Fare thee well, gritty Gauti

Just as another riveting series was about to start between two of the most popular teams in world cricket, came an announcement: Gautam Gambhir announces retirement from all forms of cricket.

Although it would be fair to say that the news was not a surprise, when this did happen, one felt that the lone warrior was now sure that his time was up. Well, I say time was up, but I mean he might have still felt he could play but not realistically for his country, which is what he always aspired for.

The ultimate team man that he was and will always be remembered as one, he might have just felt that his stint and contribution in the domestic circuit was also done with.

It is a given that not being picked for a fairly long time except in his surprising selection for one Test match against England (except this one-off selection, he was never picked for the team since the last 6 years) made him finally hang his boots.

But it must be said that here was a man who gave his all to the team. A man of incredible dedication, passion, sincerity and (sometimes even more than required) aggression, he was a dogged cricketer who never threw in the towel and made sure he gave his 100% for his country, in every moment, on every single occasion.

This is exactly why I felt that even though he is now almost unsung, the guy deserves a special mention for all that he has done for the country. Not just for his exploits (highest run scorer of 2 World Cup-winning teams) but also for his exemplary demeanour off the pitch as well.

As someone who always proudly wears his heart on his sleeve, he has also been very actively involved with the Army, with charitable and socio-culturally responsible causes.

No wonder, even when he was out of favour, he became a lot of people’s emotional favourite to make a comeback into the team.

Well done Gautam, you have played your innings very well.

Fare thee well in your second innings too!

Just as another riveting series was about to start between two of the most popular teams in world cricket, came an announcement: Gautam Gambhir announces retirement from all forms of cricket.

Although it would be fair to say that the news was not a surprise, when this did happen, one felt that the lone warrior was now sure that his time was up. Well, I say time was up, but I mean he might have still felt he could play but not realistically for his country, which is what he always aspired for.

The ultimate team man that he was and will always be remembered as one, he might have just felt that his stint and contribution in the domestic circuit was also done with.

It is a given that not being picked for a fairly long time except in his surprising selection for one Test match against England (except this one-off selection, he was never picked for the team since the last 6 years) made him finally hang his boots.

But it must be said that here was a man who gave his all to the team. A man of incredible dedication, passion, sincerity and (sometimes even more than required) aggression, he was a dogged cricketer who never threw in the towel and made sure he gave his 100% for his country, in every moment, on every single occasion.

This is exactly why I felt that even though he is now almost unsung, the guy deserves a special mention for all that he has done for the country. Not just for his exploits (highest run scorer of 2 World Cup-winning teams) but also for his exemplary demeanour off the pitch as well.

As someone who always proudly wears his heart on his sleeve, he has also been very actively involved with the Army, with charitable and socio-culturally responsible causes.

No wonder, even when he was out of favour, he became a lot of people’s emotional favourite to make a comeback into the team.

Well done Gautam, you have played your innings very well.

Fare thee well in your second innings too!

Remembering the Unforgettable

Today marks 10 years.
One, full decade gone by.

As one looks back, it now seems that even the attacks were not the most cruel part.

I wonder what has killed us more: the attacks themselves, or the apathy and languid pace of investigations and closure?
Unfortunately, it's not even a close call.

We are still at this stage.

And, at this stage too.

We can keep writing, keep venting our frustrations, year after year after year.

Every sane and fair person is tired of only waiting and being subjected to some or the other tokenism instead of concrete action and results.

India and Indians have waited far too long, only to see nothing but empty rhetoric.

As we mark one decade of those dastardly acts, I just think that there is perhaps one sure way we can make a difference to the sorry state of affairs: let us just remain steadfast in our approach and quest for justice.

They say public memory is short.
Short it could be, but given the enormity of the tragedy, given the sacrifices made by our bravehearts, the least we can do is to neither forget nor resign ourselves towards bringing the perpetrators and masterminds of 26/11 to book.

The US had one 9/11 and they ensured everything in their capacity to not only avoid a repeat but to also hunt down the terrorists who dared to raise an evil eye on their soil and their countrymen.

