A day at Tampa Bay

This game of American Football never really caught my attention until recently. I always used to wonder why they call it football when only 10% of the time, the ball touches the players' feet.
When I was in school here in the US, I used to hang out mostly with Indians and my exposure to this game was limited if any. But when I started working, I started feeling increasingly left out of the post game football discussions that my colleagues indulged in rather passionately on mondays.
So starting this season(football season starts in september), armed with a cable connection worth a small fortune, egged on by colleagues and inspired by friends, i entered the world of another sport. Being a sports freak as it is, it was'nt difficult for me to catch up and start taking part in those discussions which seemed so elusive not so long ago.
Having a football fan for a boss and a even bigger fan as a team lead helped. The company arranged for a football game trip on November 19th 2006. We went to watch the Tampa Bay Buccaneers play the Washington Redskins. People with some football know-how will ask why such a crap game? well, because my boss is a redskins fan, thats why.
More than the game, the atmosphere really got to me.
The way the teams entered the arena, the fly past by one of the US Airforce planes that was arranged, the huge flags, the cheerleaders, everything added up to make the atmosphere absolutely electric. It was a small matter that the game itself was dull.
Made for a good day out, away from the mundane atmosphere of the office.

And now... Two contrasting yet similar retirements

The Occassion : Ashes 2005
The Venue : Lord's, London
The Mood : Australia favored to retain the Ashes, but England's new look team not to be written off
The Scene : Australia choose to bat, regardless of the green top.

The First Over: 6 foot 7 Harmison charging in to bowl to the dimunitive Justin Langer, all of 5 foot something. Right in the first over, Harmison bangs one in short, the ball explodes of the surface, hits Langer smack on his elbow. painful? yes... round 1 to Harmy and England.. Setting the tone for things to come.


Cut to about a year later

The Occassion : Ashes 2006
The Venue : Gabba, Brisbane
The Mood : A hurt Australia trying to get back what they think belongs to them. England? well riddled with injuries but big at heart.
The Scene : Australia choose to bat again..no green top this time.

The First Over: 6 foot 7 Harmison charging in to bowl to the dimunitive Justin Langer, all of 5 foot something. Right in the first over, the first ball Harmy bowls, is collected by Andrew Flintoff at.. yes.. SECOND SLIP!!! painful? yes, this time for the Poms.. round one to Aussies.

This reflects the happenings in the cricketing life of Mr. Stephen Harmison. From a potent spearhead to a liability, the jorney from Lord's to Brisbane has been painful. For him and more so to the faithful Barmy Army. An odd good performance here and there making little or no impression, in fact forcing the selectors to sit him in one of the Champions trophy games.

And now, we hear the news that he has given up. Has given up something that he never really mastered. Steve Harmison has retired from the one day game. Well, we should say he is smart, since we all know so well that he was so close to being dropped anyways. Lets just hope for his sake and England's that this helps him in the longer form of the game.

Which brings me to todays other big news in the cricket world. Someone else who gave up the shorter form of the game to persue his test career. Not that this guy was struggling, but he made what turned out to be the right decision at the right time.
Yes, I am talking about the charismatic, the champion, the spin doctor, I am talking about THAT MAN SHANE WARNE. There is no doubting Shane Warne's ability. 699 wickets from 143 games is phenomenal. But if you look at the number of games he has inspired the Aussies in, without taking a bagful of wickets, it is absolutely mind boggling. Ironically, the two best Warne inspired victories in my memory are in the one day format. Semi final of the 1996 World Cup against the West Indies at Mohali, and the semi final of the 1999 World Cup against South Africa at Edgebaston. I am not going to go into the stats of those games. But those two were the ultimate examples of how his confidence and his tenacity rubs off on his teammates.

Being an India fan, I still have no qualms in saying that Shane Warne has been my favorite cricketer over the last few years. And when he says in his retirement press conference that Sachin is one of the best he has bowled to, it makes me doubly proud.
His duels with Sachin are, well.. unforgettable.

