Flashback 2012

From 2012 these are the moments which stood out for me from what I have watched or read. Here is hoping for another wonderful year ahead filled with sporting drama.


Best signing of the year: Robin Van Persie. He just beats Michu because of the quality and importance of his goals.

Most inspiring moment of the year: Oscar Pistorius competing with able bodied men in the Olympics.

Worst coach of the year: Duncan Fletcher.

Most dramatic sporting act of the year: Manchester City winning the title with the last kick of the season via the swish of Serio Aguero's right boot.

Most painful memory of the year: The look on the face of Manchester United players after they came to know that City have scored in the injury time.

Most humiliating performance of the year: India losing 8-0 to England and Australia, during which they plummeted from No.1 to No.4 in Test rankings.

Most poignant moment of the year: Andy Murray giving a teary eyed speech after losing the Wimbledon final.

Most beautiful moment of the year: Andy Murray finally winning a Grand Slam at the US open, following an epic final.

Most enthralling sporting occasion of the year: London Olympics 2012.

Most comic moment of the year: John Terry lifting the European Cup in his full kit after sitting out of the entire match through suspension.

Coach of the year: Ivan Lendl

Best article I have read: "A sportswriter’s love letter.." by Rohit Brijnath. Here is the link for all of you.

http://nonstriker.wordpress.com/2011/04/26/a-sportswriters-love-letter/

Team of the year: Spanish football team. Battered everyone in sight.

Stupidest act of the year: Joh Terry sticking his right knee at the back of Alexis Sanches right in front of the linesman.

Goal of the year: Zlatan Ibrahamovic's overhead kick against England.

Best statistic of the year: QPR having more red cards than wins in 2012.

Most dominating performance of the the year: Rafael Nadal in French Open.

Best rumour of the year: Arsenal's talisman striker Robin Van Persie to join Manchester United. Oh wait..

Player of the year: Radamel Falcao. Even after considering what Messi has done, this kid has been nothing short of sensational.

Most heroic performance of the year: Fernando Alonso's title challenge in an evidently inferior car.

Worst sacking of the year: Steve Kean, because he should have been sacked a good 12 months ago.

Worst signing of the year: Fernando Torres. Yeah, I know the he was not signed last year, but some how he wins it hands down, just like the last 2 years!

Best celebration of the year: The Gangnam style by the entire West Indies team after their T20 WC triumph.

Worst style statement of the year: Djibrill Cisse's haircut.

Retirement of the year: Shahid Afridi. Though he may have made yet another comeback by the time you read it!

Best quote of the year: " I am quite bad at analysing technique. You have seen mine". MS Dhoni when asked to comment on Rohit Sharma's technique.

Athlete of the year: Usain Bolt. He somehow had the talent to live upto his own modest claims of being the best in the history, in the biggest of sporting stages.

Disgrace of the year: Lance Armstrong being found guilty of doping and stripped of his 7 Tour De France titles.

Achievement of the year: Sachin Tendulkar's 100th century. Sure, it did take its time to come but it is a monumental achievement, enormity of which we all will fully grasp only when we see the expression on the face of our grand children when we tell them about it.

BRAVE AND BRAINLESS

You are the captain of your side. You side is trying to win one of the most coveted competitions which you have never won. You are playing against one of the best sides in the history at their home ground. You have a 1-0 lead from the first leg and you just need to be sensible and determined to protect it. In this situation the chances of you kneeing your opponent at his back when the linesman is looking straight at you to hold the offside line is pretty much nonexistent, isn't it? But if your name happens to be John Terry none of the above things apply to you. But sensible is not one of the words you usually associate with John, do you? Branding what he did as stupidity will be risky because that leaves us to find new definitions for Mario Baloteli's everyday life! In fact it is good to do a research to find out whether these 2 people are related in anyway and considering John Terry's free time 'activities' it is safe to bet on a successful research.

If anything beat his on-field stupidity, it was the interview he gave after the match. A man who was stripped of the national captaincy twice, being investigated by police for racial insults and slept with his teammate's wife said that he is "not that type of a person". Really John? I seriously believe that he thinks we all have the same intellectual capacity as Wayne Bridge. The only silver lining is that Roberto De Matteo doesn't seem to be as dumb as Kenny Dalglish to lead his team out with all of them wearing 'For JT' T-shirts before the Champions League final in Munich.

Anyways, coming back to the match Chelsea got their tactics absolutely spot on and by tactics I mean parking the bus in front of goal. When you see Didier Drogba as a left back, you don't have to be a rocket scientist to know what they are going to do (To be fair to Chelsea, this happened after John Terry had that brain freeze). They came with a Double Decker bus but what stood out was Barcelona's inability to break it or fall back on Plan B. Watching the second half, it seemed like an unwritten rule in Camp Nou that everything should go through Messi and a goal scored without his touch is an inferior goal. They have to understand that a ball which is fired like hell from the right wing by Danny Alves, bounces of the shoulder of Ivanovic and falls inside to inches of goal line is still a goal. There was absolutely no wing play yesterday. Didier Drogba may still be a beast of a left back but essentially he was playing out of position. There was no initiative from Barcelona to exploit it and time and again they played it through the middle trying to find an opening. As seconds ticked by Chelsea grew familiar with it so much so that their goal machine (yes you are right, I am kidding here) more-than-50-million-worth Fernando Torres found time and space to counter attack and kill the tie. But, that goal aside, if what Torres was doing on the pitch was worth 50 million, I am worth 10000 times of that to my company. At the end, their brave resistance paid of even with a brainless captain.

When AVB, took over Chelsea at the start of the season, gloating about his 3 year 'project' there was a growing feeling that it was time for the old guard at Chelsea to hang up their boots. But, if anything, what Roberto De Matteo has shown is a willingness to include them in the scheme of things, however short term it is. You don't just throw away that experience to the sidelines over a fortnight. It may still be the last season for the likes of Terry (I hope not, who else will inspire us to produce so many adult jokes on my twitter TL?), Lampard and Drogba and this remains their last short at the European glory. Bayern or Madrid, the final is going to be battle of epic proportions. Bayern will obviously want to win it in front of their home crowd and if it is Madird, Jose Mourinho needs no second initiation to remind Abrahamovic once again that it was wrong to sack him 4 years ago. When Manchester Untied crashed out of Europe in the first round itself, I never thought I would have so much fun this season. Well, John Terry definitely had a different idea!

El - Clasico

El-Clasicos can't get bigger than this, with a possible exception of the potential Champions League Final at the Allianz Arena, come May 19. With the league title on the line, 4 points separating the bitter rivals, Messi and Ronaldo engaged in battles of their own, goals and red cards are almost certain, if past meetings are anything to go by. And eye pokes too if Jose Mourinho finds himself in one of those playful moods!

