Nostalgia.

This month of February has seen me have bouts of Nostalgia a lot of times. First it was that trip back to campus for Unmaad. 3 days back on campus - with a lot of people from the senior batch, a lot of people from my batch and ofcourse all the juniors. Its impossible not to be nostalgic - especially when u sit at H-Bar with two other fellow H-Mezzers and chat. We almost expected one of the others to suddenly pop out of their erstwhile rooms and it would all start again - the random conversations, the TAS ball cricket, the usual banter and poking-fun-at-others.
There were the L^2 parties - with the same familiar junta - the same faces - the same memories. The same chants, the same jokes - the familiarity and warmth of the campus we were so used to for 2 years.

Unmaad 2006 was one of the hugest things for me - Unmaad 2007 was yet another trip down that old memory lane. Standing there ahead of the barricades with Lucky Ali-Indian Ocean- Junoon playing, dancing with friends there and talking about how that time last year - it was Ian Anderson with Tull out there.

It was all great fun but I always knew I was going to return to campus in a week's time for a company ppt. It was in that visit when it finally struck - that would be my last visit to the campus as a "senior" with my juniors still on campus. The next visit (if and when) would be as an "alumnus". It doesnt need many reasons to start missing campus and the life there.

Then while in Delhi - with my batchmates, it was nostalgia time all over again, so much so that we all simultaneously missed L^2 when some popular L^2 song started playing in the background.

Many months back i had posted this. I guess almost a year out of campus, things still havent changed. I still miss all those things.

I guess its funny - while in the first year, we all long to see the end of the 4 terms and want things to hurry. By term 6 we are hoping that time would slow down and at the same time looking forward to making money. Post placements one hopes that "that" particular time would never have ended.

But to use the cliche - all good things come to an end and its only when they have ended that you really appreciate how good they really were.

An Irish saying "May the best times of your life become the worst times of your life". All I can say is that it will take some doing for the future moments to demote those moments but I hope it happens

Future Gazing

For all you know, Irfan Pathan might be recognised in the future as one of the best no.3 batsmen in the world, known for his propensity to pick up vital breakthroughs with his part time bowling.

Rollercoasters

Usually they come attached with a warning that they might be unsuitable for heart patients and the like. Indian Cricket however comes unattached with any such strings but whos really complaining? The pieces are slowly beggining to fall into place - ofcourse you never know when they might be rocked again - but unlike the last close loss versus the Windies, this time around India have bounced back strongly.

Often while solving a jigsaw puzzle, all it takes to finish it off is getting that one critical piece in place and the rest takes care of itself. For anyone following Indian Cricket - it wouldnt take long to realise that the most critical piece in this team is the captain himself Rahul Dravid. Over the last year he has batted at all positions from 1 to 7 with varying degrees of success. However the one place where he has had success and more importantly the team has had success has been the no.5 position. Dravid undoubtedly is the best repairman in the Indian team and hence the best guy to go to when we need an innings to be rebuilt - hence the best guy when wickets have fallen cheaply - say a 50/3, Dravid coming in and one would have to feel reassured.

Over the last couple of years Rahul has also developed into India's best finisher - push the ball into the gaps, run the ones and twos, hit the boundaries and generally either finish off a run chase or end the inning with a flourish. So say at a 200/3 with 13 odd overs to go, Dravid would be a safe guy to have there.

Imagine the guys batting at 1-4 - would you not feel secure if you knew that Dravid was there to watch your back? One cant help but feel that a Dravid at 5 would end up creating a peaceful scenario for all around.

The other pieces have mostly fallen into place - Dhoni has been a brilliant no.6 - he has brains along with the brawn and that makes him really good. Yuvraj coming back to form and fluency basically solves the question of who will bat at 4. Ganguly has come back to international cricket with a vengeance that only bodes well for us. And that brings me to the call to reinstate the old firm of Sachin and Saurav to the top of the order. Their century partnership at Rajkot proves that they still have the coordination and fluency to bat together

A backup of Karthick, Uthappa and Sehwag (who should be whipped and caned for his runout today) looks good.

Indian batting will in all probablities continue their round trip from excellence to selfdestruction but in excellence it looks pretty much looks as good as it gets. And by subscribing to the rollercoaster of Indian cricket, one has anyway foregone the risks of heart attacks - statutory warnings be damned.

