Spent the Sunday putting up items of art on the wall and in the house. The house feels more filled now, with a lot of the stuff in place. Slowly, but surely, we will get the basement and the garge cleared out :-)

Cheers to that! :-)

There were a lot of people who called the Indian cricket team chokers before the Asia Cup final this past weekend. After seeing them struggle the way they did, I will throw my name into the pool too. They did choke. The bowling and fielding was good, and they restricted Sri Lanka well to 228 on a pitch that should have produced at least 240-260.

But when it came to batting, there was not a single worthwhile partnership from the top 7 batsmen. There was Tendulkar, batting alone. No one stayed long enough to create a meaningful partnership. And I think the Indian team was unnecessarily over-defensive. There was no need to be. Yes, the pitch was going to turn a lot and yes, they had some slow bowlers who could exploit the conditions. But instead of ‘keep wickets at any cost’, the idea should have been ‘try to not lose more than 2 wickets, but score at least 90 runs in the first 15 overs’. Imagine, if India were able to get to 90-2 at the 15 over mark, it would mean a required run rate of less than 4 in the 35 over stretch. And that is truly gettable, even if the spinners are in full flow.

But the overly defensive mindset caused not only wickets to fall, but also pressure to increase. The wicket of Sehwag was due to the fact that he was more concerned about keeping his wicket intact, than to score runs. For no real reason, Zoysa was pumped up and bowled brilliantly after getting Ganguly who got out to a tentative shot.

Laxman looked the most at ease despite the pitch, but I think he was not at his fittest, but that is no excuse. Dravid got out to another good reflex catch (Gangs got out to a brilliant catch too), but even he was too defensive.

Yuvraj was unbelievably clueless. I don’t know what’s up with this guy. He is so comfortable one day, and so mentally out of it the other. In the finals, he was completely beaten by Chandana of all people and got out to frustration.

Kaif I think is lost at #7. Most of the times, if the top order bats well, he comes in during the slog overs and has no excuse if he gets out. As a result he has no real match practice in staying at the crease. In chases like the one over the weekend, where he had to not only keep his wicket, but also up the scoring rate, he was a complete misfit, and got out trying to manufacture something out of nothing.

And that brings me to the Tendulkar innings. I was happy that he scored. But once again, I was unhappy that India did not win when he scored. It has happened a lot of times. There is no one to build a partnership with. And at the end, he gets out trying to go over the top or whatever.

I don’t particularly like Rameez Raja’s comments, but I think I agree with one point he made after the match, which is that the Indian team and Sachin himself needs to revisit his new role. There is no point in sticking around for the sake of sticking around. The team has enough firepower later down the order that can take care of a mini collapse at the top. Instead of hanging around for a long time, he should think of his innings as a boost at the top. Go back to the old self and start blasting the ball away. Score 40 in 20 and at least get India off to a flyer. With Sehwag doing the same from the opposite end, the opposition may have to change their plans quickly in the innings. But imagine if Sachin plays like he used to, and scores at will, and without undue risks - India could be 100 with the loss of Sehwag in the first 15 overs. And for the next 35, even at 5 runs per over, they can make 275. Of course, with the correct level of acceleration, 300 would be easy on most tracks.

Overall, I am not too frustrated with the result. It was definitely a case of Sri Lanka completely dominating the Indians. There was not much of throwing away wickets, missed catches, bad bowling or anything. Can’t fault the Indians much in terms of what they did in general. If they can fix their mental approach, they would be well off.

On to Holland now.

So last Friday night we decided to go and watch Bourne Supremacy starring Matt Damon. We decided to go to Century 20 in the Great Mall, but we could have easily gone to the AMC Mercado 20.

But after 10 minutes of going around in the parking lot, and not finding anything, we decided to give up and go back home and watch something movie at home. It is really mind blowing how many people were waiting outside the theater. Ticket prices are not cheap and to have so many people waiting in line is definitely a big sign about the economy.

It is also a sign that the summer movies in the theaters today are great watches. Collateral, Manchurian Candidate, Bourne and I,Robot are all pretty awesome. And of course, Fahrenheit 9/11 and Spiderman 2 are still running too.

In any case, we’ll have to wait for Bourne for some other time.

