Mind Cafe

nai ba tahar ortho hok, nai ba bujhuk bebak lok

2008-06-07T17:32:00.001-05:00

amra khabo dabo kolkolabo
pushbo internet
amra ratri jege chhobi dekhbo
gurgur tolpet.

amra na hoy chhotto pola
chengis dari chai..
tomra je hao dhere khoka,
poro joy gosai.

boma felche piyong-iyong
anonde nachi tai..
are saddam khuro gelo naki
dekhto uthe bhai!

amader nei ichhe-dana
kemne uri bol,
taito mora che(n)chai jore..
diego dile gol.

amader ache anek sentu,
jhuli bhora byang..
thanda ghore bose chiboi
jholsa murgi-thyang.

amra beer kheye bhuri bagai
sange diet coke,
tulche potol gorib-gurbo..
kiser rashtro-shok?

sada dekhle sursur kore
jibher doga lyaj,
buke amra ghuri pore
swadhinotar badge.

oi je boli mon-ta moder
boroi hahakar,
zidan kore paglami ar
amra hoi jerbaar.

naachte neme oma dekhi
uthon geche be(n)ke,
chappal hate gonga foring
tabuo jay deke.

amra halla rajay selam thuki
shundi kori joy..
aamra jiban niye kheli jua
sudhu bhagobanei bhoy!

Subhashis

Indian Premier League : "old order changeth yielding place to new"

2008-06-03T13:55:00.010-05:00

The hype was enormous, the distraction caused by it allowed players to forget their national pride. Finally when it arrived, it swept a nation and many more around the world by its charisma and impetus.

Yes, I am talking about recently concluded Indian Premier League , aka popular IPL. Rajasthan Royals won the inaugural eition of the 20-20 cricket extravaganza by 3 wickets defeating Chennai Super Kings in the final. But the mere results became unimportant in front of the magnitude of the whole event. People came to watch the match in thousands, all the grounds were jam-packed, even in 35-38C heat of april-may in India. The entertainment that cricket brought provided the necessary cool-breeze. The cheer-leaders danced with every wicket or boundary scored, the loud-speakers played hindi music, and bollywood celebrities were mixed in the fray to rpepare a toxic-sweet supersaturated chemical solution. ShahRukh Khan was omni present at calcutta, spreading his life energy and enthusiasm among crowd. Preity Zinta, not knowing cricket that much, still made foolish gestures and tried to appear super cool. Other big business magnets like Vijay Malya, Mukesh Ambani inested and brought franchises like Mumbai Indians and Bangalore Royal Chalengers. Big names galored, money flowed, overseas players jumped into the fray, and the face of cricket in India will never be the same again.

Junior indian players, who have played so far under 19 matches and ranji cricket at most, suddenly found players like adam gilchrist, glen mcgrath, mark boucher, shane warne, muralidharan, grame smith, ricky ponting, shoaib akhtar sharing the same dressing room with them, bowling them at the nets, giving them batting tips during practice sesions. That is the huge benefit that came out of IPl. The cricketing knowledge has flown in each direction. People from different countries and culture came together, spent time together, learned each others culture and life-style, and had accustomed acordingly. Few days ago Symonds and Rohi Sharma was giving eye for eye and tooth-or-tooth in CB series in australia. 3 months later, they are team mates in IPL, chalking out strategy together how to get rid of ponting or dravid, or how to face shane warne.

That is the beauty..cultures mixed together. The dressing room atmosphere got lighter, stories are shared. This will probably make cricket gentleman's gme again.Now lets talk about some take home memories of the IPL. Jayasuriya got the license and despatched bowlers all over the park. he hit 31 sixes in 14 matches and became a dangerous force once again. Sourav ganguly and Rahul dravid both aggregated over 350 runs with healthy average and showed that IPL is not only for young players. Harbhajan slapped sreesanth and was banned for 11 matches , and as mumbai didnt qualify for semis, he couldnt take part in IPL after the 3rd match. Rajasthan Royals became the greatest surprise of the tournament. They spend their money efectively, and at the end of player-buying auction they were the cheapest team. Incidentally, they were the best team, because they bought effective twenty twenty players, who will bowl-bat and field. They had three solid all-round capability players. Shane Watson, Yousuf Pathan, Sohail Tanvir. Tanvir was the highest wicket-taker with only economy rate around 6, watson was run-away winner for man of the series with 444 runs and 16 wickets, and yousuf pathan was brilliant when the team needed him most. Besides these thee, they had warne, who still have lot of fire left in him, and captained a young side very wel. Graeme smith provided the experience up-top. and Asnodkar was the find of the tournament where his unorthodox play always assured that royals got a good start always.

Shaun Marsh is the son of aussie opener Geoff Marsh, and Shaun show in Ipl confirmed that the son is like his father. He scored 639 runs in the whole tournament despite missing first 3 matches, and he played elegant cricket strokes, not baseball slogs, to score those runs. He adapted to the indian conditions very well, used his wrist to great extent to play his shots.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsUlsCU0Qfs

Lot of new bowlers emerged from the IPL. Ashoke Dinda, and Manpreet Gony are the two front runners. Balaji came back to cricket after two years of exile and claimed the 1st hattrick of the IPL. Spin played an important part in the tournament also as amit mishra won a few matches for delhi, and muralidharan, warne provided required breaks and impetus for their teams.

Delhi probably had one of the best sides on paper but their inconsistency finally scripted their downfall. Mcgrath and Maharoof strangled the batsmen most of the time in the tournament but failed to do so in the semifinal. Th race to the semifinal was a tight one, and other than Bangalore and Hydrebad, other teams like mumbai, kolkata, chennai, delhi was in tight midtable finish at the end.

