A journey with Angry Indian Cricket Fans ........

Scenario :

A local train journey and a cricket fan. This is what I heard before I could disembark after I missed my stop 10 stations back. I was forced to listen to all these rants and why ? I had remarked India is playing Zimbabwe today. All in local Tamil Lingo with ….

Train Journey with Cricket fans

Uncle 1 ( aged 43 …..looks at an aunty aged 36 near him …..lustily):

Indian Cricket team continues its natural degradation after the tryst with its money making Indian Premier League, now , I believe if India plays a game with any nth rated team, they will lose with a whimper. I propose the mightly wimp Indian Criket Team versus Vikram Nagar Team comprised of till Class V students, I guess you know who will win hands down and what margin as well…… I guess our guys will lose even in World Under-arm one pitch one hand league with all the kids in my flats….believe me , they play much better than you guys do……

Uncle 2 ( reasonable ….railway employee….proud reader of Wisden almnack(1994 year book bought near Chennai Central and sports star from the other travellers if they show ….Only Cricket …..probably if u ask him stats he will tell you in decimal places )

While , the Indian Premier League and the Indian Cricket boards have grown in all proportions, monetarily and stature wise, the primacy of the Indian Sports administration plagues the board as well. The nexus of sporting bodies , corporates and the political bigwigs occupying the highest post knowing nothing about the cricket or cricket administration. Flat pitches and slow wickets. Why do we make only batting wickets ? because all the fans want to see only Yusuf hit the ball outside and batsment reach yet another century with sixes and fours. As for the board, send the team to Slovenia, Uzbekistan, Mongolia , Tanzania and of course Guatemala , because they have a lot of cricketing potential and more money to feed the board’s greed . Besides the players need a break too…..after all playing cricket is their profession, not for the Indian team for the clubs. Holidays in the form of tours and so many parties to attend .

Why not play something in Mars and increase the ODI count ? Why not a series with Martians in Jupiter …………. An average Indian Fan will come there as well , with his Drum set and Mera Bharat Mahan kit …….

It has become a standard routine to blame the selectors and selectors blaming the team, the team blaming themselves and the support staff and others blaming all others . Frankly, for how many days is the team going to survive on reasons and sub standards before it starts considering that the grass root cricket has eroded and no way we can produce really good team players and players of repute.

Passenger 3 ( Mid thirties works with the ICICI bank as an enforcer….scary blocking my way out….Prime reason of missing my station)

Before considering the vagaries of the cricket played by the team , it really makes me wonder, what are the non-performers doing in the team. Harbhajan Singh might lift Mrs. Ambani on the Mumbai Indians field, it has been a long time , we have seen the Turbonator spinning his vast nets of deceitful spin and flight. I wonder what has happened to him , of late for his body language suggests , he wants to be a batsman than a bowler. Why not ? He has consistently scored more than our middle order put together.

The only female cricket watcher in the compartment ( 36/F):

He was not a support bowler to Anil Kumble. Both had roles etched and one of them has consistently not lost his sting while the other has lost the magic. Too much cricket or too much parties. Or the worries of Mumbai money and assurances of a permanent fixture in the team?

Yuvraj Singh – an agile swashbuckling southpaw has become a pawn of disciplinary action, inactive and critisized for his fitness . I can remember the days when as a youngster , took the Aussies on a roll to the cold and the English to the skivvies and diving , catching and his vigilant days inside the circle. Yuvi ….come on man , give cricket a try. May be a girl shall fall for the cover drives that you had in your arsenal.

Drunk not middle aged but looks like one guy ……possibly Division 3 cricket during youthful years :-

And for all our fast bowlers. We call you fast because you could bowl fast some period of time in your start of your Indian team careers. Now half the days , you are injured or have a bad day. So it means that no longer you want to bowl fast for the fear of injuries. Often the short pitches land shorter and slower, they have enough time to decide and dispatch which stands they want to send the ball to. Why not bowl a Yorker, a Yorker needs to reach the batsman’s foot and not his middle of the bat. Keep trying. We have enough to try – we will have all the states provide a fast bowler soon… Ishant Sharma forgot the fundementals , Munaf Patel is injured , So is Zaheer Khan , everyone have started following suit. Injury or bad performance. So the team looks like , no fast bowlers, Sreesanth can dance and emote. He had Mollywood/ Dance Shows and Bollywood/Tollywood to care about.

Bowlinga …ende amme …..would be his reaction !!!!

Grandpa going to meet his old office mates in the beach:

There was a time in the glorious past of Indian cricket where we had spinners like Prassanna , Bishan Singh Bedi and Kumble. I think we cannot think of any spinners now as the grass root cricket has eroded them. So has IPL and the promise of fame. Because IPL needs fast bowlers no…..Spinners and all will be taken to cleaners, you see . That is why Piyush Chawla , Ashwin and others are made to bowl in short spurts. They need to bowl straight and slow. And you need to bowl in such a way that Keiron Pollard or Yusuf can take u to cleaners. What happened to Wicket to Wicket bowling or bowling the middle off line. We don’t need no flipper , slipper, googly, doosra theesra, bowl simple bowl straight. Send them back to the school games and make them bowl the simple ones.

Our part time MBA pursuing college student /BPO worker using his new found knowledge …….

As for the administration are concernced , Mr. Modi , thanks for IPL and the cheer girls , and Mr Sharad Pawar and Mr . Tharoor for all the tweets and politics. What happened to administration of cricket ? I guess BCCI has time only for the enquiries and press conferences , no more for cricket development. Ground development or any of those. Award ceremonies also man. Dravid will tease Sharukh and co. , Others laugh and attend the post event party ……what to do….cricket is secondary, parties are primary you see…..Keep fighting and keep earning…….there are morons like me who will subscribe to Set Max, Sahara TV and even if possible Zimbabwe TV if you play the team there ………

And for me …….

As for a Indian Cricket fan, I think I will see Ballebaaz or Great Indian victories in Star Cricket and Neo Sports. Victory for Indian cricket team can only be remembered but not seen live. ….. And for the score update ….India have managed to lose to Zimbabwe …..Yet Again..