Its Only Cricket

3rd Test: Australia wins Sydney Test (scorecard), South Africa won Test Series 2-1.. T20 & ODI series follows.
Current Cricket Series : South Africa vs Australia, West Indies vs New Zealand. Coming Up : India in NZ 2009.

I admit, the better team won.


Why are you reading this article??

If you are looking for similar criticism of "Our Indian cricket team" that you can see all over Internet right today, then I may not be able to impress you. To me, had India won that Mohali ODI against Australia - that would have been a surprise. The loss wasn't.

The bitter fact is that we India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka don't really have anything else at International stage when it comes to sports and thus, "it's only cricket" that makes us happy. And sad at times. Or may be everytime we play against Australia.WeLostTheMatch.gif

Another fact is that we sub-continent people are soft in nature and always fail when it comes to mental toughness. We all know that Our cricket team is full of great players but still, it isn't a team. Sachin falls to McGrath for the 7th time in his career and as far as I remember, it was only in 2000 mini-World Cup in Nairobi when he won a battle against McGrath. Otherwise Mcgrath will always laugh at Sachin, give him a few short balls and ultimately get him caught behind. This has been happening for so long.... why are we so sad today??

What another example I can give you is Dinesh Mongia and Ricky Ponting. When Mongia came to wicket in this Mohali ODI in Champions trophy, Indian team were off to a good start. All they needed was to maintain the momentum. Dinesh Mongia came, played a handsome pull short and then got busy in getting his eye in, instead of taking singles to give strike back to Virendra Sehwag. You can't complain that. Mongia has the talent and he needs his time to prove it at International stage.... even if it means taking strike away from Sehwag. And ultimately causing a great start turn into a mediocre one.

On the contrary, Ricky Ponting had failed in his last 10 innings in India and had made 1 and 1 in his ICC Champions trophy stint so far. When he came to bat in this Mohali match, Shane Watson was striking the ball similarly as Sehwag was and what Ponting does is to take some risk - get down the track to Harbhajan and take a single to rotate the strike. And again and again.

Can you see the difference??

I can give you 50 more examples but what's the point? The bottom line is that we Indians love cricket and our Indian cricket team so much that I am sure we all will be back to our Television sets by the time first ODI between India and South Africa starts on 19th November at Johannesburg.... Everything will be forgotten.

So why so much fuss and cry today. I admit, the better team won.






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