Mumbai and Kolkata were the best examples of "could-have-happened or should-have-happened". They won some matches with such ease, and then lost some matches poorly. Mumbai suffered 3-4 last over finishes, two last ball losses that cost them semifinal place. Kolkata never found their right combination, and a weak batting line-up and injured chris gayle never helped. Deccan chargers of hyderabad would like to forget this tournament as soon as possible. Gilchrist, afridi, gibbs, symonds, rohit sharma, scott styris probably constructed a line up any captain would dream of. But too many cooks spoiled the dinner there, and a weak inexperienced bowling line-up did not help.

The talks and runours for the next season has already started. Teams are looking to buy english players who were not a part of the inaugural version. The removal of salary cap rumour has already been surfaced, and people are having mixed reaction about it. South africa, Australia, WestIndies are also trying to start their own t20 tournament, and a concept of champions league is shaping up. One british invented game is following the footsteps of another.

Though IPL lasted only 44 days, the impact will last year round, and as soon as sohail tanvir hit the wining runs in the last ball of the final, the countdown for 2009 IPL has already began.

Movie Snippet 1

2008-05-22T15:48:00.005-05:00

Here I will discuss briefly about some of the movies I have seen in recent past. 1st in the line is Amadeus. The film has been made based on the life of legendary Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Mozart music is appalling and revolution in the late middle age of europe. Austria, Germany and most of the central europe was at the brink of a turmoil and excitement-ridden journey at that time, and Mozart's music has strengthened the understanding of human about human feelings at that time. The operas were a medium of sending strong social message, and mozart used that medium perfectly. But the movie disappointed me as a whole. The vast magnitude, the loudness , the drama was there. Yet the classic was missing. The true Mozart was missing from the movie. The director failed to create an environment of purpose for his music. Indeed the movie got oscar, but it failed to portray the joy of music, the beauty of concertos, the troubled musicians life, in the movie. I would give it a 3 out of 5.

Next in the line is Mrigaya by Mrinal sen. It is the debut film of Mithun Chakrabarty and Mamata Shankar. The story may be a simple age-old one, but it has been executed beautifully by the director and actors. The saontal tribes and their crops are always troubled by the animals from the forest close to a village. But animals dont have shrewd brains to do the judgement. They cannot understand that due to their act, someone else in this world is getting hurt or getting deprived of their belongings. Human can understand that. Sometimes some human being gets too greedy and understanding this fact fully well they attack poor saontals, or poor villagers, to satisfy their greed. The saontal villagers attack the animals from the forest to keep them away from the crops, they hunt those wild animals. But sometime hunting of these human-faced animals are also needed. This story is all about hunting the real animals in the society. Mithun showed in his 1st movie how big an actor he is. It is sometimes really difficult to execute simple roles , low profile roles. Because there one actor eally has

to improvise him or her, cause every day he/she does not live that life. Portraying the life of a poor villager is always a challenge, and the actors/actresses acting on these roles in "Mrigaya" came out flying colors.

I give 4.5 out of 5 for this movie. Mithun Chakrabarty got best actor award for this film, and this film was accepted in Moscow film festival.

A sad and bad ending to a drab season

2008-05-22T15:30:00.006-05:00

The champions league final wrapped up a drab and bad season of football in europe . Yes the italian cup final between inter and roma is still there, but the champions league final is considered to be the pinnacle of european football glory. The slippery and bad pitch, incessant rain, and the drama in penalties summed up a drench nite in moscow. Manchester United won in penalties, but honestly, manchester united won by luck. Chelsea should have won the trophy, and they are the deserved winner of champions league this season.

Generally artistic football win over long ball sky high soccer. Thats why this is the 1st time in 53 years history of champions league that two english teams are playing in the final. Overall it was a bad match, and a horrible pitch did not help either.

Hope from next year onwards Uefa do not make such mess of such a big event.

Several time during the match both the teams were involved in minor brawl. Alex ferguson tried to intemedate the referee when coming out of the tunnel before the 2nd half. Drogba was shown red cad in a scape-goat manner at the end of a lot of pushing started by tevez. The whole united team was unsporting enough not to console their opponents after penalty shoot-out. Only Scholes did that, not joining the celebration by their team mates.

Chelsea was so near the trophy. Terry slipped and the shot hit the bar, and went out. I truely dont think finals should be decided this way. They should start thinking of announcing joint winners, or make the final double leg.

I hope Chelsea will come back and win this trophy many more time in the future. More importantly, i hope the long ball soccer teams should lose, and artistic soccer should prevail. A busy sumer ahead as lot of teams are in rebuilding process. AC Milan, InterMilan, Barcelona, Arsenal, Chelsea will be really busy during next two months. After the euro2008, clubs will sort out their starting line ups and bench strengths, and as they say, there is always a next season. I hope the next season will be a season to remember.

Dada'r kirti

2008-04-17T17:12:00.006-05:00

The heading is one of an emotional dramatic well-made bengali movie, which has been used here as a catch phrase to recognise our cricketing dada Sourav Ganguly's contribution in recently concluded India vs SouthAfrica series. India have drawn the series 1-1, coming back strongly in Kanpur to win the 3rd and final test by 8 wickets after losing the 2nd test by innings and 90 runs. The 1st test was a run fest where shewag scored a triple century, and the test match yielded almost 1500 runs with loss of 25 wkts over 5 days. The pitch at ahmedabad was lively and india lost the match by getting bowled out within 20 overs for 76 in the 1st day morning. South Africa scored 494/7 in the same pitch, and though dada and dhoni tried their best to avoid innings defeat, south africa won easily by innings and 90 runs. Dada played good solid strokes through offside, punished Paul Harris , the lone south african spinner, handsomely, used his feet to great extent. And in the 3rd test at Kanpur, when the pitch was unpredictable at its best, dada produced one gem of an innings, an innings to remember for long time. The upper part of the pitch was disintegrated, the dusts were coming out, the bounce was unpredictable. South Africa were bowled out for 265 in the 1st day, from 152-1. India were 110/3 and dravid was out in a jumping delivery when dada walked out. And what followed was termed as the "asset innings for playing on spinning track" by south african coach micky arthur. Dada played with lot of positiveness and agression, did not try to just defend. He cut and drove whenever he got opportunities on the off side, and his pulls and jabs down the on side was also there. When he finally got out in the fag end of 2nd day for 87 trying to force the pace, India was safely placed at 279, taking lead over south african total.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2tRMDDP4gc

He not only earned the man of the match for the innings, but earned heap of praise for such skillfulll batting on a detoriating pitch. Still, there are so many critics and non-crickety jealous people who cannot stand Sourav Ganguly..!! But he enjoys that, more people will hurl abuses, his steel strong determination will be more stronger..and the bat will do the talking..

