Its all about eyeglasses

I don't know why exactly I’m thinking about eyeglasses right now but this random thought did just cross my head that two Indian cricket players who used to wear eyeglasses on the cricket field during some point of their long cricketing careers, have chosen to retire during the ongoing India-Australia series. Well, one during the series (Anil Kumble) and another after it ends (Sourav Ganguly), to be exact. Alright, I do realize that sounds absolutely pointless but hey, I told you it was a random thought! Anyway, I've been thinking about seeing an optician what with me having some pretty bad headaches when I end up spending a little too much time in front of the computer. So, I was browsing the Internet for ideas and maybe some good online stores and found some really good looking eyeglasses with some cool frames. Maybe that explains the random thought. Anyway, I’m in the midst of checking out some real cool offers on ZenniOptical.com. The one in the picture is what I liked the most (so far). And so, while I'm away looking for some more cool ones I'll leave you to contemplate on what the hell eyeglasses have to do with retirements in cricket!

The 100 percent cricketer

Another great bows out and it is time for another grand farewell and more fond memories. I don't think anyone will ever forget Anil Kumble bowling with indomitable spirit and passion with a fractured jaw or his extremely transparent determination and sheer pride in the Kotla test that ended today.

Well, here's a real neat article written by who else but Rahul Dravid who has probably played the most games alongside Kumble both in first-class and international games combined. And I suppose this little paragraph embedded in an article that clearly reflects the admiration that Dravid has for the man, says it all:

His attitude makes him a dream to captain. When I led against New Zealand in 2003 at Mohali and we lost the toss and had to bowl first on a flat wicket, not once did Anil complain. Occasionally a bowler, faced with an unresponsive wicket, might give up mentally, but not Anil; never did he say, "Rahul, give me a break." He just bowled on and on. He does not know what giving up means.

You can say that again, Dravid.

Book The Ashes Tickets now

Twenty20 is awesome entertainment especially when it’s between the big guns. Well I loved the 2008 Twenty World Cup and am already looking forward to the next edition ready to lap up all the excitement. In fact, I have a burning desire to actually be there at the stadium for the matches. Hmm… don’t know if that would be possible but let’s see how things work out. I suppose the tickets are going to sell like crazy. Thanks to the internet I have a real chance of getting some tickets from myself. Well, I have done some research already and it looks like there are some good places where I could buy some tickets easily. I advice you book your Twenty20 Tickets too if you have plans to attend the games at the stadium. The Ashes promise excellent entertainment too and of course you can easily find The Ashes Tickets too online. I think I’m going to buy my tickets from viagogo.co.uk. Well, I am not all that sure as of now but if I do finally make a concrete decision to buy tickets, that site seems to be a neat place to get me going. The design is clean and the navigability is good too. Besides, I suppose it would do good to get used to the site. There are so many varieties of shows, sports matches etc for which tickets are available there that I’m sure I might have use for the site at some point of time, not only for cricket matches. For example, if you happen to be a rugby buff, you can even find 6 Nations Tickets there. You might also be interested in Steve Coogan Show Tickets, Oasis Concert Tickets, Coldplay Tickets UK. Pretty cool to be able to find everything at one place right? Anyway, if you asked me, I love the concept. It is not just like any other site where you go and buy tickets for an event but here you actually have a platform that enables you to be able to approach people who already have tickets with them and are willing to sell them off to you since they are not able to attend the event or for whatever reason. This means, even if you are late in booking the tickets and all the ones that you wanted are sold out, there is still hope that you might find one at viagogo.

The Symonds Story

You've got to feel sorry for Andrew Symonds. For all the talent he has, the imposing Australian is one player who can and will rewrite record books with ease and grand flourish, if only he can put everything behind and continue playing the game and entertaining the audience. There are talks already of how he will be missed in the upcoming Australia's tour of India and I can't help but agree.

The Symonds fishing story reminds me of what happened with a co-worker of mine who wanted a week's leave from work in order to be able to attend his brother's wedding (a wedding is a long-drawn affair in India). He was denied the permission by his manager and ended up loosing his cool, yelled at his superior and took the drastic step of walking away from his job. Anyway, when he later saw the stupidity of what he had done, he waked right in again, apologized and was forgiven. He got his week's leave too!

Goes to show what happened to Symonds can happen to anyone, doesn't it? The employer holds the money purse and as long as that's true, it is also true that you are required to bow down to the demands of the job. Hope Symonds too can clear all his cobwebs away and come back to cricket just to play and enjoy the game.

All said, this pic interested me.

Mean? Probably. Funny? Well, in a crooked sense, yes! :D

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Has India done well?

