CRICKET TALES

M.S.Dhoni has always been the most inspirational person to me and it’s his birthday today. So here are the five most inspirational things that we can learn from the captain cool.

1. NEVER LOSE HOPE

We all have seen his biopic and so we all know that he was a Ticket Collector before being a cricketer. Now imagine yourself in the situation where Dhoni was. You aspire to become a cricketer but you have to work as a T.C. because you also have to think about your family. It will be very difficult for anyone to take such a huge risk and play cricket. But he did it and he did it in a phenomenal way. His father was upset with his decision to play cricket still he never lost his hope and kept working and this helped him achieve success. So we must never lose our hope and keep trying for our passion.

2. ALWAYS BACK YOUR TEAMMATES

This is a thing to learn for every leader to learn that is, always back your teammates or your group members or the people of your firm. If you are a leader then it’s your responsibility to calmly help your mate whenever he/she is in a trouble. Whenever in a team there used to be a player who has lost belief in himself or isn’t performing so well he used to talk with that player. His team members narrate that right from the morning Dhoni’s room is open for anyone to come and have a chat with him about their game or anything.

Shane Watson had narrated an incident that in IPL 2019 he wasn’t performing so well in the league matches but still Dhoni kept supporting him and hence he performed so well in the finals [despite that CSK lost the game]. 

 So this is the quality of a leader. You must always back your group mates so that your team or your group or your department in the office must work efficiently.

3. BELIEVE IN YOURSELF 

This is another beautiful thing to learn from him. Whenever we see him playing the game, whether that is for the Indian side or in the IPL he never finishes the game earlier. He takes a risk and takes the game deeper and deeper till the death overs and then finishes the game. So he understands the game very well and he knows that it is better to settle on the crease first and then start the show. But for that you need to believe in yourself. He has a self-belief that, ‘Yes, I can finish the game at the end.’ And that belief never comes directly. You need to train yourself so well that you can believe in yourself even in the tough situations and get a solution to the problem.

So we must train ourselves well and that gives us a self-belief. To have that confidence we have to work hard and self-confidence plays a big role for anyone to complete a task.

4. STOICISM

We all have tough times as well as good times in our life and we change our mood according to them. But when you will see and observe Dhoni he has got the same expression both the inside and outside. Whether the team loses or wins the game he has got the same face every time.

Whenever the match is going on and the team is in a trouble he never changes his mood. Even if he is neutral just on his face and not from the heart that’s okay. Because that changes the mood of the team in the tough times. It gives the team a kind of motivation that the leader is still with us and then the team wins the game.

The same thing happened in 2013 Champions Trophy final against England. Bopara and Morgan had a great partnership and the Indian team was just losing the game but seeing his mood the team got a motivation and that’s the reason for our win in the finals. Yeah it was not only Dhoni who contributed in the win but a leader plays a major role in such situations.

So we should never get very upset because of our failures because the result is just a by-product of the work we did.

5. DOWN TO EARTH

There are many people who were successful in their respective fields but what after that. That success goes to the head of many people. But many people are still very down to earth even after getting successful. And that’s what makes some people earn a lot of respect and that’s what Dhoni has earned, that is, respect. Never let success reach top of your head. Always be kind to everyone and respect everyone.

As it is very well said that, “If you want to judge one’s character then check how that person talks with the people of his lower standard.”

6. PLAY FAIR

This is one of the most important thing to learn from Dhoni. Never ever cheat someone in your life and that’s what captain cool has done every time. He never cheats with the opponent in the game. There are a lot of things other players do like sledging and abusing the opponent. Sledging is fine just for a limit but when it is out of the line that’s when it turns bad and that’s what Sachin Tendulkar and M.S.Dhoni had taught us that games can be won even without doing some extra things.

7. TAKE RISKS

In pressure situations most of the times we try to do things in a proper pattern but that thing doesn’t work every time. Sometimes you have to think out of the box and you have to take risks. But before taking a risk you must analyse the whole situation and then take a risk. You can’t take risks every time.

