English Media Circus

After the Lord’s test match there is so much bashing by journalists & former cricketer turned commentators and it is totally uncalled for. Journalists are fine because it is their job but what I fail to understand is the bashing from the former players who actually have played the game at the highest level and do understand and know what it takes to win and why teams loose. When it comes to criticizing they expect current players to play like robots and not make mistakes at all. The very purpose why they are hired for commentary is that they give key insights of the game and make rational statements based on playing the game at the highest level but now-a-days all they make is bold and smart-ass comments to grab media headlines and create self importance, an ordinary fan is so easily mislead.

A couple of people who have really gone overboard during last couple of days are Geoff Boycott who Indians used to like a lot, Ian Botham, Nasser Hussain, Sanjay Manjrekar & even Kapil Dev. I saw an interview done by Ayaz Memon with Boycott and that English trash kept saying gibberish things about Indian team, their poor fielding but mentions that dropping catches can happen to anybody (in this case happened with England) & casting doubt over India’s no 1 status and bragging about England easily beating India in 2^nd test and claiming deservedly no1 spot.  Ian Botham has blantanly said England will beat India easily too, come on dude you have played cricket at highest level and you also know that your team ain’t playing Bangladesh but India and it will not be easy beating India. It’s funny how people change so quickly, Eoin Morgan thanked IPL for giving him confidence which helped him get the test spot and Nasser Hussain criticizing IPL for India’s 1^st test loss and going gaga over English players being protected and blah blah. What is captain expected to do when he loses his premier fast bowler in first session and due to lack of part time seamers decides to bowl and Mr Kapil Dev lambasted the move as mockery of test cricket, what non-sense is the old man smoking. None of blokes above experienced the amount of success that this current Indian team has tasted so they really have no right to talk crap. The purpose of all this is to create headlines and hog limelight. Ganguly was very honest and rationale in the  post-match show when asked about the loss, he backed the boys to come back strong since a few seasons back he too was in the mix of things. I in past have not liked Sunil Gavaskar for being too biased towards Indians but when I hear these English commentators talk I do not fault Gavaskar at all.

Nobody is really talking about the failures of Strauss, Cook, Morgan & Swann as well as poor catching by England, do you really think you can be no 1 with poor catching? All are just busy trashing Indian team. I do agree with Dhoni whatever had to go wrong actually did go wrong. Yes, still lot of the top order batsman did play stupid shots which were not needed when you are trying to save the game.

I doubt if Indian cricketers really follow the newspaper and check what is actually written about them otherwise they will lose the 2^nd test in two days only. I think Sreesanth will beat Munaf to play and if he has right frame of mind we will not miss Zak at all because he can really be deadly when in rhythm hopefully he quickly finds one (anyways Sreesanth is a much better test bowler than ODI). Another key aspect will be opening partnership, if it delivers than it should set the Indian batting right.

I would love to see India trash England in four days in the 2^nd test and lay all the so called former players to rest.

Movies

Of late I have watched a couple of really good movies which I thought I would share. Except for Friday evenings where I prefer a light movie (mindless comedy) I usually prefer watching movie with some substance to it. Here are few of them which I would recommend.

Amu (Konkana Sen)
This movie is about an NRI who returns to find her roots and uncover a secret and is linked to the 1984 Sikh riots which I knew very little about until I saw this movie. These riots were the reason why a Sikh journalist threw a shoe at P. Chidambaram seeking justice to the riots last year during a media meet.

The Lives of Others:
I had seen this movie long time back but is worth mentioning. This is a German movie set in 1980 when Germany was divided into two parts and focuses on life in communist East Germany side, their struggles and fight for freedom. This movie is a bit slow to start with but is really terrific.

Delhi Belly & Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara:
Well these two are not exactly intense or substance kind of movies but both are out and out comedies and different in their own way. Its really been a long time since I have seen two good bollywood releases back to back. Do not miss either one of them.

