Cricket:India's tour of England 2011

So far on this tour, these four individuals for me have enhanced their reputations from the Indian side of things:

Ganguly - he is a bit dull, but commentary is a relatively new gig for him, I think he'll relax a bit more with time(hell he's already a 100 times better than Wasim Akram, horrible horrible commentator/pundit, get away from my TV screen). But he has been superb with his analysis, and praised where praise was due, and been merciless with his criticisms when the situation arose, all without a hint of bias.

Rahul Dravid - a monster on the pitch and an even bigger man off the pitch. Very well spoken, and his handling of 'Bellgate' was very classy.

MS Dhoni - I still think he is an average keeper, and his batting in tests is terrible, but he has managed to keep his cool, despite what must have been two horrible losses, not helped by his own lack of form. I like that while he has mentioned the injuries, he hasn't really made excuses, or asked the audience to feel for him or India, instead said, if they want to do justice to their tag of No.1 they need to start showing a bit of fight.

Praveen Kumar - You get the feeling watching him, he was never the best, or most sought after at any level of cricket, yet his hunger and desire have made him into what he is today. A very very good cricketer, who never stops trying. It can't be easy bowling without Zaheer Khan, and then Harbhajan Singh, but he has gone about his business without any complaints(well save for the little finger waving at the ump).

For the English:

Stuart Broad - I thought he was going to be a real weakness, and hoped England wouldn't pick him, his batting was out of sorts, and the bowling...well the less said the better. But he is a completely different player, pitching the ball up, bowling fuller and getting the rewards.

Matt Prior - His batting has been key in this series, bats quick, and his keeping has been pretty good too. I remember when I was barely interested in cricket, Alec Stewart keeping for England, and people saying he was a very good batsmen/keeper, well Prior is on track to be even better.

Tim Bresnan - The English Praveen Kumar in terms of bowling? But with a much much better batting game, if he Broad and Swann all find form with the bat at the same time, England will have one of the longest, if not THE longest batting lineups in the world. Huge, huge bonus.
 
The best players so far have been:
1. Broad
2. Prior
3. Pietersen
 
MikeUpNorth said:
Bizarre isn't it? I guess it's symptomatic of the uneasy post-colonial relationship and modern globalisation.

Cricket as a whole is a good case in point for this. It is a British game exported to the Empire which has grown so much in India, to the point of having totally dominated the native culture. I think that's probably why there's so much over-eager defence of Indian cricket and pointless nationalism... it stems from a guilt complex at having abandoned one's traditional culture and past-times to play the game of your former colonial masters. The vitriol is just over-compensating for it. It's a shame really but all part of the westernisation of the world I guess.

If you want to 'stick it to your former imperial masters', go and play kabaddi and embrace traditional Indian culture.
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Shastri's pandering to his audience like Fox presenters do on Fox in the States. I suspect Indians are pretty nationalistic - and recently they've had something to celebrate after years in the cricketing abyss. And I'm not sure a guilt complex has anything to do with it, I reckon it's more to do with dislike of Imperialism and British rule combined with nationalism...that I mentioned a few lines above.
 
MikeUpNorth said:
Cricket as a whole is a good case in point for this. It is a British game exported to the Empire which has grown so much in India, to the point of having totally dominated the native culture. I think that's probably why there's so much over-eager defence of Indian cricket and pointless nationalism...
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Have you heard English fans before, during and after they fail miserably at the football world cups? It's simply passion rather than any nonsensical guilt like you claim.

And sports don't belong to countries. They belong to anyone who decides to play them.
 
amolbhatia100 said:
And sports don't belong to countries. They belong to anyone who decides to play them.
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You don't think something would be lost if everyone in Britain stopped supporting football and took up baseball or something?
 
MikeUpNorth said:
You don't think something would be lost if everyone in Britain stopped supporting football and took up baseball or something?
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They've been playing cricket in India for over century... it's like saying the Spanish have lost something by marginalising bull fighting and taking on an alien sport like football.
 
MikeUpNorth said:
Bizarre isn't it? I guess it's symptomatic of the uneasy post-colonial relationship and modern globalisation.

