various rambling thoughts: Fallen mighties and ash-risen Phoenix

In the Sporting universe, yesterday was a day of extremes in a nation usually given to mono-sports mania.

Its funny how sometimes, events in a day seems so full of meaning...almost as if the gods are making an emphatic point, almost to the point of a thrusting a finger on our forehead...

Cricket in India has been in decline for some time, a decline it brought upon itself by being so popular. Which is why it attracted obscene amount of money,which like a Newtonian law attracts the wrong kind of gentlemen to this gentleman's game. So you had Sharad Pawar, who is politely called a land mafia in Pune, becoming the head of BCCI. So what did Sharad Pawar bring to the table, one may ask, to warrant being the head of the cricketing association? Nobody knows...nobody asks too openly either...

But the last few months have been downright horrible for the cricket fan in the country. Getting whitewashed in series after series is one thing, being casual about it is criminal. And the much vaunted cricket team seems to be leaning heavily towards being criminal. When the captain says that he rather not play Test and concentrate on ODI and T20, you know that the ephemeral thing called "Pride for playing for country" has been hopelessly compromised. When players refuse to play India games citing injuries but come hobbling for T20 matches, you know that they are playing a scam on you.

Things reached a nadir yesterday. After the Test humiliation, The Indian team had proclaimed "Wait for the ODI...watch us play then". Well, we watched them play...and we watched them surrender. And then we saw them complaining like school children about umpiring decisions. Riddled with internal strife, the team is imploding. And sadly, we are seeing the cancer right there on the most gifted cricketer India has produced - Sachin Tendulkar. His walk back to the pavilion yesterday, head down, oblivious to the standing ovation, in what maybe his last match on the ground, was a sad sad spectacle. Almost as if he was ashamed of the whole damn business...

A complete contrast was to be seen at the National Stadium or Major Dhyan Chand Stadium. Under floodlights, the Indian hockey team exorcized the ghosts past - especially the humiliation of not qualifying for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Cheered on by a 15000 crowd, many of whom came to watch Hockey for the first time, the Indian Team trounced France 8-1!!!. The crowd bellowed lustily each team the team went forward, went wild each time the ball found the net. And the Hockey Team played completely outside themselves. Used to playing in front of empty stands, finding themselves in front of full throated crowd waving tricolours must have supercharged the adrenaline....Giving the best performance of the qualifier, France was made to look mediocre!! I know - I was there!!!

It takes guts and balls of steel to get here. Just a couple of months ago, the Hockey team was humiliated when a sum of Rs 25,000 was 'awarded' after they won the Asian Championships. This was about the same time that IPL auctions were buying single players for crores.

Hockey goes to the Olympics - to try and get glory for India after 1980 (the last time they won Gold)

Cricket comes back home - eager to earn money playing in the private teams of rich men and women.

The contrast could not have been starker...

And all in a day's work!!

And you could see in the faces of the people leaving the National Stadium yesterday - They have started giving their heart to Hockey....I count myself among them...