During my school run this morning, I was listening to a program on the radio. A lot of callers to the RJ were complaining on the decision of Indian Cricket Selectors to leave out Yuvraj Singh from the 15 players selected for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 to be held in Australia - New zealand from Feb 2015. I was like, "Hey, be reasonable guys, he wasn't even in the 30 probable list. How then can he be selected in the 15?".
Now wait a minute! Reasonable? That word seems pretty rich coming from me! As you all know, I have always been (will continue to be a Dravid fan). I do acknowledge (grudgingly!) that Dravid's ODI career spanned in a parallel universe to that of his test career. But even I would have been disappointed if Dravid hadn't made the cut to a World Cup squad! But again, this blog isn't about Dravid, its about Yuvraj!
I have been following cricket seriously since early nineties and I can't remember many good left-handers to have played for India. All I can remember of Kambli was him crying during the 1996 WC semi-finals. Then came along Ganguly. He was elegance personified on the off-side. As Dravid so eloquently put it "On the offside,first we have God, and then Saurav Ganguly". If one had to complete that sentence, it would read "On the offside, first we have God and then Saurav Ganguly, while on the leg-side we have every tom, dick and harry and then we have Ganguly!!"
Mind you! Ganguly was excellent player against leg-spinners and left arm spinners. Can anyone of you forget him dancing down the track and carting Grant Flower over the roof in Sharjah. He did it quite too often that Tony Greig even called that part Sharjah's roof as Ganguly's roof!! But power is not something that you associate with Ganguly. But his batting against pace didn't inspire confidence, that you would associate with most southpaws.
In late 2000, Ganguly captained a fresh team for ICC Knockout Trophy that was held in South Africa. The Indian team was still recovering from the abyss of the match fixing and they huffed and puffed their way into quarter-finals against Australia. It was one rainy afternoon in Chennai. I was in a cheap electronics shop at Ritchie Street, Chennai taking the help of my friends in assembling my first PC and we were also following the match in an old B&W TV present in the shop. There were many memorable moments in that match. But the two that standout are:
Forward to 2007, the World Twenty20 championship. India vs England quarter-final. The brutal onslaught unleashed by Yuvi will surely haunt Stuart Broad his entire lifetime. I am pretty sure he wakes up in cold sweat every now and then remembering that pasting!
Forward to 2011, the man was back in action. His performance especially against Australia again in the quarter-finals was brilliant. What followed was history. He was played the series of his dreams. He actually lived the dream in that series.
Lets face it, each of his fairy tale performances were school boy cricketer dreams! How many of us have wished for similar baptism by fire debut, a stellar performance when the chips were down that helps the team win the cup, the sensational innings in the shortest version of the game and finally achieving glory at World Cup. Hell, I would break two legs and a hand to live that dream!
For quite often Yuvi was the very the reason for his fans to romance, you can't fault them this once to romance without a reason! His fans must be happy that his fairy tale ended on a high. They need not be disappointed on him not making to the team this time around and take pride from the fact that fairy tale was great while it lasted.
Now wait a minute! Reasonable? That word seems pretty rich coming from me! As you all know, I have always been (will continue to be a Dravid fan). I do acknowledge (grudgingly!) that Dravid's ODI career spanned in a parallel universe to that of his test career. But even I would have been disappointed if Dravid hadn't made the cut to a World Cup squad! But again, this blog isn't about Dravid, its about Yuvraj!
I have been following cricket seriously since early nineties and I can't remember many good left-handers to have played for India. All I can remember of Kambli was him crying during the 1996 WC semi-finals. Then came along Ganguly. He was elegance personified on the off-side. As Dravid so eloquently put it "On the offside,first we have God, and then Saurav Ganguly". If one had to complete that sentence, it would read "On the offside, first we have God and then Saurav Ganguly, while on the leg-side we have every tom, dick and harry and then we have Ganguly!!"
Mind you! Ganguly was excellent player against leg-spinners and left arm spinners. Can anyone of you forget him dancing down the track and carting Grant Flower over the roof in Sharjah. He did it quite too often that Tony Greig even called that part Sharjah's roof as Ganguly's roof!! But power is not something that you associate with Ganguly. But his batting against pace didn't inspire confidence, that you would associate with most southpaws.
In late 2000, Ganguly captained a fresh team for ICC Knockout Trophy that was held in South Africa. The Indian team was still recovering from the abyss of the match fixing and they huffed and puffed their way into quarter-finals against Australia. It was one rainy afternoon in Chennai. I was in a cheap electronics shop at Ritchie Street, Chennai taking the help of my friends in assembling my first PC and we were also following the match in an old B&W TV present in the shop. There were many memorable moments in that match. But the two that standout are:
- 18 year old Yuvi playing in his 2nd match of his career, facing a battery of pace bowlers showed what real power was! He was slamming McGrath, Lee and Gillespie all over the park. The raw power in his strokes was quite evident. Finally, we had a southpaw who could play pace bowling really well.
- India also managed to find a pace bowler who could actually bowl yorkers in the death overs! Zaheer Khan's yorker to dismiss Steve Waugh was one such delivery!
Forward to 2007, the World Twenty20 championship. India vs England quarter-final. The brutal onslaught unleashed by Yuvi will surely haunt Stuart Broad his entire lifetime. I am pretty sure he wakes up in cold sweat every now and then remembering that pasting!
Forward to 2011, the man was back in action. His performance especially against Australia again in the quarter-finals was brilliant. What followed was history. He was played the series of his dreams. He actually lived the dream in that series.
Lets face it, each of his fairy tale performances were school boy cricketer dreams! How many of us have wished for similar baptism by fire debut, a stellar performance when the chips were down that helps the team win the cup, the sensational innings in the shortest version of the game and finally achieving glory at World Cup. Hell, I would break two legs and a hand to live that dream!
For quite often Yuvi was the very the reason for his fans to romance, you can't fault them this once to romance without a reason! His fans must be happy that his fairy tale ended on a high. They need not be disappointed on him not making to the team this time around and take pride from the fact that fairy tale was great while it lasted.
