W – Worthy Winners. As Ian Chappell said “If there is one good thing that happened in this world cup it is that the best team emerged as the winners”. You love them or hate them, but you cannot ignore the Aussies. Their strength is just not their cricketing skills. It is an aggregation of skill, mental strength, and ability to handle pressures and it is far better than even the second best team. There may be a common enmity against Australia but it is more of an envy than enmity .People start hating you only when they are helpless against you and it is a sign that you are the best . I said the same about Michael Schumacher and it applies to the Australian team also. It is also said that the monopoly of Australia is actually killing the game but until they are the best team in the world , they will be winning the world cup how many ever times it is and who ever likes it or not.
O - Others , meaning the other teams . If the teams have to be ranked now , the world cup has already made the job easier . Run down the teams top down from the finals and you would get the rankings . It would mean putting Bangladesh and Ireland above India and Pakistan but is their anyone who doesn’t agree with that. I haven’t liked Srilanka from the day India lost to them in the ignominious 1996 world cup semi finals but my appreciation for them certainly has increased . Here is a team which is very less flamboyant than the other teams but more talented than all others except Australia . They look to have a natural talent and play very well as a team .And South Africa , my initial favourites , have the attitude very much personified by their captain . For them no challenge is bigger than them and they go all out for a win but get impetuous at times and lose their way . About the Indians , so much has been said and done but lets at least hope some good sense prevails after all this chaos and we end up with a good team.
R – Requiem for Woolmer, a good cricketing soul. If you can get yourself to come out of your failures , improve yourself and become a champion , you are undoubtedly good . But if you can do the same on others you are great and Woolmer was one such great. I was really sad the way he died but I only hope the investigation doesn’t bring a big blot on the game he loved so much.
L - Last Act . World Cup is the most important event in any game and the final ,the most important game . But the Cricket World Cup 2007’s final was no were near. The final is the game even non-followers of cricket see and that almost gives the whole picture of the popularity and passion the game has all over the world. Apart from all the mishaps and bungling that happened throughout the event the final was the second worst next only to woolmer’s murder. All that begins well ends well. If this is true then the World Cup was a perfect example. First the final had a bad start with the rain interrupting play and the match reduced to a 38 over per side game . If it is the most important game in the tournament and if two days have been allocated and if people have paid exorbitant amounts for a final’s ticket then why not have on the next day . But then this was the least shameful of the things that happened on that day. Everybody who stayed awake till early morning the next day to watch the match would have seen two celebrations by Australia , the first one interrupted by the umpires and the remaining three bowled just for a formality and then the actual celebrations .Though practically it didn’t make sense I thought following the rules is always good only to find out the next day that what happened was exactly the opposite . According to the rules , a game can be pushed to the next day only if the chasing team hadn’t played at least 20 overs and there was no reason why Australia was told to bowl the remaining 3 overs after srilanka took the light. A fitting finale for a forgettable World Cup.
D - Defeat .A defeat now is definitely not what it is to be earlier. It is something else now and much worse. Any sport is to produce a winner and a loser in each of its instance. While the winners had the spotlight on them before, it is the losers who have it now. I think there is a clear line between being a loser and a failure at least in sport. Defeat in a single game or a series doesn’t mean the players are failures. All that follows a loss in a game now are pathetic. Captains resign (or thrown out) , coaches sacked , the team booed at , player’s houses attacked , their endorsements cut and even people killed . Such are the stakes in cricket now, money has spoilt this sport more than any other . A game of cricket now produces one winner but 12 losers (including the coach). With this unhealthy ratio the game is not getting any better.
C – Caribbean. A country in which cricket still runs on past glory and the past is already 3 decades old . They have had many greats or more aptly greater greats than any cricketing country had ever had. But it is time to forget the past and move on particularly at this moment when the only cricketer who held the game together in the past decade has retired . It is no good for the team but everybody cant be there all the time . They still haven’t got up from the slump the team went into when the last generation players retired . One only hoped hosting this world cup would be a turning point . Sadly neither the country nor the team or even the event benefited. Also this event was less Caribbean than any other I have ever seen before . If the high ticket prices stopped the crowds from going to the matches which they generally occupy to the maximum capacity , the ban on musical instruments and any such things took out the very Caribbean flavour that the place is known for .
U – Underdogs .If this world cup was about anything it is definitely the underdogs. For me they are ones who retained the essence in the otherwise dispassionate World Cup. They came into the world cup not expecting to win but to have a good time and to give something back to the game which recognized them worthy to play in its most prestigious event. I unrealistically wish every team plays like the minnows. They were accountable to no one for their defeats, they didn’t have immature fans waiting for them in their countries and most importantly they didn’t feel they were bigger than the game . All they knew was cricket , enjoyed every run they took , cherished every wicket they got and left with the original essence of the game still in them . Nobody expected them to shake the world cup but they definitely ended stirring it up.
P – Players , at last . Though no player is bigger than the game it is mostly about them and good performers are always worthy of a mention. Each event brings out some winners and some unfortunate losers and also serves as a launching pad for some new talent . While Matt Hayden , Jayewardena , Kevin Peterson , Ponting and Glenn Mcgrath ruled this world cup , the greats like lara , Sachin, Inzamam and Flintoff let themselves to be ruled . But then the game will go on . In every game one team wins and the other loses but the game always goes with the winner .It simply doesn’t care about the loser.
