Life Etc Etc

In a nutshell All those who endured the torture of the 2003 World Cup final deserved a day where the tables would turn and India would heap the same kind of misery on our Oceanian neighbors that they once piled upon us. Fun fact, my win predictor friend didn't have much to do on that evening too more than two decades ago. The D-Day The final of the 2026 World Cup produced a one-sided beating much to the delight of my friend, the one and only Win Predictor who also practically dozed off throughout the semifinal until being woken up by Jacob Bethell's explosive century.  The final would offer no such snags for my friend. This was at first a canter by any stretch of the imagination until  Samson fell trying to up the ante.  Jimmy Neesham who accounted for Samson then took two more making it 3 wickets in the space of 5 balls and Hardik Pandya who promoted himself at the expense of his captain found the meaning of hard times. My Win Predictor friend's slumber was about...

As an Indian cricket fan, I am happy that we were able to put behind the heartbreak of 2023 to achieve this world cup victory .  This post will however not be celebratory in nature, on the contrary it seeks to critically analyze some of the team management's decisions which could have cost us the big one once again. Rigidity with the team selection has been a recurring theme in many of the failed world cup campaigns of the recent past. I therefore have three questions about some of the decisions that went into the batting order and team selection.   Jasprit Bumrah in disbelief upon winning the World Cup 2024 <Courtesy: ICC > a) This tournament we persisted with the opening combination of Rohit and Virat (who was in woeful form until the final) despite having an attacking option in the form of Yashasvi Jaiswal. Did the team management have a crystal ball to predict that Virat would finally come good in the final? Even though Virat eventually repaid the team managem...

We won...! We won...! We won...!  For kids like me who grew up in the 90s the thought of India beating Australia in Australia was as inconceivable as dating a Ms. World or a Ms. Universe (but yours truly did think of... ahem! ahem! let's not go there). Yeah, stars have to be seriously aligned for a victory such as this to happen and stars were indeed aligned when Warner, Cameron and Steve were all sent off on a vacation for playing around with a certain  tape . That vacation helped the Indian Team succeed in their triennial vocation. Mantra for Steve / Warner / Cameron : If you use tape your team will scrape . The above mantra was just the beginning, I set out on a journey where I personally uncovered several such lessons while watching this coma inducing, patience numbing, sometimes nerve wracking but ultimately gratifying series. Let's take a look at all the lessons I've grasped one by one: Players with rock solid and dependable techniques don't get IPL contracts...