This review comes as a tribute to our cricketing heros who have just been slapped by minnows Bangladesh in their opening encounter of ICC World Cup 2007.
While the wound is fresh, let me take the opportunity of reminding everyone of the slaps gratefully received by our men in blue in the past, especially when dealing with minnows.
Slap No 1:WC 1979: Sri Lanka, an associate member of ICC till then played their first ever world cup. They began their journey disasterously against the West Indies. West Indies, in those days boasted of the likes of Gordon Greenidge, des Haynes, Viv Richards, Clive lloyd, Larry Gomes, Jeff Dujon and a battery of Fast bowlers like Marshal, Holding, Roberts, Garner and Collin Croft. They could manage all of 86 runs to give West Indies a walkover. Indians, under Venkat Raghvan came to their succor almost immediately. We presented Sri Lanka an improbable win and helped them build out confidence in themselves, after all we Indians had a track record to prove. India finished last of the 4 teams in their group with Sri Lanka just on top of them.
Slap No 2.(Nearly) WC 1983: I know India won it. But do you remember the match against the minnows then - Zimbabwe? At one point India were bleeding at 17 for 5. Had it not been an heroic knock by Kapil Dev, we would have never been able to create innumerable commercials showing the last ball by Jimmy Amarnath to clinch the Prudential Cup. We nearly gifted the match to Zimbabwe.
Slap No 3.(Nearly) WC 1992: It was Zimbabwe again. Had the rain gods not played from India’s side, our humilation would have been immaculate. Zimbabwe, set 205 to win in 32 overs were 105 for 1 on 19.1 overs. Andy Flower was flowering and Andy waller was standing like a wall. If we were to check with the Duckworth Lewis equation(That did not stand in 1992 exactly as it does today, as my friend Hakoona pointed out in comments), Zimbabwe would have beaten India quite comfortably.
Slap No 4. WC 1999: It was Zimbabwe yet again! and they got it all right this time. We were generous in conceding 59 extras in a match that we lost by 3 runs in the end. Zimbabwe, for once did try to be at the wrong end of history, but their dismay, India beat them in that race without much struggle.
Slap No 5. WC 2003:Now since Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka had become stronger teams, India looked around for another Minnow to challenge them. Our Heros found Holland to be the right kind of team to see them struggling this time. A meagre 204 all out was a great effort, only to be beaten by a normal 136 all out by Holland.
Slap No 6: WC 2007: Our heros would have chosen Bermuda had that been the first encounter. Anyway, Bangladesh, being a benign neighbour was not a bad target on second thoughts. Rahul Dravid won the toss and elected to bat. The comentrators(Including the sweet Mandira) were hopeful of a mountain of runs by the Indians. 8 out of ten batsmen chose to throw their wicket just to defy the fact that the pitch was not so conducive to batting, hence they were dismissed not due to the pitch movement but due to their mistakes. Bangladesh did the needful and ended up bagging 2 points from unexpected corners.
7: Slap No 7: WC 2007? WC 2011? well, lets wait and see.
Our Neighbours, Pakistan, are close competitors in the Slap World Cup, but India is still leading the race. Our men in blue are shining and people across the nation are still expecting them to return with the ICC world Cup 2007.
I have one message to all advertisement companies however: Please stop depicting this game as sacred and Indian Players as Gods. Those who can’t do their job well can not be messengers of any message to the nation.
Waiting for another Slap.