I was reading various reports in the press for last 1 hour during lunch break.
I was trying to find the “bali kada”
“Who shall we blame for various cricketing fiasco of our home team?”
John Wright Factor: If a NFL or NBA team performs as badly as India, first axe that falls will be on the coach. It is clear here the Coach is not able to use or control his resources to get its full potential. When it comes to a star studded line up like India, Team chemistry is very vital. Coach has to have the control. L.A. Lakers in spite of having stars were nothing until Phil Jackson took the reign. Coach plays a critical role to combine the resources in a workable manner. I think it right time for John Wright to be fired and get a new coach, my choice is to try someone like Dean Jones for next 2 years.
However currently the BCCI is ferociously fighting in court to find who will be guarding the cricket coffers for next few years, a group that is not able not decide its own leader , how are they going to decide on a new coach. Even God might check few things before he knows about this.
Parthive patel, in a recent column in TOI says he saw video clipping of his wicket keeping in Pakistan and does not find any difference now, so can we conclude you sucked there and here? Or He is a totally confused adolescent not knowing his boss?
It seems Kiran More , the now promoted Sr. selector [who you might remember as the honest Raj who complained about a local cricketer who offered him bribe],has given free tips to Parthive Patel. More is his god father who fought with Kirmani to retain Patel and [chased poor Kiri out into the woods].
Poor Patel cannot say no to him. While the team coach Mr. Wright has given some instruction that is contradictory to Kiran More’s golden advice. So this poor kid lost his focus and did not know whom to follow, trying to please both, he screwed up in his job. Apart from this two, he is also supposed to take commands from the Commander-in-chief, aka, Captain. Poor Patel was misguided and lost his place in my golu eleven and will be losing his place in the real Indian team. There is something to be learned from this, Can Selectors advice the players? Where is line of command stop? There also rumors that he has eye sight problem etc. Patel has to forget International cricket for time being And try after 2 years, he still has time for a come back
Top order and Sachin’s Form, Tendulkar's poor batting form is a very good target for his skeptics, who ridiculously feel he is given too much attention while there are other cricketers with similar batting capacitiesm are ignored. For me this is ludicrous, Sachin is the mordern days cricketing legend , for this achievement alone he is beyond compare. Period. He has not played for about two months, and he has failed in both the innings. I feel he has to start scoring at least to shut the skeptics down, Sachin factor is very important to the Indian team. I feel without him around, Indian team performance will be much worse.
Apart from Sachin, Dravid’s form, I consider Dravid to be another best bat who needs to be present and play well for India to succeed. I feel it is time for both of them to pickup and get going
VVS, I don’t know why he is given so many chances?, the way he got out in both the innings he should be made to carry drinks without pay until next season.
[to be continued...]
10/29/04
Game Day, Third Test, The final nail
the Aussies trash the Indians at Nagpur
“They are all set to win the game by tomorrow evening”. This was my “great” prediction!, a prediction similar to “it is going to snow in Minneapolis this winter”, Australia wins a cricket series in India, last time they did this when I was one year old, or 2 years before Matt Hayden was born. The dreaming Indian team gave up the match without much fight. Aussies injected the lethal dose slowly and steadily and won the game with pride.
Coming to Indian reply for the 500+ runs, Sehwag played quite well but it was a patience game he lost. Kaif and Zaheer khan salvaged some pride, Poor Patel, apart from his poor keeping form; he suffered another bad decision from the Pakistani umpire.
The top (of the line) batsmen in our team, Dravid, VVS and Sachin did not do much. Sachin coming back from a long injury break, played a cut short in the air was caught; Dravid was bowled while VVS once again played a reckless hook shot and was caught in the deep. It looked as though they have given up the game without even trying. Chopra simply could not play.
Aussies declared just 15 minutes before lunch, timed it perfectly to bowl one over and humiliate the weak Indian batting. But on the counter the openers survived the first over, while the insulting remarks from commentary box went waste.
During Innings break, Sanjay Manju was all smiling and told 500+ is too high and there is no chance for India to score. True, however his sarcasm in general denoted more bad taste rather than practical commentary.
After the victory, Slater went over board and tainted this as well planned assault which started right from the first ball in Banglore, he mentioned Aussies dominated the Indian from the word go in this series, forgetting there was test played in Chennai, where the Indians had every possibility to win.
Current situation is such that we need to digest this and more in days to come from Aussies press box (and the free “Alley Sonata” [sandhula sindhu] from Barry Richards].
Indian public witnessed an emotionally affected captain, Gill Christ, he was almost crying during the interview with Dean Jones. I felt like watching the Grammy’s. I thank god, my producer…etc etc [and later get caught in DUI].
Dravid walked in to talk to the “Sarcastic” Sanjay, but cleverly dealt his questions. We were outplayed and we have no excuse to offer. Simple! When asked about change in team selection, Dravid told nothing big would change until the top order bats for its full potential. Two or three changes in the team will not bring any drastic climate changes. Sanjay then pulled a faster one, he asked about dumping of the captaincy on him at the last minute and enquired about Gangully’s return, for which Dravid replied “you need to check with the “Physio” quickly walked away.
Martin was given a 120cc bike, the man of the match award, where the back and front wheel will shared by the umpires, while Martin gets to take the rest to Australia with him.
In general Aussie press will boast about their team for everything, with a valid reason now, their heads would automatically increase by 20,000 tons. It took them about 35 years to win a rubber on the Indian soil. Yes, they have every right be happy and proud, and as an Indian cricket supporter, I have every right to be behind my team for keeping the Aussies in the control for last 35 years.
Finally, after my spirited “ifs or “buts” the point here is Aussies have beaten our Sahara, or BCCI or the Indian cricket team hands down, we sucked badly through out the game for which we don’t deserve to win, my hearty Congratulations to the Aussies.
Next test, Mumbai here we come.
“They are all set to win the game by tomorrow evening”. This was my “great” prediction!, a prediction similar to “it is going to snow in Minneapolis this winter”, Australia wins a cricket series in India, last time they did this when I was one year old, or 2 years before Matt Hayden was born. The dreaming Indian team gave up the match without much fight. Aussies injected the lethal dose slowly and steadily and won the game with pride.
Coming to Indian reply for the 500+ runs, Sehwag played quite well but it was a patience game he lost. Kaif and Zaheer khan salvaged some pride, Poor Patel, apart from his poor keeping form; he suffered another bad decision from the Pakistani umpire.
The top (of the line) batsmen in our team, Dravid, VVS and Sachin did not do much. Sachin coming back from a long injury break, played a cut short in the air was caught; Dravid was bowled while VVS once again played a reckless hook shot and was caught in the deep. It looked as though they have given up the game without even trying. Chopra simply could not play.
Aussies declared just 15 minutes before lunch, timed it perfectly to bowl one over and humiliate the weak Indian batting. But on the counter the openers survived the first over, while the insulting remarks from commentary box went waste.
During Innings break, Sanjay Manju was all smiling and told 500+ is too high and there is no chance for India to score. True, however his sarcasm in general denoted more bad taste rather than practical commentary.
After the victory, Slater went over board and tainted this as well planned assault which started right from the first ball in Banglore, he mentioned Aussies dominated the Indian from the word go in this series, forgetting there was test played in Chennai, where the Indians had every possibility to win.
Current situation is such that we need to digest this and more in days to come from Aussies press box (and the free “Alley Sonata” [sandhula sindhu] from Barry Richards].
Indian public witnessed an emotionally affected captain, Gill Christ, he was almost crying during the interview with Dean Jones. I felt like watching the Grammy’s. I thank god, my producer…etc etc [and later get caught in DUI].
Dravid walked in to talk to the “Sarcastic” Sanjay, but cleverly dealt his questions. We were outplayed and we have no excuse to offer. Simple! When asked about change in team selection, Dravid told nothing big would change until the top order bats for its full potential. Two or three changes in the team will not bring any drastic climate changes. Sanjay then pulled a faster one, he asked about dumping of the captaincy on him at the last minute and enquired about Gangully’s return, for which Dravid replied “you need to check with the “Physio” quickly walked away.
Martin was given a 120cc bike, the man of the match award, where the back and front wheel will shared by the umpires, while Martin gets to take the rest to Australia with him.
In general Aussie press will boast about their team for everything, with a valid reason now, their heads would automatically increase by 20,000 tons. It took them about 35 years to win a rubber on the Indian soil. Yes, they have every right be happy and proud, and as an Indian cricket supporter, I have every right to be behind my team for keeping the Aussies in the control for last 35 years.
Finally, after my spirited “ifs or “buts” the point here is Aussies have beaten our Sahara, or BCCI or the Indian cricket team hands down, we sucked badly through out the game for which we don’t deserve to win, my hearty Congratulations to the Aussies.
Next test, Mumbai here we come.
10/28/04
“Golu mela”, 2004
Starting last year, my wife and my daughter started to celebrate “Golu”, a festival where they arrange various dolls for display and invite family and friends, present them with traditional “vethalai & paku” and small token item as gift.
If you ask me, this is one of the best festival in the Hindu religion, basically being in a far away land from home, we hardly get to meet people from our community, this festival paves the way, my wife had invited about 40+ at least, many were Moms of my daughter’s school buddies, many from our neighborhood . This also included Americans.
It was 9 days [actually evenings] of people, people and people, when I went home, there would be someone visiting.
Last year during this time, my dad was here in DC, he went around finding old cartoons and giant size suitcases, my red color computer books and built the steps. I never went near to help them also. It was nice and compact for our town home.
However this year, a new house, so my wife intended to build real steps, the commercial ones sold in New Jersey area ranged from $300-$400. Simply it was too costly. So I decided to build it on my own, when in comes to wood work, Homer Simpson works better than me. In a scale of 1 to 10, I rank -20 in wood work.
I had no clue, to my shock and surprise, wood work is not that hard, with my brother-in- law’s help we built this “golu” steps for something less than $100.
Home depot sells some thing called raises, which are sides for the steps Each costs about $15, get 2 of them, and create a triangle to hold them , get 2 long wood planks [16 feet each] $15 each, cut them into 4 feet , hey! It was ready in 2 hrs. The raises were in even number so we added a ground level step, which does not feature in the photo.
Ps: We had got a doll cricket set from Chennai, the wicketkeeper was Patel, and I dropped him. He does not deserve a place even in “golu”,
If you ask me, this is one of the best festival in the Hindu religion, basically being in a far away land from home, we hardly get to meet people from our community, this festival paves the way, my wife had invited about 40+ at least, many were Moms of my daughter’s school buddies, many from our neighborhood . This also included Americans.
It was 9 days [actually evenings] of people, people and people, when I went home, there would be someone visiting.
Last year during this time, my dad was here in DC, he went around finding old cartoons and giant size suitcases, my red color computer books and built the steps. I never went near to help them also. It was nice and compact for our town home.
However this year, a new house, so my wife intended to build real steps, the commercial ones sold in New Jersey area ranged from $300-$400. Simply it was too costly. So I decided to build it on my own, when in comes to wood work, Homer Simpson works better than me. In a scale of 1 to 10, I rank -20 in wood work.
I had no clue, to my shock and surprise, wood work is not that hard, with my brother-in- law’s help we built this “golu” steps for something less than $100.
Home depot sells some thing called raises, which are sides for the steps Each costs about $15, get 2 of them, and create a triangle to hold them , get 2 long wood planks [16 feet each] $15 each, cut them into 4 feet , hey! It was ready in 2 hrs. The raises were in even number so we added a ground level step, which does not feature in the photo.
Ps: We had got a doll cricket set from Chennai, the wicketkeeper was Patel, and I dropped him. He does not deserve a place even in “golu”,
Game Day, Third Test, 3rd day
Indians and the Aussies, Nagpur
If there is a God that controls cricket, he or she was on the side of the Aussies. When it comes to LBW Indians have been victims of poor umpiring and Aussies has always been fortunate to get away with daring umpiring mistakes.