A win for Real Madrid and the League title will be almost certain to find its way back to Santiago Bernabeau after a 3 year gap. In fact, even a draw will suit them considering the 4 points cushion, but going to Camp Nou with a mindset and tactics for a draw is a cardinal sin. It is akin to going for a blind date with Jennifer Aniston in your worst outfit and slippers, hoping that you would nail her. It never happens that way. Jose Mourinho has never lost a league lead going into the last two months of a season but a loss against the Catalans and the Madrid players will start to feel the fear in the air.

I couldn't believe that Barcelona were 10 points behind Real Madrid less than 2 months ago because the quality of difference between the teams is not worth that many but as they say the league table never lies. Not that Barcelona were weaker than last season, far from it. But teams around are getting used to their style of play and they are coming with different tactics to derail their tika-taka, and Real Madrid were far more clinical while dealing with lower positioned teams. Still there are many who believe that, while going head to head, Barcelona are a better team than Madrid, proven by their outright and ultimately comfortable victory over Madrid earlier in the season. But the league is just not only beating your rivals twice in a year (Just ask Rafael Benitez, if you have any doubt) but beating those teams which come to your ground and put 11 defenders on the pitch. Another intriguing thing about this match is that both of these teams have got to deal with the small matter of overcoming a defeat in the first leg of the Champions league semifinal midweek. As things stand Barcelona needs to win this to stand any chance of winning the league and it is definitely Madrid's trophy to lose, considering the gap they have now. Bring it on squeaky bum time!

First Half:
You know that Barcelona are in trouble when they punt a long ball down the pitch in the 8th minute of the match. Madrid looked sharper and hungrier and were rewarded with a deserved goal, however scrappy that was. Mesut Ozil was the engine room at midfield who mastered Iniesta and Alves, which not many teams in Europe can claim to have done. For once Mourinho out-mastered Guardiola and showed the world that the title pressure can get to even the best in the business. I have never seen Messi chipping at the referee in any of the games I have watched but the fact he headed straight to referee instead of the tunnel at half time spoke for itself. If anything Barcelona have always shown an ability to come back against Madrid and an intriguing second half awaits.

Second half:
Ladies and Gentlemen, that is the Spanish League title done and dusted. Though there is still a mathematical chance for Barcelona to catch Real Madrid, I am ready to bet my entire saving (That is not much, for those who are thinking about to bet) on that not happening. A 7 point lead with 4 games to go with is wider than the Panama canal in footballing terms. The lasting memory from the second half is Ronaldo’s celebration at his winning goal. It politely suggested “Shut the fuck up you whining Catalans” to the 90000 thousand odd home supporters. As much as Madrid needed this victory, as much as Mourinho wanted to win in Camp Nou, I can’t help but to think that it was more important to Ronaldo as a player. Ever since he moved to Spain from Manchester United, he lived in the shadow of Messi losing individual battles, Clasicos, League titles and European titles. One more of those and an almost insurmountable mental block would have been built. I personally think that, in terms of ability both players are almost on par, but the way Barcelona play and form their tactics enhances Messi’s role and his visibility, along with the midfield masteros who provide defense splitting passes to him almost at will. It is almost impossible to think that the best team in the World failed to win their local league, but once again, the league table never lies.

In other news:
On a night in which the Spanish title race is technically over, Borussia Dortmund emphatically claims their second successive German League win. I like the competitiveness in German league but its coverage in India is horrendously poor. Neo Sports telecast gives me a feeling that I am watching a game being played in the space! It beats me how they get the camera angle and distance wrong in every match they show. In EPL I get this uneasiness only when watching Spurs at White Hart Lane where the camera position is so high. Now, is there any more twists remaining in the EPL title race? Personally I like to watch United claiming the title at the Etihad beating city. That will help to heal some of the wounds of that 6-1 defeat at OT. Everton will be tough tonight, but these are the kind of games Champions need to win when that big prize appears so near. The match is still 7 hours away but I am already starting to feel the excitement kicking in.

FOR A MAN WHO NEVER STOPPED TRYING

It was in 2003 and I had already failed in my first attempt to clear an exam in my graduation course. The next chance came on 16th of December that year, failing which I would get only one more chance to clear that paper. But there was something more important than the exam on that day. It was the 5th day of the 2nd Test match of India’s tour of Australia and India were standing on the brink of a historic Test match win. Rahul Dravid was at the crease unbeaten and we needed 233 runs. As much as I was unsure of clearing my exam, I was confident of Dravid’s powers to see us home. Inevitably I skipped the exam, made myself comfortable in front of TV a good 1 hour before the start of play. I would later have an almighty struggle to pass that exam but it was well worth it. On a gloriously sunny afternoon in Adelaide, to add to his first innings 233, Dravid stroked a masterful 72, finishing with a square cut boundary. Steve Waugh took the pain of retrieving the ball from the ropes and giving it to Dravid, for there was no one more deserving than him on the field to keep it. The point here is the assurance and the confidence he generated of an Indian win as long as he is at the crease, something which we are so used for 16 years but going to miss when the first wicket falls when India play the next Test match.

Test cricket is a game which not only reveals one’s character but also enhances it, and if ever you need a cricketer to prove that theory Rahul Dravid is the perfect specimen. The values he had in his life always shone through his batting. Honest and hardworking, durable and dedicated, calm and courageous. Nice guys all around the world took extra pride in his success because he showed the world that they can finish first too! They say that genius is nothing but the ability to take infinite amount of pain and Dravid is embodiment of that. The care and pain he took to prepare for each series, each match and each delivery has been exemplary. In his chat with Cricinfo, Abhinav Mukund reveals one particular moment when he found that Dravid changed his shoelaces and tucked them deep after he got out as the ball flicked his shoelaces in the previous match. Attention to detail has always been his strength and ally.

At the start of his career itself he has made his aversion to the opening slot clear, but whenever India find that they are a man down at the top, invariably Dravid steps up. He continued his wicket keeper role in one day cricket even when he was ridiculed for some of the mistakes he made behind the sticks, for he knew that it gave balance to the team. There were rumours from some quarters that he will be given a testimonial match - one last chance to shine, one last occasion to say good bye- but whoever has said that obviously doesn’t know the man. For him, it has always been team before the individual. He has built his career on pride and selflessness as much as on technique and temperament. From the moment he knew that it was time to hang up his boots, he would not want to drag himself to the field for the sake of a public adulation. It would have been so unlike Dravid.

