STOP CRIBBING

Sports today...

Ah that sinking feeling....déjà vu.... having passionately followed Indian cricket for the past fifteen odd years…u could almost sense that happening again…
....a fifth day pitch…men round the bat…and the much revered starry indian batting line up failing to last two sessions! Another loss…and the blame game begins…this time though it was easier…. bad umpiring and the occasion to point fingers is dished out on a platter.

To begin with, I don’t intend to defend the umpires here. Definitely, the umpiring was substandard and dismal to say the least. But then how far is it fair to use it as a shield? A shield to hide our flaws? A shield to deny credit to the deserving victors. And the media simply heightens the feeling by repeatedly pointing fingers to umpires? Why not question the non-performers in the team? Or the bowlers who gave away 400+ in the third innings of a match? Or the batsmen who failed to last two sessions? Or the tail enders who could not an survive an over from a non regular bowler, Michael Clarke. It hurts to see your team crumbling like ninepins within a day.

It hurts that a game which is almost a national religion and which undoubtedly gets more than its share can let you down on a fine Sunday morning.

It also hurts that the same old ghosts return to haunt you about the affairs of Indian cricket.

Let us not use umpiring errors as a reason of our defeat.Why don’t we accept that a better side beat us? A side, not with superior abilities, but with a stronger mental make-up. A side, which constantly redefines sporting standards. A side, with a never-say-die attitude, which believes in only competing with itself. Umpires are bound to make mistakes.

Technology can simplify things and should be encouraged, as professionalism becomes another name of the modern day sports. But that should not dilute the praise that a world-beater unit like the Aussies deserve as they extend their winning streak to 16! In our bid to stop them from equaling their own world record streak , how often do we forget the sheer magnitude of this winning streak. To add to it , they have done it twice in last decade. The moment you club it to their hat-trick of world cups and an unbeaten run of 32 matches in world cup games, you realize the sheer dominance they command in this arena. It would be fair to say that the Aussies are miles ahead and the rests simply compete for the runners-up tag in cricket.The umpiring decisions did go against India, but that is how this game is, with the human element adding to the charm and uncertainties of the contest.

And that aspect itself lends it a unique parallel to life.

Better take it in your stride that on any other day they might have gone in your favor as well.



Life everyday...


...And not only in cricket, don’t we do it every time in our lives?

Time to stop cribbing.

Cribbing gets u nothing. When will we learn to accept defeat with grace? When will we learn to accept that we were outdone by a smarter adversary.

When? When? When?

When will we start being a sporting loser? Losing itself is not a crime. Nor is losing continuously either. But it is absolutely awful when we club defeat with disgrace and club it together with complaints or cribbing

Life is also like sports, if not a sport itself. There are often elements in lives which are beyond your control and which add to the frustrations by conspiring against your honest efforts. But then cribbing is not a solution.

The problem lies in our attitude, in our inability to accept that our opponent might be smarter or plain lucky, in either of cases whereby, cribbing will get u nothing. The problem lies in our inability to accept defeat and credit the efforts of others.

Probably the answer lies in the way we are brought up and trained to be winners…nothing less than winning will satisfy. We are taught that winning in every field is an absolute must. U have to win in the academics, in the sports- field, in the dance competition, in the writing competition and so on. We are trained to attach a stigma to losing and it is accentuated by a constant comparison with our peers. This cultivated attitude becomes a pain as we begin competing larger battles on the canvass of life. It becomes stifling where we encounter people with talent in arenas of their strength and begin weighing our worth against theirs.

It is always the losers who crib.

They always have reasons.

Always.

Something or the other.

Always something to point fingers to and blame.

But how often do we sit and contemplate about ourselves? What was lacking in our efforts? May be hard-work, may be sheer timing of some events or maybe the field itself is not your forte.

The solution is within you and only you are responsible for the state you are in.

No one has enough power to chart your path, but you