(E)scape Goat

Defined as a person or group made to bear the blame for others or to suffer in their place, a scape goat is one of their favorite dishes the Indian board always has on its menu. Even though i am a relative newcomer when it comes to following the antics of the so called jokers running cricket in India, I am in no way new to the tamasha. Having seen Indian cricket go through its many rough patches and a few bright spots, one thing was always clear about the players -You better hope your team performs well when you are not. This is the truth about the game. No player or for that matter no performer is at the peak of his performance all the time. There will be times when, the seemingly immortal become mortal, the unbreakable become fragile. that is when the wolves come out howling for blood. When there are enough lions, hungry and strong to cover your weaknesses up, these wolves will stay at bay, patiently waiting for the leftovers after the hunt.

This is the reason i think Rahul Dravid is still playing at his favorite number three spot despite repeated failures. Let me make one thing clear. I am a huge fan of his, both for his performance as well as his personality. He, along with the current crop of seniors, defined what professionalism is and showed one master class after another on what the word exactly meant. But I feel he is lucky enough to be having this bad phase, which every player goes through, when India is on such a high. Whenever India lost a test series during the 90s the selectors always found the scapegoats. That is the reason why VVS Lakshman, the only batsmen who can inspire a feeling of awe from the master ( Once Sachin said " When you are batting with VVS, you should never get carried away. he makes batting looks so easy"), took so long to enchant the whole world with his displays.On the other side of the coin was Ganguly. When he was conquering one territory after the other and taking the Indian team where it never went before, his batting suffered. He averaged in 30s for most part of his captaincy. Apart from a few dazzling bright spots his overall figures looked meak. However, his presence in the team was justified by what he brought to the table. He was fearless and never blinked when stared in the eye. This he was able to do because the rest were able to cover it up. He never fulfilled his true potential till the time came for him to perform one final act, which is considered as one of the greatest goodbye seasons any sport has ever seen.

So how does this work? Take the case of pall bearers. When everyone is full of energy no one feels the pain. If one of them goes down the rest can still afford to keep going. What if most of them go down? That is when trouble starts. You either replace the whole batch, when you have enough people waiting in the wings, or persist with them. In the Indian scenario, it is equally important for the board to run the sport as it is to please a billion followers. So when the situation is bad the hunt for the goat starts and often the player who is supposed to evoke the least resistance is sacked. But today Rahul Dravid is lucky, that he can afford to rest while the rest of the team chugs along with great gusto. I think somehow he deserves it. Given the number of occasions he has shouldered the responsibility, not only can he afford to take such a break, he even deserves a ride in that palanquin. In a world where the meaning of on field performance changed to showing off new dance moves, where gloss replaced gumption and glam replaced game, it is required of someone to hold guard, to preserve the sanctity of the perfect cover drive and the solid defence. I am glad the 'e' which nowadays defines everything that comes from his hometown has stuck together with him in a rough patch to let him be the escaped goat rather than be a scape goat.

Breaking up the Jigsaw

I somehow love the statement "The only thing that is constant in this world is change." This statement means a lot. In world there is always a balance between the good and the bad. So when the balance shifts temporarily to one side or the other this process of change sets in trying to bring the balance back. But these two propositions put together end up in creating a balance that is not the same as before. So everything will balance but we are never at the same point again. we keep moving just like the tight rope walker. He takes a step and balances himself at that point and then moves on. but he never stays at the same point.
One of the major contributors to one's personality is his family. One's upbringing forges the most important feature of a human being which is his attitude. In a world where one can virtually do anything, the differentiating factor that makes him unique is his attitude. Attitude is like a part of human body. It is a reflection of the surroundings you are brought up in. If the food you take defines you physical presence, your thinking and the thought process defines you mental state which in turn defines you attitude. So according to the zeroeth law of thermodynamics, which i am not sure of, when attitude defines life and family defines attitude,it means your family defines your life. So why is the concept of family losing its significance in this world. The answer to this question lies in the first paragraph.
When people assume their life is independent of others they are mistaken. The fact that they are a continuation to another person's existence means that their life is not a piece of a jigsaw puzzle but a hue in a rainbow, unique but integrated. In the hurry of living their own life people tend to forget the importance of family. which effects their attitude and in turn their lives. When human emotions get commodotized that is when change sets in bring back the balance in lives. But just like the tight rope walker, who can take a single step backwards and get back to safety but never does, people tend to walk further into oblivion when they know they can step back into the safety of a family and the security of a society. Just as it becomes difficult in solving a jigsaw when the pieces get smaller, it will get increasingly difficult for the world to be its peaceful self as man gets increasingly alone.

Say Wah! G

The commentator was his usual self praising it to be a tremendous, fantastic, historic and 'whatever adjectives he could remember' win after watching such a victory. I used to think why all these presenters are so effusive in their praise and the answer i got was, they are paid to do that. But there are few moments when you feel the excitement genuine, the stutter honest and the sense of humor spontaneous. Not the oft repeated, rehearsed and really boring lines. One such moment was India's victory in the first test.
All hope was not lost for me when the Indian team ran out of gas when they were 75 runs behind the visitors in the first innings. I don't participate in the fantasy leagues, but i always fantasize scenarios where in the Indian team does tricks which will make David Blaine look like an amateur. So I went on one of these virtual rides hoping Harbhajan and Co will wreck the feeble english batting order and set a target which will see Rahul Draid come back to form and win the test for India, only for messrs Strauss and Collingwood to wake me up with their defiant partnership.
All my life i have been a statistic freak. I try to comfort myself by adding up random statistics until they show a winning probability of the team i support. But 387 in the last 5 sessions on an Indian pitch, that was something which seemed impossible even after running wildly through the amazingly exhilarating cricinfo's statguru. But, If the world is all about inferential statistics what good is left to imagination. Imagination which can only be inspired by genius. Genius which creates a statistic, not go by it. And that Genius was Sehwag. I followed his career right from the time he made his debut and all the statistics meant nothing with him at the crease. Not only statitics greentop, cloudcover, dust bowl, Glen Mcgrath, nothing seemed to matter. It was that genius that steered the ship past the rough seas and let the Master guide it to the shore the way only he can.
Even for a losing cause two centuries in a test, that too in India, is a remarkable feat. Yet I guess no one, not even Andrew Strauss ( the one who scored the two tons), might have felt that someone else deserved the Man of the Match apart from Sehwag. When all this becomes a statistic people will wonder looking at the entry in the Man of the Match column. They will definitely feel sorry for Andrew Strauss, Sachin Tendulkar and Paul Collingwood. What they wont feel is the true wave of emotions everyone felt watching India win it. How they felt that it was all possible just because of one man who did not care what a number crunching maniac like me will feel years later, trying to fathom the numbers involved. All that mattered was a billion happy souls and a million moist eyes.