Monthly Archives: December 2020

This is no 90s team, this is Naya Hindustan…

Who’ll motivate India like Sachin-Azhar did in 1997 in S Africa?

Exactly 24 years ago in the winter of 1996, I was horrified to see India getting all-out for just 66 at Durban against South Africa in the second innings of the Boxing Day test match. It was India’s first overseas tour that I followed and it couldn’t have been worse.

It was also the first time I saw any side getting all out well before reaching 100. As it happened with the Indian team, it shook me more. I was sure it can’t get worse than this and I won’t see a lower score than this from India in my lifetime.

But I was proved horribly wrong 24 years later by the current Indian side which was bowled out for just 36 against Australia at Adelaide in the first test; their lowest total ever! It still appears unreal.

Highlights of India’s second innings at Adelaide

As the only time I saw India get all-out under 100 [in a test match] was in 1996, my mind keeps going back to that Durban test and the rest of the series.

That team’s morale was down in the dumps after that match. The mental baggage of that game was carried forward in the second test at Cape Town that started in the new year on 2 January 1997.

South Africa batted first and put behind a mammoth total of 529 for 7 declared. India displayed déjà vu of the first test after being 58 for 5 at one stage. It seemed India was set to repeat what happened in Durban.

But then came a partnership that brought a turnout not just on the scorecard but also in the Indian camp. From that score onwards, Sachin Tendulkar and Mohammed Azharuddin started counter-attacking in ways that we didn’t see in test matches then.

The two experienced blokes started hammering every bowler of the opposition and built a huge partnership of 222 runs. Azhar scored 115 off just 100 balls with 19 fours and a six. Tendulkar, on the other hand, made 169 with 26 fours.

He was the last man to get out when Adam Bacher pulled off one of the most spectacular catches of all time at deep square leg. The batsman was visibly stunned and stood his ground for some time, unable to believe his eyes.

India eventually lost that match. However, that partnership between Tendulkar and Azhar brought about a psychological change in the side. It put across a message that we can bat freely and fearlessly even against South Africa in South Africa, which was tough in those days.

Sachin-Azhar partnership at Cape Town in 1997

The effect of this was seen in the third test at Johannesburg when the team looked much more determined. India batted first and posted a good score of 410, helped by Rahul Dravid’s impressive 148.

In reply, South Africa were all out for 321. After getting a healthy lead, India batted decently in the second innings and set South Africa a target of 356 runs. India looked like winning the match after reducing the Proteas to 228 for 8. Unfortunately, rain and bad light ensured that the match turned out to be a draw; a match India should have won.

Also see: When Javagal Srinath was on a hat-trick thrice against South Africa

The major difference between the Durban test and the recent first test against Australia is that in the former we were never in position to dominate. In fact, we were 100 all out in the first innings and that had almost sealed the match for South Africa.

However, despite India being in a dominating position on day two in the recent test, the current blow is a bigger one. Getting all out on a score as low as 36 can be detrimental to the morale of any team.

Twenty-four years ago, Sachin and Azhar removed that barrier for India.

Who will do that this time around?

Also read:

When Swami Vivekananda took 7 wickets against the British club

When Indian supporters were in no MOOD to see India win

Rape threats don’t go against Facebook’s ‘community standards’

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The major negative point of social media, as we all must have seen, is hateful comments. And these hate comments become the worst when they become rape threats to women. Like other social media platforms, such comments are seen regularly on Facebook.

Also like other platforms, Facebook gives you an option to report a comment that appears hateful, violent or derogatory. The social media platform has in place, what they call, ‘community standards.’ As per them, any comment violating these guidelines will be either removed or the person commenting will face termination of his or her account.

However, as horrific as it may sound, rape threats don’t go against the so-called community guidelines of Facebook. I realized this recently when I reported a comment where someone received a rape threat.

Recently, while scrolling through Facebook, I came across a picture of a Marathi film actress shared by a page promoting Marathi films. I could see the comments where people criticized her because they believed she was skimpily dressed.

I didn’t think much about these comments as, unfortunately, I have got used to it. We are surrounded by people with sexist mind-sets; those whose blood boils when they see a woman wearing less clothes. But there was one comment, in Marathi, which shook me.

A man commenter under the picture – “Such people should be raped!” [See the comment below]

Now, this was very serious. I quickly reported the comment and waited for Facebook to get back to me.

