Note: This post was composed before the Bermuda/Bangladesh match today. Regardless, the point remains the same. India played like losers. They just did not bat well enough against Sri Lanka on a great batting pitch for me to hope for a Bermuda upset on Bangladesh. They bowled ok in that match, but the batsmen let us down once again (after the Bangaldesh debacle).
It was a bad loss against a team which was truly beatable on the day. And if you consider that it was a must-win for India, the way they batted was simply unacceptable. What were the top order thinking? Uthapa and Ganguly seemed to be in a lot of hurry to score quick runs and Ganguly did not realize even after losing Uthapa to a bad shot that he needs to be there till the end. He gave up with a lazy shot. What was the rationale?
Anyway, even though there is a theoretical chance that India can make it to the Super 8, I would believe it would be unfair for India to go through because of the way they have played.
And a final note - looks like once again I jinxed India. I “worked from home” and made it a big deal at work the previous day, and as usual overplanned the whole thing. And now, I am afraid the world cup package on willow is not going to be worth it :-)
Now, on to the thoughts on the match:
Objective #1 - Restrict Jayasuriya and the other big guns from getting a big total The good: It was a great opening spell in which not only did Ajit, Zaheer and Munaf keep the batsmen quiet, but also got a few wickets at the top to continue the pressure on the middle order. My fear was that Sri Lanka, after being put in to bat, would get off to a flier and make 300-320 and easy target to achieve. From the first few overs, it was clear that at least it would not be easy to get to 300-320+ target.
Objective #2 - After restricting initially, don’t let them get away to a huge score The good: The innings was mainly controlled by India. The bowlers all did their job well and kept the batsmen in check. There were no huge overs and there was no real momentum built for a true slog over launch. The bad: There were not enough breakthroughs taken in the middle to truly cause a collapse. Harbajan was useless and too predictable. If we were ok with predictability, we should have pursued the Kumble option, where he could at least slip a fast flipper through to get a wicket or two. Of course, the last few overs were pathetic because instead of limiting Sri Lanka to maybe 220, India had to live with a target of 250+.
Objective #3 - Get a decent start to launch the chase The good: Not much good here. The only thing we can talk about is the positivity shown by both Ganguly and Uthapa. But I think the exuberance was ok till it caused their downfall. The ugly: The way in which the top order got out. Uthapa was living a charmed life and the wily Vaas eventually got him with his mind. Uthapa was bent on hitting Vaas straight through and succeeded once or twice and Vaas finally got the ball closer to Robin’s body making him scoop it up straight at the bowler which ended up being a nice reflex catch. Ganguly was also looking very impatient. Unlike his previous many innings where he dropped anchor and started to accelerate only after settling in completely, here he started stepping out randomly. This was one innings where he should have hung around, being the only man in form, and should have let the other end keep hitting out and maintaining the strike rate. He would have been ideal against Jayasuirya’s spin in the middle. But he got out lazily and created a sudden sense of panic in the team. Sachin probably got a wake up call about his age with the ball he got out to. He had no business to miss the ball due to the pace, but it did seem like he was just a little late to play at the ball, causing an inside edge to the stumps. Once again, just when he needed to fire, he did not. I don’t know, this inning and his form of dismissal may end up creating a bad World Cup legacy for Sachin like Gavaskar’s dismissal off DeFreitas. Yuvraj’s run out was unfortunate, and definitely at the wrong time (is there a right time for a run out???). Dhoni’s wicket was also a pathetic shot attempt - why did he have to try such an extravagant shot off the back foot against the world class spinner? Can’t expect much from anyone else down the order, but Ajit’s dismissal was also quite sad. He tried to hit out the first few balls and I think I saw Dravid at the other end come and ask him to not hit rash shots, but he did not listen and ended up stepping out and hitting the ball straight to a fielder.
Objective #4 - Win the match and virtually eliminate Bangladesh from contention Mission a thorough failure!
I know that it is hard to overlook one of the worst performances we have seen from the Indian team, especially given that the nucleus of the team is completely going to change come next World Cup, but now at least I can watch the rest of the games with a real outsider’s point of view. :-)
Yea, take that, South Africa. If you could demolish your opponents, we could too! The Indians came back big time against an opponent who was just happy to qualify for the World Cup. Now the Indian team has created a whole bunch of optimism in fans' hearts. Now their destiny is part in their own hands (beat Sri Lanka for sure) and part in others' hands (if Bermuda can beat Bangladesh or Bangladesh can beat Sri Lanka, for example).
In any case, yesterday’s match was worth watching because of the execution - everyone (except Uthapa) in the batting order fired and created a world cup record total. The acceleration at the end was fantastic and I even watched the whole innings again after going home!
What sucked was that the bowling gave up runs and was not able to close it out early. Kumble should have been brought in earlier and he could have cleaned up the innings.
Anyway, now that the net run rate is sort of healthy, India has something to play for in the tournament rather than just wait and watch.
