The dawn of a new era?

(After an exaggeratedly long break from blogging, I am back to torment my (apparent) well-wishers who incidentally happen to have undue interest in my writing skills, having occassionally reached such a fever pitch that my online absence results in me being on the receiving end of pretty petty chivying. So, if you want some, come get some. It's revenge season, man!!)

The November of 2008 will be remembered as the dawn of a new era for Americans and Afro-Americans. The historic moment of the birth of the new Deal with Barack Hussein Obama becoming the first ever black American president, will bring nostalgic tears to many an eye who have been there, seen it all and witnessed the fulfilment of Martin Luther King's dream to a substantial extent. For once, the mere election of an individual to the pinnacle of political echelons made a considerable fraction of the world population forget the many obstacles on the road ahead. This is one of those rare moments that will be firmly etched on the minds of the (concerned) humans for all their lives, and will go down in history as an epoch-making milestone.

For a certain other set of people(mostly not overlapping with the first set), the November of 2008 will be remembered for another reason altogether(albeit a little too anticlimactically insignificant compared to the previous one). The ardent cricket-following Indian populace (of which I naturally consider myself a part of) got the moment of its dreams when India defeated Australia fair and square in a 4-test match series: 2-0 in statistical terms.

The series also saw two stalwarts of Indian cricket retiring completely from international cricket. You could not help but think that the timing of retirement of Anil Kumble and Saurav Ganguly could not have been more apt. Not because they would not have been able to win matches for India in the future, not because their replacements will be performing much better than they have been, not because they no longer had the hunger for success and the passion for playing cricket that we have come to associate with them over the years, but because of the likelihood of failure being interspersed among the moments of glory in the morrow, possibly resulting in the tainting of what would have been illustrious careers anyways, and because of the realisation that at some point of time in sport the aging physical dimension of oneself can become a hindrance rather than an asset. So in the end, the decisions of both were that of going out on a high victorious note, so that Anil Kumble won't be remembered for his extensively dry spells towards the end and Saurav Ganguly for his relatively weak technique against short-pitched bowling.

The series does not only mean a possible end of the erstwhile Aussie domination of world cricket, but it also implies the beginning of a new era in Indian cricket, that of the captaincy of M.S. Dhoni, the man with the Midas touch in Ravi Shastri's words. While it is true that Dhoni's job was made much easier by the strangely lacklustre performance of the Aussies and most importantly the all-round team contribution to the victory, his well-deserved lion's share of the plaudits should not be taken away from him by any means. As far as the Aussies are concerned, the return of a certain Andrew Symonds might make a helluva difference and in conditions seamer-friendlier than found in the subcontinent, there is every reason to believe that they will be back to winning ways, in spite of the absence of Mr Glenn McGrath. Despite that, one thing is certain - from now on, the opposition won't enter the field thinking that the Aussies can't be beaten; because the golden aura of invincibility has now vanished.