Cricket is a religion in our country. Is there anything else that binds the whole nation together? Is there anything else that generates so much passion within each individual? Right from the street side hawker to five star restaurant, from small work table to corporate corner office, from normal tree side primary schools to world class management institutes, cricket allows us to speak a common language. Everybody understands this language.

And yet, we forget that it’s a team game. It’s a game where every individual has to do its part and perform his role. In our wins, we forget negative, while in loss we demonize individuals. We forget somebody has to score runs, somebody has to catch in the field, and somebody has to take wickets. In this game, we tend to applause showmanship (even when if it is without any substance), while hard work just becomes a regular talk and not celebrated.

Our team had a dream run from middle of 2000 to 2004. In this we all applause certain leader for the team who is takes off his shirt in enemy territory, but we do not seem to remember folks who worked tirelessly to make it happen. We continuously praise this certain leader, without recognizing that he had an excellent team mates who always bailed him out. He had two great batsmen of this era and one great bowler who were always ready to standup and make the contribution. Continue reading rest of this article…