The Windies--an eye opener

The champions trophy final was an amazing display of calm,grit and determination from a team which had been relegated to the nadir of their cricketing history.The Carribeans have an uncanny knack of highlighting their periods of gloom and despair with stellar perfoemances.Be it Brian Lara's heroics in the tests against Australia or the match at The Oval. Throughout the nineties the cricketers from Islands that make up the West Indies have lived under the glorious shadow of their past.Apart from a handful of cricketers they have never produced innings of consistency that the world could notice.But cricket being a game of uncertainties has justified itself once again.
Brain Lara remarked at the end of the match that the win would bring joy to the flood stricken people back home and give them something to cheer about.And how true..time and again it has been seen that sport is the panecea of the masses.It is a moment of release and exuberance where nothing can seem to divide a nation as it braces itself for a do-or-die match.As "Remember The Titans" potrays--a football field can be the first battleground to fight 'racism'.
Picture India winning this trophy..newspapers would have sung paens of praise for our cricketers,obscene monies would have been doled out and newsmagazines in their cover stories would have hailed the team as one of the greatest ever.In a few days it would have been evaporated as we would succumb to one loss or the other.
We as a sporting nation are undoubtedly an infamous failure. one-sixth of the world's population having the most hardy and diverse pools of population and yet we have to satisfy ourselves with a silver medal in the Olympics .

What ails our sport ? Mr Sharad Pawar is in the news again..why ? Because he wants to be the president of the BCCI.The body is sitting on a mountain of cash and is a wonderful opportunity for politicains to be used as a tool to further their causes of nepotism and corruption.Film stars run with the Olympic torches whereas legends are never remembered.The Indianess that we call upon in short periodic outbursts sounds hollow.In the midst of jingoism it is forgotten that an Olympic medallist is chiselling stone to eke out a living.
A country that cannot honor its heroes does not deserve to exist.It is shameful that religious fanaticism and jingoism has to drive a nation like ours.What ails Indianess.....contenment in mediocrity or contenment in ignorance ??