Balloon head!

Anything can happen in Twenty / 20 cricket. Even scoring 36 runs in last over is possible. That is the reason T20 is so popular in cricket playing nations, and it won’t take too much of a time to have result. It is like a carnival show, people go to watch their home teams playing straight after the work. Support the home team, have some drinks, cheers, excitement, thrills and little dance show with few DJ tracks. Modern day entertainment after PS3 and Xbox Kinect!

IPL became food for thoughts for few neighboring countries. BPL is not British Physical Laboratories LLC as me and you identify with. It is representing Bangladesh Premier League! The latest buzz is that Pakistan also planning to have their own Premier League very soon, probably sooner than anticipated. PPL wannabe heads already hinting the possibilities of omitting Indian players from their game. The funny part is this discussion took place even before they could take decision on where to play the cricket!

I have hinted in my previous blog posts that Harbhajan Singh is a balloon head! Still if you guys are not convinced enough; just watch that match reply where Mumbai Indians played against Deccan Chargers. Bhaji was ramming towards the umpire and shouting, umpire was looking for a shield to avoid the saliva spray! At one point I thought he gonna slap the umpire like; you know he slapped someone in first edition of IPL?

Umpires make human errors, but a player can’t argue with umpire! Honestly; I was fancying Bhaji to slap the umpire, so his career would be in jeopardy. As again and again Harbhajan Singh is showing the world he is not only fit to play cricket but also any competitive game at large. Someone has to put this mentally gone case to a mental asylum as soon as possible for the best of the game cricket. He is the captain of Mumbai Indians, I am wondering how the hell an illiterate like Munaf Patel would learn discipline from the leader? Munaf can’t read, write or talk in better words. So only thing he can do is just watch somebody and try to learn from him. Unfortunately he got to look at very bad idol and that too all the time!

Virendar Sehwag is having a bad patch in his life. As soon as he got fixed his bald patch on his head all sort of bad patches start pouring at him left, right and center. His prolonged bad form successfully extended to IPL so far, been dropped from the national team, giving the chief selector Mr.Srikanth hard time to explain the media, his best buddy Gautam Ghambhir lost the vice captaincy to comparatively new comer Virat Kohli. Sehwag’s word of war with Dhoni didn’t improve the cause either. Cost him everything including his position in the team. He was probably too ignorant about the change of tide, initially the power shifted from Mumbai to Delhi, now Delhi to Chennai. Look at the opponent buddy; Chief selector Srikanth is from Chennai, BCCI secretary N.Srinivasan owns the team Chennai Super Kings, Dhoni is the captain of Chennai Super Kings, why Suresh Raina is so confident about his position in the team even after lack of form in recent international matches?, he too plays for CSK, why Bhaji is out and Ashwin is in?

Mera Bhai; tum dekha huwa book cover, poora kahani andar hai!

But one thing is for sure, nobody can mess with the HULK of Indian cricket, Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar! And everybody including foreign players are aware of his unbelievable popularity in India. Look at Greg Chappel, he has to say something about Sachin to sell his filthy biography, before coming to play IPL Brett Lee was more concerned about himself than Sachin Tendulkar by making a sweet statement about Master Blaster; consequences he may have to face from Indian crowd for blocking Sachin from scoring a run in recently concluded match in Australia could be pricy! Even Dhoni said Sachin is the ultimate batsman India can’t afford to miss, this came right after his statement about rotation policy and slow fielders. So Dhoni was hitting someone in Delhi by this statement, and he is making sure he meant particularly one player when he made that statement. Slow fielder? Ahum…. Harbhajan Singh is a real Chamcha of Sachin Tendulkar, if anybody come up with a statement against Sachin, Bhaji will be the first one to defend the little master, so what did he get out of this?, a permanent position in Mumbai Indians team, and now he became the captain of the Mumbai Indians!

100^th 100 ton in international cricket is unbelievable by any stretch of imagination; Sachin achieved that feat sighting nobody nearby to break the record.  Even Sachin puffed, huffed and gasped to reach there! If not against Bangladesh he was aiming at Zimbabwe, if not Zimbabwe then new comers like UAE or Afghanistan. Luckily he got there against Bangladesh. Now he can play free cricket as some critics says, that means they too not expecting Sachin to retire in near future! As an ardent fan of Rahul Dravid said; Sachin may hang the boot and hand over the bat to his son Arjun when he is ready to play international cricket!

