OK we are the flat track bullies...who are they?

Well, you have already guessed from the heading what this is all about. Yes, being a cricket fanatic like millions of others this question has been gathering momentum in the cricosphere. For years we have been tagged as flat track bullies: a label that has been borne out of our inability to play well outside the sub-continent. Be it whitewash in England and Australia, a recent series loss to South Africa or the debacle in New Zealand. The Indian team’s performance in alien conditions has been abysmal to say the least. As a consequence this team has been labeled by this derogatory title. The term Flat track bullies, which basically means a team that can only play well in their own flat, sub-continental pitches.  Ok fine……..now lets put this entire brouhaha into a new perspective.  So what if we play well in our own conditions? We are three time World champions: the only team to win a WC on home soil!

So first of all no one has ever done this. No home team has ever triumphed in a World Cup, apart from India that is.

Secondly, how many teams and players can boast remarkable achievements outside home conditions? If we are called Flat track bullies then why aren’t teams like Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and England called Fast track bullies?? Teams which can only play well on their fast and green pitches and succumb here in the subcontinent, which is - at present - the very epicenter of cricket.

Perhaps, the best place to assess the situation is on a popular cricket site called ESPNCRICINFO.com. Hundreds of followers across nations comment, debate, fight and argue on this very active cricket site. I, myself, am an active participant with a pseudo-name  dganger (Dopple Ganger). Yeahh…I know I am a retard. 

 Anyway…let me quote few of the active participants.  Here goes:

“Posted by wapuser on (March 30, 2014, 16:36 GMT)

It might be Asian conditions. But so what? Australian conditions are not some superior test of talent. Why should teams be declared successful by doing well in Australia? If Aus losses can be put down to irrelevant matches in the subcontinent then Asian teams can treat Aus matches and losses the same way. Btw the future of cricket and it's financial centre lies in Asia.

Or, let’s take this:

Posted by RahulWise on (March 30, 2014, 17:23 GMT)

For those who calls india as Flat track Bully, question. When a player plays well in subcontinent and scores centuries, he is a flat track player, but when a fast bowler bowls well in fast bowling condition, he is a great bowler. Why? Why cant you call the bowler as fast track bully? Why cant u call a team who does well in fast bowling conditions and flatters in spin conditions as fast track bully??? Let espncricinfo publish the stats of the teams and players in different conditions, i am certain 80% of the players farewell in only one kind of conditions, this includes batsmen and bowlers from all countries, present and past. No need to call just india as flat track bullies !!

The first comment is from a very enthusiastic Pakistani fan and the 2nd one is from an Indian. The fact is Asian supporters have slowly started realizing this biased, flawed yardstick of judging a team or a player. The fact is every home team plays well in their own conditions and falters in alien conditions. So what is the big deal if India performs below par on fast pitches? Remember how Australia got whitewashed 4-0 here in India few months back? Or, does anybody know that even Bangladesh has made a clean sweep against a proper test playing nation: New Zealand??? New Zealand was whitewashed by the Bangladeshis! So?? Anybody labeling them Fast track bullies?? How often have non-Asian teams succeeded here in the sub-continent? It’s not that it didn’t happen. Recently, England won in India…but after how many years??? Similarly India won the test series in England prior to the 4-0 whitewash.

Even Steve Waugh’s ‘invincibles’ could not win here in India. A team considered arguably the greatest of all time. The fact is, barring one or two tournaments the result is overwhelmingly in favour of the home team.

So let’s not demean ourselves or any other Asian team by labeling them “flat track bullies”. Whoever says this should introspect; analyze their own team’s performance here in the sub-continent before judging us. Let’s face it, cricket’s power and influence vests with the sub-continent. Be it the passion or money, non-Asian teams can never match the enthusiasm and love of the cricket follower here. Now onwards let’s call a non-Asian team good only if they perform well here and beat us in our own backyard.

There is absolutely no harm playing to our strengths on our home doctored pitches, so, the hue and cry over preparing fast and green pitches here in India is just useless and stupid.

Let’s see how they adapt to the heat, dust and sweat ….let’s separate the Men from the boys and shatter the stumps of false egos with our spin.

Cheers

A Cricket Fanatic

lifebook

Its 1.10 AM now, One of those midnight bubbles which pops up from no where, for morons like me who have no good reason to stay awake and doing facebook at this wee hours..tat too in weekdays.(or, may be some of u do have a good reason to stay awake). Anywayz, so here it goes...for the likes of u and me, think bout it...dont u think facebook has become symbolic of our life, the make belief life which we wish to see for our self, putting things just like the way we want to, the rosy ones, the soothing ones, hiding not so pleasant ones, not publishing the gory ones which we have been tagged by a thing called time, present or, past. Updating our status, yep, the happy ones, and rarely the bad ones which were insignificant anyways. Life is somehow always shaped in an interesting and happening way, a relative notion though in this virtual factory of our imagination. Wish reality could have been a online storebook like this, with an edit option, managing the way, just the way we want to. Life is always good in facebook....mostly.

Wake up time

Food for thought.....Have you ever ponder upon your dreams? Lets say  when we dream during our sleep at what time do we realize that its just a dream and not reality?? Aaah..simple,  wen we woke up...rght?? So it means during dreams we don't feel that we are dreaming and perceive to be as real as we sense or feel it..or rather wat neurological signals our brain is giving tat point of time.

So here's the catch. Now when we are awake and conscious of being awake....how do we knw tht?? At this point of time its again only the projections of our own  neurologicals signals which we are believing into..and hence, creating the perception of so called reality.....what if we are still dreaming? And their exist greater level of consciousness what is perhaps the ultimate truth of our existence? Isn't it our dreams are the subtle hints given by the universe  to make us realize the futility of our current existence? Wake up time....perhaps.

