AR Rahman Live in Concert 2011 Dubai - A Real Review

Show was in Dubai International Cricket Stadium – Commercial city of United Arab Emirates. I'd been to this fabulous stadium once for a cricket match, it was long time ago when the stadium just opened for matches. Construction sites everywhere, no proper road, no proper signs. Expecting to change things dramatically like real Dubai within few years was my mistake; nothing had changed, still in very awkward situation!

Show starts at 9 pm according to the event organizers, gate will open at 5 pm for the public. Get there to the stadium was easy, as I left home at 3pm; Fridays are holidays here, so no traffic jams one usually anticipates on Emirates road. But same problems persists, no proper road leading to the stadium, fine dust fog will cover your car if you happen to follow one in the front. Somehow parked the car and took a long walk to the stadium. Nice; I can hear music practice going on inside the stadium, AR Rahman crooning for his favorite numbers, may be they are checking the speaker and light settings one last time before the show starts.

AR Rahman's Grand Entry. 

Definitely Video is not doing justice to the real time experience.

There were a lot of people came even before me, its winter here; very comfortable weather (winter temperature is roughly 24 degree Celsius in this part of the world, almost summer time temp in western countries) I had a ticket for Premium Grand Stand that costs AED 250 (approximately $70). One security guard asked me to go to the other side of the stadium where the Grand Stand entry is. Some Egyptian security guards are there too, when I asked a guy who was always shouting at his colleagues seems like knowing everything about that stadium and event instructed me to stay there in the queue and that is the entry for VIP and Grand Stand ticket holders. I got relieved looking back to the queue; it was growing like an anaconda, decision to come early is paid off. All of a sudden that same guard came out and shouted “this is only for VIP and Standing ticket holders!” I got surprised; what the fuck is he saying? How come you put VIP and standing ticket holders together through one entry? Apparently nobody has a clue about the whole thing! I had a small spat with the guy who mislead me. Now I have to find the Gate 15, and for sure I will be the last one in the queue. No signage, nothing is written at the entrance except the gate number. Luckily the queue was just forming as the guides themselves just found out where the Premium Grand Stand gate is; so many unlucky ticket holders are just finding their right entry from different other queues where there were initially in.

People started pouring in, queue got larger and larger, the gate opened at 6 pm instead of 5 pm which they initially announced. It was very cold out there; because of open area and probably higher from the sea level the cold wind is blowing through hair and ears.

AR Rahman at his best! Humma Humma!

My initial feeling of seeing the stage was not very impressive; stadium too is not at all a big one comparing to other stadiums in the country. I chose a very good seating position where I can watch without any disturbance. Seats are dirty; I cleaned with bare hand and washed the hand with the mineral water which I bought it for AED 10. Outside I can buy 10 bottles for that money. OK, that’s how the events make money. That’s why they don’t allow bringing any food or beverages to the stadium as well.

Crowd started building, but not that much as I expected, or was I expecting too much? On time 9 pm the whole lights gone off, the stage bathed in a pool of blue light. Huge roar from the crowd…

Then beam of lights started blinking there and here with the escort of Sivamani’s drum skills. A thunderous clap and roar from the crowd, the reason, there is a man standing in the middle of the stage like a silhouette. It just looked like he appeared from the smoke. More lights to the man, his face showed on the big screens that placed both sides of the stage. With a goggle. Unmistakably he is the reason for all these people are here including me!  In unremitting clap and cheer, a very familiar voice rose up

“Nadaan Parinthey…” AR Rahman!

Surprisingly the sound quality wasn’t good enough. Stage was superb with a lot of digital displays and projector lights, the sound quality wasn’t up to the mark compare to ARR’s other music concerts. Not even close. There is no pristine sound, it all sounded like under the blanket! The sound engineer should be fired or cut his salary for two events!

Aaromale.... Superb rock!

As usual AR Rahman stole the show. He was there from the beginning to end. Incredible energy, superb selection of songs, still you will carve for more from the maestro. This time he did not come with a lot of established singers like Hariharan, K.S Chitra, Sukhvinder Singh, SPB etc. And that shows in the show. I think from now on AR Rahman should take at least Hariharan with him! Whatever it takes; he can lift the whole event into another level. No doubt!

Shivamani was in full form, so is Stephen Devasya. Mohit Chouhan is one lucky bastard, now he is the new talk of the town, sharing the stage with none other than AR Rahman! The Rock Star Movie changed his fortune, became a very busy man and even bigger celebrity over night!

Slum dog Millionaire music bit...

My pick of the lot from the event is the Rock version of "Chiku buku chiku buku railay" sung by AR Rahman’s childhood buddy Suresh Peters! It was mind blowing! I think with those heavy metal rock beats and lead guitar; even today it can be a block buster! Even after nearly 19 years it sounds fresh and joyful!

Another master piece was ARR’s combination song with the great Lata Mangeshker where he played the track of the legendary singer and her video showed on display screens. It almost looked like she was there in the stage singing with AR Rahman. Great idea and execution.

Next one is where a Saxophone player (kindly let me know his name if anybody knows – definitely not Kadri Gopalnath) came to the stage and started playing cat and mouse game with the crowd. He plays one piece and crowd repeats it, it lasted a minute or so, people started laughing and suddenly a very familiar tune he played along with Shivamani’s big bang drums. It swept me off the ground! OMG, crowd erupted, people gone mad…

It was the very famous “ Humma Humma” song from the Maniratnam movie Bombay! Unbelievable response from the crowd, AR Rahman sang the song. No rap insertions, neither Blazee nor Fernadous. Still it sounded too good!

Alphonse sang the rock number “Aaromale…” perfectly. He won few young hearts for sure as there was loud applause from the audience.

Finally the youth anthem, the happening number…

Sadaa Haq!

Again wonderful rock music, I only hoped for the better sound quality.

AR Rahman packed up with his patriotic song Vande Matharam.

It was a 3 hour show, while coming out of the stadium I was carving for more like thousands there, 3 hours are very little time.

Torture again to come out of the stadium; I must say driving centimeters away from the car in front is a skill. Only one way available for all those thick crowd to go out. It took more than an hour just to go out of the stadium area.

Very bad organizing, very bad event management, really bad location, and poor sound quality. Despite of all these shortcomings I would definitely go again if there is an AR Rahman show. He is rewriting even the way the music show is conducted on the stage! He is god gifted real Rock Star! His humbleness and way of talking like an innocent child would melt your heart. His voice is recognizable even in sleep. When he dedicated two songs to his fans by saying “these songs are only for you” everyone sitting there including me felt personal.

Thank you AR Rahman for endless entertainment; thanks for surprising us with your sheer innovation and guts to experiment. You are the music guru, and you will be the only one!

Jai Ho Rahman!

Whites Whitewashed Tricolors!

Speechless!

India went to England with lots of expectations, carrying the tag of No.1 Test team in the world. Coming back not only being lost that tag to England but humiliatingly pushed to 3rd spot.

Whitewash 4-0!

Finally Gavaskar said something sensible

The No.1 team does not lose like this, backed up by his deputy Ravi Shastri "It was a combination of a lot of factors - injuries, lack of form. But this is a rude wake-up call"

Sachin Tendulkar came agonizingly close to a phenomenal 100^th international century before a pathetic India slumped to an innings and eight runs defeat in fourth and final cricket test to give ruthless England a resounding 4-0 series win.

It seems like every Indian all over the world want Sachin Tendulkar to score a century rather than India saving a test match collectively. Everybody was praying over the net for Sachin not India.

Sachin is a great player, but he did not click in this series, and his century will not make India No.1 team again. Hard pill to swallow!

Dhoni found a new way to get out in this series, fishing with the bat outside the off stump over and over again. So stubborn he is; he will never stop playing that shot. Stick the bat to the ball swinging outside off stump, apparently he wanted to hit that for a four, it is not happening and he keeps trying. Wasted 8 innings just trying that, and by look of it; he is good enough to try another 8 innings!

Dhoni’s explanation after the Indian debacle is even more dangerous than team India’s test cricket future. He was explaining about each and everybody’s injury, sick and diseases. It appears that everybody in that Indian team is sick or injured, so are they gone to England for medical attention or playing cricket match?

Gautam Gambhir played well as a 9^th batsman, he had an eye sight problem according to Dhoni, he can’t spot the cricket ball!

