A Complete Failure of the System...

Disclaimer – It appears, of late, that I have become a great cribster. In other words, this blog is only being used as an opening to let out my frustrations in life. So I request my readers to have faith in Hamlet. He shall return with good posts soon.

Disclaimer 2 – Since Kolkata is my “karmabhoomi”, this post might give an impression that I am somewhat biased towards the King’s men. All critics in this respect are welcome, as the comments are not moderated, as always.

Well, the match is over. We strolled down from The Eden Gardens to Park Street, and are currently at Barista. Sebin is having is favorite Cappuccino while I am enjoying my Latte mug. The chatterbox is on. Afridi is on fire. He has taken the wickets on Sachin and another one in the same over, and I am least interested in knowing who the other batsman is. All I am thinking about is what happened in the match that just finished.

Though it was not one of the Best innings that the Knight Riders could have played, but I was optimistic about the target of 150. It wasn’t a tough one, but considering the Eden, it wasn’t an easy one as well. The opening pair of the Super Kings looked in shape, but cricket’s always a game of chance. At the time when it was most unwanted, in came a gust of Kalboishakhi accompanied by rain and the match stopped. At 7:50 P.M. IST, it was announced that Chennai Super Kings have been declared winners by three runs in accordance with the Duckworth Lewis method.

This followed a lot of speculations – 3 runs!!! What if Ashoke Dinda did not miss the catch? Since the main parameter of the Duckworth Lewis system is “Resource Left”, one wicket down could have easily resulted in a sweet victory for Kolkata. What if Agarkar had run a few more inches to save a boundary? What if Dada had at least scored one boundary before saying adieu in his home ground? What if the dependable Hussey had had lasted for more than a ball? What if the match was scheduled at 8 P.M. instead of 4 P.M.? Umpires would have waited for more time before declaring the results. But the truth is, that all this DID NOT happen… and speculations don’t count…

In a match that would decide the fate of the semi-finalists, one has the right to expect that the best team should win. What Hamlet wonders, is “Was the best team given a chance?” Well, to me, the answer is “No”! Even before the rain came, play was stopped due to Bad Light conditions for about 15 minutes. Why is it that the flood lights in Eden Gardens always have to malfunction? As a spectator on the ground, I realized that rain stopped 45 minutes before the results were declared. Why did the ground staff take SO long to take off the covers? There were just two cars available to clear off the water logging and even they did not look interested in completing the task. And THESE are NOT speculations. Sad but true, one of the best cricket grounds in the country has no contingency plans to handle obvious situations. Kolkata lost tonight – but the undigestable part was that they were not given a chance to fight it out.

How I wish this ended in a nail biting finish where the team from the City of Joy had a target to stop the visitors…

Was it a bad performance, or a bad ground management, that cost Kolkata the match? Hamlet wonders…

The silver lining is that hopes never die. Nor does keeping hopes cost you anything. Fans of Dada can still dream of a remote chance of making it to the semis by winning the remaining three ties. And even if that does not happen, I will still recite a line that’s close to every Bengali’s heart –

“Aasche bochhor abaar hobe”