I am back with Part II on our team’s evolution in year 2008. I could not stop myself praising India for year 2008 achievements. As luck would have it, Dhoni’s keep- cool-at-all-times attitude helped our team position better than in the past. Captaincy Crown in India was a jinx in the past. It caused burden on the player’s individual performance lot many times. But Dhoni broke all those jinxes and exhilarated the captaincy crown. Lets go back to some stats on what we achieved in second half of the year.

India Tour of Sri Lanka – Jul 2008 – Aug 2008
Mendis Maniac Continues…
1st Test v SL – SL won by an innings and 239 runs – Sri Lanka 600/6d; India 223 and 138 (f/o)
2nd Test v SL – India won by 170 runs – India 329 and 269; Sri Lanka 292 and 136
3rd Test v SL – Sri Lanka won by 8 wickets – India 249 and 268; Sri Lanka 396 and 123/2

The victory in Australia at the beginning of this year fore set high expectation to win series in Sri Lanka very easily. As the test series progressed it did not look like a cakewalk. Even the players seemed complacent and lost their first test in Colombo. Although Sehwag’s double ton in 2^nd Test won match for India, Mendis and Muthiah ensured the series was retained in SL. It was a brilliant performance by both spinners from SL. Mendis maniac followed team India right through Asia cup to this series.

The only saving grace in the tour for team India was to retain one-day series. Of course Dhoni’s leadership and some young blood made the difference to have 3-2 upper hand in one-day series.

Australia Tour of India – Sep 2008 – Nov 2008
Dada, Kumble’s Adieu and Arch Rivalry continues…
1st Test v India – Match drawn – Australia 430 and 228/6d; India 360 and 177/4
2nd Test v India – India won by 320 runs – India 469 and 314/3d; Australia 268 and 195
3rd Test v India – Match drawn – India 613/7d and 208/5d; Australia 577 and 31/0
4th Test v India – India won by 172 runs – India 441 and 295; Australia 355 and 209

This series has vouched two memorable events – adieu to Anil Kumble, the legendry spinner and Dada (Sourav Ganguly), all time favorite batsmen. Tremendous performance ensured India retains the Border-Gavaskar trophy at home and it was a pride fall for Australia. Apparently Dhoni’s leadership won 2 matches for India to win the series. This ended the long norm of different captains for shorter and longer version of the game.

If Zaheer and Ishant stumbled Australia, Dhoni, the king in white clothes, led the team from front to victory.

England Tour of India – Nov 2008 – Dec 2008
Gaining Consistency by leaps and bounds…
One who saw this series would have certainly amazed if it were India, which was playing cricket this way. Out of 7 matches we won 5 matches in a row, which I think by far the greatest performance in my knowledge. I almost thought we would do a clean wash in the series, and England did not have place to hide their face until the Mumbai blasts warranted remaining one day matches being suspended.

1st Test v India – India won by 6 wickets – England 316 and 311/9d; India 241 and 387/4
2nd Test v India – Match drawn – India 453 and 251/7d; England 302 and 64/1

Amongst lot of speculation, finally the test series continued amidst tight security force. We could see less of spectators and more of armed forces witnessing the games. But the winning and sportive spirit did not jitter with these incidents.

The whole team stood by their morals amidst controversies in Australia, renewed team spirits made India win matches and regain the glory. Some emotional moments for India seeing off Dada and Kumble, and in the end it was a great victory against England that cheered the whole nation.

What a way to end a year. I would like to “Thank Team India” for the entertainment provided for all the fans in year 2008 and wish them all the best for year 2009.We all would like to see India taking up the much-coveted top 1 position in this New Year 2009.

Image Credit: markhillary

Popularity: 14%

There is no fun without imagination. So lets do some time pass here.

The very mention of word ‘war’ brings dreadful things in front of our eyes – bombshells dropping off the sky, gun rattles and cities being wiped off the geography etc. Lets take a trip to imaginary world to see what happens if battles were fought on sport grounds but in real earnest. As you read through this article you will have a “Dejavu”, a feeling of having seen this sometime past in the history.

Well if your imaginary cells are working fast enough and you have already experienced Dejavu, then that shows you love movies. Yes the very Lagaan movie is an inspiration for this article in which cricket was played as battle to acquire our own  lands from then “East India Company”.

