Strange
are the ways of the World – till a few months ago, he was Captain cool, a
phenomenal strategist, man whose moves could never go wrong. He captained India to its second triumph in
Cricket One Day World Cup in April 2011.
People were searching for synonyms to accolades and it was revealed that
the Man who had victories in Cricket WC – ODI; T20 WC in 2007; Indian Premier
League and Champions League could do nothing wrong………… but the wheels of
fortune have changed. After a disastrous
tour in England
where we lost all the matches, came the Australia
tour – where again we lost all the Tests and have been doing poorly in the Tri
Series involving the hosts and Sri
Lanka .
When
the going is tough, there also comes in its stride situations adding to the
disadvantages – some man made ! Whatever
little chances Team India
appeared to have had, vanished in thin air due to the stand of the Umpires –
contradicting and both going against India .
Law
33 is ‘Handling the Ball’ – Australians who contrive to exploit every situation
know this rule too well. This Law
provides that "Either batsman is
out Handled the ball if he wilfully touches the ball while in play with a hand
or hands not holding the bat unless he does so with the consent of the opposing
side." A batsman is not out
'handled the ball' if: (i) He handles the ball in order to avoid injury; OR
(ii) He uses his hand or hands to return the ball to any member of the fielding
side with the consent of that side.
At
Perth in 1979, Pakistani batsman Sikander Bakht
had been Mankaded by Alan Hurst earlier in the same day to end the Pakistan second
innings. Whilst at the non-striker's end, Andrew Hilditch interrupted a throw
from mid-on and passed the ball to the bowler Sarfraz Nawaz, who appealed. He was given Out and as usual Aussie Press
lambasted Pak for violating the spirits of the game conveniently ignoring their
own act. It thus
far remains the only handled the ball dismissal to occur at the non-striker's
end.
Yesterday,
. David Hussey was ruled not-out in an appeal for handling the ball under Law
33 as it was deemed he stuck his hand out to avoid an injury. Sachin Tendulkar
was trying to complete a tight run when he found the bowler Brett Lee in the
way near the striker's end. In going around Lee, he lost on valuable time and was
caught short by a direct hit, but was given out without even consultation. Dhoni felt that Hussey's hand was stuck out
far enough in front of his body to make self-preservation a dubious argument.
As
it would happen, Dhoni had to receive a different yardsticks too. He quoted the incident at Brisbane
on Feb 19, 2012 when Umpire warned Vinay kumar for running up to midwicket for
backing up a throw from point. Today Dhoni clearly felt that Billy Bowden
should not have interfered with Simon Taufel, who anyway would not have had any
hesitation in handing a rude decision.
At
Delhi , in the road to Olympics, Indian women
team’s hopes of qualifying for the London Olympics went up in smoke after
suffering a crushing 1-3 defeat against top-ranked South Africa in the finals of
hockey Olympic qualifiers on 25th Feb 2012. World number 12 South Africa scored through Shelley
Russell (4th minute), Pietie Coetzee (30th) and skipper Marsha Marescia (57th)
to qualify for the London Olympics.
They
remained unbeaten in the tournament and had defeated India 5-2 in the league stage. India earned
their first penalty corner in the 10th minute but Sushila Chanu failed to stop
the ball cleanly to squander the opportunity.
India
could score only a consolation goal in the 56th minute with
Jaspreet Kaur converting a short corner with a powerful sweep. The Indians
tried to create pressure on South
Africa but they failed to penetrate the rival
defence. India
thus had to settle for the silver to continue their 32-year-old jinx of not
qualifying for the Olympics. Indian
women had played in the Olympics in the 1980 Moscow Olympics, the year the game
was introduced, on an invitational basis.
In
the men’s section, mercurial Sandeep’s
Singh’s five goals propelled India
to an impressive 8-1 win over France
in the final of the Olympic Qualifiers in Delhi
and helped his team qualify for London 2012 as well. The
first half was a closely fought affair, with India
banging in the first two goals only to see France come back with a brilliant
field goal. But then India
got another one to go into half-time at 3-1.
Sandeep was unstoppable scoring in the 19th, 26th, 37th, 49th and 51st
minutes. The
other scorers for India
were Birender Lakra, who opened the scoring in the 17th minute, Sunil made it
5-1 in the 43rd and VR Raghunath, with a powerful drag flick, made it 8-1 in
the 56th. The lone goal scorer for France was
Simon Martin, who scored in the 24th minute completely against the run of play.
So
will it be ‘Happy Days are back again’ and would India repeat the feat of 1980 Moscow
Olympics under Vasudevan Bhaskaran – is what all of us hope for !!
With
regards – S. Sampathkumar .
Sandeep is great but let us not euologise mortals and pelt them when they lose. All gthe best to the Indian Team - Suri
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