The Hoo-Hallah over "Club vs Country"
Till 2nd April 2011 this year, Gautam Gambhir was the most loved son of India. In fact there were a million sad faces across the nation when he missed out on a well deserving century in a world cup final. The news papers next day were all praises about Gambhir being the big match player, had put up a price for his wicket, and not to forget that dive he made to save himself off another run out, which has not quite been a feature in Gambhir's running between the wickets. What he didn't know was that the injury he would sustain, and which he would ignore to bat again and help his country win the world cup, would come to haunt him the next month. And not only has that caused him to miss the ALL SO VERY IMPORTANT tour of West Indies, it has also raised questions about the man's integrity and commitment to play for the country.
Lets' get the facts straight here. We won't have to surrender our World Cup trophy if we lose to West Indies. Secondly, there is no harm resting your machine like body, which has been churning out runs after runs since the last three years now. Thirdly, there are better and more important tours ahead during the year which will give our best players yet another chance to prove their worth the cynics out there.
NKP Salve Challenger Trophy, which has India Blue, Red and Green teams (basically the India A and India B side) probably be a better option to play in rather than dragging your body and playing a much depleted side in some far away corner of the world, with empty stadiums and practically nobody watching the matches back home too. Being a sports reporter would have its own hazards I never thought so, for you would have to cover tournaments in which let alone the crowd, not even the players would be interested in. Until of course you are one of those discarded players trying to make a comeback into the national team or amongst those bunch of youngsters who want to make a mark of their own in the absence of the seniors. I don't see the reason behind the criticism of the players who chose to take part in the IPL and preferred to skip the most worthless tour that we have in the year. England awaits for us in July and Australia in December. Who knows that the situation would have been different had they been heading to England after the IPL. The players might have skipped the IPL because they know that England is one opposition who can challenge our number one status in Tests. Not to forget that in the last one month and a half, the level of competition amongst players has been much higher than what it would be in West Indies. We went there in 2006, without Sachin or Sourav, with an out of form Sehwag and no consistent opening order and yet we won the test series there and mind you, that was the team which had Brian Lara. We were there in 2009 again and won the one-day series, we still had no Sachin or Rahul or Laxman or any other senior player. That tells the story in itself. We don't have to bother our important players for the an unimportant tour. The world will not come to n end if we even lose a match here or there. These matches are like those Monday tests in our schools, where even an average student got the chance to score a 20/20 and have a smile on his face only to see what character it takes to do well in the Terminal Exams.
Gambhir has been one of our great finds of the decade and to question the man's integrity would just be a bit too harsh on him. He has stepped up when chips were down, he is the reason along with Sehwag that why we are number one in Tests, he is the reason why we have the world cup in our hands. And he is in no charity business. When the ministers of our country can make millions out of scams, the poor guy is atleast giving his blood and sweat to earn the bucks.
Most of us would be cribbing because he was the most expensive player ever bought in the history of IPL Jealousy would have taken the words of appreciation for that man's many other selfless efforts. I wonder the level of hypocrisy in our country, when we see the soccer players being transferred from one club to the other for a staggering amount and start liking that player more only because of the price tag he has on him. But if an Indian player gets sold for $2.4 million, we start questioning the way the game has been commercialized over the years and why players don't mind such auctions. I am not much of a soccer fan and probably would never be, but I know that Christiano Ronaldo has not won a World cup or a Euro cup for his country nor has Wayne Rooney for England. But come to the EPL or UEFA Champions league and you would see the great jump in their level of commitment on the field. Cricket is far behind many other sports when it comes to commercial value and probably demands, if not more but an equal effort by the players. Gambhir has a right to make money as long as he is making it in a legal way. We have the curious cases of Aamir, Asif and Butt, three brilliant cricketers, who made a mess of their careers in their greed of making money. These Indian cricketers are still fighting it out in the middle and have just demanded a rest, which they should deservingly get so.
Your Loyal Fan
Agransh Anand
.
Lets' get the facts straight here. We won't have to surrender our World Cup trophy if we lose to West Indies. Secondly, there is no harm resting your machine like body, which has been churning out runs after runs since the last three years now. Thirdly, there are better and more important tours ahead during the year which will give our best players yet another chance to prove their worth the cynics out there.
NKP Salve Challenger Trophy, which has India Blue, Red and Green teams (basically the India A and India B side) probably be a better option to play in rather than dragging your body and playing a much depleted side in some far away corner of the world, with empty stadiums and practically nobody watching the matches back home too. Being a sports reporter would have its own hazards I never thought so, for you would have to cover tournaments in which let alone the crowd, not even the players would be interested in. Until of course you are one of those discarded players trying to make a comeback into the national team or amongst those bunch of youngsters who want to make a mark of their own in the absence of the seniors. I don't see the reason behind the criticism of the players who chose to take part in the IPL and preferred to skip the most worthless tour that we have in the year. England awaits for us in July and Australia in December. Who knows that the situation would have been different had they been heading to England after the IPL. The players might have skipped the IPL because they know that England is one opposition who can challenge our number one status in Tests. Not to forget that in the last one month and a half, the level of competition amongst players has been much higher than what it would be in West Indies. We went there in 2006, without Sachin or Sourav, with an out of form Sehwag and no consistent opening order and yet we won the test series there and mind you, that was the team which had Brian Lara. We were there in 2009 again and won the one-day series, we still had no Sachin or Rahul or Laxman or any other senior player. That tells the story in itself. We don't have to bother our important players for the an unimportant tour. The world will not come to n end if we even lose a match here or there. These matches are like those Monday tests in our schools, where even an average student got the chance to score a 20/20 and have a smile on his face only to see what character it takes to do well in the Terminal Exams.
Gambhir has been one of our great finds of the decade and to question the man's integrity would just be a bit too harsh on him. He has stepped up when chips were down, he is the reason along with Sehwag that why we are number one in Tests, he is the reason why we have the world cup in our hands. And he is in no charity business. When the ministers of our country can make millions out of scams, the poor guy is atleast giving his blood and sweat to earn the bucks.
Most of us would be cribbing because he was the most expensive player ever bought in the history of IPL Jealousy would have taken the words of appreciation for that man's many other selfless efforts. I wonder the level of hypocrisy in our country, when we see the soccer players being transferred from one club to the other for a staggering amount and start liking that player more only because of the price tag he has on him. But if an Indian player gets sold for $2.4 million, we start questioning the way the game has been commercialized over the years and why players don't mind such auctions. I am not much of a soccer fan and probably would never be, but I know that Christiano Ronaldo has not won a World cup or a Euro cup for his country nor has Wayne Rooney for England. But come to the EPL or UEFA Champions league and you would see the great jump in their level of commitment on the field. Cricket is far behind many other sports when it comes to commercial value and probably demands, if not more but an equal effort by the players. Gambhir has a right to make money as long as he is making it in a legal way. We have the curious cases of Aamir, Asif and Butt, three brilliant cricketers, who made a mess of their careers in their greed of making money. These Indian cricketers are still fighting it out in the middle and have just demanded a rest, which they should deservingly get so.
Your Loyal Fan
Agransh Anand
.
Very well stated -Gambhir has a right to make money as long as he is making it in a legal way.
ReplyDeleteMore than hypocrisy, its our ungratefulness thats a shame - The sheer contrast between 2nd April 2011 and now cant be a better proof.
Well written by a true fan :-)