It is 42 hours away from perhaps the biggest sporting event of the year
and as I undertake another gruelling travel from Worli to Kandivilli, ,
I cannot help but think whether the hope, anticipation and expectation
is worth its salt.
My heart wanders back to a summer evening in 1983 when as a kid I
witnessed Kapil's Devils achieve immortality on 25th June in the balcony of Lords. It took the whole world by storm.
and as I undertake another gruelling travel from Worli to Kandivilli, ,
I cannot help but think whether the hope, anticipation and expectation
is worth its salt.
My heart wanders back to a summer evening in 1983 when as a kid I
witnessed Kapil's Devils achieve immortality on 25th June in the balcony of Lords. It took the whole world by storm.
Thus far and no further. The crown has remained elusive over the next six editions of the tournament.
Not that we did not raise hopes, we always flattered to deceive. If Sourav's "dadagiri" took us to the finals in 2003 only for us to surrender meekly to the willow of Ponting in the finals, it was Kapil's slog sweep in the 1987 semifinals against England that swept away allthe hopes of a nation.
However,the quintessential cricket fan will agree that intersparsed between the above two, the most painful episode was the 1996 semifinal loss to Sri Lanka- I personally remember seeing Eden burning as whole India wept.
In spite of the episodes narrated above, one and a half billion still believe that eleven can do it.
As far as the World Cup is concerned, I feel that while patriotism is a virtue, rationality is a necessity. Collective superiority is the need of the hour, adrenaline can merely be a catalyst.
It is a little too much to expect a thirty eight year old to weave his magic wand and galvanise a bunch of highly talented, at times over rated but oft erratic individuals into a winning team.
True, a twenty four year old Haryanvi lad did so but that was a good twenty seven years ago when cricket still had some cricket left in itself, more importantly the hero in question was Kapil Dev, rightly nominated as the "Indian Cricketer of the Century", a man who had the ingenious capacity to transform a game either with the willow or thecherry.
Not that he lacked the ammunition. The avid cricket follower may still feel that a batting line up that boasted of Gavaskar Shrikanth,Amarnath, Yashpal, Patil and Kapil himself is always better equipped to handle the complexities of any situation than an order comprising Sehwag, Gambhir, Raina, Yuvraj, Yusuf and Dhoni. Just add that one man Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar and the scales will tilt automatically.
Fifty one test centuries, nearly fifty one day hundreds coupled with an unparalleled, well chronicled saga of dominance over twenty years on bowlers of all variety, age and land; the story says it all.
But give it a break, the man is thirty eight and the time has come for us to admit that we have depended on him for too much, for too long. If he had hung up his boots by now, no one would have complained. It is that unflinching desire and burning passion in him that has helped him to keep going, let him walk like a Colossus over lesser fellow men, not stoop down due to the emotional burden of a whole country.
Undoubtedly he would want to win the cup for the country and for
himself, but the forces against him are no minnows either. You have the Pontings, Smiths and Pietersens eyeing the most coveted trophy in the cricket world.
Cricket is a team game, one man can make a difference in a single game or two, but he cannot pull a team through match after match. An analysis of the remaining players will prove that this team is too dependent on one man.
Sehwag may be a murderer but as impulsive as a child trying to get back home from school. Kohli is yet to be thoroughly tested while Yusuf's claim to fame still hinges on an acid test. Raina is susceptible to short pitched stuff and Yuvraj is well past his prime.
Dhoni has been very scratchy with the bat so much so that a Geoff
Boycott would say "even my grand mom would bat better". Perhaps Sachin can count on Gambhir to sail through.
This bowling attack can never be a captain's pride. Talk of successful captains; Ponting had Mcgrath and Warne, Lloyd had Roberts, Marshall,Croft, Garner and Holding; Imran had Akram and Saqlain while Kapil had Madan Lal, Binny and Sandhu. Can the most chauvinistic Indian say that Dhoni's brigade of Zaheer, Nehra and Harbhajan has the required horsepower to help us win a World Cup? The only saving grace could be the fact that we have a handful of all-rouunders like the 1983 team, but there again the point is that the current lot can hardly match the Devils of 83.
