Cutting Edge

Dada's Column On Cricinfo.com

2009-11-24T10:54:00.000-08:00

Last week i had logged on to cricinfo.com and was pleasantly surprised to see Sourav Ganguly's column on cricinfo where he gave his review of the recently concluded test match between India and Sri Lanka at Ahmadabad.It was a nice column by Dada and the flair we saw in his batting is noticeable in his writing as well.No sweet talk,no beating around the bush , just a straight from the heart review and impeccable English.Dada's column reminded me a lot of his batting.This man is impeccable, truly a legend.

Thank God A New Week Has Started

2009-11-23T07:51:00.001-08:00

I actually got up today and said , thank god the week is over and a new week has begun.It is kind of funny coz last week started off great with me watching Raw at Madisson square garden and then doing well on the tests and even my program director was beaming whenever he saw me.But it ended disastorously , with me getting terribly homesick on fri ,sat and sun and the only thing i wanted was to go to pune and spend time with my parents,my cousin bro and my 3 best friends back home.Thank god i had my three prized possessions ,my reliance calling card,my ps2 smackdown vs raw 2006 game and bret harts book to keep me saneAnyways today is a new week so hoping for a better week.
Wishing that all of you have a good week and thanksgiving as well.

Guys ,Always Keep Your Dignity

2009-11-22T17:57:00.000-08:00

I guess i am in the mood for writing today , this being my third post today.Something which happened with one my cousins brought me to this topic.My cousin brother a nice easy going guy liked a girl from his class when he was in guess 11th or 12th grade.The girl was also pretty friendly to him.As time passed along , he kind of started noticing that the girl was being friendly to him but was trying to get closer to one of his best friends.He speculated the girl used his liking for him to get more close with his friend.He was kind of disappointed when this speculation turned true.At no point did the girl tell him that she liked his friend.This of course happened long time back and now me and my bro laugh off this incident when we talk.But basically the point is had things been more clearer he would have never developed more feelings for this girl.Or if she had been straightforward and told him that she liked his friend , he would have introduced him to her.But neither thing happened which left him a bit deflated that time.Whether it is relationships or sport , i always believe it is important to leave with your head held high.The great Kapil Dev was reduced to a mere Shadow of himself when he retired with people asking when is he leaving.On the other hand people like Sunil Gavaskar,Anil Kumble,Dada Ganguly left on a bang with people asking why are the leaving?I guess the same fact applies in relationships as well , especially for guys.Despite what the popular belief is that girls are more emotional and sensitive , i think it is the other way round.Guys take a lot of time to develop an emotional bond with someone , but once they do develop an emotional connection they are really really attached to that person.That is why i think that at times guys don't know when to say quits in a relationship.But in some cases like my brothers , the gal never told him or gave him an indication of whats coming thereby denying him that chance to leave without hurting his feelings.To his credit , even though he was hurt he never showed it.He didn't create a fuss.He took it in his stride.Of course i am not saying all gals are like my cousin brothers friend.I was just giving an example.To all my friends who read this post especially guys i can only say that guys if u like someone love someone thats great , but at the end of the day always maintain your dignity and self respect .In case the relationship goes awry, always leave with dignity.Gals always say that we are sensitive and all this stuff but trust me guys it is the guy who ends up getting heartbroken in the end.To all the girls like my cousins friend if u like someone else fine , its your own life , but for someone who likes you a lot even if you don't have any feelings for that person , give that guy a chance to leave with his head held high.If u like someone else please be frank , never play around with someones feelings.

Monday At Madisson Square Garden

2009-11-22T16:08:00.001-08:00

Pic - Undertaker at Madison Square garden on Monday Night

Last Monday was when WWE Raw returned to Madison Square Garden after nearly two years.Thanks to one of my friends i did manage to get the tickets for this historic event.There are some times in life when you get a flashback.You make a promise to yourself and when that thing comes true it is a truly wonderful feeling.Last Monday i had this flashback when i saw the Undertaker make an appearance at Madison Square garden.For a moment i pictured myself as that 12 year old kid who use to rush back home from school on Monday evenings to watch the wrestling event on TV which started at 5pm.I use to enjoy seeing the Undertaker and Bret Hart and i remember saying to myself , it would be so great if i can watch these great wrestlers live in NY city.Well i will never get a chance to see Bret Hart wrestle since he retired a couple of years back.But watching the Undertaker did get back those old memories.It was indeed a very touching and emotional moment as Madison square garden gave a standing ovation to the undertaker who has indeed been one of the greatest wrestlers in the history of the wwe.It was indeed a special night at Madison square garden and i was indeed very fortunate to be present there.

The Need for Heroes

2009-11-22T12:05:00.000-08:00

Do we need heroes , someone we idolize , someone whose good qualities we try and imbibe .Well i think the answer is yes.On Friday night , i was sitting at home bit depressed , missing friends and parents in India.I had chosen not to attend a college party coz frankly i am not a party person.I believe there is more to life then drinking and dancing or watching people get drunk.I was sitting at home feeling bit low and then i switched on my PS2 and started playing a wrestling match playing as Bret Hart.That's when the realization came that yes we need heroes.It has been two years since i came to the US and one thing i have realized is that loneliness is a constant companion here.One might be very very lucky to get one or two genuine friends but most of the contacts one makes here will be people who will stick around to enjoy the good times , go for a movie or just hang around.But when you are in trouble or distress your best friend will be yourself.And if you are lucky to have family members or one or two good Friends, they will stick around and help you .So coming back to Friday night i was playing the game and that's when one of the quotations that Bret had made in his book flashed in my mind.It is as follows "if you want to make it to the top , give yourself up into loneliness , fear nothing and work hard."The reason we all come to the US leaving our friends and family behind is to go ahead in our careers ,to try and make it to the top .In this journey loneliness will be a constant companion , the faster we get used to it the better it is.I will be completing 2 years in US.I am still not sure who are my real friends here or who are the people pretending to be friends but ready to stab me in the back at the 1st given instance.But like Bret says , be nice to everyone , give yourself up to loneliness and work hard to achieve your goals.That's why i believe that we should always have heroes , who can provide us with that hope and inspiration in the long and lonely struggle to the top.Friends might hurt us , betray us , girlfriends might emotionally betray us.But i sinecerly believe if we have real heroes and belive in them and their ideals , whenever we are down and depressed,these heroes and their beliefs will show us the right way.Be it Dada or be it Bret , they will always remain my heroes.Thanks for being my hero Bret.

Shortage of Doctors , Who Is Responsible?

2009-09-22T13:26:00.000-07:00

I was reading an article yesterday on the Times Of India which stated that there is a shortage of MBBS doctors in India.There is an acute shortage especially in the rural areas and that India has a very poor doctor to patient ratio when compared to countries like US and UK.We had responses from people stating that doctors who migrate are traitors and all this stuff.It is kind of amusing and at times irritating to read this stuff.Even i am an MBBS doctor who graduated in 2007 and have come to US for higher studies.Before people comment on who is a traitor and who is not they should look at the pathetic work conditions and pay for doctors.A friend of mine works in pune and he gets paid 2,500 rs a month.A lecturer in a medical college who is a specialist[ie either an MD or a MS] is paid 18 to 20,000 rs a month.Compared to that an engineer on the basis of a single engineering degree gets paid around 30,000 rs to 40,000 rs a month After doing an MBA they are paid twice of that.When these people migrate no one complains.Before we start comparing with US or UK , we should remember that the status of a doctor in US or UK is very different.They are well respected and well paid.Their government spends a huge amount of money on medical research.How much does the Indian government spend on research?Medicine is a noble profession but a doctor is not a social servant , even he has a family to look after.The future of a country depends to a great deal on his doctors and its army.The doctors maintain the health and well being of the population and the army ensures that we can sleep peacefully at night knowing that these brave soldiers are defending the borders.But it is indeed pathetic that these two vital components of our society are treated so shabbily in India.Poor pays , no benefits.In case of doctors , patients treat them like their own personal property.Cases of doctors being assaulted , hospitals being ransacked are so much on the rise.So a doctor puts in so much effort, 5and a half years of MBBS ,3 years residency , works long hours , no family life .At the end of the day what does he get? Nothing.Why cant we increase the pay for doctors.Give good pays to doctors , give them better work conditions , spend money on research , make a doctor feel wanted .India produces some of the worlds best doctors ,but it is indeed bad that we don't respect that.No one likes to leave their country.But many times the responsibilities and the circumstances force people to migrate.Instead of blaming doctors , enforcing bonds the government should improve the conditions and pay so that doctors stop migrating.For people who are not a part of the medical field , sitting there and passing a judgement i want to say that step in the shoes of a doctor to understand the sacrifices he makes and the hardships he faces in just trying to lead an average life.Give an Indian doctor the credit he deserves.

'Aaj Tak' se 'India TV' tak!!!

2009-08-13T11:19:00.000-07:00

15 June 2009...Proved to be a bitter day for Indian cricket fans. India lost by 3 runs to England in a close fought contest and England successfully threw the former world champs out of the T20 world championship. The unpredictability of cricket again overshadowed the predictions of all the masters & experts of the game as the 1st ever T20 champions could not even reach semi finals & were collapsed into super eight round. Some really lethargic play and wrong decisions made by Captain Mahendrasingh Dhoni lead the team out of the tournament. But the hell-bells had to start ringing and the news reporters in India were on the fly!
“Kal ke sher, aaj dher”
“Sabak sikho maahi”
“kya Dhoni maafi ke layak hai?”
“Team India ,sharm karo”
“Hero bane Zero”
These were the headlines being telecasted on every news channel in India like India TV, star news, zee news, Sahara news, aaj tak and more on. WHY THE HELL? Who the hell is a news reporter to judge a cricketer? And why the hell he tries to dare so without even knowing abcd of cricket? It is much simpler to report such absolutely idiotic and pathetic news, sitting in an air conditioned studio than going in a foreign country and playing on the green ground for our nation. Cricketers are not god; they are also human beings as we are. Agreed, India lost due to their bad play and some inconclusive decision making of the captain... But one must not forget that the captain Dhoni and his knack of decision making has proven to be a key factor in various Indian triumphs since he was made captain for the 1st T20 world cup.
Immediate results were obtained after making him captain of the side and India won the inaugural T20 trophy. Later he was made captain for one day side and India thrashed away the kangaroos on their home soil in the VB series. Also, the world no 2 ranked South Africa were defeated against Indian Tigers. The tradition of winning matches in foreign countries which was set up by India’s most successful captain, the Bengal Tiger “Sourav Ganguly”, was followed by M.S.Dhoni and India started registering series wins one after another, irrespective of the venue. India then went on to win test as well as one day series in Sri Lanka, New Zealand and even Australia. We can’t also forget the dominating 2-0 victory against the kangaroos on our home soil to clinch the prestigious Gavaskar-Border trophy back. Please don’t forget that India hasn’t lost any series till now under Dhoni’s leadership.
So who are we to blame and forgive not only Dhoni but the whole team? Folks, we just can’t rub off these many triumphs by considering just one loss... It is always said that cricket is a religion in India. Then how can one blame his religion? And at the end, victories and defeats are nothing but parts of any game and we can’t expect our boys to win always.
Besides all these things, we Indians are always said to be krrazy for cricket, may it be test cricket, one dayers or T20. But this craziness should not be turned up into idiocy all the way which is seen when we burn statues of cricketers and throw stones on their homes. Because we are the same people who make them heroes when they win any series, even if it is against Bangladesh... We should also accept defeats gracefully as we do when India wins. I am writing this blog when India has already won their fifth series consecutively on West Indian soil.
But the question about absolutely low grade reporting by news channels still remains unanswered. These are the same people who reports hopeless and totally non value adding news such as “ 14 feet ka mahamanav” , “Salman aur Shahrukh ke beech hathapaai”, “Swarg ki seedhi”, “Mrityunjay Baba”... and some amply non-sense stuff like this. The height of totally useless news reporting could be seen on India’s favourite funny bald reporter Rajat Sharma’s India TV where they call some doctor who tells us using a funny plastic or body or some decayed skeleton of Hitler’s era about how autopsy of Michel Johnson was carried out.
These are the people where renowned(?????????) 50 + old cricketing people tell us how Sachin Tendulkar should have played a ball which got him out.
At the end, it is my polite request to every Indian that please don’t take these news reports seriously and do not believe them at all. These are the jokers superior to yesterday’s circus jokers whom you can laugh at, especially India TV (Mrityunjay baba my foot!). But do not change your channel if some news channel is being telecasted. It could serve you a great comic entertainment, even better than “RAKHI KA SWAYANWAR”!!!!!!

DADA NEVER RETIRES FROM OUR HEARTS!

2008-11-30T23:39:00.000-08:00

10 Nov 2008..... a bitter day for all the true fans of the Prince of Kolkata Saurav Dada...After not only just facing all the major pressures n calamities in his cricketing career,but also empowering them with extra-ordinary gutsy nature,dada took retirement from his love, his passion ; CRICKET. There are enormous stalwarts in this cricketing world we have come across like the great Don Bradman,Sachin Tendulkar,Brian Lara etc....But nobody,nobody amongst all these greats have gone through such an enthalling career with ample up's n down's like Saurav has.May it be taking over captaincy,defeating Aussies in Indian as well as their home soil, leading India in World cup finale from the front,a bad patch in the career,the infamous chapell controversy,forced exit from cricket, but again getting place in the side with lot of determination and passion to prove something......Hardly anyone not just in cricket,but in any sort of thing can do it as Saurav has done. Why the people are fans of Saurav Ganguly?For his batting skills?For his unbeatable offside shots?For his flamboyant sixers?The answer is 'not just this'.Ordinarily,the man does what he does.But very few men do what they CAN do.Dada is one of those very few people. Saurav Ganguly's comeback was not just getting place into the team,it was a miracle!No ordinary man can have the guts to prove everyone wrong and answer the world,"yes, i have not ended it" in the way as Saurav did. True, we like Saurav for his Guts,Self Respect ,Tit for Tat nature and most importantly his never say die attitude.

Dada is going away from cricket,but he has gifted his patriotism,his fighting spirit in short all his DADAGIRI to indian cricket army.So we can say,dada can go but dadagiri can't...

Yes,we are proud fans of Maharaja.Nevertheless, he is retired from international cricket, but we can't allow him to retire from our hearts,our blood, our sole.

"DADA CAN NEVER RETIRE FROM OUR HEARTS!!!"

Good Bye Maharaj

2008-11-10T20:18:00.000-08:00

Well The day has come and gone , 7th November 2008 was the last time saw Sourav Ganguly walk out wearing the India cap.As i got my today and saw the videos on you tube which showed Dada celebrating his last win as an Indian player , my mind went back just a year back when last November around this time Dada had cracked his 1st double hundred , his 1st hundred at Eden gardens and ended with the man of the series award as India beat Pakistan.Last DEC he played his 100th test and was in the form of his life .One year later his enthralling journey has come to an end.But hold on did it really deserve to end right now .Didn't he end his last series averaging more than 50 against the best team in the world.These questions are hard to answer .The thing about saurav has been his up and down journey as a cricketer which has enthralled us all.People like Kumble , Tendulkar appear super human and super men whose feats we can only dream about achieving .Even saurav has been a genius like them , but his journey has been much more enthralling .He has been the rebel who signalled a new India by waving his shirt at lords , the patriot who fought against the invader Greg Chapell to defend India's honour , the genius who played some enchanting knocks.One last memory i have about him is his one day comeback innings against west indies in Feb 2007 when he made 98 which was a truly magical innings.I was watching that match with my grandpa .I still remember my grandpa's beaming face as he watched saurav bat like a magician.That was the last time my grandpa watched a cricket match as he passed away a few weeks later , but his beaming face and sauravs brilliant batting that day have left a lasting impression on me.Thank you Maharajah

A tribute to Dada

2008-10-11T18:20:00.000-07:00

I have made this video as a tribute to Dada , the heartbeat of a billion indians

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-81q0iBB5jw

A Prince Who Touched Hearts

2008-10-08T17:46:00.000-07:00

Well the news of saurav gangulys retirement leaves me with a hollow feeling and the media tributes and comments by people like kiran more is leaving me angry.10 days back the media were crying that ganguly should go , he failed in sri lanka , his reflexes have slowed down and all such nonsense things .Now they are putting him on different pedestal and singing his praises.Kiran More , one of the biggest morons u will ever see commented last week that he was shocked to see saurav back in the team , now he comments he is not surprised to see saurav retire .Don't understand why the media give so much imp to people like more who a couple of years back was licking Greg chapels feet as he tried to humiliate saurav .To understand the real saurav ganguly or the influence he had , one should speak to a common Indian in kolkata or people like me and my brother rohit .Saurav was not only a cricketer , a role model who made one feel proud to be an indian .A man who could be rude when required but at the same a thorough gentleman as well .He was a man who was swearing on the Lords Balcony as india won but at the same time he is a man who auctioned numerous stuff to collect money for charity.He was a man who ignited the passion amongst the Indians , made them believe they are the best .He was a rare prince who touched peoples hearts and brought light to their life , thanks Dada for all that you have given to the Indian people .

He Is God

2008-10-07T20:05:00.000-07:00

Well finally the dreaded words have been said , saurav ganguly has decided to retire from test cricket at the end of the aus series .Well i guess this news must have been a shock and must have been a great disappointment to most of the true patriotic indians and especially the people of kolkata , which according to me is the patriotic capital of india , i am sure that in places like bombay here must have been celebrations .Feels cruel to say this but mumbai has always been unjust to the prince .Those sick people booing him during the IPL match at wankhede or people like dilip vengsarkar , mumbai has shown the dark side of the indian mentality ,ie pull down the people who are successful and doing something useful , if we cant do something useful others also shouldnt do it .People like sanjay manjrekar writing articles on cricinfo praising sauravs contribution infuriate me further .Coz i know deep down manjrekar , vengsarkar and all the mumbaikars are giggling , they have managed to cut down the carreer of a great man , guess they must be proud of themselves .The debate on sauravs place in the team had been heightened unecessarily by the media and by the jealous mumbaikars like vengsarkar , manjrekar and others.I like many other true indians [ i doubt if mumbai has any ] are still trying to come to terms with why dada decide to do this ? he was still looking good to play at least for a year or 2 .He has been a great cricketer , captain , player , father , husband , son , role model and hero .Just hope that he finishes up in typical style with a man of the series award .For the past 12 years has always touched our hearts with his cricket and his behaviour and he is gona leave many of us moist eyed when he plays his final test at nagpur .Thanks for touching our hearts dada .You are the closest thing to god we have ever known .

Dadas Dhamaka at Eden Gardens

2008-05-25T23:28:00.000-07:00

It has been a bit of an up and own tournament for the KOLKATA team.They have inconsistent performances , their foriegn players like brendon and ponting left early , gayle got injured and didnt play a single match , while shoaib couldnt play most of the matches due to his ban and again missed the last 2 games due to an injury.The weather gods also havnet been kind to them with the game agaisnt delhi at the kotla washed out and rain also interfering in the mtach against chennai which the latter won due to the D/L method.After all this they needed to go out on a high and this is precisely what they did yesterday when saurav ganguly probably played the best inningns of the IPL as he single handedly guided them to a win which for the most part seemed improbable.Ganguly scored a 53 ball 86 as his team chased down 174 on a difficult pitch against a good bowling attck , the next highest being 24 by gul and butt.Ever since brendon left he has been carrying the team virtually on his own carving out some memorable mom performances against hyd and bang .But in a team game it is really difficult for one batsman to carry the team
every time in a team game like cricket.But to gangulys credit he has tried his best and had he got a bit of support kolkata would have very well reached the semis.Anyways IPL is all about entertainment and dada has entertained us all by his delightful performances and especially his classy batting yesterday which was a refreshing change from the wild slogs we been seeing all throught out this tournament by people like jayasuriya , yusuf pathan and others.The maharaj bowed out of this tournamnet in a typical royal fashion with an inningns which eden gardens , kolkata and all the true indian cricket lowers will cherish forever.Truly it was an amazing display by god himself in the city of joy.
cheers to kolkata and dada , you truly rock

Another Disgraceful show by the Mumbai Crowd

2008-05-21T09:08:00.000-07:00

Dunno whats been wrong with the mumbai crowd over the last few years , 1st there was the case of sachin being booed against england in 2004 and now during this IPL their behaviour has been disgraceful.They gave another disgraceful performance which prompted this comment from yuvraj

"I want to tell the crowd that the crowd support was too one sided towards Mumbai. Let me remind them that some of the Punjab players also play for India."

They had given another example of their poor behaviour when they booed SRK and Dada last friday and were cheering jayasuriya and pollock , i agree this is an inter city tournament but booing ur fellow countrymen and cheering foreigners is the height of stupidity.Its high time the BCCI take notice of this , it will be better if mumbai is banned from hosting any cricket matches for 2 or 3 years till they a learn a lesson or two about patriotism.I always thought that a city which has produced some of indias greatest cricketers like tendulkar , gavaskar , vengsarkar and so on will have one of indias best behaved crowd , sadly this ipl has shown the dark side of the mumbai crowds .The poor behaviour of the mumbai crowd has been one of the biggest disappointments of this IPL.

The Clash Of The Badshahs

2008-05-20T23:48:00.000-07:00

Well there is a saying that two swords cant fit in one cover.Well unfortunately this saying has come out true in the case of the KOLKATA KNIGHT RIDERS as there are reports coming in that all is not well between SRK and Dada.The kolkata franchise was a fans delight as it saw two of indias greatest sons ever , the 2 badshahs , the 2 prima donas , the Badshah of Bollywood SRK and the Badshah of Bengal Saurav join forces.Though this seemed like a dream pairing and a sure shot commercial success ,[ i still feel that kolkata has been financially the most succesful IPL franchise if you look at ticket sales and merchandise sale although i may be wrong ], there was also a danger of some clashes.TV channels are filled with reports since yes that saurav was not happy with the team selected , SRK wanted saurav to bowl first against chennai , he wanted saurav to talk with the West Bengal CM regarding waiver of the entertainment tax at eden and so on.I just hope that these small tiffs between SRK and Dada dont blow out of proportion and they sort out their differences soon and become a powerful combination again.Although Kolkata are most probably out of the IPL , they have been the most entertaining team of the IPL .While their cricket hasnt been all that great at times the few times they have got their act together like against bangalore and delhi at edens and also against hyd in hyd , combined with the electrifying atmosphere at eden gardens and also the electrifying presence of srk and dada , the korbo lorbo tune playing in the background they have been blockbuster entertainment .After all IPL is more about entertainment than cricket.How i wish i would have got a chance to watch SRK and Dada at eden gardens.Who wins the IPL is irrelevant as this is inter city cricket not cricket between countries.Had it not been for SRK and dada and the electrifying atmosphere provided by the wonderful people of kolkata , this ipl concept would have fallen flat for the BCCI.I just got a small message for SRK and dada , plz sort out your differences and thanks for the entertainment provided by u and ur team , never mind if u dont go to the semi finals , i would rather have dada playing those brilliant innings like the 80 odd he scored to help india win the 3rd test against south africa rather than score a quickfire 30 or 40 in a tournament like IPL which is useless from the cricket point of view and has entertainment value only.Dada you go and play classy test and one day innings , let blind hitters like jaysuriya and dhoni and all have their few minutes of glory in the IPL.In the end i would say only one thing
Korbo lorbo Jeetbo re Dada and SRK rock.

The Man Responsible For Indias Humiliation at The World Cup

2007-03-26T22:40:00.000-07:00

If we had to find one person who has to shoulder most of the responsibility for india's poor showing at the world cup , then according to me it has to be greg chapell.Agreed that Dravid was the captain and made the decisions on he field but we have seen time and again during the past 2 years that it was chapell who had been calling most of the shots.His spat with ganguly which led to ganguly being dropped from th team for a year had a bad effect on the team.When a coach targets specific individuals and tries to humiliate them at every given opportunity it dosent reflect well on the rest of th team.With ganguly chapell went too far , but it is to gangulys credit that he fought back so superbly and made chapell eat his words.But this whole affair had a poor effect on the team.Most of the players chapell supported never delivered , people like raina , gambhir , uthappa for example.Many players who had done well under ganguly and wright saw their carriers take a nose dive under chapell.People like harbhajan , sehwag and pathan have seen their carrier graphs dip under chapell.A coach along with the coaching inputs and all is expected to bring in harmony in the team.But the controversial man that he is chaepll never succeded in bringing in harmony always playing the divide and rule policy to suit his own intrests.Instead of being a support to the captain here we had chapell hogging all the limelight and trying to run the team on his own sidelining the captain.Even after indias dismal performance chapell still not ready to accept that his coaching meathods and tactics have failed.If we have to improve our team , the 1st step in that direction is to sack this man , the sooner chappell is sacked the better it is for indian cricket.

What Went Wrong ? Part 2

2007-03-26T22:27:00.000-07:00

Well as we analyze here what went wrong in indias world campaign we must also spare a thought for the players .The amount of stress they are under.They would be the 1st to admit that they didnot do as well as they were expected .So we should stop all this effigy burning , abusing the players and all.After all people like tendulkar , dravid , kumble and ganguly have served indian cricket for such a long time.They are and will remain great players and they will always remain our heroes as well.

Coming back to the main topic , i think one other place where our team faltered was the poor start .Uthappa looked out of depth and i though that the indian team management made a huge mistake by not sending Tendulkar to open the inningns with Ganguly especially against Sri Lanka.A good start would have made a huge difference especially in the crucial game against Sri Lanka.There has been criticism against Ganguly as well for batting a bit slowly in the game against Bangladesh , but i think he had no other option than to drop anchor since india were losing wickets continuosly at the other end.He was out at the wrong time , had he stayed till the end we would have reached 225 , but then again he was out to a brilliant catch,and we musnt forget the fact that he tried his best .

What went Wrong? Part 1

2007-03-26T08:21:00.000-07:00

Well so india is out of the world cup , they are out in the 1st round .After the brilliant performance in the last world cup this is indeed a diasppointing performance.Ever since he took over as coach in 2005 greg chapell always stressed on world cup 2007 and formulated a plan known as vision 2007.Well here we have the results of gregs vision 2007, india out in the 1st round of the world cup.

so what went wrong is the million dollar question ?

well according to me the main thing where india lost out was the incompetent team management by Rahul Dravid and Chapell.Well lets face it , Rahul Dravid is undoubtedly one of the greatest batsmen ever , but he is a very very incompetent captain and leader someone who cannot motivate the team at all.And well about greg chapell the less said the better , he is undoubtedly the worst coach we ever had.I think india got the team selection all wrong as well.The decision to drop kumble for the matches against bangladesh and sri lanka backfired miserably.Harbhajan was a big failure in both those matches. I think kumble was sorely missed especially against bangladsh when india needed wickets.On a pitch where mediocre spinners like rafique bowled well , the bangladeshis would have found a spinner of Kumble's class unplayable.I have no doubt that had kumble played , india would have won that match despite scoring only 190 odd.More on indias disappointing world cup campagin next time.

