Why Kobe is greatness personified

Three big reasons :-

1. there existed a Kobe Bryant on the 4th of December, 2009 at the Staples Center, LA. (personal favorite, game-wise)

2. there existed a Kobe Bryant on the 16th of December, 2009 at the Bradley Arena, Milwaukee.

3. there existed a Kobe Bryant on the 1st of January, 2010 at the Staples Center, LA to wish all his fans a very happy New Year.

And two more :-

4. there existed a Kobe Bryant on the 31st of January, 2010 at the TD Banknorth Garrden, Boston(personal favourite, emotionally)

5. there existed a Kobe Bryant on the 23rd of February, 2010 at the Pyramid Arena, Memph

is.

#1. - 'That was so well defended by Miami, but that was just Greatness Personified' - Jeff van Gundy

#2. - 'we are all watching a champion prove himself'

#3. - 'The look on the coach's face tells you how good the shot was.'

#4. - 'He is a man for the big games, and he knows how it hurt him a couple of seasons ago'.

#5. - Kobe returns to action to burn the Grizzles.

For beauty's sake -

March 5th, 2010, Time Warner Arena, Charlotte - 'HE displayed pure magic! Reminds us 

of the Kobe we saw over Battier and Yao last May. (Love you, Kevin Harlan, for that great work in the commentary box that evening :-) )

November 22nd, 2009, The Staple Center, LA - 'Give me a break! Welcome to the circus' - behind the board basket of highest precision, best one of the season.

Why the ICC world cup 2011 shouldn't be held in India

Indian pitches can all (except two or three ) be rendered unfit for hosting an ODI. BCCI is selling cricket... its playing a monopoly, unquestionably, monopoly. when I told this to my economics teacher, he laughed at me. he asked me, what does it sell? I told him - it sells (in more than one ways :-P )cricket, it doesn't allow competitors to enter the market (banned ICL), doesn't allow free flow of information (random selection, droppings, pitch selection, never-looks at some genuine talent... and gives no reason to most of them), and ofcourse, only motive is to make profit... Somehow, the faculty wasn't impressed, probably he was an IPL fan... hmmm... Nevertheless, coming back to the issue, I feel the pitch curators are brain dead. Forgot how to make pitches. I don't know how to make pitches, but they should know to make good ones. the test series against Sri Lanka had reports of average, below average and poor. Now, a 'poor' was a disgrace to the board, or so it should have been.

I'm tired of watching ODI games with 400+ scores and teams nearly chasing them down. Where is the fun i it. OK. If one team scores 400 and wraps up the other in 200, that displays some good team strength. But, that wasn't the case here. When was the last time I saw a 250 score being posted and defended? It just doesn't seem to be happening anymore.

When a curator says '260 will be a competetive total' and the team batting first scores 380 and the chasing team scores at more than run a ball to almost 280, I think the curator has to be fired. The Kotla pitch at Delhi which was under scrutiny after the Campions League match last October showed no improvement and was an absolute horror during the match against Sri Lanka, which I chose to watch because I saw grass on the pitch and some dampness in the air, likely to assist bowlers. Guess the grass was something i should've noticed, not just 'seen'. Present in scattered patches on a underprepared pitch, the balls shot off it once i a while injuring the Lankan batsmen more than 'once in a while'. Umpires called it a day. The curator got docked. Pitch got banned for an year. I don't know why the ICC trusts the BCCI of DDCA to prepare a sane pitch for the World Cup.

Country like India where 'peer pressure' is what brings out the worst in the people, the T20 seems to have become the household name for cricket. Bowlers have long been forgotten. Playing in the 'V' rarely appreciated, lemon slice gets a standing ovation (c'mon people, grow up! even the batsman doesn't know where the ball went) and there are lots and lots of flat piches with loads and loads of runs. If cricket is Ice Cream, T20 is diabetes. People in India largely have fallen prey to the monster called T20 which has completely gone off the hook. T20's creator, recently stated that today's T20 is not what he was thinking about a few years ago when the E(&W)CB introduced it in its domestic calendar.

Anyway, the Twenty20 Cup was more sane than the IPL. It had and has better pitches, controlled money flow, better trained players and a knowledgeable crowd who turn up for Friends Provident and County Championships too. Whereas, the BCCI, read as Lalit Modi, loves to pour money into IPL to reap more and more and more and more money, at the cost of cricket. With the advent of IPL, more and more people have started quitting Tests. Gayle wants to be a pro-T20 (ha  ah ha ha ha a haaaaa ) player, Freddie became a free lancer. An endless list of players injured themselves during the course of the IPL and missed off on more important series later on. One very hard to digest news was Dhoni playing IPL and opting our of a test series in Sri Lanka which proved quite costly. Where was the commitment to the nation, folks?

