Another year, another India Pakistan one day international series. Has the idea of an Indo-Pak encounter lost its aura? No longer does the blood boil and the stomach churn. Although a month of quality cricket is expected, there is no longer the air of expectation, war is no longer in the air. Is this an impact of the ever increasing number of Indo-Pak contests or is this the effect of the historic Peace Process? The Friendship series as the India-Pakistan series was once called has been reduced to just that - a friendly event.

Although the media would like to play up the concept of “badla” and introduce some element of intrigue into the series, personally ,the India-Australia series is the one I am looking forward to. The result of the India - Pakistan series will be meaningless - forgotten. A year from now people will ask, what was the scoreline? Was it 2-3 or 1-4. And why will it matter. By next year there will be yet another series and a victory here or a loss there can be buried easily. But the India-Australia series down under is happening after 4 long years and the next one might not happen for a while. And an India -Australia series wins hands down in terms of the sheer quality of cricket expected. It is the challenge of beating the invincibles that excites one and all. How many people would agree that an India-Australia series is far more exciting today than an India- Pakistan series?

Test Series

While the India-Pakistan magic may not longer work in the shorter version, personally I am looking forward to the Test series which will follow the meaningless One-dayers. An interesting fact to note is that this will be the first home test series for India since March 2006 against England.The test series will be the platform for the new Indian Test Captain to set himself up and to fine tune his team for the upcoming tour of Australia. The venues for the test matches are Delhi, Kolkata and Bangalore. All three venues have seen some famous India-Pakistan Test encounters. The most memorable being Kumble’s 10 wicket haul at the Kotla. Kumble must be raring to run in at the Kotla. The Eden Gardens which played host to the controversial Asian Test championship game in 1999 is the venue for the second test and Bangalore where Pakistan have usually outperformed India  is the venue for the third test. The choice of venues, the lack of quality test cricket at home in recent years and the build up to the India-Australia series are all the right ingredients that provide the background for an interesting test series.

India and Pakistan always seem to perform as well as the other when they play each other.
They always match up as equals - It does not matter where they are ranked in the ICC Test Cricket ratings and who looks stronger - man for man, on paper. Once the players walk out to the centre in Delhi the series will have begun. 0-0, and all to play for. While the war-like nature of India-Pakistan Cricket may no longer persist - war or no war, emergency or autocracy - the test matches promise to be fascinating games of cricket - nothing more, nothing less.

The NKP Challenger Trophy has come to an end and a team called India Blue have won the title. What this means to the team or any of the players is anybody’s guess. This is because the selection committee has a mind of its own. The Challenger Trophy was started by the Indian Cricket Board in the late nineties to provide a platform for the best players in the domestic scene to showcase their talent against the senior team. But like all other initiatives taken by the board (including the National Cricket Academy and the Pitches Committee) the Challenger trophy has been descended into mediocrity and threatens to stay there.

Unnecessarily Rested:

What was the need to rest somebody like Rahul Dravid? He has been in very poor form of late and this could have been a great opportunity for Dravid to get some runs under his belt. Instead he has now been dropped sorry rested from the national squad putting a big dent on his confidence. Forget Rahul Dravid, what about the rest of the first team? Barring a few (such as Dhoni) not all the players have been playing every single game over the past few months.The only problem is that there is a world of difference when Dinesh Karthik or a Gautham Gambhir scores a century against a line up of Sreesanth, Zaheer and Pathan or somebody like Praveen Kumar bowls an impressive spell to Tendulkar or Dravid. You know then the men deserve a place in the national squad.

