Jhakas | Sanjay Jha
The man who is credited with the historic byline of calling the Indian cricket selectors (very rightfully, in my opinion) a "bunch of jokers" yesterday accredited himself with another famous distinction.
Mohinder Amarnath, former Indian batting hero, became the first intrepid ex-cricketer to publicly demand the Little Master Sachin Tendulkar’s curly-haired head if the faltering icon failed to deliver. Continue reading below
Besides questioning Tendulkar’s credentials to be in the team itself, Amarnath made a scathing, sardonic dig at Tendulkar’s new found propensity to perpetually pretend that some extraneous extraordinary factor was responsible for his abject dismissal.
Stop pretending, says the fiery Amarnath.
In short, Amarnath’s message to Sachin is dispassionately terse, shape in or drive out in your red Ferrari.
Sachin fans will be understandably peeved, but there is no denying that sentimental Indian hearts are going through Amazonian pains witnessing the remarkable decline of their once super-hero.
But in all fairness, it is not as if the other tall stalwarts were giving the Cuttack crowd a cutting edge display yesterday either.
Be as it may, India at least won the ridiculously low-scoring game, where the ball turned with as much seductive twist as Shakira in Hips Don’t Lie.
Indian mainline batsmen hardly flourished and flowered, instead they floundered and fell to a wobbly 90 for 7, before India’s Man Wednesday Dinesh Karthik and surprisingly, the normally lazy Ajit Agarkar played their hearts out in a match-winning partnership of 62 precious runs.
Considering their recent domination of India, one expected the West Indies to make their point by accentuating fears into India’s wretched nightmares.
The fact that they could not even overtake 189 runs had to do with some silly spineless batting, and some accurate spin bowling on a typical turning track , exacerbated by a deceptive low-bounce. Not very hospitable to unsuspecting foreign visitors, Mr Curator!
Not an enormously convincing triumph notwithstanding, it is time to be positive though, no matter how slender the two victories.
At least, to some extent India has restored the psychological imbalance of record losses against Brian Lara’s men, who were becoming India’s nemesis of Beckhamesque proportions. Albeit, I am perplexed with the continuing experimentations. Poor Joginder Sharma!
These are crazy times. Vivian Richards has openly called the entire India-West Indies series a money-making mockery, Greg Chappell got slapped by a regional fanatic, most Indian viewers have not even seen a single ball of the two matches live yet thanks to TV disputes, and now rumour- mongers insist that Tendulkar will be dropped like a hot potato with sour cream.
Exciting days ahead. Stay tuned!
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