A media person asked Virendar Sehwag “actually Irfan Pathan is what in your team?”

After a long pause Viru answered “you know, he is a bowler, he is fast medium slow bowler who can bat a little”

“Fast, Medium or Slow… which one?” the interviewer mystified completely, the answer was nothing but a burning stare!

Adios!

IPL is back and so am I...

The inaugural function of IPL 2012 wasn’t as exciting as it used to be, less glamour or lack of glamour is evident despite of the performance of international artist gone desi Katy Perry, pure desi duo Kareena Kapoor and Priyanka Chopra. Amitab Bhachan announced his comeback after surgery in a grand way; Salman Khan flexed few muscles and called it dance! But nobody can beat Kareena Kapoor’s never die attitude, she spotted in IPL stage still trying to promote her recent box office dud Agent Vinod!

So who should be foul mouthing about the whole event at first place? Yeah, you are right. Lalit Modi has bunch of his own problems in India and now in UK, but this one wolf can’t resist screaming to the full moon. If he has enough time to watch the opening ceremony of IPL, he urgently requires a physiatrist to overlook his mental condition.

There are few adventurous advertisements come regularly between overs with warnings; these performances are performed by experts, don’t try this home. Jumping from Helicopter and jumping between the building roof tops are not done by experts; even Ramesh Pawar can do those tricks. The one who should be appreciated is the computer graphic artist who creates elevation, dam and helicopters. The point is all those actors doing impossible stunts are not real, all computer generated, but still those hopeless morons try to make an impression as those are real and done by real experts. So you can never over estimate or under estimate by outlook of a team. Look who had the last laugh when Pune Warriors lock horns with Mumbai Indians!

When everybody thought Sourav Ganguly has been restricted to commentary box and few sports news columns he came as a captain to play IPL for Pune Warriors! Man, this guy definitely got some balls! But ironically Pune Warriors is the most boring team in this year’s IPL in absence of Kochi Tuskers!

It is undenying fact that Lalit Modi brought everything to IPL, glamour, sex, advertisement, money (a lot of money for himself, and little for the whole IPL governing body and other vultures) now it seems like IPL is going in reverse mode. Too much play may kill the game.  Even cheer leaders are boring now! No cleavage show either! That South African version of IPL was the best. Glamour show in the ground as well as the gallery, to bring more attractive girls to the event, Lalit Modi introduced a beauty competition. Cunning bastard!

Kochi Tuskers came into IPL to solve India’s two biggest mysteries (I am not counting the top rated one, Sachin Tendulkar’s retirement. Currently nobody is there in India to solve this one.)

1 – Shashi Taroor’s wedding

2 – Lalit Modi’s ouster

Kochi Tuskers left the scene when they accomplished the target. Well done Kochi Tuskers, well done!

How many of you seen Harbhajan Singh getting furious with Sourav Ganguly when the ex Indian captain try to hit the spinner out of the park? I even saw a few Mumbai Indians players distracting Bhaji from the spot! Is this ass hole a real balloon head?

Time only can tell.

Adios for now.

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 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?

Another Indian T20 disaster!

If India wishes to enter into semi finals of T20 World Cup 2010 they have only one option left, beat Sri Lanka by 20 runs or more, and watch the next match for the mercy of Australians, if Aussies beat West Indies; India will barge in to semi finals!

Looks cool on the paper and Mr.Gary Kirsten’s laptop.

But nobody told me what if India can’t beat Sri Lanka by 20 runs!? Is that tricky? It looked like Sri Lanka could beat India by 20 runs!

Indian team had few changes; dropped M Vijay, Zaheer Khan and Ravindra Jadeja (Yuvraj is still in the team, WTF!)Yet the result is same. India is out of the contest in royal way!

Dejected, deflated, humiliated and out casted.

Who said Indians are good T20 team? As long as they have Ashish Nehra, Yuvraj Singh and few of out-of-form players in playing side, they will never qualify as a best T20 Team. Pick up the players based on the current form.

If the King Vikramadithyan burdened one vetal on his shoulder; Indian team is carrying too many of them!

