Last sporting chance

The India men’s cricket team and its major players are toggling their minds, for the end may well be nigh. Two World Cups beckon, or their world is kazoomba

- RAJEEV NARAYAN

“You have to expect things of yourself before you can do them.” 

—Michael Jordan

I generally don’t write about sports. I am doing so today only because the bells are a-tolling for the Indian men’s cricket team and its players, particularly the celebrated ones. They have but a few months to pull the (c)parrot out of the proverbial hat. I am not mentioning cucumbers, rabbits, pigeons and other paraphernalia that can be mysteriously hidden inside magicians’ head-gear and pulled out for a clear cheer; I am forgetting those for a bit.

What I do remember is what transpired just this last week, which makes the immediate future look dismal and abysmal for Indian cricket. In the third 50:50 ODI against a gritty Australia in Chennai, India was cruising most of the way, but our stalwarts suddenly decided to display needless bravado and reckless abandon, abject indiscipline and sporting immaturity, handing the platter to a till-then dejected yellows, who within an hour trounced our mighty ‘Men in Blue’.