Finally Pakistan managed to salvage some pride after loss to England. They laughed off the Netherland threat to enter into Super 8 in style. Even though Pakistan have made it to the Super 8, the cricket fans will still have to wait for India-Pakistan match as a possibility in semi-finals, or in final. Second India-Pak world cup final is not something which will be expected by many.
Sri Lanka made most of Chris Gayle's absence and fashioned a 15 run win over West Indies to secure their 1st position in their group. The old warrior again came out all guns blazing and took the match away from the caribbeans almost single handedly.
But the news that made an impression of being a national level crisis was the exit of Sehwag form the world cup. Much was said about the mystery surrounding this injury. The media suspected a cold war between captian and vice-captain. To answer the critics and media, MSD made the complete squad unity show-off. Further, the day before the India-Ireland match, Dhoni lost his cool when a scribe persisted on Sehwag's fitness issue. Dhoni even went on to publicly ask if any of the scrubes had the guts to say that he (Dhoni) himself leaked selected information to media.It was certainly expected from Dhoni to give substantial answers but when it goes wrong, it goes wrong entirely and MSD is the not the only one to be blamed.
Sometime after Dhoni's press conference, BCCI released statement saying Sehwag was unfit and ruled him out.The reaction of media to both the incidents was as if Dhoni and BCCI had committed crime equivalent to smuggling arms across Indian border
There are many questions which surround this entire event. Wasn't there any fitness test conducted for Sehwag while team was selected? Or did Sehwag try to hide this injury? How did the team Physio certify that Sehwag's would be cured in 2-3 days? How was that BCCI released statment just after Dhoni's press conference and Dhoni had no idea about it?
Initial estimate suggests Dhoni may just be a scapegoat in this scenario, but nobody knows how deep the rabbit hole goes. Indian fans must thank captains like Dada and MSD who have reduced the dependency on star players, else one can only imagine if this had happened to Tendulkar in the 90's. However the game is bigger than any player and hence should not get more attention than required for wrong reasons. One needs to remember, there's entire team without this player which has still the potential to repeat the history.
And India has crushed Ireland ruthlessly. So, Go India Go!!! All will be forgotten once the Cup is in India's kitty!
