Anti Climax

After a lot of build up, indian team lost. Jury is now out on why we lost. Inquest has begun. Kirsten's theory of blaming IPL fits in the tradition of typical western condescene towards whatever indian which according to them is anything but subtle. Westerners (with exceptions) think themselves to be sublte, balanced and saviors of world. Far from it, howsoever polished they may be they can take a unidimensional view of self interest and superiority. anyways thats beyond the topic. Point is all major players except winner pakistanis were in IPL too say westindies, SA, Srilanka. so fatigue has some difference sense in modern cricket.
Other justifications are nature of T20 which has luck as major factor, wrong tactics etc are valid in bits and peices. For me following are points of concern
1. Bench Strength of Indian team is weak, inexperienced and overhyped. All past major succcess ( post ODI worldcup 07) can be attributed to individual brilliances of sachin, yuvraj, sehwag or dogged determination of Kumble, Dravid, Gambhir. The fringe players got good exposure via IPL and IPL has helped in that way. But they lack quality and approach of above mentioned showstoppers in indian team. Batsmen are flat track bullies and Bowlers are anything but consistent
2. Bowling inconsistencies: difference in winning and losing is ability to produce 6 good balls in over. You can have 4 good balls in an over with say 3 runs. if you concede a wide and a boundary on any two (in whatever order) over goes for 8 runs which is decent. We did have very few good overs in super8s. That made huge difference. We won last world cup because we were able to produce good overs (remember those which choked SA and in Semifinals against Australia after symonds wicket). Noone seemed to care about this point year after year.
3. Lack of transparancy about injuries: sehwags exit was knockout punch which boosted opposition. Has sehwags injury known, we could have requested Sachin to be a part . That would have been master strike demoralizing opposition bowling. If not Sachin, we would have had someone like Manish Pandey to create unknown factor.(just like yusuf pathan factor in last finals). These injuries affected fielding as well.
4. Tactically we did not focus on opposition weakness: In IPL, it was proven that Bravo is not a good player of short delivery outside off, but we played by piching him up. same with KP, we bowled too many leg side deliveries where he is very comfortable. No approach while batting.
5. Club level fielding: Not much to add, maybe we would have been worst fielding side in torurnament.
6. crucial goof ups like sending jadeja ahead of Yuvraj, playing out of form Ishant ahead of Inform RP, not promoting yusuf pathan.
rest as they say is history.

Foreign Bodies

In medical terminology every human cell reacts to foreign bodies. This reaction varies from cell to cell. Similarly every society reacts to foregn migrants differently. This reaction varies based on many parameters. Recent attacks on Indian students in Australia is such a typical response. same can be made out of attacks on biharis in Maharashtra or assam. Obamas policy attacks on immigration from india china to protect jobs is another manifestation of such paranoia of foreign people. Thus i was cheering when australia were knocked off ICCT20 world cup, i feel for students.
Its age old history with such migrations. Britishers have tried to nullify indian history by claiming caucascian migration in form of aryans. This is a very challengable assumption to me.
The moguls and other tribesmen plundered india. Indians had never gone out of peninsula or plains as it had all natural resources to feed them as well the attackers. Colonial powers from europe came here and ruled us. The paranoia of outsiders coming and ruling the natives is well supported in History. Now when tables are turned, Indians had to move out to meet global aspirations. Now its turn for developed countries to feel paranoic having plundered colonies over centuries. add to that a caucascian beleif of being the pall bearers of human civilization. (this is well documented by kipling as white mans burden).
We indians can also be not given clean chit on this count. we as society have different problems based on caste, color, creed, region, releigion etc etc..
Coming back to migration, its only when foreign bodies fail to assimilate in local culture then clashes occur. One very important dimension is economical situation of immigrant. If he is poor he is a problem, if he is wealthy he is worthy.
americans, the first people to fight for open economony, liberalization call for open markets from developing countries. But when it comes to reverse open policies for migration or jobs, they are protectionists. every one has right to safeguard their interest but this process has to be mutual.
Its a very complex issues faced by mankind since ages.
i think global village concept is just utopia. world can be flat so long as it does not affect my job.

Final Frontier

There is always a holy grail for everyone (i am not referring to Dan Browns take on the topic and i am not promoting Angels and Demons). There is always a final frontier to be won for everyone.
Steve waugh had mentioned about beating India in India was that. South Africa had same feeling for australia conquest. England has ashes dreams. Sachin Tendulkar feels lifting ODI world cup to be that. Federer wants French Open, Lendl wanted wimbledon, Sharad Pawar wants to be PM. Narayan Rane wants to be CM. Whole Indian film industry feels that for Oscars. Whole science community feels that for Nobel prize. Whole IT community wants to be involved in 'the next in thing' featuring in silicon valley success stories. Whole bunch of fellow entrepreuners of our times wanted to be next Infosys. the much malignes Investment Bankers wanted to be featured in WSJ, All those in Music want to perform at Sawai, All trekkers want their foot on the everest. These are just examples. I am sure every individual has that holy grail. Few lucky people acheive the grail after few attempts. But i have seen whole lifetime spent unsuccesfully. someone has a bunglow in mind to buy, someone has a brand of car to buy, someone has a country to visit, someone even wanted to meet long lost friend. These cravings are varied. Its the intensity, desire to achieve that defines the quest. The time duration required to achieve that is the real test of character. Many people give up as well as its very easy to do that. There is nothing like achieving what you want and getting it after a long exhaustive road.
There are some dangers also in this, while chasing the grail, life's other achievement (which may even be bigger than the grail) will feel like no shows. Lifes small gifts and pleasures will be lost while having a single devotion towards the grail. Its the balance is what defines success in life.
In short not to give up on quest of the grail while balancing out the life with other important facets will define success.
There is certain unfairness about life. Some things happen in such a way that a particular achievement is denied to someone just for no reason or by chance. And then maybe owing to lack of interest to followup or some other priorities , that event never happens. and at later time you realize that achievement is still missing. And then maybe in some cases time has gone or its very difficult. Then arises that quest which is very strange for others to fathom. Example: One of my friends has taken admission in IIM after 13 years of graduation leaving aside a settled career and family.
The holy grail of life is central to all of us. They define our life, they provide meaning, motivation, substance, etc to our lives ( beware of dissapointments, demotivations, obsession, guilt as by products).
My Holy Grail is yet to be achieved. But i have many role models to guide me reach there.