He bids adieu as one of India’s all time batting greats. His position in the pantheon of India’s batting greats may be behind Gavaskar and Tendulkar, but for me he remains India’s best sticky wicket batman, even better than the other two. The two half centuries he scored on a minefield of a pitch at the Sabina Park to win the Test match and the Series were nothing short of legendary. Dravid always stepped up when the conditions are tough and bowlers on top. I have seen him taking blow after blow on his body in the now famous Headingly Test match and flinch not even once. Most of our glorious Test wins under Sourav Ganguly were built on Dravid’s impregnable defense and superhuman efforts. When India started winning Test matches abroad, you would always find an invaluable Dravid knock in the scoresheet. From Rawalpindi to Headingly, from Adelaide Oval to Sabina Park he remained the best Test batsman during that era. Six months down the lane, when India play the next Test match and whoever walks out after the first wicket, we are going miss the assurance he always radiated. But the good news is that skipping exams for cricket may become less frequent!

A NIGHT IN AMSTERDAM

Ajax Amsterdam vs Manchester United, Europa League, Round of 32, 16-02-2012

45 minutes to KO: The Europa league music is not as good as that of Champions league but no choice here. Still can't believe that MUFC crashed out of THAT group to land in Europa league.

35 minutes to KO: if anything is worse than having to watch Europa league, it is listening to those idiotic comments from the so called pundits on Ten Action.

30 minutes to KO: The team news is out. The trio of Jones, Nani and Cleverly return from injury and walk straight in to the starting eleven. Paul Scholes is on the bench though. Surely SAF is saving him for..err..we don't have a weekend game this time, do we? Struggling to identify anyone from the Ajax starting eleven, except, of course, Christian Eriksen who was a summer target for MUFC.

20 minutes to KO: Haha.. Ten Action is busy showing the feud between City and Tevez. I seriously hope that he comes back to the City team and derail their title charge. So much for that ' Welcome to Manchester' banner.

18 minutes to KO: Oh yeah, Ashley young comes back too. Lots of pace down the flanks with Nani and Young.

5 minutes to KO: First view of the Amsterdam Arena. It is big. It is intimidating too. Fans are very vocal and MUFC players are coming out of the tunnel in their blue and black away kit. Good to see Cleverly back. The kid has got real talent.

KO: It may be a packed stadium but nothing comes anywhere near the Old Trafford atmosphere. By the way Ajax enjoying the lion share of initial possession and to top it all, Nani sends a corner kick out of play straight.

12': It is not a 4-4-2 combination as initially thought. Rather it is more of a 4-4-1-1 with Rooney in the middle.

20': like the look of the team though it still lacks the final ball. Once Vidic comes back and we get hold of a world class forcing midfielder, this lot can very well emulate the class of 92. Both the sides with some slick passing moves but a clear chance is yet to be seen.

29': Nani's decision making still needs some improvement. He blasts one over the bar when 3 were waiting in the box. He surely gets an earful from Rooney and SAF shakes his head on the sidelines.

32': Build some muscles and make your presence felt in the box. That is what De Gea needs to do to become the World's best. Every other aspect of his goal keeping is fabulous as shown by his acrobatic save from a long ranger which was heading in to the top corner. But that save from Juan Mata free kick at Stamford Bridge still remains as the save of the season.

HT: Scoreline remains the same but my twitter timeline is going crazy as if MUFC have a 5 goal lead at half time. That is the best thing about being an MUFC fan. Zambia or Zagreb, Mumbai or Massachusetts, Atlanta or Antarctica, you will find an MUFC fan at any corner of the world and trust all of them to be awake and watching when MUFC play, whichever time zone they are in.

50': MUFC come out of the blocks with pace and purpose. One day I want to know what SAF talks during half time. Or does he really talk anything at half time? Or just distribute a case of Redbull to everyone in the team? :D

58': The crowd has gone relatively quiet as MUFC start to enjoy consistent possession.

59': That is the prized away goal. Ashley Young gives MUFC a 1 goal lead through a drilled shot from inside the box. And with that Paul Scholes replaces Tom Cleverly, a case of master slotting in for the student.

69': The 3000 odd away supporters making the Amsterdam Arena feel like Old Trafford. Not for nothing that we are called the best fans in the world.

75': Antonio 'the motor' Valencia replaces Ashley young at the right wing as the game moves at a furious pace. Ajax has no option but to attack and MUFC relying on the counter attack to inflict more damage. Real box to box stuff. De Gea has been outstanding tonight.

86': MUFC have one foot on the next round with Hernandez slotting in from a Rooney through ball. At 2-0 up and second leg at Old Trafford, the tie is as good as over. Surely?

FT: it is all over in Amsterdam. A perfect European away night for MUFC. Clean sheet, 2 goals scored and no injuries. Bye Bye Amsterdam. Old Trafford awaits. It is already Friday here and time to crash in bed. A day of red eyes and sleepy hours to look forward at work!

A TEST IN TWEETS!

This is an attempt to capture the 2nd Test match between India and England at Trent Bridge. It contains all types - fascinating, forthright, funny, harsh, matter of the fact, amusing, meaningless - of tweets I came across during the Test match

Day - 1

Cricketer_Dan Daniel Brigham
So how long til us in the media start putting pressure on Cook to score some runs? I give it one more failure

Sajesh Sajesh
There is a cricket match. My manager is working from home. These two events may or may not be related.

BoredCricket BCC!
by goku_utd
Good to see that Bhajji has picked up where he left at Lord's

cricketwballs cricket with balls
Lalit Modi lives in the MRF blimp. #truefacts

the_topspin Lawrence Booth
Strauss throws it away - again. And England are in a spot of bother at 85-4...

bhogleharsha Harsha Bhogle
with sreesanth and praveen kumar the tradition of swing bowling is alive. it is movement not pace that troubles quality batsman

cricketaakash Aakash Chopra
Playing the swinging ball demands a lot of guesswork...regardless of d number of years you've practiced the craft...you still need to guess!

cricketwballs cricket with balls
Bell might have made more runs than most today, but he'll be blocking his future kids from ever lookin at this this on youtube.

sehwagology Sunny
by goku_utd
yuvi is just taking his afternoon nap. siesta time baby. #engvind

sehwagology Sunny
by goku_utd
somebody tell dhoni, its okay if they go for shots. don't give singles you moron. #engvind

goku_utd Dipankar
Good thing about Broad knock, our batsmen will have no excuses now. #engvind

cricketwballs cricket with balls
Fun fact time: Had Dravid batted first drop, he would have faced a ball quicker that he did opening the batting.

cricketaakash Aakash Chopra
Hint of uneven bounce on day 1 combined with prodigious movement off the surface...only two possible results, provided it doesn't rain!

venkatananth Venkat Ananth
India's brief for tomorrow: bat through the 3 sessions. May not be as easy as it sounds given the conditions etc, but a super opportunity


Day - 2

venkatananth Venkat Ananth
Sreesanth's bowling was so good yesterday that its almost as if the Ian Bell episode didn't happen. Until we're reminded by #Bobilli. Fail.

cricketwballs cricket with balls
BBC saying that Laxman must have a great bat, no, he's just fucking awesome. Laxman could time a drive with a used condom.

