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WADA: The holy cows & little lambs

The debate rages on, the latest to join the issue is Shashank Manohar, chief of the BCCI. While he has not said anything about what BCCI’s answer would be to the Sports Ministry, he has said they would discuss about the issue with ICC.

May be he could have made the lives of the journo's simple had he said, “Let me discuss that with Sharad Pawar and come back”

Going back to the January of 2009, it was the ICC which had approved and implemented the WADA regulations. I am not sure if a single official at ICC could take a unilateral decision to sign the regulations. For, the ICC is supposedly a council. Hence it wouldn't be wrong if one assumed that the decisions must be consensual.

The Indian board and all the other “little lambs” that are following the BCCI today had time till July ’09 to think about WADA. To read, re-read, evaluate & re-evaluate the merits and demerits. The BCCI woke up after August 01, 2009, that was when the “Whereabouts” clause was to be implemented. That too after a couple of holy cows moo-ed.

The worst thing is that NADA, the National Anti-doping Agency of India has been writing to BCCI to know what their response / opinion / view on doping and WADA regulations are, but the BCCI has not been responding.

BCCI’s holier than thou behaviour could be justified by saying that they are not answerable to the government or any governmental agency, they are a private co-operative society after all. But when it comes to upholding the integrity of the game, when it comes to guarding the spirit of sportsmanship the BCCI should have answered.

Add this to the BCCI’s rhetoric of starting their own dope control agency which I am sure has not even seen a pen and paper, it makes one whine. I am sure the BCCI can get away with murder in India, because they are not dependent on the government and they are cash rich but the other “little lambs” that want to follow this Mary today would have to herd back to their respective farms once their governments wink on this issue.

So it wouldn’t be long before the BCCI is left orphaned with an immoral cause.

Should WADA have spoken to the Government of India about cricket ?

This is the latest of the series of million dollar questions about WADA. There have been a million of these questions in the last couple of months. This one assumes some importance as there have not been any WADA questions for a while now. And some of us know the fact that the BCCI is a private co-operative society and not a government controlled sports body.

So why should WADA speak to the government, when the GoI doesn’t control the BCCI ?

Don't they know BCCI is not controlled by the Indian government ?

What will WADA achieve by speaking to the GoI about cricket ?

Is WADA bureaucratic in its ways ?

Two reasons why WADA could have spoken to the government

1. To assess the kind of interest the Government of India has in getting rid of doping from sports. There have been far too many voices against the “Whereabouts” clause, but most notably there was one voice of support, that of the Union minister of Sports, MS Gill.

We still don't know if it were his private opinion or the governments. There has not been a declared GoI position on the whole issue. So may be WADA wanted an official word on their position

2. The most important reason, if cricket gets to the Olympics then it would be the GoI & IOC who would be responsible for the Indian cricket team.

So what happens to the BCCI and its selection panel ?

The BCCI would select and recommend a team to the IOC and then the IOC & the GoI would get them to the Olympics.

So whenever that happens, the cricketers too must conform to the Olympic spirit and standards

Therefore what WADA have done is not at all surprising. They have done the right thing in speaking to the Sports Ministry who in turn control the local anti-doping agency NADA in India.

So if there is any such thing called an Indian dope control standard, it has to be the NADA which would govern it till the BCCI decides to give life and unleash the paper tiger of having its own dope control agency.

Let us not forget a key fact, WADA is just an enabler...

A key to shut the arena of sports away from the menace called doping. To offer a level playing field for the sportsmen & women around the world. The moment they become bureaucratic in their ways, the whole reason of their existance would be comprimised. As a responsible body, I am sure WADA is aware of this fact and would make sure they never get there.

Recreation time…

The WADA story keeps floating up and down the sports headlines for the last couple of months. Most of the Indians and the cricketing community didn’t know the difference between this WADA and the one sandwiched between a Pav. Suddenly every Tom, Dick and Hari is speaking about it.

