Sunday, January 06, 2008

Thank you, Team India!!

Team India, the second test match against Australia was no less than a nightmare for you all.

Not because your were playing Australia in Australia; not because you didn’t get much time to get acclimatized to conditions; not because you were too short of experienced pacers; but because those whose job is to ensure that the game is conducted in a fair manner failed miserably in their duty.

Umpires are humans; they are bound to make mistakes. But there is no justification for so many mistakes and most of them against only one of the two teams.

Most of the mistakes weren’t close calls; they were plain horrendous oversights.

And these ‘mistakes’ have been happening from day 1 of the test match.

It’s as if you were playing against a team of 13(and a certain 2 of them certainly more powerful than the 11).

It’s like playing football against Brazil with 3 of your team members out due to red card.

It’s like running a hurdles race with an ankle injury.

It’s like competing in a Formula one race knowing that every few laps, some official will flatten your tires, while the others will continue racing.

You all still played and how!

You wiped off all your frustration, didn’t make much of all those controversial decisions and played with complete focus and professionalism. And you still made a match of what was nothing but a farce! You played like real champs, my team!

There was no way you could have won this match but to make the draw a real possibility is no less an achievement! And even if we forget all the wrong decisions of the first three innings, if you hadn’t suffered a couple of umpiring blunders in the fourth, you would have still drawn the match! Even after those wrong decisions, you played with business-like professionalism and most importantly, you gave a lion-hearted fight!

Sometimes, life makes you walk even when there is no journey. This test match was no different for you.

Australia may have won this test match, but one can’t say that you lost it!

Proud of you all, my team!!

5 Comments:

Blogger Cuckoo said...

Exactly !! I fully agree with you. I applaud them for keeping their cools after so many wrongs. It showed but they never let their game affected by this.

We have to see what happens when there is no Buckner. Is Australia still going to win ?

7:06 AM  
Blogger Leziblogger said...

Cuckoo: Well said, bucknor is Australia's 12th man, eh???

I have already given up on the series, whether we play further or not. If I were in the team, I would be in no mood to play further so I am ok if our team decides to complete the series only as a formality!

8:17 PM  
Blogger Mukta Raut said...

Hi Lezi,

I remember that yor signature at one time (when we both worked together in the same office) was 'It's not the size of the dog in the fight; it's the size of the fight in the dog.' :-D

11:10 PM  
Blogger Priyanka said...

I agree with what you've said! Now just need to see 'what happens next'...

10:46 AM  
Blogger Leziblogger said...

Mukta: oh, you remember that!!!That's one of my fav one-liners..btw, if I go by the way we played at Sydney, the size of the dog is also the same!!

Priyanka: Welcome to my blog.Thanks for commenting! Yup, remains to be seen what happens next. I so much hope that with the act of 'brokering' a compromise, BCCI(and ICC) don't end up demotivating our team further!

8:14 PM  

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