How the fuck you sent this left hand batsman with blurred vision to face Stuart Board and James Anderson’s bouncing balls! What if a bouncer squeezed in through the helmet gap? According to Dhoni; any way he can’t see properly, now let him have his eye sight worsen by the cricket ball so when he goes to the doctor there will be something significant to show!

We must admire two individuals in this test match for their determination and skills. One is undoubtedly Rahul Dravid. Real Wall. After watching the hot spot reply he wasn’t out in second innings. It proves that if a batsman is unlucky not even DRS system can save him! The second one is Amith Mishra, not for his bowling skills but batting, in fact he batted better than Sachin Tendulkar in that innings of 84! Packed with 10 fluent fours. Lofted shots, sweeps and lovely straight drives. Man this guy got talent as a batsman, what is he doing in bowling department?

Sack Suresh Raina in next test, get another batsman (not Yuvraj please – we don’t want to give rotten potato for rotten tomato) include this chap, he will try to bowl and definitely he will bat.

Wait… what was that so called Kerala Express was trying to do on that last ball? Trying to hit over the oval or trying to hit on his own helmet? Even if it connects it looked like to shoot over his head for a catch. Oh god, who will teach him?

Now the story is over.

India pushed back to 3^rd position.

Sachin Tendulkar did not score his all important 100^th century.

(After failing nine times in nervous nineties in test, plus another 17 near misses with tons in One day Internationals, he is now biggest chokers in world cricket)

Sehwag’s hyped up come back did not even made a trace.

One thing got to tell you guys; don’t ever say that Sachin Tendulkar is not after money.

He is!

I have proof for that.

If anybody interested kindly let me know.

Orange Flame!

OK, here is the team that has no relevant to the state that represents.

Kochi Tuskers Kerala.  No owners or players are from the state, and they picked up the players from the auction table whom didn’t hurt their bank account either. Only Keralite Player who fancied as their ace card been paid so much more than what he really deserves now sitting out of the team because of the poor form with the ball.

When Sachin Tendulkar scored a sensational century against Tuskers the whole brand new stadium been literally blessed! We will see more cricket matches there in the future. But I don’t think the stadium is jam packed as what Mr.Ravi Shastri had wrongly conveyed. The camera man accidentally showed some empty gallery, his salary in this match will be under threat for sure!

Sree Santh who is sitting on the bench told his good pal Harbhajan Singh how Mumbai captain Sachin Tendulkar supporting his team Kochi Tuskers Kerala by wearing the orange cap. This time SreeSanth cleverly kept a fair distance from Bhajji while talking. Anything and everything you see in Orange is color of Kerala. Not green anymore! 

Munaf Patel improved his bowling excellently, but not even an inch of improvement on the fielding, when the ball goes to the boundary line where Munaf is guarding; every Munbai Indians would give up as boundary, few over ambitious souls like Sachin and Bhajji will be hoping and praying for the wonder like Munaf jumping or sliding on the field to prevent a boundary to happen! So far wonder didn’t take place. Sorry.

Harbhajan Singh got a better chance to give an extended explanation to Symonds in point of fact what had happened a long time ago when he called him Monkey. In fact it wasn’t monkey, it was Teri Makki…., In India that is worse than calling someone a mere monkey! Dude, this 6 foot and some inches tall giant can knock Bhajji down with a slightest pat, do you guys still remember how Symo had floored a streaker in Australia? It would be good if Bhaji remember that more than us.

McCullam cut loose on Mumbai Indians, one- because of some poor fielding effort from Mumbai team that cost them the match, two – because of the fact Sachin had scored century! How many times did we seen Sachin scoring century and losing the match!

Ravindra Jadeja got excited over their first win that too against the No.1 team in the IPL chart so far. He hit two consecutive sixes to bring home the victory. Fair enough, today is (15 April) the Malayalam New Year in Kerala, a celebration called Vishu. No one including their captain said anything about Vishu nor wished a prosperous Vishu to their ardent fans home. That is cementing the fact what I said in the beginning of this article!

IPL Fungama! Let's Start!

So there it is. If you are in a pub celebrating historical Indian World Cup victory; take your next zip of beer after a while, IPL has started rolling!

New Team Kochi Tuskers Kerala proved from their first match against Bangalore Royal Challengers, they are going to be the savers of KKR this year. They will never allow KKR to touch the bottom line; it is booked and taken by Mahela Jayavardane’s KTK this year! Sorry to disappoint you Mr.SRK.