Let's ensure Pakistan does not get any leeway or elbow room to wriggle out of this. They cannot be mere victims of terrorism if they cannot act on terror emanating from their soil, funded internally and exported to Indian soil.

Till then, we will continue to remember the unforgettable date, and continue to push on, till they ensure that justice is delivered.

Jai Ho!

Rohit the HeToo

In these times of #MeToo, we have a clear case of Rohit Sharma as well. No no, it is not about any misdemeanors on his part, but about his now legendary stature in the Indian One Day team, making his exploits do the talking despite the presence of a colossus called Virat Kohli.

In the era just prior to this one, we can recall another fabled legendary duo of the great Rahul Dravid and another great, a certain Sachin Tendulkar.

While Rahul was a much more dominant force in Tests than in ODIs, it is a diametrically case for Rohit. He has struggled to even cement his place in Tests, and even in the ODI team, the initial phase of his career, as a middle order batsman, was at best, average.

What changed his fortunes was the Champions Trophy of 2013 and MS Dhoni's decision to try him as an opener. The rest, as they say, is history.

With potentially he entire batting innings - a full 50 overs available for him, alokg with the initial Powerplay overs' field restrictions, he has taken full toll of all bowlers across all conditions and has just not looked back since then.

What has been most exemplary is his ability to hit those daddy hundreds, with ridiculous ease and mind-boggling consistency.
All this, despite having titans like Kohli, Dhoni, Dhawan, and Pandya sharing the spoils of each innings that he is a part of.

To come out as nothing less than a superstar in such a pantheon of greats is a huge achievement in itself.
He too, is a great, among greats.
More power to you Rohit, and hope you score many more!!

Bye Bye, Pakistan!!

As the Asia Cup comes to an end, without the much-speculated/awaited India-Pakistan final, it is time to reflect on a few things.

Churn in Asian cricket's pecking order
This Cup has firmly displaced Pakistan from the hegemony of claiming the - forget #1, even the #2 spot among the top couple of teams in Asia.

Sample this:
India of course, has had an edge over the Pakistanis for a long time now. The time from 1987 - 1990s is the only time Pakistan had an edge over India.
In the present times, India have been dominant almost every single time.

But India aside, it is pertinent to note that Team Green has now also lost to Bangladesh consistently every single time in their last 4 outings against them.

Even Afghanistan, the most promising team from the Asia Cup, almost beat Pakistan. It was only their inexperience and Shoaib Malik's calmness that saw Pakistan through.

Silence, Please!
The brouhaha over the fluke that was June 18, 2017 is officially over now. After having lost comprehensively to India in that tournament too except unfortunately on the day of the tournament final, one had the same feeling of injustice not taking place again.
We do not grudge them their good day in office too, but the way they began jumping and taunting an anyday-better Indian cricket team on the basis of just that fluke of a win, has never been in good taste. Hopefully, now that they have been chastised and chastened, at least the less shameless among them might have been silenced.
To all supporters of the Pakistani team who have gone hoarse shouting from the rooftops about last year's one-off fluke, it is now time for: Silence Please!

We beat Pakistan handsomely in both the matches of this tournament, and one felt that another one-off lucky day for the Pakis would too much of a travesty of justice for the decidedly better team.

Thankfully, helped by their own implosions, they could not even qualify, and perhaps even their most ardent supporters would agree that given their performance, and the calibre shown by Bangladesh and even Afghanistan, Pakistan do not deserve to be in the final when as per pure performance in the Asia Cup, they have been only the fourth-best team in the tournament.

As Harsha also tweeted, maybe the world (and certainly the Pakistanis) got carried away by what was just an off day for the Indians.

India's Gains from this Cup
India's batting bowling and fielding supremacy over all other Asian countries, Rohit's captaincy, the re-emergence of Jadeja and Jadhav, and the efficacy of our bench strength are only some of good things that have come out of this tournament for India.

