20/20 WC matches - is this The End of Aussie dominance?

The last 2 India matches, vs Aus and Pak, were very exciting. I saw our team play good cricket after a long time. Somehow, when we win everything seems to fall into place - the captaincy, batting, bowling AND team spirit. But when we lose the team's best efforts are not really appreciated. As Sachin T said in his interview (after India won the cup), that people need to have well-rounded thoughts/expectations as well and I think he is right. But did he really mean that we should not have any expectations from the senior/experienced players? Mmmm. Thats definitely something to think about, I guess.

Anyway, I enjoyed the semi-final match against Aus very much. It was amazing to see some brilliant captaincy by Dhoni. And Sreesanth was criticized, by the Aussie media, for his behavior on the field. You know he dances around the person he dismisses (and oh, he is a national champion in break dancing..). Here is a sample of his dance after he hits a six:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3454538612898135067

Sometimes he does get over the top, but this time it was not unprofessional, just aggressive. We have seen enough Pak, Aus players misbehaving on the field (directly towards us), and I believe we (kind of) need that attitude too. Of course, as long as its not unprofessional...The Aussie media also said that "Indians celebrated their win as if they had won the WC". Well, now....it WAS a big win. Were Aussies just feeling bad that they were losing their dominance?

The Pak match was equally thrilling. But I do think that if Misbah had not played the, as my husband puts it, mistimed 'irresponsible' shot, we would have lost. I seriously think we should not make India-Pak matches such a big deal anymore. I think we, the aam junta, should rise above all this and treat India-Pak like any other match. I mean why create the unnecessary tension?

During the analysis of this series on Aaj Tak, Kapil D mentioned that Sachin, Saurav, Laxman, Dravid have all given sooo much to Indian cricket but they couldn't be a part of this joyous occasion. In that regard, I feel that Sehwag and Harbhajan are very lucky. They both have been playing for a long time too but they did get the chance to be part of these winning matches.

The whole day Aaj Tak was airing cricket, cricket, cricket. And no other news! They didn't even mention President Ahmadinejad's visit to the U.S and how he was insulted in Columbia University. That would have been a BIG news, I would think!

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/offbeat/2007/09/25/moos.insulting.iran.cnn

[Remember what Sayed Naqvi said (in one of my earlier posts) about perspective? We get so focused on one thing, one news, that we forget about whats going on in the world. We have to always keep the BIG PICTURE in front of us, and not isolate ourselves so much. No matter what.]

Oh well, the thing thats ridiculous is the amount of money BCCI is showering on this team now. I mean $3 million to the team, a flat for each player, and then some Lakhs of Rs to some individual players. Wow - thats going a little bit overboard, don't you think?

The first thing they need to do is get hold of the costume designer for the team's uniform. I mean who can see the name, number, anything at all, thats light yellow on a light blue jersey? Thats poor design sense. They need to either outline the yellow with black/dark blue or write the letters in dark blue. Look at every other team's shirts - they all have great color combinations! Please, please, jago guys you need that change very badly.

And Dhoni needs to stop saying, "the boys". He needs to be "we, we, we..." all the way.

Overall, Dravid stepping down was a good change. It is an important lesson not just in cricket but also in real life. There should always be changes in life - big or small, you never know they may bring just the kind of luck THIS one brought to our team :).