Big Effing Mistake- that matters too little.
I’m talking about the awesome threesome. The mainstay of Indian Batting. The Wall, 6+4Ulkar, Ganghooligan. It did not have to end like this. Shit, I didn’t want it to end like this. I wanted a royal friggin farewell. The razmatazz, the lights, the works , the shit. But this is a friggin whimper!
Was it the T-20? All I can think of is- like it or hate it- you cannot ignore it. I can think of every single soul hooked on to it like it was the friggin plague, watching a daredevils vs Rajasthan Royals match or something, the viewership only equalling those legendary days of the sunday doordarshan screening of Ramayana or Mahabharatha or something.
Nevermind that the Bangalore RC aka royally challenged – sucked more than a state-of-the-art whirlpool vacuum cleaner. Nevermind that we were subjected to the overexposed and heavily Wrinkled Shah Rukh Khan and his band of bollywood freaks ( included some hot women and some very distubing close ups of karan johar and Arjun Rampal that made me wanna puke my intestines out) like the footage was our only hope of survival. The fact remains that the T-20 has probably sealed the nail for 50 overs, and perhaps even viewership in test cricket.
I’m fairly positive that Test cricket and T-20 will be the 2 forms that co-exist (along with any other mutant version that Modi and the likes can molest the game out of ). It was the one day series in pakistan, followed by the current test series in Sri Lanka that really showed the effect that T-20 has had on the game.
Alright, lets lay down the cards now. Let’s come clean. Not too many of us can watch the longer version of the game. To me, its quite obvious. Sure, test cricket is the purest form, and the tactical and strategic implications during a game are enormous. But , its just too effing LONG!!! Come on now!!! 5 days???!?! 5 Friggin days?!?!??! That’s a real horseload of time we got there don’t we?! Man that’s a long time. Even 50 overs an innings one day game seems like we’re asking a snail to break into a moon-walk you know?
And what’s with this whole coach/Manager BS? I’m really beginning to second guess the amount of expertise that goes around into planning in this game. We had no coach and we did ok against the kangaroos and the rest. Now, we’ve got one and we suddenly SUCK?!?! What gives? I mean, I know Murali is a legend and Mendis is a freak, but come on!!! An Innings defeat!
Which brings me back to the original topic at hand. I can really see the end for the trip. 3 illustrious careers. Think about it. Wasnt our collective hearts pounding every single time Sachin walked in to bat in the 90s? The world cup in 96 , 2001 in South Africa. Sachin was the friggin MAN. You knew he might fail in the big one, but you won’t stop believing in the little guy.
Think about the Wall. The quintessential gentleman. The only guy in our line up who still maintains a higher average outside India than at home. The only guy who was our hope to standing up to the most testing of bowling conditions. The rest of our batting line-up would crumble , get out like we had the diarohhea, but this dude would stick around till the very end. He’d play the bridesmaid role in every big victory, never getting his due credit. But yet was the hero for the few of us who just loved the underdog.
And of course ganguly. The dude’s a badAss with a CAPITAL A. You couldn’t deny it. After the troublesome episodes of the late 90s (betting and all that BS), he was the one guy who really took indian cricket by the collar and dragged it into the next century. We might hate him for being a little biased against the older guys (like dravid, tendulkar, kumble), but you can’t deny the fact that he was one stand-up dude. He spoke his heart out, and never gave excuses. I cannot forget some of the innings he played from the front – the century in the 01 aussie tour, the 317 chase against pakistan. He was an in-your-face mo-fo.
And yet, its going to be a fade away for these guys. This could be the last leg of test matches. Or maybe it isn’t. But not too many are watching. You just hear stories about the guys playing test matches now, but everyone’s only going to watch if it’s a t-20 game. It’s like that now. The finish line is there, unfortunately- the crowd’s gone home 😦
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