Last night seeing Srilanka play the semifinals to a scripted perfection it was impossible not to think again about what went wrong with indian cricket. The selection of Greg Chappel over Tom Moody was possibly an emotional one as we indian fans and cricket administrators are prone to hero worship instead of cool calculated thinking about performance analysis.
A few things really stand out in Lankan team management.
The way they have groomed their talent, biggest example is Malinga. With his action he could have fallen pray to wayward bowling under a different management. His first few overs in Semifinal were really stuff dreams are made of. The pitch map was showcasing the results of efforts that may have been put in by bowler and the coach.
The seniors in and out of the team still play their role and take responsibility by giving 110% on the field. Murali was so intent on catching that he didnt hear even a no ball call. Person of stature of Marvan Attapattu is made to sit out all through the world cup and there is no leak in press about this and that.
Just imagine that one of your big hopes like Dilhara Fernando really falls apart in the middle of a crucial phase and still the captain and the team manage to get themselves out of that hole.
Hats off to the Srilankan team, coach and management.
I hope this time around somewhere in BCCI the wiseheads will learn from hindsight.
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Kabootarbaazi
I think every real kabootarbaaz worth his while should take offence to this new use of term which describes age old hobby. Once a royal and nawabi hobby of north indians, i remember it from the childhood memories of small town like Moradabad in UP. Coming to think of it, there is that classic hollywood movie of Marlon Brando "On the waterfront" where our hero spends his most humane moments with the pigeons on the terrace.
Poor kabootars have always been used for those celeberations touting peace and all that blah blah. Still the lasting impressions for hindi cinema buffs is the scene from Parinda, where Anupam Kher is shot and dies in the arms of Anil Kapoor. Kabootars sort of function as the harbinger of violence.
The headlines these days arent about noble breed of kabootars and kabootarbaaz but about the greedy ilk of new age politicians who have turned politics into an enterprise and every perk into revenue generating business. one would expect normally a summary censure from all political parties and resignations or lifelong ban on such people but lo and behold, there are party leaders who are saying that these people are being maligned as a conspiracy!! Hmm reminders of the Money against Questions in question hour episode. Even that incident seems to have faded from public memory and i dont recall if any of those MPs had been banned for life for their crimes.
When will this rot stop?? when will the people in public life gather enough courage to own up their mistakes and walk the plank. I guess real problem lies in the fact that there isn't any one left in politics who is clean enough to be able to point fingers at these tainted ones.
Time has come to overhaul the entire system!!!
Poor kabootars have always been used for those celeberations touting peace and all that blah blah. Still the lasting impressions for hindi cinema buffs is the scene from Parinda, where Anupam Kher is shot and dies in the arms of Anil Kapoor. Kabootars sort of function as the harbinger of violence.
The headlines these days arent about noble breed of kabootars and kabootarbaaz but about the greedy ilk of new age politicians who have turned politics into an enterprise and every perk into revenue generating business. one would expect normally a summary censure from all political parties and resignations or lifelong ban on such people but lo and behold, there are party leaders who are saying that these people are being maligned as a conspiracy!! Hmm reminders of the Money against Questions in question hour episode. Even that incident seems to have faded from public memory and i dont recall if any of those MPs had been banned for life for their crimes.
When will this rot stop?? when will the people in public life gather enough courage to own up their mistakes and walk the plank. I guess real problem lies in the fact that there isn't any one left in politics who is clean enough to be able to point fingers at these tainted ones.
Time has come to overhaul the entire system!!!
Friday, April 20, 2007
Jahnavi... a riddle or ridicule ...?
I think before this morning Abhi Aish wedding was going quite listless before kahani mein twist entered with slitted wrist. I really dont know who to sympathize with in this whole story. What followed in the press conference was really big time entertainment and mockery of journalism. Whole of media was out there in full force and in matter of hours they dug out her life history, they dug out all the so called family members, they managed to get them on the phone and made conversation public, with caption how this whole thing is exclusive on their channels, how they were first to get to so and so relative.
I guess daily soaps have a big challenge in hand from news channels...
p.s. : strangely police took a statement from her in the night and after seeing press conference now have sent 2 teams ( mind you 2 teams !!!) to arrest her in attempt to suicide case !!
I guess daily soaps have a big challenge in hand from news channels...
p.s. : strangely police took a statement from her in the night and after seeing press conference now have sent 2 teams ( mind you 2 teams !!!) to arrest her in attempt to suicide case !!
Monday, April 09, 2007
Jerry McGuire......?
"Show me the money" was maybe the most memorable line for everyone from Jerry McGuire. One of my most favourite movies of all time and not for this line. But off late everybody has been feeling the lasting impact of this line and not the real spirit of this movie.
