Is Media responsible for Team India's failure?

Indian media is highly thankful to Team India's shock exit from ICC T20 World Cup from Super 8 stage itself. In fact, media tried its best to unsettle the spirit and cohesion of Team India by stumping otherwise cool Mahi by asking some controversial questions regarding him and Sehwag's discord, and they succeeded to such a great extent that entire India media had this news item Dhoni Vs Sehwag running for a full day even before the beginning of World Cup. The smooth run of Team India was a debacle for Indian media as they were not able to get any masala to fit into their prime time and then came the Super 8 stage and India's loss to West Indies, and India media had the time of their life. Each channel started doing postmortem like never before as if India has lost a match first time in the history. Though India lost the 2 matches in Super 8, but one must consider the fact they were not easy wins for either West Indies or England. In fact, the margin of error was so marginal that the results could have easily swung into India's favore, but lady luck was not with Team India and so they lost. But, their loss came as a goldmine for media and then all sorts of debates on strategy, fatigue, IPL impact, captainship issues, premature decisions, and what not. There was enough masala for media to fill its prime time that even Prime Minister's important Russia tour was hardly given any due footage by the likes of Aajtak and Star News. Even now, when Indian time is out of the tourney, media is still able to involve the likes of Sabba Karim and Chetan Chauhan to dig out masala about Team India because in India nothing sells like Cricket and as long as they are able to churn out spiciest masala on their prime time, they are earning handsome.

My question to media is if they think Mahi does not know how to lead his side just after 2 losses, why did they labeled him Super Hero till the first round. Is he suffering from Ghazini effect of short-term memory loss that he has forgotten the art of captainship or Rohit Sharma has become the worst player because he could not click in just 2 games. Please, give Team India a little break. Losses do happen but give them some time to prove themselves and if still they fail to deliver, give them solid whipping but please give them some time at least to think over before giving them your blastings.

© 2009 Ranjan Kumar

Orange juice makes English sick

It was not van Persie versus Wayne Roonie. It was David versus Goliath and what followed thereafter...the Dutch will cherish forever.

Dutch have always been one of the most exciting sportsperson whenever they are on the ground, be it soccer or hockey...but hold your breath, this time they are on the cricket ground and this time they have stunned one of the exponents of the game of cricket, the mighty English team, by 4 wickets in the opening match of the ICC T20 world cup at the mecca of cricket, Lord's. The last over victory has put England in a precarious situation now that they must beat Pakistan to make it to Super 8. Dutch has more often than not proved their supremacy over England whenever they play soccer or hockey, but yesterday was the day, Dutch will cherish for a long time to come. In fact, the entire stadium went orange after that famous victory at Lord's which spoiled the Friday evening for the English fans. The Dutch victory has sounded an alarming bell in the Pakistani camp also where now they will have to regroup their strategies to deal with this new menace which have always troubled them in the game of hockey. The Dutch victory over England has once again proved the uniqueness of this format of the game where no team in the world can say it with elaan that they can beat a certain team whether a minnow or a mighty one.This stunner should also come as an eye-opener for Team India where the entire media is busy finding out the differences between Dhoni and Sehwag. I think its time now for Team India to remain a team and not a media grabber item.Congratulations to Dutch for their unforgettable victory in Lord's once again.

© 2009 Ranjan Kumar