Guru Movie Review

2007-01-20T19:02:00.000-08:00

An outstanding movie and undoubtedly abhishek bacchans best performance till date.A movie which really inspires u based on the life story of the late dhirubhai ambani.The 1st half is really good and fast , the movie drags a bit in the second half at a few places.The cinematography and dirrection are superb and looking at those trams and black fiat cars u get a feel of bombay as it was in the 70s and 80s.A very good performance by the veteran Mithun Da as well.The end however leaves u a bit confused regarding the actual message of the film , as it is shown that despite doing corruption in order to flourish his buisness Gurubhai[bacchan] is let off by the court as only 2 of the 29 charges against him are proven.It makes u wonder if the film is justifying the use of corrupt practices in order to flourish and make ur dreams come true.But apart from them a superb movie in every sense and a must watch for everyone especially the youth.

Cutting Edge

2007-01-14T10:33:00.000-08:00

Should bengal tiger cherish "India's Dubti hui naiyya?"
Before two days in a press conference,dada said that he is not goin to take captaincy even if offered.But we can't forget that he is the best captain amongst all of former captains.We can't forget how amazingly he had risen the Indian Phoenix from ashes in the 2003 world cup after the disaster in New Zealand.We can'i forget that he was the first-ever captain to win the test series as well as one dayer in Pakistan and to draw the test series against the champ Kangaroos in their ILAKA.Certainly,we can't neglect that Rahul Dravid is being failed to spearhead the team India.So,in these cryptic conditions,should dada take captaincy towards him if it is offered for the safety of Indian cricket team?What do YOU say?

Cutting Edge

2007-01-14T10:31:00.000-08:00

Cutting Edge

God Bless Saddam

2006-12-30T21:35:00.000-08:00

What we all were scared of has happened , saddam hussain was hanged yesterday.For what he was hanged no one knows .US invaded Iraq citing that iraq have got weapopns of mass destruction .Till date they havent found a single weapon of mass destruction in Iraq.No doubt America is a very well advanced country and there are many things which other countries can learn from them.But the way the americans invaded iraq and captured and executed saddam was simply not right.They have no authority to interfere in the internal matters of other countries.The war between the shias and sunnis is iraqs internal affair and only the iraqis can find a solution for it.The whole buisness of the saddam trial was a big joke with a couple of handpicked judges who had sold their soul to the americans handing saddam the death sentence.The americans wanted to kill saddam right from the start and this whole trial buisness was just a mere show .But to saddams credit he was defiant till the end and never once did he beg for mercy.He was a proud man and till the end he maintaned his dignity and died a martyrs death.God bless him.As for the americans if they are indeed keen on maintaining peace and stability they should target real trouble makers like pervez musharraf .Targetting saddam was a big mistake and deep within his heart even president bush knows that saddams ghost is goin to haunt him forever.

He Came and He Conquered

2006-12-27T04:37:00.000-08:00

Luckily for me I came back home early on the 1st and 2nd day of the 1st test at the wanderers.I was all emotionally charged.It had almost been a year since i had wtached Saurav Ganguly play for india live on TV.Later on as ganguly walked on to bat i was just wondering what was going on in his mind.Here was a guy with all the pressure in the world on him battling 3 opponents at 1 time , the south africans , battling himself his internal demons and battling against greg chapell who was more of a hindrance ratther than a help inspite of his being a coach.But u could see that famous ganguly look , that determined look in his guys.He struggled a bit initially struck a few good shots and hung around till close of play.Next morning it was ganguly in full flow , nothing epitomized that more than that pulled six of nitini which was probably the shot of the match.He fought it out and by the end he had conquered all the 3 oppoents and most importantly made that disgusting greg chapell eat the humble pie.He is truly the Prince of Indian CRICKET.

'DO-OR-DIE' for Dada!

2006-10-02T12:15:00.000-07:00

It is something new for a national Indian cricket tournament like CHALLANGER TROPHY that almost 83% tickets of the 2nd match(INDIA BLUE vs INDIA GREEN) in this tournament have been sold out completely.It is a thing which was never happened in the history of indian cricket.We all know that this is happened just because of a miracle player's tragic plight,who is our beloved DADA-"SAURAV GANGULY". Even though superstar players like Sachin tendulkar,Rahul dravid are playing in challenger trophy since 3-4 years,this type of tremendous response was never been received.This is just because,even though they are great players,somewhere an igo and a bigger part of selfishness is itching in the niche of their hearts.And the reason for this is DADA's flambuoyant carrier as a Captain.People is just having respect for these star players,but somewhere,sometimes they are bound to maintain their positions in the team.This overtly means that they play for theirselves more and less for country.
In this type of extreme bad plight from which dada is suffering today,everyone is expected to help him,atleast not to grudge him.Even though dada got out on 24 in today's match,he was looking in a good niche.Also,he bowled quite well.But when today he got out,there started a wild celebration in the senior team.And as per my concern,this was the cheepest behaviour of the so called 'best' players of our team.I sadly regret at this situation. Now tommorow's match is as good as the last chance for dada to make a comeback in team india.We all ,dada's diehard fans,must pray for him and wish that we will be seeing our beloved PURANA SAURAV very soon.

Will Schumi Go out On a High ?

2006-09-12T19:33:00.000-07:00

On sun after the italian grand prix michael schumacaher announced that he is retiring at the end of the season.With his retirement its gona be the end of an era .For me , more than the sport its the individual superstars who make it worth watching.Without schumi , watching formula 1 is never going to be the same ,same way without the rock wrestling has been boring and without ganguly and kumble watching the indian one day cricket team is a very very boring affair.Schumi is just 2 points away from alonso and i just hope that he wins this years championhsip and goes out on a high.We always want superstars , people who have been champions in their field to go out on a high.I wanted another superstar and legend , azharuddin to go out on a high 6 years bcak but unfortunately some jealous people got him entangled in the match fixing web.what a perfect scenario it will be if

1] schumi wins this years championship before retiring

2] ganguly gets picked for the world cup [which again depends a lopt on that old fool carzy eccentric old man greg chapell] , scores a hundred in the final and wins the cup for india

3] Anil kumble gets a ten wicket haul and wins a test series for india in aus

but in sport u rarely get fairy tale endings

Democracy or Dictatorship?

2006-07-22T21:27:00.000-07:00

I dont understand the governments latest decision to ban blogs stating that blogs contain inflammatory material.I am indeed suprised by this ban.As far as my blog goes there has never been any post which has been anti india.In fact my blog is named as onlyindian which means it is a blog where i discuss the diff issues diff people who have made india proud.In many of my posts i have tried to highlight the contributions made by real indian patriots like ganguly , netaji , kumble .In one or 2 of my posts i have tried to make the people realize the imp of the contributions made by the likes of the Late Capt Vikram Batra who sacrificed their lives for the country.I dont think there is anything wrong in appreciating the efforts of my own countrymen on the blog.Instead of doing such silly things like blocking blogs whu dosent the government take concrete steps like
1] Severe all ties with pakistan , dont play cricket matches with pak , deny visas to pak filmstars
2] Keep a hold on all these so called religious leaders in the madarassas who are misleading the youth on the basis of religion.
3] Time for the government to change the image of india as a soft state.

If all of us come together we can indeed fight terrorism.Someone just needs to stand up.BLocking blogs curtaling the right of freedom of expression is not right.

Will DADA make his DAANGE again?

2006-07-19T05:41:00.000-07:00

Our beloved Saurav Dada is giving some excellent performances in county-club cricket.I think this is a right wat for dada to make a comeback in Indian cricket team. The kind of players that is selected by BCCI is not at all worth.I agree that Chappel,the Indian cricket team coach has been successful quite a time in making some good experiments which the former coaches would not be ready for. But it should be taken into consideration that a specific limit is there also for these experiments of which Sir Greg Chappel is not thinking and there he loses many-a-times.Of course,there are some brilliant newcomers like Raina,R.P.Singh in our team. But if some of them are not performing well,then why not seniors be given a chance which they really deserve? And this is the real

disaster which is being happen only in INDIA. Wish you good-better-best luck, DADA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dada Rocks

2006-06-12T06:28:00.000-07:00

In India we tend to forget the contributions made by real patriots like saurav ganguly , netaji subash chandra bose and so on.We tend to remember traitors like greg chapell , corrupt politicians and such people.Through this column i intend to highlight the struggle and efforts that Saurav has put in for his country up till now.Make no mistake it is not the end of the road as yet for his cricketing career , the prince will be back soon and win more battles and will bring more glory for mother india ,Dada indded rocks.

Paying the price for being pramodji's Son

2006-06-07T06:35:00.000-07:00

I dont understand this , why so much hype over rahul mahajan.Okey there was drug consumption , there was a death but it was quite disgusting to see tv cameras aimed at him as he was being taken to the police station.The big problem in india is that there are diffrent yardsticks for judging sons of famous people.We have so many cases of drug abuse every day , where the media is not all bothered , so why focus so much energy on rahul mahajan.Just because he is pramodji's son.If he has taken drugs ,its bad but we cant crucify him and his family everyday in the media .He is not god and if he has made a mistake by taking drugs , its ok , after all everyone makes mistakes .It is really bad to see many people using rahul mahajan as a medium to humiliate the mahajan family.Its time for us to look at rahul mahajan as only rahul and not rahul mahajan and give him a fair trial.

Tough Times For The Mahajan's

2006-06-06T21:42:00.000-07:00

Its indeed tough times for the mahajan's .The family hasn't yet recovered from the shock of pramodji's death and they have had to face with these allegations against rahul mahajan.Yesterday they have been told to vacate pramodji;s official residence at 7 , safdarjung road.Rahul Mahajan was sent to 2 days police remand yesterday .He now faces allegations of drug distribution and destruction of evidence.More startling was the revelation by praveen mahajan that Moitra was the man responsible for ruining the Mahajan family.One of the news channels reported yesterday that as he was being taken away by the police despite not being fully fit , an emotional rahul mahajan was reportedly heard telling his mother 'Had Dad been alive today , nobody would have framed me in a false case and nobody would have dared to take me away from the hospital till i was fully fit."

Drug Overdose or Attempt to Poison ? - The Rahul Mahajan Story

2006-06-03T12:05:00.000-07:00

The main question which needs to be answered is whether the episode which rahul mahjan suffered was due to an accidental drug overdose or whether there was an attempt to poison him.
Here i have tried to reconstruct the entire set of events whci happned on the night of the 1st as shown in the various news channels.

1] A guy named sahil came along with his 2 friends to meet vivek moitra and rahul mahajan.Apparently sahil knew vivek coz vivek hugged him and called him beta.He took sahil to another room and talked with him.Sahil came out of the room and told his other 2 friends , they have gone mad they want the stuff.After this sahil called up someone and told him to arrange good quality stuff for a high profile customer.

2] At this point of time , a friend of sahil rahul malhotra , a software engineer told that he dosent want to be a part of this and wants to go home.So sahil dropped him and with the other friend he went to vasant vihar and bought a packet of the stuff for 15,000 rs.

3] He came back and handed the packet to rahul mahajan who put in on a plate , drew the coke lines and snorted it with a 500 rs note.He was followed by vivek and sahil who also snorted the stuff.The other friend at this point of time said that he wanted to go home.So sahil decided to drop him.But mahajan told sahil to take his driver since sahil was not in a good shape.Mahajan was visibly drunk at this point of time.So sahil took mahajan's driver and dropped the other friend.This time they met another frind of sahil who saw that sahil was not in a good shape and offered to come with him to pick up his car parked at mahajan's house and then take sahil to a doctor.They came back to mahajn's house.On entering the house they saw both rahul and moitra lying on the sofa and not getting up even trying to wake them up many times.They shouted for the servants and then transported mahajan and moitra into 2 cars and they were driven to apollo hosp by 2 of mahajan's drivers.

4] The other frind then took sahil to a local hosp where he was given some treatment .Moitra was declared dead on arrival while rahul was shifted to the ICU.Today's bulletin has declared that rahul is now conscious and the ventilator has now been removed.

5] These set of events has been constructed by the news channels based on the statemet of the 3 people who surrendred yes.However sahil who surrendred today has claimed that he is innocent and he did'not take any drugs.The hospital today declared that no traces of cocaine have been found in mahajan's blood.Post mortem has suggested presence of thallium in moitra"s body.

so who is innocent and who is getting framed.Was this a case of attempting to kill rahul mahajan just days after he said that he was keen on joining politics.Or he did really take the drugs and there was an overdose ?Incidentally many people found it strange that rahul mahajan was drinking champagne just 2 days prior to immersing his fathers ashes.He was supposed to go to guwahati today to immerse pramodji's ashes.The good thing however is that rahul's condition has improved quite a lot compared to yesterday.

Chapell Falls Flat on His Own Face

2006-05-31T00:30:00.000-07:00

Well the west indies have thrashed india 4 -1 in the one day series.Frankly speaking even this score line is a bit flattering for the indians.Had the west indies fielded properly in the end stages of the 1st one day match , it could easily have been a 5 - 0 thrashing of india in their favour.West indies have also ensured that by routing india , they have made the indian coach greg chapell fall flat om his own face.Chapell had said after west indies lost the 1st match that the west indies have forgotten the art of winning.Well this statement by him helped lara motivate his team and helped them rout india.Even though west indies have outplayed india in this series , lara should also be thankful of more and chapell for picking up a B grade team and leaving out legends like kumble and ganguly and making his job of routing india much simpler.

Enough of experiments , Get the real Indian team

2006-05-29T03:35:00.000-07:00

I hope that after this 4 - 1 humiliation by the west indies , our great coach gets some sense now and he cuts down his experiments and recalls back the experineced players like ganguly , kumble and laxman.Its ok to win a couple of matches on flat sub continent pitches against amd understrength england team , but when u travel outside u need real classy experinced players , not some young players who are yet to establish themselves .Even now if chapell thinks that the likes of raina , powar , sreesanth , uthappa can win india the world cup in place of the laxman's , ganguly's amd kumble's , then not even god can svae india from this tsunami called greg chapell.

