IndiaA, IndiaA!!! IndiaA, IndiaA!!!

It's a new year and after what was pretty much a calamitous 2020 for the entire world, at least when it comes to Indian cricket, we couldn't have had a more resounding start to the new year!!

Actually, things began taking a turn for the better right after Christmas 2020, with the Boxing Day Test itself where we registered a historic win, which was followed by an unforgettable heist to achieve a draw at Sydney in the first week of the new year by our bravehearts, culminating in a crescendo of indescribable proportions with the unbridled joy on conquering what used to be called - attention all Aussies, especially Tim Paine: past tense now - what used to be called - a fortress for Australia, the Gabbatoir.

There are so many things one feels as a cricket lover and as an Indian team fan, yet there's precious little that I have which can be explained in words.

Some of my friends have pointed to certain sections in the cricketing world (you can guess and even expect the geo-coordinates of such people! It must also be mentioned though, that in all fairness, not everyone from such locations is bereft of objectivity and fairmindedness. So we are talking of only some/most (but not all) Burnol-worthy, jealousy-driven zealots from certain locations in Asia). They deserve to only be ignored and prayed for. Nothing less, nothing more.

You don't even need to be an Indian fan, not even a Test match specialist. All you need to be is to not be a bigoted, blinded supporter who would hate to see India win anywhere against anyone.

In any case, if you cannot appreciate this from India, there's nary a chance you ever will.

So let that be as it may, one can only pity those who understand cricket and even know the importance and magnitude of such a series win, but fall short of duly accepting or acknowledging it. Such achievements, are anyway not dependent on anyone's certificate or the lack of it.

Sample this: the last time we won in Australia two years ago, in 2018-19, there was a lot of talk about Smith and Warner being away from the squad and hence, it was seen as a win that wasn't against their best team - as if we had kept the two out, instead of it being the result of their own shenanigans.

Despite that, 2 years later, when we toured again, we already landed with a depleted squad. 

Ishant was ruled out of the entire tour right from the IPL. Rohit did not reach Australia till the second Test and so he could play only two (half of the) Test matches and Virat had to return back on paternity leave right after the first Test.

It was pretty much an India A team that we had fielded. Even with that team, people began getting injured, hit and replaced. Hanuma Vihari, Ravindra Jadeja, KL Rahul, R Ashwin, Navdeep Saini (soon into the fourth Test).

If this is not backs to the wall stuff, what else is?

From losing the first test after getting dismissed for 36 on Dec 19 to becoming 2-1 winners in the same series exactly a month later on Jan 19 with pretty much an India A squad (or even lesser), it could not have got better than this. Fairy tales might look more realistic in comparison.

And yet, we did it!

We did what no team has done. With not just two players out, but almost the entire first-choice team being out injured or unavailable. We did it despite a historic loss and humiliation. We did it, despite every kind of targeted, hostile bowling and equally targeted, equally hostile behavior by the haughty Aussie team.

We marched on and achieved the unthinkable. To beat the Aussies in their own. Correction: We beat the full-strength Aussie team with our second-string Indian team in their own den. Even at their so-called fortress. Even when we did not have to or need to win the match to win the trophy. We would have won the trophy even.after just drawing the final Test.

But this is why is the new Team India.

This is why champions are made of sterner stuff.

This is why we won, even when we did not have our best personnel.

We won it when Pujara hobbled and winced in pain after taking body blows but did not cower and did not leave until getting out and ensuring we were not going to lose the match.

We won it when Vihari and Ashwin braved every bruise, every hamstring, every back pain, every ounce of their patience and ability to see through the Aussie battery in Sydney.

We won it when Rahane, Gill, Jadeja, Pant, Saini, Sundar, Thakur, Bumrah, Siraj, Rohit and Saini kept punching above their weight ball after ball, game after game. 

We would have won it even if all our players were asked to bat on one leg.

We won because everyone in that team had self-belief and a never-say-die attitude. Combined with dignified aggression. All these are qualities which only one team had in the series. And it wasn't Australia.

Thank you Team India, for providing such a spectacle, such  joy, such a series. Truly the best win till date and one to savor for the ages!!

