Ok, sorry for the title. It should read Favoritism , but hypocrisy goes too. I was just peeking in to The Hindu today. And guess what I saw??
Turning to the sports page, I saw almost a half page article dedicated to the UEFA Champions league, then a smaller one proclaiming the ‘Remarkable Rise of Norwich’ . Yes , Norwich city of the EPL. Now I am a footy fan and all for it. But turning to the next page I saw I league getting a passable mention. Now, this sickens me. I know probably the Hindu doesn’t have the obligation to post a bigger piece on Indian Football. After all the UEFA post was sourced from a foreign newspaper. But the Norwich article seems to be written by an Indian author. Should I put it down to laziness or favoritism?? The biggest domestic competition in the country deserves better coverage, definitely. But I would be happy that
A report on Arsenal’s loss to AC Milan in the UEFA Champions League
An Article on the Newly promoted club Norwich city , which plays in the English Premier League
A report on Mohammedan Sporting’s winning run in the I League
the Hindu atleast has a feature on I League.
It is common to see sports headlines on websites, newspapers in India blaring out on European football, whilst happily neglecting it’s Indian Counterpart. Sad.
Stepping in 15 minutes to watch a movie that is the prequel of a movie that i didn’t watch doesn’t help, but i found RotPotA quite ok.
A supposedly ravishing < perhaps it was simi garewal who found her so> and rock-hardplace james franco are the only notable human characters in this movie. Oh and there is this guy who plays Draco Malfoy from Harry potter, he plays a mean kid. There was also Christian Lithgow, the guy who plays the meanest killer on tv ( the trinity killer on Dexter). He plays James Franco’s alzheimer’s affected Dad. Every now and then i thought he was gonna trash Pinto’s head ( she has a really confusing accent) or the neighbour who keeps abusing him.
But it was more notable that the movie felt like a typical tamil movie, only for the actors to be replaced by monkeys. I swear there were scenes lifted from the Tamil blockbuster Bhaasha.
The movie revolves around the rise of the .. you get it. The movie was way too long for me , i dozed off , woke up to find the monkeys still kicking some human arse. Maybe if you watch the original , you might like it .The special effects are good, certain sequences where the main protagonist simian – Caesar , gathers the rest of the apes is one to remember.
“He has carried Indian cricket on his shoulders for 21 years. So it was fitting that we carried him on our shoulders after this win.” Virat Kohli
Some said it was destiny that a man who has carried the hopes of a billion people , should lift cricket’s biggest trophy in his own backyard. On April 2nd as Mahendra Singh Dhoni dismissed the ball to a six, a whole nation cheered. But it was evident that the dimunitive mumbaikar was the happiest man on the planet. The likes of Yuvraj Singh , MS Dhoni, Harbhajan Singh made it very clear . They did it for Sachin Tendulkar.
No one could deny that the victory at Wankhede was scripted by Gambhir and the tenacious Dhoni, but the country as a whole saluted it’s most favorite son : Sachin Tendulkar. Everybody knew that ,statistically atleast, this would be Sachin’s last world cup. So, to go out and win it for him would have been the best thing you could do for him. And win it they did. All through the tournament, Sachin had wielded the willow as he has done in every world cup before this. And reminiscent of the Indian teams of the past ,the Indian batting order collapsed(not taking anything away from Yuvaraj’s performance) , giving us fears that we might not make it this time. But the team delivered when it mattered the most.
Every Indian batting chase has revolved around it’s openers, Sourav and Sachin or Viru and Sachin. Chasing 275 to win in the finals against the Lankans was no easy task. But when Master and His Apprentice got out, India were floundering at 31/2. Clocks were turned to the Indian side of the 90′s when you could practically switch off the TV, go to bed and find out the margin of defeat next morning. NO , not this time around. Kohli, Gambhir , Dhoni and Yuvraj rallied around to make it one of the best run chases in the history of the World cup. It happens to be the highest in a world cup final. They made sure that Sachin got the one thing that was missing from his resume – World Champion. A fitting way to bid adieu to the quadrennial tournament.