Going a Few Steps Backwards - 1

2006-05-27T07:40:00.000-07:00

Actually now a days we hear that india is progressing a lot , we are on the path of becoming a superpower and so on.However 3 incidents in the last year have convinced me that every time india takes one step forward , it is followed by 3 steps backwards.We may have progressed in the IT sector , the economy might be booming and all but still i will say that we are going backwards based on these 3 incidents.The 1st one is related to sports , ie cricket , i am not mixing sports and politics and stuff here just giving an example of the mindset of us indians.Last year we had this spat between one the greatest indian captains and greg chapell where probably both of them were at fault , maybe chapell was more at fault.But 1 year down the line what do we have , ganguly is out of the team while chapell is still here .We are allowing a foriegner to come and dictate terms to us and based on his comments indians like more are ruining the career of someone who has played for the country with his heart and has always given his best for the country.We are allowing a foreign coach to come and show fingers to our own countrymen without even raising a word of protest.We wanted ganguly to be accountable for every loss but chapell is free to do what he wants.The very fact that we trust a chameleon like chapell more than a patriot like ganguly who has achieved so much for the country shows that we dont care for our own heroes .Will a country which dosent respect its own heroes ever progress ?

Next Time - How is reservation affecting the country's progress

North Vs South

2006-05-12T08:04:00.000-07:00

In india regionalism has been a big worry.We have always categorised people as north indians and south indians.I know its wrong to categorise people that way as all of us are indians.But studying medicine for the last 4 years in a college filled with majority of north indians , i discovered that yes there is a divide between north and south indians.To start with i think north indians tend to be more arrogant than say south indians.Money and muscle power rules supreme in north indians.More importantly the few north indians who i use to conisder good frinds did'not turn out to be good freinds after all.I am not saying that all north indians are bad.But the expereinces i have had in my college with north indians have not been that great.

Pramodji Passes Away

2006-05-03T10:57:00.000-07:00

One of the most dynamic leaders of recent times whose popularity cut across party lines , pramod mahajan passed away today at 4.30 pm.It had been a 12 day battle for him with ups and downs everyday.People who were close to him said that he is a fighter who will fight till the end.Pramodji fought till the end but this time he couldnt fight death.I think he was one of the most popular politicans amongst the youth .He was one who always looked ahead in life .One must also appreciate the efforts of the doctors at hinduja hospital who tried their best .Pramod Mahajan will be missed , it is indeed tragic for this country that we have lost three dynamic leaders in Madhavrao scindia , Rajesh Pilot and now Pramod Mahajan .

Sarforoshi Ki Tamanna Ab Hamare Dil Mein Hain

2006-04-10T04:40:00.000-07:00

These above words just sum up leander Paes.Yesterday india was playing pakistan at mumbai and it was 2 - 2 when prakash Amritraj lost the 1st reverse singles.The pressure was on , the humidity was intolerable and the stage was set for the fighter to bail the team out.He fought an attack of cramps , fought the humidity , fought his opponent.Losing the 4th set0 - 6 , the chants in the crowd , the tri colour fluttering in the distance just inspired him as he won the final set 6 - 1.There is something about Kolkata and patriotism .The people of kolkata unbashedly flaunt that " I am Indian" tag.They have that naked passion and adrenaline surge when they play for the country.People like Leander Paes and Saurav Ganguly are perfect examples.The great thing about leander is that whenever he plays the davis cup , he always raises his game by a few notches.Nothing motivates him more than the thought of playing and doing well for his country.If i am ever given the option of having ambassadors to promote this website , Paes , Ganguly and Kumble will be my choices.Just imagine a davis cup team of 4 leander paes's or a cricket team of 11 gangulys or 11 kumble's.They will be unbeatable.

Saurav - Greg Saga

2006-04-08T22:07:00.000-07:00

Dec 2003 - Saurav ganguly seeks some batting tips from greg chapell and goes on to score a hundred against aus in the 1st test at brisbane.

April 2005 John Wright steps down as coach of the team.Hunt for a new coach is on.The 2 main candidates are greg chaepll and tom moody.Most of the team members want moody as coach while saurav ganguly pushes very hard for greg chapell.Ultimately greg chapell gets the job.

July 2005- Indian team is in zimbabwe for a 2 test series .During the 1st test after scoring a hundred saurav tells the media that he was asked to step down as captain prior to the test by greg chapell.Chapell dashes off an e mail to the BCCI president criticizing the captain.That e mail is leaked to the press and gets published in a bengali newspaper.

August 2005- On return to india harbhajan singh stands by his captain and criticizes the coach.It was courageous act by the spinner.However he is fined by the punjab cricket board.A comitee consisting off shastri , gavaskar , dalmiya and venkatraghavan is formed .Chapell and ganguly appear before this comitee.It is decided that both should continue.

sep 2005- ganguly is injured and cannot take part in the challenger series.Dravid is appointed captain of the one day team while ganguly is not picked for the one day series even after he is fit.Ganguly's absence is met by widespread protests especially in kolkata during the one day match against south africa where people boo more and chapell.Chapell acts in a very disgusting manner and shows the finger to the people of kolkata and is really lucky to get out of the city in one piece even after behaving in such a disgusting manner.BCCI issues a statement that greg was attending an injured finger.Greg dosent apologize to the cricket fans of kolkata.

Oct 2005- Ganguly is sacked as captain of the test team despite doing a good job.He is however reatained in the team for the test series against sri lanka .Plays 2 vital inngns of 35 plus in both the inningns of the delhi test even as kumble spins india to victory.Despite doing well is shockingly dropped for the 3rd test.During the 2nd test chapell states in an interview that saurav is fitting in well with the team and so on.However within 48 hours he reverses his stand a d tells the selection comitee that he dosent want ganguly in the team.A real chameleon that man chapell is.

Jan 2006 - ganguly is picked for the test series against pak.Gets to bat only twice in the entire seies in the 3rd test at karachi where again he plays 2 good inngns of 37 and 35 .However the top order fail in both the inngns and india lose a test series to pak for the 1st time in 17 years

Feb 2006 - despite doing well in pak , is not picked for the seies against eng.Chapell states in an interview that he owes his job entirely to ganguly [1st truth which chapell spoke in a long time}.He makes some other crappy statemnets like ganguly wanted to cling to the captaincy for his won financial reasons.India play poorly in the test series against eng which ends with india losing the final test at mumbai and the crowd chanting ' we want saurav'

March 2006 - despite the repeated failures of the likes of sehwag and gambhir , ganguly is not recalled to the one day team.Instead the selectors prefer someone by the name of robin uthappa.

Apri 2006 - India is to tour west indies .Going by india's recent performances they need a solid exp batsman to bat at no 5 in tests and they also need a good opener in one day matches.India have a ready made option in ganguly.But with comedians like chapell and more around , it remains to be seen whether this great player can make a comeback.

A Year Of Blogging - 2

2006-04-05T06:01:00.000-07:00

One thing which i havent been able to do during my postings in the past one year has been that i havent been able to post these neutral type of posts.Most of the posts especially when it came to saurav ganguly , anil kumble have been straight from the heart.Maybe when u blog it is wrong to be so emotional , maybe it is right i dont know.I felt very strongly about the ganguly - chapell issue at that time and i still feel so.Actually in this blog , when i talk about cricket it is not about who wins and who loses.For many of us indians , cricket is a way of life.Many of the cricketers are are role models.This blog is all about being an indian .And for me the 3 people who really show that naked passion and emotion and who unbashaedly flaunt that "i am an indian ' sign are Saurav Ganguly , Leander Paes and Anil Kumble.More next time

A Year Of Blogging - 1

2006-04-04T01:03:00.000-07:00

Well i finally completed an year of blogging today.It feels really great to have completed a year of blogging.The person i would like to thank the most is my friend GK.Actually last april when i was just chatting with him , he sent me the link of his blog and after checking out his blog , which is pretty impressive , i decided to start my own blog.I would also like to thank another friend of mine , aditya , who hepled me initially with the posting of pics on this blog.More next time.

The Teriffic Trio

2006-04-03T05:20:00.000-07:00

Although india have done well in the current one day series against england and are leading 3 - 0 , i still feel that this team is a bit short on experience.If we see the last 4 one day series played by india , the only team which offered stiff competition was south africa and india failed to beat them.Pakistan were without shoaib for the one day series and against india shoaib his presence is a big boost for them especially in one day internationals.England lost half their side before the start of the test series and during the course of the tests have lost steve harmison alos due to injury.So they havent been that great an opponent on these typical sub continent pitches.If we look closely , the main drawback of the indian one day team in recent times has been the poor starts they had.Sehwag is struggling and today we had dravid opening the batting.These makeshift opening pairs are ok right now but wehn we play against teams like aus or a full strength england we need good opening pair.According to me that openong pair is the dynamic duo of tendulkar and ganguly who are undoubtedly 2 of the finest openers to have ever played in one day internationals and who are probabaly the most destructive opening pair in one day internationals after greenidge and haynes.Its bad tendulkar is injured for this curent series but i think its time to give sehwag a break so that he can work on his fitness and form.Even if he gets some runs in the nest few matches , i think it will be a good idea to give him a break and have ganguly back in the team.Coming to the bowling i think again there is a lack of experience.Even though people like harbhajan and agarkar have played for a long time , i dont think that they can be banked upon to bowl those crucial overs in a world cup semi final when the game can go either way.That is where we need someone like kumble .The selectors think that kumble dosent fit in the one day team coz he has nothing else to offer other than his bowling.I think that Anil Kumble is worth his place in the side on the basis of his bowling alone.He is a champion bowler on whom one can count to deliver those crucial overs on high pressure situtaions.I feel at present our coach and selctors are emphasizing too much on youth.An ideal team is one where there is a good blend of youth and experience.At present the indian on day tream is lacking in experince.Its good that the indian one day team is winning a lot of matches and all . however i dont think that the indian one day team will be able to make that transition from a good team to a great team without this terrific trio of tendulkar , ganguly and kumble.The sooner they come back , the better it is for indian cricket.

Tests vs One Dayers

2006-03-29T05:21:00.000-08:00

So how do u judge a good cricket team.Does it depend on the no of one dayers they win or the no of test performances or both.If we consider only one day performances then we will have to say that in recent months that a team like india is better than england.I consider the test performances of a team both home and away over a period of time gives us a fair idea of the strength of the team.If we consider the recent series between south africa and aus , south africa beat aus in the one day series but when it came to the real thing in the tests they have been outclassed by the aussies.Similarly if we consider the indian performances , they have been fabulous in the last 15 or so one dayers they have played.However they have been badly beaten by the pakistanis at karachi and eng at mumbai in the test matches.Some people have been saying that ever since greg became the coach we have become a good team and have won a lot of one dayers and blah blah blah.Does some wins on flat pitches onsome senseless one dayers really signify great improvement when at the same time on challenging pitches in testspressure situations the team has collapsed miserably.The pair of ganguly - wright was great not coz we won the natwest final or reached the world cup final.Under wright and ganguly india's performace in tests improved drmatically.We did' not lose against aus in aus , against eng in eng and we beat pakistan in pak and not to forget the magnificent win over aus in india in 2001 when a kumble less india won the test series against aus.A few one day wins here and there dosent make chapell a geat coach.He has miles to go before he can even hope of attaining the same level as wright in terms of coaching india.

Reactions

2006-03-22T21:50:00.000-08:00

Here are a few reactions to india's humiliation at mumbai yesterday which i heard on some news channels

Boycott on NDTV

Kiran More as Chairman of selectors is a big joke.Best captain for india is saurav ganguly

Jadeja on NDTV

Bring Back Saurav Ganguly

Amarnath on Zee News

Had u Given the option of greg chapell , most of the people would have voted for him.

Amarnath said this in response to an opinion poll conducted via sms by zee news yesterday to pick out the villan of india's performance yesterday.There were 3 options dravid , tendulkar and sehwag.53 percent people identified dravid as the villan responsible for india's humiliation yesterday

We want saurav

this was the chant heard all over the wankhede stadium during the presentation ceremony

Humiliation at Mumbai

2006-03-22T04:19:00.000-08:00

Well i guess the humiliation for the indian team continues.After they lost to pak at karachi to lose a test series to pak for the 1st time in 17 years they have now managed to lose a test match at home against eng for the 1st time in almost 20 years.What is more amusing is that an eng team missing at lest 4 of their top players thrashed india by 212 runs.If we consider the performance of the team throughout this series they are indeed lucky to get away with a 1 - 1 draw.India were lucky to draw the match at nagpur where they were on the backfoot for most of the match.They were on the backfoot at mohali too.It was only an excellent all round performance by anil kumble and some good bowling by patel which helped them win.And now here at mumbai our team management took the most atrocious decison of bowling 1st.This was complimented by another pathetic decision of dropping laxman and going in with 5 bowlers.With the batting line up struggling throughout the series it is indeed suprising that our coach and captain decided to drop laxman.Getting bowled out for 100 and losing 7 wickets for 25 runs is indeed atrocious for an international team.Ever since chapell has become coach , tendulkar has been woefully out of form , sehwag has struggled for form , harbhajan has looked worse than a club blowler.The catching in this series was pathetic as well.Under chapell , india have done decently in one day matches but ultimately test cricket is the real thing.And under chapell india's test cricket has been declining rapidly.After india won the one day series in pak , a news channel called the jodi of dravid and greg as jodi no 1.I also agree that they are jodi no 1, they are no 1 at creating dubious records.
here's a list
1] India lost a test series to pak for the 1st time in 17 years
2] india have lost a test to eng at home for the 1st time in 20 years
3] india's score of 100 in the 2nd inns of the mumbai test is their lowest score at the wankheded stadium.
4] india's defeat by South Africa in the one day match at kolkata last year was their worst defeat at home

Indeed a prince in saurav ganguly has been forced to make way for a pauper like greg chapell.