Look at their team, highly inconsistent cricketer McCullum who always try experimental shots to get out as their opener, Test specialist VVS Laxman, choker (not joker) R Jadeja (OK, I changed my mind, he is bit of both), even Australians won’t agree if I say Hodge is a good T20 cricketer. Then Kerala’s Super Hero Sri Santh. If anyone think this team can make in to semi finals of this year’s IPL require urgent medical attention!

Sree Santh is a Sachin Tendulkar of Kerala, Sree Santh even started growing hair like Sachin Tendulkar once was in his early career, Sree’s hair had out grown his head such a degree, once the cricket ball bounced after accidentally hitting his head err, hair!

The whole gallery was cheering for him in Kochi Stadium, and he himself had puzzled seeing a good portion of crowd chanting his name. Sree Santh never allowed crowd to cheer for him in his entire career till now. He had seen pinching himself and patting on his head out of utter disbelieve. “Am I gone mad or the whole crowd gone mad?” He even gave a flying kiss to the crowd after taking a first wicket in this year’s IPL.

KTK’s jersey is very vibrant, colorful and energetic, unlike their players. At least one thing they got it right on that perspective.

As usual KKR started with a defeat. But this time the margin was less. So definitely there is improvement from last year!

Check this blog regularly for more IPL news and gossips.

ICC World Cup Snippets – Part 3

World Cup is over but Indian cricket fans all over the world still refuse to put a stop on celebrations. Not all of them are happy like Indians. There is a country that moans even now!

A criminal case filed against Pakistan Captain Shahid Afridi, Information Minister Dr. Firdous Ashiq Awan and Interior Minister Abdur Rehman Malik for murdering three Pakistan cricket fans!!

How do they murder? It requires little explanation – Three Pakistan men died of heart attack after their team lost to India! A lawyer filed a petition in the Lahore High Court (LHC) seeking a judicial probe into the defeat of Pakistan cricket team in the semi-finals, played in Mohali India.

Azhar Siddique, advocate claimed that the government deliberately got its team routed due to its friendship with India. So indirectly Shahid Afridi and his fellow Pakistanis are murdered their own fans by playing shoddy game!

This took exactly 2 hours and 52 minutes for a supporting staff to put in plain words to Pakistan Captain Shahid Afridi! Still he asks in extreme perplexity “lekin, may kaisa khoon kia yaar? I did not see those guys died in my entire life. I really don’t know them! How can I kill them?”

Pakistan wicket keeper Kamran Akmal was in the lime light throughout the tournament more for bad reasons than not. Akmal’s calamitous performance behind the stumps against New Zealand unleashed a stream of criticism and paved for the younger brother Umar to take over. Kamran promised Umar two choco bars and a lolly pop if he can find some way to rescue his elder brother from this extreme jeopardy! What did Umar do, he hurt his finger and then ankle to prove that he is unfit for wicket keeping job. In fact Umar is very clever; he killed two birds with one stone. By seeing his brother struggling behind the stumps he is not at all keen to take up the job, one way or other he would be slipping away from this suicidal post, which is what exactly he did with 2 choco bars and a lolly pop!

You will see the matches interrupted by the fanatical crowd throwing water bottles and placards to the ground, because they can’t bear to see their team be defeated. Here the story is different, Bangladesh cricket fans stoned at West Indies team bus following their home team’s defeat against Caribbean! So this really is a serious threat! Bear in mind, if anybody wins against Bangladesh will face same consequences!

Colombo organizers were a little too quick off the mark with the firework display arranged to coincide with the end of Muttiah Miralitharan’s last appearance on home soil. Thilsan Samaraveera was still seeking the winning run against the New Zealand when the night sky was prematurely lit up. A New Zealand batsman asked so sympathetically after the match “Are they really over bored of Murali? Seems like they just wanted to send him off as quickly as possible!”