Fat Sick And Nearly Dead:
I just watched a documentary on Netflix and I had no idea what it was about. It was one of those time when you are working but still afford to have the movie played in the background but slowly I got hooked on to it. Movie's name is "Fat Sick And Nearly Dead", it is about one of the many ways of losing weight. Its by an Australian who realizes that he is over-weight and decides to go on juice fasting where he will only have juice of fresh fruits & vegetables. During his 60 day fast he comes across many Americans and hopes to inspire many to follow him. He does inspire one and the movie then focuses on this guy's journey.

I thought it is a well made movie, if you get a chance do not miss it.

http://www.fatsickandnearlydead.com/

----------------------------------------------------------

Please feel free to recommend movies in the comment section.

Royal Cup Final

The Goal

This blog is regarding the cricket club 99ers for which I play every weekend. I joined the club in 2007 after I moved to Bay Area for work, ever since I joined we have never been able to break into top 16 teams(Elite group)  which is both frustrating and disappointing. The reason are well known to everybody in the team lack of consistency, poor batting performance, not performing well during  the key moments of the game & lack of killer instinct. On paper we are a very good side but performances do not reflect it. It’s generally said that when you are on a roll one thing leads to another thing and all aspects of the game improves but getting on the roll is what we are not able to achieve. At the start of 2011 season we decided that we are not blindly going to show up for games every weekend but put in some thought process, plan out & set goals for the season. Our goal, Elite playoff game in 2011 season. We knew results will not show overnight but putting in the process is the first step towards the goal. In our first tournament League 2011 we missed Elite again by a whisker but decided that we will win the Royal Cup comfortably. At the end of League 2011 indeed we are the Royal Cup Champions and deservedly so. This was just a stepping stone to the larger goal of getting into Elite group first and then qualifying for the playoffs.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Royal Cup Finals

We made it to the finals quite comfortably, it was difficult not to think about finals during the week leading up to the finals plus my recent performances was nothing great and by numbers I was under a little pressure but I backed myself anyways to do well. I practiced well during the week which is an important first step to success, practice is not even 10% of what match is but practicing just makes you that much in the grove and confident for the match, enough to do well.

We were on the ground half an hour before the game for warm-ups which are very important before games. (This is one thing I have noticed has changed over past seasons, showing up before the game start time) We win the toss and decide to bowl which is a good decision, considering bowling is our strength but when I noticed the track and my first impression was it was a good track to bat which we seldom see in our league. One of their openers played really well to get to 46 and a few late order hits boosted their score to 90. We bowled and fielded well, constantly picked up wickets hence they never really got going. Usually on Centerville (ground for Finals) 90 is a really good score and a match winning too but not this one considering that it was very good track to bat. Abhi & Rahul in particular bowled really well, Rahul bowled a maiden wicket over between 11- 20 overs which is not an easy task. 91 was gettable but considering our past chasing history where we have struggled to chase even modest scores of 60’s (those failures were purely due to poor batting and not due to good bowling by opposition) made the chase very interesting, not sure if Rangers (our opposition) knew it. Our openers started really well, Harshal and Gautam had performed well in the semi-final and they continued the same in the finals infact they did better, they put on 39 as an opening partnership at the 9^th over which was an awesome start,  we as a batting unit are not used too often. They ran really well (our nemesis for quite some time) and credit must go to Gautam because Harshal is known to be lazy runner. Rotating the strike lead them to bowl few bad bowls which were appropriately punished by both. The opening partnership in any chase is very important because you are making opposition desperate to get a wicket which produces few bad balls too. Then came a little drama, there always is when chasing, we lost 3 quick wickets between 10 and 13 over ( Harshal[run out again], Saunil & Sankalp[bowled]. While batting this always happens even at international level too, you lose one and suddenly couple of them follow hence it is very important for set batsman to not throw away his wicket and bat with the mentality that he is the best person to do the job and not leave it for anyone else to do it. I walked into bat and the first thing I told Gautam is not to throw his wicket away and stay till the end, had Gautam got out and two new batsman it would have been a totally different game because bowling team suddenly believes they can win it and they suddenly bowl and field well. I was really focused on doing well and my only target was to score my individual 5 runs and not care what team score was because I knew that if I get past that stage I can always make up for the slow start. I started cautiously looking for only singles & having a set batsman at the other end is a comforting feeling because all you have to do is give him the strike rather than be a hero yourself. I scored a single and next attempt to run lead to an overthrow boundary and suddenly I already achieved my target of 5 runs and I felt really good, I quickly changed my target and made sure that I bat sensibly and stay till the end. I must admit I was lucky too, they dropped two catches of my bat; both were close range catches which were not easy but not difficult plus there were few usual harakiri shots from me which were not needed at all luckily I missed it. We were really in driver’s seat to win the game, it was a matter of sensible batting even though it was run-a-ball we had wickets in hand. A six over long off from my bat come out of nowhere which flattened the opposition, must admit it wasn’t an effort shot, I only realized when it cleared that I had timed it really well. These shots do not come out easily hence it made that much more special. We lost Gautam at this point, Fabin walked in (I have never seen a clean hitter like him before). I knew one hit from him and the game would be over but that hit didn’t come and we needed 11 of 12. I was on strike and I did not want to leave too much for the last over because anything can happen in last over. I took my chances and went for it and hit boundary in long off that flattened the bowler and he bowled few on the leg and a wide and we needed 4 of 8 bowl. Next ball I walked down to take a single but the ball hit the top edge of my bat, flew in the long off region, fielder missed it and went for boundary which was enough. I saw all my teammates racing towards me and that feeling of hitting the winning runs in the final and then see your teammates running on the field towards you is an awesome feeling, I witnessed it a month ago the same when Dhoni hit a six to seal the WC but did not know I will be in the same situation, ok comparing WC win with Royals cup is taking it too far. The scenes were unbelievable everyone was overjoyed; I was carried off the field by Rahul and Sankalp. I ended up with the Man of the Finals trophy which I will cherish it for some time. These moments do not come every day in life so one should really savor and enjoy it. I would not attribute this success to a couple of individuals who performed in the Finals but to each and every team member of the squad. This was not a fluke or a one off win but reward for the hard work put in by all in the weekly practice sessions.  I had confidence that we will win that day even if I had failed I knew Tejas would have done the job because I trusted the effort which went before the finals.

