun'

Viru's waiting with a frown

Rain Rain, go to Jamaica Maan

Cause St Lucia belongs to Irfaan

With Munaf who has his back

They'r both ready to attack

The ball is turnin'

The ball is swingin'

Let 'em wickets fall away

Rain Rain, Go Away

Rain Rain Go Away

Let it be India's day Today!

Rober Browning in his famed poem titled – The Pied Piper of Hamelin

Into the street the Piper stept,

Smiling first a little smile,

As if he knew what magic slept

In his quiet pipe the while;

Then, like a musical adept,

To blow the pipe his lips he wrinkled,

And green and blue his sharp eyes twinkled,

Like a candle-flame where salt is sprinkled;

And ere three shrill notes the pipe uttered,

You heard as if an army muttered;

And the muttering grew to a grumbling;

And the grumbling grew to a mighty rumbling;

And out of the houses the rats came tumbling.

Great rats, small rats, lean rats, brawny rats,

Brown rats, black rats, gray rats, tawny rats,

Grave old plodders, gay young friskers,

Fathers, mothers, uncles, cousins,

Cocking tails and pricking whiskers,

Families by tens and dozens,

Brothers, sisters, husbands, wives–

Followed the Piper for their lives.

From street to street he piped advancing,

And step for step they followed dancing,

Until they came to the river Weser

Wherein all plunged and perished!

The poem could well have been titled -the Pied Piper of Inida!

Why, you may ask, do I say this?

Before answering your question, let me explain my view of the story.

It was said that Pied Piper possessed some magical powers that enabled him to attract the rats of Hamelin, and lead them to their death. In fact, the truth is this – a few of the rats liked the music he played, and so they followed him. The rest of the rats simply followed these other rats!

That is what is happening in our great country, India!

It has been always said unity makes one stronger. But unity at the cosy of individuality will make you weeker! India is driven by the crowd mentality or what I now name the Pied Piper mentality! 90% of Indians are busy doing things because that is what every one else is doing.

Let us take a few examples -

First,  let us evaluate the education system in India.

What does education mean to a middle class family? If the kid is extremely good academically, he or she studies medicine, the next level of people rush into engineering. The rest filter into Commerce and arts! Why? Not always because the field they choose interests them, but because they just follow the rat in front! In this mad rush, the only looser is individuality! Just because an individual is brilliant academically, does not mean that he or she is best suited to be a doctor!  Mind you, when I say Doctor, I mean the guy that saves lives, not that mean money making machine! On the same token, not every student that fails miserably academically, deserves to be relegated to the, so-called ‘non professional’ colleges!

The latest buzz word in the world of education is ‘MBA’. Every one wants to do it. Why? It helps me further my career! How, may I ask? Yes there are a few career paths that move faster if armed with an MBA, but most only find this extra degree a burden! Armed with an MBA, the Doctor wants to sit in a large office, managing people, rather than saving lives. Armed with an MBA  , an Engineer, wants to keep his hands clean! If all you wanted to do was ‘manage’ then why did you waste expensive resources that were employed to make you an Engineer or a Doctor? Hey, because I could! BS

The Pied Piper mentality can be seen in other facets of life. Lets take cricket! Do not get me wrong, I love the game. I follow every cricket match that features India (and some that do not.) I, like most Indians, am the happiest when India wins and the saddest when India looses!  Maybe its the fact that I am away from my country, or maybe that I have become wiser, but now I feel that cricket is highly detrimental to the Indian society! This one game has been responsible for a drainage of a lot of resources. If a nation can have 23 world class cricket grounds all over the nation, I am sure it can afford a few astroturf hockey grounds, so that India can regain some lost glory. Most younsters may not even know that Hockey is our national game. We invented it for crying out loud!  If a nation can have cricket coaching camps in every third corner of every city, it can surely have a few football coaching facilities! The MRF pace foundation churns out great fast bowlers! Why can’t a company sponsor a football academy. An academy that takes in youngsters and moulds them into great football players? Why? Cause we are rats, and we follow the rats in front!