Show me the money is offcourse true, who wouldnt want money? But how much money is enough? That reminds me of another line from Wall Street, "Greed is good" but is it really?
These are a few questions that players need to answer for themselves. In most cases unfortunately the sequence of events have been such that people have been forced to make this connection between slide in performance and increase in endorsements. Though it is paradoxical somewhat but i guess poor players cant do much about it. Just see the cycle :
Player does well-> gets selected into the team -> if he does well in the team -> starts getting endorsements -> by the time endoresements come into effect law of averages catch up with him -> lo and behold!! public thinks money has made him lose his head.
The last part is partly true as most of these people tend to think of themselves as infallible and forget basics of the game, a momentary lapse of reasoning and then comes the dark side of the moon as they hit dead end of the wall. A regular sportsman somehow cant juggle these many things at the same time and specially when he is faced with situation of losing his bread and butter both, compounded by the fact that he somehow cant figure as to why his bat stopped talking or his balls seem to turn into lollies for even number 11s.
I think indian sportsmen would do a great service to themsleves and nation by devoting their time to play and let money be a by-product. Board should be served by people who believe in nurturing the game and players. It is board's duty to keep the game attractive for players and spectators. Board should make a transparent system where players playing at the highest level would earn highest rewards during their playing days, relating them to performace and wins for nation.
In a democracy board cant afford to put a cap on earning potential for players what they can do is ensure to put a system in place that would extract performance for anyone who wants to see the money.
Show me the money is offcourse true, who wouldnt want money? But how much money is enough? That reminds me of another line from Wall Street, "Greed is good" but is it really?
These are a few questions that players need to answer for themselves. In most cases unfortunately the sequence of events have been such that people have been forced to make this connection between slide in performance and increase in endorsements. Though it is paradoxical somewhat but i guess poor players cant do much about it. Just see the cycle :
Player does well-> gets selected into the team -> if he does well in the team -> starts getting endorsements -> by the time endoresements come into effect law of averages catch up with him -> lo and behold!! public thinks money has made him lose his head.
The last part is partly true as most of these people tend to think of themselves as infallible and forget basics of the game, a momentary lapse of reasoning and then comes the dark side of the moon as they hit dead end of the wall. A regular sportsman somehow cant juggle these many things at the same time and specially when he is faced with situation of losing his bread and butter both, compounded by the fact that he somehow cant figure as to why his bat stopped talking or his balls seem to turn into lollies for even number 11s.
I think indian sportsmen would do a great service to themsleves and nation by devoting their time to play and let money be a by-product. Board should be served by people who believe in nurturing the game and players. It is board's duty to keep the game attractive for players and spectators. Board should make a transparent system where players playing at the highest level would earn highest rewards during their playing days, relating them to performace and wins for nation.
In a democracy board cant afford to put a cap on earning potential for players what they can do is ensure to put a system in place that would extract performance for anyone who wants to see the money.
Sunday, April 08, 2007
Just not cricket
Who owns indian cricket? is it the BCCI the so called the body running indian cricket? Is it the so called super stars of indian cricket who tend to falter at the alter so often? Or is it the vociferous ex cricketers who voice more opinions than runs they had scored all their lives? Or is it millions ( sorry the billion as somes blues pushers would love to say) of indian cricket fans who are win hungry, who have forgotten to admire a good cricketing spectacle, who tend to see every cricket match like movie lagaan?
Or media which tends to use issues which are meaty and juicy?
Alas today there are only questions and this is the only sentence without a question mark :).
But is it just about overhauling the so called rotting system of BCCI only? or is it about indian psyche? We are a country where every leader was allowed to lead ( or rule) almost till his last breath. We are a country where guests are supposed to be gods and thus tend to overstay their welcome by default. Is this the reason why leadership qualities of Ganguly once included giving security to the failing players, as it was said he had faith in their abilitie. so certain amount of chances finally led to some successes in the end and thereby the both the leader and followers survived. Is that almost akin to law of averages or is it the good old argument of some of our esteemed commentators " class always shines in the end"?
We are a country where i think one Advani will forever be PM in waiting and his party would never be able to shake off the charm of good old Vajpayee the PM till his last breath.
It is not for the first time we are getting glimpse of the perform or perish psyche from west. look at british where even charisma of Thatcher couldnt guarantee her job security and you have laour demanding a walk into the sunset from Blair( much of his own doing..though in india that wouldnt happen even after cumulative of all the doings of these politicians). Chappel wasnt giving us any revolutinary lesson here, he was just trying to put in to practice his natural instincts of survival of the fittest( not only darvinian variety though) but i guess he didnt realize that he was fighting 5000 year old indian culture of Vasudhaiv Kutumbkam. It was natural insticts of us indians which may have forced insecure players to look for godfathers. Chappel won the battle once though by getting the message across to the untouchable Dada of all but finally lost the war.