ESPNcricinfo ESPN Cricinfo
England 0 for 2 with the reviews. Asad Rauf maybe a candidate for man of the match.

Gulasahi Steve Dawson
Wow. VVS Laxman is a beast. Dude just took an Anderson delivery in the 'nads. Carried on like he'd just played it back down the pitch

the_topspin Lawrence Booth
Bumble making good point re Swann: we were told he was fine, just as we were told by Strauss that Tremlett would be fine for this game...

cricketwballs cricket with balls
Trott is on because Strauss likes watching Dravid late cut.

cricketwballs cricket with balls
Man of the series is now between the English and Indian Physio.

the_topspin Lawrence Booth
Yuvraj does his best to go the way of Raina, but KP spills it. He juggled the Mukund catch too yesterday...

ZaltzCricket Andy Zaltzman
by ESPNcricinfo
Raina and Yuvraj have played the short ball today with all the confidence of a zebra impersonator doing a gig in a lion enclosure.

the_topspin Lawrence Booth
Swann kicks off the bails. Though not quite as elegantly as Michael Holding 30 years ago in New Zealand...

piersmorgan Piers Morgan
Rahul Dravid has become the cricketing version of the Berlin Wall. Need to knock the damn thing down.

venkatananth Venkat Ananth
Plaha being Plaha failed to grease his bat with vaseline.

cricketwballs cricket with balls
Ian Bell is a bit over-qualified to be a nightwatchman.

cricketwballs cricket with balls
This Dravid press conference is turning into an epic. He'll need a change of gloves soon.


Day - 3

sport_oliver Oliver Brett
by TestMatchSofa
Would like to thank the @TestMatchSofa team for making yesterday so enjoyable. Hope I didn't make too much of an arse of myself

venkatananth Venkat Ananth
Yuvraj before Plaha? Ultimate insult.

knittins Nitin Sundar
by venkatananth
Thought this day couldn't get worse? Think again - @LalitKModi has resurfaced with his spam tweets.

venkatananth Venkat Ananth
Dudes, if you'll are waiting for that second new ball, might as well forfeit the Test match.

cricketwballs cricket with balls
Sreesanth bows to the crowd who have been abusing him, better than a send off.

stephenfry Stephen Fry
by Gulasahi
Dhoni transformed from dastardly villain to sporting hero in seconds. Hurrah for him and for test cricket. What human activity comes close?

gauravkapur gaurav kapur
Bell done Dhoni !

cricketwballs cricket with balls
Forget whether that was out or not, you should get wickets for balls like that.

venkatananth Venkat Ananth
Give me Aleem Dar for the next Test please. Aleem Dar and Asad Rauf. I hope we wouldn't be discussing the DRS then. Enough.

Day - 4

venkatananth Venkat Ananth
Dear @bhogleharsha, India are usually a bowler short with Harbhajan on the field and not when he's off it.

warne888 Shane Warne
Ball swinging lots today as it's very humid here at Trent Bridge... Very good bowling day...

the_topspin Lawrence Booth
India look a defeated side this morning: 73 runs in the first 11 overs...

AltCricket Alternative Cricket
by venkatananth
MIchael Holding has a point. You'd be embarrassed if you had to explain to someone that India are the no. 1 side in the world.

Cricketer_Dan Daniel Brigham
With every boundary England score another young Indian cricket fan sees T20 as the better option

andymcg_cricket Andrew McGlashan
by ESPNcricinfo
478 to win for India. If they bat the rest of the match they'll get them #engvind

the_topspin Lawrence Booth
Broad in this series is averaging 60 with the bat and 10 with the ball

ESPNcricinfo ESPN Cricinfo
It is suddenly the 90s all over again. Tendulkar playing some gorgeous shots, but the score is 37/4. #EngvInd

Nadir_Hassan Nadir Hassan
by venkatananth
This England side is scary. Two genuine all-rounders in Bresnan, Broad. Five excellent fast bowlers, best spinner, solid batting.

cricketwballs cricket with balls
Indians won't be leaving yet, Praveen and Bhajji batting together, how much fun will that be.

SpiceBoxofEarth Dileep Premachandran
by venkatananth
English fans should be down on their knees thanking the Lord for what happened to Stanford. Else, they'd be up the same shit creek.

THE 2000th TEST MATCH

Day 1: It is our habit. We won't start a series with a strong first day

By the time umpires called off first day's play, I started to get a feeling that MS Dhoni's decision to bowl first after winning the toss wasn't such an adventurous decision as everyone made us to believe. Rather it was a safe decision. Considering how sloppy and how much devoid of match practice we were in the field, it was a good thing that we were bowling. Bowling badly won't lose u a Test match. We would have been 8 down in those conditions if we were batting and that, almost certainly, would have what MSD thought. It turned out to England's day at the end with the loss of only 2 wickets but there is no reason that India will be unhappy with the situation. The only real concern was Zaheer Khan who went out of the field with what looked like a hamstring injury. It is not a pretty sight to watch your strike bowler pull up on the first day of the first Test match of a series where the No1 slot is at stake. India can still come back into this contest with early wickets tomorrow but their thinking process now will be different with the loss of Zaheer. Thinking positive is what makes a difference in close contests. Tomorrow will show if the No1 Test team has what it takes to fight what seems to be a collective gathering of Murphy's laws.

Day 2 : India are still in WestIndies

Just as in the last time India toured Kevin Pieterson started with a big score. The only difference was that he was in the form of his life them but was batting himself to form today. While KP and England pulped India to desperation, PK swung himself to the Lord's honours board, a proud achievement for someone who is said to be a misfit at Test level. India's bowling effort gave a feeling that they think they are still bowling against the mediocre WestIndies batsmen. England made a bold declaration at the end which will help to make sure that there will be a result in this Test. I can't see India winning this Test from here onwards with 3 days left, but then if winning was the only thing I was worried about, I wouldn't have been watching this game for the last 20 years.

Day 3: if they have KP, we have PK

The story of Rahul Dravid's life. At the end of the day some of my friends r talking about Praveen Kumar's 13 ball 16 as the innings which saved the follow on than the painstakingly compiled technically magnificent 103 from Dravid. England are firmly in driving seat by the end of the day. It would need an extra ordinary batting effort from the Indians to save this match, something which they are familiar with in the last 5 years.