Tuning in for the World Cup
Time to reflect on preparing a solid middle order now for the World Cup - Ambati Rayudu and Kedar Jadhav seem to be our best middle-order bets at the moment for positions 4 and 5 in England, sandwiched between the greats - Kohli (at 3) and Dhoni (at 6). KL Rahul is my backup opener hands-down.
Just avoid too much chopping and changing, and get the Cup home, Team Blue!

Jai Ho!

Bye Bye, Pakistan!! :-)
Though we all wish the Pakistani team does well, for the good of cricket's health globally, what gets people is their (and their supporters') vanity - of even thinking, let alone believing, that they are better than India - which stems more from impish bravado and jingoistic grandstanding, and less from logic and facts.
This is why, many Indians derive special joy in always sending them home: Happy to send you home again, Team Green...it's Bye Bye, Pakistan!! :-)

Rest in Peace, Atal ji

The August of 2018 was a month where quite a few veteran, renowned politicians of the country passed away.

We first lost the DMK patriarch (August 07), followed by Somnath Chatterjee (on the 13th), and then finally, that pole star of modern Indian politics called Atal Bihari Vajpayee, on the 16th.

Now I know, there is a very convenient, armchair way of laughing off politicians and even their deaths. 

Good riddance, they weren't of any use anyway, they should all be packed off together, if anyone should die, it should be them first/only.

And suchlike (if not worse).

One can also see where all this comes from, and perhaps, it is the 99% of them who are giving the 1% of good ones a bad name!

What I can say for sure, is that like them or hate them, there is no denying the fact that these 3 politicians were stalwarts in their respective parties and ideologies. 

Both Somnath Chatterjee and M Karunanidhi were among those select few, who were not only politicians but also titans and recognized not just within party or within their dominant states, but across the entire country too.

One prays that God blesses their souls, and they rest in peace.

But with due respects to both the departed souls, there is no doubt that if there was one person whose death tore the most number of hearts, it was of the great Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

I am only one of a multitude of fans, who learned how to be a role model despite being a politician.

A person who had no enemies even after being in public life for multiple decades.

A refined poet at heart, and a statesman of the highest calibre, Vajpayee ji was someone we all loved.

Often labelled as the right man in the wrong party, his moderate temperament in a party of hardliners, his ability to take everyone together, his amazing oratory, his vision, his incisive analysis on everything he spoke about - all contributed towards making him the tallest leader of modern Indian politics, by a mile.

It was the early/mid-1990s and as an impressionable youngster, I remember wanting him to speak in Parliament, so that I could learn and enjoy his oratorial finesse, through the newly started live debates, televised on the telly.

Such was his impact, that one would be ready to reconsider one's stand, if Atal ji had said something contrarian to one's perspective.

That is the hallmark of a true stateman and shows the amount of genuine respect and regard he commanded for his vision and leadership, along with his transparency and integrity.

More than anything else, I believe that Atal ji, a true Bharat Ratna, will be remembered for making sure that one could get/make role models and heroes even through as generally abominable a place as politics.

Along with Late Shri Chatterjee and Late Shri Karunanidhi, I hope and pray that may you also rest in peace, Atal ji.

India will forever be lucky that one of her sons was a gem called Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

Bring it on!

Every big match or big series neds its due recognition.
It is no news how eagerly, Virat and his boys in blue are looking forward to the England tour.

Messrs Shastri and Kohli have spelt their priorities quite clearly: the terms "success" and "greatness" for their Indian team are defined by performance and victories on overseas, especially South African, English, and Australian soils.

They have made a good start in that direvtion, with the South African sojourn being quite creditable for the team.
Now, come tomorrow, all heads turn to England, the biggest of tests and joys in cricket - in whites, and with the swinging conditions in England.

For the skipper too, there is no need to be inspired. We all know how important this tour is for him personally too. He has all the hunger and the ingredients to be counted among the best of the best ever batsmen, but domination in England has been a missing tickmark till now, on his CV.

So, as we enter the big day, here's wishing Captain Kohli and the Indian Cricket Team,  20 wickets in every match and atleast ome run more than England, each game :-)
Play well and good luck, bwaays!!!

Yoyo Mann!!

