Apr 2 2012

The Inner Cry of Joy – “The World Cup Experience Re-Lived”

Ever Since I started watching Cricket, which is from 1996 Wills world cup, the one thing my father kept on Bragging to me was that he had watched India Winning the World Cup and always kind of teased me that I was not as fortunate like him to see that kind of euphoria or the thrill or joy that he has witnessed. Further, he would always add that the joy I had when sachin hit an blazing 143 in sharajah which was the greatest cricket moment I have witnessed was like a dust compared to what joy he had when India lifted the world cup . My father always made me watch that victory of 1983 final whenever it was telecasted and I was also watched it very much in eagerness of what was all the excitement he was talking about and I could not absolutely sense it but seeing the tiny curve of unexplainable painful smile my father would have every time when the moment where Mohinder amarnath runs towards the balcony with all his smiles and one stump in his hand always had me in an confusion of what was running through my father’s mind. The World Cup after World cup passed and we missed winning it in one way or the other sometimes, my father would say that my generation may not have the luck to witness it. Then CWC2011 held in India.
I have just joined a job and was placed in Mumbai and World Cup was happening alongside my life just like any another tournament and to be frank the CWC 2011 started on a slower side and it initially crept to reach the glorious thing it turned out to be. The League phase was over(at last!) ,No real surprises this time like the previous world cups, no minnow team made to quarters this time and that in itself was good news for the organizers . India was to face the Current Champions now the not so mighty Aussies they used to be but still was much of a challenge to face in the quarter-finals , Yuvraj the Prince of the World cup worked up his magic and helped India Breeze past the current Champions meanwhile Pakistan made an abomination of a win against Windies and the Mother of all Rivalries was set to happen in one of the largest stage in Cricket in a Semi-Final . The people of both the countries could not wait for the match and one might even say that the hospitals in both the countries had their fleet of Ambulances ready for emergencies that could occur on that fateful day. Believe me or not I watched and shared the you-tube link of Aamir sohail bowled by V.Prasad nearly 100 times in that few days . Though the game did not meet the humungous expectations it had but, lest of all India thumped the Pakistani’s and won yet another World cup match . Yes, winning a match against Pakistan is above winning a Semi-Final . Now that we have breached and conquered two of the most consequential and toughest of Barricades .Now, only our very own island Neighbors where left to be conquered and every minute of the remaining days my heart and soul was repeating unconsciously these words “No, please not From Here….For God’s sake do not from Here” .
The Gracious day came, the Whole of Mumbai was buzzing with pride of a CWC Final in which India is Playing is being held in their land . The Ticket price was sky rocketing and I bailed out of that Idea of even having an idea of even trying for a ticket . It was a Saturday and I had to work as it was a financial year end and I left from work in the after-noon catching my train from kurla ,ordered my lunch parcel by phone and when I reached the house it was already the 5th over being bowled . Then Jayewardene as he usually does spoilt the moods of millions scoring a Gracious Ton and the myth “ a ton scored on a final never went in vein “ sunk deep in every Indians heart . Then came the early strikes of Sehwag and Sachin by Malinga , at that point of time I almost made a villainous scheme of murdering Malinga but then Kohli the future and Gambhir the Finesse asserted control and when Kohli went back MSD walked in and in such solidarity he grinded the tooth of the Lankan attack and made the match like what it now looks like in the Match Summary Scorecard . That Six of Kulasekara ,that one final strike, that one final thud ,that one final stroke, that one final nail in the coffin, that one final bat meeting the ball, that one final jolt of joy India witnessed and That Is It we are the Champions!.
I wasn’t with my Father when that Six was hit but I called him over Phone and I shouted like a crazy escapee from an asylum but till date I forgot to mention or ask him this “Is that how you Felt on 1983?”. Lest! When you yourself know the answer why should you pose a question .
Yes dad, I know. This is exactly how you would have felt on 1983 When Amarnath took that last wicket . Dad, I now knows what that tiny curve of unexplainable painful smile you had every time you see the footage and now that I too have felt it . It was the “Inner Cry of Joy”

