2 Special Days in a Week

Special Day 1

What a special day in India's history. A day in which my neighborhood became a party house. And I am sure it was same across the entire nation. I have seen the most happiest day(in my 25 years of existence) of this nation's history. 

Hats off to Dhoni & his team - for doing this. A day which will be remembered and relived (thanks to zillion highlights that will be shown) for the rest of my lives. 

Special Day 2

India's semifinal match against Pakistan - This is because I can tell my future generation that "I was there". :)

Why I am looking forward to 2011 Cricket World Cup?

Until today, 2003 Worldcup world cup was the high point of my cricket passion/cricket craziness. The passion/craziness owes a lot to do with the fact that I was living in a boy's hostel during the world cup. 

1. Going  2 hours before the match to occupy the best place in the TV room (Just before TV). 

2. Not being able to take a toilet break.. Because the entire room is so packed that you are sure you won't be able to find a place when you come back.

3. Predicting that India will reach semi-finals after 2 poor performances in the first two matches - And seeing the prediction coming true

4. Commentary better than Harsha Bhogle from friends sitting with you. 

means that 2003 world cup will always be one of the most memorable memories of my life. So the defeat in the final was one of the bad memories of my life. It even cured my cricket craziness for a certain time. Even T20 world cup win did not rekindle my love for cricket. But somehow I am awaiting the start of this world cup. 

1. Unlike 2007 world cup, this India team is focussed on winning the world cup. 

2. This is Tendulkar's final world cup. And he surely does want to add a world cup win to his resume

3. Again, I believe and am predicting that India will reach another semi-final. 

So again.. Counting the days for world cup to start.. 24 more days..  Hoping that this would be my best memory of India in a world cup.

Gavaskar & Others in Governing Council are accountable for IPL Mess

Media & others have solely focused on Lalit Modi for IPL Mess. I also ascribed to the view. And largely did not think Ravi Shastri, Gavasakar & others in IPL Governing Council as accountable.  

I accepted without question when Tiger Pataudi said they did not doubt Lalit Modi when things were going well.. Thinking that it is not the responsibility of Governing Council to look into the accounts. 

But that was until i knew they earned a crore rupees. A CRORE RUPEES - Do did they think their few hours  of meeting time was worth a crore? Even Mukesh Ambani gets less than 50 crores for slogging 24*7 for Reliance.

As  Sarbanes-Oxley Act(SOX) states, Internal Control is the direct responsibility of the board.They failed in their duty where they fail to direct their minds to the question of whether a transaction was in the best interests of BCCI. If this has happened in a public organization, all the directors would be facing fines or prison terms.. Sad state of BCCI and one-minded focus on Lalit Modi, Members of Governing Council are escaping lightly. Hmmm

India - Defined By Cricket

Americans as individuals remember their history by political events. If you ask any middle aged American about the most important events of his personal life, JFK's death would be one of them. Some might even remember what they were doing when Armstrong landed on the moon...

An American's life is entangled with the political events of the nation itself. [I am sure iPod Generation will surely remember "Obama's Victory" as one of the most important events in their personal life]

But I found this feature missing in India. Rajeev Gandhi's death or Sonia declining to become PM never impacted our lives. Comparing to USA, I used to feel bad that our nation lacked these minor things. Oldies can still define their life with respect to major events of freedom struggle. But the post-independent bunch never had such great moments. But yesterday's piece by Siddhartha Vaidyanathan in Cricinfo - Losing my Religion made me to realize what I have failed to notice..

"I remember Ganguly and Dravid soaring in Taunton, mainly because it was the day I got my board-exam results. And boy, did that provide some much-needed relief. I remember Tendulkar's blitz against Australia in Bombay because my dad, who thought cricket was a waste of time, sat through every ball. So connected were these cricketers to my growing up."

Though we are separated by our religion, our language, our culture, etc. , our nation is united by Cricket. Whichever part of you may be in, we cheer when Tendulkar scores a century or Sehwag blasts the opposition into pieces. Both our nation's history and our individual history are defined by cricket. While Dhoni's team is linked with economic prosperity of the nation, our lives would be forever defined by World T20 win. If you still doubt this, try to recall a few of the important matches

• Ganguly & Dravid scoring in Taunton
• two young men - Kaif & Yuvaraj ensured a victory from the brink of a defeat
• Tendulkar's blitz @ Sharjah...

