Rubbing salt

More than India's sound thrashing of the world champion Aussies, it was the final presentation ceremony and the numerous discussions that followed that will be etched in my memory for a long time.  If the players got under their skin in the aftermath of the mauling at Mohali (மா நா‍‍-வுக்கு மா நா ;-)), it was the commentators and the other hosts' words that were so scathing to say the least -- boy wasn't the cricketing world waiting for this thrashing?!?  I bet Ian Chappell was not able to sit inside the neo sports studio after the game.

 

Everyone pays for being arrogant.  Aussies got their due back this time.

Wimbledon Finals '08

Easily the best tennis match for the next 2-3 years unless Mr. Nadal and Mr. Fedex choose to re-script it. And I believe they will. Nadal has certainly caught up with the master and might have just moved a bit up the psychological ladder.

What a final! - If the 4th set tiebreaker alone comes as a DVD, I will buy it without the slightest hesitation in my mind.

Starring down the barrel

Phoenix Crybabies err... Suns are in a hole that no team has ever come out from - a 0-3 deficit in a 7-game series. San Antonio thrashed them in Phoenix late last night in an offensive clinic.

Hello? Where the those who predicted a Suns series win in 5/6 games?!?

இது வேற‌யா?

As if all the unnecessary "talks" around Indian players playing in IPL and jokers in Maharashtra talking about cheer leaders is not enough, freakish behavior has taken center stage.

The last thing the playing nation wanted!

No one deserves this better

Emmanuel David "Manu" Ginobili has atlast won the "Sixth Man of the year" award - something which I believe he should have won twice already. Of course, it is the votes that count. Oh yes, Manu won 123 of the possible 124 first place votes garnering 615 of the 620 possible points!

The Spurs' super sub has been nothing but brilliant all season along and has upped the ante in the playoffs against the Suns averaging 26.5 points a game.

Manu received the award minutes before game 2 tipped off in SA.

Go Spurs!

Instant Success

There was so much haste, hype, hoopla, high-profile player draft, star power and "filmy" power surrounding the IPL kick-off. Also, there was this bunch of jokers in BCCI trying to flex their muscles messing up with coverage rights and the threat of the media boycotting the we-have-nowhere-to-go show piece event loomed large.

Brendon McCullum had other ideas. What we witnessed on the first day of IPL is what we have not seen in ICL so far, now in its second season.

IPL is here to stay.

A dream come true

2nd March '08. East Rutherford, NJ - I had been to watch my Spurs play in NJ. It was a wonderful experience in a very well organized arena. I had been waiting for ever to watch an NBA game live and this year was the time.

And, the Spurs won. Yee haw!!!

Bones is back in the Alamo city!

Brent "bones" Barry has decided to join his old team - the team that traded him along with Francisco Elson to Seattle for the big man Kurt Thomas - the Spurs! Or is this a surprise?

The NBA this year has been at its frentic best with blockbuster trades looming under rumors, strokes of sheer brilliance, players veto-ing trades with their "Larry Bird" rights, trades spoiled by "leaky mouths" of players speaking to the media and of course the deadline thrillers.

There was a long running rumor about Jason Kidd being traded to Dallas for Harris, Stackhouse and others in a multi player deal. However, they lost a chance to take advantage of a loophole in NBA's rules - the 30 day period, when Mr. Stackhouse turned "Mr.Otta vaai" and said "I'll be back in Dallas in 30 days". All this after one Mr. Devean George refused to be a part of that trade using his Larry Bird rights. The world wondered if this trade will ever go through! It did, but after so much speculation and headaches and with a fresh set of players.

The Spurs simply used an advantage the media provides them every year - yeah, they do not cover them till the playoffs. They announced that they had traded Barry and Elson for Thomas. And boy, there was not even a semblance of a rumor! Barry had a calf injury that would cost him 30 more days, so Seattle waived him and now Barry is joining the Spurs on March 21st after five teams other than the Spurs went on a begging spree to sign him up.

And this is indeed a master stroke. Nobody knows Barry's health condition better than the Spurs and they used his "recuperation period" to pull off a trade involving him and now they get him back!

Dallas and others, that is how you do a trade!

Spurs fans, double delight ain't it? Barry is back shortly after the Spurs dispatched the Mavs in a high-octane thriller.

Go Spurs!

Words matter

The Indian Premier League (IPL) - hastily started in an attempt to ward off Indian Cricket League (ICL)'s threat had its franchises recruit players on Tuesday in an "auction".

Auction is not the best option to pick players for any tournament. The players may not be rookies and so you cannot really rank them and recruit, but atleast the monetary issues have to be handled with utmost sincerity and sensitivity.

The sheer money involved here has raised everybody's eyebrows and sparked off needless debates and controversies. Don't be surprised if somebody calls for a probe into this! It's India. And of course you have a plethora of cliches like "cricket under the hammer", "players become greedy" blah blah blah...

Alternatively, use of the word "draft" in place of auction and sensible handling of the monetary matters with the media would have paid of better. Having made an attempt to challenge ICL, taking a cue from their books ain't that bad!