That’s another thing to learn from the world cup winner. Sometimes you need to take risks and think out of the box at the correct time. That’s what he did by giving the ball to Joginder Sharma in 2007 T20 World Cup Final.

So here was a blog about India’s most successful captain.

THANKS FOR HAVING A READ.

I HOPE YOU LIKED AND GOT INSPIRED FROM IT!

A VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO A LEGEND MAHENDRA SINGH DHONI!

Cricket is a traditional game originated in England but later it travelled to various countries. But what if some other country comes and defeats England on their own land. That’s what happened in England on the Oval Cricket Ground on 29 August 1882. England lost the series from Australia on their own land. And then the very next day came a news headline from The Sporting Times [an English Newspaper], “The body is cremated and the ashes are taken to Australia.” And so the name Ashes came out in the cricket world.

A few weeks later England was going to tour Australia for the Ashes series. The English captain Ivon Bligh gave a statement that he will win the Ashes and bring the title back to England. As the England team toured Australia the head of the Australian Ladies group named Florence gifted the English captain with an urn and there were ashes of the burnt cricket bails inside it. Later the England side won the Ashes and Australia failed to retain the Ashes series.

But there was also a beginning of a love story in cricket from that time as Ivon Bligh and Florence loved each other and they married in 1884 that means the Ashes gave rise to a remarkable love story not only in cricket but even in the topics of sport.

THE ASHES URN

As I mentioned earlier about how the idea of the urn came as Florence gifted an urn to Ivon Bligh. The urn was in Bligh’s residence till his death. Florence gave it to the MCC [Marylebone Cricket Club/ The Lord’s Cricket club] in 1929. It is now kept in the Lord’s Cricket Museum, but now you may be wondering how is it seen on the ground after every Ashes series?

Actually the urn that you see on the ground and the players celebrating with is not original. It is the exact copy of the original urn. This is because the original urn is very delicate and no risk can be taken for the urn to be broken.

THE SPIRIT

So this was the story of the history of the Ashes but what now? Well, there are a number of matches that are greats in the Ashes. Whether you take the famous 2005 Edgbaston test’s magical over to Pointing by Andrew Flintoff or the 2019 Ashes, Ben Stokes innings, these all are greats. But there are a number of magnificent performances by great players.

But thing we are talking about is that Ashes is the oldest competition in the field of cricket. Literally speaking, it is even more important than World Cup for the Aussies and English. But the spirit of cricket has never ended. There are still great matches going on in the Ashes. The reason behind that is because test cricket is still alive in those countries. Once the test cricket has died the cricket will lose its shine because it is the original format of cricket. So the Ashes is alive because the test cricket is alive.

England and Australia have given a great respect to test cricket and that’s the reason they are still the greats of cricket. Otherwise Sri Lanka, West Indies, South Africa, Pakistan these countries were great teams earlier. They are still good but not like earlier. That’s because they don’t play good test cricket.

So the spirit needs to be carried on and we hope that the test cricket should never die and we hope the Ashes will keep giving us some wonderful encounters between the big and oldest rivalry in cricket.     

We can see the Indian team playing very well throughout the tournament but suddenly as we see the knockouts coming, there comes a doubt with it, that can India win? And some games make ‘India’s well-played’ journey of no use. India won the 2011 World Cup, the 2013 Champions Trophy but after that the story isn’t so good as earlier. In 2014 India enters T20 World Cup finals and lose to Sri Lanka, then again lose to Australia in semis in 2015 World Cup, then again in semis of 2016 T20 WC, another lose in 2017 Champions Trophy finals and then at last, the heart breaking MS’s run out in the 2019 WC semis. Let’s look at some points which clarify what is India’s problem in these big knockout games.

THE TOP ORDER ISSUE

When we look at India’s top order we recall two big names that is Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli but then what? So their strength becomes a weakness here. Yeah we have Shikhar Dhawan or KL Rahul but the man you can trust after that is only M.S. Dhoni and he has performed for India in the WC 2019 semi-finals. But now maybe MS is not in the team.

