Chandrayaan, Chess and Cricket ...

Refering to a very old previous post. What a day today is !

We are on our way to the moon. Fingers crossed.

I cannot hide the tingle of excitement and pride as I watch the launch ! The fourth stage has been deployed --- What a feeling ! Infinite amazement ! Un-describable ! If that is a word. How can such things be described in words ?



On a smaller scale, we are looking good to get a world champion here Anand defeats Kramnik to lead by 3 points in the World Chess Championship,




And perhaps the least significant one is where India comprehensively beats the pretend world champions by some 300 runs in Mohali.

A very good day indeed !!


P.S: Disclaimer for the images. Duh.

P.P.S:

Another thing to note:

The net budget for Chandrayan is ~ 80 million USD. Barack Obama collected ~ 150 million USD for his presidential bid on Sep '08

i.e - India is sending an entire spacecraft to the moon, in about as much money as Barack can collect in 15 days. Incredible.

A Real World Champion

In times where the the nation talks about  pseudo cricket champions, almost richest person in the world, emerging economies, one of the biggest software companies, potential super power status - it is a pleasure to see a real undisputed champion.  

Great performance from a truly great sportsman. Heres wishing him to show Kramnik his place in the 2008 title defence too.

Racing - It is a state of the mind.

Anything you can do - I can do better.

( Watch for the ending. )

Maradona is back

Lionel Messi scored an incredible goal for F.C Barcelona some weeks back.

The similarities between this not-so-messy messi goal, to the goal-of-the-century is eerie. Maradona had scored in the exact same way, only one goal after his infamous hand-of-god goal of 1986. Both the players have similar physiques, similar styles, and of course, both wear their white-and-sky-blue's when they play for their country.

Messi demonstrates all the prime qualities expected of the world's top striker - the close ball control, the incredible burst of speed, the deceptive change in directions and for the finale, pin-point accuracy in front of goal. All of the qualities evident in one incredible goal.

A spectacular goal from yet another brilliant Argentine forward. Take a bow, all you Ronaldo's - we have another Argentine striker on the blocks.

Long live the king, the king is gone.

Lara quitting from all forms of Cricket would mean him all but handing over his Test Cricket record to Sachin. That was the first selfish thought that came to my mind as I heard the news. But as I thought some more, I realized that Lara was never a man to run after records anyways.

His retirement just shows the kind of man that we know Brian Charles Lara to be - a great player who went on to break all the big records that could be broken - all done with the nonchalance of not needing to break them. That same aura of nonchalant brilliance could be seen in the way he batted. The slightly high bat lift, the slight jump as he shifted weight and then that exquisite flashy square drive. It is all etched in the memory of all cricket lovers for eternity.

I never confessed this before, but this may be the best occasion to come out clean. The best batsman in the world has retired.

Thank you for the entertainment ! There will not be another Brian Lara for quiet some while


P.S: I meant Test Batsman - but of course.

Cricket circa. 2009

Rohan sent to me an article with prophetic predictions for the Indian cricket team in a few years time.

The Times Of India 14th Feb, 2009:

India is playing in a 5 nation tournament ; the other countries being Uganda, Sudan, Papua new guinea and the mighty Bolivia. Today is a must win match for India against tournament favourites Bolivia for a berth in the semi finals. The winner of the tournament will fight for a place to enter the top 35 rankings in the world.

On the morning of the match, a strategy session is being held by Greg and Rahul. This is how it goes.

Greg: Boys, this is one of the most important matches in the last three years. We have to beat Bolivia. Lets go through the batting line up and the bowling line up in this meeting.

Greg: So Sourav, you will open right?

Sourav: I don't know. Bolivia has a pace bowler who only bowls short pitch deliveries. His pace is consistently in the range 55-60 miles /hour. I cannot handle all that pace.

Greg: Oh, thats ok. He won't dare to bowl short pitch stuff against the Indian batsman (we have such good credentials). If he does by mistake, just to make a statement to the media, get Hit Wicket and come back. Such non sense should not be tolerated.

Greg: So who will partner Sourav.

Rahul: I think Sehwag should. He looked in form in the last game against Sudan. He hit 5 fours between first slip and second slip before he got caught at second slip. I think he is in the pink of his form and he should open.

Greg: Thats good.

Greg: Sachin, you will bat at four ... ok?

Sachin: I don't know.I have to go shopping at 11. That means I can't bat beyond ten overs.

Greg: Sourav and Sehwag will last till six overs. So, you will come then. Don't worry, just play your natural game and follow your instincts. You will go by ten overs.

Greg: So Dhoni, you will keep?

Dhoni: I am not keeping. Last time, I kept for three hours. My hair is getting spoiled. I have thousands of lice in my hair. As a result, the cows in my village have started snubbing me and my advances. These days, dragonflies have started staying in my hair as their food lice is there. I need a haircut, I am not playing.