Now that a man has scored a double century in ODI, the home folks want more of it coming. the BCCI don't want their 'TRP's to drop, so, I expect they'll continue making pathetic pitches and feed the open mouthed spectators with more and more boundaries.

If BCCI had so much interest in dethroning Pakistan from hosting world cup matches, then I say India is no secure a place to host any match either. India has seen more and worse since and before the Lahore blast. (the Bombay blast a winter ago was where the English team was heading to, so, plus or minus a couple of days, the English team would've been in grave danger!). 

Money, and hence, power, has put BCCI in a comfortable positio. I don't know what the ICC and MCC are there for, BCCI is the one making the rules out there. Pretty bad ones.

My advice to any team who is coming to the world cup, if at all it happens - don't bring your bowlers. Let them take rest, some time off to spend quality time with their families.

End of the Layoff

Sorry folks... Couldn't + didn't blog for a long time due to personal, academic and medical reasons. Its been almost half an year since my last post and a lot have gone past in that window...

I'll try to break things up about what I remember. Please excuse my memory, it became very weak towards the end of 2009.

Cricket - The most boring of all the happening sports in the last six months. There were a couple of good tests every now and then, but overall, the Indian soil cricket spoiled the whole scenario. India continued playing Sri Lanka like it was getting up in the morning and going to brush teeth. Australia victored emphatically over Pakistan and W.I, both of whom tried desperately to win atmost one match of the series...failed to so so. The Kiwis hosted Pakistan for a good series that saw Bond and Asif return to cricket. Bond was there in cricket, but the bunch of bigwigs sitting 

Ashes and its hangover

Looking at the English Isle from up above in the sky...one must've thought he's watching a game of ping pong, England and Australia fighting it out and the momentum being the little ball. I can't say, England couldn't lose the series, but I would say, Australia didn't know how to win the series this year.

Wales finally getting a test, Cardiff never knew they were in for a party. After Australia put England back on the mat, replying to England's three fifties with four centuries, Australia just couldn't blow England apart in 4 sessions. The likes of Monty Panesar would never even have dreamt of carrying his bat for 11 overs even in the nets. Something for Australa to cry over the upcoming days... Batting were good from both sides (England forgot a few tricks later on though). English bowling lacked the sting, Australian bowling however didn't know to mop things up for the celebration. The test will be more remembered for Pietersen't artistic ways of getting out. In the first innings, he dragged the ball from Japan to California to spoon a catch to the leg side... it was more embarassing in the second innings, allowing the ball a free-pass to the top of the stumps. Hilfy would've been happier if KP had played and missed it, but KP rather chose the charitable method.

Lord's Lord's Lord's Lord'!!!
Wooooo...
Lord's...
I always say, Lord's is a very boring pitch... It never assisted the pacers as much you would want to on an English pitch. I guess the Ashes demanded the change...and the pacers did have a say. Cook and captain Strauss put on a good partnership up the order, without which their batting card looks like uncooked spaghetti fallen on the floor... raw, incomplete and not-good-enough. Andersen and Onions combined to knock off the Australians for a small total and in quick time, just about 60 overs... Only Huss with a gritty 51 could hold his held high. With some quick runs on the board, Australia were set a target of 522 with two days to play. Too big a task for the Australians... If chasing a 400+ is like walking on water, surviving two rain-less days is like swimming in thin air. So, the moment called for a hero, and there he was - Andreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeew Flintoff! A five-for gave England the go-ahead in the series and the Australians were left with themselves to blame.

NeWs - KP got injured. Hurt his ankle and hurt it real bad... gonna miss the rest of the series for sure...
A rainy test at Birmingham with Jimmy's five-for and some batting blitz by Freddie and Pup, and some good swing bowling from Hilfenhaus gave the crowd something in exchange for the money they spent on the tickets.

Still 1-0.
Still, an unfinished mission, for Australia...the Ashes was leaving their grips.
Still, an uncomplete task, for England...the Ashes was not grabbed with both hands yet...

Flintoff will miss the fourth match due to sore knee. Harmy will fill in.

Heading to Headingly, with heads up, Australia knocked off the English heads, who sported four ducks in their batting order. Skittled for 103, thanks to five-for by Siddle, Australia galloped on the contributions by watson, Punter, North and Pup to gain a lead of 343 which England failed to erase and hence gift a series levelling victory to the Australians, who did their homework on their bowling. Ben, Mitch and Siddle all came good in the test. Stuart Clark had a decent game with the ball and an electrifying game with the bat.

Its going to be a crunch game at The Oval, England wanting a victory, Australia wanting to book a cupboard for the urn...