There are some people who subscribed to WADA initially who have now woken up rejuvenated once they heard that the Indian cricket board is against it. Agreed FIFA is in two minds but, most of the other game chiefs are in agreement that the arena of sports and sportspeople in particular should be clean.

The simple reason why...

Because they are role models for the youngsters, The Gen X, Y & Z

There was a report in the Guardian recently about this. Before dissecting the content of the report, let us remind the goodfellas at the Guardian that the Indian Premier League has still not spoken anything about the WADA regulations. Simply because of the reason that the IPL is regulated by the BCCI.

It was the BCCI and its cricketers who are against WADA.

According to this report the Professional Players Association which represents players, including those who play cricket (??) have spoken about two things.

1. The “Whereabouts” clause
2. Recreational drugs

In this post let us not talk about the “Whereabouts” clause.

Let’s see what the Professionals / Role models say about the recreational drugs.

“Don’t ban our players for a longer duration if they took recreational drugs”

Discipline – That is the most important trait a sportsperson / soldier should have. I have never known of a disciplined drug addict. Once a sportsperson decides to take recreational drugs, he / she is no more disciplined and therefore I wouldn’t want this person to be someone who influences my kids.

If these are recreational drugs that warrant such light punishments, then why do governments world over have a fleet of gadgets, dogs & people going after the so called recreational stuff ?

Why are they outlawed ?

Why are some South American governments hell bent on losing sleep and men fighting cartels ?

I wouldn’t want a drug addict’s poster on my son’s bedroom wall…

Would you ??

I wouldn’t want him ape an addict the way he walks, talks and plays…

Would you ???

However recreational the drugs that fella took might be

Infusing life to 50 overs cricket...

The last week was hectic, everyone spoke. There was no action but speech, excluding Harbajan.

Every cricketer you could imagine spoke about the state of 50 overs cricket, except of course the gentlemen from the Westindies. They were debating about the survival of cricket - the game. They would continue to, till Floyd Riefer leads his grandchildren against Afghanistan in a world cup that would be hosted by Vanuatu some 25 or so years from now.

Cutting the long prelude short. Let us firstly, thank Sachin for the proposal.

Thinking about it The Twelfth man got the sparkly idea of the century, something that would revive the great game of ODI cricket. Something that would extricate the game from the beaks of a vulture called T20.

Let’s jump straight to the brilliant idea.

Each team would play 2 innings. Each inning would be of 25 overs

The batting team, before commencing its first inning would declare their set of 6 players who would bat. The innings would come to close at the fall of 5 wickets or 25 overs whichever occurs first.

The notout batsman along with the remaining 5 would bat in the second innings.

So each team would have a total of 10 wickets to lose in the match and one player who would be the notout batsman in the first innings of each team gets to bat in the second innings too.

Each innings would have two powerplays, of 5 overs each. The first 5 overs and another 5 overs which the bowling captain could enforce anytime during the 25 overs.

Now for the bowling…

The team bowling would select its 4 bowlers who would bowl in the innings. 3 would bowl 7 overs and the other 4 . The bowlers who bowled in the first inning can’t bowl in the second. This means each team would have 8 bowlers.

To make things a level playing field and give some advantage to the bowlers, we would allow 25 bouncers an innings. The teams can decide to bowl all 25 in the trot or leave it to its bowlers to decide when to bowl them. So the game becomes much more competitive and balanced.

This version would be much more balanced than a blind 25 overs each innings cricket. There again inequality would creep in, it would become the game of your best batsmen and the bowlers. So ideally you can have 5 batsmen, 5 bowlers and a wicketkeeper who can bat. That would drive you home.

In the format we are proposing, we cut all these shortcuts off.

ICC… BCCI and the other powers to be… Are you guys listening ??

Don’t forget to pay The Twelfth man his due before you steal this idea !!

Thank you Thambi… I had to time you out !!

