Post Ashes Blues

England's last Ashes triumph seems a distant memory now. The English demolition job at the hands of Murali brought back all too familiar memories of the 90s' beleaguered English teams.In the 8 months since the heady days of the Ashes conquest, England has played 9 tests, winning 2 and losing 4. In the meantime, the Aussies have romped to 11 test victories without conceding a single defeat. On present form, I would consider England lucky to pinch a single game, let alone retain the Ashes.

To be fair to England, their recent sub-continental assignments have been among the toughtest any team could expect to face. The constant injury woes hasn't made things easier for them . But then again, the English media and fans alike have been under the illusion that their team are world beaters. For a team of such lofty ambitions, the English media has excuses aplenty following every debacle. The Pakistan drubbings were brushed aside as anomalies, and all the struggles in India were forgotten with the solitary victory at Mumbai. And so the sub-continental expedition was declared a grand success. But even if they did lose why would it matter? Afterall, its not the Ashes, is it?

While England did dominate almost every session against the youthful Srilankan's, their failure to close out the games just emphasized their lack of squad depth and absence of killer instinct. Invariably, if Flintoff and Pieterson fails the team follows suit. But surely, I am completely wrong. The failure had to be due to something entirely different, like injuries, complacency or player burnout. Why stop at this... surely England were swindled out of a deserved win by a chucker, as opined by the respectable Mr Henderson in The Times.

The End is Nigh

Every generation has some standout cricketers, who set new records and who revolutionize the game. In this era, there are a few giants of the game whose spectacular performances in the field over the span of many years have ensured that their names will be etched alongside the legends of the game. The likes of Lara, Tendulkar, Jayasuria, Warne, Muralitharan, Inzamam, Gilchrist and McGrath have been among the most dominant personalities in the world cricket arena over the last decade or so.But age slows everyone down, even those we mere mortals once thought of as 'invincible.'

In recent years, as the battle weary bodies have started to succumb to persistent injuries or the once monotonously regular match winning runs and wickets have become more and more infrequent, the silent whispers of retirement have also been getting louder and louder.Well, such is the cruel reality of professional sports. Tendulkar, the youngest in the batch is already 33 while Lara is at the other end of the spectrum at the ripe old age 37. While we are assured of at least a few more dazzling centuries and fantastic ten wicket hauls from the Tendulkar's and the Warne's, it is time for the baton to be handed to the next generation.

It is an interesting exercise to try and predict who among the present young cricketers would dominate the game in the coming years. There are already a few emerging stars who have started to translate their immense potential to exhilerating performances. Cricketers like Pieterson, Dhoni, Yuvraj, Sangakkara, Clark and Lee have started to emerge from the shadow of their illustrious predecessors and form the backbone of their respective teams.But the likes of a Lara or a Murali will never be seen again in a cricket field when they finally decide to walk away from the field. So let us appreciate and rejoice in the artistry of these great performers while we still have the opportunity to do so.