2022 – Top Ten Moments from the Indian Sports Arena

As we enter the last week of the year 2022 AD, it is time to make a list of things to remember the year going by. Presenting the Top 10 moments from the Indian sporting field (rated by yours truly).

1. Thomas Cup win: Stirring performances from Lakshya, Srikanth, Prannoy and Satwik-Chirag lead India to become just the 6th country to win the Thomas Cup. It was a culmination of a long journey to becoming a badminton powerhouse.
2. Neeraj Chopra becoming the Diamond League champion. Such is the amazing consistency of India’s first ever track & field Olympics champion that a silver in the World Athletics Championships (the first ever Indian to do so) is not his biggest moment of the year!
3. Avinash Sable winning the silver medal in 3000m Steeplechase at the Commonwealth Games and breaking Kenya’s dominance of the event. This is the first time since 1998 that Kenya did not have a clean sweep in this event!
4. MCG, Men's T20 World Cup, India vs Pakistan, Over 18.5 – Haris Rauf to Virat Kohli, lands for 6 behind the bowler off one of the most stunning shots seen in cricket – a straight punched loft over the bowler’s head! And somehow India sneak in a win out of nowhere after a dramatic last over.
5. Lawn Bowls Gold at Birmingham Commonwealth Games. An afternoon spent plonked in front of the TV watching Lawn Bowls 4s Final wasn’t a part of any plans. But Rupa Rani Tirkey, Nayanmoni Saikia, Lovely Choubey & Pinki Singh combined to bring a new sport to the collective Indian sporting minds. After all, we are fast learners (at least in learning the rules of a new game).
6. The Women’s Hockey team won the inaugural Nations Cup, getting their rightful place in the next season of Pro Hockey League. They should not have had to play this round given that as alternates the team finished 3rd in the previous edition of the League. But they proved once again that they belong in the top tier of World Hockey.
7. Deepti Sharma runs out Charlie Dean at the non-strikers end to seal a whitewash for India over England. A non-striker run-out (formerly known as Mankading) and that too at Lords! As expected, all hell broke loose on cricketing social media with the defenders of the so called “spirit of cricket” marching in on full battle mode! The debate kept going on and on for seemingly ages! Don’t remember so much attention to an incident in women’s game before!
8. Nikhat Zareen became the Boxing World Champion, India’s 5th ever female boxer! She also added a Commonwealth Games gold confirming that Mary Kom’s legacy is in good hands.
9. Mirabai Chanu lifting the silver at the World Championships with a sprained wrist!
10. Achanta Sharath Kamal, at the age of, 40 won 3 Golds and a Silver at the Commonwealth Games!

Other honorable mentions: Manika Batra winning the Bronze at Asian Cup; Rudrankksh Patil winning a World Cup Gold to qualify for the next Olympics Shooting; Bajrang Punia adding a 4th Wrestling World Championships medal and Vinesh Phogat getting her 2nd medal.

Finally for an announcement off the field of play. In a major step towards gender parity, BCCI announced that the women players will be given the same match fees as the men for internationals. A great initiative, but just the first step in a long journey to parity. And this is something basic to be done for all sports.

Now looking forward to the sporting year 2023, which has Hockey & Cricket World Cups, the postponed Asian Games (fingers crossed given the re-emergence of the Covid situation) and many Paris Olympics qualifiers scheduled!

BookMarks #79: The Nice Guy Who Finished First

Title: A Biography of Rahul Dravid: The Nice Guy Who Finished First 

Author: Devendra Prabhudesai 

Published: 2005 

Genre: Biography, Cricket 

BookMarks 

Once when I had to fill out an overall career goal, I wrote “To Be The Nice Guy Who Finished First”, borrowing the byline of this book. Sailed through that presentation and interview, reaffirming my belief that one can’t go wrong with an apt sports analogy. However, I hadn’t yet read the book. An aberration which has been corrected! 

The Nice Guy Who Finished First is not a conventional biography. It barely tells us anything about the persona of its subject. All we get is a collection of match reports. For the Dravid fans, it’s a good way to re-live the roller-coaster ride that the 90s and the early 2000s were for Indian cricket. But hardly anything else. There are some comments about Dravid from his contemporaries but hardly anything from the man himself. Only the very last chapter which lists the different “schools” of India batsmanship shows some insight. Otherwise it’s like reading a highlights reel of Dravid’s first decade in international cricket with barely a mention of what happened around him. 

Funny thing, the writer chose 2005 as the stopping point of his work. After all the entry of Greg Chappell into the Indian dressing room has to be one of the more interesting phases in Indian cricket history. 

Previously on BookMarks: An Indian Spy in Pakistan 

T20 cricket as seen by a 20-month old

It was the IPL 2020 season, thus presenting an apt time to introduce the gentleman’s game, albeit in its shortest official format to the kiddo. 

But how do you explain the rules and nuances of this most complex game to a toddler. I mean how does one even start. But turns out it is not required. The game gets to you as you watch. So here is how the play goes as per the little one. 

