The New Era Of Indian Cricket

When the team for Test series with New Zealand was announced , I  thought it would be played NZ . You coould excuse me for my blunder as I am still a newly wed with a "shitty" cable connection . Inevitably New Zealand is a team to bit in New Zealan , not in India . In India we are the kings , Sehwag , Gauti or Kohli won't fail on Indian pitches . Having said that , by the time I wrote this post all three have went to pavilion while Pujara & Raina are on crease . That brings me to the topic , A match w/o Dravid & Laxman .

When Dravid announced retirement , post team's failure in Australia , It was equally an emotional moment for me . Post loss in Australia , I kept saying send everyone home including Tendulkar who for the records averaged better than others in the series . Since his average were not upto the Tendulkar's standard , I said rest the whole side . But , Dravid being dravid announced his retirement . '99 WC series whr he was highest scorer or his test innings in NZ just before 2003 or the Kolkatta upset . There is alot to talk about & everything is history. Unless Dravid decides to do a Shahid Afridi which he won't , unfortunately .

When you talk about Dravid , seldom its w/o Laxman in tests . The gifted player from hyderabad has several records for partnership with Dravid. Funnily it took comments of Australian players in Indian press for BCCI to take note
of him . In 2010 , at Mohali , in 4th inning  yet again he proved what a player of temperament he is . While the other end was falling , he kept playing towards the goal of winning. Speculations of Retirement of Laxman saw a field day on twitter similar to that of Dravid . The tributes were written in Blogosphere for Very Very Special Laxman as were written for Dravid .

However ,The tweet from  @Sidvee cracked me up:
SRT walking to the middle, looking at the fielders and saying, 'Hey dudes, I remember playing against your grandpops

Gilchrist , Haden , Allan Donald , Flintoff , Steve Waugh , Pollock , Shane Warne, Mcgrath , Jaysurya , Akram have retired . The era I am talking about  & I grew up with is coming to an end . Most of them are home except for few like Kallis , Ponting & Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar.

I am sure  the likes Kohli , Pujara , Raina & Rahane  would do justice to Test cricket . Its just little weird to not see some of your favorites out there . Best of luck to the New team. I hope you play another 100 Matches with Tendulkar.

For the spirit of Game

YesterdayI met Dhoni at a bar. No, I am not kidding, I am serious. He looked a bit worn out and drunken too. His head was down, shoulders drooped (as the dear commentators have called " bad body language" ).I for the first time in past two days had pity for him. I went and took a seat beside him and said I, "It happens mate, it's  Ok."

He looked at me and said, " Why doesn't Hermoine understand, the series is at stake, I have no time for shopping." I was flabbergasted, I looked at the bartender who was busy cleaning glasses said,"he means Shweta, his wife."  Bartender continued, "he was invited to a special screening of Harry Potter and Deathly Hallows II, tonight". I looked at Dhoni, sympathetically and decided to leave him alone.

 "Do you know how much Dumbledore is hurt? People are questioning his 22 years of service to Hogwarts. He is my hero !!! "

 I looked at bartender again and he responded while placing bottles on the shelf, "he means Sachin."
" I understood that." and added with visible incredulity in my voice "But, Hogwarts? "
"He meant cricket", said the bartender.

"I wrote to  Voldemort..." continued Dhoni, He was mumbling a lot I tried to catch as much as possible.

 This time, Bartender looked around cautiously and then  whispered in my ears, "he means Sharad uncle"

"We will not play any IPL matches in future. Indian team as a whole will boycott next IPL, in fact, I pronounce it as dark magic and it must not be practised. It has drained us all, all of us are tired and injured," said Dhoni, loudly. But only me and the Bartender were his only audience.
"Yeah, Anyways it's not earning much,"  said I.

He had not heard me and continued," the wands losing the power, no ones able create more magic."
"What if  Voldemort doesn't listen? Will you fight him, like Harry Potter?"

He looked at me, then frowned a bit, "where is Ron? I must find him, I had him asked to get a "Bagwati" for Hermoine."

 I looked at bartender again and he said he was binge watching "Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara before Harry Potter and that's when he sent Ron to a shop I mean Raina ...no  I think it was Yuvi ..." and then added, "There were two three Rons who ran to the door, actually."

 I smiled at bartender but Dhoni was out of the door, outside the pub with his wand, oops I mean his Bat.

"I wonder what was he drinking?
"
"A cocktail mix of  'Zindagi main kuch karna hai to large chodo, kuch alag karo yaar and make it large'," and winked at me.

