In my lifetime ... !!

Yes. Something I cringed for every 4 years. Prayed that I could see India win the World Cup when I was alive. And its here.

Its quite a common Indian trait to own something special that has happened. As in this case, I said "And its here". It sounds like I myself made it possible. Its not. But thats why I say we tend to own it. And why not?

One thing that binds the entire country. Cricket.

I am quite infamous for my boasting (did someone say Fudkya?). And here comes another. Being a pious Indian supporter, I have this tendency of supporting the team no matter what. While it was obvious during the league stages that we were far away from the great quality of cricket that we usually play, (and I knew this), I somehow still couldnt bitch about the team. After the South Africa game, I had boastfully written that this would be India's last defeat of the tournament which meant that we will win the Cup. Honestly, it was nothing more than a boast, sheer optimism for a lot of people. But I am like that. Someone will really need to convince me to bad mouth my country. And that someone has still not been conceived.

It was not the most ideal World Cup for me as a spectator. I was on leave during the 2nd week of the tournament wherein I caught the India-England and India-Ireland games but for the remainder I was a hassled individual. Working late in office and setting off early in the morning.

The first real sign of India gaining momentum was against the West Indies when we were going through the motions only to take 8 quick wickets to win and set up a mouth watering QF against 3 time defending champions Australia.

Back in office, having been aware that we have been set 261, I thought it will be a tough chase. When I left office, we were 5 down and we were still 70 odd runs adrift. I was going home in my car, one of those rare days when I get a car to office. I am a bit superstitious in the sense that I feel India does not play well when I am watching. Sounds absurd. So as soon as Dhoni was out, I decided I will drive ever so slowly so as to reach home after the match is over.

Sounds simple aint it? Far from it. Even after convincing myself to do so, I was so inquizitive trying to pick up signs on the road. With a TV shop frequenting me every now and then I was trying to make out things. A crowd of 10-12 people watching the game with great intensity. What does that mean? They are not even looking at each other. Does that mean we lost another wicket? A traffic signal had very few vehicles. The next had some more. Does that mean we lost a wicket and more people have switched off and come out? No. Please No. A lot of youngsters on the road. Why arent these guys watching the match? Another traffic signal. A Pulsar stands next to me. I want the 2 guys on this Pulsar to say something about the match. I will pay you guys. But say something. Not even a word about the match. This is killing me.

I drive for 40 minutes to reach Nimantran hotel (normally on a road as isolated as this day, it takes me 20 minutes to reach home) which is still 2 kms away. From my calculation, there are still 5-7 overs left in the game. Whats happening. I dont want to reach home and start crying if India has lost. I park my car outside Nimantran. And curiosity gets to me. I switch on my cell and head to cricinfo. 28 required of 35 balls with 3 boundaries in the last 7 balls and still just 5 down. Thats it. No more waiting. As I slam the first gear, Raina hits a SIX off Lee. I covered the last 2 kms in less than 2 minutes. And rushed home. Ravi Shastri exults "He has nailed it through the covers". Yuvi almost does his own version is the Sajdah midpitch. Raina embraces him and sparks off huge celebrations. Lots of things happen. Punter eats the humble pie and gives up captaincy. But more importantly, its India-Pakistan in the Semis. HUGE ... !!

Same old story. There is a mail circulated in office to assemble at 2:20 for the National Anthem. We get Poster Paints and color people's with the tri-color by lunchtime. People wearing India jerseys (those who had it). Others had to wear Blue atleast. I was one of them. National Anthem at 2:25. Goosebumps. Sehwag starts like a train on fire. Pakistan respond. Typical India-Pakistan match. They drop the GOD several times and finally when he goes for 85, there are some who celebrate. Wonder why? I ask them why are you celebrating. Pop comes the reply. "Come on. Be a patriot. He fell short of his century. We win." I smile sarcastically. But still hoping that it comes true. Anything for an Indian win.

The tension starts getting to me. I decide to play TT to release the tension. The TV is adjacent to the TT table. Hafeez and Akmal start briskly. When will the first wicket fall? Not with me watching the match. Well if its a hoodoo, then lets try it methinks. I rush upstairs. Shove my bat in the drawer and head home. This time I am glued to my cell.

43/0. Crap. This aint meant to be this easy. I fiddle around and almost drop my cell on the road. "Akma falls after brisk start" exclaims Cricinfo. We are in it. I reach home to find them at 52/1. Run rate was not bad. Shafiq and Hafeez look confident. Hafeez plays a T-20-final-Misbah shot and gets out. 2 down. 8 to go. I am not going anywhere. Shafiq and Younis start stitching a partnership. Why? Why? My demons are coming back to haunt me. I cant watch it anymore. There is a huge screen put up in the society. So I have to get away from that too. I force Biwi to come with me even though she wants to see the match. We walk for hardly 200 steps from the society gate and huge roar. Shafiq bites the dust and in some time Younis follows suit. We are back home. Umar Akal sams Yuvi for a four and 2 sixes. I am back out. But it does not last long. Bhajji takes out Akmal. I am back home. Munaf takes out Razzaq. You wonder where is Afridi and the Powerplay. But Misbah is taking care of India :). Afridi hits a few. Misbah hits one. Its happening again. I start feeling twitchy. Mom says "Arent you supposed to be out"?. I nod. I walk into the night. No roars. Whats happening? Pin drop silence for well over 15 minutes. And finally its here. A huge roar. Afridi goes. But I am not going up so soon. Again, a period of no roars. Wahab Riaz and Gul are also out. They are 9 down. Surely, India wins now, right? I run back home. And Misbah hits 3 in a row off Zak. I almsost do a McEnroe "You cannot be serious". He hits Munaf for a Six next over. Good Lord. What made me come back? Off I go again. Praying that the last over should not have a target of less than 20. Its 30. 30 off 6 balls. I am convinced that India can bowl atleast 2-3 good balls. I go up again. Dot ball. Dot ball. Dot ball. Dot ball. Out. Huge celebrations. Its India vs Sri Lanka in a dream final at Mumbai. One win away. First World Cup won ;)