BCCI brains are still raw.

The all-star weekend

The all-star weekend at New Orleans was easily NBA entertainment at its best.

Daniel Gibson hitting 11 shots from downtown in the rookie challenge, two 7-footers from San Antonio winning the shooting contest, Jason Kapono setting a 3-point shootout record, the best slam dunk contest ever and a thriller of an all-star game - the weekend had everything a fan asked for.

The dunk contest was the sickest and arguably the most creative ever. Gerald Green kicked of the creative extravaganza blowing off a candle on a cup cake placed atop the rim while dunking in. And Dwight "Superman" Howard put on an exhibition of amazing creativity and incredible power becoming one of the rarest big men victors in the contest.

Starting off with a vicious 360 windmill from behind the backboard, Dwight followed it up with the "Superman" dunk and followed it up with a left hand to backboard to right hand slam in the finals capping off the night with another sick dunk - picking up a ball from a small net affixed on the backboard and slamming in a windmill. Watch Dwight's sticker dunk last year - sad he did not make it to the finals!

There was also a flip side of creativity when Rudy Gay asked the public via youtube for dunks he can perform on stage.

The dunk contest has been revived and no one will fear that it will lose its sheen - atleast for the next few years. And the bar has been set so high that emulating it is going to need something out of box!

Sense and Nonsense

Sense - A cricket match in Chennai in March (that's versus SA).

Nonsense - Non-stop cricket. Does anybody think about the players?

Red Sox win!

12.12AM - Boston Red Sox wins the MLB World Series 2007.

Waiting to watch Jonathan Papelbon do his river dance. He has promised to pull in Beckett too!

Put a sock!

I chanced to read this article in IBNlive. Come on, put a sock in it! When are we going to stop finding faults in everything?

• If Shahrukh watched the game in Jo'burg, its his own business.


• Even if he promoted the movie, its his movie, he has to publicize it and he can do whatever he wants to do about it. Why should it bother others?


• Why should movies/persons be linked to cricket just for the sake of it? Already the word "Chak de" is in my word hate list simply because too much is being made out of it for no big reason.

As an aside, no cricket fan in India or Pakistan will care about any other damn thing when an India-Pak match is going on, leave alone a Hindi movie!

So, stop crap. Enjoy your cricket!

The Perfect Script

The Twenty 20 World Cup that concluded in South Africa yesterday was perhaps the most popular and successful cricketing event since Ashes 2005, the 2007 World Cup in the Carribbean being an obvious mismanaged flop.

This tournament had everything packaged such a way that it culminated in a terrific success with a marquee final

• Brilliant management
• Great organization
• Cheaper ticket prices
• Zero torture in the name of security
• Cheering dancers lined up in the stadia for the games and several other intangibles.

Adding to this were various happenings on-field that spiced up the proceedings the most notable ones being the following

• 'Ga(y)le' storm kicked off the tournament with such brutality that it woke up people to make note of some sensational action that was about to follow.


• Australian attitude - Its so typical. If they win, its because of practice and the training camps. If they lose, its because they just had fun. Lackadaisical attitude cost them dearly in the initial stages while youthful exuberance knocked them out of the championship


• Minnow Bashing - Courtesy Sri Lanka


• All tied up - The spectacular tie at Durban followed by the un-spectacular bowl-out to decide the result


• English Special - The inventors of the newest format of the game were the vanquished yet again. Deja vu


• Violence - India rubbed salt on England's already sore wounds as Yuvraj and Co. went berserk at the Kingsmead. Off the field, Durban - 600028 made waves over the internet


• "Choke" de South Africa - The number games proved elusive yet again as the hosts digged themselves into an ignominious exit


• Stop 'em - Australia sent tumbling out of the contest in the semi-finals by India


• The showpiece of 'em all - a nerve wracking "India - Pakistan" final, India taking home the first ever T20 championship. No one can ask for a better script to a final

Everybody opined that the tournament was going to be a bowler's graveyard but its the bowlers who won the games for the teams barring the opener. This factor has contributed to the terrific success of the tournament.

Now, T20 is being talked about (yeah its just the media, no one else really) as the future of the game. But yes, this format of the game will spread like fire in Cricket's biggest market. Take out the cliched terms - purists, classic etc. If you think from a public perspective. what do they love - belligerent hitting, delirious fun all inside 3 1/2 hours, half the duration of a 50-over game. Right? But what happens to the game?!?

The ICC for once has been prudent enough here allowing just 7 T20 games per year for a team sandwiched between Tests and ODIs - yeah yeah, the classical form and the instant form of the game. That number is a bit high but a definite stranglehold on traditional swindlers like the BCCI. Pat Pat Pat.

Too much of anything is bad. So toast the success of T20. Enjoy Test Cricket.

BCCI's own Cricket League?!?

Oh boy! ICL has apparently scared the bejeezus out of BCCI that they have announced the start of Professional Cricket League. BCCI has asked Sunny Gavaskar to format the new league.

