The last four months have seen India in a sticky wicket, against some hostile bowling from DC. Our smugness is coming apart from its seams. Have we lost the art of leaving the ball alone. Of ensuring that we play with a straight bat. Sometimes the pitch is undone by the playing 11 and at times by spectators with business interests..
Let’s start with 2022. A little country gets invaded by a big one. While we wisely kept out of it in the U.N. we upped the crude oil purchase from zero to 38% of the total mix and it worked as long as we were not in the spotlight. But we wanted to walk with the swagger of Viv Richards on world stage and the rather partial umpire shouted tarriffs in the middle of a trade war. Switching to Russian crude was wide off the mark. That was a ball we could have left alone, soften up the bowling, and quietly caress the ball later for runs. But all the grease has made the wicket nasty. Is it time to quietly relay the pitch .
The second problem was H1Bs. A visa system that was meant to attract the very cream, in areas where US is lacking.. chemical engineers who can decipher reaction kinetics while simulating turbulent flow,a medical researcher that can unlock the autoimmune condition that eats up one’s own nerve cells, material scientists that can invent alloys that make a killer aircraft engine. Instead Ranji trophy and club cricketers and the like somehow clutter up the queue to do coding jobs under H1B. I don’t think the Indian government is responsible, but our private enterprises gloss over the letter and spirit of H1B, and now it hits the fan.
So it is time to settle down and play better cricket, Leave the greasy ball alone. Be generous to the grizzly bear, tell them that the Teslas and F120s and Harley’s come in free. A handful may buy it.. and tell that Chevy Malibu is the best car in the world and play cricket. With the humility and class of Sachin, with the guile of Prasanna, with a straight bat and decency like Dravid, with the calm courage of Dhoni.
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