I had been a fluctuating fan of Saurav Ganguly till the curve went -ve a few years back. Then came a rustic man with long dry hairs. Since then, my graph of fannature is as straight as that of a dead man's heart beat. Lately, the ECG instrument has only tilted up - the graph is now straight and rising, no ups and downs!
I am talking about the cricket captains that India and I have witnessed and I am completely biased towards MS. He is a visionary, a strategist and an executor. While others plant trees, he plants seeds; which is correct both linguistically and symbolically!
In tense situations Azhar chewed, Sachin screwed and Dada threw. MS likes it tense, that's his comfort zone. Many cynics say he is lucky. And then when Harbhajan pulls for a six at third man, they say that luck favors the brave.
I saw him in action a few days back. I was fortunate to get a seat at the IPL Final. It was Mumbai Indians vs Chennai Super Kings and Sachin vs MS. MI was down and Pollard came to the rescue. He hit some sixes.
The man has got strings inside his gloves. The other 10 on the field are wire-lessly controlled by each of his 10 fingers. MS moved Hayden to mid-off. Haydos smiled and said hello to his confused team mate at long off. MS laid the trap, Haydos took the catch & Pollard was off to Caribbean. This was a first of its kind, marvelously rare tactic.
At the presentation ceremony, Ravi Shastri was dying to discuss this move with MS. MS responds: "No rocket science, the big hitters of the world don't play sweep or reverse sweep shots! .. why waste fielders at those positions. I had tried this on Hayden himself at some of the practice matches and it works"
Now just observe this:
At the closing ceremony, Sachin said nice things about the crowd & MI's performance in IPL-3, specially mentioned about Pollard & Tiwary and congratulated CSK for their deserving win.
MS said nice things about the crowd & CSK's performance in IPL-3, specially mentioned about Raina and Ashwin and congratulated Sachin for his performance. Then he talked about the upcoming T20 World Cup. He said that the IPL is getting bigger and bigger and that the office bearers have to raise the benchmarks every consecutive year. Finally, he mentioned that the CSK team will change in the next IPL auction so he will miss being with the same team ..
.. BIG picture, always - Mahendra Singh Dhoni, for you!
In tense situations Azhar chewed, Sachin screwed and Dada threw. MS likes it tense, that's his comfort zone. Many cynics say he is lucky. And then when Harbhajan pulls for a six at third man, they say that luck favors the brave.
I saw him in action a few days back. I was fortunate to get a seat at the IPL Final. It was Mumbai Indians vs Chennai Super Kings and Sachin vs MS. MI was down and Pollard came to the rescue. He hit some sixes.
The man has got strings inside his gloves. The other 10 on the field are wire-lessly controlled by each of his 10 fingers. MS moved Hayden to mid-off. Haydos smiled and said hello to his confused team mate at long off. MS laid the trap, Haydos took the catch & Pollard was off to Caribbean. This was a first of its kind, marvelously rare tactic.
At the presentation ceremony, Ravi Shastri was dying to discuss this move with MS. MS responds: "No rocket science, the big hitters of the world don't play sweep or reverse sweep shots! .. why waste fielders at those positions. I had tried this on Hayden himself at some of the practice matches and it works"
Now just observe this:
At the closing ceremony, Sachin said nice things about the crowd & MI's performance in IPL-3, specially mentioned about Pollard & Tiwary and congratulated CSK for their deserving win.
MS said nice things about the crowd & CSK's performance in IPL-3, specially mentioned about Raina and Ashwin and congratulated Sachin for his performance. Then he talked about the upcoming T20 World Cup. He said that the IPL is getting bigger and bigger and that the office bearers have to raise the benchmarks every consecutive year. Finally, he mentioned that the CSK team will change in the next IPL auction so he will miss being with the same team ..
.. BIG picture, always - Mahendra Singh Dhoni, for you!
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