Australia going West Indies Way????

This topic was chosen by me because of the way the Australians started to play their Cricket after the Indian Tour Last Summer..It's been a downhill for them ever since India visited and dumped them in their backyard..And this has been vindicated in the ongoing series against the South Africans,who lead the series 3 to 1 in a Five match Bi-Lateral Series...The slide started for Australia when bowlers like McGrath and Warne retired from the International scene..But the Australians didn't show any signs of dipping in their standards as the batsmen started to contribute more on a regular phase...But,The Aussies were tested by the young attack of India.And sooner the pressure started to mount on the Australian Batsmen...The Australians started to feel the plunge after last summer..Though they were able to win and even whitewash the series against West Indies,more vulnerable after retirement of Lara,it was not convincing that they had regained their touch..After the series it was against the NZ and it was a cake walk for the Australians..After winning a couple of series in succession,Aussies went on to play The Proteas with a lot of Confidence and everyone thought that ,even me,Australia will win the series for sure without any difficulty..But The South Africans,led by The Brave Greame Smith,sprung a surprise as they won the first test chasing 414 runs and this set up the series...And The Proteas found a prodigy in JP Duminy,who shattered the dreams of an Australian comeback in the second encounter...And the Aussies lost the series 2 to 1...Thereby,in bother of losing their number one spot to SA...Everyone started to feel the Aussies are no more number one and it must be either India nor SA...After the test series,Hayden bid good bye and this made the situation even more worse...Will the Australians be able to find a man of his calibre???Then came the ODI series and they lost the series even before the series got finished,which shows that the Aussies are plunging..After I witness the last match,it made me feel that the Australians were following the West Indian way of 1990,going into a slump...About a decade or a couple ago,this situation would have suited the West Indian side and how they struggled to comeback,still they didn't, after the retirement of Greats like Greenidge,Richards,Richardson,Lloyd,Haynes and many more...The West Indies were not able to fight even today in an International Arena...THis is because of the lack of bench strength...I get a feeling that The Australians doesn't have the bench strength either to replace the Retired ones...Don't know how the Australians go about coping after the retirement of Gilchrist,Hayden,the drunkard Symonds and Ponting...It would be a uphill task for the Australians to regain the top spot in ODI's,if they happen to lose against South Africa in the final ODI...I reckon that they can regain it only by playing against Bangladesh,Kenya and even NZ and WI...

ICC's Jest...

Last week,there was a great joke made by the ICC when it released a list of All Time Great Players...It was not a mistake to release the list but it happened to be a crime when Sachin Tendulkar's name was excluded from the Top Ten...In fact,he was placed at 26 in Tests Rankings and 14 in ODI Rankings..Sachin was the one who brought Indian Cricket to this level and it was because of him the game is popular and to say it was because of him the BCCI is Cash Rich...And ICC runs the game mainly because of BCCI and they afford to rate a player of Sachin's calibre below the rank of 20...What is intolerable is that Hayden,Hussey,Chanderpaul and Mohammed Yousuf are above Sachin...Hussey has not even played 50 matches in his career and is rated above Sachin,who has played more than 150 matches with a healthy average...And coming to the ICC ODI Rankings Sachin is at No.14 after Sangakkara and other Ordinary Players...To me,he is even better than Don Bradman,taking competition and media pressure into consideration...Ponting is at No.4,What a crap!!!He was such an ordinary player till the Ashes series in 2005...This rating is entirely in favour of the Australians...Ponting,Hussey and Hayden breaking into top 20...The criteria for selecting the Top 20 should be same...When Sachin was at its peak,no one was close to him...And i still remember that in those days it was Ceat Ratings,which can be easily calculated...Then,came the Reliance Ratings and everything changed...Who knows how it is calculated and on what basis..It's like the D/L Method of the ICC...Even Dravid is placed at No.30...Coming to the Bowling Department Steyn is placed above Donald...I think the ICC have gone Nuts...Whatever the rankings says,its just a like a bull shit,no one can take the laurels away from the Little Master...In the hearts of Indians,he always stays as the No.1...ICC,International Cricket Council should change its name to Idiotic Cricket Council after such a stupid Chart...

Villu...Ore Lollu....