Day 4 and Day 5: Bashed, battered and bruised

Day 4 and 5 of the Test followed the same pattern. Whenever India found either their collective strength or individual brilliance to make a peep hole opening, England, as is their wont, shut the door hard. Again and again. On day 4, Ishant Sharma's inspired spell opened the possibility of an even an Indian win, but Matt Prior and Stuard broad then scored enough runs as if they were playing in their backyard. On the last day, when several partnerships started to offer more resistance, England somehow found the right man for the right occasion to break them. As MSD said at the end of the match, whatever could go wrong, went wrong. India may take solace from the fact that they managed to drag the match to the final session despite the loss of their strike bowler on the first morning but deep inside their mind they know that, had England been more efficient with their catching and some contentious LBW decisions gone their way, the match would have been over by 4th day.

Are you listening Merseyside..?

This is my first post in almost a year. The fact is that I was too tensed to write anything and jinx United’s chanced of winning the 19th title! Yeah, you read it right. There is a connection between a want-to-be-software-engineer (even after 6 years, that is!) in Bangalore and a millions-earning Wayne Rooney scoring goals in Manchester! Call this fan’s fanatical crap, and you can’t be far from truth! I wrote a post at the start of the season and Rooney almost quit Old Trafford!

Now with the title in bag, the Scousers beyond horizon in the points table, Stamford Bridge in absolute chaos, Eastlands learning that it is more difficult to handle success than failure, what better time to start writing again. It is a prelude to tonight’s title party, when the number 19 starts reverberating around the hallowed turf of Old Trafford.

It wasn’t an easy title to win by any means. The start of the season saw Chelsea pulling ahead of the pack, carrying the same form which saw them winning the title in the previous season while United were struggling to put a series of results, throwing leads at Fulham and Everton. As many as 4 teams were fighting for the title, although Manchester City were always going to be outsiders with a defensive manager at the helm. Chelsea were banging goals (and John Terry still banging team mates’ wives) when the biggest news of the season broke out, that Wayne Rooney wants to leave Manchester United because he thought United were lacking ambition to win trophies. Being in software industry, I have seen many tricks to get a pay hike, but this was beyond me too. Lack of ambition in a team which is winning titles for fun with the best manager in the world? You must have had a big hard hangover Wayne! Fans were understandably livid, the manager appeared down-cast and the club image in tatters. Then, even before I could collect all the dirty jokes about Rooney and publish in Facebook, he did a U-turn and signed a 5-year deal. Very good crisis management from Wayne Rooney.

From there onwards, United’s season took off. Slowly but steadily they got their aura back, despite a poor away record. They did just what is needed to win matches. No flamboyance, no bulldozing, just efficient heads-down-and-get-3-points attitude. Meantime Chelsea went into a winter slumber, Rooney’s moment of genius killed City’s fading title hopes and Arsenal’s bubble was always expected to implode when the ‘squeaky bum time’ arrives. There were moments when United looked down and out, at Blackpool and West Ham. But something is their DNA just won’t allow them to accept defeat when that appears the obvious outcome. Berbatov and Rooney got them out of trouble almost always, but they also had a lethal weapon in Hernandez. The little Mexican’s first season in England was nothing short of sensational. He popped up with important goals, whenever called upon. Fergie, the magician, has un-earthed one more gem, out of thin air.

“We will be just fine” was Fergie's response when the team dropped points at Newcasle, which showed his immense faith in the team and he believed that only an almighty muck up will prevent his side lift the trophy for a record 19th time. Chelsea’s late season form meant that it all came down to their showdown at Old Trafford. Fergie’s fledglings chose that game to produce their most assured performance of the season and Chelsea were blown away in the first half itself in magnificent fashion so much so that, even after three days, John Terry was unable to fathom what hit them. Fergie’s salute to the Stretford End at the end of the game showed that the title is coming back home and what it means for the head honcho.

It will be a carnival atmosphere tonight at Old Trafford and I just can’t wait to see Vidic lifting the coveted trophy. “To knock Liverpool of their fucking perch” announced a younger and fierier Ferguson 25 years ago and finally they have been well and truly knocked off. What better song than “Are you listening Merseyside..?” to sing tonight. It is going to be a truly memorable occasion.

Epilogue: Anyone who believes that winning the 19th title will make Sir Alex Ferguson’s to think about retirement is an idiot and doesn’t know how success is viewed at this club. At Manchester United success is a passing moment which is enjoyed for the shortest of time. The moment the trophy is put in the cabinet, the journey of excellence towards the next destination begins. There is a beautiful story in the book ‘Manchester United: The Biography’ by Jim White. The next morning after United won the Champions League, defeating Chelsea, in 2008 , Danny Welback, a 17 year member of United youth team slept through the alarm and missed the team bus, exhausted by the morning exertions. He had to scramble his way into a cab to meet up with the rest of the team at the airport. Just as they touched down in England, Welback was summoned to Sir Alex Ferguson’s office in Carrington to explain. At Manchester United, it never stops. Ever.

FOR OUR SPORTING HEROES

August 15 again and let us pay tribute to all our sporting heroes on this 63rd Independence day. Those who picked up a bat or kicked a ball to make our lives look so much better. This article by Rohit Brijnath was written in 2008 before India's Test series against Australia, as a swan song to 5 of the best cricketers of our generation. Anil Kumble and Sourav Ganguly have already bid adieu but SRT, Dravid and Laxman still defy time to entertain us. We are privileged for the fact that we share the same time line with these heroes. I have cried every time I read this article for the pure emotion it contains. Dedicating this to all our sporting heroes..

http://www.cricinfo.com/magazine/content/story/372146.html

TITLE NUMBER 19, BRING IT ON!

“I was part time at St Johnstone. In a reserve game against Airdrie I broke my eyebrow, cheekbone and nose and was out for months. They put this massive plaster cast on my face.After I came back from the injury I played three reserve games. We lost 8-1, 7-0 and 9-2. I said that’s it - I’m finished. I took out papers to emigrate to Canada.On the Friday (night before the match against Rangers), my brother’s girlfriend phoned up my manager at St Johnstone and told him I had the flu. But when I arrived home from a regular Friday night at the swimming baths with my mates, my mother tore into me and said, ‘I’ve had a telegram from your manager - get down to the telephone booth and call him. The manager said, ‘Report to the Bath Hotel tomorrow, you’re playing against Rangers’. I scored a hat trick and became the first player to do so against Rangers at Ibrox – it changed my life. I became a full time footballer in the summer and never looked back.”

Does this sound like it comes from a person with lot of self doubts? Wrong, he is now considered to be the epitome of determination and single mindedness. He is now 68 and the most celebrated football manager of modern era. He is the one who famously announced that his aim is to “knock Liverpool off their fucking perch”. He is the one who took the “Come back when you have 18” banner as a personal abuse and with a combination of non-paralleled arrogance and ruthlessness collected Manchester United’s 18^th League crown in 2009. No prizes for guessing, he is none other than Sir Alex Ferguson.

