|
Recently,
the Kiwi captain Daniel Vettori was quoted as saying: “we
don’t play our cricket that way”. He was referring
to Imran Nazir his ‘supposed’ injury. What’s
bemusing is the fact that while making this remark the losing
captain forgot that Imran’s are perhaps the fastest
two feet that Pakistan possess. So anyone having the slightest
of cricket sense would understand that having a runner causes
immense problems for the batting team, let alone he being
the best runner you have. So only if you are really paranoid
do you actually risk yourself being run out because you faked
an injury and had a player who is slower than you; run for
you? It’s not as if Inzamam-ul-Haq asked for a runner.
Vettori makes a valid point that Imran was jumping down the
wicket and ran onto the field celebrating, but I guess the
New Zealand captain has not himself ever had a slight cramp
which looked to be serious initially and later turned out
to be nothing. Or he has never himself had such an adrenaline
rush. Of course they don’t play that much cricket in
New Zealand to actually have all possibilities explored; after
all they always play one match less than us (losing in three
semi-finals is no small feat). I guess the Kiwi skipper should
start playing their cricket like us to have more matches.
But
enough of immaturity on our part, we need to understand that
a loss is a loss and people say things which they don’t
fully comprehend or mean at that time. It is the pressure
of the situation and I believe that’s what differentiates
greatness, the ability to say the right thing at the wrong
time. I am a personal fan of Daniel Vettori and love the fact
that he has cemented his place in a pace-loving nation just
like Shane Warne did in Australia. This just illustrates that
the best of them can be disappointing and we need to understand
that put in a situation like this, whether it be a Pakistani,
Indian, Australian or Englishman; whether the color of their
skin is brown, white, black, red or purple – they do
react in the same way. So Shoaib Malik – no need to
be ashamed if you ever say something like that – God
forbid.
|
|