I got a response the next day and, as weird as it may sound, they said in their response that the comment doesn’t go against their ‘community standards.’ Let that sink in. [See the image below]

Facebook response to rape threat — Facebook’s response

If a rape threat, which is the worst form of comment, doesn’t go against their so-called standards, what exactly does?

Also read: #JusticeForSSR has no place on news channels now: Who gained, who lost?

My case isn’t the only one, by the way. When I shared this on Facebook, quite a few people said they have experienced the same thing. A cursory Google search will also enlighten you about others having had the same experience, which you can read HERE.

Over the years, I have experienced Facebook doing nothing about toxic communal and sexist posts I reported. But this takes their lack of seriousness for women safety on their platform to another level.

When Swami Vivekananda took 7 WICKETS against the British club

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Born as Narendranath Datta, Swami Vivekananda is known as the monk who inculcated strength and determination in the youth of India through his powerful words and deeds. He was instrumental in spreading Indian spirituality and changing the image of India in the west, largely through his speech at the Parliament of Religions in Chicago in 1893.

Vivekananda received enlightenment from his beloved spiritual guru Ramakrishna Paramhansa and his wife Sri Sarada Devi. He is also credited to have started Ramakrishna Mission and Ramakrishna Math after his guru. He came to known as Swami Vivekananda after becoming a monk.

But despite Vivekananda being a monk and a spiritual guru, he gave high importance to physical activities like sports. He himself was actively involved in sports right from his school days. Along with football, a popular sport in West Bengal, he also played cricket.

It is one of Vivekananda’s heroics in cricket that is highlighted in this article. Something not many would know and would come as an exciting surprise.

Kolkata’s world renowned stadium Eden Gardens was built in the 19^th century and was one of the few epicentres of cricket in India back then. Among the many cricket enthusiasts who played cricket there also includes Swami Vivekananda, who was the young Narendranath Datta back then.

Author and former cricketer Raju Mukherji in his book Eden Gardens: Legend & Romance has written that Datta, in his 20s, played cricket at the stadium in the mid-1880s for Town Club, one of the earliest local clubs in Kolkata back then.

The Calcutta Cricket Club (CCC, which later went onto become Calcutta Cricket and Football Club) team was a formidable side back then. It largely contained British cricketers since it was formed by the British.

It was during a match against CCC that Datta took as many as 7 wickets in an innings.

Mukherjee has credited the April 2004 edition of the Bengali magazine Udbodhan for this startling piece of information.

Vivekananda has a large number of followers around the world. But this trivia is expected to amaze almost all of them as they wouldn’t be knowing it.

Also read: One of Wasim Akram’s biggest achievements is forgotten

There are also other unconfirmed reports stating that the CCC side was bowled out for just 20 runs because of Datta’s exploits and that the match took place 136 years ago. The reports also mention that it was coach Hema Chandra Ghosh’s words that encouraged the young Datta to give his best.

Vivekananda’s exploits on the field don’t come as a surprise though. He was an ambassador of sports even after he became a monk. One of his famous sayings goes like, “You will be nearer to God more through football than through the study of the Gita.”

What he meant was that merely following spirituality through reading is useless unless you give importance to physical fitness, which, in turn, helps in developing your mind. On various occasions, Swami Vivekananda has also spoken about treating your body as a temple.

Also read:

Only time Tendulkar was NOT selected in team India, neither injured nor rested

Forgotten spells: When Srinath was on a hattrick THRICE in one innings

The Hidden Hindu – Book Review

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The title of author Akshat Gupta’s novel The Hidden Hindu might make heads turn, thinking it might be on controversial lines. But that is far from the case. The book is a mystery thriller rooted in India’s mythology and history. It’s another addition to this genre that has become popular over the years.

The book revolves around an unusual investigation of the mysterious Aghori Sadhu. He is captured by India’s authorities and brought to the Ross Island in south India for interrogation. Dr Srinivasan heads the investigation along with Dr Shahista, Dr Batra and few other experts. The Aghori Sadhu introduced himself as Om Shastri.

But the investigating team is dumbfounded when he also claims to be various people from India’s mythology and history; right from the era of Ramayana and Mahabharata till the Indian freedom movement. The team rubbishes his claims of him being alive since thousands of years. So, who exactly is Om Shastri?

The biggest plus point of The Hidden Hindu is its fast pace. A large majority of the story takes place in a closed room, where a group of people are investigating, discussing and debating. This somewhere reminds you of 12 Angry Men (1957). The situation results in a book that can be completed in a jiffy.

