Cricket # 3: The Complacency

Height of Indian Cricket team's complacency - Dravid (a specialist batsman) is wicket-keeping, Dhoni (a specialist wicketkeeper) is bowling, while Zaheer (a specialist bowler) is exer-cycling in a gym in an official International Cricket Test match; and YES, all are members of the playing team.

(Reality - Zaheer is injured and temporarily out of the match and so Dhoni is experimenting with bowling; but what the heck - lets criticize them :P its must for the team's successful expedition in England).

Cricket # 2 : The Dilemma

Many a times a man (as in Homo Sapiens) is put through dilemmatic situations; none more prominent than those in Sport.

Who doesn't love sports? Across the World there are billions of fans of football and there would be at least a billion Cricket fans in the Indian Subcontinent alone. And some people are so fanatical about their teams that they would go miles following their favorite team or even would burn effigies if their heroes fail.

While the players (who actually fight it out in the middle) are tied down by the nationality they hold, the coaches and support staff are not bound by such rules. This was the reason Bob Woolmer, an Englishman is credited for bringing South African team to top of test rankings. Dave Whatmore who played for Australia, gained fame leading Sri Lankans to World Cup victory in 1996 and later make a formidable team out of Bangladesh's kids.

The past coach of Indian cricket team, Gary Kirsten, faced the dilemma when Indian Cricket team toured South Africa under him. While India was fighting to retain the top spot in test cricket rankings, the Proteas who were at second place were looking forward to dislodge Indians. More recently, South Africans faced Indian Cricket team in the World Cup while Gary was the coach.

Currently India is on tour of England under another English coach Duncan Fletcher, who played for England and 5 years ago he coached the English national team. What a dilemma it would be for him? 5 years ago he was striving to make name for the English cricket team and today he would be making plans to rout them.

With top spot at stake, if the Indian cricket team fail to make their mark in England, would questions be raised against his professional integrity? If Indians rout the English, would Duncan's home country raise fingers on him (specially when most of the current English team played under him earlier and he would know their playing behavior).

One can only wonder, how tremendous pressure situation a coach would often have to go. Its indeed a great Dilemma.

Personal # 4: My Art Creation Of The Day

Here's a landscape picture created out by concatenation of 5 individual images.

This is an image of the Atlantic Ocean as viewed from East Coast of the US.

Click here to view the image in picasa album.

Personal # 3 : Camping Trip To Acadia National Park 2011

public Enjoy campingVacation() {

fly (Dayton, Boston);

fly (Cleveland, Boston);

drive (Boston, AcadiaNationalPark);

while (haveTime) {

camping();

hiking();

}

drive(AcadiaNationalPark, Boston);

fly (Boston, LaGuardia);

fly (LaGuardia, Dayton);

}

Cricket # 1 : Coming up 2000

Its been nearly a century and half that the first official test was played between England and Australia; then test playing giants. The test was played in 1877 in Australian continent. And soon the 2000th test is coming up. This however, will be played between England and India.

It will be the third time India will be featuring in any 100th tests. Earlier in 400th test ever played, India faced Pakistan in Karachi in 1954/55 season and it ended in a draw. Then in 1992, India played South Africa in Durban in test#1200 of the history.

It took over a century to play first 1000 tests (1000th test was played in 1984/85); while the next thousand would have been played in less than three decades.

Amazing # 4 : Hudson's the runway

About two and half years ago a plane took off from LaGuardia, New York and minutes into the flight, it lost power on both its jet engines. It was flying at height of 700m. Burj Al Khalifa is 828m and the tallest skyscraper of New York is nearly 400m high.

The plane was still climbing when both its engines failed due to bird-hits and all it could do was try to find nearest airport for emergency landing, but there was non in the reach. It didnt even have time to turn back to La Guardia. What did the pilot do - land in the Hudson river.

The Hudson river was the only runway the plane could land on and it was brave decision that saved life of 155 passengers and crew members.

But here's something more interesting. Where's the plane that crashed.

Well, the company managed to salvage the plane before it could sink in the river and its now going to become a museum.

Here's more details on it.

And here's how the fateful accident took place

Did u like this post or not? click appropriately below.

Amazing # 3 : River or waste dump...

The Bombay-ites would have heard about polluted Mutha. The Delhi-ites would have heard about polluted Yamuna. Those residing along the Ganges would be worried about the increasing pollution in the river. What would you say about the people living along the Citarum.

Flowing in the Western Indonesia, Cituram was once a source of fresh water to hundreds of thousands of peoples fetching water for household as well as irrigation purposes, but it now holds waste afloat its waters; waste generated from over 9 million people living along the banks of the river. The only way one can tell that its a river is from the boat that the garbage pickers ride over the river; risking their lives on order to pull out plastic/glass bottles, furniture pieces and other waste that can earn then some money.

So bad is the river that fish no longer thrive in its waters and such bad is its state that the World Bank has sanctioned US $500Million for its cleaning after declaring it the World's most polluted river.

Here's an article and some images on the Citarum in the UK's daily - Mail

Personal # 2 : Car Dent Pictures

Follow up to "It hails and car gets dents..."

And here are the pictures.

Car Dents

They look small, but the ones you see are the big ones, at least an inch wide and there are numerous hair-line dents too. :|

(G)Air India # 5 : The pit seems to get deeper...

Recently the airline closed its operations on 32 routes that apparently were its most profitable routes in service. And if that was not sufficient, it is not leasing planes (from other airlines) to ply services on some of these routes again. Is the management nuts? It looks like the management of the airlines is hell bent in closing it down, for once and for all.

Here are some more numbers (extracted from Mid-day).