King Kumble Keeps India In The Hunt

2006-03-21T05:09:00.000-08:00

After being outplayed for 3 days in the mumbai test , india had their 1st good day of the mumbai test where they restricted eng to 191 in the 2nd inns.Once again it was the champion anil kumble who picked up 4 wickets dried up the runs completely and picked up the catch of the series to get rid of kevin pieterson off his own bowling.Actually this has been a strange series in the sense that a severly depleted eng side has outplayed an almost full strength indian team for the major part of the series.Yet they are trailing india in this series.The main difference between the team has been the champion cricketer anil kumble.In a series where the indian top order has crumbled in every inns , kumble has contributed handsomely with both bat and ball.His half century at nagpur and his partnership with kaif got india out of a tough situation at nagpur.His inns of 32 and his partneship with harbhajan helped india gain a valuable 1st inns lead at mohali.This inns of 32 along with the 9 wickets he took helped india win at mohali.Again his 30 in the 1st inns here at mumbai along with his magnificent spell today has jsut given a india a glimmer of hope.They need 295 runs to win with 9 wickets intact.They have a good chance of saving this match maybe even winning it.Irrespective of whatever happens tomorrow it has been anil kumble's series.130 runs up till now.He is still batting on 8 .Coupled with this are his 16 wickets.Considering the way he has batted in this series he will play a crucial role tom with the bat.It will be really suprsing if this champion dosent get the man of the series award tomorrow.

Wankhede Boos SRT

2006-03-19T23:39:00.000-08:00

Yesterday sachin tendulkar got booed at his hometown mumbai in his 132nd test.Check out this link

http://cricket.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1455549.cms

100 Tests for the Wall - Tribute in Pics

2006-03-17T06:21:00.000-08:00

Pic 1 - Dravids Debut at Lords in 1996
Pic 2 - Dravid and ganguly after india's victory At Kandy in 2001
Pic 3 - Dravid during his double hundred against aus at adelaide in 2003 which according to him is his best inns
pic 4- Dravid and Dada after India's win over eng at Headingly in 2002
pic 5- Dravid after his hundred against aus at kolkata in 2001 which took india to a famous win

Beach At Dapoli

2006-03-14T23:11:00.000-08:00

Here are a few pics of Karde Beach which is around 13km from Dapoli on the konkan coastline.Its around a 5 hour drive from pune.

500 for The Legend

2006-03-11T19:35:00.000-08:00

Yesterday , the 11th of March was one of the golden days in indian cricket.Yesterday india's greatest bowler ever , i.e Anil Kumble entered the 500 wicket club.He is the 2nd fastest bowler to reach the milestone after muralitharan.The way he achieved that record was also phenomenal.He took 3 wickets in one over as eng collapsed from 300/7 to 300 all out in a space of 4 balls.Anil Kumble is india's biggest match winner and possibly the greatest cricketer india have ever produced.In this country where someone like dhoni or pathan are placed on 7th heaven , it is very suprising that the enormous contributions made by this legend are hardly noticed.Many people consider Sachin Tendulkar to be the greatest cricketer we have had in the past decade and a half.However i think , if we consider the contributions made by both sachin and kumble in test matches won by india , kumble is way ahead of tendulkar.240 of his 501 wickets have resulted in 35 test wins for india.We may have tendulkar , we may have dravid , but when it comes to winning test matches , there is no bigger mtach winner than kumble.Kumble is the King.

Striking A Hindu's Heart

2006-03-08T22:44:00.000-08:00

Tuesday's Bomb Blast at Varanasi left at least 20 people dead.That is what the official figyres claim but the real toll is likely to be higher than that.In recent times we had the terrorists striking all the soft targets most notably the temples.We had strikes at the Akshardham temple , the Raghunath temple , last year at Ayodhya and now this strike at Varanasi.Varanasi is one of the oldest cities in the world and is the most holy of all cities for many hindu's.There is no doubt that this attack was planned with 2 purposes .1]Spreading terror 2] producing communal tension.But what i dont understand is why are reputed people from the minority community like javed akhtar , shabhana azmi quiet this time.During the godhra riots we had javed akhtar launching an all out offensive attack against the gujrat chief minister narendra modi.But why is he quiet now.Why is the imam of the jama masjid quiet now?Its true that terrorists have no religion , no nationality.But what we musnt forget that in all these terrorist attacks over the years , we have innocent hindu's who have been suffering the most.No doubt that all communities have suffered coz of terrorism , but its the innocent hindu's who have been suffering the most.Innocent people who were out shopping during diwali were wiped out during last year's terroe attacks in delhi.Innocent people who were out worshipping have been killed in tuesday's attack at varanasi.The allged master mind of this attack at varanasi was killed by the police yes.Its really painful to see our government extending the friendship hand to pakistan , only to be slapped on the face .In 1999 Pakistan responded to vajpayee's historic vist to lahore with the kargil war.And now despite Manmohan's singh's attemt to improve ties with pakistan , we have been rewarded with this strike on benares which is the holiest of all cities for hindus which is the heart and soul of an average hindu person.

Board Warns Chapell

2006-03-02T20:46:00.000-08:00

Check out the foll link

http://content-ind.cricinfo.com/india/content/current/story/239246.html

Dada , Drag Chapell to Court

2006-03-02T20:26:00.000-08:00

Well greg chapell is at it again.In an interview to an english paper , guardian , he has said that he owes his job entirely to saurav and had it not been for saurav he would have never been the coach of the indian team.This is of course true.Then he made another comment in which he said that Dada wanted to cling on to the captaincy coz of his own financial reasons.This comment just shows that even if u dip a beggar like chapell in a jar of gold , he will always remain a beggar at heart.Understandably saurav has also taken objection to this statement.On what basis chapell made this statement , no one knows.Frankly speaking a maharaj like saurav cares 2 hoots about the money he is making by playing cricket.He wants to play for his country , he wants his country to do well , he dosent care for the money.What extra financial benefit does a captain get , i seriously dont know?Unlike chapell ganguly is from an affluent cultured background .He is not a finger showing beggar with a narrow mentality like greg chapell.Anyways by admitting that he owes his job to saurav , chapell has admitted that a beggar like him has been elevated to his present status thanks to the maharaj saurav ganguly.The way he is teating ganguly right now also proves that along with a beggar he is also a traitor who is trying to ruin the life of the man who has elevated him to his present status.I have heard that saurav has complained to the board regarding the comments made by chapell and that the board has warned him.But i dont think this is enough.I think Dada should file a case against chapell and sue him.

Whats The Coach Doing ?

2006-02-27T05:48:00.000-08:00

Does greg chapell really do any coaching or does he spend all his time deciding on how to settle his own personal scores with saurav?I think he dedicates most of his energies towards the latter.In the link given below , he has stated that anil kumble and harbhajan have enough test exp between them to compensate for the green horns in the team and between them they have taken 500 test wickets.It seems that our great coach who charges a hell lot of amount for insulting our heroes and trying to settle personal scores with them is not even aware of the fact kumble alone has taken 494 test wickets and harbhajan and kumble have taken more than 700 test wickets between them and not 500 as he thinks.What a coach who dosent even know the records of his own players.

http://content-ind.cricinfo.com/indveng/content/current/story/238842.html

Will We Ever See Another Match At Eden Gardens?

2006-02-26T06:25:00.000-08:00

The way Dada is being treated , i doubt whether it will be possible to hold another international match at eden gardens.last November we had india playing south africa and without saurav entire match was a chaotic experience ending with greg showing his middle finger to the cricket fans of kolkata.Today i heard that kolkata is likely to be one the venues for the champions trophy to be played later this year.But without saurav in the team , it will be intresting to see whether the people of kolkata allow any international match to be played at the eden gardens.Even if they do, i hope they make every effort to teach another good lesson to greg chapell and avenge all the insults and humiliation which he has heaped on the bengal tiger.

Team Mates Continue to Support Saurav

2006-02-25T09:48:00.000-08:00

The saurav iss ue continues to linger on.After Harbhajan , then yuvraj , it was now the turn of kaif to show his loyalty towards his former captain.In the programme aap ki adalat kaif said that saurav has done a lot for youngsters like himself , yuvraj.And that saurav has had a big role in shaping their careers and most of the credait for what he achieved should go to dada coz dada was the one who backed him up during his difficult times.Way to go kaif.People like u , yuvi , harbhajan are teaching greg a good lesson in loyalty.But i doubt whether he will learn anything about loyalty.After all treachery is imbibed in his blood.

Gavaskar Bats For The Bengal Tiger

2006-02-24T10:08:00.000-08:00

Indian cricket legend suil Gavaskar has urged saurav not to quit and try to force his way back in the team by scoring more and more runs in the domestic matches.U can read the full story at

http://cricket.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1427298.cms

Humiliating a Hero

2006-02-24T10:02:00.000-08:00

This is with reference to saurav ganguly being dropped again for the 1st test against eng.Its very difficult to understand why is he getting dropped ?In the last tour to pak , he played pretty well in the only oppurtunity he got to bat in the final test scoring a couple of 30’s and along with yuvraj managed to restore some pride.It is now very clear that he is being unfairly targetted by our coach .Saurav ganguly may not be blessed with the best of technique , he may be a bit short tempered , but at least he plays with his heart.He loves his country deeply , he is still fit and in good form and wants to continue playing for his country.Its really shocking to see a man who has scored over 10 , 000 runs in one day cricket , someone with 5 000 test runs ,who is arguably one of the best one day batsman ever , the best captain india have ever had being treated so shoddily.Had an aussied captain like steve waugh or ponting been treated so shoddily by a foreign coach , would the aussie board stayed silent?I guess saurav’s only fault is that he is such a passionate person who loves his country so much.In our country , we still have"nt got over the colonial hangover.We still tend to consider people from western countries being superior to us.When someone like saurav ganguly tries to assert that indians are on par with anyone in the world , he gets humiliated.People like hrabhajn singh , yuvraj have made it clear that the team members want saurav ganguly back in the team , then why does the selection committee repeatedly humiliate him at the behest of our coach who is just keen on humiliating saurav for his own personal reasons?

Reactons

2006-02-24T09:47:00.000-08:00

Here are the reactions to saurav ganguly's removal from the team.

http://content-ind.cricinfo.com/india/content/current/story/238565.html

Is The Team Ready for The World Cup

2006-02-19T06:04:00.000-08:00

India beat Pakistan 4 - 1 in the one day series which compensated to an extent for the humiliating loss we suffered in the test series.Ever since did the one day series against sri lanka , india's form in the one day series has been pretty good.They have won 12 of the last 16 matches they have played.Which brings us to the main question , is this team going to be one of the strong contendors for the world cup next year?As of now its a bit early to comment since there is still a long way and lot of matches to be played before the world cup starts .And also all these one day victories have come in the sub continent..But i think the team is shaping up nicely for the world cup.However there are a few dark areas still remaining which have to be sorted out.Its intresting to note ajay jadeja's comment on a news channel in which he said that although the team is shaping upp nicely , they still lack a quality spinner who will be invaluable in the carribean considering that the pitches have variable bounce.He said that spinner should be Anil Kumble.I tend to agree with him on that.The bowling lacks a bit of experince and someone Like kumble will be invaluable especially in tight games.The other problem area is the opening slot.Somehow gambhir dosent really look like someone who will strike a run a bal hundred opening the inningns although he's done it once.I think the selectors should give saurav ganguly another try in the one day series against eng as an opener.The indian team is shaping up nicely but along with the youth , we need a bit of experience too in the form of players like ganguly , kumble.
This is the team which i would like to see play most of the one day mtaches against eng

Ganguly
Tendulkar
Sehwag
Dravid cap
Yuvraj
Kaif
Dhoni
Pathan
Agarkar or RP Singh
Kumble
Sreesanth

Paying the Price for Ignoring a Legend

2006-02-06T06:48:00.000-08:00

Kumble is India's Leading Wicket Taker in tests as well as one day matches

India's team for the one day matches against pakistan really baffles me.Most suprising is anil kumble has not been picked for this on going series.He was badly missed today.On a dry pitch where all the other bowlers were getting clobbered , india really needed an experienced class bowler like kumble.After all he is india's leading bowler in one day matches with 329 wickets in 264 matches at an average of 30.His record against pakistan is 54 wickets in 34 matches at 24.25.I guess our coach and slectors are blind that they still continue to ignore him for the one day matches.I guess not picking kumble and ganguly for one day matches is one of the stratergies of greg chapell to take india to the very bottom of the icc one day and test rankings .After a great tour in 2004 where india played superbly winning the tests and one dayers , india continue to get humiliated on the current tour.With a clown like chapell as a coach , with a moron like more as selector who continue to drop stalwarts like kumble and ganguly , what else can we expect?

Chapell Takes The Team To A New Low

2006-02-06T06:47:00.000-08:00

Dada and Sachin are India's Greatest 2 one day batsman ever

Well after the humiliation at Karachi , where only yuvraj , saurav , pathan and kumble restored some pride , india lost the 1st match against pakistan today.Well though the end was a bit controversial with pakistan winning by the D/L meathod , when maybe india had an outside chance , i still think that india threw the match.When batting , they blew a good oppurtunity of posting a score in excess of 350 when they lost wickets in heap towards the end , and the bowling was pathetic to say the least .Chapell's fav sreesanth was spraying the ball all around giving away 75 runs in 10 wayward overs.On the positive side we had sachin stroking his 39th hundred on odi's and good performances by dhoni and pathan.Sehwag flopped again and its been 12 matches in a row now that the indian openers have failed to put at least 50 runs for the 1st wicket.The last time the indian openers had a stand of more than 5o was against nz in the final of the tri series in zim where dada was opening with sehwag.Food for thought for mr chapell.We need ganguly to open the inningns with either sehwag or sachin.Time for saurav to come back.But our coach is hell bent on ruining our cricket team.