At some point of time, The Hidden Hindu features the story of lord Dhanwantari and the father of Indian surgery Sushruta. This comes across as an interesting episode since this part of Indian history is not explored in the many novels that have come out of this genre.

These plus points, however, aren’t enough to overshadow the negatives. The book lags behind in the important aspects of story and its narration. For a large number of the pages, nothing concrete happens in terms of plot development as the investigation just keeps going on. The aforementioned episode about Dhanwantari and Sushruta comes as a respite but it’s certainly not enough.

Also read: Book Review – The Vault Of Vishnu

The reader is also not given proper insight into the investigating team. We are not told the back story of even the senior members of the team and the relation between them.

Furthermore, the writing lacks richness. Just being a fast-paced novel isn’t enough. The language should be impressive enough to even sail through the dry periods, which doesn’t happen here. The quality of the writing is felt the most in the ending portion, which is all over the place.

Also read: Book Review – Bhoot Bhavish Bartaman

There are also few language errors that should have been taken care during the editing.

This is the first book in The Hidden Hindu trilogy. India’s former cricket captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni and his wife Sakshi Dhoni are coming out with a web-series on the book. The makers need to carry out some drastic changes in the content in order to make the show interesting.

Rating: 2.5 out of 5

Author: Akshat Gupta

Publishers: Genee Publishing House

Pages: 185

Price: Rs 249

When Indian crowd was in no MOOD to see India win

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Interruptions during cricket matches or any sport can be irritating. It gets worse when such interruptions bring a premature end to a game. As far as cricket is concerned, the most common spoilsport has been rain.

But the worst stoppage the game of cricket has seen is angry crowd behavior.

The mention of such disruptions instantly brings to our mind the India-Sri Lanka 1996 World Cup semi-final. The violence carried out by the crowd in Kolkata forced the match officials to end the game abruptly and declare Sri Lanka as the winners [India was anyways about to lose the match].

In the same year in the India v/s Australia match in the Titan Cup, the crowd in Bangalore went berserk when Mohammad Azharuddin was wrongly given out LBW. They finally settled down only after Azhar himself went to that part of the stand to request them to not indulge in such behavior.

But the worst crowd behavior in India came in 2002. Although it was the most inexplicable reaction by the crowd, it hardly finds a place in public memory.

India was playing a 7-match ODI series against the touring West Indies and were two down after the first two matches. The third match was in Rajkot and India was eager to open their account in the series in order to have a chance of winning the tournament.

Virendra Sehwag vs West Indies — Virender Sehwag (File photo)

West Indies batted first and scored 300 for 5, helped by Ramnaresh Sarwan’s 84, Shivnarine Chanderpaul’s 74 and Chris Gayle’s 72. India came out all guns blazing in reply. Skipper Saurav Ganguly and Virendra Sehwag had a 196 run opening partnership in which the latter scored 110!

When Sehwag is in such form, people would drop everything to watch him bat, irrespective of which cricketing country you belong to. But for some truly weird reason, the crowd at Rajkot started indulging in violent behavior by throwing stones and other items on the field, threatening the safety of the West Indies players.

Also read: Forgotten spells – When Srinath was on a hattrick THRICE in one innings

The security personnel tried their best to cool things down. But they were not enough in the face of the unruly crowd, which ensured that the match was halted thrice because of their antics.

Such behavior is somewhat understandable [but not justified by any means] if India is losing the match, like it happened in the 1996 semi-final. But why would anyone even think of showing such behavior when the home team is going great guns and with someone like Sehwag in full flow?

Finally, the match officials had to prematurely stop the game and award the match to India through the Duckworth-Lewis method. India were at a comfortable position at 200 for 1 in 27.1 overs with Sehwag not out on 114 off just 82 balls and VVS Laxman yet to open his account.

Also read: One of Wasim Akram’s biggest achievements is forgotten

The decision turned out to be controversial. The West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) complained to the International Cricket Council (ICC) against the decision of the Match Refree Mike Procter to use the D/L method to decide the winner. As per WICB, the match should have ended in ‘no result’ since it wasn’t halted by any force of nature.

When the 1996 WC semi-final was prematurely stopped, Sri Lanka were declared winners by default and not through D/L method.

Whether it was right to declare India the winners is debatable. But there is certainly no doubt that the people who came to see the match in Rajkot were lucky that there was no social media then and hence, the news of their behavior didn’t spread far and wide.

Highlights of the match: