Introducing Drahul Dravid

Yes, it is official now. Rahul Sharad Dravid, the ace Indian cricketer has officially changed his name to Drahul Dravid. Drahul called a media conference yesterday and announced this to the world. A few days back, Rahul Dravid and his family had gone to their native temple in Indore, Madhya Pradesh for this name-changing ceremony.

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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Indian Premier League (IPL) is a success

Why do i conclude so? Because i "feel" so. When Chennai Super Kings lost their matches, i felt bad and was wondering as to what they could have done better. When the Chennai team gets a wicket, i applaud and feel happy, though that wicket might be a player whom i would love to watch any other day.
This was what the organisers of IPL wanted, this was what Lalit Modi would have hoped for and it has happened. IPL has become an addiction. I spend seven hours both days of the weekend watching both the matches. Somehow, my earlier argument that 20-20 matches are just 3 hrs long doesn't seem to hold good with Vidhya any longer and i get admonished every time i put on the channel to watch IPL.
No, I was never a cricket-crazed person. I love to play cricket and given an opportunity, i don't mind playing it all day. But, watching cricket for extended periods not for me. I consistently used to fall asleep on the sofa between the 15th and the 40th overs of an innings.
I was never a fan of test cricket with the exception of Ashes. Getting up at odd hours of the night to watch the first ball being bowled in the boxing day test match, that is something only a true cricket fan would understand! Maybe it is the green grounds, maybe it is the telecast quality, maybe it is the commentary team, i don't know the reason, but i can watch the entire three sessions of an ashes test match without taking a break. The other test matches, i care a damn. An india-sri lanka match happening in Jaipur, chennai wherever, I just hear about it from friends. At the other end, there are people (there are!) who watch the ball-by-ball commentary on cricinfo of even Ranji trophy matches! I wouldn't even recognise the names of most of the guys on the team.
But, IPL is different. The cricket is entertaining (not just the cheerleaders), it is fast and furious. The new talent knocking on the national team would surely give the jitters to the experienced indian players. I am addicted to IPL. What about you ?
and ...Chennai Super Kings rock!

The new mumbai Indians cheerleader costume

An exclusive sneak peek at the new costume that the cheerleaders would wear at the Mumbai indians - deccan chargers match today in Mumbai. These costumes were designed by the famous gay (oops, guy) Karan Johar.

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Chennai Super Kings beat Punjab Kings XI at Mohali

Way to go Chennai Super Kings. Dhoni and his men couldn't expect a better start to the tournament. Though this defeat wasn't as convincing as the way King Khan's Knight riders smashed the Bangalore Royal Challengers, it was good enough to get the players into the groove for the rest of the tournament.
Mike Hussey showed the way for the Chennai Super Kings with a brilliant hundred. When the Punjab Kings were chasing and Kumar Snagakkara and James Hopes were having a partnership, things looked to be pretty even between the sides. But once hopes was dismissed, it was pretty easy for the Super Kings.
Great start Chennai Super Kings, keep it up. Vijay and Nayanthara will be proud of you! On the other hand, someone should teach Preity Zinta hot to cheer in cricket. The moves Preity Zinta were making would fit better in a boxing ring and not in a cricket stadium and it looked so artificial!

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Kolkata Knight riders beat Bangalore Royal Challenge in the first IPL t20 match

badly, very badly, in fact miserably! But, what can they do? Poor Vijay Mallya. When he purchased the Bangalore team in the Indian Premier league, I guess that he wouldn't have had an idea that his iconic player in the twenty 20 matches, the player for whom he would have to pay the highest money, would have been Rahul Dravid, of all the cricketers!
Yes, Rahul Dravid is a good cricketer, but this is 20-20, not the bend-forward-show-the-full-face-front-foot-defence game! Even i wouldn't have Rahul Dravid in my team for the Galli cricket 6 over matches! When the Bangalore team went in to bat today at the Chinnaswamy stadium, I almost fell off my sofa seeing Dravid and Wasim Jaffer walk out. What are the two test players doing in a wham-bham-thank-you-maam kind of game?
But Vijay Mallya, you have something to rejoice. There are lot of Bangloreans going to get drunk today with the sadness over this miserable loss and you can hope that they buy your liquor! You can also hope that Shah Rukh Khan and his Kolkata Knight riders will purchase your liquor in the party tonight.
I am obviously a supporter of Chennai Super Kings and i hope that the combined power of Dhoni, Muralidharan, Mathew Hayden and Fleming would be enough to crush the other teams.
Long live IPL, Long live Chennai Super Kings!