The 2010 Premier League season looms large and the only thing which is sure in what is promising to be a season in which at least 5 teams claim to have title credentials, is that Sir Alex and his band of red devils will give an almighty fight to get that crown back to Old Trafford. Carlo Ancelotti had a tremendous first season with Chelsea in which he bagged the double but so had Jose Mourinho when he landed in Stamford Bridge. In fact one of Ferguson’s main traits over the last 21 years has been his will and guile to outlast, out-think and out-manage his rivals. From George Graham to Arsene Wenger, from Rafa Benitez to Jose Mourinho, the United head honcho has seen all of them coming and wrestle with him, some miserably some successfully, but has had the last laugh invariably. Add Ancelotti to that list and another mouthwatering season awaits us.

Winning that title number 19 is very much embedded in his genes and all the rumors about him retiring can wait until the goal is achieved. After all he has delivered most of his promises over the last 21 years. We can safely assume that knocking Liverpool of their fucking perch will be on top is his promise list. Bring it on

See it. Hit it. Forget it.

“Stand and deliver” Sunil Gavaskar shouted on air in his typically patriotic voice when Virendar Sehwag clobbered one over extra cover during his brutally entertaining 293 against Srilanka. But he forgot to mention another important aspect of his effervescent batting, a bout of amnesia to forget everything which has happened. It should have been “stand, deliver and forget”. The secret of his batting lies in neither in his backlift nor in his batspeed, but it is in his uncluttered mind with a simple thought process: see the ball, hit the ball. Easier said than done, of course, but not for Viru. Who else will try to club (and succeed) Saqlain Mustaq over midwicket for a six to get triple hundred after having failed to do so while on 195 hardly 2 months before. The beauty of Sehwag’s batsmanship is keeping simple things simpler than most other batsmen are able to even imagine.

Critics say he is a flat track bully. My answer: His first six centuries came against six different opponents in 5 different countries. They accuse him to have no footwork and only hand eye co-ordination. My answer: You don’t score triple centuries for fun with only hand eye co-ordination. They try to prove that bowling standards have come down. My answer: He has dismantled every bowler in sight, from Mills to McGrath, from Aktar to Anderson, from Murali to Malinga. They substantiate that he knows only one way to bat. My answer: Get an old DVD of his match saving 154 against Australia in Adelaide 2008. They blabber that he throws his wicket away too often. My answer: Look at the number of Test matches he won singlehandedly.

Sehwag’s influence is not merely winning matches for India. His mere presence in the team affects the way opposition thinks. No score is considered safe, no boundary is deemed too big, no bowler is seemed capable of dismissing him. He even forces his teammates to believe in themselves. After England set a stiff target of 387 on a deteriorating pitch in the 2008 Chennai Test match, no one in either side believed that an Indian victory is possible, except Sehwag. He came out all guns blazing to race to 83 in no time which included 11 fours and 4 sixes. After that carnage what India needed was a cool head on a stable shoulder and Sachin Tendulkar duly obliged with one of his masterpieces which he dedicated for the terror stricken people of Mumbai. But what made it possible was Sehwag’s cameo which made English shoulders to drop and Indian spirits to soar. Barring only Viv Richards, there has never been anyone like Sehwag who thrives on with each challenge however impossible it is. While Viv, with his brand of exuberant batsmanship, tried to emancipate the West Indian minds from colonial slavery, Sehwag tries to give wings to his own free soul.

Our cricketing lore has always been rich with batting greats. Even when the team was failing miserably we used to romanticize the deeds of our great batsmen. Only recently our team started to convert individual contribution to collective success consistently and Sehwag is inarguably one of the important cogs in that wheel of success. Shewag can be definitely bracketed with the elite company of CK Naydu, Lala Amarnath, Vijay Hazare, Gundappa vishwanath, Sunil Gavaskar, Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid, though his relative impact to Indian cricket is open to debate. His position in the pantheon of Indian cricket’s batting greats is firmly in place and sky is the limit for this free-flowing explosive batsman. It takes some efforts to better a batting average of 54 and a strike rate of 81, but Sehwag will definitely be embracing that challenge with all the vigour, which promises exciting times indeed!

The Flowers of Manchester

Feb 6th today. A fateful day in the history of Manchester United. Found these wonderful lines and posting it here. May their souls Rest In Peace

The Flowers of Manchester
One cold and bitter Thursday in Munich, Germany,
Eight great football stalwarts conceded victory,
Eight men will never play again who met destruction there,
The flowers of English football, the flowers of Manchester

Matt Busby’s boys were flying, returning from Belgrade,
This great United family, all masters of their trade,
The pilot of the aircraft, the skipper Captain Thain,
Three times they tried to take off and twice turned back again.

The third time down the runaway disaster followed close,
There was slush upon that runaway and the aircraft never rose,
It ploughed into the marshy ground, it broke, it overturned.
And eight of the team were killed as the blazing wreckage burned.

Roger Byrne and Tommy Taylor who were capped for England’s side.
And Ireland’s Billy Whelan and England’s Geoff Bent died,
Mark Jones and Eddie Colman, and David Pegg also,
They all lost their lives as it ploughed on through the snow.

Big Duncan he went too, with an injury to his brain,
And Ireland’s brave Jack Blanchflower will never play again,
The great Matt Busby lay there, the father of his team
Three long months passed by before he saw his team again.
The trainer, coach and secretary, and a member of the crew,

Also eight sporting journalists who with United flew,
and one of them Big Swifty, who we will ne’er forget,
the finest English ‘keeper that ever graced the net.

Oh, England’s finest football team its record truly great,
its proud successes mocked by a cruel turn of fate.
Eight men will never play again, who met destruction there,
The Flowers of English Football…..
The Flowers of Manchester

WISHLIST - 2010

1) India plays more Test matches. India gloriously achieved the No.1 status in Test cricket last year and BCCI responded with arranging more Test matches for this year. Playing only 2 Test matches for the entire year is ridiculous. Everyone is predicting the death of Test cricket in the coming years but the kind of Tests we had in last year at Sydney, Napier, Centurion and Cardiff suggest otherwise, and it is exciting that India, South Africa and Srilanka tussle it out for supremacy in Test cricket.

2) Manchester United buys someone to replace Cristiano Ronaldo. 80M Pounds in the bank account sounds good only when the team is doing well. There is no doubt that Utd are missing CR7 and his creativity, and the number of draws is the proof for that. They badly need an impact player which CR7 was. Only such a player can win matches against teams which come to OT and park their defensive bus in front of the goal. It is only January and Utd has already lost 5 matches, which is more than what they lost in the entire season last time and they have lost some of their Old Trafford aura.

3) Rafael Nadal gets back to his marauding ways. It was exhilarating to watch him and Federer exchanging punches and counter punches in four consecutive Grandslam finals.

