Overreaction Monday ft. Irfan Pathan’s farewell desire and Ricky Ponting’s hypocrisy
Overreaction Monday - August 24 edition
|SportsCafe
The MS Dhoni euphoria has died down and we are into the IPL-sized world now where many things make sense and so many things don’t. What would we do then? Wait and see the wind having its own discourse and fuel some ironical overreactions to its own cross-board. Let’s start then.
Irfan ambitious Pathan
In the wake of MS Dhoni’s retirement, Irfan Pathan urged the BCCI to organise a farewell game for the players who didn’t have a send-off, versus the current the current Indian team.
SC Take: Well, I am plain disappointed that Irfan didn’t have Aakash Chopra in the XI? I mean, how can you break Aakash “Dum Dama Dum” Chopra’s heart? But that aside, why would you do that Irfan? Do you really think BCCI would give two hoots about such a match, especially after shunning those players openly without batting an eyelid?
Irfan not just urged the BCCI to arrange such a game but also donned the selector’s hat to name a XI he thought would be competing against the current Indian team. Basically, he meant the current Indian team will play a game of ODI cricket against the Germany cricket team? I mean why would someone be serious about such an encounter? Even if some people do, for the sake of nostalgia, why would Irfan want to cause so much embarrassment to his own reputation?
Irony dies a slow death with Ricky Ponting’s Spirit of Cricket claims
Ricky Ponting has promised to have a "hard conversation" with R Ashwin about mankading (or was it Browning, Mr. Gavaskar?) stating, "that's not going to be the way that we play our cricket".
SC Take: Sorry Irfan, I thought your comment was the most ridiculous one in the context of this week, but Ricky Thomas Ponting just decided to turn up for a Cricket Podcast and wanted history to be rewritten. If anyone firstly thinks Ashwin would have regretted the incident one bit, let me disappoint you, we are talking about one of the finest spinners of our generation, who is a confident and remorseless competitor and is an extremely proud cricketer. He did what he did and, to make it clear, if doing something within the rule book is not fair, nothing is fair in this world.
Leave that part aside. Now think of Ponting’s statement - rather his choice of words - regarding the Spirit of Cricket. Note it down. I will not go any further for our very own Aakash Sivasubramaniam has done a proper scathing, debunking the argument with some historical anecdotes from Ponting’s career. Now after that, if Ponting feels he will have a conversation, well, please, Ricky. You have a better job to do.
Colin Graves and the life of a contrast
Colin Graves ended five years as chairman of the England and Wales Cricket Board with a valedictory visit to the Old Trafford Test after giving an interview with The Telegraph in which he suggested there were too many first-class counties and he "just didn't see the point" in some of them.
SC Take: Colin Graves will be replaced by Ian Watmore next month but his legacy will endure for a long long time. Simply because of the fact that his tenure had seen World Cup victories for the women’s team in 2017, and the men’s team last year as well as the start of a record £1.1bn broadcast deal this summer. It was some serious achievement but he missed a point possibly in his last official interview, making it to the overreaction column of this week.
In the same regard, George Dobell made an interesting point. Starting from Lancashire to Leicestershire, Middlesex, Worcestershire, Northants, along with Kent, have been the biggest feeder counties for the English side in recent years. The Zak Crawley century on the same day as Graves’ visit to Old Trafford underlined the significance the club normally offers and that is enough for everyone to understand why the County system can’t be compromised at all.
Saqlain Mushtaq thinks BCCI didn’t treat Dhoni properly
Saqlain Mushtaq said the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) did not treat MS Dhoni in the right way and the veteran's retirement should not have happened without a proper farewell.
SC Take: That is not how it is done, right? MS Dhoni played hide and seek with the BCCI since the 2019 World Cup semi-final exit and if reports are to be believed, even the BCCI president couldn’t get in touch with him. The national selectors had no idea about his whereabouts and just like that Dhoni walked into the sunset with a cryptic Instagram post.
Surely many players didn’t get that in the past and if MS Dhoni wanted to have one, no one would have said no to such a farewell game. But Dhoni has always been a big believer of the larger picture and thus he preferred to leave his position as quietly as he arrived. Dhoni could have grasped all the eyeballs but that is not the Dhoni way, as we know. So no suspense there, Saqlain.
