Yesterday’s world cup match and the last over given to Nehra by Dhoni.

Personally I am disappointed at what happened yesterday. Lot of us would say the last over should have been given to Bhajji because:

1.He a tried and tested bowler.
2.He is the in bowler in form with wickets in the match.

Let me think for Dhoni (obviously speculating here.):

1.As a leader he thinks differently and wants to back his team players. He did give Jakati a chance in World Cup T20 finals who came out with flying colours.

2.Does not mind losing the battle (match) to win the war(World Cup). He wanted to try out his option and willing to take a chance. Imagine Nehra coming out with flying colours we could have had a strike bowler at death for the Super8 stage.

3. Give your struggling team member a chance and bet on him to do it for you.Really believing in him. In my arrogant opinion I don’t think he is stupid.

The question that comes to my mind is “As a leader would I be able to take a chance than play safe?”

Full disclosure :

I do have a personal bias to Dhoni as a person I like him for the following reasons:

1.He came up in cricket without god fathers. He used to ask his room mates to drop him at Ranji stadium for matches as he did not have a bike. He was working as a train ticket examiner at that time.

2.He will take his 2000 CC bike for a spin early in the morning (his passion bikes )and not wake his body gaurds as he did not want to disturb their sleep for his personal wishes.

3.He does a victory huddle with team ( Chennai Super kings lost in finals to Rajasthan Royals ) after “losing” to celebrate the team efforts.

4.Plays music  on DVD for marriage no fan fare whereas he could have had stars performing live bands – Humility.

Happy Diwali to all the readers that celebrate it. What is Diwali without some fireworks – NK Sreedhar has a thought-provoking post that may provide some fireworks. Please fire away your comments.

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I am game to holding people to a higher standard, especially those snarly ruthless politicians since they are coaxing and cajoling me to reach the highest office. Even I was shocked to find myself outside of the political realm and moving into another realm altogether. I could hear Rod Serling voiceover in the background – you unlock this door with the key of imagination. Beyond it is another dimension, a dimension of sound, a dimension of sight, a dimension of mind. You just entered the twilight zone of – Professional sports!

That’s right ladies and gentlemen – Professional sports! Today, it’s not as easy as throwing marbles or playing sticks, is it? It’s highly complicated and life consuming. We are talking about putting people on a pedestal, holding them accountable, and expecting them to dole out miracles everyday. Even Jesus Christ didn’t have this kind of pressure on him to perform miracles every day. And sports fans, oh we are ever so picky and downright hypocrites.

Hypocrite! Me, you say. Yeah! You and me both darling! Let’s look at some of the recent events that rocked the sports world. Sure, I exaggerate a little bit, but, you know me – what’s life without a little drama. Manny Ramirez, for those of you who don’t know him, is arguably the best right hand hitter in baseball, goes from Boston to LA and Boston fans hate him like he’s their evil Mother-in-law and cry foul. Should Sourav Ganguly be playing or sitting it out? Is he being selfish for wanting to play? Australian cricket team decides to travel to India, but not to Pakistan and Jones cries foul – they are doing it only for the money and not for security reasons. Finally, the outcry over IPL – players are selling their souls and doing it for the money. How can we lose our culture and do such a thing? What’s this country coming to?

Let’s look at the logic here. What’s wrong with playing for the money? We all do it, but only when we do it, we claim a noble goal (career growth, right opportunity – fill in the blank with your favorite cause here). The noble and not-for-profit messiah Jones himself did play for the money and continues to do so even today. Why else did he leave a trail of vomit at Chepauk like a scavenger hunt gone bad and continued to play?

It’s easy to critic Manny, Sourav, Australian team and players in the IPL, but, it’s downright hypocritical for you and me to question it and pretend that we don’t / won’t do the same. Let’s not kid ourselves. We’d jump ship too if someone offers 100% or 200% more money to do the same job, or pay 50% more than the next person for the same house. Not one of us will say, Oh no! I’ll only take half that money because I like charity. Of course, you are exempted if you are doing real charity work.

Let’s stop holding sports stars to a higher standard that we won’t hold ourselves to. They are, after all, human. And please, let’s stop pretending that it degrades our culture. Unless you are a Martian and you just landed here, you are no different than the next Joe Sport and it’s not detrimental to our culture any more than you switching houses.

What do you think? Are you a hypocrite or did you just land here?