God of Cricket - An Immortal Human Being

The sky was dark and gloomy and there was a strong downpour outside preventing me from stepping outside my home for the routine work, it was good in one way that it was a time to introspect and all that i had on my mind at that point in time was it has been a long time since i wrote about something. Suddenly as lighthing and thunder stuck outside the window, the thought about the god of cricket stuck my mind. Well i may be a amateur blogger since i have a  hardly written a few blogs but i definetly had the joy on my face and mind when i had this thought. What a dolt i would have been for not to have written about the cricket of god for so long, he being my favorite cricketer and cricket being my passion.

I always admired this idea, forget the fact, everybody loves and relishes how elegantly he plays cricket. Sachin always keeps telling in all press conferences, " Enjoy the game and have a passion for it" These can be proverbs in anyones life, why worry about something thats not under your control, rather do the best that you have control upon. None in this world and especially in India can deny the fact that the thought of Sachin would bring a smile to face like the same way if they would think about a Nelson Mandela or a Mother Teresa. Well this is not exaggeration infact it's a justification of the great deeds that he has done to the game of cricket and to the people of india. If a guy like me who neither had any formal practice nor mentoring about the game, can play the game and mentor a few people to a certain extent, then most of the credit should go to sachin. All these was possible only by watching and observing great players play the game on television sets and to a great extent closely watching sachin's game. Sachin is a shrewd cricketer because he never becomes ecstatic about over acheiving anything great nor becomes extremely somber after a big loss. He takes all this in his stride and learns from each of them which is what makes him stand above the rest of all the people.

We all very well know when sachin goes on to bat he carries the hopes of one billion people belonging to the nation but how he has managed to do this for the past 20 years in his cricketing career is a lesson for all to learn. Blemish all the facts that he plays for records or not a match winner, i doubt whether these people have any clue about the game of cricket. Just as a food for thought to these dullards, how can man survive in cricket for 20 years had he been a person playing for records or not a genuine match winner. I wonder where these people were when a 16 year old guy in 1989 played the second greatest fast bowling attack in the world with great technical mind and courage . How can people forget the match wherein he went on with a blood soaked t-shirt after a injuiry to his mouth in the final test to save the match. Imran, Wasim and Waqar were considered as the deadly trio for their pace and toe crushing yorkers during those days. How happy would a Indian feel when he reads or listens about the reality that  the century by him as a 19-year-old on a lightning-fast pitch at the WACA is considered one of the best innings ever to have been played in Australia.

Yes ofcourse he did take some time to score his maiden one day hundred, to be precise he didn't score his first ODI hundred till his 79th match. So whats wrong with that, how many people would have placed their bets if they were asked who would be the first man to have 100 international centuries in the game of cricket. Be it the back to back match saving knocks in sharjah to win the cup against the aussies and in particular Shane Warne. To quote, shane warne got his T shirt signed by sachin after this happened. He has always been a thorn in shane warne's memory and many others bowlers to add to that. Shane warne himself has quoted that he always has had nightmares when he thinks about bowling to sachin. This proves the fact that what a great batsman the god of cricket has been. Dennis Lilee once said in a interview that if he had to bowl to sachin then he would bowl with a helmet on since he felt that no one else in world cricket hits the hard so straignt and back past the bowler. There are too many instances to quote and then this blog needs to be splits into multiple parts hence i am limiting myself from quoting all the instances of the genius master piece innings. In a Nutshell he is a man of extreme brilliance and he possesses uncomplicated approch towards the game of cricket.

Needless to say everyone adores the brilliance and humbleness of little master, the best compliment for him came from another god of cricket none other than Don Bradman, when he realized that the style with the little genius played reminded him of playing style and  his cricketing days. This is the highest point of recognition that anyone can get. I believe that the next guy who could get this is yet to be born, true to the fact normal people are born everyday but genius are once in a rarity. No wonder that all the records in the cricketing book belongs to this gentleman and only one feather missing in his hat is the worldcup win. At the current rate in both LOI and Test cricket, with the sublime form and impeccable keeness towards the game i doubt if that would remain a distant dream beyond 2011 worldcup. As huge number of crowds join hands and celebrate the happiness of the Team India and in particular the magnificence of their hero, should i be left out of the chain???

Extant Tigers!!!

Well Well Well, to begin with I am not quite sure about this hue and cry on Save our Tigers campaign. Icons from diversified fields come up on the TV Screen for 15 to 30 secs and keep gibbering "Just 1411 left". So what?. Is it enough just to pledge to your support and sit back quietly. Well i wonder what Dhoni and Bhutia have done apart from appearing on the screen, speaking up the pre written script. Realistically speaking I might not have much an idea about what they are actually doing but i would also like to question who all have?

