Tuesday, March 21, 2006

Advent of Kaliyuga

In Kaliyuga, God does not show Himself so often and has left humankind to deal with the problems pretty much on its own. Yada yada hi dharmasya... seems a bit far.

The Kaliyuga in Indian cricket has truly set in over a period of just about three years. The two articles that sum it up beautifully are:
  • Right-arm over to God - published in Rediff.com on March 02, 2003, after the WC clash between India and Pakistan.
  • Joining the rank of Mortals - published in cricket.org on March 20, 2006, after Tendulkar got out so cheaply and so outrageously and got a well deserved booing from a knowledgeable crowd of Wankhede Stadium.
Now that Tendulkar has stepped down from that pedestal, it is time for us cricket fans to start scrutinizing his form and questioning his contributions to the team. He has now joined the ranks of Sauravs and Laxmans and if he is so much required to maintain the morale of the team, kick Greg Chappel out and make him the coach. If BCCI cannot kick Chappel for contractual reasons, they should create a new post of motivational speaker in the cricket team and appoint Tendulkar for life. The selectors dropped Ganguly because they wanted to make way for youngsters. After a sequence of 16, 23, 19, 14, 23, 26, 16, 28*, 4 and 1, time has come to dish out the same treatment for Tendulkar.