WADA and cricket: What is happening now…

BCCI wants cricket’ own watchdog.

ICC wants to wait till WICA (the players association meets WADA).

And the media wants all the cricket boards to join the BCCI against the whereabouts clause, for they want some sensational news and some sustainable TRP’s.

Now that Mr Y S R Reddy is gone (pardon me for not considering the other passengers of that fatal flight… that how the Indian political and journalistic dharma works) and we have another very important news to talk about for the next 7 days. Post that we'll talk about Jagan Mohan as the next CM !! So thankfully WADA becomes a third class news...

Let me spell out the reason why I have been a vociferous advocate of the WADA and its regime…

It is an independent body, they know nothing but enforcement.

What does that mean ?

This means that someone can’t get off by simply replacing a “Monkey” with a "Maa Ki". It means that the Darwinian theory could be disproved, it wouldn’t be just about the survival of the fittest but about the abiding of the lot.

So if the ICC does, as BCCI has been wanting … Set up its own anti-drug unit, it could be (shall be) a farce.

It would then be selective, crucifying an X while exonerating a Y. A Nandrolone could become Nimbu Pani just like the metamorphosis of the monkey in Australia.

That is why you need a neutral body, some one who doesn’t know the difference between the intersection of the union of the bottom and the elbow of cricket politics.

For heavens sake, please realize that they (the cricketers) too are humans, and not some species else or the gods.

Let them also adhere to some rules and regulations. And that too for the noble cause of keeping sports clean.

More WADA talk: If you wanted to start from scratch or wanted more dope... Click here

PS: The only thing that is common between us and these demigods is the strip search at the US airports

A professor on Bored !!

They got a Khufia Baaz, Jatman, Che...

Then, they got an interview done with the communications director of WADA.

Now see who they have got ?

A professor who delights us with the way cricket was those days, or rather his days !!

Can't imagine what they would do tomorrow, these chaps at BCC!... Can you ?

WADA speaks to BCC!

WADA, the World Anti Doping Agency spoke to us at Bored. Too much dope about anti-dope across media and too many interpretations of what WADA & "Whereabouts" stand for, our objective was to clear the air up.

And that is precisely what Ms. Julie Masse, WADA's Communications Director did, speaking to yours truly

Anirudhha & Logos - Part II

We saw Anirudhha's response to the facebook quizzes a while back, that was about cars.

This one is about everything. From soaps to supermarkets, from his favorite music icons to IPL teams, TV channels and many more.

Some 60 of them were shown to Anirudhha and you can see how he manages them.

Rebeca (1940)

Actors: Laurence Olivier, Joan Fontaine, George Sanders, Judith Anderson

The first film of Alfred Hitchcock the American. Yes, this was the great man’s first American project. And the first film under David O Selznick.

The movie was an adaptation of Daphne du Maurier’s novel of the same name (1938).

The first of the many Hitchcock’s in America, those were the days when the master of suspense was trying hard to prove his mettle in the new land whre he was trying to settle down. The place where he was putting all his Trans-European experience into practice, to become the most wanted director of motion pictures.

The story line:

A wealthy widower who, purportedly under depression of having lost his wife meets an young charming woman. They marry and go back to the man’s land, and then begins the fun.

Mrs Danvers, the house keeper who has been very close to Rebecca, the dead wife of the man tries to chase the charming young woman (who is never named in the film) out of Manderley. Does she manage to ??

What happens in Manderley after the new woman comes in, that is the movie.

I see a similarity between this movie and Strangers on a train (1951). In both the movies the protagonists are rich or famous and are distanced from their unfaithful wives (Miriam / Rebecca), at the end of the day they are accused of having murdered the wife. In both the cases the wives cheat their husbands.

The disgusted husband wants to do something, but can’t because of his social standing.

At the breaking point the man wants to kill his wife but doesn’t because he is in love with a senators daughter (Strangers on a train) and he doesn’t want to create controversy.