Technorati Tags: IPL indian premier league bangalore royal challenge Kolkata knight riders chennai super kings Vijay Mallya Shah Rukh khan

Indian Premier Cricket League - IPL player auctions today

The auctions for the players to play in the different teams of the Indian Premier Legue (IPL) will be done today. It is expected to start at 11 am today (Feb 20). The auction is under the observation of many international auctioneers also, as it has an interesting format with various limitations.

• There are a total of 77 players to be auctioned off.
• Each owner has to spend a minimum of 3.3 Million USD and a maximum of 5 million USD on his/her team. This maximum cap is what that makes this auction interesting. You have to get into a lot of permutations and combinations to compose your team, much like playing fantasy cricket online.
• bids up to $100,000 – in increments of $5,000, bids from $100,000 to $250,000 – in increments of $10,000, bids from $250,000 to $500,000 – in increments of $25,000, after this, no set increments.
• Tendulkar, Dravid, Ganguly and Yuvraj will not be auctioned as they are icon players for their respective areas.
• Each squad must have a minimum of 16 players per squad. This will include a maximum of 8 currently available foreign players per squad. Each team can have a maximum of 4 foreign players in the playing XI for each match.
• The squad will also have to consist of a minimum 4 under 22 players from that area.

I shall keep updating as soon as the news come out!

The teams so far:

Anil Kumble	Bangalore	USD 500000
Jacques Kallis	Bangalore	USD 900000
Zaheer Khan	Bangalore	USD 450000
MS Dhoni	Chennai	USD 1,500,000
Muttiah Muralitharan	Chennai	USD 600,000
Jacob Oram	Chennai	USD 675000
Matthew Hayden	Chennai	USD 375000
Stephen Fleming	Chennai	USD 350000
Daniel Vettori	Delhi	USD 625000
Chris Gayle	Delhi	USD 800000
Shoaib Malik	Delhi	USD 500000
Mohammad Asif	Delhi	USD 650000
Adam Gilchrist	Hyderabad	USD 700,000
Andrew Symonds	Hyderabad	USD 1,300,000
Herschelle Gibbs	Hyderabad	USD 575000
Shahid Afridi	Hyderabad	USD 675000
Shane Warne	Jaipur	USD 450,000
Grame Smith	Jaipur	USD 455000
Younis Khan	Jaipur	USD 225000
Shoaib Akhtar	Kolkata	USD 425,000
Brendon McCullim	Kolkata	USD 700000
Ricky Ponting	Kolkata	USD 400000
Mahela Jayawardene	Mohali	USD 475,000
Kumar Sangakkara	Mohali	USD 750000
Brett Lee	Mohali	USD 900000
Sreesanth	Mohali	USD 625000
Sanath Jayasuriya	Mumbai	USD 975000
Harbhajan Singh	Mumbai	USD 850000

Technorati Tags: IPL cricket indian premier league cricket ICL player auction

South Africa beat Bermuda in ICC women's cricket with 296 balls to spare

Anyone who knows a bit of cricket must be astonished to see "with 296 balls to spare". Yes, it is true. In yesterday's ICC world cup women's qualifying match between South Africa and Bermuda, Bermuda women batted first and played for 18 overs to score .... 13 runs! Of these 13 runs, 10 were from extras!
Usually commentators would say "Only three of their batsmen managed to go into double figures", but here they had to say"Only three of their batswomen managed to get off the mark with each of them scoring 1".
The South African women finished off the match in 4 balls (from the only over bowled) that included 9 wides and 1 no ball. Probably, the women from Bermuda were learning cricket during this game.
The scorecard from the game can be found here.

