When in India, be a cricket fan

Its been an hour and half and I'm still not sure how to celebrate the greatest Indian accomplishment I ever witnessed.

Curses, praises, screams of joy and swear words were all that I came across when the Indian team was up on the field battling for the holy grail of international cricket. I remember 2003 world cup, probably the first world cup from which i have memories. 2007 was a disaster and I couldn't catch every single match due to the time zone difference and all that. Coming back to 2003, the tourney saw the complete wrath of the man I worship, Sourav Ganguly. He was remarkable and I was believing he could bring us what Dev and his men did years ago. Sadly, it never happened.

This year, at home, almost everyone of us believed we could do it and we did. For Sachin, for Yuvraj and most importantly for 1.2 billion people. Imagine, its the world cup! I remember almost ever single ball, savouring  the match with my dad. Complaining, scolding and losing hopes more than once when Sehwag walked to the pavilion without as much as a single boundary. Sachin disappointing yet again and when Gambhir seemed like he was struggling. After the 30th over every fog of doubt got cleared and there was this comfortable red carpet that led us to the cup of glory.

That catch Sehwag took off Tharanga's bat, the dive that I saw of Yuvi at backward point after a millennium, the way Harbhajan and Yuvi hugged each other and cried, the saint like expression on MS's face after he scored the winning runs. Every single moment shall remain deep in our hearts. Every single player upon whom doubts were cast played today. I bet even though Sachin has a million other innings to remember and cherish, this would top his list. That medallion which reads "winners-world cup 2011", will be wet with tears of the great man himself.

I have been giving my opinions on how Sachin is overrated and all this god worship. But today, I tell you, one needs a quality to be overrated and he has it. Cricket truly being the religion that we proclaim it to be has united Indians across the stands of the Wankhade, across towns and cities, across the country and across the globe. I'm pretty sure the celebrations have not ended yet.

Every year it needs 190 plus countries to discuss world peace and unity and today we showed the world that a sport can unite a nation.

Eleven men to rule them all, eleven men to find them, eleven men to bring them all and in the darkness bind them.


I'm proud to say I lived when India won the world cup. I'm proud to say as a result of today's match, I lived.

The wizard of oz

Born as the eldest of the four children of Lorraine and Graeme on December 19 in Tasmania, Ricky Thomas Ponting made his debut as a number six against South Africa in the Quadrangular series that included India and New Zealand also. 


I probably have not been such a faithful fan of Punter to quote all this statistics and hence I had to quote my friends from Wikipedia. 


Australia won the world cup for the first time in the year 1987 and there was no turning back since then. They have been putting up a phenomenal performance every single time and from 1999 till last Thursday the Aussies were pwning the international arena.


Now, coming back to Ricky Ponting, he was part of the world cup team for the first time in 1996 and ended the tourney with a decent average of 32 odd runs. And then started his dream run. Ponting was always groomed to become the captain one day and he took the torch from the legendary Steve Waugh when Steve underperformed in 2002.

And there was no turning back from then. Ponting is easily one of the best players, perhaps, at times he was on top of everybody, even the over-hyped Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar. I respect Sachin and all that, but he is over-hyped. Dot.


He is a captain whom I consider the best only next to Sourav Ganguly.
Again, I'm not good with stats and hence being the simple and silent fan I am, I restrict myself to telling everyone who reads this the reasons why whoever is bitching about Ponting shouldn't be bitching about him: 

~ First up, Ponting is one of the VERY BEST, agree or don't read further.


~ You hate Ponting because others do, ask yourself and you'll know you cried everytime he got out between 95-99.


~ You and I weren't around when Bradman played and cricket has changed in a million ways since then. Ponting is Australia's greatest for my generation. Of course excluding Glenn-God-Mcgrath and Shane Warne. 


~ The way he plays the lofted cover drive has given orgasms to many. You're kidding yourselves if you are even trying to disagree.


~ You have played cricket since you outgrew the length of a bat and still you'd love to play if you getting out goes unnoticed. Stop cribbing. 


~ The pressure of defending the world cup for the second consecutive time. IMAGINE how humongous it would be and yet he scored a brilliant century in the very same match where others failed. 


~ I haven't jumped or enjoyed my beer along with a million other Australians when Ricky scored a century every time but many a time I have been one of the very firsts to heave a sigh of relief once he crosses 99. To pull statistics he is just a few runs short of Sachin whose statistics stands the tallest. 


Respect him, cheer for him, put your hands together and let yours, yes you the silent fan who was ashamed to rejoice when the man scored, be one of the first drop of tears that fall when Ricky Thomas Ponting leaves the field for one last time.

All hail number 14!