One "uncle" has the ball, does “run run run”. Another "uncle" has bat. The ball moves all over the place making everyone go “run run run”. Sometime ball is “catch”. And many a times somebody or the other goes "gir gaya". 

Overall, resulting in a completely entertaining spectacle at par with "Baby Shark". 

And it's not just uncles, aunty and didi also play on some evenings.

Meanwhile, the little one has also attempted to delay sleep time by asking Papa to watch some cricket! Not for nothing is T20 complete family entertainment!

MovieNotes: The Test

After a brief hiatus, I am back on my journey into the world of sports documentary series. And this time I foray into the world of Cricket! 

The Test is a 8-part documentary chronicling the journey of the Australian Men’s cricket team over a period of 18 months from the lows of the ball-tampering scandal in 2018 to the high of retaining the Ashes away from home in late-2019. For a cricket tragic like yours truly, all the events depicted are familiar. Yet, that doesn’t take away any of the excitement of re-living the events. 

These were extra-ordinary times for Australian cricket. Over the years Australian teams had been pushing the lines of the sportsman spirit – something which Steve Waugh famously called “mental disintegration”. But in Newlands, they were caught literally with their hands in their pants! The repercussion of being branded cheats in public were huge. Long bans for Smith, Warner & Bancroft and resignation of head coach Lehmann. Cricket Australia needed a thorough overhaul of the system. 

It is at this point which “The Test” begins. No doubt a good PR exercise in collaboration with Amazon to redeem the image of Australian cricket. On the cricketing front, Justin Langer took over as coach, with Tim Paine as the captain. After a while Paine, who was surplus to the limited overs set-up handed over the ODI & T20I reins to Aaron Finch. Retired legends like Ponting, Steve Waugh, Gilchrist, Haddin came into consulting roles. 

Initially the team struggles in filing the voids caused by the bans of their best players. But over time, new players put up their hands and take the place. The path is difficult, and they take baby steps. They celebrate their little successes – a hard-earned draw, a home Test victory, a Home Test series victory, an away ODI series victory in India, a semi-final finish in the World Cup and finally retaining the Ashes taway from home! And it’s not just the on-field performances, there is also a change in the approach to the game. As Harsha Bhogle said, you can’t keep any Australian team down for too long! 

And there is the parallel track of Steve Smith – relieved from captaincy and banned for a year, makes a comeback, faces the boos of the crowds, but with his on-field exploits manages to turn the jeers into cheers. In between also gets knocked out while batting! Quite a phoenix like rise from the ashes for him. 

Then there is the story of the rise of Tim Paine. From being seen as a stand-in captain to becoming an Ashes winning captain, earning the respect of a nation in a job considered as the second-most important in Australia after the Prime Minister. 

Throughout the series, there is a recurring narrative of being together and helping each other out. Someone even remarks that this was a happy & united team despite continuously losing! “Elite Mateship” is a term which they come up with. However, Adam Zampa & Marcus Stoinis take it to a different level altogether! 

They take potshots at Virat Kohli for his on-field gestures & in your face aggression in Australia. But for some reason they miss the footage of him asking Indian fans not to boo Smith during the World Cup. Sometimes when you get too worked up into building a narrative that you forget the balance in it. However, Eoin Morgan’s interview is shown where he responds in negative when asked whether he would ask the fans to stop booing Warner & Smith! 

Massive defeats are easier to live with than the ones that slipped away. England running 481 in an ODI and beating Australia by 200+ runs margin was easier to accept. While Ben Stokes’ heist at Edgbaston was a bitter pill to swallow! 

There were a couple of lines which stood out for me. And this is something which we can incorporate in our everyday life (and work). 

1. Nathan Lyon talking about how celebrating every win is important. Because you never know if that would be your last win. 
2. Ricky Ponting berating David Warner, asking him what he had won that he was afraid of losing. 

So that was “The Test”. A must-watch for every cricket tragic! 

Previously on MovieNotes: Le Mans: Racing Is Everything 

BookMarks #69: 281 And Beyond

Title: 281 And Beyond

Authors: VVS Laxman & R. Kaushik

Genre: Autobiography, Cricket

Published: 2018

BookMarks

The book narrates VVS Laxman’s cricketing journey, in his own words, from his early days in Hyderabad to becoming one of India’s all-time great batsmen. However, it was not all smooth sailing and the journey is full of ups and downs.

The book gives us a glimpse into the goings on within the Indian dressing room as well as the struggles of cricketers in India. This is also a story of the change that has been brought from the semi-professional 1990s to now, how various aspects of the game have evolved – from fitness, money, communication aspects etc.

