the cricket mania

Just a few days ago, it was all well. India had landed in the Carribean islands with a positive outlook and a lot of confidence backing them up in the form of their victory against Srilanka at home. It had even done quite well in the warm-up matches. It appeared as though there would be no stopping India this time from grabbing the very much wanted "World Cup"! The cricket carnival was kicked off with the series opener in which the host had won and a team from the sub-continent, Pakistan had lost. The result was not of much bother for the Indians at this stage. Then came our turn. We were on a high and a bit of complacency having crept in. We were facing the minnows of One Day Cricket, Bangladesh. No one would ever have thought in the wildest of their dreams what had occurred on 17th of March 2007!

All Indians were awaiting the series opener for the Indians and were glued to their TV sets and had prepared themselves for a long night-out despite the opponent being a weakling. Needless to say, a match is always interesting as long as India is involved! People always like to see Virender Sehwag throw his bat at every delivery that comes his way and send the ball sailing over the ropes. They take immense pleasure in savoring the extravagant batting display of the little master Sachin Tendulkar. Its a fact that thousands of people stop watching the match once the little master gets out! They feel that the match is almost over and there is no chance of a come-back. These are the levels of expectations our Indian cricketers carry on their backs. Its understandable why Sachin often suffers from a back problem!!

With the expectation levels high as usual given the good form the team had displayed in the warm-ups and considering the low experience of the opposition, one would have thought that the opening match would be a cake walk for the Indians. But, it turned out to be a lot different!! Virender Sehwag continued his poor form and got out in a 'dirty' fashion. The rest of the team too did not seem to show much resolve and the fighting passion. It appeared that the cricketers were a lot relaxed as though the outcome of the match wasn't going to matter at all. The fact was that the result of the match was going to pose serious threats to India's chances of continuing further in the contest! People were left in a deep shock watching the batting collapse of the Indians. One after another followed suit exposing the complacency within each one of them. One was left to wonder whether there was something wrong with the pitch or the Bangladeshis were at their thrashing best! People were waiting for India's turn to bowl so that their questions will be answered. Everybody expected that the Indians would come-back well and would restrict the Bangladesh team to a low total. But things came out differently. The Bangladeshi batsmen looked in excellent touch and were stroking the ball quite confidently. The people had then got the answer for their question. It wasn't the nature of the pitch that led to the Indian collapse. It was solely because of the excellent bowling of the Bangladeshis. People watched in silence as they made the chase look so easy. At no point did India seem to put a block to the Bangladeshi chase. It all went off quite smoothly for them and they finished it off in style. The Indians had got a 'wake-up' call!! They now had to recover from their deep slumber and pull-up their socks for the rest of the games to stay in the competition. They faced criticism from every side. Everyone wanted Sehwag to be sacked and sent back home. Dravid was greatly criticized for including him in the team. Dravid had no answer!

On March 19th, India were playing another minnow of International cricket, Bermuda. This time around, the Indians were very much awake and had their own calculations about the kind of performance they had to put up so as to stay in the tournament. Things started off slowly and tentatively. The batsmen were playing defensively and just as Robin Uthappa got dismissed, one would have thought that may be Bermuda also wanted to upset India, just the way Bangladesh had done two days before. Sehwag came in at one-down and his feet appeared to be moving. He was stroking the ball confidently, right from the word 'GO'. This was the last chance for him to prove himself and to stay in the team. Good God, he delivered at the right time! This was the perfect setting for Sehwag to come back into form and he did. He ended up scoring a century in a blitzkrieg innings. He provided the necessary platform for India to take off and achieve a huge total which was necessary for them to stay in the competition. They needed to win the match by a really huge margin. Thanks to the timely contributions by Sourav Ganguly, Yuvraj Singh and Sachin Tendulkar India went on to make the highest team total by any team in World Cup history, 413/5. There were a total of 18 sixes in the innings which again was another world record. It was a triumph for the Indian batsmen. Now the bowlers had their task cut out. They needed to strike early and dismiss Bermuda for a meagre total to win by a huge margin and accumulate a decent Net Run Rate(NRR). They did, and India won by a mammoth 257 run margin! This again is another world record, the biggest margin of victory!! Thus, the Indians not just came back, but they did it in style!!