Shikhar Dhawan is an experienced person in the team but he wasn’t even in the WC team after the second match against Australia. The issue is lack of opportunities for the middle order and lower order. In other tours or International series for India, Rohit and Virat are performing most number of times so the lower or middle order doesn’t get so many opportunities to perform and even if such situations come up we see Dhoni performing or maybe India loses that game. Earlier if you will see; let’s take the 2011 squad as an example. After Sachin and Sehwag we had Gambhir at No. 3, Virat, the younger one at 4, then Yuvraj at 5 and then Dhoni and Raina. You can feel a strong looking side here but after that in 2015 Raina wasn’t so good, so wasn’t Rahane. 

The thing India needs is a strong middle and lower order that can be seen now with the arrival of Shreyas Iyer and Manish Pandey understanding now the pressure of middle order. And now Hardik Pandya is getting more and more experienced so the problem seems to be solving.

WHAT IF…?

Once Wasim Akram was discussing about 1999 WC. Pakistan was one of the strongest side in the tournament. And in a lot of victories coming up for Pakistan consecutively someone in the dressing room said that, “What if we lose?” and as a result Pakistan lost the tournament. So that is a mental game now here.

The biggest problem for India here is with the mental game. On such a big stage of tournament everyone has got the skills but it is mental game that makes a difference here. So you need to be strong in such big games.

You need to go with a mentality that we are going to win with full confidence. That’s what Australia has done so far and they have won five World Cups as a result. You can easily observe the body language of the Australians which is so confident.

Some may agree or some may not with my opinion but this blog was just to open up the reasons for India’s failure. It was just to show side and clarify about India’s failure.

THANK YOU!

I HOPE YOU LIKED IT!

There were already a number of talks going on around the world about Pakistan and its association with terrorism. The safety regarding the cricket teams to tour Pakistan had been a long issue in the world of cricket at that that time. In May 2002 New Zealand refused to play Pakistan after suicide bombings were done outside their hotel. And after some months even Australia refused to tour Pakistan. And then occurred the 2008 Mumbai attacks that scared the world and India refused to play against Pakistan in Pakistan and also in India. So the Sri Lankan Team was a replacement tour with the cancellation of Indian Cricket team’s tour.

THE ATTACK

It was 3 March 2009, when the second test of Sri Lanka and Pakistan was to be held in the Gaddafi Stadium. The Sri Lankan Team and the match officials left their hotel for the match. The first Test match ended up with a draw. As per the reports the attackers were waiting behind the Liberty Square for the Sri Lankan team bus and mini vans of match officials. As the bus arrived the attackers started firing. The Sri Lankan players tucked down to protect themselves. The police fired upon the attackers too and six policemen and two civilians lost their lives.

 But with the brave action of the driver of team bus, Mehar Mohammed Khalil the lives of Sri Lankan team players were saved. He kept driving his bus despite continuous firing. Even grenades were used and rockets were launched on the bus. Khalil [the driver] was later awarded by Pakistan for his bravery.

Sri Lankan players Thilan Samaraweera and Tharanga Paranavitana were hospitalised because they sustained injuries on thigh and chest respectively. The Reserve Umpire was shot twice and was hospitalised too. The driver of umpire and match official’s minivan lost his life in the attack. The Sri Lankan captain Mahela Jayawardene said later that it was the experience of the terror attacks due to conflict in their country helped them in the situation.

After the attack the match referee Chris Broad criticised the Pakistani security arrangements. He even said that why did the Pakistani team which usually used to travel with the other team had its bus delayed for seven minutes. The match Co-umpire criticised and said that bullets were raining on them but the Pakistani forces didn’t fire a shot in defense. Even Muttiah Murlidharan criticised the security forces. And as a result the terrorists managed to run out from there on their motorcycles.