Aspiring actress Poonam Pandey who has grabbed headlines for stating that she will bare all if Team India wins the World Cup, has been flooded with offers from foreign glossies, international magazines and even some adult toy companies. See how a 19 year old intelligent girl making money and building her career along with cricketers who played in the world cup! Every one expecting a live naked show after the Indian win got disappointed. Poonam said it is only for men in blue, not for everyone!  She sent an official letter to the BCCI saying going naked for the team would have a ‘therapeutic’ effect on Team India and help them win! In the letter she wrote “…I want India to win the Cricket World Cup 2011 and am willing to go the extra mile to do anything so that India wins the World Cup. I am ready and willing at any place and time of the Indian teams choosing to go in the nude to boost their sporting spirit to perform better.”

Did she really think these Indians can get hard on by seeing her ‘snooker table’ body? Dear Poonam, these are the guys playing for IPL every year, you are not half beautiful and fit than those cheer ladies at the boundary lines. If you doubt my claim ask Ashish Nehra, even he will agree with me! Only guy who asked about you after the match was Piyush Chawla. He is curious rather than desperate as he haven’t seen anything like that in his life before, but not all of them are like him, you idiot!

India on top of the world!

Congratulations to team India for winning the World Cup 2011.

Congratulations to MS Dhoni for not only leading India to victory, but hitting a huge six to win the cup! It says all. How strong the team India is. How dominant they are over their oppositions.

It was like a Bollywood movie, never seen before fielding effort, a guy who scored 155 runs in total from all previous matches scored unbeaten 91 in Final, brought home the all important World Cup with a dramatic six! A pacer who left out after the first match has been called back over a successful spinner! A left handed batsman who was under threat all the time with his cricketing form and personal life debacle been rose like a phoenix bird to become an all rounder and man of the tournament! A master batsman who had every single record under his name except the World Cup lifted the cup to fulfill his dream!

Boy, what a moment, what a glory! It can’t get any better. This trophy is mother of all trophies!

Jaya Ho India!

The day after the High Voltage Match!

Next day after the clash of two giants in World Cup semi final I went to a salon to have a haircut. Those Pakistan hair dressers seem like so dejected and frustrated, I did not say a word about cricket till they finish their job on my hair, I was really scared of losing one of my ear between their scissor blades if I utter a word about cricket!

I thought it was so strange when I noticed they were watching a Chinese channel on the TV, err.., they were listening to the Chinese channel on TV. Before going out of the salon, after opening the push door completely I asked the hair dresser, “Why are you watching a Chinese channel? Do you know Chinese?”

“Every fucking channel is talking about that chootiya khel cricket. We had enough, all bullshit!” One of the men grumbled with an astonishing anger!

“But that is only a game, one team has to lose. Both teams cannot be qualified for the final game” I put forward a general theory.

“Then why can’t you guys lose the game?” one of them shouted!

I closed the door and walked away, immediately I understood the intensity of the situation! After a while I turned back in fear to check if they are coming after me with a scissors to cut my neck?

I would say the empathetic Indian win against their neighbor should contribute a lot to Pakistan cricket team itself for their dropped catches, sloppy fielding, run out chances and Kamran Akmal.  The Pakistan wicket keeper did something right only to make Goutham Gambhir out. Otherwise he was in his usual form.

Man of the Match Sachin Tendulkar should gift his trophy to Pakistan’s Mis bah ul Haq! He is the one worked hard to see India win. As fuming Pakistan commentator Rameez Raja said “if Mis Bah can hit a six like that in last overs (where there is no hope left) why couldn’t he hit one before?”

As long as Mis Bah Ul Haq is there in Pakistan cricket team India can win any tight, pressure cooker match effortlessly, remember T20 World Cup final?

Harbhajan Singh is under injury threat after taking two or three flying moths in his mouth following the wicket of Pakistan Captain Shahid Afridi! The insects entered in his mouth died immediately, one which narrowly escaped told his friends his three best friends sunk in a toilet bowl! Don’t ever fly nearby that thing, it is highly dangerous! If you don’t sink in it, you might get strangled in curly hair around it!

Another Indian Disaster!

South African victory over India was done when Ashish Nehra had been asked to bowl the last over! So good a man Nehra is, didn’t waste much of a precious time, within three bowls he finished the game and went to the dressing room to have much needed rest and an Orange juice! 4, 6 and 4. Game Over!