Indian mythology has witnessed winning kingdoms over a sport. Our very Mahabharata has made Pandavas to lose their kingdom to Kauravas over the game of gambling. The result of all this is less or no bloodshed though.
Most of the nations’ armed forces comprise of Army, Naval and Air forces.

Take a look at this new face of our imaginary armed forces fighting (or should we say playing) for a nation:

Cricket Force
Football Force
Hockey Force
Basket Ball Force

As India stands to have second largest armed forces in the world, we would continue our strong hold in cricket force in the world.

How could we have solved some issues?

We could solve our POK issue with our neighbor country over a match of Cricket. Nuclear treaty with US could have been won over a game of basketball. Imagine ICC, BCCI, FA & NBA will be merged into UN looking after international peace affairs. India would have been a member of Security Council way long ago if this had been the case.

I shall leave your imagination to whatever extent you can reach to imagine this world in peace and have solutions for the problems. India always wanted peace and in fact achieved freedom with peace, and the world followed thereafter.

Image Courtesy: Mysudbury.ca

Popularity: 14%

Image Courtesy: Indiabuzzing

If US boast to be super power in the world economy, our own India is no less to a “super power” in consumer base and in the world cricket. There is no dispute that our country’s biggest asset is our people. There might be 18 different official languages in India, but Cricket is a boundary less language in India that connects all age groups across all states.

The powerful BCCI has highest stake in ICC in influencing major decisions in and around cricketing world. The recent Mumbai attacks and terror strikes in the country created ripples on security arrangements in India for foreign players visiting our soil; result was the ongoing Ind vs. Eng one-day series was suspended. English players had to go home but only to land on Indian soil again after satisfactory security arrangements ensured by ICC and BCCI to play the test series. There have been remarks making rounds if it’s safe enough to play cricket in India.

A question arises – could world cricket sustain without playing India? Answer is simple, NO. I am sure all the 1.2 billion Indian population would second me on this one. Cricket Boards around the world cannot take this stance at the cost of their exchequer, and this will ensure that we will continue to enjoy our cricket supremacy across the globe. As arrogant as it might sound, but I can take pride of my country and bask in this supremacy.

Indian Premiere League [IPL] is a real citation on how our country can change the dimensions of this sport. Twenty-Twenty cricket has been in vogue in England much before IPL originated, but it never took off to make mint in international arena. IPL has really enticed the whole world come to IPL terms and created a niche in cricketing world. The recognition that our country gave to this curtailed version of this sport convinced ICC to ponder on fitting them in every year plan.

Whilst many of us might feel that India’s population is root cause for some of our day-to-day problems. I wanted all of us to look at the other side of this coin and the benefits. Its like if the glass is half empty or half full.

Leaving aside the reason for India being Superpower in Cricket, if rest of the cricket boards take a decision not to play because it is not safe then they are making terrorists ambitions successful…

Cricket is more than a sport in India, a religion that most of us believe and cannot be taken away so easily.

Popularity: 12%

Dear Dhoni,

Times of India reported yesterday that you are in the company of the rough and tough and the royals. What a privilege, man !

Not only are you the darling of the female cricket fanatics of the world, you have built enough reputation for the administrators in Jharkhand to give you what you always wanted – Z plus security plus a female entourage. No wonder, you have a plethora of reasons to be single.

I don’t know whether to laugh or to cry – I am confused !

Tangentially speaking, can you share your recent habitual bunglings in the finals of a tournament. You lost it out against Pakistan in the trination tournament – We didn’t complain. You lost it out against Sri Lanka in the recent Asia Cup final – We didn’t complain. But you lose out in Sri Lanka, my friend – we will have to start looking at your “G” version…..a.k.a Gony

That reminds me of the song from Amar Akbar Anthony. Here is my version..

Honi ko Anhoni kar de

Anhoni ko Honi..

Ek jagah pe khade ho theenon

Sony, Goni aur Dhoni

Did you like it ?

By the way, can you please ask your team mate Gony to start behaving – His mummy is complaining!!!

More blah blah later !

Yours truly,

Kandamangalam

Popularity: 13%