It was a privilege to watch this team do the unthinkable and in such grand style, despite such adverse circumstances - beating Australia in Australia two times in a row!! Too good, keep it up!!

Jai Ho!!

Time for a Retrospective

Procrastinators have a great can-do, will-do attitude!

They know they CAN-do something....

...and/but, well, they also know that they WILL-do it only later! :P

On that note, let me begin, without any further ado, about what I'd like to talk about in this post.

Well, December often tends to be that time of the year when we reflect (or at least can/should) about the year that's about to end - in IT/agile-terms, it's time to do what is known as a retrospective - an honest assessment and evaluation of what went well, what didn't, and what could have been done better.

Of course, one can surely agrees and understands that this need not be an activity reserved for sometime around Dec 31 only (since any process or assessment towards improvement can is always most welcome, any time of the year, and not dependent on only a particular date of the calendar). 

However, since this is a good time when people are free, when things are typically rounding off everywhere for the year, the time frame of December/mid-December onward does present a fit case for a transparent, sincere, and thorough analysis.

There are 5 questions that I have (only begun) trying to check myself on: 

1. What all did I do right in the last 12 months? Are there any decisions/actions can I be proud (or atleast happy) about?

2. What all did I learn (or do better) this year as compared to similar situations from last year?

3. Did I harm anyone (hopefully, never) by any chance? Anything from me during the year that I should regret or be ashamed about?

4. What would I like to take as a learning from this year, that I didn't do thus year but would like to improve upon and incorporate henceforth in the coming year?

5. And of course, my personal favorite: Did I make someone feel better? Was I useful to someone in any way? Did I bring a smile to anyone?

If my honest answers can be on the right side of at least most of these questions, then I know I'm doing alright and am on the right track.

As the year ends, I would like to present you these questions as my year-end thoughts and sharing. I hope you too can benefit from them by making them your parameters and benchmarks to assess yourself. Hopefully, these pointers will not only become useful guiding lights in ensuring that we can always assess where we stand but can also serve as a talisman to help us take the right decisions in case of any dilemmas in future.

Go well, everyone! :)

Hello Aausstraallyya!

No no no, I haven't moved to Australia, this heading is all about our upcoming tour Down Under that begins this Friday - the first taste of proper, marquee international cricket in a long time this year.

Of course, while we've had the IPL,if there's one thing even the best T20 league in the world misses is the fervor and passion of nations rivaling each other. One franchise versus another (howsoever pedigreed or star-studded) does not quite have the same ring to it as one nation versus another. Imagine your country playing any other country and you would always feel that much more involved, that much more passionate in rooting for your home team (country) than for any T20, even if it's IPL's!

So it's quite refreshing to see that we have the teams in readiness for the T20 and ODI leg of the tour soon, to be followed by the real deal: Test Cricket (next month onwards)!

There are some who think the rivalry might lose its intensity or even sheen with the absence of some big guns from the Indian camp - with Rohit and Ishant unlikely to make it even for the Test series as per reports today, and Virat Kohli unavailable after the first Test.

Be that as it may, I suspect that even then, there is enough quality in this lineup across each format to not only challenge the Aussies in their den but also vanquish them. I'm sure the players would be only too eager to dispel the prediction of people like Michael Clarke who think that this is just a one-man army and have predicted that the absence of some of our stalwarts will mean that the Test result would be a 4-0 for the Aussies.

Sure, the absence of Virat (after the first Test) and the Sharmas (Rohit and Ishant - due to longer match-fit recoveries - worsened further by COVID/quarantine-enforced settings will mean that we will lose a lot of experience that these three cricketers bring. But despite that, there is no reason why our youngsters cannot step up, raise their hand and be counted.

Don't forget, it was a similar situation in Adelaide in 2012, when a yet-to-be-established Test player called Virat Kohli barely escaped being dropped from the XI, got his chance and made the opportunity count with a memorable hundred. The rest, as they say, is history.

So let's hope this tour gives us another memorable team performance, another reason to smile, and hopefully some new star(s) too!

