OK, Roy,
so you have now disowned all your statements about how earlier series results dont count and why Ganguly was wrong. Fine, nothing new there really.
As for your statement on what a captain can and cannot say, I'll let you be the judge for yourself.
I would call forthright what you call classless. I won't even attempt to try and persuade you to use some reason in here- you'll just backtrack again like you did just now. However, I wonder if you'd ever call a Steve Waugh classless for his sledging, or that remark when Steve Elworthy was felled on the pitch and was in a hospital in the name of 'mental disintegration'.
Sampras is a wonderfull player, and when he plays in his 'zone' nobody can beat him, on grass or hardcourt. He surely knows that. Anyway, he was never arrogant in the way he said it- it was usually a statement of dissapointment after losing a match- irritation with himself for playing lousy tennis. If you have really been following tennis, you would hardly call a fellow like him classless or arrogant! His praise for Andre, Becker, and even Leander (once..) was genuine. He's always shown respect for his opponents on the court and off it. It sounds rather ridiculous to me that you should expect him to say after each win "I played well. he played well. I was lucky to win today. " and after each defeat "I tried my best, but he was better. Gotta hand it to him" irrespective of what he really thinks.. and knows.
On the BS about Pak, and England:
Pakistan has been a far far better team than England in last decade. England's comparitive success in the last two years, was preceded by a loong run of bitter failures. Pakistan has produced the odd shocking performance, but over the last decade has been superior to England, India and all other teams bar Aus and SA by a good margin. SA has indeed been very consistent and successfull. In ODIs, Pak has been even more dominant.
From 1999 they have even been better than Australia in ODIs, except for their peculiar (and sometimes funny) tendeny to screw up in the odd match.
All the fools in the world were talking loads of crap about how India didn't win multination tournaments after 1998. Well, nobody seems to have noticed that Australia won just four tournaments in that period including the WC. Pak won the most. I think that Pak, and Australia lead the no. of multination ODI tournament wins of all time, with India a close third. (BTW, that's why people chose to look at a period after 1998- India and Aus had won the most number of multination tournaments at that time..and India made 9 finals before the natwest in the period in consideration. Not surprisingly, the new wave of masochistic and didactic writers that dominates press today chose to omit that stat totally).
England, and other teams are not even close to Pakistan even if you look at England's most succesfull period of recent times- the last two years. SA, ofcourse, is there and about. I think that if you counted the period after they came back to cricket they'd pip India to the third place. (which would be appropriate too)
About the fans: I don't know why we embarass you so much
There's nothing terribly bad about fans who think that India/Pak can beat any team in the world. Come to think of it, I think so too. I don't know how many decades it's been since you've lived in Pak.. in India people on the street rave about Brett Lee, and Shane Warne, are big time fans of Kallis and Jonty, and ape Gilchrist and Brian Lara. They will still root for India every worldcup, and very volubly for all that.
The sooner you understand that not everyone fits into the same culture of thought and cultivates the same reactions for situations, the better. None of these people who are simply supporting their teams strongly mean any harm. It's similar to why some people think sledging is fine but appealing is not, while others are disgusted with sledging, and think that appealing is part and parcel of the game. People simply have different ways of enjoying the game. Quit telling us to 'look at the scoreboard' and applaud England for being superior to India and Pakistan.. We will gladly admit that with Australia, and still hope our teams thrash the kangaroos
It DOESNT mean that these people don't appreciate the fact that England is a good team today. The fact is that England DID suck before Hussain took over, and we'd gladly tell you that.
English crowds are generally supposed to be the kind that enjoy cricket over tea, use the occasion of a cricket match to organise a social get together in the ground, etc. Indian fans will go in there with drums, sing and dance and have a great time in the ground. That's another difference. Anyone could come in and say that this is unruly behaviour, but in that case I'd tell the English to go back home and sleep! this is just about two different cultures.
So for the last time to you, and to whoever else this concerns, try to stop dictating how fans should enjoy their sport; stop the fair weather fans rubbish etc.
BTW, It's funny how you manage to discount the success of Pakistani cricket yourself..
And as I finish this, I realise that the above was mostly wasted on you, Roy: look at my earlier posts, and your response to that. you simply swept all those stupid statements that you made away, and backtracked without an acknowledgement.
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*** deluded Indian fan*** :P