Viilu,a Vijay starer directed by Prabhu Deva...This movie was largely expected because of this pair's success earlier...But,it disappoints...A usual Vijay film with lots of commercial elements and shot partly in abroad..The film kicks off with a song from an M.G.R. movie and the intro scene of Vijay is an Hair Raising one...Vijay does his own style of acting,Nayanthara comes and goes...At Times,Vadivelu evokes some laughter..But to say,that his comics are disappointing..Vadivelu is in the danger of his stereo typed acting...Kushboo does an item number...Almost the entire crew of Pokkiri acted in this movie...Prakash Raj as villain does his role neatly...Personally,I don't want him to do these kind of roles...Only the director should answer what was Anandhraj doing in the movie... Vijay flies from one place to an other and comes in a boat from nowhere...All these makes us feel that they have tried a Bond...On many occasions Vijay is being compared to Rajini and M.G.R...This film has a lot of identical scenes when compared to this combo's earlier movie,Pokkiri...This shows the lack of creative skills...This film also shows how amateurish the director is...The music of this film is way below par...BGM also is not up to the mark...Now,Coming to the story..I think this must be the 50,000th film in the history of cinema coming with such a story line...The story is Vijay's father being killed by a group and Vijay avenges them...This forms the story...A surprise to all when Vijay comes in a military dress..And to many,it evokes laughter than a Vadivelu comedy...If u are to go for this movie keep your brains inside the house as this movie doesn't have logic in it..On a whole,A disappointing one...


Verdict : STAY AWAY...

The Trio Of Indian Cricket..

This time it is up for me to write a blog about the Well Renowned Trio of Indian Cricket...They were the ones,who got India to fight at the bigger stage...After the retirement of the likes of Kapil and Gavaskar,these people were responsible for the fame of Indian Cricket...They are Sachin Tendulkar,Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid...But if u want me to write in the order,here goes it...Sachin,Dravid and Ganguly....This order is cause of the following Criteria:

• Most Number of Runs in Test and ODI,when aggregated...
• Most Number of matches won cause of them
  
• Most Number of Hundreds,when Combined
• Sacrifices made...

Since Ganguly and Dravid have same number of Hundreds in Both the formats,I will take average into consideration...Dravid leads in average...

Sachin Tendulkar was the man who changed the face of Indian Cricket,when Indians were going nowhere after the retirement of the yesteryear greats..He was responsible for the richness of BCCI...There was a period when everyone stops watching the match,when he gets out..There are still many who switch off the Telivision,the moment he gets out...The most celebrated individual and a great crowd puller...To my knowledge,he was the only batsman who dominated the bowlers all over the world,at least for once...He is,now,the highest scorer in both ODI and Test matches..To read more about Tendulkar,read my other blogs...

The next man in my order is Rahul Dravid...I still remember the first match he played...He scored 95 at Lords against the Poms in1996...He was considered as the replacement of Sanjay Manjerekar cause of his technique....Dravid has grown well as a batsman if u compare him in earlier years with today...At the beginning of his career,Dravid was a batsman with immense skills without aggressiveness...Hence,he was dropped from the team especially in ODI's..He was not a regular feature in ODI's...But,he improved himself as a batsman with good Technique and aggression..His comeback into the ODI's was against New Zealand in their own Backyard...Thereafter,there is no turning back for this man..He went from strength to strength and made sure that he cemented his place in both the formats of the game...Dravid was nicknamed "THE WALL" after his brilliant knock against the Australians in 2001 at Kolkata...His tenure with V.V.S.Laxman was the turning point of that series...He was considered the wall because he would never give away his wicket easily to the opponents...He was one of the batsman who was responsible for a victory against Australia in Australia in 2004...After Tendulkar,this guy was the one who has done a lot of sacrifice for Indian Cricket..Though Tendulkar's sacrifices were off the field and also sometimes on the field,this man's sacrifice is fully on the field..Whenever he was asked to keep wickets,he did it...Opening or number three or number five,he batted according to his team's desire...We don't see many changing their batting place but this man does it with utmost ease,just for his team...To me,he is the best batsman in Test Cricket after Sachin because of his Endurance,Solid Technique,Commitment and also for his Never-say-die attitude...Though he is out of sorts these days,I believe firmly that he would comeback strongly in the next series...

