'Men in Blue' are back in business. We have a new young captain, the members are standing up to the occasion and the young guns are staking a claim to oust seniors from the regular team ( but with the great BCCI selection panel will never happen :)). The entire country is back to its usual routine, rooting for the team at a world cup even though it is a new and much shorter version of the game they are just getting familiar with - T 20 .

T 20 is designed for the spectators, no longer do they have to endure slow painstaking batting. There is complete entertainment for the 3 odd hours it goes on.Teams are no longer in the pavillion, it is the dug-out instead. You move from your seat and the game has turned on its head. There is no changing of channels between advertisements. Everyone seems to be in a hurry to finish it off. But, where has the beauty of the game gone ? Where have the coaching manuals gone ? Technique,timing, placement- where have all these terms disappeared ? You can enjoy the game, but you cannot avoid the ironies of it. Most of the nerve wracking situations in the games in the past 2 weeks have been resolved in the weirdest fashions - edges flying to third man, free hits and what not. Despite the belief that orthodox techniqe would fail at this level of the game, it has turned out to be pretty much the opposite. Such batsmen have been the best to watch. A pity that the trinity from India preferred to sit out, the form all three of them were in England, it might have been a greart sight to watch them score through sheer brilliance .Exquisite shots have been played, runs have been scored all in the proper cricketing fashion( only six of "those maginificent 36 runs" was a mishit ). But the young blood does prefer to take the risk element and score runs in their own fashion- the ugly unsure way ( Gautam Gambhir in the indian team for one, all his edges have landed in no mans land so far ). The bowlers though have been the surprise of the tournament, expected to be made mince meat of, but have come out on the top on many occasions. Most bowlers have adapted well to the format, the have realised that they will be smacked for runs, but the ugly hitting is bound to fail at some time. Stuart Clark,Mornie Morkel and our own R P Singh being examples. It is a great venture , but should not be the future of the game for it destroys it beauty.


At my hostel, a room with one TV whose channels change on its own and volume cannot be adjusted is the place to be during the games. Despite having tests, showing the regular BITsian attitue we have all been there standing to applaud the indian team in it's victories, to appreciate the fighting spirit of the team. We have won from improbable situtaions. But there is a topic that crops up whenever the team starts performing within the audience - Match Fixing. There are wickets tumbling for South Africa chasing a small total and the consent was that this could be the result of nothing but match fixing. How else could the Indian team make the mighty africans eat dust ?

Everyone seemed to agree , then why the watch the match in the first place !! If you think that the match is fixed and there has been external speculation that lead to the result how can you enjoy the sport ? In any game, the result should be and is farily decided on the ground. In case you do not believe such things happen, do not follow the game is my suggestion.It is my belief that every sportsman gives his all when on the field and lets nothing external influence him . The result is a mystery to the true supporter till the game is over. Celebrating their teams hard earned victory at the end of the game is what a true supporter hopes for while the duration of the match not a victory earned through the back door . Such a sight is what can be seen in our common rooms at the end of every game. Despite all the doubts of match fixing, not a guy moves from his seat till the last ball has been bowled and victory assured. That is the essence of sport and what a supporter/follower/fan celebrates everyday.


P.S:
Of course, attempts to taunt the opponent and induce a change in the course of the game are plenty - Flintoff pulling one on Yuvraj and the reply will haunt Stuart Broad for his lifetime, sadly in another game what Materazzi did and Zizou's response wil also haunt a lot of lives .