A Priceless Diamond on Indian Cricket’s Crown

Rahul Dravid’s speech on the Bradman Oration at War Memorial – as rightly recommended by TSV, was certainly a speech of gold. Though fellow cricketers, commentators, writers & other celebrities have gone into raptures over this, this is my share of Joy!

The oration was flowing like a sparkling stream of water, touching hearts of all Indians, cricket lovers & modest human beings. The order of events covered in the oration showed that the speech was crafted and not drafted. The prolonged speech was delicately maneuvered by a touch of humor & character. The delivery of the values to every listener was clear like a crystal, establishing inspiration over 40 minutes of wisdom, character & simplicity.

With the kind of fanatical following for cricket I had during my adolescent time, we were a few souls trying to slice every corner of the sports columns from a dozen dailies, getting back to the television sets for any news on cricket, discussing the choice of players for the oncoming tours. During those times we had hours & hours of debates on the results, the game, team, players, commentators, pitches & even more.

Our gang was meticulously following International Cricket, ODI & Test formats, every major tour of every country was tracked to the full. Suddenly I realize, I had not been tracking cricket in any form since the world cup victory. As Rahul appropriately indicated, may be its due to the over dose of the game in the 3 formats & the paralyzing analysis in the media.

After viewing this video, I really felt that cricket is still a gentlemen’s game and gentlemen are still gentle. Thank you Dravid!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qr4bK63WxXY

Amaanji Likes Anna's Blog

I just happened to read Anna’s Blog – seems interesting.  It’s a multi-lingual blog from wordpress.. 

https://annahazaresays.wordpress.com

Liked it!  Let his goals reach the people with the trendy technology ways!  Wish him all success!

Amaanji's Copy Paste Effort.. Nana's Classic Ilayaraja..

For all the music lover fraternity, I had taken pains in re-creating Dr. Narayanan's TFM Page Articles..

Enjoy if you have not read this before..

Dr Lakshmi's Articles on - Classical Ilayaraja

Adhesiveness of Water.. Contd..

Inertia rules, it has been multiple weeks since I wrote the earlier one on my gym trial..  It has been more than couple of weeks since I gave up working out..

I keep finding reasons for not doing an act, frustration & pains to keep up hassles with work etc.  Once again back to my haphazard ways.. Losing focus has been my main problem..

Will try to address that..  Will take stock after a couple of weeks..

Paradigm Shift..

Mr. Covey, I vouch for each and every line in your 7 habits, though having read that extensively, as a human being not being able to practice those values. But experiencing such thoughts, I can’t resist myself from reflecting on your text.

You are phenomenal, your work has been fabulous too.. I will go back to the same and have a reading!

Truth & Maya

Anna Hazare – “A man of Gandhian propotions” is exactly the phrase that’s floating around in news channels, print media for the last couple of weeks.

Its not Anna Hazare – its Anna Hazarein!!

People have started supporting truth – not only against a good cause. My heart has a special place for Anna Hazare even ahead of Gandhi for the fact that he has been able to mobilize the support of “aam aadhmi”. Truly for the fact that Gandhi didn’t have to face such idiosyncrasies of toothless politicians, ever hungry media, people with vested interest and of course not forgetting the most insincere & dishonest government, may be Gandhi had to deal with many other setbacks. I sincerely feel that the issues that the IAC are dealing with, are beyond aam aadhmi’s reach and my kudos to them.

Indians honestly understand the difference the truth & maya and marching forward supporting true set of individuals. The stature of people who lead from the forefront of India Against Corruption movement is something beyond question.

Political dramas & staging fake allegations no more work in this country. A straight forward affirmative response for people’s question is the need of the hour & I see that cruising along.

I’m a citizen who cannot join the peace protests directly, but I’m very happy to spread the intensified emotions & sincerely hope Anna & his campaigners enjoy health, wealth & prosperity beyond success of this campaign.

JAI HIND!

Adhesiveness of water..

Habituating, for me is as devil as it can be for anyone.. My recent pilot project at the gym, started off with a 10 minute walk on the tread mill at about 3 mph. I always fancied chances for losing weight, especially gym was a thing of disgrace for me.

All other desires of mine, I was at least able to finish the first few laps and could realize signs of progress, this was one thing I couldn’t cover any distance due to procrastination, laziness & physical troubles.. Due to these evil thoughts, this agenda got the last priority on my list of things to do.

As you would have already read in my tale of tennis which lasted for a couple of months, my fondness toward discontinuing a habit has been ruling me over the years, I should say ruining me over the years.

