Tuesday, November 03, 2009

AN UNFAIR COMPARISON

M S Dhoni scored a brilliant 100 to take India to a victory in second match of the ongoing series versus Australia. The media and the commentators went over the board to heap their praises on this knock. I have no complaint on this.

But I am feeling outraged at the opinion of a commentator who compared this knock of Dhoni to the 175 not out of Kapil Dev in the Prudential World Cup of 1983.Just look at the scenario. Kapil came to the wicket when the top 5 of the batsmen were back in the pavilion unable to cope with the bowling from the likes of Kevin Curran.Dhoni received great support from Gambhir and later from Suresh Raina. On the other hand, Kapil had the company of far less accomplished batsmen in the form of Kirmani, Madan Lal, Roger Binny and Balwinder Sandhu.This knock came against Zimbabwe but it paved the way for the ulimate win in the World Cup.

I do not for a moment wish to denigrate the knock of Dhoni but it is shameful to compare it with the great knock of victory.But the likes of Dhoni have a very long way to be put into the 'true' pantheon of greatness.

I sometimes feel that even the gods did not want the knock of Kapil to be recorded for posterity taking it into the realm of a legend.But we the ordinary mortals don't realise this and go on making highly odious comparisons.


CRICKET REPORTING OR FORECASTING?

It came as a total surprise that the cricket correspondent of The New Indian Express is also someone having the ability to see the future.Writing in the Bhubaneswar edition and also on the net edition dated 3-11-09 under the headline 'INJURIES ROB SERIES OF SOME OF SPARK', Sandip G says "Doug Bollinger debuted impressively on a slow track in Delhi but was sized out in Mohali".

There are certain things that need some clarification.

1.Bollinger is a left-arm fast bowler who has been brought up on the hard and bouncy wickets of Australia. In that case he should have been uncomfortable with the 'slow' wicket of Delhi.

2.The Indians fielded first after winning the toss in Mohali. It was a day-night game and the newspaper could only include the first 50 overs when the Aussies batted and the Indians fielded.By the time the story of Sandip G was filed, Bollinger did not have a bowl in Mohali.However, when he actually bowled, Bollinger was not 'sized out' . In fact, the left-armer 'sized-up' with figures of 3 for 38 as the Indians could not chase down 251.

Wonder how such pathetic reporting finds place in a newspaper that speaks of quality!