I never thought I will write this post but one should give a credit where it is due….i am not going to comment on Indian team’s performance because frankly speaking I am not overly excited when they win (come on lets be honest...lol) plus its No 1 position in the ICC raking is a testimonial of its supreme performance…I want to touch upon something else today…
What Indian team has done so remarkably in last 10 years or so and where we have failed so monumentally is Indian team’s ability to produce a role model after role model for its younger generation…rahul dravid is probably one of the best role models that the modern cricket has ever seen….when you play cricket for so long it is very hard to keep yourself free of controversies and scandals especially in sub continent and in today’s media-dominated world but I don’t recall even one scandal associated with dravid….tendulakr, kumble and laxman are also in the same league…
the younger generation in any nation always looks towards national players for role models….India is lso ucky to have so many of them and we are so unlucky to have none of them (in last 20 years)….i can personally testify the moral and emotional disintegration of the pakistani younger generation of 90s upon hearing akram’s continuous involvement in match fixing….akram was a not a joke…in many ways, he represented a “dream came true” for million of average and poor pakistani cricketers….everyone in Pakistan wanted to copy him…and he was probably the most talented player that sub continent has produced in last 25 years…his failure to stand up and deliver on moral ground was extremely disheartening for the young pakistani generation…just imagine if today tendulkar or dravid are found to be involved in match fixing!!! just imagine its impact on india's younger generation...that is what happened to the pakistani cricket in 90s....and we are still suffering from it...
Phoenixdesi - I do not know the current crop of Pakistani players well enough to comment. However, I fondly recall the gentlemen of yester-years -
Asif Iqbal, Majid Khan, Zaheer Khan, Mushtaq and Sadiq Mohammed, Wasim Raja, Wasim Bari, Intikab Alam. All great role models.
i agree 100% and that is why i said in my last post - last 20 years - multiple times.....the last role model we had was imran khan and he retired in 92..zaheer and bari retired in 84....after that rehay naam allah ka....salim malik, wasim akram, waqar younis, inzi, moin khan....man they were players of immense talent with a lot of potential to become role models...it is very sad though....
make it 143/6, two dubious LBW decisions this morning
Khan to Boucher, OUT, oh my, that's a poor decision from Davis. Things are not going SA's way this morning. Zaheer lands one back of a length on middle and though that straightened a fraction, it was still going to miss off stump. Easily. Boucher was in the crease as he tried to angle it square and it thudded into his pad a smidgen outside off stump. And it was heading further away from the line of the furniture. Umpire Davis did not think so. India's insistence to not have the UDRS might have earned them a wicket here.
Harbhajan Singh to de Villiers, OUT, 53.5 mph, Harbhajan has struck the second big blow of the morning and AB de Villiers has been adjudged lbw. Controversial as they come. Harbhajan tossed this up on off and middle and got it to bite and straighten. AB was forward, but struck around the knee in front of the stumps. Replays suggests that was going over the stumps. The way AB played at that made him look plumber than he should have been - he reached forward instead of front and across and played inside the line. It struck in front of middle. AB is not pleased at all. India are on top here.
Proof that games between evenly-matched teams on different grounds in the space of a few days can produce very different results. We are seeing the same trend during the current Ashes series as well. If Australia (though England look the better team on paper) do go on to level the series in Sydney that would just confirm the view that there is no outright dominant team in world cricket right now