Well Royal Cup is not the end of road but a start to a journey which will only end with Elite Cup, I do not wish to play Royal Cup anymore in my TCA career.

Sitting (L to R) - Abhijeet, Abhinav, Gautam, Manish, Tejas, Karthik, Rushil & Harshal
Standing(L  to R) - Pranav, Rahul, Sankalp(C), Saunil, Kartik & Fabin.
Missing - Sarang, Vishnu & Ayan

With the Trophy

The Finals Experience

Flight to Hong Kong

I boarded the plane at 1am (PST) on 30^th March, 14 hour flight to Hong kong couple of minutes before the start of Ind-Pak WC Semi-Final. How stupid of me to book a flight without checking the WC schedule. I had already secured two tickets to WC final in Mumbai but did not get a chance to witness if India made it or not. The first thing after landing the HK airport was to check Cricinfo.com to see if we won or not and yep we did make it to finals. Now I did not feel bad on missing out the Ind-Pak WC SF because I will watch India play for the WC and see Sachin play his last WC game in front of his home crowd. (I would go anywhere to watch Sachin play). I did not care if he scored his 100^th century or not, all I cared was seeing India win the WC title. I took a 5 hour HK transit tour of Lantava Island and Po Lin Monastery (here we had an awesome Chinese vegetaranian food) which was an amazing tour and I would highly recommend to anybody. 

  Flight to Mumbai

It was suppose to be a six hour flight to Mumbai from HK which ended up as seven and half hour flight courtesy Mumbai airport, due to traffic congestion we could get green light to land so for one hour we were roaming around Mumbai. Finally we landed and another half an hour wait to get a gate assigned to deplane. Welcome to India…

Getting Tickets.

I already paid all the money for tickets online and they even charged me 2000/- as bank charges for ticket handling. I thought it will be a 15 minute job to pick tickets from the counter and then I had other plans but I was so wrong. I was quickly made to realize that I am in Mumbai where to get anything you have to be in a line. It was painful 5 hour line just to obtain tickets for which I had already paid money for. There were a lot of people visiting from abroad just to watch the game. Unbelievable.  I spoke to a havaldar who was posted outside Wankhede Stadium for security. For past six days they were reporting at 8am in the morning until 6pm, tiredness written all over him and he said he was simply tired of all this and did not feel like watching the game at all. I could see why India making and winning the title would make Mumbai police’s job so much hard.

