Sucess indeed tastes sweet!
By K Seshu Kumar

It has happened! The long-awaited victory over pakistan in a one-day match finally materialised for the Indians at Sharjah. And, what a convincing one it was!

It is nice to see smiling faces everywhere you go. In fact, a colleague at office distributed sweets to celebrate the occassion! One would think that India had won the world cup (even before it has started). But then, that is the kind of craze and following that cricket has in India.

The sad part of the whole thing is that the same people who are today going around singing praises of our cricket stars, will bury them without batting an eyelid if India were to lose in the Final of the Sharjah. Just one week back, people were hurling abuse at the Indian players. Some people even had the nerve to question the cricketing abilities of Ajay Jadeja, Rahul Dravid etc. Today Ajay Jadeja is being looked upon as if he were God almighty! People are going into ecstasy over Rahul Dravid's style and grace. What does this indicate? Somehow, the more you think about it, the more one feels that a mojority of the so-called 'cricket fans' are comprised of ill-informed people who have an opinion about anything.

For, anyone with a little appreciation of the game of cricket (or for that matter any sport) will know that there will always be ups and downs in performances. Yes, we all expect our team to perform well and we are entitled to feel if they lose badly. But showering choicest abuses on the players, questioning their crciket abilities and indulging in loose talk about 'match fixing' etc does not speak well of 'cricket fans'.

The Indian team must be congratulated for the remarkable turnaround in performances that they have brought about in the Sharjah tournament. After the first match against Pakistan, everyone was talking about how the Indian team was going to crash out of the tournament. But then, after one week they are sitting pretty at the top of the table after the qualifying rounds. Inspirationsl captaincy by Ajay Jadeja, committed efforts on the field by Robin Singh, Amay Khurasia, and Agarkar, solid batting by Dravid and Jadeja and splendid bowling by Kumble and Prasad have brought about the change in fortunes. The heartening thing for India is that most of their players have contributed in some way or the other in this turnaround. The Indians look well set to beat Pakistan in the final. And should they do it, they surely would be major contenders for the World cup.

When Pakistan was beating all and sundry in the last couple of months, cricket pundits all around the world were crying themselves hoarse about Pakistan "peaking at the right time".....one would be interested to hear what they would have to say if India pulls of the victory on Friday.

Heard of a word called Timing?