Little could have anyone imagined and hoped when the God of cricket legendary Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar was made to walk back, as the second man out to the hut, after scoring a paltry 18 runs, right after famous machine gun Virendra Sehwag went silent on the very second ball of the game, that he would be hoisted back on the shoulders of his teammates after Dhoni’s helicopter shot launched the world cup into India’s lap. What an amazing game it was all the way through?
It all began with the toss. The Lankan captain Sangakara has proved once again that he is not fair person and that he is a cheat. This is not the first instance of its kind from Sanga. Last August also, during tri-series in Dambulla, he manipulated his bowler Suraj Randiv to deprive Virendra Sehwag a cricketing milestone, a well deserved century. This time he went on to stoop to the extent that he invalidated the first toss, realizing that he had lost it. This was the final game of the Worldcup and the need of the hour was to accept gracefully the outcome of the toss, no matter what. Sanga is a disgrace to the game of cricket and should be penalized for his improper, unethical and unsporting conduct. The destiny has responded very well to Sri Lanka as to what the sporting cheating can lead to.
During the Sri Lankan inning, Team India’s bowlers had put together a terrific show for most part except the batting powerplay when thing went awry. Sri Lanka, who at one point was struggling to reach 225 could muster 274 runs, an above par score for Wandkhede stadium.
The Indian chase began or rather disastrous note. Sehwag’s second ball dismissal and Sachin’s 18 runs 7th over dismissal were two great blows to India’s chances to reach the target of 275. I had almost lost all the hopes on Team India’s ability to reach target so I proceed to do my “हनुमान चालीसा” little early. Then Mr serious first with Kohli and then with Dhoni steadied the India’s run chase and never allowed the required run rate to go beyond ~6. Finally Dhoni sealed the fate of the game through a variety of shots including the last helicopter shot sixer.
It has been “a dream come true” for all Indians. The 28 years drought is over. It is my sincere hope and wish that we will not have to wait for so along for another WC trophy. These kinds of victories take the confidence of the nation several notches up. Over the last several years, our nation India has been performing exceedingly well at various World sporting events and have brought glory for our country. Keep it up. Chak De India!!
Since WC victory, there is non-stop coverage of the India’s WC victory on almost all the news channels. The news papers are also full of all sorts of stories from front to back. The BCCI has showered with an award of Rs 1Cr each. Many of the Chief Ministers have also handsomely rewarded the India’s WC players in cash and kind, all in an extremely deservingly manner.
But India is a big country with a huge population. Recently conducted census has counted upwards of 1.21B people in India. For such a large population, there have to be more sporting avenues available. The winners and heroes of other sports should also be recognized and rewarded in similar manner. The central government, state governments along with private partnership should come up with concrete, actionable and executable plans to promote other sports as well, in every nook and corner of India. The recent rise of India in sporting events such as Olympic, Commonwealth and Asiad should be allowed to go up further by creating conducive sporting environment. India is slowly becoming a sports loving nation, though game of cricket stays way above any other sports. There is a need to convert this sporting craze as part of India’s economy which can open up news kinds of employment opportunities for lacks of people through out the depth and breadth of our country.
Also, there is need to bring some reforms in ticketing of all the cricket games. Currently, most of the tickets are taken by politicians and various other regulatory bodies. Most of the remaining tickets are sold for huge sum of money in black market. The games are for the common people and there has to be a fair way for the common pubic to have a fair share in number of tickets of the games.
Any way, these are some of my thoughts and I am sure many of would agree.
I conclude by congratulating again the Team India for their victory over Sri Lanka in WC final and bringing the WC Trophy home. More cricketing is coming on the way starting April 8. Many players of WC Team India, who worked as a cohesive team for last 6+ weeks, will be competing against each other. Gambhir who together with Dhoni was instrumental in India’s victory will be fiercely competing against him in IPL 4 opener. Then Sachin will be Mumbai Indian captain competing with Yuvraj, captain of Pune Warriors. In a way, IPL4 will further help each Indian player to understand other players very well from strength and weakness perspective which will help them in working together when they have to represent country for any upcoming sporting event.
I have a few quotes/phrases for the trio, Sachin, Dhoni and Yuvi.
Sachin
भगवान के घर देर है अंधेर नहीं है ।
Dhoni
Lead from the back — and let others believe they are in front.
Lead from the front — but don t leave your base behind.
-Nelson Mandela
Yuvraj – Shawshank Redemption
चक दे इन्डिया !! जय हो !!