As we move towards 2011

1st Decemeber  made me realise 11 months of 2010  are gone.......its the 12th month....... and next month it would be 2011 . Time flies !! 2010 may not be the year of significant happenings in my life however this still would be an year of  significant importance  . The year was of self discovery , analysis and in changed (I changed job) scenario I had spare time.This year begun with bunking office party for night out with my girl friends . I must say it was great fun and I had office next day :-/.  So the begining was cool... :)

This year also marked itself a place Sachin Tendulkar's achievments . He became the first batsman to score 200* in the history of one day cricket.

Then we had IPL season 3 in India . IPL3 redefined marketing and advertising strategies and expenses. (yeh laga citi chauka nad "xyz" super sixes  etc...) . It was epitome of commercialisation. Hyderabad matches were moved to Mumbai , due to disturbance of Telangana formation .  A full set of matches moved to Mumbai . Only after watching Semi finals in stadium which were also moved to Mumbai after bomb scare in Banglore and I getting tickets on last moment , it made me realise what a leap expenditures in marketing had take.  The once upon a time banners were now replaced by electronic screen and I better not speak about cost of tickets.
The mess which was publicly dug out between ex external affair minister and ex IPL chairman Lalit Modi was really shameful.  The mess as well the behavior both .

Then Rahul Gandhi travelled to mumbai ,  he travelled in local train  (won my heart ) and made me rethink over taking him seriously . Just I was trying to take fellow seriously , towards the end of the year he came up with comparing RSS with SIMI . Does he even know whats the history of RSS ??? and trackrecord of SIMI??? The worst part is  , he is being tipped as "Future Prime Minister ."   What does the "FPM" do , coins new term like "Hindu terrorism"!!! . I thought terrorism has no religion

Between this our government  did pass nuclear liability bill which will ensure in future we will able to meet our power consumption requirements throug nuclear energy .Also the necessray ammendments ensure better compensations in case of accidents (still low compared to other countries like USA) .

Meanwhile amidst all this , I did mountaineering in Maharashtra .I did climb the Bhimashankar and Karnala . It was good test of stamina and fitness .I enjoyed the breahtaking beauty of Sahyadri and Maval from the peaks . I  enjoyed these treks as much as the tales of Bhimashankar , Jejuri and Karnala .

How can I forget the CWG achievements of the players . I confess , I didnt follow the games however the achievments of Indian sportsperson  made me proud .Raining of medals did compell me to take look at the games on television . Saina Nehwal , who is no.1 Badminton player made India proud by winning across the continent .
Kalmadi , I must say is the guy who should go behind bars . It brought so much embarrasment to our country. The farce of games village and mismangement of finances making India more poorer :( . Guess what Kalmadi has a company to serve in Jail. Telecom minister Raja who made us poorer by lakhs of Crores . I want to see him behind bars too.

Oh!! I forgot ,  I did once again tried losing weight :) this year . I am not kidding . I do take a lot of pride in saying that I feel confident enough in my curent apearance . However after second look in the mirror I realised ,is it bad if I can look much better and fitter . After all its for health . I did lose some but not much . its a continuous process ;)

It was an interesting  ride of sports ,politics and my life and my views on it (my blog) this year. Hope to see much better things in future . As the year is reaching its end , yet again there is much more curiosity about the new year and I hope it brings a lot of happiness &  prosperity for everyone . :) :)

A clean Sweep

I had been dying to write about the latest adventures of Indian Cricket. We had a clean sweep at Australia in test match series in India. We won the series by 2-0 yesterday. In last decade India nad Australia have grown to be Arch rivals . Stats will definitely show how much grit Indians have shown while playing Australians. I read in one of the interviews where Ricky Ponting said ,"if you ask them, they're a bit flattered by that result."  Of course we are and the cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar himself said ,"Beating a top side like Australia is a remarkable achievement and it means a lot to all of us."  Well still lot of arrogance in our rival captain whose team slumped to no. 5 ranking  and I guess he still has alot to learn from this old country where every rival is treated with respesct.

In the first match at Mohali the victory was sealed by VVS Laxman and Ishant Sharma . VVS played with a sore back . When asked about pain he simply said , "When your mind goes away from pain and towards a goal...it helps" . Truly Inspiring . Ishant Sharma who was injured too stood tall  to play a supporting role. Of course there was lot of chaos , desperation on Australian side who let six by runs in the end for win....

After the first win , we knew the second one is even going to be tougherr......

In the second match at Banglore our dear Tendulkar completed  6th double century & put India in a safer  position. The debutant Chetshwar Pujara who had been playing consistent domestic cricket was out on 4 runs on a wonderful delivery from Mitchell Johnson who also played very well in both matches. Everyone had pity for Pujara , i.e, he may not get a chance again to play International match . However as they say destiny had some other plans . He along with Murali Vijay a put a up good partnership stand and later went onto make 72 runs himself. Murali also hit a debut century while playing along with Tendulkar in fist innings while chasing 476.

