Thursday, 23 March 2006

India vs England

England have barely popped the champagne corks on their series drawing victory in the third test, but already the backlash against India has started. Before this game Mahendra Singh Dhoni was being praised as being some kind of genius combining the brilliant keeping and attacking flair of Adam Gilchrist and the bad hair of Shane Warne. Now Indian commentators are calling him 'scatterbrained' and making veiled hints about what happens to players who play silly attacking strokes. Meanwhile Virender Sehwag has been called fat and the divine Sachin Tendulkar has been sadly labelled 'mortal'.

If only we could have as much fun when New Zealand loses.

2 comments:

Sri Harsha said...

mIKE,

I don't see any harm in the criticism of India's performance y'sday @ Mumbai. The critics might be a bit hard on some players but i believe the criticisms aren't misplaced.

Mike said...

Its not that the criticism is or is not just. Its a matter of style. The Indian press seems to have a "build 'em up, knock 'em down" attitude and treats players as either heroes or villians - with nothing in between. You might (and will) hear criticism of New Zealand players from the New Zealand press, but it is usually reserved - as is the praise.