Young Indian Cricketers ... caught off guard briefly!!!

Cricket WC - India's Exit!!!

The biggest favor that our Indian Cricketers could do to the country. Ensuring that they took the shortest path back home. Billions of Man-Hours that would have been wasted in watching and discussing Cricket saved. Surely we don't need these jerks to feel good about ourselves as a nation. Hope a few more of the millions who idolize these Cricket Stars have learnt their lesson. Hope some of these companies have learnt a lesson that playing with emotions of people doesn't always work.

"Oooh Aaah India. Aaya India". Looks like the shouts from the Blue Billion got so loud that our stars decide to listen to the voice of the people and come back to India. :)

As for me, I keep learning my lessons and unlearning them the next time the BCCI (Not Indian) Cricket Team does well. As always, I've vowed never to waste more than a few minutes a day watching any cricket (maybe on the news or just the closing moments of a match. Let's see how long I can keep up the promise I made to myself. I did not watch any part of some supposedly interesting games of the WC like the Aus-SA game. So far so good!!!

2006 - Year end summary

The year started off with the dull winter of 2006. PN leaving Columbus in January leaving me feeling lonely and friendless for a few months (we were such close buddies). Then came the awesome gang of RR, MS, RUS, CN, GAR and SSKN. We had some great times together.

Then the amazing 2006 Cricket season. It all started with us trying to form COSARC again but finally deciding to merge with / join UCC. It worked out well.

Then planning my return to India to co-incide with the end of the Cricket season in Columbus. Well just about missed a couple of weeks of Cricket. So not so bad. The amazing trip to NY just before returning to India. Adi and RUS must have loved my drunk Punjabi ghaalis to the Taxi Driver who looted us off a whopping 180 bucks. Made me realize that I actually might have had some Punjabi roots (maybe in my previous birth). I keep getting asked my people (on hearing my name) if I'm Punjabi. Well ...

The wonderful Dubai - Trip. It's an experience being around kids. Just loved talking to and being with Rhea and Rohan. It turns out she loved me too and is looking forward to meeting me again the next time she comes to India. Me too!!!

The next two months on bench in Infy - well not actually on bench since the client was paying me to sit on my a## doing nothing. My Billable utilization was still in the late ninties. :-) This period made me realize that Bench was surely not what I wanted. Finally started getting some work but not really the kind of work I want to be doing. Anyway, this wonderful period gave me some time to take up my GMAT and apply to ISB. The year ended with some good news of an ISB interview call in the first week of Jan. Hopefully the new year will bring further cheer with an ISB admit.

The year ended with me becoming a Landlord (bought some land in Manipal since Bangalore and outskirts was way out of reach for me). If it doesn't appreciate, the site is in a nice location that can serve as my retirement home. :-) A nice weeklong vacation in Udupi after attending Ravish's marriage to round off this wonderful year with a lot of wonderful memories, gave me so many wonderful friends for life, taught me so many things and some amazing experiences.

Pawared away

How do Indians take such insults and not react or do so with reactions like "I don't think it was intended"? My blood boils when I hear such reactions.

If Team India needed some reason to rise above themselves and beat the so-called world champions the next time they face them (hopefully in a WC Knockout Game), here IT is.

De-Haired

Finally some good news from the Cricket world. After the disappointing performances from the Indian Cricket team, there was some solace for the Indian team. The only teams they've lost to in the last 4-6 months (Aus and WI) turn out to be the two best teams in the world at the moment which is what I've maintained all along. Now its upto Rahul and the boys to prove my theory right by beating SA in SA.

The other news that thrilled me to the core was Darrell Hair being removed from the elite panel. I know what you are thinking; why should his being removed from the umpiring panel thrill me?

Well, its just that things at the ICC level were almost like what Lalit Modi said. The East India Company at it again. So Hair getting removed from the elite panel is like a mini battle won against the East India company.

Is it any surprise that Ponting backs Hair? He's a member of the East India company who's been favored time and again by ICC Match-Referees. He verbally abuses umpires and gets away with warnings. On the other hand, Indians just have to increase the decibel level in their appeals to over 45dB and they are banned for 2 Tests. This can't go on forever. Especially when you guys are making a truckload of money from our stupid fascination with the sport. :)

My Best Cricket Seasons!!!

Now that I'm back in India and my US season has come to an end, I thought of putting together my stats. This was more my way of re-visiting the best cricketing moments of the last two years.

2005 season:

My first match: A decent start but unfortunately run out. Bright spot was that we managed to win our first game. This team FoursNSixes was what became my 2006 Team (UCC). A merger of sorts of COSARC and FoursNSixes.

My first Fifty: COBCA was one of the top teams in the league and the eventual 2006 Champions. So to score a fifty against them and especially when the team was down and out at 30/6 odd was a real nice feeling. Even though we fell short that day, at one point when we were looking at about 60 in six overs, we actually went all out for a victory and we could see that the opposition was panicking.

Other 2005 games: Although every game was memorable, the other unforgettable game is the game against Akron in the 20/20 Tournament where I had the ankle injury that rendered me hors'de'kombat for a good two months. Chasing a score of 190 odd, powered by a Quick Fire knock by our captain Vishal and a good 40 odd by yours truly, we were well on our way to victory when a mini collapse left us in a situation where with five overs to go, we had about 30 runs to get but we'd lost all our wickets. This was on one of the hottest days of the season and end of the game, virtually every person in our team was injured in some way or the other. Unfortunately, scores of these mini-tournaments are not on the www.

