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Showing posts with label Independence Day. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Independence Day. Show all posts
The Worst Of All Time
It took one series, hell, not even one series but three tests, for everyone to do a 180 from "World No.1" to the worst of all time. Sure the manner of the capitulation has disappointed (understatement alert) many, but seriously, how could opinions change so quickly. All of sudden the usual suspects, the same standard flibbertigibbet media morons, are out with glee and a vengeance shouting "BCCI is shit, they don't care about test cricket, Dhoni is an idiot, bowling has always been horrible, old greats are old and must be phased out..." etc etc etc.
Suddenly pundits have declared that if you don't have a world class fast bowling attack, you cannot be No.1. If thats so, explain even the great Australian side's record in India. Simple fact one. England have a good pace attack... especially in England. Simple fact two, South Africa's pace attack is still better. Simple fact three, we never claimed to have the best pace attack in the world, we never said Sreesanth, Ishant and PK were Holdings or Marshalls, we said on their day they could trouble the best, as they have in the past.
So ZaK was unfit, so what? This was a tired attack. They'd just won the world cup. They'd played the IPL. They'd toured the Windies. Sreesanth and Zak came back from injuries. Suddenly the same attack that ripped the heart out of South Africa in South Africa is mediocre. What utter tosh. I'd like England to tour India with this same squad, we'll show the world who is utter tosh. Just go back to Anderson's, the alleged best fast bowler in the world (forgotten Steyn simply because he isn't playing English fucktards?) record in the world cup.
Next argument, N Srinivasan is a moron for saying this is just one series and the players were injured. Guess what, those are facts. We've had an incredible run, and now a tired, injury-ridden team came up against a better prepared and well conditioned one PLAYING AT HOME. Did the BCCI's decision to schedule the IPL after the world cup show their lack of concern for test cricket? Here's the deal, the IPL had to be held for the same business reasons as England having to host additional T20 matches against the Windies later in the year.
You can pick on the IPL all you want but it, unlike test cricket, has a future. Test cricket is dying. There are no spinners worth writing about because pitches are so shit. There are four sides who can play competitive test cricket, the rest are in total disarray. Bangladesh never deserved the honor and just lost to a side who hadn't played for years. That side would struggle to compete with the Windies or New Zealand, who would struggle to compete with Pakistan, who can just about compete with the rest when they're not busy banning half their side. Sri Lanka are in terminal decline, you want to laugh at India's bowling stocks, take a look at theirs.
So before you write off India's chances at regaining the number one position, talk about Test cricket's chances of surviving. When the big three retire, there will be far less interest in tests in India. That has probably already started with this series loss. The quality of test cricket being played today is the lowest it has been for a while. Australia and England, the apparent last great test survival hopes, have seen their players and boards acknowledge this fact, the future isn't in tests. T20 tournaments are getting more attention, the newer players don't seem as interested in tests as in the big bucks.
The paying public, the large majority who aren't snobbish and claim their powers of concentration, also known as greater periods of joblessness, are greater than those who want to enjoy a fun game of T20, are slowly moving towards the shorter formats. England have just assumed the number one position in test cricket, do you honestly think there are schoolkids out there who'd rather emulate tranny Cook than Dhoni in the IPL? The old folk can whine, they can pick on India, they can harp on the shorter concentration spans, the poorer technique, insult it however they want, but they are all like test cricket, increasingly becoming obsolescent. And deservedly so, if you want to fix something, you fix it, you don't moan about it and rubbish its (serious and worthy) competitors.
So you see how quickly an article about the apocalypse of test cricket can be churned out? That should come as no surprise. That is how quickly and easily they wrote off my national side. A side that accomplished dreams we never could have imagined after the 2007 world cup. They lost just the one series, to Sri Lanka in Sri Lanka. Then they won just about everything they played. Maybe not as convincingly, but well enough to hold the top position. And one abject tour has been enough for those who've been sharpening their knives for a while to come out and squeal "WE TOLD YOU SO!" But it is what it is, just a series loss. Give them time to rest and regroup, to focus, to rejuvenate and you'll be surprised to see how quickly that spirit will be rekindled. Give them the faith and support you did during the world cup, that they rewarded you so handsomely with. Stand by your team when they're down, the fair weather fans never knew the 90s anyway.
Happy Independence Day, from a proud Indian and proud Indian cricket fan.
Suddenly pundits have declared that if you don't have a world class fast bowling attack, you cannot be No.1. If thats so, explain even the great Australian side's record in India. Simple fact one. England have a good pace attack... especially in England. Simple fact two, South Africa's pace attack is still better. Simple fact three, we never claimed to have the best pace attack in the world, we never said Sreesanth, Ishant and PK were Holdings or Marshalls, we said on their day they could trouble the best, as they have in the past.
So ZaK was unfit, so what? This was a tired attack. They'd just won the world cup. They'd played the IPL. They'd toured the Windies. Sreesanth and Zak came back from injuries. Suddenly the same attack that ripped the heart out of South Africa in South Africa is mediocre. What utter tosh. I'd like England to tour India with this same squad, we'll show the world who is utter tosh. Just go back to Anderson's, the alleged best fast bowler in the world (forgotten Steyn simply because he isn't playing English fucktards?) record in the world cup.