Some key thoughts on the game …
Objective #1 - Bat first and bat big to get a bump in the net run rate The good: Lost the toss and were invited to bat first. I can’t imagine India making up a decent net run rate while chasing. So thanks for the gift, Bermuda captain. The bad: Uthapa failed again and it meant another one day innings for India without a decent start. The ugly: In retrospect of course it was not such a bad thing, but I really was shocked that Sehwag was included in the team, and more so when I saw him walk out at 1-down! What are Dravid and the team management (no, only Dravid) seeing of Sehwag in the nets and off the field that they keep taking him in the XI?? I know he scored a century and now he is all set for another year or something, but still, it is a question of principles after all. I am disgusted with that though as a fan, I am ok because he fired and got India off to a great start to set up the unbelievable finish! The great: What a finish to the innings. Yuvraj and then Sachin really crushed the bowling in the last 10-15 overs. Unbelievably clean hitting in the death. Made for awesome viewing!
Objective #2 - Get them out quickly and again, bump up the net run rate The good: India scored the highest margin of victory in one day internationals. The bad: Why couldn’t we finish them off earlier? Kumble was the trump card because no one in the Bermuda team perhaps knows his bowling and most likely no one has ever faced him in person. He could have run through the innings. I think he was brought in quite late. We could have had them out for under 100. It would still not have bumped up the net run rate above Sri Lanka’s but we would have come mighty close.
Objective #3 - After the debacle against Bangladesh lock up a big win Mission accomplished!
Now, we need to take care of business against Sri Lanka and of course hope for some help from Bermuda and maybe Bangladesh! :-)
I may need to subscribe to Speed Channel after all. Looks like the first race of the season was an exciting one, and Kimi won! Kimi won! Yay!
I have always liked the guy. Unfortunately, he was getting tripped up by the reliability of the McLaren car. Hopefully, Ferrari keeps up its technical abilities and supports Kimi like it did Schumy.
And what a story Lewis Hamilton has been. I hope he is not a one-race-wonder type of thing. It is not easy to get podiums in F-1 today, much less on your debut!
And one final thought - looks like Alonso is not going anywhere after giving up his championship-winning team Renault. He was on the podium with the same McLaren that Kimi kept crashing out with.
Still not sure if I am going to sign up or not. I am leaning towards no for now, but who knows?
I knew there was some problem brewing. I always get that feeling about India games (and in a similar fashion, about USC games). The feeling I get when I over-plan the viewing of the game itself. Plan a sports bar meeting. Or some drinking games. Or simply idli-dosa breakfast along with the game on TV (as opposed to my internet-only subscription).
That feeling is that India (or my favorite team in other sports) is going to have a bad day out. I tried to slow it down towards the latter part of the week by forcing myself and the cousin whose house I saw the match at, to behave “normally”. Oh by the way he feels (corrected since: he felt) that India will win the World Cup this year! So naturally the expectations were raised for this supposed gimme game. Of course, as we know, things did not quite turn out the way it seemed to have been set up.
Some of my thoughts (besides extreme anger at the team’s performance):
Objective #1 - Pocket the win The ugly: It was not only a loss, but it was a loss in ALL departments of the game. India was never in the game except for a very brief period where Yuvraj and Ganguly seemed to have some control over the bowling. Starting from the top order collapse to the lack of a decent middle consolidation to the surrender of the lower order except the 10th wicket partnership, there was really nothing in the batting. The bowling failed to turn on the screws when needed and to add insult to injury, the teenagers from the Bangladesh team were actually stepping out to India’s pace bowlers and whacking them all over the ground. And finally, the Bangladesh fielding saved I would say at least 20 runs in the field, whereas India failed to convert a few half chances that came their way. Pathetic loss to start the campaign and frankly, I have written the team off as long as Sehwag continues to be part of the XI. And that brings me to the next point …
Objective #2 - Bat well and accumulate a good net run rate in case of tie breaker situation Here I need to start with the most burning situation first and therefore, go in reverse order. The ugly: Virender Sehwag. That’s all I can say. He was almost run out without facing a single ball for lack of basics like dragging bat in the crease and rather trying to jump over the fielder. And then, in trying to cut a ball too close to him, chopped it on to the stumps! Un-freaking-believable shot from a guy who clearly needs to get back to the drawing board and save his PR money for when he actually gets back to some sort of form. Seriously, India really needs to drop this guy from the XI. I believe Pathan at #6 is better than Sehwag anywhere in the order and of course in pure batting terms, Dinesh Karthick will be better anywhere in the order than Sehwag. The bad: The top order unnecessarily put themselves into a hole by trying to exaggerate the devil in the pitch. At the same time, Robin Uthappa and the lower middle order got out to unnecessary shots and create more pressure for everyone else. The good: It continues to be the return to the team of Saurav Ganguly. What a turnaround he has had! I, among many others, had proclaimed that he is out of sight and therefore out of mind. Now he is not only back in the team, but essentially the only batsman in form today! And of course, he is one of the few stars in my Fantasy Team ;-) Also another good thing with the batting was Zaheer and Munaf who showed it was not that bad to bat on the wicket.