Followed the Piper for their lives.

From street to street he piped advancing,

And step for step they followed dancing,

Until they came to the river Weser

Wherein all plunged and perished!

Wake up Indians before we follow the Pied Piper to the river, and perish!

Let us unite without loosing our individuality! Let us form a team of individuals that do follow a common goal, but a goal that is forumated from a set of indivdual goals!

Let us put the Pied Piper to rest once and for all!

technorati tags: india, education, cricket, soccer

It was 3-2 India, going by the number of days that they were ahead compared to the West Indies!

 Day 1 and Day 2 belonged to the West Indians. First to get India out at under 250 runs, and then piling up a pretty promising lead by the end of Day 2.

Then came the Indian bounce back! First to restrict the lead to just 131 runs on Day3, and then to follow up with some great batting performance, on Day 3 and 4.

The Indian second inning scorecard says it all

W Jaffer 212  / V. Sehwag 41 / V.V.S Laxman 31 / R. Dravid 62 / Y. Singh 39/ M. Kaif 46 / M. Dhoni 69

Jaffer was the pick of the lot, but what was heartening to see was how the rest of the batsmen contributed to the score. 2 in the 60s, 2 in the 40s and 2 in the 30s. They are not paper tigers after all! Dhoni’s 51 ball cameo was just another feather in a now heavily feathered Indian Cap!

And that brought us to Day5! It is days like this that cricketing history is made up of! Both the teams stiving hard to steal the day, and finally it was cricket that had the final say!

technorati tags: india, cricket

Indians did not win this match, but cricket certainly did! This was the best fought match that has been witnessed in a long long time. Both the teams performed at thier highest levels. There was not much to differentiate between the two teams(except the winning run!). Both the teams fielded like demons. Both the teams had a Bradshaw or an Agarkar that bowled wonderful spells. Both teams had slow ball bowlers – Harbajan and Powar for India , and Gayle and Samuels for the West Indies, that used the slowing pitch to their advantage and completely dried out runs. Both teams had innings above par by one of their batsmen – Sarwan, Yuvraj. I think it was only fitting that the win or loss be by that solitary run! A tie would have been ideal (as one of the commentrators actually predicted at the end of 20 overs,) but hey we did loose that last wicket that Sarwan on the other team actually preserved!

Kudos to cricket and cricketers for keeping us on the edge of our chairs.

And hey Indians, let this loss come as a mere awakening! This loss is merely your 5th in a long set of winning performances. Here's to 17 more victories on a trot!

And as usual 'Go Go India!!'

http://sify.com/sports/cricket/fullstory.php?id=14208588

Well well, first Indian to make an ODI century in west Indies! Just goes to show how difficult the west Indians have been to beat on their turf! And who but Dravid to be the one to do it! Just another feather in his cap!

I think he needs a new cap – a large one with a lot of slots for feathers. Cause, my man has many a record to break

Cricinfo – The win that almost wasn’t

Hey so the Indians managed to start off the 5 match series with a win, their 17th chasing!

India has been known to choke so often while chasing, that this is a real achievement. I think the team owes a lot to its middle order for these successes. The likes of Pathan, Yuvraj, Raina and Dhoni are largely responsible for this transformation. Today, this quartet was joined by Kaif, who finally got a score to write home about. This can only boost his confidence! Then there is Dravid! Even in the days when Tendulkar was at his best, the petential of this man was all too clear! While Sachin was busy being deified, Dravid was busy playing cricket! And now, after taking over the helm of the team, he is almost unstoppable! The opposition simply cannot figure out a way to get him out!

Way to go India!  

technorati tags: cricket, dravid, kaif

Hey The Indian Cricket team is going start a battle royale in paradise – Jamaica maan! I will be following them matches to the last ball! And I will be blogging about them here. So stay tuned you cricket crazy (or not so crazy) folks!