Hmm.. Cricket defined us..  And Cricket has united us.. :)

Ban Harbhajan for slapping Sreesanth

If it is true that Harbhajan slapped Sreesanth, BCCI should take firm action against him. However bad Marco Materazzi taunted Zidane in the world cup, Zidane's head butt was not justified (This is in a sport that is much more violent than cricket). Similarly whatever Sreesanth had done to invoke Harbhajan, a slap is unwarranted and not justified. BCCI should take firm action after a quick and proper enquiry. He should be banned for at least a few matches and a huge fine should be laid on him.

Weed

By this slap, Harbhajan has let himself down and made the whole nation to doubt his earlier actions during the Australian controversy. He has also given fodder to the likes of Mathew Hayden who has already called him 'an obnoxious weed'. Now even the Indians would start asking whether he is really an obnoxious weed to cricket? Expect the Australians to get back on Harbhajan with full force.

Indian Premier League

But during this controversy there will be one group of people who will laugh their way to the bank - Organizers of Indian Premier League. This controversy will generate more publicity for Indian Premier League and will shoot its television ratings further. Lalit Modi would be thanking his stars for this controversy.

A Sport with Balls and Bats But with no Pitcher

That is how New York Times described Cricket in its article. It has been a dream of ICC and every cricket fan that Cricket spreads its wings all over the world and especially in cash-rich USA. So the esteemed New York Times' coverage of Cricket is surely good news. With this coverage and the inauguration of cricket league among school students in New York, cricket has taken its initial baby steps in US.

 

Cricket League

On Wednesday, the Department of Education in New York inaugurated cricket as its newest league sport, with about 600 high school students. With this, New York becomes the only public school system in the nation to offer competitive cricket. No one is expecting the game to overtake baseball, football or soccer in popularity there any time soon, but a modest increase in interest in the sport won the attention of Eric Goldstein, who is the chief executive for school support services and oversees sports programs for the Department of Education.

 

Future of Cricket in US

Mr. Thompson, the cricket coach at Herbert H. Lehman High School in the Bronx, said the sport could catch on in the United States — eventually. He said “I don’t think it’s going to lead to a situation where American kids are going to have to debate, ‘Oh, should I play cricket or should I play basketball?’ ” he said. “At least not yet.”

But who knows? Even the British who introduced Cricket to India never dreamt that India would become the economical powerhouse of Cricket.

Don't Complain about 'Commercialization' of Cricket

When the IPL auction took place, there were hundreds of blogs complaining about the commercialization of cricket, Amit Verma in his post in India Uncut gives a proper reply to these people who complained about Commercialization. He explains clearly why it is us who are responsible for the cricket being the only sports in India and why it is us who will be responsible for the death of Test match cricket when it happens.

Excerpts...

'Wherever there’s big money floating around, politicians emerge and start squealing. The recent auctions at the Indian Premier League have roused the ire of both the Left and the Right of Indian politics. On the right, the inimitable Balasaheb Thackeray has described the IPL auctions as the “gambling of industrialists”. On the Left, Gurudas Dasgupta is complaining that this will make “every youngster not a good sportsman but a man hungry for money.”'

The above passage is just the introduction from the column, for the rest visit 'There is nothing wrong in being commercial". A must read for any cricket enthusiast.

IPL vs ICL vs EPL

According to you, Which of the three leagues - Indian Premier League, Indian Cricket League and English Premier League is going to be the most popular one in India?

My Answer: Indian Premier League for the next 7-9 years and English Premier League from then on.


The question - 'Which is popular among the two existing cricket leagues in India?' is a no-brainer. The ICL may have been the first off the block, but the fact that players signing a contact with ICL bring their career to a halt means very few stars would be signing with them in the future. And IPL provides the cricketers with a better, if not lucrative option. Since only one entity owns all the teams, the capital base of the ICL is also not expected to be huge, preventing it from future expansion.


