Push becomes a shove: Nice Guys finish last!

The hope of a miracle on Sunday the 27th October at the CCI ground was steamrolled by a highly efficient if somewhat mechanical Australian team. As if to mock us, the Aussies bundled out the Windies easily in the final to lift the Champions Trophy for the 1st time.

I expected the complete capitulation of our team to be the topic of intense scrutiny and the usual mud-slinging that follows every time we play pathetic cricket. (Something which happens far too often) Sadly as has become the norm rather than the exception; off the field events tend to overshadow the more important ones that take place on the 22 yards.
One such thing which caught my attention was the one labeled “Push becomes a shove” by the media. For once, I was actually watching the incident in question. It was pretty straight-forward really. Aussies wanted to get their hands on probably the only trophy that had eluded them thus far. In the excitement, the captain gestured to Mr. Pawar to hand them the trophy and once that was done, Michael Clarke promptly nudged the chief guest off the dais so that the Aussie team could have it all for themselves. Meanwhile Mr. Pawar quietly walked away and the Aussies basked in the glory of another annihilation of its rivals.

This incident initially went unnoticed, but was brought into limelight when Sachin Tendulkar called it unfortunate. Since then everyone seemed to asking for an apology from the Aussies.

Whether or not the apology comes through or not, the incident highlighted the basic difference between the Aussies and our team and why Aussies are world beaters.

It really boils down to the way we are brought up as kids. I and I think most of you can remember being told by our parents to be a good person. We were all fed only one philosophy while we grew up… it goes something like this
“It is nice to be important but it is more important to be nice”

In a quest to become a good person, we end up being trodden over. Look at our current breed of cricketers-barring a few, all of them look like scholars rather than cricketers in the first place. In a game when you can’t afford to give an inch, the Indians look like a group of children when playing against the Aussies. I distinctly remember Javagal Srinath apologizing to Ricky Ponting when a bouncer hit the latter. What Srinath got in return was a mouthful of abuses… all for showing his good intentions. Cricketing history is replete with incidents of Indians being too nice on the field to their opponents…. A famous incident of providing a batsman of the opposing team with a runner when the same could have been refused comes to my mind immediately. The batsman went onto score a record against us.

The point is in today’s world of sports, it doesn’t pay to be nice. I have a small advice for the Indian team-“Play the game, but don’t ever think it’s just a game”

Here’s wishing the men in blue lots of luck and oodles of aggression.