That said, many critics say this movie is similar to Easy Virtue. I would beg to differ. It definitely is not.

It is said that Sir Hitchcock wasn’t faithful in his adaptation of the novel. But Selznick, the producer wanted the movie to be a copy of the novel, so what did Sir Alfred to ?

He shot what he thought was his story, his movie and just that. He ensured that nobody could edit and reach their means. This is what we call these days the “edited in camera” technique.

Trivia: Sir Alfred is seen outside the telephone booth when Jack is making a call to Mrs Danvers to tell her about the result of the inquest.

Rebecca was the best picture (1940 Academy awards), George Barnes also won the best cinematography for a black & white movie. Apart from these two wins there were nine other nominations including one for Sir Alfred for the best director.

Easy Virtue (1928)

Actors: Isabel Jeans, Franklyn Dyall, Robin Irvine
Dir: Sir Alfred Hitchcock

Based (loosely) on a novel by Noël Coward.

One of the early Hitchcock’s, a silent movie with some supers that tell the audience what is happening. But the brilliance of this movie is that you don’t need those supers, it is simply superb.

From the Jurist’s scribble to the explicit expressiveness of the characters. This probably is one story that tells many stories.

The plot is simple, the mother doesn’t like the woman his son has married. She already has her choice made, so she has to look at ways to chase this woman out of her sons life. How does she do it ?

The best thing about this movie is the fact that one doesn’t realize that this is a silent movie. It makes you realize why Shivaji Ganesan, Rajkumar and Raj Kapoor were so over expressive. You have to be when there are only supers (subtitles) to tell the audience what is happening. The only difference when it comes to our stars is that they were simply over expressive for no reason when they were talking !!

Trivia: Larita runs away from reality to save her easy virtuous past immediately after the trial. Sir Alfred is seen walking past the tennis court of the hotel where Larita stays with a walking stick in his hand. This is just after 16-20 mins into the film.

A test match fact file...

Q called the first test between Pakistan and Srilanka in Galle, A more than happening test match.

True it is. And he also had 3 Q's & A's about the match.

One of them was that debutants shared 16 wickets between them. He said he wouldn't be surprised if these (3 he had mentioned) had happened in the Galle test for the first time in history.

You would be surprised, of course...

It happened during 1988 in the Madras test between the Westindies and India. There was a young leggie called Narendra Hirwani who made his debut in that match. He took all of 16 Westindian wickets.

That was not all, there was another leftarm spinner who was also a capable lower order batsman (It was ironic that this leftarm spinner forgot bowling to become a opening bat soon...) called WV Raman who also made his debut. He took 1 wicket.

So I remember an instance when 2 debutants shared 17 between them. It was another story that the (in)famous Ajay Sharma and Phil Simmons also debuted in the same match.

But here comes a twist in the tale...

There is another instance when 40 wickets fell in a match and all 40 were captured by debutants. How ??

It was 1887 and that was the first test (called the first official test) between a combined Australian team and the visiting English team. Australia batted first Charles Bannerman scored the first runs of test history. And in the end Australia won the test by 45 runs.

Another trivia to close this post...

This was probably the only instance when 24 people who made their debut were there in the middle.

Yes 22 players belonging to the two sides and the 2 umpires. Add the scorers the number swells !!

We know, but still don't know...

We are so anisometric that we don’t know how longer our other limb is

I am, would be and have been a self confessed fan of Nirvana, I remember having cried the day Kurt Cobain died, rather shot himself down. I till date follow Francisca’s life. I love the man and his music and I think he is god or rather one of them.

Smells like teen spirit is one of my favorite albums, I still have the magnetic tape (cassette) which might or might not play

And I know all the songs there by heart, at least the titles

I am sure every other Cobain fan would do so

Did we ever realize that there is a song titled “Aneurysm” in Smells like teen spirit ??

If at all we did…

Did we ever care to know what Aneurysm is ??

