Win or lose our Cricket players are the best in the world!

The first of the two Test Match series between India and South Africa was played at Nagpur from 6^th Feb. to 9^th Feb. 2010. The match came to an end on the fourth day itself. The final Score-board reads as follows:

South Africa 1^st innings – 558 for 6 declared.

India 1st innings – 233 all out.

India 2nd innings (follow on) - 319 all out.

Immediately after the Match ended the commentators and every national and local TV news channel managed to get hold of some Veteran Cricket player or players to analyze and comment on the Match result. Everyone was kind enough to praise the Indian team, as in the past. Similar approach has been adapted by this morning’s Newspapers. Almost every news media felt sorry that Sachin Tendulkar’s century has been wasted. However everyone appreciated his struggle to make one hundred runs to boost his record of centuries to 46. They were happy for him as he got OUT immediately after scoring precisely 100 runs. What a great loss it would be to the country and Sachin’s record if he got OUT at 99. It would be a national tragedy. After all, records and statistics are more important to Indian Cricket rather than Matches.

All these experts said that we lost the match because of the presence or absence of some senior or junior players. They said the home pitch! the Nagpur pitch! suddenly turned very tricky and tough for batting on the fourth day. These expert opinions are pouring in. All conclusions are that we are a great Team with illustrious players and several records; we lose because of some simple and silly reasons but never because of the rival team’s superior performance. It is a taboo and close to blasphemy to mercilessly criticize our great cricket players who are the best in the world. South Africa’s game deserves no praise, H.M. Amla’s 253 NOT OUT, J.H. Kallis’s 173 and D.W. Steyn’s 10 Wickets haul are insignificant to us. And finally everyone said there is the Second Test Match at Eden Gardens, Kolkata, starting from 14^th February. A Match that starts on Valentine’s Day will surely favor our lovely Team (Sachin will score his 47th and 48th century!) Long live our love for Cricket and the great Cricket players of India.