The Big Final. Super Saturday. I convince myself that I will watch every ball come what may. We are at my in-laws place. I had taken 4 chilled bottles of Canon for me and my father-in-law "khoob jamega rang" style. India start off well. Its almost like a wall on the off side. Lanka cant penetrate Yuvi, Raina and Kohli. But Mahela plays a blinder and Perera ends in style. 275. Stiff. But possible. Malinga takes out Viru and SRT. Curtains? For once, I decide to stay put. Biwi and Saas-Sasur have had it. They move to the balcony for some TP. I am all alone watching the Finale. Believe. Believe. We need to be 7 down to lose this match. Until then ... Believe. We surely cant lose this. When will we be in a Final again. I woudlnt have taken a loss. Besides, Rajnikanth was in the building. No way we are going to lose. The Totkas were running around everywhere.

Kohli and Gauti steady the innings. And Dhoni stamps his authority. What an innings for a big match. I start my "one-up" chatter with my in-laws. I am on a rampage about India. Dhoni dumps the ball in the stands to win the Cup. Lay down the red carpet. Start blowing the trumpets. Let the booze flow. I get some more beer, call up relatives and the plan for Sunday is done.

The scenes at the stadium were unreal. WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS ... THE MIGHTY MIGHTY CHAMPIONS ... !!

Yes ... in my lifetime ... !!

Cheers ... !!

Ultra Dumb Reaction Syndrome ... !!

It happens ... happens quite a lot ... and it goes into the bracket of "It happens ony in India" ...

OK ... so much has already been said of the UDRS decision going against India in their match against England. For starters ... we need to move on ...

Maybe, it has become such an issue because India was involved. It is very likely too that it is more so because we could not defend 338 and even more so coz after being outplayed by England, we somehow got the grip back only to tie the match ... so are we running away from the reality once again?

Well lets first see what the UDRS means? It stands for Umpire Decision Review System. According to this, each team gets 2 reviews per 50 overs. So each team gets 2 reviews in the first 50 overs as well as 2 reviews in the next 50 overs. The UDRS essentially tells you about 3 things ...

One ... whether the ball pitched in line and not outside the leg stump ...

Two ... whether the ball is hitting the pads in line and not outside the line of off stump ...

Three ... whether the ball is hitting the stumps after impact with the pads ...

In addition to these, the UDRS checks if its a legal ball by verifying if its a NO-ball ...

Now there is a catch ... if the Third Umpire is not sure even after reviewing ... he may ask the on-field umpire to stay put and keep the decision unchanged

... lets see the following examples ...

Lets say a batsman was given Not Out and the bowling side asked for a review ... now the Third Umpire got an affirmative response for the 3 points mentioned ... I mean the ball pitched in line, hit the batsman in line and was also hitting the stumps ... but it was hitting the outside of leg stump ... in such a case the Third Umpire will ask the on-field umpire to keep his decison unchanged since there was a minute chance of it hitting the stumps ... so the on-field umpire keep his decision unchanged ... had it been hitting the middle stump instead ... it would have been a reversal of decision ...

Imagine the same scenario with the exception that the batsman was given Out by On-field umpire and the Batsman calls for a review ... even in this case the Third Umpire will inform the on-field umpire that the ball is hitting the outside of leg stump ... so you decide ... and hence the on-field umpire does not change his decision and the Batsman is Out ...

This is where I agree to what Dhoni says ... how fool-proof is this UDRS? If it is still going to let the on-field umpires make the decision then you are forced to question the credibility of such a system ... however I do not agree to one point of Dhoni ...

Even with the fallacies of UDRS, it is still enabling the game to have fairer decisions as compared to previous times ... for example, a huge inside edge can be detected by the eye (this is very important) and the batsman can be saved from a howler ...

This brings me to the next point ... why is this UDRS half-baked for an event as big as the World Cup ... where is the Snickometer? where is Hot Spot? If you are going to use technology, you bloody well use it in its entirety and dont get installments of it out ... a very faint inside edge for lbw or for a Caught-Behind cannot be detected by the naked eye ... you need a Snicko and Hot-Spot for that ... and the reason given for this is Money ... good lord ... if the ICC (or should I say the BCCI) cannot arrange money for a Snicko and Hot-Spot who will? Its almost laughable ... how come folks in Australia are using it on a normal basis ... even in domestic cricket?

