Great photos, Will

“So what about when England won the Ashes? Admittedly there were more people[...]”

The British reaction to the Ashes series victory was not that different from this. Of course, we don’t know how they would react to England winning the World Cup, because they’ve never won one!

Apparently it’s different for the players - did you see Andrew Symond’s response to the Indian crowds? About his ‘animal instincts’ being triggered? I love it!

Nothing politically correct about Roy!

Well my point is that since cricket is as big (if not bigger) as football is in England, wouldn’t the English crowd make such a huge fuss of the England football team if they won (any sort of) world cup?

Which is why I find Will’s captions a little derogatory. Any sports-mad country would do it. India just has a LOT of people.

Scott,

Have you seen the celebrations for the AFL final? They were having a huge parade through the streets of Melbourne and the match hasn’t even been played yet! Australians may not hype it up for cricket but it’s a different story for the footie (Australian football, that is. Not the round ball stuff foreigners play)

why do we bother what the aussies or the english think about the way we celebrate? if they cant handle it they should sit at home and watch television. whoever decided that the way the english celebrated after their ashes win or the aussies celebrate is the benchmark of all celebrations? who is andrew symonds to decide if celebrations are overboard or underboard, did anybody ask him or do we care, the pathetic whining loser…

India’s a pretty big country huh? And that’s a LOT of people. All (apparently) cricket-lovers. But werent there a couple of unexploded bombs found somewhere amidst that crazed swirling mass of humanity? Weird…

Alex, you’re an Indian and you’re commenting now.

And Aussie are always being commented on. And criticized, just as you are doing on this blog. You only have to look at the Cricinfo blogs to see that Indians and pakistanis comment in far greater numbers and length than anyone else, and they are comment on Australian cricket, too. Do a Find on “Australia” and the word will invariably come up, more than once twice, even though the topic is about India or Pakistan.

and if Australians and English didn’t comment on Indian cricket, you’d be complaining we ignore you, and and just focus on ourselves.

and why should Symonds answer the way and act the way Tendulkar does? Why can’t you accept that different cultures respond differently? As for shoving Pawar off the podium, that was bad. But Michael Clarke got an outstanding score in yesterday’s game and when he came off the Indian crowds didn’t clap him. Australians might think that was bad of Indians - the TV commentators said that if he’d been indian he would have got an standing ovation. Personally i couldn’t give a stuff if the Indians didn’t clap Clarke. It didn’t take away from his achievement.

that’s my rant and I’m sick of the subject. !!!

Hi Rusty,
This is a cricket blog and if India wins the Twenty20 world cup, all that this blog could come up was how Indians go overboard in celebrating. Then its a spot of bother, isnt it?

And dont bring in Indian viewers in a cricket ground, they dont have a clue what the game is all about.

I am a big fan of aussie cricket, when people abuse the aussies, its grudging admiration, win or lose, for the last five to ten years Australia has always been like 30% ahead of any other team.

If I remember in 1984 Kim Hughes wept after losing to the Windies. thats when Allan Border took over and how he transformed a side.

I dont mind Aussies sledging, I think people KP and Shoaib Akhtar adds dimension and character to the game, they can write their own scripts.

My only pet peeve is the moment an Indian bowls a beamer or appeals or is late for a toss or takes his shirt off, it is wrong. Why do Indians have 2 be well behaved, Why cant we give as good as we get? Why should be we always be apologetic even when we win???

The T20 World Cup was as much an exhibiton of skills as the Test series in England. Maybe a different set of skills, but skills nevertheless. Patience and grit are good qualities in a cricketer - just like the ability to whack a good bowler for six sixes in an over, or the ability to bowl six different balls in an over. Call me a premature ejaculator, but I watched every single India match, with excitement. Just as I watched most sessions of the England tour. And though most of India may not have watched much of the Test series, they certainly thought that T20 was quite close to the genuine article, and the ultrasonic whine of pseudo-intellectuals is not going to change that too much, Raj Dutta - the product will always respond to the market.