So after staying up practically all night, I must say I have not been disappointed with the Indian bowling. They have stuck to the task, and kept Sri Lanka in check. They did not let any batsman get away with the game. Atapattu did score a 50 but his innings was nowhere close to domination.

Pathan once again provided an initial breakthrough. Tendulkar once again took some quick wickets. Sehwag and Tendulkar bowled quite well in the middle overs, to deny Sri Lanka any real acceleration. I did not see any of Zaheer’s overs, so I am not sure how exactly he bowled. But it was interesting that Ganguly gave the new ball to Nehra and not Zaheer.

Man, I can never figure this guy out. Ganguly is truly an enigma. Either he is too brilliant, or he is just a random guy lucking out all the time. One match he drops Nehra for Zaheer, and the next, he does not give Zaheer the new ball. But whatever it is, it is working out for him, so I knock on wood again and hope I have not woofed it.

So it has been a good thing to keep Sri Lanka under 230, but the ball is really spinning, so I am not sure how India will cope.

Time for a quick power nap and to get ready for the Indian innings.

So, another final. Another moment for the media to bash India for being chokers. It is an amazing stat I read recently, which stated that since Ganguly has become captain, India has reached the finals of a tournament with 3+ teams 12 times, out of which they have won only 1. They have shared the trophy because of rain abandonments twice, and the rest, they have lost.

Twelve finals. Incredible. But only one win? That does justify the tag of ‘chokers’ that has been attached to them by the media.

So, now I know what an Arangetram looks like. Or maybe this was a bad example. There were about 500 people there, all decked up. Men in suits and ladies in almost wedding-like attire. I went there with chudidar-kurta and my wife wore a heavy salwar-kameez.

We met a lot of family who was visiting from Connecticut, so it was nice to reach slightly earlier than the scheduled start time. The crowd was a mostly Indians, but quite a few non-Indians were visible too.

I understand now that an Arangetram is a proud achievement for the girl, but more so for the parents and the guru. One of my cousins told me that the person whose Arangetram it was, was very nervous before the event. But her performance as we saw it, was not at all nervous-looking. She performed quite beautifully, and even though I did not understand the technicalities of the dances, I could appreciate the dance itself, which is basically a depiction of a story in the form of music and dance.

The event was a highly elaborate affair with jain snacks served in the intermission and there was going to be a dinner following the event too. The snacks were actually quite awesome, and I did not even realize when I had them the first time that they were jain snacks. We did not stay till the end because of the baby shower that we had to go to, so I am not sure about what the dinner was. During the intermission, we meet the parents and it was clear that they really loved how the 8+ years of training have finally come through.

I wish I had pictures I could post.

So, another baby shower goes by. And another meeting of people with kids already who ask us the same question ‘When are you guys giving the good news?’. Its almost like there is nothing else to talk about. What if we do have good news. What then? Will there not be anything else to talk about? I wonder. Maybe it will be all the typical questions you would ask a pregnant lady - when is it due, do you know if it is a boy or a girl, etc.

In any case, the worst part of having such parties at rented halls and stuff is the last part - the cleanup. Even though there were many people helping out, it was still a lot of work to clean up the place. But at the end, it was all ok. We just wanted to kill some time before the Asia Cup finals began at 1.30am between India and Sri Lanka.

All these polls and news are just making me want to see some college football quickly!

Check out the news on the coaches poll.

I posted some comments earlier this morning and I don’t see them anymore :-(

Today was a first. I was in meetings ALL day except one slot of 30 minutes. All day!

The only time I had to be away from meetings was 11am-11.30am and a couple of other meetings that ended earlier than their scheduled time.

Amazing, isn’t it?

So some people may ask - what about lunch? Well, I followed the Snickers' message: Hungry? Grab a Snickers.

T. G. I. F.

(from Rediff.com) Now, who would have thought?

College football is getting closer and closer. Can’t wait!

Meanwhile, USC is the unanimous pick to win Pac-10 in pre-season media poll. But that don’t mean jack. We need Mike Williams back, so we can actually dream about National Championship defense.

Hope I didn’t woof it already :-(

Fingers crossed, knocked on wood. ;-)

Like I suspected, and like many reporters speculated, Ricky Williams' decision to retire was based mostlly on a failed drug test. But it looks like in his priorities list, marijuana came above NFL! Amazing!