Make Sunny The Coach

2006-02-01T20:44:00.000-08:00

Sunil Gavaskar has all the Right Ingredients To make a good coach for the indian cricket team

India suffered their worst loss in terms of runs against Pakistan Yesterday.I was just wondering ever since becoming coach what has chapell done for the team?In fact he has 2 dubious records to his credit alreday.Last year India were routed by 10 wickets at Kolkata in a one day match which was india's worst defeat at home in a one day international.And now this humiliating loss to Pakistan.Frankly ever since chapell has been appointed coach , all he has one is play dirty politics along with more , has kept on targetting saurav and ridiculing him at every oppurtunity.The atmosphere in the team has been poisoned by his divide and rule policy.The unity in the team which we saw during wright's tenure has been brought down to pieces by chapell.Had an australian team suffered such a heavy loss to eng with chapell as their coach , i wonder what he would have done.A foreign coach will never understand the pain an ordinary indian suffers every team india lose to pakistan.Frankly speaking , i think he needs to be sacked.Under him the team is going nowehere.The person with all the right qualities to be indian coach is sunil gavaskar.I dont understand that why dosent the indian board offer an indian coach the same amount of money which they do to the likes of chapell.The indian board should offer sunny , a contract for say around 3 years , pay him more than they are to greg chapell.Gavaskar is a passionate indian who gets along very well with the members of the indian team.He is not an ego maniac like chapell.The sooner chapell is fired , the better it is for the indian team.

Dada and Yuvi - Only 2 indian Batsman who fought it out

2006-02-01T04:43:00.000-08:00

Dada and Yuvi were the only 2 indian batsman who showed the willingness to fight it out

Chapell and More Clinch Series For Pakistan

2006-02-01T03:47:00.000-08:00

India have been tharshed by 341 runs in the karachi test and they have lost a test series against pakistan for the 1st time in 17 years.Although pakistan played well in this match , i think india beat themselves with all the unnecessary politics and pressure games played by greg chapell and kiran more.Instead of conc on his own team , our great coach seemed more concerned about shoaib akhtar's action.The shocking treatment meted out to saurav ganguly did nothing to boost the morale of the team.Then we had the great kiran more announcing the one day team on the 1st day of a deciding test of a high profile test series and that too announcing that 3 key players for india in the test , ganguly , kumble and laxman have been sacked for the one day series.Why he couldnt wait for the conclusion of the test remains a mystrey?Was he worried that tickets wont be available or what?Then we had the shoddy treatment given to saurav.He was made to play a ranji mtach which forced him to miss the warm up game in pak.He did'not get a chance to bat in the 1st test , was strangely dropped for the 2nd and when he was picked up for the 3rd test {after considerable debate coz reports say chapell wanted agarkar] he found himself facing a hostile pak pace attack on a green pitch with the 1st 3 indian batsman out for next to nothing.But the fighter that he is he fought it out i both the inns scoring 34 and 37 .However even he will be disappointed at the shot he played in the 1st inns when he looked in absolute control and had the pakistani bowlers at his mercy.By dropping him and kumble for the one day series more and chapell have ensured that pak will find it that much easier to win the one day series.The only bright spots in this test match for india were pathan , yuvraj , ganguly and to an extent kumble.Pathan bowled superbly in the 1st inns and batted sensibly too.Yuvraj is looking classy as a test batsman with each inns.Given the extreme prssure he was under , ganguly also played pretty well on a pitch where the top 4 failed miserably in both inns.Kumble was good in patches , had dhoni not missed that easy stumping chance of akmal in the 1st inns , had the umpiring been better who knows he might have bowled india to victory.The pakistani players hate losing to india ,the disgraceful behaviour of the likes of shoaib , afridi clearly showed that they never considered this series to be a friendship series.

A Coach Hellbent on Ruining Our Cricket team

2006-01-31T09:38:00.000-08:00

Hers's an article which i found at msn.com.After reading this article i just wonder how much disgusting can greg chapell get.He is an ego maniac who is ruining our cricket team.Had dada not played at karachi , i guess india would have struggled to cross even 150 in the 1st inns.

Chappell did not want Ganguly in the XI
Source: Cricketnext.com.
Image Source: Cricketnext.com
Karachi, Jan 30: If Indian coach Greg Chappell had had his say in selecting the playing eleven for the Karachi Test, deposed skipper Sourav Ganguly may not have been in the team.

The Team India coach, keen to play a fourth pace man, wanted Ajit Agarkar instead of the southpaw, a newspaper report said quoting a team source.
Chappell didn't believe that Ganguly should be picked for the third Test in the background of his argument and keeping in mind that India had also played with a combination of five bowlers and five specialist batsmen with wicketkeeper Mahendra Singh Dhoni as the sixth batsman", newspaper said.
A lot of debate was held on the selection of Ganguly for the crucial Test, with Chappell arguing that since India would have to play three spinners and two pace men, or three pace men and two spinners, in their coming home series against England, it was best to start sticking to a similar combination in Pakistan also, added the source.
He said, however, skipper Rahul Dravid, manager Raj Singh Dungarpur and selector Ranjib Biswal argued that Ganguly should play as, given the look of the pitch for the final Test, India needed to strengthen its batting and play with six specialist batsmen.
''They also felt that going by normal circumstances, India had always played six specialist batsmen and not five specialist bowlers,'' added the source.

Badshah is Editor

2006-01-27T20:22:00.000-08:00

The Versality of Badshah just amazes me.This guyis good at everything.He is the guest editor of today's Times of India.So guys go and grab ur copy now.

The Colonial Hangover - When are we gona get rid of it ?

2006-01-27T05:35:00.000-08:00

On the 15th of aug 2005 india celebrated its 58th ind day .Yesterday i.e on the 26th of jan 2006 we celebrated our republic day.Lot has chnaged over the years , india has become a booming economy , india has become one of the fav destinations for the software industry , india have become a powerful military as well.Many positive changes have occured over the years .But a few things remain the same.One of them being the colonial hangover.Still we consider people form the western countries like eng , us aus etc superior to us.I dont know why?Agreed we can learn a few things from them.There is nothing bad in learning good things from them.Like for eg though indian automobile companies like tata and bajaj are doing pretty well , they can learn form reputed companies like opel , yamaha etc like what it takes to be the best in the world.But is it right to blindly support foriegners ridiculing our own heroes?Last year we had the saurav - greg saga where we had some people supporting greg at the expense of their own hero who has done so much for the country.Agreed that the aussies have a great sports culture and are world beaters and all and we can learn much from them.But not at the expense of ridiculing our own heroes.

Given a Raw Deal

2006-01-21T10:36:00.000-08:00

dada

I guess the saurav ganguly saga continues.He has dropped from the 2nd test against pak which started from today at faisalabad.The team management decided to play 5 bowlers which was a very suprising decision.India normally never play 5 bowlers.I am of the opinion that it is the quality and not the quantity of the bowlers which is imp.Frankly speaking apart from anil kumble india dont have a single bowler who is capable of winning a match single handedly on any surface.At the time of the 1st test there was considerable discussion that dravid himself opened the inningns to accomodate saurav.If that was the case why is there no specialist opener as saurav isnt in the team.Although RP singh bowled well , the decision to play 5 bolwers has backfired.It would have made more sense had the indian team picked one out of RP singh or zaheer , played saurav and used the bowling of saurav , sachin and sehwag in addition to the 4 frontline bowlers.If u have quality bowlers it makes sense to play 5 bowlers.But when ur bowling is a one man army it makes more sense to pick an extra batsman and try to score more runs so that ur only strike bowler [ kumble] has a cushion of some extra runs when he is bowling.Sacking saurav was simply not the right decision in the current circumstances.

Truly Yamaha

2006-01-20T21:20:00.000-08:00

yamaha rx 135

Truly Yamaha

2006-01-20T21:17:00.000-08:00

yamaha enticer

Truly Yamaha

2006-01-20T21:15:00.001-08:00

enticer

Truly Yamaha

2006-01-20T21:15:00.000-08:00

yamaha rx 100

According to me the 3 coolest bikes which yamaha have ever launched in india up till now are the rx 100 , enticer and the rx 135.Here's a pictorial tribute to one of the best bike manafacturers in the world.

National Hero

2006-01-20T20:50:00.000-08:00

Dada is our Hero

one picture conveys what even a million words cant.Dada may be in the playing 11 , he may be not but for millions of us indians he was always a hero , he is still a hero and will always remain a hero.

Stop This Nonsense

2006-01-09T00:30:00.000-08:00

Well the controversy surrounding saurav continues.Its time we stop this now.This controversy is being fuelled by people like raj singh dungrapur who have no reason to open their stupid mouths.Saurav is a legend who has regained his rightful place in the team.The team members wanted him back , the captain wanted him back , millions of indians wanted him back.He is back and thats the end of the story.Instead of concentrating on how to beat pak , raj singh criticized saurav in an interview to aaj tak on the 6th of jan and 2 days later he is saying that those statements were made long time back and he has no problems with saurav now.When he was appointed as manager , he said that he had no problems with saurav .I guess raj singh is using saurav to gain publicity for himself.Its really sad that people can stoop down to such levels to gain some publicity.According to me saurav shouldnt care too much about what idiots like raj singh , more , greg think about him.His captain and team mates are happy to have him back, now its his duty to perform his job efficiently and ensure that he dosent let them down.

Dada Returns

2005-12-27T03:13:00.000-08:00

I guess for the 1st time in a long long time , the selection commitee have done a good job in picking a good team to tour pakistan.The only suprises being patel picked as the additional keeper and that agarkar was preferred despite bowling poorly in the tests against ari lanka.I thought maybe balaji might come in for him.The big news is of course the come back of zaheer and dada.I read in the sakal newspaper yesterday that dravid fought for dada's inclusion in the team stating that he wanted an exp batsman for this tough tour and there was no way he was going to pak without the prince.Good work Rahul.U are not as spinless as people think .It is tremendous on ur part to stand by ur team mates.Even tendulkar in chat with pawar told him that all the claims by guru { gadha] greg that dada is a disruptive influence on the team are untrue.He told pawar that dada is a good team man and his inclusion dosent harm the team spirit in any way.This was given in the times of india paper dated 25th dec 2005.Its good to see the captain and seniour players backing saurav.This only shows that there is nothing wrong witn team spirit with the inclusion of saurav.The indian team members wanted him back.All the talk of him being an disruptive influence on the team was nothing but plain imagination of those 2 clowns greg and more.Cheers to dada , cheers to sachin , cheers to dravid and cheers to the indian cricket team.I guess dravid has delivered a tight slap on greg 's face and greg wont spread such imaginary stories in the future.

Team for Pak Tom

2005-12-23T04:34:00.000-08:00

I feel really happy when india wins test matches and series.The series win against sri lanka has taken our ranking to no 2 in the ICC ratings.Actually ever since the 2001 series win against aus , our test performance has been consistently been good.Ever since that win 2001 , we drew a series in zim { that zim side had the lies of steak , andy flower], lost 1 - 2 in sri lanka , lost 1 - o in south africa , beat eng at home , lost 1- 2 in wi , drew with eng in eng , beat zim 2 -0 at home , drew 0 - 0 with nz in india , drew 1- 1 with aus in aus , beat pak in pak , lost to aus in india , beat south africa in india , drew 1 - 1 with pak in india and now we have beaten sri lanka 2 - 0.The imp thing being that we have started winning test matches abroad.The team for the pak tour is gona be selected tom.There is a huge question ? Will saurav be picked ?Will he be picked for the tests and one day matches or only for tests or he wont be picked at all?According to me he should be picked for both.We struggled to put a decent opening partnership in the one dayers against sri lanka and south africa.As for the tests , his performance in the kolta test was quite good and very crucial too.Its time zaheer makes a come back.Agarkar has been a big let down in the tests.MY team would be

One Dayers
Saurav
Sachin
Dravid - cap
Kaif
Yuvraj
Laxman
Dhoni
Raina
Harbhajan
Kumble
Zaheer
Agarkar
Pathan
RP Singh
Sehwag

Tests

Gambhir
Dravid - cap
Sehwag
Laxman
Tendulkar
Ganguly
Yuvraj
Dhoni
Kumble
Harbhajan
Zaheer
Pathan
Balaji
RP Singh
Jaffer

Maybe we can have 16 players for tests , kaif can be included too.I guess its high time we have one of the most explosive opening pairs in one day matches , dada and sachin uniting again at the top of the order.

The Chameleons

2005-12-20T05:19:00.000-08:00

Its sad that 2 chameleons like kiran more and greg chapell pick up indian teams.Man these 2 people change their colour every min.When he was appointed greg made a statement telling that tendulkar is maybe past his best and he will never be the sachin of old.A few days later he changed his statement saying that the indian batting needs sachin and he is a very integral part of the batting and so on.Then came the saurav issue.Both of them called a truce but within 24 hours greg sent another email criticzing saurav.Then we had the kotla test.2 days before the selection meeting greg told a news channel that saurav is a mentor for the younger members of the team and so on.Then the bombshell.At the time of the selection meeting he told that saurav did'not fit in according to the requirements of the team and he was having a detrimental effect on the team and so on.Just before the motera test he is telling at a press conference that selection issues should be left to the selectors and he is not n a position to comment on it.But i want to ask that bastard if selection is not ur matter , why do u stick ur dirty nose in every mjeeting criticizing saurav?At the time of the one day series more said that did'mpt bring saurav in the team coz they did'not want to change a winning combintaion.But after the kotla test he changed a winning combination and dropped saurav.How can he chnage his colours all the time.Greg Chapell says that performance is the criteria for selction.Then how come saurav got dropped after scoring 2 40's which according to dravid was very critical in deciding the outcome of the test.And how come agarkar and gambhir still in the team.Why isnt zaheer in the team even after bowling well in the domestic matches?Lack of transparency in selection has always been the curse of indian cricket and now with the combination of chapell and more , this curse has got worse.

