We may have defeated...
...Pakistan 4-1 on their turf, but we had to face the music in some other departments. The under-19 cricket team lost to its Pakistani counterpart in the U-19 World Cup Final at Colombo. The Pakis were shot out for 108 but retaliated by limiting the Indians to just 71! The Pakis retain the World Cup as a result. By the way, I also came to know that erstwhile 'medium pace' bowler Venkatesh Prasad is the coach of the U-19 Indian team. I can almost recall Kumble and Prasad bowling at the same speed :)
We also lost the hockey series at home 3-0 to Pakistan. Three more matches will be played in Pakistan, and I for one, wont be surprised if they make it 6-0. Can't help wondering why there is such a huge gap between the quality of the Indian and the Pakistani hockey teams. Is it all the fault of Gill baby, or is the apathy rampant in the organization. Maybe someone who follows hockey, and more importantly, its politics, can throw some light on it?
Meanwhile the dreamer in me thinks many a times, what would have happened to the subcontinental sports scene if the country hadn't been partitioned. Would we be an even stronger cricketing force? Probably. Squash? Definitely. How about hockey? With the Gill monkey at the helm, heck never!
Asterix
Update: We are going to host Pakistan for the Davis Cup playoffs in Bombay in April. Isn't there too much of Indo-Pak sports going on nowadays (Not that I am complaining) ?
13 comments:
Hi Asterix,
Hope you had a great weekend :-)
I'm glad India won the series.. and very emphatically too.. About the other sports I guess money plays a big factor.. criketers not only get huge sums of money as salary.. they make a filthy amt of money on endorsements.. so all this plays a big part in what kind of talent goes into each sport..
About India-Pak duals.. well Pakistan ko harane ka maza hi kuch aur hai.. :-) the more opportunities we get the better.. hai na?
Enjoy!!
Tara
Arre yaar, I would have been heartbroken if they had lost :-(. Moreover, India has been U-19 world champion under the captainship of Ratinder Sodhi but I doubt if anyone cared about that then :D. And btw, in most U-19 world-cups [there could be few exceptions], India/Pak play the finals :), I wonder how come Australia is the #1 team in seniors :D. Nonetheless, I think the current performance by Indian cricket team in this series is praise-worthy. You are right about the state of Indian hockey.
-Varun
@tara: the weekend was fine. hope you had a good one too. Hockey's state is of the vicious loop: money->talent->performance->popularity->endorsements->money.
Frankly speaking, although India-Pak matches are still a hot commodity, I feel like we are fighting it out for the second and third best places, with Australia firmly perched on the top. Until we get a 4-1 against them, there is no use going all gaga about it.
@varun: People do care about the U-19 world cup. In the 2000 finals in England, the stadium was packed with Indian and Paki expatriates. I wonder why they dont show such matches on doordarshan.
kuchh time IIT K me reh kar IITians ke dukh dard ko kareeb se dekha aur mehsoos kiya hai. Thatz y the knowledge of mid sems. But the IITB parlance doesn't include night fatta, does it?
@anshu: welcome to the blog. I am still clueless as to how you know I am in IITB. And although I have picked up all the necessary verbal ammunition - nabad, give-up, RG-giri etc., I am yet to come across "night-fatta". I have seen quite a few people playing indoor cricket at nights though!
@arun: Welcome to the blog. That Kuruvilla incident is hilarious. One would expect such a tall guy to literally shoot the ball at the batsman (ala Malcolm Marshall). But no such luck for any Indian bowler, I guess, sigh!
I just loved that India nailed the series. Frankly I find the duel more interesting than the whole. Even if we lost had dhoni fired 4-5 sixers he would have done the job for me.
We were never a better team than Pak. Look at the record Ind-Pak 39-63.
Also nowadays Pathan and Tendulkar bowl at similar speed.
Anshu, Now I am curious too....
Seems that u r getting popular day by day ! Great going. The mithun-da post was cool...did u make our very own bengali read it?
Manish
You are back! Great. Will call you up soon.
It wasn't that difficult, somewhere on your blog you mentioned something of that effect. I don't remember exactly..but either it was Mumbai marathon or your hostel's name...may be both.
Nite fatta, is the other name of cricket played at night (outdoors). Looks like its use is limited to IITK.
Neway, have fun with latest series.
Found it. A bunch of posts made way back in October.
I really dunno whats gonna happen tonight in Nagpur. I've now begun feeling sorry for them. Simon Jones is injured too.
Meanwhile check this out. Hats off to the man.
http://autofeed.msn.co.in/pandorav3/output/Cricket/ae6d465d-bd2f-4c9a-a098-8d7a48f1bf14.aspx
Definitely ,
if PAk and India were one country we would be a force to reckon with in sports .
There should be other countries than Pak to play with
thanks
@shan: writing off tendulkar is someting that only morons like Moin Khan can do. Sure, Tendulkar has his off days, but he still is a treat to watch.
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