Book Review: The Kite Runner

2008-04-10T10:46:00.001-05:00

"For you, a thousand times over".

Thats the phrase that caught my mind after I read the book "Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseini. Unfortunately thats probably the only thing that I m going to remember from the book. The book starts with the childhood stories of a rich but lonely , devoid of parental attention,child, and his camaraderie with the son of their servant. Initial part of the bok speaks well about the mid-60 early 70s Kabul, Afghanistan, the traditions, the winters, the small little smells and details that will help you to fall in love with a place you havenot seen. It speaks about the loyalty of the servant's son, Hassan to his malik's son, Amir. But slowly as the story progresses, it more or less turns out to be a series of melodramatic events.

Author tries to provide a picture depicting the rise and fall of Afghanistan, but in the end it turned out to be a story of Amir's own life, how he escaped from Afghanistan and settled in America. One important aspect that was never highlighted enough in the book is the civil war in 90s in Afghanistan, where pashthuns and hazara's fought each other. That was the backdrop of the story, starting from the early days, it was pashthuns vs hazara's.Emotions are good, but you need to put emotions in rihht place. Just sketching dreams, past moments, creating a hollow surrealistic feeling does not create a great literary piece. Thats what I felt happened with this book. There are lot of places in the book where the author tried to create sympathy by showing the ugly face of life. He has drawn lot of blood shedding, and in the process marred the main objective of the story he started with. Hassan's character is a strong character, but thats the only character that stands out in the book, thats the only character that you ponder upon after finishing the book. The book do inflict a blurred image of Afganistan, the good and bad one, in your mind, but I think it fails to blend that image in your mind alongside with the characters. I believe it fails to do justice to the title of the book as well. The initial part of the book was sound, but as soon as the part with soviet attack on Afghanistan starts, the plot is lost somewhere in between reality description and story telling. I would give this book 6/10.

Soccer Snippets 2

2008-03-27T16:06:00.000-05:00

League of the Champions or emergence of also rans?

For the 2nd time in consecutive years, at least 3 EPL teams are in UEFA champions league quarter finals. This time even better, all 4 big guns of EPL are at the QF of UCL. Arsenal face Liverpool, which means at least one english team will be in semifinal. Chelsea face Fenerbache, and without any disrespect to the turkish side, it can be said atleast 2 english teams will be in the semifinal. Is indeed EPL is the league of champions?or champions league is the place where also rans can excel? fenerbache is no big name in european football, but the way they fought and came this far this season is amazing. They have some good players in the rank, and they fought with heart in the battles, and passion has guarded their lack of skill, and brought them this far. They ousted Sevilla in the 2nd round, who looked very composed in UCL this season. But chelsea will indeed be a tough test. Schalke is another team no one thought would end up in last 8. They emerged from a pretty tough group with chelsea, valencia and rosenborg, and they beat porto in the 2nd round. They are another team who are used to be considered as also-rans by football pundits. Though barcelona will be a stern test, they can already feel proud about their achievements in Europe this season.

Manchester Utd and Roma already faced of this year in group stage and set to replay last years memorable action and goal packed quarter final. Roma is different team this season, as not a lot of team go to santiago bernebeau and knock off real madrid. Not a lot of team go to san siro and beat AC Milan.

So, indeed the teams which were considered mediocre have emerged this season, we are getting very good mix of big names and fighters. Lets have an enthralling last 3 rounds of champions league football.

Soccer Snippets 1

2008-03-27T10:54:00.000-05:00

English race is not over

Its a three team race, and after long time, chelsea edged ahead of arsenal to second spot after last weekend's victory over gunners. Gunners are slipping behind after a fabulous start to the season. They have failed to win in last 5 matches in epl. This was somewhat predicted from a young team which regrouped themselves pretty well after last season's disaster and departure of Henry. But I consider the EPL race far from over. Mainly because , there are still big matches left, Arsenal face Liverpool, ManUtd face Chelsea, Man Utd face Arsenal, Chelsea face Liverpool in the remaining weeks, which are all 6 point games. Though Reds(Liverpool) are out of title contention, they can ruin the party for other three in the process of solidifying their champions league berth.

The mid-table juggling is also continuing as Everton, Man City, and PortsMouth battling it out for Uefa cup while everton has an eye to the champions league. Newcastle finally won under king kev and looks like they are not in relegation survival. Hope they hire some good striker and medios next season. If Viduka gets healthy, and owen can play in full force..they still have the team to compete with top four. Juande Ramos has given Spurs their 1st piece of silverware after long time, but the club is doing poorly in EPL. Next season, he may want to change that.

Season is over for Derby, and Fulham is fighting fo their life in ICU. Fasten your seatbelts folks, the EPL is all set for a fast exciting landing.

"aye aye captain...."

2008-03-24T12:27:00.000-05:00

Most of you probably are aware of the dialogue mentioned in the heading. It is from dead poet society, where the students used to call their teacher by this, "aye aye captain...".