This time around, my perseverance levels are mounting, a little premature though to boast about.. Carrying on workouts for an hour for the 3rd week now, with only 2 days of break..

Updates to follow..

Dhoni - The Shrewd Thinker..

People talk about the leadership traits of Dhoni, obviously the success he has had and the media & man management he has done over the last couple of years may be a pure example of his leadership. Most of the compliments that he has had ever since the Saturday night he helped the nation lift the world cup, unfortunately don’t reflect the astute thinking and shrewdness in his cricket.

Most of the times during the WC2011 he did the unexpected. When Ashwin had been the out right performer over the last couple of seasons in the domestic circuit, he made him sit on the bench for quite a number of matches. When the situation demanded he unveiled his spinning weapon, only when needed. The must win match against Windies where India wanted to win and take a nice position & in the quarters.

The moment Ashwin pitched in with wickets he halted his flow by not selecting him for the semis and the finals, people may think that this may have been a political decision, but I view this thing as a decision of smartness.

Games are increasingly becoming targets for players and even oppositions target a few rock stars in your team. I have seen this in soccer games that a star player in the opposition team being circled by 4 players by a home team to negate his influence scoring a goal.

Due to the increasing efficacy of media these days, it is inevitable that a good player may get targeted during a match. With tapes being available of matches, the bowlers are the ones to be impacted the most. In early days of cricket, there were no way a batsman could see a bowler in action in the television sets and try to observe the secret weapons of the bowler except during a match.

Nowadays, even general public knows about the weapons in the armory of bowlers and how each one is bowled. With commentators giving tips & slow motion replays, the bowlers literally suffer a lot due to these.

Also promoting himself up the batting order on the day, people say that its a leadership trait or shouldering responsibility, I would say that even that is a move of conviction.

Common sense states that key players in the Indian Team were Virat Kohli, Yuvraj Singh after Sachin & Sehwag. Once Sachin, Sehwag & Kohli were out, the srilankan team went into a comfort zone not trying to Target the Indian captain. This is the masterstroke, he can score when he wants to. I have always believed in this. People might have written him off considering the recent outings he has had.. But don't forget the magnificent 189* he scored was against SL during an important match.

SM Gavaskar had always been saying that he should promote himself up the order, but he did when the nation needed the most..

My Jinx has been Broken.. WC 2011 champions..

Once again, I was unable to resist myself watching the covetted game.. But this time my team had some thing else to say...

Amaanji's Cricket Sentiment - 2011

• Being Sentimental is not where I want to be, but when it comes to cricket, being a fan, eagerly awaiting the golden moments for the Little Master & his nation, I would love to be sentimental.
  
  I had been always considered unlucky in watching matches, when I eagerly await a match and watch it, the nation invariably loses. All this might have been a mere co-incidence but these truths have led me to believe that in deed I have been unlucky.
  
  Going back a few world cups ago, during the 2003 world cup I had observed this trend that when I take a peek at the television to check during important matches, the nation has always failed to succeed. The fellow viewers and roomies all believed that, it’s a true sentiment.
  
  My friends shared similar sentiments and all the time kindly requested me not to watch a match when the nation needed to win. I wanted to watch the crucial contest and the power play during the Ind Vs Pak match of the 2003 world cup, my pals literally locked up my house so that I couldn’t watch the match. The result was fabulous and had watched the replays of that match at least about 20 times in full till now.
  
  During the finals, my craving to watch that match was so high & I mentioned to my folks that I was pissed off missing the true action and wanted to watch the match. That match proved to be a one sided disaster for India.
  
  From that duration on, I had always missed the opportunity to get glued up to the television during important games. Even this world cup till today, I had missed the live action and feel really proud today. Here are a few things which happened during this world cup to prove this funda..
  
• Ind Vs England – Didn’t watch India Bat (Made 338 odd) / Watched England Bat till 47th over and switched off the TV in despair. (Match got tied).
• Ind Vs SA – Didn’t watch India Bat (Made 292 Odd) /Watched SA Bat till the end.. Should have switched off that day too..(India Lost)
• Ind Vs WI – Didn’t watch India Bat (Made 268 odd) / Watched WI Bat till they were 147/2 in the 30th over or so.. Switched off the TV then.. (India Won)..
  
  All other Matches never watched.. Won comfortably..
  
  Even today didn’t bother to watch.. Just checked the score when Little master was batting on 51.. He was out on 53..
  
  The next two games also will not watch & will not even repeat the mistake I did today..
  
  Happy to check the action on replays.. India ODI Team.. Don’t disappoint me this time.. I’m just one from the billion, at least do it for the Little Master (Lion of Cricket)..