South Africa, needing 13 runs off the last over, broke the hearts of a adherent Indian crowd by pulling off exciting three-wicket win. There were pin drop silent in the gallery after the thick Indian crowd comprehended South Africa really won the match! But their real shock came little later when Indian Captain Dhoni defended the decision to give Ashish Nehra the last over of the South African Innings, saying the paceman has been doing a nice job and hoped that the laft-armer will win crunch games for the country later in the World Cup! That means we can expect same kind of horror in upcoming matches too! He is going to persist with left armer!

Difference between genuine quality bowler and not so quality bowler has been exposed in full public glare. Zaheer Khan’s over just before the disaster was top class; MSD most likely thought Ashish Nehra cannot be so bad to giveaway 13 runs in 6 balls that too against tail enders of South African Squad! Well…, Ashish Nehra proved that he is not only bad but dreadful by giving away 14 runs in 3 balls!

“Bowlers need to bowl at the right spots and if you are not doing that, more often than not, you are going to get hit. Bhaji (Harbhajan) was the only other choice but I thought a seamer would be better. Maybe I was wrong, but I thought that was the better option.” Dhoni said after the match.

Dhoni’s statement made a young man chuckle in the Indian dressing room; the young chap could not control his laugh even though dressing room was so tensed and gloomy after the defeat. Went out the dressing room and laughed till he got severe abdominal pain. A curious off spinner in the team who never got a chance to spin the ball till now followed the young pacer to know what is so funny.

“Bhaji will never agree to bowl last over, even if you point a gun at his head in point blank range!” While giggling, the aggressive paceman told the unfortunate off spinner who carries drinks all the time without a break. They spoke in almost same south Indian language, the third curious pace bowler followed them could not understand a single word out of their conversation rolled on the floor laughing! (One and only clue - He has got this inborn idiotic expression on his face all the time, even when he takes wickets, drop a catch or a miss field)

“Had we batted for full 50 overs, we could have got 20 more runs. What is important is you don’t play for the crowd you play for your country. We should have batted the full fifty overs. If we could have fielded better we could have made the score look bigger, but we’re not a side known for our fielding.” MS Dhoni continued.

Is he pointing at Yousuf Pathan, Yuvraj Singh, Harbhajan Singh or Zaheer Khan for their batting for the crowd? In short Mr.Dhoni is concluding this match defeat by saying they should have bowled, fielded and batted better, that’s all, very small problem to rectify before the next match!

Bollywood actress Bipasha Basu and Abhishek Bachchan were few celebrities attended to watch the India vs South Africa match. Indian cricket team had given back what Bachchan and Bipasha had given us in recent times. Let them know the taste of disappointment. It is sour. Very sour!

Sigh! Sachin scored century – India lost the match one more time. Sachin was fielding like Virat Kholi, he was talking to the bowlers frequently, his presence felt all over the ground. Still his younger fellows could not give him a Man of the Match Award that he really deserved this time!

ICC World Cup Snippets – Part 2

India sweats hard to win the match against Netherland. Intention was clear from the beginning as Sachin and Sehwag started firing from all cylinders from the word go. Indians wanted to show the world and probably bigger oppositions that how strong their batting line-up is. All went little wrong when they lost Sachin, Sehwag, Yousuf and Kholi. Yuvi and Dhoni played maturely to avoid anymore wicket slides. Because there after left was heavy weight champion Bhaji who knows to attack only Australian bowlers, Ashish Nehra, who is still under the supervision of Sunil Gavasker’s batting coaching (apparently Mr.Gavasker gave up and asked Nehra to do only bowling, his fielding coach too gave up long time ago) and Zaheer Khan who is as stiff as Arnold Schwarzenegger when it comes to batting!

Yeah, I agree, Yuvraj put up weight, but he is performing better now! Churning out fifties at will! How is he doing this, when our journalist made a way to the back door of Yuvi’s recent success we surfaced an astonishing secret. Here we go; Yuvi is banned from going out to bars, pubs and discos by his Mom and coach. What they certain were, too much of beer consumption is the reason behind his weight gain. (Rumor has it; someone convinced Yuvi, Fosters Beer can make him like an Australian) Yuvi was frustrated, seeing the aggravation on his face, coach promised Yuvi he can go to the pub every time he scores 50. Trick worked! Rest is there for everyone to see, the young lad working hard for the team and for him! He already had two nights in the pub dancing with girls! We are hoping for him to have more nights!