Raw Deal:

Surely S Badrinath must be wondering what he must to do to win a spot in the final XI. And when he DOES get that spot, expect him to walk in at either 54/5 or with 2 overs to go, not make too much runs and promptly be dropped for the next game. He did make the squad for the final one-dayer (dead rubber) against Australia and yet wasn’t played.Worse, as Prem Panicker points out, our chairman of selectors Dilip Vengsarkar believes that Gautham Gambhir is a middle-order batsman and Rohit Sharma (who is incidentally IN the team) is waiting in the wings! Another couple of years in the fringes and Badrinath will probably find his career going the way of state teammate S. Sharath (tons of runs at the domestic level but no interest shown by the selectors)

And what has Virendra Sehwag done to get back into the national squad? I always believed that his best position is right at the top and yet chances are its going to Tendulkar and Ganguly who are going to be opening the innings. In his three innings in the Challenger Trophy he made 1, 75 and 9. Compare that to Raina (92,64, 50) or Badrinath (41,82, and 55) and Vengsarkar’s assertion that the selection is made on form and fitness makes absolutely no sense.

Almost a decade

I just happen to figure out one stat which i am pretty sure not anyone will be aware.The last time india won against australia CHASING was way back in 1998 at sharjah in trying circumstances.The famous 148 by sachin on his birthday led them to that victory.Its startling to see that it has been 9 years since they beat them batting second.My heart was in my mouth today when India looked like winning the match when Dhoni and Utthapa were batting but the record still stays intact.They are going to meet each other another 7 times in the next 4 months and lets see if the record can cross a decade.Next time we chase against the aussies make sure whom the bet is placed on.

India has finally reached the pinnacle of glory this week and I am not talking about the Sensex crossing the 17,000 mark for the first time. I am of course talking about India’s greatest-ever achievement in the sports arena - beating Pakistan in the Final to become World Champions in Twenty20 Cricket.

For all their toil and subsequent humiliation in this year’s ODI World Cup, the Indian players have redeemed themselves by their triumph in the Twenty20 format, a moment of crowing glory for a sport par excellence. We cursed the players, hit their homes with stones, promised we would never watch cricket again, after the ODI World Cup debacle but we will forever sing this team’s praises, at least until we win our next World Cup. I am sure a Ten10 World Cup is just around the corner.

In the midst of all the celebrations comes the dampener that Indian hockey players (it seems they won the Asia Cup a few weeks back) are protesting against the ’step-motherly’ treatment’ meted out by the various state governments who decided to award lakhs of money to the victorious cricketers from their respective states, but ignored the hockey players.

There are similar accusations against the Punjab, Jharkhand and Haryana governments, and Air India, and the Sahara Group, a sponsor for both the cricket and hockey teams.

Some of us might wrongly mistake Vikram Kanth, Raghunath, Sunil and Tirkey for Kollywood heroes but it seems they are some of our national hockey players who feel irked that the Karnataka government has announced a cash reward of Rs.5 lakh each to the members of the victorious Indian cricket team. If the government succumb to these players’ demands, before long all other sportspersons in India would go on a hunger-strike.

I don’t understand this entire hullabaloo about cash rewards. Agreed that some cricketers make millions from endorsements but what about a couple of lesser players earning much less compared to the crores earned by some senior players. After all, they cheered their team on from the dug-out and helped tie the shoe-laces of the players going out to bat. Tell me, who has enough money? After all, money is worthless unless some people have it and others do not.

Cricket is more than a religion (as any fan would reiterate!) in India and that is because we won the World Cup about 25 years ago and in spite of years of under-achievement, countless humiliations, and match-fixing scandals, Indians love their sports, which is not just restricted to cricket. We do cheer for Sania sometimes.

Just 11 countries from all over Asia took part in the Asia Cup. On the other hand, 12 countries (not including Namibia, Bermuda, Canada, Ethiopia) from all over the world participated in the World Twenty20 Championships. The Indians scored 57 goals and conceded just 5 in the Asia Cup but then Yuvraj scored 6 sixers in an over! We all know which is front-page news. And, Yuvraj will kick Tirkey’s ass right out of the ground.

Also, Shahrukh might have portrayed the role of a hockey coach in Chak De India…but we all noticed that the star of Indian Cinema preferred to cheer the Indian Cricket team in the Twenty20 final in South Africa than cheer the Indian hockey team at home.

