All students are equal. Students who are sportspersons are more equal. A student who is the captain of a cricket team that wins U-19 World Cup is the most equal.
That is the view of Ajay Maken, Kapil Sibal, Rajeev Shukla, Kirti Azad, Arnab Goswami and many others who live in a world that is worse than George Orwell’s Animal Farm.
Valson Thampu, principal of St. Stephen’s College, appeared on many channels on 30/8/2012. He faced hostile questioning on Times Now.
South Africa had abundance of talent before. It seems their losses were due to non-cricketing reasons. There was betting and match-fixing. When many people put money on South Africa winning South Africa lost. Bookies made money. People lost faith in South Africa’s ability to win. They stopped betting on South Africa’s wins. South Africa winning became profitable for bookies.
On 9/3/2012 Rahun Dravid announced his retirement from international and domestic first class cricket. Anil Kumble and BCCI President N. Srinivasan were with him. In 164 Tests, he had 36 centuries, scored 13,288 runs with an average of 52.31, 210 catches and one wicket that is of Ridley Jacobs. In 344 ODIs he scored 10,889 runs with an average of 39.16, 12 centuries, 196 catches and four wickets including one of Saeed Anwar. His T20 match against England was his debut match and retirement match. He was known as the Wall. When he batted well the headline was the Wall stands tall.
The day Ricky Ponting retired from ODI cricket there was discussion on Indian news TV channels whether Sachin Tendulkar should retire. Before that during the Test series there was talk whether senior cricketers should retire.
It is for cricketers to decide when they want to retire and for selectors to decide who should be in the team. A cricketer does not retire does not mean he continues in the team. Selectors have dropped players who did not perform well. Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh, Zaheer Khan and Harbhajan Singh have been in and out of the team. Rahul Dravid was dropped from ODIs. Sourav Ganguly was dropped as captain and player after winning Test series in Zimbabwe. It is wrong to say Kapil Dev by not retiring two years early delayed Srinath’s entry. If Kapil Dev was not good selectors would have dropped him. The argument that senior cricketers by not retiring block chances of young cricketers is not correct.
Ricky Ponting was dropped from Australian ODI team on 20/2/2012. He was captain in the previous match which Australia had won by 110 runs against India. He had hoped to continue in ODI team. John Inverarity, chief selector, said Rick Ponting would not be considered for future ODIs. He said “Ricky Ponting has been dropped from the squad due to lack of form. The team will not seem the same without him. But moving on from the omission of players who have been outstanding over a long period of time is the nature of elite sport.â€
BCCI has consistently opposed DRS, or UDRS as it was originally known, since India under Anil Kumble’s captaincy lost a Test series in Sri Lanka. The decisions went against India. Other countries agreed on DRS. It was part of World Cup 2011.
Some decisions based on Hot Spot during India’s series in England in 2011 raised questions. India lost the Test series 0-4, five match ODI series 0-3 one match being a tie and another abandoned and the one T20 match. After that India did not have DRS in India and Australia.
On 15/1/2012 India lost Perth Test by an Innings and 37 runs and consequently the series 0-3. The Test was over within three days. India scored 161 in the first Innings. In the second Innings India fell from 171/6 to 171 all out. Mahendra Singh Dhoni was banned for one Test for slow over-rate. He lost 40% of his match fee. Other players lost 20% of their match fees.
Krishnamachari Srikant said it was collective failure. It was more a failure of batting, fielding and captaincy. The bowlers did well in Melbourne and Perth. They should have bowled many bouncers. In that way Australian batsmen would have scored less runs. With bouncers, if India had not won Sydney and Perth Tests they would not have lost by Innings either. Australian bowlers got many wickets by bowing bouncers.
India lost Melbourne Test by 122 runs and Sydney Test by an Innings and 68 runs after Australia had declared 659/4. Both Tests ended in four days. In Melbourne Indian batsmen had to score 292 runs to win and they were all out for 169. Indian bowlers took 20 wickets.
Someone said this is the greatest bowling attack India ever had. That attack could take only four wickets in Sydney. Umesh Yadav and R. Ashwin conceded 123 and 157 runs respectively and went wicketless. India were 191 and 400.
The decision of the government to change the rule for eligibility to get Bharata Ratna has stirred a debate and opened the floodgates with demands for Bharata Ratna for various persons. Formerly it was for art, literature, public service and science. Now it is for any field in human endeavour. The change came about because sport was not a category for which Bharata Ratna was given and many people wanted Sachin Tendulkar should get Bharata Ratna.
There are people who feel all national awards should be abolished because they are political. They are few. There are those who say giving Bharata Ratna for sport will devalue Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna which was equivalent to Bharata Ratna and if someone is given Bharata Ratna for sport all sportspersons who got Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna will feel humiliated. Sachin Tendulkar has got Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna. Since sport is included for Bharata Ratna, Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna should be abolished.
BCCI has refused to pay Sunil Gavaskar as per his demand. Sunil Gavaskar had claimed that Sharad Pawar and Arun Jaitley had assured him that his dues will be paid. After that a news report appeared that said BCCI has rejected Sunil Gavaskar’s claim. Sunil Gavaskar said his faith in BCCI was shaken but he had no communication from BCCI. Sunil Gavaskar was with IPL in 2007-2010. Lalit Modi came in defence of Sunil Gavaskar. He said BCCI wanted Sunil Gavaskar with IPL to rival Kapil Dev who was with ICL and therefore Sharad Pawar promised Sunil Gavaskar four crores per year.