Rahul's revenge with the Kolkata crowd - Rahul's way

I love to watch Saurav play when he is in full flow. well, who doesn't? he hasn't been at his peak form in the past few months and eventually got sacked from the team by the indian selectors. many supporters of Saurav may feel disappointed about it but the decision cannot be called too unfair. at the same time, over-criticism of Saurav is also unfair; as he was the second highest run aggregator in the previous calendar year, he scored 80 against pakistan and two fighting 90s against England under extremely difficult conditions, faced Shane Bond with a lot of steel in the recent final against New Zealand, scored a century against Zimbabwe(which only Dravid and Laxman could do) etc. he may not deserve a place in the playing eleven but he was not as horribly bad as is now being made out of him by some. but still, feeling disappointed is one thing and taking out processions, burning effigies and booing the indian cricket team is going one step too far. we indians take cricket too seriously and forget that its just a game. nobody has died even if Saurav is excluded from the team unjustifiably. so the alleged show of displeasure by (part of) the kolkata crowd in the recent ODI was in bad taste. they reportedly booed the indian fielders on the boundary lines and did not spare even the indian coach Greg Chappel. more worse was the way the kolkata pitch was prepared by the curator: he clearly wanted to show the demons in the form of the pitch to the indian batsman as a revenge for the treatment meted out to their local hero - Saurav. this might have happened for the first time in the history of cricket, where one player has taken importance over the entire team and its victories. that was shameful for everyone. but the indian team was absolutely quite about it all. Rahul infact praised the kolkata crowd before the match and did not complain anything after it. but he had his own way of replying to them - the sober style. after the mumbai match was over, rahul removed his helmet, placed it on the ground, and clapped with both the hands as a gesture to thank the mumbai crowd for their excellent support throughout. that was more gentleman-like(in contrast to what Greg did earlier and went on to deny it - how can someone respect a person like him??) and a fitting reply to the kolkata crowd's behaviour. Rahul is a thinking cricketer/person and I like him.

now that india has drawn the series by winnning the last one day match at mumbai, the media can start pouring unrestricted accolades over the champion of it all: Greg Chappell. whenever india did well in the past, nobody used to credit a big share of it to the then coach John Wright. things have changed since then, and Greg has got enough charisma and media adulation that more than 60% of the credit is always given to him. think what would have happened if india were to reach the world cup finals under him!! he might have been awarded the kingdomship of a part of our country, provided that was legal.