And about the celebrations. Of course India went over the top! is anyone actually surprised. And to categorize it as right or wrong is just plain stupid. Like the administrators who vulgarly award prizes, or the fans who attack the sportsmen and their families and property.

You’re right about not much interest in an Oz-India series. There’s so little interest here that they’re not even broadcasting it, tv. or radio. You have to have pay tv. to see it. And it seems it’s a washout again anyway. they should stick to water polo instead.

anyway we’ve got far more important things to think about than Indian cricket here. there’s just been the AFL, the NRL, and now there’s the Wobblies about to take on the old enemy in the WC.

And I thought Will’s captions mild compared to the standard anti-Oz stance on this blog. Just tongue-in-cheek really.

Will:

I think the real reason for the reaction is the gap between India’s major triumphs. I don’t even remember the last major tourney that we won bar the Natwest some years ago and that wasn’t even a “major” tourney until we won it

And by ‘perspective’ if you mean a stiff upper lip and a “Well done lads” then you will never get that, because its boring! Dance when you are happy and cry when you are sad I say!

I had the (mis)fortune of sitting in the VIP section of the Mumbai stadium for an India-England test and I was bored as hell.

In the North stand on the other hand there is an energy that is to be seen to be believed. Unfortunate that you missed attending a game in India. The energy is infectious

About our selection policies, the less said the better… I am not a major fan of them!

apart from pseudoKu

PseudoKu,

We don’t hog it on the blogs so much as everyone else drags us into every discussion. I t’s like Rusty said about Cricinfo, their blogs are mainly by Indians and Pakistanis about Indians and Pakistanis, but Australians are always dragged into the discussions. And it’s Indians and Pakistani commentators and fans who do it, because noon else gets into their long convoluted discussions. ( and don’t say they aren’t convoluted, some of them practically write a thesis)

it’s an open blog and you should welcome interest about India. If teams/nations are ignored then its because they’re boring

anyway, I’ve only made about 5 comments on this blog this year - think I’ll go somewhere else

by the way Indians don’t have the prerogative on over-reacting, either.

Whoa, this was spicy! TRPs going up, will!
And John - the point was not to run down T20. It was to laugh at it. A game that turns a FTB like yuvraj singh, and a non-bowler like Afridi into heroes deserves only ridicule.

More specifically, my rant was against the BCCI for making such a brouhaha and handing out cash like it’s election time. If the administrators don’t keep perspective and stop placing the test game over its shorter versions, then the fans naturally are going to go that way too.

Your logic about “product s is the same one used by karan johar, mf hussain and everyone else who’s lost all integrity and honesty about the work they do. so i won’t restart that ancient debate. This kind of “convenient” marketingspeak is what’s ruining the game.

The bowlers are gone, the quicks are dead, the tracks are getting flatter, biffers have become batters, and you call this an ‘exciting game’?

My my..’tis a case of pots calling the kettles black, eh, Will?

Prior to the India-England test series, I commented on one of the Cricinfo blogs (I can’t recall if it was in Rob Steen’s blog or Mukul Kesavan’s) thus:

“I am actually looking forward to the England-India matches. Two vastly over-rated teams, watched and dissected by their respective media organizations who are unforgiving one minute and adoring the next, one whose cricket board longs for the cricket of yore while the other aims to suck cricket of it’s very soul. What’s not to like?

Let the circus begin. ”

I now realize that I should have added one more line to describe this circus: “both with a fan base so starved of success that any series/tournament win deemed remotely significant warrants celebrations bordering on the ridiculous.”

Great comment, Theena — beautifully put.

Dutta sir, I could be indulging in convenient marketspeak, but you have to come down from your ivory tower and face reality at some point. Hrishikesh Mukherjee is dead and people like T20.

Most games in the World Cup were keenly contested until the final three overs. You may say Afridi and Yuvraj are only good enough for T20. The same may be said of Justin Langer and VVS Laxman. They are only good enough for Test cricket, and could not adapt to the requirements of the one-day game.

Like I said, a different set of skills, but skills nevertheless.