How We Wished You Were Here

Dravid takes the long handle during an ODI in and against England

Just at a time when all Cricket experts thought that Rahul Dravid's ODI career was almost coming to an end,the National Selectors made a sheet of 30 probables for the Champions Trophy to be held in the Rainbow Nation.

The last name you would think would be there was right there."RAHUL SHARAD DRAVID".

One of the three most revolutionary names in Indian Cricket.

Dravid is a cricketer who has gained great amonut of respect where ever he has gone or whom so ever he has met.Dravid last played an ODI match in 2007 aginst Australia at home.But due to his bad run was left out after that without even being given an oppurtunity after that.

But I think after seeing the horrible batting display by th Indian middle order batsmen,the Selectors must have thought of bringing some experience to steady the ship.

Rahul Dravid according to me unquestionably deserves a place in that ODI playing XI.He is one of the very few Batsmen in that elite group of players with 10,000 runs or more(P.S. Dravid acheived the 10,00 run mark in ODIs before acheiving in longest format of the game).He is a man who has always faced challenges and loves doing so. At a time when India had no quality Wicket-Keeper- Batsman and players like Alec Stewart, Adam Gilchrist and Mark Boucher were ruling the scenes,Rahul Dravid volunteered in keeping wickets for India, an art he had never done before and he did not know the head to toe of.But Dravid being the man he is fought against all odds and emerged succesfull in keeping wickets until Parthiv Patel found himself a place in the side.

The Champions Trophy being on bouncy South African pitches, and Dravid by far the best player of the short ball in India.His advice to the youngsters will be invaluable.And plus Dravid had an outstanding IPL which just recently concluded in South Africa.

I would like to share a small anecdote about Dravid which very few people know about.Rahul Dravid in his early part of his career was named as a "slow player" and not fit to play one day cricket. To shut all his critics up and prove himself in the one day arena, Dravid being an international cricketer came and played local club leagues for local clubs and worked on his game after which he came back confident, bigger and much better.

'SACHIN RAMESH TENDULKAR-Truly the greatest'

Since Sachin Tendulkar scored his maiden hundered at Old Trafford in and England at the age of seventeen there have been many questions about who is the greatest batsman off all time-

SIR DON BRADMAN or SACHIN RAMESH TENDULKAR?

Well, according to me Sachin Tendulkar is the greatest of all time by far!

One of the most basic reasonto justify the above statement is that Tendulkar has played all three forms of cricket and had to adjust his batting style in every form ,whereas Sir Don Bradman has just played test cricket.

During Bradman's era quality bowling attacks mostly came from three teams only England ,Australia and West Indies and must have hardly faced a quality sub-continental attack.Whereas Tendulkar has played against bowling attacks coming right from Australia till Bermuda.

Sachin Tendulkar had to bear the brunt of playing international cricketat mere age of 16,
against his country's arch rivals Pakistan. In that series too in the last test match he scored a fifty to save a test match.

He has being playing international cricket for almost 20 years. And in such a long time has hardly been dropped from the national side, now that shows his consistency.

Another and the most important reason according to me why he is the greatest is because he has faced bowling attacks consisting of ferocious bowlers like the Hadlees, the Waquars,the Wasims, the Lees and the McGraths. Not only fast bowlers but he has handeled spinners like Saqlain Mushtaq, Shane Warne. Murali and last but never the least Ajntha Mendis.

Whereas, from all the videos i have being seen I dont find those bowlers as ferocious as Waquar or as sly Murali.

Just to show you how long Tendulkar has been around in international cricket, if you see almost 90% of his national coaches have either been his teammates or his opponents once upon a time. And a few of his coaches he has captained too!

Well at the end of all this I would just like to say what Sharda Ugra, a renowned cricket journalist said on a show when asked about the above topic. She said in reply that when Sachin scored that century in Old Trafford a very old journalist in the press box said that"Ladies and Gentlemen we are seeing the greatest batsman of all time,and unlike all of you all I have seen Bradman bat!"

Thats the way 'MAHI-VE'

Will the young Indian team prevail in testing New Zeland conditions?
Will the inexperienced team do what has never been done before?

Well, Dhoni’s men have silenced all these questions yet again. Although we got off to a bad start after the two horrible Twenty-twenty matches ,Dhoni’s positive mindset, calm appearance and great attitude towards the game he loves the most, inspired the young Indian brigade not to hang their shoulders down but to come back next game with better battle plans.

Dhoni in almost every pre- match press conference mentions that “the past is gone we cant change it . We will have to start from SCRATCH all over again”.that shows the sign of a positive captain.

From my point of view the best he has done to the team is that he has made everyone enjoy each others success. For example.
In the recently concluded India-England one day series, Sachin Tendulkar was going to return to the team mid-series after recovering from injury. Now somebody had to make way for the little master. Sehwag and Gambhir were in splendid form at the top.Yuvraj was on a roll after back to back centuries in the first two ODIs.Yusuf Pathan who was new to the team then , was doing a pretty good job lower down the order with the tail. The only two batsmen left were Rohit Sharma and Suresh Raina. Both were struggling to hit the right note against the pacy English attack. In the ODI before Sachin was to return Suresh Raina was on strike batting on 49*.Rohit Sharma had just entered the crease. The game was in India’s hands with a mere 10 to 15 runs to win ,with more than five overs to spare. Suresh Raina faced the next delivery. He got an edge to it and it went down to fine leg for a boundary. Raina was on top of the world because in such difficult times he finally got himself a hard earned fifty. Rohit Sharma very well knowing that this fifty of Raina will surely not assure a place in the side for the next game. He went running to Raina and gave him a big hug . And “ENJOYED HIS SUCCESS……..”

Another great quality in Dhoni is that he will never take the credit for any thing after winning the game.If you see in most of the team pictures taken after the 20-20 final,with a board saying 'CHAMPIONS' in front of the team. Suprisingly Dhoni is not in the frame at all, instead we see Robin Uthappa is holding the world cup high.