This was surely the best game of the series, for both the cricket played and for whatever was at stake...
Freddie was back in the team to play his last (sniff) test, retirement decision owing to his fitness.
SO, here we go...
First the Englishmen put up a total, from which one couldn't predict the victor easily. (PS: this innings saw Jimmy Andersen's dream run with the bat end.. he scored his first duck in tests... He holds the record for most innings without a duck on a trot since debut. ) But once the Englishmen took the ball in their hands, they had fire in their eyes and gave back the Australians a taste of their own medicine and skittled them for a paltry 160 odd... Now, the match seemed to be heading somewhere, if not into Strauss' kitty, still a lot to be played... When someone told the debutant filling in middle order batsman, Johnathan Trott, that he will be playing the game of his life, you bet he was listening...and he delivered the knock out punch that the English side needed to give to the Australians. Nearly 7 sessions to play...you may have the time, but you can't reach the touch line... Its like having a candy in the hand, but having a burnt tongue... you just can't help these situations... praying for rain was useless... I saw an Australian fan put up a big chart beaming 'Only coward pray for rain' when the Australians were pressing England in the first test. I can only guess where that bloke was during the last match... getting back to the match. the Australian top order tried...tried hard...to delay the inevitable... they were out of ammo, and then they fell. Harmy and Swann crafted the victory like tigers hunting their prey...surrounding them and attacking.

England win the series 2-1, and get back the prized possession - the urn! Never in history had a burnt piece of wood ash had so much recognition. Viva la test cricket!

Wait a min... the ODI series...
Oh yeah! the English team were too busy celebrating their test victory that they forgot to play ODI cricket... they huffed and puffed and couldn't blow the Australians down!

they lsot the first game, lost the second game, the same with third, ditto with fourth, and fifth and same in sixth!!!! 6 in a row!!! That got Australia back from fourth position to first in ODI rankings!!! A victory in the last game helped England peg Australia back to second place on that list, but England achieved nothing out of the series.

I hadn't been following the series much, so please visit http://www.cricinfo.com/engvaus2009/engine/series/345967.html vor the details of the seires..

Was also busy with some personal work during the tri series in New Zealand, which India won in some style against SL in the finals, having lost to the same team in a pathetic fashion a couple of days before the finale... New Zealand seemed to be the side looking for help in all departments.
The series saw the return to form of Sachin and Harbhajan for India.
Follow the seires on http://www.cricinfo.com/compaq/content/series/403358.html

Coming up next - Champions Trophy from South Africa.
This is an important series because SA, AUS, IND and SL will be trying to reach the numero uno spot on the ODI table, while England Pakistan will be trying to restore some lost pride. WI will like to see what they are worth and New Zealand will look for some answers out in the open.

Summer in Isles

Bangladeshfor once believed they could finally do it... Get an ODI and test series victory over a much better team than Zimbabwe. They were helped by the fact that the whole of recognized WI team decided to protest against the board contract and hence Bangladesh would be playing a team which may arguably be even worse than Zimbabwe... But who cares??? Ten years down the line when a Bangladeshi kid reads 'Bangladesh beat WI', won't he be excited???

So, that fiasco happens a day before the first test and the whole Caribbean Isles are in a state of surprise... A new look, newest look team is flow in from various Isles. Floyd Reifer was named the captain, and Tino Best with 12 tests to his name was the most experienced of the playing XI which featured 7 debutants.

First test, Bangladesh, captained by Mortaza for an innings (injured in the other) steamrolled past WI, courtesy their tweakers. Second test was very much the same. So, there it was - Bangladesh blank WI 2-0.

Bangladesh's first test victory abroad, B'desh's first test SERIES victory abroad!

the ODI's had some good news - that, the WIPA decided to shake hands with the WICB. But the WICB decided to give them a good return gift by keeping them out of the ODI series! So, you know what to expect in the ODI series! A 3-0 blanking of WI by Bangladesh under Shakib-ul-Hassan's captaincy and all round brilliance.

Some dream series that.

Moving away to the region where Christopher Columbus was supposed to travel to - the subcontinent. Pakistan travel to Sri Lanka for the 3 test and 5 ODI series.

In the first and second test, Pakistan was SO much close to winning that one can just close his eyes and say, the match is over... but then there was Rangana Herath, called in for Murali who was injured. And the orthodox bowler who showed no jet-lag on arrival from his English county stint, just turned the boards around in an hour of the fourth (was it fifth???) morning, which the whole world thought was a day of formality for Pakistan to knock off those runs. Same in the second test. The match swung from one side to the other more frequent than a man eating meals. Sri Lanka had the last laugh after Pakistan failed miserably again after their superb show in the first innings. Third test was more of Sri Lanka's own test to lose... they preferred not to lose and took the series home.

The ODI series was won by Sri Lanka at the end of the third game, and then Pakistan won the other two just to make the final tally look pretty even at 3-2.

So, up next - the all important Ashes, Australia vs England 7 match ODI series, the India-Sri Lanka - New Zealand tri series and the build up to the Champions Trophy