Mar 9 2012

Blindly Sports

It was the time in Indian cricket after the 1996 Wills World cup where India which was considered a power house was humiliated by the eventual champs The Lankans , The team was heavily hammered by the media and it’s people for the dubious exit and India was in dire need of young blood to accompany the already star of Indian batting  Sachin and came the tour of India to England,like they say “cometh the hour cometh the man” the first test was played at Lord’s and two of the most incredible talent the world was yet to witness stepped in and stepped up their game day 1. The southpaw scored his century on debut and the other missed the triple figure by a whisker and went to make that missed attempt a bad luck for the ground, rather for him.He is the one who entered the team as “Jammy”…

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Feb 5 2012
Aside

Really,Circus It Is

Today was the Judgement Day and all people were glued to their television sets . All people in the media and country were so focused towards the man in the top seat of the Room . The room was so tensed up, making all the oxygen in the room easily burnt . People have been waiting for this judgement for over an year now. The Fate Of many People were hanging based on this Judgement. The Auction for IPL has arrived . Wait….What?….2G….NO! NO! NO! Who cares about it.

The Auction was announced to be held today(03-Feb-2012), KTK and PWD oops..sorry! PWI were added as new additions to the IPL last season and so increasing the strength from 8 to 10 franchises and guess what? still CSK triumphed ! CSK Rocks! Whistle Podu! . Okay! Okay! coming back to the Topic , KTK Franchise was thrown out because of some misconduct or non-compliance with agreement reason and Poor Mallu fans are again forced back to support CSK. In My Opinion,This auction was actually like a garage sale where the left-overs of the previous auctions , no-where-to-go KTK players and some newbies were up for sale . The list of players who were up for the auction mostly consisted of over-ambitiously priced England ,some Windies, Few Indians and some going to be-unsolds . The Auction was going to be underway and already a storm has hit it, Yes! it was the desert storm of the Sahara India Pariwar withdrawing it’s sponsorship with Indian Team and also withdrawing it’s IPL team and the news spread like wild-fire except for those at BCCI (They sure are fire proof!). The PWD (oh! not again), sorry The PWI did not also participate in the Auction . The statement released by The Sahara Group http://www.espncricinfo.com/india/content/current/story/552060.html  was one of the most touching things i have read in a while . Even, Salman Khan is asking directors down south to make a film out of it ,so that he can remake it in Hindi. Anyways,PWI (Yeh! i got it this time) not participating in the auction was not mandatory (only the time-outs are!)  and so The Auction started with the top players coming up in the 1st lot and Guess what Ravindra Jadeja who was supposed and considered  the hottest piece of Cake lived upto the expectation and the Mighty CSK crew came with plan like they usually are and grabbed Jaddu boy with both hands and he did not come easy DC and CSK emptied their purses for him and a Tie-Breaker secret bidding was done and CSK won it.I think CSK would have written “Srini Rules” in the enclosed Bid and so sealed the bid. Then so many bids came in and went, too many were left unsold and the proceedings went on and on until….

Ah! I forgot to mention , This time around Bhajji was among the MI bunch in the bidding process and gave all his inputs thoroughly. “I now know what he did this Winter ”  “Home Alone”, He was all along helping Nita Ambani raise the baton Up and Down in the bidding process. Coming back to the moment of surprise ,awe and shock!. The moment that nobody expected came up VVS Laxman was not picked by any franchisee (shock!), and in another Low-Key news in the Auction was that Vinay Kumar was picked for 1mn $. Yes, the red color shoe bowler .Yes,that scorching fast bowler. yes, yes,  you guessed the reason rite! RCB crew was seriously boozed off during that part of the bidding as they thought they were selling him for that price (Poor fellows!).Actually, there was a glitch during this particular process,Vinay Kumar was auctioned from the fast bowlers lot and i hear and read some say he was visibly upset hearing that. After the V.Kumar fiasco came sreesanth, the fiasco himself  and i must admit i was seriously afraid of the thought that he might be going for more than V.Kumar but then came the Royal Force of rajasthan and bid him at base of 400,000 $ and i immediately understood the meaning for what Ravi shastri always says “Paying a Heavy Price for the Bad….” .