The book is a joy to read for the Indian fan, especially someone like yours truly. Flipping through the pages, you relive your cricket-following career. Every tour is discussed. The book goes chronologically from the haphazard mid-90s, match-fixing saga, John Wright’s arrival, new lows under Greg Chappell and the troubles he caused, the away victories, the Monkeygate series, the heights under Kirsten all unfold as a highlights reel. Have to say this, the Indian team was quite inconsistent throughout the era. Only now do we have a relatively consistent winning record!

I liked how VVS doesn’t mince words about his relationships within the team and how he reacted to different situations. Also, he has been quite honest about the disappointments of never getting a fixed spot, being dropped from Tests on and off and never really getting a chance in the white ball format. He also touches upon the mental issues of the game as well. The book particularly highlights the lack of communication in the setup where individual players are often left to fend for themselves.

I loved the bit where he talks about getting admitted to an MBBS course post-retirement and becoming a doctor. Imagine being motivated to study for 5 years after having lived a superstar life! However, he was talked out of this dream by his family and had to concentrate on cricket related activities only!

The book is titled aptly. Begins with THAT innings and then goes about telling the rest of the story!

In summary, a good read for the India cricket fan!

Previously on BookMarks: We Are The Champions

BookMarks #67: The Fire Burns Blue

Title: The Fire Burns Blue: A History of Women’s Cricket in India

Authors: Karunya Keshav & Sidhanta Patnaik

Genre: Sports History

Published: 2018

BookMarks

The Fire Burns Blue – presents the story of the journey of Indian Women’s cricket in India from its difficult initial days in the 1970s to the highs of 2017 and its aftermath. When women’s cricket became cricket in India!

‘She pervades poetry from cover to cover; she is all but absent from history’ – a line which is apt for the average Indian cricket fan for whom women’s cricket barely registered even less than Cooch Behar trophy at times. And why blame fans, the game barely registered even with cricket statisticians. Just check cricinfo, which has a massive stats section. While random Men’s games dating back to mid-19th century have first-class status and are well documented in records, the women stats cover only internationals! So somebody like Ashleigh Barty has a profile on cricinfo but no stats to tell us about her on-field achievements!

Well I digress. Coming back to the book which is a treasure trove for the fans. The book begins with Haarmanpreet Kaur’s 171 in the 2017 World Cup Semi-Finals which finally captured the imagination of the cricket lovers in India for good. And then commences the journey from the very beginning.

The game had humble beginnings with small clubs in Bombay and other places sprouting in the 70s. This was followed by the founding of the Women’s Cricket Association of India and the first national championships. The book goes on to tell the stories of the first international touring teams and the first official matches. How Railways played a big part by first becoming the employer of choice of women cricketers and using that player base to maintain its hegemony on the Indian domestic circuit. And there were the long arduous train journeys and its accompanying travails. 

The journey is also a series of missed opportunities. There were times when the game could have taken off in India but for a variety of reasons did not. In fact there have been major controversies immediately after a high! Sometimes due to administrative apathy, sometimes cash crunch, sometimes infighting and player revolt, some personnel changes, and sometimes just not getting the results on field. India even missed playing a World Cup also. But always the game found a new benefactor somewhere!

The book does a good job in narrating the stories of individual cricketers while merging them with the specific issues facing women’s cricket and even women's sport in general.

A couple of passages from the book which stand out and also gives us a peek at how the journey has evolved.

"The Indian women’s team—skilfull, stylish, solid, shy, eager, kind, hungry, hard-working, driven, very good on so many days and frustrating on others—is yet to sort through everything it is and really define what kind of cricket it wants to play on the global stage."

And the second one on the leading lights of the game

"Shantha’s stature, Diana’s grit, Shubhangi’s steadiness, Sandhya’s skill, Purnima’s cheek, Neetu’s genius, Anjum’s fire, Mithali’s class, Rumeli’s promise, Jhulan’s warmth, Harman’s spark—these are the pillars of Indian women’s cricket that have held up the edifice so far. Now, as the journey gets ready to take another turn, add to it Smriti’s fearlessness."

Fun Facts

1. Shireen Kiash represented India in cricket, hockey and basketball - a triple international!
2. The choice of attire was something the Women’s Cricket Association in England spent considerable time on, specifying that the skirts ‘should be no shorter than four inches from the ground when kneeling’.
3. India win their first Test against the West Indies in Patna in 1976 (a game which is often narrated to me by my father who was actually present aat the stadium)

Interestingly, I began this book around the time of the 2020 World T20 tournament where the Indian team reached another peak in its journey. While cornovirus may have stopped play, hopefully we will see the team go onward and upward.

Previously on BookMarks: University of Berkshire Hathaway

BookMarks #64: The Barefoot Coach

Title: The Barefoot Coach

Author: Paddy Upton

Genre: Sports Management

Published: 2019

Setting: From 1990s to current

Summary

Management lessons from Paddy Upton’s experience of coaching different cricket teams over the past two decades.

