My eyes were glued to the Live scorecard of Cricinfo, hand busy trying to refresh the page every single second- Just to see who would be the greatest among the greats! Pakistan had everything going in favor of them until tat last deadly over or taking it further more- the impeccable performance by Mike Hussey. They had put up challenging 191 on the board- Thanks to the Akmal bros notching up a 50 piece with Butt chipping in an useful 32. Then they got Aussies on the backfoot- picking up early wickets, all of their bowlers having a really good economy. Until the Whites and the Husseys cut loose sending the ball all over the park. Started with White- who I have never seen play for RCB- True Desh bhakth- but got out when they had 50+ runs to chase. It was never easy for the tail enders to whack around. But Hussey was the man- he had in him the sleeping devil who unleashed his wrath- sending the ball over the boundary. Still 18 required- I thought Pak had still chances of winning- but Jhonny was intelligent enough to get him a single and the devil smashed- 6-6-4-6 Can u imagine that? I was just speechless, shocked- omg Aussies have made it to the finals 🙁
But I really liked the determination Hussey had- fought till the last, never gave up! The “Never Say Die” attitude of the Aussies is something which our very own Team India has to learn. Never play the blame game- and BCCI has been finding the scapegoat for their dismal performance in the World Cup. Had India been their they would have accepted the defeat even before they started the chase! The Aussies hav in them- When all of their players fail to perform- someone stands up and takes them to the victory- I remember Symonds doing this most of the times. Do we have to blame the IPL for India’s dismal performance. We see that Indian players lack discipline, dedication- IPL has got them the money in an easy way and people rely on their past performances to reward them every now and then. It gets on to my nerves to read in the newspapers the fight between the coach, BCCI, players. Though I havent watched even a single Indian match (good that I didn’t 😀 ) but then reading in the newspapers was more than sufficient to grasp the total situation. Indians cant play Short Pitch deliveries- And they call themselves International players- with a exposed weakness. Couldn’t they work on their weakness- why give the opponent the chance to exploit it? Players getting injured just before important tournaments, or not being 100% fit but still drafted to play and they under perform and blame the selection committee for selecting them- All these create an imbalanced team. This happened even in the last Twenty20 World Cup. Now they want to sack Dhoni. So who’s going to replace him? Shewag? – who gave his 100% to Delhi Daredevils to get injured and not play in the World Cup? The one who’s so reckless in his batting?
In India people follow cricket as a religion- That’s the mistake we Indians do. And sports like Hockey, Badminton, Tennis, Chess, Football, Basketball are not at all even considered. These cricketers earn in loads- thru Ads, match fee, awards and so on. What are the people following them crazily getting? “Chambu” There was the time of Dravids, Tendulkar, Kumble, Srinath, Prasad and other senior players who were The Gentleman and still they are. But these so called “Senior Youngsters” are dead opposite to them. And these upcoming “Youngsters” follow them as their role models. Going to pubs, drinking, pub brawls, parties- what are these? Signs of a Sports person? Never- Discipline should be the foremost and then comes fitness and then comes your game. When all these three are in sync- u have a perfect sports person there.
PS: Through out my blog post I have considered the current Twenty20 Squad and their performances and the recent events happening around.