Friday, December 02, 2005

A new order...

The latest column by Harsha Bhogle.

The following statements really struck a chord...

A final word though on what happened in Kolkata. I have rarely been as disheartened for a city with a reputation let itself down badly. I fear this trend of agitating for a particular player, of creating an us-and-them situation, is extremely dangerous. Where was reason, where was caution, where was class?

Rahul Dravid’s dignified but strong comments must hurt, but I am not sure they will. Sadly, as a result of this paranoia, Sourav Ganguly will walk out to bat at Chennai with a lot of people hoping he fails. That is the sad, but inevitable, situation that Kolkata brings upon itself and the man they try to promote but actually endanger.

I couldn't agree more...having watched the match live, I couldn't but be dismayed at the sight of an Indian audience booing our national team and applauding the fall of wickets (especially that of the captain of the national team) -- and for all the wrong reasons ! No man is bigger than the team, and if it is the case that a player must be dropped to make place for the future, then that hard decision must be taken, no matter who the player or his reputation. Sentiment can only go so far.

Also, I am less concerned about the Calcuttans expressing their dismay, than about the way they went about doing it...

  • Booing the Indian team & captain.
  • Applauding fall of wickets.
  • Showing highlights of Ganguly's innings on the big screen while the match was going on !
  • Even the curator of the pitch seems to have gotten into it - he prepared a South African-friendly pitch by the looks of it...it caught everyone by surprise...most of all the visiting South African team !
And for a city that has been rapped on the knuckles on more than one occassion by the ICC (for unruly crowd behaviour, throwing objects on the field, disrupting games, etc.) this was not the way to go...I sincerely hope that Calcutta is derived of cricket matches in the future, in the interest of the game and the Indian cricket team.

Sigh ! What a waste of a lovely stadium...

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