Last night seeing Srilanka play the semifinals to a scripted perfection it was impossible not to think again about what went wrong with indian cricket. The selection of Greg Chappel over Tom Moody was possibly an emotional one as we indian fans and cricket administrators are prone to hero worship instead of cool calculated thinking about performance analysis.
A few things really stand out in Lankan team management.
The way they have groomed their talent, biggest example is Malinga. With his action he could have fallen pray to wayward bowling under a different management. His first few overs in Semifinal were really stuff dreams are made of. The pitch map was showcasing the results of efforts that may have been put in by bowler and the coach.
The seniors in and out of the team still play their role and take responsibility by giving 110% on the field. Murali was so intent on catching that he didnt hear even a no ball call. Person of stature of Marvan Attapattu is made to sit out all through the world cup and there is no leak in press about this and that.
Just imagine that one of your big hopes like Dilhara Fernando really falls apart in the middle of a crucial phase and still the captain and the team manage to get themselves out of that hole.
Hats off to the Srilankan team, coach and management.
I hope this time around somewhere in BCCI the wiseheads will learn from hindsight.
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Kabootarbaazi
I think every real kabootarbaaz worth his while should take offence to this new use of term which describes age old hobby. Once a royal and nawabi hobby of north indians, i remember it from the childhood memories of small town like Moradabad in UP. Coming to think of it, there is that classic hollywood movie of Marlon Brando "On the waterfront" where our hero spends his most humane moments with the pigeons on the terrace.
Poor kabootars have always been used for those celeberations touting peace and all that blah blah. Still the lasting impressions for hindi cinema buffs is the scene from Parinda, where Anupam Kher is shot and dies in the arms of Anil Kapoor. Kabootars sort of function as the harbinger of violence.
The headlines these days arent about noble breed of kabootars and kabootarbaaz but about the greedy ilk of new age politicians who have turned politics into an enterprise and every perk into revenue generating business. one would expect normally a summary censure from all political parties and resignations or lifelong ban on such people but lo and behold, there are party leaders who are saying that these people are being maligned as a conspiracy!! Hmm reminders of the Money against Questions in question hour episode. Even that incident seems to have faded from public memory and i dont recall if any of those MPs had been banned for life for their crimes.
When will this rot stop?? when will the people in public life gather enough courage to own up their mistakes and walk the plank. I guess real problem lies in the fact that there isn't any one left in politics who is clean enough to be able to point fingers at these tainted ones.
Time has come to overhaul the entire system!!!
Poor kabootars have always been used for those celeberations touting peace and all that blah blah. Still the lasting impressions for hindi cinema buffs is the scene from Parinda, where Anupam Kher is shot and dies in the arms of Anil Kapoor. Kabootars sort of function as the harbinger of violence.
The headlines these days arent about noble breed of kabootars and kabootarbaaz but about the greedy ilk of new age politicians who have turned politics into an enterprise and every perk into revenue generating business. one would expect normally a summary censure from all political parties and resignations or lifelong ban on such people but lo and behold, there are party leaders who are saying that these people are being maligned as a conspiracy!! Hmm reminders of the Money against Questions in question hour episode. Even that incident seems to have faded from public memory and i dont recall if any of those MPs had been banned for life for their crimes.
When will this rot stop?? when will the people in public life gather enough courage to own up their mistakes and walk the plank. I guess real problem lies in the fact that there isn't any one left in politics who is clean enough to be able to point fingers at these tainted ones.
Time has come to overhaul the entire system!!!
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