This isn't Sportsmanship!

This really isn't. Yes! I'm talkin about today's man of the match award in the test between India and England.

If you've seen the match, also the one dayers, England might have been defeated like anything, but they've been professional in the game which isnt maintained at the presentation ceremony by the sponsors of the tourney.

If you've been watching all the matches right from the one dayers, some of the man of the matches are well judged (example, first match, given to Yuvraj), but later on, in some of the matchess, though an England individual has performed better than any Indian individual in that match, the MoM was awaarded to an Indian coz, India won the match.

Come on, its a game and MoM is an award given to an individual and not to a person from the winning team always. If there is a person who has performed well but his team lost, why should he be denied an award for his performance? Doesnt this lower the morale in him? It might not lower but an award would surely boost his morale.

Consider today's match itself, I do agree that Sehwag turned the match around for India (Happy for atleast for this decision, while they didnt go with Tendulkar for scoring a hundred!). But if you consider the first three days, didnt Strauss entertain us by his two centuries? Didnt they dominate us for the first three days? Dont you think he deserved it more than Sehwag?

You can see the same issue even with the one-dayers as I mentioned before. There are many instances where Indians were honored with MoMs even tehy had lost. I heard it from my uncle that long ago, in a test match, Vinu Mankad was awarded MoM though India lost the match for his brilliant hundred as well as for taking 8 wickets in an innings. Why go that long? Take for example the Sharjah trophy of 1997, the deciding match between Australia and India. Sachin's 137 helped India secure a position in finals but India lost that match. He was awarded the MoM (later Man of the Series aswell i suppose) for his wonderful knock, just for the simple reason that he had entertained the crowd.

Anyhow, kudos for the professionalism show by both the teams. Glad to know that 70% of the England's match fee and 100% of the Indian counterpart has been donated to the mumbai relief fund.

Hope the commitee that decides such things takes this into consideration before awarding.