Thoughts of a Rambler

It is just 7 am and a cricket match is on at the Margappata grounds. While many fielders are just ambling around still trying to wake up from their sleep, there is one soul shouting, clapping his hands and trying to motivate his team. He is one of the best fielders in his team and has been strategically posted at deep mid-on for stopping the quick singles as well   as to take those sky-high catches when the batsmen slog towards long-on.

Suddenly, his ever alert eyes catch the ball rushing towards the boundary to his right. He runs towards the ball with a spring in his step, does a full-scale dive, catches the ball, does a perfect roll-over (He prides himself on having watched hundreds of cricket videos to learn the perfect dive-and-stop) and throws the ball at the non-striker’s end. It is a flat, hard throw and the aim was perfect. The ball hits the top of the leg stump, sending it into a cartwheel. He is delighted! He shouts in exhilaration and runs towards the pitch punching his fists in the air.But…..

But, no one else from his team is running towards him. He reaches the non-striker end, picks up the ball. Everyone else is looking towards the third-man and the batsmen are nonchalantly taking the second run! He then hears the dreaded words…

“BALL PLEASE”

Welcome to the world of cricket, in India! A world, where it is not enough if your fielding skills are good enough to stop the ball and throw them back, but good enough to stop the “correct” ball, the one your group is playing with!

Usually before a match, teams huddle together and discuss strategy. But, in matches in India, the teams huddle together and pray, because they need all the luck that they can have. Luck, that will ensure that the balls hit by their batsmen reach the boundary avoiding the dozens of other people standing in the ground and luck, that will ensure that ever-so-willing fielders from other games would stop the balls hit by their opponents!

It is not only for luck that they have to pray for. They also have to pray for their safety as they not only have to fear the fast bowlers in the opponent team but also the hard hitters in the match going on few feet away from them.Cricket, and not Hinduism, Islam  or Christianity encourages so many prayers. No wonder cricket is considered the number one religion in India!

written by Rajaram S

Rahul was very emotional about this ceremony and he wanted to attend the function in his Indian cricket wear. As seen in the picture above, the moment the priest confirmed that the name had been changed, Drahul burst into tears. Few of his Indian cricket team colleagues (who wanted to remain unnamed) also attended the ceremony. When asked on why he started crying after this ceremony, Drahul said that the thing that worried him the most was the expense that his fans have to go through to purchase posters of him with the new name. Drahul also said that once the IPL was finished, Drahul would personally add the D to all his posters owned by his fans, as he felt that he would anyway have nothing else to do after the IPL finishes.

Drahul also said that numerological or astrological reasons were not behind this name change. He said that he had to change the name to indicate clearly his style of cricket. He didn’t want his name to be just because selectors thought that he could play an aggressive style of cricket. Drahul also said that he had always learnt batting as an art form where the face of the bat should point towards the pitch such that the ball, on hitting the bat, falls within the pitch (and within half a metre of the batsman) and rolls to a stop within a metre. (Given below is a photo where Rahul Dravid was expressing his frustration because of Sachin Tendulkar’s inability to understand this concept)

He said that this talent was limited to very few cricketers around the world and this is the talent required to produce a draw in test cricket. So, by changing his name from Rahul to Drahul, he was clearly communicating that he should be included in the squad only if the required result was a draw. He also added that his dad had recognised this talent in him the moment he was born and hence put Dravid as his last name. But the world had failed to see the draw in dravid and that is why he had to change his first name to drahul to double-emphasize. Drahul felt that this name change would bring about a change in his image.

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written by Rajaram S

written by Rajaram S

written by Rajaram S

Whatmore, on hearing this song, had words of praise for whatless and even proposed marriage to her and wanted to raise “more or less” a family.

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written by Rajaram S

so says NDTV’s sports section.

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written by Rajaram S

This was in response to the coach Greg Chappell’s accusations that the senior team members often teamed up against his and Dravid’s decisions. Milind Rege, former Ranji Captain says that:

It is completely out of control. Indian Cricket is in a mess right now and unless and until the BCCI come strongly with decisions that are for the players to accept, for the selectors to accept, for those who control cricket to accept, Indian Cricket is going to head for serious trouble.

Definitely not a good direction to head in, for Indian Cricket. Ok, they lost to Bangladesh and were kicked out of the world cup. Lets just forget it as just another match and move on. The way the politicians and the media are hyping this issue, it looks like Indian cricket will take a u-turn and head Zimbabwe’s way, into oblivion. Please, let it not happen like that!

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written by Rajaram S

written by Rajaram S

If Tendulkar had found an honest mirror three years ago and asked the question; “Mirror, mirror on the wall who is the best batsman of all?” It would’ve answered; “Brian Charles Lara.” If he asked that same mirror right now; “Mirror, mirror on the wall should I retire?” The answer would be; “Yes.”

Maybe, he wanted to imply that the writing was on the wall for Sachin and he preferred not to be so harsh on the little master.

But, is it really time for Sachin to retire ? I don’t mind that he doesn’t score hundreds like before or even that he doesn’t tear into the opposition like he used to do. Even if he spends a short time at the crease, the shots he plays and the strokes he makes are a connoisseur’s delight. But, I am worried that one day he might just disappear like Mark Waugh. I would definitely love to see him walking off, for the last time, with a 100,000 indian fans giving him a standing ovation. So, i hope that he chooses a forthcoming big series in india to take this big decision.

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written by Rajaram S

• Bermuda played badly in their match against Bangladesh. Their batting was horrible. The two dropped catches proved too costly for them and for India.
• Allison Leverock, the mother of Dwayne Leverock for having fed him so much food over the past few years. If only his mother had kept him on a diet, he would have been a few dozen kilos lighter and would have held more catches to help bermuda win against bangladesh.
• The chefs of the hotel where Bangladesh stayed. Their cooking was so bad that the Bangaldeshis skipped their dinner the night before their match with India. If only they had had their dinner, a few of them might have been down with food poisoning.
• The lack of good barbers in Port of Spain. Dhoni had commented that his hair had grown a little too long to manage and this had affected his game in the warm-up matches. So, Dhoni had planned to have a haircut in Port of Spain before the match against Bangladesh. But, all the barbers there only specialised in making curls out of the existing hair and none had ever heard of a haircut!
• Varuna, Zeus and Hobal, the rain gods for shedding their tears intermittently and not continuously during the bermuda bangladesh match. If only they had cried continuously, the bermuda cricketers might have known that the match was going to be reduced and slogged, rather than play like a test match.

What people also don’t see is the benefit we get from the loss

• Poster makers have said that their profits have soared to never-seen-before levels after india’s exit from the world cup. People are now buying posters of indian cricketers and burning them. More posters are being sold now compared to when india was performing well and winning matches
• Students will perform better in the board exams happening throughout the country now. Of course, under the assumption that it doesn’t get postponed or cancelled because of protests or bandhs by political parties.
• Tamilians will not be killed in Karnataka. This is because, in tamil nadu, people will not watch matches and hence will have their TVs turned off, thus saving electricity in the state. Hence the state doesn’t need more water in the Cauvery river to feed its hydro-electric projects.
• The Ad industry will have many openings, now that the cricketers will be kicked out of the ad campaigns.

So, ladies and gentlemen, bearded hosts of STAR news, 10-rupee an hour poster burners of political parties, don’t blame the Indian cricketers for this loss. They were just playing their natural game. It was the others who weren’t doing so, resulting in the indians’ loss.

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written by Rajaram S