Captains in every form of life have roles to play, have responsibilities to fulfill, because the word captain itself is very precious and powerful, and as uncle of spider man said.."with great power, comes great responsibilities."

And the magnitude of the responsibility is even greater if you are captain of Indian cricket team. There are more than 1 billion people in the country, and counting NRIs, there are almost 1 billion cricket pundits. you got to be responsible when you are captain of a team which represents people of that huge number. Unfortunately our captain , ODI captain, current captain, Mahendra Singh Dhoni isn't.

Now let me explain why I say that. We all followed what happened down under this summer, and this blog is not reporting news or scores that has already been reported in news papers. This is a place to speak your mind, so I am doing that.

India defeated Australia in the CB series final 2-0, and doing so, has achieved something no Indian team has done before, and in doing so has registered their name in history as this was the last annual triangular series played in Australia, which has been part of their cricketing culture for last 30 years.

India omitted senior players from the team, and barring sachin tendulkar, most of the other players can be tagged as "non-aged players". Everyone doubted the credibility of the young team in front of Lee, Johnson, Clark and predicted a washout.But thats the beauty of being an Indian. When people question you, hurt your emotion, then you bring out your best, and proves everyone wrong. Rohit Sharma, Gautam Gambhir, Ishant Sharma, Praveen Kumar all played big role in defeating Aussies in their own backyard, and in a version of the game where they are world champions for almost a decade. Cool calm captaincy from Dhoni showed us we got a leader for the future who go by instincts, and who backs his players in difficult times.So far so good, we got a brilliant future.

Right, now lets talk about responsibilities and touch a little on the start of the story. Captains need to be responsible.As soon as Dhoni comes back to India with the team, he gave an flamboyant interview to the media, saying it was necessary to send the message across to some players. And there the whole debate started , the issue of responsibility came into play.

How many years Dhoni has played international cricket? 3. How many years Dravid has played? 12. How many years Sourav Ganguly has played? 12+4. I am not here to repeat Gangulys credentials as captain or Dravids contributions to many Indian victories in the past. We all know that. But we never heard of this kind of statement before. Dhoni has won a triangular series, not a world cup. To remind people, take out sachin tendulkar's 117* and 91 from the 2 finals, the score line might as well be reversed.

so why there is so much fuss about juniors? it should be kept in mind that the best eleven is required to win a tournament, not a youngest eleven.Throughout the tour we have observed the failure of opening stand in Indian innings. We have observed over the last year, whenever sachin and sourav gave india a good start, India went on to either win the match or at least put up a big score.So why Uthappa or Shewag is considered a better option than sourav ganguly as opening partner for tendulkar?

just because he is 36? just because he doesnt run as fast as Uthappa? well then we should consider the amount of runs he scores, which is way more than those players.

Even after India defeated Australia, I am not convinced that India has the right batting lineup in ODIs at the moment. More of all, the players need to show respect to seniors and elders who have served the country so passionately for so long. Words generally create enemies, again the words can create friends. Words can help the flow of emotions. Dhoni made the mistake of first not speaking to the seniors abut their exclusion, second made a huge mistake for making such public statement in the open.

I am a strong believer of what goes around, comes around.It will come back to haunt MS Dhoni, he will realise it one day, but it will be too late then.

From cricketing stand point, both Ganguly and Dravid has about 20 matches still left in ODI career and at least 2 years left in test career. Though energy and youth is replacing the experience in shorter version of the game, I am horrified to think abou Indian cricket's test future. Once sachin-sourav-dravid-laxman, the fab four, hang up their boots, I am shivering as I think about the state of Indian cricket will be then. So Dhoni, please remember, respecting elders is part of our culture.

The Ugly Ducklings

2008-01-17T21:32:00.000-06:00

Thats th name of a book I used to read in my childhood. Really childhood. My mom used to bring me one book everyday (almost) when she returned from work, I used to read the book, and kept it if I liked, and torn it apart if I did not. My love for book grew that way. Ugly duckling was a story o an ugly duck who was not wanted in duck society, hated by other ducks, hated by society, almost died in winter from freezing, only finally being rescued and accepted by a few beautiful swans which makes his heart filled with joy.
Society is always hard, we do not want to recognize anything off the track, we do not want to accept which does not fall into 2+2=4 category. But good hearts always win the race ultimately, however tough the journey be.
Well, the ugly ducklings story probably has nothing to do with what is to follow. When a batsman scores a 0 in a cricket match in Australia, the australian broadcasting channel accompanies the batsman to the pavilion with a animated duck on the TV screen. That ducklings is not ugly.
The term duckling gets associated with Australian cricket team just as only channel nine started this duck-walk with the batsman out for a "duck".
The ugliness of the duckling is eminent here, where it is pointing to. We all know cricket is no more a gentleman's game. No game are gentlemen's game anymore. There is too much at stake, there is not enough time to be gentleman. But still, sometimes you let your good heart win the battle with heated neuron signals in your head. All the fiasco that happened over last week between India and Australian cricket team, needs no more discussions. In an age of media dominance, every movement of every individual is thoroughly scrutinized. It is heartening to see that good sense prevailed at the end of scrutiny, mud-throwing, finger-pointing, bad-intentions, rough columns, life-threats. Yes thats what I mean by ugly duckling. The rough face of the duck, who is good by heart ,has been exposed over the last week.
We all descended from our ancestors through evolution which happened due to errors made by DNA during copying. Our ancestors were not homo sepiens. There is nothing to get agitated about it. Lets play some cricket folks..!!

Mishar diary Intro

2007-12-17T21:21:00.000-06:00

1st paragraph intoduces the egypt diary by shuchismita. Read the intro before you start reading the diary, it will help you get into the mood.

