The Wall – now cornered

And the present now will soon be the past
The order is rapidly fading
The first one now will later be last
For the times, they are a changing

Words of significance? Dilip Vengsarkar’s pet these days.

Not long days ago Rahul Dravid was at the helm of affairs of Indian cricket, 45 days on the same gentleman finds himself out of the Indian ODI team, 10,000+ ODI runs notwithstanding. The selection committee maintains Dravid has been 'rested' for the first two ODIs against Pakistan beginning next month. Even those who follow the game once in a while would know that 'rested' is a euphemism for dropped. Dravid’s exclusion comes on the back of a string of low scores in the last 8 ODIs. Reason enough?

Surely, one failed series is no indicator of a suddenly arrived old-age or the lack of class and hunger for runs, then what goes inside the minds of Vengsarkar and his men? Is it the twenty-20 triumph that has gone in to the selectors’ heads? Or, is it a genuine step towards building a team for the future? I suspect the former; it’s easy for the selectors to shrug off dismal performances of the past by blaming the seniors in the team. As one journo noted the prevailing attitude, if Zaheer fails to bowl line and length the seniors are to blame, if the team gets tonked for 300+ scores every time the seniors are to blame, if Yuvraj Singh drops a catch even then the seniors are too blame. (I hope our politicians aren’t yet aware of this.)

While there is no gainsaying the fact that Dravid, Tendulkar and Ganguly are at the fag end of their careers and sooner than later there will be a lot of hung boots, but does that warrant the treatment meted out to Dravid or the pressure thrust on the seniors? Indian cricket has been way too unpredictable on the field and its administrators equally autocratic off it, little surprise then the board is yet to find a suitable coach.

Rahul Dravid has always been known as the team man, who gave his all to Indian Cricket; when the time came to pay him back, Indian cricket turned its back on him, the least they could have done was to have faith in him. Sure enough the Bangalorean has a lot of cricket left in him and will make his way back into the team, but things like these leave a bad taste in the mouth.

The next time Sachin and Ganguly take stance, their minds will be pondering over what Mr. Vengsarkar has up his sleeve? Are we next?

Cricket: Mumbai off the radar

The Australians are headed back home after a heated tour of the Indian sub-continent. The one day series ended on a distasteful note with the ugly face of racism resurfacing, this time at the Wankhede in Mumbai. It is really unfortunate to see the Indian crowds behave the way they did at Vadodra and Mumbai, but what’s more disappointing is the crowd behavior at Mumbai. One hasn’t yet come out of the disgraceful affront of Sachin Tendulkar last year at the same venue, and now we have the Symonds incident.

Andrew Symonds was booed when he came in to bat, a ball later walked back to the pavilion and later at the post-match ceremony. Much of the jeering and racial gibberish was doled out by the seemingly educated sections of the crowd. Now, that puts a few things in perspective, one, Mumbai ain’t no more the city that flaunts a compassionate spirit, two, a people that can boo its own home-grown hero can boo anyone. Perhaps, it’s time to look at other cities which better display the Indian ethos and don’t ridicule their own image.

While mindless Indian fans counter the treatment meted out to the Aussies as only just given their aggression and use of unkind words on the field by them, but does that give us a license to racially abuse a sportsperson or for that matter anyone? Such people and the likes of Sreesanth need to realize that the best way to stand up and be counted is performance on the field.

One can only wonder if such an incident were to happen with an Indian player in Australia what would have been the reaction of a billion people, effigies would have been burnt all around, uproar in the parliament, not to forget, ‘headless chickens’ on various news channels would have spent hours dissecting the racial abuse of a hapless Indian player and how the developed world is plagued with racism.

Mumbai and its people have unfurled their ugly side. The Indian cricket board, ironically based in Mumbai, would do well to keep Mumbai off the cricketing calendar for sometime to come.

When the BSE Sensex betrayed Sachin

(Caveat: If you think Sachin should not be in the Indian team anymore, stop, don’t read any further!)

The economic reforms, political turmoil, interspersed cricketing glory, IT supremacy, and robust economic growth, India has seen quite a bit, changed even more, all this in the last two decades. Through this eventful journey if there was one hero that Indians, unanimously, came to love and respect it was, and to a certain extent still is, Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar.

Besides his on-field achievements, what has endeared us Indians to the Bombay Bomber has been his humility and statesman like qualities.

Countless paeans have been written to glorify him, but what the Times Of India did more recently was a totally different, yet interesting, take on the master’s journey, ‘Sensex hits 15K, tracks Sachin - yet again’, comparing his career chart with the rise and fall (repeat) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) Sensex. Both, in their own way, have captured the imagination of millions of Indians.

Let’s dwell some bit on this relationship.

In the initial stages of the marathon, the Sensex walked shoulder to shoulder with the Bombay Bomber, though both were rather sluggish, the former wedged in the clutches of the ‘closed’ Indian economy and the latter trying to cement his place in the arena.

Fewer ODI matches and low-scoring games, in those days, meant Sachin piled up ODI runs at a slow pace while the Sensex was beginning to reap the benefits of the now famous and well-understood economic reforms of 1991. But the master’s brilliance didn’t take too long to come to the fore and in a few years time Sachin assumed the leader’s role comfortably leaving behind the Sensex that was now on the decline owing to the political instability in the country and uncertain economic policies.

The Sensex remained in awe of the maestro for the next 10 years; Sachin made merry, Sydney to Sharjah, Johannesburg to Port-of-Spain. Once the 10,000 runs barrier was broken any thoughts of a meeting of the two Indian obsessions were imaginary.