And finally, there is this 2.5 metre rule which I guess 99% of the people did not know ... I dont think even the ICC knew about it ... so what is this rule?

It states that if the impact of the ball with the pads is more than 2.5 metres away from the stumps (which means that either the batsman has had a huge stride forward or he has danced down the wicket), then the Third Umpire informs the on-field umpire of this and then the on-field umpire has to think again and make a decision ... in most cases ... a 2.5 metre distance most definitely means that the ball has a long distance to go before hitting the stumps and its highly improbable that it will hit the stump coz the bounce may take the ball above the stumps ... quite true ... but as an umpire, you have to think about a lot of things before giving a decision ... the current state of the pitch, the angle from which the bowler bowled that particular delivery, the pace of the delivery, was it a particular kind of delivery (a yorker, full toss, good-length ball, doosra, off break, leg break, skidder?) ... lots of things which may not give a correct decision ...

This is exactly what happened in the India-England game ... Ian Bell was given Not-Out by the on-field umpire and India reviewed ... the review showed that the ball was pitching in-line, hitting in-line and going to hit the middle and off stump half way up ... but the impact was more than 2.5 metres away from the stumps ... so the Third umpire may have said to the on-field umpire that it has 2.5 metres to go ... if that is what he said indeed then its a problem ... probably a message should have been sent to the on-field umpire that despite being 2.5 metres ... its hitting the stumps only half way up which means that it didnt make a difference if it was 2.5 metres away ... it was still not a boundary decision ... and it should have been given Out ...

That's that ... did it change the course of the game? Maybe ... Maybe not ... Ian Bell did go on to play a match winning innings ... but then thats just food for thought ...

The reaction in the media and within the Indian team was appalling ... Dhoni giving out statements in the press was most uncalled for ... poor Ian Bell was being grilled for no fault of his own ... after all he did not give that decision ... if anything Dhoni should look at himself ... there was 2 instances where Strauss nicked to Dhoni but there was no appeal ... if they would have appealed maybe Strauss would have been on his bike ... the field placements were downright ugly ... England picked a boundary per over with utmost ease ... if it hadnt been for Strauss's shocker to have the batting Powerplay in the 43rd over ... it would have been curtains for India ... Dhoni wad forced to keep an attacking field in the Powerplay and it brought India back into the game ... lots of stuff for India to think ... they better look at themselves before giving this UDRS thing too much attention ... but then again I aint a cricketer ... I am sure Dhoni knows what he is doing and he does not need any advice ... at least not from a non-cricketer ...

Then there is the media ... I have come to the point of hating Arnab Goswami ... you put him in any Newshour Debate and he brings some pre-conceived ideas and keeps putting his point across while embarassing himself as well as Times ... that too in front of legends like Barry Richards ... come on guys ... move on ... how can you say something like "Did Billy Bowden's (the on-field umpire who gave Bell Not out) ego stop him from giving a correct decision?" ... ridiculous ... how can you state if it was a correct decision or not? There is this so called Cricket historian Boria Majumdar ... well this guy is good ... he has a lot of Cricketing knowledge but still ... you put your opinion forward and move on ... dont be hell bent on proving your point when it is clear that the debate has no proper conclusion ...

Lets enjoy the World Cup ... it will have its low points for an Indian spectator ... but its still a spectacle ... if anything then this match was a cracker for a cricket buff ... its been years since I saw a cricket match from the first ball to the last and it ended in a tie ... more than 675 runs in a day ... what more do you want?

I am quite sure India will come out all guns blazing in their next matches ... they were caught off-guard by a resurgent English team ... but who's to say that we still cannot win the Cup? I wouldnt ... as long as we keep our focus on the game ...

Go India ... !!

Cup tales ... !!

They say it does not take a lot of effort for Indians to provide advice ... and Cricket rules the roost in here ...

The mother of all Cricketing events is here ... THE WORLD CUP ... and no matter how much you hate Cricket, you cannot escape being engulfed in this phenomenon ... you will at least have to ignore it ... ;)

Every Cup has a tale ... and I feel privileged to have grown up in an era when Cricket craze was at an all time high ... the mid 90s and early 2000s ... but

when did it all start?

I was just a year old when India brought home the World Cup in 1983 ... so I was not even aware of what it was or what it meant ... today when I speak to my father, he says that Yes ... it was quite a happy atmosphere all over India during that time but still people did not feel it was a big deal ...

My first teeny tiny memory of the World Cup was of 1987 ... I wont say I distinctly remember everything ... but I do remember the India-NZ match at Nagpur when Chetan Sharma got a hat-trick and Gavaskar got his only ODI hundred ... he had totally shunned his drop-anchor image and blasted Sir Richard Hadlee and others for a brisk 100 ... even Krish Srikkanth was only a spectator ... imagine ... I remember it more coz it was probably one of the few matches in which the Man of the Match was shared between 2 players ...

I also remember my father getting very angry when India lost the semis to England ... as the experts very fondly said ... Gooch sweeps India out of the World Cup ... but I was still very naive even to understand what it meant to win or lose a Cricket match in the World Cup ... I remember it more for our home being flooded by gully-waalas to see every match ... the days of the TV antenna ...