Click here to read the intro

http://www.guruchandali.com/guruchandali.Controller?portletId=8&porletPage=2&contentType=content&uri=content1196119322974&contentPageNum=1

Mishar Diary (Egypt Diary) by Shuchismita

2007-12-10T19:41:00.000-06:00

Eye of an Optimist

2007-10-29T16:16:00.000-05:00

The 7 match ODI series between India and Australia has recently been concluded. The series, played with high intensity and temper has been won by Australia, 4-2.

But there is a lot beyond that scoreline. Australia's dominance is the most boring and monotonous thing that had happened to cricket. So every slice cut out of australian glory will be well enjoyed by the rest of the cricketing world. Competing with Australia is not an easy job, as they are thorough professionals and master-sledgers in the field. When they sledge, they dont consider you as human being, or have no respect for you. India , especially sreesanth, wanted to give them back some of their own medicine. They did not like that.

Aussies started crying about racism, monkey chants, all that. How funny!! how funny that the most racist nation in the world is complaining about racism. Every touring party, that toured down under, has faced racist comment on and off the field. Makhaya Ntini, Muralidharan, Chaminda Vaas, Gavaskar, you name it. I just dont think they are not nice human beings, most of them. Of course there is Allan Border, there is david boon, geoff marsh, geoff lawson, richie benaud, who played the game as gentleman's game. But in general, they always sledge, use bad words, drag your families.

The way India approached australia's sledging was wrong. They shud have approached with smile, not with artificial jumping in the ground. But this is not an article on sledging, this is just a small report on the optimistic side of Indian cricket.

India bowled well with the new ball in the whole series, they had Australia 3-4 wickets down inside 100 runs in first 3 matches. They bowled aussies out for 193 in the last match, and dragged aussies to 283 from a runrate of 7 after 15 overs. The

Spinners bowled well, both M.Karthik and Harbhajan generated turn, and sometimes bounce. Brad Hodge has a horrible series, and if all the catches were held properly, Symonds average wouldnt have look so healthy.

Fielding definitely needed to be improved. The general level is okay, but Indian fielders have to hold on to catches more frequently, have to have direct-hit run-outs more often. But again, when the opposition is Australia, it is not so easy.

Indian batting was mixed. Whenever sachin and sourav gave good starts, the middle order looked solid, the runs came big. In the 4th and 6th ODI, the opening stands were 91 and 140 respectively. India ended up scoring 291 and 299. We need that level of consistency more often. Sachin and Sourav together have opened for India I think close to 180 times, and they have crossed 100 runs together as openers for 21 times. Their average as a pair is 45+ . Undoubtedly this is the best opening pair EVER to play one-day cricket. Indian selectors should remember that before they get influenced by a 70 by Gautam Gambhir in challenger trophy, or a meaningless 75 by Virender Shewag in domestic tournaments. Yuvraj's century at Hyderabad was treat to watch, so was the fight by Zaheer and Karthik in the last ODI to win from 64/6. In Uthappa, India has found a batsman who can take the attack to opposition in true sense. His stepping up to the crease, his walking silently to the ball before hoising it for six, his calm head and silence aggression is definitely a wonderful sight for the future. He needs to do this more consistently.

India smashed Aussies out of the park in 20-20 match in Brabourne stadium. I am not going to the discussion of that match, because India is world champion in that format, and the way aussies played that 20-20 match, they have A LOT to learn in that version, a lot to adapt. May be they can take that lesson from India.

All in all, a series ended 4-2, could well have been 3-3. A series, where , Indian team, after such long season, still withstood to aussie challenge. Indian team has played 14 ODIs, 5 test matches and one T20 world cup after their early exit from carribean world cup. Australia, played only few 20-20 matches in T20 world, no international longer matches whatsoever. Easily understood which team was fatigued and which team was more rested. Still Indian players have shown that they can fight, and impossible will be nothing.

I see a bright light at the end of tunnel, or I can say, I see a bright future for Indian cricket.

Chak De..India..!!

2007-09-25T13:46:00.000-05:00

Blue Billion..that was the name of the support campaign for the Indian cricket team before the 2007 limited over(50) cricket world cup in carribean. Filmstars, pundits, not-so-noteworthies, everyone chipped in with their signatures and one-liners..wishing their best. And a team, led by an insipid captain, coached by a horrendus individual, boarded the plane for carribean...

We all know what happened in the islands of central america. Indian cricket have not seen bigger disaster, a nation did not show bigger rage. India lost to Bangladesh, surrendered against Srilanka, came back home within a week they played their 1st match. The blue billion became pale, the cafe-corner junta's demanded the head of the players, specially those who failed to perform.

Fingers are raised and pointed to several individuals, the opportunistic racist coach started to swing his willow. Greg Chappel has finally succeeded in destroying Indian cricket. Thats what he came for. After finishing his job, he left the post before being sacked by BCCI. A lot of speculations prevailed, who didnt do their job, who wanted to catch fish in dirty water...

After effect..shewag sacked, harbhajan sacked, Irfan pathan sacked. Sachin and Sourav "rested" from the ODI team. India travelled to Bangladesh to get a "revenge". Well this article is not about the aftermath of world cup disaster..but these events are needed to be mentioned to put things in perspective.

The upward curve of Indian cricket after Greg Chappel left. India defeated Bangladesh 2-0 in ODIs , 1-0 in Tests, defeated South Africa in aODI series in Ireland 2-1 (1st time such thing happened), defeated England in test series 1-0 in England(1st time after '86). But still something was not right. I am telling you what is not right. THE CAPTAIN..!!

Thankfully Rahul Dravid stepped down at the right time. After India lost to England 3-4 in the ODI series, and came back home. Rahul Dravid ended the two tortorous-eventful year at the helm. Some capabilities are natural, and cannot be polished with hard-work. For example, captaincy for Sourav Ganguly, batting for Rahul Dravid. Do what you do best, and do what the team needs you for. The overindispensable feeling of Sourav Ganguly and momentary greediness from Rahul Dravid has chopped India off several glory, cost India a building process.