Coming to Sourav Ganguly..He also made his debut against England in the same match that of his mate Rahul Dravid...Ganguly made a century against The English at Lords...It is always an special moment to score a century at The Lords...He was the most elegant off-side Player and is also,till now,considered as the God Of Off-Side...This guy made a bright start to his international career...It was in 1998 that he teamed up with Sachin for the opening slot and proved his worth...Both were considered deadly because of Right-Left Combination and these two happened to be the best opening pair ever produced by India in ODI's...Ganguly also has many aliases like The Prince of Calcutta,Dada etc...Ganguly,right from his debut,was depending on his timing...His sixes would be huge cause of the timing at which it is produced...On song,Ganguly would caress any bowler...But,right from the young age ,he was vulnerable towards short length deliveries...He really doesn't know to face those stuffs from the quickies...More than his batting,Ganguly was known for his captaincy...He was the one who salvaged India from going into a slump after the Match Fixing Scandal...He was the one who instilled youth blood into the team and Captained India to 2003 World Cup Final...He also made a roaring comeback into the side after he was dropped because of continuous failure...He was also hailed as the comeback man,when he received four MoM awards continuously...But,only disappointing feature of Ganguly's batting is that he would Play for Himself(Selfish Cricketer)...This could be witnessed by seeing his batting...He also would have head above his shoulders because of continuous victories in his tenure as the captain...And not to take credit away from him,he is the best captain India has ever produced,when taking Number of Victories and Percentage of Winning into Consideration...


These were the three who took India to a Greater height...

Abhiyum Naanum..WOW!!!!!

This movie happens to be one of the best movies I've watched in recent times...The story revolves around a Father and a Daughter played by Prakash Raj and Trisha respectively....The Story begins with Prakash Raj walking in a cold winter at Ooty and happens to meet a father playing with his Daughter..This father role is well enacted by Prithviraj,a leading actor in Malayalam and an upcoming in Tamil Cinema...It is such a small role but a vital one..I bet with anyone that such role would have never been considered by the contemporary Tamil Heroes...Kudos to Prithvi....Prakash Raj meets Prithvi and starts telling his father-daughter relationship and how one has to bear all the pains caused by daughters...The way the movie moves is Fantastic..This movie had a right mix of Emotion,Sentiment,Comedy and most importantly,after a long time,it had a story...And Father of all surprises is that this movie doesn't have a single fight..Good feeling to see a Tamil movie not having Dishum-Dishum....Trisha does her role neatly...Prakash Raj,most of the times,with his facial expressions and way of delivering dialogues evokes laughter and plays a role of a responsible father...The roles played by Manobala as a hunched man,the beggar,could not find his name, Ganesh Ram as a Sardar and Thalaivasal Vijay do justice to their roles...This is the kind of movie that Tamil Cinema needs...And finally,Kudos to the director,Radha Mohan,for coming with such an excellent movie...

Verdict:Must Watch...

Best Moments of Indian Cricket

There are certain big and great moments in Indian Cricket which we cherish for...There seems to be a lot of happy moments on and off the fields which we can't afford to forget so easily..I thought of some and here it is...

• The First moment that comes into mind when we think of great moment is the 1983 World cup...Indians were underdogs going into the final against the mighty West Indies...I learnt from various sources that On the eve of the match,News Papers carried the headlines as A match between David and Goliath...But,Indians awestruck the West Indians by their gritty nature and won the World Cup for the First Time....
  

• The incident which happened in the 1996 world cup at Bangalore against Pakistan between Prasad and Sohail happens to be the best moment to have seen by me...And even if i think of it today,there will be goose bumps...I still remember it happened in the 14th over of the match when Sohail struck an excellent four on the off side and shows a gesture with his bat to Prasad that he would strike him again,if he bowls the same delivery and the very next delivery was a striking reply from the bowler by ripping his stump off and this made each and every Indian proud...And Prasad was known for this incident than his bowling...

• In the same match stated above,None can forget Jadeja's brilliance with the bat...He made every bowler felt that he was just another bowler...Waqar's yorker were famous those days and to hit a six off the yorker needs more brilliance...Jadeja had it and scored massively in the final overs against Waqar and seemed unstoppable...The Indians were already celebrating the victory even when the first ball being bowled in the second innings,thanks to Jadeja...
  

