Cricket

Amidst the breast beating surrounding the retirement of Sachin Tendulkar, I sat through a sad piece of interviewing by one Boria Majumdar, a sports journalist. The gent was interviewing a galaxy of stars; Brian Lara, Rameez Raja, Gautam Gambhir and the bad boy of Pakistan cricket S.Akhtar. Well the drift was as follows: Sachin was the greatest to have graced the cricket field and stands above the rest. While I love Sachin, Boria's stand is a bit rich. How can one compare, Sir Gary Sobers, Viv Richards, Brian Lara,Sachin Tendulkar and the great Don Bradman. All of them batted their way to history in different era's and demolished the best of their time. Bradman of course stands tall with his average of 99.94. An awesome feat which has since not been matched.

Boria's stand is that Sachin is greater than the Don, simply because the latter did not play in India. Well, he did play against India in Australia and literally nailed every Indian bolwler. Importantly the Don missed five years of cricket due to one Adolf Hitler jack booting through Europe and WW2, while in his prime. Sachin tendulkar is our pride and a great cricketer but to place him on a pedestal is robbing cricket of that place. The game deserves better.Sachin was a child prodigy who fulfilled that promise.

Rahul Dravid's count of 8 series-defining performances in Test cricket is not just the highest for any Indian Test cricketer, it is the highest by any batsman in all of Test cricket history. This is what makes Rahul Dravid such a giant even in international cricket. How does he compare with Sachin? The game of cricket is a great one and can we leave it at that please?

Bengaluru Boys

The other day as I sat down to watch the Royal Challengers of Bengaluru play the Rajasthan Royals in the Indian Premier League at Bengaluru I was struck at the emotional discord that Rahul Dravid seemed to be going through as he went out for the toss. Rahul received huge applause from a partisan Bengaluru crowd...they were cheering the enemy. Rahul Dravid skippers the RR from Jaipur.
The enormity of playing against your home team at a ground where you learnt your cricket must have sunk in, even as the crowd chanted his name. Rahul Dravid is talked about as the next big thing in cricket administration and one day is expected to be the chairman of the International Cricket Council, the premier role in cricket administration. The cap stone, to a wonderful career on and off the cricket field.
As Rahul Dravid, left the centre, post the toss, there was this other bloke, in the RCB dug out looking relaxed and cheerful. Another Bengaluru boy and legend, Anil Kumble now mentors the RCB. Anil played for the RCB a couple of years and retired immediately on hearing that he was not selected by the RCB. His reason for quitting was that he could not dream of playing against Bengaluru, should he be selected by another franchise, as in the case of Rahul Dravid. The ethos and principle is fantastic. One loves the game and just wants to play, the other wants to play within defined parameters and not against his own ex collegues. Both made their choices and right in their own way and both fantastic role models and individuals.
Importantly both great Bengaluru boys!
As Shakespeare said in A Midsummer Night’s Dream:
Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind, and therefore is winged Cupid painted blind.

The Quiet Bangalorean!

Two things struck me over the last week or so. The first being the fact that men in power clutch at anything and everything including straw when they fear they are drowning and two, the entertainment that the mundane provides.
Both have to do with the Indian cricket team’s performance in England and the recall of Rahul Dravid to the one day team after two years. It is not coincidental that India did not play top class teams abroad during this period and now that they are, performance clearly separates’ men from the boys.
While the cricketing pundits in India do not seem to be overly surprised, the man himself (Dravid) has since announced his retirement from pajama cricket, post the series for which he has been selected. He probably realizes that he will be jettisoned once the team returns to India and its flat tracks where the big boys with bigger endorsements will come out to murder hapless bowlers in the heat. He saved the selectors the trouble of dropping him.
Former India batter, Sanjay Manjerekar was at his best when he observed a few days ago that when people saw the God of cricket, Sachin Tendulkar when he was 14 years old there was no doubt that they were watching a genius in the making. Manjerekar later captained Rahul Dravid and says he never thought that Dravid would reach the heights that he has and the tough bloke that he has turned out to be. In short Dravid has over achieved.
In doing so he has shown us the importance of intelligence, dedication, simplicity, hard work and focus. Characteristics that never seem to go out of fashion, the size of endorsements not withstanding! You can also be certain that he will be there trying to keep the English bowlers out, while the Indian Institute of Management @ Ranchi, India, attempts to map beleaguered Indian captain M.S.Dhoni’s brain, to determine his leadership traits and style.
Slapstick and comedy are never in short supply.The probable reason why we smile amidst our daily chaos and silently salute quiet blokes like the Dravid's who keep us afloat!

Games- On & Off the field!

Mind games are intriguing and extremely effective. In sport, the Brits were past masters and effectively passed on the baton to their cousins the Australians.

It would go like this:

Prior to a cricketing tour to India, the British press, would start talking about, the poor hygiene in India, the lack of cricketing infrastructure, the poverty and so on. This would be followed by, comments that Indians could not play fast bowling and so on. The effect of this would be that the Indian cricketers, uncoached in this area would be on the defensive, even before the first ball was bowled.The battle was lost before it began! An old colonial stunt................

Dale Steyn, the South African quick, was at it the other day, just before, the Indians start their tour of SA. He said the Indians would have a problem, scoring against the South African fast bowlers. I was not surprised.

What surprised me was the Indian response...............because generally we absorb this nonsense. This time, the riposte came from 'The Wall', Rahul Dravid. He said, that the Indians had the necessary fire power, to return the complements and the Africans had better watch out.

Now it is intriguing that this response came from Dravid, because he is the quiet types. The silent types.He is also know the world over, as the 'thinker' and the strategist of the Indian team.When he speaks the opposition listens.In Dravid speaking, a few things have been communicated very clearly:

1. Stop the BS and walk your talk on the field.
2. Dale Steyn & Dravid are team mates for RCB in the IPL, even so............its war now.

Mind games while undesirable are part of the game and I'm glad we have learnt to play them, with finesse!