PRG's Thoughts

It's the end of the year, that was twenty-eighteen, So what happened in sports, with your favourite team? There was the World Cup, and then regular seasons, 'Twas a great year for fans, here are my reasons. Lets start with the Cup, that comes every four years, As usual it ended, with England in tears. Croatia played well, and was the runner up, But in the end, the French won the cup. Neymar won an Oscar, Messi won nothing, Poor England prepared too early for homecoming. We've watched this next flick, since 2003, I'm talking about tennis, and the same old big three. Roger won Aus, Novak Wimb & New York, Rafa won the French, oh, what a shock! The time for new blood, is long overdue, Zverev, Thiem or anyone please come through. Four different winners, in four different slams, Women's tennis, is capturing the fans. Of course, the greatest had the greatest melt down, Oh Serena, you behaved like a clown. The Return of the Kings, is not a movi...

Somewhere in a hotel room in England, 11 Indian cricketers and a Zimbabwean coach gather around in a dark room. The mood is serious. Player 1: “I’ve called this meeting today in urgent circumstances. So far we have blamed our horrific performance on the BCCI and their planning. While they’re usually an easy target I think we may be passed the expiration date on this particular blame game.” Player 2: “Why? Just blame it on them. Always works and right now the media is supporting us.” Player 1: “Look, we’ve played two tests and two side games. The public realizes that we should have gotten used to the conditions by now. It just won’t fly. Plus we had this stupid number one ranking on our heads. Thank god that’s over.” Player 3: “Chill out, ya. Just blame it on injuries. Can’t argue with that.” Player 4: “Player 3, you’re a Moron, only ONE player is injured. You can’t count the two boys from Punjab. One hasn’t taken a wicket since before Chayageet aired on DD and the other is not even ...

Ian Bell was out and MS Dhoni should not have withdrawn his appeal. The law of the game is clear, as was established by the umpire’s decision to give him out. There is no argument there. So now the debate goes to the spirit of the game. I see nothing against the spirit of the game in letting the umpire’s decision stand. There are questions to be asked, though. Was Bell attempting a run? Or was he just careless in the way he handled himself? Like most of you, I watched that replay over a dozen times. It was clear to me that Ian Bell was not jogging off the field but rather was trying to get a fourth run in. As he jogged half way down the pitch he noticed Eion Morgan well grounded in his crease. Instead of running back and grounding his bat, Bell stopped jogging and continued to walk toward the bowlers end. There are two possible things that went through Bell’s mind. If he thought it was a four (I don’t think he did) then he violated cricket 101 by assuming it was a boundary. If on the...

Zaheer Khan’s turning point Congratulations on the World Cup win. For most Indians it was one of the best days of our lives. Have you recovered? It was the best day for us too. More than anything else it was the journey that was special. Playing in India there was the added pressure but at the same time we knew that it was going to be equally special if we were able to pull it off. The belief was always in the team, we always talked about gaining momentum at the right time and kept thinking that we can do it. Everyone wanted it badly and that kind of showed in the whole approach. You bowled in the World Cup final in 2003 and then suffered some setbacks with injuries. Then came the season at Worcestershire where you bowled incredibly. Was that the turning point of your career? Yeah, in many ways it was. It was really important for me to play at the highest level, and to get back in to the Indian side. I always knew I had the potential to perform but somehow I was not able to deliver. Th...

Winston Churchill said "The Price of Greatness is Responsibility." Never were these words more true than last evening in Mumbai. With the ultimate prize on the line the leader of eleven men walked out in to the middle to take on a challenge that most people believed he could not handle. With his customary swagger he rose to the occasion and embraced the God's of destiny like he was born to do. MS Dhoni joined the party late in this tournament, but once he arrived, he stole the show. The tournament has not been easy for the captain. Being second guessed at every step is never easy for any leader let alone someone who has 1.2 billion people voicing their opinions. Yet this man was supposed to deliver with a team where only two bowlers were definite choices in the eleven. The other two being coin flips. That is hardly the make up of world cup champs. Yet, they had to win. After every match, win or lose, he was analyzed by every one of us. Why did he bowl Nehra in the last ov...

The disgust at India's exit from the T20 is keeping me up blogging at 1:30 in the morning instead of getting a good nights sleep. We were terrible. Every time we lose a match people throw out questions. Here are 5 that cropped up in my mind. They are brief, confusing and frankly, don't have any answers from my end. Please help me answer them because I am struggling. Firstly, hats of to England. I think Naseer Hussein put it best when he said that England were tactically beating India. They studied our eternal weakness of the short ball and exploited it beyond belief. Now for the questions 1) Why drop Irfan Pathan and keep Ishant Sharma? In the match against the West Indies Irfan went for 4.5 runs per over in his two overs and took one wicket. Ishant on the other hand went at 10.33 in his 3 overs with no wickets. Plus this gives you an extra batsman. Ishant went for a nice 9 runs an over today against England. It just seems that Ishant has not come to terms with this form of...

I always thought MS Dhoni was a good captain. He is ice cool, leads from the front by being pretty consistent with the bat, inspires his younger players, can be a risk taker and takes every win or loss within his stride. But after what he did in the press conference in England to display team unity, I think he might be the greatest captain India has ever had.  For those of you who have been unaware, there have been articles and rumors that there is a rift between Dhoni and Sehwag . To have a cold war between the captain and vice captain of a team right before the start of a major tournament is never good news. The press of course lapped this story up with joy. In fact the day the story was published I had 6 different conversations with cricket fans about the rift. The alleged cold war was slowly growing in to a full blown battle. That was before Dhoni stepped in. The press conference on Friday can only be described as a stroke of guts, grit and genius. Instead of having the usual p...