The hockey players are envious of the cricketers just because the Sahara Group has decided to award a house each for the cricketers but gave the finger to the victorious hockey team. These hockey players should be satisfied with the commendation letters they received from the President of India. They can sell the letters on e-bay and if they are lucky, they might even manage to get the same amount of money that our cricketers spend on their hair-cuts. Those losers.

We have not won any medal in our national sport hockey (after 1980) be it in the Olympics or the World Cup. But in cricket, after years of ignominy, we have won the greatest of them all…the World Twenty20 Championships. With a feeling of smugness, we showered the victorious cricket team with flowers during their victory parade. Perhaps, it is time to make Cricket the national game. We do not care even if India wins medals in the Olympics and the World Cup. We will watch only Cricket. Who gives a damn about medals in other sports? We have won the Twenty20 World Cup and that’s all matters, this is enough to keep us happy…at least for another 25 years.

The Moment:

Misbah-ul-Haq moves to the offside and looks to scoop the ball over short fine-leg. The camera follows the ball and the next moment is frozen in my head. Watching the ball suspended in mid air, I felt the cheeky Haq had pulled it off and then the ball dropped and there, with a look of absolute disbelief on his face was Shanthakumaran Sreesanth to put the finishing touch to what has to be arguably India’s biggest sporting achievement in the last two decades. Unbelievable stuff. Pure unbridled Joy!

It still hasn’t sunk in- the team that went into the tournament with a new captain, the team that had played the least number of games in the this format, the team that was written off before even the first ball had been bowled has done it. They didn’t do well, they didn’t just make the final, the didn’t just make a statement, they won the bloody thing!

And just look at who they beat!- the English (the men who started this format) ,the South Africans (the hosts), the bloody Aussies (world champions) and then the enemy, Pakistan. Mahendra Singh Dhoni and his men deserve all the plaudits and the awards they are going to get.

Humdinger of a Final:

After winning the toss, Dhoni decided to bat and some inspired bowling by the Pakistani pacemen restricted India to just 157 of the 20 overs. The total was built around a fine 75 by Gautam Gambhir who played a very responsible knock even as wickets fell at regular intervals at the other hand. The law of averages finally caught up with Yuvraj who struggled for a bit before getting giving Umar Gul his first wicket. Gul went on to shatter Dhoni’s stumps and only some quick hitting at the end from the new kid Rohit Sharma helped India get past the 150 mark.

Brilliant Bowling from Singh and Pathan:

Watching Imran Nazir wallop Sreesanth for 20 runs in the second over, I felt that this match was done and dusted. But RP Singh had other ideas, after getting Hafeez in the first over, he cleaned Kamran Akmal up in the third over. An inspired piece of fielding from young Robin Uthappa got rid of Imran Nazir and then Irfan Pathan got into the act.

Using all his experience, Pathan managed to bowl the perfect spell, mixing his deliveries, and not giving anything away. He got rid of the captain Shoaib Malik and Shahid Afridi in one over and then came back to shatter Arafat’s stumps. At this stage Pakistan needed 54 from 4 overs and just when I felt that India had gotten home safe, Misbah-Ul-Haq carted Harbhajan for three sixes and then Sohail Tanveer followed it up with two more off Sreesanth.

The final over:

12 runs needed of the last over and with only Joginder Sharma and Harbhajan Singh left, Dhoni tossed the ball to Joginder. Inspired captaincy that for sure. I for one would have surely given it to the more experienced Harbhajan Singh. And does Dhoni have balls! After a shocking wide and straight six over long on, Joginder got his man!

You beauty!

Spare a thought:

For Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar and Saurav Ganguly. No way would the selectors have had the balls to drop the holy trinity. Instead the three opted out. More than 1000 one day internationals between them, hundreds of tests, over three decades of cricket combined and yet they miss out on the biggest achievement of their time.

Final Thoughts:

I know the 1983 world cup victory will be considered more significant than this one but I wasn’t around for that game and if you are reading this, chances are you weren’t either. Cricket is probably the only thing that truly unites this country and if you are like me you will probably remember that moment for a long time to come.