Guess what Bob Woolmer is going to tell Sami after he bowled a 17-ball over! I don’t want to be Sami :-)

First off, let me clarify one thing. It seems like my one-sided posts have created this impression of me that I hate Ganguly. I don’t.

I am a Ganguly-basher, just like I am a Sachin-basher or a Dravid-basher. I am just a passionate Indian cricket lover and I simply cannot see my team be so inconsistent. I have said ‘fire Sachin’ a lot of times, but I just have not put it down on paper. I have said ‘Dravid’s biggest trait is to put the ball back on the pitch and nothing else’ so many times, but I have never explicitly written about it. The same way, I have made comments about what I think are mistakes that Ganguly has made, but the only thing is, I have not been reserved in those comments, and have put them down on paper.

Ganguly is a terrific batsman. Both in the one dayers and in tests. Test matches of late have become quite fast-scoring affairs (heck, even England scored at 4.5+ RPO in the Lord’s test against the West Indians), and Ganguly is perfect at #5, especially if the top order has made the fielding side tired. He comes in and smashes a few around the park and makes the spinners pay.

Of course in one dayers, he was a great foil to the old version of Sachin when they used to open for India. Gangs would be the not-so-wild attacker, and Sachin would blow away the opposition. And that’s why he is perfect for #3 in one dayers, because if Sehwag gets out, he can play the ‘aggressive’ role and if Sachin gets out, he can be the not-so-wild attacker again.

He is also a great captain off the field. He works hard on motivating the players, and he works very closely with the support staff of coach, analyst, trainer, physio. He has a devil-may-care attitude and commands respect from the selectors as well as players. Part of it of course has to do with the number of wins he has behind his back. His success of course compounds the effect. But in general, he is not the shy, mild-mannered, keep everyone happy type of guy. If, in order to get something done, he has to blow someone off, he will. If he wants to back his player, he will go any length. When it came time to hit back at the Aussie media, he made sure he did so. In more ways than one.

He is also one of the better captains on the field. And this is where I tone down my impression of him. He has not done too many things that make sense. A lot of things he has done are ‘instinct-based’ and thus, do not make sense at the time he does it. Of course, with any risk, there is a chance of a good payout or being busted. And he has had a lot of good luck in those risky moves and they have paid off. And success breeds success, so he now has the confidence to make such instinctive moves more often and run away with it. I would like captains to make some bold moves when things go wrong. I would like captains to make some risky moves to counter a particularly sticky opposition player. But to make such moves as a routine, are not good long-term. Once again, I reiterate that he is a very good captain in general. The only chink I see on the field, is what I just mentioned.

And finally, the team (and squad) selection. The good thing about him is that he has always backed players that he thinks will be good for the future. He gave enough chances to Nehra after he was so-so to start with. He gave too many chances to Bhajji late last season when it was obvious that he was unable to bowl like he used to. He has seen what it is like to get dropped after one or two failures, so he will naturally not like it to happen to others. But how does he decide whom to pursue? Instincts play a huge role. What he sees in the nets, what he knows of the player from personal interaction, what the player does in the chances that he gets. But I have noticed, and maybe with a slight biased eye, that he has not really nurtured players who showed promise on the field. This is my thinking and it has come out in several posts in the form of playing favorites. But if you look at this post, you will see that some of the comments he makes don’t always make sense. How can one dayers determine who opens in tests? There are many such examples, which make me give him less than average score for team/squad selection sense.

But that does not mean I hate him. I really don’t. I am very happy for India that we found a captain like him. No one else in this team can fit that role. I don’t think so. Sachin was too mild. Of course, no one has else has been really tried. Dravid stood in for a few games, but I suspect he is not that outspoken and outwardly aggressive as Gangs is. I am glad that captaincy has not evidently put a lot of pressure on his performance as a player. He was never a good fielder and that he continues to be, but his batting has not deteriorated much. And he has created a nucleus of a team where now, because of all of them peforming, there is hardly a spot open in the XI. I am glad for that. I am glad that he has been able to stitch together a team that can win abroad. I am really happy about that, because that will shut a lot of critics up.