Indian pacers pinned the Australian top order to a run rate below 2.00, Zaheer Khan and Agarkar bowled their hearts out for the first hour of the innings. The last time Zaheer bowled like this was in New Zealand.
Katich took a light year or more to score his first run. However he was finally out for 99 for 2, he got lucky twice, Zaheer had him plumb in the front when he was in zero, By all means this Leg before appeal can be used as LBW specimen for umpire training purposes.
Oh! Poor Indians, kept cool, may be afraid of being fined by match referee Mr. Ranjan “Biased” Madmax.
Second time, Kumble suffered the umpiring stinker, Katich was again out plumb in the front, but the umpire standing just 22 yards away missed it. How can he miss it, was he dreaming about something? ,
In the recent ”thuglak tamil” magazine, in the parody filled Q&A section, there was a question on Sehwag’s stinker decision in the Banglore test, for which the editor had replied that people fail to see the conditions at which umpires work, people fail to appreciate them for right decisions.
This is the first time ever I don’t agree with Mr.Cho Ramaswamy here. Umpires are there to do a job, and they are being compensated well enough to do the job, every other rule protect umpires from the players over reaction, crowd noise etc are part of the job, be ready to take it, if you cannot, "CHANGE YOUR JOB". The Umpire stands 22 yards away from the stumps, if he cannot see it properly from 22 yards, Listen, they cannot see from anywhere. Ridiculous!
I am very surprised why our beloved Cho fails to see the pressure faced by the batsmen or the bowler. The entire outcome of the match is bound to change because of daring umpire errors. Katich went on to score 99, had he been out on zero, who knows the way pacers were bowling things might have gone India’s way.
Whew!, Let us get back, finally! After back breaking sessions, the Cricket gods showed mercy on the Indians and justice was served Katich was out LBW to Karthick for 99. Thanks to the umpire who saw it right this time at least. Dubious decisions turn round the entire out come of the match. This is a fact.
Kumble soon started bowling his usual donkey drops and Patel failed to gather those drops. This incompetence continued all through the day. Dravid kind of over used Sachin, at a point of time he should have got back the pacers after giving them the much needed (short) rest.
In the Morning session, worried about the dagger hanging over his head, Patel was out to Shane Warne. The “all rounder” who could never bats a.k.a Agarkar walked in to score 15 and was impatient to stay further. It was just time before the Indian tail was chopped and digested by the Aussies. As expected by every one who follows cricket, follow on was not enforced, Aussies decided to bat India out of the game.
On the innings break, Sanjay Moonraker, started his sarcasm, this time his hate was on Chorpa, he mentioned “the technically preferred” opener failed again to score. People Do you remember how Sanjay Manju batted?, I remember, he is of the same kind who could stay on the wicket, play perfect technical cricket for 365 days and still score something less than 20. It is high time to remind him about it.
B(op)arry Richards, a great cricketer no doubt, however he needs to remember that he is being paid by the Indians for his services, at times he goes over board on commentary by using the “Ian Chappell” methods. Using few speculated news from the media, he has no right to insult the Indian team or its captain. It is not appropriate to display his smartness in the commentary box, his job is to report about the live action, Period. He is welcome to create a Blog and compete with me. Go over board on Gangully for his off field behavior etc. at your own cost, who cares;
The lead at the close was above 400, I am sure India would lose this match. I have no hopes of any kind, yes!, we do have great batsmen with great potential and technique , but the Aussies are very much capable of putting pressure on Indian batting lineup, with some luck from the cricket gods and Mr. Umpires , they are all set to win the game by tomorrow evening.
If there is a God that controls cricket, he or she was on the side of the Aussies. When it comes to LBW Indians have been victims of poor umpiring and Aussies has always been fortunate to get away with daring umpiring mistakes.
Indian pacers pinned the Australian top order to a run rate below 2.00, Zaheer Khan and Agarkar bowled their hearts out for the first hour of the innings. The last time Zaheer bowled like this was in New Zealand.
Katich took a light year or more to score his first run. However he was finally out for 99 for 2, he got lucky twice, Zaheer had him plumb in the front when he was in zero, By all means this Leg before appeal can be used as LBW specimen for umpire training purposes.
Oh! Poor Indians, kept cool, may be afraid of being fined by match referee Mr. Ranjan “Biased” Madmax.
Second time, Kumble suffered the umpiring stinker, Katich was again out plumb in the front, but the umpire standing just 22 yards away missed it. How can he miss it, was he dreaming about something? ,
In the recent ”thuglak tamil” magazine, in the parody filled Q&A section, there was a question on Sehwag’s stinker decision in the Banglore test, for which the editor had replied that people fail to see the conditions at which umpires work, people fail to appreciate them for right decisions.
This is the first time ever I don’t agree with Mr.Cho Ramaswamy here. Umpires are there to do a job, and they are being compensated well enough to do the job, every other rule protect umpires from the players over reaction, crowd noise etc are part of the job, be ready to take it, if you cannot, "CHANGE YOUR JOB". The Umpire stands 22 yards away from the stumps, if he cannot see it properly from 22 yards, Listen, they cannot see from anywhere. Ridiculous!
I am very surprised why our beloved Cho fails to see the pressure faced by the batsmen or the bowler. The entire outcome of the match is bound to change because of daring umpire errors. Katich went on to score 99, had he been out on zero, who knows the way pacers were bowling things might have gone India’s way.
Whew!, Let us get back, finally! After back breaking sessions, the Cricket gods showed mercy on the Indians and justice was served Katich was out LBW to Karthick for 99. Thanks to the umpire who saw it right this time at least. Dubious decisions turn round the entire out come of the match. This is a fact.
Kumble soon started bowling his usual donkey drops and Patel failed to gather those drops. This incompetence continued all through the day. Dravid kind of over used Sachin, at a point of time he should have got back the pacers after giving them the much needed (short) rest.
In the Morning session, worried about the dagger hanging over his head, Patel was out to Shane Warne. The “all rounder” who could never bats a.k.a Agarkar walked in to score 15 and was impatient to stay further. It was just time before the Indian tail was chopped and digested by the Aussies. As expected by every one who follows cricket, follow on was not enforced, Aussies decided to bat India out of the game.
On the innings break, Sanjay Moonraker, started his sarcasm, this time his hate was on Chorpa, he mentioned “the technically preferred” opener failed again to score. People Do you remember how Sanjay Manju batted?, I remember, he is of the same kind who could stay on the wicket, play perfect technical cricket for 365 days and still score something less than 20. It is high time to remind him about it.
B(op)arry Richards, a great cricketer no doubt, however he needs to remember that he is being paid by the Indians for his services, at times he goes over board on commentary by using the “Ian Chappell” methods. Using few speculated news from the media, he has no right to insult the Indian team or its captain. It is not appropriate to display his smartness in the commentary box, his job is to report about the live action, Period. He is welcome to create a Blog and compete with me. Go over board on Gangully for his off field behavior etc. at your own cost, who cares;
The lead at the close was above 400, I am sure India would lose this match. I have no hopes of any kind, yes!, we do have great batsmen with great potential and technique , but the Aussies are very much capable of putting pressure on Indian batting lineup, with some luck from the cricket gods and Mr. Umpires , they are all set to win the game by tomorrow evening.
10/27/04
Game Day, Third Test, 2nd day
Indians and the Aussies, Nagpur
“In a test Match, the 1st hour belongs to the bowler, if you survive it, the next 5 hrs is yours.”
The above are golden words from the legend Sunil Manohar Gavasker, heard by another great batsman Dean Jones, who happen to mention it 12.5 times during his commentary.
I heard [the first time and ignored the rest.] it yesterday The point is, it was a great piece of advice, being the batting consultant and for the money he is getting paid, Sunny Gavasker has to do something or other right! , and team India for its respect to sunny, tried to follow those golden words but failed right royally. Why? In the above golden words, you would see something big is missing, a four letter word. “R U N S”
Agreed, as per the doctrine, the primary goal is to see off the 1st hour without losing your wicket, then stay the next 5 hours, but during this stay, the dam batsmen have to score RUNS.
Sunny did not mention it anywhere, our guys followed it blindly and did not trouble themselves to score runs. A batting goal to stay there for long period of time without scoring runs. Indians started to dig a stinking pond around them and trapped themselves in at the end of the day. At close of play, India were 146 /5 in 77 overs, a Run rate of “1.90”, even Ravi “kata podum” Shastri would feel ashamed. He would definitely feel he would have done better with his bat.
Indians innings started with real power, 5 fours from Sehwag within 12 balls India was 20 for no loss. Aussies however removed Sehwag out, Adam Gill Christ took a great catch to see him off, [compare this with our Butter Boy “Patel” who dropped vital catches and let the Aussies loose to score above 300.]
Dravid walks in, have you ever been to a slow cycling race? I have not but yesterday iu saw one. Dravid and Chopra started a great slow cycling competition and did not trouble the bowlers and the scores. They started to play for a draw in the 1sr hour for the 2nd day of a test. They followed blindly the “Gavasker” doctrine. Chopra never pushed for runs. However major contributor in this sloth bear innings was the acting captain Rahul Dravid. This time, the wall was really a stationary dry wall.
Dravid made 21 in about 140 balls, [about 24 overs.] Even 2 runs per over would have got him a half century, but a sloth is a sloth. Dravid and Chopra started to dig this dirty deep stinking pond, Chopra’s [and our] agony ended, he was out finally.
Sachin walks in, and has no other choice other than to continue digging the pond further deep. Finally was given a LBW, every other batsman in the world would have got the benefit of the doubt. But he was out. Dean Jones was screaming that it was poor decision, while Sanjay Manju started to swear it was a Fair “Dejition” , people!, it is high time to give Dean Jones the Indian citizenship card [that is to be forfeited from Sanjay Manju in a day or two]
Laxman walked in with his bow and arrow, did nothing, and was out as expected. Kaif and Dravid tried something very hard, over all it was uninteresting and lack luster cricket, imagine watching this dry wall at 3.00am, I gave up and dozed off for some time. But woke up to see Dravid was out, that too after wasting ½ one day international.
That’s it, Patel and Kaif started to play, sleeping seemed a better choice. Hope they set things right to save some pride. Even if Patel scores, he is all set to be dropped for the Bombay test.
Here is the comment of the day.
Deano: It is time for Gangully to try our every other player in the team for toss, find the lucky one and send him for toss every time. He has lost 6 times now.
Barry Richards: good idea, but make it everyone except Patel, because he would not be able to hold or catch the coin.
Let us keeping hoping India would improve.
“In a test Match, the 1st hour belongs to the bowler, if you survive it, the next 5 hrs is yours.”
The above are golden words from the legend Sunil Manohar Gavasker, heard by another great batsman Dean Jones, who happen to mention it 12.5 times during his commentary.
I heard [the first time and ignored the rest.] it yesterday The point is, it was a great piece of advice, being the batting consultant and for the money he is getting paid, Sunny Gavasker has to do something or other right! , and team India for its respect to sunny, tried to follow those golden words but failed right royally. Why? In the above golden words, you would see something big is missing, a four letter word. “R U N S”
Agreed, as per the doctrine, the primary goal is to see off the 1st hour without losing your wicket, then stay the next 5 hours, but during this stay, the dam batsmen have to score RUNS.
Sunny did not mention it anywhere, our guys followed it blindly and did not trouble themselves to score runs. A batting goal to stay there for long period of time without scoring runs. Indians started to dig a stinking pond around them and trapped themselves in at the end of the day. At close of play, India were 146 /5 in 77 overs, a Run rate of “1.90”, even Ravi “kata podum” Shastri would feel ashamed. He would definitely feel he would have done better with his bat.
Indians innings started with real power, 5 fours from Sehwag within 12 balls India was 20 for no loss. Aussies however removed Sehwag out, Adam Gill Christ took a great catch to see him off, [compare this with our Butter Boy “Patel” who dropped vital catches and let the Aussies loose to score above 300.]