Air India has more than 42000 employees for its fleet of around 100 air crafts; that's over 420 people per plane that includes more smaller planes than Boeing 747/Airbus 300.

Currently the airlines is under 40,000 crores (INR 400 billion) of losses. This figure was INR 70 billion in 2007 - a 6 fold jump in around 4 years. (And I thought a company is meant to make such kind of profits...).

Personal # 1 : It hails and the car gets dents... update

Sorry folks. Been keeping busy. Will definitely post the pics of the dents on my car in next 48 hours.

Personal # 1 : It hails and the car gets dents...

It was bright and sunny in the afternoon, only to turn the evening into a violent stormy one. The sky was overcast within matter of minutes and after a couple minutes of heavy winds, there was rain.

No need to fast forward; only a few seconds later the sound from the car-shed (shown in the video below) sounded too loud to be pounded by rains. And it was ice cubes jumping down from the sky.

It was like God was preparing a Summer Drink and pouring some ice into it and stirring the mix (yes !! it was that windy).

And without much ado, here's the video.

Next, I'll post the dents the my 8 months old car got. Keep an eye on this space.

Amazing # 2: Least populated jurisdiction

Many of you would have read the book Mutiny on board HMS Bounty by Willaim Bligh. This book has more reality than fiction and the island location featuring in the story will amaze you even more.

Pitcairn Islands - the island that appears in the story. It is a group of four small islands in the center of the Pacific Ocean - Southern Hemisphere, however, the only inhabited island of those called Pitcairn is only under 5 sq kms in area and have had around 50 people since over century.

The island has been lived upon since 15th century and the first inhabitants of the place were Ploynesians, but the current inhabitants, some 50 of them belong to 4 families of initial settlers who were mutineers from HMS Bounty that included Britishers and Tahitians. The wreck of the ship Bounty can be still seen under the shallow waters of the Bounty bay.

In 1838 Pitcairn Islands became a British Colony. In 1856 the island was empty once again as all the 193 inhabitants felt the island was conjested for them and set sails for Norfolk island, also in Pacific Ocean. However, over 45 of those returned back over period of next 5 years and have continued to be there since then.

What's more amazing about the place?

• They use New Zealand Dollars as currency. NZ is the closest independent country to the island, though it is almost equidistant from the South American Continent.

• They are still under British rule; this least populous jurisdiction (it has its independent laws) is so small that it may possibly not survive on is own, though they do have their own flag.

• After the main British land, this was the among first "territories" of British kingdom, that allowed women to vote. The island has a rugged terrain; rendering the island unsuitable for an airstrip or even a proper ship harbor. Only way to leave the island is on a small boat that can take oneself to the ship parked in deeper waters (of weather permits).

• It will potentially out-survive the city of Male (Maldives) in case of rise in Ocean levels.

Yet I wouldn't want to be stuck on this island. Would you?

p.s. Click on links for more information on this place.

(G)Air India # 4 : The downfall that still continues...

As the airlines grew, it eventually became its own enemy. Following were some major reasons of its downfall:

• Over a period of time, it became lesser friendly (no longer a humble maharaja)
• The unions of the ground staff /airmen virtually became bosses taking passengers for granted
• The caretaker of the airlines - the Government - started treating it as its own mistress; even in situation of financial crisis, the outgoing fat paycheck overloads of the company were not let off.
• While the recessions hit the number of passengers traveling, it did not hit the employees of the company ever, draining the airlines to the bottom of their coffers.
• As the aviation industry grew in India, the private airlines provided competent rates to passengers, further reducing the passenger traffic of the airlines.
• Such bad was its state at one point of time that it sold off three airplanes to pay its employees.
• So bad became the services that even the government employees prefer traveling by other airlines than the state owned airlines.

Though the fatality rate of the airlines at 6.82 per million flights is quite close to being qualified for a Six Sigma Standard, the great scares that airlines has given possibly only added to its downfall. Following are some of the airlines accidents/incidents:

• In 1955 the airlines was first targeted by terrorist; it was bombed midair.
• Flight 814 was hijacked in 1999 with one casualty and over 170 hours in captivity
• Flight 101 that crashed in France in 1966 killing the renowned scientist Homi Bhabha and everyone else. This was second Air India flight to crash on same spot, previous one a decade ago.
• In 1978 Flight 855 crashed into the Arabian Sea immediately after take off killing everyone on board.
• Flight 182 was a terror target that was blown up over Atlantic Sea killing everyone on the flight.

Though the air travel has increased leaps and bounds in last decade, the airlines has only seen downfall. It registered loss of INR 7.7 Billion (nearly USD 154 Million at that time) and it continues to eat up taxpayer's money with support from the Govt.

Can it ever again the Maharaja that it was at one time? Only time will tell.

Nature photos of 2011

See some nature photos captured by me in Spring 2011

From Nature in 2011

(G)Air India # 3: After Independence

As India got independence, Air India was bought over by the Government. The Airlines continued to expand under the new control. (Even the then Governments were worthy enough). International flights around the World were introduced and over a period of time, Air India was bisected into Indian Airlines (for domestic routes) and Air India International (international).

The earlier Governments with due diligence ensured the growth of the Airlines. The jet age of the Airlines began at par with that of developed countries. Boeing built its first commercial jet airliner 707 in 1958 and it was inducted in Indian Airlines in 1960.

First Boeing 747-400 was rolled out in 1988 and was inducted in Indian Airlines in 1993 allowing the Airlines to take its first non stop flight between New Delhi and New York.

Over a period of time, the Airlines had international hubs and presence in all major international Airport hubs of the World.