• First time 300 runs scored by India against the Pakistanis is yet another one...Indians were 280 odd runs in the 48th over and Azhar was out of form in that series and he was persuaded and pushed by Sachin to bat during that circumstance...And Azhar was at his aggressive best and he smashed a bowler named Atta-ur-Rahman for 24 runs in the final over and helped India go past the 300 Run mark for the first time...
  

• None can forget the onslaught of Sachin on Warne in 1996 and then in 1998...I still remember that in 1996 Warne said that he would rip off Tendulkar by his spin and get him cheaply...But,what happened at chepauk in 1996 was a rip off for Warne...He was smashed all round the parts by Sachin and Warne couldn't just control him...So,he started to bowl negative line for Sachin but couldn't contain the Genius...Those who witnessed this blitzkrieg will never ever forget in their life time...

• The next unforgettable moment again is the incident involving the Bombay Bomber Sahin Tendulkar...It was again the Australians who were on the other side...It was the Sharjah cup in 1998...India need some 250 runs off 40 overs to get into the finals and Sachin played a blinder and made us to the Final...He scored 143 runs in 120 deliveries...Next comes the final,Sachin did not stop,he continued from where he had left the other night...Bowlers couldn't stop him scoring,though there were great bowlers like Warne,Fleming,Kasprowicz..He was lethal on them that day...And as a Sachin Fan and a Indian Fan,none can forget this...

• 1999 World Cup in England was not well known for India's March but for a partnership between Ganguly and Dravid,where they amassed 300 runs for the second wicket against Sri Lanka...It was the first time ever in the history of ODI a Partnership has accumulated such huge runs...

• It was in 2001 at Kolkata against the Australians,where India won a match from nowhere...Indians were asked to follow on by the Aussies and they paid the money for it...It was only the third occasion a team asked to follow on won a match...This sounds impossible but it did happen...The Protagonists being V.V.S.Laxman and Rahul Dravid..They played an entire day and made sure that Indians crossed the follow on mark and had a lead more than 300 runs...Laxman scored a flawless 281 and Dravid played a brilliant knock of 180...Harbhajan made sure that the knocks of the two doesn't go in vain by his Brilliant Bowling...
  

• The other incident which comes across my mind is the Natwest Final in 2002 in England..Indians were chasing a target of more than 300 runs..To be Precise,327 runs...As Indians were known as the Chokers in Finals,none thought they would chase this mammoth total...As their Tag Line"CHOKERS" suggested,Indians were 100 runs for the loss of 4 wickets losing all Big Guns and it was up to the youngsters Kaif and Yuvraj to help them make a respectable total..But the youngsters jelled well and made the Victory possible by their talent,endurance and confidence..

• 2003 World cup was also a memorable for the Indians where they went up to finals but couldn't seal it off..But,it was an entertaining WC...

• Sehwag scored a massive 300 runs against the Pakistanis at Multan in 2004 and this was the first time an Indian crossing such a mark...He did it again in 2008 against SA at Chennai...Thereby being the only Batsman after Don and Lara to have scored 2 300's..
  

• Ganguly's comeback in the team could also never been forget by anyone...He was dropped from the team following the spat between Chappel Greg..He made a roaring come back into the side and cemented his place with great ease...He,too,won four man of the match in row after his comeback...

• The year 2007 began as a bad year for Indian Cricket as they had a early exit in the World Cup but the latter part of the year proved to be fruitful...Indians won the inaugural T20 World Cup under the captaincy of Dhoni at South Africa...This was totally unexpected from the young guys,who made it to the squad...The euphoria after the team won the world cup was inexplicable...IT was a great moment for Indian Cricket after the 198 World Cup...Both the winning sides possessed identical similarities...Both were treated as Underdogs in the beginning but ended on a high note...It was the moment to cherish for by each and every Indian...

• The other big thing that happened in T20 World Cup was the Six massive 6's struck by Yuvraj in an over off Stuart Broad...This blast comes as an anger towards Flintoff,who had a chat with him in the middle of the overs,but Broad Paid for Flintoff...
  

• The next big thing that happened in Indian Cricket was the triumph in Australia...The squad for this series had a bunch of youngsters by dropping Ganguly and Dravid...Everyone thought that this team would struggle against the Australians and would be packed before reaching the finals...But,the fortunes turned on the side of Youngsters accompanied by Sachin and won the series for the first time in Australia...
  

These are some of the moments that came to my mind....

Worst moments of Indian Cricket...

