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 :)

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]

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 :)

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...

2 years

July 7, 2003 this was the day when i entered into this corporate world. Now its 2 years since then and i am trying to look back at what all i've gained (?) or lost. I can still remember sitting on the front row of the conference room in Sec-24 amongst the 25-odd ppl batch. Now after 2 years what i do ? Just go sit in front of the monitor, check mails, attend some utterly useless meetings n ya play TT too. That has become the routine. Somehow the bright talented programmer [which ppl thought] has gone for a long sleep and me has simply become what we popularly known as a SOFTWARE ENGG.: A person who just do the above mentioned things n get paid (in my case even tht pay is pretty scarce !!). Listen to the ur PL's in every meeting...the never ending discussions, the useless brain-storming sessions over things which neither me nor anyone else in the meeting understand ! These 2 years i've stayed here only....'coz of factors like laziness to look for a change, which i better describe as the human nature of being of being afraid of CHANGE. It seems its a human nature to keep doing routine things/or live a routine life unless until a time comes when a drastic measure is inevitable. This laziness combined with the personal health problems have left me here only.....But well now it seems the time to take a drastic measure has come, infact it seems me has overdue it.....Hope this feeling takes me somewhere better....July 7th in anycase is a pretty important date for me....coz it happens to be the birthdate of my best frnd :). Well another big incident happened this time on july 7th tht was the L'ndon blasts !! n more coincidently few more blasts happened @ L'ndon on july 21st, n tht happens to be my bday !! ooops too much coincidence n too dangerous of dates !! The best thing i think i've gained in 2 years is a few gud frnds...as about the work ? after 2 years all the work thing seems to be a maaya [/mithya] :) .I guess its enugh for now..............

PS: Dravid led india to a victory over a C-grade WI team..
PPS: Warney might just get to 600th wkt in the coming Ashes test..
PPPS: I might just win the bet over Warney taking the KP as his 600th Test victim..

Over to Ashes....

Idolising Warne

Found a great article by Harsha Bhogle....
http://www.espnstar.com/studio/studio_coldetail_1556974.html
how true... :)

Aus v/s Eng

Well what a thrilling finale it was between Australia and England....Australia raced off to their usual final start, blasting Simon Jones and Gough.....but this England team hasn't become the second best team in the world by chance...they have two players in Harmison and Flintoff who can really take the game with the scruff of the neck, and that's what they did. Both Harmison and Flintoff bowled exceptionally well taking full advantage of a helping wicket to take Australia from 50/0 to 93/5. Harmison has been all over Ponting this series, though this time it was a soft dismissal down the leg-side, but this doesnt augur well for Ponting in the upcoming ODI series and the big thing ASHES. It was again down to 2 inform Aussie batsmen Symonds and Hussey, Symonds was scratchy throughout but did well to keep his end and score few valuable runs..Hussey was really fluent. He is one of the few positives Australia will take away frm the series, he batted with authority and composure rare for a newcomer and scored few crucial runs with the tail to take Australia to a fighting 196. Vaughan actually let Australia off the hook by bowling Giles and Collingwood where he could have brought in Harmison or Flintoff to close off the Australian innings...They were economical but didn't took wickets and Australia reached a decent score of 196. He might have thought that 196 is too low a total, but i guess he forgot the Aussie duo of Mcgrath and Lee.

The start of England innings was a bit surprising with Trescothick who has looked totally out of sorts against Mcgrath in this series trying to hit out at Mcgrath inspite of a low total. That was followed by a beamer from Lee to Trescothick and things were hotting up in this already heated series..Trescothick poor run against Mcgrath continued and he gave a relatively easy catch to skipper Ponting. In next over Lee bowled Strauss on a full ball [a clear weakness of Strauss which Aussies have took advantage of in this series]. It was followed by dismissal of Vaughan of an over-ambitious pull off Mcgrath. Then came the danger man Pieterson, he started off with a fluent drive off Mcgrath, but the Lee got him with a real good delivery, Mcgrath soon accounted for Flintoff, another danger man and soon England were reeling at 33/5. But England's newly found self-belief and Australia's weakness of having just 2 wicket taking bowlers in Lee and Mcgrath [with Gillespie out of form] paved the way for an English fightback. Symonds bowled a miserly spell of 0/23 in 10 overs but England kept up with the asking rate through some good hitting by Jones of Gillespie and Hogg. And as they extended their partnership to dangerous proportions Ponting was forced to bring on Lee and Mcgrath but to no avail. It looked ominous signs for Australia with just 9 overs remaining and just over 6 an over required with 5 overs to be bowled by part-time bowlers. At this crucial time Ponting turned to Hussey who showed a great temperament in bowling too after a gritty batting display....A couple of dot balls of his bowling led to a pressure on Collingwood and Jones which led to a risky run, resulting into runout of Collingwood and Aussies were right back into it. Then Hogg accounted for Jones, while Hussey bowled Simon Jones out and Aussies were in control. But Giles and Gough the two experienced campaigners had other ideas. A streaky boundary over the Gilchrist's head brought them closer. In last Mcgrath's over they needed 9 runs. It was going to be tough against the meanest of bowlers, but Mcgrath bowled a no-ball on first ball which gave England crucial 2 runs with 6 balls to spare. A couple of Gough drives brought them to 3 runs of 2 balls. On penultimate ball Gough was runout with a cool headed throw from Mcgrath. Last ball 3 runs were needed with Giles on strike. Mcgrath bowled an in-cutter which might just have hit outside the line of off-stump and there was a huge appeal for lbw, between this appeal the ball went to third-man and Giles and Harmison scampered across for a couple to TIE this ever exciting match.