Having seen his career plagued by one injury after another, Australian cricketer Shane Watson has decided not to over exert himself to keep injuries at bay ahead of their remaining World Cup matches.
The injury-prone all-rounder is well aware of just how much is too much for his body. Now he is planning not to play World Cup at all to keep away from injuries. Captain Ricky Ponting trying hard to encourage Watson to participate in World Cup remaining matches, according to Ricky, injury can happen anywhere, while walking you can step on some pebbles and fall down, a vehicle can come and hit you on the road, if you are sitting in the room doing nothing and watching TV a pair of gloves can hit the Television set and the TV can fall on your head!

Pakistan Coach Waqar Younis made it clear at the press that they are not interested to win the World Cup this time. Waqar hinted that Pakistan wicket keeper Kamran Akmal could be replaced after the World Cup!

"He (Akmal) dropped catches which cost us the match. But we can't drop him in the middle of a tournament," said Waqar. "We can think about it after the tournament but he is going to be around for now. We will try to rectify his mistakes in the break that we have got. We can't fix all his flaws in such a short span but we can give it a try."

Waqar ji, World Cup supposed to be the mother of all matches; I wanted to appreciate your choice of tournament to have just a try!

Someone please remind Viru that he promised us all before the World Cup he will try to bat 50 overs! Will hair transplantation cause memory loss?

Bangladesh humiliation!

Either Bangladesh public is over ambitious or the team. Are they really thought they could win this world cup? Or they could beat every team that plays against them?

What a mismatch. What a shame. Bangladesh elected to bat, Captain Sakhib Ul Hassan probably thinking to score around 300 plus runs. Instead scored 58 (not an individual score, the whole team total) and allowed West Indies to win the match in 12 overs! Bangladesh public gone mad, they started throwing papers, towels and even jerseys to the ground. They booed so much restlessly after their team got out cheaply, the boos around the shere Bangla National stadium could still be heard even when the West Indian openers Chris Gayle and Bravo came out to bat.

Real humiliation; ruthless West Indies ripped the team Bangladesh in front of their own fans. In a way they turned their own crowd against them.

I won’t blame the crowd, they came to watch a match if not a win, they came with 4's and 6's cards, and girls came with their throat cleaned to scream, shout, and sing. Nothing happened, throughout the match they were kept silent by the performance of Bangladesh team, in fact Bangladesh fans were in a state of shock, forgot to react till the last wicket went down! When West Indies started batting they started cheering for West Indies batsmen, they cheered each and every boundary Gayle hit. OK, this is one way of enjoying the game, end of the day public is the one paid the money. Incidentally I remember a Japanese proverb “Better the beak of the hen than the tail of the horse”.

Why Indians didn’t appeal when Strauss edged?

The Indian team seems to have a “hearing problem” in addition to its bowling and fielding affliction which led to its failure to shield a strong score of 338 in the World Cup match against England on Sunday.

Much has been spoken and written about how poor bowling and fielding in addition to late batting collapse that resulted in the fall of India’s last seven wickets for 33 runs and nearly enabled England to win. I mentioned in my previous blog how happy Mr.Dhoni was to draw a match that was surely could have won hands down. I seriously think Dhoni should consult an ENT specialist before the next match for the betterment of Indian cricket. Zaheer Khan too should accompany Dhoni.

England skipper Andrew Strauss, who was the architect of India’s agony by scoring his highest score in ODI 158, should have been out when he has scored a mere 13 if wicket keeper Dhoni, Zaheer or close-in fielders had appealed for a caught behind at that point. Strauss clearly nicked a Zaheer delivery and waiting for an appeal from behind and the bowler, for his amusement there were no appeal! 98 runs later, the England captain had edged another delivery from the same bowler Zaheer with his score at 111 but none of the Indians on the field appealed! There is no excuse to blame noisy crowd. When Strauss trapped Leg before he was expecting same mute from Indians, but this time they did appeal and got him out. How sad!

Sachin Tendulkar scored 137 v Sri Lanka at Delhi on March 2, 1996,

Sachin scored 143 v Australia at Sharjah on April 22, 1998,

Sachin scored 141 v Pakistan at Rawalpindi on March 16, 2004,

Sachin scored 123 v Pakistan at Ahmedabad on April 12, 2005

Sachin scored 175 v Australia at Hyderabad on November 5, 2009

All above matches have one thing in common, no. Not only Tendulkar’s centuries. India lost in all those matches. I am not blaming the little master for those losses, he did well his part but his countrymen failed to capitalize on his contribution. They let him down most of the time when he scored heavily.