Objective #3 - Bowl and field well to show the world that defense wins games The bad: The initial few overs were key but the young opener (I deliberately refer to him without name) had other ideas. Even though Zaheer got a wicket, both he and Ajit strayed once in a while and it gave Bangladesh enough comfort in an over to chance their arms here and there. The fielding was the other aspect that classifies as ‘bad’. Dravid should have somehow created a catch out of that lunge at mid off. Dhoni should have scooped up that dying caught behind chance. So the defense showed it was not up for the challenge and it let some young guns in the opposition take over the game. Of course, it is not their fault that India lost. If the batsmen had put up 30-40 more runs, it would have been a better total to defend.
The bottom line was that India had absolutely no answer to Bangladesh’s energy, fighting spirit and overall preparedness for this game.
So where do we go from here? We have a theoretical chance of making it to the next stage if we beat Bermuda (and it has to be BIG) and then of course, we have to beat Sri Lanka. Of course, there is one other thing that we can hope for Bangladesh beats Sri Lanka, but I don’t think that is going to happen.
As for the next game’s team, I hope Sehwag is dropped. Also, we may see Kumble coming in for Ajit. I fear that Dravid may give Sehwag one more chance against Bermuda thinking he can strike his form against the lowly team. I hope it does not happen.
On a big sidenote (and hopefully not inviting any flames), I am glad that at least our rivals Pakistan are out of the Cup losing to Ireland! :-) For quite some time, Indian fans had only Pakistan to watch if their team was out - did we beat Pakistan, and is Pakistan still alive in the Cup? And in this case, the former will not happen but the latter is in our favor.
So for now, here’s hoping that India scores a big win tomorrow!
South Africa totally demolished the Netherlands today. They were expected to win, yes, but the way they went about it, showed that they do not consider any opponent less serious than the others.
To start with, the game was shortened to 40 overs. South Africa batted first and unfortunately, my browser had the England/NZ game on. After a while, I checked the score for the South Africa game and realized that it was an exciting game too. So I simply had 2 games going on with audio on in both the games. The reason being I was at work and I could not afford to keep a cricket match as my “primary browser window” ;-) So I would just wait for the excitement in the commentary and switch to the appropriate window whenever needed.
Herschelle Gibbs' rampage was worth watching … luckily, I switched to that game just when he had completed the world record of 6 sixes in an over so I was able to see it in replay right after he did it.
And that was not the only exciting batting effort! Boucher came out and hit the fastest fifty in one dayers and I think if it was a 50-over game, many more records could have been made/broken.
It was a fantastic batting effort, where Kallis' century was almost a sidenote.
The result was of course beyond any doubt and South Africa completed the rout. After Sri Lanka’s destruction of Bermuda and this game, questions would surely pop up if there is any meaning in including so many smaller teams in the World Cup.
Meanwhile elsewhere, England top order collapsed and only some small face-saving partnerships made it possible to get England to a decent total. Pietersen seems to be a machine which goes on and on but if the rest of the pieces are rusted, like it is the case with England, his efforts are usually going to be in vain. His fifty was good (I have him in my fantasy team!), but all useless in the end.
New Zealand went about the chase rather casually but in the end Scott Styris steadied the ship and took them home. Damn, how did I overlook Styris for my Fantasy League?? I guess Tikolo wasn’t that bad a choice ;-)
So England have an uphill battle now, and so does Pakistan. Let’s see how the games unfold.
Uh oh! I did not even realize, but this weekend is the first race of the F-1 calendar! Luckily, because I was scanning the sports paper a little more closely for March Madness information, I noticed the weekend television information and saw that the Australian GP is this weekend.
I did not realize how much impact the absence of Michael Schumacher would have on my F-1 preferences. Granted I am still rooting for Ferrari, especially now because Kimi is part of the team, but still, the excitement and the anticipation is much much lesser now.
In fact, I have not subscribed to the Speed Channel this year. Yup, it was also confirmed by one of my co-workers that the F-1 season this year has no appeal at all because Schumacher is not in the reckoning.
As for my takes, I think Ferrari will win it and Kimi will get his first world championship this year. Massa is decent enough to finish a respectable 3rd or 4th to give Ferrari their world championship. Alonso will struggle with McLaren as a team and will not be able to defend his drivers' championship title.
Wonder how Hamilton will do - I believe he will have at least 3 DNF’s and will finish no lower than 3rd-to-the-last spot.
A great start to the cup for the host country. The game was well played in general by the host. It was not a great start to their innings after they were put in by Pakistan. The innings went rough from the beginning but somehow they were able to scratch a 240.
