A team of 11, but One can make or break it

How crucial are some players in a team than the other members?

Quite crucial as some recent events proved all over again.

While Argentina had a galaxy of stars in their Olympic team, the one name everyone kept mentioning all the time was of Messi. He had a largely subdued gold medal match but for that one pass that set up the winner.

Vaughan is touted as the best English skipper of the recent past, but his exit from the team has suddenly rejuvenated that same team. What sort of role did he play in the dismal run for the English team while he was running things and how things have changed with KP in charge. Was he the millstone weighing down the England team? I have a feeling that Vaughan will not be too welcome in the dressing room now. He might as well retire.

And finally for a team that was not given much of chance of doing anything noteworthy while in Sri Lanka, did what no other Indian team could do there, win the series. One man changed things around for Team India and it was that man MSD again. What a difference, a safe pair of hands behind the wicket and a strong mind, makes to a team's fortunes.

But at the end of the day, if that one player can't get the others to play out of their skins, the results will not add up to much. Kobe and the Laker's come to mind.

Is it time to bite the bullet?

Watching India win an ODI series in Lanka for the first time straight after the Test team were humiliated by the Lankans was bittersweet.
While its easy to say that Test cricket and ODI cricket are two different things, results speak a different and universal language. Losses tend to put pressure and wins tend to ease the pressure. Suffice to say that with this win, the much vaunted Indian middle order will be under tremendous strain, while Dhoni and his merry band will be cock a hoop.
In the wake of a series win, its easy to paper over the lack of experience and plump for youth, but it has its downsides. Indian cricket in the recent past has been littered with stories of young guns making sensational debuts and failing to keep it going and fading away from memory. This recent crop needs to be handled carefully. The seniors are not going to be around for ever nor will they be tolerated for long.
How do the selectors manage the transition? The new bunch of paid selectors are bound to have an unenviable job on hand. Do they bite the bullet and banish players who have been the face of Indian cricket for ages and go for youth or do they play a balance game?

Methinks its time to bite the bullet and start the process immediately. There is bound to be pain for a while, but the gains are many to miss out on.

An interesting email forward

English was invented by people, not computers, and it reflects the creativity of the human race, which, of course, is not a race at all. That is why, when the stars are out, they are visible, but when the lights are out, they are invisible. You lovers of the English language might also enjoy this: There is a two-letter word that perhaps has more meanings than any other two-letter word.

That is 'UP.' It's easy to understand UP, meaning toward the sky or at the top of the list, but when we awaken in the morning, why do we wake UP? At a meeting, why does a topic come UP? Why do we speak UP and why are the officers UP for election and why is it UP to the secretary to write UP a report? We call UP our friends. And we use it to brighten UP a room, polish UP the silver, we warm UP the leftovers and clean UP the kitchen. We lock UP the house and some guys fix UP the old car. At other times the little word has real special meaning. People stir UP trouble, line UP for tickets, work UP an appetite, and think UP excuses. To be dressed is one thing but to be dressed UP is special. And this UP is confusing: A drain must be Opened UP because it is stopped UP. We open UP a store in the morning but we close it UP at night. We seem to be pretty mixed-UP about UP! To be knowledgeable about the proper uses of UP, look the word UP in the dictionary. In a desk-sized dictionary, it takes UP almost 1/4thof the page and can add UP to about thirty definitions. If you are UP to it, you might try building UP a list of the many Ways UP is used. It will take UP a lot of your time, but if you don't give UP, you may wind UP with a hundred or more. When it threatens to rain, we say it is clouding UP When the sun comes out we say it is clearing UP .When it rains, it wets the earth and often messes things UP. When it doesn't rain for awhile, things dry UP .One could go on and on, but I'll wrap it UP , for now my time is UP ,so... time to shut-UP!

Boys will be boys

They keep saying boys will be boys. I used to wonder why they said that. It came home to me last week in a blaze of childish mails exchanged between two buddies of mine on our yahoo group.
One guy started it, the other responded and soon it snowballed into an immature game of one up-manship. The mails got so juvenile, I had trouble imagining the two of them to be 36 year old fathers. The mail exchange was a blast from the past in every sense of the term. Brought back memories of us in school uniforms, playing childish pranks on teachers and one another, unmindful of the severity of some of those pranks.
I thought we were past all that, until this happened and I had to step in and separate the two. Maybe I shouldn't have. I seem to have lost a friend in the bargain.

