Congrats Sachin.. Well Done India..

sachin

    Sachin has crossed 17K runs in ODI. That’s a remarkable achievement. And the way he played in today’s match against Australia is simply amazing. Hitting 175 off 141 balls was unbelievable! His today’s game reminded me of the Master Blaster I used to watch in my school days. I was a fan of Sachin and loved watch him play in every game. Fours, Sixes, sending balls to every corner of the ground.. It was Sachin’s era then. But wait. He still rules. His era is not over. Remember he scored his 45th hundred today. He is truly a legend! One of the legends of cricket whom the world bestows upon, the legend whom the upcoming cricketers would take ideal as.

    And what do I say about today’s game. Australia set a target of 350. And India lost by 3 runs. Now that’s reaaaaaaaaly close. This is the second match in the series India is losing so closely. India deserved to win today. Aus would have won, but in the whole series India is emerging as a stronger team and dominating team. There are no easy let-offs. Ind – Aus series are fun to watch, especially when finishes are the ones like todays.

Fake IPL player more popular than IPL

The Fake IPL player takes 2nd position in the google trends (india) whereas the ipl live score takes 5th position.

 

Just check out the google trends results. There are more people searching for the fake ipl player than the ipl itself. Check out the posts by the fake ipl player @ www.fakeiplplayer.blogspot.com. This guy has got wits. This mysterious blogger claims to be a player from KKR. Some ppl believe this is a publicity stunt from PR of KKR while others believe its someone with a decent knowledge of cricket faking himself as IPL player. But whoever it is, his posts are real fun.

 

We love mystery.

Book Review : The 3 mistakes of my life

    Oops! I did a mistake by reading this book. That was my nth mistake in life (Of course n being a positive integer and much greater than 0). Okay! Jokes apart, this is the third book by Chetan Bhagat, who is back to India now and has dedicated the book ‘to the country, which called him back’.

 

    The 3 mistakes of my life is a story of three best friends (sounds familier isn’t it?) based in Ahmedabad. Govind is the narrator of the story. He is a born businessman and dreams of owning a big business someday. He is in love with Vidhya, who happens to be the sister of one of his best friend Ishaan. Ishaan is very passionate guy who loves cricket. He was the best cricket player in his school and aspired to be in Indian Cricket team. But he performs badly in the selections and thus ends up getting rejected. His parents want him to join Army, which he hates. Govind’s other friend is Omi, who is the son of a priest of a local temple. Omi doesn’t know what to do in his life, but he doesn’t want to continue his father’s profession. So he sticks around with his friends. Then there is Ali, a young boy who is a gifted cricketer, but is more interested in playing marbles. Ishaan spots him and starts coaching him with a hope to see him in Indian Cricket team one day.

 

     The book starts very well giving a detailed description of each character. Chetan’s style of narration has definitely improved since his first book FPS . Half way through the book, it gets dull, and at the end the climax part sucks. Lot of communal violence is brought in, and it was really a pain reading the final few chapters. I hope Chetan comes up with science fiction novels in future.

League of Extraordinary Gentlemen !

  

    “Harbhajan slaps Sreesanth”, these were the lines I happened to watch on a news channel on Saturday morning. I was taken aback. “Did Harbhajan really slap Sreesanth?”. I wondered in disbelief. I browsed through different news channels and had to believe it. According to media reports, after Friday’s defeat of Mumbai Indians in the hands of Kings XI, Sreesanth (who plays for Kings XI, Punjab ) walked to Harbhajan (Captain, Mumbai Indians) for a shake hand and said “Hard Luck”. The slap was the reply from Harbhajan.

 

    Just when the IPL fever was catching up, this incident has become a dark spot to its legacy. How can Harbhajan slap his fellow player? The captain of the costliest franchise would definitely be under pressure after losing 3 matches in a row. But that doesn’t mean showing aggression on his fellow teammates. The action of Harbhajan is in no way commendable.

