The old t-shirt

After movies and lots of masti!! It was something which an Indian waits right from their heart all the time, An Indo-Pak clash, and what if the clash is in world cup, the exictment reaches its maxima when its the final of the world cup and what if the previous clash ended in a draw and that draw was decided by a nail biting bowl out!! all this thrills u, isnt it!! now here no Pal in this story , just a look back at our Indian mentality!! Yess i am talking about T20 world cup , where our team performed out of skin to get the world cup back to our nation after 24 years. We were crowned the world champs in cricket no matter the version of game was much shorter this time. But we proved to others that we did better then them to get this crown.

After our satisfactory performence in England , people back home were not expecting anything big from our young team who reached the African peninsula without the big 3 SACHIN , RAHUL & SOURAV. Should i call this a smart thinking or a wise and smart prognosis, the big 3 rested themselves and left it to the young and the enthusiastic to give their best, as the big 3 were missing, the people back home did not expected much . Just a couple of months back our team was in hard knocks, an early exit from the world cup and the big debate back home regarding what went wrong with our team??

Should i call it our teams bad luck or the sad saga for which our team is chased all the time, it was just one bad game against Bangladesh earlier this year which brought out mental torture for our team, the publicity before the world cup (ODI) was so huge that we were in do or die state, and a lose in a match meant that all the money and all the expectation will sink up like the old British ship “TITANIC” , I know u will now start thinking about that beautiful movie. But What i want to ask myself and other Indians is, why cant we learn to take a lose as a lose , why do we need to create problems for the player, after the early exit the “TEAM INDIA t-SHIRT” was packed back in to the suit-case and every one was cursing the team and all the big players for their poor show. But if cricket is religion and Sachin ,Sourav and Rahul , Sehwag are god… then why cant we expect that even god make mistakes. Lord Shiva created problem for himself by fullfilling “Bhasmasuras” wish. Lord Rama had to face exile for no reasons, Lord Shiva beheaded Lord Ganeshas head without knowing that he was his own son. Now if god can make mistake and can have a bad day, our cricket team comprises of humans with super human abilities. Humans do make mistakes, all those commenting on the team must look at themselves first, Never it happened that they had a bad day?? Never did they perform badly?? Never it happened that they tried their best but the luck never favoured them. If our team was not upto the mark or they took Bangladesh as minnow then how come did they put the highest total in the next match.

But this early exit sent back the team India t-shirt back into the cupboard. Then came the England series where we won the test series and gave a good fight in the ODIs. But still the people back home never expected a miracle from our T20 team. Now this is what i want to bring into light, see we never expected anything from our team and when team was under no pressure it turned the table for the ODI world champs and proved them that they might be a good side but still they need to perform everyday, although they perform everytime but in the new edition of world cup they had 3 bad days and they were out of the world cup in semis. After the giant was down, people back home started celebrating again. In finals we meet another team who had a bad world cup like us in march. Yes Pakistan was another victim of criticism that they faced back home. Both the team gave up there big name and made way for the new generation, Although experience is the essence of a team but if it lacks enthusiasm then it makes no sense to play , both the team had a good mixture of youth and experience and the new blend spread freash fragnance in this new edition. Both of them came up with flying color and made it to the finals.

What a grand finale, the stage was set, 2 arc rival and that too last match was decided in bowl out, crowd was back and the peoples cheer were with the team again. The “old Indian t-shirt” which was dumped in was back to its business the tri-color tattoo was back on face and the tri color was flying high. The slogan of CHAK-DE INDIA was in the air!!!

The whole crowd was behind the team and celebrating with the team, but where were the same people when we lost in the world cup and came back home early, the same people who were celebrating were busy that time sending e-mail, sms and writing blogs!! about our poor show and cracking jokes on our poor performence. I mean why?? why do we need to be so harsh on player, when they do bad and why make them the king when they do out of their skins!! why cant we treat them as just players after all its just a game . Why not we celebrate the victory of our hockey team?? why not we cheer for our Kabbadi team which brings us the gold medal in Asian games?? Why do we need to put so much pressure on our cricketers?? Is it just that cricket is having money and all those who put their money on our cricket team want worth of their money?? Why cant we put in our money on other sports viz hockey ,tennis ?? Why were the cricketers given prizes when the hockey team also won the asia cup? If some business men awards the cricketers it makes sense but why government?? Our young gun won the cup and now our old reliables are questioned for their performence?? Why do we need to test the reliability of a wall which has been tested for over a decade??  Why a second treatment to other sports?? Why do we need to question the performence of the big 3 who had served the nation whole heartedly for over a decade??Who asked us to give our expert comment on our teams performence?? Is media not hipping the good and the worst?? who is responsible for criticism that our players face ?? Why do we expect so much from our cricketers when we know expectations kill performence??Why do we keep such a dual mentality??

When will we learn to take sports with sportsmen spirit!!

So many question unanswered, but still its good that our old TEAM INDIA t-Shirt is back in business and the smile is back on our faces!! 

Any ways cheers for hockey and cricket, and hearty congrats to the team who kept our flag high!!

Wish all the players a grand success in future and hope that they keep brining smiles on our faces.!!!

Chak de India !!! Jai Hind!!!!!