Champions Trophy Vs Congress Atrophy!

We're talking about cricket here, from the point of view of Indian cricket; but mixing it with politics isn't something that was never heard of! We published here kind of a rant post during the disastrous down under India tour which was so, not primarily because of the run-less performances of the stalwarts, but also because of the politics of selection and clout. The heavyweights naturally cannot be disposed of easily which is why they figure in the Team for Champions Trophy-2025 too. 

Leaders and politicians spend a helluva lot of time announcing the CM or PM faces as the case may be. Similarly, the cricket mandarins and selectors have managed to announce the squad only after more than ten days of serial huddles. This is typically political! Isn't this? 

Now, Congress--the oldest national political party of the country--is in the throes of deadly atrophy! So much so that quite a few parties of the Alliance which was formed recently, have threatened to abandon Congress while one or two have already decided to fight the elections on their own. Why? Because Congress is still being run by the old guards, in their seventies to nineties, as per their whims or no-scruples and thus effectively preventing young blood to get into the body, apart from the so-called dynastic clout. 

You see the point now? The Team India squad is the 'cricket' example of the heavyweight politics where many meritorious youngsters cannot ever manage to get into the body. Experts justify this by citing the difference between the red and the white ball cricket. But basically, they don't have the balls to protest enough! 

Politics runs through everything--let it be elections of any kind, governments, bureaucracy, sports or even family homes. With the billions lurking everywhere, Indian cricket thus has the biggest stakes for all who do politics and love to influence and rule!  

Release of Book 'Randomized: A Dozen Short Stories'!

The fourth collection of stories titled 'Randomized: A Dozen Short Stories' by Chinmay Chakravarty has been released on Amazon KDP just now! This collection, short stories in a lighter vein plus with mild satire like the previous collections, has been published in both the E-book and Paperback formats. The links are given below: 

International: Click Here!

India: Click Here! 

Other collections of short stories by the same author:

The Cheerless Chauffeur and Other Tales(2021)--Notion Press.

Funny and Fishy Tales(2022)--KDP.

The Weirdos(2022)--Ukiyoto Publishing.

All books of the author are available on Goodreads, apart from Amazon and other outlets! Have a look!

Border Gavaskar Trophy: Team India A National Museum?

In whole of my ‘aware-of-cricket’ life I’ve never seen my home team in such a pitiable state—in absolute doldrums, no directions pointing anywhere, no will of any sort, a complete absence of a ‘management’ and no team building efforts—since the 0-3 drubbing by New Zealand on home turf till the present moment down under, except, of course, the lone wonder in Perth. Therefore, I’m rather drawn fatally to an arguably merciless mindset of comparing Team India to a national museum. The reasons thereof are very easy to detect: all the preciously historic set pieces are still on a grand display irrespective of if people of a cricket loving nature do grace those with generous footfalls or not; the timings and the duty hours are fixed irrespective of the ‘weather’ conditions as the controllers continue to feel that they must ‘learn’ from mistakes; and that some of the old pieces are only being adjusted here and there without giving any thought to bringing in new and newer pieces of interest or even the time-tested older pieces that have been put unceremoniously in the backburner.

In easier cricketing terms I mean to say that a few of the veterans of Team India are irreplaceable or un-droppable thanks to their gloriously historic past; they keep on pushing the team to defeat after defeat and yet the ‘managers’ still consider them too precious for any ‘unworthy’ action. Members of the team or of the management defy common sense as they think some of the previous decisions were mistakes to be unlearnt: the team under the most successful bowler won the toss, elected to bat and won the Test in an unbelievable way, and then the set-piece skipper coming back after attending to domestic duties to lead the team again still won the toss, elected to bat again and lost the match in a grand way; and since in both the occasions Team Indian batting faltered and tottered to pathetic totals the set-piece skipper felt, perhaps inspired by the managers, that those were grave mistakes, and therefore, he elected to field first on a perfect batting strip at the Gabba after winning the toss yet again. Thus encouraged and enabled, Team India has allowed ‘Headed’ Australia to pave the way for another thumping win as the hosts knew the visitors’ recurring batting accounts, leaving the patriotic fans with the only option of praying for the rains to continue.

No doubt, the set-piece skipper does have a glorious past as an aggressive opener; but since he failed repeatedly against New Zealand and since another in-and-out veteran, promoted to the opener’s slot, played fairly well the apparently cowering captain demoted himself to a much lower order which was magnanimously described by self-interested experts/commentators/mediapersons as ‘selfless’, and that terrific act to no avail. The ‘managers or selectors or coaches’ got totally befuddled as to who in the reserve should be brought in place of whom: one spinner was dropped after the Perth Test despite him playing relatively well and a veteran spinner was given the charge in the Adelaide Test, and then, that spinner was also dropped despite him playing relatively well and another veteran having a glorious past has been given the responsibility in the ongoing Brisbane Test who has so far gone wicket-less. Several other players including those who are much younger as well as promising and also those time-tested older ones we spoke of above have been treated helter skelter for no fault of theirs.

The signals from the Perth Test have been totally lost on the obfuscated skipper/veterans/managers/coaches or the mandarins. A young vibrant team led by an inspired achiever delivered a terrific win, reliving the memories of the 2020-21 Border Gavaskar Trophy when a new skipper led a young vibrant team to a memorable Series victory after the set-piece skipper left the team in a lurch to attend to domestic duties. Perhaps, the museum pieces in the team and the new coach have joined hands in a huge mutual collaboration to keep their respective positions safe and secure, and maybe therefore, the new coach has been seen throwing stones in a dark blind alley in gay abandon.

And all the experts/commentators/mediapersons back in the country, called India, continue to be utterly conscious of a possible absence of perks/benefits/packages/tours in the near future with the upcoming bonanza of the IPL-2025, if they decide calling a spade a spade. Brace!