Dhoni is happy to draw the match against England!!!

If Indian Captain Mahendar Singh Dhoni feels it’s OK to be drawn the match against England in their second league matches in ICC World Cup; then he has got some serious mental problem! Dude, your team scored 338 runs, yourself and millions of Indian cricket fans around the world were all expecting nothing less than a win! This time around you don’t even have a Sreesanth to blame, damn it!

No more hide and seek game here guys, Indian bowling sucks big time, England were scoring freely like a domestic match, just remember they have everything against them, toss, ground, crowd support. Under the flood light they should be struggling to score! At one stage it was like a certain win for England, they were cruising like a new Bugatti Veyron, till something suddenly happened to Zaheer Kan, was it an exorcism? Out of blue he came out and took 3 wickets! Twist in the tale. If there is no six in that last over of Munaf Patel, India would have been well home. Or there was no sixes in previous over of Piush Chawla….. OK, I am not going to count all the overs here.

It seems like England captain was quite happy with the result, he looked so relived and relaxed after drawing the match. He even shook hand with Peterson and other colleagues with a smile on his face, yet he said he was not happy about the result in post presentation talk, Nasser Hussain asked the same question to MS Dhoni, and Indian captain answered YES! He is OK with the draw! So Indians have no more potential to improve! That’s what he said right? They touched the limit!

This match showed even referring system is not error free. Yuvraj clearly got out Cambell in front of the wicket; Yuvraaj thought it is out, all spectators in the gallery, millions of viewers in front of TV sets thought the same, what more; Cambell himself thought he was out! Referral System came to play and it had a different go about it. Now we have to have 2^nd referring umpire to monitor the first one, if the first one fails the 2^nd one take charge, well… what if the second one too fail? J

ICC World Cup 2011 Snippets – Part 1

2011 ICC World Cup kick started with a beautiful boundary from India’s Virendar Sehwag. His survival as a batsman in the crease for the first 5 overs are running on 80% of pure luck. Next 5 overs 60% of luck, after 25 overs it is 100% talent with little or no luck!

Look at his game against England on their second match in world cup. First ball he faced turned into streaky four, well, he wasn’t teasing the team England with those half chances, he was hell nervous out there and Bangalore crowd was aesthetic!

Match between Pakistan and Srilanka too was a good entertainment. But wait…, a young Pakistan batsman jumped on the pitch while batting, apparently spoiling the pitch according to the umpire. Umpire called the batsman immediately and tried to explain not to jump on the pitch, poor Pak player didn’t understand a thing what umpire was trying to convey. Umpire jumped hard on the same surface to show the batsman not to do that!! Srilankan captain Sangakkara was pulling his hair out and finally pleaded to the umpire let it be, if he got it or not. Don’t show it on the pitch sir, we got to bat after this!

Sachin Tendulkar is a living legend, but he is not bigger than team India. Every tom dick and harry says India should win this year’s world cup for Sachin Tendulkar. What about the country? What about millions of Indian fans around the world? Less fortunate street ass riding on Tendulkar’s popularity is not new. Started by one time Sachin’s good pal Vinod Kambli, and it was like a domino effect everyone including Harbhajan Singh backing up the presupposition. Harbhajan Singh is well known friend of Sachin Paji, or Harbhajan created this impression about him and Sachin in media smartly responding on anything about Sachin, in return he gained so much of popularity, a lot of money from the ads and a place in Mumbai Indians in Indian Premier League, even his own state team Punjab Super Kings didn’t rate him so much!

Indian pacer Sree Sranth was very upset initially when he was left out of the World Cup team. He cried on the rooftop to pick up some sympathy (not exactly like how he reacted after getting slapped) Indian Cricket team chief selector Krishnamachari Srikanth compelled to answer the media questions when he visited Kerala; the speedster’s home state. In fact Srikanth was struggling to find a convincing answer. Praveen Kumar’s ill timed injury became blessing for Sri Shant, he played against Bangladesh in opening match and showed the world why he wasn’t picked in playing eleven initially. Now Srikanth is thanking Srisanth for clearing the cloud!