2006 Season:

Game against KCC: This was my first big innings of the tournament when people in my new team first recognized my talent. Before that I'd done pretty ok in practice but in practice pretty much everyone is a big hitter in our team. So that doesn't count for much. The sad part is that we couldn't convert this into a victory due to several dropped catches and missed run outs.

Game against UC: This was a do or die match for us. A loss here would have meant that we were out of the tournament. It was the same for our opponents too. And this being an away game made it tougher for us. Getting up at 7 in the morning, driving two hours to Cincinnati, playing in a new ground - the odds were against us. A superb batting performance despite a slow start took us to 231, our highest score for the season. The last 16 overs after I went into bat, we made 160 runs - some amazing hitting. We almost squandered the advantage by our poor bowling and fielding - but a last over run out got us the game by 7 runs and we were into the next round.

Game of the Season This was the game against last year's losing finalists. We were very much the underdogs. We did well to restrict them to 180 although we could have kept them down to lower. When I went into bat, we still needed about 80 odd runs at run a ball. We did well to keep the score board ticking and kept us in the game. A rush of blood and I was out with about 15 to win of 21 balls and 4-5 wickets in hand. My wickets was followed by two quick wickets and everyone started panicking. Were we going to lose this one after doing so well? Eight to win off the last over and a first ball six by Subodh sealed the match!!! Wild celebrations followed. We partied hard long into the night celebrating this wonderful victory.

Last game of season Another do or die battle but this time we fell short. An away game where we went in two bowlers short and paid dearly for it. 258 runs in 35 overs is virtually unachievable. At one point with me and Chandru (Prasad) going great guns we were very much in the game. But with him going out to a loose shot and the next 2-3 overs going for next to nothing, the asking rate went upto about 12 and became virtually impossible. I played with a runner after my second Ankle injury (Both seasons, injured myself in the last game of the season ... luckily) and did pretty ok. I fell to one tired awful slog and with that went the game and our chances of making it to the semis.

All in all, had an amazing time playing cricket. Thank you Midwest Cricket League for giving me this opportunity. Will try and come back some point in the future. :-)

Chanderpaul in town

Just learnt that Shivnaraine Chanderpaul will be in town on the 13th weekend playing a couple of friendly games with us - hope to get a few photo-opportunities. :)

What this also means is that our tournament semi-finals will get postponed by a couple of weeks and I wont be able to make it. :(

Annual mid season appraisal

Last year's complete cricket season and this year's performance so far with about 3-5 matches to go.

Not so bad, eh?

To go or not to go

Finally did it. Told the boys (United Cricket Club team mates) about my leaving for India next month. They were shocked and tried to convince me into changing my plans. Sadly I too want to stay for the entire season and I thought I was going to stay for the entire season. But then I assumed the season would be over for us by mid-August.

But now that we've started doing well and are into the next round ... they obviously want me to continue so that we can do well as a team this season and end up among the top teams in the league. Anyway let me try to do my bit before I leave!!!

Cricket was always a passion ... but now I know that playing Leather ball cricket gives the word passion a whole new meaning!!! If I ever come back to the US, this would be reason number one. Coming into the Midwest region would be my preference for this one reason too since this is turning out to be a FUN team to play with.

COSARC - Champion Braggers

Just an update from my previous blog.

We went on to loose 4 of the next 5 games of the tournament. No, don't be misled. We didn't win the fifth game. It just so happened that the other team didn't think we even deserved to play them. So they forfeited the game. :-)

Come September, we enter another tournament - this time a 20 over a side game. Played two matches back to back and lost two matches back to back.

No, I am not done yet. The worst part about COSARC * oh yeah, that's the wonder team I've been bragging about * is that if you put in a vote asking if anyone is interested in practice, you'll be lucky if you get a handful of interested players. But you get a team to a BW3 (Buffalo Wild Wings - our usual hang-out place), you'll be amazed by the talk that you hear. You'll probably think, you are with the champions of the Midwest league.

Cricket fever of a different kind

Its cricket fever of a different kind. I and some others at work have got together and formed our own team - funnyily called COSARC (Columbus OHIO Sports and Re-creation Club) and have joined the Midwest League here.

Surprise surprise this team formed with quite a few bits and pieces players ended winning the first couple of games. Not much of a contribution from me in the first game with just 9 runs opening the Innings involved in a couple of good partnerships and a catch behind the sticks.

The second match was against an all Pakistani side called Shihab. That too was a pretty close game with the opposing team handing a game to us on a platter. We surely didn't deserve to win that match.

Scoring just 123 off 30 overs in a 35 over game we surely had no great ambitions of winning. But we started off fighting. Heads were beginning to droop at 80 odd for 3. A couple of wickets of the batsmen going strong at the time and the most amazing collapse to 102 all out followed. :-)

Will keep you posted on how the rest of the weekend games go. We need to win 2 of the next five games atleast to go into the playoffs.

Cricket Fever

Its cricket fever here in Columbus. Last three nights have been Beer and Cricket Combo. Two nights back we actually found a link that allowed us to watch Cricket and the quality of the video was so clear it was almost as if I was watching on television.

Then somebody found out about this unauthorized access and blocked the link. So the last couple of nights have been about being glued to the commentary on http://www.pakistanvision.com some Paki TV link. With commentary from our very own Ravi "PREDICTABLE" Shastri and Sanjay Manjrekar and Gang.

Its been fun. Hope the last two days turn out to be India's days and they are able to go one up on our sworn enemies. :-)