Cricket Without Its Federer
Written on Tuesday, February 20, 2007 by Unknown
Sample this. Headlines taken from Cricinfo in last 10 days.
Stunning McMillan seals whitewash.
Australia must find answers quickly.
Australia crash to 10-wicket defeat.
England snatch upset series win.
Superb Collingwood seals tense win.
The common link? Australia on the losing side!!!
Mate, you must be kidding. No i am not.
Welcome to the new age Cricket. It is exciting, suddenly!! Australians are being plummeted. Gone are the days when you started reading the ranking table from rank 2. I wonder if Sunita Williams has access to news out there in space or else she might report a malfunction of landing on the wrong planet.
Schumachers, Tigerwoods, Federers and Australians come once in a millennium. They redefine sports, they awe people and then they make it boring. Wasn't winning and losing supposed to be integral to any sport. But these people defy the later aspect of it, arrogantly. So it is always heartening to see rise of Alonsos, Singhs, Roddicks and Kiwis. They redefine sports, they awe people and then they make it interesting.
Piles of paper and bandwidths is going to be devoted (read wasted) in coming days on this changing face of cricket, especially with the world cup around the corner. Who are you going to put your money on? Suddenly the streets are going to be buzzing again with speculations, And no am not talking about only the Indian sub continents streets, they would have been buzzing anyways. We have a reason, and a very good one to start watching cricket again with same kind of anticipation and excitement which we did some three or four or five , grrrrr.... probably million years back.
Having said and done, write off Australians at your own peril. As Rohit Brijnath aptly puts it.
"Will Australia win this World Cup? Of course! It's what they do."
And on a second thought probably we are very harsh when we accuse them of bringing monotony in the sport. They raise the bar for lesser gods. For instance watch this awesome display of ruthlessness by Federer. Did i hear you say Cricket is not that bad with its Federer!!!
Stunning McMillan seals whitewash.
Australia must find answers quickly.
Australia crash to 10-wicket defeat.
England snatch upset series win.
Superb Collingwood seals tense win.
The common link? Australia on the losing side!!!
Mate, you must be kidding. No i am not.
Welcome to the new age Cricket. It is exciting, suddenly!! Australians are being plummeted. Gone are the days when you started reading the ranking table from rank 2. I wonder if Sunita Williams has access to news out there in space or else she might report a malfunction of landing on the wrong planet.
Schumachers, Tigerwoods, Federers and Australians come once in a millennium. They redefine sports, they awe people and then they make it boring. Wasn't winning and losing supposed to be integral to any sport. But these people defy the later aspect of it, arrogantly. So it is always heartening to see rise of Alonsos, Singhs, Roddicks and Kiwis. They redefine sports, they awe people and then they make it interesting.
Piles of paper and bandwidths is going to be devoted (read wasted) in coming days on this changing face of cricket, especially with the world cup around the corner. Who are you going to put your money on? Suddenly the streets are going to be buzzing again with speculations, And no am not talking about only the Indian sub continents streets, they would have been buzzing anyways. We have a reason, and a very good one to start watching cricket again with same kind of anticipation and excitement which we did some three or four or five , grrrrr.... probably million years back.
Having said and done, write off Australians at your own peril. As Rohit Brijnath aptly puts it.
"Will Australia win this World Cup? Of course! It's what they do."
And on a second thought probably we are very harsh when we accuse them of bringing monotony in the sport. They raise the bar for lesser gods. For instance watch this awesome display of ruthlessness by Federer. Did i hear you say Cricket is not that bad with its Federer!!!
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Good one....
Its undeniable that the aussies had lifted the bar in cricket much in a similar fashion like schumacher had in F1 and federer is raising in tennis(i dont really watch golf just read abt it, so i wud prefer not to write abt it) but still i believe comparing the aussies with the others in that list is totally unfair to the rest. firstly, the others that u mention, have been single player efforts and games, not a team effort. So it would be better to include Brazil instead.
But then Brazil, even though they have undoubtedly raised the level of football, have been able to win just 1 out of the last 3 world cups inspite of being not only the strongest team on paper but also the hot favourites of the tournament.
That being said (and ignored for the time being), I still believe that the comparison is unjust, mainly because the aussies have(read had) reached the pinnacle of this sport, but along the way they lost their humility, picked up arrogance and disrespect for other teams and worst of all lost their sporting spirit (http://mere-do-paise.blogspot.com/2006/09/world-champions-of-cricketalso-of.html).
As much as I have followed the rest of the legends u mentioned, I have always been awed by their humility. Therefore, I digress with you point of Aussies being the Federer or the Schumacher or the Brazilians of Cricket. Theres more to all of these "others" than just raising the bar of the sport that they have excelled in, and thats what lacks in the Aussies.
At the end, for me, the Aussies will always be just overly talented cricketers, no legends.
Please note:The Aussie team does have a few exceptions that dont fit the bill described above, starting from Gilchrist and hopefully not ending with him.
...Just my 2 pence...
I would like to add that it was a tremendous effort from New Zealand yesterday to return from 41/4 to reach 350!
My favourite team would not have been capable of such a feat(from what they have shown in the past)
So Kudos to the Kiwis!
the black cat roars, even if its just @home...
@mounteverest (watever ;P)
The criteria which i used to bracket federer, schumacher and aussies together is not whether it is a team sport or individual, neither their character and the way they carry themselves. I just bracket them together because of their sheer dominance on the respective sports. I had read your blog about the aussies and i do fully support you. But the case here is different. I am taking a larger picture here and just trying to show how these over dominance effect any sport. The way they do it and the way they carry themselves is altogether a different issue. Hope you get my point..
yes, like before i get your point.
but again, like before, i dont agree with it.
you cant remove a certain characteristic that has been a part of an individual and just filter out the part that you want to compare.
I mean sure you can, but I dont agree with it.
Point about Aussie dominance taken and fully accepted, but comparison with legends who i love and admire, neither appreciated nor accepted.
As i said, IMO.
yaar there is a reason why i have not put Sachin and Lara there... If i was comparing them according to ur criteria.. i would have definitely included them.. but point here is i am not discussing their greatness at all... if you have problem with their being bracketed together, they can be bracketed togehter by many other criterias as well. They all are sportsperson or team. They all are human. They all stay on earth. yeda yeda... I fully respect ur sentiments. I have no intentions of pulling down schumachers and federer by comparing them with aussies. It's just something else.
Jalan, the Blog's too gud..
MountCleverest: this is for you..
In my view, Aussies are legends (yes they are overly talented cricketers and that is why they are legends)
And the world knows that they've been the champions for last many years..
And all of a sudden, if England and New Zealand teams have walloped them, I think it is a thing to be pondered about, and that is what this blog is all about :)
In short: I would agree to Jalan's statement : "Cricket without its Federer"
i had decided not to continue on this discussion/argument or whatever after havin discussed my viewpoint over IM with jalan, but since i have specifically been replied to, i must.
@vamsi: if u think only talent makes legends then i totally disagree with you.there have been MANY MANY MANY talented ppl in this world, but not all go on to become legends.
anyways, dont mean to pull this one any further, so putting it in short:i dont agree with jalan's statement or yours.
~peace~