At least I didn’t at least till he called me and she spoke to me a while later

This is what Aneurysm is… Let’s spread the word

It is exactly 5 years as of today…

I still remember…

How you apologized for being 10 minutes late to Coffee Day, the place where we first met in Madras

I do remember how badly I was hung over and how best I tried dissuading you, not to fall into the trap

I would never forget that 5.32p call I made the same day, confessing how I’d fallen for you

That sincere “Will you marry me” from my side

And that playful “That is a serious question. I might have to speak to my parents” and of course the “Let our families meet formally" decision you made

The number of F words I uttered during our marriage, facing up to the customs, friends, relatives and others. Whom I had never faced in my life in such fearsome frenzy

The way you tried freshening the air inside our (first nights) bedroom when your mother knocked for coffee, post that smoke I’d just had

How you cried on my lap when that month and a half disappointment happened before Anirudhha happened

The smile when you saw me gate crash in to your ward at 6.15a the day after Aniruddha was born

Your eyes when I smelled Aniruddha’s forehead for the first time, the day after he was born

That “Leaving on the Jet plane” of Janis Joplin (which I love) you played when you, with Anirudhha in your arms sent me off to Dubai

The hug, the day when you and Anirudhha landed in Dubai after three months of his birth

And the good life you have made possible thereafter

It’s five years and I don’t think it is. Feels like we just left that Rs 3 tips for that coffee at Coffee Day, I can smell that Lavender room freshener that camouflaged the smoke, our wedding video, the stupid look I had on my face just after I had uttered that “N^th” F word, our faces when we met for the first time with Anirudhha on your lap. And all those difficult things I can never write about, the way you made me see them through.

I love you Roopa K

A three and a half's mind tonight

Anirudhha amuses me...

That is my three and a half year old son.

His music sense puzzles me...

I was in my 9th class when I heard my first non Indian music album, which was then classified as POP. Yes, in CAPS.

Jacko it was and "Beat it" was the tune.

It was a solo listen and dance, for if my parents knew I was listening to this alien music I would probably not be blogging now. It might have been my epitaph tune, that.

But I still listened, underground. Can we imagine a Michael Jackson underground today ?? Okay folks... he is underground most of the times... but I meant his music, the records (CDs)

Today a three and a half sings "Fat bottomed girls" along...

Does he know what FAT is ??

Or what BOTTOM is...

I am sure he knows neither

But he knows his Freddie uncle and his music...

Let it play on !!

It is a warm-up they say...

Is it ??

Can you call an India - Pakistan encounter a warm-up game ??

Would you ??

This debate of "Is it ? Is it not ?" would go on for hours.

For this and more on the match, as it progresses Bored Cricket Crazy Indians have a fantastic plan or should I say platform ?

Yes, it is bigger and better than that mundane score card you see online.

Why only Online ? It's even bigger than watching the match on TV.

Imagine a comment you made about that stupid shot Sehwag or Afridi played being heard by a huge bunch of cricket lovers from all around the world ?

Imagine your small comment triggering a cracker of a discussion ?

Now tell me... Do you want this match to be just another warm-up ?

Or, would you want to join us in our virtual stadia and play along live ??

Do join the Twelfth man and the other "able" men from BCC! this evening !!

Anirudhha's response to facebook quizzes

The Facebook quizzes facinate me, especially the identify the brand ones.

I always thought they were pretty basic and even my three and a half year old son, Anirudhha would score 95%+ in those. So I put together some 33 logos to test how he fared.

So here's how he scores when showed him logos of cars.

He answered 32/33 which is 96.96%. The Tambram parent I am, I am a bit concerned about the score.

I am worried about the 3% that was not, more than the 97% that was !!

What would be your reaction ??

"I'm not very good at Twenty20 cricket, am I?"

Kevin Pietersen makes a frank admission on the eve of the tournament

May 29, 2009

Saw this on the Quote Unquote section of cricinfo.