They say "Haste makes waste", don't they? Let's wait and watch...

And by the way, this will come as a bolt out of the blues for BCCI. Mr. Pawar & co, its India - think twice before you do anything. The politicians are available 24x7 to screw things up. In hindsight, is it Dalmiya who is giving Pawar a taste of his own medicine?

What next?

After Shilpa Shetty, its now the turn of Bipasha Basu to get smoochy... So what's next in store from idiots wrapped in morons back home?
...
....
.....
......

1. First of all, a call for a ban on all MANU and Portugal's games on Indian Television courtesy Shivsena and PMK (in the south).
2. Writ petitions and "பைத்தியக்கார" interest litigations from you-know-who of you-know-which party to take legal action and trial the player in India (இவணுங்க செஞ்சாலும் செய்வாணுங்க!)

Ronaldo ji, வெளயாட்றதோட நிருத்திக்கப்டாதா?? எங்க ஊர் கிருக்கு மாய்க்காணுங்கள பத்தி பேப்பர்-ல எல்லாம் படிச்சதில்லையா?

Options...

Aleem Dar handed out the worst umpiring decision in cricket for a 5 year span 2005-2009 in the 3rd ODI of the recently concluded Future cup series between India and South Africa ruling a catch taken at first slip a feet and a half above ground as "not out".

There were uproars from a few fanatics asking him to be suspended/banned etc., So thinking a bit out of track, lets assume the ICC does remove from the elite panel. Here are two definite things that he can do.

• Take a cue from Anuradha Sengupta and banish movies of other languages that you do not know
  
• Take a cue from the jokers in Congress party and file dumbest of law suits against movies

Any takers?

P.S: The fact that ICC is "//SYSIN DD DUMMY" can be well understood from the fact that Asoka de Silva is still an umpire.

Ring #4

11.50 PM Eastern : The San Antonio Spurs have done it yet again - they've just won their fourth NBA championship sweeping the Cleveland Cavaliers 4 to zip.

Tony Parker for the MVP.

Go Spurs Go!

Cry Babies

It's time cry babies Mike D'Antoni and his Phoenix Suns stop whining and start playing basketball. Whatever happened in Game 4 happens always come playoffs. And while what Horry did was bad, I thought Nash flopped in a bit too. And Amare and Diaw were supposed to be on the bench having known how stupid the league rules are. And D'Antoni said "we have the best cameras in Phoenix". The league used the very same cameras to review the play and suspend the players. What a shame!

And they say the Spurs are dirty. The spurs are the only team that play the game the way it should be played. Well, they play technically perfect, grind-out defense solid basketball. That's San Antonio basketball. And that's why they have 3 championship rings and are possibly on their way to a fourth.

And you call it boring? You call Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili playing as boring?!? Then you do not know baskeball. Period.

So Phoenix, stop whining. Its playoffs. Save yourself from elimination.

Go Spurs go!

Wild Wild West

1:15 AM EDT May 04, Oakland, CA : Confetti streaming their down way from the Rafters at the Oracle Arena. Golden State Warriors have just thrashed 2007's statistically best team in NBA - Dallas Mavericks by 25 points to storm into the Western Conference semi-finals.

But why the confetti? It was Golden State's first playoff appearance in 13 years and they became the first #8 seed to knock off the #1 seed in a 7 game series. They played tough basketball, very physical, tough 'D' and great offense. Dallas had 67 wins in the regular season while Golden State made it to the playoffs on the final night of the regular season. As expected everybody wrote the #8 off, but nobody seemed to remember that Golden State were the only team that swept the season series against Dallas 3-0. I have always hated Dallas and that scoreline was one reason for me to believe Golden State could pull off an upset and they did that!

It was one of the best ever play off series I've ever seen. Infact I will hold this a step above the SA-Dallas semis last year. The warriors played like real warriors. They came back everytime their back was against the wall and responded like warriors. Baron Davis played game six with practically one leg after pulling a hamstring and still managed a double-double. Such was the determination of the Warriors and Stephen Jackson led the team with Davis injured with 7 on 8 shooting from downtown. And above all, Nowitzki was held to 8 points for one of the worst games in his career.

The Warriors had nothing to lose. They played with passion, they played for the city of Oakland. And kudos to the city. Close to 90% of the people had turned up with the yellow "We believe" t-shirt in the stadium and they stood all thru the second half. Boy! thats a real crowd! Easily one of the best and biggest at about 20,700. They did really believe and so did the 15 warriors. They have pulled off the best and biggest upset in NBA history.

And finally, call this as attitude. Nowitzki in a pre-game before game 4 said, "If we lose this, its pretty much over". Steve Nash, with Phoenix trailing 1-2 said this before game 4 last year "If we could win this game, we can turn the series around". Now, Dallas lost game 4, somehow managed to win game 5 courtesy plenty of Golden State's errors and shades of Nowitzki's brilliance but lost the series 2-4. Phoenix also lost game 4 to trail 1-3, but came back to win the series 4-3.