Final Farewell
After the game when Virat Kohli said : “Sachin Tendulkar has carried Indian cricket on his shoulders for 21 years. So it was fitting that we carried him on our shoulders after this win” , one could not think that he spoke it out of the moment. But this win , this farewell present for the Man was years in the making. I remember MSD making Sourav Ganguly captain the team for the last few hours on his last test match for india . But this farewell party tops it all. We all hope that Sachin would continue playing for the country though, the ball is in his court.
The Day that every cricket fan in this Cricket Crazy country dreams about is finally here.
The finals of the ODI world cup. India Vs Srilanka. India has been on and off in this tournament, beating only the minnows before managing to beat the windies to comfortably make it to the next stage. After a lacklustre group stage performance the wins against the Aussies was just the boost we required for the world to consider us the favorites again. A mouth watering semifinals clash against the Arch rivals proved that Dhoni’s midas touch might have gone from his batting but not his captaincy. After successfully turning Nehra from the most hated man in the country to a hero against pakistan, Dhoni is back as India’s ‘coolest’ captain. (ya ofcourse).
While the “bollywood” biggies and the political hotshots will cheer for India at Mumbai, the real fans of the Men In Blue will be praying in front of TV sets, in their homes, outside TV showrooms, in shops that have one creaking TV set, praying that the Cup remains in the country, for It is the last world cup game for the most favorite son of India, Sachin Tendulkar.
Well you have all seen Pietersen with the Tharbooza
Dilshan with the Pallu,
Bhajji with his tingly(??).
What if the people over at Pepsi “get idea”?? This is my version of “Change the Game”
Ouchhh!!!
Player Involved : Prince of Kolkata , The Person other than God on the offside : Sourav Ganguly
Location : Pillayar Koil Near Chennai (peculiar location , anything other than Kolkata would be so, but let us take the poetic license)
Initial sequences shall show Sourav getting hit , left , right and centre. See left first, kolkata special. < I guess sourav never went to night clubs, he was afraid of bouncers>. Now getting back to business, Sourav watches devotees doing the ashirvad(no , not the atta), hands above in praying position, head bowed down,saying “Kadavule Kappaathu” . Sourav feels it is an elegant way to handle bouncers. “Ippa matchlayum ippadiye pannu” . Sourav duly obliges.
Here are some tips for Dada to Pull it off
Step 1 : Now , close your eyes, Dada
Step 2: Put your Hands up to your chest, duck your head.
A global event like the World Cup offers opportunities to the host country to open up to global tourism. But the BCCI thinks otherwise. Even before the ‘showpiece’ event kicked off , I felt that there was very little hype/publicity surrounding the tournament. It feels like the BCCI were working on the sole premise that has brought in the moolah – “Cricket sells”. How else can you explain Ten Cricket acquiring the rights for “Jharkand Premier League”??
In a country where Cricketers are revered as Gods and damned as Traitors based on the latest results, BCCI knew from the start that they need not go out and sell their product to the world. People would buy at any cost. But the scenes at Nagpur and Bengalooru show the real apathy that the cricketing board has towards the fans. One can blame the public for creating a scene and disorder at the ticketing areas but much onus should have been on the board to make sure that everything runs smoothly. On top of all this comes the news that the general public might not have tickets for the world cup final.
Is the ICC killing it’s own tournament screams the article in the previous link. Which I feel is very much true. Every Indian fan would have harbored the hopes of watching the finals on Apr 2 , but with the lottery system and the chaos surrounding the ticket sales, I am not sure how many people would bother. If the performances of the Indian team are anything to go by, buying a ticket to the finals seems too much pain for nothing.
To Share (v) : joint use of a resource or space. In its narrow sense, it refers to joint or alternating use of an inherently finite good, such as a common pasture or a shared residence. It is also the process of dividing and distributing. .
Unknown to the definition framers over at Wikipedia.org exists a sinister and more practical meaning for the word ‘Sharing’. It can only be appreciated by someone who has , for at least for once in their life, put their life on the line while traveling on one of the more modern methods of Transit in IT-India. No we are not talking about Jet skis or roller blades but the “Share-Auto”.
