Cricket: South Africa No.1, England Busy Fighting KP, India Ready!

By -

South Africa No.1!
If you thought star-ego wars were restricted only to Indian teams—be it in cricket or tennis—you were proved wrong by what happened or rather still happening in England. Interestingly, this gives you another chance to strengthen the synthesis that basically we Indians inherit most of our negative mindsets from our past colonial masters—England! Whatever be the legacy of the once ‘masters’ and once ‘slaves’ both of these countries show the ominous tendency to sacrifice national interests or pride in the rampant inability of their respective sports managers to handle their star players judiciously. 

South Africa had just become the No.1 Test team in International Cricket Council (ICC) rankings by toppling England with a 2-0 win in the recent Test cricket series played between the two countries in England. The winning margin of greater than 1-0 came for South Africa after long sixty years. Gary Kristen shines as maybe the first ever coach to take two different teams to No.1 position—India being the first beneficiary. 

Hashim Amla!
Incidentally, England became the No.1 team by drubbing India 4-0 in the Test series played in England in 2011. South Africa won the first Test played in July, 2012 riding high on an incredible unbeaten triple century by Hashim Amla and thus routing England by an innings and 12 runs. The second Test was drawn due mostly to rains, and therefore the third Test became very crucial for England as they faced losing their No.1 position if they did not manage to win it. But by then, the star-ego war between Kevin Pietersen (KP) and the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) was raging. 

All was not well with Kevin Pietersen since he returned from playing in the Indian Premiere League-5 during April-May, 2012. It was likely that he must have fought with the ECB over adjusting his schedules considering his high stakes in the IPL. To bring matters to a head KP announced his retirement from one day international cricket and expressed his willingness to continue in T20 cricket. The ECB rebutted by saying that he had to retire wholly from limited overs cricket and not just from one-dayers. KP had to retract his announcement later. 

Kevin Pietersen!
After the England rout in the first Test of the South Africa-England Test Series-2012 all hell broke loose on the suspicion that KP had sent some mobile text messages to South African players criticizing his own teammates and the cricket board. Text messages normally imply very private communication between individuals and no third party is supposed to know or debate them. But maybe due to KP’s South Africa-born background and his past temperamental history the woes increased manifold for him and the ego war showed no signs of abating. Either party did not want to yield an inch. 

Eventually KP was dropped from the England team for the all-important third Test and apparently there was no consideration for the possible loss of national pride if England failed to win it. A key player figuring in his team’s many wins was thrown out for petty ego hassles. That England lost the exciting third Test on the last day by 51 runs and got dethroned to No.2 position in ICC Test rankings was history. 

The ego buck refused to stop even then. Kevin Pietersen was dropped too from the T20 World Cup coming up in Sri Lanka from September, 18, 2012. This decision was taken despite knowing the facts that England’s triumph in T20 World Cup-2010 was its first ever in ICC tournaments and KP was instrumental in the team’s wins in the crucial later matches leading up to the final. The Indian Tennis story was a recent similar case when the nation’s prospects in London Olympics-2012 got compromised due to endless ego wars and pathetic mismanagement. 

A nationalist mindset would serve sports better than the master-servant one! 

 Meanwhile, the India-New Zealand Test cricket series starts from tomorrow, August 23, 2012 and Team India is definitely going to exploit home conditions to win the Series in an effort to improve its ICC Test rankings too. For the first time in 16 years India will be playing a Test without the services of both Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman. The focus will be ruthlessly on the youngsters for whom skipper Dhoni has been batting so intensely over the recent years. India will also be playing a Test after nearly 8 months with the painful memory of 8 straight away losses. And, this is going to be only the beginning a packed domestic season for months ahead.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Raghu Krishna: Adieu!

By -
Image
The man in the blue suit He was more of a dear friend than a boss. Raghu Krishna , the former Chief Producer of Films Division, Mumbai and Director of MIFF (Mumbai International Film Festival for Documentary, Short and Animation Films) for 2004 and 2006 versions, passed away today following a brain stroke and coma. I first knew him as a film director in Films Division, Mumbai. As we became close we started playing table tennis. He was an attacking player specializing in smashes. Once I was defeated by a colleague and next game Raghu defeated him. Later, Raghu came over to my room for a fag and told me proudly, ‘I wanted to beat him because he beat you!’ I sensed his love for me instantly. Raghu appeared for an interview for the top post and finally got selected. He joined as Chief Producer in January 2004 and immediately took charge of MIFF 2004 as Festival Director. Till MIFF 2006 I worked under him and enjoyed every bit of it. He showed tremendous faith in me in the role of
Read more

Local Instability!