But then, boys will be boys....

The value of experience

It was heartening to see an Indian batsman handle Ajantha Mendis with confidence and sure footwork. I don't think Badri was in trouble against Mendis at all yesterday, which augurs very well for Badri and Indian cricket in general. The middle order needs some new blood and Badri should be in it soon.
The likes of Rohit Sharma and Suresh Raina would do well to go play some domestic cricket. Badri showed the value of having experienced the domestic grind for years before getting his chance. It has come too easily to the others mentioned and they don't seem to value it enough. This has more to do with Sharma actually. He had the worst possible Ranji season and he is still touted as the next Tendulkar. He has the talent, but he would do well to not let early success go to his head and focus on cementing his place in Indian cricket's future. A look at his fat rotund face tells me, he is not too worried about his fitness and suspect fitness usually leads to loss of form pretty quickly.

I just hope Badrinath becomes India's answer to Hussey. We sure could do with some solidity in that middle order.

Insecurity

Why is it so common?
Why do so many people who have no reason to be insecure, turn out to be the most insecure people?
Is it a lack of self belief or is it just plain cussedness?
Seemingly confident and successful people turn out to be the most insecure.
I wonder if the shrinks of the world have an answer to this question?
I would love to hear it.

The next step

Why is it so difficult for so many of our talented sports stars to step up to the next level? Sports star after sports star makes a dent in their chosen sport and when the world notices them, they suddenly begin to stagnate.
The exceptions are so few and far between, its depressing. What will it take to get a Saina Nehwal to step up to the next level? I hope Gopichand has some ideas, because Saina looks like someone who can step up.
While less said about the great Indian Tennis hope the better. Sania has been underachieving forever now and she continues to act as if she is the best thing that happened to Indian Tennis. What infuriates me even more is the way the country fawns over her.

Lets face it, she ain't gonna win Wimbledon in this lifetime.

Seeing history in the making

Abhinav Bindra won India's first ever individual gold medal at the olympics. I saw it happen live on Doordarshan. Poetic to say the least.
But what a feeling. The adrenalin rush was pure thrill. I was shouting and screaming after the last shot. Never did anything like that for any sport other than cricket in all my life.
Congratulations to Abhinav for having got the monkey off India's back forever. Now I hope others are inspired by this and move forward.
Hope is a good thing. :)

Yet another Olympics

Underachieving nation

India (29). The second-most populous nation in the world has won just 17 medals in its history -- that's one medal for every 64,705,882 citizens. Worse yet, India has never won a gold medal that wasn't in field hockey. And this year, for the first time in eight decades, India failed to qualify for the Olympics in that sport. If rival Pakistan brings home a field hockey medal, it will only deepen the shame.

The above piece copied from the lead story on espn.com says it all, really. A land of over a billion people and just 17 measly medals.

Maybe our athletes don't do enough dope. The anti-doping squad will be the most overworked team this Olympics if reports are to be believed. Or they are not smart enough. Our lifters get caught even before the damn thing has made it into their kidneys.

Maybe our parents are to blame for not encouraging us to play more or play at all. "Don't waste your time" being a much heard refrain. Wonder if it still continues? I have heard of parents pushing their wards to becoming the next Sachin or Sania. That's the trick though.

If a sport promises riches, parents are quick to spot that and push their kids to becoming the next superstar in that sport. Caring little for the interests of the kids involved.

Nothing of the sort can be expected to happen where Olympic sports are concerned. Those poor souls are running around with begging bowls half the time to be able to compete. All the boards controlling the various games are controlled by extinct relics from the past who have money making as their sole goal. Recently one was kicked out after much trying and suddenly the results improved. Not enough to make it to the Olympics though.

I hope India will one day become a nation that can compete at the Olympics and not just make up the numbers. Like they say in hindi - 'Ummeed pe duniya kaayam hai'.

What next for the Fab Five?