But never mind..life must go on..and we..the blue billion..can adjust to life very well. So here comes the 20-20 world cup, the new brainchild of ICC in international circuit. 20-20 cricket started in South Africa in 2000, and started in the gully-moholla's of Pakistan in 1970s. This format stopped the non-cricket playing nations accusition of cricket being a boring long game.

It takes about 3-3.5 hrs to finish a match, same time a baseball, american football, basketball match takes. The 50 over games shrinked by 40%, with all the rules and powerplays, and everything. The ground-size is not shrinked, nor the members in team.

It is hard for the puritans to accept it. Same was the case when Kerry Packer started world series of cricket down-under in 1977, flood-lights, colored dress, white-ball, excitement. New things takes a while to be accepted. As I mentioned in the previous paragraph, english counties play a lot of 20-20 cricket, so does south-african clubs, Pakistani players. The format is not well established in India , and not taken seriously in Australia.

Ya right, you heard it correctly, Australia. The nation that has won almost everything in cricket in this decade so far. 2 world cups, many more ODI series. Australia, the nation who wants to dominate the sport of cricket. Australia, the nation without emotion and with a lot of bad intent. Australia a nation with utmost power unleashed in cricket field. A nation build on by 2nd generation english prisoners and 2nd generation tribal aboriginals, devoid of mass education, devoid of respect towards human race. Players from all over the world became victim of racial chants in australian cricket grounds. Why? because those individuals have no respect for other people.

Now this is too far-fetched generalisation. There are tons of aussies who are exactly opposite of this picture, but as you know exceptions only can prove the rule.Now back to the cricket ground. India all in all played one 20-20 match in SA. Australian team said they dont take this tournament seriously. Everyone tipped South Africa to win this tournament at their home.Life only goes so much according to the prediction.

India and Pakistan both needed to do well in this tournament. Albeit the shorter version, this is a world cup. And world cup in any sports is of huge magnitude, even if its a world cup of 3-a-side soccer, it gets media attention all over the world. So why not 20-20 cricket? India and Pakistan , both indispensable to the ICC for cash-accumulation, needed to reinstate the flavor on the cricketing world, specially after their early exit from world cup of longer version earlier this year.

And what a way they began. They played a tied match and India won 3-0 in a bowl-out. On the other groups, Zimbabwe stunned Australia, Bangladesh sent WestIndies packing. The sixes started flowing, crowd started dancing, the fireworks making noise. Yes, cricket is back, the excitement is back, the subcontinent is back..should I say the exciting part of the subcontinent is back.

Let me know generalise the matches a little bit. A score of 175-180 is considered to be good score in 20-20, an economy rate of 7 in 4 overs of bowling considered to be good. Now you are thinking 20-20 is batsman's game. Not quite. Yes indeed batsmen are hitting more sixes and four they used to, but there is the catch phrase. They are expected to hit more sixes and fours. This makes bowlers job easy. If a bowler can bowl full, bowl good yorkers, it is hard to just swing at those deliveries. The mind games take priority here. You have to out-think your opponent. Fielding is an important part of the matches, as it always been. No time for making-up, its just 20 overs.

After the initial hickup, Australia made it to the super-8, but they again lost to Pakistan there. Pakistan gained up the momentum superbly after group stage, they defeated Srilanka as well. Pakistan have players who can hit the ball naturally to a long distance. Imran Nazir, Shahid Afridi, Shoaib Malik, Misbah-ul-Haq. Misbah ul Haq applied himself brilliantly, and shoaib malik and younis khan played natural cricket. Umar Gul boled awesome yorkers in the middle over, Md Asif provided initial brakthroughs, and Pakistan matched on to the final winning all the matches in super 8 and beating NZ in the semifinal.

Oh, NewZealand, not again. Again losing a semifinal to a subcontinent team. They never get past semifinal because they are the best mediocre team I have ever seen. Daniel Vettori displayed some superb spin bowling, but nothing much to remember off. Some big hits by Craig Mcmillan and Jacob Oram here and there. The lost drably to Pakistan in semis, lost to SouthAfrica in group stage.

Yeah, lets talk about South Africa, and group B in super 8 in general. India lost the first match to NZ, and then SA defeated Eng, NZ defeated England, and the equation became complicated. India , suddenly, losing just one match to NZ, are on the brink of elimination from the tournament. No one noticed the cricket of India that much, till that point. Then India faced of England in a must win match. In came Yuvraj Singh, blasting 6 sixers in a Stuart Broad over. Game on, suddenly the tri-color flags started flapping in the crowd more vigorously. India defeated England by only 18 runs though, 218-200. Bowling remained a question, Joginder Sharma's low medium pace being main concern.

But slowly one can sense, India gaining momentum. Gautam Gambhir batted very well throughout , Uthappa is providing good innings, and now Yuvraj. Yuvraj;s natural hitting ability is never in question, but what he lacked always is the license of hitting freely whenever he wanted. This format of cricket provided that to him. And his shots were not slogs by any means. Good, clean hitting, good classic big cricket shots.

So came the crucial match, India against SouthAfrica, with all its permutation and combinations. India can win the group, India can just qualify for the semis, India can be out of the tournament. Same is true for both SA and NZ. India batted first, Yuvraj was out with tendinitis, and managed 153/5. Decent score from 32-3. Dhoni and new-found Rohit Sharma played calculatedly. Rohit Sharma showd immense maturity in pacing his innings in this format. You hardly pace an innings in 20-20, you just go and hit, right? Ya, you wish. No, as I tried to emphasise earlier as well, this is natural game of cricket. The intricacies and delicacies of regular game of cricket is not lost altogether here. Batsmen still can pace his innings, still can rotate the strike, bowler still can bowl a classic outswinger to beat the edge of the bat.

