Rock On...DADA

"Sarfaroshi ki tamanna ab hamarey dil mein hai, dekhna hai zor kitna baazu-e-qatil mein hai" This is what sums up DADA...a rebel. Yes a rebel he was who lived by the sword and perished by it too.
First of all let me make it clear that i was never an ardent Ganguly fan; and always belonged to the Dravid clan(media persons.... breaking news); but thats the greatness of the man, The pedigree to draw praise even from his critiques.
Defiance thy name is Sourav Ganguly. This 19 year old first came onto scene when he defied all notions and refused to carry drinks during his first ODI series(1991-92 Australia tour of India). He was not to be seen for the next 4 years until he defied all odds and struck a magnificient 130 against England at lord's on debut.(Rahul Dravid made 95 then playing the best man..as always) Although he was never seen as a test match great that moment redefined the definition of India and laid foundation of The Great Indian Middle Order.



His real test came when this young lad with pencil mustache was thrust into the captaincy role following the match fixing saga in 2000. Everybody thought that he wasn't ready and shudn't even be in the reckoning, but he defied the inevitable; again; to lead a young Indian side into the finals of the ICC Knockout cup 2000.
At that time he was the best ODI batsmen in the business and most times outscored his opening partner Sachin Tendulkar.
Under him India won some and lost some but what India learnt under him was to look into the eyes of the world and say" I wont lie down for the count; beat me if u can".
The most telling tale of his bravado was when Australia toured India in 2001, what was deemed as Final Frontier by the Australian media. But dada was up to it, he challenged the aussies at their own game. "Trash talkin", "Sledging" or "Mental Disintegration" as Steve Waugh called it. This is how he welcomed the No.1 test team with 15 consecutive test wins under their belt; "Australians may be the no.1 test team but they havent won here, last time they toured in 98' they lost, before that too in 96' they lost". And by his own admission this got onto Steve Waugh's nerves, then and there. To stomp onto a Lion's bare foot and stand your own ground is no mean feat. Dada did it and excelled at it too. That made him the captain India always wanted.
He was the one who always rooted for youngsters being infused into the team, and played mentor to the core of Indian team of now; Zaheer khan, yuvraj singh, harbhajan singh and virendra sehwag; who bloomed under his support. India always has had the class, the flair, the talent; he gave us the confidence to stand up and ba counted. Coz dats what he has done all his life.
His most astonishing feat is his knack of surprising even his ardent supporters. Arun Lal former India opener and cricket expert said recently"When he was dropped from the Indian team after the chappell saga, even i dint expect him to come back, but the way he played in South africa he surprised everyboby me included"
And sourav must have said to himself OOPS! I did it again.
There were many controversies in his career too, right from the start to the ego clash with greg chappell, an uncomfortable stint under once deputy Rahul dravid, differences with Sachin, and talk of his selfish batting; but thats not what we are going to talk about here.Visibly the pain has now risen too high for him. After being overlooked from the Irani trophy side he has decided to call it a day. He has not been in the reckoning for the one day side for quite some time now; for reasons best known to selectors. I also wanted him to retire but when he is now, it has left a bad taste in my mouth. This certainly isnt the way his end was meant to come.

The most successful test captain India has ever seen, The prince of calcutta, the God of the off side; watever we may call him has finally hung up his boots. He taught India how to be fighters and winners. He is a youth icon for sure; whom we must look upto. Dada deserves a ROYAL FAREWELL may he get one.

Lets pray he plays with the same death defying audacity in his last series and bows out on a high.
ROCK ONN ....DADA.
We will miss you.
And thats the bottomline cuz the great one said so.

The media can go to hell...

The Media Can go to HELL...
Well friends i am sorry..i dint want to convert this space into my Cricketing zone but now I have had enough. Today evening after i came back from a hectic day i was bamboozled by this absolutely senseless show that was coming on A news channel dont know star or aaj tak probably( As if it makes any difference though...). It was called La'CHAAR as in helpless. And the point of discussion were the fab4 of indian cricket who these people now were calling lachaar.