AFTERMATH

After the attack ICC imposed heavy insurance costs for cricket matches to be held in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. The New Zealand team cancelled its tour of Pakistan and so did Bangladesh. Even the IPL was postponed for 45 days. For the 2011 Cricket World Cup to be hosted by India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh but due to the attacks Pakistan was stripped out of it and after that a few matches were held in Pakistan.

CONCLUSION

Due to these terror attacks Pakistan’s money that used to come by holding matches was finished as cricket is a huge business platform. Not only this case but terrorism has harmed a lot to Pakistan and the world. In order to reduce such harms Pakistan needs to remove terrorism from their country.     

1983, a year when England was going to host the Cricket World Cup or The Prudential Cup for the third time. Everyone expecting and thinking who would be the winner? West Indies, Australia, Zimbabwe, England and expectations from all good cricketing nations but not from India and how will they expect? India played two world cups before 1983, one in 1975 and other in 1979. But they ended winning just one match in 1975 against West Africa and not a single match won in 1979. Kim Hughes the Australian captain said before the world cup for India as to be the dark horse of the tournament and claimed that India can win the cup. All wondered that how can Hughes give such a foolish statement?

BCCI selected Kapil Dev as Indian cricket team’s captain in 1982 despite of having the classical batsman Sunil Gavaskar who was the most experienced player in the team. Just before the world cup the Indian team toured West Indies and won a game under new captain Kapil Dev’s captaincy in Berbice.

THE VICTORIOUS START

The Indian side had to play the strongest side in cricket that time, the West Indies. In the team meeting before the tournament Kapil Dev told all the team members to just enjoy their game in England whether they lose or win. So they enjoyed the game and won it. Yashpal Sharma’s 89 and Ravi Shastri’s 3 wickets made a huge contribution.

India had West Indies, Zimbabwe and Australia in their group for the tournament. So the second match was against Zimbabwe and India won it again in a dramatic style. With two victories India had their momentum.

SOME FAILURES

But here comes the third match against Australia. Despite Kapil Dev’s five wickets India lost the match. India lost the game because of the poor batting by them as the Australian medium pacer Ken MacLeay thrashed the Indian batting line up.

Another defeat came to India in their next match as West Indian legend Viv Richards managed to get a century. Dilip Vengasarkar got injured in the match but still he and Mohinder Amarnath managed to get some runs.

THE BOUNCE BACK 

Then came the Kapil Dev’s game against Zimbabwe. After the toss Indian side had to bat first and the captain went to take a shower and suddenly someone comes and says, “Kapil, we have lost four wickets for nine runs.” India was 17/5 when Kapil came in to bat. He managed to get 175* of 138 balls and saved a Do or Die Game for India. Unfortunately BBC had a strike on that day and there is no footage of the match so that you can see one of the greatest innings in cricket history. India won the game and entered into the quarter finals for the first time.

TRIVIA

Kapil Dev’s Unbeaten 175 is the first ODI century for India. It was even the highest ODI individual score at that time.

The quarter final for India was against Australia. India’s batting line up gave Australia a target of 248 but the Indian pacers, Madan Lal, Roger Binny and Balwinder Singh Sandhu managed to stop Australia at 129.

The upcoming challenge was the semi-final against England. Again no one thought of India to win the game but the India batsmen had a different plan. Sandeep Patil’s 51* led India to a victory.

THE FINAL  

Now it was the final against the world’s most dangerous team, West Indies who entered the finals for the third time consecutively. The West Indies side had Sir Viv Richards, Clive Lloyd, Malcom Marshall, Andy Roberts and Michael Holding. These all were legends.

India batted first and were all out for just 183. It would have been a cakewalk for West Indies. But the Indians had a different plan. They made West Indies all out for 140 and this is it. India won the World Cup. Kapil Dev’s photo holding the trophy in his hand at the Lord’s balcony is fabulous as it reminds us of the start of a new era in Indian cricket.

CONCLUSION

The Indian Side winning the cup inspired a lot of Indians to play cricket including Sachin Tendulkar. The moral that we can take from the 1983 story is that in whatever conditions you live and however the world criticises you; you can bounce back and prove yourself to the world.