So what caused the great Airlines, once the Maharaja of the sky, the Flying Palace, to fall down the pits so badly that it still finds it difficult to stand on its feet again.

(G)Air India # 2: Before Independence

In 1932, JRD Tata himself flew a single engine Puss Moth aircraft from Karachi to Bombay. This was first flight of the Tata Airlines from Karachi to Madras halting at Ahmedabad, Bombay, Bellary in the way. It carried posts and mail as part of contract with Imperial Mail Services (the postage services under British Rule).

With very passangers willing and capable to travel by air at that time, the airlines mainly relied on freight transportation and the weekly airmail services contract with Government of India (before independence) for its revenues.

By year 1946, the Airlines provided services to cities of Bombay, Karachi, Delhi, Calcutta, Ahmedabad, Nagpur, Hyederbad, Bangalore, Cochin, Madras and Colombo and its fares (in 1946) ranged from Rs50 (Bombay to Ahmedabad) to Rs335 (Karachi to Colombo).

The Airlines was named Air India in 29 July 1946 as it became a public limited company.

With change in the control of country from British rule to Independent rule, there was a change in control of the airlines too. Read further in next blog.

(G)Air India # 1

I am talking about Air India; the airlines and the national carrier that has been treated as a Gair (an unknown person), like a stranger by the Government. The airlines that was once a humble Maharaja, fittingly as its mascot depicts it to be; had a glorious past fit enough for a Maharaja. The Gair treatment has left it in shambles and Maharaja is now just for namesake.

Considering that the Wright brothers took their first flight in 1905 and the first airplane to fly across Atlantic did so in 1919, onset of commercial aviation in India in 1932 can be considered a great achievement. An achievement that should have been treasured, instead its into shambles and such a state that its relying on other carriers to fulfill its existing obligations and emptying its already shallow coffers.

I shall write more about the history of Air India in subsequent blogs...

p.s. Let me know h

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World Cup Incidents: Incident # 7: He didn't bat or bowl . . .

. . . in his first ODI match. And didn't even take a catch while fielding.

There have been many such players, but most famous of them and the first to achieve this distinction was Viv Richards; when Sri Lankans faced Windies in the first World Cup in 1975.

This was the first match for the great batsmen. Windies themselves had only played two official ODIs until then. Sri Lanka, batting first were rolled up for a meager 86 runs (expected against mighty Windies then) in about 37 overs and Windies achieved the target for loss of 1 wicket in 20 overs. Viv Richards didn't get to bat or bowl in this match; neither did he get to take any catch/cause a run-out.

It was only matter of time when he would get to prove his mettle in the game.

River that caught fire . . .

...not once, but 13 times. Cuyahoga river of the USA in Ohio state.

Some other intersting facts about the river:

• The river, whose name means the "crooked" river, is almost 150 kms long. Its called crooked because it flows in NNE to SSW direction for a little over half its distance and then drastically changes course (forming numerous branches and joins and lakes) to flow in SSE to NNW direction. The river flows into the Lake Erie.

• Moses Cleaveland, who was a surveyor formed and establishment along the mouth of the river, the city now known as Cleveland.

• It is said that the river is so slow at its mouth, that Time magazine literally termed it as river "oozing" rather than "flowing" and it was at times so polluted that it was termed as river in which a person does not "drown" but "decays".

• Following extract (about pollution) is from A Kent State University symposium, convened one year before the infamous 1969 fire, described one section of the river:
• "From 1,000 feet below Lower Harvard Bridge to Newburgh and South Shore Railroad Bridge, the channel becomes wider and deeper and the level is controlled by Lake Erie. Downstream of the railroad bridge to the harbor, the depth is held constant by dredging, and the width is maintained by piling along both banks. The surface is covered with the brown oily film observed upstream as far as the Southerly Plant effluent. In addition, large quantities of black heavy oil floating in slicks, sometimes several inches thick, are observed frequently. Debris and trash are commonly caught up in these slicks forming an unsightly floating mess. Anaerobic action is common as the dissolved oxygen is seldom above a fraction of a part per million. The discharge of cooling water increases the temperature by 10 to 15°F. The velocity is negligible, and sludge accumulates on the bottom. Animal life does not exist. Only the algae Oscillatoria grows along the piers above the water line. The color changes from gray-brown to rusty brown as the river proceeds downstream. Transparency is less than 0.5 feet in this reach. This entire reach is grossly polluted"

• First fire occurred in 1868. And there have been nearly a dozen more fires over next hundred years, most of them occurring in last two decades.

• The largest river fire was in 1952 causing damages of over USD 1 million. Many river front buildings were damaged in that fire. One of the subsequent fires (last one occurring in 1969) also featured on Times magazine cover page.

• Following link points to one of the images from original fire. Picture.

p.s. If you liked this article, please leave your comments; or even otherwise :)

River that caught fire . . .

...not once, but 13 times. Cuyahoga river of the USA in Ohio state.

Some other intersting facts about the river:

• The river, whose name means the "crooked" river, is almost 150 kms long. Its called crooked because it flows in NNE to SSW direction for a little over half its distance and then drastically changes course (forming numerous branches and joins and lakes) to flow in SSE to NNW direction. The river flows into the Lake Erie.

• Moses Cleaveland, who was a surveyor formed and establishment along the mouth of the river, the city now known as Cleveland.

• It is said that the river is so slow at its mouth, that Time magazine literally termed it as river "oozing" rather than "flowing" and it was at times so polluted that it was termed as river in which a person does not "drown" but "decays".