I was really looking forward to the Fab Four taking on Mendis in the current series after his heroics against the newbies in Pakistan. So far, they have failed miserably by their lofty standards anyway.
India lost the first test in a jiffy and with barely a fight. India won the second one convincingly, like only this team can.
But the more important thing is, both these events happened without any meaningful contribution from the Fab Five. While they were invisible in the first test, they were equally put to shade in the second test victory by the next generation. Is it an indication to the future of Indian cricket? Can the team move forward without them?
It has reached a stage when the team really needs to start thinking of moving forward without the Fab Five. They have done their bit. Their bit in Indian cricket will take some beating and successors will forever be compared to them.
They still have a role in mentoring the next generation which I hope someone in the circles that matter is planning on doing. When they go, as they surely must, they will leave a hole so massive, the next generation will need all the help they can get from Fab Five to help fill that hole.

Cops and Bangalore

They want it to be like Singapore and Shanghai. Hah! They are not even close.

They ban disco's in town but allow citizens to go 50KM out of the city to shake a leg. How that helps law and order only they know.

They ban live bands because bands lead to dancing and people having fun. In their warped minds, having fun leads to unbridled lawlessness. No one knows how they came up with that.

They close pubs and eatery's at 11:30 because after 11:30, all of Bangalore's criminals are out on the prowl to wreak havoc on the unsuspecting citizenry. I can't even begin to explain that.

They want the citizens to follow traffic rules but will break the rules themselves impudently in full public view. And they expect the citizens to respect them.

They do all this to curb anti-social acts and yet are powerless to stop terrorists from wreaking havoc on the citizens. The implication is even more disturbing when you think about it.

They think, we the citizens are more in need of curbing than the dudes out their wreaking their brand of justice on poor unsuspecting people like you and me.....

Scary thought.

Test Cricket and evenly matched teams

Two different test matches and two results. Test match cricket is alive and kicking. But, test matches need two evenly matched teams to make it so. With the Aussie domination of cricket in the recent past, competitive test series were at a premium. But results were not. The results came thick and fast whenever the Aussies were involved.
But one tends to remember series that are hard fought between teams which don't have too much of a difference between them in terms of personnel, talent and desire. The two current series being played half across the globe from each other have had just that ingredient in spades. Evenly matched teams going at each other, full throttle. The only difference being an individual performance of such luminance so as to pull the teams apart and force a result. Andrew Flintoff managed to bring England back into the second test but could not inspire the others enough to win it. Graeme Smith on the other hand played a career defining innings to script history for his country.
Sehwag's innings inspired his other teammates to up their game and propel India to a series leveling win. Just his first innings score was the difference between the two teams in that test. While Sehwag has set it up for a barnstorming finale to this series, Smith has probably ended his opposite numbers time at the helm. Lots to look forward to in test cricket.

OD'ing on Sports

If you are an out and out sports fan, now is as good a time as any to be alive and enjoying it. Euro '08 was sensational to say the least and more so in comparison to the last edition. Greece winning it did nothing for the popularity of the beautiful game for sure. The latest edition sure was a great relief to die-hard football fans. The game between Russia and Holland was as breathtaking a game as any I have witnessed.
Between yesterday and today, I was privileged enough to watch individual sporting brilliance rich enough to have me spell bound late into the night and again transfixed to the TV early in the morning.
When you watch Sehwag batting, you have to suspend all your knowledge about the game and enjoy it. He makes it worth your while in spades. The rest of India's famed batting order made it seem as if they were playing on a minefield and Sehwag on a featherbed. Such is his dominance when in full flow. I hope to see many more innings like this one from him, having seen pretty much all his specials from the time he made his debut. People like Sehwag make it interesting for us sports fans.
Meanwhile far away in England, Freddie was doing what he does best, once again. Pulling England out of the pits singlehandedly. He bowled a spell so intense and hostile, he had Kallis gasping for breath. They say test match cricket is under threat. Not by a long stretch if yesterday was anything to go by. But its more and more dependent on players like Sehwag and Freddie to keep the interest alive. With a legion of the big boys in the twilight of their careers, the sooner cricket unearths players like Sehwag and Flintoff the better it is for the game.

Then in the morning today, I watched a display of insanity and inspiration all at once at the 14th X games. Three guys on skateboards showed the world, what sports at its purest is truly about. They drove each other to such heights of performance that they traded the top spots between each other after every attempt. They fell, but got up again and tried again. They applauded each insane stunt the other one pulled and in the end, the bravest of them won. Take a bow Bob Burnquist and Danny Way!