Dravid walks in, have you ever been to a slow cycling race? I have not but yesterday iu saw one. Dravid and Chopra started a great slow cycling competition and did not trouble the bowlers and the scores. They started to play for a draw in the 1sr hour for the 2nd day of a test. They followed blindly the “Gavasker” doctrine. Chopra never pushed for runs. However major contributor in this sloth bear innings was the acting captain Rahul Dravid. This time, the wall was really a stationary dry wall.
Dravid made 21 in about 140 balls, [about 24 overs.] Even 2 runs per over would have got him a half century, but a sloth is a sloth. Dravid and Chopra started to dig this dirty deep stinking pond, Chopra’s [and our] agony ended, he was out finally.
Sachin walks in, and has no other choice other than to continue digging the pond further deep. Finally was given a LBW, every other batsman in the world would have got the benefit of the doubt. But he was out. Dean Jones was screaming that it was poor decision, while Sanjay Manju started to swear it was a Fair “Dejition” , people!, it is high time to give Dean Jones the Indian citizenship card [that is to be forfeited from Sanjay Manju in a day or two]
Laxman walked in with his bow and arrow, did nothing, and was out as expected. Kaif and Dravid tried something very hard, over all it was uninteresting and lack luster cricket, imagine watching this dry wall at 3.00am, I gave up and dozed off for some time. But woke up to see Dravid was out, that too after wasting ½ one day international.
That’s it, Patel and Kaif started to play, sleeping seemed a better choice. Hope they set things right to save some pride. Even if Patel scores, he is all set to be dropped for the Bombay test.
Here is the comment of the day.
Deano: It is time for Gangully to try our every other player in the team for toss, find the lucky one and send him for toss every time. He has lost 6 times now.
Barry Richards: good idea, but make it everyone except Patel, because he would not be able to hold or catch the coin.
Let us keeping hoping India would improve.
10/26/04
Game Day, Third Test,
Indians and the Aussies, Nagpur
I reported in my Blog that Gangully was walking gingerly during 1st test, he some how recouped and played in Chennai test, however here in Nagpur, he failed the fitness and was left out. Few web reports have started to speculate this as he dropped himself out because of too much grass is on the field and similar yada yadas are starting to appear. Come on! Please give us a break, Gangully is known for his spirit, he will never buckle for this small grass issue. Also, his position is in real jeopardy, do you think he will let Dravid take over. Don’t speculate for the heck of it and portray Gangully as a coward.
Good news for many, Sachin is back in action, he seemed fully fit and energetic and was seen running around the field, totally involved in the game. Aussie star batsmen Deano Jones in the commentary mentioned that ticket sales have doubled and was sold out after Sachin’s selection, for which Sanjay Manjrekar , the EX-Indian-cymbal [Jalra] for Sachin said most seats are empty and speculated that to be fallacy , then Deano replied it is an mid working day, people would show up soon. I really wonder why Sanjay Manju hates Sachin so much in general.
Alright, Let us get to the cricket. At close Aussies were 362/7, the day was filled with good batting by Damien Martin scored 104, while LehMann supported him.
The highlight of the day was Wicket keeping, if you had draw an imaginary goal post behind Patel, goals score today by the bowler would be 10000 at least. Patel never seemed to gather the ball comfortably; at times he was looking the batsmen while clearly missing the line of the ball. His legs never moved, at one point bowlers decided to directly bowl into his gloves, anything 1 feet away from him was let go for byes.
For once he did a clever stumping to take out Shane Warne it was quick, however he missed many , that includes a vital stumping and a catch for Clarke. People, it is high time to drop him from the team. BCCI is only organization in the world which has incompetence as part of their job description.
Available post:Wicket Keeper,
Join date: At once,
Pay: a Lot .
Job description: Wicketkeeper
Responsibility: None.
The “must” list:
Carry Helmet for Short legs and Forward short leg, Need to appeal in Excess, Give one line encouragement words in various languages, show a baby face and talk to the batsmen. Help and support board member from time to time.
These are the tasks which employees are expected to perform to the full satisfaction of their superiors. Failing to do this will affect your job and will be fired.
The optional Tasks: Occasionally from time to time, Employee might try to Collect balls, stop byes, execute stumping, and take Catches. However, these are * NOT * enforced task. Failing to do these tasks will not actually “NEVER“ affect your job or position and will not be considered for your performance appraisal, Board has the right to reject and select and fire you regardless of anything.
The “Ag[ony]arkar” Factor: He sucked in the past, sucking right royally now and will suck forever, from yesterday, people, I have started to think Indian team has only 1o players. I wish my career as forgiving as Agarkars. Wow!. one more great example of incompetence being part of the job description.
Anil Kumble was back to his original form. If you know what I mean, Indians miss Irfan and Balaji. Few Good men today: Kartick for this bowling and Dravid for his prudent captaincy.
Tommorrow! India would bat; let us hope for the best.
Ps: For more on batting and score, you can read some web pages that cover sessions.
I reported in my Blog that Gangully was walking gingerly during 1st test, he some how recouped and played in Chennai test, however here in Nagpur, he failed the fitness and was left out. Few web reports have started to speculate this as he dropped himself out because of too much grass is on the field and similar yada yadas are starting to appear. Come on! Please give us a break, Gangully is known for his spirit, he will never buckle for this small grass issue. Also, his position is in real jeopardy, do you think he will let Dravid take over. Don’t speculate for the heck of it and portray Gangully as a coward.
Good news for many, Sachin is back in action, he seemed fully fit and energetic and was seen running around the field, totally involved in the game. Aussie star batsmen Deano Jones in the commentary mentioned that ticket sales have doubled and was sold out after Sachin’s selection, for which Sanjay Manjrekar , the EX-Indian-cymbal [Jalra] for Sachin said most seats are empty and speculated that to be fallacy , then Deano replied it is an mid working day, people would show up soon. I really wonder why Sanjay Manju hates Sachin so much in general.
Alright, Let us get to the cricket. At close Aussies were 362/7, the day was filled with good batting by Damien Martin scored 104, while LehMann supported him.
The highlight of the day was Wicket keeping, if you had draw an imaginary goal post behind Patel, goals score today by the bowler would be 10000 at least. Patel never seemed to gather the ball comfortably; at times he was looking the batsmen while clearly missing the line of the ball. His legs never moved, at one point bowlers decided to directly bowl into his gloves, anything 1 feet away from him was let go for byes.
For once he did a clever stumping to take out Shane Warne it was quick, however he missed many , that includes a vital stumping and a catch for Clarke. People, it is high time to drop him from the team. BCCI is only organization in the world which has incompetence as part of their job description.
Available post:Wicket Keeper,
Join date: At once,
Pay: a Lot .
Job description: Wicketkeeper
Responsibility: None.
The “must” list:
Carry Helmet for Short legs and Forward short leg, Need to appeal in Excess, Give one line encouragement words in various languages, show a baby face and talk to the batsmen. Help and support board member from time to time.
These are the tasks which employees are expected to perform to the full satisfaction of their superiors. Failing to do this will affect your job and will be fired.
The optional Tasks: Occasionally from time to time, Employee might try to Collect balls, stop byes, execute stumping, and take Catches. However, these are * NOT * enforced task. Failing to do these tasks will not actually “NEVER“ affect your job or position and will not be considered for your performance appraisal, Board has the right to reject and select and fire you regardless of anything.
The “Ag[ony]arkar” Factor: He sucked in the past, sucking right royally now and will suck forever, from yesterday, people, I have started to think Indian team has only 1o players. I wish my career as forgiving as Agarkars. Wow!. one more great example of incompetence being part of the job description.
Anil Kumble was back to his original form. If you know what I mean, Indians miss Irfan and Balaji. Few Good men today: Kartick for this bowling and Dravid for his prudent captaincy.
Tommorrow! India would bat; let us hope for the best.
Ps: For more on batting and score, you can read some web pages that cover sessions.
10/25/04
The Sun TV twinge
Any Hindu religious occasion, Sun tries to air so called special programs with 2 movies of which one is a popular movie and a first timer on Tv, in grand old Indian television history. At this rate soon “Amavasai” and “ekadasais” will be capitalized by them soon. However beware their parent group will be trashing people belief.
While watching Sun TV, I realized 70% of the time we are forced to watch commercials that serves us no good. Why should I worry about a store inauguration some where in the remote corner of Tamil Nadu? I really wonder if people in other parts of Tamil Nadu would worry about this store, I am sitting on the other side of the world, why should I care? Ridiculous, it becomes worse when this commercial is shown mercilessly for about 200000 times a day; agony is I pay $15 to get this BS directly via satellite.
People listen, if this continues soon we would all go to Wal-Mart and look for Cinderella patu “pavAdai” or Arasan washing soap. And Wal-Mart for its part would start importing “Arsan” soap and CNN’s Lou Dobbs will scream at Indian soap industry. He will claim Americans are now moving offshore [to India] for their laundry.
The “PKP” epidemic
“PKP” = Pudhusu kanna Pudhusu, now has changed to “F…K…F” , don’t mistake me for the F, though it does create such words in my mind, the “FKF” here is FIRST KANNA FIRST, it seems “kungu” has grossed a million in circulation. , yes! it can happen why not, when my counter below can reach 2 million without much advertisement they can do it no doubt, how did I do ?, I simply started from 9,99,999, I reach the target at once.. People, if you are looking for my counter, it is there, but it cannot display 1 million; There is also one more way to do this, during “Autograph” days [school days], when we play local cricket matches, simply to get a higher total we cheat and increase our score, for each run scored, a run is added as bonus, however most of the time umpire catches us red handed, but for ”kungu” I really don’t know.
Best joke is they show teens reading this book, are teens in Tamil Nadu become so much literature deprived? I like to meet those teens and offer my condolences. Tamil reading Teens, get it loud and clear, Dudes there are other good books like Sarojadevi , Debonair out there , Try them at once and maintain the teen integrity and sanctity.
Today morning researchers have found that number of the times this advertisement shown in a month is 200 times more than number of pages printed for this whole year.
PKP -- Yes you made the sales, thank you!, we got the message, you are the best book ever known to the mankind right from the days for “tholkApier”, now shut up and show us some other good program and make our $15.00 justifiable. It is time for PKP - POrum Kanna POrum.
ps:Next time when you go Wal-Mart please don’t look for Arasan soap. Its my plea to you folks;
While watching Sun TV, I realized 70% of the time we are forced to watch commercials that serves us no good. Why should I worry about a store inauguration some where in the remote corner of Tamil Nadu? I really wonder if people in other parts of Tamil Nadu would worry about this store, I am sitting on the other side of the world, why should I care? Ridiculous, it becomes worse when this commercial is shown mercilessly for about 200000 times a day; agony is I pay $15 to get this BS directly via satellite.
People listen, if this continues soon we would all go to Wal-Mart and look for Cinderella patu “pavAdai” or Arasan washing soap. And Wal-Mart for its part would start importing “Arsan” soap and CNN’s Lou Dobbs will scream at Indian soap industry. He will claim Americans are now moving offshore [to India] for their laundry.
The “PKP” epidemic
“PKP” = Pudhusu kanna Pudhusu, now has changed to “F…K…F” , don’t mistake me for the F, though it does create such words in my mind, the “FKF” here is FIRST KANNA FIRST, it seems “kungu” has grossed a million in circulation. , yes! it can happen why not, when my counter below can reach 2 million without much advertisement they can do it no doubt, how did I do ?, I simply started from 9,99,999, I reach the target at once.. People, if you are looking for my counter, it is there, but it cannot display 1 million; There is also one more way to do this, during “Autograph” days [school days], when we play local cricket matches, simply to get a higher total we cheat and increase our score, for each run scored, a run is added as bonus, however most of the time umpire catches us red handed, but for ”kungu” I really don’t know.
Best joke is they show teens reading this book, are teens in Tamil Nadu become so much literature deprived? I like to meet those teens and offer my condolences. Tamil reading Teens, get it loud and clear, Dudes there are other good books like Sarojadevi , Debonair out there , Try them at once and maintain the teen integrity and sanctity.