Greg: Please play just one more match, its the mightly Bolivians, just one last one. Please !

Dhoni: Ok. But don't do this next time.

Greg meanwhile was going through the batting averages and noticed that Dravid had the longest stay at the crease for the last 67 matches. So he asked Dravid to give a presentation in front of the team as to what motivated him so much and what was the secret to his concentration.

Dravid: My wife is extremely ugly. So, I try to stay as long as possible away from her. That is why I play a low risk game (In the last game, he hit 3 runs from 92 balls). If I get out, I have to go back to her.

Everyone starts applauding. What an inspirational cricketer.

Now it is time to decide on the bowling line up.

Greg: Obviously Zaheer is opening. He was brilliant last game. (Zaheer had bowled only 23 wides in the last match and he picked up three wickets. The secret to this brilliant bowling performance was a result of a mentoring session from Venkatesh Prasad. Prasad told him that to bowl from mid off and aim at Third slip. As a result, Zaheer returned with the best figures in the match.)

Greg: Off-late I have noticed that Rahul has been facing a lot of pressure and so we have decided to come up with Batting, Bowling and Fielding Captain to relieve Rahul of some of the responsibility.

Greg: I have noticed that Munaf Patel has stayed not out in the last three matches (all the other batsmen had got out by then). I admire the commitment of this lad and as a result he is the Batting Captain.

Greg: I was also going through this figure. Sourav has been involved in 177 run outs. But he himself has never got out. He values his wicket so much. I think we all need to Congratulate him on the price he sets for his wicket. Sourav, you are the running-between-wickets captain.

Greg: Anil has been sitting on the bench for the last three years. He keeps taking snaps throughout the match. He is such a team-man. I think we need to recognize this loyalty. Anil, you are the Bowling Captain.

Greg: Harbhajan is the fielding captain.

Rahul: But he dropped the catch in the last match when he dived to his right to take it.

Greg: At least he dived in the right direction.

After this intense brainstorming session, India looks all set to take on Bolivia. Please pray for the team's success.

Slinged 4 in 4

In a brilliant display of fast bowling, Lasith Malinga captured 4 South African wickets in 4 balls - including the well set Kallis.

On observing his bowling carefully I am left wondering if he "bowled" his way to the 4 wickets, or "Slinged" his way to 4 wickets ?

I know there is no bent elbow - Even then, am I the only one who finds his action a 'bit of suspect' ?

A bad bad day ...

I saw a forward in my inbox after the India-Bangladesh game.

It was one of those marginally humorous jokes that you tend to read - the kinds that get twisted a bit here and a tad there before being sent out for their bouts with our spam filters - till you must have read ten different flavors of the same joke.

When I read through it - I thought to myself that it was funny in a gloomy sort of way - one of those that attempt to draw a silver-lining smile from you from an otherwise gloomy cloud. It did make me smile though.

But looking back in hindsight - that forward in my mail-box was a cruel cruel one. It was plain sadistic ! People ought to think before forwarding such cruel things !

It is just a game. I know. But it has been a bad bad day.

Here is that cruelly humorous forward.

HER DIARY

Day night, I thought he was acting weird. We had made plans to meet at a cafe to have some coffee.I was shopping with my friends all day long, so I thought he was upset at the fact that I was a bit late, but he made no comment. Conversation wasn't flowing so I suggested that we go somewhere quiet so we could talk, he agreed but he kept quiet and absent. I asked him what was wrong - he said, "Nothing. "I asked him if it was my fault that he was upset. He said it had nothing to do with me and not to worry.On the way home I told him that I loved him, he simply smiled and kept driving.I can't explain his behavior; I don't know why he didn't say, "I love u,too."When we got home I felt as if I had lost him, as if he wanted nothing to do with me anymore . He just sat there and watched TV. He seemed distant and absent. Finally I decided to go to bed. About 10 minutes later he came to bed. I decided that I could not take it anymore, so I decided to confront him with the situation but he had fallen asleep. I started crying and cried until I too fell asleep.I don't know what to do. I'm almost sure that his thoughts are with someone else . My life is a disaster.



HIS DIARY

India lost the cricket match against bangladesh.

Nike Cricket - A great commercial

World Cup '07 Bhavishya-Vani

The Mega Cricketing event of the year will be commencing tommorow- can't wait for the action to start !

I will try to make some predictions on paper (err ... on keyboard) before the event begins. Time will tell how these predictions pan out in the long run. :)

In my opinion, this will be the most open world cup ever. Since the Australian team has been showing signs of vulnerability for the first time in many years, there have emerged plenty of contenders to challenge the Aussies. India, Sri Lanka and Pakistan should be able to do well in the West Indian conditions, while England and New Zealand have a new found confidence after beating Australia. A Brian Lara led West Indies, playing at home should also be a very dangerous team to come across - especially if Lara is on song.

