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Category: Sports

  • End of a 28 year wait – India Win Cricket World Cup

    End of a 28 year wait – India Win Cricket World Cup

    We have waited some 28 years for this moment: India win the World Cup! This time it felt different. This time it was different. Not just the result, but the process. There was a sense of, “yes this feels right”, to this team’s successes. India are the best team in the world right now, without doubt. They are not a great team – there are no great teams in the world at this time. But this Indian team is a pretty good one. What they lack in bowling and fielding, they make up in sheer grit. This is the most mentally strong team in the world by some distance. That, I believe, is the main reason they are champions.

    But, mental strength is not going to carry them for long. Sooner or later, their bowling’s shallowness and the big disadvantage in fielding is going to be found out. Other teams will figure out where to hit India to hurt them most (hints: nullify their part-time spinners and take risks in running and pocket a bunch of extra runs every inning). And, they will not play all tournaments in the sub-continent. Abroad, their batsmen’s frailties against bounce and lateral movement will be exposed. And then the real test of their mental strength will come.

    For India to be a truly great cricket team, they need to find at least one world class wicket taking spinner (sorry Bajji fans, he doesn’t qualify). And they need to seriously find some genuine fast bowlers – the hit the deck and let the ball talk type. If only Sreesanth was an adult… Zaheer is just barely managing not to fall apart. And if he has one injury too many, India will be in a real pickle. I still have hopes for Ishant to come back – but I really hope he doesn’t come back like Munaf – bereft of any traces of pace. It still amazes me that just across the border, Pakistan seems to have an endless supply of quality seamers, but India has found about 3 in the past 50 years. May be India should take a hint from England, and entice some guys from Pak to migrate over.

    I think improvements in the fielding department will the easiest to achieve. We just need to wait for the old order to give way to the new! But the selectors should make fielding a criteria for selection and put their money where their mouth is. I don’t think the players can complain about the facilities in India anymore (at least not in the top-tier locations). In a stats-crazy sport like cricket, all that’s needed is perhaps that we start counting the number of runs saved/leaked by each fielder, along with runs scored and wickets taken.

    There are unfortunately no quick solutions for these issues. So despite their supremacy right now, India are likely not to dominate for too long. Surely SA, England and even Australia will recover quickly and hit back. I will be happy if India remain competitive until the next world cup, and not let this high fizzle quickly.

    If I have to wait another 28 years, I may lose interest in Cricket. Mm, perhaps not!

  • It’s NOT just a game!

    Every so often we hear some sportsman or a coach or a commentator say those wise words: “It’s Just A Game”. Every time, I hear that, I am a bit irritated. They are usually trying to rationalize a loss or some other disappointment; or perhaps trying to ease some tension. If it’s the former, they are plain wrong in the choice of their rationale, and if it’s the latter, it mostly won’t work.

    Sports fans are as passionate as normal people can get. Many of them are not of the type that easily says, “oh, well” and gets on with it. They invest precious time, emotion and money. I don’t think they want to hear the stars they admire think it’s not that important. It’s very deflating for a fan to hear the team he’s been rooting for say “it’s no big deal” after a loss. The sports stars and administrators should know better. They are human too, and I am pretty sure, in most, if not all these cases, they are truly disappointed themselves. They are perhaps trying to cope by telling themselves “it’s just a game”. That’s fine. But don’t tell the die-hard fan it’s just a game. It’s not fair to him.

    It’s bad marketing as well. Sportsmen are entertainers – they should make their audiences feel good about watching the sport; they should make it feel important. The Hollywood types get this right all the time. Ever heard an actor say “it’s just a movie”? Instead, they call it “work”, “project”, and all sorts of fancy things, don’t they?

    Sport is man’s link to his hunter-gatherer past – when those athletic abilities evolved in him. It is also a link to the more recent medieval era, one which made him a warrior and a gladiator. These are strong influences which appeal to his lower brain – the part which can’t be rationalized. That part of the brain believes sport is really important – because it still thinks it’s about survival!

    PS: when I say “man” in the above paragraphs, I don’t mean “human”. I do mean the male specimen of the species. I have no idea why (some) women like sports; so I can’t speak to it.