The Finals day

It was all over the local papers, if you have the tickets to the game start queuing up at least 3 hrs prior to the game. Indeed it was true, each person was checked by various security agencies at various point before letting them in. People were being let in to the stadium like water dripping out of a Mumbai tap. Finally made it inside the stadium at 1.30 pm and had magnificent seats in Sunil Gavaskar stand upper level and 1^st row uninterrupted view except for few morons who had come to eat rather than watch the game who were constantly walking in front of me where there was a walking aisle. Indian team was going through catching drills before they broke off in small groups with bowlers bowling on practice wickets, Sachin, Yuvi & Gauti getting some knocks and Dhoni some keeping practice from Gary. Shreesanth was wayward even in the practice, I was shocked to see him picked for 11. Toss at 2pm was a bit of a letdown considering it was a WC Final, Jeff Crowe the culprit.  Rising to the national anthem was an awesome feeling which is not easy to put into words. The atmosphere was electric as Sri Lankans took guard. I thought WC pressure got to the openers neither of them took on any bowlers which was the reason for a slow start. Dilshan & Tharanga weren’t quite the same batsmen we had seen in the tournament. Shreesanth still bowled badly considering Dhoni gave him as much protection in the field as he can. Sangakkara and Mahela played really well and effortlessly. They hardly looked in trouble and Mahela looked in sublime touch. It was a chanceless century from him; one has to be in the ground to witness his awesome footwork to spinners. I thought at this stage Dhoni missed a trick of not bowling Zak in middle overs to Mahela & Sangakkara. It was all spin and they looked at ease and after slow start I could sense game slipping out. Sangakkara was a lucky break for Indians but still considering the start SL had 275 was a challenging score. Had Zak bowled in middle overs to Mahela and got him I do not think SL would have reached 275. Indian fielding was really awesome, Sachin was fielding on our side and to see him run across and dive to save a boundary, I will cherish it for some time.  One thing which really struck about Sachin is, he is so composed on the field versus Yuvi who is kind of loose guy on the field.

Mumbai has always been crazy for Sachin especially when he is out for batting, everyone was SACHIN SACHIN SACHIN!!!.... But it all went quiet when Sehwag was out but everyone found their voices back when Sachin was on strike and hit gorgeous straight drive & square cut. The noise of bat hitting the ball can only be experienced in the stadium especially if it is Sachin. It was a pin drop silence when Sachin was out, we all could hear Lankan on-field celebration. I thought Gauti & Kholi were the real stars in the chase because they looked at ease and played sensible cricket when the pressure was huge after two massive wickets. Dhoni ahead of Yuvi was a real brave decision which worked out well. The first ball he played was a huge stride forward which showed the amount of determination he had.  After that it was down to sensible batting and matter of handling the pressure. I must say apart from Malinga no SL bowler looked threatening, even if they had scored 300 India would have chased it. Murli did not look a champion bowler on that day. Bowling was the reason SL lost out I felt.  Ghambir’s knock was a real special knock but he should have a got to hundred, it is he only who has to be blamed for a silly shot. Dhoni had a word with him previous bowl and I don’t think he asked him to go for a big shot.  Gautam has a very bad habit of taking too many steps before deciding whether to run or not luckily Dhoni controlled him well else a run-out was always on cards.

Dhoni’s winning shot for a six over long-on, fireworks above pavilion, Yuvi on his knees in the centre, players rushing on to the pitch, Dhoni grabbing stumps, Vande Matram played by DJ & crowd erupting out of joy chanting INDIA INDIA INDIA!!!!....  What a moment, I will always always cherish this moment for the rest of my life. I was really lucky to be present and witness history unfold in front of me. India winning the WC on home soil & witness Sachin win the WC on his home ground. I am glad I was there. It was truly special to see Tendulkar being carried on the shoulders for the entire lap and then witness the trophy carried by Indians on a victory lap. Unbelievable scenes.

