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Hurrah, India won the Hutch Cup, an overseas series victory. The first overseas ODI Trophy for captain Dravid. After the demoralizing defeat in the Test Series against Pakistan, the Indian Cricket Team was written off by the critics for the Hutch Cup. The 5 ODI’s tournament had a predictable opening. Pakistan won the first match; afterwards it was just the India’s story. India won the rest 4 matches more convincingly than the previous one. Probably they implemented the management principle Kaizen in their game plan. This series had its own set of controversies. The unusual way Inzy got out in the first match. There was too much furore in the sports column about it. Many claimed though the appeal by the Indian team complies with the rules of the game, it was not a sportive call. The age old argument surfaces to the top again, whether the game should just be played with both sportive spirit and rules or just the rules. Controversies apart, the ODI series was an absolute treat to watch. The icing on the cake is definitely the technology used by TEN Sports, “The Dartfish and Hawkeye”. The strides in technology which traces the movement of the ball every moment is simply amazing. If atmosphere is the reason which attracts the viewer to get into the stadium then definitely it’s these technologies which are going to keep the viewer glued to the TV screens in the days to come.

Multan seems to be a charm of luck for Dravid. It is here, he won the first test as a captain and it is here he won the first overseas ODI series as a captain. Well the Indian team finished the final rites in Karachi by winning the last match in style. At one point of time, when the asking rate was around 8.3 rpo, 100 odd runs to score with Dhoni and Yuvraj were batting, I thought Indian’s might lose the match. Later when Yuvraj got injured and couldn’t move his feet properly, the match started tilting in favour of Pakistan. But due to some inconsistent line and length from the Pakistan bowlers and some extremely poor fielding, the Indians cruised home. Nonetheless Dhoni was simply awesome; I hope he would be repeating these powerful knocks against teams like Australia. Have to wait and watch.

One growing concern amongst the veterans of the game is in order to make the ODI format of the game more interesting and marketable the organizers are spoiling the game to be purely a batsman game. By preparing flat tracks, reducing the boundary lines, etc.

Looking forward to England’s tour of India which is about to start the next fortnight.

Best Regards
A Happy Indian Cricket Fan