Today morning researchers have found that number of the times this advertisement shown in a month is 200 times more than number of pages printed for this whole year.
PKP -- Yes you made the sales, thank you!, we got the message, you are the best book ever known to the mankind right from the days for “tholkApier”, now shut up and show us some other good program and make our $15.00 justifiable. It is time for PKP - POrum Kanna POrum.
ps:Next time when you go Wal-Mart please don’t look for Arasan soap. Its my plea to you folks;
10/18/04
Game Day Sunday!...
After watching red-eyed cricket for 4 nights, I was all set to watch the final days play, but the news is the match ends in a Draw. Everything was set for a memorable test match result, but the game got rained out. Umpires after inspection, ruled out no further play was possible, ground conditions were totally wet and was not suitable for play. The match was officially called off; the books would call it “No result”.
However, the test outcome produced few minor memorable moments, one major moment for the Chennai crowd. Centuries from Sehwag’s and Demean Martin, precision spin bowling of Kumble and Harbajan and the Shane Warne’s world record, over all 4 days of observing cricket.
Presentation was short and quick, Aussie skipper Gill Christ gave credits to the India Team for bouncing back and he mentioned that both the teams are equal on their potential, and the last days plays was a 50:50 chance. Our skipper, Gangully also repeated similar lines and was all set to move on to the next game. Gangully also joked about winning the toss sooner or later. Kumble was awarded the man of the match [it had some other crazy title for this series] for Rs 35,000, and a 125cc motorbike.
Oh! did forgot to mention the major outcome of the Chennai Test, "it was the Rain". Chennai people got the much needed rain.., this made me not to worry about my $131.00, there is always another game, I know how hard it is today in Chennai to get drinking water. Hope it rains more through Deepavali.
On other games, NFL: Sunday night, Vikings offense was totally ruthless , Pepper and Co managed to score points without Randy moss, a good sign to have more trusted receivers. However before injury, Randy moss's second TD catch was totally awesome. He had a great presence of mind to land both his feet before going out of balance. Vikes won!, Steelers pinned down the Cow-Boys, sweet, all teams that I have soft corner for won yesterday, I am sure India would have won!
However, the test outcome produced few minor memorable moments, one major moment for the Chennai crowd. Centuries from Sehwag’s and Demean Martin, precision spin bowling of Kumble and Harbajan and the Shane Warne’s world record, over all 4 days of observing cricket.
Presentation was short and quick, Aussie skipper Gill Christ gave credits to the India Team for bouncing back and he mentioned that both the teams are equal on their potential, and the last days plays was a 50:50 chance. Our skipper, Gangully also repeated similar lines and was all set to move on to the next game. Gangully also joked about winning the toss sooner or later. Kumble was awarded the man of the match [it had some other crazy title for this series] for Rs 35,000, and a 125cc motorbike.
Oh! did forgot to mention the major outcome of the Chennai Test, "it was the Rain". Chennai people got the much needed rain.., this made me not to worry about my $131.00, there is always another game, I know how hard it is today in Chennai to get drinking water. Hope it rains more through Deepavali.
On other games, NFL: Sunday night, Vikings offense was totally ruthless , Pepper and Co managed to score points without Randy moss, a good sign to have more trusted receivers. However before injury, Randy moss's second TD catch was totally awesome. He had a great presence of mind to land both his feet before going out of balance. Vikes won!, Steelers pinned down the Cow-Boys, sweet, all teams that I have soft corner for won yesterday, I am sure India would have won!
10/15/04
Game Day, Second Test - Day 2.
Chennai, Oct 15th 2004.
Indians are ahead by 58 runs. Patel and Kaif put their heads down and are building a good little partnership. Patel was dropped on few occasions; both were kind of shaky at times, a city on a fault line.
Australian fielding was totally sloppy, missed many catches; it was so many that I lost the count. How can side with such a great proficiency in every department of the game, change over night? That’s pressure or that’s how Test Cricket is? I do not know.
The Chennai swarm was cheering for India through out the day, every run was cheered for, Noise level was quite high. Sehwag Continued his test cricket form went on to score a memorable 155. Watching him score was a pleasure, that too sacrificing my sleep for past 3 days. Congratulations to Sehwag!
I consider myself to be one among the most impatient people on this globe, If at all today’s science invents a pill to contain this impatience, In spite of having 10,001 side effects like dry mouth, diarrhea, head ache, body ache - I will be first one to buy it, but I have decided today I would go ahead and sponsor Sehwag a life time supply of this pill.
If he could have stayed there with some patience who knows, we could have seen another 300, for most of time in middle, he was really comfortable at rare occasions his usual “rush of blood” popped up, but batsmen on the other end did not miss the opportunity to come forward and warn him.
The World Record: Shane Warne crossed over Murali’s mark and became the highest wicket taker [Until Murali over takes him again and vice versa].
Shane Warne has been my favorite bowler from the day I saw him bowl leg spin. I can never forget the famous Banana spin, a ball that turns from outside the Leg stump to take of the off and Middle Stump. A countless number of Test Cricketers [English Especially] have fallen to this great delivery. Once in a while flipper, odd wrong ones and not to forget his great spirit to play the game, I have never seen him give up even when being trashed to all parts of the ground. Good example would be Vinod Kambli, he really hammered Warne every occasion they met, how ever today, Kambli, no where around, we don’t even see him in the commentary box.
“Form is temporary while Class is permanent”, Congratulations Shane Warne.
So to conclude, the question is will India pile more runs, though Patel and Kaif played really calm, this doubt keeps lingering around me, can they put on a tough fight? It does create some kind of doubt for me. Aussies just need a loose straw to bounce back. India needs to be 200 runs ahead at least to get something out this game. All said and done, we have three [or 2 more] more days of tough cricket ahead for us. Some how I need to find a method to sleep at work [as if I don’t do it now]
Indians are ahead by 58 runs. Patel and Kaif put their heads down and are building a good little partnership. Patel was dropped on few occasions; both were kind of shaky at times, a city on a fault line.
Australian fielding was totally sloppy, missed many catches; it was so many that I lost the count. How can side with such a great proficiency in every department of the game, change over night? That’s pressure or that’s how Test Cricket is? I do not know.
The Chennai swarm was cheering for India through out the day, every run was cheered for, Noise level was quite high. Sehwag Continued his test cricket form went on to score a memorable 155. Watching him score was a pleasure, that too sacrificing my sleep for past 3 days. Congratulations to Sehwag!
I consider myself to be one among the most impatient people on this globe, If at all today’s science invents a pill to contain this impatience, In spite of having 10,001 side effects like dry mouth, diarrhea, head ache, body ache - I will be first one to buy it, but I have decided today I would go ahead and sponsor Sehwag a life time supply of this pill.
If he could have stayed there with some patience who knows, we could have seen another 300, for most of time in middle, he was really comfortable at rare occasions his usual “rush of blood” popped up, but batsmen on the other end did not miss the opportunity to come forward and warn him.
The World Record: Shane Warne crossed over Murali’s mark and became the highest wicket taker [Until Murali over takes him again and vice versa].
Shane Warne has been my favorite bowler from the day I saw him bowl leg spin. I can never forget the famous Banana spin, a ball that turns from outside the Leg stump to take of the off and Middle Stump. A countless number of Test Cricketers [English Especially] have fallen to this great delivery. Once in a while flipper, odd wrong ones and not to forget his great spirit to play the game, I have never seen him give up even when being trashed to all parts of the ground. Good example would be Vinod Kambli, he really hammered Warne every occasion they met, how ever today, Kambli, no where around, we don’t even see him in the commentary box.
“Form is temporary while Class is permanent”, Congratulations Shane Warne.
So to conclude, the question is will India pile more runs, though Patel and Kaif played really calm, this doubt keeps lingering around me, can they put on a tough fight? It does create some kind of doubt for me. Aussies just need a loose straw to bounce back. India needs to be 200 runs ahead at least to get something out this game. All said and done, we have three [or 2 more] more days of tough cricket ahead for us. Some how I need to find a method to sleep at work [as if I don’t do it now]
10/14/04
The “Hooey Gooey“ selection - Kaif vs. Chopra
| Chopra: Total: 427 average: 25.12 Catches: 14 |
| Kaif: Total: 141 Average:20.14 Catches:1. |
The last time Kaif played Test cricket was against Sri Lanka on Aug 9th 2001., Just a reminder now it is Oct 2004, how can we even think of selecting a player who was asked to go out in 2001 from poor test cricket form? Is Indian cricket short of batsmen? Kaif’s has played in 8 innings, his scores are as follows: 12, 23, 37, 14, 17, 19, 14, and 5. No even a 50. Doest it sound Ridiculous! , Wait want to read something outrageous than the previous one, Let us now examine Chopra’s scoring trend. His debut was against New Zealand, he scored 42, followed by 31, 60, 52, 36, 4, 27, 20, 48, 4, 45, 2, 42, 2, 5, 0, 5 Even if you compare last 4 innings of Chopra (Total:93) and Kaif (Total:45), Chopra has scored more than him. Why was he dropped? Just for not scoring runs, a ludicrous Claim! Or for poor fielding, give me break, even catches he took is much more than Kaif. He is been remarkable in the close in field.
I agree Kaif comes down in the middle order to bat, while Chopra opens so his scoring is not as high as Chopra, yada yaya, the simple logic is to replace an opener, we need another opener, not a middle order guy. Please go get a specialized opener, don’t force and push middle order players to open instead, opening is a specialized position, it is a very costly spot. Yuvraj takes over opening slot for nothing, and the “form less” Kaif recalled filling his spot. Let me tell you a better strategy than selecting Yuvraj as an opener , simply recall Sunil Gavasker.
What a quagmire for Indian cricket, there is no single person in Indian selection board to take it over the head of Gangully! Remember, Gangully has already forced Dravid to keep wickets in one day games, in the name of 7 batsmen line up it that not enough?
By the way, what is the coach doing? As far as I know, a coach in Indian cricket team is a mere data entry operator, and he is never responsible for team’s action.
All said and done, Thanks to Anil Kumble for taking the Aussies on, he has provided some relief and match is now open to the Indians, It is high time for the batsmen to prove why they are in the team, if batsmen fails or not, It is Gangully responsibility to provide a justifiable answer for the “Hooey Gooey” selection of Kaif in the team.
Game Day, Second Test,
Chennai, Oct 14th 2004.
As far as this game is concerned, more than Cricket or to see India improve its performance, my wait was to watch the good old MAC Stadium and its ambience. The D Stand noise, aristocratic Pavilion Terrace, foreigner filled A Stand, small whispers of Tamil speaking TV Crews, It is around 2.5 years since my last trip to Chennai. DD coverage made it more nostalgic, camera panned and showed people at regular intervals, most of whom I really do not know who they are or where they are from, may be from Tambaran, Anna Nagar, Chrompet, T.Nagar, Triplicane, but some how all of them seemed very familiar to me, my eyes scanned through the cheering crowd to see “is there someone known to me”. I was thrilled to see high balloon over the score board, Triplicane buildings in backdrop and the train passing by in the near by Chepauk station. Watching this “Home” game from a distant land on the other side of the world in the wee hours is really a great feeling. I simply miss Chennai.
On to the Second test, you would have known by now Indians are on top. Aussies were bundled for meager total of 240, thanks to Anil Kumble, he was clearly out standing. The way he bowled was simply superb , I am a very detailed critic of Anil Kumble, usually if he gets 7+ wickets in an Inning, he would have scored a century along, meaning you would find a triple figure in the runs column. This time it was sweet, less than 60 runs. Way to go big Guy.
Gangully had an attacking field all through, a very big change in him. The flood gates opened when Harbajan got Hayden out. The game plan was to slam Harbajan, Hayden did this right from the word go, Hayden soon completed his 50 by launching one more SLV-6, MAC became a stand by SriHariKota. At lunch Umpire Shepherd was seen dancing in one leg in the pavilion, yes Aussies were 111/0. Great position,
I had no interest to watch the game further; I dozed off in my drawing room. However Sanjay’s MAnju MAnju nose cries on TV woke me up for the post lunch session, though I was still half sleep, I tried to peek at the score at regular intervals. India desperately needed a break through; Aussies were set to score 600+ easily.
