Cricket: South Africa No.1, England Busy Fighting KP, India Ready!

South Africa No.1!

If you thought star-ego wars were restricted only to Indian teams—be it in cricket or tennis—you were proved wrong by what happened or rather still happening in England. Interestingly, this gives you another chance to strengthen the synthesis that basically we Indians inherit most of our negative mindsets from our past colonial masters—England! Whatever be the legacy of the once ‘masters’ and once ‘slaves’ both of these countries show the ominous tendency to sacrifice national interests or pride in the rampant inability of their respective sports managers to handle their star players judiciously. 

South Africa had just become the No.1 Test team in International Cricket Council (ICC) rankings by toppling England with a 2-0 win in the recent Test cricket series played between the two countries in England. The winning margin of greater than 1-0 came for South Africa after long sixty years. Gary Kristen shines as maybe the first ever coach to take two different teams to No.1 position—India being the first beneficiary. 

Hashim Amla!

Incidentally, England became the No.1 team by drubbing India 4-0 in the Test series played in England in 2011. South Africa won the first Test played in July, 2012 riding high on an incredible unbeaten triple century by Hashim Amla and thus routing England by an innings and 12 runs. The second Test was drawn due mostly to rains, and therefore the third Test became very crucial for England as they faced losing their No.1 position if they did not manage to win it. But by then, the star-ego war between Kevin Pietersen (KP) and the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) was raging. 

All was not well with Kevin Pietersensince he returned from playing in the Indian Premiere League-5 during April-May, 2012. It was likely that he must have fought with the ECB over adjusting his schedules considering his high stakes in the IPL. To bring matters to a head KP announced his retirement from one day international cricket and expressed his willingness to continue in T20 cricket. The ECB rebutted by saying that he had to retire wholly from limited overs cricket and not just from one-dayers. KP had to retract his announcement later. 

Kevin Pietersen!

After the England rout in the first Test of the South Africa-England Test Series-2012 all hell broke loose on the suspicion that KP had sent some mobile text messages to South African players criticizing his own teammates and the cricket board. Text messages normally imply very private communication between individuals and no third party is supposed to know or debate them. But maybe due to KP’s South Africa-born background and his past temperamental history the woes increased manifold for him and the ego war showed no signs of abating. Either party did not want to yield an inch. 

Eventually KP was dropped from the England team for the all-important third Test and apparently there was no consideration for the possible loss of national pride if England failed to win it. A key player figuring in his team’s many wins was thrown out for petty ego hassles. That England lost the exciting third Test on the last day by 51 runs and got dethroned to No.2 position in ICC Test rankings was history. 

The ego buck refused to stop even then. Kevin Pietersen was dropped too from the T20 World Cup coming up in Sri Lanka from September, 18, 2012. This decision was taken despite knowing the facts that England’s triumph in T20 World Cup-2010 was its first ever in ICC tournaments and KP was instrumental in the team’s wins in the crucial later matches leading up to the final. The Indian Tennis story was a recent similar case when the nation’s prospects in London Olympics-2012 got compromised due to endless ego wars and pathetic mismanagement. 

A nationalist mindset would serve sports better than the master-servant one! 

 Meanwhile, the India-New Zealand Test cricket series starts from tomorrow, August 23, 2012 and Team India is definitely going to exploit home conditions to win the Series in an effort to improve its ICC Test rankings too. For the first time in 16 years India will be playing a Test without the services of both Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman. The focus will be ruthlessly on the youngsters for whom skipper Dhoni has been batting so intensely over the recent years. India will also be playing a Test after nearly 8 months with the painful memory of 8 straight away losses. And, this is going to be only the beginning a packed domestic season for months ahead.

Assam Violence: And Then... Cyber Terror By Pakistan?

The Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India, has confirmed that a hardliner group in Pakistan uploaded morphed images and videos on websites and social networking sites to whip up communal tension across India. The images of badly mangled victims in natural disasters like earthquakes and floods from various countries including Tibet and Thailand had been linked to the ethnic violence in Assam, situated in North Eastern region of India, to incite the Muslims and to panic the north easterners living in different parts of India. 

The uploading reportedly started around mid-July, 2012 in the aftermath of the Myanmar violence involving the Buddhists and Muslims which was also allegedly termed as ethnic cleansing resorted to by the government of Myanmar. In the meantime the Assam violence erupted between the local population of the Bodo tribe and the immigrant Muslim community from Bangladesh. The violence was largely due to economic pressures leading to land disputes created by unchecked infiltration from Bangladesh into Assam over the decades and there was no communal angle to that. 

The said terrorist group in Pakistan linked the morphed visuals to indicate horrendous communal killings of Muslims by the Bodos and added intimidating messages to the effect that the killings would be avenged after the celebrations of the Eid-ul-Fitar festival. Inflammatory short text and multimedia messages began to invade the mobile network too. 