Btw, have you seen the new cheerleader costume for the Mumbai Indians after the existing one was banned by the moral police? Check out the exclusive photos here. If you didn't manage to get the scoop behind the monkey-calling episode of Harbhajan and Symonds, check out the research done by the lawyers of Harbhajan here.

Did harbhajan say maaki or monkey to Andrew Symonds?

Now the issue is whether Harbhajan Singh said maaki (in Hindi) or monkey (in English) to Andrew Symonds. To the casual reader, this issue might see very trivial and not worth the exposure it is getting. But, there is lot more to it than is visible on the surface.

Harbhajan had indeed referred to Symonds as a monkey, but he wasn't aware that this would be considered racist. So, his team of lawyers along with BCCI had decided to take the approach that Harbhajan had in fact referred to Symonds as a white monkey and not a black monkey, but the Indians didn't know how the australian legal team would twist the case to a racism abuse. So, for the past two days they were investigating alternatives for their defense.

This somehow leaked to the media and they started talking about it on television. One person who was watching this felt that he could help the Indian team in this situation. He was Javed Akhtar, the noted bollywood lyricist and scriptwriter. He felt that he could help because he was so much into writing rap crap in english for bollywood movies, that he could definitely could come up with some alibi in English for Harbhajan.

So, Javed Akhtar started searching for homonyms for monkey in English. The only one he could come up with was mucky. But mucky meant dirty and australians would consider this more offensive than monkey as they were known for maintaining cleanliness by covering all the dirt on their faces with sun-screen lotion.

Then, out of the blue, an idea struck him. Why not look for a homonym in hindi? It was much easier to form words out of the given syllables. So, the first word he got was makki, meaning a fly. But, he didn't want to use this, as he wanted to bring the australians down to earth and not on cloud nine like a fly. Javed was frustrated and the team working with him started swearing at Harbhajan, as he was the one responsible for all this mess.

Like all hindi speaking people, Javed started referring to all the relatives of Harbhajan as he started swearing. The moment he said "Saala Uske Maa Ki" , a BCCI member jumped up from his chair and shouted "Eureka, monkey mil gaya". Then, Javed realised what he had said and jumped up in joy.

Thus, the indian defense panel decided to use "Maa Ki" as an alibi. And the rest is history...Harbhajan was not charged with racism as swearing at one's mother or any other relative, in Australia was all in a day's work for their citizens.

QED.

Technorati Tags: harbhajan singh andrew symonds ricky ponting australian monkeys racism symonds monkey maanki maaki

Oh, you Australian Monkeys!

If Harbhajan Singh had called Andrew Symonds a monkey, was he being racist? This actually depends on which monkey he was referring to, when he was referring to Symonds as a monkey. Was he referring to the White Faced monkey or the Black Spider monkey? We may never know. One thing is sure. He wasn't definitely referring to Hanuman.

So, why does it matter which monkey he was referring to. When i think about this, I get doubts as to what racism actually means.

A standard definition of racism:

• The belief that race accounts for differences in human character or ability and that a particular race is superior to others.
• Discrimination or prejudice based on race.

I am confused! So, if race is the main concern behind racism, why does calling an australian a monkey amount to racism? Race is often equated to colour and looks, as different races do look different from each other. So, if you say to a black person: "You blacks don't deserve any better" or if you say to a white person "You whites have got no brains", then this is racism, at least from my understanding of racism, because you are insulting a black based on his black colour and similarly for the whites.

So, if calling a australian a monkey is racism, does that mean australians have more in common with monkeys than rest of the human beings. So, referring to them as monkeys would be insulting them because of this unfortunate similarity (as seen below). So, it actually didn't matter whether Harbhajan was referring to either of the monkeys above, just calling him a monkey was enough. Case closed.

Not exactly. I am still confused. In fact, most of the Indians are confused. Indians are used to complaining against racism whichever part of the world they go. Indians are stuck between the so called whites and the blacks. Being white is considered superior in Europe and other western countries and being black is superior in Africa and other parts of the world, but where does that put us? We don't fit anywhere. In ayia napa here in Cyprus (supposedly the clubbing capital of the world), whites are welcomed for their cash and blacks are welcomed for their party-atmosphere creating capabilities, but we indians are considered good for computer-related jobs only. But,we have one advantage that the whites and blacks don't have. We can be racially discriminated against in the lands of both the whites and the blacks!