In news just in, it has emerged that popular rapper Honey Singh (oh yeah, of "O Yo Yo Honey Singhhh-ah" fame) has cleared the YoYo test.
He claims that he has ensured he has spoken YoYo more than 16 times in eah of his rap songs 😊

Well, PJs and fake-take apart, the whole episode of YoYo tests gaining popularity to the extent of being the sole criterion for selections and some former cricketers' disapproval of its importance has left many Indian cricket lovers baffled.

One hopes that the omission of Ambati Rayudu, one of the topmost performers of this year's IPL on the basis if YoYo tests, that too after having been selected, has been in bad taste.

Sure, it is only right to stress on fitness in today's cricket.
However, one can surely respect fitness without having to disrespect or humiliate (even though it is without any malafide intent) a selected Team India cricketer.

Why can't we have the hallowed and much-revered YoYo test conducted BEFORE the selection committee meets to pick the team?

It's time we avoided needless controversies and focused on the fame rather than the peripherals around it.
Here's wishing Team India the very best for the upcoming England series.

Rock it guys, a la YoYoHoney Singhh-a!! 😊

Big Daddies: MSD's CSK

A daddy is always a daddy.

This ia true for the CSKians again, who have done it again, bossing around with the trophy as the most consistent, big daddy team in all years of the IPL since its inception.

It's the third time they have done it and this one, with a much older team, considering the average age of the team was well-nigh 30.

To still be able to trump all their younger, fancied "juniors" and with elan at that, proves that age is just a number.
Cliched, but proven true.

Their triumph once again underscores the fact that eventually, what matters is how good you are with your skills and attitude.

Sure, age tends to slow anyone's reflexes.

Be it the hand-eye co-ordination, or that throwing oneself around for either snatching that extra run or be it saving that extra run, all count - all of these make the body resist co-operating with what the mind and heart want to do.

The hamstrings become even more critical than those handle-with-care cutlery items.

But more than any of these, everything else takes a backseat when one can still be fit enough and skilled enough.
Because what age also does is to empower you with experience and habe enough nous to handle and overcome any situation.

This is precisely what Shane What-a-son did, come the big night. Much to the haplessness of the Sunrisers.

Or, for that matter, an Amabati-only-33-Rayudu. Or a Faf or a Bhajji.
And of course, the one and only M S D.

Captain Cool once again displayed his usual astuteness, marshalling his troops in the best possible manner.
His captaincy has always defied conventions, and him not opting to bowl one of his specialist bowlers (Bhajji) again underscores that the man can think clearly and for the occasion, even if it means trying something novel or unexpected.

But more than his batting or 'keeping, even more than his captaincy, what stood out (again), was his coolness in enjoying the comfort of his daughter more than the trophy, after the win!

A daddy is truly, more than anything else, always a daddy.

My IPL Takeaways

So, the Indian Premier League is back on, with its share of annual razzmatazz and what not.

As the tournament picks steam, I'd like to share what I find most riveting and pleasing too - the performance of the not-so-established cricketers as they rub shoulders with their more pedigreed colleagues and counterparts.
After all, isn't this the best available platform for them, to showcase their skills and to let their talent make a case for itself, by shining against such a set of illustrious and marqueed players?

This year, I have my eyes on the following youngsters - Shubman Gill, Shivam Mavi, Prithvi Shaw, and Basil Thampi.

I believe all of them have immense potential, each of them teaming with a reservoir of talent.
The thing to be seen now, is how they will tap into their talent, out their hands down, and convert it into something more substantive.

Wish each of them a great IPL, and while everything else is a circus, one hope s that atleast these cricketers do not turn out to be jokers or background artists only but in fact, become ringmasters.
More power to all!

CA: C'mon Australia

Now that the sordid tale of ball-tampering has led to Messrs Smith, Warner, and Bancroft being banned, it's also worth looking back at a few things.

The punishment: Apt or too harsh? Or too less?

What has really led to the quantum of punishment?

It is not the perpetrators alone but the fact that the world is pooh-poohing at Aussie claims of "playing hard but fair" with the more accurate Lehmann-guided approach to just "headbutt the line".

