Indian tailenders steal unlikely victory
Australia's pace bowlers had bullied and toyed with India's top order, before a defiant 65-run partnership between Robin Uthappa and Harbhajan Singh gave India fleeting hope. However, it was a stunning 52-run stand for the ninth wicket between Kartik and Zaheer Khan that gave India a consolation win in a series otherwise dominated by the world champions.
The undoubted star of the day though was Kartik. Four years ago, he was India's best bowler in the TVS Cup that Australia won, but was never trusted enough to kick on to greater heights. On Wednesday, he showed just why he's India's most potent one-day spinner with a wonderful combination of teasing flight, guile and sharp turn.
Cheer Girls
I have a question to ask our politicians: don't you have better things to do than work yourselves into a froth about cheer girls? After all, you're not 18 year olds measuring your lives with coffee spoons — and if you don't know what that means ask TS Eliot! You're adults. More importantly, you've been chosen to run this country. I would have thought inflation, farmers' suicides, urban crime, the BRT crisis in Delhi, the vanishing nuclear deal and the shifting political equations in Nepal — to name just a handful of the pressing problems India faces — would have kept you fully preoccupied. But I'm wrong. You've found time for the silliest of causes, something no one else had noticed till you chanced upon it and forced it on the nation. If this was satire, I'd say well done! Alas, this is reality.
And what is it about cheer girls that has you so excited? Unfortunately, it's a mixture of prejudice, ignorance and balderdash. Some of you say they're vulgar. Perhaps, but does it occur to you that, like beauty, vulgarity lies in the eyes of the beholder? Many of us find your taste, behaviour and style vulgar but we put up with it. Is it too much to expect the same of you? That apart, do you know what vulgar means? The Oxford Dictionary defines it as something that is patronised or practiced by ordinary common people. Did you mean to be elitist or have you picked the wrong adjective?
Your second justification for banning cheer girls is they're un-Indian. Well, in a very literal sense, you're right. Until they were imported they were not known of by the vast majority of our countrymen. But that's also true of cricket. (Incidentally, I hope you don't think the game was handed down by the Vedas?) Yet the fact that cheer girls attract attention by baring their mid-riffs and dancing suggestively is something we're very used to. Every woman in a sari has as much to show and reveal. Whilst Bharatnatyam and Odissi dancers — and let's not even mention Khajuraho and Konark sculptures or some of our delightful miniatures and the Kama Sutra — are far more sensual.
Those of you who pretend to be moralists have claimed cheer girls are demeaning of women. But if you think about it you'll realize how silly that statement is. To begin with, the cheer girls are women and they're doing it willingly, even happily. Second, they're proud of the figures they're showing off. Third, the vast majority of the audience is enjoying their performance. This is not titillation. And though I don't deny there's a small perverted minority that's deriving pornographic pleasure, are the rest of us to be treated like school children because of this half per cent? Even you wouldn't say yes!
The most pertinent criticism is that cheer girls distract from the cricket. I have to admit there's probably some truth in that. Except what it overlooks is that's precisely why they're there. T20 is not a Test match, not even a one day game. To be successful, a T20 tournament requires all the extras it can acquire. So, if you're a purist it's not the cheer girls you should object to, but the game itself. Don't expect the sobriety of Lord's when you're watching the thwack and shove of Yusuf Pathan and Brendon McCullum. Unless, of course, you're a hypocrite.
Actually, I'm afraid that's what it is: hypocrisy. Bollywood indulges in crude and lascivious behaviour but you rarely, if ever, threaten to rip out those scenes. In fact, if I'm not mistaken, you court Bollywood stars and your ultimate goal is to get your kids to join them. Yet if the rest of us have a bit of innocent fun your moral hackles rise and you start cracking the whip.
Well, it's time you got off our backs. At last there's something on television the country seems to like and you have no right to ruin it. I suggest you grab a beer and enjoy the girls yourselves!
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Collection of famous quotes by Navjot Singh Sidhu
1. That ball went so high it could have got an air hostess down with it.
2. There is light at the end of the tunnel for India, but it's that of an incoming train which will run them over.
3. Experience is like a comb that life gives you when you are bald.
4. This quote was made after Ganguly called Dravid for a run and midway sent him back and Dravid was run out in the third test against the West Indies at Barbados."Ganguly has thrown a drowning man both ends of the rope."
5. Sri Lankan score is running like an Indian taximeter.
6. Statistics are like miniskirts, they reveal more than what they hide.
7. Wickets are like wives - you never know which way they will turn!
8. He is like Indian three-wheeler, which will suck a lot of diesel but cannot go beyond 30!
9. The Indians are going to beat the Kiwis! Let me tell you, my friend that the Kiwi is the only bird in the whole world, which does not have wings!
10. As uncomfortable as a bum on a porcupine.
11. The ball whizzes past like a bumble -bee and the Indians are in the sea.
12. The Indians are finding the gaps like a pin a haystack.
13. The pitch is as dead as a dodo.
14. Deep Dasgupta is as confused as a child is in a topless bar!
15. The way Indian wickets are falling reminds of the cycle stand at Rajendra Talkies in Patiala one falls and everything else falls!
16. Indian team without Sachin is like giving Kiss without a Squeeze.
17. You cannot make Omelets without breaking the eggs.
18. Deep Dasgupta is not a Wicket Keeper, he is a goalkeeper. He must be given a free transfer to Manchester United.
19. He will fight a rattlesnake and give it the first two bites too.
20. One, who doesn't throw the dice, can never expect to score a six.
21. This quote was made after Eddie Nichols, the third umpire, ruled Shivnarine Chanderpaul 'NOT OUT' in the second test at Port of Spain T&T "Eddie ichols is a man who cannot find his own buttocks with his two hands."
22. Anybody can pilot a ship when the sea is calm.
23. Nobody travels on the road to success without a puncture or two.
24. You got to choose between tightening your belt or losing your pants.
25. The cat with gloves catches no mice.
26. Age has been perfect fire extinguisher for flaming youth.
27. You may have a heart of gold, but so does a hard-boiled egg.
28. He is like a one-legged man in a bum kicking competition.
29. The third umpires should be changed as often as nappies and for the same reason.
30. Kumble's bowling at the moment is flat as a Dosa.