In my opinion, Indians are the most racist in the world. We practice racism on a day-to-day basis, the most prominent being the north india-south india divide. okay, the east indians also complain, but that is more of a geographical racsim, so we shall leave them aside. North Indians are fair and south indians are dark, so ? Actually, the only people who can "practice" such racism in India are the Kashmiris! They are fair! Everyone else in india is dark compared to them. When i joined BITS Pilani, there were many girls from Kashmir in my batch. They would have been the perfect candidates for "Fair and lovely" not the pyts from bollywood.

I started off with Australian monkeys and went on a totally different track to kashmiri beauties. I am confused!

Technorati Tags: harbhajan singh andrew symonds ricky ponting australian monkeys racism

India win again Pakistan in the final and are the twenty 20 world champions

Wow, this was some amazing final. After India's poor showing with the bat, everyone felt that Pakistan would easily overhaul this total and win the final. But, it was not to be so. The Indian bowlers though wayward at times, kept their cool and somehow managed to win by a narrow margin of 5 runs. This was a good game for India and more importantly, a good one for the twenty 20 version. This version is here to stay and it is the future.

Guess what, I didn't have to cook up any false reason to go home early. Amdocs decided to screen the big final on the big screen for all to watch. Way to go Amdocs!

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India Pakistan final at the twenty 20 world cup today

Leave alone the mother, it is the grandmother of all cricket matches! An India Pakistan clash at a final of a world cup, it is the dream of every Asian cricket fan.

India will grind to a halt today starting 5.30 pm (luckily, it is almost the end of an office day). Poor me, the start is at 3 pm local time here in Cyprus. I am still working on the pretexts i can give, to leave early. I hope that this match turns out to be as exciting as the India Australia semi-final clash and i hope that someone hits six sixers in an over just like Yuvraj did the other day.

All the best India!

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Yuvraj Singh hits six sixers in an over

First, it was Herschelle Gibbs, now it is our very own Yuvraj Singh. It was the penultimate over of the Indian innings and god only knows what came over Yuvraj Singh, he just broke loose hitting poor Stuart Broad for six sixes in the over. In case you missed the India England match yesterday, you can watch the video of Yuvraj Singh hitting six sixers here.

All you Singhs/Sardars/both, it is party time. Go ahead, shed your apprehensions, raise your hands and dance!

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It's cricket world cup time again - Twenty20

Even before the wounds from the cricket world cup had a chance to heal completely, we have another one just around the corner. It is the twenty 20 format this time. The twenty20 cricket world championships were formally inaugurated recently in South Africa and will start on September 11th with a match between South Africa and West Indies in Johannesburg.

India is grouped with arch rivals Pakistan in Group D. Maybe, they did this so that fans are assured that they will play against each other. During the world cup, the organisers committed a blunder by assuming that India and Pakistan will get through the preliminary round and planned for their clash in the Super-8s. This time though, they learnt from the experience and put them both in the same group.

So, who do you think will win the Twenty20 cricket world championship ? Take this poll and let us know.

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What more ? New Coach ?

What more does the Indian Team want? The Indian team wants Whatmore. I am worried by the current trend of demands put forth by the Indian team. They want more perks, they want the restrictions on the number of ads they can appear removed, they want more salaries and now they want whatmore!

This is ridiculous. What more can a cricket board provide for its players?

Whatless, a 21 yr old woman from Trinidad and Tobago was shocked at the way the Indian cricket team played their game in the world cup and now, when she heard that they wanted whatmore, she burst out into profanities and even composed a song extempore.

Dude, this is a song by whatless,

for a cricket team which is toothless!

When ur bowlers bowl the ball,

it gets hit to the next-door mall.

when ur batsman face west-indies

they start peeing in their undies!

How dare you ask for what more?

In fact, you won't even get whatless!

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.