Notice the sinister use of the word share. It doesn’t actually mean that you get a share of space on the vehicle. No, No No. Share-Auto riding refers to an ingenius cost cutting solution that allows upto 20 people to travel on an Auto. The Share-Auto is as much an adventure sport as it is an ingenious economic solution. Imagine able to travel Kms in an Indian Suburb for 1/10th the original fare. But like all schemes offered by Super villains, the Share-Auto has a catch.
Imagine having to packed like sardines in an auto , which mentions 7 in all. For those who might think that it means the total number of passengers, I pity you all. It actually refers to the number of people that can/should be accommodated in every possible direction. Perilous you think?? Oh we are not done yet.
Like all things modern , the Share-Auto also has a sinister sidekick, if you would. It is called the MP3Player. Yes you heard it right. As you travel from point A to point B clinging to the inches allotted to you by the driver’s right hand , i e the Cleaner, you are made to listen to minutes of brilliant music that you didn’t know existed. Some of them are the most mind-numbing tracks of the 90s to the blatant techno hits of Himmesh Reshammiya!!! I guess there can be a separate post for the “Shared-Auto” discography. Here are some of the tracks that seem to hit the top in this category.
MYOOSICK
This is perhaps the most epic song i have ever heard on a share-auto. Listen to the lyrics , the underlying meaning, the pathos . Try to listen to this with a straight face.
you just have to marvel at the vocal range of Kumar Sanu in the era of these songs.
Simple 90′s/Late 80′s Bollywood MYooSick Generator = (Kumar Sanu + Alka Yagnik) (Copious amounts of Meherbaan, Saaheban, Dil,Jigar,Pyaar)
This one has to be my most favorite irritant song. It takes the cake. Thank god there aren’t video screens yet. Else you would have to put up with the voice as well as the face!!! *gasp*. And to add to all there is the techno-remix version that is most played.
cue :facepalm!!
Cost Cutting does have it’s perils ya know.
One small question put forward to Ravi Shastri, How many times does he actually mean what he says?? “The atmosphere here is electric”, the atmosphere here is absolutely electric. I guess by that he means it is plainly electric and nothing electronic. Just as “it was nothing personal , just business” . Next time I hear him saying that electric thingy , I am gonna keep count just to start a social cause for him to save ‘electricity’. Coming to what was originally the point of this whole post , the tied game or as I would like to call the ‘Game that no one really wanted to win’.
The last time the world cup was held in the subcontinent was 15 years ago. Like many people of my age group, this is the first world cup. 15 years on, the World cup returns to the subcontinent, only to be greeted by the non availablity of Eden Gardens, a pity indeed.
But what remains frozen in mind are the memories of the most magical moments of the ’96 world cup. I can vividly remember the opening ceremony, the laser light displays (i hope) and all the gala. This was the world cup where Lanka came ahead of the pack, where teams were hit by the gale force of the Jaysuriya-Li’l Kalu combine and further pulverised by the likes of Arjuna Ranatunga and Aravinda De Silva. Though they went on to defeat the mighty Aussies in the finals , the most lasting memories pertain to the games that India played. Who could forget the verbal battle between Venkatesh Prasad and Aamir Sohail or the complete destruction of the pakistan bowling attack by Ajay Jadeja. Then there were solo efforts by Sachin against Windies , Australia and Lanka.
The definite moment to forget for every Indian fan would be the semifinals. It is not so much the loss but the manner in which the game had to be forfeited that still depresses me. Chasing a stiff target set by the lankans india were reduced to around 120 odd with 8 wickets down. The match had to be forfeited as a result of crowd trouble protesting the lacklustre performance from the team which was carrying the hopes of a huge nation. The image of Vinod Kambli reduced to tears while returning to the dressing room still remains fresh in memory. Lets just hope that such visuals do not manifest themselves this time around.
Nope I am not talking about february29th. Well it’s about the World Cup Of Cricket!!
For any Indian male growing up in the late 80′s, there are somethings that he has grow up with. 1. Cricket(though ,unfortunately it applies to every indian male) 2. Sachin Tendulkar 3. A.R.Rehman. And being born in 1988, I was not immune to these 3 things. Now that the Cricket World Cup is coming home (atleast for the time that its held here), I thought “why not look back at the world cups that I have seen in my life?” And here they are. Honest reflections and views on the “Gentleman’s game” , so to speak.
