Entries from March 2007
Unbelievable game between South Africa and Sri Lanka today. Unbelievable stuff.
Scene: South Africa needs five runs in five overs with five wickets in hand. Lasith Malinga comes into bowl. First ball gets Shawn Pollock, second ball gets Andrew Hall. Over up. He comes back. First ball gets Jacques Kallis. Hattrick. Then, the second ball of the over gets Ntini. 4 wickets in 4 balls.
And then, with one more wicket to go, Robin Peterson almost gets bowled. Misses the stumps at a hair’s length to the stumps. And again, 2 balls later. Sri Lanka almost got it. Almost, from being absolutely nowhere in the game. Great stuff. Incredible stuff- makes me love the game of cricket all over again.
Best captured by Greame Smith – “”Malinga was incredible, He made me age a bit.”
Makes me wonder why dont we get genuine fast bowlers only in India – Pakistan always got them, Sri Lanka has an absolute streaker ( literally as well as metaphorically in Malinga) and now, Bangladesh has one in Mashrafe Mostafa. Fast bowlers who are actually fast and accurate, are aggressive and can both seam and swing. When was the last time India even had the beginnings of aggression.
Agarkar anyone?
Categories: Cricket
We are officially out of the world cup. And I am thankful. The Men in Blue (MIB) saved me the embarrassment of watching us getting thrashed by any regular cricketing nation. Now I can go and attribute our stunted world cup trip to a really bad day against Bangladesh and a regular day against Sri Lanka. Isnt this what Dravid also said – alluding to how the format in the last world cup allowed playing atleast 5 matches.:)
I feel sorry for the Indian cricket team. Now, since they have to come back to their homes in Jharkhand, Mumbai, Hyderabad or whereverthefuck, they cant spend their well earned advertising and endorsement dollars on more hedonistic pursuits in the Carribean islands.
Well good thing is now atleast we shall see some real cricket in the tournament going forward. Some real talent hungry for success like Bangladesh, some absolutely arrogant pricks who also happen to be cricketing geniuses (Australia) , a bunch of great teams with wonderful potential ( South Africa, England) and the two teams who I shall root for with all my passion ( West Indies and Sri Lanka).
Go for it boys!
And as for you SehwagTendulkarGangulyDhoni etc. riff raff, go home and plot on how to stay on in this team so we can have more of this crap, in between shooting for your HondaPepsiVIPMarutiColgateLux endorsements.
And quit blaming Chappel, for god’s sake.
Categories: Cricket
To make it into the Super 8s, after yesterday’s maundering of Bangladesh by Sri Lanka, India needs to beat Sri Lanka. Pure and simple.
Here are a few sample scenarios taken from cricinfo.com -
India versus Sri Lanka
Scenario 1 Sri Lanka bat first, score 260, and India win with one over to spare
Sri Lanka’s NRR will drop from 4.59 to 2.99, while India’s will drop marginally to 1.72.
Scenario 2 India bat first, score 265, and win by 2 runs
Sri Lanka’s NRR will be 2.98, while India’s will be 1.69.
For Bangladesh to then make it to the Super 8, they’ll need to go past India’s NRR. However, as the two scenarios below show, the gap between the two NRRs is just too large.
Bangladesh versus Bermuda
Scenario 1 Bangladesh score 300, and restrict Bermuda to 120 to win by 180 runs
Despite the huge margin of victory, Bangladesh’s NRR will only improve to -0.08.
Scenario 2 Bermuda are bundled out for 120, and Bangladesh wipe off the target in 15 overs
In this case, due to the fact that Bangladesh will only bat 15 overs, their NRR will only increase to -0.7.
Categories: Cricket
Our politicans are vile, corrupt, greedy, incompetent, uneducated (for the most part) and villainous. We complain. And hate them
Our cricketers are greedy, incompetent,uneducated (for the most part). We worship them as Gods.
Wonder why.
Categories: Cricket · Sports
I have written an article on my personal blog about some of the larger forces that have caused Indian cricket to go down to the abysmal depths of performance that it has gone down to in the recent past. When I was growing up in New Delhi in the 1980’s and we would never win a medal in the Olympics, the common refrain and excuse was that India didnt have the resources to invest in sports training like the richer nations did.