Then, when it came to defend the total, West Indies got a surprise gift in terms of the pathetic dismissals of the Pakistan top order. Seriously, what’s the deal with the Pakistan team? One day they perform like they can win the World Cup and the other day they completely lose it. This was the day they completely lost it.
Ultimately, it ended up being a walk in the park for West Indies and they are 1-0 up and presumably, one win away from the next stage. Great job, I am rooting for them!
Oh, and then today’s game and what happened in the last few days with Australia, specifically its captain. A lot of back and forth went on between Sunil Gavaskar who clearly does not like Australia, and Ricky Ponting who owes it to his country to step up and respond.
I don’t know why Gavaskar still has so much grief, though I must admit Australians are somewhat taking things for granted and behaving like they own the game. But at the same time, I have started losing respect for Gavaskar’s thoughts because he is too overly biased against Australia (and Australians, as seen in his clearly negative remarks about Greg Chappell).
Ricky Ponting and to a certain extent, Cricket Australia had two options - to ask him politely to shut up, or to come out with a statement with their thoughts and opinions. Knowing whatever I know of Australians, I am not surprised they chose option #2 and started pointing fingers at Gavaskar.
Of course the argument itself was pathetic. In response to Gavaskar’s comments about Australian behavior on the field, Ponting starts talking about not only the Indian team performance (in terms of wins and losses) but also, the current team’s performance which has nothing to do with Gavaskar’s behavior. So I think Ponting lost the debate right there by changing the focus of the attack. Classic finger-pointing at work.
Gavaskar of course closed the argument by brining David Hookes in the picture and talking about someone hitting the Aussies for their stupid behavior.
Not sure where it is going to lead the Indo-Aussie cricketing relations, but for sure shifts the focus for Australia. We are used to the Aussie and English press attacking the visiting Indian teams in the past, and I think Gavaskar is trying to turn the tables and start rattling the Aussies by attacking them through the press. In that respect, I think Gavaskar has done a great job on this World Cup “campaign” if I can call it that :-)
Coming to today’s game, Australia showed that the losses against England and New Zealand recently were just blips and after being somewhat bogged down by Scotland, led by Ponting himself and a great finish, they were able to put a 330, where I thought 280-290 was the most likely target.
As I stopped watching, Scotland were 5 down for almost nothing and the result, which was a foregone conclusion became almost certain.
So, we have West Indies with a win against Pakistan, potentially staking a claim at the top spot in the group and Australia winning its gimme game so far. Looking forward to a tricky game for India against Bangladesh coming this weekend!
I have entered 4 brackets … and here are my final fours:
1. Wisconsin, Kansas, Wash St, Ohio St. Kansas beats Wisconsin and Ohio St beats Wash St. Kansas wins the finals.
2. Florida, ucla, No Carolina, Ohio St. ucla beats Florida and Ohio St beats No Carolina. Ohio St wins the finals.
3. Oregon, Kansas, No Carolina, Ohio St. Kansas beats Oregon and No Carolina beats Ohio St. No Carolina wins the finals.
4. Florida, Kansas, USC, Ohio St (yes, gotta love the Trojans!). Kansas beats Florida and Ohio St beats USC. Kansas wins the finals.
Clearly, if Ohio State is upset, I am screwed! I probably need to change one or two of these brackets and cause some upsets in Ohio State’s quarter. Or create a new entry …
I am writing as I just start watching the Top 12 episode. I have meant to write about it since at least 2 weeks.
I think this Idol is Lakisha’s to lose. I think it is going to be between Lakisha and Melinda, but Lakisha seems to show a little bit more maturity and that may push her to the win.
Of course, I am utterly shocked that Sanjaya made it to the Top 12. He is so bad, I thought he would be kicked out 3 weeks back!
But once again, Lakisha is the only one who can choose to lose.
I signed up for the Cricinfo Fantasy League just about when it opened up. And then I saw that they have a concept of “Friends and Enemy League” so I created my own league.
Then I sent an email blast to about 30 people I knew were fans of cricket. And I expected a flurry of sign ups. Guess what. NO ONE signed up! Unbelievable, if you ask me. I thought at least 5-6 guys would sign up quickly. None of that.
I thought people did not understand what I was talking about in my email, so I sent a follow up email, clarifying some of the things and making everyone understand it is simple to sign up.
No response again!
Over the weekend, I sent the final email and pinged a few people on IM and stuff. The typical response was “Dude, I am swamped” or “Hey, I just don’t have the time”, etc. Are you freaking kidding me? It took me 10 minutes to sign up and form my team. It is not rocket science for God’s sake!
In any case, one person signed up irrespective of the email and one other person signed up as I was talking to him on the phone. That’s it.
Sigh, that was pathetic. But you know what, I am still competing for the grand prize. Watch out :-)
The second warm up game was supposed to be a little more serious. After all, it was against the West Indies and the last time India played West Indies in West Indies, they were clobbered.
