Hi there!

Hope you had a refreshing weekend and here is how mine went…

Staying in the heart of the city always evokes certain responses which we can only do the task of bearing them – sometimes heartily, sometimes disgustingly, sometimes nonchalantly and sometimes fiercely(fire-with-fire buddy!), you shouldn’t start questioning the very concept of this bearing – as Indians are not programmed like that – maybe a future generation can change that but still – a big BUT.

Last weekend was particularly spectacular because of the much hyped ‘Indian Premier League’ reaching its crescendo(it would be the superlative term -  it didnt stand the expectations particularly the semi-finals) and ofcourse the by-elections caused by some sort of stupidity of our well acclaimed politicians in the locale of Andhra pradesh.

We go by the IPL concept first – at the start everybody hoped that the youngsters from Indian soil would be getting their much dreamt oppurtunities of rubbing shoulders with the international giants and get to learn from their vast(again a much superlative term was in use by the print and electronic media alike!) experience – in reality, they had a very good oppurtunity but the much required match practice was not with the international players and the range of the improvisations in the game in both the batting and the bowling skills of the game – I am sure there would be no Tendulkar or Dravid being born (let alone groomed) in India or maybe in the sub-continent, courtesy: our bosses in Indian cricket – the currency craving BCCI team …. my view might be wrong if at all one would point to the fact that the selection into a team depended heavily on the skills displayed by the player in the longer versions of the game.  Exceptions as always would be ‘David Hussey’ and ‘Cameron White’ and few others – who only had the experience of playing the T20 Internationals and are labeled as T20 players by the experts!……out of all the international teams who have happily allowed their players to play in the inaugural edition of the IPL – T20 only the Aussies, Proteas and the Kiwis, you can say have mastered the art of the ‘Snack version of the Cricket’.

Once the mighty Aussies have left the tournament after the round 1(in the middle of round -1 to be precise!), the franchisees were content with the sri lankans and the proteas(most of them out-of-form surprisingly except the retired ‘Polly kaka’ a.k.a Shaun Pollock ), who did the maximum damage…but this game is heavily bombarded with the Australian talent that the efforts could be seen in every aspect of the game….nobody believed that ‘Shaun Marsh’ would get the ‘Orange’ cap at the start of the tournament atleast for his start…and Shaun Watson – the best allrounder this snack version has seen…and the shrewdest Warnie the Wizard…Hayden, Gilly, the Pidge, let alone the Symo for his wonderful skill with the ball in the crunch overs …..every department had the Australians setting a benchmark and the rest trying to follow…..Once the quality bowlers vanished the Jayasuriyas, the Gangulys and the Tendulkars tried to come to the party by scoring some runs each in their own signature style….its not a bad thing to do to compete with the generation who adulated them while learning to bat at a suburb in this modern Indian topography….

What good did this do to the Cricketers – First Question – In my honest opinion, it provided them a good summer part-time job which many students crave to spend their academic year hassle-free for the regular campaigners on national duty – the reserves, it has been just another day of bowling to the touring team in nets or to the home team at one of the domestic matches…barring few already known names the T20 heroics would always be the worst hurdle upfront to jump above to find his feet in the international arena as the breed is not good and the worst – it should not be emulated in the classic version of the cricket…who would expect ‘Glenn Mc Grath’ to be paddled and ‘Brett lee’ to be reverse swept in the opening over of the Boxing day test match…there are many more shots better than those two – the Cover drives, the square drives, the glance, the late cut and the powerful Hook and the pull(again Sub continental players are not good – God(s) ignored).

What good did this do to the public – Second Question – In my honest opinion, it screwed up 3 hours of my day daily(a bit overdose actually) killing all my spare time and valuable time with many one-sided competitions and pretty big itinerary and many unwanted analysis done on that – imagine a 1 hour analysis Pre and Post the match for a match lasting 90 mins for each side….this is utter waste……good that Harsha Bhogle wasn’t there to ask Sunny or Ravi to help out the public on Why Tendulkar was getting out playing a shot or Why Hayden is invincible playing the sweep or why Zaheer Khan is getting injured regularly etc…Watching matches in the stadia is another big waste of money, I dont understand the business policy – the tickets are higher than the 50-50(forgive me for the analogy to 20-20)over matches – damn it!!.  Fortunate enough we didnt have Mrs. Bedi and Mr. Sharma(I saw on some channel they were generously acclaimed -’The first family of Indian Cricket Commentators’ or something’ ).  Strange enough was the local flavor missing in most of the teams – a real killer for the city based favoritism as it is a serious disgusting feeling to cheer for your city in which you dont have any of your player from the city – The franchisees only think of business and dont cultivate the necessary measures to help it prosper….unlucky public…

