Life Etc Etc

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...

Somewhere at the back of my mind I had to publish a follow-up to my previous commentary because in all these years of watching cricket there were lot more than just three performances which caused me pain. You might have already noticed that I am using the word ‘performances’ instead of ‘knocks’. This is because even though Cricket is a batsman’s game all the three departments of bowling, batting and fielding need to work in order to make a team go over the line. So here are a few embarrassing moments in the sport of cricket which have well and truly upped my pain levels. Shastri deadbats:   Ravi Shastri paved the way for many Indian triumphs over the course of his career but the 1992 world cup (which was also his last) came at a time when he was at the nadir of his powers. Shastri started off the world cup with a sluggish 57 (112) against England which India went on to lose by nine runs .   Shastri decelerated further in the next match against Australia where he blocked...