Divided Colors of Blue !

Though the camaraderie on display on camera between Dhoni and Sehwag looked good; every Indian Cricket supporter knows, the split is out there gaping in open. And it isn't 'Bleeding Blue' any more. The team has hemorrhaged to near death. How could a Team that scaled the pinnacle of World Cup in April 2011 be so pathetically down in the dumps in February 2012 ?

Divided We Stand !

The Viru - Mahi war was always on. If not for Anil Kumble's insistence during the tour down under in 2007, Sehwag the Superstar would have been history. Dhoni would not have touched him with a barge pole if not for the match saving century at Adelaide 4 years ago.

Dhoni has shown clear preference to anyone other than Sehwag in the ODI scheme of things and he can't be faulted for that. Viru's records in ODI Cricket are just a little better than mediocre. During 2007 - 08, Sehwag was also a member of a team that was up and coming. In 2012, he is 'The Sehwag' who is back to playing the ball rather than the bowlers.

Is this divide in the team a new phenomenon triggered by a successive defeats ? Will it be fine once the team gets back to winning ways ? Far from it, the split was always there right from 2010 March and perhaps even before.

Let us go back to the Bangladesh series in March 2010 when Sehwag called Bangladesh an ordinary test team before the series. Sehwag captained India in the absence of Dhoni in the first test at Chittagong and played Amit Mishra ahead of Pragyan Ojha. Mishra went on to claim 7 wickets in the match and also scored a 50 as night watchman in Indian second innings.

This performance should have ensured a place for Mishra in the second test. It wasn't as if Pragyan Ojha was a Zaheer Khan or a Harbhajan Singh to walk into the team. But alas, Dhoni preferred to play Ojha instead. From that day, the Dhoni - Sehwag cold war has been on; like it or not.

India's subsequent performances through most of 2010 to the 2011 World Cup campaign were driven by an aim of winning the world cup. Sehwag had come across as someone not interested in Captaincy when he relinquished the Delhi Ranji Team and the Delhi Daredevils Captaincy in favor of Gambhir. Who refueled his Captaincy ambitions is unknown. But after the World Cup, he has time and again shown more than eagerness to lead India.

Dhoni hasn't covered himself in glory too. Right from dropping a Mishra to time and again undermining both the Pathans, he has played his role in demolishing the team spirit. His ad campaign mocking Harbhajan Singh was definitely the beginning of the end of Men in Blue as a team. Team India until then was all about United Colors of Blue in spite of minor skirmishes involving Sreesanth and Bhajji and such trivialities.

The fissure that erupted with this has left Bhajji out of favor, Viru out of flavor, Dhoni the martyr and Sachin Tendulkar eternally short of 100 ! That Tendulkar who was proud to be part of a team that carried him on shoulders on 2 April 2011 must be asking himself, "Mai Kaun hoon Mai Kahaan hoon !"

So who are the culprits ? 

Answer: All parties involved. 

The CB series was going fairly fine till Dhoni's bizarre tactics while chasing lead to enormous heart burns in the dressing room. Gambhir is right in his view but wrong in expressing it openly. Declaring Dhoni the Man of the Match in the tied game was like adding insult to injury. He ran out Gambhir, then Pathan and then ended up squaring a match India should have won comfortably. Did the adjudicators give him the MOM just to create further dissension in the team ? We will never know.

India didn't just lose 2 points with that tie. The damage was much more than that. It would have been India 4 vs 0 for Sri Lanka. Instead, it was 2-2 and that means 0-0. So how many points did India lose ?  The answer is 4 and that is why India are out of the tournament today ! Sri Lanka derived enormous mileage from that tie and India lost the initial advantage. They haven't won anything since then and are unlikely to win anything again.

Sehwag's refusal to learn or perhaps deliberate callousness is glaring. Gambhir went way beyond his jurisdiction when he unleashed his injudicious diction in a press meet. Tendulkar could have played peace-maker but he seems to be preoccupied with the 100. 

The youngsters had their opportunities to stake stronger claim. But Raina and Rohit have time and again thrown away starts with stupid batting. Bowlers have often been all over the park and 2 of the highest scores in the series were scored against India, naturally.

Overall, the Men in Blue are going through blues and have been beaten black and blue on this tour down under. They deserve this hammering and all the criticism. If the divide is not attended and the BCCI and Selectors decide on this continued Ostrich like approach, it will be doomsday soon.

