Young Indians Tame the Aussie Kangaroos, Yet Again

Dhoni’s daredevils had done it before, and they have done it again – they tamed the Aussie kangaroos and showed them that stupid rhetoric of arrogance and idiotic idioms of egotism and overconfidence, in the name of mental disintegration (a pleasant euphemism for the nasty sledging) of opponents, can backfire. The young bunch of Indian cricketers have ruined the Australian team’s hope of grabbing the CB series championships by a clinical display on Tuesday at the Gabba, Brisbane.

The energetic and youthful team has achieved something that India had never been able to achieve since winning the World Championship in 1985 – winning a one day series down under and they did it with a great exhibition of team spirit skillfully led by the skipper MS Dhoni and riding on the great innings of the legendary, Sachin Tendulkar. A lot of people in India, including the so-called ‘experts’ and the laymen, were skeptical about the chances of this young team to succeed in as a hostile condition as Australia, as they were young and inexperienced and were playing at unfamiliar tracks absolutely different from what they are used to in India. By taking forward the tradition of this column, of being plainly candid and honest, I must confess that I was also not having my skepticism under check either and was also thinking in the same line as them. But the young guns have proved all wrong with their immaculate display of skill and mental toughness.

The series win is certainly a sweet revenge for the Indian team as they were ridiculed in the worst possible manner by some members of the Australian cricket team and by the Australian media. The media even went to the extend of saying that India is the worst behaved team in this world, feigning blind to their own team’s black history of being the most ludicrous sledgers and ruffians the game of cricket has ever seen. And the Aussie spectators at different grounds gave Harbhajan Singh a torrid time and tried to bully him and harass him, greeted him with big boos whenever he came to bat or ball and even called him a “wanker” to arouse some sort of a livid response from him. Then of course there was that abhorrent, “obnoxious little weed” remark made by Mathew Hayden on Harbhajan Singh which is as grisly as it can get. That comment made by Mr. Hayden proved that he is just an annoying little kid with the body of a big bull (this should not be considered as a slur as the Queensland cricketers calls themselves as “Bulls”), who should not be made to play international sport, but be allowed to sleep at his home, hearing his mom’s lullabies.

Hayden also had a go at the lanky Indian pacer Ishant Sharma and even quipped he would like to meet Ishant in a boxing ring to sort out things and he also suggested Ishant to take things easy and to worry only about his bowling and nothing else. Now I think it is time for Hayden and his teammates to stop thinking and talking about the behavior of their opponents and to worry about their own batting and their waning popularity in the cricketing fraternity. The Indians outplayed and out-behaved the Aussies, showed great resilience and didn’t try to engage themselves in the war of words, instead they demonstrated their indignation at the cricket field and made the Aussies rue their own mistake of waking up the lions from slumber.

Now the onus is on this young team to take this momentum forward and become a force to reckon with in the international arena, as we have often seen sides sliding downwards after giving a lot of promise. Of course, for now they can bask in the glory of their victory, but sooner rather than later, they should understand the greater responsibility and expectations that have come on them because of this thumping triumph. At the same time the BCCI should also show some basic common sense and should take some effort to reschedule the itinerary of the matches that the team plays, in such a way that it puts less pressure on the players, both physically and mentally. The current schedule is quite tiresome and demanding and is in such a way that either the players take a break or they breakdown, which is quite stupid.

Now the Indians have given the Aussies some food for thought and this food is not only quite difficult to swallow but is quite difficult to digest as well. But the Aussies should not complain, because this is something that they required very badly. There is only a very fine line between confidence and arrogance and once you cross from the former to the latter, there is always a prospect of a fiasco looming large, looking for an opening to strike. It is time for the Aussie players to look back and identify the places where they have gone wrong and keep their arrogance under check, hope for a change in their damned fate and expect a resurrection, which seems difficult but not impossible. And for the Indians, it is time to celebrate the way in which Dhoni’s bravehearts responded to the Aussie’s despicable on field and off field acrimonious aggression and roar to the world – “Dare we not, lest you’ll be tamed in the style we tamed the wild Kangaroos down under.”