My thoughts on the latest crossfire

This entry is in retaliation to a mail from one of my friends who other than being a good friend is a highly emotional cricket fan...
Dada with due respect to what you have achieved so far in your cricketing career, here goes...

Let us go back to 1992...How did Saurav Ganguly come into the Indian team in the first place...His dad's best friend Jagmohan Dalmiya routes him into the Indian team...Was he qualified at that time to represent India and all is a question mark! Ok we can forget all that for the brilliant victories he has brought us, in say the Natwest or Australia series of 2001 etc etc

In India we always idolise our stars so much that it is very difficult for us to let go of them even if they are not performing...If we dont wake up now, by the time it is 2007, even Bangladesh might put in a better show than us. For records, Damien Martyn was Australia's star player for Australia's India and the Pakistan series...he averaged more than 55 in the last 15 test matches he played(includig Ashes)...but they dropped him coz he didnt do well in the Ashes...Thats how Australian selectors think.

Now everyone knows abt Saurav Ganguly's fitness and fielding capacities...he is not batting as he used to do 2 years back...lets not talk abt his bowling for the time being. Now if anyone thinks he is going to last till 2007 world cup, I guess its optimism of the highest order...

Imagine a scenario without that leaked email....what do we have in the public domain

1.Saurav Ganguly was asked to reconsider his Captaincy by Greg Chappel...which is valid given the point that he is not performing.
2.Half the nation thinks he does not deserve to be in the team

Now if it hadnt been for the BCCI( as in if they had not leaked the email), if Ganguly was asked to leave capatincy, all this issue would have been settled without any fuss. Now if Jagmohan Dalmiya adds a senti angle to the story then sentimental people will only fall for it.

And most important of all my personal opinion is Cricket is NOT a Team game at all...It is ONE batsman against ONE bowler....Unlike football,where you have a team coordination in the entire 90 minutes of play. Say, if the defender is not playing well, you replace him with another...you move on...So it becomes important in cricket that the Captain needs to demand individual performance from his players...The players need to be motivated themselves...Now if our own Captain is scared of fast bowlers,cant play the rising ball, what will he ask a Kaif/Yuvraj of getting out to a rising delivery...

Having said this we Indians also have this habit of thinking great of guys who have done well in the past...Greg Chappel was a great cricketer neednt necessarily mean that he is a great coach too...his 4 yr stint in Australia was pathetic

The important thing is we are losing out on cricketers like Dinesh Mongia, Hemang Badani and I dunno who all...who could have come and represented India. maybe we can prevent another Robin Singh from losing his career.

Getting Used to the Huff and Puff of Bangalore

Every single day there is an article in the newspapers on the terrible traffic in B'lore. Corporates are complaining, NGO's are complaining, common people are cribbing but the government instead of finding solutions to this menace, is blaming the big corporates for not employing enough Kannadigas...
Ok let us look at it this way...The IT companies in Bangalore recruit from the private colleges and govt colleges in Bangalore. The state govt approved the setting up of all these pvt colleges. I am sure there must have been some "greasing the palm" mechanism happening somewhere down the lline for giving approvals to these colleges. Now to get a return on their investment the colleges must charge high fees from the students. Now whose probelm is it if non-kannadiga students happen to study in Karnataka and end up getting jobs in the IT companies here.
Lets lay that to rest. The govt sure is trying to project Mysore and Mangalore as alternatives but Bangalore is 7 million and growing.
Mumbai on the other hand is 15 million and bursting in the seams. Mumbai is spread better than B'lore and the public infrastructure is miles ahead compared to B'lore but only compared to B'lore. Let us not talk about whats lacking in Mumbai.
I miss a lot of people/things in Mumbai.
Staying alone is like a sin actually. It is so difficult to imagine watching TV alone and not being able to discuss the possibilities of the last test of the Ashes, of the loss in form of Arsenal, which movie to watch in the weekend. Things change, cicumstances change, needs change.
The Indian Express you get here in south is a distant cousin to the Shekhar Gupta edited one. But you can always read the all encompassing Hindu. I happened to read the TOI Bangalore today (Hindu was sold out in that shop at 7:50 AM, can you imagine that) and all I can say is they are still as good as they were then. But I am sure they are targeted at a different kind of people. Talking about Hindu, its as opinionated a paper as IE, maybe more.
Early mornings are really chilly here in B'lore. And the whole day remains like that - about to rain and cloudy. Having hot Poori-Aloo Masala and filter coffee in the morning makes my day. I do not know how many of you people have seen the kind of fast food joints in B'lore. they are stand-up joints (not like stand up comedians, what a PJ). You pay, give the coupon, get the food, stand and eat( Of course there are tables to keep your plates and glasses). You can see the food being made, hence its their priority to make the food neat and clean and keep the kitchen also very clean.
I stay at a place which has got a group of private colleges - Engg, MBBS, Biotech, MBA, arts...you name it, they have it. So as a result, there are a lot of eating joints near my place. You can taste typical Mallu, Tam, Gulti, Bong or Punjabi in a small lane around the college. The eating joints are infested with college students and the roads zooming with bikes. This is other than your staple diet of CCDs and Barista's and bakeries.
I am planning to move into an apartment, very close to the Barista there. About that later
Sujith

Last couple of days in Mumbai

Been a long year and 5 months here in this city now...
Now possibly no more early morning 7.45/8.10 locals to catch and then a taxi from currey road to board...
Things look like changing big time...But not the traffic...I read some weeks back that the number of vehicles in B'lore outnumber that in Mumbai...so gotta look for some place which is close to my office. then there are my friends from RECT there in B'lore...gotta catch up with them as well...
Hope I get more time to spend for myself in B'lore now
take care