Journey

Seems like the journey has taken an unexpected twist. I was not even remotely considering this yesterday. But today this is what has happened. I am stunned. But I guess this is the right direction for me. Because I was at a standstill and going no where when things were n't the same with others. They were moving on. It was nasty but I do not think I was wrong. I had valid questions and got absurd answers. I cannot put in so much this way I guess. Still I was ready to continue. The irony of it makes it even more funnier. But what the hell I will take this on my chin like many things and move now!

Mind you! This wont be easy!

VVS Laxman

It was funny seeing Martin Crowe and Simon Doull working hard to say out loud what VVS stands for!
Btw - He played a great knock!

What am I suppossed to do?

I really have no clue what to do and how to handle it. I just hope things fall into place!

Stunning

to say the least

An excerpt

Mihir Bose, in a History of Indian Cricket summed up the loss of Gupte best: "India's first great spinner ended his career because he happened to share a room with a man who wanted a drink with a girl"

A new concept

of split captaincy was proposed by John Buchanan. In fact he proposed it to one of the guys who is least likely to accept it (Dada).  Here is a comment on the weird idea by Dileep Premachandran

Lets see if this works!

Cricket

Indian teams fielding especially their slip catching (or should I say Yuvraj) was appaling! On a batting paradise thats too many drops!

Anyway!

What to do?

When there is not much in your hands? May be I can still hope for the best! Can't I?

What can

I say?
I am happy one way for hearing something that I have waited to hear for so long. But it comes with its distinct constraint. So I will have to just take it into my stride!

Now begins

the real struggle of facing the truth. Until today I was not ready to accept it. But from today I don't want it any other way!

What did I get

myself into?
Really!!

Typical

English humor

"We consistently talk about consistency and my criticism of that is we consistently get beaten"
David Lloyd points to a flaw in England's strategy

I love this one from David Lloyd

Moments

The value of some moments take time to sink in. Once they do you are so grateful for such moments.

Anyway!

It takes guts

to take it into stride! Samaraweera after the Lahore attacks talks!

Excerpts about how his family responded to his injury

"She is yet to fully recover from the shock, though. She is going to counselling sessions, arranged by the board, and is improving. The sessions have helped her a lot; they've also helped me in my rehabilitation back home. She is now moving on, dropping my kid to school and running the house."

Samaraweera has been spending time with his two daughters, aged eight and three. "The younger one doesn't know anything," he said with a laugh. "The elder one was worried about my leg and kept asking her mother whether I would be okay, whether I would be able to drop her at school soon! I am really happy with the emotional support that I have got from my family. My wife has never said not to play cricket in the future; she is just worried about my health."

Cricket again

With the New Zealand series going on I am as usual hooked on to live matches. Typically when India is playing its not hard to get partisan for me. I urge every ball to be good for India and bad for the opponents. But its not easy being that way with this NZ team. I really like some of their players. The list of players I really like includes Brendon McCullum, Ross Taylor, Daniel Vettori, Iain O Brein. But most of all I love Jesse Ryder. Yesterday NZ were batting there was a part of me hoping McCullum, Taylor and Ryder will score runs. Really! Its freaky I know. When Viru dropped Taylor's catch I was like does he suffer from a similar problem? As one of my freinds says there is transfer of wishes across the world in wave forms! Ryder did get a 100 amidst lot of nervous tension! But inspite of all this there is one thing. I only want them to put up a fight not to defeat India. So hopefully things will turn out in that direction.

Lets see!

Finally

someone points out some facts about the so called secular parties here!

There is a secret in this politics of winks. What the CPM does is always secular: never mind its history of fomenting and ignoring—in a cyclical fashion—Muslim communalism in Kerala. Is there any difference between the adulterated communalism of the CPM and the unadulterated communalism of the BJP?

Communal politics is what it is, call it by whatever name you want. It does not matter whether the religion in question is Islam or Hinduism or any other for that matter. But in India’s twisted politics, there is a difference: Minority communalism is not communalism. This is the interpretation of the Left parties and those of liberals who believe that minorities have got a raw deal in the republic.

Life

moves on as usual with some unusual incidents (pleasant!) ones taking place. Things are clear yet unsatisfactory as usual but somehow they seem to bother me a little less. May be I am low on sleep and have no time. But if time does come it will be hard. Well, for now all I can do is act on my instinct!

I know what I wrote does not make any sense. Gimme a break its 4.11 and I am sleepy :P

Dhoni's captaincy

All you can do is feel amazed at his instinct. In the first test today, Ishant and Zaheer were bowling very well together. Actually Ishant just started bowling well. Still he took him out of the attack (he was wicketless) and brought Munaf to bowl. Then he brings back Ishat after a break and guess what he takes 3 in no time (1 in the first comeback over!). Unbelievable! He is true natural!

Cricket

The first sporty pitch and the Indian batting line up struggles except Sehwag who got out as only he can playing a loose shot.

Anyway!