The 1st Wicket: Hayden came out his crease and launched Harbajan was caught by Laxman., the real fair and balanced Chennai Crowd cheered for Hayden as he walked out. He made 58. Slowly one after another breaks, at times I thought I was dreaming. How ever what unfolded on the screen was for real. Kumble was taking wickets at will.
Best one I saw was the debut century maker Clarke, he never saw the ball well right from the word go, and he was trapped in front by Kumble’s “Soekly” Googly , he looked in vain for Billy “the Dancer” Bowden, No! He was gone, Shep raised his finger at once.
1st Session was dominated by “Sleep” and the Aussies, the following sessions were totally electric. Chennai crowd was going nuts seeing wickets tumble; But I was also soon bundled out by Mr. Sleep, Later at 5.30 am EST, got a phone call from my Dad, he woke me up and told about the match situation. I was up bright and clear. Soon Aussies were all out, about 40 minutes to close of play.
Kaif was preferred in place of Chopra, I really do not know what justification Ganguly has for dropping Chopra, Kaif did not add any value. Short leg position was specialized by Chopra, it was missing him dearly. As usual Pathan tried while Zahir Khan did nothing.
Patel’s keeping was totally shoddy, he failed a lot, thank heavens that he did not fumble catches. Think about this, how can a player without any kind of local game experience handle world class spinners like Harbajan and Kumble? WHAT IS THE JUSTIFICATION TILL DATE, it was clearly visible to every one, WHY SELECTORS ARE “BENT” ON KEEPING THIS GUY STILL IN? I would ask Patel to go and collect stamps before collection behind wickets.
Umpiring, Shep ruled not out to Kasprowicz, how ever this guy walked, a rare gesture from an Aussie, in general if an Aussie player is given out for a poor decision, a crane is required to lift them out. General practice is they simply never move and Ranjan “Madgale” will punish Indians for over appealing. But was nice to see Kasprowicz, but Mr. Shep who ruled him “not out” was left guessing. I felt Gillespie to be the most important wicket. India bowlers never wipe out the tail quickly, I expected him to stay and take the score to 350+, however, it was Kumble’s day, his critics like me often comment that he takes wickets between Adi and Amaavasai, Yesterday was one.
Yuvraj , the over rated cricketer of our times came to open with “Viru the Cautious Sehwag”. Viru has an above 50 batting average in test cricket but still has an axe above his head. Viru started of quite well showed no reaction punished bad balls, However Yuvraj the talented Indian never settled, he struggled a lot and was stuck on the helmet by McGrath, I request all the villain actors in Kodambakkam or to be Villains actors to check the smile he gave to Yuvraj after the blow on his helmet, Man! what a sinister smile, which gave the message “is your skull in place mate”.
Yuvraj was all set to get out, and played a poor shot to a wide ball from Shane Warne. Gill Christ took a very hard catch, Yuvaraj walked on his own. Shane Warne equaled Murali’s World Record. Then Pathan walked in as night watch men, Stumps on the first day, India 28/1. Hope we put more runs on the board.
As far as this game is concerned, more than Cricket or to see India improve its performance, my wait was to watch the good old MAC Stadium and its ambience. The D Stand noise, aristocratic Pavilion Terrace, foreigner filled A Stand, small whispers of Tamil speaking TV Crews, It is around 2.5 years since my last trip to Chennai. DD coverage made it more nostalgic, camera panned and showed people at regular intervals, most of whom I really do not know who they are or where they are from, may be from Tambaran, Anna Nagar, Chrompet, T.Nagar, Triplicane, but some how all of them seemed very familiar to me, my eyes scanned through the cheering crowd to see “is there someone known to me”. I was thrilled to see high balloon over the score board, Triplicane buildings in backdrop and the train passing by in the near by Chepauk station. Watching this “Home” game from a distant land on the other side of the world in the wee hours is really a great feeling. I simply miss Chennai.
On to the Second test, you would have known by now Indians are on top. Aussies were bundled for meager total of 240, thanks to Anil Kumble, he was clearly out standing. The way he bowled was simply superb , I am a very detailed critic of Anil Kumble, usually if he gets 7+ wickets in an Inning, he would have scored a century along, meaning you would find a triple figure in the runs column. This time it was sweet, less than 60 runs. Way to go big Guy.
Gangully had an attacking field all through, a very big change in him. The flood gates opened when Harbajan got Hayden out. The game plan was to slam Harbajan, Hayden did this right from the word go, Hayden soon completed his 50 by launching one more SLV-6, MAC became a stand by SriHariKota. At lunch Umpire Shepherd was seen dancing in one leg in the pavilion, yes Aussies were 111/0. Great position,
I had no interest to watch the game further; I dozed off in my drawing room. However Sanjay’s MAnju MAnju nose cries on TV woke me up for the post lunch session, though I was still half sleep, I tried to peek at the score at regular intervals. India desperately needed a break through; Aussies were set to score 600+ easily.
The 1st Wicket: Hayden came out his crease and launched Harbajan was caught by Laxman., the real fair and balanced Chennai Crowd cheered for Hayden as he walked out. He made 58. Slowly one after another breaks, at times I thought I was dreaming. How ever what unfolded on the screen was for real. Kumble was taking wickets at will.
Best one I saw was the debut century maker Clarke, he never saw the ball well right from the word go, and he was trapped in front by Kumble’s “Soekly” Googly , he looked in vain for Billy “the Dancer” Bowden, No! He was gone, Shep raised his finger at once.
1st Session was dominated by “Sleep” and the Aussies, the following sessions were totally electric. Chennai crowd was going nuts seeing wickets tumble; But I was also soon bundled out by Mr. Sleep, Later at 5.30 am EST, got a phone call from my Dad, he woke me up and told about the match situation. I was up bright and clear. Soon Aussies were all out, about 40 minutes to close of play.
Kaif was preferred in place of Chopra, I really do not know what justification Ganguly has for dropping Chopra, Kaif did not add any value. Short leg position was specialized by Chopra, it was missing him dearly. As usual Pathan tried while Zahir Khan did nothing.
Patel’s keeping was totally shoddy, he failed a lot, thank heavens that he did not fumble catches. Think about this, how can a player without any kind of local game experience handle world class spinners like Harbajan and Kumble? WHAT IS THE JUSTIFICATION TILL DATE, it was clearly visible to every one, WHY SELECTORS ARE “BENT” ON KEEPING THIS GUY STILL IN? I would ask Patel to go and collect stamps before collection behind wickets.
Umpiring, Shep ruled not out to Kasprowicz, how ever this guy walked, a rare gesture from an Aussie, in general if an Aussie player is given out for a poor decision, a crane is required to lift them out. General practice is they simply never move and Ranjan “Madgale” will punish Indians for over appealing. But was nice to see Kasprowicz, but Mr. Shep who ruled him “not out” was left guessing. I felt Gillespie to be the most important wicket. India bowlers never wipe out the tail quickly, I expected him to stay and take the score to 350+, however, it was Kumble’s day, his critics like me often comment that he takes wickets between Adi and Amaavasai, Yesterday was one.
Yuvraj , the over rated cricketer of our times came to open with “Viru the Cautious Sehwag”. Viru has an above 50 batting average in test cricket but still has an axe above his head. Viru started of quite well showed no reaction punished bad balls, However Yuvraj the talented Indian never settled, he struggled a lot and was stuck on the helmet by McGrath, I request all the villain actors in Kodambakkam or to be Villains actors to check the smile he gave to Yuvraj after the blow on his helmet, Man! what a sinister smile, which gave the message “is your skull in place mate”.
Yuvraj was all set to get out, and played a poor shot to a wide ball from Shane Warne. Gill Christ took a very hard catch, Yuvaraj walked on his own. Shane Warne equaled Murali’s World Record. Then Pathan walked in as night watch men, Stumps on the first day, India 28/1. Hope we put more runs on the board.
10/13/04
Duh, politics is same where ever you are.
My Good friend Arun [If you are tamil blogger please note it, will be usefull] sent me this link, http://www.blogd.com when I read it, it sounded very funny to me, will sound ridiculous to the republicans, and will serve as a very good point for a democrat to munch about.
The issue is: “Was President Bush wired during the debate?! “ Here is what the report says “A technical expert who designs and makes such devices for the U.S. military tells Salon that he believes "the bulge" is indeed a transceiver designed to receive electronic signals and transmit them to a hidden earpiece lodged in Bush's ear canal”
Kind of funny to me, there were about 2, 00,000+ cameras, 400000 media experts along with the so called “fair and balanced” crew watching both the men talk about their own polices for the people.
How can such a media presence miss this? Also President Bush clearly knows the consequences of such acts. If he does so it will be ship load of substance for Democrats to talk about for rest of their life.
So what is next from the Republicans? Sen. Kerry used an Electronic voice for which he lip-synced. He used a device often used in Hollywood movies. A technical expert who designs and makes such devices for Jollywood films, tells to the “Fair and balanced news” that he believes Kerry's voice was a synthetic voice, generated from a Remote PC, Kerry did well to sync his voice, in fact that made Britney Spears jealous. He also noted that CA governor Arnold S...has been using this for ages.
Some ideas for both the parties
1. President used a "bit" sheet tucked inside his coat.
2. Sen. Kerry used Ganga Guide to answer his questions.
3. President rigged the tele-prompter thanks to Fox news.
4. Sen. Kerry got information on Morse code in this cell phone's vibrator.
5. Questions were sold on eBay, Both the candidate got them.
Duh, politics is same where ever you are.
The issue is: “Was President Bush wired during the debate?! “ Here is what the report says “A technical expert who designs and makes such devices for the U.S. military tells Salon that he believes "the bulge" is indeed a transceiver designed to receive electronic signals and transmit them to a hidden earpiece lodged in Bush's ear canal”
Kind of funny to me, there were about 2, 00,000+ cameras, 400000 media experts along with the so called “fair and balanced” crew watching both the men talk about their own polices for the people.
How can such a media presence miss this? Also President Bush clearly knows the consequences of such acts. If he does so it will be ship load of substance for Democrats to talk about for rest of their life.
So what is next from the Republicans? Sen. Kerry used an Electronic voice for which he lip-synced. He used a device often used in Hollywood movies. A technical expert who designs and makes such devices for Jollywood films, tells to the “Fair and balanced news” that he believes Kerry's voice was a synthetic voice, generated from a Remote PC, Kerry did well to sync his voice, in fact that made Britney Spears jealous. He also noted that CA governor Arnold S...has been using this for ages.
Some ideas for both the parties
1. President used a "bit" sheet tucked inside his coat.
2. Sen. Kerry used Ganga Guide to answer his questions.
3. President rigged the tele-prompter thanks to Fox news.
4. Sen. Kerry got information on Morse code in this cell phone's vibrator.
5. Questions were sold on eBay, Both the candidate got them.
Duh, politics is same where ever you are.
10/12/04
ARE WE TURNING DUMB?
Just Google, you will find anything and everything in record breaking time frame. Google is one of the greatest Search engine today. You can find information on anything right from Pizzas to Pulavs to Paneer Kurmas to Rocket science. However, there is a down side to Google What!, I hear others saying “are you kidding, even this web site is hosted by Google? Do you know that?” Yes I know, but read below.
Few months ago I asked my junior team member to code a module. The estimated time for this task was around 40 hrs. Aka a weeks time at least. However this guy came up with the module in about 4 hrs and told me it is almost done, by evening it was complete. I was amazed by this speed of coding and asked him few changes in the module, for which he is coding for more than 82 hrs.
How? He was able to do it right the first time but struggled to modify it the second time? The answer to this is “Google” he just found a solution by Googling. Never wanted to use his ideas, Just “cut and past” the code he found, bingo it works, He never learnt the code, hey it works, that’s all it requires today, Sweet to hear, he just did what millions of others around the world are doing today.
