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LINUS FERNANDES
Dhoni’s pressing concerns
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Post another inept batting display aided by a slew of umpiring errors, Team India slid to an abysmal loss against the Lankans on Sunday at Dambulla.
However, this article is not going to lament another inconsistent performance by Dhoni’s boys. There is probably enough media coverage of the defeat.Nor am I one of those who like to get down to it as the match progresses or as soon as it finishes.
An interesting sideshow of yesterday’s loss was that MS Dhoni and his boys refused to attend the press conference that immediately follows the match. This caused the print journalists to throw up their arms in frustration and boycott the press conference.
The captain was ostensibly busy playing football when the scribes frantically tried to contact him. What a s(h)occer!
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Spirit Of The Game:Will and Grace
The fallout of the condemnatory reaction to the no- ball incident has been swift in its dénouement.
Suraj Randiv has been suspended for the next game and fined 100% of his match fee.
Tillekaratne Dilshan has forfeited his entire match fee as well.
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Kumara Sangakarra gets off with just a slap on the wrist – not even a perfunctory rap on the knuckles.
The Sri Lankan cricket board was quick to react and ordered an enquiry into the unsavory affair.
The Sri Lankan board comes out smelling like roses; it has been commended by the ICC for its speedy resolution of the controversy. The Spirit Of The Game has been enforced.
The same cannot be said of the other protagonists in L’affaire No Ball.
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Do our sporting heroes deserve us?
A nation gets the politicians it deserves.
By the same token, do fans get the sports stars they deserve?
Kumar Sangakarra instructed his young teammate and bowler Suraj Randiv to ensure that Sehwag be denied the single he needed to complete his century. Sangakarra was seen to have deliberately allowed four byes past earlier in Randiv’s over ensuring the scores were tied with Sehwag still stuck on ninety-nine.
The youthful Randiv bowls a blatant no ball to finish the match. His interpretation of his skipper’s exhortation was translated into controversial action. The transgression over the line was clear-cut; there was no shadow for doubt. It could not have been overlooked by the hapless umpire.
The shameful act has been debated by cricketing pundits all over the world; more so in the Sri Lankan and Indian media. Can we say that winning at all costs has now become the mantra of the hour?
This was not about winning either. It was the petulant act of a spoilt child when denied a lollipop.
“If I can’t have a win, you shall not have a century either , however well-deserved!”
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The Indian cricket team: Pace bowling riches?
Dhoni’s troubles
On Saturday, the 14th of August, 2010 , Dhoni walked out of a practice session when Dinesh Karthik was struck on the thumb by a nastily bouncing ball. The excuse given was that the practice facilities were inadequate; the pitch was underprepared and dangerous to use.
On Sunday, the 15th of August, Dhoni sought to underline his independence from the BCCI requesting that the Indian bowlers be rotated more often to allow them more rest and time to recover from their many niggles.
So what gives? Is the pressure of arguably the hottest seat in the country getting too much for Mahendra Singh Dhoni to handle?
The weight of a billion expectations is overwhelming. Is Dhoni finding the captain’s kitchen too warm for comfort?
Or is Dhoni trying to cut manic expectations of his young, troubled side?
Is he beseeching the Indian cricket fan to be more understanding, more kind, more real?
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Dhoni and Nets Walk Outs
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Dhoni walked out of the practice session on Saturday when Karthik was injured on the right thumb by a nasty delivery.
Wonder how soon will it be that touring teams walk out of Test matches where sub-standard pitches have been laid just so to ensure that the home team can find its way back into the series? There are turners and then there are sub-standard ones. Sometimes, they seem to be synonymous.
Is this a bad pitch for Team India?
Have a great day!
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Is India’s No. 1 ranking truly deserved?
Is India’s No. 1 ranking in Test cricket , a fair assessment of their status in the pecking order of Test playing nations?
Does it reflect consistent performance? Is the Indian team head and shoulders above the competition?
Can Team India lay claim to greatness? Or is it an aggregation of some great individuals who have not always jelled together as a fighting unit?
Is India’s bowling truly world-class? Would India’s bowlers walk into a world eleven on the strength of their performance?
Are the accumulated points over a window of three years enough for cricket crazy fans in Indian to tom-tom India’s superiority and paper over the inconsistencies and sometimes abysmal losses?
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IRace Results
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The IRace results were declared last weekend.
According to the rankings, I performed at 39% of my capacity; the rankings are adjusted for age,height and weight.
Tell me something I don’t know!
I am publishing the email sent out by the race coordinator to race participants.
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Very, Very Special Laxman does an encore
On Laxman
Cometh the hour, cometh the man!
How trite it sounds, how repetitive , how boring.
But there is nothing trite about VVS Laxman,nothing monotonous and his sublime touch has cricket fans transfixed and spellbound.
He has always seemed the bridesmaid,never the bride.
Even though he has that very,very special 281 and that blinding, blistering 167, both against the Aussies, one at Kolkata, the other at Sydney in 2000 when he opened the innings at the outset of his career.The 167 denotes a period when the selectors persisted and insisted that he take up the opener’s role.
This at a time when although the Indian team had a multitude of contenders to the middle order , finding a regular opener to see off the new ball was an exercise in futility. Laxman, however, put his foot down and signaled his intention to stake a place in the middle or not play at all. For a lesser light it would have meant a premature eclipse to a budding career, but neither Laxman nor his claim to greatness could be denied, would be denied.
The 2001 home series against the Aussies cemented his place in the pantheon of cricketing greats. Laxman will always be identified by that defining, unbelievable, edifying knock against an Aussie side that seemed nigh invincible.
Steve Waugh’s kangaroos were made to bleed from a thousand cuts by a cavalier Laxman; the Eden loss also ended the Australian team’s run of sixteen victories on the trot. Interestingly, Australia’s world record of sixteen consecutive victories , was ended by India twice over. There really is something about an Aussie-India series; it brings out the best and sometimes the worst in both sides. A rivalry to match and perhaps surpass the Ashes.
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7000: Sehwag crosses another Rubicon
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Virender Sehwag keeps marching to a different beat, massacring pace and spin alike.
The Sri Lankans are at the receiving end this time around and they aren’t happy recipients.
After the exit of Adam Gilchrist from the hallowed sport , Sehwag is dreaded most by bowlers around the world.
It is not that he simply dominates the bowling; he takes the match by the scruff of its neck and turns it inside out.
Bowlers are said to win games. But Sehwag is a match-winner, in every sense of the term. He is a captain’s delight and when on song is a treat to watch. He is unorthodox but it is this very trait that makes his batting a thing of beauty forever.
He is belligerent,in the Richards mold. But he is ever humble; not for him the swagger and bravado of the West Indian legend.
Quote of the day:
Advice to writers: Sometimes you just have to stop writing. Even before you begin. – Stanislaw J. Lec
Yuvraj Singh: What a boy!
Yuvraj Singh now has a brand new sobriquet ‘ Water Boy’. No, it’s not a reference to the movie of the same name starring Adam Sandler.
A few inebriated fans at the 3rd Test Match between India and Sri Lanka decided that they were not quite ‘having a ball’ imbibing various liquors,the cricket was not entertaining enough and hence decided to vent their spleen on the players and cricketing officials.
Yuvraj Singh was the target of their ire; ‘water boy’ was the insult they came up with when he was performing 12th man duties for the Indian team.
Yuvraj Singh, however, was not one to take it lying down and decided to retaliate in kind.
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Make Time For Sports. 