Australians played very well beyond doubt. We just out played them .....

Optimism

Well its bit funny .... :).... India lost their first test at Galle Srilanka by 10 wickets last week..... and I was still smiling by the end of the day ...... Being an avid cricket follower and an emotional one too.... I knew on 5th day of the test that we 'may' not win .....but atleast could draw ..... That day while Laxman was putting up a brave front along with Ishant & Pragyan Ojha :), me and my colleague were out for meeting  and from there we went for lunch.......During lunch my colleague suddenly said possibly we will win....SL is 45 for 7 (he was browsing his new trendy messenger mobile ).....suddenly  an emotional "me " tookover my sensibilities ( I thought possibly Ishant or Harbajan had put a dream spell) and I frantically tried to call people who could tell whats happening on the ground  ...... on a working day when India is  on loosing streak.... u won't get to meet people  who would be watching cricket ( I still remember 2003 worldcup :( final ) .....whatever...... Only after I reached office at 1615 hrs at my desk....I got to know SL won by 10  wkts  ..... :( ...I frowned a bit .....on the loss & on the fact I was fooled .......

My colleague said " Indians are optimistic when it comes to cricket" ......however I realised Indians are optimistic about a lot of things.....without having a basis to it.......I am trying  to list few  of my optimisms ...

a) We will play football world cup soon .
b) Sania Mirza will win a grand slam for us.
c)One day we will stop "peace initiatives" and show Pakistan its real place .
d )One day our media will stop giving "breaking news " ( I wonder who coined that term)
e) One day , Indian Television will start showing better quality sitcoms , good quiz shows  etc... and yes finally CID will end .
f) One day every city in India will be like Shanghai , Singapore or just class apart from other cities...

finally

g) One day India will be a super power ....



The list could be endless.......after 60 years of Independence and as a nation with highest population I guess ... Being optimistic & hopeful helps...........


on a signing off note may be every single step and action in that direction would just help bit more :) :) .....

Vanita

The Living Legend -Sachin Tendulkar

Yesterday (24.02.2010) Sachin Tendulkar became the first batsman to score a double 100  in One day format ..... Not Out for 50 overs ....Needless to say am one of the biggest fan of Sachin .... and following him since  1997 , when I started watching cricket ....  The congratulations have been flowing for him since yesterday including PM of this country.
Yesterday when I started to monitor match ( I was in office) on internet Sehwag was already out.... Discussions between me & my colleague started ... He & I are one of the biggest fan of Tendulkar..... we  challenged credibility of  people  who said Sachin should retire ........ We said in chorous Sachin should hit a century today......... when he passed 87 in  early overs of 20 , my colleague said he should reach landmark  200 today ( he is been saying this since last few one days)........ I said I would be glad if he would.... But to reach 200 is real test of stamina & skills......... Skills : There would be hardly anyone who would doubt Sachin's . Stamina : Given that he is playing for 20 years ... and fitness is suppose to go down with ageing ( I had my doubts ; I am sorry  Sachin) ........ It was really test of fitness & again to come out in middle to field almost brought tears in my eyes ...... I bowed to the legend ...
Even when Sehwag goes out to play...Its expected he might reach 200 in One day ....looking at his aggressive way of batting ....... Somewhere in heart  I always felt the record of 200 is meant for Sachin.... He would break it........... When people started saying he is getting old  should Retire.... I felt may be record of 200 was not meant for him.......... I was often told he has earned enough money   now he should gracefully retire and give "oppurtunity to others ".......  The fact remains we are yet to find a cricketer who is as good as Sachin, as humble as he is , as down to earth as he is. I  used to to be like here is  the man who when goes out in the middle .... all your heart wanna shout is "Sachiiiiiiin " .... "Sachiiiiiiiiiiiin" and people say he should retitre........... ridiculous ........
He is also  captain of Mumbai Indians in IPL league and somehow Mumbai Indians did not do well in two seasons....and third season is coming up...........when Sachin's Mumbai Indian lost out in a crucial match in second season (Mumbai Indians  could not chase the runs in last two overs ) ...... One of my best friend said "You Mumbaikars Crumble  in Pressure " .... and  Sachin is My best friend's icon too ..... .. My friend furthur added since Sachin is a Mumbaikar ; he lacks leadership ;hence Mumbai Indians failed.... I was upset about My Best Friend making these comments ... ( Probably he was very upset at Mumbai Indians not making to Semis).......That day my heart told me time would come when these people will only praise Sachin again.....

As Bryan Adam Says "And Now the time are Changing  ,Look at everything that's come and gone " .... The height of success Sachin has reached today  .....  Everyone along with me will do it my life long............ Sachiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnnnnnnn ..........Sachinnnnnnnnnnnnnn......