My first real World Cup experience was in 1992 ... I was in the 4th Grade and I was a totally fanatic Indian supporter (I still am) and I had participated in Scouts and there was this All-Pune Scouts associations meet on the opening day of World Cup 1992. India was playing England at Perth that day. Scouts participants from Schools from all over Pune had marched till Dastur High School just to be part of the event. This was very early in the morning and there were no TV shops open too so as to check the score. So I was missing it bigtime. By the time all this got over and my father came to school to pick me up, the England innings was already over. I guess they got 230 odd. By the time I reached home, India had lost the top order and SRT and Pravin Amre were trying to get India out of the hole. SRT looked on track until a Botham beauty ended his innings ... and India fell short by some 20-30 runs ... not the most ideal beginning ...

This Cup had several memories ... Pakistan being all out for 70 odd against England only for the rain to intervene and give both teams 1 point each ... this 1 point enabled Pakistan to make it to the semis ... Jonty Rhodes' acrobatic run out of Inzy ... India's teary 1 run loss to Australia ... the emergence of SRT and BCL ... South Africa's re-entry to international cricket albeit a very sad end to their campaign by Messrs Duckworth and Lewis ... Martin Crowe using Dipak Patel as an effective opening bowler which saw the Kiwis go right uptil the semis ... but my best memory is of the India-Pakistan match at the SCG ...

India and Pakistan had never squared up against each other before in a World Cup ... so this match was going to be rough and tough ... India were still suffering from Aquib Javed's 7/37 (including a hat-trick) at Sharjah ... and we did not put up a huge total ... it was around 225 ... thanks mainly to SRT again ... I remember coming home when Pakistan's reply was about to start ... and we got some quick wickets ... but it was going to be Miandad, Imran and Malik who were going to be thorns ... Javed was nursing an injury but was still playing (come on ... it was against India) ... but he was playing very slowly... Imran came and went ... I guess he was stumped ... Prabhakar took out Malik with a trademark banana ball ... and Javed finally fell to the rising Srinath ... there was this Kiran More-Javed tussle too which was great to watch ... everyone remembers this incident but something that not a lot of people remember is the way Azhar got angry ... you seldom saw Azhar lose his cool but so much was at stake ... India won against the actual winners ... the 1992 Jersey was by far the best Jersey that any Indian team wore ...

In 1996, there was a lot of hype for the World Cup ... I remember Sony being one of the upcoming channels and they ran a special pre-cursor to the event

hosted by Harsha Bhogle called The Final Countdown (it also had the same song :)) ... I remember lot of experts voicing their opinions about who will win the World Cup and there was one man who said Sri Lanka ... that was Sir Richard Hadlee ... he said Jayasurya and Kaluwitharna alone can win the Cup for them ... well a lot of other players (and teams ;)) put their hand up for the Lankans and it was great to see them defeating Australia at Lahore ...

I was in the 8th Grade during this time and the TV room at Lunn Dorm was abuzz every day for any match ... Mr Guzder used to be very keen in knowing the scores from any boy who was emerging out of the TV room ... I remember my sister being in college at that time and her college was next to my school ... she used to pick me up specially during the World Cup so that I get to see more of the matches and waste less time travelling in a PMT bus ... I distinctly remember her screaming "Lara out ho gaya" when she came to pick me up during the India-WI match at Gwalior ...

I remember Nathan Astle getting the Kiwis past the Poms in the first match ... India starting off with a win against Kenya ... Courtney Browne dropping a sitter off SRT at Gwalior ... Manjrekar's stunning catch to dismiss Ponting ... Jayasurya and Kalu almost ending Manoj Prabhakar's career at Delhi ... Kenya upsetting the Windies at Pune ... the Proteas winning everything only to come up against Lara at Karachi and lose in the Quarters ... Heath Streak reducing India to 30 odd for 3 including uprooting SRT's off stump only for Vinod Kambli to play a blinder to rescue India ... Warne winning the semi against the Windies from a hopeless situation ... but again the cake goes to the India-Pakistan high voltage clash at Bangalore ...

So much at stake ... Wasim Akram pulled out ... SRT played an uncharacteristic innings on 30 odd ... but Sidhu played well and later it was the Jadeja show against Waqar ... but everyone was silent when Anwar and Sohail bludgeoned India in their reply ... until Sohail got out to Prasad after some pointing and sledging ... from there on it was India ... and it was a comfortable win in the end ... not the fairy tale ending that Javed was hoping to have ... and India were in the semis at the Eden Gardens ... only to lose to the Lankans ...

Switch to 1999 ... you wondered why the World Cup was played only after 3 years ... ideally it is 4 years ... now it makes sense since the venue was England and its generally held in the English summer ... waiting another year would have meant a 4.5 year wait ... I was in Junior College at this time and was enjoying the summer holidays and not-so-enjoying the Vacation classes for 12th ... my father bought me my Yamaha during this World Cup ... this was the first World Cup since I started going to college ... and around the same time I started playing for Deccan ... so it was quite memorable ...

