A walk to remember...and some more..

Sachin Tendulkar walked...finally....and as expected people hailed the great man for the gentleman gesture of his...But did they forget that he never "walked" earlier, even when he knew he was out and always waited for umpire's decision. The only reason I believe is the presence of UDRS. He probably knew that West Indies will challenge the decision and instead of embarrassing himself the way Ricky Ponting did the other day, decided not to waste time on the field. But we Indians have to eulogize anything and everything associated with the "GOD". Can we please let him be human and, for a change, give other players their due credit...

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Saw "The Bridge on the River Kwai". I am on a "IMDB Top 250 movies" watching spree, you see...:)..It's an excellent movie, though it appears absurd at times. I got confused by the actions of the protagonist a number of times but understood the concept by the time movie ended (have to admit that the reviews helped a great deal as well :)). The highlight of the movie is the cinematography and the acting of Colonel Nicholson (Alec Guinness) who deservedly won an oscar for his performance. The pace of the movie is excellent, even though it was made around 50 years back (I can definitely vouch for that, especially after watching "Seven Samurai"). Though based on World War II, it is not a usual war film. The movie revolves around the conflict between Colonel Saito and Colonel Nicholson. The greatness of the movie lies in the fact that the director makes the viewer understand the predicament of Colonel Saito who, though on the wrong side is not the devil as portrayed by Ralph Fiennes(playing the character of Amon Goeth) in Schindler's List.
I wonder why such movies are not made in Bollywood. I don't even need fingers to count good Hindi movies released in the past two years.

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I was recently reading a blog, a post on which criticized men for everything that is wrong with women in the world. It smelled both of hatred and a "female" chauvinism...And I wondered, isn't this the way of life?? That the powerful will always dominate and the weak will always suffer. We see this everywhere...don't we ?? Politicians make the common man suffer, big bully always has his way in school and BCCI twists the arm of every cricket playing nation to have its way...Instead of generalizing and hating them, can we try to make ourselves stronger, to face the difficulties in a better manner??? Too idealistic and too theoretical, I agree, but won't the world be a better place if such were to happen...

A debate and some disagreement

Recently Ricky Ponting crossed Allan Border as the highest test run scorer for Australia. My congratulations to him. He has been a prolific run scorer for his team and has won a lot of matches single handedly for his team. Undoubtedly he stands alongwith Sachin Tendulkar, Brian Lara and Jacques Kallis as one of the best batsmen of this era.

A nice article was written about him on Cricinfo. You can read it here. However, what followed was a nasty debate between the australian and Indian cricket fans as to who has been a better batsman over the past years. Heated arguments flowed from both sides. Some Australians and to my shock some Indians as well went on to say that Ponting is the greatest batsman of this era and Sachin Tendulkar is the most over rated batsman world cricket has seen. He has been hyped by media and is no more than a flat track bully making runs against the weakest of opposition like Bangladesh and Zimbabwe.

I'm not going to provide any statistics, neither am I going to compare the three. But I just want to ask these people how can they be such poor judges of batmanship. Even if we agree that Sachin has been hyped by media, he would not have been lauded by the greatest batsman of all time, Sir Don himself; by the greatest spinner of all time, Shane Warne; by some of the greatest fast bowlers of modern era, including Allan Donald and Wasim Akram. It is one thing to sit in commentary or press boxes to scribble articles heaping praise/criticism on a batsman and it is another to have a first hand experience being out there in the field playing alongside/against him. People may have difference of opinion regarding who was the best, was it the maestro from Mumbai or was it the prince from Trinidad& Tobago and it is appropriate as well. But to label him as a flat track bully makes one wonder if these people really follow cricket or are fully loaded with prejudice.

Again, it is not his records or centuries that make him the greatest batsman (he is for me, if not for anybody else), it is the humility and the grace with which he has carried himself over the past 20 years or so. To live under the eyes of media, carrying the expectations of millions and still be able to maintain the composure is something which is quite unheard of in the sporting world.

Honestly, after Tendulkar, it is only Brian Lara and Mark Waugh whose batting I have enjoyed watching on TV. Ponting may have won more matches than Sachin or Lara did for their respective teams. He may go on to make most centuries and become the highest test run scorer. Ponting is undoubtedly one of the best batsmen of this generation. Nobody can take that away from him.But he failed to win one important thing which both Tendulkar and Lara won in plenty.....hearts of spectators all over the world.