Archive for category sports
Congratulation Sachin, Highest run-scorer in Test Cricket
Congratulation Sachin for another milestone in your kitty. We have been waiting for you to surpass Brian Lara for highest run scorer in Test Cricket, but due to injuries and being ‘out of form’ we have to wait for long. But this innings at Mohali was superb and whole nation along with cricket lovers from all over the world will remember it for long.
There are stones thrown at you and you turn it in to milestones.
- Sachin
Yes, for last 19 years (since I started watching cricket) you have been doing so and I wish you could do this for next 20 years too. Sadly, we know this is not possible. [ I do not want to think of that day, have not yet recovered from Ganguly's announcement to retire.]
I was not that excited to be honest.
-Sachin in an interview after breaking the record.
This is the main reason for your success besides the talent. Over many years many talented cricketers have come and gone and none have left an impact or could not last long because they could handle the success. He has not only made this country proud but lived to expectations of billion people, that itself is the biggest achievement of life. He is not just a great cricketer but the greatest sportsman this country has every seen. We are proud of you.
Football : Virginia Tech Hokies Vs Western Kentucky Hilltoppers
Finally I had the taste of ‘passion of (American) Football’ at Hokies Vs Hilltoppers game. I have been applying for lottery since the first game and as usual this time I lost it, but luckily my flatmate got a lottery and I was able to go to the game. Most of classmates had planned to go together for game but since I got ticket in the end I didn’t get a ticket with them. Luckily Wes had a spare seat next to him and I got a chance to sit with him. My knowledge of Football is not much, but I have seen enough movies to catch up with all the rules.
Lane Stadium – Home of the Hokies, Second scariest place to play (for opponents)
As usual, before the game there is tailgate – partying before the game and recharging oneself with food and drinks so he has the energy to support his team throughout the game. Its a nice place to know your group well, in class everyone is busy so there is little time to talk. Every group has its own tailgate and the number is countless, all I can say is all the area around stadium is acquired by ‘tailgaters’.
Alumni Band – before the start of the game
This was homecoming game for VT. Homecoming is welcoming back of former residents and alumni. For this game no color was specified, usually a game is declared as Maroon Effect or Orange Effect and everyone wears the same color, so we can see a flood of Orange/Maroon with slogans like Go Hokies, We support Frank Beamer, Orange/Maroon effect etc.
Fly Past before the Game
University sports is considered big here unlike India. In India we have rarely see any spectators for University Game or even for Ranji matches, but here for any game you will have a packed house. I believe this passion and popularity is the reason why Americans do so well in Olympics and other events. Popularity of the game can be gauged by the fact that there was a fly past for the game.
Game in Progress
Game started with odds favoring Hokies, as Virginia Tech is ranked highly in ACC. To understand the game we can compare it with soccer, instead of hitting the ball around and aiming for the goal, the ball is carried or passed by throwing and aim is touchdown ( getting it on opponents side). Other rules can also be compared with offsite rule of soccer. At a time we can have 11 players on the field but unlike soccer there are no substitution rules, they can have as many as 46 active players for a game. Usually teams are divided into Offence, Defense and Special team.
Half Time Celebrations
During half time we had another set of celebrations and performance. Best part of it was honoring student athlete Queen Harrison, she represented USA in Beijing Olympics and reached semifinals of 400-meters hurdles. Its really a great honor to study in same university with players like these. Homecoming King and Queen were announced too during the game.
Hokies won convincingly 27-13 and it was time for celebrations. Game was fun specially sitting with that kind of enthusiastic crowd. For complete 3 hours we sat down for just 5 minutes, rest of the time we were hooting, shouting slogans, gestures, making sound with keys and one we did Hokey Pokey too.
Can’t wait for another game!
Go Hokies!!!
Congratulation Abhinav – We are proud of you
Abinav Bindra recieving Gold Meal
Indian Nation Anthem @ Abhinav’s gold medal podium
Permanent Damage?
T20 (IPL) has already started having impact on me. Yesterday was India-Pakistan match, something that I would never miss. But when I reached home I switched on TV, saw it for 5 mins and went to sleep. A friend woke me up with a call and asked ‘you are not watching cricket?’ I replied ‘I don’t know, but I don’t find it interesting enough to keep me awake (it was 6 PM)’.
This is all because of too much cricket, but I don’t think its permanent damage, once test series starts (and Sachin is back in side) I will be back to normal.
Cricket: Then and Now
Cricket, the game of uncertainty, the game where change in wind/temperature/humidity/cloud cover can have big impact on result, the game we all love. It’s a game of strategy and planning, endurance, ability to handle pressure, ability to stay on crease for as long as possible are cheered by fans all over the world.
