Following their expected emphatic victory ,Australia should do well against South Africa I guess simply because their batting should come good over South Africa's batting .Even in the recent series against India,if one notices it was more of the failure of Indian batting which led to their downfall rather than superior South African batting. about the depth of Australian batting,I think they should win comfortably against South Africa.
The war of words between our Sunil Gavaskar & Ricky Ponting has been one of the most interesting "Other News" around the world Cup for the purists (Otherwise the amount of skin Mandira shows or how is the other Sunil (read Shetty) watching the world cup continue to make headlines for some people :) )
Coming back to the ongoing tirade between Sunil Gavaskar & the Australians ,the only thing which i comprehend from the whole thing is the Australians must be really very very good in sledging.It is well reported in media about how the Aussies used to torment Chris Cairns by whistling & reminding him of his sister who met with a fatal rail accident.Remember how much Glenn McGrath would have sledged for Sarwan to even comment back about his wife's illness.Gavaskar himself has come out & said about the abuses he received during the "walk out" incident.
Don't get me wrong.Gavaskar had no business discussing David Hookes ( RIP) even as an anecdote to illustrate his point. However the important thing to understand is the level of abuse a person is subjected to.Cricket is played over 6 hours on the field with every player being on the field for a minimum of 3-3.5 hours.Unlike a football match where players face each other with intensity for a maximum of 2.15 hrs (including penalties & extra time) ,the level of concentration & intensity required in cricket is higher.Thus for releasing the built up energy in a"constructive" way,it is usually "channelised" to the opponents in the manner of "sledging" .the effects may vary from opponent to opponent.However a barrage is likely to evoke extreme reactions once a while & that's the case now.
Ricky Ponting had no business to comment about how Gavaskar played or how Indians play.Any top team/player in the world is subject to scrutiny with everyone having an opinion about them.Teams/Players who have been winners for longer periods of time have risen above these comments/observations & thus have retained their positions as "numero uno". The ideal response that Ponting could have given is to have shrugged his shoulders & said that "we are working on it" as he has said earlier.Now he has made an issue of nothing.Consider that even if the Aussies go to the extreme,ask any cricketer of their opponents who has a complaint about them that it affects his performance.I remember Sachin in 2000 doing the talk with both bat & the mouth.Nor is Lara ever intimidated or for that matter even Ganguly. I still remember Ganguly at forward short leg sledging out Warne ion the final over of the day & causing him to lose his wicket during that epic series in 2001.So great players/tams know to give it back in the right ways whenever required.
In terms of scrutiny Ponting has been a dominant player for only about last 5-6 years but still has courted numerous controversies. With regards to successful people who were numero unos in their own right but were that because they rose over criticism were Paolo Maldini,Roy Keane( who had his own share for being honest ) & grudgingly I must add even current teams like Chelsea come through criticism & still win coz they are not subject to that & they focus on playing their game only not responding to some third party commenting on their game.
So Ricky ,Can you please focus on that !! :)
The war of words between our Sunil Gavaskar & Ricky Ponting has been one of the most interesting "Other News" around the world Cup for the purists (Otherwise the amount of skin Mandira shows or how is the other Sunil (read Shetty) watching the world cup continue to make headlines for some people :) )
Coming back to the ongoing tirade between Sunil Gavaskar & the Australians ,the only thing which i comprehend from the whole thing is the Australians must be really very very good in sledging.It is well reported in media about how the Aussies used to torment Chris Cairns by whistling & reminding him of his sister who met with a fatal rail accident.Remember how much Glenn McGrath would have sledged for Sarwan to even comment back about his wife's illness.Gavaskar himself has come out & said about the abuses he received during the "walk out" incident.
Don't get me wrong.Gavaskar had no business discussing David Hookes ( RIP) even as an anecdote to illustrate his point. However the important thing to understand is the level of abuse a person is subjected to.Cricket is played over 6 hours on the field with every player being on the field for a minimum of 3-3.5 hours.Unlike a football match where players face each other with intensity for a maximum of 2.15 hrs (including penalties & extra time) ,the level of concentration & intensity required in cricket is higher.Thus for releasing the built up energy in a"constructive" way,it is usually "channelised" to the opponents in the manner of "sledging" .the effects may vary from opponent to opponent.However a barrage is likely to evoke extreme reactions once a while & that's the case now.
Ricky Ponting had no business to comment about how Gavaskar played or how Indians play.Any top team/player in the world is subject to scrutiny with everyone having an opinion about them.Teams/Players who have been winners for longer periods of time have risen above these comments/observations & thus have retained their positions as "numero uno". The ideal response that Ponting could have given is to have shrugged his shoulders & said that "we are working on it" as he has said earlier.Now he has made an issue of nothing.Consider that even if the Aussies go to the extreme,ask any cricketer of their opponents who has a complaint about them that it affects his performance.I remember Sachin in 2000 doing the talk with both bat & the mouth.Nor is Lara ever intimidated or for that matter even Ganguly. I still remember Ganguly at forward short leg sledging out Warne ion the final over of the day & causing him to lose his wicket during that epic series in 2001.So great players/tams know to give it back in the right ways whenever required.
In terms of scrutiny Ponting has been a dominant player for only about last 5-6 years but still has courted numerous controversies. With regards to successful people who were numero unos in their own right but were that because they rose over criticism were Paolo Maldini,Roy Keane( who had his own share for being honest ) & grudgingly I must add even current teams like Chelsea come through criticism & still win coz they are not subject to that & they focus on playing their game only not responding to some third party commenting on their game.
So Ricky ,Can you please focus on that !! :)
No comments:
Post a Comment