4) England wins the world cup. This is the year of World cup and South Africa – 2010 sounds mouthwatering. With Rooney, Lampard, Gerrard, Defoe, Crouch, Ferdinand and Carraghar, this appears England’s best chance in the last 20 years. It is appalling that England which has the most watched and most efficient Football league in the world has won the Worldcup only once.

5) Power and cable TV connection let me to watch all the races in 2010! The king is back in the track and this year promises to be a cracker for F1. For all those who imagined, argued and contemplated about how Micheal Schumacher could have fared against a fully throttled Lewis Hamilton, 2010 brings the reality and answer. His decision to come back to racing, albeit for a different team than Ferrari was a boon for the sport which was plagued by withdrawals of so many teams and the infamous crashgate.

6) Tiger Woods gets back to what he was doing best, in the greens ofcourse! The way media pounced on him after he revealed his transgressions showed that we still believe in the myth that a good sportsman is a good person too. He still remains the best golfer on the planet and whom he wants to sleep with should be left to himself only.

7) More and more exciting draws in Test cricket. There is nothing like watching a hard fought hard earned draw in Tests. Saving a Test match from a losing position is an art and it is the sign of a good Test team.

ALEX FERGUSON...WHO IS HE ?

I am yet to meet a girl who understands the meaning or the reason behind sports, and I do meet quite a lot of girls, probably a bit too much for the liking of my wife. The common thread which connects all the girls that I know is their distinctive lack of knowledge about anything which involves a stick or a ball (well..almost!!). But the brighter side of this effect is that they have given me incidents or one liners which are enough to make me laugh until my death. Here goes some. Sit back and enjoy.

Inarguably, Sir Alex Feguson is the most popular non-player sports personality around the world. This is how one of my female friends summed up what he achieved with Manchester United, which is the stuff of legends and almost impossible to overtake, in the last 23 years: “Alex Ferguson..Who is he ? ohh.. is he the person who wears a black shirt and look at the players when they play?”. Later it turned out that she was talking about the referee! Thank goodness that Fergie was not around to give her his famous hair dryer treatment.

One of my friends never believed that bowlers change ends at the end of each over, until she saw it once when commercials surprisingly stayed away during an over change. Her immediate question was “ Isn't it easy for the 2 batsmen to change rather than for everyone else to change? “. I didn't bother about explaining the varying pitch conditions at both the ends and bowlers making use of slope, wind direction and pitch conditions from two ends!

20 teams play in Premier League and each team has to play home& away in every season, which result in 38 matches for each of them. The top four will qualify for the champions leagues while the 5th and 6th teams will play in Europa league, previously known as UEFA cup. Some girls never seem to understand something as simple as this. I have heard lot of them asking why some teams play so many tournaments and some seem to play only once in an year. Their amusement and difficulty in understanding this hierarchy forces me to think that Platini comes right next to Einstein and Edison, for managing the European Leagues.

Apparently there were girls who never bothered to watch Test cricket because they thought it is a game in which people from same side compete against each other. The reason : everyone wears white jerseys!

One of my friends was complaining that his wife didn’t talk to him for a week because she found him taking part in a throwing-crumbled-round-paper-balls-to-basket competition in a office party with colleagues. The thing which irritated her most was that everyone in the party happened to notice her husband when he raised his voice in excitement in the middle of the game. She just couldn't’t believe that her husbad was doing something so silly in an office gathering. She will probably never understand that sports is embedded in the Men’s genes and they yearn for anything which has a tinge of competitiveness.

The thing which confuses girls the most is neither E=MC2 or Newton’s third law, but the offside rule in Football. Well..cant really blame them, considering the number of times linesmen get confused in a match, and FIFA seems to enjoy this by changing the rule every year!

This girl found her husband awake in the middle of the night, busy watching Men’s swimming in Olympics. He tried to tell her that he wanted to see Micheal Phelps winning the 8th gold of the event. Pat came the reply: “Have you ever been worried about buying at least one piece of gold for me?”

“You infernal moron, are you watching Golf? Is that a sport?” That came from my wife and this time it didn’t appear funny as I heard muffled laughing from next door.

THE EVOLUTION!

I am a self centered, sports oriented, uncultured, shameless moron. That is the opinion of my better half and she doesn’t hesitate a bit to announce it on the days which I, according to her, “waste” by watching a Test match or on the weekend evenings which are invariably occupied with Primetime Premier league or Super Sundays. Not that this continuous degradation of my radiant personality bothers me, but at least it forced me to do an introspection, and if possible to give myself a justification for all those adjectives!

I was in a private school run by a brahmin family until my 3rd standard. After the classes my father used to pick me on his way back from office and that meant spending at least 2 hours even after the school timings, waiting for my father to come. As the school owner’s house was in the same compound, I would end up spending most of the time inside their house in the evenings. The owner of the school was a well known person locally, who arranged and organised lot of cultural events and more importantly he was a cricket fanatic. He even had a matting wicket at home for his 2 sons. And there I got my first glimpse of Television and the only program I found them always watching was cricket, which made me believe that TV is for watching cricket. Probably I still believe it and that may be the reason that my wife accuses me of watching only sports channels in TV. When I was not watching TV, I would go to a shed in their compound, where they keep all those cricket gears. Old cricket balls with broken seam, brand new and splinted bats, the matting wicket, pads and batting gloves. The thing which I clearly remember from those visits to that shed is the peculiar smell of batting gloves. Those who have worn batting gloves at least once will understand that, it has got that sweaty and worn out smell which all cricketers consider good and enticing and everyone else is scared to experience that even once! In TV, every time I see a batsman leaving his gloves on the ground for drying at the end of a session, I feel that smell which i experienced 20 years back. No wonder that I love dogs!

Then we bought the most prestigious electronic equipment of those times. We were the proud owners of a BPL colour TV and along with that came the matches telecast by Doordarshan. More than the Malayalam movies on every Sunday, I waited for the Sportstime they showed on Saturday evenings. The most beautiful sounds of those times must be the 4’o clock bell in the school and the thudding sound of ball meeting the willow. The Doordarshan hindi commentary was the stuff of legends which, sometimes, can be experienced even now. “Superb shot to the boundary..uhh.. but straight to the fielder at point” was the norm while what really happened would have been the batsman playing a leg glance to midwicket!

Kapil Dev, Doordarshan, tape recorders and bajaj scooters made way for Sachin Tendulkar, cable TV, Walkmans and Maruti 800 by mid 90s, as the living standards of middle class surged through along with the boom experienced in Indian economy. Mark Mascharanes made a living out of showing Sachin’s face on channels and making him say “Boost is the secret of my energy” in his girlish voice. Dhoni and Co can thank him for all the luxury they have now. The beginning of change happened then. Probably our cricket administers were the best economists that we ever had, as they realised and showed us that our huge population is not a thing to worry about and it can be utilised to generate exorbitant and unbelievable amount of revenue from sports, which nowadays exceed the total income of some of the African countries. But the price we paid for this is the innocence of our beautiful game. Day-Night Test matches, pink balls, Twenty-20 and Scoop shots are the things that we discuss now and those old times appear like Utopia.

