Saturday, August 27, 2005

Learning

Well this is not a regular post...its just my learning from the past one month:

"There are no shortcuts [in life/to success]"

Just realised how true this line is.....

:)

Well would just add another of my favorite quote. This is from the movie, Fight Club and again this is SOME quote :)

"It's only when you have lost everything, that you are free to do ANYTHING"

again pretty true :)

Monday, August 22, 2005

Khel Ratna nominations + some crap !

Just read the news in the morning newspaper that Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly's name were rejected by the Indian Government for the Khel Ratna Award. Well if i look back at past year, indian cricket didn't had a great year at all. But still we see these names being referred for the Khel Ratna !! Especially the name of Saurav Ganguly is simply disgusting. This guy [read indian captain] is struggling to get a place in the team, if at all the selection would have been simply on merit he would never make it to the playing eleven let alone become the captain of this Indian team and here i am seeing him being nominated for Khel Ratna, the highest award in sports ? which till now has only been awarded to Sachin Tendulkar !!

I simply wonder when will this Indian sports get above the reputations. A player like Sourav Ganguly who has hardly scored any runs in past 2 years, leave aside few big scores against the minnows like Zimbabwe, Bangladesh et al is not only made captain of the side, but is even nominated for the Khel Ratna ! Amazing....simply amazing. I dont think even as a captain Ganguly has led india to any noticable success in last year, so these nominations are even more appalling coz not only has he failed in personal contributions but he hasn't even done anything noticeable as a leader. So surely these nominations are either simply coz of their reputation in indian cricket or on the rotation basis [similar to few awards @ my workplace (no questions about this will be entertained !) ]

Well i guess now im going to get away from the above topic, hell yes i will write what i want to ! afterall its my blog "The Matrix" [the world of MY thoughts] !! They [read ganguly's supporters] say that he is just out of form. Cmmon form ? When did u see bad form lasting for over 2 years ? These days he struggles to get even into double figures most of the times, and when he does score few runs (ya precisely FEW !), he takes away so many deliveries to make sure that the team doesn't reach a good total :)
Ya i might be sounding too bashing..well then that's the mood im in at the moment.. The WC '2007 is just round the corner and instead of giving chances to the newer faces, indian selectors are persisting with the old horses [surely not war horses !!]. There was once a famous controversial comment in Australian cricket over Shane Lee (if i remember correctly) - "Can't bat, can't bowl, can't field". This kinda fit perfectly on Ganguly at the moment :) Youngsters like Suresh Raina, Venugopal were given hardly given any chances and now indians are back to the good ol' ganguly et al....even if Raina didnt do good with the bat, but atleast he affected 3 runouts in as many matches :)

I would simply sum it up to infer that its high time that the indian cricket move above reputations else they would see them being thrown to the ground in the upcoming WC. Most of the teams like England, Pakistan for example, have started opting for youngsters and after a few reverses, good results are showing...but indians are going against the same old path and getting beaten again and again....Even the masters, the champions of the game are finding it hard to bear some of the old horses [read gillespie, maybe even hayden] in the team.....so simply forget that india can bear few non-playing players like ganguly.

Another big problem in the indian cricket is the media, with hardly 1-2 good matches, the indian media creates such a hype of players that they are everywhere in the news....there on every television with different ads...and then they just keep playing in the team through their reputations/PAST performances ! Yuvraj, Pathan just to name a few i guess are the biggest examples of this !!

A new series awaits india in Zimbabwe....well the result is quite expected india will reach another final (simply coz the third team is a big time minnow, Zimbabwe, who is just fresh from 2 test -defeats with days !!) and will lost another final...as far as i can remember it will be 20th loss in 21/22 odd finals ? A great record to ponder over ? naah quite normal......we keep losing over and over again...then someday will get a wonder win like @ Eden Gardens against Aus, Lords finale against Eng, Adelaide against Aus and whole of the media, whole of the public will simpy forget all that has happened in the very recent past. All sins are forgotten the day india does a thing like this simply depending upon some of the one-off individual brilliance be it of Dravid, Laxman, Yuvraj or Kaif. After it the world will get normal india will lose another series or finale and then again all these past losing records will start appearing in the media. Well pretty simple ? isn't it ? Didnt someone say the world is round ? Ohh ya okkk, so that's why all this is being repeated over and over again ?

Enough...
Now back to mails [aka office work]

Saturday, August 13, 2005

Farewell Time

Well this seems to be a farewell season for me. In about last month or so have already given farewell to around 8-9 ppl !!! Some of them are real dear friends of mine. People seem to be leaving for the greener pastures like MBA, MS and few switching jobs, some in turn switching their town as well. I really wonder when next will i get to meet these frndz of mine. Time it seems create a long gap between people, at college we were together..but slowly the time moved on..college finished, everyone got busy with their jobs, Few and far get togethers and now some have left for a different states or even different country all together. Today's communication mediums like - mails, phone, messengers n ya orkut too does try to bridge the gap but still. But well i guess this is life for you and you have to move on.

With the hope of seeing them sometime soon...i sign off..
Miss you Vik and Poker...

Current Song [purely coincidence] :
Yaaron Dosti badi hi haseen hai,
yeh na ho to kya fir bolo yeh zindagi hai..
koi to ho raazdaar, begaraz tera ho yaar...-2

teri har ek burai par daante woh dost,
gum ki ho dhoop to saaya bane tera woh dost,
naache bhi woh teri khushi mein,
arey yaaron dosti badi hi haseen hai...
yeh na ho to kya fir bolo yeh zindagi hai...

