Tuesday, March 27, 2007

Winning and Loosing

Loosing a match is not a crime. Even loosing against Bangladesh is not a crime. After all it’s just a game and this is not the first time we surrendered to them. Even the mighty Australians were humiliated in a one day game by Bangladesh in their own backyard. So that way loosing a one day game is just a matter of one bad day on the field. I mean any day this Indian team is better than Bangladesh.

The painful part is the platform which they chose to perform badly or chose not to perform at all. World Cup is the ultimate test and recognition of any sport. History proves that the individuals and teams tend to raise their standard when it comes to world championships and Olympics. Be it any sport. An Oliver Kahn inspires whole of Germany to achieve the impossible by reaching Football world cup finals, A Mark Phelps breaks all the swimming records in world championships, then you see a free kick from the mid line crashing into the goal post by one Ronaldinho, again in WC Most athletes tends to save their best for the Olympics and give their best performance when it matters most. It’s a matter of raising the bar a little higher when it comes to the showpiece event.

Sadly India was never a team who realised this. Barring a 20 month period under the Ganguly era, Indian cricket team never looked threatening. It’s only us who are raising the bar of expectations whenever Indian team is playing and not the players. It’s only us who consider our team as a threat to others and not the opponents! Fact still remains the same. A bunch of naturally gifted and highly potential players loosing to a team whose wins can still be counted on fingers.

People have already started looking at 2011 WC. And remember, we have an edge there. We have got one extra month for preparation. The other teams are still fighting in the Super-8!!!

Come-on Ireland!

Saturday, March 24, 2007

Why should we love Kabaddi?


I love Kabaddi. Since yesterday, I have started loving it more. There is no reason why I shouldn't. The game has its origin in India. For many years, we were the only ones who played the game and hence we were the best. Now there are few others, Timbuktu, Chinchpokli and Jhumritallaiya to name a few. With some internal fixing, we managed to put the game as a part of Asian games Menu in 1990. It's been 5 Asian games since then and we have collected 5 gold medals. 100% success rate. There are stronger reasons too.

1.Australians and South Africans don't play Kabaddi. Hence probability of our winning increases.

2.Apart from the Asian Games (which we win comfortably each time), there is hardly any tournament of note. Hence no disappointment every other day.

3.Even if they start organising tournaments for Kabaddi, they won't be telecast on TV (live or recorded). Hence saves our time and enhances the efficiency of the entire nation.

4.Kabaddi has to cover a lot of distance to entice match fixers/ Bookies. So, in those terms it promises to stay a clean game at least for the next 100 years.

5.No dope tainted individuals.

6.Nobody knows the name of out Kabaddi team's Captain and coach. Hence they are not answerable to anybody even if they loose.

7.Nobody knows the names or the faces of the players either. Hence, even if they loose to some country, they cannot be manhandled (as you need to recognise them to do that) and there wont be slogans against them (for that you need to know the name).

8.Their residences won't be gheroed as nobody knows where they reside.

9.Their restaurants won't be pelted as they don't own any.

10.New Zealanders and West Indians don't play kabaddi either!


Cheers!!

Friday, March 23, 2007

Time to deliver...

In a few minutes from now, India will be taking on Srilanka,in a do-or-die battle with their back firmly pasted to the wall.
A look at the Indian team on paper and you back yourself that this is the best one day outfit india can produce.Atleast i am not seeing better bunch of players in the next few years to come.
Apart from the rest, we have the big 3s. Ganguly, Dravid and first among equals,Sachin. All proven performers. Its next to impossible to find an adjective which is yet to be used for them. Still if you insist on using one, am sure you need to look beyond English language.
Time to justify atleast one-fourth of those. Time to deliver...
Cheers...

Sunday, March 18, 2007

Bob Woolmer is dead...

Not sure about the quality and competitiveness but cricket touched the pinnacle today as far as tension and pressure is concerned. Pakistan coach Bob Woolmer is dead.

Saturday, March 17, 2007

Minnows...who?

In a pre match interview between India and Bangladesh, an irritated Dave Whatmore,coach of Bangladesh,asked "I would like to know what's the meaning of minnows is in [the] Oxford Dictionary. We have secured important triumphs. But yes we are ninth in order so in that sense the other big teams are ahead of us. India is one of them and they are the first one we have to contend with..."

Here is the meaning of Minnows according to Dictionary.com

"a person or thing that is comparatively small or insignificant."

From 17th march onwards, either this word should be used more judiciously or should be banned at least from one day cricket lingo.

Friday, March 16, 2007

26...

...and i am stepping into wrong side of twenties today...

Cheers!!

Tuesday, March 06, 2007

My days...

Make no mistake. Life can be boring at times. Correction. Life of a bachelor can also be boring at times.

Ask me. Spent another monotonous weekend. My third in succession. I mean getting up at 11:30 indeed gives you immense pleasure and satisfaction, far more than da vinci might have experienced after painting Monalisa, but what follows after that makes you a dull boy.

As soon as I finished my morning/afternoon tea on Saturday, it was almost the time to prepare lunch. Although I am just a helping hand for my flatmate in such chores, still I feel enough sense of responsibility on my shoulders you know. My life these days can be divided in two parts in the ratio 75:25. Office: Cooking. I envy Sanjeev Kapoor. At least he is getting paid for whatever crap he cooks.

Anyways, after lunch, it was time for the customary visit to Sainsbury’s to bring weekly grocery. Now this is one place that I have visited most after coming to UK apart from my office and loo. Even if you blindfold me, I can pick things of my interest from the racks!

By the time I was back, it was time for tea. Then dinner. A little surfing on the net, few pages of “The Google story” and few small voice chats with friends completed the monotonous day. Its been the same story since past few weeks.

Writing about Sunday is almost like pulling my own pants down. It was holi on Sunday and guess what I was doing? I spent the day in office running between my office desk and Lab whole day. Bullshit.

But all is not dark and gloomy. I can see the silver lines in the cloudy sky. A paris trip in march end and a visit to Holland and Belgium in April first week is really something to look forward to.

Hurray…I will be alive again!