Inner Vision

He is a boxer from Uganda (Kampala) who challenges people by saying “You better watch my hook.” He intimidates other boxers from his gym to come and fight with him. Bashir Ramathan is a popular figure in his gym. He has a different technique in boxing. He listens to the noises around him to box. Noise of his opponents shoes, his breathing are the indicators for this unique boxer to throw punches at his opponent. He wants everyone to go toe to toe with him in the ring as long as they wear a blindfold.

Bashir is completely blind. He lost his vision 12 years ago. Because of his blindness, he had to quit his school in the wake of poor facilities and work as a bricklayer. It is unbelievable that being a totally blind person he has taken a liking towards such a brutal sport.

Bashir’s personal life is a difficult one too as he lives in a shanty with his children, wife having left him. After his parents died, his brother and sister abandoned him too. Bashir had a desire to participate in the Paralympics games at Beijing but he could not even manage $ 200 for registration at the games let alone the air fair. In coordination with the Uganda’s blind community, he is trying to raise funds for his Paralympics games.

Whenever Bashir goes out on jogs with his twelve-year-old son holding his hand, people come out of their houses to watch and praise him. I feel he is an unsung hero of the Uganda’s blind community who needs to be nurtured to make it to the international level. With proper publicity and funding this dream can definitely be achieved.

Bashir Ramathan, Take a bow.
... Shivanand

picture courtesy afp.google.com

India loses to Sri Lanka in the third and final test of the series at Colombo by eight wickets to lose the series 2-1. After making a good comeback in the second test at Galle the Indians faltered again.

In the second test though the middle order failed, it was the openers who gave India a great start especially Sehwag who batted brilliantly to score a double hundred carrying his bat through. He gave India the best possible chance to make a comeback in the series. Then later in the bowling department Bhaji making a comeback after the ban, taking a total of 10 wickets in both the Sri Lankan innings, made India win the second Test. Besides these two good performers Ishant's bowling on the fourth day was also brilliant.

In the third and the final Test Indians wasted a golden opportunity by scoring only 249 runs after having won the toss and electing to bat. Yet again the Indian middle order failed. I totally agree with Kumble's comment at the post match presentation when he categorically stated that the series was lost because of the poor performance of our batters.

Except the two openers Ghambir and Sehwag, none of the other Indian batsmen have performed well in the entire series. Though one can argue that Dravid got a few rough decisions from the third umpire he totally looked like a shadow of his own with an average of 20 in the series. It seems that the wall is starting to crumble. Laxmans resistance was never enough in the later part of the series as even he struggled to read Mendis. In the entire series Mendis picked up Laxman five times out of six, except in his last innings where he remained unbeaten scoring 68.Tendulkar with an average of 15 and Ganguly with 16 were also struggling through out the series. The most difficult thing to digest in the entire series was the way in which Tendulkar got out in his last innings padding to Mendis on a straight delivery having been referred twice on two successive deliveries earlier. And prior to these two referrals he had padded one more that looked out but was not referred. Ganguly who is one of the best players of spin bowling also struggled. He never even seemed comfortable playing the medium pacers forget about spinners, as he looked to be pushing and prodding at the deliveries.

It’s high time now that the seniors give way to the youngsters even in test cricket. The senior players have disappointed millions of cricket lovers across the nation with there ineffective and miserable batting performance. At least by promoting new players we will be able to find replacements.

From the Sri Lankan point of view it is Ajantha Mendis (video clip) again who stole the show, over shadowing Murli by talking 26 wickets and winning the Man of the Series award. Yet again he made it difficult for the Indian batters to read him like he did in the Asia cup finals.

Many Indian fans are of the opinion that the new system of referrals has cost us the series but I personally disagree with the same. Yes there have been occasions in this series when the decisions have gone against us but I feel that it was just a case of Billy being silly. I also feel that referral system should be continued in the future matches as well. It will help to eradicate errors committed by the field umpires. Use of technology to get correct decisions should be welcomed as on many occasions even one wrong decision by the field umpire has changed the entire course of the match.

Once again India plays Sri Lanka in a One Day series starting 18th August 2008. Let us hope that India is able to beat Sri Lanka this time and avenge defeat.