Towards Tolerance: A literary Peak into the Past

Intolerance is not a new issue in our country.The Illutrated weekly of India, once had an article by Arun Shourie(?), in which he categorised hate and jealousy as national pastime.I hope he has not taken to it.The following poem shows how troubled a legacy we have had.

The Ambiguous Fate of Gieve Patel, He Being Neither Muslim Nor Hindu in India

"To be no part of this hate is deprivation.
Never could I claim a circumcised butcher
Mangled a child out of my arms, never rave
At the milk-bibing, grass-guzzing hypocrite
Who pulled off my mother's voluminous
Robes and sliced away at her dugs.
Planets focus their fires
Into a worm of destruction
Edging along the continent. Bodies
Turn ashen and shrivel. I
Only burn my tail"-Gieve Patel

A Lopsided Closely Contested Series

A Test Match result is best understood as a part of the series result.The recent Ashes had at least four one sided result and one test match was won by England with a significant margin.However, the series result at 3-2 made for a closely contested series in that the series went to the last test match to decide the winner.In most other sport a close contest is within the period of the match, say 60-70 minutes in Hockey or 90 minutes in football.A one way win makes the match boring except for the devoted partisan supporters.In cricket, the series provides a greater  context and there are test points and records which keep even the neutral fans interested. A tennis five setter, is the nearest parallel, at least in the cricket following world.At times, players conserve energy in sets they know that can't be retrieved to bounce back in the next set.A five setter between Roscoe Tanner and Borg in 1979 Wimbledon finals was close and interesting, even though a few sets were not so closely fought.

The context adds to the rivalry in cricket and Tennis and even one sided contests can be enjoyed, over an evening in tennis or a wole month and a half in cricket.

Different Captains across formats

Over the past several years, we have seen a test match captain handing over reign during ODIs.It started with Taylor and Waugh,continued with Waugh and Ponting and has almost been institutionalised in Australia.Several other teams have followed it even when the ODI captain remains in the Test side.However from Jason Holder to AB Devilliers,their aim remains to become even greater Test performers and in Holder's case lead the Test side.The entire mindset seems that you graduate to Tests and settle down there.Except in India.While even the West Indies have a plan for Tests, the BCCI has no concern that their team,often ours as well, do not figure in Test cricket's elite.Even home performances against top teams need to show consistency.Under such circumstances,we have a Test in Bangladesh in what is definitely not cricket weather.It would have done us good to organise a Test with Bangladesh in Dharmashala and play a five ODI series in Fatullah and Mirpur.

Gavaskar&Vishwanath, Tendulkar & Dravid, Who next?

Taking a look at overseas performance of India since1932, two distinct pattern seems to emerge.One between 1971-1982 and one between 1996-2008.During this period while India managed to do well in India, it was competitive abroad winning series in England, West Indies and Pakistan, often for the first time.Both these phases saw India having two very  good batsmen, Gavaskar and Vishwanath in the first phase and Tendulkar and Dravid in the second.There was a decent support cast and good bowlers but the bulwark of two competent world class batsmen kept the team afloat.the decline of the second pair and now lacking any pair with similar capabilities, India finds itself in a situation where overseas visits often end with defeats and inconsistent performance.

There have been away series with bowlers led by Kapil Dev helping India make winning forays, home and away.There have been batsmen like Amarnath, Vengsarkar,Azharuddin and Sehwag who have shone and in Sehwag's case dazzled but the confidence the two pairs brought were unmatched.The present has Kohli, definitely the best ODI batsman today but who else?

India's World Cup

The World Cup presents the Indian Cricket team with an opportunity to outshine the rest in a few weeks and drown out there tales of woes of the past year and "Turn(ing) all (your) sad sounds around

 When you sing “Hey, nonny nonny” instead." That is what they have been doing for the last two Sundays.India have it in them to defend their title, their recent form notwithstanding.The indian cricket team winning abroad in 2015 will not solve long time problems but give ideas to the ICC. what about a world Cup in the West indies with all of India's matches in the USA.What kind of crowd can you expect?And a sustained six weeks of cricket could change the scene in the USA where weather in large parts are conducive to cricket.