BookMarks

Paddy Upton has been associated with multiple high profile and successful cricket teams in his over decades of coaching experience. In this book he presents his insights from different experiences in this journey. The coaching career has seen highs (India winning World Cup, South Africa getting to be the top-ranked Test Team, success with the franchisee teams) and lows (bottom of the table finish in the leagues, accidental scandals) etc.

The book begins at a slow pace when Upton is giving his background and sharing some coaching theories. A that point, it does feel like a tedious management read. However, the tone changes, once he starts with his coaching journey, first with the Indian team, then the Proteas and finally to the T20 franchisees. Most of the experiences shared are by Upton are not about applying management theory to a sport but more of learning to evolve with the situation. There are no hard and fast rules except to be adaptable. Many a times, he has narrated how he came with a big presentation ready but had to change his approach given the audience reaction. 

The highlight of the book are the many anecdotes which are especially more interesting for a cricket follower. (like the instance when Sehwag got out because he had forgotten the lyrics of a song). The little behind-the-scenes stories make it real fun and enable better understanding of the coaching principles. Playing to your strength as against covering your weakness, Being in the zone, mental strength, what makes an alpha leader are good theories, how to play like a team but how does one get there? Again there is no single defined way but a good coach can assist you in getting there. How does one start making the little changes which can help in the long run.

Overall, a good read and worth investing the time. 

Previously on BookMarks: Guns, Germs, and Steel

BookMarks #22: My Brewing Romance With Cricket

Title: My Brewing Romance with Cricket - Better Than Any Love Story

Author: Shashank Kumar

Genre: Non-Fiction, Sports, Cricket

Published: 2017

BookMarks

"My Brewing Romance with Cricket - Better Than Any Love Story" is a young writer's narration of the goings-on in his favorite sport as he grows up. In his own words "For some cricket is just an ordinary sport. For me, it has been one of those factors which has provided me outright energy to tackle the world head on. The love I have nurtured over the years has been described aptly in an unstructured and a raw manner. My only intention is to make people feel the aura of this game."

The book narrates how he fell in love with the game (with the Hrishikesh Kanitkar match), his heroes (especially the one from his home state) and his favorite memories of the game. Reading through, brings back memories of the last 20 years of Indian cricket. Many happy ones and a few not so happy ones.

It has been oft said that in India, cricket is not just a sport, its a religion. And this book is an offering from one of its more passionate devotees.

Available on Amazon:  Paperback (Link)

Previously on BookMarks - One Hundred Years of Solitude

India @ 66

Eve of 15th August. India's Independence Day. In 1947, Pt. Nehru chose this day to make a historical speech (tryst with destiny). To celebrate that speech, Nishantzworld chooses to mark this occasion with an annual rundown of the nation as I see it. (Click here for the 2012 edition).

Like our population, the number of our states has increased with the proposed division of Andhra Pradesh. So instead of one there will be now 2 states with potentially a Union Territory (Hyderabad being joint capital) also thrown in. Meaning new sarkaari jobs (double State government and the associated paraphernalia). Meaning more looters looking for a share of the loot. 

Meanwhile the Rupee is breaking newer and newer grounds alongwith petrol and diesel. A race is on to see who will get to the century first. While the poverty line is shifting lower and lower (at least in $ terms). Amidst all this the Government is hell bent on still being in the planning stage while all action is focused on the coming general elections.

Elections - They can't come sooner. And hopefully regardless of the results, the politicization of social media will be less. I am as tired of the inept UPA government failures as the Narendra Modi fanboyism on the social networks. Once upon a time social media was funny, informative and social. Now its just become a medium of outraging. Agreed there is a lot to outrage about. But venting it out on facebook/twitter is going to be of no avail (Nor will this blog help :P)

Rampant corruption, regular border troubles, Naxal violence, rapes & acid attacks, economy moving towards deep trouble - yet all our so called "leaders" are interested in is trying to preserve their "kursi". A game of oneupmanship is all that is being played between UPA, NDA, and the opportunists of the so-called 3rd Front. We have a Prime minister who says keeping quiet is the best policy (hazaaron jawaabon se acchji khamoshi meri) and an Opposition which believes that a functioning Parliament is not essential for governance.

The Uttarakhand floods showed what happens when nature plays with us. Humans might think that they are the superior beings on this planet. But Nature always has a way of taking control again. Always.

Now to the other national passion - Cricket. Spot-fixing scandal emerged but there was no sense of disbelief, just plain anger at the revelations. Worse was the politicization of team selection. But there was a saving grace. A new hero always emerges. Thank You Shikhar Dhawan.

As for the other sports,  the Indian Olympic Council celebrated a highly successful (by our standards) Olympic performance by getting banned. Enough said.

And finally to the 3rd front of India - Movies. Bollywood has started making biopics & sports films and making good experiments apart from the regular masala fare. But one genre is still untouched. Given how successful Hollywood comic books characters have been on screen, when will we see a movie based on our home-grown superheroes like Super Commando Dhruv.