I don’t know if you guys are getting this TV commercial, maximum performance! Yuvraj Singh says he is too fast because he has got maximum performance Gulf Oil, ironically this ad shows right after Yuvi gets out, so he goes to the crease and get back to the dressing room in maximum speed. OK, that makes sense. The ad didn’t mention anything about scoring. But dude, the commercial is too honest!

Guys, open your eyes, IPL will not win the place for India on world cricket map, it is international matches that require to win!

Why Sehwag looks ridiculous when he gets out?

First of all let me apologize for the brief delay caused by my untimed vacation. Frankly speaking I went for vacation to forget about everything that related to my hectic job schedule and recession that caused dear to my business. But unfortunately I was so worried and restless at the time of vacation than when I was at work; got back my breath only after I came back to work! No, I am not a workaholic by any stretch of imagination.

Lot of cricket happened during this time and still is happening. I heard a joke from Ravi Shastri during his interview to a sports channel – Amit Mishra should have played a lot of first class cricket before he play big test match like this against Sri Lanka. My question to Ravi, Amit Mishra is part of the team every where the team goes in recent time. He never got a chance to play but carry drinks and towels to the crease for the senior players, how the hell can he be picked for the domestic cricket when he is part of the national team?

On the other side; everybody felt Amit Mishra bowled in negative line throughout the match, not to take wickets but frustrate the batsman hoping any one of them will get fed up and hit the ball high to gift a catch. Sri Lankan batsmen were very clever and patient so who got frustrated are thousands of poor viewers who were expecting a good match and those ex-lads in commentary box. Eventually Mishra conceded runs more than any other bowlers! 200 plus runs! That is a lot!

India played against their new rivals Australia (now Pakistan can take rest) in their own backyards. Virtually second row team that Australia came up with, had a lot of passion and fortitude which Indian paper tigers failed to understand. Or did they underestimate? I still believe Indians would have won at least two matches that they eventually lost due to immaturity of few players.

Sri Lankans are in India to give a stiff competition and they are giving everything to win first ever test match in India. No big terror on the surface in Ahmadabad even on fourth day. If anybody wants to prove his batting ability that should be on this pitch, lovely batting pitch till the time I am writing this article. One will be wondering why the hell Virendar Sehwag hit that ball high and got out! Still One and half day left, that is four and half sessions of cricket. Definitely India is not playing for the win but a draw. Why did Sehwag kneel down to slog sweep at that point of time only to manage a skier?!

Answer – Sehwag never consider a spinner as a genuine bowler and never give the respect. When Sehwag scored 296 runs in Multan he hit a six to make it 300. When a press personality wondered and asked him why did he decided to hit a six instead of taking a single or double Sehwag replied in his own lazy way “ I predetermined to hit a six to make it 300 if I get a spinner on my 296!” Never had he thought about the fact that he will be the first Indian to score 300 in a test match and it requires a lot of hard work!

But it is the spinners who make Sehwag ridiculous and cheap when he gets out! Isn’t it?

Is SEX good for sports person?

Champions Trophy cricket match is going on in South Africa. Team India had a brief stay on ICC top one day ranking list prior to the champions trophy. Precisely 24 hours and 14 minutes. After their defeat to Srilanka in second match of Compaq Cup, India dropped down to second position again. I felt better when incidentally or co-incidentally Srilanka became the tool for making India No.1 again by beating South Africa in Champions trophy in their first match! It shows how strong a team was holding this position for healthy elongated years! Australia were real champions, they fought on the field and off the field, they sludge, they accuse, they intimidate to stay on top, eventually that is what matters, not the pathways you chose; most important is how you get there to become numero uno!

By seeing Indian’s recent performances, one will have no expectations at all that the team will manage to stay at No.1 position for long time; compensating prolific batting with pathetic fielding is not just acceptable by any standard! Sitter catches have been dropped numerous times in recent tournaments and it reached its height in Compaq Cup, Indians has this ability to dive right or left only after the cricket ball passes by them, a chasing scene of the ball and the fieldsman near the boundary lines are a common sight now a days and unmistakably always the ball wins!

I guess it is the appropriate time to remember an advice given by the former Indian Captain Mohammed Azharuddin who was a brilliant agile fielder at the time of his crest – “A fielder who saves four runs are equivalent to the batsman who scores four runs!” Can’t digest his entire view though, Azhar’s own records are not talking about his fielding abilities other than catches he took.

