When Merit Goes For A Six...

Prior to the semifinals Pragyan Ojha has taken 20 wickets in 14 IPL matches this season, Amit Mishra has 17 from as many matches. Robin Uthappa has clobbered 26 sixes in the tournament and by far has been the most destructive batsmen in this IPL having played some decisive innings for RCB with the best strike rate during death overs. Virat Kohli averages a staggering 52.93 in 23 ODIs in India colours. Yet none of these four players finds a place in the Indian national squad for the 2010 T20 world cup to be held in the West Indies. Surprised ? You shouldn't be. The team was announced when IPL had just begun and these performances, no matter how noteworthy now count for nothing. Given the scenario Rohit Sharma should consider himself lucky to have found a place on that plane to West Indies.

What is the logic behind announcing the team so early when they could have easily waited for the IPL to finish before selecting the most deserving players. Of course some players are automatic selections but this early announcement has left many fringe players sulking. The way Pragyan Ojha has been treated leaves a bad taste in the mouth. Here is one player who is consistently knocking at the doors of the selectors with enviable performances despite which he gets cold shouldered every time. Pragyan Ojha has been a stand out performer for Deccan Chargers in this edition as well as in the previous edition of the IPL and has performed well in India colours in the limited opportunities that have come his way, yet Piyush Chawla is preferred over him. If at all they wanted a leg spinner then why didn't they pick Amit Mishra who has nicely filled in the void that Anil Kumbles' retirement has created. What has Piyush Chawla done that these two performers haven't done ? Agreed that Chawla is a talented youngster, but he hasn't done anything worth mentioning in the last couple of years to merit a place ahead of Ojha or Mishra.

Virat Kohli and Robin Uthappa would walk into any national team purely on the strength of their talent and cricketing abilities. Robin Uthappa certainly has much more talent and flair than some of the folks that Krishnamachari Srikanth is trying to thrust upon the nation. Uthappa is counted among the few Indian players who are capable of playing every other shot in the book. His big hitting prowess are simply breathtaking to say the least. Of course his consistency is a bit of a problem, but again Virender Shwag has consistently underperformed in ODIs but that does not make him a bad player. Consisteny is gained through experience, it cannot be acquired overnight. Even the legendary Rahul Dravid took quite a while to register his maiden half century in ODIs, but then he had a captain who had faith in his abilities. Imagine what would have the Indian middle order looked like had he been discarded early like Robin Uthappa, who was abandoned without ever getting a fixed slot in the batting line up, often coming in to bat at number 6 or 7 without much time left to settle down and get his eye in (something that even Sunil Gavaskar pointed out when Yusuf Pathan was omitted from the national ODI squad under similar circumstances), and has never got a second chance since then. Ironical, because Robin Uthappa started out as a specialist opener. And yes, he keeps wickets too (when not doing so he's exceptional in the field). Does that evoke a sense of insecurity in captain cool Dhoni ?? Certainly a point to ponder over.

Luckily for Virat Kohli, he has grabbed the few opportunities that were thrown at him courtesy injuries to established players. Till now he has been used as a stop gap arrangement during which he has done no harm to his cause by hitting 2 ODI centuries and 6 ODI half centuries in spectacular fashion and this is precisely why his exclusion from the squad for the T20 world cup is anything but shocking. Virat Kohli may come accross as someone with loads of attitude but when he wields the willow he's a treat to watch, not to mention his fielding which simply put is electrifying. Kohli's ground strokes are a purist's delight and his power hitting on par with any of his contemporaries. It will not be long before the batting giants of Indian cricket viz. Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman will call it quits on their glittering careers and given the way Yuvraj Singh is batting these days even his days in the national squad appear to be numbered. It thus makes it necessary to groom the likes of Kohli, Sharma and Uthappa as their replacements since they have it in them to step into the boots of the famed Indian batting trinity. Add Suresh Raina and Murali Vijay to this mix along with the ever improving Gautam Gambhir and we get a batting line up as classy and lethal as any.

It is important that the captain backs such talented players to the hilt. There would have been no Yuvraj Singh, Virender Sehwag, Harbhajan Singh or Zaheer Khan had Saurav Ganguly not put his faith in them and backed them as a captain even when they were going through rough patches. Rahul Dravid would have been confined to the pages of Ranji history had Mohammed Azharuddin refused to see his inherent talent. Pragyan Ojha should not go the Murali Karthik way simply because of the captain's apathy towards him. Dhoni has done well in promoting the case of Praveen Kumar and Suresh Raina and it is his responsibility to ensure that such talented players as Kohli, Sharma, Uthappa and Ojha don't disappear into oblivion.