It was a different format ... the Super 6 made its entry ... India lost their first match against the Proteas at Hove ... and then calamity struck ... SRT rushed back to India since his father passed away ... India lost to Zimbabwe in the meanwhile ... but SRT came back and India won their last 3 matches against Kenya, Sri Lanka and England to make the Super 6s ... the hammering meted out to the Lankans at Taunton was sweet revenge for 1996 ...

This World Cup was best remembered for Lance Klusener ... both for his good stuff and his stupid stuff ... he was clearly Man of the Tournament but he played the choker to the hilt in the semis against Australia ... indeed one of my all time favorite one day games on a rainy day in India ...

India played Pakistan in this World Cup too ... and we won again ... bat first and bowl them out seemed to be an evergreen script for India against Pakistan ... this time it was Prasad who was the tormentor ... but India lost the 2 other Super 6 games and didnt make the semis ... Shane Warne lifted himself for the semis and final after a bad start to the tournament and Australia started the most stunning sequence of victories which is still ongoing ...

I guess 2003 was my most enjoyable World Cup ... Dada had changed the face of Indian cricket and finally we could say that India's fielding was good ... the team had a balanced outlook and the expectations were very high ...

I had a steady girl friend at this time (who is my wife now :)) ... I was in my final year of Graduation and this was the time when we had to finish files for practical assignments and also submit our final year project ...

every game of India is etched in my memory ...

India were embarassed by the Aussies in the first game and it resulted in a fierce backlash back home ... no one would have thought that India would surrender so meekly especially since Warne was banned from the World Cup ...

This was also a time when Pranay, Satya and I used to study at Satya's place and also play Cricket in his courtyard ... I remember seeing the India Zimbabwe game at Satya's place ... given the unpredictable history of India-Zimbabwe games, we were expecting a tough match ... but India won handsomely to get off the mark ... in between India also won against Holland with Yuvi taking 4-6 ... incredible ... I had received a call from XLRI Jamshedpur and my interview was in Mumbai ... I had gone there with my Jiju the same day as the India-Namibia match ... there was a Electronics expo bang in front of Bandra Kurla complex and we saw the Indian innings at one of the giant screens put up there ... the next game was India-England ... and this was the time we were having night labs from 9 pm to 6 am in college ... since there were 2 divisions in college and the night lab schedule was distributed across divisions ... it was not our turn that night ... instead our lab timing was 7-9 pm ... and then the other division took over from 9 pm to 6 am ... the match started at around 6 pm and Pranay, Satya and I were watching it at Satya's place ... Satya's Dad's expression is still so vivid when SRT hooked Caddick into the parking lot ... he had both his hands on his forehead in pure disbelief ... we then attended the lab from 7-9 pm only to rush back to his place to catch England's reply ... and AshishNehra took over ... 6/23 ... almost all dismissals were behind the wicket ... it was great to watch an India pacer bowling such a spell ... and finally India-Pakistan ...

This has a story ...

It was our practical assignments submission day in college and there was utter chaos for getting sheets signed and submitting the files ... and it was a day game which meant it would start at 2 pm ... we had planned a big Biryani-Booze bash at my place that day ... we were done by around 1 pm and rushed to my place in the afternoon ... I dont exactly remember who all were there ... I guess Pranay, Swapna, Mahesh, Suchit ... who else? Dont remember now ... and it

was hungama when Zaheer got the first wicket ... but Pakistan played well to get 270 odd ... by the time India's reply began, the Biryani and Booze were ready ... and so was SRT ... the most astonishing knock ... the first over from Shoaib Akhtar was magical ... a cut over third man for SIX, a wristy flick backward of square for FOUR and the best of the lot ... a trademark SRT check on-drive past mid-on for FOUR ... there was a poster backfoot cover punch from SRT off Wasim in between ... India were away and Yuvi-Dravid saw us through ... this was followed by Pakistan-Zimbabwe (or was it England-Zimbabwe?) match being abandoned which meant Pakistan crashed out of the World Cup ... yipppeee ...

In the Super Six, India faced Kenya and almost made a hash of it only for Dada and Yuvi to bail us out ... and then we won convincingly against the Kiwis and Lankans to make the semis comfortably ... I remember Pranay, Swapna and I were sitting outside a printing shop near MIT watching the India-Lanka match ... we were waiting for our Project copies to be binded ... in the Semis we were pitted to play the Kenyans again ... this time we won more comfortably ... but the Final is a bad memory ... the Aussies were just too strong ... but it was a memorable World Cup ...

The Proteas again ran into Lara in the first match of the Cup and failed to get their calculations right against a D/L affected match against Lanka ... Kenya upset the Lankans and later defeated Zimbabwe in the Super Six ... John Davison of Canada smashed an unbelievable 60 ball century against the Windies ... I guess Vaas took a hat-trick in the first over of a match ... lots of people took over 6 wickets in a game ... Bond, Nehra, Mcgrath, Bichel ...

By 2007, I must admit I was not following cricket the way I used to ... I was married just 2-3 months before the World Cup started ... the format of this tournament left a lot to be desired ... and India and Pakistan were knocked out in the first round itself by Bangladesh and Ireland ... sigh ... it hurts ...