After winning convincingly against the Netherlands, it was time for India to rest some of the players and at the same time, try to win this game and go into the main competition with a lot of confidence.
Sachin was rested in this game and Ajit Agarkar was brought in. Munaf Patel came in too and Sreesanth was benched.
For some reason I was up early that day and thought I could watch the first hour or so live. But unfortunately, Lara won the toss and chose to bat, so I had to wait till I got to work to see the Indian batting. But in any case, I decided to watch the bowling and after the first loose over, Ajit settled in very well. That ball that got rid of Gayle was a ripper! I don’t know what it is with Agarkar but he loves bowling to left handed batsmen and is quite good in getting them out too. And Gayle especially has been his puppy of late. Gayle is a huge threat to take the game away from the opposition and it was good that India got him early.
As it turns out, it was not only him that India got out early. With pretty much everyone firing on all cylinders India bowled the West Indies out for only 85. When I reached work, I turned on Willow broadcast and saw the score at 85-9 with Kumble bowling. I thought to myself “Uh oh, it’s over and I missed almost the whole damn innings” and guess what - the next ball, Kumble got the wicket and it was all over!
India won by 9 wickets at the end. My summarized thoughts:
Objective #1 - Give Sehwag another go The ugly: Yes, there is no good and no bad here. Sehwag was out cheaply chasing a ball he could well have left alone. There was absolutely no pressure in getting to the 85 runs and this was the most ideal place for Sehwag to shut us all up. But instead he made my voice louder. I know Dravid is trying to back his guy up, but come on! What’s the value of sticking to the guy when he just does not perform. Plus, mentally, he’s in no position to improve. Cut your losses, Rahul and get rid of Sehwag.
My fear is that in trying to back Viru up, Dravid will include him in the first game and maybe even the second and it is going to cost a valuable wicket at the top (or even in the middle, if they decide to push him down the order).
Objective #2 - Continue with the bowling combination The good: Pretty good outing for both Munaf and Ajit. It does seem like Munaf is fully fit. His throwing action is still a little awkward but I am hoping he stays invisible on the field. Pathan had another nice lbw wicket and I hope he has his confidence back. The bad: Kumble did not get a decent bowl and I am afraid between him and Harbhajan, Bajji will be chosen for his supposedly more agile feet.
Here’s a quick introduction to how I plan to post my thoughts on the Cricket World Cup 2007 being played in the West Indies.
I am going to mostly focus on India and the Indian team and its chances, its progress (or lack thereof) and all the drama that may be going on on and off the field.
I do not plan to be technical - you won’t see things like “they had 33 dot balls from overs 20 to 30” or things like “his forward defense was flawed” - but I will certainly have things like “Sehwag should be canned!” and “What was Dravid thinking?!”. At the same time, you won’t hear me talking much about teams that India has nothing to be concerned about, like the minnows from other groups.
In other words, I will try to be the average fan, with a little bit of bias for India.
Having cleared that, let’s look at the first warm-up game between India and the Netherlands. I like this ICC idea of having warm up games - it is good for the West Indies spectators because there are more matches, it is good for the players so that they can see who’s looking good and who needs time, and of course by creating the rule of allowing 13 players in the team with 11 to bat and 11 to field, they make more combinations possible for the teams.
This game against the Netherlands was not supposed to be a true test in terms of winning and losing, but it was more an exercise to get used to the conditions and get some match practice. And just a reminder - the last time India played the Netherlands (WC 2003) in South Africa, it was not an easy win.
So how did the game go?
Objective #1 - Batsmen get time in the middle The good: Sachin and Dravid are good to go. Pathan and Dhoni probably will not be bad options to accelerate the scoring towards the end. The bad: Sehwag failed again. I don’t know what his mental condition is, but he really needs to be sent back home. Ganguly and Yuvraj did not capitalize on decent starts. Compared to Sehwag’s score, both Ganguly’s and Yuvraj’s scores were lower, but I still think Sehwag deserves to be criticised because he has not had a good outing in a very, very long time but Ganguly and Yuvraj have.
Objective #2 - Test the bowling combination The good: Pathan seems to have got his length back - that lbw is so vintage! The nice arc to the right hander making him play at it and trapping him in front -ah, beauty to behold. Yuvraj got a bundle of wickets. Besides Sachin, in the absence of Sehwag, it will be up to Yuvraj to hold his own for four to six overs at least. If he can stay under four and a half runs per over and take maybe a wicket or two, it would be wonderful. Here he took four and declared himself ready for prime time. Kumble and Bajji unfortunately may not play at the same time, but both did their jobs admirably. The bad: Not too much to talk about bad in the bowling department - Sreesanth continued his lack of wickets in the one day format - after a great test outing against SA, he seems to have lost it in the one dayers. To a certain extent he may be going through the same mental issues that Sehwag is going through on the batting front.
So there you have it. I hope to continue this format for the rest of the World Cup and write about at least all the India games. I hope they make it long enough for this to be called a “series” of articles.
