Sandys blog

My friend Sandy has blogged about the Ganguly-Chapell fiasco plus the Eden Gardens match as well here .

He makes some interesting observations :

1. Chappels gesture was a disgrace to Indian people.

2. The booing of the crowd at Eden Gardens.

3. How because of the booing people are after bongs in general asking them to explain something that some stupids have done.

Starting off with the first one the Chapell gesture, the explanation of the BCCI about the injured finger was laughable probably just as much as the inclusion of Ganguly as a "batting all rounder". What has irked me is the fact that Greg Chapell is considered to be a straight talking downright guy. Now then if hes that sort of a guy then he probably should tell us the truth and face the music/consequences. Everyone loses their cool and if this is not acceptable by Indian standards then Chapell must be fired and some one else found. But then the BCCI is never known to take any tough decisions. They always take the compromise path. And Sandy, Dravid is not a wimp of a captain but more about that in aother post.

Secondly the crowd booing the Indian captain off. First of all there are enough cowards in the crowd who know that their anonymity is the biggest weapon and use it to get away with anything that they can think of. Most Indians in general have never played any sport at a serious level and have no idea of the sort of pressure a sportsperson goes through. Even when I played at my hostel I could see the despair in my hostel mates eyes when we would yet again lose our semi final to the same team. The problem comes up when your own mates start abusing you, its almost unbearable. You turn to them for support at times of defeat and when they boo you off its gut wrenching. And finally this new phenomenon of crowds getting more and more fanatical. You could see it in Bangalore when India lost the test to Pakistan. Ganguly was booed off. Same thing happened to Dravid in Eden Gardens as well, probably prompting the gesture of clapping for the crowd at the end of the match in Mumbai. I sort of think that Star News which makes stupid shows like "Match ka Mujrim" would be unhappy each time India wins since it means they can no longer get people like Bishen Singh Bedi to shout whatever they want against Indias selectors the BCCI and the players. I have no idea why crowds bay for blood, it almost seems like people have stopped realising that its just a game and that sometimes you win and sometimes you loose. Thats the end point "ITS JUST A GAME". Passion is all OK but then at the end of it if you have been outclassed you just accept it and then appreciate what the other team has done and hope that there will be a better performance next time around. All one needs to look at is the Chennai (considered to be a unfriendly place for outsiders!!) crowd giving a standing ovation to the Pakistani team in 1999 after Sachin had easily played the best test match innings of his life. And all this talk of doctoring the pitch, well if you want to talk of yourself as the second best team in the world after the Aussies then you should play well on any pitch and not insist on playing only on slow low tracks.

The last point irritates me, why should some one who was not there at the ground be asked to explain something ? Eden Gardens is in Kolkata and you would expect a Metro to have people from all over the country and a fair population of non-bongs who would have booed Dravid as well. Why are bongs asked to explain the booing ? Just the sort of generalisation and regionalism that makes me frusth!!! And Bangaloreans were never asked for explanations for the booing that Dada had to put up with ?

Will blog about Gangulys selections, captaincy etc later on...