• Following extract (about pollution) is from A Kent State University symposium, convened one year before the infamous 1969 fire, described one section of the river:
• "From 1,000 feet below Lower Harvard Bridge to Newburgh and South Shore Railroad Bridge, the channel becomes wider and deeper and the level is controlled by Lake Erie. Downstream of the railroad bridge to the harbor, the depth is held constant by dredging, and the width is maintained by piling along both banks. The surface is covered with the brown oily film observed upstream as far as the Southerly Plant effluent. In addition, large quantities of black heavy oil floating in slicks, sometimes several inches thick, are observed frequently. Debris and trash are commonly caught up in these slicks forming an unsightly floating mess. Anaerobic action is common as the dissolved oxygen is seldom above a fraction of a part per million. The discharge of cooling water increases the temperature by 10 to 15°F. The velocity is negligible, and sludge accumulates on the bottom. Animal life does not exist. Only the algae Oscillatoria grows along the piers above the water line. The color changes from gray-brown to rusty brown as the river proceeds downstream. Transparency is less than 0.5 feet in this reach. This entire reach is grossly polluted"

• First fire occurred in 1868. And there have been nearly a dozen more fires over next hundred years, most of them occurring in last two decades.

• The largest river fire was in 1952 causing damages of over USD 1 million. Many river front buildings were damaged in that fire. One of the subsequent fires (last one occurring in 1969) also featured on Times magazine cover page.

• Following link points to one of the images from original fire. Picture.

World Cup Goofups # 2: Premature Celebrations

Prologue:

While it was a must win for Australia to keep their semifinal hopes alive having lost against neighboring Kiwis and the new comers Proteas. With one point in hand, it was India's third match in the series with one loss against the English and a rain-washed "no result" against neighboring Sri Lanka.

Batting first, Kangaroos posted 237 on board with Dean Jones scoring highest of 90 for the team; Kapil and Prabhakar bagging three wickets each. In response, Indians had a slow start with opener Ravi Shastri scoring only 25 of 67 balls and Srikkanth out for naught on his tenth ball.

Azharuddin played captains innings scoring 97 of 103 balls only and Manjrekar's quick 47 or 42 balls brought Indians close to the finish line with 13 required of last over. (Earlier rain had cut down three overs of their innings with target reduced by only 2 runs). Kiran more managed to hit two boundaries at fine leg and got out; Prabhakar followed soon.

Eventually Srinath and Raju were left at crease with 4 required of last ball.

The Incident:

Srinath skied the last ball to deep mid-wicket where Steve Waugh dropped the catch just inside the rope. Raju, who was running toward the bowler's end for second run saw the drop and as he finished running the second run he was pumping his fist in air. The third run would be quite easy; or at least as he thought. And the third run would have earned them a tie, knocking the host out of the tournament then and there (they would have played remaining league matches of course) and brightened the chances of India to reach semi-finals.

Steve Waugh who quickly raced to the ball, in the meanwhile, saw Raju pumping his fist in air at the beginning of third run as he gathered all his power to throw the ball at striker's end where stand in keeper David Boon was donning the gloves.

As if it was his desire to not to lose in front of the home crowd, the powerful throw was flat and quick and reached Boon almost immediately, giving him ample time to knock off the bails, finding a diving Raju just short of his crease.

Australia had won the match, snatched back victory from the jaws of a possible loss.

Raju's actions turned out to be a premature celebrations.

Epilogue:

Though they won the match, Australians didn't manage to secure a Semi-final berth either. After the match against India, they went on to lose against England and later on against Pakistan (the eventual Champions of the event). They managed to score victories against Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe and finally against the WIndies, but their run rate wasn't good enough to take them to next round.

p.s. Do not forget to leave your comments; and if there is topic you want to suggest for me to write about, please feel free.

World Cup Goofups # 1: Catch that was not dropped and not taken either

This World Cup, England was not at its best that it promised to be as per their performances in the matches running up to the main event.

During the event, Englishmen had their part of ups and downs; managing a victory against Proteas and securing a loss from the jaws of victory against the Irish team.

Even their first match in the tournament was equally turbulent. In this incident, Netherlands were batting first and were cruising at under 5 an over and had scored some 140 odd runs in 30 overs. Swann was bowling his 7th over and Ryan ten Doeschate was looking to step on the scoring. He had not yet scored even half of what his eventual score would be. You can only imagine what shame the incident would have brought to the English team had the Irish won the match.

Ryan, looking to score quickly, mis-hit one over the bowlers head. The ball got the elevation but it didn't have the distance. Pieterson and Anderson who were fielding on either side of the bowler (long-on and long-off) started to chase the catch and converged under the ball. Just as they realized each other's proximity; they froze, letting the ball drop right in between them and give the opposition team another of the numerous lives (dropped catches) that were given during the innings.

Ryan went on to score 110 runs in the innings, and Ireland managed to post a score of 292 runs. English had their share of luck and went on to score the target with 8 balls and 6 wickets to spare in the match.

60s the decade of big changes

Towards the end of this (60s) decade, the Man took a giant leap and reached the Moon. Though it left a permanent mark on mankind, it did not catch people's attention for long.

Back on the Earth on the other end of the decade, humans produced another marvel which has till date continued to catch attention of more and more people. Only in India if not all of the billion people, the Limited Overs Cricket or popularly known as One day cricket has grabbed attention of hundreds of millions of people; thanks to the national team recently having grabbed the most prized possession of the sport (The World Cup) for the second time (earlier in 1983). The limited over cricket was introduced in 1963.

That was not all that was done to make the sport interesting. A little earlier, it was decided to introduce covers to the pitch. How did this help to make the game interesting? Read on...