By -
Image
The two had not been in a stable state since the outbreak of the pandemic or positively longer perhaps. The problem was they had always been extremely close to each other like next door neighbors; however, the problem was exacerbated by their close physical proximity. Well, neighbors can be next door, but they have separate entrances and independent four-wall habitable units. In this case of the two there was no such personal space, they are almost joined together with separation impossible unless in the extreme case of physical elimination; no social distancing possible even if they wanted which in fact they did want on many occasions. But they had been under a mortal dread of a new entity forcing in its entry if one of them were eliminated. This situation exists even now.   They need each other very frequently on jobs that they have to perform together. For those kinds of jobs they indeed cooperate as much as each one is personally capable of. However, perhaps because of the exis
Read more

KK Demise: Bollywood Vs Regional!

By -
Image
There was an ugly kind of mad expression just the day before the Kolkata concert of the famous Bollywood playback singer Krishnakumar Kunnath (KK) who succumbed to a heart attack immediately after that fateful concert, held in a jammed auditorium in extreme humid heat conditions. Due to the lack of space we couldn’t mention it and discuss about this particular madness, obviously a pandemic-induced one to a large extent, in our earlier piece . It came from a well-known Bangla artiste-singer in the form of an enraged expression. He questioned as to who is KK indeed, that why should there be so much craze for such Bollywood singers like him and that there are more talented singers than him available locally in Bengal. No doubt, his comments were condemned in all quarters including the social media. The artiste himself apologized for his behavior and later expressed his terrible shock over the tragedy that followed the concert.   However, this kind of ugly conduct cannot be wished away
Read more

Kamalananda Bhattacharyya: Life and Works. And His Beautiful Songs!

By -
Image
Respectful tributes to my grandfather whom I never met in this life, but his music kept him alive in me all my life. January 4, 1951. Assam lost a great poet, composer-lyricist, playwright, actor and freedom fighter Bauli Kavi Kamalananda Bhattacharyya. On his 61 st death anniversary he is remembered fondly by Assam’s intelligentsia, artistes and music lovers. Born in 1894 at Nagaon, Kamalananda Bhattacharyya did not have an easy life. Brought up in a musical ambience he lost his father at a tender age of 15 and being the eldest son the full burden of seven brothers and family fell on him. Fighting against odds he went to Cotton College at Guwahati and passed the pre-university course. But he had to come back home before pursuing higher studies. Again he tried for graduation and went to Calcutta, but could not complete and had to join a secondary school as a teacher back home to meet the growing domestic needs. But even that was not for long. Sensitive and a patriot at heart,
Read more

The Pandemic-Driven Desperation Is Worrying!

By -
Image
The two-year long COVID-19 pandemic (no signal that it’s ended) has jolted the Indian economy almost out of its roots, heightened by the fact that the economy had been under a lot of strain for at least two years prior the outbreak. The normal demand-supply equation has gone bizarre—the supply chain not yet being able to resume its normal course, with some of the key sectors suffering maximum damage, in light of insufficient demand as the common people now want to hold on to their savings fearing an uncertain future. Normally, with less demand and normal supply the prices should fall and this has led many experts to expect a recession soon or already in the process. However, prices only kept on rising, crossing a whopping level of 7% in the recent quarter that’s made the Reserve Bank of India increase the Repo rate twice in two weeks. With some knowledge of economics I feel that while the customers are not spending their money enough the suppliers not still getting the normal booming t
Read more

Maharashtra Political Thriller: A Shiv Sena without the Thackerays?

By -
Image
We’ve been liberally treated with political thrillers like that is happening in Maharashtra at the moment across the country since the last few years, thanks to the aggressive power-politics of the national ruling dispensation (BJP) which fittingly matches its aggressive Hindutva nationalism. However, the present game has been inevitable since the year 2019 when Shiv Sena (SS) parted ways with the BJP after jointly fighting and winning the assembly elections, and after a landslide victory for the alliance in 2014, on the CM post issue, and forming a coalition government Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (Maharashtra Development Front or MVA) with the Congress and the nationalist Congress (NCP). For the last two and half years the state BJP has been a grumpy lot, alleging a great betrayal by the SS and wanting desperately to avenge it; in fact, they’d tried at least three times to derail the coalition so far. This last one, even though the party has continued to be in denial about any involvemen
Read more

Disturbing Times: Renewed Madness and the Vicious Circle of the Absurd!

By -
Image
Photo: phrases.org.uk The Pandemic, at best, seemed only to have kept the madness of the modern age in a tight leash as long as it raged, creating a mortal fear over the whole of humankind. So, once the humans had discovered enough protection against it and succeeded in keeping it at bay, the modern-day madness seems to have come back with renewed vigor—to get back what they’ve lost over the last two years in real quick time. We can hardly pinpoint anyone to put the blame squarely on; because it’s affected almost every section or individual of the society. Coming to India, once the COVID-19 restrictions were completely lifted life’s started becoming more than normal. From the daily wage-earners and the vendors to the topmost business tycoons—almost everyone started showing extreme hurry to get back what they lost. The local admin authorities, also full of human beings only, joined in too; even the most discreet procedures were thrown out of the window. Tragedies, conflicts, absurdities
Read more