I have been yearning for the seniors to leave so that Dhoni can then take over this team and build a team for challenges that are more relevant for today than the challenges Sachin and Company were conditioned to overcome.
However after seeing the hideous celebrations on reaching personal milestones...Virat Kohli's celebrations in Adelaide and Gautam Gambhir's at Mirpur... I fear I just don't get it. With this generation that is.
The words foolish and clownish come to mind.
I think somewhere with all the money, fame and "honey traps" our guys have lost a sense of grounding and have an inflated view of their personal achievements.
Virat Kohli's 100 at Adelaide was a significant achievement. It was his maiden century. It was made in Australia. Not a typically or rather sterotypically Australian pitch but I guess the atmospehere must have been as daunting. It was a great innings in terms of how Virat Kohli counter attacked. It fulfilled a promise.
However...
It was to make no difference to the result of the match. India were losing their 8th Test in a row. India were, for all practical purposes humiliated and the only answer a once competitive side had for was to adopt a strategy of denial and find refuge in Statsguru.
Virak Kohli's celebrations might have led you to believe that that innings laid the foundation for a 17th consecutive Test match win for India or that he was auditioning for the kind of role Sunny Deol would sleep walk through in a Hindi movie.
I am still scratching my head as to why Gautam Gambhir would think his 100 yesterday was worth induldging himself into the kind of buffonary that he did. Now that he has stooped so low what will he do if he scores a 100 against Pakistan in a World Cup final?
With Sachin Tendulkar, Anil Kumble, Saurav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid, we have just seen the most promising generation of cricketers of our time, achieve nothing for India that previous generations did not...
Except better personal milestones.
And I am now resigned to watching the next generation do the same.
At least the celebrations were more civil in my time.
5 comments:
I partly agree with your point. The part i dont agree is about Kohli. The match he was playin in adelaide could have been his last chance to make a legitimate impression on the selectors of his ability to play as a test batsman. He was made ready to make way for R. Sharma. He knew if he doesnt put up a 'excellent' performance he would be the scapegoat even if the performance of the seniors was worse. The way he came back, fighting all the odds, putting his critics to rest was a great thing to see. It was a special knock from, everybody in the stadium and those watching on TV knew it. I dont see any reason why he should hold his feeling after achieving such rare distinction.
mithil, he acted exactly as Sunny Deol acted when he was put in jail in Ghayal. Not in line with the circumstances you so aptly describe.
Also he said he wanted to "give it back"....as far as I know we are yet give it back to either England or Australia....
Agree with most of the article! Except, it is inaccurate to claim that all the seniors didn't achieve anything, may be take another look at statsguru to find how many matches we won before these greats and after.
But that's besides the actual point you are making and I fully agree that the current generation is not grounded enough. I agree all of them have talent and potential to be greats, but that should not make them arrogant or else it will cause their downfall, like what happened to bhajji and sreesanth.
It is way better to let their batting/bowling speak rather than doing dramatic and inappropriate gestures. They are cricketers after all and not drama people. Its ok it happens once in a while in the heat of the moment or as a reaction to the provocation from the opposition, but Kohli is too often seen abusing, whether he is excited or disappointed.
agree on the hyped up celebrations part about this generation, but the below line is puzzling:
/* With Sachin Tendulkar, Anil Kumble, Saurav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid, we have just seen the most promising generation of cricketers of our time, achieve nothing for India that previous generations did not...
Except better personal milestones.*/
Yes, they did not win a test series in Australia or South Africa but they did extremely well to overcome other nations. Winning Pakistan in pakistan, winning england in england -- I mean all those are significant achievements.
Vivek and ES
Here is what I mean about the seniors
bit.ly/z9OVK2
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