How many computer programmers today really think about writing simple or complex modules or code snippets? Only a handful, these guys simply post them in their Blog or on their website, rest of the world has the power of Google to find it. No trouble no hassle.
If I want to find something as small as how to write a SQL connection string , I blindly “Google” and get the code, and add to my module, simply cut and past the code. “Very Very Convenient”, But few years ago this was not the case, I would get the concept of connection strings from a book and I will take pains to type the code myself, which in due course will stay in Brain.
But very soon human thinking capacity will diminish, yes, who needs it, hey there is Google, and it will get any solution for you in milliseconds. I think in about 10 years from now, human brains will be slower than what it is today; People will not put efforts to cultivate or learn through their Analytical skills in general, Google shall be one main contributor to this process. This might sound to be an over reaction, but think and see for yourself.
I heard on CNN, some universities have devised methods to spot student researchers that use Google to make their research easy and quick. I agree we need to Google for information; Google is the best, in my case it helps my music to be known to others. I love Google but at the same time I don’t prefer to over “Google”
ps: I Googled on the world "dumb" in google,
Check this
Few months ago I asked my junior team member to code a module. The estimated time for this task was around 40 hrs. Aka a weeks time at least. However this guy came up with the module in about 4 hrs and told me it is almost done, by evening it was complete. I was amazed by this speed of coding and asked him few changes in the module, for which he is coding for more than 82 hrs.
How? He was able to do it right the first time but struggled to modify it the second time? The answer to this is “Google” he just found a solution by Googling. Never wanted to use his ideas, Just “cut and past” the code he found, bingo it works, He never learnt the code, hey it works, that’s all it requires today, Sweet to hear, he just did what millions of others around the world are doing today.
How many computer programmers today really think about writing simple or complex modules or code snippets? Only a handful, these guys simply post them in their Blog or on their website, rest of the world has the power of Google to find it. No trouble no hassle.
If I want to find something as small as how to write a SQL connection string , I blindly “Google” and get the code, and add to my module, simply cut and past the code. “Very Very Convenient”, But few years ago this was not the case, I would get the concept of connection strings from a book and I will take pains to type the code myself, which in due course will stay in Brain.
But very soon human thinking capacity will diminish, yes, who needs it, hey there is Google, and it will get any solution for you in milliseconds. I think in about 10 years from now, human brains will be slower than what it is today; People will not put efforts to cultivate or learn through their Analytical skills in general, Google shall be one main contributor to this process. This might sound to be an over reaction, but think and see for yourself.
I heard on CNN, some universities have devised methods to spot student researchers that use Google to make their research easy and quick. I agree we need to Google for information; Google is the best, in my case it helps my music to be known to others. I love Google but at the same time I don’t prefer to over “Google”
ps: I Googled on the world "dumb" in google,
Check this
10/11/04
Super Man! actor passes away
I have been always fascinated by SuperMan! Sequels, I still remember watching them in EGA theater, Chepat. Christopher Reeve, who portrayed the "Superman" died today. He was 52, He has been living paralyzed in an accident, died of cardiac arrest on Sunday Afternoon. He was a real "Super man" to what he went through.
CNN reports here
CNN reports here
Simply Ridiculous, Sehwag fined 60% match fees.
“Simply Ridiculous”
Viru Sehwag fined 60% of his match fees, What is supposed to be dissent? Has anyone seen the stare McGrath and Gillespie gives at the umpire -- I call it, “what the hell you are thinking?” look for every other appeal turn down, don’t you think this to be decent?, The Batsmen just gets one chance and thanks! even that is doomed by umpiring errors.
Sehwag had clearly edged the ball, I saw it on my TV without reply. It was quite clear. I am wondering “Belly Dancer” Bowden must have been planning on how to signal a bouncer warning, the only umpire sign that he has not devised a dancing scheme.
Is it right for an umpire to perform tantrums on the field? Why ICC is not asking him, some say it is nice to watch and looks funny! Oh! Ya! .So if a player does such acts why is he penalized?, here is joke : ICC boasts that umpires are equal to judges in a court.
Sehwag’s career is in line here. His cricketing life for next few years is on stake, He has to score no other choice, so I feel it is natural reaction from a player to tell the umpire what happened. Though hypothetical to the core, it is possible, who knows he could have scored for us to win the game. Never know.
I am wondering how Mr.Bowden can miss such an easy decision, he had already let go Michel Clarke in the first innings. One mistake already for the game, How can he miss this? How he is going to be penalized for his poor umpiring error? ,
If Bowden had not made such a glaring mistake, Sehwag would not have reacted. I think Bowden needs to share this with Sehwag.
Some say we have the reply on our side and umpires don’t have them etc, this is not acceptable to me, hey, this guy is standing 25 yards from the batsmen, and he has no other job other than watch the ball and the batsmen? IF YOU CANNOT SEE FROM THIS DISTANCE, YOU CANNOT SEE FROM ANY DISTANCE. JUST GO AND CHECK YOU EYES AND COME BACK.
I am sure Bowden and Sehwag are cool guys!, They must have settled this by now. You got to move on, agreed. But ICC for its part has been always rude with Indian players; ICC needs to remember that their first class air fare is paid by Indian audience. Aussies were let go easily in the past, Ranjan madugalle is totally a biased guy. Period.
Our own BCCI does not care; they are busying fighting in court, which decides their head. ICC and BCCI, please "LEARN" how to organize and be organized from NFL. That’s all I can say.
PS: No-Moon [aka AmavAsai] day is showing up in my [MMI] moon-mood image, so I have the right to remain cranky!....for next several days. [and so on...]
Viru Sehwag fined 60% of his match fees, What is supposed to be dissent? Has anyone seen the stare McGrath and Gillespie gives at the umpire -- I call it, “what the hell you are thinking?” look for every other appeal turn down, don’t you think this to be decent?, The Batsmen just gets one chance and thanks! even that is doomed by umpiring errors.
Sehwag had clearly edged the ball, I saw it on my TV without reply. It was quite clear. I am wondering “Belly Dancer” Bowden must have been planning on how to signal a bouncer warning, the only umpire sign that he has not devised a dancing scheme.
Is it right for an umpire to perform tantrums on the field? Why ICC is not asking him, some say it is nice to watch and looks funny! Oh! Ya! .So if a player does such acts why is he penalized?, here is joke : ICC boasts that umpires are equal to judges in a court.
Sehwag’s career is in line here. His cricketing life for next few years is on stake, He has to score no other choice, so I feel it is natural reaction from a player to tell the umpire what happened. Though hypothetical to the core, it is possible, who knows he could have scored for us to win the game. Never know.
I am wondering how Mr.Bowden can miss such an easy decision, he had already let go Michel Clarke in the first innings. One mistake already for the game, How can he miss this? How he is going to be penalized for his poor umpiring error? ,
If Bowden had not made such a glaring mistake, Sehwag would not have reacted. I think Bowden needs to share this with Sehwag.
Some say we have the reply on our side and umpires don’t have them etc, this is not acceptable to me, hey, this guy is standing 25 yards from the batsmen, and he has no other job other than watch the ball and the batsmen? IF YOU CANNOT SEE FROM THIS DISTANCE, YOU CANNOT SEE FROM ANY DISTANCE. JUST GO AND CHECK YOU EYES AND COME BACK.
I am sure Bowden and Sehwag are cool guys!, They must have settled this by now. You got to move on, agreed. But ICC for its part has been always rude with Indian players; ICC needs to remember that their first class air fare is paid by Indian audience. Aussies were let go easily in the past, Ranjan madugalle is totally a biased guy. Period.
Our own BCCI does not care; they are busying fighting in court, which decides their head. ICC and BCCI, please "LEARN" how to organize and be organized from NFL. That’s all I can say.
PS: No-Moon [aka AmavAsai] day is showing up in my [MMI] moon-mood image, so I have the right to remain cranky!....for next several days. [and so on...]
10/8/04
GameDay, Day-III, India Vs Australia
Bangalore, Oct 6-10th.
Yesterday, I was kind of sure that India would not pass the 200 mark, I simply overestimated our "tail", tail enders proved me wrong. Patel, Irfan and Kumble played a determined game, and frustrated the Aussie bowlers. They did not fall for the traps. India was making a steady progress towards avoiding the follow on. But, India from 150/6 went on to score 246, around 30 runs short to avoid the follow on.
Surprise! Aussies did not enforce the follow on. It seems they had a different game plan or I call it “the Kolkata trauma” or may be they were worried about facing the music of Harbajan and Kumble in the 4th innings. Pitch will be turning more from tomorrow [picked from Sanjay Manju’s expert comments], but the fact is why worry when Kumble & spin is a known example of an oxymoron.
With a lead of 225 Aussies came in to bat and lost Langer at once to a beauty from Irfan, Langer however was not happy with the LBW decision, walked away shaking his head. Aussies were 0/1.
But very soon, Zeezee “made of clay” khan started to bowl his regular donkey drops and gave away too many runs. That forced Ganguly to get Harbajan into the attack, he started to turn the ball quite well at once, Gangully for change did not adhere to his astrologer, instead he placed a good attacking field. Not worrying about the runs or his astrologer.
Hayden was beaten couple of times, and then came the Run out, a direct throw from Harbajan found Hayden shot by 2 inches. Reply confirmed it, and he was out, a section of Bangalore crowd started to cheer at least to boost the morale of their fellow spectators, Harbajan’s reaction time to pick the ball and hit the stumps was less than a second, amazing reflex work from this determined Sikh.
Aussies were 65/2, Martin came him, slowly was threatening to settle down for a big score. Katich was also playing well, though Hayden’s departure slowed the scoring rate.
Katich chased a ball from Kumble was out caught by Dravid, according to TV statistician this was his 100the catch. Having got a quick wicket, Kumble suddenly went to his dumb mode,; he started to bowl faster and short. Nothing worked for him for next 30 minutes, however settled in a good line and length. Aussies were struggling to play our spinners. Lehmann never played spin well from the day he was conceived, his agony ended when he was out for 14. Aussies were 104 for 4, about 325 runs ahead.
At close of play Aussie were 127/4 with Clarke and Martin playing well. [355 ahead] For some reason DD did not show Clarke’s parents when he walked in to bat.
Tomorrow we need to wait and watch the boasted Indian batting lineup taking on the straight in line bowling of McGrath and co, and banana spin for Shane Warne. I feel the game is well poised for Aussies to beat India by 150 runs.
Beware: Ganguly walked gingerly all day, injury or something?
Bangalore, Oct 6-10th.
Yesterday, I was kind of sure that India would not pass the 200 mark, I simply overestimated our "tail", tail enders proved me wrong. Patel, Irfan and Kumble played a determined game, and frustrated the Aussie bowlers. They did not fall for the traps. India was making a steady progress towards avoiding the follow on. But, India from 150/6 went on to score 246, around 30 runs short to avoid the follow on.
Surprise! Aussies did not enforce the follow on. It seems they had a different game plan or I call it “the Kolkata trauma” or may be they were worried about facing the music of Harbajan and Kumble in the 4th innings. Pitch will be turning more from tomorrow [picked from Sanjay Manju’s expert comments], but the fact is why worry when Kumble & spin is a known example of an oxymoron.
With a lead of 225 Aussies came in to bat and lost Langer at once to a beauty from Irfan, Langer however was not happy with the LBW decision, walked away shaking his head. Aussies were 0/1.
But very soon, Zeezee “made of clay” khan started to bowl his regular donkey drops and gave away too many runs. That forced Ganguly to get Harbajan into the attack, he started to turn the ball quite well at once, Gangully for change did not adhere to his astrologer, instead he placed a good attacking field. Not worrying about the runs or his astrologer.
Hayden was beaten couple of times, and then came the Run out, a direct throw from Harbajan found Hayden shot by 2 inches. Reply confirmed it, and he was out, a section of Bangalore crowd started to cheer at least to boost the morale of their fellow spectators, Harbajan’s reaction time to pick the ball and hit the stumps was less than a second, amazing reflex work from this determined Sikh.