All I have to say is that its not good to criticize anybody just for one single poor performance. I agree that its very much this criticism that has helped the Indian team make a come-back but the degree was too high! We need to have patience and confidence in our players and not put too much pressure on them. The death of the Pakistani Coach Bob Woolmer is an indication of the levels of stress the sub-continent coaches face. The passion for the game drives the people crazy once their team fails to put up a good performance. Cricket is a game in which the outcome of any match cannot be predicted before-hand. The game is to be taken in its spirit and not be treated as a means to display a nation's strength or passions! Its high time the people realize their mistakes and stop putting excess pressure on their players!

AU REVOIR

Its farewell time. It still feels as though college had begun just a few days ago, but we're at the tail end of it already! It happened so quickly that we never realized we were about to finish our course and head off into the future. Time flies, doesn't it??
Now, when I start thinking as to what have I achieved in all these four years, I take a pause and wonder. Not that I hadn't done anything but that I hadn't done anything great!! Let me elucidate. The first year was quite dull. It was the first time I was staying in a hostel and so I took time to adjust myself to the conditions and people around me. Initially I felt my hostel mates had some weird ways of behaving themselves, but later on I found myself doing the same things and felt my initial doubts have been addressed. It just went on without much activity and fun. I wasn't in the thick of things. I was sitting with the books most of the time, still hadn't come out of the effects of my 'Inter' study! I had a good roomie to compete with. So, that kept me busy most of the time and I was quite relieved to have got rid of the ragging menace once the first year was over.
Then in the second year, life was a little on the easier side. Now I wasn't stressed by the ragging menace as I now was on the giving side. However I didn't resort to much of ragging but I simply enjoyed the feeling of living my life on my own. Being in a hostel with friends around was fun. But there are advantages and disadvantages. Sometimes, we all felt cut away from the outside world. We used to go to the city on during weekends and that too for a movie or something. Those were the times when I strongly wished I was staying with my parents so that I had more means of timepass(TV etc.). The thing is that the 'computers' hadn't landed in our hostel till then. There was no specific means of timepass except sports and games and a common TV that rarely worked! Then mid way, my roomie left the hostel and went on to stay with his parents and so I got a new roomie. Adjusting with him wasn't very difficult because he too was my classmate. And coming to the point of my studies, like I told you before, had taken a dip. I don't mean to say that I completely stopped studying but because the competitor wasn't by my side, I was a little lazy and almost removed myself out of the competition. There weren't many quotable incidents in this year either. Not many achievements. But I should say it was much better than the first year!
May be because I had had enough taste of hostel life or may be because I wanted to get coached for CAT(Common Admission Test for admission into MBA institutes), I decided to move out of the hostel and stay in a room in the city. Then I started my hunt for a good room and a better roomie. I couldn't get to stay in a place where most of my classmates had been staying but got to stay with another classmate of mine who had a house in the city and was staying alone. So I put up at his house as a paying guest and got going. I had to take a long commute in a bus every morning and repeat the same in the evening. It started appearing quite tiresome but then I got used to it. I used to feel quite bored at the place for my friend rarely used to stay at home and I for lack of a vehicle never went out. Slowly I realized I had to interact with the outside world to be called a human being and then I too started visiting friends leaving the house alone. I started interacting with my classmates and friends in a much better manner than before. I understood that this was the time to bring about the right change in my personality. I had to move out into the public so that I get rid of stage fear and learn to interact with people well. All this was necessary to face the campus interviews that'll be up at the beginning of the final year. So I was all geared up and even gave a few paper presentations and stuff and I regard third year was very eventful and active!
Then at the beginning of the final year, I got placed(you can read the interview experience from my previous post). Then college began and classes went on. We used to have very minimal number of classes. Then we had to do some project. We don't know how we did but we did. Then we had a hardware exhibition in our department. And after all that, we're now at the fag end of the semester. I cannot understand how it all happened so fast. I still have the picture of the day on which I had joined the college. Yesterday we had our farewell party. It was great fun. The whole class gathering in colourful dresses. We partied late into the night!! Now, I am wondering how it all happened and am writing this!!
See you soon.