On our way out of the stadium a lot of people thanked police & all sorts of security forces for the effort they had put in which was a fantastic gesture. The real party started all over Mumbai streets especially on the Marine Drive. People went completely berserk, chanting INDIA INDIA… dancing, shouting at their top of the voice. No policemen had energy to stop any one since they were completely drained out due to all the security arrangements. It was a really party complete strangers greeting each other. This lasted all night.  

What a Match…. What a day…. Truly Unbelievable… 

1st Two Quarter Finals

The real WC begins now, as expected top 8 teams will fight it out for the 4 semi-final spots. Each game is a mouth watering and no cricket lover will miss it for anything.

Pakistan Vs West Indies
I expect Pakistan to win this one unless one of the sleeping player from WI decides to wake up and turn it on. Those players will be Gayle (destructive knock), Roach (exploding opening spell) or Darren Bravo, oh yes he is one hell of a talent, I have only seen him once but has convinced me that he has great potential, he is in the similar mold of Lara. He hasn't done anything yet but great players need a big stage hopefully he proves me right. If he gets going he is a real treat to the eye. WI had done similar thing in 1996 WC where Lara completely blew away unbeaten SA. Or completely wrong Pakistan team shows up on the field, the one we witness versus NZ. I think Pak should play Shoaib since he has nothing to prove to anybody and if he gets into his stride boy it will be curtains to WI and makes Pak chance of winning the cup very high. I think he still has it in him.

India Vs Australia
I am willing to stick my neck out and say that India will beat Aussies. Aussies haven't really been tested so far and I am yet to see their A game even in matches against minnows. I see them struggling against India, apart from Lee and Watson and till a certain extent Haddin nobody looks really threatening. Ponting is not really fluent and bears the burden of the team since he does not posses world class players he had in past WC. Clarke & Hussey too are struggling. Tait has not done much so far as well as Johnson. Their spinners are really mediocre against spin-fed strong Indian batsman. Bowling for India is still a problem but there are signs of improvement. Last game against WI doesn't reflect truly that we bowled great, it was more like WI losing the game rather than India truly winning it. There is talk about weak middle & lower order batting but I do not think there is anything to worry about apart from batting powerplay. No matter who the batsman is we screw up in the powerplay, I think it is mental problem here which I am sure will be sorted out. All the batsman so far have had good knocks apart from Dhoni, Pathan & Raina (had only one game). I expect Raina to play ahead of Pathan if Sehwag is playing which I am sure he is.  Bowling line up will be same as the last game.

In all my guess is, it will be India vs Pakistan in Mohali, what game will it be.... Whats your guess let me know by polling on the right hand side of the page?  

More on Bowling

Every time I look at India's bowling in every game, I feel bitterly disappointed with it. Yes last game v/s SA middle & lower batting order should be blamed but I had sensed that batting failure was around the corner when it is expected to perform exceedingly well in the face of weak fielding & bowling. Well I will still not worry too much about batting failure but bowling will definitely give me sleepless nights.

Bowling is all about outsmarting/out thinking the batsman especially in ODI's where batsman is looking for runs all the time against say Test Match where you really have to earn your wickets. There are two objectives as a bowler
1. Taking wickets which will automatically take care of containing runs
2. If wickets are not coming then contain runs which will build up pressure and result in fall of wickets

