An Emperor’s Essay

Harsha Bhogle on Sachin Tendulkar’s painstaking knock in the final ODI against South Africa:

The emperor was bereft of his robes and was walking the streets like a common man; playing and missing, getting hit on the pads, carrying a bat without a middle when once it only had that; unable to play shots with his eyes open that he otherwise would have with his eyes shut.

But he didn’t throw it away, didn’t attempt the tempting but fatal upper cut to third man. Instead he dug in and tried to get behind the line. He was like a writer with writer’s block, where three metaphors would have presented themselves he was looking into the thesaurus for words. But he still wrote his essay. There was a message there for younger, flashier players who, unable to complete even a limerick exited with just a “There was a young man from India” on their sheet.

Brilliant. Read the complete article here.

Poetic Justice

The MPs screamed, “This is not right!
We demand accountability!
Our cricketers lose without a fight,
They deserve no mercy or pity!”

“Remove them now!”, the chorus yelled,
“They have failed our mighty nation.
Even their coach must be felled,
And sent on an unpaid vacation!”

The common man then quickly replied,
“Oh representatives I must agree!
All those who’ve let our country slide
Must be punished, not set free!”

“But forget cricket, it’s but a game,
I know offenders far worse.
They are our nation’s biggest shame,
Our single-largest curse!”

“I elect them to enrich my land,
They exploit its poverty instead.
In every scam they have a hand,
And every riot they have led.”

“So if you talk accountability then
Leave aside cricketers for now.
Own up yourselves you failed men,
You’ve cheated us silly, and how!”

“And when you leave, please also resign
From all sporting bodies you control.
You’ll find that Indian sport will shine
And regain all the glory you stole!”

Judgment Time

While most sections of the media have billed Sourav Ganguly’s selection into the Indian test team as a ‘comeback’, it would perhaps be more fitting to describe it as the Bengal tiger’s ‘last chance’. As his supporters celebrate his return to the Test arena after a gap of ten months, even the most ardent of them know that a no-show in South Africa is likely to shut the door on his international career – forever.

No one would be more acutely aware of this than Ganguly himself. He has turned in a respectable report card this domestic season, but he knows his form has not been spectacular enough to carry him into the side independent of his past achievements. Of course, India’s woefully inept batting in the ODI series helped his cause, as also the fact that we finally have a selection committee that doesn’t make appalling pronouncements on “finished careers”.

Ganguly, however, cannot expect to be allowed to ride on past glory for too long. That he was India’s most prolific run-getter for a better part of three years is without doubt – but, at present, this is an irrelevant statistic. He will need to prove that he is amongst the top six batsmen in the country now, and that there is good reason to pick him ahead of players like S.Badrinath, who have been amassing mountains of Ranji runs of late. He can use his monumental series-defining 144 against Australia in Brisbane as inspiration, but it won’t stand as proof that we still need him. Quite simply, Ganguly needs runs in South Africa, not words about how he is capable of them.

Finally, a word of advice for all Dada’s fanatical fans: cut the effigy-burning and Chappell-bashing and let your hero concentrate on performing on the stage he once ruled. And if he fails, take to the streets – not to protest a conspiracy that you suspect did him in – but to give him a glorious farewell befitting India’s most charismatic and successful captain ever.