The first question that came up in my mind was "To whom could he have made this admission ??"

His banker ??

May be, he thought he could have milked a couple of (hundred) thousands more from Mallya ??

Or may be he made this admission to Mallya himself !!

Let's say this question was directed to you...

What would be your answer to Kevin ??

Would you say...

Oh Kevin !! Don't be so humble and modest ??

Face of the Indian youth

Firstly, this is post is not about cricket.

The twelfth man is extremely disappointed about what happened in IPL today. No, not that he is a Delhi supporter and Deccan won today. It was because his wife and son wouldn't let him watch the match, the whole match... Damn it!!

He missed the match okay. But he also missed three other things because of that which is not okay.

1) That gem of an innings from Gilly

2) How astutely Jatman handled his bowlers

3) His regular IPL feature "B the moment of the match"

Okay, now that we have done our days lip service to cricket let us move on.

Move on to another important thing that happened in Delhi today. The new Indian cabinet was sworn in today, all the Indian media is filled with stories. Some stories about the swearing in and many about the first family of Indian politics, the Nehru -(Feroz) Gandhi parivar.

This is one such story that I found in one of those Padmashree infested Indian news TV channels.

Now, the "She" here is Sonia Gandhi...

"On one occasion she even poked fun at Rahul, when someone asked her whether there was a future roadmap for the Congress. "Ask him," pointing to her 38-year-old son, "He should be knowing." Pat came the reply. "Why are you passing questions to me? That's not fair," said Rahul Gandhi"

Brilliant, the question that comes to The twelfth man's mind is, "Why is heirloom written in capital letters on the face of every Indian youth in politics ??. Where are the other youth, someone non family, in a supposedly young country ?? A country full of youth ??"

Think of a name irrespective of the party, it is all full of dynasties and families.

Congress, BJP, DMK, NCP, Akali Dal, Indian Lok Dal it's there everywhere.

We know it, we all know it, but still we vote for them. The worst yet, we take sides accuse someone a Hitler and we fight among ourselves, while we all know that there has been a Hitleress (feminine gender!!) & her Hitler Junior before.

We love when the aspiration of bright young kids are killed, plastered on to the roads like those carcasses of small animals on a highway because of what our politicians call "Affirmative action".

Why?? Because the politician wants to affirm his love to the downtrodden??

No, it is because those are the people who are a good majority when it comes to his / her constituency, the people who provide them that winning edge.

Let me ask you something, only to those of us who go to temples. Have you ever thought about how wealthy or prosperous the Pujari / priest of the temple is?? What his progeny do?? I know a couple, whose dreams have been squashed on the highway.

Why?

Because the "caste" column in their birth certificate said BRAHMIN.

This guy earns all of Rs.600 plus those ones and twos we drop in his aarti plate (offerings to the man who serves god). With his salaries he can't even have three square meals, two glasses of coffee (himself) and a daily newspaper. Still he has managed to educate his kids, and they have managed to do well till, the dear politicians we support decided to squash their dreams. I am sure we will forget all these.

Come next elections we might even vote for that party who we think are the outcasts of today. For, they might touch our emotional chords deep, a bit deeper than the others.

We would still not vote for those independent candidates with impeccable credentials. Ala Meera Sanyal, Capt. Gopinath or a Saratbabu.

Why, because they have no chance if winning. WTF, if you and me don't vote for them then HTF would they win??

The quintessential Indian mentality, we don't do or even attempt something but blame when something happens. We have seen those who lead candlelight vigils, post the Mumbai happenings sleeping soundly after a particularly heavy night before voting and there are some among us who had signed in or those of us who toasted "Cheers" to a Pink Chaddi but defeated the Prima Donna who stitched the Pink Chaddi first place (in the elections).

So what are we ??

Are we puppies who follow some dynasty and make them THE chosen ones ??

Till when do we want to live up to the tag of Indians being emotional idiots??