Come the end of this years Ashes at the SCG, the cricket world will miss those magical sliders, those mesmerising googlies and perfectly pitched leg spinners from the master himself.

So Mr. Harmison, by announcing your retirement from ODI's on the same day as this great Aussie, you have taken one page out of his book(that which reads quit ODIs to prolong your test career). Lets hope for your sake and England's, you take the other page off his book also ( that which reads BEING A CHAMP IN TESTS)

Farewell, Warnie...

Two awesome test victories

Alas, looks like my prayers for the Indian team were answered. Maybe in another format of the game, bust still. As experts would say, "psychological edge" will be with India for at least the next test.
Although the Indians showed immense character, determination and dedication to acheive what almost was impossible, I was following the other test match that was going on over the same 5 days. The awesome Aussies pulverising the puny poms. Now that Aussie team is what a champion team should look like. Just see how deeply they were hurt by the ashes defeat last year. Every team member of the so labeled "Dad's Army" was so full of that ruthless streak to win back the pricelss ashes urn that you could almost feel it yourself. And the poor English team, even the talismanic Andrew Flintoff, had to be rudely awakened to the harsh reality that last year was a fluke!!
Coming back to the Indian team,looks like some change has happened in the Indian team. Comeback players(Zaheer, Dada and Laxman) were hugely responsible for this test victory. So what inference can we draw? Bringing in experience, and getting rid of that famous cricketing cliche of "our team is a perfect blend of youth and experience". Whatever it is, if it works, why not? Lets just say that messers Raina, Kaif and co were just not ready for the big league yet.

And yes, i stayed up all night, i payed 10 bucks to watch , and the Indian team did not let me down..
Way to go India, Now lets do it in the one day format also, because as "Revealed" said in a comment on my previous post, the World Cup is not a series of test matches!!

Criss Angel: Incredible

Of late I have been watching a lot of TV, too much sometimes. I came across this show on A&E called "Criss Angel, Mindfreak". I am telling you, you have to see it to believe it, this guy is just unbelievable.

Before I go any further, just watch this video as an appetizer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTOMJhBX3JM

Well, what do you think? Whacky, is'nt it? I watched this one over and over to try and figure out how the hell he does that. You think.. well, it has to be planned of course, but how the hell does he pull it off? there are more videos of him flying, walking on water, breaking into and out of an armored car in a few seconds. totally amazing.

search on youtube for "Chris Angel" the guys at youtube got his name spelt wrong, its actually Criss, but whatever, watch these.. and let me know if you can fathom however the hell he pulls these stunts off.

FYI: his show is aired at 10 PM EST on wednesdays on A&E.

The inspiration from within

Having joined the blogging bandwagon, I assumed that what forced me to post the first time, that inspiration, that driving force, will always be there. I thought to myself that I just need to start and then it will flow from there. But trust me, its not a snowball, that once rolled down, will keep going down along the slope... What I mean is the drive to actually force you to post again needs to come from within. I can think of a few reasons why one can get that drive:

1. You have nothing to do.
2. Something very very exciting is happening in your life.
3. India is very good, or very bad in cricket( in my case, anyways )
4. You are drunk..

Ummm... lets use the theory of elimination...

2 ?? naaah.. no one can have a life as insipid as me...
3 ?? already dealt with
4? certainly not.. not saying i dont drink, but... its 4 PM on a weekday...

where does that leave us? yup.. I have nothing to do!! Sitting at work whiling away my time....finished a task, too late to start a new one. have surfed all the cricket sites out there, read all the news, checked my email like a 100 times.. so basically i have run out of stuff to do.

So here I am, wring down whatever comes to my mind, knowing fully well that I will probably be the only one reading it.. but so what.. its a start...
and lets hope I keep posting. Lets just hope that I have something more meaningful next time.

Indian Cricket... Someone help!!!