SouthAfrica choked again, and choked bigtime. RP Sing provided an awesome combination of swing and pace-bowling, SA tottered 32-5 at one stage, and finally even failed to score 126 runs they needed to qualify for the semifinal. India topped the group, and booked a date with Australia in Durban for semifinal.Indian fielding have risen to a new level. Karthik's catch of graeme Smith and Rohit Sharma's run out of Justin Kemp are the best examples.http://http//www.youtube.com/watch?v=6aXMiwzJLUI, http://http//www.youtube.com/watch?v=LztfjZUH1oo

India vs Australia at the semifinal. The two ignorant teams in the semis. The experienced teams in this format like SA and England are out. What does this prove? This proves that it doesnt depend on the format, it depends on how you play it. If you play proper cricket, bowl well, field well, you will win a match in 20-20 no matter who is your opponent.

Not a lot of people think that India can go to the final beating Australia. India started off with mediocricity, reaching 41-2 in 8th over. Here comes Yuvraj again. Flicking Lee for couple of sixes through square leg, he gathered his momentum. Gilchrist tried to slow things down by introducing Symonds, Yuvraj whacked him outside the ground. Then he delicately lofted some low full-tosses from mitchel johnson over the cover for boundaries. Finally when he fell to Clarke in 18th over, India are well placed at 155-3. Dhoni was still at the other end, and used his brutal power to lift India to 188. Not staggering, but very good total. If you bowl well, aussies will find it tough chasing that under the lights.

Gilchrist and Hayden started in their natural ways as they always had. Hayden in particular smashed things hard. Gilchrist fell to Sreesanth, but hayden continued the sixes and fours. 134-2 in 14th over. 55 from 6 overs with 8 wkts in hand. A cakewalk in 20-20. Pathan and Harbhajan had other ideas. First Sreesanth bowled a scorching yorker to knock off Hayden's stump. Then pathan and harbhajan bowled 3 tidy overs, allowed no room to hit. Pathan bowled Symonds, Harbhajan bowled Clarke, and Australia suddenly was pushed hard to backfoot. They neede 21 in the last over, Joginder Sharma gave away just 5 and took 2 wickets. Joy erupted, fireworks exploded, Indian players dancing on the pitch. Yes, Australia, the mighty-all conquering Australia is eliminated from a world cup. Other than aussies, I guess everyone erupted with joy. This is an welcome break from the monotony. Then people realised what just happened due to Indian victory in the semifinal over aussies.

It is an India vs Pakistan final. A dream come true. Two nations, divided by british, two nations, filled with so many emotional crazy people, two nations, exiting early from the world cup, two nations, whose players stardom switch from zero to hero and vice-versa in seconds, are in the final. Such is the intensity of rivalry, such is the history of cricket, such is the fan-following of these two nations, such is the flavor and excitement these two nations bring, that, the final of this 20-20 worldcup instantly became the most-awaited event in cricket. Never in an world cup final before, India and Pakistan met. Cricket enthusiasts all over the world felt that this is going to be the match, for ages. This is going to be an epic by itself.

Yes , what a match it was. Any adjective will fall short to provide proper description, so I am not using any. Just suffice to say, it is indeed the match for the ages, it is indeed the best final in any form of cricket have seen so far. India won the toss, batted first. Yusuf Pathan, Irfans older brother opened the batting with Gambhir in Shewags absence. He hit Asif for a six in the 1st over. Gambhir played superbly, kep the scoreboard ticking and picked up boundaries as well. Pakistan did their homework on Yuvraj. Yuvraj was not given pace to work with, and he never felt too comfortable against spinners. Dhoni also failed to score big, and Umar Gul strangled India in the middle over. On a sunny day, a flat Jo'burg pitch, everyone felt anything short of 175 will fail to challenge Pakistan. India were 120 in 17 overs. Rohit Sharma provided the late fire-power and India managed to reach 157 in 20 overs. Gambhirs 75 was the main pillar, and Sharma's 30 n.o. provided the late impetus. Runs on the board. Though 157 is well 20 run short of expectations, chasing 7.9 runs an over in a final cannot be a cakewalk. India been bowling well for last few matches.

Imran Nazir started as if he is playing a 10-10 match, not 20-20. He blasted two cover driven sixes in Sreesanths 1st over that cost 21. RP Sing removed hafeez and Kamran Akmal in his 1st two over to keep things in check a little bit, but Imran anzir just carried on, he scoed 33 of 14, and Pakistan were 53/2 in the 6th over. Match is slipping away from India.

..and here comes the cliched turning point.Imran Nazir wanted a runner, but since he carried an injury to the match, umpires didnt agree to the request. Younis khan pushed a ball to the mid off region and called for a single, Uthappa picked up the ball and throwed to the strikers end. the throw beat hobbling Nazir to the crease, and 3rd umpire pressed the OUT button.http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7821150331115380257&q=Imran+Nazir+run+out&total=2&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=0

That seem to have change the momentum of Pakistan innings. Pathan came in and varied his pace beatifully. neither Shoaib Malik, nor Younis Khan was able to hit him, and finally Younis Khan was out to Joginder Sharma. In came Misbah-ul-Haq, the tragic hero of last India Pakistan 20-20 match in this world cup's group stage. Shoib Malik found it hard going on the other end, and in Pathans 3rd over (Indias 12th), both Malik and Shahid Afridi perished. Malik held on at mid on, and Afridi tried a non-existing heave on the second ball he faced, that landed to Sreesatnh on long off. Similar situation as the group matches. Misbah left with tail enders.And Misbah started it as the group match, started hitting sixes along with tail enders. First with Yassir Arafat, then with Sohail Tanvir. He hit 3 sixes on one Harbhajan's over, where as Sohail Tanvir hit 2 sixes to Sreesanth. Equation became 20 from 13 balls. But Sreesanth bowled Tanvir in that last ball of the over, and then RP removed Umar Gul early next over, to put Pakistan again under pressure. 17 required of 7 balls with only 1 wicket in hand.

