Who's your Daddy?

All the hype, hoopla, Bollywood star tantrums, cleavage oh and cricket too from the IPL almost distracted me and made me miss the start of the Frank Worrell trophy in Kingston. I said almost. I am glad my cricket intuition didn't desert me: like a homing bird I switched to the start of the match in the Caribbean, saw Katich struggle, rolled my eyes at impending doom for the Windies when that street fighter walked in at No. 3 and left at the end asking the question "who's your daddy....?"

RT Ponting got his 100 of 127 balls and went to get 158 as Australia pounded 301 runs on Day 1. He is now at 35 hundreds...4 behind many people's all time great. No prizes for guessing who that is. For one reason or another which I have to date not been able to articulate I have been fascinated by successive Australian players: Damien Martyn, the Waugh twins, Allan Border, Mark Taylor and more recently RT Ponting. The common touch has been their ability to always deliver when the chips are down. Out of all these that I mentioned, none could however match RTP for his ability to completely dominate and crush the opposition. Only one other man continues to do that in world cricket today and he wears a blue jersey with no. 10.

If this is the trend, I think RTP will soon overtake no. 10 for test 100's...having said that I have eaten humble pie too many times before so I'll just sit back and enjoy the cricket.

Cheers? I don't think so...

I urge one and all to drink and consume Royal Stag ...packaged drinking water. Kindly avoid Royal Challenge...packaged drinking water.

I'm sorry Dr. VJM but this time you picked a dud. And what a dud you picked...I hope I am wrong but right now it sure looks that way.

Next Change

Now that the water has flowed and the dust settled, Ricky Ponting's words before the CB series finals glow a rich crimson and stand testimony to the age old but oft forgotten truth that those whom the Gods would destroy they first make proud: "I think 2 finals will be enough ..." indeed.

The men in blue have shown the power of youth. Now it remains to be seen if the Rohit Sharmas and Uthappas and Ishants go the same way as so many other youngsters (think Kaif, Raina, Balaji and so on...) or whether they carry on to forge a truly world beating side. As for Australia, no replacement will come for Gilchrist and there doesn't seem to be a single spinner anywhere in sight who can play a role, especially in slow conditions. Haddin may be competent as a batsman but to go from having the world's best 'keeper-batsman to arguably no. 4 (after Sangakarra, Dhoni & Boucher) leaves a big hole not easily filled and the absence of a competent slow bowler only adds to the woes. To have 4 of your strike bowlers as pacers is a clear lack of variety and not every pitch would be a WACA...oh but hang on that didn't help either! :-)

On to South Africa now. It will be interesting to see how resurgent RD, SCG and VVS are, especially considering the doors to the ODI team have more or less been permanently shut for all 3 of them. What will also be interesting is who will partner Wasim Jaffer now? And will Yuvraj find a place in the team? More than anything else however, I am looking forward to the return of RP Singh who I've always felt has the pace, swing and seam to trouble anybody. Zaheer's form too will be interesting to watch out for.

And April 18th, Bangalore will witness its first IPL T20: Bangalore Vs Kolkata... rest assured there'll be many of us there with beers, banners and much banter too!

Champs again

For all the talk of Indian cricket being in the dumps (if one were to believe certain comments left on this blog) and only a money spinning machine, India has cornered the second among what I believe are the 5 crowns of Cricket globally (the other 3 being 50/50, Test cricket and the Champions Trophy). The Under 19 team played some glorious cricket to nudge out South Africa in winning the junior world cup. This is another big step in India's march toward becoming the top cricket team in the world. Of course there's a long way to go yet but yesterday offered some glimpses into the future.

The combination of a cricketing master class by SRT left the Australians floundering, misfielding, over throwing and finally folding in the face of the SRT - RS combo. If SRT displayed why he is still SRT, then Rohit Sharma was not far behind, playing some audacious strokes on the way to a match winning innings. The big disappointment was Uthappa again but one hopes he will be persisted with and will come good eventually.

How to weed this out?

In Punjabi culture, comparing a person to a plant or tree is considered extremely offensive and is an extremely racist slur. The entire Sikh and Punjabi community, and indeed India is up in arms over this racist slur by one among the pack of wild dogs (not my comparison call Peter Roebuck!). The nation is demanding that this racist slur be punished to the fullest!

OK so I am kidding. But it seems like these guys just can't learn to keep their mouths shut. Its gone beyond disgust now and just become a really bad taste in the mouth that keeps recurring. It seems like there really are no boundaries to the arrogance, audacity and maliciousness of this Australian team. As a cricket fan again I'm quite aghast at what this Australian team has reduced the game to, trampling its spirit into the mud and brazenly claiming this as a victory for sport at the altar of patriotism. The reception most Australian players save Brett Lee will get in India will be interesting to say the least.

Om namaha

I am reproducing a short news story that appeared in the Times of India today:

Indian cricketers turn to bhajans

Melbourne: Indian cricketers are turning to devotional songs to calm their nerves in the ongoing tri-series against Australia and Sri Lanka here. ‘Bhajans’ of popular singers such as Lata Mangeshkar, Hari Om Sharan and Anup Jalota are much in vogue among cricketers, who are finding this as an useful exercise to deal with the stress of media and opponents on the field. The trend, which started after losing the Sydney Test, has gained wider acceptance among cricketers since they have withstood the test of last few weeks remarkably well. Cricketers are being offered CDs which range from devotional to patriotic songs and even holy chants or Vedanta shlokas. Once they have selected the song of their choice, they have been told by experts to sit cross-legged on the floor and then concentrate on the middle of a chart which has several rounded layers in various colours. Cricketers are being asked to concentrate on the centre of the chart to the best of their ability and as they do so, the song of their choice is played in the background. AGENCIES

Teams around the world get the best sports psychologists, bio mechanical experts et al and we hand out CDs of bhajans. I love it. However, not discounting our ancient and learned culture if this turns out to be the secret weapon which propels our spoilt, pampered men in blue to conquer test series and world cups, then so be it! But something tells me the players must be cracking obscene jokes about this scheme in the change room. Viru & Yuvi listening to shlokas over a big tandoori chicken? Ha! I love my India.

The last one

I promise this is the last of my posts on "monkeygate"...I couldn't resist sharing this one! Sorry! :-)