A section of media has devoted their precious time to excavate deep into cricketer’s bed room. Certainly they found some jewels and pearls. Now these media personalities themselves have been left puzzled after breaking into this century old debate.

Is SEX good for sportsperson or not?

One fragment of media said it is good if they had sex two days before the match. Another one said it is better if they had previous night so no frustrations on the field. And there is another new breed of Media who think sex an hour before the match in dressing room is much better than all mentioned above!

Coach Gary Christen felt more or less the same way; in his secret documents, the former South African opener mentioned all players should have their night-time partners when they travel outside the country to play cricket! It is compulsory just like your fitness regime and travelling bag! I still confused about the word Mr.Gary had used – Night-time partner? Ok, whatever it is, leave it!

Coach found very good improvement in players right after his strategy came to light, everybody was happy, some coaching staffs and commentators also urging to the authority to have same kind of lovely rules applied on them as well. Few commentators with dyed hair prefer this sort of set up rather than hooking up in the night club, for the reason that more often the night clubs are turning out to be hard hunting ground for these old lions! Here prey is ready to be hunted and come in polished package at their doorsteps. (Only in foreign locales – at home none of them has the balls to try)

After a year or so coach Gary Christen has a doubt, is this approach really working? The player’s performance had improved but not on the field. Oops! Back to plan A – No more night-time partners! A pace bowler with big Adam’s apple cried a lot after that very bad decision. He was so fuming at one point, trying to explain to some senior players – still how some of the players are playing well then? Is this the only problem causing bad performance on the field? Obviously his questions are gone unanswered.

Now Gary Christen is totally upset about the fielding standards of Indian cricket team, he is not blaming the fielding coach Robin Singh for wretched fielding performance by some of the players, he knows very well it won’t make any difference either, Robin Singh will have a guzzle of Kingfisher beer and throw a stare at the coach as usual conveying through eyes you watch your business – “Gora” (White man). Flashing red underwear on the field after skidding through the surface on boundary line created a lot of laugh and fun in the dressing room among players, now everybody is conscious about it as nobody wants to attempt it anymore.

In my opinion only one option left for Mr.Gary Christen to improve the Indian Team’s fielding competence, which is switching back to plan B! Tell the players if you field well you get your night-time partners back plus some bonus point for extremely well fielded cricketers! Like two night-time partners or something like that!

Book of Buchanan – Another failed venture!

If you are writing a book, or planning to write a book for sure you know how to hype it up to get the best sales figures, isn’t it? Bitch about someone just smiled at you other day, talk about an affair with your nanny, degrade someone who is currently on his/her peak time, to the extend say you bedded your neighbor’s wife etc. these are few tips to entertain the readers as well as bring the much needed attention to the book. This ritual has been practiced for decades by number of writers and non-writers, and quite remarkable to see them happening over and over again. I am talking about those new writers who are seeking the public consideration desperately. Lately a sentry who guarded Michael Jackson’s house came out with a book accusing MJ as a gay! Next day his ex-nanny published another book claiming MJ’s family members are greedy for the treasure that MJ had hidden somewhere in closet, I am sure if the book has to be published a month ago MJ himself would be searching for this so called treasure that only his nanny knows! After all these hoopla what happens following the book hit shelves? The writer come up with the denial and says his book has taken out of context!! Hoping some more people will buy his book to elucidate who is right the writer or electronic media.

There is one more name to add to the list of writers who made the drone before their book release, it is none other than former Australian cricket coach John Buchanan. He poke at the sleeping tigers without any particular reason other than eying on book sales, as victims always should be big names; here too the story is not different. Buchanan questioned and challenged Indian dummy god Sachin Tendulkar, the wall Rahul Dravid, prince of Kolkatta Sourav Ganguly and probably less coloured them all VVS Laxman in his latest “fictitious” work.

I must admit the fact, I had lost the believe in Buchanan’s ability as coach in the light of his recent deeds especially his “non-performance” as Kolkatta Knight Rider’s coach in second edition of IPL! He was one of the most confused human on earth to come up with the nonsensical multi-captain theory, the whole cricketing world condemned it and made noise, Sourav Ganguly’s (then captain of KKR) fans showed their extreme anger by burning effigies of Buchanan on the streets of Kolkatta, unfortunately one person went unheard about all these buzz is the owner of the team Mr. Sharukh Khan. He paid the price for unwise ignorance in later stage but by the time damages has been done.