The square 1 syndrome

When life pushes u in its own unique way again n again to make u ponder on the same thoughts and events which otherwise u thought not the right way.....where the equally opposite thoughts has also been dominant if not certain.....then what u make out of it?? Universe's indication of the right way or, its the obvious destiny which u cant escape..good or, bad. The choice is yet to be made...apparently.

And it rained

And it rained today...
I got drenched in the bylanes of our Memories.
I stood there,  at the crossing, I didn't notice when the light got green
The world was honking behind me, but I got a sight of your red top
Your fragrance all over me now
Can you just turn around? will you? Hey it seems you got a new hair cut, didn't  you?
And look at me..look at me,
Ohh God, now I know why you used to complain about my driving
The restless me looking to snatch few minutes from that God damn signal...
Llittle ahead, little ahead ..all that I want, from the rest...
You and me together whizzing  pass those zombies around, all look so strange..
How come they all looking at us? Are they jealous of us being so happy together?
Hold me tight ....lets give it a kick start,
You know this bike is not that bad, it can be pretty fast,
But don't be afraid.....are you afraid? Is it?
Ohh God....dont cry , we wont go then, we are not in a hurry
But why you crying? It looks so silly...you just need to hold me tight...
Look at the Rain, Its crazy, I have never seen rain like this, It seems the universe is pouring down on us.....
We have to hurry up now...the water is logging fast..
Are you trying to say something to me? I cant hear you.....can you speak little louder, this thunder storm is really getting on my nerves now.
There is some problem, some major problem....whats happening?
My vision is getting blurred, I am finding hard to see through..... Where arr you?
I cant see you any more........I cant feel you any more... You there?
Answer me.....don't be afraid ...I will find you. You just stand there where ever you are....
Can you see anything around ???   Hey......hey......anyone around?
I cant see u any more.,I cant feel u any more.

High hopes

High hopes
Originally uploaded by Soumo-Let there be light

The grass was greener
The light was brighter
With friends surrounded
The nights of wonder

....Pink Floyd...

Yes it is the high hopes that are keeping me alive. I have tried to visualize them. The shapes are not clear, the boundaries have not been well defined, and they try to speak softly, more of a whisper at the back of my grey cell. Every time i have asked them to be louder, i want them to be clearer…like a crystal. But just like the shadow of my inner self they end up mocking me, teasing me, i could not decipher the sarcasm beyond their grinning face and i let them munch on my soul.

I become restless, like the passenger getting late for the last train, like the hawkers trying their best to sell off their inventory before the light turns green at the traffic signal, like the prostitute waving the flag of her last symbol of womanhood and yet failing to stretch that piece of fabric to her daughter's feet.

I guess the time is running out, my action still defiant, not ready to sink in with the pre-programmed mechanism of my central nervous system. He is still dictating terms, i have pleaded so many times, helplessly, desperately, trying to find a way out, to get hold of that last breath before sinking. But he is not ready to listen, he starts projecting some faces, some hypothetical illusions of years to come by, inundated with illusionary diagrams and pie charts of its own kind.

It’s high time they need to sort out within themselves; the count of my heartbeat has already given an indication of its number of counts remaining, if not well nourished. It is not meant to beat for some other futile purpose. I am scared, time is running out. That’s why i nowadays bribe my grey cells to seize from their functional work, i get some little space, for some time i can fool around with my system, l can manage to block those unnerving whispers, i can manage to withhold those beams of illusionary projection, because i create my own moments. I inject little doses of dreams in them, the dreams which were mine,the ones i always wanted to be louder and bigger. For a change, they do not laugh at me, on my questionable capabilities.

The grass becomes greener, not the one i have left, but the one yet to be grown…with high hopes.

A tale of two princesses

A tale of two princesses
Originally uploaded by Soumo-Let there be light

The first time I opened my eyes, I saw a palace, that had made place for a mammoth sized cradle , that I was lying in.I listened to the hum of traffic outside and smelt burnt charcoal. My mother,the queen of the palace was busy feeding my older sister while there was food cooking somewhere nearby. And there were people all around, busying themselves to cater to my needs. I believed, life had been generous to me.
The years went by and I grew up to be pretty. My sister and my mother would dote on me all the time. Everything else felt the same,apart from the house that tended to get less and less accommodating for the members of our family .My sister and me waited to go to school. But somehow the wait kept stretching to tumble on a new year everytime. I grew out of my clothes ,which would take a while to get replaced. Sometimes,I would even sleep empty stomach at night and I’d wondered how had everything changed for the worse over time .
My palace,as it happens, is the slum of Jogeswari ,where I stay with my sister and mother.My father had left us for some unknown reason, and to keep our livelihood, my mother sweeps roads and clears dustbins. I have given up the wait ,of going to a school. I am more concerned for our daily bread and butter and I don’t mind begging for it at times.My sister and me wear some old clothes,my mother gets from work and we are always jubilient whenever she does.
I look at the cars whooshing by and rich men and women in pretty clothes and jewellery.I have stopped pondering much over it.Life is different for different people,my mother says. We make a happy family in our own way.This is a tale of us,the two princesses of a world, a bit different than yours.

(This wonderful piece has been written by my friend Urmi. When I saw this photo, taken a while back, this certain thought of two princesses came to my mind spontaneously. She took it over from me and created this palace of thought with her vivid and thought provoking imagination. The result is just what you read.
Have a good day my friend and do not forget to thank all mighty for whatever you have today)