Not that I was unduly worried about all these then. Even I sped through my transition from a boy to man. The change of sound in my vocal cords was forgotten in the shouts of Howzzzat, Catch it and cheering for India. As every child growing up then, I too wanted to be Sachin Tendulkar and play for India, but by the time I finished my 10th, I probably realised that I will never go beyond school or college team, considering my background and limited talent. The only two shots I could play well was the forward defence and drives, with the help of my strong bottom hand grip. I used to keep my index finger of the bottom hand behind the blade of the bat to get power and elegance in my drives, and even I was convinced about the effectiveness of my drives whenever the ball is overpitched. But the problem with this method is that, every other shot in the book is almost impossible with that grip, especially the cross batted ones, cuts and pulls. I survived a couple of matches with this tactic and my wicketkeeping, but that was the end of it. Rather than trying to become a player, I settled for the less glamorous, but equally stressful and tiring position of Indian supporter.

To support Indian cricket team in 90s, you had to be more self motivated that Bill Gates, as our team oscillated between horrendous defeats and improbable victories. The day after an Indian defeat, you may find all your friends cursing the team and vowing never to see Indian Team’s matches. Most of them couldn't tell between a square cut and on-drive, but still that was the gang you have to live with to watch the matches. But that was fun too. The usual disappointments, agony after losing a close match, the pure joy of watching India winning, the celebrations and of course the pride of being one who can understand the logic of two men running like mad between two sets of upright sticks!

I got a taste of hostel life and the freedom which comes along with it when I started my graduation. Before first girlfriend, first kiss and xxx-rated movies corrupted my mind, my world included hostel room, college building and the play ground, not necessarily in the correct order of priority. Bunking classes to stand in the scorching afternoon sun in the hope of catching a ball or hitting a six was fun and running behind the lecturers at the year end to meet the attendance quota to sit for the exams was exhausting. In some semesters the number of back papers I had exceeded the runs I made in an year, but who cares. Playing cricket day time, rushing to the football ground in the evening and then having fun at the indoor badminton court, life progressed without any purpose. But sports has always been a get away and mode of relief when tougher times arrived. I was the happiest man on the day in which I came to know that I failed in all my 3rd semester papers, because VVS Laxman was painting an epic 281 in kolkata and Harbhajan soon sent the Australians in a spin to turn all of us in our hostel to a bunch of lunatic delirious hooligans. Cricket again came to the rescue and improved my spirits after I caught my soon to be ex girlfriend two timing with me. India under Saurav Ganguly produced a magnificent run in 2003 Worldcup then. And in the blink of an eye, I was out of college and the job of a job hunter was thrust upon me.

After working in 2 small companies in Cochin for an year, I came to Bangalore and a different life awaited me there. The smell of a multicultural city was fascinating, but like every jobless person, I was confined to share a room with 3 other job hunters. With no TV in the hostel, watching sports was always a problem. As someone who has been used to at least 5 hours of sports everyday, either watching or playing, it was suffocating, but soon found a way around. The beauty of this city is that it is a shopper’s delight and that means at every corner you can find an electronics showroom which shows live matches to the general public. The toughest part of watching a match standing in the road is that once the crowd swells up, the shop keepers switch off the TV and then it is a frantic run to the next nearby shop to not to miss many overs, and that means in a day I used to end up covering the entire showrooms in one area. The aftereffect of this exhausting but exciting exercise was that at the end of a 5 match Test series I was as tired as the players! But this experience helped me to realise what this game means to the common man on the street. There were people who sacrificed their daily wages to watch the match, there were those who used to take a peep in between selling 5Rs hand kerchiefs and there were those who behaved as if they lost their entire savings, every time India lost. When India was losing the considerable crowd used to lean down to a handful of us but we knew that, come the next morning, we would again be there, however bad the previous loss was. There were cobblers, street vendors, fruit sellers, pick pocketers and every other kind too. It was probably the best multi social, political and economical gathering Bangalore could ever find!

When I met her I was lean, jobless, watched non stop sports and loved her too. Now I weigh a solid 68Kgs, have a house and a job, married to her, watch non stop sports and still love her too. So she should be proud that I still remain same to the core and not many things have changed from the person she started loving. Recently I tried telling her this and those adjectives resonated in my house again. Nowadays I am just resigned to my fate!

WINDING THE CLOCK BACK...

Why did we all start playing the game when we were kids? Definitely it was not for making money, nor was it for gaining the knowledge to tell between an outswinger and leg cutter. Playing for India was a dream, but not the motive. It was for the pure joy of hitting the ball as far as we can, for experiencing that feeling of ball meeting the middle of that bat, for hearing that perfect thud, for seeing the ball take wings and soar higher and higher in the sky. Probably it is the same thing which still drives Sachin Tendulkar forward. At the age of 36, when most men of that age settle for a steady job and start worrying about their kids, he wore the the outfit of an 18 year old maverick, looked the challenge straight into its eye and painted an epic 175. He ran between the the wickets as if his life depended on it, egged on his younger partners for better shots and stamina, thrashed all the Aussie bowlers around the park as if he despises them and then showed the disappointment and bitterness of a child who lost his favorite toy after India lost.

How does Sachin do that? Run after run, day after day, defeat after defeat , he shows the same commitment and desire to improve, to win, to enjoy and more importantly to get out of the bed everyday and think about only cricket, all over again. When Carl Lewis was a kid, his coach asked him what does he want in life. He answered that he wants to be best athlete in America, he wants to be a millionaire and he wants to be famous all over the world. His coach calmly told him that, if his focus is on all these things, he is going to be nothing. But if he starts focusing on becoming the best athlete ever he will achieve that and all the other things too. Carl Lewis went to achieve all that and how! Ramakant Anchrekar might well have said the same thing to sachin too. In the last 20 years Sachin’s unrelenting focus was on cricket and cricket only, and all the records and accolades are testament to that.

Sadly his innings was not enough to take India to victory. In every sense it was like going back to the 90s. Sachin single handedly fighting for victory and the entire team crumbling around him. He just stood apart among his teammates as a gladiator amidst ruins. Sachin’s biggest contribution to Indian cricket is not winning numerous matches or making cricket popular, but taking an entire generation back to its childhood. Bunking classes, standing in front of a TV showroom, taking turns to climb on friends’ shoulders to catch a glimpse of the action over the crowd, cheering for each boundary, clearing our throats out when he scores century, those were the best days of life. And every time he walks out to bat he takes all of us to those beautiful days. Yesterday, it was one of those days.