There was a strong reason why Buchanan turned as a confused bloke during his tenure with KKR. His Laptop affected by a weird Trojan virus, when he clicked on start button it shuts down the window, when he opened a site for long leg fielding tricks it opened long leg of a white whore in a porno site, clicked on program menu it went to the format options! To fuel the agony he is one coach who always rely on Laptop, what you expect him to do when his laptop is as confused as this? He too mystified just like his laptop and came out with a totally bewildered chap’s typical outlandish thinking!

To me a coach is only as good as the team he has. During Buchanan’s candy days with Cricket Australia, he had a team that in fact required a little prompting with an array of enviable talent. Such was Steve Waugh’s squad that need no coach at all, from the top captain Steve Waugh to the bottom Brett Lee knows their role correctly and properly, and eager to apply their share of contribution to the team. Aussies would be having lesser trophies than what they have now only if Buchanan had to open his laptop more often that he is doing with other teams he is coaching! Look at inaugural edition of IPL, Rajasthan Royals had no coach; they triumphed as champions with clever captaincy by Warnie and almost all new comers with high energy level to prove their worth. Each and every one of the team members knows their business only too well to be told anything at all.

Under the circumstances, Buchanan merely moved with the flow like a true blue blood Australian and stretched out in the reflected glory of the team. However during his tenure there were plenty of whispers of a discord between Buchanan and some of the senior players including Steve Waugh, and Shane Warne. Notably heard by outer world was Warnie’s voice, he had his own share of problems with his wife and girl friends, his marriage was on rock, following all these personal problems that nobody in the world could fix it, he came to the team to see this middle aged man doing nothing but chewing salad sandwiches in regular intervals and taking away the credits and splendors of team’s success! Warnie’s expression published in the news papers “an international team no need a coach” made a furor between him and Buchanan.

Nobody is questioning Buchanan’s right to express his views and expertise about cricket to the media, but he should be able to back them up with his performance. He got carried away with his own perceived importance during his tenure with KKR. Initially plotted and perished, drowned the team with him into mediocrity and failure!

Buchanan’s only success was he managed to keep himself in the spotlight with his amateurish blunders. After IPL disaster the man managed to get himself back on the news lines by allegedly “spilling the beans” act with English coach ahead of Ashes series. For a man who hailed as a greatest cricketing coach in the world following Steve Waugh’s amazing run of success, Buchanan exposed his triviality with his latest acts and statements.

Every publisher with sales figures in their mind will ask the writer to include a chapter or two with a little twist, sex. Classic gimmick to make pre-sale publicity is abuse someone who did nothing to the author. If accused is shocked, and the audience who heard about it is shocked, the book definitely going to be a hit! It is bound to trigger some controversies eventually book sales figures.

But let me tell you something, Buchanan’s book The Future of Cricket: The rise of Twenty 20 is a big yawn. It is not a literal work or any thing that sort. Some one asked him to write about cricket, he wrote it probably while high on drugs!

BCCI – Wolves in sheep’s garb!

Most sort after cricket team bite the dust and bitten it pretty hard. The media celebrated their part quite brilliantly by all sort of criticism and disparagement to the BCCI and cricket team as whole. One can’t deny this uncanny ability of press to make a hero to zero over night. The poster boy Dhoni became a whipping boy, raising star Suresh Raina turned out to be flat pitch bully, rocket launcher Ishant Sharma converted in to run scorer for the opposition! What else, the whole “Dhamaka” we saw last time around with glossy smiles and bhangra steps are settled down like a tempest? Now it is like loser’s battlefield. One can hear and feel the agony and grief if sharpen the ears and mind.

Every defeat and glory has the reason. We applaud and cheered MS Dhoni last time when he won the T20 World Cup and now here after two years we are looking at same MS Dhoni in revulsion for his amateurish way of playing cricket and numerous mistakes he made in the field. Fair enough, the Indian captain made some silly mistakes that even a 5^th grade would hesitant to do but the culprit is not only him, there are few behind the scene hiding and grunting like a beast – still itching for more… BCCI!

