Good Sport, Bad Sport

The last two weeks have seen remarks by two people who have not achieved great popularity otherwise.
One was John McCain who made a tremendously graceful exit from the soap opera that was the US elections. The other was Ricky Ponting, who while conceding the loss to India in the match and the series, gave all credit to India. Not for once did he whine. I thought that reflects well on Ricky as a sportsman. I think he has received a lot of unnecessary flak for the decision to bowl irregular bowlers at the death of the Indian innings. People should have the balls to stand by their decisions. And he has not been a complete failure either, anymore than his counterpart's performance with the bat.

It is extremely easy to make arm-chair comments (and I make my fair share!). India has screwed up enough times in the past with more obvious situations. Nag the aussies for the right stuff. Even now, it is quite weird why Dada was forced out by what I think was the Vengsarkar lobby. The jerk, formerly chairman of selectors made a dent in the confidence of more than 1 player in the Indian team, by making comments all the time, much of it, unwanted. I am glad he is out. Srikanth while being something of a nut himself is perhaps much better for the team. Lets see.

And before we leave, goodbye and good luck to Dada and Jumbo. While the latter has not rubbed too many people the wrong way, the former has and we love him for it. While Jumbo brought a fairly quiet performance ethic to his game, save for the telling comment at Sydney, Dada never minced his words. And we are fans of both. We believe that Indian sport needs some kick in the backside once in a while. Dada delivered it with some spunk.