A year that was a bane for champions.....

A year that was a bane for champions.....

As 2008 comes to an end, it was a long year full of events engulfed with surprises, controversies, enthralling moments....

Major International sports took a toll on champions and what a toll it was.Cricket,Tennis,Formula-1-all saw reigning champs not only succumb to ever increasing pressure but also fail to maintain their standards.Formula-1 might have had a see-saw year like 2007.However Cricket and Tennis had the fans stand up and take note threatening signs of reigning empires crumbling.

I don't like comparing performances/results from different fields, but this was a bit compelling.
On a striking note, the patterns in tennis and Cricket went on similar lines as I line it up later.

Let me begin with tennis first.....This year belonged to the "Mallorcan marauder" Rafael Nadal.Roger Federer began the year with the invincibility tag looking more stronger than ever and also set his sights on crossing Pete Sampras' record.Rafa made it so tough for the Swiss that he eventually ended up taking over his no.1 ranking after a reign of 4 and a half years.Novak Djokovic and Jo Wilfried Tsonga beat Federer and Nadal at the Australian Open,with the former winning the title.But were unheard of for the rest of the year.Federer came to Roland Garros hoping he would be third time lucky in the finals against Nadal, but could win only 4 games in the match.The signs of a recession showed up deeply and when Nadal beat Federer at the Wimbledon Lawns after a 4hr 48 min epic roller coaster, it was alarm bells ringing loud.Amidst all this, there was a man called Andrew Murray who was silently making his way up the rungs.Roger successfully defended his title at the Flushing Meadows and this after exiting early from the Beijing Olympics,where Nadal won the gold.Further Roger also failed to secure the season ending Tennis Masters Cup at Shanghai, after winning it for 4 years in a row.Clearly the signs look scary for Federer...but he still cannot be counted out.After all...."Form is temporary, but Class is always permanent."

On similar lines,in Cricket...Team Australia began 2008, after having not lost a single test match in 2006 and 2007,with a string of 15 consecutive wins.The year began with the Acrimonious Sydney Test,which is more remebered for Symonds,Harbhajan,Bucknor,Benson,Ponting and Clarke for "very obvious" reasons than for Hundreds from Tendulkar,Laxman,Hayden and Hussey.Since then Australia won 2 test matches each against 7th ranked West Indies and 8th Ranked New Zealand. Their record for 2008 in test cricket stands as

Played 14
Won 5
Lost 5
Drawn 4

Of their 5 losses, 3 were against India, the 1st one at "Fortress WACA" and the rest were part of a 2-0 thumping away.2 more losses came as a part of South Africa's run chase at WACA and the Melbourne magic to beat Australia in their den, a first for any team since 1992-93.Out of the draws, they dominated India at Bangalore, but were on the back foot at Delhi and Adelaide. The other draw came against West Indies, which was a shame for the Aussies.

Against India and South Africa in 2008, the Aussie record reads:

Played 9
Won 1
Lost 5
Drawn 3


Lining this up against the same teams from Jan'04 to Dec'07:

Played 11
Won 7
Lost 1
Drawn 3


If not for the Sydney victory(which was not deserving), Australia look really nowhere near the champion side they were for the past 15 years.

How tennis and Cricket matched up in 2008:

Stunned:Australia and Federer

Australia and Federer lost their "aura of invincibility" and lost it very badly.While Australia were hamprered by retirements of Warne,McGrath,Gilchrist,Langer and Martyn.Federer was bugged by Mononucleosis,Stomach and Back Injuries.

Federer had a saving grace with the US open, but Australia did not even have anything to find solace with.

Devastating: South Africa and Nadal

Rafael Nadal was a rampaging bull winning French Open,Wimbledon and the Olympic Gold to name a few.

South Africa won 11 of their 15 test matches this year, losing once each to India and England, while narrowingly drawing in India and clinching series victories in England and Australia.

