Overreaction Monday ft Wasim ‘warning’ Khan, Rahul 'underrated' Dravid and Karim ‘Guti’ Benzema
Overreaction Monday ft Wasim ‘warning’ Khan, PCB’s dilemmatic request and Karim ‘Guti’ Benzema
|SportsCafe
We are back at it again to take away your Monday blues and leave you all updated with the most hilarious, bizarre and controversial statements from the world of sport. Nothing has changed this week, too, with athletes and their lockdown stories continuing to interest us all.
Wasim Khan spoke too soon
Wasim Khan was back in the news, weeks after he talked about the relationship between India and Pakistan. However, this time around, he came swinging and swinging in a fashion that almost was scary, with a statement of warning for Mohammad Hafeez after his private testing for Coronavirus, which tested the all-rounder negative for the virus.
SC’s Take: The backdrop to this story is simple: just a day before all these unfortunate events unfurled in front of PCBs eyes, they had tested ten of their players, who were in line to visit England later in the week, positive for Covid-19, out of which one was all-rounder Mohammad Hafeez. While Hafeez is more a Test player, his contribution during his last few matches for the national team is in the limited-overs format. So when he was tested positive for the virus, surely his career must have flashed by, with a deafening bell to suggest that his time’s up. So when he decided that he would do private testing of the same, he was tested negative, and just like any other cricketer, with good intentions, he put it up on Twitter.
That kick-started everything - the rounds of trolling on social media for the PCB, the embarrassment for the doctors who tested him positive and for the PCB itself, for the way it unfurled right in front of their eyes. This triggered Wasim Khan, who gave a set of stern words and a warning to Hafeez for his action. But an eye for an eye is not the solution. Just because Hafeez came out and posted on Twitter, it doesn’t mean that Wasim too goes around giving interviews regarding the same. Ultimately, it resulted in the all-rounder testing negative, which in fact, should have been good news for PCB.
Kapil Dev says no pressure on Virat whatsoever for winning a World Cup
Well, the 1983 World-Cup winning skipper, Kapil Dev, earlier this week, reckoned that there is no sort of pressure on Virat Kohli leading his side to a World Cup win for India. Dev also stated for a captain, shaping a side matters for than actually lifting the cup.
SC’s Take: Given that Kapil Dev is from an era, where the expectations from the Indian team was next to none, this statement does not come as a surprise. However, it is interesting to note that there is no pressure on Virat Kohli from a World Cup’s perspective. Well, in the last nine years, since making his World Cup debut, Kohli has always had to bear the brunt of filling the shoes of Sachin Tendulkar in India's batting line-up. Moreso, whenever he fails, the critics automatically point out how his batting has taken a hit or how his failure has led to India failing to win a tournament. But to say there has never been a pressure, automatically makes it an overreaction - in a country of nearly 1.3 billion people.
Every year, every series, every single match, the Indian fans expect their team to win every single game - every single moment. So much so, if they fail in one game, their effigies are burnt down and stones are thrown at players' houses. After the 2019 World Cup semi-final loss against New Zealand, there was a similar kind of reaction, with the media reacting to Kohli’s captaincy and how the Delhite did not plan well before the tournament. And, expectations wise, it was at the highest level last year, when India started as the tournament favourites alongside the host nation England. So we do feel that Mr.Dev might be not-so-right in his assessment this time around.
Is Rahul Dravid ‘under-rated’ any more
Irfan Pathan, this week on Instagram Live, suggested that Rahul Dravid is the ‘most most underrated cricket’ in the entire cricketing world. He also debunked the argument that Dravid is not a great ODI cricketer by pointing out that the right-hander scored over 10,000 runs in 50-over cricket.
SC’s Take: Just to remind one and all here, we are in 2020, nine years after Rahul Dravid finished his international cricketing career in England. Yet, we still point out the very same thing - that is he is under-rated. Despite him being hailed as one of the best cricketers around generations, Irfan Pathan’s statement comes out as a surprise. Also, incidentally, if you mention one thing over and over again, it automatically transforms itself into an overrated from being underrated. If there is something about Dravid, that is he is rated as much as he should be, be it in India or around the world.
Moreso, even publications, who are very critical of players, have come and hailed Dravid as one generational talent, including praising his uncanny ability of being able to spend hours at the crease. I wonder if Pathan would say the same thing about Virat Kohli, that the Indian skipper is terribly under-rated, despite him crossing the 10,000 run mark in the 50-over format, joining the likes of Sachin and Dravid in the list. Saying Dravid is ‘underrated’ is one thing and saying that he is the most underrated cricketer in the history of cricket is another - it's the difference between being logical and emotional.
Karim ‘Guti’ Benzema
Seconds after Benzema’s amazing skills, where he backheeled excellently, nutmegging Espanyol’s defender for a nice assist to Casemiro, in their 1-0 win over the Catalan side on Sunday, Twitter was filled with ‘filth’ comments, comparing it to former Real Madrid star Guti’s assist.
SC’s Take: Ah, biscuit, here we go again, whenever and wherever you see a backheel, immediately, Real Madrid fans make a startling comparison with Guti’s backheel assist in Real Madrid’s 1-0 victory against Deportivo La Coruna, which was also incidentally his 117th assist in a Real Madrid jersey. It all started to roll in front of our eyes when the French star Karim Benzema put out a similar effort in their 2-0 win over Espanyol. But, this is where opinions start to make its way to the mainstream social media - in this case, Twitter. The social media platform was filled with comments, suggesting that it was even better than Guti’s magical assist.
For starters, Guti had the chance to score a goal himself and one only feels that he would have been criticised heavily if he had failed in that situation. Guti had a clear sight on goal, could have easily scored himself, with him having the goalkeeper in a one on one situation, yet he decided to assist Benzema. Benzema definitely learnt it from the master but in no way is this goal or the assist better than Guti’s.