Being someone who stands erect and gets goose bumps every time "Jana Gana Mana..." plays (not withstanding the fact that it was written in praise of King George) because it my dear national anthem, I am ashamed.

I would rather remix that "song" to a club hit mix and get a couple of hundreds jiving to it than simply getting goose bumps and getting scratched all over bloodily by those useless politicians.

And long live the youth of India. Excuse me !! It is not you & me but some chosen one from those select few families.

Jai Hind !!

Re-integration

Thanks to "The Twelfth man" cricinfo have decided to return Nainital back to its original state of Uttarakhand.

I hope Karnataka doesn't object !!

That was when Nainital was part of Karnataka**

** As per cricinfo

And this post the reintegration

It's okay even if you decide to call the state by its old name, Uttaranchal. At least you got the geography right this time, leave alone the history !!

Cricinfo's geography

It seems Manish Pandey, the guy who became the first Indian to score an IPL hundred was born in Nainital, Karnataka.

I know Karnataka have a border dispute with Maharashtra, famously called the Belgaum dispute. The good guys of cricinfo are adding another dispute to the list, Nainital ?? Tall claim !

Get your geographies right guys !!

Nainital is in Uttarakhand, which is one of the northern states of India.

The odd Spalding...

As I kid I was inquisitive...

And I had this odd hobby of collecting balls, I mean those used in mainstream sports and games !!

Sometimes it was odd when a Madurai kid had in his collection a rugby or a golf ball. For, those are something, games unheard of when it came to his peers. So there was no point WOWing them with an exhibition of this sort of a collection. In all probability they might end up saying, "What unshape cricket balls you have !!" and to add to the insult they would say "I would always flush off those unshape ones"

So to divert their attention I always invented a new form of cricket that would fit my ball for the day.

This particular day it was a Spalding, a Spalding golf ball.

The only association a Tamil would have to this game would be from that famous Rajinikant movie "Mr. Bharat". In a particular song sequencce Rajini plays golf.

So when I got this Spalding and I wanted to show off, I told my select few in my class... "Thalaivar played with a lean stick on grass, why don't we play cricket with this in the class"

It was my seventh class and we decided to use the golf ball to play cricket during our 5 minute class break.

The physics / chemistry record note would become our bat and we would hammer our way till the next class commenced. This used to be our routine till the Spalding arrived, the only change... The ball till then, used to be the crushed pages of our notebook. Tactfully removed from the center.

And this was the one bounce catch out varient of cricket.

So, came the Spalding and without even thinking about its bounce we started playing cricket. That was the break between our Maths class and we were expecting our Hindi master to come in anytime.

The bowler at that time pitched in a short one, "S" who was batting tried to prove a point to the girl from the second row he was eyeing those days "R". He did that wild slog and unluckly for us he connected right on the logo of his physics record book, the middle. The ball just missed "D" on the fourth row and flew on to hit the stained glass sliding window.

I heard "A" my crush crying a "Arghh". It was already broken and the Hindi master would get in any time. So what do we do??

The answer was to put "S" bag on the window wedge to hide the hole-some view.

Thanks to "S" and her bag we diverted things effectively till 4.30p when the school would disperse.

And then came football to get the window pane open from outside and save us.

Finally we had to marry cricket with football to have our soul saved

We have changed...

RajaB's have given way for "The twelfth man"

For he has been a non player for a while. So he has decided that he would take centerstage and start driving a couple straight down.

There also has been some small changes in terms of the design. As usual we have decided to borrow a preset template from the good guys at www.blogger.com.

Let's hope "The twelfth man" talks more frequently than RajaB used to those days.

Okay it's time, let me pad-up...

The long shot...

Two teams have booked their place in the semifinals of IPL 2 as of now, Delhi Daredevils & Chennai Superkings.

It seems like there are three teams fighting it out for the other two spots. But the reality as we know is that there are only two teams that stand a real good chance. They are the ones who play this evening, Bangalore Royal Challengers & Deccan Chargers.