Prior to 1960s, the ground and the pitches were not very well kept. The pitches used to be open, leaving it dry (other than in rainy season) and dusty. This helped the spin bowlers a lot and depending upon other conditions, even the seamers made merry in a match. While the batsmen feared an uneven pitch; they did not dare to play risky shots rendering the match quite boring and uninteresting.

The impact of an open pitch can be better gauged from the test match played between Australia and England (in Australia) in 1936/37 season. In this 5 match series, the first two had been won by the visitors and Bradman's captaincy was facing criticism. He was under pressure entering the third test to be played from 1st Jan 1937.

After winning the toss, Don Bradman elected to bat, but his batsmen had a difficulty to score big. So bad was the pitch that team had managed to crawl to 200 with the captain himself contributing only 13 runs.

Rain started to fall as the English began batting, their team folded for only 76 runs for 9 wickets in 28 overs on day 2. With last wicket standing and pitch was behaving badly, English captain declared the innings with an eye on Bradman's wicket on the wet day before the stumps.

Don Bradman, the great thinker and scholar of the game, read the tactics of his opposition and devised a plan that has never been implemented ever again. He sent in his usual tail-enders to open instead of regular openers. The day ended with Australia losing one wicket with only 3 runs on board. 3rd Jan was rest day and it didnt rain helping the pitch to improve.

As Don Bradman expected, the team managed to put on 564 runs on board in second innings setting a difficult target of 689 runs to win. The English never settled in and though they had unlimited time at hand (it was a timeless match); they ended up losing the match by 365 runs.

Australia went on to win the remaining matches of the series and kept home the Ashes Trophy.

Coming back to covering of the pitches; it did help the seamers a little more, but the spinners lost grip of their power in the game. The batsmen became bolder knowing that the ball wont turn much on the pitch that was harder and had more grass.

The game of cricket had started to become a batsmen friendly game.

World Cup Incidents: Incident # 6: And they didnt learn from their mistake

Prologue:
In the 1999 Edition of the ICC WC, South Africa reached Semi-finals to face Australia. Both had proved to be formidable teams in the matches since earlier World Cup and considering their teams' strength, for either of the teams, the other was the final hurdle to the World Cup.

The World witnessed a spectacular first ever World Cup ODI that ended in a tie.

You could give the last men in Donald and Klusener some respite with the fact that Donald was a main stream bowler with no great batting performance in his career backing him to take the team on other side of the test.

But the next time, it was the think tank and batsmen that let them down.

The Incident:
In WC2003 Edition in their home, the Proteas and their opponents Sri Lanka, needed a victory to stay in contention to go through to next round. A mature SL batting first put up a 268 riding on the century from Atapattu and a good knock from Aravinda D'Silva.

The spinning trio of Jayasuriya, Muralitharan and D'Silva had ran through the top and middle order batsmen (Smith, Gibbs, Kirsten, Kallis, Dippenaar and Pollock). On crease was Boucher, well set in 30s of some 50 odd balls; and Klusener who was man of the series of previous edition on WC had just brought in deteriorating weather on fall of Pollock, in 44th over.

While they were waiting for expected rain to pour in, they didnt want to lose further wickets to ensure being ahead of SL on D/L chart. The dressing room sent a message that by end of 45th over, Proteas had to be at 229 without losing any more wickets (they were 6 down) to win the match (in case rain arrived). 44th over yielded 1 run for Klusener and score was 216/6.

Next 5 balls yielded exactly 13 runs including 4 runs off a wide ball from Murali and a 6 off Boucher's bat of the 5th ball. It was already drizzling and with the six, Boucher pumped his fist in air, believing that he had won and so he nudged the next ball toward square leg and stay put in his crease. Proteas were 229/6 at end of 45 overs. Rain poured in and Boucher was aleady celebrating (though prematurely).

THEY HAD MADE A GRAVE MISTAKE once again.

As per D/L, they needed 229 for a TIE and not to victory. They needed to make one more run for the victory that Boucher had denied himself and his team.

Epilogue:
No more balls were bowled in the match and it was declared a tie. Second for South Africa in as many ties in the WC history. Shaun Pollock who captained the side was sacked after the series. SL moved ahead to the next round, though their progress in the WC was halted by the express Aussies.

It is interesting to know that earlier in the 1992 Edition of WC in Australia, Proteas has suffered at the hands of rain to be knocked out of WC, (requiring 21 to win of 1 ball as per the rule prevailing in that WC).

Whose World Cup (2011) will it be?

Every cricket fan seems to be having only one question in his/her mind - Whose World Cup will it will be?

The wait is over. The answer is out there. See the image below. This is the pre-final promotional photo between the Captains of two teams would will fight it out for the World Cup and as you see closely the World Cup trophy itself is declaring it out and loud. Its inclined towards Indian Captain. So the World Cup 2011 will belong to India.

This image has been originally obtained from the archives of Cricinfo (offical detailed cricket information provider for ICC) and edited (added the scale) to clearly show the tilt and inclination. The World Cup itself wants to be with team India for next four years.


The two red lines have been drawn perfectly perpendicular to each other with the base line draw parallel to the ground (unless your monitor is tilted). Clearly it shows that while the SL captain holds more part of the base of the WC Trophy, the rest of trophy is inclining toward the Indian captain, clearly indicating its wish and destiny.

p.s. I know its rubbish, but if you liked the post or hated it the most, do leave a comment. :)

Mumbai being renamed! Again!!

As per the unconfirmed and unreliable sources, Maharashatra Government has decided to rename the city of Mumbai to Ayodhya. It is said that even the Central Government is backing the State Government in this move and will be providing funds for this to happen by midnight of 1st April 2011.