So what is the solution ? Let Sehwag, Dhoni, Sachin, Gambhir and everyone know 'Nobody is indispensable, NOBODY'. Send a completely new junior team to the Asia Cup. If full strength team with all seniors can lose like this, the Team India fans can derive some solace if the juniors lose too. They have nothing to lose. And who knows ? We might again see a new dawn like the 2007 T-20 World Cup win. 

Even if that doesn't happen, we would still be better off teaching our next generation that even Sehwag, Gambhir and Dhoni were not spared ! Until and unless the feuding Stalwarts sort out the problems between them, keep them out. We have over half a year before we play another test.

Unless the runs flow, no Superstar can forever be so !

SPun Doctor Also blogs @ http://diehardcricketfans.org/category/contributed/govind-raj-shenoy/

Operation Blue Star !

As much as I admire Yuveraj Singh and his match-winning exploits in the past; I am really depressed by his lack of fitness now.

If anyone doubts this fact, this picture down here should create alarms.

What am I trying to convey ?

Just take a look...

Gautam Gambhir batted all the 43 overs and ran so many incredible singles with Virat. Look at his shirt, it is Sky-blue.

And then take a look at Yuvi's shirt. It is Deep-blue soaked in sweat.

Yuvi was there for such a short period, and hardly ran any runs because both he and Gautam dealt in boundaries.

Even if someone wants to defend Yuvi by saying Gautam changed his shirt in between, it couldn't be after Yuvi came to bat.

And Yuvi's paunch looks awful in side views. At 40, I can claim to be in a little better shape. And I don't even play Gully-Cricket with Mandira.

Let us not forget Yuvi isn't all that older compared to Gautam.

Let us also not forget he was our best fielder by light years until two years ago.

India can't really win the World Cup without the Prince being at his best.

Not many Match-winners can Match Yuvi when he is at his best.

We still have time. So Gary and Team, please bring Yuvi back to his best

Let us call this 'Operation Blue-Star !



S-Pun Doctor

The Ordinary and the Extra-Ordinary!

Life teaches us lessons everyday and in fact every moment. The larger one grows, one should not forget the size of the shoes. The shoes don't grow and one will end up being too big for the shoes or the boots to be precise!

We have two fabulous examples of people growing 'too big for their boots'. Both are connected to the ongoing IPL. Yes, Shashi Tharoor is the first. The second one with an aching foot in his mouth is Gautam Gambhir. Both handsome and talented men; but perhaps grew too large for their respective boots.

In a country with sweltering heat and over 100 Crore population, you can hire 700 consultants for Rs. 70 Crore sweat equity. Tharoor got his message through MMS asking him to GO because he was wrong from the word go. Hence the attack on Tharoor from Left and Right !

Tharoor is the symbol of what is wrong with our so called elite. He took his job a little too seriously and concentrated too much on external affairs. He was simply too arrogant to see what was coming. So besotted was he with the beautiful Sunanda that he was ready to 'Push' her case at any cost. It was his belief that the 'Political Class' was not up to his mark and the 'Cattle Class' will not question him; that has brought his downfall ! Learn to conceal your arrogance Mr. Tharoor, India isn't UN!

We had Gautam Gambhir go on record about the 'Ordinary' Rajastan Royals. Now his extraordinary team consisting of extraordinary talents has joined Shilpa Shetty and Shane Warne's ordinary mortals in the pit of IPL ! A team boasting of names like Virendar Sehwag, David Warner, Tilakaratne Dilshan,  Dinesh Karthik and Gambhir himself failed to chase down 145 runs.

Virendar Sehwag is known for wagging; both his tongue and the bat. But only Viru is capable of Sehwagging. Anyone else howsoever close to him, trying to emulate Viru will run out of breath soon. Gaudy Gauti has hopefully realized this! Warne played with ordinary men and still managed some exciting Cricket. Gambhir has done the exact opposite of that; he managed some ordinary cricket with exciting talents. So can we call this 'Extra-Ordinary' performance?

Gautam Gambhir will do well to shut his mouth and let his batting do everything during the upcoming T-20 World Cup and afterwords ! He has done that in the past with distinction and he should be able to do an encore. Here's wishing him and Team India all the best !