(...continued from previous post)
And so.
The euphoria has not died down, really. All over the country, the media is falling all over the glory boys. 'Dhoni's Devils'. A 26-year old cricket bachcha, albeit a seemingly level headed one, is the captain of the Indian Cricket team. Yes, they played some wonderful, exhilarating cricket, pulled off some incredible, chest-thumping victories. Made me feel all patriotic and all.
But Dhoni's Devils? Like Kapil's Devils?
Like the real, real underdogs who put India on the world cricket map in the early 1980s?
Hmm.
There do exist similarities though - both teams were without real 'stars' (maybe one or two exceptions), without a coach (I think?), and with only oodles of talent and self-belief.
But one must remember, this victory has come in Twenty20. A real slambamidontgiveadamn monstrosity. Yes, there IS strategy involved, lots of skill (did you SEE Yuvraj Singh's sixers? Mother of God...delicious!!), and big, big money. But 'the future of the game' or not, I would just like to say, if you will pardon the pun, that it's just not cricket.
That said, must say I LOVE it when youth stands up to be counted. With honesty, sincerity and integrity, like in all those sports movies. And this was an amazing tournament for our lads, and a truly fitting final. Good things were said at the presentation, backs were patted. Man of the Match Irfan Pathan, who should have said little more than 'Thank you' and exited stage left instead made the speech normally left to captains. Leaving, in theory, little for Dhoni to say apart from 'boys played well'. Not to be outdone, Dhoni faithfully repeated everything, just in case we couldn't understand Irfan's 'wunnerful' accent. After every question Ravi Shastri asked, MSD insisted on grabbing the mic and holding it all by himself. Towards the end, Shastri resorted to stubbornly holding on, lest he, God forbid, make a fool of himself on international television (totally uncharted territory for him, of course).
The Pakistanis, captain Shoaib Malik and Shahid Afridi spoke well too. Shoaib looked really, really scared. Maybe of going back to Pakistan. Or maybe he was just worried about his wife from Hyderabad, India, lording it over him for a while. Something he said at the presentation, however, left me a little 'eh?' :
"...I would like to say something over here. I want to thank you, back home from Pakistan, and wherever Muslims live all over the world...thank you. I'm sorry we didn't win but I promise you we did give our 100 percent..."
Huh? What does that mean?
I want to believe that all Muslims are not terrorists. I want to believe that it's not true that all Muslims support Pakistan and are against, or hate, India. I want to believe that the majority of Muslims in India feel Indian and support India (it would probably be unrealistic to hope for this of all Muslims in India).
Am I wrong? Am I being utterly stupid and naive? Because I mostly want to believe in these good things, but when you go and make statements like that...
...it makes me want to, against my better judgement and reasoning, go join all the other hate-fuelled hearts on the jingoistic bandwagon.
Anyway, as far as the cricket goes, for now, India says :
(screw you all)
We Are The Champions!
^
And so.
The euphoria has not died down, really. All over the country, the media is falling all over the glory boys. 'Dhoni's Devils'. A 26-year old cricket bachcha, albeit a seemingly level headed one, is the captain of the Indian Cricket team. Yes, they played some wonderful, exhilarating cricket, pulled off some incredible, chest-thumping victories. Made me feel all patriotic and all.
But Dhoni's Devils? Like Kapil's Devils?
Like the real, real underdogs who put India on the world cricket map in the early 1980s?
Hmm.
There do exist similarities though - both teams were without real 'stars' (maybe one or two exceptions), without a coach (I think?), and with only oodles of talent and self-belief.
But one must remember, this victory has come in Twenty20. A real slambamidontgiveadamn monstrosity. Yes, there IS strategy involved, lots of skill (did you SEE Yuvraj Singh's sixers? Mother of God...delicious!!), and big, big money. But 'the future of the game' or not, I would just like to say, if you will pardon the pun, that it's just not cricket.
That said, must say I LOVE it when youth stands up to be counted. With honesty, sincerity and integrity, like in all those sports movies. And this was an amazing tournament for our lads, and a truly fitting final. Good things were said at the presentation, backs were patted. Man of the Match Irfan Pathan, who should have said little more than 'Thank you' and exited stage left instead made the speech normally left to captains. Leaving, in theory, little for Dhoni to say apart from 'boys played well'. Not to be outdone, Dhoni faithfully repeated everything, just in case we couldn't understand Irfan's 'wunnerful' accent. After every question Ravi Shastri asked, MSD insisted on grabbing the mic and holding it all by himself. Towards the end, Shastri resorted to stubbornly holding on, lest he, God forbid, make a fool of himself on international television (totally uncharted territory for him, of course).
The Pakistanis, captain Shoaib Malik and Shahid Afridi spoke well too. Shoaib looked really, really scared. Maybe of going back to Pakistan. Or maybe he was just worried about his wife from Hyderabad, India, lording it over him for a while. Something he said at the presentation, however, left me a little 'eh?' :
"...I would like to say something over here. I want to thank you, back home from Pakistan, and wherever Muslims live all over the world...thank you. I'm sorry we didn't win but I promise you we did give our 100 percent..."
Huh? What does that mean?
I want to believe that all Muslims are not terrorists. I want to believe that it's not true that all Muslims support Pakistan and are against, or hate, India. I want to believe that the majority of Muslims in India feel Indian and support India (it would probably be unrealistic to hope for this of all Muslims in India).
Am I wrong? Am I being utterly stupid and naive? Because I mostly want to believe in these good things, but when you go and make statements like that...
...it makes me want to, against my better judgement and reasoning, go join all the other hate-fuelled hearts on the jingoistic bandwagon.
Anyway, as far as the cricket goes, for now, India says :
(screw you all)
We Are The Champions!
^
Labels: Cricket
spouted by Non-Sensei at 9/28/2007 04:01:00 AM
5 comments