This is being done to commemorate the Welcoming of the City's own (cricketing) God - Sachin Tendulkar in the City to play the World Cup 2011 final at his home ground. The 2nd Of April henceforth every Year will be celebrated as Diwali while 30th March will be celebrated as Dussera to commemorate victory of Indian Cricket Team over their arch rivals Pakistan Cricket Team.

The spokesperson of the ruling part in the Assembly of Maharashtra will be declaring these motions a specially summoned Assembly session. It has also been learnt all the parties, ruling, supporting and opposition, are united and unanimously in favor of this move.

With this, all the historical and monumental places of the City will now bear name of the new God. Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport will no longer exist. New tickets will rather be issued to those headed to Mumbai International Airport with destination written as Sachin God Tendulkar International Airport. Even the Railways have been instructed to print tickets with destination as Sachin God Tendulkar Terminus for those who are headed to the City, with immediate effect.

The stadium where the WC2011 final is to be held will no longer be called Wankhede and even the stands have been renamed to SGT North stand, SGT South stand, SGT East stand, SGT West Stand. The pitch in the stadium will be called "Where SGT stands".

Great furore is expected among the common people of India; however, the Government is confident that the hundredth Century that the God is expected to score in the home ground will silence all the critics of this motion. When questioned about the provision of funds, the Government Of India said that they will be requesting funds from the World Bank (as always) and be humbly indebted (as always).

The United States of America is expected to get a lot of business out of this move as the Government is expecting to outsource the security arrangements (to control possible upheveal) to the States. The President of the US has recalled all its troops from across the World and asked them to gather in the Arabian Sea to be pounce on this opportunity.

China is also expected to benefit from this move. While the rebels will import the posters and banners from China, the Government is getting all the new labels and boards made from China.

While we gear up our machinery to confirm this unconfirmed news, do kindly tell us what do are your views to this move?

- - Reporting for Future Tak, this is Suchhe with NobodyChhe - -

P.S.: E&OE. With due respect to every religion and their followers, every Government and their people; this is purely pun intended.

Funny Cricket Incident: Howzz... Huh !... Where's the Umpire?

Prologue: India went to play a 5 ODI series against West Indies down under in 2006. The first match was held at Sabrina Park in Kingston, Jamaica. India had one the first ODI and had a lead of 1-0 going into second and were all charged up. The second ODI was also off to a electric start. Windies had lost both openers to Indian seamers and scoreboard read 1 run for loss of 2 wickets in 3 overs. Lara and Sarwan were trying to get things going for Windies who were are 16/2 at end of 8 overs.

The Incident: Pathan bowled first ball of 9th over to Sarwan who placed the ball sheepishly close to the pitch. Raina who was close-in fielder in mid-wicket region, ran like a hare to quickly grab the ball and throw at stumps. Lara seemed to have just made his ground, as the ball knocked of the bails. Ecstatic Indians turned toward where the leg-umpire should have been. But where was the umpire !! He was missing from the game !!!

Of all the people in the game, the square leg umpire for the over Billy Doctrove, had gone down to the ropes with some instructions for the fieldsmen for side boards at the square leg boundary
and before he could come back to take his position, the first umpire Asad Rauf had already resumed the play after change of over. The fielders had finished appealing by the time umpire stepped back inside the boundary.

Epilogue: The ball was called a dead-ball and played again. Windies went on to score 198 where Sarwan scored 98 of them. India fell short of the Windies score by 1 run when Bravo got Yuvraj at personal score of 93 runs with two balls to go. India had once again managed to steal defeat from the jaws of Victory

Bob Christo the big baddie of Indian Cinema

Amrish Puri was the Indian God of Villains in Indian Cinema, Bob Christo was the "foreigner" God of Villains.

Though lately he didnt not act much, I do still remember him as the big stratured baldie who spoke crooked Hindi (Indian language). He hardly had any hair on the top hemisphere of the globe above his neck (considering the invisible line around his face at ear level to be the equator); he mostly sported a frech beard that constituted whatever little hair that could be seen on him.

He would often be portrayed as the final road-block to the successful and happy ending of the story for the hero in the Bollywood. He found his unique place among the great villains of his time that included Amrish Puri, Pran, Ajit (the Lion), Anupam Kher, and Amjad Khan. (With due respect to other great names I may have forgotten to mention here).

He would often act as a baddie from America or Europe; however, in reality he was from Australia. It had to be his luck to be part of the Great Indian Cinema that he came over to meet Parveen Babi (what a crazy fan) while waiting for work permit of Muscat. And that was when Sanjay Khan introduced him to his would be Indian fans in movie Abdullah.

Not to forget he was always the first choice for being a British Officer in Bollywood historicals.

Now that he is no more, Indian cinema lost another great villain; may he be remembered as brightly as his shining bald head.

Dekh Bhai Dekh's Balraj Diwan! Bye Bye!!

Kishore Kumar voiced the lovely song "Raat Kali Ek Khwaab Mein Aayee". But the on screen actor who sang the lovely song to the actress, died on 19th March. He may not have been a hot-shot of the Indian Cinema, but a little known fact is that the star who was younger than the legendary Amitabh Bachchan was a better known hero well before the angry young man became a household name. He even starred hero in one of the movies where AB played a villain.

