The “Naughty or Nice” list of the year 2010-Part II
(Continued from Part I)
The very nice and very naughty India
The best thing that happened in the year 2010 was Sachin Tendulkar. He was undoubtedly the best player of 2010, he was even better than himself in any previous year. He had the best ever haul of 1,562 runs in Test cricket along with his unprecedented 50th
Test ton to reshape the record books. The highlight of the year for India, amongst their domination at home grounds was the first ever double century in One Day Internationals.
The Indian media got crazy raking in Tendulkar’s 50th everywhere, in between the Ashes or the South African series. However, he gave the understatement of the year saying that his unbeaten 200 was possible as “the ball was coming onto the bat
quite nicely.” Tendulkar was the nicest cricketer of the year 2010 but isn’t he always this nice. Virendar Sehwag was also nice. He did the same business he does every year, only the records got higher. He scored 1,422 Test runs this year; his strike rate
is 90.80 and he has an average of 61.82.
Then there was the nice brigade of young guns in Indian cricket. The likes of http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Virat-Kohli-c95424, Cheteshwar Pujara and Gautam Gambhir’s successful stint at captaincy was very sweet for the Indians. Then there was the dazzler Yuvraj Singh, who turned into an overweight
wreck of fun. There were rumours of him under-performing on purpose in his IPL’s Kings XI http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Punjab-c833 team. He was also taunted by Sri Lankan fans as “waterboy” when he was the 12th man. He seriously needs to drink loads of water to shed those extra
pounds.
However, the naughty world was dominated by the corrupted minds of IPL. The Indian Premier League (IPL) mess was depressing, yet it helped burst a bubble that had grown too large. Lalit Modi’s antics of producing an “I have a dream” speech were pitiable
but so was BCCI’s determination to spit on their own doorstep. The Indian market slumped with corruption stories but it always has been this way.
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/South-Africa-c757 comes back with a bang and is naughty as well
After a relatively quiet 2009, the Proteas had a good year with some great individual performances. Jacques Kallis rounded the prolific year with a double century while taking some slip catches and wickets. Kallis also had a hair transplant and showed his
new, shiny hair in the Test series against India. His new year’s resolution will be to lose a bit of weight so that he can carry the macho look.
The very stylish Hashim Amla enjoyed the bumper year with 1,058 runs in One Day Internationals with a strike rate of 104.23. His quiet confidence hits home, when his flowing chin hair works with his hard-hitting technique, to create a beautiful stroke.
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/India-c750. And of course his wicket-keeping
gloves cannot be thrown aside. It is nice for the Proteas because if Martians invade the planet, he would be the best wicket-keeper in the world.
(Continued in Part III)
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