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Also posted on Sportsnob

A tale of three teams

This is a tale of three teams. Australia, England and India. At first sight - the champions, the downtrodden and the middle ground?

A week back - Australia were invincible, England could do no right and India were back on the ascendancy. 11 February 2007, the stakes have changed. These three teams are all at their own crossroads - to ponder their future and take a path that will decide their fate at the World Cup in the West Indies.

Australia last lost a best of three finals in 1992-93. To lose to England today would be nothing short of a miracle. To have lost three consecutive matches to England is something Ricky Ponting wouldnt have thought of in his worst nightmare. But that non-existent nightmare has become a reality. Usually one would have expected Australia to look at the loss in the first final grimly, tighten their belt, summon all their brutal energies and crush England and crush them convincingly. After all the Aussies would want to punish England for making them play a third final. But England pulled one out of that hat and rode to a victory - a thumping one at that.

A victory that has brought both teams to unfamiliar territory. The victory possibly will bring England to face a pleasant fact - that their team is not really all that bad and perhaps it wouldn't be a bad idea for them to really try hard for the World Cup. Its not the serious five day game but really after the 5-0 Ashes loss - lets look at this shorter game a little more seriously huh? They can treat this victory as a launching pad and go for it all. Or in typical English style - they could have several pints of warm beer - talk about the victory for ages and forget about winning any further matches.

Australia on the other hand seem to have taken Symond's loss pretty badly. For a side that has a bench strength good enough to beat most other first sides - its fairly surprising. To lose 3 matches on a trot to England is a shocker. Having failed to crush England after the first final - one wonders how Australia will take this defeat. What looked like an unneccessary 3 match series against New Zealand has suddenly become crucial. New Zealand can either bury Aussie confidence - or more likely you might find the Aussies shrugging off the final loss to England, chewing gum, gulping Fosters and resume regular business just as if nothing really happened.

The most intriguing side though has to be India. Its been a long journey for them. Great run - win 17 matches on a trot chasing and then that 4-1 loss in Windies and India were on a bad patch continuing up to the South African series where they lost 4-0. Coming back to the Indian pitches, they played strongly to win the series against the Windies. Until today. They exercised that card which they know best - To lose a match that was as good as won. The last time they lost a match that went this close was in West Indies when Dwayne Bravo bowled that slower one to Yuvraj Singh. The result was a string of losses after that. And that makes this close loss to Sri Lanka even more worrying. India is yet again on the crossroads. They could shrug it off and go on to win the next 2 matches and still be contenders in the World Cup or they could go on the path they know best - downhill.

A week back - Australia were invincible, India were on their way up and England were finding a way to dig deeper. Today Australia are bewildered, England ecstatic and India devastated. Whoever will want to question cricket being a funny game?

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You can also read this on Sportsnob here and a much watered down version on Sportingo here

Quick Comment: Sachin Tendulkar

Sachin Tendulkar has been the best batsman in the world. No questions asked. What made him the best was his ability to make the toughest and most dangerous of pitches seem placid while all around him struggled to come to terms with the pitch. The most fearful bowlers seemed like ordinary net bowlers. He was feared.

He still retains that capability . To play that brilliant knock when all others struggle. But what has displaced him from his position of the best in the world (apart from a raging Ponting ofcourse) is a new ability that seems to have crept into his game. He has also started to make placid pitches look like minefields. Some ordinary bowlers are given respect that they wouldnt get a few years back.

And there I think is where Sachin has become less of a threat. But to take him lightly - thats a fool's job to do. For even a Tendulkar at powers lower than his peak is more than a handful for any team in the world.

Good Riddance

It serves the Eden crowd perfectly that the match got washed out. In fact there should be no international matches at Eden. Let that crowd feel happy watching Bengal v/s XYZ team and cheer the Bengali players all their life.

Last time an international was held at Eden Gardens - India was playing South Africa. India were sans Ganguly and as a result the crowd decided that they were happier supporting South Africa. South African runs were cheered, those of Indians booed. Indian mistakes were cheered, their super shots or good balls were jeered. The South Africans had more support in Eden than they have ever had in South Africa.

For a crowd that cannot support its own team - there should be no joy of watching that team play. Next lets not wait for nature to dispense justice. Let there be no matches at Eden.

P.S. :- I havent even mentioned the earlier shameful acts by the Eden crowd - ofcourse none of that compares with this one.