This could possibly be the reason for the Mumbai violence on August 11, 2012 when anti-social elements penetrated a peaceful demonstration by the Mumbai Muslims and created an absolute chaos in a prime locality for one hour. The very unexpectedness of the mindless violence nearly paralyzed the security personnel on duty and they along with the media became the specific targets of the mob. Finally the violence left two people dead and scores injured. 

The rumors and messages became stronger after that and reports of north easterners being harassed and threatened in various cities flooded in. Perhaps the biggest exodus of Indians within India since Independence unfolded, not to speak of the nearly 500,000 people displaced and driven to refugee camps in Assam. Thousands of fear stricken Assamese people and north easterners rushed to the railway stations and took the first trains available to Assam and the North East. The worst affected cities were Mumbai, Bangalore, Pune, Chennai and Hyderabad. The overcrowded trains became the spectacle of the century. 

The Government of India got into the action mode. Bulk short text and multimedia messages were banned for fifteen days. The Home Ministry constituted a dedicated team of experts to peruse the internet for any signs of violation. The team found more than hundred websites and cyber accounts filled with inflammatory visuals and texts, and they sourced the uploading to Pakistan. More than eighty of those were immediately blocked and Google, Facebook, YouTube and Twitter were approached for finding objectionable and communal pages or accounts. As per latest reports the government had ordered for blocking more than 250 sites and a few social networking sites told the government that the uploading of objectionable images and videos was done from Pakistan. 

As the evidence clearly pointed towards Pakistan the Indian Home Ministry got into touch with its Pakistan counterpart and asked for a crackdown on the hate spreading elements there. If this latest evidence could succeed in breaking Pakistan’s eternal mode of denial was to be seen yet. Normally Indian evidence does not qualify as 'evidence' in Pakistan! 

Why a country bled continually by terrorism within is always focused on destabilizing or even destroying its neighbor and is ever unwilling or unable to counter the terrorists has always been the big question. The answer to that just never comes. Instead a new weapon called cyber terror gets discovered. 

The India-Pakistan relations could very well be termed  the greatest mystery of mankind. 

Today Eid-ul-Fitar is being celebrated throughout India. We wish all our Muslim friends the happiest Eid Mubarak! We all should take a resolve on this holy occasion to stay united on the issue of our nationality, to take pride on being Indians and defeat all divisive forces. 

Cricket: VVS Laxman Announces His Retirement!

He has been fondly called Very Very Special by cricket lovers and experts in India. Indeed, he has given Very Very Special moments to Indian cricket over the sixteen years of his superb innings. He could be called the crisis manager for Team India always rescuing the team from tight situations and with Rahul Dravid virtually forming the disaster management cell—saving hopeless matches and winning matches from hopeless situations. They excelled both in home and away conditions.

Vangipurapu Venkata Sai (VVS) Laxman announced his retirement from international cricket this afternoon at a press conference in his home city of Hyderabad. His retirement was expected ever since his listless performance in India’s disastrous tours of Australia-2011-12 and before that the tour of England-2011. Particularly when Rahul Dravid decided to call it a day Laxman’s retirement seemed imminent. But the legendary player kept on perhaps for the last memorable innings of his life during the packed domestic season-2012-13.

VVS Laxman stuck to his practice and training schedules at home despite not playing any international match since January, 2012. And, in fact, he was selected for the India-New Zealand cricket series starting on coming 23^rdAugust with the first Test to be played in Laxman’s home ground in Hyderabad. His fans were geared up to see him maybe in one last home appearance. But today, the Very Very Special cricketer shocked everyone by announcing his retirement with immediate effect.

Reports and speculation suggest that the Indian cricket selectors told him specifically to play his last two Tests against New Zealand and then retire. The great cricketer known for his slick and elegant leg cuts perhaps could not handle this cruel googly. He has always been the perfect gentleman in the gentleman’s game of cricket and never had any problem or dispute with anyone in his career spanning 16 years. The only time he expressed his disappointment was when he was not selected for the World Cup-2003 despite the fact that Laxman was playing the limited over games with much more dexterity during those years only. Now, true to his nature, Laxman candidly informed the media that he wanted to make way for younger players to be groomed in this long domestic season, and no hint whatsoever about possible pressure or compulsions.

In a career marked with highs and lows Laxman played exceptionally well against Australia scoring six of his seventeen hundreds in Test Cricket. His majestic innings of 281 in the Kolkata Test in 2001 against Australia remains a landmark even now. After being forced to follow on India went on to win that Test thanks to the VVS man who crafted an incredible partnership with Rahul Dravid. He had been a dedicated player in the truest form of the game—Test cricket, and maybe that is why could not adjust adequately to the shorter forms to excel. Thanks to his class he started as an icon in the shortest form called the Indian Premiere League that unfolded in 2007, but in its fifth version this year there were no buyers for him.

Fans and cricket lovers are going to miss him sorely. The Big Four of Indian batting is now reduced to just one with Ganguly, Dravid and Laxman gone and only Sachin Tendulkar sticking on. But hopefully the void will be filled with exciting young players like Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane, Suresh Raina and a few other promising batsmen.