There was still some hope for India especially after they hammered Bermuda ... but they had to win against Lanka ... and I was back at Satya's place watching that match ... we didnt play badly ... the reply was strongish but we kept losing wickets ... and Satya and I could watch no more ... and went off to sleep only to get up in the morning to see newspapers and TV channels spewing venom on the Indian team ...

The tournament went on an on and never seemed to end ... the loss of India and Pakistan took the sheen away from the 2nd round ... Australia won another World Cup on my birthday in 2007 ... I was in Matheran that day ... but I didnt seem to care ... I didnt watch the 2nd round at all in that World Cup ... one of the forgettable World Cups ...

But here we are in 2011 ... back in the sub continent ... and India are a strong team now ... but there are several good teams ... here's hoping for some more tales ... and wishing Team India all the best ...

Baaki baatein baad mein ... Cheers ... !!

A Prayer Answered ... !!

It is that kind of a day when I dont know whether to feel happy or sad ... the undercurrent is definitely happy but I am sad that I am not in India.

Not that it is terribly bad news but I would have loved to be in India right now ... Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar froze time for around 210 minutes and I have not done so many Refreshes in my life on a web page ...

Sitting on the last bench of a so called Knowledge sharing session, I was hooked on to this match from the beginning ... that fact that Viru got out early on meant that we may have a pedestrian approach to the game ... but that was a mis-que on my part ...

SRT pulverised the Proteas into submission ... and bare in mind this was against one of the best bowling attacks in the world ... they had Steyn who has wrecked havoc in the Tests and the so called man-in-waiting Parnell ... couple that with Kallis who has a 200+ scalps in ODIs ... and the so called excellent death bowler Langelveldt ...

I am not at all ashamed that I didnt understand anything that was "transferred" to us today ... I think there were 22 overs left when he reached his 100 and I just hoped that 22 overs would be sufficient for him to complete the double ... so 13 years now ... the butchery of Saeed Anwar had haunted us ...

It was a pain to watch SRT go through all those near misses at Chennai, Hyderabad, Christchurch, Barbados ... but the man is a piece of genius ... 21 years and still going ... hats off sire ...

I would have loved to go out today to Camp or FC just to get the feel of the crowd and the atmosphere ... a good old fashioned Chaai and Bun Maska would have been just fine ... and lots of chatter about THE GOD ...

Well played sire once again and I am not gonna forgive you for playing another blinder on a working day ... hands high up in the air and bowing sire ...

Cheers ... !!

Upset weekend ... !!

What a weekend it was. It seemed as if none of the predictions (read expectations) were destined to go right.

Djokovic crashed out of Roland Garros on the same day as Venus Williams also met with the same predicament. Just 2 weeks ago, Djokoic had run Nadal close at Madrid and lost an epic semi final. He was surely looking like finally breaking the Nadal code. But he lost rather meekly in straight sets. But the ripper of the day was Rafa eating the humble pie. Full marks to Soderling. What a match the Swede played. His forehand was like a dagger all evening. Nadal was found wanting trying to play his grinding game. On more than a few occasions he was caught flat footed by the marauding Swede. Credit to Soderling to fight back from a break down in both the 2nd and 4th sets. In fact, it felt as if Soderling should have won in straight sets looking at the way he dominated the match. The men's defending champion was followed by the ladies defending champ. Ana Ivanovic can win the title of the most inconsistent player over the last 12 months. She also crashed out without much of a fight.

If Federer doesnt win this time, he will surely cry more than January. He has to negotiate Tommy Haas tonight which I presume will be a tough match. His quaterfinal match should be comparatively easy. He may play Roddick or Monfils. But the semi may be tough. He can play either of Robredo, Tsonga or Del Potro. Looking at the way Soderling played, Federer might end up playing him in the final. But dont underestimate Davydenko, Murray and Gonzalez.

And what about the NBA? Lebron vs Kobe was billed as the dream Finals especially after Lakers-Celtics last year. Without a doubt, these 2 are the hottest superstars in American sports. But the Orlando Magic and Superman had other ideas. Lebron and the Cavs were dumped 4-2 in the Eastern conference finals. This was a shocker given that the Cavs had trampled their previous 2 opponents 4-0 en route to the conference finals. But the Magic have been that kind of a team. They haven't let the loss of Jameer Nelson affect them at all. If anything, this team will surely give Kobe Bryant and the Lakers a run for their money in the NBA Finals which kick of this Friday.

Stoner stunned Rossi at Mugello. This is like Rossi's pet circuit. Having won for the last 7 years ... !!

But its been that kind of a weekend. Bodes well for sport. More and more sportsmen/sportswomen are making their mark. Here's hoping for another fun filled sports weekend.

Cheers ... !!

Organizing foreigners ... !!

Well, this is not an attempt to advise the new government about some of their gazillion reforms coming up :P

I am talking about the IPL.

I have been dumb found by the way teams have selected their 4 foreign players in any given game. To my knowledge, each team has a pool of 9-10 foreign players to choose from. Honestly speaking, I find it very appropriate that only 4 foreign players can fit into a playing eleven. The last thing we want is the dearth of Indian players in the INDIAN Premier League. Having said that, its extremely difficult for the coach and the captain to shortlist 4 players from this pool. But there are some obvious take aways which need no debate and teams have been found lacking in terms of coming up with the right foreign player formation.

