Something had been bothering me about the Rajasthan Royals. I said that RR was the one team I wouldn't support-despite Yousuf Pathan.
And I was bothered some more today while replaying the RR v. KXIP match. Especially with the commentary.
And then I came across this post.
Hmm.
The whole narrative about Warne and his eager-to-please band of followers is very Rudyard Kipling like. Duckingbeamers even talks about the Smith guiding Pathan issue that I talked about a few posts ago.
EDIT: Plus this post about Shane Harwood "guiding" the RRs to victory.
Are people like me being too sensitive?
Hearing Simon Doull's commentary made it even worse as he talked about how Warne was able to keep the entire team motivated single-handedly. Hmm.
EDIT: I agree the way everything is, it gets rather convenient for this type of narrative.
I mean Warne is pushing 40, while most of the RR players are less than 25. A very paternal relationship right there.
And look at even the composition of the team... mostly low-income, barely English-speaking unknowns...they literally hero-worship Warnie.
EDIT: Of course this was NOT by design. This simply happened.
In fact how would people like me have reacted if instead of Warnie the leader was Inzmam-Ul-Haq?? Hmm.
And Warne does crack the whip; the team isn't allowed to meet anyone prior to a game, players are not allowed out of the dressing room.
Imagine if an Indian captain did that? The phrase "pecking order" would be thrown around.
I don't have a problem with Warnie.
EDIT: In fact Warne hasn't minced his words when it comes to Graeme Smith either; he was quite open with his criticism for the Saffer's lack of form.
Its just that the narrative being built around the Rajasthan Royals bothers me.
Do I have a chip on my shoulder or do others see this Kiplingese view too?
The effects of a ton by Tendulkar.
2 hours ago
8 Maidens bowled!!:
Leela, no chip on your shoulder. I can see your POV. But Warne is not to be blamed. He has a job to do, and he is fully utilising the natural command he has over fawning colonials. The problem is with the Indian gene, which accpets anything from a 'white' man, but will resent if a Sourav or Sachin or Rahul or Dhoni ran the team the same way as Warne. What will happen then is that the team underperforms even if these guys use the same methods as Warne. You can see that in a guy like Munaf Patel - he will do anything for Warne but in India colours under Dhoni, even the masterly man-management of Dhoni cannot bring anything good out of Munaf. Dont blame the foreigners here - the problem is with us Indians and our mentality to worship our colonial masters and their cousins down under. Of course, the current pecking order is that both these colonial cousins specimen will have to bow before the masters from west of Atlantic Ocean. That's a different story
Raj,
But Warne is not to be blamed. :-)
Like I said on my post, not blaming Warne.
My problem is how the entire RR story is being covered in the media.
As far as Munaf is concerned, I disagree with you. I know he is lackadaisical, however, in the Kiwi test series he did ok.
He was the 3rd seamer, his job was to contain, which he did. He batted well too!!! And his fielding has improved as well.
Munaf is a difficult character to manage (a topic for later) but MSD has been doing OK with him so far.
I agree with most points Raj has made.
Maybe this whole Warne show or not - I have a different view. Most likely I think , if the whip was held out by anyone, fruits would have been reaped. Two points stand out for me.
Look at it this way - for many of these guys, an Indian cap ( and with it a nice fat paycheck)is far off. With IPL - it's a case of perform or perish. With fairly decent paycheck to start off with and also with incentives of it getting better - maybe the players have enough incentive to perform, no matter who the captain is !
However, the thing is - and I'm purely speculating here. Dada can hold the whip - but a consumate professinal he certainly is NOT.
We've heard and read all about how professional both Dravid/SRT are - but imaginative captains, they both certainly are NOT
What do you see from these guys, when a mis field happens ? They pout and sulk - and look at what Warne does.
I was mightly impressed with how Dhoni maintained his composure during the mother of all cockups in the run out chance in CSK's last match. He's a different Indian captain and you can see the change in the teams mentality.
If that happened with either SG/RD/SRT - I can wager that there would have been a major pouting session.
As a captain - the team looks at you at all moments. If you choke or look vulnerable - guess what that floats down to the team. That's why Tugga was rated that highly - you would never see a change in his face, no matter what.
Factor in all of this, and it's not hard to see why the media report on RR , they way they do.
TG,
I am glad someone agrees with me regarding MSD's captaincy vs. SCG/SRT/RD.
:-)
The media praises Warnie, which is fair... but I am begining to wonder if the colonial hangover is re-surfacing in the subtext.
Notice the two articles on Cricinfo? That is what is bothering me. In both cases players who were not pivotal for the win (in my thinking, anyway) were praised.
They were viewed as "mentors".
If the media did a frank analysis comparing Warne's captaincy with any of our seniors, I'd be more than happy.
:-)
Leela
What can you do if the media looks at things through ' coloured' glasses ? It's a bit dumb of them to state that Harwood ( he of what - max 5 intl games) is a mentor! Just take it with a pinch of salt.
As to MSD - of course the T20 WC changed it all for him. Went with a ' no hope in hell' team and came back with the cup. Enough said :)
Plus I really admired him and still do with his demeanour in the field. He has a Tugga instinct in him.
Lastly, you can see pigs fly, but there's no way any Indian media guy will compare SG/RD/ST and say their captaincy is horrible compared to Warne. He/She would have a life in hell after that.
Indians believe in heroes on a pedestal which should never be lowered no matter what the evidence.
TG,
Agree with you there totally.
Indians believe in heroes on a pedestal which should never be lowered no matter what the evidence.Yup.
As long as the discussion stays on on-field activities, I think all players should be frankly assesed. Which, like you said, does not happen.
Leela, oh yeah, I see that you made that point about the coverage. cricinfo, well, is definitely guilty of that. They have a SOLID anti-BCCi, anti-IPL agenda. They tend to represent the Oz-and-English POV, more often than not. After your article, connecting the dots, I guess it is the colonial hangover.. excellent point on Harwood mentoring.Ha! ha! Should have appreciated in my last comment itself.
Raj,
I picked up the Harwood story from Homer's blog. :-)
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