Captain Cool, In the Line of Fire

It is hard being the captain of a cricket team that represents a nation of 1 billion-plus people and Mahendra Singh Dhoni discovered it the hard way on Sunday when his team lost to England by 3 runs - a loss that proved costly as it booted them out of the Twenty20 World Cup tournament. This team has been fantastic in the last couple of years and they should have won this tournament. Was Dhoni boys were wholesomely tired coming from South Africa to India to England or cripplingly fatigued from the game itself, or was it a tactical Blunder on his part. If I were to be asked as a cricket loving fan I would say it was the later. Right from his decision to bowl first to sending Ravindra Jadeja up the order at number four ahead of Yuvraj Singh, "gambles" taken by Dhoni in what was a do-or-die match all was a recipe for disaster. "Perhaps the team got it all wrong with the batting strategy and the way they played the short ball. I don't think they were prepared for [the short-pitched bowling] at all and it caught them cold. As“Dhoni asserted that it’s “not the end of the road”. Of course, it isn’t, but Team India could well end up on the same path if the many lessons aren’t learnt quickly.

"Cricket never tests your character when you are doing really well. It tests you when you are not doing well.

Is cheerleading culturally offensive?

CHEER GIRLS are hired to whip up excitement and keep up the spirits of the spectators and the match in Twenty20 Indian Premier League (IPL). The game has gone all the more glitzy with ’cheerleaders’ from different countries, cheering for their team, every time a ball is hit beyond boundary line or on a fall of a wicket. However, there is another section of society, which feels that these skimpily clad women degrade the spirit of the game and hence, should be removed. Even Pakistani cricket player, Shahid Afridi, playing for Deccan Chargers, Hyderabad, feels that batsman can lose their concentration, distracted by the cheerleaders. Although there are some predictable criticisms from country's moral police, so far the extent of protest seems remarkably subdued in a tradition-bound nation.

Just as any anything else, cheerleading has quite a history behind it. The history of organized cheerleading started in 1898. The University of Minnesota was having a pitiful football season. Everyone agreed that something had to be done and soon a meeting was called of all University of Minnesota students and faculty before the game with Madison Wisconsin. One of the University's professors presented a brilliant scientific thesis on fan support. He stated that the collective stimuli of several hundred students focused on sending positive energy in the team's direction would help the team win. The game came and went, the cheer didn't work. The team lost. It just didn't roll off of the tongue the right way. Something different had to be done. This is where Jack Campbell, a then first-year medical student, stepped in and he became the first ever cheerleader. Someone needs to lead the yells with organized cheering, he explained. And there needed to be variety so, the next game, Campbell led the crowd in a cheer that marked history. Thus, cheerleading in the United States was born. Cheerleading, believe it or not, was dominated by men in its early years. However, when large numbers of young men went off to fight in World War II, the tables turned. More than 90 percent of cheerleaders were female from that point on. (Fecteau 18)

The introduction of American style cheerleading seems inevitable as cricket is acquiring the same momentum as American football. Sure it was once a game where every cover drive or a leg glance was applauded by the wise men of the game and lesser people from the sidelines. The purists may feel offended that the game is cheered by women who do not know a bat from an umpire, but that is the nature of evolution. It is as much entertainment as it is a sport. As a ardent fan of the game I feel it is better to have a full house for a three - hour game of unbridled excitement rather have - empty stands stands for a five-day test match If cheerleaders can bring in more spectators, cricket will be the better for it. Although it may still offend the sensibilities of some, the changing trend of popular tastes suggests cheerleading is here to stay in India. Of course, like everything else it is bound to be Indianised, which might mean less skin than in the US.

(Ref: http://www.dreamquestsports.us/Cheer-History.htm )

Unanimously Welcomed and Unceremoniously Dropped

Greg Chappell Unanimously chosen from a list which also included Tom Moody, Desmond Haynes and Mohinder Amarnath to be the coach of the Indian team for a contracted period of two years until june 2007.Immediately after his appointment and in his first interview to media he said and I quote: "I have my own coaching philosophy. We're not talking about rocket science - it's a simple game and I want to keep things simple." I think for the man who replied the media when asked how much time he would be giving to the job replied 24 x 7 x 365 days till the 2007 World Cup." Probably he would have understood by now coaching India team and managing the board is not the simplest of things to do. His commitment and professionalism of speaking thing as it is has only ended on a sad and premature exit even before the contractual period gets over. My sympathies for you Greg. Are we to blame him or the administrators of the game (BCCI)? Greg was supposed to be one of the finest batsmen Australia ever produced. But it seemed that coaching was not his forte. After all, he never had the experience of coaching an international team once he had hung his boots as a cricketer. The biggest drawback of his coaching tenure can be attributed to his insatiable hunger for experimentation. It would be better for the Indian board not get into the blame game rather introspect themselves first before the players and take this team ahead by bringing in a new coach who understand the players and the culture in which these cricketers have been brought up. It is a clarion call to the BCCI for retaining cricket as a religion and its supremacy over other sport.