Next argument, N Srinivasan is a moron for saying this is just one series and the players were injured. Guess what, those are facts. We've had an incredible run, and now a tired, injury-ridden team came up against a better prepared and well conditioned one PLAYING AT HOME. Did the BCCI's decision to schedule the IPL after the world cup show their lack of concern for test cricket? Here's the deal, the IPL had to be held for the same business reasons as England having to host additional T20 matches against the Windies later in the year.
You can pick on the IPL all you want but it, unlike test cricket, has a future. Test cricket is dying. There are no spinners worth writing about because pitches are so shit. There are four sides who can play competitive test cricket, the rest are in total disarray. Bangladesh never deserved the honor and just lost to a side who hadn't played for years. That side would struggle to compete with the Windies or New Zealand, who would struggle to compete with Pakistan, who can just about compete with the rest when they're not busy banning half their side. Sri Lanka are in terminal decline, you want to laugh at India's bowling stocks, take a look at theirs.
So before you write off India's chances at regaining the number one position, talk about Test cricket's chances of surviving. When the big three retire, there will be far less interest in tests in India. That has probably already started with this series loss. The quality of test cricket being played today is the lowest it has been for a while. Australia and England, the apparent last great test survival hopes, have seen their players and boards acknowledge this fact, the future isn't in tests. T20 tournaments are getting more attention, the newer players don't seem as interested in tests as in the big bucks.
The paying public, the large majority who aren't snobbish and claim their powers of concentration, also known as greater periods of joblessness, are greater than those who want to enjoy a fun game of T20, are slowly moving towards the shorter formats. England have just assumed the number one position in test cricket, do you honestly think there are schoolkids out there who'd rather emulate tranny Cook than Dhoni in the IPL? The old folk can whine, they can pick on India, they can harp on the shorter concentration spans, the poorer technique, insult it however they want, but they are all like test cricket, increasingly becoming obsolescent. And deservedly so, if you want to fix something, you fix it, you don't moan about it and rubbish its (serious and worthy) competitors.
So you see how quickly an article about the apocalypse of test cricket can be churned out? That should come as no surprise. That is how quickly and easily they wrote off my national side. A side that accomplished dreams we never could have imagined after the 2007 world cup. They lost just the one series, to Sri Lanka in Sri Lanka. Then they won just about everything they played. Maybe not as convincingly, but well enough to hold the top position. And one abject tour has been enough for those who've been sharpening their knives for a while to come out and squeal "WE TOLD YOU SO!" But it is what it is, just a series loss. Give them time to rest and regroup, to focus, to rejuvenate and you'll be surprised to see how quickly that spirit will be rekindled. Give them the faith and support you did during the world cup, that they rewarded you so handsomely with. Stand by your team when they're down, the fair weather fans never knew the 90s anyway.
Happy Independence Day, from a proud Indian and proud Indian cricket fan.
Freedom 2010
Commitments to you, commitments to who?
Commitments to another India Sri Lanka series that’s who
Commitments to a tri series, yahoo!
Commitments to a Hi! Hi! Series
How low can it get
How low can it get
Let’s go to the paradise island below, again
And again, and again, and again
Let’s go, again, and again, and one more time,
Again…
The people change, the board stays the same
The people change, the board stays the same
Shame, shame, the board stays the same
And same, same, the board stays the shame
Hardened men in white safari suits
If they bowled a ball, or batted an eyelid
It wasn’t in this lifetime
No, no, not in this lifetime
For
Cricket is commerce
It’s terse and it’s dirty
Cricket is commerce
Commerce, commerce
Terse, terse, commerce, commerce
I’m above India Sri Lanka, Dhoni was once
I’m above India Sri Lanka, Sachin is
And Gambhir and Bhajji
And you and me
And Viru and Raina for the weekend
Why can’t we all be
Free of India Sri Lanka
Happy Bored Day India.
Here’s to freedom from India Sri Lanka series
They're bad, they're bad, I know it they're bad!
Cricket Freedom.
What with India’s 62nd Independence Day, the whole freedom routine’s rubbed off our cricket too:
1. Indian cricketers’ freedom from the clutches of WADA’s ‘Whereabouts’ clause: whereabouts they will achieve this freedom is known – in BCCI they trust.
2. Sreesanth’s freedom from the heavy hand of Indian cricket in some far away English county.
3. Dravid’s freedom from that test cricket tattoo, gate-crashing the ODIs through the IPL – a more bizarre revolt in cricket is unknown.
4. Bhajji and MSD’s freedom from conservation: the Hummer. What next, the U.S. army? Afghanistan.
5. Ganguly’s freedom from John Buchanan. A freedom struggle that likened India’s non-violent revolt, a stoic and resolute Dada withstood the verbal canes of the goras, only to emerge as the father of the Knight Rider nation, again.
6. India’s freedom from cricket. Come again, when last did we play?
7. England's freedom from cricket. Come again, when last did they play?
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