Some English bloke once sung about imagining no religion.
So I did and I came up with the team that India would have had if not for the fact the Muslims were herded out for being Muslims and ended up with their own country.
Lets pick a random year, 1999.
This is my eleven.
Saeed Anwar
VVS Laxman
Sachin Tendulkar
Rahul Dravid
Inzamam Ul Haq
Yousuf Youhana (that was his name then if I remember correctly)
Moin Khan
Wasim Akram
Anil Kumble
Saqlain Mushtaq
Javagal Srinath
Take your 12th man from this list.
Abdul Razzaq
Sourav Ganguly
Waqar Younis (thought he was injured that year)
Mushtaq Ahmed (I would have picked him ahead of Saqlain, but two leggies)
Muhammad Azharuddin (only cause he was past his best)
Ijaz Ahmed
Shahid Afridi
Now that team playing against Australia would have been a sight for sore eyes (what the fuck does that saying even mean?)
And that isn’t an iron clad argument against religion I don’t know what is.
Although Tyra could convert me.
JRod: You write: “the team that India would have had if not for the fact the Muslims were herded out for being Muslims”How about “the team India would have had had not a bunch of businessmen and rich landowners decided it would be nicer to continue to have a feudal fiefdom, and sell it off to the next colonial power rather than stay on and deal with a nationalist uprising that was decidedly unfriendly to big-land-owners (and if 100 million Muslims needed to be sold a story about how this would help them from persecution so much the better for it)” (Compare and contrast, for extra credit, the post-colonial histories of the two nations formed by such activity)But the way you put it (as some other folks do) does help Pakistan remain in a permanently pissed-off, conspiracy-theory finding state all the time, thats for sure. And I don’t understand how you can leave out Kapil Dev from such a team.
I’m not touching the stuff about partition.But I would point out that the reason jrod left Kapil Dev out was due to the fact he was coaching the Indian team in 1999, having retired quite a few years earlier.
Samir, I didn’t go into the details of partition on purpose. Because i wasn’t writing an anti Indian article, i was writing an anti religion article. My point was, that religion has cost us what could have been a simply amazing cricket team, and as a cricket fan thats another reason i hate religion.I mean look at the batting line up Samir, thats so damn sexy. Thats the sort of batting line where a wicket just brings you more joy. And Stuart is right about dev, he was finished by then. But think back to the 80′s Khan and Dev in the one side. Oh my.
This sort of exercise was very common amongst Indian schoolboys (I don’t know if Pakistani kids ever did it). I think the last one I made was back in 1987 or so. I think alltime India-Pakistan teams used to be quite the rage in the old rec.sport.cricket days. It was a really hard job to put together that one, I can tell you. I can once remember putting down Sunny and Majid as the opening pair, and opening the bowling with Kapil and Imran. JRod: I think I was responding to the “herded out for being Muslims” line – that hinted of religious persecution. I’ll just interpret it as the creators of Pakistan doing the herding :)
Samir, The truth is people left India because they were muslims. You cannot say that they left because they were left arm orthodox, scientologists or zombies. Its not religious persecution, its religious separatism. Which is a whole different monkey. They were herded out, by both sides. They were grouped together by their religion and moved accross the border. Trust me i am not anti India or anti Pakistan, i think there both nuts.I’m anti south africa.
This discussion is too damn funny. But Inzamam and Laxman batting at opposit ends. Aaah.
O.K. Uncle J-Rod, take your Noble Peace Prize and sit down. Your forgoting about all those great matches and individual performances between these two sides, due mainly because they both grew a leg when they faced each other (see Tendulkar 2003 WC). Every dark clud has a silver lining…….
Simon, Blah blah blah.
I’m going to be composing a joint South-African Australian team very soon. I invite inputs from all my Aussie friends.
thats easy samir, haydenjacquespontinghusseyclarkehodgegilchristleejohnsonclarkmacgill
Good team Uncle J, probably wouldn’t choke either.
lol, this is a funny discussion. 10 years back, most Pakistanis wouldnt even have thought about a joint Pak/India team, thanks to the climate of fear/hate propagated by politicians. Now things are a bit different… the players and fans alike are on great terms, plus we Pakistanis are really sick of our batsmen. So a join India/Pak team to take on the Aussies should be fun