In all this avoid bowling gift balls to which no captain can set a field to but makes the captain look really stupid and no extras. There are two kinds of batsman 1) one who plays conventional (plays on the merit of the ball) cricket 2) one who goes after the bowling and looks to attack the bowling.
As a bowler if you are bowling to a conventional batsman the trick is not bowl bad balls and create pressure by drying up runs and he will fall, if you know his weakness create a plan for him and execute it.
If you are bowling to a batsman who goes after the bowling you will get hit a couple of times but a good bowler will quickly learn and not bowl where the batsman wants it which will result in a wicket. As a bowler you have to be proactive and be ahead of the batsman else you will be hit around the park. I guess it is okay to be hit once or twice but how you come back shows how good a bowler you are and also a reflection of good bowler is how well he bowls at crucial junctures of the game when the pressure is on and those moments define the outcome of the game. In the end it is very much like a chess game going on between batsman and bowler. I am not sure if Munaf, Nehra or Sreesanth have this thought process while bowling which is really hurting India's chances because Zak and Bhajji alone can't pull it off and it is stupid to expect Ashwin to perform miracles, the onus of taking responsibility has to fall on experienced else they do not justify their position in the team.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Will write about batting but at a later time.
---------------------------------------------------------------
Last weekend my team lost defending a fighting total, I agree we did not bat well but we could have won the game bowling well but we made same mistakes as mentioned above.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
We are all aware about the catastrophic turn of events which has rocked Japan but amidst all I came across a very positive article - http://caffertyfile.blogs.cnn.com/2011/03/15/why-is-there-no-looting-in-japan/?iref=allsearch left me wondering if we will witness such a deed in India during a catastrophic event (No, I don't wish that such an event should happen in India but was just a thought)
--------------------------------------------------------------
For US folks did you do your taxes?

India's Bowling

After looking at Indian team's performance at the WC till now, I think we have lost the tag of clear favorites which is fair and we shouldn't have had it from the beginning. There was never a doubt that we will not make it to the QF but manner on which we reach would determine how far we go ahead. Yes, bowling and fielding have come under the hammer from all quarters. Well there is not much improvement we can do on fielding front apart from making sure we do not drop catches but there is a huge scope of improvement in the bowling department.
Factors led to believe why Bowling is an issue:
- Unable to defend 300+ score on a belter of a track. (I believe smart bowlers will defend 300+ no matter what the track is because no batsman can hit you for extended period time unless you bowl bad)
- Unable to run through mediocre batting lineups by our frontline bowlers (Bangladesh, Ireland & Netherlands)

Apart from Zak no one looks part of winning WC bowling unit. Munaf bowls well only in patches which is simply not good enough if you are the 2nd seamer. I think going forward team will stick with Nehra unless he performs bad which will mean India chances will suffer. I do not think Sreesanth will get a chance unless someone gets injured and then it will be toss up between him and Munaf. I really think Sreesanth has all things needed to be a world class bowler and a perfect foil for Zak to open the bowling in the country only if he has his mind set straight. I really don't understand what is all the fuss about dropping Chawla, he is just short of confidence and all he needs is the support which he is getting from his captain. Dropping him now will mean loosing him for some time since it will severely dent his confidence. He too is a terrific talent and bowling leg-spin in batsman friendly era is not easy. I do not think Ashwin's confidence will falter for not getting picked because he will get his opportunity. The real disappointment has been Bhajji, team expects him to lead the spin attack and pick wickets which is not happening.  I really do not understand the role of Eric Simmons (Bowling coach), it is him who really should be under the fire rather than bowlers.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Minnows of cricket
So far all that minnows have done is provide match practice to the teams except for England, but as a real cricket lover I want more exciting games like Eng-SA. I believe the best way to go forward is to have two divisions in World Cricket, top 8 in Div1 and rest in Div2 and allow relegation and promotion at the end of year. This is the best way to have strong cricket program is the respective countries. I think Ireland, Netherlands & Bangladesh will be knocking on the door of World cricket if correct path is shown by ICC. You do not learn anything if you get hammered down by the strong team it is analogous to a weak student appearing for a hard Math exam which will do him no good but to break his confidence.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
My team 99ers(club for which I play for) has got off to a wining start to the new tournament in style hopefully we keep winning.

Poor Organization

Would you care about emotions, history & blah blah blah and downsize the stadium capacity to ~32000 or built a brand new ~90000+ seat stadium in a city like Mumbai where people are absolutely crazy about cricket? I would have done latter simply because cricket is not for classes but for masses in India. How do you expect 32000 capacity stadium to hold a WC final & only 4000 tickets to general public is beyond my understanding. Holding a World Cup Final is a matter of pride but I am afraid most of general public will not see it that way. I do not have lot of nice words to say about people who are running the show for being so inconsiderate to common man. I am sure come on the Final's day and who's who of the tinsel-town from ministers to corporate biggies to bollywood stars will be in the stadium and all the courtesy will be extended. How did ICC allocate finals to Mumbai without knowing the grounds capacity and not think about the fans?

