UNPREJUDICED CRICKET VIEWING IS DELIGHTFUL

I am no different from other Indians when it comes to cricket. Cricket has been a weakness and continues to be a major distraction to me personally; following the fortunes of Team India irrespective of my work location across different parts of the world.

I have been a great admirer of Philanthropist, Steve Waugh, Gentleman cricketer, Adam Gilchrist and Mr. Cricket, Michael Hussey apart from   scores of Indian players. The admiration of these players may be partly due to non-cricketing reasons and exemplary personal traits. Nevertheless, there have been so many great players and few greatest players as well whose game, I was unable to appreciate and enjoy all these years, since patriotism had masked my unprejudiced admiration.

I am an ardent fan of Test cricket over the shorter versions. However, IPL 5 has helped me in removing my prejudices towards supporting a particlular team and taught me how to enjoy the game, irrespective of the end result and the competing teams. This is the first IPL tournament I have been watching from day one due to my stay outside India and in countries where Cricket is an alien game and is not available for viewing in TV.

In fact, it is Steven Smith’s cricketing exploits in IPL 5 that has inspired me to write this article. Although, I had watched a few games he played for Australia, I could not distinguish his special talent. He continues to impress greatly with his batting and fielding skills; but his bowling skills are not yet exploited by his captain Sourav Ganguly in this tournament. Trust we get to watch it too shortly. It is also delightful to watch, unprejudicedly, the performances and skills of other offshore promising talents; Sunil Naraine, Kevon Cooper, Owais Shah, Duplessis, Shaun Marsh together with Chris Gayle, Kevin Pieterson, Brad Hodge, Shane Watson and Azhar Mahmood who had been very consistent and successful in this years IPL.

It is a great pleasure and joy to watch Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly, the Indian greats who are past their prime together with Indian Internationals; Virendra Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Suresh Raina and promising talents; Ajinkya Rahane, Umesh Yadav, Robin Uthappa, Ambati Rayudu, Dhawan, Ashok Maneria, Ankit Sharma, Parwinder Awana, Pawan Negi performing exceedingly well.

On the other hand, it leaves me greatly perplexed and sad to see the skill gap between promising Indian players and offshore cricketers. The greatest concern is the ground and aerial fielding which are many rungs below par. Moreover, the local talent looks to lack self belief and confidence. Trust the IPL exposure and interaction with offshore players will improve their self belief and talent.

RAHUL DRAVID: THE GOLIATH OF INDIAN CRICKET

The thought of Rahul Dravid brings to our minds a lucid picture of a highly composed cricketer defending a rising delivery with assurance. The impact and contribution of this batting great, who served the Indian cricket for 16 long years and retired from International cricket in 2012, is astounding, especially when India played on pitches outside the sub continental. Rahul, as a cricketer, was a workaholic and always tested his skills to the limits when playing for country and is acknowledged to be a humble and intelligent person, off the game.

Dravid has scored over 23,000 international runs and stands next only to Sachin Tendulkar in the all-time Test batting chart. The greatest days of his career, that is remembered by one and all is the come-from-behind 376-run partnership he had forged in Kolkata’s Eden Gardens in March 2001, with another batting great Laxman, to turn a losing game into a winning one against the all-conquering Australian team led by Steve Waugh. He was one of the stalwarts of Indian cricket whose contributions were responsible for India to become a number ONE test nation, alas for a brief period. He is a role model to many young cricketers like Rahane and Pujara, to name a few.

Like any other cricketer, he had his highs and lows but stood tall in all adversities. Unfortunately, he never had the luxury of choosing tours, ala Sachin and could not command unwavering support of Indian fans and Indian cricketing officials alike when it mattered for him, at certain crucial phases in his long International career. Interestingly, his timing of retirement from International cricket was as precise and crisp as it was with his cuts and drives on the cricket field.

Rahul has left a strong legacy for all budding as well as young international cricketers to emulate his technique, hard work, passion and love for the game and take the Indian cricket to greater heights. Indian cricket has the opportunity to simultaneously honor itself as well as the batting great by utilizing his cricketing intelligence and experience to unearth and nurture talented youngsters as well as in the game’s administration for chalking out pro-active measurable goals for Indian cricket and implementing them.

As an admirer of his cricketing skills and persona, I wish him numerous successes and accolades in his future roles and ventures.