Speaking of the Auction ,If PWI(eh!once again got it rite!) issued a emotional statement that almost dissolved rock solid hearts ,RR did something very much more ,they bid successfully for brad hodge,brad hogg and they might as well took VVS if not for the auctioneers fast reflexes , They now act as the foreign sanctuary for old-aged,retired,semi-retired,drop-outs . Such Noble Royals they are.  Then came the Spinners, the last lot of players to be auctioned and guess who jumped and stepped up their bidding’s ,It was the MI ably supported by Bhajji ,MI desperately wanted Sunil Narine and almost won him before letting him go after bhajji received an anonymous tweet that he is not an Indian and lest settled for Robin Peterson. While every team was bidding for players to fill in their weak spots KXIP took a different direction and filled spots for carrying Drinks and Ness wadia further upped the ante  to nullify the claim that his team lacks balance by successfully bidding for Ramesh powar to add balance to the weaker side of the platform . DD who had a terrible IPL last time up came in with a thoughtful strategy of buying foreign talents . might be to promote GMR’s international Terminal , New Delhi Airport(may be!Who knows?).DC was the most active team of the day, they competed for almost all bids and there was also this instance when rajiv shukla was called twice by the auctioneer to catch his attention and DC mistook it for a bid and raised the baton and almost bought Rajiv Shukla  . Oh ! i forgot to mention KKR,  SRK came and slapped nobody. To finish it off CSK sat on their corner enjoying their special Degree coffee with their Hindu paper all along .

The Best Highlight of this auction was that No England Players were picked by any of the IPL team and many say this was because of  their tight international schedule and some believe it was because of that 4-0 mauling they did to India, but I strongly believe the reason is “Spin and England cannot co-exist”.

P.S : By The Way – All gilli-danda , kancha, kite-flying players contact Sahara India Pariwar for sponsorship. You too might get an emotional contract.

Start-Auction-Cut-Pack Up! -|IPL Auction 2012|

Dec 31 2011

The Boxing Day Test – Indian Batting exposed

There was this day which the whole nation was waiting ,and that day had everything to upset anybody . It was a Monday, Not a Christmas and last week of the old year and yet everybody were looking forward for that day , and for one sole reason It’s Test Cricket between India and Australia in Australia . Everybody in India were ready to overcome the early-morning alarm in-spite of the fierce winter .The  Indian Team after getting it’s tail between it’s legs in England and toying with the Windies at Home ,had a huge responsibility of proving it’s metal and no better time than this…… after-all Aussies were having opening problems and further more… coming back from a home defeat to New-Zealand . The Stage was set and both the teams dressed up to the occasion, and in the end one team came out with all the riches exposing the other team their nakedness.Yes! indeed India was exposed in all it’s departments like the pot-holes in the streets of India after a torrid rain.

The match started with all the hopes high with both the sides evenly balanced both on paper and present form . The match was having a rivetting battles and for most of the match no side was clearly  running away with their dominance in any of the sessions. What made the difference between the two teams was that Austraila held on to their dominance in the last day .

visualize this  – A child orders a Big Dosa out of curiosity and digs into it with an eager to finish it fastly and suddenly feels full and doesn’t know what to do with the remaining, starts playing with the left-overs only to face the wrath of the father who pays the bill.

This has been the case with the Indian Bowlers for decades and decades now , When u have all the plans and also make it work against the top-order how come you are out smarted by the tail-enders ? (this probalby is the longest unanswered question in Indian Cricket History) . Allowing Pattinson and Hilfenhaus to bat for that long and allow them to score! Who to Blame???

– Dhoni’s Captaincy?
People say – No..No… He won you the World Cup
I Ask – Then Ask him to wipe clean the tail enders .That is not as tough as winning the world cup!
– Poor Batting?
People Say – That was Just this Time… only that Kohli isn’t good. Rohit wuld have been better
I Ask – With all that experience up the order You want to put all that blame on the New guy and you want Rohit In

I just don’t even want to put forward the Inexperienced bowling point and put my opinion on it. The craziest thing i heard is that Melbourne is not the best of the grounds for India and that as one unacceptable reason for the defeat . In the International level with all the facilities at your disposal is it that hard to work on the thing which you very well know you are bad in.

Like any other Indian Fan I too feel like saying   “Hey! You Aussies We will Thump You At Sydney”  but with an awkwardness of the doubt – “can we do that?”

Dec 11 2011

scintillating Savage – “The Sehwag”

The Real "Big Hit"

08,December ,2011

It was just another day in the month of December except that it had one another match of the India Tour Of West Indies and it was a ODI match where there was no Sachin , and almost an less important match as the creme of the side was missing and some already left to the The series Down Under and definitely No one predicted what was about to come later that evening.