Some Food For Thought

Sania Mirza decides to wed a Pakistani cricketer and the entire country loses its sleep over it. People are throwing up their hands in frustration, scratching and shaking their heads in disbelief. A Pakistani ? That too Shoaib Malik ? Has she lost her senses ? Why can't she marry an Indian ? Will she stop playing for India ? Such questions and many more are doing the rounds. Parents have stopped worrying about their children's exams and the only thing up their minds is Sania's marriage. While the wiser few have supported her decision the not so wise ones have gone on to the extent of calling for her exit from India. Once the darling of an entire nation, this decision of her's has transformed her into an overnight villain.

Why are people reacting so harshly to Sania Mirza's decision to marry Shoaib Malik. Of course its an open secret that Maliks's no saint and his misadventures with another Hyderabadi girl are well known. Despite this if Sania wants to spend the rest of her life with him, its her life her decision and we should respect it. Why raise such a brouhaha when she herself has no issues with Shoaib's past. Sania Mirza as a sportsperson has contributed enormously to Indian Tennis and deserves much better than being subjected to such mindless scrutiny. If we cannot support her, we should at least not make it difficult for her to cherish this personal moment.

Why should there be calls for Sania Mirza to renounce her Indian Citizenship ? She has married a Pakistani cricketer and not some terrorist or an ISI agent. Its not as if after marriage she will start representing Pakistan. Its sickening to see people start questioning someone's patriotism and integrity without reasons. It has happened to Shah Rukh Khan before and now its happening to Sania Mirza. It is nothing but flawed nationalism and fickle mindedness on part of those people who raise such issues. Sir V.S.Naipaul has a Pakistani wife, does that make him a traitor ? Rajiv Gandhi married Sonia Gandhi(an Italian), does that mean there weren't any suitable Indian girls available for him ? People who think on those lines need to grow up.

Why use different yardsticks for different people when it comes to patriotism. Just sample this. L.K.Advani goes to Pakistan and lavishes praises on Jinnah (the man responsible for India's partition). Eyebrows are raised, he loses his party post but nobody dares calling him a traitor. Jaswant Singh in his book hails Jinnah as a great leader and holds Jawaharlal Nehru and Sardar Patel responsible for partition. He gets expelled from his party but did anybody call him a traitor ? Certain politicians from Tamil Nadu have always supported the LTTE despite the knowledge that they are involved in anti India activities. What do we do with them ? We don't confront them, instead we send them to the Lok Sabha and empower their dirty hands. The celebrated Sir V.S.Naipaul publicly terms Mahatma Gandhi as a fool and degrades India in foreign media, yet we take pride in his achievements.

Now compare this. Shah Rukh Khan merely supports the inclusion of Pakistani cricketers in the IPL and immediately gets labeled as a traitor. His film gets stalled in Mumbai, Gujrat and other places. People start calling him a Pakistani. Sania Mirza decides to marry a Pakistani cricketer and there are calls for her to leave India. Online forums are filled with hate messages and all kinds of nasty things written about her. Where were these so called patriots when a certain Ms. Madhi Ramamurthy from Chennai married Sri Lankan cricketer Muttiah Muralitharan (Isn't Sri Lanka the country from where the LTTE used to operate ? Isn't LTTE responsible for Rajiv Gandhi's assassination ?). Of course Muralitharan has got nothing to do with the LTTE but we would not give such benefit of doubt to Shoaib Malik (he's a Pakistani after all, isn't he ?). Its all right if an Indian Tamil wishes to marry a Sri Lankan Tamil, there's no problem if a Bihari chooses to wed a Nepali but all hell breaks loose if an Indian Muslim tries to marry a Pakistani Muslim. Why ??

It is this step motherly treatment that is alienating Muslims from the mainstream. India is home to the second largest Muslim population in the world. It is as much a Muslim country as it is a Hindu one. India cannot prosper by treating its largest minority as second rate citizens. Why is it that a Muslim has to prove it at every stage of his life that he is a patriot, that he is an Indian ? What has a vandal like Bal Thackrey done for India that makes him question the loyalty of committed Indian Muslims like SRK and Sania Mirza or for that matter question the loyalty of any Indian Muslim ? Does being a non Muslim gives you the certificate that you would not cheat on India ? Does being a Muslim make you any less Indian than any of the non-Muslims or vice versa ? These questions remain unanswered and if things don't change drastically we will find the coming generations also asking the same questions in dismay. This is the price we pay for being Indian Muslims and it hurts.