I also would have liked to see fewer teams in the World Cup so that each match is a competitive game rather than too many one-sided games, lengthy round robin stage and empty stadiums (Non-India games) which just devalues the World Cup. I do feel for Associate members but do not think this is the right platform, you don't learn anything if you are trashed by a strong team. Twenty20 is the ideal format for them to compete with top teams rather than ODI. The current format is drawn in such a way that all top teams will make it QF even if they have an odd bad day in round-robin stage. I would have liked to see top teams play each other more at WC league games before knock-off starts(similar to 1992 WC). I am sure ICC will term this WC as huge success for monetary reasons because India & Pakistan will reach QF for sure.

2015 WC will have fewer teams, I will be keenly following if they change their minds in future or not. But in the end to my mind this WC will be another poorly organized event by ICC.

First Choice Eleven

Picking up first 11 from a pool of 15 players is always a tough job for captains, narrowing from 15 to 12 is still relatively less hard but from 12 to 11 is much harder, speaking from personal experience. Well to get to 11, most important thing to look at is the recent form of player in contention and match situation (opposition & ground condition) but if all things equal then it is the gut instinct which you fall on. It comes from past performance, amount of confidence you have on a player, attitude & body language of the player.
Here is my pick.

Batting:
Sachin & Sehwag to open with Gambhir at one down. My choice would be Kohli simply for the progress he has made in last one year and his form, he is full of confidence. Yuvraj & Raina's recent form also helps in picking Kohli a bit easy too. We all know Yuvraj & Raina thrive in such conditions and they can quickly start firing. Dropping Yuvraj is out of question at this time hence would keep Raina out. 5 & 6 can be interchanged between Yuvraj & Dhoni. Pathan at no.7, I think it is foolish to expect Pathan to take on attack successfully every time since most of the quality teams will sort him out quickly hence importance of 4, 5 & 6 increases significantly.

Bowling:
Zaheer is definitely the leader of the bowling attack but if he is still not 100% I would not risk him since plenty of cricket is to be played at latter stage and also I have confidence in other bowling resources to do the job, I will pick Nehra since he has lead bowling attack in the past. Shreesanth would be my other fast bowler just going by his recent form. Harbhajan as a first choice spinner. If we decide to play two spinners depending on the pitch condition then Chawla would be my pick, leg spinners can go for runs but they can also get a lot of wickets.

Fielding:
We will not be the best & agile fielding team on display for the WC but our strong batting & bowling will cover it up. Still taking regulation catches and not misfielding will keep us in good stead.

Lets see if my thinking matches the Indian team's think-tank, come day 1 of the WC.

World Cup Memories

World Cup starts in a couple of days and I am really looking forward to it but I paused briefly for a moment to look back at all the previous editions & thought about my memories which stand-out from each one of them.

1975 & 1979 edition-
I have no recollection of these editions since I was not born but all I new was West Indies were a real dominant force under the stewardship of Sir Clive Lloyd and had one of the finest players to play the game.

1983 edition-
My memories for this WC is via old footage of WC finals since I was a toddler back then . What stood out was Kapil paaji running behind catch to dismiss Viv Richard at mid-wicket & Kapil Dev lifting the trophy which changed the way people looked at cricket in India. Also 175 versus Zim which was scored by Kapil Dev when India were in doldrums but sadly no one except for spectators on the day got to watch it since BBC was on strike that day.

1987 edition-
Well I really do not have any memories for this one except Aussies won 1987 edition.

1992 edition-
This was the time when I started understanding cricket, catch by Ajay Jadeja in the deep vs Australia was truly a brilliant one which was not common for an Indian in those days. Wasim Akram's deadly around the wicket spell and specially Wasim's celebration run after the wicket of Chris Lewis in which he knocks off Moin Khan. Imran lifting the Crystal. Kiran More Vs Miandad incident.

1996 edition-
The match in Mumbai which I did not go for and missed crafty inngs from Mark Waugh & 90 from Sachin where he took on McGrath. It was all about Sanath, destroyer of bowling attacks, he finished off Prabhakar's career in style, never saw a fast bowler switch to off-breaks. Crying Kambli. Great collapse by WI in Mohali to award Aussie Final spot and yes Kenya shocking WI in Pune. How can I forget the sweet win vs pakistan in Banglore. Prasad vs Sohail, Jadeja destroying Waqar & curtains to Miandad.