Ok, so it is confirmed. We have a thumbsucker in the family. Our little one has taken to somehow finding her thumb to pacify herself, and also as a requirement to go to sleep.
No biggie at this point. My grandma had would have had braces, my brother had braces, my niece has braces and of course I had braces. So I guess it is almost certain genetically that she will end up having braces.
Also, she seems to have a small outgrowth on the front of the upper jaw which seems to point to a gap on the front. Again, it means she has some of my genes :-)
Yes, welcome to the brand new look. I did it mostly for getting more real estate on the page. On my older template I was forced to use the hard-coded widths because the borders on the post pages and on the sidebar were images rather than being true borders. So I was able to stretch the containers but I could not make the images look aligned.
So I created a test blog, and practised some modifications (huge thanks to Firebug extension - helped me a lot in CSS nonsense) and finally I got what you see. There may be some kinks, but I think I have cleared most of the issues and it seems to be ready to go.
Now, on to why I think blogger sucks. I made all the modifications to the template on the test blog and once I was done with those, I decided to change my template on this blog. I made a copy (in notepad) of some of the javascript pieces I had added outside of the defaults and picked a new template. After picking a new template I made the modifications to the color scheme and all that, and switched some of the stuff from one sidebar to the other. All looked ok in terms of arrangement, but a lot of my widgets especially HTML/Javascript ones were empty!
Some of the stuff that I had put in, was a one-time thing that I did not even remember how to do it! How to do it? I started thinking hard about how to do it - looked for the backup files from my old blogger template and could not find it.
Guess what helped? Google cache! Yea, google cache. Just like I had used it when I moved from classic to new blogger, I had to use google search, open my blog from their cache, view page source and reverse engineer some of my widgets. Phew, after some careful (and unnecessary, if you ask me) manipulations, I think I am back up.
Blogger sucks because they did not transfer my widgets as they were. They should not have me jump through such hoops just to move from one template to another. I understand if I have made changes in my template, but not for widgets.
But in any case, this is a new start. Let’s hope I am able to put some more stuff for my readers in the newly acquired real estate.
I was pleasantly surprised to read Charlie McCollum’s plug for the NBC show Friday Night Lights.
I have talked about this show in an earlier post. Charlie of course is a lot more technical in his analysis of why the show should get more viewers.
My appeal is from the “fan” viewpoint. The show is really well-written. The actors have all done a great job - from the coach, his wife, the QB1 who is handicapped after on-field injury, the QB2 with his grandma issues and with his father being in Iraq, the alcoholic stud, his girlfriend with mother and family issues, the coach’s daughter, the popular running back, assistant coaches, everyone. As you can tell, there are a lot of characters and lot of subplots in the show. And the creators of the show have done a good job keeping it together at the same time devoting enough screen time to all the characters.
In a lot of ways, this show kinda feels like American Dreams, also on NBC. It also started hitting low ratings and had to be pulled off ultimately after being pushed around. I hope Friday Night Lights is given enough justice and of course, I hope it is taken away from American Idol because really, there is nothing that can compete with Idol nowadays.
We were recently cheated by our DVR - except for sports, where I actually make sure I work around the cheating, we have not been cheated. It has been a dependable piece of hardware (with its related software) and it has performed as per expectations for years now.
Until the past weekend. Until the Oscars, of all events. Not ‘How I met your mother’, not ‘1 vs 100’, not ‘According to Jim’, but the biggie - the Academy Awards. I guess it wanted to make sure we understand we cannot take it for granted. Like a needy partner in a relationship, the DVR decided to make its presence felt by cruelly cutting us off the main awards!
So here’s what happened - when I saw the ads during the week for the Oscar Awards show on abc, I immediately set up two shows for recording - the actual show on abc at prime time, and the red carpet show on E! before that. I noticed something funky, but I did not bother much about it - the red carpet show on E! seemed to start at 7pm, whereas the actual awards show on abc seemed to start at 6.30pm! I just thought it is a weird thing and ignored it for some reason.
Anyway, as 9.00pm comes and some friends who were visiting us left, the wife and I parked ourselves on the couch and started watching the show. We zapped through all the acceptance speeches and commercials and reached the end of the recording before any of the sexy awards were handed out! No best actor, no best actress, no best director, no best movie, nothing! It was no fun to watch the best art direction, the best short animation, the best cinematography, etc. :-(
The guide information for the show was for only 3 hours and the recording stopped at 9.30pm and when we were done with whatever was recorded, we were left with Barbara Walters interviewing Ellen. BORING! What a letdown! It was unbelievable, literally. We could not believe that we were not able to see the rest of the show … it had never happened!
Then, I checked the red carpet show just for some consolation. And guess what - it had E! investigation about the bad luck that strikes lottery winners! Great! How about that?