In all, another terrible year gone by. And nothing much to really look forward to in the year ahead. But after all this, I will still say - Mera Bhaarat Mahaan. Because there is some part of me which still believes in the idea of India.

The Writer's Block

Occasionally, this blog endures periods of extended silence. These are times when I do not feel enthused enough to put thoughts in writing on any subject. Its not that there is any dearth of ideas. The problem is they are just ideas. Like a nice little sentence which makes a great punchline but without any background (So it goes onto twitter) 

At times like these I post just for the sake of posting. (e.g. this post). A post for the sake of a post results in a series of incoherent ramblings (again, refer this post). Given that I have leased my soul to the devil and in return having a zombie like existence for the past few days (basically doing overtime as a salaried person), this is the kind of post that could emerge.

I did try looking at world in general to get some ideas for a post. All I could turn up with were

• My own recent zombie like existence - Nope, not crying to the world for seeking attention (or maybe I have already done that here :P)
• Anna & his teams latest - Already expressed my misgivings on the subject. AND I am not a journalist and neither is this blog a newspaper.
• England playing India - Good idea, but wait I have a separate blog dedicated to cricket for that (like Star Cricket, Ten Cricket, Neo Cricket). [Aside -I did some promotional work here. Will I get paid for this?]
• The most over-promoted film of all time. RA.One - still a couple of weeks to release and I am bored of it jumping out of TV, cricket, twitter, youtube and from GOK where not. [And here I go again, inadvertently doing some more promotion work]

In short, nothing to write but still have managed to put in 342 words here.  (Yes the words have been counted, I am that bored). Which reminds me of this demotivational poster (copied from despair.com, link here)

Enough for now.

Till next time, hopefully with some actual ideas (which are nobody's monopoly)

The Cricket Song

Cricket is the flavour of the season. The world cup is on. There have been a been a few cricket themed movies  (Lagaan, Iqbal, Awwal Number, Bodyline... come to mind immediately) and a few but nothing which really invoked the cricket spirit. Then I came across this uniquely cricketing love song here.

From an old Hindi film "Love Marriage" (1959) starring the evergreen one and only Dev Anand with Mala Sinha.
With lyrics which go like
She ne khela He se aaj cricket match... ek nazar me dil bechara ho gaya LBW

Definitely worth a watch

10 From 2010: Arbit

Twenty Ten is passing by and it is time for some annual list making exercise. Following is a list of 10 arbit and unrelated things which happened in the year 2010. A random compilation of memories would be the most apt description of this. Here goes in random order, 10 from 2010.

1. Legend of the Year - Rajnikant

The number of SMSs, mails, blogs which have been inspired would itself have created a record. Chuck Norris, Jack Bauer have been totally overpowered. A classic line - Chuck Norris once met Rajnikant. He was reduced to being a joke on the internet.

2. Musical Instrument of the Year - Vuvuzela

Popularised in the football world cup, it drowned the commentary, made watching footbaal a pain in the ears. No one liked it, no one stopped it. It was just there.

3. Place Name of the Year - Eyjafjallajokull

The Icelandic volcano which disrupted almost the entire European air traffic. Disasters dont have a more exotic name.

4. Management Jargon of the Year - Sweat Equity

The IPL-Kochi franchisee mess did give a new management jargon. Sweat equity. Pretty powerful term. Afterall it led to the resignation of a Union minister.

5. Brand Endorsement of the Year - Zandu Balm

Munni badnaam huyi aur phir zandu balm ho gayi for her darling. Result - Quarterly Sales of Zandu balm increased by 35% post the release of song.

6. Loser of the Year - Prashant
Someone's blind faith in a mental conversation with Lord Ganesha led to picking two wrong choices for the 5 crore jackpot question. And he ended up getting 3.2 lakhs after having won a crore in KBC.

7. Promise of the Year - Larissa Riquleme
In the space of a few days, Larissa became the most famous Riquelme on this planet (beating the Argentine footballer Juan Ramon). Her promise to the world certainly helped garner a lot of neutral support for Paraguayin the World Cup. Though wasn't to much avail as Paraguay lost in the quarter-finals. (She still kept her promise though)

8. Overexposed Gimmick of the Year - the MRF Blimp
It was there in almost every single IPL game. The camera would go up to the sky. The "marvel of tecnology" that was the MRF blimp would come into the picture. And the commentators would simply go crazy. In the next few breathless seconds they would mention everything from tyres to the pace academy to SRT's bat. Whatever goodwill MRF had generated in the hearts of the cricket followers through the Pace Academy had surely disappeared.

9. Anagram of the Year - Sir U Made Lakhs
Suresh Kalmadi. He and his team probably made crores. But the anagram could only come up with Lakhs.

10. The Leak of the Year - Wikileaks
The year ended with wikileaks. On a daily basis a couple of hundred secret cables from various US embassies are being released into the public domain. And a set of governments, officials, companies are getting red-faced. The best line - The last time there was a deluge of this proportion Noah had to build the Ark.