 

What good did this to the BCCI – Third question – only one answer – The richest organisation in Cricket(heard Mr. Bindra saying that the 2011 ICC Cricket WC would be the best event beating the FIFA world cups also – drop it as another crazy statement from the insanest people in our country)…..It had raised sufficient money but still the money won’t reach the Iqbal’s waiting in Kolipad Cricket Academy without giving them the much needed pep and spirit to represent his Nation.  The rules were amended at their will and excepting some incidents like the human face shown to the blast victims at Jaipur – God knows where all the money goes…..

What good did this to the people who are reading this at this point of time – Final question

It wasted easily 302 seconds of time reading the 1000 odd words in this post until now……You decide and comment based on what you infer – maybe you have a few points to add to this elegy of Indian Cricket…….Bye bye Tendulkar – your records will stay intact and bye bye Dravid – I can bet I would no longer see you exquisite square drive and late cut – the generation might change where only paddles and reverse sweeps are allowed and maybe new fielding positions of the Back-Off and Back-On would be in usage …….End of Dream one…….

Reality – the current electoral scenario prevailing in Andhra Pradesh

There are quite a few parties with a reputation in this State – The Indian National Congress, The Telugu Desam Party, the Bharatiya Janata Party, the Telangana Rashtra Samithi, the Lefties - removing all the oppurtunist leaders you find all the four of them with very few people – could be called a minority(forgive me – I may be prosecuted for the term but I can’t help with my Vocabulary – its limited).  the by-election was supposed to be a referendum in the words of the politcal leaders of a party demanding a separate state for their(not the citizens of India definetely) upliftment, improvement and above all the dignity – the campaigning started and ended – the polling was held and yesterday the results were declared.  Guess what – the polling was so good that the referendum was absolutely thumping enough to say that the so called sentiment was flowing thick and fast for the separation of a beautiful state based on the petty issues created by the Unemployed Politicians….Now, they complain that the election was hijacked by the ruling party which relied heavily on pampering the voters with material benefits just before the polling was to happen…if that could have been the case – are we to be implied that the same thing happened – by a different set of people when this time losing party won the last time – Pretty confusing for a kind soul like you to get deep into politics…..A funny note to end is that Chiranjeevi was supposed to enter into politics from the time I was in Graduation – nobody in Andhra enjoys more fanatacism than this chap – who is a wonderful actor but alas! he is also getting into this Politics because that is the only thing missing in his ‘Resume’ – Thank God for that (if it ends only in Politics and Prajaa Seva)!! – One thing that berserks me is that, he is supposed to bring a revolution in the state of the politics in India – with the same set of politicians, with the same set of intelligent people who have damned our living in this country, with the same set of idealogies every political outfit writes in their MISSION-VISION-GOAL statement(forgive me for my corporate lingo!) and above all – pledges to be above Caste, Creed, Sex, Religion as we have learnt them to be in our Schooling days!…..they fling all those and flirt with the minds of few fanatics who crave for anyone one of the above mentioned four – We live in a democracy – sufficient enough to bother about ourselves and only ourselves…..I strictly want to campaign against all these people – and I like many am equally not adept at doing that – unlike many honest enough to accept this fact…..

Rajni is quite a big star in Tamil Nadu a state which also is run by the Kollywood stalwarts – a bigger picture would be ‘run-by-Film-personalities’, his name could’nt fetch a single vote in favor of the AIADMK in the last ‘Lok Sabha Polls’, It could be one of the reasons for Mr. K.S.S.V. Prasad(his official name I guess) to float a new party and bring it on his platform where only tickets are given to his passengers who attract his attention now and attract public’s ire later…..Grow up man!