What a disappointment it was, especially because I wanted to see Martin Scorsese get his first Oscar from his three peers and friends. I wanted to see Forest Whitaker get his best actor Oscar. None of that. I was resigned to enjoying it off the TV and on the computer. Thank goodness that technology at least makes it possible for me to seesome of those things after the show is done.
But I have learnt my lesson. Do not take chances on shows you care about. Make sure you put the next 2 hours for recording. I usually do that with USC games and some NFL games. But I did not think Oscars would need it, especially with the recent discipline associated with acceptance speeches and such. Oh well. I will wait for the next year, nothing much else I can do.
After Australia’s recent collapses against a pathetic England team in 2 final games, and against New Zealand in the Chappell-Hadlee series, the field is wide open in the coming World Cup.
I think Australia is still the favorite but I don’t think they are the clear favorites and more importantly, other teams are now believing in themselves that they can beat the Aussies, if at all self-confidence was a factor.
In general, based on current form I think South Africa has the best chance to win it all, followed by Sri Lanka, Australia and India. Yes, I have removed New Zealand from the equation simply because they are really inconsistent in their performances. When they win, they are the best team on the planet, but the very next day they can look like Kenya or something.
The way the groups are set up, my thoughts on how the competition will unfold:
Group A - Australia, South Africa, Netherlands, Scotland Group B - India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Bermuda (Sri Lanka vs Bermuda may break the record for the highest score in a one day international!) Group C - New Zealand, England, Kenya, Canada Group D - Pakistan, West Indies, Zimbabwe, Ireland
Semis would then pit India, Sri Lanka, South Africa and Pakistan/Australia
India will beat Sri Lanka and South Africa will beat either Pakistan or Australia
And finally, South Africa will beat India to win the World Cup 2007
Drat! I will have to watch pretty much the whole thing! :-)
I have been procrastinating. I should have posted this as soon as they announced the team, but maybe it is a good thing that I did not. I got some time to think about the team and here are my thoughts.
First of all, in my books, the following players (based on current and recent past form) select themselves:
The following were almost certain and my reasons for them not being 100%:
6. Ajit Agarkar: Seems to be a bit inconsistent, but has been in form recently 7. Harbajan Singh: He should actually not be in the team, but has a great vote of confidence from the captain apparently 8. Anil Kumble: He should be in the team for sure, but he has no faith from anyone except the captain 9. S Sreesanth: Has been in good form in the tests, but has been completely off in the one day games. Fundamentally he is good enough to be considered a lock. 10. Munaf Patel: He is a very good one day bowler but his recent injury drama in South Africa made me re-think my position on his being a lock. 11. Yuvraj Singh: He would be a lock before his bad injury layoff, but now I have my doubts but from the last game of the Sri Lanka series he seems to have come back to form.
So in my books, there are 11 players who almost certainly are selected in the team. 4 batsmen, 1 wicket-keeper and 6 bowlers including 2 different spinners and at least 3 part time bowlers.
What’s obviously missing is a good opener in case the team decides to stick with pushing Sachin down to the middle order. Robin Uthapa has been in good form at the top and would be included. So that makes it 5 batsmen, 1 wicket-keeper and 6 bowlers.
Now, there’s got to be a couple of middle order batsmen and maybe 1 extra bowler.
In Dinesh Karthick, we get two for the price of one. We get a decent bat and a decent backup wicket-keeper. I would imagine he would be playing some games and will not be a pure passenger on the tour.
So it comes down to one middle order batsman and 1 extra bowler needed. Given that Sachin and Yuvraj can spin the ball part-time, and given the experience of Anil Kumble and the mythical guile that Bajji brings, a spinner would not be needed. Ramesh Powar, sorry, but there is just no space for you in the team. Blame it on Bajji.
Among the pace bowlers, having Pathan at bowler #5 is quite an embarrassment of riches, if he gets back to any sort of form. And because no one else like RP Singh or VRV Singh has played enough in the recent past, I think Pathan would become the default choice.
Which brings me to the last spot - of a middle order bat. There’s a lot of talent which can take the spot - Kaif, Raina, VVS, Sehwag. My choice would have been VVS Laxman, but I think Dilip Vengsarkar just does not believe in his fielding ability. VVS is the type of guy who can come in at 101-1 or 14-3 and play his normal game in either situation and score 60 in 65 balls without any pressure at all.
So my team would match the selectors' choice except for two:
This team is not going to be the best fielding team without Kaif, Raina and maybe even Karthick in the close-in field but it is good enough to win the match with bat and ball.
I do believe we are still one batsman short and maybe instead of Pathan, we could choose an extra batsman. But I do believe defense win championships and it is better to load up the team with backup bowlers just in case there is an injury or two, than to go with high class batting backups which may not be enough to win matches.
If the team gets its chemistry together, I have confidence that they would make it to the semis. My thoughts on India’s and others' winning chances in a later post.
The end of the college football season, followed by the end of NFL creates a huge void in terms of following sports. The NBA is too early in its season and I don’t care about NHL much. Oh, there is baseball pitchers and catchers and all that, but I don’t care much about baseball either.