IPL was big success, the mercury of over all excitement and anxiety had rose to the top and broken the tube. In IPL we were in a specific comfort level despite of all those hoopla and hype that surrounded the game, whoever wins the cup stays in India! We are late to realize the fact Indian Premiere League is only to entertain us public but in world level cricket we can’t afford to stop raising our bar, need to work harder and better to stay in the competition. South Africa lost the match in semi final, but I would still believe in their ability to beat any team in the world, to evaluate my view look how fast South Africa evolved from ondeday match winners to T20 specialists!? Pakistan came back strongly to fetch the cup this time; washed off all the sin they did in 2007 final match! Srilanka proved to be a tough team to beat. While other countries were preparing for the T20 World Cup Indian team was in a dream zone where they had flower path all the way from Mumbai Airport to the Wankhede stadium the place where ultimately politicians took central stage. It supposed to be felicitation function for jubilant Indian cricket team; the shrewd politicians with special kind of genes in their blood never miss an opportunity to utilize the situations to magnify their own brilliance. The millions of people watched that function all over the world had this kind of bewilderment; did India win the title because of ruling party?

Instead of ridiculing Dhoni and company for the embarrassing defeat let’s try to look at things in a different angle, India was having full of fresh players last time, all of them are young and enthusiastic, few of the old players got chances to show their merit as well. Indian T20 team was real underdogs in 2007. Won the title and lived in the dream, when players were busy receiving appreciations along with some ad endorsements tempt to ignore a simple fact that other nations are practicing and sharpening their skills in T20. Wake up call rung twice, by the time the players realized they are too far behind the team is out of the race!

Fatigue factor is a main issue that Coach Gary Kristen rightly touched up on. But right after making this statement coach turned to look over his shoulder to see how many players are behind to support him faced the reality in its worst form. None of them! Instead Captain MS Dhoni came up to contradict coach’s view “too much cricket is not an issue here” as expected few former players too came forward to support Dhoni. We witnessed it in IPL and T20 World Cup, players are really tired of over cricket, it shows in their body language and the way how they are playing cricket, but the smiling villain BCCI is not convinced yet or pretending to be not aware of this whole situation, they send Indian team straight from England to West Indies. Only for four oneday matches. Trying to be good BCCI extended the helping hand by saying if anybody needs rest they can opt out from the team. The players in their right frame of mind will never dare to do that! Not even Dhoni this time, he is smart enough to pulse the change of tide, add to the misery not everything he does turning out to be just right now days! While pocketing a lot of money from all directions; some one should remind BCCI about a story of a goose that lays golden egg!!!

India's World Cup Defeat – A butterfly effect!

There is stunning similarities between 1987 Indian one day World Cup defeat and 2009 T20 World Cup defeat. In 1987 Kapil Dev’s devils failed to retain the cup they had won so gloriously four years before in England. As installed as favorites the defending T20 champions India were eying for consecutive world cup title; but this time they were carrying hopes of a billion, unlike last time where nobody had put their money on India especially with the absence of Fab Four! Same cycle India had gone through 26 years ago as nobody had believed in a team that Kapil Dev led to their first world cup victory in England!

As I was not grown enough to watch or memorize a live match that took place in India and Pakistan in 1987, last night I had a chance to watch some of the recorded highlights of Indian innings, had a Goosebumps to see some striking similarities in few bowled outs and run outs! Those old fellows must have had the feeling of déjà vu when they were watching the last match that South Africa defeated India!

Almost all the countries have come to terms with niceties associated with Cricket’s newest and shortest form with so much of matches being played over last couple of years. T20 is not as former Pakistan captain Javed Miandad referred, carnival cricket or slam bang cricket. T20 has scope for matters of strategy, cunningness, and tactical planning. Not all Tom Dick and Harry can play T20; it requires massive power, timing and most significantly a huge chunk of luck! Seemingly a small error can get overblown in a result that goes down to the wire as we witnessed several times in IPL.