Resurgent: India and Murray

Andy Murray seriously challenged both Nadal and Federer constantly throughout the year and made it to world no.4 , also winning 4 masters series titles.

Team India humbled Australia at Perth and drew honorably against South Africa.While they failed to tackle SriLanka,rather Mendis-Murali to be precise, they regained the Border-Gavaskar trophy without losing a test and beat England with the spectacular run chase at Chennai.India found a new charismatic,shrewd and mature leader in Mahendra Singh Dhoni,while Andy Murray found and kept his fitness going strong through the year.

So the new year 2009 holds lot of promise in Cricket and Tennis.....Hope it will be another historic and enthralling year ......

THE WALL....can never FALL.....

THE WALL....can never FALL.....

This blog is dedicated to all the critics of Rahul Dravid:

There's this very age old saying...."Quitters don't win, Winners don't quit". And this very appropriately fits into every aspect of life and every profession in life.

And when people speak about Rahul Dravid on whether where he shall be heading to, in future, this is what they must think of,if not anything else.

Come on....people have criticised Ganguly,Yuvraj,Harbhajan,Sehwag...or even Sachin for that matter...that they must be thrown out etc etc...But when it comes to test cricket, even the thought of dropping Rahul Dravid will be a heinous crime to perform.

It was this man who taught India how to bat in test cricket on overseas territories and win test matches. And I make no mistake in saying that he surpasses even Sachin Tendulkar,if one were to rate the amount of significance his knocks have had in India's fortunes abroad.For that matter,from the year 2000, Tendulkar,Laxman and Ganguly owe a lot- right,left and center- to Dravid for all the plundering of the bowling they did. Yes they are Great cricketers in their own rights,but when it comes to guts,determination,resilience,defiance and wearing down of the opposition, Dravid comes second to none.
Brian Lara famously said-"If i were to want anyone to bat for my life, i would go for Rahul Dravid".And he said this not for any nonsense reason.And for nothing is he called "THE WALL".

Starting from Kolkata 2001 all the way to Jamaica 2006...every Indian victory overseas and in India had a trademark Rahul Dravid stamp on it..in one way or the other.Be it run making or fabulous slip catching.Be it the Eden turn around,or the Adelaide thumping or the Rawalpindi run-athon or the Headingley battle....Rahul Dravid defined Indian victories.All this when he was in his prime and Indian cricket was on its rise on the World cricket ladder. For a change, I will not explain any of dravid's innings from my memory....Because if anybody does not remember what he has done to Indian cricket, then they do not deserve to be followers of Indian cricket.

Yes...he has had his ill luck hitting him now...but for heaven's sake take a look around and you see that not even a single great cricketer has been spared of this.Jayasuriya,Inzamam,Hayden,Steven Waugh...the list is hopelessly long.Yes he led the team to India's worst ever world cup campaign ....but there were reasons for it, that need to be better forgotten.But after all he has given all his toil and sweat for the country and one bad year in comparison to the standards set by him does not make him mediocre overnight.

Just that people need to give him some time to come out of this bad time.And not brickbats....As I write this blog, Rahul Dravid remains unbeaten on 65 at Mohali on day 1 vs England...and i sincerely hope this is just the beginning of another purple patch for 3 years.He is on the threshold of achieving the feat of most catches by a fieldsman in test cricket and if not for all those spilt catches in the last year,owing to an effect of his poor form,he would have been at the door of 200 catches by now.Beyond all this, the best gift Rahul would get on his retirement would be to see India at the no.1 position in the ICC Test rankings,which is now looking possible in one year's time.

So...it would be a sincere request to all his critics....please have some patience.If people had not had patience with someone called Sachin Tendulkar when he scored 2 ducks in his first two ODI innings, we all know what the cricket world would have missed.

Finally.... with a hope that my final farewell blog on Rahul will nowhere be within another 3 years and

with lingering memories of Rahul Dravid kissing the crest on his baggy Blue at the Adelaide Oval in 2003...my final word goes.....THE WALL always stands TALL !!!