 

    IPL has partially led to rivalry between players of different teams. Hope it doesn’t get big. IPL ads shown on TV are also on similar lines. In one ad a dentist doesn’t seem to hesitate to pluck more teeth from his patient just because he supports a different franchise. In another ad, a teenager who is about to sacrifice his seat in bus to an elderly person, refrains from doing so after coming to know that he supports a different franchise.

 

    Harbhajan’s actions on Friday were least expected from a senior player like him. Few months back when Hayden commented on Harbhajan calling him ‘obnoxious little weed’, the entire nation stood by Harbhajan. But Bhajji, this time you let us down. Please remember that cricket is a gentlemen’s game. Be disciplined on the field and don’t go on and become another Shoaib.

Indian Premier League – A Hit or a Miss?

The first thing which comes into my mind when I think about IPL is the money invested in it. IPL is a county cricket, a game played between teams of different regions at domestic level. Each team is owned by a franchise. Take a look at the amount invested by different franchises for their players. The figures are staggering.

Bangalore Royal Challengers   – Rs. 19.8 Crores

Chennai Super Kings                – Rs. 23.7 Crores

Delhi DareDevils                        – Rs. 22.5 Crores

Hyderabad Deccan Chargers  – Rs. 23.5 Crores

Rajasthan Royals                       – Rs. 12.8 Crores

Kolkata Knight Riders               – Rs. 24 Crores

IPL Mohali                                   – Rs. 22.9 Crores

Mumbai Indians                         – Rs. 20.5 Crores 

When India exited from the World Cup in the first round in 2007, imagine how the sentiment of public was. Everyone was running away from cricket. The Twenty 20 world cup victory changed the entire dynamics in less than six months. Some of the big names in Indian business such as Dr. Vijay Mallya, Mukesh Ambani, and movie stars such as Shah Rukh Khan, Priety Zinta, Juhi Chawla are already associated with IPL. That makes IPL a blend of commerce, entertainment and sport in that order.

With players of different countries playing for a team together, no doubt, it will be an entirely different experience. India’s traditional rivals, players from Pakistan and off late rivals, Aussies will be in the same team. That’s something people will seldom get to watch.

But the Ultimate question remains “will the IPL be accepted by the public with open arms?” Will it create a spark in the country? I am skeptical. Take the previous Tri Series for example. When India was playing against Australia, millions of Indian fans from across the country were supporting the team. But this wont be the case in domestic cricket. A Kolkata fan won’t be so much interested in the tournament once his team is out. People like to stand for the “country” as a whole than for regions. Indian Cricket League (ICL) which is going on currently didn’t generate much public interest. So whether IPL will be a success or not, only future can tell.

Aussie ki Taisi

Finally India has done it! A victory over the mighty Aussies! That too on their own land. Beating Australia in Australia is a dream for every cricketing nation. The Indians have done it in style by winning the CB series 2-0. The undisputed masters for decades, four time world champions have received threat to their throne.

The journey for India though hasn’t been smooth. A relatively inexperienced captain and absence of some senior players created concerns. But youngsters in the team gave more than what was expected of them. Rohit Sharma, Ishant Sharma, Piyush Chawla, Praveen Kumar, all under the age of 22, played superbly. On the other hand Australian team is ageing. Adam Gilchrist and Brad Hogg have already announced their retirement. The other key players Rickey Ponting, Matthew Hayden, Andrew Symonds, Brett Lee, Michael Hussey, and Nathan Bracken are all in their 30s. This is definitely a concern for the future of Australian cricket.

The one thing and perhaps the only thing that helped Indians was the team spirit. And thanks to the Aussies for creating so many controversies which brought the Indian players together. Harbhajan Singh was accused of racism throughout the tri series. Even the young Ishant Sharma was not spared. He was accused of directing Symonds to pavilion while in fact he was provoked to do so. No doubts Aussies are the champs in sledging. They provoke their opponents first and when one reacts he is accused. And as the saying goes “Action speaks a thousand words” Indians have exactly done that.

Indian Cricket is at its best. Victory in Twenty 20 world cup, Test win at Perth, Under 19 world cup victory and now victory in CB Tri Series proves that. So men in blue, keep the spirit going!