Lets start with Chennai. I think this is the only team that came close to selecting the BEST 4 foreign players. Hayden would make a playing eleven of any team in the world in any format of the game. No wonder he holds the Orange cap. Albie Morkel is one of the most destructive stikers of the cricket ball and he is a capable bowler too. Murali is again a must-have. No debates on that. If he is not taking wickets, he will atleast pin down the batsmen. Last year's final was a flash in the pan when Yusuf took him apart. According to me, the fourth foreign player for Chennai should be George Bailey. Thanx to ESPN-Star for broadcasting Australian domestic cricket. I have seen Bailey play. And boy he can play. Nicknamed Geuronimo, this guy can wield the willow like no other. This guy has been INSTRUMENTAL in captaining Tasmania in the absence of Ponting and he guided Tasmania to the ODI championship Down Under. As an option, Michael Hussey should be on standby as the 5th player. Ntini and Oram are more utility players in the sense that they dont guarantee that they will put on a performance ... definitely not in T-20. Oram should have made it to my list but his recent injuries have taken the zing out of his bowling.

Next up is Delhi. Looking at their foreign players, its a bloody tough task to choose their 5 foreign players. I guess AB should make it automatically. He says he wants to become the best player in the world in all 3 formats and doesnt he back himself? The 2nd player should be Daniel Vettoti for God's sake. This man is a wizard in T-20 cricket. If you have any doubt then just look at this bowling average, strike rate and no of wickets. If you still have some doubt, get hold of the India-NZ video from the T-20 World Cup when he single handedly stopped India in its tracks after Sehwag and Gambhir threatened to murder the Kiwis. That was also India's only loss of the tournament. Dilshan comes in next. This guy is made for T-20. Having become the new Lankan captain in T-20 cricket, it has just given him the fillip to take his game up by a notch or two. An electric fielder, great runner between the wickets and more than handy off-spinning option ... this guy should be a certainty in every game. If available, Collingwood should be the 4th player. I dont know the logic of keeping him out. To be fair, Delhi's batting ends at no. 4 according to the current formation. With all due respect to Karthik, I feel Delhi lacks the depth. Collingwood is the perfect man to come in after Sehwag, Gambhir, Dilshan and AB. Add to that his canny bowling. The player on standby should be Farveez Maharoof. He is a good steady bowler. He has all the variations plus his nemesis (read Sehwag) is in his own team :P ... Warner is too recent a player to walk into the playing eleven and his cross batted swipes leave much to be desired. McGrath to be honest doesnt come with the same artillery for Delhi as he did for the Oz ... Owais Shah is too inconsistent.

Now Punjab. The first player should always be Brett Lee without a shade of a doubt. Everyone knows why. The next player should be Kumar Sangakkara. He is street smart and has this natural ability to adapt to the situation of the game. If you need one man to bat through while the others want to hit out, Sanga is the man for you. Amazing wicket keeper to boot. Ravi Bopara is fast becoming the most efficient T-20 player. If you have seen him finish games for Essex, you would know what I am talking about. He is going great guns in all forms of the game. His bowling is an added incentive. He is my third choice. If available, Shaun Marsh should be the 4th player and James Hopes should act as their fence player. Marsh already proved himself last year and Hopes is an extremely handy T-20 all rounder. But since they were not available, my 4th and 5th players would be Mahela and Abdulla. But I feel Mahela is too good a player to be wasted at no. 5/6. Abdulla has the potential to become the next big thing in Sputh African cricket.

On to Deccan. The captain selects himself. Gilly doesnt need any invitation to make the playing eleven. Andrew Symonds should be the next player. Great with the bat and more than good with the ball. A great fielder. My personal choice for the 3rd player is Fidel Edwards. The reason why Deccan stormed through the first half of the tournament was due to RP and Edwards opening the bowling for Deccan. Edwards also has a slinging action like Malinga and his pace can unsettle the best of batsmen. The next player should be Dwayne Smith. In fact, I would say he should be an automatic choice much like Symonds. He is the perfect no. 6 batsman in T-20. He has the capability to hit the long ball and is a deadly accurate fielder. He can also bowl decent medium pace. Looking at this year's team, I will have to say the 5th player should be Gibbs. Around 3-4 years ago, he should have made the 11 automatically. But he is inconsistent now. If Afridi was available, he would have been ahead of Smith and Gibbs for me. Vaas doesnt impress me and so does Styris.

Talking about Rajasthan, I would say the biggest mistake they have made is to keep out Tyron Henderon. This guy is made for T-20 cricket. He along with Murali Kartik took Middlesex to the T-20 championship in England. He is a great T-20 bowler and a ferocious striker of the ball. He should make the playing eleven always. Warne has missed a trick this time. Warne would be the 2nd player for obvious reasons. Graeme Smith is also an automatic choice. Given this year's team, I would pick Mascarenhas as their 4th player always. He is a canny bowler and a big hitter. Johan Botha would be my fringe player. Of course, Tanvir and Watson select themselves but they were not available this year. Quiney, Carseldine and Harwood are largely unimpressive as T-20 players.