1999 edition-
India again beating Pakistan but this will be remembered for great Aussie fighting spirit particularly by Steve Waugh and stupidity from SA during the super six game (Gibbs) and Semi-Final (Donald). Perfect balls from McGrath to dismiss Lara, Tendulkar & Dravid at various stages. Pakistan for denying fans of a worthy final.

2003 edition-
India's brillaint performance apart from two bad one's vs Aussies (group stage & finals). The great blunder from SA on Duckworth Lewis. Ponting & Martyn toying with India's attack in the Final but the winner has to be beating Pakistan, Sachin's brilliant 98, awesome drives to Wasim, Waqar & third man six to Shoaib. The best Sach inngs.

2007 edition-
Disaster, even if we had 15 Sachin in the sqaud we were destined to loose since we had the wrong coach.
Boring and forgettable WC, Aussies were all over and no other team seemed to compete. Pakistan & India getting knocked out. Sad turn of events in Pakistan camp with the death of Bob Woolmer.  

Looking forward for an exciting WC'2011 with closely fought matches and truly classic performances to remember. Hope Sachin has enough in the tank for one last one. Want to see him play in Wankhede.

First One

Always wanted to write with so many thoughts always flowing in my mind but never took time out to write, well finally today I created a space on the net for myself with the help of some inspiration. Well the blog which I am going to post below was written back in Dec 2010 (yes this was the 1st written blog) and thought this one should be logged.

 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Winter League with Split Innings format.

Winter league (WL) 2010 kicked off on November 20^th weekend after exciting FLT tournament. This WL is a bit different than the previous editions; home teams will have an option of playing split innings format or conventional 20 over format. It certainly seems an exciting format & I was keen on playing the format to see how different it is. I was aware about the format but never witnessed it. It was an idea which came out of Little Master when asked about the health of 50 over ODI with the soaring popularity of Twenty20 and 50 over ODI termed as boring by various quarters. The next we know is Cricket Australia introduced the format in its 2010 domestic season against a lot of resistance from former and current players. I did not follow much on how split innings turned out in Australia. TCA decided to experiment about implementing split innings format during WL which is the best place to try out the format before we bring it to the other tournaments.

WL Split innings format:-

a) Home team will decide if they want to play the regular 20 over format or the split inning    format.

b) Split innings format will involve the two teams alternating every 10 over’s instead of switching after 20 over’s.

c) The innings will continue from where they left off in the first 10 overs with the batsmen who were at the crease at the end of 10 overs coming back to bat in the 11th.

     d) There is no double batting. Once a batsman is out, he is out.

     e) Each bowler has the same limit of 4 overs per bowler which can be used however they   want, a bowler could bowl all his 4 overs in the first 10 overs and then not bowl any in the last 10 overs.

The rules seem fairly simple. I would have liked to have a follow-on rule too incase of one-sided games to avoid boring last ten overs but hopefully we wish not to have one-sided games.

Split innings makes the contest between two teams more even since one team does not runaway with the momentum and allows other to come back in the game, a quick example is team batting 1^st scoring rapidly if allowed to bat for 20 overs can score huge & deflate the bowling team versus in split innings it breaks the momentum of the batting team at 10 over mark. During overcast conditions in the morning team batting 1^st is at clear disadvantage in a regular 20 over game whereas split innings makes it even. There are also more strategies involved in split innings format versus conventional 20 over game which makes the format more interesting.

I happened to play the split innings format last week and thoroughly enjoyed the format.

When Twenty20 format was introduced there was a lot of resistance and question marks from BCCI but it all changed with Twenty20 WC title and then the success of IPL. On similar grounds we should give split innings format a chance and discover if it here to stay or not.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Just an update on the Split format is that TCA (Bay Area Tennis Cricket League) has decided not to pursue with it, I am sad to see it but hopefully we haven't heard last of it.

Hope the next one is more current and I write more frequently.