We all very well know of the famous adage, "Prevention is better than cure". Just to add a tinge of my own thoughts to this , I would modify the above adage to " Be Pro Active and do not Post Mortem". By this i mean nothing against the current actions that are being done by the WWF and AIRCEL but i strongly believe whether all this being too little late for people to realise this and act promptly. Mostly by the time everyone realize the importance and act, who knows we might all have only 141 tigers left in the country.

So much is said about the campaign, but i dont see alot of places or forums or groups working towards this or rather people could be made aware of what is really going on. If i ask a lay man about the "Save our Tigers Campaign ", i could be in for a surprise for who knows it might sound like Greek or Latin to him. The other sad part of this story is the role of Indian Government, what have they done, well they might have come into picture once WWF seriously got involved into it. That was much more to save its face rather than any other thing majorly.

Well to be more precise the approach should have been entirely different. The Govt of India, WWF should have acted much earlier in order to have prevented this present situation. What could have been done was probably to have establish a relief mechanism to resolve or reduce the intensity of extinction and once that was done it would have been a much easier job for people to briefly explain on the relief mechanisms since the results of the implementation of is there for everyone to observer,analyze and contemplate. This shows not only the maturity of the way our government functions but boosts up the confidence amidst the people that these so called leaders are capable enough to handle emergency situations.

One good thing among all this probably for the government is that the campaign is not seriously taken by one of the state government, else they would go on a state wide protest assuming that its about saving some other tigers. As things roll out, only thing that every individual can do is to stop eating Brittania Tiger biscuts thinking that i could help in saving rapid extinction of tigers because thats how people might interpret the campaign without awareness or a real holistic value of this noble cause.

Needless to say, its the need of the hour to create sentience about this campaign and the expectations from individual without which this could be yet another conked out mission added to the long list of failures. "Necessity is the mother of invention" but looks like we are in search of the same before we try to innovate new ways of solving troubles.. I stumbled upon to recollect that we studied in our early school days that Tiger is (was) our National animal and going by the current state of affairs, it apparently appears as though the government has a task cut out to discover a new replacement...

End of the Road...

We have all witnessed the so called great IPL season 3. As we come to the fag end of the season, we all would have expected the second stint of IPL at home to become popular for the right reasons, well ofcourse it had all the ingredients, fun, frantic, excitment and also a little bit of glamour but only for the first part of the season. Then the devil gods opened up all that didnt need to happen.

The entire drama started unfolding once the auctions for the two IPL teams began, no body expected the auctions to go towards summit figures, i doubt whether lalit modi would have placed his bets at first place had been said the figures would cross the 1,500 crore mark. It surpises me alot where do all these money keep coming in from, not only at this point of IPL auction but i have always wondered when such huge amount of money hits the newspapers headlines be it for any reasons. India, a developing country, as many of us think, but i doubt this statement and would say its an under rated one after all this money scandal and money laundering business comes to light. I always have this question in mind, when such huge money transactions happen for any purpose, why dont the government get involved, they always need some one to spill the beans and its more often than not its a repair mechanisnm rather than a preventive or a proactive mechanism that the government of india follows.

We all know match fixing has always been a integral part of any highly hyped cricket tournament, be it the world cup or any other major tournaments. So why dont the government not only the indian government but also other governments have little control on these. For instance, when the south african players cronje, gibbs got caught in the match fixing scandals in the 1999-200o cricketing tour to india, the after effects was literally none. Is is fair on the players who assume high moral standing, people look up to these people as role models not only within their country but also outside their country to get involved in such petty business. Do they ever feel ashamed. I doubt so and more often that not,the answer from them would be a big NO. Its high time the government take some strict actions just like in the case of Azharuddin who is facing a life ban for all that he did.

Back to the drama and the gloom thats surrounding the IPL 3 off the field, well no one would have expected that IPL3 back in india for its second stint would get into such carks. Well the IPL commissioner Lalit Modi, deserves a special mention here, to a certain extent i strongly feel he has made a cuckoo of himself. Well as a lay man, i might not know the complete truth or the entire insights to all these matters but i strongly believe that he has no one other than himself to blame.He is got stuck in this mud and he has no one to blame. He should have taken a leaf from the Chennai Super Kings, Srinivasan who was atleast smart enough to get prior approval from the BCCI before buying stakes in CSK team. He was a smart administrator and from the of late news , CSK has been cleared of all the IT raids and money laundering scams. Atleast as of now CSK is on good books. The BCCI and the governing body are not showing any signs of having soft corner towards Mr.Modi. Be it because of the political pressure from the government or as such its the way BCCI operates, well we dont know. However its good in one way for the BCCI to salvage something for itself amidst all these upshots.