Lets make this interesting by rating each team by how likely I think they are to win the world cup. In theory this approach should be a much safer approach then predicting one outright winner.

My Predictions for the Teams to Win the World Cup:

Australia -------------- 1/3
India ------------------ 1/3.5
Sri Lanka ------------- 1/5
South Africa: --------- 1/5.5
West Indies: ---------- 1/6
England: -------------- 1/7
Pakistan: -------------- 1/7
New Zealand: --------- 1/7.5
Zimbabwe ------------- 1/800
Bangladesh ------------ 1/1000
Kenya ------------------ 1/Inf
Netherlands ----------- 1/Inf
Scotland --------------- 1/Inf
Ireland ----------------- 1/Inf
Bermuda --------------- 1/Inf
Canada ----------------- 1/Inf

I will also be more adventurous and try to predict the performances of "my" team for the tournament - Team India. I will try to guess which players will do well, by putting numbers for their batting/bowling averages for World Cup' 07. At the end of the tournament, I can look back and see how close I was to predicting the fortunes of my favorite players .

So here is team India, and I have rated each player for what I think will be the batting average and a bowling average of that player for WC '07.

My Predictions for Player Performances :

Rahul Dravid Batting: 55 Bowling: NA

Sachin Tendulkar Batting: 60 Bowling: 45	Sourav Ganguly Batting: 50 Bowling: 40
Ajit Agarkar Batting: 10 Bowling: 25	Virender Sehwag Batting: 25 Bowling: 40
Harbhajan Singh Batting: 15 Bowling: 30	Zaheer Khan Batting: 10 Bowling: 27
MS Dhoni Batting: 40 Bowling: NA	S Sreesanth Batting: 5 Bowling: 30
Dinesh Karthik Batting: 25 Bowling: NA	Robin Uthappa Batting: 35 Bowling: NA

Anil Kumble Batting: 10 Bowling: 28

Yuvraj Singh Batting: 35 Bowling: 40

Irfan Pathan Batting: 20 Bowling: 30

Munaf Patel Batting: 10 Bowling: 24

Pictures Courtesy - http://cricketworldcup.indya.com

And Last, but not the least - I will also try to stick my head out and pick one player from each of the major contenders for WC' 07. These are the players that I think would be the most dangerous/valuable players for each team ( be it due to their batting/ bowling/ fielding/ captaincy/ experience/ .... ). Ultimately - I deem that a great WC '07 for any of these players could lead to that particular country doing very well in the tournament.

Here are my picks for valuable players :

Australia ------------- R. Ponting
India ----------------- S. Tendulkar
Sri Lanka ------------ S. Jayasurya
South Africa --------- G. Smith
West Indies ---------- B. Lara
England -------------- K. Pieterson
Pakistan -------------- Inzamam. Haq
New Zealand --------- S. Fleming


Let the games begin ! Go India !

UPDATE: results

Sachin ... Sachin

With the passage of time, you seem to loose touch with things that once seemed so very important to you.

The days when cricket seemed to be a matter of life and death - seem to be in my memory, just as if it was yesterday.

Cricket was almost a religion. We would not miss a single cricket match- come what may !

I remember not studying at all for my F.E Mathematics exam - just because of the memorable Ind- SL match at Taunton, where Ganguly had hit 180 odd runs. Despite the protests from my parents - I was throughly convinced that, the Cricket match was more important than the odd F.E exam.

We watched cricket at our homes- at friends homes - in the college canteen - in front of electronic shops in the streets - listen to the commentary in buses/trains - just about anywhere.

I remember the famous last day of the last test match of the Ind -Aus series of 2001 - the one where harbhajan, rahul and sachin got us to win the series 2-1 ( after trailing 0-1) . We had our semester practical examinations at that time, and we were listening to the commentary of those last overs - along with the examiner, on the old radio that the examiner had brought ! I remember us ( the students and the examiner) discussing cricket - of what could happen and what should have happened - just like old friends - and of us celebrating together after India won. After the test match was over - the normal situation resumed and we were the students again and he was the examiner.

Then there was the time when my family and me had been to Delhi/Agra. We ( or rather my mom and younger sis) were unfortunate enough - that we decided to have the trip at the same time as the Sharjah series - In particluar that one , when Sachin had hit 140 odd runs in both the semi-finals and the finals. I m sure everone remembers that one. Who can forget that ? ? . I distinctly remember the displeasure that my mom and my sister felt, just because me and dad refused to leave the hotel room in Delhi because we were watching the cricket match. Who would want to go sight-seeing when you could watch apla Sachin destroy the arrogant aussies ? I remember us changing from a "non cable room " to a "cable room " in the hotel for the cricket match.

There are so so many cool memories associated with cricket matches that may be I could not even list them all.

Anyways, Hoping the best for the Indian team against Pakistan. Go Sachin !