(its a work in progress just as things around us...)
Or media which tends to use issues which are meaty and juicy?
Alas today there are only questions and this is the only sentence without a question mark :).
But is it just about overhauling the so called rotting system of BCCI only? or is it about indian psyche? We are a country where every leader was allowed to lead ( or rule) almost till his last breath. We are a country where guests are supposed to be gods and thus tend to overstay their welcome by default. Is this the reason why leadership qualities of Ganguly once included giving security to the failing players, as it was said he had faith in their abilitie. so certain amount of chances finally led to some successes in the end and thereby the both the leader and followers survived. Is that almost akin to law of averages or is it the good old argument of some of our esteemed commentators " class always shines in the end"?
We are a country where i think one Advani will forever be PM in waiting and his party would never be able to shake off the charm of good old Vajpayee the PM till his last breath.
It is not for the first time we are getting glimpse of the perform or perish psyche from west. look at british where even charisma of Thatcher couldnt guarantee her job security and you have laour demanding a walk into the sunset from Blair( much of his own doing..though in india that wouldnt happen even after cumulative of all the doings of these politicians). Chappel wasnt giving us any revolutinary lesson here, he was just trying to put in to practice his natural instincts of survival of the fittest( not only darvinian variety though) but i guess he didnt realize that he was fighting 5000 year old indian culture of Vasudhaiv Kutumbkam. It was natural insticts of us indians which may have forced insecure players to look for godfathers. Chappel won the battle once though by getting the message across to the untouchable Dada of all but finally lost the war.
(its a work in progress just as things around us...)
Monday, March 26, 2007
Country India??
Its all team India .. team India !!! what happened to country India??
Is cricket only one of our woes ??
Is cricket only one of our woes ??
What are we becoming?
i wish we would go back to the days of 1983 when we didn't have so many TV news channels amplifying the news to such high pitch harangue. Specially about cricket. I would rather settle down for just the news than these "match ka mujrim kaun" type of lynch shows.
If one were to judge these protesters performance in their lives with similar standards then I guess none would have their houses intact or their effigies being burnt all around. We look like a nation with highly imbalanced psychological profile. Rewind to days prior to World cup beginning and same guys were going overboard with their hero worship. I would like to ask if one chose a hero to worship and hero failed thereafter, why should one go and penalize hero?
We have become worshipper of only success, when someone is successful we don't want to know how, for how long. we just want to ride the wave. Our contribution in success maybe zero or even negative but we will not forget to join the party. We have no inclination to build from failures as we don't know how to deal with failures.
We cant hope to get winners just like that!! No pain no gain!! So learn to fight the pain of loss and not cause pain to others!!
If one were to judge these protesters performance in their lives with similar standards then I guess none would have their houses intact or their effigies being burnt all around. We look like a nation with highly imbalanced psychological profile. Rewind to days prior to World cup beginning and same guys were going overboard with their hero worship. I would like to ask if one chose a hero to worship and hero failed thereafter, why should one go and penalize hero?
We have become worshipper of only success, when someone is successful we don't want to know how, for how long. we just want to ride the wave. Our contribution in success maybe zero or even negative but we will not forget to join the party. We have no inclination to build from failures as we don't know how to deal with failures.
We cant hope to get winners just like that!! No pain no gain!! So learn to fight the pain of loss and not cause pain to others!!
Tuesday, March 13, 2007
Galleries Galore...
Its the best of the times for consumer of Web 2.0 i think. Its raining social networks, photo galleries with free space offer. I had tried flickr before but in free accounts they dont give much. Now yahoo seems to be sprucing its house after learning from flickr acquisition. its getting better i think. I have been getting multiply links as well from friends. I did try that too.
But so far the easiest to handle looks picasa from google.
this is what i have been creating.. few for nostalgia...
But so far the easiest to handle looks picasa from google.
this is what i have been creating.. few for nostalgia...
 |
| bungba..ch |
Friday, February 02, 2007
Indian Highway..
Finally I am able to shake off the inertia..last few months have been full of trips around north India...here are some nice scenes
wish it was this easy to travel
Hmmm a democratic country ...!!
we may not have multilane highway.. but we have surely multi lane traffic
and there comes the good old enterprise
finally a khaakee .. but is he helping ?
i think thats the best place to be in
wish it was this easy to travel
Hmmm a democratic country ...!!
we may not have multilane highway.. but we have surely multi lane traffic
and there comes the good old enterprise
finally a khaakee .. but is he helping ?
i think thats the best place to be in
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