The news is not great if you are a modi supporter. The events that are leading upto the governing council meeting on 26th april are no way in favour of modi. The news that he and his relatives have a enormous amount of stakes is not going to help modi by any extent. Add to that his stubborn stand that he is going to boycott the meeting is not going to help in any way. News reveals that BCCI is for sure going to ask modi to resign from his position. Things are looking bleak for modi. If there is some one that would could help modi to get him out of this deep shi*, its none other than himself. One reason why he is not ready to step down is that he has enjoyed all the royal life after becoming the IPL commissioner, he might want to miss out on this, after all he is a human being and not a saint to forgo all this. The best thing that modi can do is to step down from the position, prove that he is not at fault (which i doubt alot) and come back is the way forward. Should be stick to the way and means of employing tactics that he is curretly following, there is very little chance for modi to stay on and it looks like the end of the road is not far away....

Lessons Learnt!!!

Eventually, as day light faded out on the 13th march 2010, little did we know that we were in for a beau idéal of a contest on the cards. All those who paid to watch the match live in the stadium had their money's worth. They were treated with some excellent batting display from both the sides, be it the Royals of Rajasthan or the Indians of Mumbai. The spectators would cherish this memory for many more years to come. These would be bed time stories or tales to their grand children in the 22nd century when probably cricket would be extinct on the universe or rather the essence of the game would have gone for a topsy-turvy ride.

The key outcome of this match is very well there for all of us to see. IPL initially when it begun had this bruit that it could be a platform for hard hitting batsman's to surpass and exhibit their powers. The likes of the afridi's, the sehwag's, the hayden's,the gilchrist's and the pandey's would have been the people to look out for and place your stakes on. Well to our astonishment, we were proved wrong to a certain extent, infact look at the people who have outperformed others. This opens a interesting question for disputation. Who would do you go for, when you wanna make your own team, the old war horses like sachin, gilly, hayden,kumble,kallis and jayasuriya or the youth brigade of pandey, uthappa, rayadu, tiwary,bopara,kohli and raina.

This again proves rather intends the power of style&elegance Vs that of raw power. Which one is bigger??? or rather should the question be, Which is better to possess??? This one is a classic example that would keep persuading every ones mind and instigates it to behave like a pendulum to take stance on either sides.

People call it dilemma. I see this as a situation for one to introspect himself, may be his mind and the way he would react to a decisive moment in his life or a crisis situation. We all know that its a matter of this decision that we would always look back and try to reflect upon irrespective of how life has progressed from there on.If you are able to ascertain the situation and make the right decision then nothing like that but are we in a position to get it right everytime would be the million dollar question. I agree we all have bad days and moments in life, but do we let it get to us time after time, my answer, quite similar to everyone's would be a big NO NO!!!.How do we make ourselfs better, as i cited earlier its a blend of Power, Style, Elegance and if required may be a pinch of arrogance is the obvious answer.

How do we develop it, is the question for all of us to answer in our own ways.If you ask me personally, well i would want to have a perfect blend of these, which ofcourse i know is a difficult thing to achieve, for we all know nothing in life is a freebee, for we also know that for everything else there is Master Card...

IPL Season 3

This being my first blog and it is a rife amidst all,question of what should i right about in my first blog popped out in mind too, for i am a normal person as well. So then i actually decided to write about IPL season 3 which is making hit lists as well as high TRP's not only across India but across the globe as well. IPL season 3 started off with a huge extravagnza event on the 12th of march in mumbai. The best venue for the opening match on its return to india after the one in south africa last year. Thanks to Goverenment of India and all the politicians, special thanks to UPA alliance for not making the elections an yearly affair,for we never know this year the season could have been in England or Australia. The first match was slated between the last year champions Deccan Chargers to be played against the last team Kolkota Knight Riders. Sharukh Khan was desperately hoping for a change in fortunes and wanted to be lucky third time around. In fact for the Deccan Chargers the winners of the second edition of the IPL they too would want to start of with a bang, the same way they signed off last year. Recall the tautness in the IPL season 2 finals. The Royal Challengers Bangalore put up a brave fight and gave deccan a run for their money. Lets wait and watch who will hold their nerve and come out on top in the opening match of the IPL Season 3. All well and said, we have a gripping month of cricket fever and fervour on our hands. Happy Cricketeering for all the ardent cricket fans!!!