Formula 1 is about a month away and so is the Cricket World Cup. There’s some tennis and since USC is doing well, I am a lot more interested in college basketball than I was in the past few years.
And on top of that, we have this long weekend, so guess what I ended up doing - I watched the NBA All Star Saturday program! Yes, the skills competition, the shooting star, Charles Barkley making a fool of himself for raising some money for charity, and of course the slam dunk competition. It was entertaining, but was it worth really watching? I don’t think so.
So I am hoping now that the World Cup starts soon because once it starts it is going to be one long period of cricket and lots to talk about, write about.
Sigh, the LSU fans are bitter. Against USC. Again. They just could not swallow the fact that their prized recruit, #2 ranked in the country, was going to go to USC instead of LSU.
There was some noise recently about recruiting violations, that Reggie Bush got on the phone with Pete Carroll in trying to get Joe McKnight to come to USC.
And now, Pete Carroll who normally does not name names has openly stated that LSU fans are the ones creating such stupid rumors!
LSU fans, just remember - this recruiting business is a dirty game. Les Miles has probably done the same thing to many other coaches that Pete Carroll ended up doing with you and your team. Its all a fair game though not clean. Take what you have and play with it. You’ve got to watch out for Florida, Alabama, Arkansas, Tennessee, etc. before you dream of playing USC.
So shut it and move on! Oh yea, and act like adults, not freaking 5-year olds!
Leave it to Pete Carroll to finish strong. After a somewhat less-than-superb recruiting season, Pete Carroll and his buddies climbed up rapidly and now have what seems to be the second-best or the third best class in the country!
Who else thinks we have the deepest roster at running back? And will all of them get decent playing time? Is McKnight the next Reggie Bush?
What about fullbacks? Looks like Martin Coleman may be converted to fullback. With Lane Kiffin gone, I wonder if the fullback will have as big a role as it seemed to be this year. Maybe if there is a game-breaker like McKnight, the game plans may change?
Let’s see - can’t wait for the season to start!!
Details on the final rankings at MSNBC, among others.
Recently, there was a report published by (or should I say “leaked to”) the Times Group which was about Chetan Desai’s feedback after the South Africa tour, where he claims that Chappell and Sehwag had some inter-personal issues on the tour.
By now, Dravid has responded with something to the effect of “Chetan who?” and I think that is awesome in this context. Why create a major issue of something that may not be as major as the report makes it out to be?
I am not going to talk much about the report leakage itself. I think it is probably a cheap publicity stunt for Times Now channel which is probably not getting good ratings compared to the many other news channels.
But the important question to answer is whether Greg Chappell is to blame at all. I think not at all. From what we know, Saurav Ganguly was quite head strong and it helped form the “team” in “Team India” but it worked against him when his flaws were pointed out to him. As a result he started losing it, and he became political to the point that he got involved in a bureaucratic battle between Dalmiya and Pawar and was ultimately booted out.
It was an unfortunate event in Indian cricket history and it would have been terrible if he had not been able to come back.
And now, this piece about Sehwag. One of the points made in the report is that Sehwag asked for special nets and then did not turn up at all. If there is one thing that Sehwag has been showing off through this pathetic phase of his career, it is his carelessness and slack attitude. And given that attitude he has shown through his batting, I can surely believe the story that he asked for nets (probably because he had to show some initiative about poor form) and did not turn up at all.
So, what does it say? Greg Chappell perhaps says the truth as bluntly as he can, perhaps to the dislike of our babus like Ganguly, Sehwag and who knows who else. He analyzes the problems within teams, but maybe he is not diplomatic enough to sugarcoat it to suit our Indian style.
Do we need reality checks like what he seems to provide? Yes, of course. Otherwise complacency and babudom will become permanent and we will go back to the late 80’s and early 90’s teams which were just happy to draw out games. Thanks to Chappell, we had a first on the South African tour where a player was sent back mid-way through a series due to lack of form. Path-breaking and thoughtful stuff, which could not have been executed by someone else like John Wright or Madan Lal or Kapil Dev.
Is Chappell the answer to all our problems? Maybe not. India does need some solid whipping for some stupid mistakes, strategic and tactical, that have been made in the past. But more importantly, India needs someone to rally them when they are down. Remember the last World Cup? We barely beat Holland and people were writing us off after the first game. What happened next? “Team India” arose out of the ashes and came back strongly to crush everyone in their path. We need motivators. We need psychoanalysts. We need alternative techniques to drill some inspirational ideas into each person’s brain so that each team member is mentally ready for long tours and tournaments like the World Cup.
And for all you know, Chappell may have proposed all or some of the above already to the Board, but the Board is probably sitting on those ideas, waiting for consensus and whatever else red tap artists do to stall decision-making.
Chappell is good for the team, guys. Let’s give him a break and toast Sehwag (in this case) for his careless nature.
