Indian Cricket 2008

This has been quite a good year for Indian cricket, if I may say so. With all the horrible things going on at present, believe me when I say that cricket is one of the most important things that's holding us together!

Although hockey is supposed to be our national sport, the Board of Control for Cricket in India, or BCCI, is the richest sporting body in India (plus the Indian cricketers get paid an exorbitant amount while the hockey players get pittance in comparison, but lets not get into that at the moment). And lets be honest, out of one billion Indians, how many are actually following hockey religiously? I, personally, don't follow hockey unless its the Olympics!

Indians are crazy about cricket though! Crazy would be too mild a word actually. Take that and multiply it by 1000 and we are getting closer to what it actually is.

Only in India would people take to the streets to protest against the "bad-form" the Indian cricket players were in during the 2006 matches against South Africa. We won only 13 ODIs out of 30 that year. Of course we blamed Greg Chappell, the Indian team's coach at that time. All in all, a forgettable year for Indian cricket!

If there is an ODI, in which India is to play, be it anywhere in the world, we will be there. More than half the stadium will be thronged by non-resident Indians. Mark my words! lol

Agreed, the first half of this year could have been better. We somehow just failed to make it. We came to the finals of the Bangladesh-Pakistan-India Tri Series, but lost to Pakistan by 25 runs in the last match!

We made it to the finals of the Asia Cup, but lost to Sri Lanka in the end. Well, it could have been worse!

We levelled the test series with South Africa, in April (1:1).

In July,we lost the test matches 2:1 to Sri Lanka, BUT we did win the ODIs 3:2 AND we were playing in Sri Lanka, so give us some credit! This was our FIRST-EVER ODI series win on Sri Lankan soil!

We won 2:0 against Australia in October- November this year (out of 4 tests). This was our first series win against Australia since 2001!

It was beautiful! I've always viewed all our matches against Australia with a heavy dose of pessimism and scepticism, you can hardly blame me for it, the Australian team is amazing! At one point you could truly say they were invincible. Now that perception is slowly changing.. at least I think so!

Another sweet victory was the 5:0 win against England last month. Unfortunately the last 2 ODIs had to be cancelled in wake of the terrorist attacks in Mumbai. The England team is now back in India, Chennai to be more precise, for the first, of two tests.

Next we are due to play against Pakistan, in Pakistan; which doesn't sound like such a great idea, given the current situation. Even though the BCCI didn't have any objections to the tour going ahead as planned, they are now being forced to consider its cancellation. In the current scenario, even the possibility of the matches being played on a neutral, third party country is likely to be ruled out.

Pakistan has already suffered from postponements this year, and if India refuses to tour, it could leave Pakistan without a test from December 2007 to June 2009 (when they are scheduled to visit Sri Lanka)!

Considering that Indias' last tour of Pakistan was in 2006, and we were able to clinch the one-day series 4-1, I really hope that it won't get cancelled. An India-Pakistan match is bound to be extremely exciting and nerve-racking, but at the same time it has never failed to generate very strong (and at times violent) emotions!

So, is it a good idea to go ahead? I don't know. But I'm definitely looking forward to it!

Cricket matches are the only thing that makes me go to the gym these days (Warwick gym always has Sky Sports on)!! Sad but true!

: 12 Dec 2008 03:07 |  Tags: Cricket |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Why?

Welcome to my first ever blog. Why? why am i doing this? 2 reasons:

Well, first of all my friend told me it would be a good idea, and it did sound like a GREAT idea at that time. A platform to voice my thoughts and opinions on different topics of utmost importance, made me feel very important ... so i signed up for it.. and things have been going downhill even since !

I still havent figured out how to delete this so I'm going to keep writing, assured that NO one is going to be reading this.. except for my friend.. you know who you are!

And the second reason is that I should be working on my macro essay atm. So i would do ANYTHING but that essay, which isn't shaping out to be how I thought it should. Like it ever does!

Why? why "young and the hopeless" ?

I was adding the final touches to my CV and my online application forms (for summer internships) before starting the blog. I think that should explain everything!

I don't know about you but these application forms make me feel really stupid (those who know me will probably argue that I am). They ask questions that make you look back and think long and hard about your life.. and then it hits you that you haven't really done anything of much importance.

I have wasted 18 years (yes, I'm still 18..but thats for another day) of my life and now I'm being punished for it! talk about unfair!

Where I come from, all I was expected to do was study my lessons. Extra-curriculars was this strange, alien word that was usually frowned upon. Sports was viewed as a passtime, a hobby and nothing more. A lot depended on the individual and how much they pushed for the few opportunities that were available.

I'm not trying to make excuses, I just wished I had 'pushed' harder!

1st year in uni was great though.I didn't exactly make up for lost time, but I now know what I was missing out on in high school!

Now in year 2, I think I might have gone a tad overboard! But I'm still having fun and hopefully all this wont effect my grades.. and more importantly my relationship with all my friends (yes they are more important to me!) ("aww" moment!!)

Till we meet again! tc

: 10 Dec 2008 13:43 |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem