Rahul Dravid – India has let its freak flag fly in the recent Under-19 World Cup final where it achieved a victory over Australia and brought home the title for the 4^th time thus becoming a country to win the maximum number of times.

The sole credit of this win however goes to Mr. Dependable Rahul Dravid under whose guidance the victory became theirs. He has been instrumental after the rigorous training that the boys went through for prepping themselves up for the battlefield. After all, creating champions is not an easy task.

Rahul Dravid never got his due fame while he was a player but as a coach, his performance derived profuse appreciation from the people at large. India won the final by 8 wickets and made Dravid’s chest swollen with pride. Dravid rather was generous enough to pass the credit to the boys saying they and their devotion towards the sport is the reason for the win, not him.

Rahul Dravid sees this win as a stepping stone of further opportunities which will bring along more success for the team near future. Only a modest and grounded man can step aside and take others centre stage. May be it is rather a strategic move by him to boost the morale of his boys who are likely to become the pillar of Indian cricket in the time to come. Who knows, may be the next Virat Kohli emerges from them only?

However humble he tried to sound, fans refused to take him for granted whatsoever. As soon as India’s win, fans went all praise for Rahul Dravid in their Twitter handles and his revert made their hearts melt instantaneously.The list of his fans has heavyweight names like Sachin Tendulkar too who expressed his gratitude towards the once fellow cricketer through his Twitter handle. This one added extra volume to the wave of appreciation as his words touched our hearts truly.

Not only Sachin Tendulkar, the super middleweight champion Vijender Singh too showered his praise on the boys and their coach. He also acknowledged the fact that the victory was phenomenal and we are rooting for some more such victories of Indian U-19 Cricket team near future.

Our dimple-cheeked beauty Priety Zinta too heaped praise on the boys for winning the #CWCU19 and offered a bow of gratitude to Rahul Dravid. Preity seemed to be over the moon by the win.

Then there came the prideful words from Mohammad Kaif, who said he was reminded of their triumph 18 years ago by this phenomenal win of U-19 Cricket team of India. He appreciated the efforts by the boys and the mentoring of Rahul Dravid.

This fan posted a hilarious video of how Rahul Dravid can give it back to Ravi Shashtri after this epic win of U-19 Indian Cricket Team and his words sounded pretty apt to us too.

Here are some other tweets by fans that we are bringing here for you.

The post How Rahul Dravid’s Grounded Nature is Winning Hearts After U-19 World Cup appeared first on Youngisthan.in.

Virat Kohli is the man of the day!

He is making his debut as a test-captain on the Indian soil and it is not going to be an easy beginning. He doesn’t need to prove his credential to anyone what with coming from behind and snatching victory in Sri Lanka and showcasing his master skills.

However, in India it is going to be different and that too against South Africa, a team that is in its full elements!

There was a time when India was really strong in its own backyard at least, with players like Sachin Tendulkar, Saurav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid, VVS Lakshman, Anil Kumble and Virender Sehwag ruling the roost and ensuring that no one was able to defeat us in India.

Things have changed now. The senior most player of the current lot, M.S.Dhoni, like others, has also retired from the longer format of the game and there is no one experienced enough in the time to guide the younger lot. Virat knows it very well that he will have to lead from the front and that’s where his challenge lies. Openers like Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, and Cheteshwar Pujara are still not settled and despite being powerhouse of talent, each one of them is still miles away from being consistent in their performances.

On their good day, they can beat the best teams of the world single-handedly, but that one “good day” comes rarely!

On top of it, our bowling unit is still not fully functional. Either our pacers are going after pace or trying to maintain right line and length. Either they try to stop runs or they try to take wickets. There is no perfect balance and no leading senior bowler, who can really come forward, take the onus of producing results and inspire juniors in the team!

In this backdrop, the test series with South Africa looks really difficult and very challenging as the visitors are very well settled and having enormous talent amidst their ranks to create chaos for us. While Indian team is still looking to find the right combination of batsmen as well as bowlers, the visitors are looking sure of their strategy on how to contain India and give us a knocking punch!

Virat knows it all, but the question is whether he is ready to take the bull by its horns or are we going to just see a lot of experimentation without productive results?

Let’s hope our youngsters come out all guns blazing and prove their mettle! When fighting against the best, one’s best comes out!

Here’s hoping that Virat is able to bring out not only his, but his teammates’ best as well and come out victorious!

Good luck boys!

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Indian cricket once boasted of star players like Sachin Tendulkar, Saurav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid, Anil Kumble, Harbhajan Singh and Javagal Srinath.

These were players who were regularly seen in every match and kept on performing for the team whether it was one-days or the test matches. However, with time they have all retired except for Bhajji who has been dropped and selected as part of the team quite frequently.

Now if you talk of today’s team, except for M.S.Dhoni or Virat Kohli, no player is a regular feature in any of the matches. New players or even a bit experienced ones keep walking in and out of the team as if they are visiting a railway station waiting room without any purpose! Whether it is Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane or even Suresh Raina, Ravindra Jadeja and Ishant Sharma!

All of them are not new to the Indian cricket team, but none of them have given such stupendous performances on a regular basis that they can be considered permanent position holders in the team. Each one of them performs in few matches and then loses their form faster than we can change our clothes! Or worst, they get injured and are forced out of the team!

What is the reason for this?

Does it have to do anything with talent?

Or is it excessive playing that is taking its toll on them?

As far as talent I concerned, all these players are world class and have proven their mettle from time to time in the international arena. Some of them have shown what kind of potential they have to be world class players who can keep on playing for years to come. However, the pressure of playing in three different formats, which is the one-day cricket, test matches and T20, is proving to be too huge for them. May be the youngsters are not getting the right coaching and right direction about how to manage their body, mind and attitude to adjust to frequently changing conditions of world sports.

It is important for players to understand that it is not going to be easy to perform consistently if they don’t give rest to their body. Most of the players, if not playing for the country, are busy playing in the IPL or busy with their endorsements or partying and enjoying their life. If one can maintain the balance between all three, the way a Sachin Tendulkar did or Virat Kohli and Dhoni does, then go ahead and make the most of your life.

But not everyone is gifted or possesses such fine-balancing qualities.

For such players, it is important to keep country’s interests first so that they can have a long innings as a player in the Indian cricket team. Or else, there are enough players to replace them!

It is high time we see some regular players playing for the country as it gives confidence to the team itself while bringing stability in the dressing team. A strongly knit consistent team has more chances of winning matches instead of different men joining hands in different matches without having a strong bond!

The post Why Is Indian Cricket Team Looking Like A Railway Station Waiting Room? appeared first on Youngisthan.in.

There is a famous saying these days which says that if you sincerely wish for something, the whole Universe conspires to give it to you. It seems the collective wishes and prayers of a host of sportspersons across all kinds of sports except cricket are being answered right now!

The writing is on the wall!

Cricket is dying, day by day, week after week, year after year and the slide is quite phenomenal!

However, the silver lining is it is dying at the cost of other sports which are taking the space which was single-handedly grabbed by an entertainment giant called Cricket.

But first, let’s share with you some figures about cricket’s slow and steady decline.

Hard Facts!!

Firstly, cricket’s reach in India has declined from 77% in 2010 to 70% in 2014.

If one compares the income distributed by BCCI to players, it has declined from Rs. 49crores in 2012-13 to just Rs. 11 crores in 2013-14! Now that is a huge drop!

So what is happening?

Nothing much, except the fact that fatigue is setting in. In this age of really fast life, people are not finding enough time to sit through an 8-9 hour long One-day match without the crowd-pulling power of some outstanding players. It is a fact that the era which took cricket to its stupendous heights was due to some heavyweights of Indian cricket comprising of Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Saurav Ganguly and VVS Laxman. One by one everyone retired, but the final blow was Sachin’s retirement. A whole generation who got stuck to their TV sets due to maestro’s batting suddenly felt a void and couldn’t relate to his absence. No player has been able to fill the big shoes even though Virat Kohli does look promising. In short, the attraction isn’t that huge now that one gets the tendency to leave everything to just watch a match! Moreover, there are other means of entertainment for quick gratification instead of spending five days or even 8hours on a cricket match when it is not inspiring enough!

Who is winning?

The obvious winners are other sports leagues launched in recent years, including comprising of sports like football, hockey, kabaddi, badminton and tennis. These sports take almost as much time as a T-20 takes so it easily squeezes in the busy schedules. The working population is going for variety and the youth isn’t connecting to cricket the way their elders did almost 20years ago. In a way it is good because the money available to promote sports gets distributed for the development of other neglected sports and sportspersons. Instead of only one sports body getting richer and richer, everyone gets a pie of the action and benefits from it.

The Way Forward..

The only question to be answered is whether BCCI and ICC are in tune with changing realities or living in their cocoon? Globally, only 14 countries play cricket and the sports bodies have plans to cut short the number of teams playing in the next World Cup to only 10. In a scenario when cricket is losing its sheen in the biggest market, India, and no major development is happening to promote the sport in other countries, what is the future of cricket not only in India, but world over?

Till they ponder over it, let’s enjoy our IPL games!

At least they are not going anywhere, anytime soon!

The post Cricket Is Dying In India And So Are The Generated Revenues! appeared first on Youngisthan.in.

Cricket, in India, is religion and Sachin Tendulkar is God.

Hockey, unfortunately, took a backseat long time ago and cricket entered into the life of the youth and nothing has changed much.

Even to this day, parents prefer handing their children a plastic bat and plastic ball as toys than small cutlery items.

As you age, cricket grips your soul like no other sport. Here are signs that your love for cricket can never experience demise –

Obviously, as a child and in the teenage, you played a lot of cricket within your residential compound, where you broke many windows and got yelled at.

Gully cricket is a trend among the youth

Whenever you did not play cricket, you watched cricket on TV with your family or with your close friends. When with family, you had the Indian flag; with friends, beer and something to complement it.

Watching cricket match with friends and family members is fun

If you work on the day India played a cricket match, you have one tab on the computer showing the live match score. In case you had a cooler office, you watched the live telecast of the match with other employees.

Watching cricket with office colleagues is thrilling

The doors or walls in your house have posters of Indian or international cricketing legends. Obviously, you had an argument with your parents about it, but they eventually gave in.

Your doors and walls have posters of cricketers

Other than posters, you have Indian team jerseys, probably ranging by different eras.

Indian team jerseys of different era

You also collect cricket stubs of the matches that you have attended personally. Carrying them in wallet could be risky which is why you have a secret stash at your home.

Collecting cricket match tickets pave way for good/bad memories

Location does not stand as a barrier when it comes to your love for cricket. You make it a point to travel to different Indian states or even overseas to watch your favourite players in action.

You travel long distances to watch a cricket match

During a high profile cricket match, your social media profile contains a series of updates. This tends to annoy people in your friends list, who are as enthused but do not promote their excitement online.

You upload social media updates during high profile cricket matches

Whether you own a smartphone or an iPad, cricket is one of the first games that you download. The game becomes your travel companion if you have to commute long distance for work.

Your smartphone and iPad devices carry cricket games

You make it a point to never miss a cricket event. You even watch the pre-match and post-match sessions, for you consider them informative. The statistics that the panel provides get registered in your brain forever.

pre-match and post-match sessions are informative

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