In India even Muthayya Muralidaran of Sri Lanka used to get mobbed, stunned spin wizard said nothing this sort happened to him in his own home country. I am not talking about Muralidaran here. Indians have this weird propensity to raise a mediocre player to the status of Super Man and praise him left right and center, build a temple and do whatever possible to magnify his good things and rip him apart when he make couple of errors of judgment. Definitely Dhoni is intelligent enough to know this strange behavior of Indian cricket fans well before. “I was told by a senior a few years ago. He said if somebody is appreciating you, don't hit seventh heaven. If you fall on floor, it wouldn't be good for you. So adopt a central path. I try to do so," Dhoni was visibly disturbed and upset by the large portion of the crowd which booed him in presentation party. I suspect that senior is none other than his predecessor Sourav Ganguly, he too had a nasty time to go through.

It was Dhoni’s over confidence that caused the defeat against South Africa in last super eight games though it was a meaningless match. Dhoni retained the same team including the real culprits of the previous game. He wanted to prove a point or two to his critics the defeat against England was just ” a bad day”, look I gonna beat the best team in the tournament South Africa with the same team, he even celebrated the win when India restricted SA for as little as 130 runs. Well, opposition had some other plan in their mind and executed them beautifully, Dhoni was once again on losing side when the game was over, giving more and more chances to the critics to stone him! By the way the Indian captain is known for taking risks isn’t he?

It is not surprising to see the captain is getting most of the brickbats; there are so many other factors also to be counted besides Sehwag issue that left bad taste in everybody’s mouth, Coach is not been targeted much in blaming game of former players this time around, may be because Gary Kirsten is less flashy character than the former coach. Then Dhoni was the one praised far above the ground by every one when he won the inaugural T20 World Cup for India!

Indian Cricket fanatics started shouting for Dhoni’s head just like how it happened to Kapil Dev 22 years ago when his team failed to retain the World Cup. Critics are busy to find and list down the mistakes that Dhoni did in this World Cup similarly what happened to Kapil Dev in 1987! The media reported Kapil Dev had indifferences with Sunil Gavaskar which later on both of them denied identical to the allegation about the rift between Dhoni and Sehwag, Kapil Dev was suffering from decline of his own form as a bowler similar to Dhoni’s own batting form. Kapil Dev couldn’t continue as Indian captain anymore after the world cup defeat….

Let’s hope history won’t repeat all the time or at least this time! Butterfly effect can cause a fraction of a change in same incidents. Remember Dhoni is yet to lose a test match as captain!

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Faded Blue - The conclusion!

You got to admire Indian skipper for admitting the fact that from here on it gonna be a real test of character not only for him but the team as whole. A team that supposed to defend the title got out from the tournament prematurely was extremely embarrassing for every inidians not only for the portion of the crowd which booed the England players in their own home ground but also every Indians around the globe who watched the match in television channels! Nobody could have imagined it would be this bad when Sourav Ganguly said before the T20 World Cup in England real test for Dhoni will come very soon, first it was West Indies and now England tried and succeeded to defeat India with short balls, as they said “ perfume balls”! The whole Indian team including coaches and other staffs need a reality check for hyping it up instead of pumping it up! Let Sachin’s tongue turn gold as he is the first one to predict this Indian team will win the cup again! The Indians couldn’t win even a coffee cup if that is what Sachin meant in any stretch of imagination; instead they looked up and panicked to see the short balls going like meteoroids! I heard Suresh Raina complained to the captain and coach for being targeted by short balls; don’t be surprised if he files a case to ICC against England players for throwing short balls at him!

It was like " a midsummer night's dream" the victorious Indian team arrived in Mumbai after winning the inaugural T20 cup. Well, a lot of water had flown under the bridge after those happy days of 2007 when Dhoni lead a bunch of youngsters to triumph in South Africa, now even Dhoni’s strongest supporters in the team are having two minds to support him!

Dhoni hailed as a thinking captain, always seemed to have the Midas touch about him, everything had taken for granted that he simply can’t do wrong, even his miscalculation became right calculated and swept on by the euphoria in the wake of his stunning deeds. However his recent inability to carry Cehnnai Super Kings in IPL-2 despite of having a boasted team besides his repeated failure as a big hitter in slog overs contributed to a sharp decline in his cricketing fortunes if not endorsements.

Dhoni will come under increased scrutiny in coming days, the Captain who can’t do wrong did everything wrong in this T20, rather strange decisions one should say like how he promoted Jadeja ahead of himself or Yuvraj, omission of better all rounder Irfan Pathan to replace with RP Singh who just can’t bear to stand in front of the stumps for batting etc. I am sure Dhoni would know his team is ill-prepared for the tournament after the wretched issue over Sehwag that cast a shadow besides back to back cricket that drained player’s body and mind alike.