The Indian Cricket has faced with a lot of criticism in the past few years,but there are really worst moments which do happen in Indian Cricket...This blog of worst moments encompasses in and off the field moments of Indian Cricket and also the worst moments which are never regrettable and unforgettable by the People of India...

Some of the worst moments are elaborated under:

• The First Moment which comes to my mind when blogging about the worst moments is The 1996 World Cup Semi Final against SriLanka in Kolkata,formerly called Calcutta...Indians were having the match in hands till the departure of Sachin...At that point,Indians were 90 odd for the loss of a Wicket and was collapsed to 120 for the loss of 9 wickets..This screwed up the Calcutta crowd and they started throwing stones,bottles,fired Papers which led to the abandonment of match and India exited from the World Cup with a knock out punch from the Lankans...I still remember a player named Kambli Cried over this outing...This also happens to be the first match seen by me...

• The other incident which comes across my mind was the one which happened in England in 1996...There was a feud between Sidhu and Azhar,Captain,then...Azhar won the toss and elected to bat...Sidhu padded up for one down and was waiting for his turn to play...After the openers got into the middle Azhar asks to Sidhu,"Why u are padded up???you are not playing this match" and this was irritating for Sidhu to hear...And in anger he threw up his pads and packed his clothes and flows back to India without obtaining any approval neither from the Management nor the BCCI..This was a shame for Indian Cricket...
  

• The next moment which the People of India couldn't digest even today is the test match against the Pakistanis at Chennai in 1999...Indians were chasing a target of 271 Runs and they almost made it with the help of Sachin,who scored 136 invaluable runs with a cramp on his bag...On various occasions he had Pain Killers between the overs...And because of cramp,he could not play any longer and started to call on for the shots...He was going well with the shots until the one which he mishit a Saqlain's delivery,when India needed another 15 runs and three wickets in hand... The Other players failed to capitalise the start given by him and Indians lost the match by 12 runs...This match still haunts the memories of millions,if they think of it...

• 1999 world cup in England was also the worst moment of Indian Cricket as they were packed in the second round..

• Indians have a worst record held by any team in the finals..Indians were considered to be chokers in the finals as they won only a handful of matches in Finals...

• Indians also have a record of having two individual highest score against them of the First Three..The players being Anwar and Jayasuriya,both Southpaws,who onslaught the Indian bowling attack and were easing through the bowlers...I still remember the match in which Jayasuriya scored 189,Indians were all out for a meagre 54 runs,which was a lowest score by any team batting second,then...Though Indians had their full team they were bundled out..
  

• The match scandal in 2000 shown the ugly face of Indian Cricket...Players like Azhar,Jadeja,Prabhakar were caught in this scandal..The first two mentioned were vital players for India and everyone were dumbstruck by this saga..Even many stopped watching Cricket after this episode and made their mind that Cricket revolves only around bribery...
  

• The Indians were also facing bad times during the period of 1996-99 against the Pakistanis...India use to lose almost every match against Pakistan...Not only a ordinary loss but also big ones...

• Indians went into 2003 World Cup with a lot of hopes...Won the first match against Holland with difficulty and lost a match to Australians convincingly...This loss made the Public angry towards the players and they broke the house of players and burnt their effigies on the way to their protest...This was seen by the world for the first time..It was such a barbaric incident ever to have happened...

• After the tenure of John Wright,it was Greg Chappel...This is where all the confusion began in Indian Cricket...Until the intro of Chappel,everything was going well for Indian Cricket...It was cause of Chappel,there was a difference between the players like Seniors and Juniors and he was sole responsible for terminating Ganguly's Captaincy and was the the worst coach India have ever had..He was such a non-sense to the Players...

• None can forget the spat between Ganguly and Dravid..It was a sign of the intro of Chappel...Ganguly was dropped from the side cause of Chappel and he was helped to an extent by Dravid to retain his post of Captaincy...

• The worse moment for Indian Cricket came in 2007 World Cup in West Indies with their first round exit..They lost against Bangladesh and Sri Lanka and made their way back to India, where they were given a hostile reception from the Public...And this exit made every Indian ashamed and were haunted like anything before...

These were some of the moments which came across my mind and their might be many before 1996 and also more after 1996,which I might have forgotten and any worst incident which comes across my mind Iwould add it to this blog...