Hard but Unfair - The Australian Way Mate!

After a promising end to 2007, I expected a propitious start to the New Year. A marathon drinking session in Bristol and a tiring night out clubbing on the New Year’s eve; it indeed is a rollicking beginning to 2008. But I did spend a dull and grey New Year’s evening dismantling and reassembling my laptop. Reason? I managed to spill a glassful of water on my Laptop right after I got back from Cafe de Paris on the wee hours of January 1st 2008 and the laptop, rightfully failed to fire up!

After an emotional innuendo, during which I even contemplated an Apple MacBook, I decided to put my skills to test and unscrewed every tiny little screw on the laptop and carefully arranged all the parts of the laptop on our large king size bed, before I set to dry them with a kitchen cloth and reassemble it. I honestly, didn’t give it much of a chance, but the Laptop came back to life as soon as I turned it back on. It’s not a bad beginning after all, albeit a sedate one.

To further intensify my New Year woes, the very next day I caught a horrendous flu bug which depleted my physical energy completely and I decided to have a quite night in on Friday sipping Hot Tennessee Toddy to up my spirits. The toddy cost me the whole weekend as I was completely bedridden with mild fever until Sunday evening. To add to the distress India pathetically lost to the champion Australians. Being the ardent cricket fan and due to lack of sleep I literally followed last two days of the exciting test match and I was pretty certain that India is sure to hold on for a draw if not a win. But the Australians don’t give up easily, do they? Of course they had plenty of support from the on and off field umpires. A rather depressing weekend!

The second test match in Sydney has created plenty of furore for all the wrong reasons and is sure to go down in the history books as a disgrace to the Gentleman’s game. The umpires ensured that the Indian’s were on the receiving end, but they didn’t help their cause much by surrendering timidly. With three wickets in hand and a mere two overs to go, a draw was always there for the taking. But the cold-footed Indians ensured that the Australians reign.

On the game itself, there were a few positives for both teams. Laxman’s silken grace, Tendulkar’s controlled aggression, Dravid’s incredible perseverance and of course Hayden’s belligerence. (Remember, am missing out Symonds and Hussey though each of them played beautifully paced innings) But Anil Kumble was the true champion. He bowled like a champion and batted like one in the second innings and had almost secured a draw before the fatal five balls by Michael Clarke uproot the Indian challenge. Although, Ponting may claim confidence in his trusted lieutenant, it is definitely an act of desperation to use Michael Clarke for bowling the crucial last few overs in a riveting test match. But the ploy worked a treat as the hapless Indians fell in a heap.

The 16th consecutive victory added another feather to already crowded and messy Australian caps, for they’ve not only dominated the world cricket, but they have also bulldozed the visiting teams to submission with various means which they term as ‘hard and fair’ cricket. Undoubtedly, they are a bunch of extremely talented cricketers and have been the deserving winners on many occasions. But the current crop of egotistic Australian Cricketers under the able arrogance of Ricky Ponting has reinvented the Australian way, or is this the Australian way?

To be fair to the Australians, confidence grows with success and cements itself firmly as aggression. This deep rooted aggression often receives a fair share of biased luck from the administrators, which probably could be better explained by the Freudian principles. But there is a thin  line which separates acceptable aggression and barbaric aggression. At one end is the savagery of dignified sportsmanship which the Aussies under Mark Taylor showed and the other is the demonic cannibalism. Then there is the third, puerile absurdity! It is these latter two paths the current Aussie team seem to have chosen. And the cricket administrators are bent on creating this new breed of ruthless and senseless cricketers. The Australians simply call this cultural difference. If this is the Australian way of ‘hard but fair’ Cricket, then the Australians should be flighted back to prehistoric times!

And of course, Mr. Bucknor should be reminded that age is patting him on his shoulders in case he hasn’t realized it yet, and Mr. Benson should be sent to officiate kindergarten games. But the crux of the issue is unchanged - Indians play poor cricket despite being economic power house of the cricketing world!