Historic match - A Bowler's worst Nightmare

5th odi AUS vs SA

As the dust settles and things begin to get normal after SouthAfrica's record breaking win at
the Wanderers in Jo'burg,one begins to wonder about the implications of this match over the future of one day cricket.This outcome has both positive and negaive implications.lets lookout the positives first before looking at a long list of negatives.

Positives:
1) Aussies can be beaten. Eventhough their batting and fielding are as powerful as ever, their bowling lineup without warne and Mcgrath looks vulnerable.
2) SouthAfrica shed their tag of being chokers in big matches. They not only overcame thier fear of failure but also built new levels of self beleif.
3) Teams conceding more than 300 runs in odi's hereafter will beleive they can chase the score
themselves.
4) The uncertainty factor which is associated with ODI cricket has surfaced once again.
5) Even people who know very little about the game will start following cricket.

Although there are quite a few positives, the negatives outweigh the positives in my opinion.
This kind of a match has not happened by chance.It was always waiting to happen like a dormant volcano waiting for erruption . The reason I say this is because of the recent trends that have emerged in ODI cricket. The odds continue to be stacked heavily in favour of the batsmen. Smaller boundaries,Heavier bats, Restrctions on bowlers bowling bouncers, field restrictions and flat pitches . All these contribute to bowlers being massacared in high scoring
matches.

In addition to all these, teams are always reluctant to field 'quality' wicket taking bowlers and include so called one day specialists in their teams. If the conditions like those that existed in wanderers are going to be becnchmark for future ODI matches then the game will be in trouble.

Negatives:
1) Spin bowlers will become a extinct species. Hard hitting batsmen will ensure that teams don't include spinners as they are bound to be hit out of the park.
2)The skill element will be taken out both of batting and bowling and cricket will become a power game
3) There will be only one breed of batsmen like the one's of Symonds, Klusener, Afridi,Dhoni
and pieterson. The classical players like Dravid, Vaughan and Martyn will have no place.
4) Bowlers will have no options but to only bowl Yorkers and and low full tosses and this will
turn cricket in to baseball.
5) Batsmen will have no regard for technique as they will have freedom to throw their bats on the ball all the time.This would make a complete mockery of the style of play of the old cricketing legends.

A match like this,eventhough makes wonderful viewing should not be the trend setter. The contest between bat and ball should be made even. Only then the game will remain alive and well.

Ganhiji's Autobiography

This week I started to read M.K Gandhi's autobigraphy,"My experiments with truth".I have finished reading only about Gandhi's childhood and marriage . But, reading only so little
has already made me change my perception about the Gandhi as a person . I have always presumed Gandhiji to be some sort of a saint who gave up everthing and lived a very simple means of life .

I was totally surprised with the facts I read in the book . There are umpteen incidents in his early life which suggest that he was a normal boy in his youth . He did all those things which most people do in their teens. Gandhi took to eating meat and drinking wine despite being born in a vegeterian family. He was totally convinced that Britishers dominated Indians because of their physical strength which they got by eating meat.

Gandhi was in the company of a friend who initiated Gandhi to these habits. The friend, whose name is unrevealed in the book ,even took Gandhi to a Brothel. But Gandhi went in and returned immediately fearing his conscience. By the time this incident happend Gandhi was already married.

Gandhi was married when he was only 13. Gandhi regrets being married at such an early
age ,later when writing this book. Gandhi also regrets about his' carnal appetite' . He deeply regrets about the fact that he was spending the night with his wife while his father was dying.
He says that, had he been free of his caranal appetite,he would have had the previlage of watching his father die in his arms.

Gandhi went to England to pursue his higher studies in law. He reached England after many struggles and obstacles ,as it was unheard of in those days for a boy born in a ordinary family to go and pursue studies in England.In England ,Gandhi tried to pass off as an English gentleman by wearing expensive suits, watches and taking dancing classes.

How did this normal young man become a Mahatma, is the question I will try to find an answer for as I continue to read this book and continue to fascinate about the life and times Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi .