I knew Einstein: November 2009

Friday, November 27, 2009

Who is watching?

"All the world's a stage
And we all are but players"

But who could be watching it?

There is politics and cliques all over the cricket-land and these have blunted the growth of many talented players over the years. If you don’t get the right breaks at the right time, you just don’t make it in the game, talent or no talent. Look at the case Anantha Padmanabhan, the Kerala spinner; he could have got in any international side on his merit alone. Sadly that did not happen. He was playing at the time of Anil Kumble, and a waning Kumble was preferred to him every time.

Anyway I never imagined that any one from Kerala would ever play for the land after that. Then some of our men got inducted to the BCCI and that helped a bit. First Tinu Yohannan got the call; he did not make much of it. Then Srisanth was in the team. This young guy had all the luck in the world. He got the breaks at the right time and was good too, but got a bit carried away by his celebrity status. As a result of an injury and ‘bad behavior’ he soon got out of the team. By then he had become the second bowler in India to have taken 50 test scalps in as few as 14 test appearances after Venkitesh Prasad!

After being the wilderness for the last 19 months the lad is back on the center stage again. I was watching him play on this day and saw the highlights of the last day too. He has improved, both in behavior and in bowling. He has lost a bit of pace, but that doesn’t matter and he bagged the “man of the match’ for his devoted efforts in the test and like always when he performs well, the match was won by India too.

I was a bit ashamed for him for his sniveling after being slapped by the infamous Baji. None of us in this Gods Own Country cry. Even our women don’t cry (If you ever come across a girl standing imperiously with arms folded under her chest anywhere in the world, it could be one of ours. Remember it’s not of ‘arms crossed on chest’ we are talking of here, that is a defensive gesture. Look at the photos).

( Girl with arms crossed on the chest)

( Woman with arms folded)

Well he made us all ashamed by being a cry baby in front of the cameras. We have always been an aggressive lot, we Keralites, it has to do with our mentality, and we grow up in an intensely competitive environment where no quarter is given for the weak. People here tend to view emotional outbursts as something which belongs to those who are far down the evolutionary ladder. This is natural in a land where the common laborers have opinions on what Obama should do or not do in international politics.

And then hilariously we produce a cry baby like Sri who succumbs to the tantrums of an absolute Neanderthal like Harbajan Singh ( Well, would anybody in their right senses go near a Sardar returning from a defeat, let alone say “Hard Luck” to him! The Sardar has no brains, he has only brawn. We thought our lads were far too wiser for that.) This Baji had called such great hulks like Symonds and Hayden things.

There is some serious issue with this guy. His head needs to be scanned to see if he has a brain at all. I like guts, I like when people stand up to oppressors, but needling mad bulls on the loose is not guts, its idiocy. And strangely Srisanth had followed suit. Even physical combat was offered by Mathew Hayden once. It would have been like pitting one of our great movie action hero’s against Mike Tyson. You could throw the remains to the birds to pick at afterwards.

The lad is back on the big stage now and he is talented; it is his business not to make us lament about him afterwards.

Anyway well done and good luck to him.