Diary of Pratik Phadke

World Cup Champions and all that ...

Fri, 05 Oct 2007 19:05:44 +0530

What a final! And India won! A bowler called Sharma bowled a ball with Pakistan requiring 5 to win .... and he got the Pakistani batsmen out. How about that for erasing some past demons :-) India had actually won a major multination tournament outright. How long have we waited for that?

The hyper-celebrations reflected a nation thirsting for success. I found it amusing that some writers thought the celebrations were over the top and that somehow we should have just all gone home the next day. They are entitled to their opinion but am not sure why they care. Our team won the world cup so we will celebrate the way we want to. What is even more hilarious is Andrew Symonds saying the celebrations motivated him for the ODI series. Heck, wasn"t being knocked out by India enough motivation -- why did the celebrations jar him more than the loss. Seems like a clear case of sour grapes to me.

I was a cynic when the T20 WC started. I had only seen a few T20 games and they had mostly been one sided slam-bang contests. But the WC was different. The bowlers flourished in a format that was supposed to be their graveyard. Quite a few of them won Man of the Match awards. The format brought more parity between the teams and it was refreshing to know that no team was the clear favorite.There was action every ball and that kept me on the edge of my seat. I am now converted and am a staunch supporter of the format.

I just hope the next few months of cricket are as interesting and exciting as the T20 tournament was.

Matchguru

Sat, 12 May 2007 00:03:25 +0530

Travis Basevi has added in another awesome feature to Cricinfo. You can now search for specific matches using this tool. I think they should call it Matchguru. Very cool tool for the cricket geek!

Search for Adelaide 2003 or Kolkata 2001 to find a classic game. :-)

Phew, at least we won ....

Fri, 11 May 2007 19:44:15 +0530

India managed to scramble home despite an ordinary bowling and fielding performance. The top order batting crumbled again but Dhoni & Karthik got India home although there were a few close moments.

The nature of the win just verified what that India are a very ordinary ODI team at the moment. Harsha's latest article provides an insight on some of the issues behind the team's mediocrity.

Apparently Shastri thinks otherwise. I am not as confident but am hoping that some of the below-par performances were because of the long break before this game and the bowlers get some rhythm going as the series progresses.

At least Karthik and Dhoni (well Yuvraj really) ran the singles and twos and did not have to hit a lot of boundaries. Lets see if this trend continues ...

Indian Cricket Scandal: Time for fans to rethink?

Wed, 09 May 2007 23:10:31 +0530

Indian cricket is facing another big scandal. The match fixing scandal turned away a lot of fans and the recent revelations about infighting and factions within the team are sure to turn away another generation.

I have been reading quite a lot (blogs, newspapers, etc.) and reading the comments sections on the electronic media brings up a couple of interesting points:

1. The general person/fan has chosen sides.

People have their favorite player(s). If their favorite player is criticized or accused, be prepared for a vehement rebuttal and a request for fairer and more balanced treatment of their favored star.

2. The same set of folks are more than willing to sling mud on the supposed "other side".

What this means is that there are very few who are willing to be critical of their own heroes and be balanced about players/coaches they don't agree with.

It seems like a clear case of misplaced loyalty. Indian cricket fans should have their loyalty to the Indian cricket team first and the individual players second. Seems obvious but somehow most folks seemed to have just missed this.

For a long time success of the big 3 (Tendulkar, Ganguly, Dravid) & perhaps Laxman (in test matches) was directly related to the success/failure of the team. Somewhere along the road fans started supporting the players instead of the team and the whole controversy around dropping Ganguly and Chappell's antics just polarized the fan base.

Today, most fans have tunnel vision in which their personal hero is faultless while the other players/coach are to blame.

I think its time for the fans to take a step back and look at the team and decide what is in the team's best interests. Then decide whether the players (big, small, or upcoming) fit into the team goals.

Once you approach the problem from the team perspective and personal loyalties to a player become secondary, we should see a more balanced and logical discussion on how and where we want the Indian team to go.