The Australians down under!
THE AUSTRALIANS DOWN UNDER
For some time now I have developed some kind of an animosity towards the Australian cricket team. I used to remind myself that harboring such ill feeling goes against the principles that I espouse.
But seeing the way they behave on field and the comments that they pass has annoyed me no end. For years they were apparently invincible. I say apparently because it probably just required a change in mindset to maraud their confidence and ego and consequently their game. But for some strange reason no team did it.
All of a sudden when team India went to Australia they not only defeated them in their own home ground, buy the made the Australians bite the dust. As in, there were three finals and Ricky ponting was quoted as saying, there would only be two of them and third one would not be played as Australia would win both of them. It was extremely gratifying to watch India thrash them 2-0. When they came to India, again we defeated them 2-0 in the test series. When the South Africans went to Australia they again were defeated. As on date (14-04-2009) the South Africans have beaten them yet again in the one day series 3-1.
I remember the oft repeated quote when I was a kid. “Pride goeth before a fall”. I feel not only is it harmful to be proud and arrogant, but it makes you a weakling when things do not go your way. As an example when the Australians lost the one day series to India in their home town, the last batsman there started crying. It was astounding and also amusing to watch. There could be two reasons. One was that they tasted thumping defeat after a long time, which they could not take. The second reason being they were humiliated and were made to eat their own words, which made them look like fools in front of the whole world.
Another important thing that is to be noted is there was extensive sledging going on during the course of the match (Hayden calling harbhajan singh an obnoxious weed) which kind of deviated from the spirit of the game. It was the same harbhajan sing who got Hayden out on BOTH occasions. After a long time I actually gloated seeing their plight. The arrogance and the high handedness that they showed were despicable to say the least. Now they are losing with delightful regularity.
Compare this with tennis when Rafael nadal who won the Australian open almost apologized to Federer and hugged him. It had all the ingredients of a thriller with unbelievable moments of genius and it was beautiful to see the spirit that prevailed.
There have been instances in my own field too wherein singers have become too big for their boots and were not called as a result. I have seen it happen with stalwarts too.
It is magical to be humble, kind, appreciative but yet competitive at the same time. Yes indeed. That way, when you win, the whole world celebrates with you. And when you lose, you are even more loved and treasured for the battle you fought and more so for the person that you are.