Cricket as a whole is a good case in point for this. It is a British game exported to the Empire which has grown so much in India, to the point of having totally dominated the native culture. I think that's probably why there's so much over-eager defence of Indian cricket and pointless nationalism... it stems from a guilt complex at having abandoned one's traditional culture and past-times to play the game of your former colonial masters. The vitriol is just over-compensating for it. It's a shame really but all part of the westernisation of the world I guess.

If you want to 'stick it to your former imperial masters', go and play kabaddi and embrace traditional Indian culture.
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Disagree. No guilt complex involved. No one thinks like that. Just that India is a breeding ground for nationalists for whatever reason.
 
Spoony Youngblood said:
Shastri's pandering to his audience like Fox presenters do on Fox in the States. I suspect Indians are pretty nationalistic - and recently they've had something to celebrate after years in the cricketing abyss. And I'm not sure a guilt complex has anything to do with it, I reckon it's more to do with dislike of Imperialism and British rule combined with nationalism...that I mentioned a few lines above.
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I agree on the nationalism front on a level. It drives passion. and it shows its fickle nature at times. But dislike of imperialism and british rule as pure factor is wrong in my opinion.
We have come a long way after being in the just good role to become the face of cricket because of its influence, and I'm not talking just from the financial perspective. It's not that we haven't seen the hegemony of the old cricket boards earlier. We are looking at a new dimension now with the influence of subcontinent cricket and there will be oppositions. Some good and some from a selfish perspective. We can't hold the moral high ground but neither can anyone else.
 
KM said:
Shastri has always been pro- BCCI and listening to him and Gavaskar sometimes feel like you're listening to BCCI Spokepersons. However I don't necessarily disagree with Ravi here, I've been reading the British online newspapers and some english pundits like Atherton and it's very clear that they all are hypocrites.

They had no problem with the dominance of ECB/ACB but suddenly when BCCI has started dominating ICC, there is suddenly an opinion of "one board shouldn't dominate the whole world" and they've started criticizing BCCI on every turn. I think it's very obvious if one organizations generates 80 percent of the revenue, then they'll have monopoly.

I laugh when people here say that ICC should show BCCI their own place, they can't do because 80% of their revenue comes from the Indian Zone.
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I don't think opinion of a few should be used to generalize.. And it's not like the criticism is wrong. ECB/CA might've been the power brokers, but the BCCI are just ruthless money makers. Too many politicians.
 
Spoony Youngblood said:
They've been playing cricket in India for over century... it's like saying the Spanish have lost something by marginalising bull fighting and taking on an alien sport like football.
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Globalisation innit.

Though 'sticking it to your former imperial masters' by adopting their culture and playing cricket is a bit like sticking it to the banks by putting all your savings in them.
 
The Taurean said:
Is that what you call colonialism nowadays! :D
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In this thread we've already talked about how Indians have a fashion for whitening their skin... so what we have is a load of Indians looking white and playing cricket. All they need to do is start drinking tea and eating curry and they may as well be British.
 
Spoony Youngblood said:
Difference is English commentators no matter how biased, manage to control themselves, or at least attempt to appear impartial on TV.
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That's because we're a lot less developed as a country in general and hence are naturally less professional in many senses. It's a process after all. Every developed country was developing at some point.

MikeUpNorth said:
You don't think something would be lost if everyone in Britain stopped supporting football and took up baseball or something?
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Of course it would be a loss. Just like if India stopped playing and supporting cricket. A far bigger impact given most of the money put into the game comes from us. But it doesn't mean cricket belongs to us. As I said, sport doesn't belong to anyone.

Spoony Youngblood said:
They've been playing cricket in India for over century... it's like saying the Spanish have lost something by marginalising bull fighting and taking on an alien sport like football.
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Exactly. Well put.
 
MikeUpNorth said:
In this thread we've already talked about how Indians have a fashion for whitening their skin... so what we have is a load of Indians looking white and playing cricket. All they need to do is start drinking tea and eating curry and they may as well be British.
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Don't flatter yourself. Most countries imitate the Americans not Britain. The way things are going, we'll all be imitating the Chinese soon.
 
I'd like to see it... aren't you an eighth Chinese anyway Spoons?
 
I'd be able to do martial art if I were a tad Chinese. That said, I've just had a chicken chow mein. It was one that I made.

