Hum Jeet gaye...Hum jeet gaye

Immediately after Sreesanth lapped up the now world famous skier, I received an email from vcd "In the immortal words of Ram Singh from Lagaan - Hum jeet gaye! Hum jeet gaye"!!! Its been a day and I still haven't gotten over that sensational bit of news. I, an enternal purist always had my doubts about this format of the game. Taking another cue from Lagaan I thought it was "sadiyal, bhaddha sa khel". Now that India has won, I absolutely have no doubt that it would be humongously popular in India culminating in more tournaments and better packaging which in my opinion will lead to replacing the 50 over game.

Most of the blogs or articles I've read have re-iterated the fact that India have found a new father figure in Dhoni and the togetherness is at a new level etc etc. We've always been a nation who has adored their batsman much more than anything else just like Pakistan is obsessed with their pace bowlers. Dhoni was the first person to point out that this victory was a tribute to some exceptional bowling on our part throughout this tournament. I would like to go a step ahead and point out the influence of Venky Prasad and one of all time favorite ODI cricketers Robin Singh for their influence.

Its no co-incidence that our bowling has improved by leaps and bounds after Venky was brought on board. Zaheer and Arpy consistently troubled the Pommies during our summer tour to England. Arpy and Irfan then carried on the good work into T-20 WC as well which eventually led to our victory. Our fielding was in fantastic shape...a direct hit at a crucial juncture in almost every match was enough evidence on our sharpness on the field and more importantly the key ingredient that we have been missing for a while. I've always felt that a good coach would be the one who has had to struggle and really work hard for moderate success. They could instill the right work ethic into a youngster to help mould his career better. Venky and Robin just about fit the bill...moderately talented but hardworking nonetheless. They deserve a big round of applause along with the adulation for the players.

Somewhere deep down I kinda feel bad for Pakistan as well. They have bowled their heart out...fielded fantastically and led smartly by Shoaib (the move to bring in the spinners as soon Yuvraj walked in was a master stroke). Both India and Pakistan have brought colour back into the game of cricket....much like the way I used to enjoy Holi in the days of yore. That's why I found it appropriate to end the blog with a video of Dhoni and SHoaib celebrating their success (along with Darryl Hair) to the tune of the legendary Bhojpuri song by Shenaz Akthar "Kaptaan bhool ke kaptaani". Enjoy!!! ... And ofcourse....Bharat Maata ki Jai!!!