In short, all I can say is that it will take a miracle for us to sail through.
While I also would love to see Lady Luck smile on Dhoni, deep down in my heart, I have my serious doubts.
A month from now and we will have the answer.
Will be happiest to be proved wrong
Not that we did not raise hopes, we always flattered to deceive. If Sourav's "dadagiri" took us to the finals in 2003 only for us to surrender meekly to the willow of Ponting in the finals, it was Kapil's slog sweep in the 1987 semifinals against England that swept away allthe hopes of a nation.
However,the quintessential cricket fan will agree that intersparsed between the above two, the most painful episode was the 1996 semifinal loss to Sri Lanka- I personally remember seeing Eden burning as whole India wept.
In spite of the episodes narrated above, one and a half billion still believe that eleven can do it.
As far as the World Cup is concerned, I feel that while patriotism is a virtue, rationality is a necessity. Collective superiority is the need of the hour, adrenaline can merely be a catalyst.
It is a little too much to expect a thirty eight year old to weave his magic wand and galvanise a bunch of highly talented, at times over rated but oft erratic individuals into a winning team.
True, a twenty four year old Haryanvi lad did so but that was a good twenty seven years ago when cricket still had some cricket left in itself, more importantly the hero in question was Kapil Dev, rightly nominated as the "Indian Cricketer of the Century", a man who had the ingenious capacity to transform a game either with the willow or thecherry.
Not that he lacked the ammunition. The avid cricket follower may still feel that a batting line up that boasted of Gavaskar Shrikanth,Amarnath, Yashpal, Patil and Kapil himself is always better equipped to handle the complexities of any situation than an order comprising Sehwag, Gambhir, Raina, Yuvraj, Yusuf and Dhoni. Just add that one man Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar and the scales will tilt automatically.
Fifty one test centuries, nearly fifty one day hundreds coupled with an unparalleled, well chronicled saga of dominance over twenty years on bowlers of all variety, age and land; the story says it all.
But give it a break, the man is thirty eight and the time has come for us to admit that we have depended on him for too much, for too long. If he had hung up his boots by now, no one would have complained. It is that unflinching desire and burning passion in him that has helped him to keep going, let him walk like a Colossus over lesser fellow men, not stoop down due to the emotional burden of a whole country.
Undoubtedly he would want to win the cup for the country and for
himself, but the forces against him are no minnows either. You have the Pontings, Smiths and Pietersens eyeing the most coveted trophy in the cricket world.
Cricket is a team game, one man can make a difference in a single game or two, but he cannot pull a team through match after match. An analysis of the remaining players will prove that this team is too dependent on one man.
Sehwag may be a murderer but as impulsive as a child trying to get back home from school. Kohli is yet to be thoroughly tested while Yusuf's claim to fame still hinges on an acid test. Raina is susceptible to short pitched stuff and Yuvraj is well past his prime.
Dhoni has been very scratchy with the bat so much so that a Geoff
Boycott would say "even my grand mom would bat better". Perhaps Sachin can count on Gambhir to sail through.
This bowling attack can never be a captain's pride. Talk of successful captains; Ponting had Mcgrath and Warne, Lloyd had Roberts, Marshall,Croft, Garner and Holding; Imran had Akram and Saqlain while Kapil had Madan Lal, Binny and Sandhu. Can the most chauvinistic Indian say that Dhoni's brigade of Zaheer, Nehra and Harbhajan has the required horsepower to help us win a World Cup? The only saving grace could be the fact that we have a handful of all-rouunders like the 1983 team, but there again the point is that the current lot can hardly match the Devils of 83.
In short, all I can say is that it will take a miracle for us to sail through.
While I also would love to see Lady Luck smile on Dhoni, deep down in my heart, I have my serious doubts.
A month from now and we will have the answer.
Will be happiest to be proved wrong
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