Aussies were 65/2, Martin came him, slowly was threatening to settle down for a big score. Katich was also playing well, though Hayden’s departure slowed the scoring rate.
Katich chased a ball from Kumble was out caught by Dravid, according to TV statistician this was his 100the catch. Having got a quick wicket, Kumble suddenly went to his dumb mode,; he started to bowl faster and short. Nothing worked for him for next 30 minutes, however settled in a good line and length. Aussies were struggling to play our spinners. Lehmann never played spin well from the day he was conceived, his agony ended when he was out for 14. Aussies were 104 for 4, about 325 runs ahead.
At close of play Aussie were 127/4 with Clarke and Martin playing well. [355 ahead] For some reason DD did not show Clarke’s parents when he walked in to bat.
Tomorrow we need to wait and watch the boasted Indian batting lineup taking on the straight in line bowling of McGrath and co, and banana spin for Shane Warne. I feel the game is well poised for Aussies to beat India by 150 runs.
Beware: Ganguly walked gingerly all day, injury or something?
10/7/04
Game Day, Day 2, India vs the "World Champs"
Yesterday I subscribed for the India and Australia series via Dish Network, this includes India and SA and 1 one day match between India and Pakistan. I paid 139.99 and $1.00 ordering fee.
Here we go, Aussies started the batting where they left on the previous day. Gangully opening with his speedsters in spite of the pitch report showing some cracks, I am not talking about Sanjay manju, I am talking about real cracks on the pitch, which in general supports spinners. However Gangully’s astrologer has devised another game plan for him, hence our “Gang” leader chose the celestial plan given to him by Pandit “some” ananda.
Zeezee khan was totally in effective, Pathan tried something along with him but nothing worked. Aussies were piling runs. Michel Clarke and Gill Christ played easily and tackled the lack luster Indian bowling attack. Indian player’s body language suggested that they had given up, and waited for the Aussies to make mistakes. Gangully fielding was so non-imaginative, why you have 2 gullies when ball not bounce above the shoe lace?!. I request BCCI to train Gangully’s “Josiyar” in MRF pace foundation.
After some “bush” whacking [ I changed to late night shows for a while], I came back to cricket when Kumble was given the ball, whew finally., The funny part here is the expert Leg spinner in the commentary lineup L.Siva, suggested the pitch had few rough spots that would help off spinner and there is nothing big for the leg spinners to happen. SivaSiva, Gangully must have heard it and promptly sent Harbajan on a walking trip to near by Kappan park. The spot was clearly visible as spots shows in ujalla commercial.
For Kumble, Gangully placed a defensive field usually seen in draw-aimed match plan. But Kumble was also whacked right royally by the Aussie pair, this really gave high hopes for India, Hey! Do not jump to conclusions; What I meant was few more matches like this, Kumble can be forced to retire, his bowling performance today gave hopes to other good spinners in the 1 billion (minus one) population. Bottom Line, he sucked right royally that too on track that helps spinners.
Kumble trapped Clark plumb, but umpire B(e) illy [Dancer] Bowden after a “kathakali” performance missed the definition LBW and asked Clarke to continue his great game. Our home grown walking valium Sanjay Manju in the commentating team was literarily in tears on this decision. He then questioned Mr.Bowdens rating of being the best umpire in the world citing another plumb LBW for Sachin in the Asia Cup he missed.
After this, runs were flowing, score was increasing, but be ready the Michel Clarke reality show is about to begin, he was in the so called nervous 90’s, or Indian team calls it “relief is on the way”, at least after the 100 he would get out by himself. Slater’s commentary and camera work gave the reality show a fresh look; in this well scripted show, Michel Clarke was portrayed as though he was the only century maker in the entire universe on debut. DD or Prashar Bharathi or Vivith Bharathi provided good screen play support by showing Clarke’s amma, appa, apamma, apappa, ammma , ammmapa and every other member of this family who had joined the touring party, it is a proud occasion for their parents no doubt, but DD coverage made it like a bore occasion. After he scored the century he was busy kissing anything he saw, his cap, his hand, his bat, his bat grip, his gloves, the ground, his boot, [and the umpire for missing the Lbw], seeing such a kiss-spree-reaction from Clarke, Gill Christ did not remove his helmet. Clark was 100/1.
Gill Christ simply Rocked!, his chords progressions oops sorry, his score progression was 6 4 4 6 every over, he along with Clarke dispatched India best bowler [as per the rediff article] Anil Kumble to all the parts ground.
I went to sleep after this. Not worth watching, this morning,
I did watch Indian batting quickly, I have recorded this agony
I saw India was 150/6 , WALLter Vetrivel" cooked a duck!. Shewag had some runs that will retain him for next 20 years. Will watch the rest this evening.
To conclude: The pitch will have lots of crack and pot [holes] on the 3rd day, I am sure Shane Warne will be very happy to see the crack and pot [holes], If you know what I mean. ;)
9/22/04
The Song Story
This is the title song for the short movie Stinking Cigar by Arun. Stinking Cigar produced by Eternal Rainbow creation was shot in NJ and is scheduled to be released in trigger street.com very soon. I take great pleasure in working in this project.
After reading the movie script, I felt creating simple theme music for the story will carry the mood in the story line all thorough, Director [Arun] also insisted on the theme music concept. After reading the script while traveling from Silver Springs to Washington DC frankly it took me about 20 minutes to get the melody line in my head. Same evening the basic track was laid and the projected theme music was kind of ready, a prototype version.
Arun and I had planned a song for the title credits. My plan was to embed this theme music as the “chorus” for the song. It seemed workable to the team. Before everything I have to find proper words for the score. I requested my writer Udhaya to come up with words that fits the mood, since Udhaya had already worked on the dialogues in the short film, he came up with the words very quickly, to my great surprise the chorus lines he sent in the first cut matched my theme melody 100%. Best part was, Udhaya had not heard my theme music; even Arun had not heard it till then.
I preferred them hear it only after I complete the arrangements. After this great coincidence, I started to feel more energy presence to complete the song. I created a basic groove for the track and started to record vocals with Alisha, Alisha has already sung in my composition, we did the “Bharatham” track, as of today downloads for this song ranges around 2500+. So I was really happy to work with her again. A great find for my composition, Alisha as usual did the track quickly; she and her dad Dr. Thomas took a rough mix of the track to review it.
On my side, reviews after reviews, I started to feel about my backgrounds, it did not jell the way I wanted, I was complaining to my peers and more to myself about this. I felt the beats and arrangements needed rework. So I took the drastic step to scrap out the existing arrangement, decided to rework this from scratch.
Alisha for her part, just like me a self critic, clearly told me she wanted to redo major portions of it. Thanks to Dr. T who created the energy to work again on this track.
During the long weekend when everyone was relaxing on their paid holiday, we recorded the vocals again, this version seemed to jell quite well, finally got it mixed, sounds were balanced and the date of release was set.Working on an English track is new to me; I have no prior experience of any sort, still was keen to learn this cross over music and wanted to try it out. I can also put forth some Indian music ideas over it. Arun provided a great arena to test this out, with Alisha’s and Udhaya’s great support, I was able to do this to our satisfaction, I hope people would welcome this and encourages us to work more. Please listen to this track and send your comments.
Srikanth.
This is the title song for the short movie Stinking Cigar by Arun. Stinking Cigar produced by Eternal Rainbow creation was shot in NJ and is scheduled to be released in trigger street.com very soon. I take great pleasure in working in this project.
| Daddy’s Girl
Original Sound Track from [Short film] Stinking Cigar by Arun Lead Vocals:Alisha Thomas,Words: Udhaya, Composed by Srikanth Digitally Recorded at Studio1234 Acknowledgements: Dr. Thomas, Arun, Jayashree Srikanth. All Rights Reserved © 2000, Sri Inc |
After reading the movie script, I felt creating simple theme music for the story will carry the mood in the story line all thorough, Director [Arun] also insisted on the theme music concept. After reading the script while traveling from Silver Springs to Washington DC frankly it took me about 20 minutes to get the melody line in my head. Same evening the basic track was laid and the projected theme music was kind of ready, a prototype version.
Arun and I had planned a song for the title credits. My plan was to embed this theme music as the “chorus” for the song. It seemed workable to the team. Before everything I have to find proper words for the score. I requested my writer Udhaya to come up with words that fits the mood, since Udhaya had already worked on the dialogues in the short film, he came up with the words very quickly, to my great surprise the chorus lines he sent in the first cut matched my theme melody 100%. Best part was, Udhaya had not heard my theme music; even Arun had not heard it till then.
I preferred them hear it only after I complete the arrangements. After this great coincidence, I started to feel more energy presence to complete the song. I created a basic groove for the track and started to record vocals with Alisha, Alisha has already sung in my composition, we did the “Bharatham” track, as of today downloads for this song ranges around 2500+. So I was really happy to work with her again. A great find for my composition, Alisha as usual did the track quickly; she and her dad Dr. Thomas took a rough mix of the track to review it.
On my side, reviews after reviews, I started to feel about my backgrounds, it did not jell the way I wanted, I was complaining to my peers and more to myself about this. I felt the beats and arrangements needed rework. So I took the drastic step to scrap out the existing arrangement, decided to rework this from scratch.
Alisha for her part, just like me a self critic, clearly told me she wanted to redo major portions of it. Thanks to Dr. T who created the energy to work again on this track.
During the long weekend when everyone was relaxing on their paid holiday, we recorded the vocals again, this version seemed to jell quite well, finally got it mixed, sounds were balanced and the date of release was set.Working on an English track is new to me; I have no prior experience of any sort, still was keen to learn this cross over music and wanted to try it out. I can also put forth some Indian music ideas over it. Arun provided a great arena to test this out, with Alisha’s and Udhaya’s great support, I was able to do this to our satisfaction, I hope people would welcome this and encourages us to work more. Please listen to this track and send your comments.
Srikanth.
9/16/04
ICC aka International Confusion Committe
I was reading an article in Rediff, by Prem Paniker , he was literally furious on certain restriction on the play field for the ICC Cup being held now in the UK.
It seems, no other food product other the sponsor’s products are permitted in the ground
The ticket contains a list of food products allowed ranging from chips to cookies. This is to protect the sponsors from the Ambush marketing. I don’t want to discuss if I agree with him or not, however his point seemed very clear.
In my opinion, ICC’s approach in this matter is rather unprofessional. Their new clause clearly invites trouble. Let us take NFL or NBA or a cinema theater here in the US as examples. They prevent this ambush marketing by not permitting any out side food. Hey! Rule is very simple; if you want to munch something while being entertained inside the arena you need to buy food at a premium price from the outlets run by the sponsors themselves - simply no outside food allowed, it you carry food, it will be dumped. No mercy to anyone. This rule does not apply to water.
The issue of not allowing outside food is clearly treated as a policy matter. Law clearly protects this if it is announced as a company policy well ahead of time. ICC known for its slipshod or careless behavior should have brain stormed this issue properly with professionals who are capable or have previous experience in planning such policies and events. I do not know if ICC has such policies, at the same time I would not be surprised it they have clause that is buried deep inside the policy pages known only to ICC office bearers. What else you could expect from Malcolm Speeds and Jagmohan Dalmiyas, in spite for their mediocre or no organization capacity cricket has come a long way, thanks to its poor aficionados, if not for their blind patronage, Speeds and Dalmias cannot have their first class air travel. It is time that ICC honors its real patrons "the fan" by improving the amenities and other facilities for the fans, instead of making a gaga over this ambush marketing issue.
[2 min interval]
PART 2
THANK YOU DISHNETWORK.