Without Dada India Struggle at Motera

2005-12-18T01:00:00.000-08:00

The sri lankans should be thankful to greg and more.Thanks to those 2 clowns saurav is not in the team and india have lost half their side for 117 in the 1st inns at motera.Dada's replacement kaif making just 4 and yuvraj who was prefered as the ideal no 6 in place of dada going for 0.

No Dada , No Dravid , Millions of Indians Look to Kumble Once Again To Prove the Inspiration in his 100th test

2005-12-17T10:10:00.000-08:00

Instead of being on a high after the fabulous performance at the kotla , india have been knocked out by the coach and kiran more.The controversy surrounding Dada's exit has just deflated the indian team once again.With Rahul Dravid out , india's batting will be considerably weakened.They will be missing Rahul , the batsman and not Rahul the spinless captain.Greg controls all the strings and the captain is a mere puppet in his hands.The overwhelminng support for dada from millions of indians from all walks of life is good to see.This issue is going to be debated in parliament also next week.Kolkata ahs just erupted with protests everywhere even though saurav has appealed the people to sat calm and carry on their normal activities.Ego Maniac coaches can ruin good cricket teams.Ray Illingworth did it with the Eng team in 1995 - 96 and greg is doing the same thing with the indian cricket team.Once again it is up to anil kumble to keep that tri colour fluttering high in his 100th test.With No saurav in the side, he has to do it all alone.

Indian Cricket is The Ultimate Loser

2005-12-15T04:59:00.000-08:00

Ever since chapell has become indian coach , there have been controversies galore , the atmosphere has been poisoned by suspicion and the same politics which ruined indian hockey has started ruining cricket as well with the coach showing that he is the king when it comes to playing politics.What has hurt me is the attitude of rahul dravid.That chapell hates ganguly is a well known fact.But what did ganguly ever do to rahul dravid ?HE knew very well in advance that no matter whatever saurav does in the kotla test , saurav was going to be the scapegoat .Why couldnt he fight for saurav?Come on Rahul , dont stoop down to chapells level.With the end of the road for saurav . i wonder who is going to be chapell's next target.VVS Laxman or Anil Kumble?The formula is simple , id u want to stay in the team just please the coach , performance is not the criteria.Agarkar 3 wickets in 3 inningns and gambhir with 3 single digit scores in 3 inningns survived by pleasing the coach.Saurav with 2 fighting knocks of 39 and 40 played well and helped the team win , but he is not the coach's fav.The era of the egoistic characterless back stabbing coach and the spinless captain has truly begin.

He Played with his Heart

2005-12-14T09:35:00.000-08:00

I guess its almost the end of the road for the prince.His exclusion from the test team clearly indicates that his exclusion is not because of cricketing reasons.He was good at the kotla , made vital contributions in both the inningns.Sharad Pawar has stamped his political authority , ably aided by kiran more and greg chapell.That saurav's replacement is jaffer who is from bombay is no suprise.It had to be someone from Bombay.Balaji and Zaheer are not in the team , agarkar is still there.Its no suprise again coz agarkar is from bombay.With pawar as president , one thing is sure people from bombay are going to get the maximum oppurtunities even if many of them are undeserving.Whether the remaining maharashtrian players get similar oppurtunities remains to be seen.I am not so sure about that unless of course someone is from Baramati.They say that whenever Ken Barrington came out to bat , u could imagine the union jack flying proudly behing him.I always felt the same about saurav and kumble.Every time they step on the field , u can sense that the tri colour flying behind them.They play with their heart.This being almost the end of the road for the prince one of them is almost gone.Too bad saurav , u were born in this country .Here they dont respect true patriots who play with their heart for the country.Here people like corrupt bloody diplomatic bastards liek greg chapell and kiran more.Mother india will always be proud of u.U have been a true son of mother india.

Chapell Plays the Perfect Ravana To Spoil Victory Celebration Even As Anil Bhai Bowls India to Victory

2005-12-14T03:29:00.000-08:00

Well on what would have been a perfect day to celebrate for indian cricket , that bastard greg chapell had to stick his nose again as we had saurav ganguly dropped from the team for the 3rd test even after playing well to score 40 and 38 in the kotla test.The funniest thing that just before the announcement of the team , we had rahul dravid praising dada's efforts at the press conference .Its suprising how greg manages to stoop doen to a new level every time.He is a charactreless man , everyone knows after his middle finger at kolkata.In fact he is worse than a prostitute . prostitutes sel only their body but this guy sells his soul an utterly characterless disgusting son of a bitch bastard is what greg chapell is.Just 2 days ago , he was telling that dada had blended in well with the team and he and saurav had forgotten about the controversy and they had put everything behind them and that saurav was an ideal role model for the youngsters in the team.Just 2 days later he has turned again.Even though i respect rahul a lot and i consider him to be india's greatest batsman ever , i think he is also the most spineless captain we have had, a captain who cant even stand up for his team against a dictator coach.Even though dada was not at his fluent best in this test , his 2 partnerships with sachin in the 1st inns and yuvraj in the 2nd inns were extremely vital.About greg chapell , he is a turncoat , a liar and a bloody cheat.Frankly speaking chapell had no role in the kotla win , india won only coz of some good batting by sachin , saurav and dada , some good captaincy by dravid and exceptional bowling once again by kumble who once again showed that he is india's greatest bowler ever.I want to see if chapell can help india win even a solitary test against the likes of aus , eng , sri lanka , pak without anil kumble.As for saurav , i guess it is probably the end of the road for him.Even after performing in the domestic matches , performing fairly well in thius test , he has been dropped.This proves that his exclusion is purely coz of non cricketing reasons , and the 2 bastards responsible are greg chapell and kiran more.The only way he can get back in the team now is if greg chapell is sacked which looks unlikely or if greg chapell dies due to some disease or if he is murdered.Even that is highly unlikely.If greg suffers from some cancer , or if he is paralyzed or something , i wil be really happy.That will be a perfect punishment for him.He is a a murderer,He murders people's souls.

Kumble Krumbles Sri lanka

2005-12-11T04:03:00.000-08:00

Aah , the beauty of test cricket.When test cricket is as engrossing as it was today , it makes me wonder why dont we have test series of 5 matches instead of having mindless series of one day matches.For the tests we had a full strength team playing and immediately we saw a differnce.Yesterday sachin got his 35th hundred to go past gavaskar , but in the euphoria surrounding his achievement the little gems by saurav and laxman went unnoticed.Both of them under tremendous pressure played superb knocks .Laxman was at its elegant best and dada even though he stroked some elegant shots was at his courageous best just refusing to lie down.All though ganguly scored only 40 , this has to be one of his most crucial inningns for india after that wonderful hundred at brisbane in 2002.The worth of his inningns can be judged from the fact that the moment he got out today , india collapsed.Yuvraj showed his lack of technique and class at the test level , it was suprising to see that he was chosen ahead of Kaif.The fact that the there was a competition between yuvraj and Dada prior to this test series for a spot in the side makes me laugh.As a test player yuvraj can never hope to compete with saurav.Saurav is way way ahead of yuvraj in class , temperamnet at the test level.After the spectacular collapse in the morning , india should be thankful once again to that great legend ,anil kumble that they are still in command of the match.For the nth time , kumble again bailed out the side which had its back to the wall and were looking totally flat and out of ideas.If u ask me , Kumble is indi'as greatest player of the past decade and probably india's greatest player ever.The bowling apart from kumble and to a certain extent pathan was extremely pedestrian.Agarkar and harbhajn were out of sorts.It will make sense if the indian team management replace agarkar with zaheer or maybe balaji for the next match.Harbhajan and agarkar are yet to take a wicket in these series.This test has proved once again that dravid , sachin , dada , laxman and kumble are india's best players at the moment and for india to do well these 5 have to play in every match[ be it a test or a one day] .It will better if greg stops the stupid policy of experimenting with youngsters and realizes that age dosent matter , class and performance is the thing that matters.Even at the age of 35 , kumble is india's best bowler by a mile.

Is It Kumble Vs Sri Lanka ?

2005-12-06T06:49:00.000-08:00

Even though we have had diffrent coaches and captains over the last 10 years , one thing has remained constant.Indian bowling in tests is only Anil Kumble and Anil Kumble only.Unless he takes wickets india struggle , of course the likes of pathan do well against zim and Bangladesh but against quality opposition he struggles.And for all the harbhajan fans out there , he is yet to make the transition from a occasional match winning bowler to a consistent champion bowler.Today apart from anil kumble , the other indian bowlers were treated with disdain by the sri lankans.Agarkar and harbhajan went wicketless , pathan took 1 wicket but went at 6 an over which is ridiculously expensive in a test match.Only kumble with 3 /41 in 15 overs posed problems for the sri lankans.Without anil kumble , india will struggle to even dismiss an australian state side on a decent pitch.Instead of pointing fingers , it will be good if greg chapell does something worthwhile and starts grooming some bowlers who might fill to some extent the great vaccum which may be created when kumble eventually retires.The longer he plays the better it is for indian cricket.It is no suprise that india is better placed in the icc test rankings than it is in the one day rankings.If they start playing kumble again in the one dayers i am sure even the one day rating will go up.With the other bowlers bowling all crap , the series once again hinges on anil kumble.

Coach Or Traitor ?

2005-12-05T05:14:00.000-08:00

Seeing is believing, they say. But in a society like ours, built on trust, it can sometimes be forgotten that hear-say can deceive. Much to our own disappointment, we realise it too late.

When Greg Chappell was appointed coach, he sold his 'vision' in a manner which would make any sales guru proud. Like an ordinary customer on the street we were awe-struck by the modern methods and simplicity of these plans. We focussed more on results and gave into the convincing powers of a crisp-talking Australian.

We, however, forgot to read the fine print. Under an attractive cloak of India's rise to the helm of ICC rankings and 2007 World Cup glory, lies hidden a toxic path where Indian cricket, as we so fondly worship, could die a slow death.

It didn't take long for the mist to disappear. Chappell's intentions started becoming clear during the early days of his assignment as he issued statements indicating Sachin Tendulkar's loss of form was permanent. Later, when Greg realised that he had overstepped his boundaries, he blamed the media for twisting his comments. But he didn't lose heart or deviate from his 'vision'. The focus he said would be on creating bench-strength. Cleverly disguised inside this move was the agenda of nudging out some of the biggest names in Indian cricket. It all blew up into a big mess in Zimbabwe when Sourav Ganguly made it public. And now, former selector Yashpal Sharma has made some startling revelations.

Yashpal, a former Indian selector from North Zone, lashed out at Chappell for questioning his integrity and interfering with selection matters. "Yes, Chappell questioned my integrity in the course of my tenure and that is not acceptable from my point of view," he said. Yashpal, who was removed by the new regime led by president Sharad Pawar in the Board of Control for Cricket in India, then added: "Chappell's behaviour shocked me. I have been labelled as Jagmohan Dalmiya's man and that is not right. I have played cricket with integrity and no one has the right to challenge it. Let Mr Chappell come and challenge it. I am ready." But what is the reason for such bitterness? The answer has the potential to rock the very foundations of Team India

Chappell wants Ganguly out," Yashpal fired. Nothing new. The tussle between the former Indian captain and coach has been brewing since the Zimbabwe tour when Chappell asked Ganguly to step down from captaincy. The two have been at loggerheads ever since with Chappell terming Sourav a distractive influence in the side. Ganguly in turn has accused Chappell of dividing the team. The Bengal tiger finally lost the battle due to his lack of runs, but never gave up on the war. With impressive knocks (and a bagful of wickets!) in domestic games, Sourav is back in the reckoning. But Chappell wants to keep him out. And many others, according to Yashpal. "All I can say is that Viru (Virender Sehwag), Bhajji (Harbhajan Singh) and Zaheer (Khan) are next in Chappell's list to be chopped from the team."

A dying man never lies. And with the death of his career as a selector, Yashpal's comments gain a sense of righteousness. One of the mentioned players, Zaheer Khan is already finding it hard to make a comeback to the team. Not so long ago, he was India's pace spearhead. How quickly times change. The irony of it all is that he dismissed Ganguly twice for duck in a domestic encounter. Zaheer was still not picked, while it was only the unbearable pressure from selectors that gave Ganguly his last shot at redemption. The other names are shocking to say the least. Has Chappell gone insane? Probably.

Sehwag has been India's champion batsman in recent years. Has Chappell forgotten that the opener struck the first triple-century ever by an Indian just a year ago? If he has, this article should refresh his memory. Even though Sehwag hasn't been able to crack any big knocks this year, it would be foolish to replace the opener. If at all he can ever be replaced. His 30s and 40s at the top of the order are still vital to India's cause. In this short burst, Sehwag can deflate the opposition. With the momentum on India's side, Tendulkar, Dravid and Co. can then take their time to settle in and build an innings. Sehwag's role is vital to the team and it is only a matter of time before he hits a big one.
It is surprising to hear Harbhajan's name in the list as the off-spinner has only improved this season. After a lean period last year when he was low on confidence, the Turbanator has revived his fortunes. There is a destructive look to his loop and wickets are following. Then why does Chappell want him out of the team? The answer might lie on the Zimbabwe tour. After the much publicised spat and the e-mail leak, Harbhajan had come out strongly in defence of Ganguly. He had reportedly slammed Chappell for his divide-and-rule policies which made players uncomfortable. It seems that although the flames have been doused, the coals are still simmering deep inside Chappell.