And isn't it time we all actually bothered to learn Mandarin?
 
I can do a good Polish one and all... to be fair all my Eastern European accents tend to sound like Borat.
 
Last time I had to do accents was with Plech for Over the Bar... he made me do the Rubber Chef in an African accent - he refused because he was scared of being seen to be racist.
 
Spoony Youngblood said:
And isn't it time we all actually bothered to learn Mandarin?
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Does anyone actually understand how Chinese writing works though? I'm not convinced even the Chinese understand, one squiggle means a whole sentence. It's something like a hut with a whale on top is the sign for 'a lonely man walks by the river alone under the stars'. I've no idea how they get by with that.
 
Ahh...yes, I remember that. I always thought Rubber Chef was a German-African, but there you go. And talking of OTB...
 
MikeUpNorth said:
Does anyone actually understand how Chinese writing works though? I'm not convinced even the Chinese understand, one squiggle means a whole sentence. It's something like a hut with a whale on top is the sign for 'a lonely man walks by the river alone under the stars'. I've no idea how they get by with that.
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I asked a Chinese mate of mine to write Manchester in the Mandarin/Chinese script... and he couldn't. I can't find the right shapes, he said. Or something. Korean script looks best of the lot, IMVHO.
 
Spoony Youngblood said:
Ahh...yes, I remember that. I always thought Rubber Chef was a German-African, but there you go. And talking of OTB...
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I was talking with Pete the other day because me and Mockney thought he looked like Alan Rickman (he doesn't).
 
MikeUpNorth said:
In this thread we've already talked about how Indians have a fashion for whitening their skin... so what we have is a load of Indians looking white and playing cricket. All they need to do is start drinking tea and eating curry and they may as well be British.
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For your information Indians were obsessed with white skin before the british arrived. Its a traditional thing thousands of years old.

Pale/white skin = elite who didn't work in the fields
rest = lower cast

Its got nothing to do with the british...dont rate yourselves too high.
 
MikeUpNorth said:
Bizarre isn't it? I guess it's symptomatic of the uneasy post-colonial relationship and modern globalisation.

Cricket as a whole is a good case in point for this. It is a British game exported to the Empire which has grown so much in India, to the point of having totally dominated the native culture. I think that's probably why there's so much over-eager defence of Indian cricket and pointless nationalism... it stems from a guilt complex at having abandoned one's traditional culture and past-times to play the game of your former colonial masters. The vitriol is just over-compensating for it. It's a shame really but all part of the westernisation of the world I guess.

If you want to 'stick it to your former imperial masters', go and play kabaddi and embrace traditional Indian culture.
Click to expand...

:wenger: Indian culture assimilates aspects from other cultures and moves on.
 
amolbhatia100 said:
Don't flatter yourself. Most countries imitate the Americans not Britain. The way things are going, we'll all be imitating the Chinese soon.
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No we wont.

Just because we have a free media that likes to blast the inept govt doesn't mean china is far far ahead. They have problems of there own. From a military point of view they have higher numbers but we've got better quality and there economy is totally dependent on exporting to usa whilst ours is not. Infact if usa defaults they'll go down like the rest of the world while we'll be the least affected because of our infamous black money which is triple our gdp.
 
VidaRed said:
No we wont.

Just because we have a free media that likes to blast the inept govt doesn't mean china is far far ahead. They have problems of there own. From a military point of view they have higher numbers but we've got better quality and there economy is totally dependent on exporting to usa whilst ours is not. Infact if usa defaults they'll go down like the rest of the world while we'll be the least affected because of our infamous black money which is triple our gdp.
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I was just kidding!
 
Spoony Youngblood said:
I reckon Pete, Mockney, yourself and I should start a revolutionists' party. We'd be top.

And let's get back to winding up the locals. They love it really.
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How can we wind them up now though? What can we say that is more cutting than the pathetic performance of their team? I think they realise now there's some merit to what we've been telling them.
 
MikeUpNorth said:
How can we wind them up now though? What can we say that is more cutting than the pathetic performance of their team? I think they realise now there's some merit to what we've been telling them.
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Frankly, Mr UpNorth, Windies would've put up a better fight. How did they achieve their number one status? 12 wins against Bangladesh or something?
 
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