There were days when watching cricket used to be fun. Right through my college days in India, a hostel TV room full of about a 100 guys to about 25 people in the living room of a desi apartment whose occupants were fortunate enough to have a TV set, during my Florida Tech days. It gave me an atmosphere, albeit nowhere close to being in the stadium, but maybe close, urged me to cheer every boundary scored by an Indian batsman or every wicket taken by an Indian bowler, sometimes even compelled me to stand up and dance at an indian victory...

but above all, it gave me something that i totally lack now. It gave me a chance to vent my anger,my frustration, to share my feelings of sorrow, those of utter depression which I inevitably felt in the event of a meek surrender by the 11 best cricketers from a country of millions. I knew there were people around me who shared these feelings, and that somehow made me feel better.

Now as i sit in my room watching the events unfold in South Africa ( India has been whitewashed 4-0 in a ODI series by SA ), all alone, I can only imagine the mood of that distant TV room in India, or that living room in my friends apartment, and I so miss it.

Maybe this is why i am starting this blog, TO CUSS AT THE DEPLORABLE DECLINE OF INDIAN CRICKET!!! well, for the time being at least!!

Rediff ran this article a few days ago:

http://ia.rediff.com/cricket/2006/dec/04rankings.htm

It totally reflects how the team reached heady heights in the 2005 home season, beating Pakistan, Sri Lanka, England and tieing the series with South Africa, only to be brought crashing down as soon as they stepped on foreign soil, getting a pasting from the (lowly???) West Indiies. Since then its been a downward spiral to this day, not something any Indian fan wanted to see with the world cup round the corner.

I have had many discussions with fellow cricket fans as to what might be the reason for this drastic decline. Post "Wright-Ganguly", the "Dravid-Chappell" era promised us success through being flexible. The word experimenting became synonymous with sending Dhoni/Pathan at number three. and while it worked at home, their lack of technique was cruelly exposed on quicker,bouncier wickets. In other words, the experiments started to bomb in Chappell's face, as for Dravid, well he kept on answering with his bat. But there is only so much The Wall could do, and with Sachin's decline imminent, if not already upon us, it was never going to be easy for team India.

Then came the champions trophy, which incidentally was held in India. But by that time, Chappell was running out of ideas, Pathan was failing him, about Sehwag, less said the better and he did not have the courage to send Dhoni up the order. So what happens? Mr. Chappell forgets the basics.


Picture this, India playing Australia in a must win match at Mohali, Sehwag gets some runs at the top(about time), Sachin fails but Dravid and Kaif somehow carry the score to 197 in the 42nd. Kaif gets out to a brute from Lee, Ok, he was looking for runs, and runs is what we needed then, and some quick once at that. runs? quick runs?? slog overs??? hey Mr. Chappell? remember your pinch hitters from previous season? Dhoni? Pathan?? would be useful at this stage of the game i suppose!! Nopes, Chappell pulls of a masterstroke, sends Raina who is struggling for runs, could not put bat to ball, could not rotate the strike, eats up 30 odd valuable deliveries and gets out. Wow!! what was Chappell thinking? what transpires? India stutter to 50 in the last 10, Martyn and Ponting cream the indian bowling and India is out of their home champions trophy.

Well, it is clear that Team India needs a change, and needs it fast. I am not saying replacing Chappell is the solution, not at all. Chappell is one of the greates batsmen of his era and shrewdest of cricketing brains around. But I think its time to punish the culprits, and by this I mean the players themselves. A kick up the backsides of Mr. Sehwag, Kaif and , it pains me to say this, but Mr. Tendulkar will only do them good. Pathan needs to understand that he is a bowler first and batsman later. I am not sure if bringing back Ganguly is going to help or not, but at least there is a change, and hopefully in the right direction.

Something needs to happen, and it needs to happen sooner rather than later. Otherwise I do envision myself having more days like today, when I sit and regret the fact that i stayed up all night to watch what I thought would be a game of cricket. When I envy people who dont follow cricket, to whom it does not matter if India looses. Because to me and hundreds of thousands of die hard cricket followers like me, it matters.