The other, Kings Eleven Punjab would be praying hard. The first thing they would do is to sing a nursery rhyme loud, so loud that the gods hear it.

"Rain, rain go away... Come again another day"

For, if the match is rained out today their dreams, however miniscule in percentage would also get washed out. (if it happens the two teams get 1 point each and both get to 15, while Kings would be left behind at 14)

The next thing Kings would be praying for would be a big loss for any one of these two teams.

Here is a sample of how big a loss Kings would be praying for.

Let us first look at Bangalore, currently in the fourth position

In this case Deccan bat first and score 130 in their 20 overs. And Bangalore chasing it, true to its name plays like a test team and scores 60 in reply in their full 20 overs.

Then Punjab and Deccan go to the semis.

Not possible, right ?

Now option 2: Bangalore bat first and score 50 in 15 overs, chasing this Deccan score 51 within 6 overs.

This also seems a distant possibility, so Bangalore are more or less through. Unless some miracle happens and they get plastered by Deccan so badly.

Now let's look at Deccan's chances

Now let us say, Bangalore bat first.

They have to score 253 in their 20 overs and get Deccan out for 50 (in the 20th over)

Then Deccan are eliminated, Punjab advance with Bangalore.

I know what you are saying, IMPOSSIBLE. Right?

Now the other option, Deccan bat first.

They score 40 in 12 overs and Bangalore in return score those runs off in 4 overs.

This is another way of eliminating Deccan.

No way again !!

So effectively, there is no chance other than statistically for Punjab to advance to the semis.

Unless I have missed out on any other combination... Do let me know and I shall stand corrected...

An interesting stroke

Chennai Superkings playing Kings Eleven Punjab

With 56 runs required of 24 balls, it was Brett Lee's turn to face Suresh Raina.

The first ball of the 16th was plonked for a boundary, the second ball. Did he try a pull or did he try to cut the ball over point?

Whatever it was he missed the ball completely only to do some last minute adjustments to reach the ball back straight to the bowler.

Now, one could see an interesting expression on Lee's face. Gesticulating with his left hand like he was hitting the ball while his mouth saying "Tonk".

That reminded me of one of my childhood friends. I have never seen him connect bat to ball, but would promply replay the shot he had tried to and do that well connected in the middle of the bat sort of "Tonk".

Commentators on cricinfo...

The commentators on cricinfo have a weird sense of humour.

Sample this...

"At the time out, Kolkata look lost and dazed. They are still in with a chance but Rajasthan have the edge. They never cease to amaze. They still have a very capable batsman in Agarkar, who's faced similar situations before."

A day after that painful loss…

When Rio Ferdinand won the toss and handed the ball to Cesc Fabregas I was very happy. I was thinking the UEFA title had just been handed over. The famous Steven Waugh line was running in my mind, “You just dropped the (world) cup mate!”

I saw Rio as the Gibbs (the SA cricketer) who had just dropped the cup according to Waugh, in this case he had the ball handed over. But things weren’t looking as good as that thought once the ball was set rolling.

While my TV screen read 63:37 for ManU on ball possession, I thought it was 89:11 in favour of ManU. Arsenal played like they were playing the “injury time” out, kicking the ball out of their half as if they were defending the 3 goals they had already scored.

It was ironic that the game had just started.

Except for the 19 year old Gibbs (the right back for Arsenal) no one in the whole Arsenal line-up played any serious football. The goalkeeper, Manuel Almunia effected two fantastic saves before allowing the next from O’Shea clip the top of his hands into the goal. And ManU were 1-0 up. For the brand of football Arsenal played yesterday, I am sure Arsene Wenger would have been very happy with the score line.

It was disappointing to see Arsenal lose. But it was comforting when I think that they got away with a 1-0 score at the whistle after they played such pathetic football.

I was also there...

Thanks Bhaskar for ensuring I didn't miss out...