Andrew recalls

his experiences touring the Carribean

Something I really liked

The former players, too, were fascinating to spend time with and the moment that stands out is talking with Viv Richards after the debacle at the ground that carries his name. He was distraught, angry and sad. It was great to see him during the tense closing overs in Trinidad, pacing around like a true fan, and no one was more delighted with the series win.

Cool No? It shows how much cricket means to him and other ex-cricketers!

The dude speaks

after his blistering knock

Some excerpts
I like this comparison

It's almost like Roger Federer wearing a champion's jacket especially made for him by Nike, while walking out onto the centre court at Wimbledon. Anybody other than Federer would seem ridiculous in that. Anybody other than Sehwag would have sounded absurdly pompous saying that he left the bowlers helpless.

Exploiting sixth sense?

Splendid concept discussed here



Link via SacredFacts

Viru does it

again.
Yes again. This time a 60 ball hundred. And what more he reached there with a 6. Also I was fortunate to be up and watching. Hmm though the reason for me being up isn't great! But he does make me smile!

Interesting bit of news

of an Indian girl excelling at basketball!

All

you can do is wish for good things to come true!

A recollection

of arguably the best ever over bowled in Test cricket by Michael Holding

BJP-BJD

BJP loses another of their alliance partners. Are BJP over-estimating their reach by trying to part ways with all its alliances? I don't know the answer. But we will wait for the elections!

Pace is back?

Well watching the second day of test cricket at Durban makes it look like that

This excerpt confirms the rise

There's nothing like watching fast bowling of the highest order and Johnson and Steyn delivered it in Durban. They appear to be at the peak of their powers but have so much time on their side that the bar could keep raising. Now that is a scary prospect for batsmen.

I really hope to see the Indian batting line up facing the South African and Australian teams on spicy bowling conditions. If they fail, so be it! They don't deserve to be No. 1 without that ability! But I am afraid it will remain a dream for a while!

Very funny

Do read this nice cricket story here

Somethings

are harder than you can imagine!

List of

Some interesting last ball moments in cricket.

The best one is below
Very funny

Six fix
Australia v England, Perth, 1974-75
Doug Walters was seven short of a century - and 10 short of a hundred in a session - when Bob Willis began the final (eight-ball) over of the second day. Ross Edwards took a single off the first ball, handing the strike over. Walters top-edged a bouncer for a four off the second, and then remained on 97 for the next five balls, which Willis fired in full and straight. The last one, though, climbed chest-high; Walters rocked back, hooked it into the stands, tucked his bat under his arm, and walked back to the pavilion. Upon arrival in the oddly deserted dressing room, he said to a team-mate, "See, I told you I could hit a ton in this session." "Century?" the reply came. "You idiot, the ball was caught on the boundary. You're out." Walters rushed out to check the scoreboard, realised he'd been had, and returned to a hero's welcome in the by now fully populated dressing room.

via cricinfo

Always

expect Geoffrey to speak his mind

"England have got people like Matt Prior, who has gone home because his wife has had a baby - as if people have never been having babies all their life."

Isn't he awesome!

The attack on cricket

Well, you would have seen and heard the news regarding the attack on Sri Lanka cricketers. If not for the driver and some lucky breaks there could have been a full fledged massacre in the bus. The security provided for the team was clearly (please get over it Pakistan!) inadequate. To just have 10 to 15 police officials around the bus and the ammunition they had to defend cricketers was so low that they could not even stop one of the terrorists. I mean if a president was attacked would it be the same? Is this what you call presidential level security! Now, there are section of Pakistan media blaming India for sending in terrorists. As long as there is a segment of population in Pakistand that believe such inane chatter there is no end in sight for terrorism in the country. It seems ridiculous even to talk of cricket at this point in the country. I think at least for the enxt 3-4 years there is no likelihood of cricket. For god sake the cricketers from Sri Lanka might take 3-4 years to fully recover from what they went through. Its scary and mind blowing to say the least. I mean having bullets fizz past your years is not what they went to Pakistan for. The tension among the family members when they landed in Lanka was perceivable and demonstrates the risk they were in!

Anyway I just hope someday these lunatics realzie that what they are trying to achieve though violence is meaningless. But who am I kidding. They are called lunatics for a reason!

Somethings really make

you smile! a nice piece on Jesse Ryder's troubles and flaws and how he is trying to address them. This excerpt clearly underscores the effort on his side.

The media manager told him: "Hey, Jesse was fantastic last night. The guys had a few beers in the dressing rooms, but Jesse had Coke [after a 2-0 series win over India in the Twenty20s]. He enjoyed himself. A few other guys went to town, but he went to the hotel and slept. This morning he woke up early, bright-eyed, and he was happy to do media, and then he went to the gym."

I like this guy a lot. He has loads of talent and at the same time he has some problems due to broken family and related issues. I really hope he can succeed for not only his sake but for others who come from similar circumstances! Go Ryder!