So this is 10 from 2010. A collection of arbit events for the year. Forget this year, Dont worry be happy. Blow your vuvuzela to usher in the new one.

20 years of a Legend

The whole of India seems to be rejoicing over the fact that Sachin Tendulkar has completed 20 years in international cricket. Television, Newspapers, Internet, he is here, there & everywhere. And well, to be honest, he definitely deserves all the adulation being showered on him. Twenty years is a pretty long time. An article began with the question "What were you doing on 15th Novemebr, 1989?" The answer - I was in junior school (Std. 2 to be precise) at the grand old age of six and a half years and I have no idea what I did that day. Twenty years down the line here I am doing background analysis for billion dollar decisions now (:P). So life has changed quite a bit. I guess the only constant has been the love for the game of cricket and Sachin is the only Indian player from that era who is still active.

I have already written about the legend of Sachin Tendulkar in this blog, so dont need to recount his achievements again. However one more memory can be added here, the 175 vs Australia in Hyderabad in another losing cause. It was heartbreaking.

Hoping he continues on till the 2011 World Cup. With the World Cup held aloft in his home turf at Wankhede, that would be the perfect way to retire.

The Ashes

The most important cricketing contest of 2009 is over. We had the T20 World Cup & Champions Trophy will be underway soon. But the Ashes was the most eagerly awaited contest of them all. The end result: England beat Australia 2-1 to retain the Ashes (somehow I tend to forget the 5-0 thrashing given by Australia in 2006-07).

"When we were bad we were awful, but when we were good we managed to be just good enough" These words by English captain Andrew Strauss gave the best possible description of the series. Unlike the 2005 series which was faught between two great teams full of great players this time it was played between two average teams. Players like Trescothick, Vaughan, Simon Jones, Hayden, Langer, Martyn, McGrath, Gilchrist & Warne were really missed this time around. Even Pietersen, Harmison & Flintoff were not as good as they were in 2005. But still this was a great series to watch for the neutral viewers like me (though with an English bias).

This series was full of some great moments. The Jimmy-Monty last wicket stand to save the Cardiff Test (which proved the most decisive in the end), Flintoff's destructive spell at Lords, Broad's spell in the first innings at Oval, the batting of Clarke, North & Strauss throughout the series, Phil Hughes announcing on Twitter that he had been dropped before the team was officially announced, the dramas of the keepers' injuries, Haddin getting replaced by Manou after the toss at Edgbaston (this after I had named him as my trump player in the Cricinfo fantasy league), Prior's injury delaying the toss at Leeds, calls to get Ramprakash/Trescothick to shore up the faltering England batting for the final test, end of Anderson's awesome non-duck record, Trott's century on debut, and the biggest of them all, Freddie's retirement. If there was a player whose sheer presence could lift up his team, it was Andrew Flintoff. Statistically he wouldnt qualify as amongst the all time greats but his impact was always huge. He was the only one to come close to being Botham's replacement. Now people are already asking if Broad is the next Freddie (no one is looking for the next Botham anymore), such has been Flintoff's impact.

And lastly, whether one likes him or not but one does feel a bit sad for Ricky Ponting. After all he is the first Australian captain in over 100 years to have lost two Ashes series in England. And he has had to carry physical scars of both defeats. A scar on the cheek causd by Harmison's bouncer on Day 1 at Lords in 2005 and the getting hit on the mouth by a Prior shot at the Oval in 2009.

And the English papers are celebrating in the manner in which only they can. (Check the pic below)

The Curious Case of IPL2

Its been a week since the second edition of the Indian Premier League began across the Indian Ocean in South Africa. The first edition was a thriller. And there were doubts whether the second edition would retain the same attention. So far, this edition has proven to be a curious case to say the least.

The tournament was moved to South Africa because of general elections taking place in India. But South Africa also had its elections. And more interestingly there were two games held on election day (both proved to be thrillers).

T20 was supposedly a young man's game. But going by this year's results so far, it seems to be a battle of supremacy amongst the golden oldies. Matthew Hayden and Rahul Dravid are leading the race for the orange cap while Anil Kumble is the joint highest wicket taker so far. And there have been good performances from most of the other senior players too. Seems that the South African conditions are truly separating the men from the boys.

Unlike last year there has been hardly any memorable performances from the younger lot. Of couse with the honorable exception of Kamran Khan.

Strategic Breaks: Disrupt the momentum of the game. But are raking in the money for the broadcasters while I utilise it to surf random channels :)

Apart from the games themselves there is a lot happening on and off the field also.

The Cheerleaders: They are back and entertaining the public. After the hue and cry raised against them last year, there have been no comments this time around. So watching them on TV seems to be OK with our moral police.

The Dog: Bruno halted play for 10 minutes in the opening match while nobody knew how to shoo it off the pitch.