The Mother Of All Snubs

The IPL is in the news again, but this time for all the wrong reasons. The IPL's second auction was supposed to generate as much curiosity if not more, as the first auction did. It did make people sit up and take notice, albeit for different reasons altogether. When the affable Dr. Manmohan Singh(the honourable Prime Minister of India) himself voices concern over such trivial issues as an IPL auction then we all know that something is seriously wrong. And wrong it went at the IPL auction where one man set out to tarnish the image of India and Indian Cricket. If you are into newspapers or for that matter into news of any kind, you would have probably figured out by now what the next few lines are going to read like.

Trust Lalit Modi, the BCCI's poster boy to come up with a master plan to hype this year's edition of the IPL. After all here's a man who changed the face of Indian Cricket for good(not anymore). That the IPL was his brain child is common knowledge. The inaugural edition of IPL sounded the death knell for the rebel ICL, in the process saving BCCI from major embarrassment. It also confirmed India's status as the game's undisputed financial powerhouse, much to the chagrin of the Englishmen who still think they hold the copyrights to anything remotely concerned with cricket.

By the time the second edition of the IPL commenced the ICL was more or less confined to the pages of history. But IPL faced a challenge of completely different nature. General elections were round the corner and the Central Government thought it was all but impossible to provide security to the host of cricketers taking part in the IPL. Lalit Modi's response ? He shifted the IPL to South Africa much to the embarrassment of the Indian security establishment. A move that did wonders though, to the popularity of the already popular cricketing extravaganza called the IPL. So far so good.

Come March 2010 and IPL3 kick starts. The second auction to fill up a few vacant slots was seen as an ideal curtain raiser for the event, instead it raised more eyebrows and caused much heartache, especially to the Pakistani players. Prior to the auction Lalit Modi made all the right noises and got the Pakistani players enrolled for the same. But the grand snub that the franchises gave to the Pakistani players at the auction came as a bolt from the blue not only for the Pakistanis but also for everyone else who were looking forward to their participation in the showcase event. But this time, Lalit Modi in his over zealousness for publicity seems to have shot himself in the foot, what with the Indian Government washing its hands clean of any involvement in the fiasco(the home minister Mr P. Chidambaram himself issuing a statement to this effect) and a couple of franchises vocally expressing their displeasure at the way the entire episode was handled(Shah Rukh Khan even went on to say that the Pakistani Players were not made legally available). As expected Lalit Modi feigns ignorance and squarely puts the blame on the franchises who in turn are listing out cosmetic excuses for dishing out the royal snub. Of course not many are willing to buy their arguments.

Why get the Pakistanis into the auction in the first place if you don't want them in action ? Well, Lalit Modi would like us to believe that it was at the behest of the government that he did so, which on paper seems highly unlikely. Even if this were the case, Modi would have had made a complete fool out of himself because the government will never own up responsibility for it even if they were the real brains behind it. If this was Lalit Modi's idea of getting back at Pakistan for 26/11 then he needs to grow up, because you don't get bravery awards for taking out soft targets. As heinous a crime as it was against India and its people, Afridi & Co. are certainly not the ones to be blamed for what happened on 26/11. Sporting arenas are not meant for washing each other's dirty linen. In fact by indulging in such cheap jingoism Modi has belittled India. You don't invite people and humiliate them like this. That's so un Indian and amateurish. Such moves will only cause more bad blood between the already estranged neighbours. And if at all the whole thing was stage managed to garner publicity for the event, then shame on you Lalit Modi and BCCI(for being his partner in crime).

Lalit Modi is a classic example of how success and failure can collectively cripple someone's ability to think straight. What we saw at the IPL auction was sheer arrogance and madness from a super successful man(read Lalit Modi) desperate to hog the limelight in order to avert his own downward spiral that started with his drubbing in the RCB(Rajasthan Cricket Board) elections and reached its pinnacle with this unwanted controversy. It goes without saying that such display of misplaced bravado will not win him any admirers(the dals and the senas are an exception though). The high drama played out at the IPL auction was something that could and should have been avoided. What Lalit Modi did was penny wise pound foolish and its a pity that the wise men at BCCI actually let him get away with his act.