The recent buzz for IPL shows clearly the huge popularity that Indian Premier League is going to enjoy. But the real competition for IPL comes from English Premier League. Though soccer as a game is not as famous as cricket in India, it is slowly gaining popularity, especially among young male Indians. [Target Segment of Indian Premier League too] Additionally, English Premier League already boasts of a huge number of Indian Die Hard fans. And it would take a monumental effort for any franchise in English Premier League to create a similar group of die hard fans.

With the increased globalization and increased number of Indians traveling abroad, the reach of English Premier League is going to be an upward graph. And with the Indians' inborn attraction of anything Western, it would seem 'cool' for many young people to follow and to proclaim to be a fan of Manchester United rather than Chennai Super Kings.

With the extreme popularity that cricket enjoys in India, Indian Premier League is sure to remain as the most popular professional league in India, atleast for a few more years. For the dominant position to continue for Indian Premier League, both the players and management have to provide unadulterated fun for people who are watching it - on Television and on ground.

P.S: Since it is going to take a long time for Tirunelveli to get a franchise on its own, I have decided to become a fan and supporter of 'Chennai Super Kings', Chennai Franchise of Indian Premier League. To extend that support, I have started the first fan blog of Chennai Super Kings at http://chennaisuperkings.blogspot.com. If you would like to hear about 'Chennai Super Kings', do subscribe for the blog at http://feeds.feedburner.com/chennaisuperkings.

Role of Caste in Indian Cricket

Ah! Finally an Australian reporter writes how caste could play in who represents India in cricket. On reading the news - 'A Class Act? Opinions Differ', I was shell-shocked. Who would have thought this situation exist in Indian Cricket Team, the one love of all Indians?

Only Fools believe that caste plays a role in the selection of Indian cricket team. But as the article points out that there is a huge number of people from a single caste(7 in the playing 11), disproportionate to their percentage of Indian population. It means something is wrong somewhere. May be there is a caste discrimination at the lower level... May be the elitist sports is played only by the elite caste of India. But whatever may be the reason, it has to be identified soon and corrected. Or else it could become a tailor made situation for politicians to exploit for their personal benefits. BCCI! Please Wake Up!

Cricket World Cup is finally Over

The ICC Cricket World Cup 2007 rather than making the cricket fans ask for 'dil maange more' made them feel happy that the long event is finally over. What a pity for the event of that caliber!!!!

Also it is the right time to analyse my very own 'Predictions about Cricket World Cup '07' - which were very very wide off the mark...

Photo: Australia - World Champions Again..

Analysis of my predictions:

Scotland, The Netherlands, Bangladesh, Bermuda, Kenya, Canada, Zimbabwe Ireland:
None of us would have ever expected any of these teams to qualify for the next stage. But Bangladesh & Ireland teams, thankfully brought their own surprises to this world cup.. But this ultimately made the super-eight matches a drag without any real excitement.

My prediction that Zimbabwe as the only team with a chance to proceed to super-eight stage was based on the apparent weakness of the Pakistani team rather than on the strength of the Zimbabwe team. Now I rue my decision not to collect any information about Ireland team.

If not for Bangladesh pushing out India from qualifying to the next stage, I would have been feeling good about my own predictions. But alas! it brought down all my calculations to naught.

Pakistan:
As I predicted it correctly, it went out in the first stage of the world cup itself. Hope it comes out strongly in the next world cup. As i mentioned, 'Bob Woolmer' occupied the front pages of the newspaper & magazines for a very sad reason.

Srilanka:
Another team for which my prediction went completely wrong. Again never expected a Srilankan middle player to strike form as C. Silva did. What he did was convert the one of the weak spots of Srilankan team - Weak Middle Order to its major strength.

West Indies:
Hurrah! At least my predictions about West Indies was correct. Farewell Lara.

New Zealand:
As I predicted, Shane Bond took the team to semi-finals where it lost to Sri-lanka

Australia:
The world champions!! I heeded to my heart rather than to my mind while making the predictions... Hmmm!

England:
Another team that disappointed me. Yeah! Again putting my heart over the mind!

South Africa:
Unlucky! to meet Australia in the semi-finals. If they had met Sri-lanka/New Zealand that would have at least been an interesting match.

India:
No comments about my predictions that were completely off the mark. Importance of a camp before any important sports event to boost the fitness of the players was underlined to BCCI. Also, Indian team missed a strike bowler.