If this match is any indication then the remaining 3 ODI's are going to be pretty interesting as well, and so is the BIG thing ASHES. Though i believe in Ashes Aussies will have an upper hand 'coz they will have 1 more wicket-taking bowler in SHANE KEITH WARNE, the magician. I believe now Brett Lee must have ensured his place in the team. English top-order has been completely shaky against Mcgrath and Lee. While Aussie top order has been the same against Harmison and Flintoff !! Both have to come good.

So with new ODI rules, the Natwest challenge is going to start. I guess Australia will have an advantage in it because of substitution rule they will be able to play one more bowler.

Hope..

Hope, it is the quintessential human delusion, simultaneously the source of your greatest strength, and your greatest weakness.
-- The Architect, Matrix Reloaded, 2003

Well hope was all what i thought, will improve my day after that "Unique Day"...and yes it did. The Brazlians played an amazing football to beat the arch-rivals Argentina. It was an impeccable display thrashing a team which has just beaten them 3-1 recently. Without the likes of Ronaldo, Carlos and Cafu it was amazing. Once again it was proved the big teams [/players] come good in big matches. And this indeed was a big match. In this tournament Brazil had lost to Mexico, drawn against Japan...but none of that was going to happen today. As Adriano, the great Brazilian opened the scoring with a powerful left-footer from outside the area in the 11th minute..The strength and power are the Adriano's big assests...he can muscle through the defenders...then inthe 16th minute Kaka doubled the lead with a great shot right into the corner from 25 yards out. Kaka seems quite promising, but do misses quite a few chances...Argentina had a couple of looks at the Brazilian goal and that was all...without Crespo and Saviola their attack was weakened..Just after the break Ronaldinho added the third...and Adriano finished off a great night with a clear header of Cicinho's [another promising youngster] cross. He had chances to get the hat-trick but couldn't. Robinho also hit the post once...Argentina were dominant in last 10-odd minutes with Aimar getting them on the score-sheet with brilliant diving header, and the Dida making a couple of good stops to keep them at bay. In the end it was a great 4-1 victory for Brazil. They have found a new star in Adriano, ironically he scored a couple of goals in Copa-America final against Argentina too! Guess he likes the big stage..[esp against the Argentina :)]. Robinho is good but misses quite a few chances..lacks the strength and power too...should get better with days....Cicinho was great.....as a left back playing in place of Carlos...

Well hope again is what all hewitt can have against federer and that's all :) Just finished watching Federer v/s Hewitt semis @ Wimbledon...another meek performance by Hewitt against the King...just doesnt seem he can beat him at all...has now lost the last 8 matches and 15 sets against him in a row...and the last match he won against him was from 2 sets down and 3-5 down in the 3rd !! and yes that was 2 years ago.... literally seems like a novice against the King Federer..now it seems the Wimbledon is again Federer's. There's no Safin or Nadal here to beat him.....

Normality Restored..

Well after a week of some strange results, the normality is restored. Last week saw some startling resluts in cricket n football. Australia losing 4 games in a week including 1 against Bangladesh and 1 even after scoring 342 runs. Anyway now the normality is restored. Lee & Symonds are back and back with a bang ! They have now beated England and thrashed Bangladesh by 10 wkts....England still playing pretty well especially their bowling...All leading up to an exciting Ashes !
In football the World Champions were beaten by a Mexico side....and then they just managed a draw against the Japanese to sneak through to the semis on goal difference..But now yesterday they beat the mighty Germans with 2 brilliantly taken Adriano's goals and now we are well on our way to see the most awaited and most expected Brazil v/s Argentina finale...
On the other side Wimbledon is going on...seems like King Federer and Hewitt are well on their way to meet in the semis..with Safin & Nadal out, i think this match will decide the Wimbledon champion..don't think Roddick is going to be a fight for these two, though Gasquet maybe a fight ! Hewitt's performance against Federer has been atmost dismal in last one and a half years. But i hope he can put on a better show this time round, was serving exceptionally well in the lead tournament to the Wimbledon..
enugh for now.............

Brazil Rocks !!!