When Sunil Gavaskar visited out campus last year, I had one question for him, the question that has been bugging me since the arrival of T20 cricket.
Q: Is 20-twenty cricket ruining test/one day cricket? (Veetrag)
SG: No, actually it helps in improvement. The same things were said when One day cricket came into picture, people used to say that no one with watch test matches. But nothing like this happened, the playing style of crickets changed and it helped Tests. Previously test matches were mostly draws now you don’t see that many draws and most of the draws are result of bad weather. Scoring rates have changed; batsmen have started taking more risks.
Same will happen to ODIs too; now ODIs are too predictable. We know batsmen will come and hit for first 20 overs and then last 10 overs, I hope with 20-twenty we will see a change in style of playing and that would reflect someday in ODIs too.
Only concern I had was, will T20 cricket turn the classy game into ‘power game’, where to be batsmen you should have a minimum height of 6ft 2 , have a build like a bull and you should be able to pick up the ball as soon it hits the pitch and slog it into the space. T20 is such a shorter version of game that terms like cracking of pitch and reverse swing are unheard of, where the class of batsmen is measured by the number of meters ball covered in air, where the classy batsmen like Rahul Dravid and VVS Lakshman are considered as boring and senseless hitting by Ravindu Jadeja is considered great action.
Clear evidences of viewers discontent with slow scoring rate were visible during first test match at Chennai between India and SA, where Rahul Dravid’s 111 in 396 balls was considered painfully slow and commentators even went ahead to say that Dravid does not want India to win. But if we take Dravid out of that score board (along with the balls he played) it will not take rocket science to figure out that instead of a draw game we could have lost that test.
I was not much worried as T20 was not catching up, but with IPL the complete scenario is changed. I don’t care about the money that has been pumped in or the impact caused by cheerleaders, I don’t care if Chennai Super Knights win or Kolkata King Riders take the championship, I just want nice cricket action, and that should have no impact on Test/One day cricket. I guess the scene is changing now, T20 cricket has taken over and speculation of new tournaments like EPL and PCL are indication that test cricket will be pushed aside someday. Only hope that I have is, people will get bored of these run feasts and will come back to classy cricket.
Aggression on the pitch
It’s Kings XI Punjab Vs Mumbai Indians , the match is over and Punjab is celebrating victory and something happens that shocked the complete cricket world, Harbhajan slaps Sreesath instead of shaking hands and wishing luck. I don’t want to discuss why this happened or why Sreesanth cried, I just want to express that I am deeply hurt and ashamed to have witnessed something like this.
Definitely this is the problem with Harbhajan, but he can’t be held completely responsible for it. BCCI and our media are also to be blamed. Looking few months back, we see Harbhajan involved in same kind of aggression and alleged racism charges. But that time the context was different, we took that matter as of ‘National Pride’ and all backed Harbhajan, it was more like war against Australia, even I posted few blogs. Should we have taken it that seriously and supported Harbhajan? Shouldn’t BCCI have punished Bhajji from their side though ICC had cleared him on benefit of doubt. Why only if proven guilty of racism he was supposed to be punished, why don’t use of derogatory language and unwanted aggression be punished.
Why only monetary punishments are given to these players, when everyone knows that 20%-30% or full match fee also does not make any impact to these players? Banning from matches can be the best solution with no appeal. Or I would say make it like football, umpires have right to give yellow/red cards and can give 1/2 match match suspension for unsporting behavior. [Geo adds here that card system is only for 'contact sports' but I feel to tackle situations like Sydney Test we have to come up with a solution.]
Boards should also not favor players as in case of Shoaib Akhtar when he hit Mohd Asif with a bat, he was given a ‘calculated set’ of match ban. Boards should be more strict and should convey the message that any player or win is not bigger than the sport.
On a personal note, incidents like not appreciating players (Rahul Dravid against Mumbai Indians @ Mumbai and Sehwag against Deccan Chagers @ Hyderabad) and Bhajji slapping Sreesanth has diminished my interest in IPL. We are the worshippers of Cricket and would love to see some qauality cricket and appreciate it and want nothing more than quality cricket.
Karting Experience
Some time back I went for Karting and it was one of the most amazing experiences of my life. Before this I had never seen a kart before, and my first reaction was ‘I will be braking with left leg!’ I was not worried about the safety as my other friends were. There were 2 set of karts, 6BHP karts – Rs. 100 for 6 laps and 10BHP karts – Rs. 200 for 6 laps. We tried with only 6BHP karts and that power was sufficient for the thrill. They allow 4 karts on the track at anytime and the best part is they have people around the track to show flags (Blue for back marker, black to disqualify, red for dangerous driving, chequered flag etc, the same as F1).