On a lighter note: Played a hell lot of TT today....happy with the my game today :)

Sunday, August 07, 2005

Cricket at its best

Man !! what a match it was in the end...what a thrilling end to the 2nd Ashes test. Inspite of all the gutsy batting display by the likes of Warney, Lee and Kaspro against the hostile bowling of Harmison & Flintoff, england are right back into this Ashes series !! When the match started here on the 4th day @ edgbaston few would have thought that aussies would give any fight. But well i had a bit of hunch that they might just make it, with Warney at the crease, he has played some invaluable innings for Australia when they r in need in the past...incl. his highest test score of 99 when Australia were on verge of follow-on. He has been in good first class form scoring both of his first class hundreds this season for Hampshire. As expected england started with their 2 most effective and hostile bowlers Harmison and Flintoff. Warney quoted last night that "I hate losing, and will try to win. Lee is quite a good bat, n well Kaspro is due !". And alas these 3 almost did it for the aussies, well only ALMOST !! Flintoff and Harmison carried on their hostile bowling into the 4th day, giving both Warney and Lee a few bruises. Lee has been in firing line throughout the tour starting with the 20-20 match esp. against Flintoff. But both Warney and Lee took those bruises in their stride and kept fighting on...there were a few great shots in between including one thunderous off-drive by Lee off Harmison. Meanwhile Lee was gloved a harmison delivery over slips, Warney gloved another one over the keeper's head. Once Warney was hit on the leg by Flintoff, he somehow managed to run a legbye on just one leg - only to find Mr. Billy Bowden declaring it a dead ball !! And he had to walk back all the way down to the striker's end !! That one can call a one lighter moment of the day among all that REAL SERIOUS CRICKET, well not lighter for Warney though, coz he was the one who was hit actually. Then came another moment of brilliance from the Man with the golden arm [for england], Freddie Flintoff, after being in firing line for quite a short ones from flintoff, warney decided to go back on a fuller delivery too, though the delivery went down the legside to keeper, but Warney went too far back and across to hit the stumps and give England a much needed wicket. And now it was down to Lee and Kaspro to score around 60 odd runs for the last wkt. They started well, a few short balls down the legside accounted for few useful byes, then a few good boundaries from both of them. 13 runs were scored of a hapless Giles over and target was down to 30. Vaughan got back to his 2 most reliable bowlers Flintoff and Harmison again. But Lee and Kaspro delt with all the blows and short pitch stuff with aplomb. Slowly and steadily the Aussies got closer and closer to the target. Lee was hit brutally on his arm-guard by Flintoff. But like a real warrior he stood up and picked up the bat again, to restart the aussie battle against the expected. On the other hand Kaspro almost guided a wide ball outside the offstump to the third man, Simon Jones dived and got both hands to the ball but spilled the chance. At that time 15 were needed, and it looked Jones had dropped the match and probably the Ashes when Lee hit a boundary of the very next ball, that was a no-ball too. And the target was down to single digit - 9 runs ! But in the end Flintoff and Harmison kept their cool. Flintoff bowled a fine over to Lee barraging him with some fiery short-pitch stuff. Harmison followed it up in the next over with a brutal delivery which Kaspro tried to duck under, but somehow just managed to get his glove onto it, which Geraint Jones too gleefully. And the fine fine battle of the Aussie tail of Warney, Lee and Kaspro against all the odds finally came to an end just 2 runs short of one of the most astonishing victories of all time.

Well i surely will remember this day for long, an amazing day of test match cricket. After 3 great days of test cricket this surely was an icing on the cake. This Ashes battle has surely lived upto all its hype. England were down and almost out after the thrashing at Lords, but they got a lifeline just before the start of the 2nd match with one of their biggest tormentor Glenn Mcgrath getting injured in a freak incident. But still they have to do the job, and their another tormentor Shane Keith Warney was still around. And they surely did it in some style thrashing 400 odd runs on the first day. Warney tried to do his best with 4 wkts in first innings and 6/46 in the second and not to forget the crucial 42 runs in the 2nd innings. But that wasn't enough to prevent a Flintoff-driven England from winning. Flintoff had a dream match, which he surely will remember for ever - 2 half centuries in match (incl 9 sixes !!), 7 wkts and 2 catches. For last one and a half years he has been the man Vaughan has gone to when he needs a wkt and he has almost always done the job for him. But in this match he supported it well with his batting too, that too against the World Champions. All n all it was a great match, one to remember for a long time. And the fighting [never-say-die] spirit that the aussies showed in the end, scoring over 100 for the last 2 wkts just emphasises the reason WHY they are my favourite side. They just dont give it up easily. Someone has to play really really well to beat them, some out of the skin performance like that of the Freddie Flintoff. Well but england too have shown a bit of that character in the series. This all lines up for an even more exciting series ahead.

A 10-wkt haul in this match has left Warney on 599 wkts. And i believe with this mez gonna lose the bet that he will pick up KP as his 600th wkt. With Mcgrath not around i believe he will be the one picking up top-order wkts as well [esp of Strauss :) ] and KP bats at no. 5, so unless Lee picks up the top order early Warney won't get KP as his 600th wkt. Well i hope and i know Aussies will bounce back :)

Over to Old Trafford..
Over for now...