Well-2 just saw the Brazilian start of campaign to the Confederations Cup last night against the european champs Greece. And what a superb display it was....was feeling a bit bored and sad in the evening ...but the Samba display just lit up my nite :) Simply sensational......such a clinical demolition..without the likes of Ronaldo, Carlos and Cafu...the young guns did exceptionally well.....the first goal frm Adriano was breathtaking....sensational...this guy is just awesome.....2nd was build on a gr8 run by Gilberto and a clinical finish from young Robinho...and third was an exquisite free-kick by Juninho !! Gilberto & ZeRoberto work pretty hard..i guess ManU needs a midfielder like 'em now.....Gilberto will be gr8 :)
Adriano's & Juninho's goal were sensational.....Robinho missed quite a few chances before actually scoring......this guy is young and sure to improve ! i guess in big matches there's no match for Brazil be it world cup, copa america (with their B-team) and now its turn of Confederations Cup...
Mexico should be a tougher opponent though

Confederations cup......

Well mez back again.....it's half-time here in Germany-Australia in a first round encounter at first day of Confederations Cup.....and alas my favourite sporting nation Australia (a minnow in football thought) is giving a tough fight to european giants Germany !! Its 2-2 @ halftime .......a real attacking match thus
far..anybody's game.....just wish the aussies snatch this one :)
Earlier Argentina scrapped thru to a 2-1 win......Mez expecting a Brazil v/s Argentina finale here......shall be a great one...and tommorow my fav footballing nation Brazil will take the centerstage..... looking fwd to the second half......n Brazil's start of campaign......
my semis lineup: Brazil v/s Australia & Argentina v/s Mexico.

Sad news: Aussie lost a one-day against Somerset even after amassing 342 runs !!

Indian Bowling

Well i was thinking about writing over this for a long time. So finally i have got the time to write about the state of Indian bowling. In this batsmen dominated game and this batsman crazy country somehow people tend to ignore bowlers. For me Indian bowling has been in quite a pathetic state for sometime now. In the WC '2003 it was the Indian bowling which took us to the finale. But it was them who blew it away when it mattered most. Recently India lost the ODI series against Pakistan and drawn the Test series. Indian bowlers regularly gave away 300 odd runs in almost every match. Even in test matches Indians were treated badly by the Pakistan batsmen. In the first test lesser test batsmen like Akmal and Razzaq played out almost a day. And in the final test Younis & Inzamam took Indian bowling to the sword. Pakistanis are a decent bat, but not as good a batsmen as the Indians made them to be especially in the Test matches. I couldn't remember the last time a Pakistani batsman scored over 150 in last few years before they did against the Indians. Their batsmen are not known to stay at the wicket for long. Even the West Indian bowling attack which has been treated like novices for last 2 years managed to restrict Pakistan to decent totals. But still somehow whenever we lose a match, the media points to the failure of Indian batsmen. Yes they too have to be better, but for how long the Indian bowlers will need a 300 plus total to defend successfully. The failure of Indian bowlers tends to be ignored and same old bowlers keep rotating in the team. It’s pretty rare that an Indian bowler takes a 5-er for less than a hundred and by that time opposition is close to a big score of 400.

India boasts of bowlers like Irfan Pathan, who become a star without too much to show in his records. He looked promising in Australia, good in Pakistan. Then his first 5-ers against Bangladesh and he was a star. The result, against Pakistan in the recent home series he looked an amateur! He is yet to take a 5-er against a Test Playing Nation (except Bangladesh) and he is India's best fast bowler. Zaheer Khan and Ashish Nehra are injured more often than not. Both have dropped pace off late like Pathan and before they get into the rhythm the get injured again!! Balaji has looked good in home and away Tests against PakistanAustralia for long. Apart from a few 5-ers here and there for more than 120 odd runs he has been just an average bowler for long. And finally a bowler, who has been in and out of the team for past 6-7 years. The bowler who keeps coming again and again in the team by promising a lot, just to fail again. And as Harsha Bhogle once aptly commented about him "He's a great bowler when he gets going, it's only when, that has been a problem for him". Infact Agarkar's story shows us a few points: but is just an average in ODIs. Kumble has always been a star for the home pitches in Tests. While Harbhajan has been living on '01 series performance against

1. The difference between Indian domestic cricket and international cricket is just too much, that he keeps performing domestically to regain his place and then fail again at international level.

2. The Indian bowlers [in general players] don't improve by time. They just boast of a certain natural talent they have at the time of their debut and keep making same little mistakes again and again.

I think both the points are true to quite an extent, first one somehow the result of kind of pitches we have here in India. The second maybe because of the way the Indian players become stars overnight? This is a professional game and its high time that Indians start learning from their past mistakes and improve upon their natural talent. The Aussies are the best example of that, most of their players except for Ponting and Clarke have faced tough times like being dropped from the side. But they have made a comeback to be some of the finest players of all time like Warne, Hayden, Martyn, Symonds et al...

On a high note, well Indians have got a new Aussie coach in Greg Chappell, so i just hope he brings some professionalism into the Indians and make them a force to be reckon with in the upcoming WC '2007.

~Kon ??

Dated: Monday, June 13, 2005