Whatever his agenda, it is clear now that Chappell has no idea about the intricacies of Indian cricket. The Australian talks about physical fitness and mental strength, but he is yet to understand the basic reason that make the game so popular in this country. Cricketers play it with all their heart, and fans follow it all their passion. This is what makes Indian cricket unique. It is less of calculated mathematics and more of blind faith. It is up to the fans and selectors to give innumerable chances to their heroes. Chappell is here to do a job, and he should concentrate on the core part of it. Leave other matters to us. Or leave!

The above article can be accessed at indiatimes.com.I read it over there and thought it just supports my argument about greg the person responsible for the death of indian cricket.

The tile of this article at indiatimes is Sehwag , Harbhajan on Greg's Hitlist.

Great Batting Sides

2005-12-03T05:17:00.000-08:00

Troughout this past decade indian has have been blessed to have some very good batsman in the cricket team.The other day iwas reading an old issue of the sportstar where it was written that the indian batting line up of chopra , sehwag , dravid , ganguly , tendulkar and laxman was one of the best indian line ups ever.Maybe.But if given a choice , i think the indian batting line up of 1998-99 was probably the best batting line up we have had in the last 15 years.The top 5 in the one day team in 1998 -99 were

Tendulkar
ganguly
Azhar
Dravid
Jadeja

In tests we had

Sidhu
Laxman
Dravid
Tendulkar
Azhar
Ganguly

This line up had the powerful hitting of Sidhu , destruction of Tendulkar , Solidity of dravid, Classy Elegant shots of Dada and the wristy ellegance of Laxman and especially Azzu Bhai.In the one day team we had saurav and sachin who are probably the best combination to ever open in one day matches.There was azhar and jadeja and Dravid also made a spectacular return to the one day team on the NZ tour of 1998.It has always been a regret for me that i could never watch laxman and azhar batting together involved in a huge partnership.Of the above line up we still have dada , tendulkar , dravid and laxman.However it should be noted that we still havent found a replacement for Azhar .It is always tough to fill the vaccum when a great player departs , but the likes of yuvraj , kaif , mongia who have been tried in the no 5 position are not even half as good as azhar.The search continues.

King At Chepauk

2005-12-01T18:22:00.000-08:00

Anil Kumble is india's greatest bowler ever.No indian bowler has won as many matches as him.His recored at Chepauk , venue of the 1st test is also satggering.He has played 6 matches there and claimed 42 wickets at an average of 17.50.Out of those 6 india have won 3 matches where he has claimed 22 wickets at an average of 18.In fact it could have ben 5 matches out of 6 , had it not rained last year on the final day against aus where india had to score just over 200 to win the match , a match where he took 7 aussie wickets on the 1st day to skittle out aus and ended with 13 wickets outclassing shane warne as well.Also the match against pak in 1999 where he took 6 wickets on the openind , a match where india fell short by 12 runs despite tendulkar scoring a magnificent 100 in the last inningns.In fact out of the 6 times he has played , india have lost only 1 match.So more than the indians being scared of Muarali , the sri lankans will be more scared of Kumble.Actually with prediction of rain , it seems sri lankans are lucky that they wont have to face the lion in his own den for 5 days.

Join The Fight Against Aids

2005-12-01T04:27:00.000-08:00

There is no doubt about the fact the awareness about AIDS is still very less in india.This desite India being one the leading aids suffering country in the world.Its time all of us come together to fight this massive problem.Its my sincere appeal to all u people supporting my blog to educate ur maids , servants , drivers who may be undeduacted or who are not aware about this Massive problem called HIV AIDS.For all u bloggers who are based in pune , i appeal u to run the marathon on sun , run to fight against AIDS.Forms are available at nehru stadium , pune.

My pick for the chennai Test

2005-11-29T01:43:00.000-08:00

Now that the one day circus is over , we can look forward to some good test cricket.With the return of Dada , Kumble and Laxman we have a strong potent Team India playing and not greg's boys as was in the case of the one dayers.India led by the captain put on a spirited display against south africa to level the one day series.India played pretty well in the one day series .However their shortcomings against seam bowling was once again exposed at Hyd and Eden gardens.Greg chapell also showed what a great stratergist he is by sending irfan pathan to open the batting on a green top at eden gardens against Pollock.As expected pathan flopped.Anyways coming to the test series against sri lanka , i think india will start as favourites now that they have a full strength squad.key men for india will be Dravid , Sehwag , Laxman and Ganguly with the bat and of course Kumble with the ball.How the sri lankans handle spin great Kumble remains to be seen.
My team for the 1st test would be

Gambhir
Sehwag
Dravid
Tendulkar
Ganguly
Laxman
Dhoni
Pathan
Agarkar
Kumble
Harbhajan

Boucher Questions Gangulys Absence

2005-11-28T05:21:00.000-08:00

Mark boucher was suprised at saurav ganguly's excusion from the indian one day team.He said a couple of our team members our wondering why isnt he in the team.We prefer bowling at the new batsman rather than saurav.Check out this story at www.cricinfo.com

Kolkata Teaches Greg A lesson -2

2005-11-26T08:25:00.001-08:00

Kolkata Teaches Greg A Lesson - 3

2005-11-26T08:25:00.000-08:00

Kolkata Teaches Greg A lesson - 1

2005-11-26T08:23:00.001-08:00

Kolkata was the acid test for greg , he failed it.Overnight he has become disgusting greg from guru greg after his gestures to the crowd.Kolkata has brought greg to his knees.Gregs boys have been humiliated , disgraced and routed in kolkata.I hope we will see a spirited Team India , the indian team of the fans , Of Dada , oF dravid and not greg's boys in mumbai.In Kolkata it was not team india , but greg's boys who were playing and as expected the crowd did'nt like that.Kolkata has taught greg a lesson and hopefully he will think again before insulting the prince.Cheers to kolkata for teaching a lesson to greg chapell.But guys u shouldnt have heckled dravid.The man responsible for Saurav's absence from the one day team is that joker Greg Chapell and not Rahul Dravid.Cheers to the prince of Kolkata as well for his awesome all round display at pune.

Greg Insults Indian Cricket Fans

2005-11-26T08:23:00.000-08:00

Greg and his finger

I always knew that greg is a greedy chap who came to india as a coach only coz of the enormous money that was involved.He dosent respect indian cricket nor its fans.His extremely tasteless gesture of showing the middle finger to the fans was extremely disgusting.Cheers to Kolkata for protesting against Greg Chapell.He deserves it.The BCCI's response that greg was attending to an injured finger was laughable to say the least.Who is the BCCI trying to defend?Greg has to apologize to all the cricket fans of Kolkata for his disgusting gesture.

Sans The Prince , India Humiliated At Eden Gardens

2005-11-25T09:59:00.000-08:00

It was the same old predictable story.India routed again.Without the prince the indians were humiliated and disgraced at eden with the home crowd appalauding the south africans and booing the home team.Kolkata people are the most vociferous and passionate people in india.It was really sad to see rahul dravid getting booed at the post match presentation and the applause in the crowd whn he dropped graeme smith.But rahul cant blame the crowd for this , the person responsible is greg chapell.It was really disgusting to see greg showing the middle finger to the crowds form the team bus just coz they were booing him and suporting saurav.Who the hell he thinks he is ?I always maintained that today was going to be judgment day for greg.His behaviour hasnt shocked me.What else can u expect form a man who critcizes his captain 48 hours after making a truce with him.But he shouldnt be let scot free.He has hurt the sentiments of the people and should make a public apology to the people of Kolkata.As for the cricket both sachin and sehwag are woefully out of form.The in form saurav who has a great recored as a opener hasnt been picked coz that joker Greg dosent want him in the team.By the time i finished making maggie, india were 3 down to nothing.At least we have some good news today with Dada slamming 150 at pune and continues his dadagiri in pune.The way the people of kolkata condemned and shouted slogans against greg was really cool.He deserves all that and even more.However it was wrong of the crowd to boo a man of integrity and a gentleman cricketer like Rahul.I just hope that for Rahul's sake the indian team put on a gr8 performance in the finalone day match and win it and with that square the series.

Who Will They Support?

2005-11-24T18:20:00.000-08:00

Guys check out today's Times of India sports page.In that Graeme Smith has mentioned that in the absence of Dada probably the people of Kolkata will support his team and it will be like a home match for them.I had always maintained that a lot of controversy was going to happen during the Kolkata match and it is happening that way.Why the BCCI scheduled a mtach in KOLKATA when Dada was dropped remains the big question.I feel really bad for Rahul Dravid who has done a good job as captain and who is a very straight forward person and a great player.He has to put up with all this only due to greg chapell.Greg chapell insults Dada and when he comes to kolkata he hides with all those policeman around him and Rahul has to face the media and all those tricky questions regarding the crowd , saurav on his own.And now he is faced with the possibilty of a hostile crowd reaction at Eden Gardens in today's match.All this because of that idioy , greg chapell.I just hope that the people at eden gardens back the indian team passionately as they have always done.Guys direct all ur protests , ire , wrath at Greg Chapell but not at Dravid or the rest of the team.

Extra Security and Dada on Song In Pune

2005-11-24T05:10:00.000-08:00

Just now i checked out cricinfo.com where they have given that extra security has been provided for kiran more and greg chapell coz they have been the main target of protests in Kolkata.I dont know why we need to bother about the security of these 2 clowns.It would have been better had greg chapell been made to sit on a donkey and paraded all over Kolkata.And yes the people of kolkata would spit at him , throw eggs at him maybe even tomatoes.Thats what he really deserves.1st he insults Saurav and instead of punishing him we now give him security.I had predicted earlier only that it is going to be judgment day for greg in Kolkata.Thankfully due to sauravs comments and also with the fact that dada is in the test team , the protests have reduced and the possibility of having an empty eden gardens is no longer there.If greg has any shame left he should render a public apology to Saurav .The back bitcher that greg is i am sure he wont do it.Saurav celebrated his recall to the indian team with a 5 wicket haul yes at my own city pune and he followed that up with a fine unbeaten 81 today.I had gone for a while to the stadium in the afternoon to see the match and it was really good to see that quite a large no of people who had come to the stadium to encourage the prince.Even a hundred back bitching traitors like greg cannot destroy the legacy of saurav ganguly. Coming to the test team , i think for once Kiran mores team did a good job.However i would have liked to see zaheer khan in place of RP singh or maybe ajit agarkar.Ajit Agarkar is a pretty good bowler in one day matches but he lacks the consistency ti bowl good long spells in tests.Anyways the rest of the bowlers dont matter much coz for india to win which is often the case in tests the legendary Anil Kumble has to fire again .He is the key bowler once again for india.

Its Payback Time

2005-11-23T06:06:00.000-08:00

In a ideal situation instead of playing a one day match in Kolkata , it would have been better had the people of Kolkata been given a chance to get even with Greg Chapell.They should have made Greg stand in the centre of eden gardens for an hour.Then every person could have pelted him with eggs , tomatoes etc.Thats what he deserves.When he was appointed as coach i thought well here we have a great player who has come as coach and now maybe indian cricket will go ahead.Instead of having a honest straight forward person we have a back bitcher who dashes off an email full of lies to the BCCI chairman.Greg may have been a great cricketer but he is a disgusting human being.And greg is answerable to saurav.All the sufferings , mental agony , depression which saurav has suffered over the last few months is coz of one man called greg chapell.If greg beleives so much in performance then why the hell did he need sauravs support for securing the job of coach?Then instead of helping saurav get out of his lean patch with the bat , he dashes off an email criticizing the captain.$8 hours after making a truce with saurav he again criticizes him.What kind of a person greg is?Is he at least 1 per cent trustworthy?Who knows tom when he might do the same thing with rhul dravid.Already we have demonstrations in kolkata.Who knows tom or on fri if there is any violence or some people might get injured .The person responsible for all this is Greg Chapell.I am not saying that saurav is god or something but he is a man of character and 100 times better person than greg chapell.That he is gona be selected in the test team was expected.A player of his ability can walk into an indian team of any era.I just hope that saurav takes his revenge , revenge for all the mental torure greg has caused him over the last 1 month.Every run that saurav scores now pushes greg on the backfoot.Greg has forgotten one imp thing in indian history , traitors rarely go unpunished.There is no doubt that saurav is gona make greg pay.My best wishes to the prince of Kolkata.

End Of Lalu's Raj

2005-11-22T10:19:00.000-08:00

On a day of disappointments where we has saurav unfairly sacked as captain of the india test team , where we had the shiv sena losing to Narayan Rane and with that weakening its position in konkan further , the lone good news is the clean sweep of the NDA alliance in the bihar assembly polls.Nitish Kumar is all set to become the new chief minister of Bihar and hopefully bihar will finally embarke on the road to prosperity under his leadership.

Will The Match Take Place?

2005-11-22T10:04:00.000-08:00

As i write this , protests have intensified in Kolkata.Saurav has stepped down as captain of the Bengal Ranji Team.He has been unfairly sacked as captain of the indian test team.Chances of him being included in the team for the kolkata one dayer are almost zero.So in such a situation there is a big question mark about fridays match.I just heard on AAj Tak that the ticket sales are very down , the passes are still lying at eden gardens , nobody has taken them yet.Its obivious without dada a cricket match at eden gardens has no meaning.The last one day match india played at Kolkata without the prince was way back in 1996 when they played the semi final of the world cup against sri lanka.It seems that the demonstrations will intensify tom morning.The person responsible for all this mess is Greg Chapell.Just include saurav in the team and kick out Greg chapell , Kolkata will cool down .I am sure saurav will fight back .He is a prince.Prince's never lose.I just hope he teaches a good lesson to that backbitcher greg.As for the match i think any match played at eden gardens without saurav is equivalent to a club match.So why play a match if saurav isnt there?