The Legend of Sachin

Then came year 2005, the Sensex started trekking on a different trajectory, one that put it back in business. Soon enough it leveled with Sachin, July this year, going on to assume, what now looks like an unassailable lead.

At Vadodara, Sachin stepped on the field for his 400^th ODI match at age 34; if only time was on his side the Sensex with all its vagaries would’ve been a target in Sachin’s orbit. Nevertheless, the journey has been remarkable to say the least, while the stock market has had its fair share of blemishes, Sachin has managed to stay clear of them.

The recent brouhaha over his retirement and the outrageous media campaign to force him (along with Dravid and Ganguly) into retirement, though completely pointless as no one knows better about the right time than the legend himself, has certainly evoked thoughts of a looming vacuum that faces Indian cricket once the master hangs his boots. Runs will be scored, wickets will yet be taken, Indian team will still win matches and bring glory to the nation, but the sheer joy of the ball disappearing from the master’s willow, the undying cherubic smile, and the mischievous googlies will fade into memory.

One can only hope to marinate all that comes from the master in the coming days. While the Sensex strides on toward the 25,000 mark it will surely miss its companion of long!

Smell of the good ol’ days

Australians go in to the 4^th one-day match of the series at Chandigarh with a 2-0 lead and all eyes on an unassailable one. The start of the match is a good 12 hours away yet it has evoked emotions galore within me. The match is taking place at the sector-16 stadium, Chandigarh and not at the one in Mohali (PCA).

The last match staged on this ground was back in 1993, India against England, that was when as an 11 year old I saw my first cricket match at the ground. I still remember the great ease with which we entered the ground considering we (me, mom and a friend) had no tickets. Mom dressed up to match the occasion and perhaps get us inside the stadium under the ruse of students (well, she from college and us from school) who had lost their tickets

That’s precisely what happened. At the security gate, one old gentleman stood checking tickets. Time was ticking, all our attempts at getting in, finding tickets at a premium were in vain. Just then, two guys approached the security gate and called out to the old gentleman. “Bhasin uncle, saanu Baawe ne pejeya hai (Baawa has sent us)”, one look and they were in. We stood there with envy. My mom being the smart woman that she is, urged us to call out to Bhasin uncle, but the shy chickens that we were, we refused.

Scene 2, “Bhasin uncle, saanu Baawe ne pejeya hai”. What followed was a long suspecting look, through and outside the spectacles. Soft gatecrash. We were seated with care in the VIP lounge. Ma, hats off.

It was quite an interesting match, for several reasons. One of them, it was perhaps the first and the only match I saw where an announcement was made to stop the Mexican wave because it was disturbing Sachin Tendulkar who eventually succumbed to the wave for a paltry score (1, if I remember correctly). And then I remember Sidhu planting two huge sixes off the English spin bowling.

Unfortunately, that was the last match that the sector-16 stadium staged for a very long time. Reason, a world class stadium was ready in the neighborhood, Mohali, PCA as we all know it. A truly beautiful stadium with carpet like grass. In the last 14 years people from Chandigarh have only known PCA and the poor sector-16 stadium got lost in the ranks of BCCI’s redundant zonal policies.

But the sector-16 stadium will always hold a special in my heart. It was the place where I played for three years while in school, I still cherish those magical years of my life.

21 January, 1993, was the start of my affair with the sector-16 stadium and cricket.

Going with history India won the last match at this stadium, I am going to protrude my neck and say history will repeat itself tomorrow.

Indian Cricket’s enfant terrible

A week away from cricket is a sure one-off but sometimes a welcome change, for it helps you grow in the eyes of your family. For most fans and erstwhile aspirants it is unthinkable to let go an opportunity to see an international match in the thrilling environs of a stadium. Mine was a gargantuan sacrifice. So, while I journeyed the south of the Indian peninsula, testifying my sacrifice in the larger interest of my travel-hungry siblings, India played Australia at Bangalore.

It poured heavy in Bangalore. Match abandoned. The guilt was now off me and I was able to enjoy the remaining part of our trip. While I trundled along the east coast, the Indian team headed towards the west of Bangalore to the coastal town of Kochi. And rains decided to chase them there too.

The rains stayed away on the day of the match this time. But everything else was the same, the intensity, Indian batting, Australian fielding, and last but not the least the verbal duels. Aussies need no introduction when it comes to sledging and neither does a certain Mr. Sreesanth.

Sreesanth and his theatrics were apparent yet again, this time in front of his home crowd. Not a good enough reason for his rather embarrassing and foolish display of aggression. Obviously the Kerala lad has made enough money, reason why he cares little about fee cuts and perhaps none about impending match bans.

His on-field behavior is no more seen in the same vein as it was when he danced Kathakali alongside an ever so garrulous and annoying Andre Nel, after hitting him for a six, which ironically was a slap for the excessive gutter dished out by Nel. Ever since, this enfant terrible of Indian cricket has been uncontrollable for almost everyone.

Surprisingly, there haven’t been too many people from the Indian cricketing fraternity who’ve chided the erratic fast bowler. Some one needs to knock some sense in to his head, a thin line between bravery and foolishness, between aggression and infantile behavior. Sreesanth knows none.

His supporters (not a surprise all current players) put up a weak defense for him, citing his exceptional talent (yet to be seen) and ability to swing the ball (now, was that really on display in England?).

Considering the fact that his performances at best have been average, the Indian team could well do without this on-field embarrassment. As for Sreesanth he can look forward to displaying his theatrics in his first Malyalam movie!