India won the CB series beating Australia 2-0 in the 3 match final in Australia. India have again won the ODI series against Sri Lanka in Sri Lanka which is a great feat considering how strong the Lankans are at home and what an absolutely outstanding record they have there. They are also the World Twenty20 champions and that is no mean feat too. However, the question still remains as to whether India are still a world beating side. Why is that? Aren't those earlier wins proof enough?

Well, not exactly. Infact I believe this team is not even close. The problem seems to be too much dependence on one or too batsmen throughout an entire series. This, I think, seemed to have been all the more pronounced during the recently concluded India-Sri Lanka series. I hated the way only two batsmen really clicked throughout the series. If not for Raina and Dhoni, I don't think we would have even gotten close to winning the series. And even if we did win this time round, I think a lot of credit should go to the bowlers.

Take a look at the stats and you will know what I mean. We really need more batsmen performing well or you could say goodbye to any hopes of the Indian ODI being and staying even in the top 3.

As I see it, there will and should be a lot of changes in the selection and the batting order. Badrinath looks neat to me. But such a compact batsman coming so low in the batting order hardly makes any sense. And I think we need Yusuf Pathan back. I'm all for big hitters at the bottom of the batting order. India has always struggled for big runs in the final overs. Yusuf Pathan in place of Sharma and pushing Yuvraj further down the order might work wonders for India in the final overs. Besides, Badrinath anyway looks to be a batsman who can easily hold one end up calmly and coolly in a Dravidish fashion. So getting him to replace Yuvraj at one down or two down should make a lot of sense. Thats just a small list of things. I think (I hope, rather) the India think tank is chewing on similar things too. Let's hope they come out with something good and more logical next time.

And all that said, I think the bowlers were excellent. Zaheer should never again be dropped. He's just a gem!

Tickets for cricket matches

The Twenty World Cup 2008 was awesome wasn’t it? And especially awesome since India won it and that too beating Pakistan! In fact, I think Twenty20 is the future face of cricket and since it gets over in just under 3 hours, it makes for good pop-corn entertainment. Anyway, next year’s Twenty20 World Cup to be held in England is, I am sure, going to be all the more wonderful. If you don’t already know, it’s going to kick off on the 5th of June with a match between England and one of the associate nations that qualify and is going to run till the 21st of June when the final will be played at the Lord’s cricket ground.

Ok…so the point of the post? Well, I was just wondering where you all get your tickets online for the matches? If you’ve got no idea here’s a cool site found this cool site where you can find Tickets for almost all sporting events. Well, basically it’s a site where you can get in touch with people who already have tickets with them and are not able to go for whatever event that ticket is for. So they decide to sell it off to people who want the tickets. That means even if you are late getting a ticket you can always head over to the site and you might just get lucky to find a seller who’s selling exactly what you need. I know it’s a little too early now to think of ICC World Twenty20 Tickets but then I thought of just mentioning it anyway. Of course, the site covers almost every major sporting event. So whether you want ICC World Twenty20 2009 Tickets or RBS Six Nation Tickets (that’s a Rugby event in case you are wondering), just take a look and see if you do find what you need. Besides, the site, viagogo, has been around for some time and they guarantee all transactions to be safe, secure and 100% scam-free. Also, they seem to be involved in buying / selling many types of Tickets including theater tickets and also tickets for other exclusive events. So yes, they are a huge site and such huge sites are normally very reliable.

Ah…there seems to be a section for the Ashes too. That’s July next year if I’m not wrong. Hmmm…interesting year of cricket ahead. Book your places guys.

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What the hell was Dhoni thinking?

I think by the time Dhoni played his knock of 36 off 66(?!!) balls and then got out, the damage was done. Australia were well and truly on their way to victory.

I mean, 36 off 66 precious deliveries? Alright, they needed to ensure they didn't lose any more wickets. But then, a strike rate of just over 50 in a one-day match while chasing a huge total of 317 runs?

By the time he got out, India was left needing 169 runs off 117 deliveries at a rate of about 8.5 an over with 5 wickets in hand - an almost impossible task that was only made to look possible by Uthappa's brilliant cameo.

The Indian skipper should have done better than what he came up with today. I hope all those recently played matches where he has had to graft an innings picking up ones and twos, have not robbed him off his shot-making abilities.

Sachin deserves that knighthood even more now

I had written about that knighthood that could possibly come Sachin Tendulkar's way. Now, after this sterling, still unbeaten, performance from Sachin at Adelaide, I guess the officials concerned need to rush with the honouring formalities!

He has really proved his class by the manner in which he totally dominated the bowlers. Man, you've got to respect him for the way he has carried on and on doing his stuff inspite of all that has happened around him. So much pressure, so many expectations. Anyone else will have definitey crumbled.

Anyway, that's just about one innings in one day of one test match. Still a long way to go in the game. I guess we'll get upto about 400 in the first innings. Then it's upto the bowlers to rework the magic that hapened at Perth.