Before AB could romance with heart-throb Rekha on screen, it was Navin who did it successfully in "Sawan Bhado"; it was debut film for both the actors (rekha and Navin) and had numbers like "Kaan mein jhumka, chaal mein thumka". Navin Nischol acted in other hits like Buddha mil gaya (with numbers like Raat Kali Ek Khwaab Mein and Bhali Bhali Si Ek Soorat) and Dhundh (a suspense drama) and Victoria 302. While he could not do great amidst other established and other establishing actors of that time, he would be remembered as the forgetful Balraj Diwan of Dekh Bhai Dekh.

His recent outing on the big screen was Break Ke Baad and Khosla Ka Ghosla.

World Cup Incidents: Incident # 5: Kapil defies Lloyd

In one of my blogs earlier, I have described how Clive Lloyd managed to win a match inspite of dropping catch.

In this incident, Kapil defies Lloyd's rule to take a remarkable catch that ensured that the World Cup was pocketed with that catch.

Prologue:

Earlier in the World Cup the over confident Windies had lost a match to India in league match. They were aware of what Indian underdogs were capable of. So in the second round of league matches, they were well prepared and had thrashed India; with Viv Richards scoring a century.

The teams remained unchanged (as it used to be the case in those days) and Windies faced India for one more time in the finals in World Cup 1983.

It all seemed once sided affair until the end of first innings where Windies let Indians make only 183 runs, not allowing them to bat all of their 60 overs. The task was cut clear for Windies. Blavinder Singh Sandhu managed to get the opener Greenidge cheaply for 1 run when scoreboard read the score of 5. It was a good start for India, but Viv Richards who followed in at no 3 was wrecking havoc having scored 33 off 26 odd balls including 7 fours. the game was quickly running away towards Windies' hat-trick of championships.

The Incident:

But fate had a different say and Viv Richards mistimed a pull off Madan Lal. It would have landed safely but for Kapil Dev who ran 20 yards backwards away from wicket, keeping his eyes on the ball till the end and pouching it just in time. He had not only caught Viv Richards, he had caught the World Cup. This catch is still deemed one of the best catches and most definitely the important catches in cricketing history.

Epilogue:

None of the batsmen to follow could manage to score at the required pace and/or stay long at crease. Eventually, they were bowled out in 52 overs at a paltry score of 142. The Indian Lions had risen. They made their mark all across the World for next 4 years.

World Cup Incidents: Incident # 4: Batsman no 6 at ball no 6 of game

Not too often in a cricket match has happened that a no 6 batsman (generally termed the middle-order batman) has to come in to bat in first over; the batsman would expect to see himself facing middle overs. But that was not the case for Alok Kapali of Bangladesh during that World Cup match.

Prologue:
World Cup 03, South Africa, City Oval ground of Pietermaritzburg. On a mildly damp pitch on the Summer morning on Feb 14 a Valentine's Day's love affair was seen between the ball and the bowler. The bowler's back was sore, but his spirits were not. Even the luck favored and Sri Lanka won the toss putting Bangladesh to bat first.

Incident:
Usually great cricket matches are won in last over, this one was won in first.

Warnakulasuriya Patabendige Ushanta Joseph Chaminda Vaas held the ball. As long as his name is, so was his wicket streak in the over. Hannan Sarkar faced the first ball only to see the wood work behind him shattered. Mohammad Ashraful didnt know what to do with next delivery, and returned the ball straight to Vaas who gladly accepted the return catch. Ehsanul Haq kissed the next ball to give catching practice to Mahela Jayawardene at first slip.

Three balls, three wickets. First ever hat-trick in first three balls of a game in any form of cricket.

This was not the end of records for Vaas. Sanwar Hossain, no 5 found himself facing 4th delivery of the game. He hit that for a four. But that was not the end of Bangladesh's agony. After getting a run off the wide delivery, Sanwar faced the sixth (5th legitimate) delivery of the innings and was out LBW.

Alok Kapali the sixth batsman of the team came in to face the sixth delivery of the inning. This too was a World record of its kind.

Epilogue: Bangladesh never managed to recover the early losses. Though Vaas had done lots of damage in the first over, he went on to get the other opener (who had not managed to face single ball until next over) and another tail-ender. On score card, the top five batsman were devoured (that would be correct term) by Vaas.

Sri Lanka completed the formalities of scoring 124 runs without losing a wicket in 21 overs.

World Cup Incidents : Incident # 3 : Hit a Sixer, but "Out"

Prelude:
Have you ever wondered, how can one get Out in a cricket match, on a ball that has been cleared out of the ground for a Sixer? For sure the batsman cant be declared "caught". Neither is he bowled nor declared lbw (the ball is out of the ground off a clean hit). Nor is the batsman retired hurt (the statement say "Out"). He cant be run-out, because the batsman has hit the ball out of boundary and is not running.

This incident happened in the 1975 World Cup in England on the day of Summer (Northern Hemisphere) Solstice (June 21). The favorites West Indies had begun their innings on the sunny day at the Lord's, however, there was some moisture on pitch that early morning.

The Incident:
Dennis Lillee, the fiery Aussie bowler fired a short ball and left handed Roy Fredericks who was facing him, hooked it in fine leg region. The ball was hit so hard that it probably sailed out of the stadium. However, while the ball was on its way across the boundary, Roy Fredericks, still swirling around as follow through of the hook shot, slipped at the crease and hit the stumps with this legs knocking off the bails. While the spectators were watching the ball disappearing from the ground, the unfortunate Roy was already on his way back to the pavilion.

World Cup Incidents: Incident # 2: Drop catch to win match

Incident:
In the final of the second World Cup in 1979, Clive Lloyd dropped what would have been a regulation catch off Geoffrey Boycott. In spite of the dropped catch, West Indies went on the win the match and the second World Cup. He managed to defy the rule that "catches win matches". Though Clive Lloyd himself has put speculations to end by admitting that it was a genuine drop, people till date find it hard to digest as Clive Lloyd has always been an outstanding fielder. Englishmen were 70 for 0 off 25 overs and had taken a tea break shortly before.