The Blog: The Fake IPL Player. Whoever you are Sir, you rock. If what you write is true, then well no comments :P. Anyway the frequency of posts has reduced. But the content is intersting to say the least. Rumours have been floating around the identity of the blogger. There have been reports of him having been caught but the posts still continue to roll in. (And he has developed a huge fan following with over 2200 followers and thousands of comments in his week old blog)

The Hovering Camera: Is causing more trouble than its worth. Provides a top view of the pitch which is useless. All you get to see is the batsman's helmet. And its causing as much trouble as the sight screen for the batsmen as it zooms in.

The Commentory: Well am sick of this DLF maximum and Citi - Moment of Success business. But the roaming commentators are a good idea. Although Mandira Bedi should be thrown out.

And for my view of things

The Hello Tune: On the opening day the entire office had its hello tune changed to the Mumbai Indians theme song. Call anyone up and you get AALA RE blasting from the other side.

The Ad: I like the Vodafone ads witht the cute little cartoon figures. Hate the one with the Hello Hellos shouting on and on.

The Fantasy League: Rain abandoned the one game in which 5 of my fantasy XI were playing :(. Jesse Ryder scored runs after I dropped him from my team while Dravid went the other way :(. Of course I did make a brilliant decision to bring on AB de Villiers. Current rank is in 13000s. Hoping to improve as the tournament progresses.

So this is as far as the first week of the tournament was concerned. Hoping the case gets more curiouser as the IPL progresses.

P.S. Happy 36th birthday to the LEGEND

Fairytales do still take place

The times are bad. Switch on the television to any news channel or just pick up a newspaper. All one can find is bad news coming from everywhere, whether its the global economic crisis or the terrorist strikes happening across the world. The atmosphere is filled with gloom. And it is at times like these that the sports world can provide events which lift up the spirits. The sports arena supplies stories like no other. Stories that touch the heart. Case in point: Afghanistan achieving ODI status in cricket.

Not long ago, the country was ruled by Taliban and had been for all practical purposes cut off from the rest of the world. Then 9/11 happened. And Afghanistan came back into global conciousness after the Taliban was overthrown. Sports play a major role in this (Just look at post-apartheid South Africa after years of international isolation).

About a year and half back a ragtag bunch of Afghans started playing in the World Cricket Leagues. The team slowly worked its way to the World Cup Qualifiers going from Division 5 to Division 2 after winning every single stage. At stake in the tournament was a place in the 2011 cricket world cup and ODI status for the next 4 years. Though they failed to qualify for the World Cup, they did get ODI status. On the way they beat the powerful Associate teams like Ireland, Scotland & Bermuda. The story of Hamid Hassan and his team from the war-torn country provided the romance of the cup. In fact they were the main attraction of the tournament. The whole world loves the underdog and the underdog who performs is even more loved than anything else.

The journey of the Afghanistan team over the last 15 months does prove one thing:

Fairytales do come true

The Non Resident Indian Premier League

Been a while since my last post here. Well work life has become a bit more busy. Although if I really wanted to I could have still written down a few posts in the interim. And its been a longer time since I wrote about my favourite topic, Cricket. So here goes.

Our biggest festival, the General elections are here. Now, unlike other parts of the world where national elections take place on one day with the results available by the next day, ours is a spread out process. this time the elections are in 5 phases spread over a period of over a month. Nothing wrong with that, specially with the security issues and the logistics involved in conducting this mammoth exercise. But unfortunately for cricket buffs like me, the general elections coincided pretty much with the second season of the IPL. This is how the drama unfolded.

• IPL announces the fixtures for the second season.
• The Election Commission announce the dates for the general elections.
• Sri Lankan team bus is attacked in Pakistan by terrorists injuring many players (which is one of the most disgusting things to have happened).
• The Home minister P.Chidamabaram says providing security to IPL would be difficult during the elections.
• Many of the state governments state thier inability to provide security.
• IPL modifies schedule which is again rejected by some states
• The schedule is modified again and again but always met with unwillingness from some state governments (Seemed like becoming a OR problem with each state providing their time constraints)
• End result. BCCI announces that the IPL will be held outside India.

So the Indian Premier League becomes the Non Resident Indian Premeir League with South Africa & England becoming the front runners to host it. But it does seem ironical that our dometic tournament is being hosted outside India. With the current security situation following the Mumbai attacks on 26/11 and Lahore attacks on the Sri lankan team, there can be no guarantees for anybody's safety. And with the elections going on (which is much more imprtant than cricket) providing extra security would not have been possible.

But as usual we have the political gamesmanship on. Some allege that the Congress governments were the ones refusing to procide security. Others allege that Congress was trying to arm twist NCP's Sharad Pawar (who happens to be ex-BCCI president) for a better alliance deal. Then the political mud slinging has also begun. But it all has become a farce.

Now if the touranment is held in South Africa, who would the people in the stadium (assuming some go to watch) support. TV viewership in India would likely remain same. But will the matches have the seem feel as last year. After all how many people would come to pay and watch the Non Resident Indian Premier League.