But as a passionate cricket fan, I will always find faults in him. I have a right to. That is the job of the crtics. I am a fact-based informed critic. I don’t know what goes on behind the scenes, and I have not played competitive cricket. But I know enough about it to make my comments. I have justification for what I think are his mistakes. Of course, if some journalist asks him a pointed question to clarify his stance or to defend his decisions, and it proves me wrong, I am the first one to admit it. If you don’t believe it, check this post out.

Hope this clarifies my stand. And hope you reached up to here in reading this extensive post :-)

Thank you for your time.

This morning I walked in slightly late for a meeting. I did not know which room I had to go to. I opened my Outlook and realized that I had lost EVERYTHING there! Everything. Mails. Calendar. To-do. Everything just disappeared.

My heart sank. I had no idea how to react. I did not know if it was something I did or if it was some virus.

After taking a deep breath, I started looking at the new emails that came in after I opened the mailbox. There it was - an email from Corporate Information Systems. They said that they had a major email failure and after several calls to Microsoft that yielded no result, they were going to restore everything from the backup. It is going to take the entire day to restore. But at least they guaranteed that no information will be lost. Let’s see how far that guarantee goes.

But it makes me think - we are at the mercy of technology, which of late has become quite undependable. Companies are allowee to put fine print in the terms of agreement whereby they are allowed to have such miserable failures and not be responsible. How is that allowed? Why is there no action taken by consumers and businesses (major customers of these companies) to ensure that someone is held accountable for major failures like these?

If I really lose these emails, I have no way of bringing them back. My personal backup was from a month ago. So all the correspondence of the last month is virtually lost. It is not frustrating only because of that loss, but more so because of the way Microsoft was allowed to live its life while my company frantically restores from backup.

Hmph!

Related to my earlier post on CNET News.com’s article on Bangalore’s growth, there is another one where Wipro’s Azim Premji threatened to quit Bangalore because of poor infrastructure.

I’m sure it was just a wake up call to the authorities to start getting their act together, but it was quite a loud shout.

Interesting piece on CNET News.com about Bangalore’s growth rate compared to Silicon Valley’s.

The frequency of my posts is going down. I don’t like it, but on the other hand, I can’t help it.

There are so many things I want to jot down, but just don’t get the time. Of late, I am more in meetings and away from my computer, so it becomes hard to write something at length.

I promise, I’ll be bacccck! :-)

Yes, he has been expensive, but because of the aggressive nature of the Sri Lankan batsmen, Zaheer has got a wicket now! :-)

I noticed that they chose to go with 2 pace bowlers and 2 spinners. That’s fine. But why Zaheer? Why not Nehra?

Nehra has not done anything wrong this series. Zaheer has been injured and even when he played, he has been pedestrian. Why choose him?

He has already proved to be expensive. Wides and boundaries. Quite pathetic.

Unless of course, the team has yet another injury - Nehra :-(

While Fisichella joining Renault is generally good news for both, I think Trulli and Ralf in Toyota next season will be and interesting prospect to look out for.

I think Renault will continue to do well, and Toyota may step up a notch. The biggest losers in this thing are Williams. They lost two good drivers and now they don’t even have one confirmed driver. Webber looks like a done deal, but its not really done yet. But the other slot? No one knows. Villeneuve, Hakkinen? That would be a joke.

This man is a complete mystery. The previous over was an awesome display and now this one he gave 21 runs! :-(

They are playing a side with no Murali and no Vaas. That is enough reason for the Indians to feel that this score is so-so. They should have topped 290. As usual, they lost the plot towards the end.

Ricky Williams shocked the sporting world by announcing that he is retiring at the age of 27.

I was shocked to hear the news. Its not like he has been a superstar and a legend that he can retire. Its not like his body cannot take it anymore. He has to prove that he is capable of a long career and set some records before he can retire.

And the saddest part about it for Miami at least, is that he announced this right before training camp. Not two weeks back, when Eddie George was still available. Not before the draft, where several good running backs were available. He did it now.

I am listening to some sports talk shows on the radio and they claim that he may be running from some drugs issues. If that is the case, and if he comes back after a year or two, it would be completely unacceptable in my books. He has let the team down. He has let the fans down. He is quitting on everyone, for apparently no reason.

Shame on you, Ricky.