Prologue:
At the times when there were no field restrictions (fielders could be set on boundaries from ball 1 of the game), and the matches used to last 60 overs; West Indies and Englad faced each other
in the second World Cup final. Batting first West Indies made a (that time) healthy 286 at nearly 4 and three quarter runs an over.

Englishmen who were keen to prove that they were the pioneers of the sport, wanted to win the World Cup badly and did everything correct to reach finals. The strategy they adopted for finals was that the openers should see off the new ball (from the firing squad consisting of Holding, Garner, Craft and Roberts). In this quest they were batting quite slower than required.

Epilogue:
Englishmen were so slow in scoring that Geoffrey Boycott reached double figures in 17th over of the match. The opening pair added 129 only in 39th over when first wicket fell. The asking run rate was already beyond 7 by then which was beyond reach for batsmen to follow. West Indies won comfortably.

(data pulled from Cricinfo.com).

World Cup Incidents: Incident # 1: The hat looks familiar

Incident:

A year after the 1975 ICC World Cup, now famous ICC ex-umpire Dickie Bird was on a bus in South London when the conductor walked up to him wearing a very familiar white hat. Bird asked where he got it from. "Man, haven't you heard of Mr Dickie Bird," he replied. "This is one of his hats. I took it off his head at the World Cup final ... we all ran onto the field and I won the race."

Prelude:

1975 World Cup final between Australia and West Indies. Last wicket to go and 26 needed of two final overs of match for Australia to get the first ever ICC prize and stamp their supremacy on the short format of the game. Crowds were that time were allowed to be around the boundary on grass/ground and occasionally ran within field too.

Second ball in the penultimate over when 24 were needed, Vanburn Holder bowled a no-ball but got Thomson caught by Roy Fredericks at extra cover. That was the mayhem moment 1 of the day. The spectators thought Windies won the match without realising that no-ball had been called. And it was at that instant the bus conductor who was one of the spectators raced up to the umpire to rip his hat off his head.

This was not the end to the ripping guns. When the match was eventually over three balls later another invasion took place and this time some of the players failed to beat the mob to safety. Thomson lost his pads, while Boyce was brought down on the floor and had his boots ripped off before he the police could ct savior. Though he was a dat bit smarter than the umpire. Fielding at the long leg, the furthest corner of the ground from pavilion, he had anticipated the situation and so replaced his new boots with old ones at tea break.

Dear Uncle Pai...

Dear (Late) Uncle Pai,

When I was young with limited resources (read limited pocket money), I used to save for specail purchases. My special purchases often used to be Amar Chitra Katha/Tinkle. I used to get these books second hand or on rent to ensure I get to grab more and more of your creations with whatever little I had.

I would credit you as guru for teaching me the barter trade. I would specially make friends with those who had these books/comics so that I got to read it. Also it was your books (rather than the course curriculum) that got my attention to the magic of science.

It is said that a picture says a thousand words. And you proved that with the mythological and historical illustrations; the wonder that scores of text could not do. I am sure you would have been the best history teacher had you been in a classroom.

Suppandi's stupidity, Tantri the Mantri's bad luck, Shikari Shambhu's bravery that fell short just in front of her wife; all have been integral part of my growth. The sweet memories of adventures of these characters have now fit into my DNA.

You may no longer be physically around, but you will always be around in form of Tinkle/Amar Chitra Katha. You will be remembered and your legacy will be passed on for generations through these.

One of your millions of fans.

Shrishti se pehle...

Shristi se pehle kuchh nahin thaa

antariksha bhi nahin aakaash bhi nahin thaa..

Running through my mind again and again since last few days is this Sanskrit verse, that I first heard as the opening track of the television serial "Bharat Ek Khoj". This series was telecast when not probably not even a quarter of households of even the metropolitan cities of India had TV sets. Doordarshan (the govt nominated broadcaster) was the only major television broadcaster in the country. Private broadcasters were not yet given permission in the country to broadcast other channels.

This program Bharat Ek Khoj literally meaning and based on Jawaharlal Nehru's Discovery Of India showcased the chapters of history as time ran through the Indian subcontinent.

Though I hardly understood what the program was about, I stayed glued in front of the TV set for about half an hour when this program was telecasted. I think I liked the day-to-day life of civilizations through time they showed. A few years later when I studied history as part of the curriculum, I could co-relate my studies with what I saw; faintly though. I dont really remember if watching this serial helped me score. Neither did it help maintain my interest in history. But it did definitely lay foundation of hundreds of hours of watching TV in the years to come. Specially the "Fun time" shows during summer noons really helped me stay back at home (away from heat) and eat food nicely.

Though now TV sets are quite redundant and I dont have one at my home currently, I do catch up with viewing programs and news online; thanks to computers and internet and youtube. Lately again I have caught the viral of watching those old programs again (this time via internet though). And Youtube has been really helpful.

I have recently caught up with Dekh Bhai Dekh, Byomkesh Bakshi, Chanakya, Bharat Ek Khoj, Malgudi Days among others. And from the old ones that I remember I would like to see "Stone boy", "Giant Robot", "Dada Dadi ki kahaniya", "Telematch" and the list is endless !! :)

And here is the a modifed version of the verse above.

Doordarshan se pehle kuchh nahin tha,

Zee aur Sony nahin, Star aur Colors bhi nahin thaa

aur koi channel bhi nahin, jo manoranajan kar sakta thaa...