In short, My 'predictions for Cricket World Cup '07' was nothing short of a disaster. :-(

Hope at least I learnt the lesson - Not to make any predictions for any sports event. Since I always would be heeding to my heart rather than my mind. Waiting for the "Harry Potter and the Deathly Harrows".. Hope at least some of the predictions about the book cis correct.

Google Gadgets for Cricket World Cup 2007

For Google Desktop Users Only

Google has released new desktop gadgets to help cricket fans like me, keep track of the scores, news, videos of ICC World Cup 2007. If you are in need of a desktop gadget that displays the live scores of World Cup cricket matches, download it here. You can even view the full scorecard for a match using the 'see full scorecard' link. It also displays the schedule of next match.

If you want to know about other gadgets that Google has released to cash in on the cricket fever, click here for a post by Amit Agarwal in his blog "Digital Inspiration".

Predictions - Cricket World Cup '07

Disclaimer: I am not an astrologer nor i have any supernatural or paranormal powers to prophesy about the future. Disciplines like water divining, astrology, numerology, and fortune telling, along with many other forms of divination are unknown to me.

The only reason for this post is that i can brag about in the future about my correct predictions. So here, goes my prediction for each of the world cup teams - what will happen to them & what won't. Believe them at your own risk.


Scotland, The Netherlands, Bangladesh, Bermuda, Kenya, Canada, Zimbabwe Ireland - Except for Zimbabwe, I don't see any of the teams playing more than the allotted two Group Matches. Even for Zimbabwe, it is a very small probability(0.05%) that they will qualify by upsetting Pakistan.
Prediction - Group Stage

Now let's move to the big teams....

Pakistan - The only team with a little probability to lose out in the group stage itself. On the utmost, it will reach Super Eight stage. My prediction - They will upset atleast one of the superior teams in the super eight matches. Person to look out for - Bob Woolmer
Prediction - Super Eight

Srilanka - Another team I am sure that it will not cross the Super Eight Stage. Person to look out for - Sanath Jayasuria & Tom Moody
Prediction - Super Eight

WestIndies - With a lot of pitches relaid, I don't see any big advantage for the home team. I am sure they won't cross the Super Eight Stage. But Lara may cause a surprise in one or two matches.
Prediction - Super Eight

New Zealand - Ah! Now the predictions are becoming difficult. It is really a tough thing to predict who will go among the New Zealand/England/Australia trio for the semi-finals. My prediction - New Zealand will not cross the Super-Eight. The only thing that is hindering me to say this confidently is Shane Bond. Surely watch out for him. [If Bond does not face any injuries in the world cup, the master will take his team to semifinals]. Anyway, My Dark Horse for the ICC World Cup 2007 - New Zealand.
Prediction - 50.5% - Super Eight, 29.5% - Semifinalist, 20% - Finalist

Australia - I am sure they wont reach the finals this time around. My prediction is not based on the last 5 continuous losses recently.[though it got strengthened by it & its image of invincibility is gone]. Just the fact that Pointing wants Symonds in the world cup team even if he can play only in the latter stages is enough for me to know their true strength. [Please remember how France badly wanted Zidane in FIFA world cup 2002]. Player to watch out for - Ponting
Prediction - 40% - Super Eight, 60% - Semifinalist

England - I am sure England will reach the semi-finals, not a level less and not a level more. Watch for the big man with a smile.
Prediction - Semifinalist

South Africa - After missing the finals for 3 world cups(they deserved it), I am sure that this time around the No:1 team is a 100% sure finalist. Player to watch out for - Ntini
Prediction - Finalist

India - My prediction is that it would reach the finals. But it may also be the one that may lose out in the semi-finals. It depends largely on that day's conditions & pitch. One of my basic gut feeling is that world cup '07 is about individual brilliance & talent. That gives India an edge because of the potential it possess.
Player to watch out for - Sourabh Ganguly
Prediction - Finalist - 90% & Semi-finalist - 10%

A Summary:
Finals - India vs South Africa
Semifinals - India Vs England & South Africa Vs Australia/NewZealand

Winner - India - 49.00005% South Africa - 49% & New Zealand - 0.99995%