Indian Cricket Fan =)

Am just wondering how all the posts, photos, and video links on facebook would have been if India had lost terribly to the Aussies in the quarter finals with the batting order totally collapsing after Dhoni's dismissal

• Indian Team sucks and its because of Yuvi's terrible running between the wickets which costed Gambhir's wicket - otherwise India would have won.
• Mahendra Singh Dhoni has to take the full responsibility along with Gary Kirsten for having made the bad decision of not choosing Yusuf Pathan who had a played much more number of games in the tournament than Suresh Raina - Well, Dhoni this ain't the time of testing your team in a Knockout game against Arch Rivals Australia in a World Cup where India is one of the host nations
• Indian Bowlers seemed to be so ineffective in giving the extra 20 odd runs which ultimately led pressure build up on the Indian batsmen on a surface like that

Well, thats not all . Some solid Team India fans would go to the extent of saying the following -

• India's defeat against the Australians is solely because of the no good Indian Seemer " Ashish Nehra " , as it was he who made India lose to the South African side in the Group Stages which ultimately pushed India to position # 2 and thus we had to face and lose to the Defending Champions

Surely Team India has one bizarre fan Following =)

Musing On The News

I've been keeping tabs on the Japan situation over the last few days. For obvious reasons, this is on the front page of every news paper. There are lots of disturbing pictures, stories etc.

Those didn't really 'disturb' me as much as 1 piece of news did. The cyber scam industry has boomed post disaster. Suddenly all domains with 'japan' and 'tsunami' on them have been taken and millions of dollars of 'donations' have basically been whisked away by scammers.

It disturbs me that this is the extent to which people can go to for easy money.

- Suddenly, the many dying in Bahrain and Libya don't seem to matter as much

- God save the Japanese. The nuclear reactor situation looks bad. My prayers are with them..

- As I read the news papers every morning on the tube, I can clearly see why I decided to go for a newspaper less diet for many months. Life seemed more positive without pictures of amputated people and the like. That isn't to say there is NO positive press but hey, positive press is not 'sensational' and that doesn't make money.

- Money.. scams, bad press, banks, recession. Root of all evil? That, I can't say but definitely the cause of many evils.

- This disaster has reminded me once again that there are so many things that are just WAY beyond our control.. and has reminded me of the quote -

'Do what you can with what you have where you are'

True, so true.

Sachin Tendulkar-The GOD!

Sachin Tendulkar can get it right even with his eyes wide shut.

The Chennai heat was unbearable, most of the players had wrapped up the practice proceedings, but not Tendulkar. He put a couple of fielders within the net, asked bowling coach Eric Simons to give him throwdowns, and kept finding the gaps with his "eyes closed."

"He asked us to stand at short cover and short point and closed his eyes right at the moment of impact. We were supposed to say 'right' if the shot pierced the gap and 'wrong' if it didn't," one of the fielders who represented Tamil Nadu in the U-16 level and was fielding within the nets, told the TOI after the practice session. The player sounded really amazed when he said that Tendulkar kept getting it right, more often than not. "I don't know how he was doing it...But we couldn't believe our eyes as the ball went between us over and over again," the player added.

The pitch on which Tendulkar was batting was pretty similar to the Chepauk track, on which the match would be played on Sunday. "The ball was stopping and coming...The pace at which he asked the bowling coach to throw the balls, it appeared that he was getting ready to play Kemar Roach. And he is certain that there will be two fielders in short cover and short point to snap him up. That's why he was trying to play the shots along the ground and looked to find the gap with his eyes closed," the young player added.

When Tendulkar had started practising, some of the drives that he tried went into the air, which annoyed the Little Master. He had a talk with Simons and then asked the fielders to stand in those close in positions.

"It's an education watching him from so close. How on earth can a player get the shot right even with his eyes closed? Probably, it was a practice to ensure that he doesn't play a shot in the air on reflex on such tracks where the ball was stopping," the player added.

The 100th international century can very well come here, but the Little Master just doesn't want to talk about that milestone. The instruction was given strictly to all the practice bowlers that no one should ask him about the record for which the whole country is waiting.


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The man is 38 and has 20 years of experience. Yet,even after every single person in the team stops training,He continues practicing and does it with his eyes closed.
Its truly proved that NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE FOR GOD! :D