We Indians...

Exhibit 1
Slumdog Millionaire wins a few Golden Globe awards. This includes A.R.Rehman for the soundtrack of the film (which is great, no doubt about it). Slumdog Millionaire is a film made by a British director although it is based in India. A good story and a well-made film. But it still is essentially is a British film. But just look at the speed at which it has been adopted by us Indians, as if this was our own film. Some people have gone overboard in praising it while there are others who have been outraged by the depiction of India as country of slums and poverty (well, thats not entirely untrue). But both sides do have one thing in common. They are taking pride in India. The first set of people are proud that India has been noticed on the world stage. Indian actors and music is being appreciated by the world. While the other set is outraged that only negatives are being depicted.

Exhibit 2
Matthew Hayden announces retirement. ICC ratings show that he is amongst the ten greatest batsmen of all time. But Indians are outraged. Our legend (sorry, GOD) Sachin is not even in the Top-25. Media starts carpet-bombing (cant think of any other word to describe how our media "breaks" news) the news. Renowned experts come in and start barking for all their worth that this is a travesty of the mightiest proportions. A rating system without Sachin as the top batsmen is not worth even looking at. But then media does tend to misguide. Firstly the current ratings system has been in place for quite some time now. And the ratings depicted are the peak that any player might have achieved at any point in his career. The peak can be simply due to an outstanding run over a small period of time but not necessarily over the entire career. But nobody bothered going into such detail. Only one point was clear. Our GOD has been insulted. And our collective pride had been deeply hurt.

The above examples may seem unconnected. But they have a lot in common. Both show the sense of pride that is embedded in our collective conscience with regards to our country. The collective pride we take in even trivial achievements (e.g. Somdev Devvarman's reaching Chennai Open finals) shows that whatever our faults we still feel Indian. And any slight to our heroes is like a personal insult to us. Whatever our other faults (and there are many), WE INDIANS do have a sense of collective pride.

P.S. After reading Robin's comment to this post, got down to some thinking. Well, I am not too sure about the common people but our media (specially the news channels) does suffer from collective hysteria and sensationalization.

The Chase: Victory at Chennai

First the bare facts. India beat England in the first test at Chennai by 6 wickets chasing 387 in the fourth innings after having conceded a 75 run lead in the first innings. The sensational run chase was kicked off in the most imperious fashion by Sehwag and the rest of the team built on the start provided by him. There were good performances all around by the Indian players except Dravid. Yuvraj Singh cementing his place in the middle order and Sachin Tendulkar scoring the match winning runs to reach his 41st century. It can now be safely said that the Indian team is on a roll and is looking good to replace the Australians as the numero uno in all forms of cricket.

However this victory was not about cricket alone. The test occurred in the backdrop of one of the most horrific terror attacks in the country. The England team had abandoned the one day series midway and left for home. It was a good decision as cricket was the last thing in anybody's minds when the commando operations were going on. However it was a much braver decision to return to the country for the test series. The matches were rescheduled but the fact that the match took place at all was considered a big victory for all concerned. The England team is easily the most admired team to have come to play in India in recent times. The match is easily amongst the best test matches ever played. And it was a perfect endorsement for test cricket itself. And the perfect finish was provided by Sachin Tendulkar, himself from Mumbai, scoring the winning runs.

Now coming back to the cricket. So many times in the past we have seen India buckle under the pressure of a big run chase in the fourth innings. In fact when the innings started, my expectations were a fighting draw at best. But Sehwag simply turned the game on its head with his audacious innings for which he rightly got the Man of the Match award. However more importantly, the others built on the start provided by him with support from Gambhir. Yuvraj and Sachin put the finishing touches with a huge partnership for the fifth wicket and ensured that the match was won. Sachin silenced his critics by scoring his 41st century and winning the game for India.

A Cricketing Overdose

20.11.2008
8 of the 10 ICC full member countries were playing international cricket today. Only Pakistan & West Indies were missing from action, though they had been playing in an 3 match ODI series in Abu Dhabi last week only. It was an interesting day's play across the continents. Here are some of the day's highlights.
Game 1: Australia vs New Zealand (1st Test, Day 1, Brisbane): Andrew Symonds scored 8 runs off one ball, which was not accepted by cricinfo software :). Meanwhile Australia suffer a batting collapse to be all out within the day
Game 2: India vs England (3rd ODI, Kanpur): India beat England by 16 runs batting "second" to take 3-0 lead in the seven match series. The bad light robbing chances of a close finish. The ICC should make necessary adjustments to the light rules to ensure such a farcial finish does not take place.
Game 3: Zimbabwe vs Sri Lanka (1st ODI, Harare): Zimbabwe lose their last 7 wickets for 3 runs with the last six batsmen failing to score.
Game 4: South Africa vs Bangladesh(1st Test, Day 2, Bloemfontein): Bangladesh continue playing like themselves and stare at certain defeat.
Seems there really is too much cricket going on.