Hey! do you know I did not subscribe for this ICC cup? Right from 2000 I have been watching cricket via Dish network. All cricket matches were kind of affordable, but today it has reached a point that I cannot subscribe cricket on Dish network, basically Dish network and Kelly broadcasting system are the sole copyright holders for cricket telecast in USA. They want a greedy $250 for both Holland cup and ICC trophy. Seriously on all give and take, the real matches starts only after the minnows being eliminated. How can Dish network expect me to pay so much and watch games that are mere academic interests of ICC? I doubt if I will watch few games in the line up for free.
| How can dish network expect me to pay and watch Bangladesh vs. any country?
Frankly I don’t mind spending my time on the following alternatives. 1. Lawn mowing 2. SQL data back 3. Lotus notes programming. 4. Exercise. 5. Learn multiplication tables above 12. |
Agreed, I am cricket fanatic but not a fool. Do you know the entire NFL [American football] season on Direct TV is much less than ICC Cup? Ridiculous, with such high telecasting cost, ICC wants to spread this game around the world, a mere dream that will never come true. Only way to attract more people to watch cricket is easy access. Anyone would think twice to spend huge to watch an unknown game. Added to agony, listen to this, cricket fanatics like me who cannot afford a mammoth $250 were blessed by Cricinfo.org, they offered live unofficial commentary for $19.99 for all the games. The cricket chemicals in my body reacted at once and subscribed for this service. But alas few days before the tournament they sent an email stating that they cannot bring live commentary because of copy right restrictions and they refunded the money, they have promised now to bring the finals and India vs. Pakistan live for $5.00. [whisper: Hope dish network does not read this] I was denied commentary for other matches.
A relief came via BBC, BBC sport 5 promised live radio commentary via the internet, Hey don’t rush, KBS and Dish Network wanted more brutal punishment on people who failed to subscribe the ICC cup, they fought for copyrights and blocked commentary in USA. Commentary can be heard live in UK alone THANK YOU Dish network and KBS or who ever did this to all the cricket fans in USA. Hey! What the heck, football just began first week was simply awesome, for now, I am cured from this cricket mania.
9/14/04
Proof of Concept
Proof of Concept
I happen to watch a movie last Saturday evening in SUNTV, STAR, Staring Prashanth, Raghuvaran, Jyothika, Kodambakkam Dad (a.k.a) Vijay Kumar.
Here are some of the bits and pieces of the movie; Prashanth is a “thayagi” [not just because he is son of Thaygararjan], it seems he accepts petty thefts charges on behalf of others and serves jail terms for them. So the cops call him a “Thayagi”. I missed the movie from reel one; I was watching ESPN foot ball news. However I joined the movie action some where in reel number 5, where Prashanth helps a bunch of prisoners to dig a tunnel out of the prison. They build perfectly round tunnel that will make Sumerians and Egyptians jealous. I really don’t know what the jailers were doing when these thugs were busy digging a mini size “kolar thanga vayal”, added to the fun, area of the jail was about 20x20, [PCO/STD telephone booth] in which 10 prisoners are put together, even Abu Gharib prison seemed wider to me. [Abu Grape or Abu Graph or Abu Gooorp I really don’t know, you may want to check cable news for latest pronunciation].
Prisoners escape thanking the good hearted Prashanth, but the truth is Prashanth misguides them; the tunnel goes directly out to a manhole in a police training camp. The plan is they would get caught as soon they go out. Instead of wasting the time, Prashanth could have told the cops right away about the escape plan and earn one more thayagi credit; in turn we would have been saved from one more stupid cop comedy, after this BS, the gang leader vows to settle account with Prashanth [please book mark this]. Prashanth then goes out of the jail
(Pudsu kanna Pudusu , loud kugumam Advt. Followed by Aswini Aswini Aswini herbal oil and Padar thamarai cream I have never heard of this Tamil word “padaR thamarai”, need to call 1-800-kONar to verify its validity.)
Vijay Kumar in action sneaks out from Anna international Terminal, three thugs are very upset to see him escape. Gulf Air, Air Bus A320 lands in some airport, Vijay Kumar meets with Shadows Ravi who seemed to be the care taker of Vijay Kumar’s son, he is a spoilt kid and is being hidden from the evil world for some reason. It took me about 10 minutes to get this plot right. [Warning: Tube lights might take longer] But to have a son with such a bad acting and behavior, I would prefer Vijay Kumar to hide from the world.
Flash Back. [Pudsu kanna Pudusu , loud kugumam Advt., they promise to tell about Actors Pay scale]
Flash Back, Raghuvaran’s son is child prodigy swimmer called Lingeswaran, he is being kidnapped by Veerapan look alike. Vijay Kumar is the police chief who handles this case. He does not budge in for the kidnappers. In turn Veerapan Junior takes out the poor kid. Raghuvaran is very upset, he plans to kill Vijay Kumar’s son. You many ask this, how come Raghuvaran knows that Vijay Kumar has a son? , answer: Vijay Kumar’s son, about 5 years shows up in the dense forest pestering his dad to go back home. He must have come there for a vacation or something. So the point is in order to save his son from Raghuvaran he hides his son in some foreign country where gulf air flies. He also lies to his wife [Sri Vidhya] that son has been kidnapped. I am very sure that the person who comes as Vijay Kumar’s son must be the director or producer, unless other wise no one would even consider him. He simply goofs up, over acts and irritates. In this process he breaks about 10 glass bottles and I broke few in watching this agony.
Prashanth meets Jyothika they fall in love. [That’s all, how and where does not matter]
Police now pester Prashanth for more sacrifices [”thayagams”], but Prashanth sneaks out and goes into a wedding hall where he searches for his girl, the one and only Jyothika. He gets caught by Vijay Kumar, because he was doing some "Boys" type acts that should make Ananda vikatan say "cheeee" once again but instead -- Chhhhhhhhhhhuda Chhhhhhhhhhhuda (tamilA…oh oh) cup coffee , irritating Ananda vikatan advt. shows up.
After this, Police shows up and gives Prashanth a (T) certificate , they tell that he is a Scapegoat for others; Wow! VJK [please I cannot type this name fully anymore] gets a plan, asks Prashanth to act as his son, according to his plan Raghuvaran will take out this guy by mistake. Poor Raghuvaran, I think like Karna he can use only one bullet for his entire life time.
[Pudsu kanna Pudusu , loud kugumam Advt followed by SunTv news synopsis that boasts Tamil shall be made a Red language soon, one more time - PKP [Pudsu kanna Pudusu]. Researchers have found that in about 24hrs, the number of times PKP commercial shown is more than the actual number of meaningful pages in Kungumam.]
Poor VJ [sorry VJK is too long] shows a picture of his wife and Jyothika. At once he agrees to take the place, as his son, he enquires about Jyothika in the picture, it seems she is “mama ponnu” Jo’s dad is brother of someone in the family or I called it as P.Vasu’s theory.
Thank god she does not become his sister that too after 3 great songs by A.R.Rahman.
Ok that’s it. I guess the movie would have ended after the sun TV news.
And finally, the reason I called this article as proof of concept because this movie tries very hard to prove a concept. They prove a movie can be made without a screen play, story or a director. The only reason it is called as movie is it was made using a film role.
I happen to watch a movie last Saturday evening in SUNTV, STAR, Staring Prashanth, Raghuvaran, Jyothika, Kodambakkam Dad (a.k.a) Vijay Kumar.
Here are some of the bits and pieces of the movie; Prashanth is a “thayagi” [not just because he is son of Thaygararjan], it seems he accepts petty thefts charges on behalf of others and serves jail terms for them. So the cops call him a “Thayagi”. I missed the movie from reel one; I was watching ESPN foot ball news. However I joined the movie action some where in reel number 5, where Prashanth helps a bunch of prisoners to dig a tunnel out of the prison. They build perfectly round tunnel that will make Sumerians and Egyptians jealous. I really don’t know what the jailers were doing when these thugs were busy digging a mini size “kolar thanga vayal”, added to the fun, area of the jail was about 20x20, [PCO/STD telephone booth] in which 10 prisoners are put together, even Abu Gharib prison seemed wider to me. [Abu Grape or Abu Graph or Abu Gooorp I really don’t know, you may want to check cable news for latest pronunciation].
Prisoners escape thanking the good hearted Prashanth, but the truth is Prashanth misguides them; the tunnel goes directly out to a manhole in a police training camp. The plan is they would get caught as soon they go out. Instead of wasting the time, Prashanth could have told the cops right away about the escape plan and earn one more thayagi credit; in turn we would have been saved from one more stupid cop comedy, after this BS, the gang leader vows to settle account with Prashanth [please book mark this]. Prashanth then goes out of the jail
(Pudsu kanna Pudusu , loud kugumam Advt. Followed by Aswini Aswini Aswini herbal oil and Padar thamarai cream I have never heard of this Tamil word “padaR thamarai”, need to call 1-800-kONar to verify its validity.)
Vijay Kumar in action sneaks out from Anna international Terminal, three thugs are very upset to see him escape. Gulf Air, Air Bus A320 lands in some airport, Vijay Kumar meets with Shadows Ravi who seemed to be the care taker of Vijay Kumar’s son, he is a spoilt kid and is being hidden from the evil world for some reason. It took me about 10 minutes to get this plot right. [Warning: Tube lights might take longer] But to have a son with such a bad acting and behavior, I would prefer Vijay Kumar to hide from the world.
Flash Back. [Pudsu kanna Pudusu , loud kugumam Advt., they promise to tell about Actors Pay scale]
Flash Back, Raghuvaran’s son is child prodigy swimmer called Lingeswaran, he is being kidnapped by Veerapan look alike. Vijay Kumar is the police chief who handles this case. He does not budge in for the kidnappers. In turn Veerapan Junior takes out the poor kid. Raghuvaran is very upset, he plans to kill Vijay Kumar’s son. You many ask this, how come Raghuvaran knows that Vijay Kumar has a son? , answer: Vijay Kumar’s son, about 5 years shows up in the dense forest pestering his dad to go back home. He must have come there for a vacation or something. So the point is in order to save his son from Raghuvaran he hides his son in some foreign country where gulf air flies. He also lies to his wife [Sri Vidhya] that son has been kidnapped. I am very sure that the person who comes as Vijay Kumar’s son must be the director or producer, unless other wise no one would even consider him. He simply goofs up, over acts and irritates. In this process he breaks about 10 glass bottles and I broke few in watching this agony.
Prashanth meets Jyothika they fall in love. [That’s all, how and where does not matter]
Police now pester Prashanth for more sacrifices [”thayagams”], but Prashanth sneaks out and goes into a wedding hall where he searches for his girl, the one and only Jyothika. He gets caught by Vijay Kumar, because he was doing some "Boys" type acts that should make Ananda vikatan say "cheeee" once again but instead -- Chhhhhhhhhhhuda Chhhhhhhhhhhuda (tamilA…oh oh) cup coffee , irritating Ananda vikatan advt. shows up.
After this, Police shows up and gives Prashanth a (T) certificate , they tell that he is a Scapegoat for others; Wow! VJK [please I cannot type this name fully anymore] gets a plan, asks Prashanth to act as his son, according to his plan Raghuvaran will take out this guy by mistake. Poor Raghuvaran, I think like Karna he can use only one bullet for his entire life time.
[Pudsu kanna Pudusu , loud kugumam Advt followed by SunTv news synopsis that boasts Tamil shall be made a Red language soon, one more time - PKP [Pudsu kanna Pudusu]. Researchers have found that in about 24hrs, the number of times PKP commercial shown is more than the actual number of meaningful pages in Kungumam.]
Poor VJ [sorry VJK is too long] shows a picture of his wife and Jyothika. At once he agrees to take the place, as his son, he enquires about Jyothika in the picture, it seems she is “mama ponnu” Jo’s dad is brother of someone in the family or I called it as P.Vasu’s theory.
Thank god she does not become his sister that too after 3 great songs by A.R.Rahman.
Ok that’s it. I guess the movie would have ended after the sun TV news.
And finally, the reason I called this article as proof of concept because this movie tries very hard to prove a concept. They prove a movie can be made without a screen play, story or a director. The only reason it is called as movie is it was made using a film role.
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