When the billions of Indian cricket fans were shell shocked over their team’s premature exit from the T20 World cup, it was no surprise for former England captain Nasser Hussein. In his view the Indians exposed in conditions that afforded movements besides their notorious inability to handle short pitched balls. In short India had succumbed under unfriendly pitch that behaved like a drunken bitch!

For sure Dhoni had made some blunders this time, sending Jadeja for stabilizing the innings as he said in presentation party is a good thinking, but he failed to measure a most important fact, how long Jadeja would take to stabilize the innings?! By the time he stabilized the innings the game was over, the opposition won the match! The batsmen who came after him were under tremendous pressure to score the runs. Yuvraj bored of standing inside his crease and came out for a change, wicket keeper rattled his stumps in a flash, Dhoni came and hit hard squire cuts and powerful lofted shots to score some singles when a four or six was the order of the moment! Sticking the bat out of the off stump hoping for the ball to come and hit is not a crime, but you can’t expect that ball to go for a six! It is undoubtedly a big crime that deserves capital punishment! Finally Dhoni gave up and took singles to give the strike to Yousef Pathan hoping he would hit three consecutive sixes to win the game!

Despite of odd victories in abroad the stirring performance in Australia and few outstanding batting displays; Indians are still ill-equipped to bat in conditions other than at home. The Indian performance in abroad was never been consistent enough for us to believe that the Indian cricketers have come of age!

Dhoni v/s Sehwag – Truth revealed!

As I said before there is a fire underneath that thick white smoke.

There is certain smugness about Indian cricket that financial brawn work better than brains. So much so that instead of putting Sehwag through the fitness check scanner, the administrators simply went by the word of the player who in his part guilty of hiding his injury. If BCCI is having any sense at all, should be warning Sehwag for hiding his injury and give an example for the other players, some disciplinary measure should have been taken to avert him from doing so in future. But it is most unlikely to happen in Indian cricket as most of the cricketers are bigger than the game itself.

In Sehwag’s case BCCI has taken a stand to count all Sehwag’s talent, experience and record to wash off his guiltiness that he did to such an extend to pollute the team atmosphere in dressing room.

Sehwag has been a prolific batsman who gets runs in any surface that too in no time, agreed, but he should have set a good example by opting out from the T20 World Cup by admitting his injury that got struck in IPL. I am assuming Sehwag was little scared of the media for blaming him playing for money in IPL without looking after his fitness, where more important match is ahead to represent hi country. When he knew he was not fit for cricket, Sehwag should have done a favor to the Indian cricket team by opting out rather than going to England with the team and make unnecessary dispute with the captain.

Dhoni was furious for a million reasons, no captain worth his salt will tolerate a player who is so important in team planning and strategy hides his injury. This is the lone reason Dhoni had to have verbal fight with Sehwag, by knowing the attitude of Sehwag he will never step behind when a fight brake out, putting forward all his own reasons to contradict the view of captain and team.

Dhoni also need to be blamed partially for his childish behavior with Indian media. Rather than fighting with the journalists to show the world how he fought with Sehwag in the dressing room and distributing embarrassingly nursery quality piece of paper with nasty handwriting to reveal how bad his own hand writing is, he would have drew more dignity by coming clean on this issue with a proper press meet with calm and cool temperament.

Nobody shed tears after they learnt Viru is departing from England but only one player! He is none other than Rohit Sharma, ironically it was the tears of joy. He get chance to open the batting without any pressure or threat, and till now when this writer is typing this article; he has been doing marvelous job with the bat in opening slot. Grabbing the opportunity with both hands in absolute greediness.

Now Dhoni had revealed great news for the millions of Indian cricket fans that he is not planning to come at no.3 throughout the tournament. It seems like one of his thousands of experiments gone badly wrong. Good thing is he realized it before it gets too late.

The lack of openness, players being unapproachable and unprofessional ways of dealing the media, lack of BCCI’s insights all contributed the shadowy scenario that you find beneath the glossy and polished surface. Now the tempest has settled down, not many damages are done as everyone in opposition had expected. Let’s start a smooth and comfortable run in T20 World Cup especially after entering in super eight with 100% success rate!