Congrats Ozzies, and a VVS rant for my orange streaked brothers in indigo.

At the outset, let me congratulate the Australians for winning the ODI series. Not only did they play better all round cricket, they also valued their desire to succeed a little more than the Indians. While they were intent on restoring a weatherbeaten heritage, the Indians were busy drawing up yet another plan for that perfect tower symbolizing their as yet unhatched achievement.

That was the difference for me - one was an effort in trying to fit lost gems of architecture in their moulds with whatever skill was at command while the other was yet another flight of paper fancy.

India lost because it takes its clichés very seriously - "Just a bad day in office", "you win some, you lose some", "when you play as much, you are bound to lose some" - are just some glitter India likes to clad itself in rather than don the serious habit of a winning philosophy. A routine is only a routine if you attach no significance to the nuts and bolts of what you are doing. Attach purpose to it and that routine becomes discipline which will launch you to real achievements.

The signs were all there; too regularly has India become condescendingly lax in the way it performs its fundamentals the moment it percieves a lead or smells a win. We have seen this in all areas of play on the field many times over. Thus, in effect, India was regularly practising being mediocre...practising chipping away the intricate details of winning gems embedded in them with chisels of easy clichés. A lethargy of purpose taints every victory. Rather than be an elixir to inspire the quest for greater achievements, a win for the Indian team often becomes that wine of victory which stuns the quest for progress with its dulling euphoria. When time asks for application, India is found stumbling on its own lab-cultured laxity.

Let us celebrate the ordeal of coming through on the backs of brilliance of one or two individuals, and sneer instead, at the simplicity of team effort and meaningful implementation of practised routines.

Let us toss ourselves up into giddy stratospheres of frenzy whenever such a brilliance explodes to launch us, however and whenever that may be. Let us thrill in the romance of the unexpected rather than bore ourselves with the regularity of winning...frequent winning that comes with meticulous attention to, and practice and applictaion of, our skills with determined purpose...a good kind of ruthlessness.

One Aaj ki Raat^{trans & YouTube} has enough amnesiac power to make one forget the pain of a million mediocre moments of our plays...let it flow I say!

Let us be doused tonight with so much of high spirits that we can wake up in tomorrow as Dons of our fantasies. If our games get crumpled as we lie stoned in our one night's greatness, no worry, we'll brush them off with a wave of our magical hands, flick them with our mystical wrists come morning, and we'll be ready to go again!

Hey, we can even celebrate moments which were made to appear near by a team member's sudden bloodrush, when they were, in actuality, always distant! And kept that far in the first place due to our extremely poor practices.

Celebrate! Moments are rare, the middleclassness of ruthless devotion and application mundanely swamps the clock and calendars of our existence! Firefly that I am, I build nothing, I leave no history no heritage but the genes I spew in one night and die. I am no mechanic of tireless robotic precision to build outreaches in unexplored space but only a shooting star. Celebrate!

The top order batting failed as strikingly as Sachin Tendulkar and Dhoni's bats arose to speak for India erratically. You could call it "form issues" if you are inclined to be comforting, or you could say it was the lethargy of casualness which shackles your feet, your arms, freezes your eye, when you do not want them to be so. Sehwag, Gambhir, Yuvraj...where is the team effort? Why is it difficult? Why must it be a rare phenomenon for all contribute at the same time, rather than the opposite being rare instead?

Then the fielding and poor lines of bowling....we are fed up with this topic. We have addressed this in different ways, from different directions...the chaps who are in the profession of playing cricket don't really mind screwing up aspects of their job on a regular basis. What can you do with such? The culture of mediocrity, the culture of resting on our heels, the culture of "only this much and no more"....the babugiri of public responsibility is as prevalent an affliction in our private enterprise. It appears that nothing matters...not healthy remuneration, adulation, accessibility, facilities, flexibility, support teams...nothing matters to rid oneself of the peongiri mentality.

Give them everything, pick them up and make them sit on thrones, even then they cannot unspool their tails to become lions.

Forget those close finishes...on both occasions the matches were lost long before they eventually were. A relatively average team managed to prevail because it wanted to a little more than the Indians. Because the Indian fielders, batsmen and bowlers obliged.

Sure, there were some who picked their moments to fight back...like the stray soldiers of a ragged army laying seige to the castle running in to butt their heads on the walls of the fortress in frustration or a rush of adrenaline. It doesn't matter how high they climbed up the walls on the strength of that mad wind which seized them suddenly, you always knew it was only a matter of time before they'd fall away like newspapered flies.

You succeed more often when you wear the correct habits most times...the dull drab dungarees which work well around your frequently used talents...not the stiff glittery coat of common clichés which actually conceal the shapeless softness within.

Ruthless habits matter most when the going gets close. We've said that before and this series has been an illustration. India will not often win bilateral, tri-lateral or major tournaments with such hit and trial methods...kal kaam kiya to aaj so gaye kind of stuff.

"India lost the mental battle - Dhoni"...Bah! That's no rocket science...when you win some and lose some, when you let slip a four every match, when you drop catches every match, when you bat more to an image than for a purpose, when you set fields exotically and bowl even more exotically, you are bound to be unsure of which way the mind bends in the current situation.

To be sure of things, to have a ready reference to draw upon from within, you have to be doing some things in a particular way all the times. Then, you can be sure of your mental battles. Yeah you will still lose games...professionalism is all about making that eventuality as uncommon as possible.

By the way, Bollinger is da Badshah! Gimme one bowler who'll bowl with that kind of heart and skill!