One inside the kart, all the things I know about them came handy to help me. To prevent karts from sliding during turning since they do not have differential the rear wheel lifts slightly, so I knew while turning I will not have any acceleration, so I tried the strategy of braking in straight line but very late and turn slowly with full throttle. I could see the racing line in my head by just looking at the track once and with all this I could lap two karts in my first try itself. But for my next chances I was pushed down the order and found out that I am not good at overtaking.
When I got out of the kart after first 6 laps, I was in a totally different state. There was a huge adrenaline rush because of the excitement. Geo asked me ‘How was it?’ and for 15 seconds I couldn’t answer, I don’t know what state I was in. This trip only has increased my desire to drive F1 car one day. The excitement is not about speed, I don’t know at what speed those 6BHP vehicles drives, but we are so close to the ground, we do not have fear of cornering and we experience the G force (that’s what I think, might be very less ~ 0.2G). But am sure it was more exciting that driving a bike at 100kmph.
We raced and raced till we ran out of cash, thankfully they did not accept cards otherwise we would have not come back that day. Racing was so much fun that I completely forgot about photography and didn’t take my camera out for long time (even though that day I had Cannon 350 EOS, tele-zoom lens and tripod).
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10 BHP Kart |
6 BHP Kart |
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| Track | Camera |
Bird eye view of the track @ Wikimapia
Location: Grips Go Karting, Mysore Road, next to RV College of Engineering.
It’s March
March – the month of exams, colors and most importantly start of F1 season. I waited for March since I was a kid not for the exams, but for the holidays that used to follow.
Holi was a scary thing for me; I would hide inside the house and pretend to study for my exam. I like Holi but the way people have turned it now using chemicals instead of gulal. I like to play with water, water-gun, dance around the ‘holi fire’ and going to friends places to wish and have sweets. Those days are also over, after I moved here, friends circle has shrunk, most of the people I know do now even understand the meaning of Holi.
One thing that has not changed is love for F1, every year the wait will start from season end and I will count days. This year I thought I will keep myself involved by blogging about it, reading more technical stuff, finding some answers that have been bugging me and was a bit successful too and Force India helped a bit too. Now it’s time to get serious, teams are prepared, practice has already started and in next 48 hours we will have result of first qualifying. This season promises to be much more entertaining with Alonso, Hamilton, Kimi and Massa trying to outperform each other and teams like Williams and BMW pressurizing Ferraris and McLarens to give away top spot. A lot of question going on in mind, Can Alonso bring back the magic to Renault? How much has McLaren improved after using non-ferrari-data? Kimi or Massa?… Just have to wait for 2 more days.
PS: I am thinking of some way in which I don’t have to flood everyone twitter page with my F1 tweets, any suggestion? Can we use @f1updates as BB and discuss it there, with same arrangement as we use for @infy. Can I borrow the same script?
India Down Under – Online Presentation Ceremony
Man of the tour
Harbhajan Singh – for his coolness and for proving that action speaks louder than words. He was provoked, wrongly accused, booed and ‘almost’ manhandled but still he ke
‘Cry Baby’ of the tour
Ricky Ponting – For never accepting his failure and pointing fingers to opposition after every game. For being a mastermind in wrongly accusing Harbhajan when Indian started playing well.
Rise of the tour
Ishant Sharma – for the brilliant performance in tests and ODIS and making Ponting his ‘Bunny’
Revenge of the tour
Hatbhajan getting Symonds out in both finals.
Statement of the tour
Only one team was playing with the spirit of the game – Anil Kumble
Commentator of the tour
Sunil Gavaskar – for being a commentator who spoke his heart out and always supported the right. Other commentator tried to be politically correct but he spoke what he felt and reflected the true sentiments of Indians.
Should Sachin Play in IPL?
The day IPL was announced I am worried about should Sachin play or not? Not from Sachin’s point of view but from BCCI’s. BCCI during selection of T20 WC team did not pick up the geniuses of Sachin, Sourav and Dravid as selection committee preferred ‘josh’ over experience. Now why can’t BCCi give chance to new players to show case talent? Why do they want our senior players to play and exhaust them? Those geniuses if properly preserved can play test cricket for some more time. Sachin has already expressed once that recovery time for senior players is much more than young players. Why don’t BCCI give rest to players who are already burned out because of tight calendar? I suggest that instead of using IPL as money making machine use it for talent hunt (not like reality TV).
IPL is just a 45 day event, but 40 over game, practice and travelling will surely have its toll and we don’t want to lose our Hero for BCCI’s greed.
PS: My PoV -T20 is entertaining but nothing beats test cricket.