Team Dhoni has finally arrived!

  Well, it was epic! Just epic! This Indian team has just kept on going from strength to strength in the ICC Champions trophy 2013 in England. When the tournament started I don't think India were downright favorites to win it. But, the character, discipline, determination, <insert cool sounding nouns>, etc which they have shown has been truly remarkable.
  It wasn't that long ago, when India lost those 8 test matches in England and Australia and also lost the test series to England back home. It was a serious throbbing and it didn't take long for such memes to get popularity..
 

But now it's like...

  This victory has certainly proved everyone wrong. The Kohlis, the Dhawans, the Ashwins, etc all made their debuts under Dhoni. It was under him, when their careers blossomed. It was under his roof when they sought shelter when things got bad. It was his confidence in those individual players which made them realize their roles in the team. Gone are the days of the Sehwags, the Yuvrajs and the Harbhajans.
   Dada left a legacy. And that's what great captains do. They not only win matches but also form a settled unit. A unit which will win matches even if they replace the captain. A unit which makes sure that the new captain doesn't have to start from scratch. The team which Dada along with John Wright(whose contribution is often underrated) put together truly changed Indian cricket. We suddenly started becoming more aggressive. We started winning abroad. The Kaifs and the Yuvrajs made sure that it was high time that we started doing this thing called 'fielding'.
  I believe this is exactly what Dhoni's men will do. This team will leave a legacy for the future. This is the true MSD unit. It is young, agile, determined, <insert cool sounding adjectives>, etc. The batting looks settled in all sorts of conditions, the bowling is as good as it can get and the Indian fielding has gone to a completely new level. There are very few areas of concern, but as Dhoni himself puts it "There is always scope for improvement and we take one game at a time and don't look too much into the future".
  I respect the talent in this country but it takes a captain(a really good one) to put a team together. It takes that extra oomph in confidence of young players to perform at the big stage. This comes from the captain. Decisions like giving Ishant Sharma a vital over when he had gone for plenty in the final or promoting Rohit Sharma at the top of the order when his place in the team was in a spot of bother; or a simple "Isko 'ultaa' vaala daal, Jaddu*" chant from behind the stumps often provides that oomph.
  Having said all this, a lot more criticism would shut down forever if India becomes this invincible in Test Cricket too. A very important tour of South Africa is coming up later this year and if India wins it, I believe people will start forgetting the 0-8 throbbing in England and Australia. Nevertheless, this team is here to stay and all the best to them in the future. Go India.

*Translation: "Bowl him the 'tricky one', Jaddu(Jadeja)"

Moving on from the fixing saga...

  Well, I pick up today's TOI, the first article I see is about it. I switch on to a news channel, there are more revelations to it. It's getting bigger. So big, that it's getting rather redundant and difficult to keep a track of things. As a Cricket fan, I have always believed that Cricket is clean(99.99% of the times) and the fishy stuff that happens are downright coincidences. So, when such things surfaced, I obviously was taken aback.
   But, eventually everyone moves on and so does Cricket. So, there I was, tuning into Star Cricket at 13:30 IST to watch the pre-match show of the opener of the ICC Champions Trophy between India and South Africa. I tend to do that when a particular match is broadcasted by the ESS (Obviously because they are the real pros in Cricket broadcasting). Eventually, the toss happened and then the "low-key-and-not-IPL-like" opening ceremony. And then, one of my favourite parts of ICC events, the national anthems! South Africa's happened first, I don't know why, but whatever. And, then India's. They showed the various faces, MSD's, Kohli's, the support staff's, Duncan Fletcher's(who was trying his best to respect the anthem), etc.
  There I was, standing in front of the TV set in the saavdhaan position watching those faces and I could literally feel the adrenaline of the players rushing like hell. And that's when it hit me.. This true passion of the players is what actually makes me love this game so much. When I started watching Cricket, I fell in love with it because winning a particular match made a country proud. When Team India wins, the whole nation probably gets the energy of going to work on a Monday. Everyone has bad days at work, school, etc but such victories bring smiles to these faces. This is what Cricket can do(Actually, this is what any Sport does, but being amongst the majority Indians, Sport = = Indian Cricket :p).
  This is when it also hit me (I am exaggerating, it'd hit me eons ago, but just for the sake of it :p) that this was why I never particularly loved the IPL. Having watched and followed Cricket pretty seriously for about 7-8 years now, I can go on record and say that I can identify passion on the Cricket field when I see it. And when I see the IPL, I don't see passion. I don't see a reason why a player would give his 100% every single time he plays for his franchise. Of course(not really, but let's consider this as a safe assumption), when a player goes on to play at the international level he is pretty much trained and mentally prepared to give his 100% every single time for whichever team he is playing for. But, so far, 99% of the matches 99% of the players have played, are for his club, his province, his state and/or his country. So, there is that emotional bonding or a feeling of patriotism for a player to the team since it represents a region where he comes from. This probably drives passion. But, I don't see such a driving force for say someone like a Luke Wright when he plays for Pune Warriors India.
  Such absence of a driving force of passion(Yeah! I'm sounding too philosophical) probably turns out to be a perfect opportunity for the very very interesting people called the Bookies to come into a player's life. I can feel for the players too. It's tough to be rational, unless you have a substantial driving force of passion, when escort girls come into your life(Studying Engineering in India, I can relate to the fellow Cricketers because both of us have, literally, a very very male dominated society around ourselves :p). Once the Bookies come into your life, you're pretty much done.
  I can go on and on criticizing the IPL. But, I know that it's not worth it. For all the bad things IPL stands for, there are also quite a few good things for which the world seems to enjoy it. I simply don't care. I am glad that this fixing saga happened in the IPL and not in international Cricket. Sure, I was disappointed with it at the beginning. But, now when I see stories like 'Raj Kundra confesses to betting', I sincerely don't give a shit and move on (to the sports pages of course :p).