The whole episode has led to the Australian cricketing establishment losing all its sheen and moral high ground, if ever they could have claimed to have one.

So while the swiftness and zero-tolerance displayed by Cricket Australia in handling this fiasco is appreciated, what we are also witnessing is a damage-control exercise now.
The damage has already been done.

It would have been bettee to invest in creating a team like their neighboring Kiwis are - a true embodiment of giving their best on the field, being aggressive in their pursuit of victory, but not at the cost of gentlemanliness and sportsmanspirit.

The damage has been to the spirit and ethics of the game.
Which is why, it is no coincidence that the Aussies have always been the bad boys of cricket.
Sure, they are not the only team to cross the line and there are characters in every team but it is the consistency and encouragement and almost advocacy and patronization of such an approach from every team and their management (headbutt the line, mental disintegration, play hard but fair, it's just Australian to do so) which makes the team stand out in its brazenness consistently, in any and every era.

Pick any generation of cricketers, any team of any era, and you would find as Peter Roebuck had once described, "a pack of wild dogs" around, always.

Time to do away with such an attitude more than such players. If the cricketing establishment can, instead of encouraging, be strict and punitive in its implementation of playing the game and just the game fair and square, we woukd not have see any such players and attitudes prospering.

You think sledging, and you think of the Australian cricket team.
You think rowdyism, and you think of the Australian cricket team.

The country needs a makeover, and not just a cosmetic one, only for display purposes.

The cricketing world needs the game to rule, not brash, bullying talking heads.
Forget adopting unethical means, the world would see a team that is civilized and gentlemanly and likeable too.
Aah, to think of such a team in baggy green caps is a dream as of today.

And that is why, one hopes to see this come to life, atleast after the lessons and damages from this ball-tampering saga.

One hopes Australia can do it. We'd like to see them to do so.
After all, it is a shame to be so consistently talented as they are, but be the diametrical opposite of that talent when it comes to behavior, manners, and conduct.
Let that not happen anymore, guys...c'mon Australia, you can do it.
You must do it!!

Rest In Peace, Sridevi

In the tragic passing away of Sridevi, we have encountered a tragedy that is perhaps even bigger than her demise.
The way people have begun speculating about every possible scenario and the way every More-than-smart Know-it-all-Alec has started jumping to conclusions, is sad...even disturbing.

When one does not know the exact sequence of events, when one is so far off from what transpired, the scene of the incident, and in the absence of a first-hand account or the details of the 'crime' scene, who is anyone/how can people so conveniently run up every facet of their imagination/conspiracy theory, and pronounce their judgement in their self-anointed fast-tracked court of justice?

Alas, be that as the way it is, what I found worth sharing (in case you haven't read it already), was a heartfelt letter.
An open letter that Ram Gopal Verma wrote, as an ardent fan, whose adoration, admiration and love for her is palpable in the words that have poured through, straight from his heart, into this letter.

This is a person who is sad, distraught, even agonized and shattered.
He has not minced any expression - be it his feelings, his recollections, and their intensity (regarding the memories of his experiences and times with her) or the pain that he has felt on losing her.

We will miss you Sridevi, the great legend.

From all your fans:
May God rest your soul in peace.
Rest In Peace. Rock In Peace.

Open Letter : From an Indian Cricket Fan

Dear BCCi and other custodians of Indian cricket:

As an ardent follower and fan of Indian cricket, I have had the pleasure and privilege of watching many memorable performers and performances.

However, it is also prudent to think and assess the ramifications of how we are performing overseas as well as in our talent scouting and talent grooming processes.

Apart from using the national team's performances outside the subcontinent as a benchmark and barometer for the standards we have set ourselves, it is also quintessential to look at our bench strength, the grooming of our A teams, the exposure they get through quality tours, the domeatic cricket structure apart from the IPL razzmatazz, and the junior level cricket (U-19s et al).

If we can ensure transparency and accountability on these aspects, I am sure we will be a much better team, not just despite the system but because of it too.

Here's to better days and better tours ahead, Amen!!

Cheers,

Just one of the millions of well-wishers of Indian Cricket.