Technorati Tags: cricket indian cricket team Dave whatmore new coach BCCI

Old habits die hard

Last weekend, we had the annual amdocs cricket tournament. Until last year, we used to play on a dusty school ground, but this year we shifted to a dried-up lake bed. In winter/spring, this becomes a salt lake and we have thousands of flamingos stopping here on the way to Africa. When the lake dries up, it becomes an ideal boundary-less ground for all kinds of sports. If Ravi Shastri had been here, he would have loved to try his key-into-the-pitch report here, for the key would have gone all the way in. Such is the moisture in the surface. A smooth and soft surface leads to a very even bounce and thus a good game of cricket. To make it even better, the teams in which i and vidhya played won the cup in the respective categories (Yes, we had women's cricket too!).

Anyway, back to the subject of habits, if you notice all the photos below, there is one common aspect which you should notice. No, not that i am in all of them, they are meant to be my pictures. One common thing which you should notice in all the pictures (apart from the grotesqueness of my face in the last one) is the way i am biting my tongue in the pics. This is a habit which has stuck with me for a long long time. I always do this when i am concentrating at any sport. I don't realise this and since many people ask me, no i don't feel it nor does it pain! The first photo is from last year's event (at the school ground) and I am at it then too. If you compare the first and the second photo (taken this year), I am surprised that i am amazingly consistent in my bowling action, right up to the position of the individual fingers on my hand!

Back in High School, i used to participate in the Long Jump Event. My trainer at that time used to be very concerned about this habit of mine. I later learnt from him that his concern was not for the well-being of my tongue, but for my performance in the long jump. If , in the process of taking a long jump, i bit my tongue too hard and it fell off (!) behind me, the place where the piece fell would be counted as the distance i have jumped, since technically it is a part of my body. This was the reason he was always warning me about this habit, it seems :-)

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Sri Lanka beat New Zealand to reach ICC cricket world cup final

With an excellent century by the captain Mahela Jayawardene, Sri Lanka cruised to a 81 run victory in their semi-final clash against New Zealand, thus booking themselves a place in this Sunday's world cup final clash.

Yesterday's century by Jayawardene was not only an important captain's knock, but an example of how a batsman should pace his innings. When i reached home and switched on the TV, i saw that he had scored 39 runs of 60 balls. The situation didn't look so good then, though they had a run-rate of around 4.5. But, as the innings progressed, jayawardane's strike rate slowly increased to almost run-a-ball and before the New Zealander's could realise it, he had ensured that Sri Lanka would get to a good total by partnering more than 100 runs in the last 10 overs.

The first few overs of the New Zeland innings were entertaining to watch with the control of vaas and the unplayable swinging deliveries of Lasith Malinga. Everyone was having a smile, including the batsmen, who were moving their bats in all possible directions in an attempt to make contact with the ball, only to find out that it had long reached the wicketkeeper!

Every match in the world cup seems to have a negative fallout. After this match, Stephen Fleming, one of the most successful captains in present day cricket, announced that he is stepping down as the one-day captain of New Zealand. He had shown to the cricketing world that even without superstars in your side, smart cricket can win you matches.

Srilankans have more than 3 days off to prepare for their title clash against the winners of South Africa and Australia, which in all probability, going by their current indomitable form, is Australia!

Some images from the match:

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Indian Team Manager to back Chappell's asses

so says NDTV's sports section.

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Split Wide Open

Yes, this might sound like Britney Spears' act or any other celebrity trying to emulate Britney Spears in order to grab the front page, but this is not so. This is the sorry state of Indian Cricket today.

With the Indian Cricket League being announced today by the Essar Group and the BCCI immediately putting it down, a big clash of the titans is in store for Indian Cricket and in all probability, only Indian Cricket will be the loser.

Probably for the first time, Sachin speaks out defending himself against the comments of Greg Chappell. In his interview to Times of India (TOI) he says:

"I have given my heart and my soul for 17 years. No coach had mentioned even in passing that my attitude was not correct. Cricket has been my life for all these years and will always be. Again, it's not that we are defending ourselves. We do realise that we played badly and, as a team, we take full responsibility for that.But what hurt us most is that the coach has questioned our attitude."

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!

Technorati Tags: Indian Cricket team ICC World Cup loss