Logic would have it that now that BCCI is the richest cricket board in the world, we would start showing surefire signs of improvements of atleast reaching the levels of consistent performance that Indian cricket fans have always dreamt about. Well, seems to me that we are headed in a diametrically opposite direction. ( and no, not just the loss to bangladesh today prompted me to say that. Remember the 4-1 drubbing a few months ago against a very mediocre West Indies team?)
So anyhow, if you read the blog posting listed above – you will see that it takes just two articles from an internet site which encompasses the two fundamental problems that plague Indian cricket. Actually its one problem impacting the two most critical stakeholders of Indian cricket – the players and the management (if you can call either that).
So a request dear fellow blogger – if you are as disgusted as I am about all this – please leave the url of your post on this topic in the comments. We shall all interlink – and if nothing else – I want to read about how disgusted my fellow bloggers are about all this.
Categories: Cricket · Sports
So, India today started off its world cup campaign pretty much in the way it has played cricket in the recent past – by losing. Tendulkar failed ( no surprise there – maybe its time he retired, drove his imported Ferrari in pot-hole ridden roads of Mumbai and feel happy about the import duty he didnt have to pay for the car – and while he is at it, maybe work on his English – would be an important qualifier to get the job of the expert commentator on ESPN). Sehwag failed. ( As usual – nothing worth writing about Sehwag). Dravid failed ( well, atleast he does well every now and then). Dhoni failed – both with the bat and behind the wicket. Agarkar, as usual, failed at pretty much everything he partook in.
Ganguly scored a few runs – but very slowly – I think his primary motivation is to ensure everyone notices he scores when the rest of the team fails – and hence his position is solidified again. It was frankly useless to score runs at that pace for the team.
Unless something radically changes in India’s approach, drive, passion and frankly – ability – it would be a good time to start looking at 2011. Hopefully, by then, these guys who have milked the team for so long would be long gone – and we’d have something to look forward to.
Have rarely been as disgusted as this.
Categories: Cricket
Bush style.From CNN.
Pfc. John Boyles patrolling in Baghdad
Categories: Current Affairs · Politics · Random Stuff · War
So we’ve been bombarded with advertisements to Buy Red products - red iPods, red phones, red underwear – what have you – the idea was that a couple of dollars from every “Red” product would be donated to the AIDS fund to help victims in Africa – Bono is on TV 24/7 espousing its cause of buying red and helping Aids victims in Africa – very admirable goal and all.
Only problem is – to raise the $ 11 million that it has raised for its noble cause – the advertising spend was something like $50 million. Agreed, the 50 mil. will have raised awareness of the state of AIDS victims in Africa – and the thought is that better education leads to more non-quantifiable advantages like more donations to other organizations – there does seem a vast disconnect between the advantages and the spend of the program itself. So someone does pay for the huge Buy Red banners one sees adorning Times Square.
So the only people that Buy Red helped were Madison Ave Ad agencies, high profile models living in Lexington Ave pads in buildings with doormen. Funny how the most well intentioned of efforts can sometimes have an entirely undesired impact.
Buy Less Crap has an innovative, very interesting alternate solution.
Categories: News · Opinion
What better way to restart blogging than to start on the first day of the Cricket World Cup. When a billion dreams suddenly get in sync – dreaming of the same 11 men in blue doing well – hoping, praying, cursing, laughing, crying, celebrating, mourning.
The day to day mundaneness melts away. And for a month and a half, life itself in India and many other other parts transforms. For a month and a half – everything else is insignificant.
All that matters is the sound of a ball hitting the middle of the bat in an exquisite cover drive when Tendulkar is at the crease. Or the stumps being dislodged by a beautiful in-swinger.
And the dream. Like that fateful day in Lords, 1982. That is indelibly imprinted in every Indian mind. That there will be these 15 men in blue, acting like babies holding a silver cup on April 28th 2007.
Go India! I am back to being a cricket fan!!!!!
Categories: Cricket
