Skip to main content

Editor's Take: Pressures of the hot seat

By
The post of captaincy in the cricket team is referred to as the hot seat. And rightly so. If the position was rejected by The Great Little Master, there must be something un-wanted about it yes? Sachin Tendulkar did not think it was worth it.
So let’s take a quick look at the hot seat. And how India as a cricket fanatic nation thinks of it.
We have had quite a few successful Indian Captains. Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi. Kapil Dev. And the really really popular ones as well. Mohammad Azharuddin. Sourav Ganguly. Mahendra Singh Dhoni. ( I am not adding Virat Kohli here for now because he is one of the key points of this blog). It’s not like they had a walk-in-the-park type feeling while donning the captain’s cap. They have had their share of pure hell.
And now to Kohli. Remember the time when he didn’t perform well and had trouble connecting the ball with the bat. It is one thing to call him on it and ask him to pull up his socks. It is completely another to start throwing stones at his mate and accusing Anushka Sharma because Kohli did not bring his runs to the board.
There is a fan. There is fanaticism. And then there is pure insane behaviour. Where do you draw the line? Even Tendulkar has been slammed left, right and center. The God of Indian Cricket. Him. He has been accused of being selfish. Seriously. This happened. As it is, when the man walked in, he had the weight of the entire nation on his shoulder. It really is not easy being Sachin Tendulkar. He thought that was enough. Captain of the Indian Cricket Team did not entice him at all. And boy, was he right or what from his perspective.
If India is such a cricket crazy nation, why are we not expecting so much from the women’s team as much as the men? They have done pretty well so far. They have reached the finals of the tournament before. Now, they have won the first match of the world Cup 2017. What are we trying to say?
The silver lining of this could be that Mithali Raj and her Girls are escaping this insanity. I am sure they are under pressure going into the world cup and all. But I don’t think they will fear stones being thrown on their houses if they do not do well. Which, by the way, has happened to some of the men in blue. The men we worshiped, we have abused to no end as well.
Virat Kohli and boys did extremely well in the ICC Champions Trophy 2017. Yes, they lost the finals. Yes, to Pakistan. Yes, a couple of bad calls were made. But asking him to step down? Is that the solution?
His spat with Kumble is also breaking the internet. And Kohli is blamed for it. Well, to be honest, I don’t know the entire story myself. And we have known Kumble for what can be described as an era. What could have really gone wrong? Unless they both come out together and talk, I personally think we should stop attacking Kohli. Especially after this tournament. Especially since he is in the middle of another tournament. And most importantly, because Kohli is a human being with feelings.

Your thoughts please  

Indu 

Comments

  1. andrcdnJune 27, 2017 at 10:59 PM

    Good article. Can't comment on what happened without knowing the inside scoop. And we will never know. But as an individual, I am more a fan of Kumble than Kohli. Probably he did not want Kumble to call the shots as much as Kumble did.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Fan Data Analytics: Key to drive sports company growth

By Anonymous
Over the last several years, the buzz word in business and IT circles has been "big-data" and analytics. Many many articles and write-ups talk about them so I won't go into the details. You could get enough to last a lifetime with just the first few results of a Google search of these terms. But do you really know how it applies, specifically to a sports company? For long, sports franchises have been one of the biggest users of analytics. Before this was a buzz word, coaches and managers have relied up numbers and finding patterns in them to drive on-field performance. Indeed, the major leagues of the world have relied on performance analytics for everything from scouting for talent to calling the action on the field of play. But that never transcended to the off-field, more mundane but equally important task of managing the sports business. As more and more options come up vying for the fan's attention - live events, travel, other sports, TV, the Internet - the
3 comments
Read more

Need for co-ed sports

By
Now, this is hardly a feminist piece. I am not here to tell you that women can do anything that men can and better too. One, you know it too. Two, this is hardly about women. I am not here to praise women and demand better rights. I am talking about the possibility that the entire field of sports can take a whole new meaning if gender is not made the criterion. So this is how the idea for the blog started. The Women’s Indian Cricket Team performed really well at the world cup this year. Mithali Raj praised her team for their hard work, persistence, and passion for the game. She also added that there should be an IPL tournament in the country for the women’s team now. Raj believes that the team’s fantastic game has increased the fan following for the women’s team as well and that they have earned their place here. While I am honestly not sure about an IPL tournament for women, it did get me thinking. Why not mixed sports? Now that girls play almost all the games that the guys do, w
3 comments
Read more

Royal Challengers Bangalore - IPL 2014 team analysis

By Anonymous
Here is a look at the RCB team for the 2014 IPL edition - and my take on it.         Chris Gayle, Virat Kohli, AB DeVilliers, Yuvraj Singh, Nic Maddinson, Vijay Zol are the batsmen in the team         Mitchell Starc, Varun Aaron, Ashok Dinda, Muthiah Muralidharan, Ravi Rampaul,  Harshal Patel,  Abu Nechim,  Shahab Jakati,  Sandeep Warrior, Yuzvendra Chahal are the bowlers         Albie Morkel, Sachin Rana, Tanmay Mishra are the allrounders         Parthiv Patel and Yogesh Takawale are the wicket keepers The strategy behind this team selection was very confusion at first.   But on careful analysis, I believe this might turn out to be one of the stronger teams in this year’s IPL. The team has a tremendous batting line up with Gayle, AB, Virat and Yuvaraj.   Throw in the big hitting Albie Morkel – this team will post huge scores, especially in good batting conditions – and win many matches just on the back of batting.   In the bowling department, the team seems to have
2 comments
Read more