Cricket, sport, spirit

One solid learning for me from India's famous win against Australia was that,
" in sport, and likewise in life, attitude and spirit matter more than ability and reputation."

A motely-bunch of 20-25 year olds....pulled the rug from beneath the feet of the vaulted world champions.....the only thing that folks like Praveen Kumar had going for them was the comfort of anonimity and arrogance of youth...dropping the highly reputed Rahul Dravid and Saurav Ganguly, not only reduced the average age of the team but also increased its fearlessness quotient.....Dhoni's blokes had nothing to lose and it showed in the way they played on the field..

It is interesting to note that Dhoni's team seems to mimic the way Dhoni plays his cricket. Dhoni is not supremely talented in terms of wicket-keeping and batting. He is at best, effecient at both, but not magical. What makes him tick is his street-smartness, grit and no-frills approach to the game. His team is similar. Barring the gifted Ishant Sharma and the masterful Sachin, all its stars including Rohit Sharma, Piyush Chawla, Robin Uthappa and Praveen Kumar are effecient cricketers, but by no means prodigies.

In the same manner, don't you know people with average abilities who make it big in life. I for one am a firm believer that the general populace is blessed with the same talent and intelligence, there might be exceptions here and there, but overall it's an even playing field. The ones who eventually succeed, seem to be the ones with that extra grit, determination and conquering spirit.