So hello Australia, brace up, as we come Down Under, ready to steal your thunder! 

Jai Ho!

MSD: Maintain Some Discipline

I have often received feedback from some of you (my readers) in my emails that I typically go soft on people/situations. Well, while I agree with a lot of that, as I have replied too, most of my writings typically reflect the type of person I am and I think it can be safely said that I take a lot of time to give a verdict (especially against anyone).

You can interpret my passivity either way - for, it can be interpreted subjectively - could be right or wrong (depending on what you think( but my rationale is that I need loads of incontrovertible evidence to overturn my default theory that people are typically nice and atleast, open to improvement, and also where criticism or pulling them down is not our call since we might not know things well enough.

Let's say, it is like those marginal DRS calls - where a catch might ostensibly be taken/claimed as the umpire might deem it not out (if not sure). This means the soft signal is Not Out, and the third umpire would need incontrovertible evidence to then overturn that default decision, which means that even in a 50-50 case, the default shall prevail and the batsmen would be counted not out, unless decisively proven otherwise. Likewise for my approach in life, with my soft signal being not wrong unless there is enough evidence to overturn my view.

Okay, that aside, I must also make one more thing amply clear: I have always been a huge MSD fan, as you can also see by the number of times and the types of things I have covered on him within this blog too. To say that he has been among the most iconic and successful Indian captains (and cricketers) ever - heck, he would even feature in an all-time most successful list of cricketers/captains the world has ever seen - would be an understatement!

However, some things have truly hurt and disappointed me as his fan and as someone who would love to speak of him as an idol, worth emulating and learning from.

For long, people have admired most for his equanimity and equilibrium, even more than his cricketing acumen or his brilliant batting or his safe 'keeping or his supersonic stumpings/run-outs. Everyone would agree that he is in the league of people like Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Anil Kumble, VVS Laxman - who are cricketing legends but are still seen as even better persons and role models, thanks to their impeccable behavior and conduct.

I'm afraid the past few months have made me take a stand against MS Dhoni on one aspect: his conduct against umpires.

As I said, my thoughts are not based on only how he behaved with Paul Reiffel yesterday (when he was about to CORRECTLY signal (and had already half-signalled) a wide but because this is sadly, not a one-off.

This had happened last year too, in the IPL - at that time, umpire Ulhas Gandhe was at the receiving end, and MSD was not even on the playing field! He charged from the dugout to voice his objection to the umpire in the field of play.

As I said, there are multiple instances - you can find these most prominent ones listed here. Hopefully, this stays at that, and remains an exhaustive list with no further additions. But there is no doubt now, that the much-famed coolness and equanimity seem to desert him especially when he and/or his team are in a precarious position with form or match-situation. While it is only natural to feel disappointed or even upset at a decision then, it is quite unbecoming to argue, object aggressively and even force the umpire to overturn his decision!

This is where you would never have found Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid behaving poorly. And they played at a time when, unlike today, there was no DRS! And Sachin has famously received some extremely poor decisions (sure, like many other batsmen must have, and like any batsmen who would play as many as he did, might get) and he naturally felt aggrieved and upset but just that. Think of the most horrendous decision and he would only raise his eyebrows a wee bit more, pause and wonder at his fate for some more seconds but still, walk back without remonstrating and with all his grace and dignity, like a true gentleman. This is why, even after they have retired, even if/when their records get broken, Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid will far outllive and outshine every other cricketer as role models because how fool-proof and impeccably correct they were, not just in their batting but most importantly, in their conduct.

That's it. This article was not to castigate Dhoni as such but to ensure that as people who have celebrated his many other qualities, we must acknowledge where he is wrong too, especially when it has been observed across multiple instances. Such an understanding and admission will help not just in assessing him but also in ensuring that our love for our stars and idols does not eclipse their transgressions and discipline.

Dear MS, you are a sporting hero. Please remember that before calling you a hero, we are calling you sporting. It might help to remember that sporting does not just refer to a game but to a way of life and deportment. So be sporting first, and only then will you truly be a hero. Wish you more patience, discipline and equanimity!