Md Asif edged a full toss from RP towards thirdman boundary for 4. Again it swings to Pakistan. 13 of last over with Misbah on strike. Harbhajan was whakced by Misbah, so Dhoni called Joginder Sharma again. Joginder finished it off well against Australia in semis. But there 21 was required, here only 13. Joginder bowled a full toss in the 2nd ball, and Misbah whacked it for 6. 6 required from 4 balls. Everyone is on the edge of their seats. The world cricket have not seen more tense final before. The flags in the crowd are not waving. Which way it will go?

There is a proverb,"dont try to be too clever, you may be hanged". The fine leg was up indeed, but just playing with straight bat will have earned Pakistan victory. Misbah tried to scoop Joginders out-side-off stumo full delivery over fine legs head. Bad attempt, and he did not connect it properly, Sreesanth held the catch. It was over, the best final match in the history of the cricket was over. So the outcome..? India has won the inaugural 20-20 cricket world cup.

A nation errupted in joy. People just ran out of their home, fireworks started shooting up in the sky. The joy knew no bound. The escapades from the daily monotonus life been wide open. The only true religion in India has won today. Cricket has provided a billion people their moment of glory. All the Indians in every corner of the world felt special. "We are the world-champion of a sporting event." And what a way to win it...
In the ground, the players were ecstatic beyond words as well. These players, they faced criticism, their houses were attacked, their families were targeted when India lost in carribean.

The smile is back, the enrgy is back, the youth is back, the enthusiasm is back. The freeness, the liberty to express your mind is back. You are allowed to dance , you have earned the right to go for a victory lap with the tricolor flag and a world cup trophy in your hand.
Its a story of success, its a story of youth, passion, exubuerance, story of camaraderie, story of a nation , who after all, full of people with emotion..full of people who feel proud when the tricolor flatters in the sky..a nation with full of people who get excited when they hear the music playing in the background sounding.."Chak de...India.."..!!!

Mighty Milan is the king of Europe

2007-05-25T14:17:00.000-05:00

A befitting end to grueling and competitive season of football in Europe. The curtain fell on the continental scenario when AC Milan beat Liverpool 2-1 in Athens to lift the champion’s league for 7th time. Rewind the tape to the start of august, when Milan is shattered by match fixing bribing referee allegations, people shouting for Berlusconi’s head, the game is tampered. But the Milan players and coaches can do nothing about it. They don’t fix the matches, the officials upstairs do. Yet they had to fight adversity, they had to qualify for the champions league.

In an earlier writing I have discussed the season as a whole, how the two teams reached final, not going to do that now. I will keep my discussions on the final match itself. Liverpool played much more flaring attacking football from the beginning. They had to. They saw how Man Utd carried a 1 goal lead in san siro in semifinal, and got destroyed by playing not-so-pressure football from the beginning.
Rafael Benitez asked his boys to go out in the attack from the start, and they did. They used the flank pretty well, with Pennant and half-fit Zenden running down. Pennant was simply superb, and so was Mascherano. It is mascherano who never allowed Milan upfront players to settle down, he didn’t allow them to hold the ball, do slick passing. Milan was trying to free Kaka and Inzaghi, with little success.
Milan was doing another thing, giving up the possession near their defense number of times. But Liverpool never took advantage of those gifts. In today’s world, no body misses a chance to grasp on free gifts. If you don’t, you are lagging behind. That’s what happened to Liverpool.

Milan’s 1st goal was completely against the run of the play, Xavi Alonso sort of pushed Kaka, and Kaka did enough to earn a free kick. Pirlo’s shot deflected of Inzaghi’s shoulder to go in. Liverpool supporters call it luck. No it’s not luck; it is part of the game. The mix of players, who stand beside the wall, always follows the ball after the free kick, so there is always a possibility that the ball going to get deflected.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2284v_ac-milan-1-0-liverpool-inzaghi-goal

That goal changed the whole game. Milan came after the half time with more assurance that they can take their time and hold the ball, while Liverpool looked desperate with every second passed by. Seedorf and Kaka was not a factor in this game, but Jankulovski, Ambrosini, Oddo, Nesta and Maldini..They were huge factors. They never really allowed Kuyt or Gerrard to have a clear easy shot at goal.

Master tactician Benitez did two big mistakes. 1) He kept unfit Zenden on pitch for 60 minutes, and 2) he brought in Crouch on 76th minute. Too late. Dida is never comfortable on aerial balls, but Liverpool never tasted him in air. One would have predicted that Liverpool will have Crouch upfront, have pennant or zenden crossing from wings, and Crouch will try to nod it in. Or Gerrard will have some long-range shots. Did not happen. I think Liverpool, instead of sticking to the basics, tried to do too much. Tried to out think Milan. In the process, they lost their natural game.

The 2nd goal was a result of Kaka’s brilliant pass and Inzaghi’s immaculate finishing. The way Pippo just rolled the ball under onrushing Reina’s arm from an acute angle is really commendable.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x228v7_ac-milan-2-0-liverpool-inzaghi-goal

That’s why Ancelotti started him ahead of Gilardino. He will be offside 15 times, will miss 10 times (as he did today, among them was one easy tap in from 8 yards out), but he will score the all important goal that matters. He did it against Bayern Munchen in quarterfinal. He did it again today. Kuyt’s equalizer in 89th minute (http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x228wz_ac-milan-liverpool-2-1-dirk-kuyt) only meant that the supporters will be on their toes till the final whistle. There is no more Istanbul happening this time. Those things do not happen every day. Milan is the king of Europe one more time. Paolo Maldini lifted the Champions league trophy one more time.
Viva Milan..