O - Others , meaning the other teams . If the teams have to be ranked now , the world cup has already made the job easier . Run down the teams top down from the finals and you would get the rankings . It would mean putting Bangladesh and Ireland above India and Pakistan but is their anyone who doesn’t agree with that. I haven’t liked Srilanka from the day India lost to them in the ignominious 1996 world cup semi finals but my appreciation for them certainly has increased . Here is a team which is very less flamboyant than the other teams but more talented than all others except Australia . They look to have a natural talent and play very well as a team .And South Africa , my initial favourites , have the attitude very much personified by their captain . For them no challenge is bigger than them and they go all out for a win but get impetuous at times and lose their way . About the Indians , so much has been said and done but lets at least hope some good sense prevails after all this chaos and we end up with a good team.
R – Requiem for Woolmer, a good cricketing soul. If you can get yourself to come out of your failures , improve yourself and become a champion , you are undoubtedly good . But if you can do the same on others you are great and Woolmer was one such great. I was really sad the way he died but I only hope the investigation doesn’t bring a big blot on the game he loved so much.
L - Last Act . World Cup is the most important event in any game and the final ,the most important game . But the Cricket World Cup 2007’s final was no were near. The final is the game even non-followers of cricket see and that almost gives the whole picture of the popularity and passion the game has all over the world. Apart from all the mishaps and bungling that happened throughout the event the final was the second worst next only to woolmer’s murder. All that begins well ends well. If this is true then the World Cup was a perfect example. First the final had a bad start with the rain interrupting play and the match reduced to a 38 over per side game . If it is the most important game in the tournament and if two days have been allocated and if people have paid exorbitant amounts for a final’s ticket then why not have on the next day . But then this was the least shameful of the things that happened on that day. Everybody who stayed awake till early morning the next day to watch the match would have seen two celebrations by Australia , the first one interrupted by the umpires and the remaining three bowled just for a formality and then the actual celebrations .Though practically it didn’t make sense I thought following the rules is always good only to find out the next day that what happened was exactly the opposite . According to the rules , a game can be pushed to the next day only if the chasing team hadn’t played at least 20 overs and there was no reason why Australia was told to bowl the remaining 3 overs after srilanka took the light. A fitting finale for a forgettable World Cup.
D - Defeat .A defeat now is definitely not what it is to be earlier. It is something else now and much worse. Any sport is to produce a winner and a loser in each of its instance. While the winners had the spotlight on them before, it is the losers who have it now. I think there is a clear line between being a loser and a failure at least in sport. Defeat in a single game or a series doesn’t mean the players are failures. All that follows a loss in a game now are pathetic. Captains resign (or thrown out) , coaches sacked , the team booed at , player’s houses attacked , their endorsements cut and even people killed . Such are the stakes in cricket now, money has spoilt this sport more than any other . A game of cricket now produces one winner but 12 losers (including the coach). With this unhealthy ratio the game is not getting any better.
C – Caribbean. A country in which cricket still runs on past glory and the past is already 3 decades old . They have had many greats or more aptly greater greats than any cricketing country had ever had. But it is time to forget the past and move on particularly at this moment when the only cricketer who held the game together in the past decade has retired . It is no good for the team but everybody cant be there all the time . They still haven’t got up from the slump the team went into when the last generation players retired . One only hoped hosting this world cup would be a turning point . Sadly neither the country nor the team or even the event benefited. Also this event was less Caribbean than any other I have ever seen before . If the high ticket prices stopped the crowds from going to the matches which they generally occupy to the maximum capacity , the ban on musical instruments and any such things took out the very Caribbean flavour that the place is known for .
U – Underdogs .If this world cup was about anything it is definitely the underdogs. For me they are ones who retained the essence in the otherwise dispassionate World Cup. They came into the world cup not expecting to win but to have a good time and to give something back to the game which recognized them worthy to play in its most prestigious event. I unrealistically wish every team plays like the minnows. They were accountable to no one for their defeats, they didn’t have immature fans waiting for them in their countries and most importantly they didn’t feel they were bigger than the game . All they knew was cricket , enjoyed every run they took , cherished every wicket they got and left with the original essence of the game still in them . Nobody expected them to shake the world cup but they definitely ended stirring it up.
P – Players , at last . Though no player is bigger than the game it is mostly about them and good performers are always worthy of a mention. Each event brings out some winners and some unfortunate losers and also serves as a launching pad for some new talent . While Matt Hayden , Jayewardena , Kevin Peterson , Ponting and Glenn Mcgrath ruled this world cup , the greats like lara , Sachin, Inzamam and Flintoff let themselves to be ruled . But then the game will go on . In every game one team wins and the other loses but the game always goes with the winner .It simply doesn’t care about the loser.
1 comments:
Dude,
Your wish hasn't happened - India is still stuck with players with walking sticks - Sachin, Sourav and Rahul.
Sachin - Played so patehtic, that he should have retired, but instead went to Bangladesh and scored 2 "centuries".
Sourav - Terrible waste of talent.
Rahul - Incapable captain, but a tremendous team player.
Dhoni needs to be given a crew cut and then should be asked to play.
Chuck that useless harbhajan, who is in the team just because of april 2001.
Save BCCI from pawar and co.
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