Quick Comment: Market Research

Its always a good idea to get in touch with your customers and find what they really want. A vague parallel would be Mel Gibson in what women want!
Now in the case of this blog - an unsolicited market research scenario has happened. Instead of me getting in touch with a sample of my regular readers, some of them have gotten in touch with me and registered their complaints about the contents of many posts in this blog.
After having chosen a statistically significant sample for researching this complaint - I have the results.
Atleast 20% of the regular readers find that the 'more' from the 'Cricket & More' has gone missing and there is need for the 'more' part to be addressed.

Its a thought to ponder on. Cricket will always be the leading theme of this blog but it wouldnt hurt to have a little variety.

Nice Guys

A brilliant article to read here
Nothing I could ever write on the topic could ever come close to the article
Enjoy!

Turnaround

Zero points from the first three matches. Shame and relegation looked likely. Mumbai were staring at being booted out of the competition that they had won 36 times before. But its not for nothing that Mumbai cricket has so many legends and stories associated with it. They say Mumbai cricket is 'khadoos' where the players dont give an inch and fight to the finish - and have it in them to pull off a stunner when all looks lost.

Mumbai did that yet again. They went on to win the next 3 matches - with bonus points no less and stormed into the semis.

And if one thought that it was the end of their turnaround heroics - they decided to fight back from 0/5 in the second inning in the semis to post a stunning win - courtesy heroics from Vinayak Samant.

And then the finals - picking up 6 wickets in 21 balls to seal the issue just when it looked like Bengal was threatening to upstage Mumbai.

What can i say but Mumbai rocks!

A post of Self Indulgence

Regular readers of this blog (bwahahahahahaa - this one still cracks me up - Still i do seem to have atleast 10 ppl who keep popping into this place) will notice a few changes in the blog. It might undergo a few more changes - which ofcourse will depend on my enthu levels.

One startling fact is that this blog now has over 25 posts. Not bad for a blog that promised to stillborn. More startling is that there are atleast 10 people who visit it regularly - ofcourse it means that their jobs offer a lot of free time but as they say in cricket - "It doesnt matter how the runs come as long as they do" - a philosophy pioneered by Jimmy Padams - ofcourse he just understood that he should use the pad to block the ball - but atleast he got it to some extent.

Regular readers will notice the presence of a search box right next to the newest post. It has the option to search my blog/the whole web/cricinfo. Makes life simpler for those who want to check if the stats I throw around are made up or really genuine. This ofcourse makes my life tougher as now I have to be authentic but I shall bank on the fact that these readers will be too lazy to really want to check anything up.

You will also hopefully notice a lot of posts titled Quick Comments - Basically used when I want to notch up another post and when I have no enthu to put in a real post per se. Also you might come across more posts titled PJs - dangerous cause it might cause my readers to stop visiting for fear of being bombarded with more bad jokes.

Also due to finally having switched over to the new blogger, my posts will have labels.

Most importantly - the title is no longer Ramblings - it has been renamed as "Cricket and More" - An optimist's viewpoint on Indian Cricket and Life". I still will ramble but there is no reason I shouldnt have a pseud title!

So then - Keep reading and commenting for this blog is here to stay.

Thank God for...

Home Series before the World Cup. It has not only helped in deciding a team for the WC but also given that much need dose of confidence to the team.

Let me take a stab at the team to the WC

The Confirmed
Rahul Dravid
Sachin Tendulkar
Saurav Ganguly
Yuvraj Singh
Mahendra Singh Dhoni
Ajit Agarkar
Anil Kumble
Zaheer Khan
Harbhajan Singh

The almost there
Dinesh Karthick
S.Sreesanth
Robin Uthappa

The discards with a case
Virender Sehwag
Irfan Pathan

The other contenders
Munaf Patel
Ramesh Powar

So basically it looks like a fight between these 7 for 6 spots. This ofcourse assumes that Uthappa has snatched a chance over Gambhir already. Powar will have to fight it out with Sree/Munaf/Pathan.
And given that Pathan is atleast an accomplished bat - it will be a choice between Sreesanth Munaf and Powar for the last 2 spots.

It looks like a good team - especially with Yuvraj - Sachin - Dravid in the middle. Not to mention a comeback to form for Ganguly.

Atleast this now is beginning to look like a team that will be competitive in the Cup.

And yes should we still sack Sachin? Sure!