The four gentlemen you see here have taken Indian cricket to the next level and created a whole new level of standards for batting. And such shabby treatment by our own media who used to go ga ga over them just a few months ago; is totally unprofessional. I dont know why but it really hurt me..because some where in my sub conscious mind i too want to be a part of the media some day. Just to get TRPs , Cheap publicity or by sheer weight of money?? Do these people do it. and to discuss the topic they bring in names like Atul wassan(2 Test matches), Saba Karim(1 Test match) and even Maninder singh who is nowhere near thes people in stature.

So i decided that i will look into matters myself and bring out the truth. So i had a look at the inns by inns records of all Indian batsmen over past One year and compared them. And what came out was crystal clear. Yes playesr like dravid and ganguly have suffered a loss of form but the people these news channels hail as YOUNGISTAAN and great future prospects havnt done any better as well. So have a look at the Table below Where We have The La'CHAAR a nd the youngistaan and see for yourself.

Runs avg hs 100 50


Rahul dravid 464 35.29 111 1 2 111 SA 93 AUS

Sachin tendulkar491 49.10 154* 2 0 153 and 154 AUS

Saurav Ganguly 406 29.00 87 0 0 87 and 87 SA

VVS LAXMAN 554 39.57 109 1 0 109 and 79 Aus

YOUNGISTAAN

YUVI 220 31.42 169 1 0 169 PAK and32Sa

DHONI 244 24.40 52 0 1 52 and 38 SA

GAMBHIR 212 53.00 74 0 2 74 and 56 SL

SEHWAG 947 78.91 319 3 2 319 SA and 201 SL

(The last column shows the two best performances in this period)

So here is abit of my research that i did. By looking at the above table we can see that barring sachin the rest of the fab 4 average below 40 with laxman at 39 point sumthing that is just a touch below his career average. So he too can be forgiven. dravid averages 35 sumthin 20 below his career average. dangerous signs for him?? Well i dont think so coz in this period he has seen the worst phase of his career and still has a Hundred aaginst South africa to his name. The second highest score of this period being the 93 against the aussies at Perth a typical dravid knock that the team neede most. And i personally think that his 42 in the last inns against SL was a very promosing inns. More importantly he has been adjudged out by Third umpire referral system 3 times out of 4 this series. So once the trial gets over the average will move up by itself.
ganguly on the other hand is worrying as his average in this period is just 29. But he too is just one knock away from form. And dont forget he was the one who scored runs when nobody did against SA both at home this year and away last year. So let him play his natural game please.

Now for those who hail Youngistan and all. I agree the lot is talented no doubt but is still raw at test level. Gambhir and Sehwag are doing really well and shud be kept out of discussion as at this point of time they are the most dangerous opening pair in all forms of cricket.(All over the that is)
But Yuvraj Singh and Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Shree Mahendra singh dhoni havnt fared very well at test level and Even Rohit Sharma whose name every channel is chanting failed to scored a fifty even in the recently concluded one day series. So all of them too as facing form crisis. So why target only the pros who have bailed you out of trouble time and again.
In the 2nd Inns of second test against SL even, The dravid Sachin partnership was very crucial when they put on 70 odd runs at run a ball against Mendis and Murali.

So my request to the so called Media Gurus is that please do your work sincerely and stop looking for spoofs that do not exist. It only creates doubts in the minds of the common man.
And mark my words you will hail these maestros in the same breath in which you are cricticising them....let the Third test get over.
"Form is temporary.....CLASS is permanent."

* Andy's believe it or not
"Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly scored more runs than Yuvraj Singh And Mahendra Singh Dhoni in the first season of IPL 20-20 tournament"

"And some people still think it is a youngster's game"- Sachin Tendulkar (In a press conference when Mumbai Indians beat Chennai super Kings"