That brings me to Mumbai. One of the most under achieving teams and its disappointing for me as a Mumbai fan to write about this. Someone needs to drill a fact into the Mumbai authorities that Sanath Jayasuriya should always be present in the eleven and he should always open. The last time he batted in the middle order was the 1992 World Cup. His average back then was 19 ... and didnt he do an admirable job working his ass to end up with an average of over 30? SRT bamboozled me when he didnt pick Sanath for a game. I will go to the extent of saying that its not a huge issue if SRT himself doesnt play but Sanath SHOULD ALWAYS BE THERE. Next is his Lankan team mate ... Lasith Malinga. This guy again is made for T-20. His toe crushing yorkers and mesmerising pace changes make it extremely difficult to score off him. JP Duminy has come on leaps and bounds and it didnt surprise me when he hit 5 fifties. In fact he was the saving grace for the much hyped Mumbai batting line up. Dwayne Bravo is the 4th player and according to me one of the game's best all rounders. But he should NOT open the innings. :). The last player (in fact he should have been tried very early in the tournament) is Graham Napier. This guy seriously makes a mockery of the cricket ball. One of the hardest hitters of the ball. Once blasted 16 sixes in one innings enroute to rip roaring 150 in a T-20 game. For my money, this guy had the potential of becoming one of the success stories of the tournament. But thats a bit of a skirmish on the part of SRT's captaincy. He should think like a captain and not as a leader :P

Time to shift from SRT to SRK. Kolkata is not a team as bad as they are projected to be. Lets be frank. They have Brendon McCullum at the helm. We all know how he lit up Chinnaswamy stadium last year. Maybe assigning the captaincy to someone like Hussey or Hodge would have helped given the fact that both of them have captained Victoria previously. McCullum isnt even a local district captain in Kiwiland. Next on the list are the 2 Victorians that I just mentioned. Brad Hodge is the highest run getter in T-20 cricket in the world and is the glue that has held Victoria and Leicestershire en route to mutliple championship seasons. A handy offie and a more than reliable fielder. He has been the saving grace for Kolkata this year. He should always be in the eleven. David Hussey for me is an automatic choice. He has a very simple way of playing T-20. Come in and graft. Hit out in the last 3-4 overs. One of the most dumb decisions have been to keep Charles Langeveldt out of the Knight Riders team. How can a T-20 freak be kept out? Dumb ... dumber ... dumbest. Period. The last player should be Chris Gayle. This guy is a very weird cricketer. It almost makes you feel that you need to perk him up for a match. He is very inconsistent for a man with his kind of talent. But should be in the pool of 5 players. In Gayle's absence, Mendis should be the fringe player.

Finally, its speaking about Vijay Mallya's Royal Challengers. Make no mistake. This is one of the best teams in the tournament and also one of the dumbest. You cant ... I repeat ... you cant keep Cameron White out of the playing eleven. If 4 captains come and go and still dont get White into the team, its a problem. White is again MADE for T-20. No wonder most of his Aussie team mates (playing for other franchises) chuckle at the thought of not facing upto White. He is one of the Victorian T-20 and ODI stalwarts along with David Hussey and Hodge. For me, White is an automatic choice. Ross Taylor walks into the team as my 2nd player. He is like Sehwag and Jayasuriya. You dont drop him if he fails once or twice or even 5 times. He has to be there always. Where the hell is Dale Steyn for God's sake? I know he got injured after 4-5 matches but that should have kept him out only for 1-2 matches. I see him giggling in the dugout and get drinks for his mates so I am assuming he can run up and pepper the batsmen as well. Just because you win with a certain combination does not allow you to drop one of the most lethal bowlers the Proteas have ever produced. Again, seriously dumb. Jacques Kallis is an imposing figure and should always be present in the eleven. My fifth player would be Jesse Ryder. Come on, this guy is talent. You cant keep dropping him. Sorry Boucher and Van Der Merwe but I dont think you are making any contributions to this team.

So that's that. My frustration at not having to see the so called T-20 players in action prompted me to write. It is still not late. Some teams might still benefit now (if not next year) by picking the right foreign players.

Here's hoping for a thrilling IPL-2 finale ... Cheers ... !!

Time for Ping-Pong ... !!

Yes, the TT tournament at office starts tonight . Sabhtarsha and I are the organizers and its a bloody frustrating task to keep reminding teams about their matches. The schedule has already started changing and we haven't even played a match yet. I wonder how Vivek did everything alone during the last edition of the tournament. Well done mate ... !!

The teams are more evenly (read sportingly) distributed this time. The draw was fun. Sabhtarsha and I are in the same team along with Sandip and Prabhash. Its not a bad team and at least "I" am expecting that we will perform better than the last edition. Our first of 8 matches takes place tomorrow against the DreamKillers. Well ... I hope I don't dream ... Cheers ... !!

Update : Feb 3, 2009
DreamKillers didn't show up. So we had to reschedule our match. We played the Paddlers and won 3-0. A job well done by all of us. There will be sterner tests ahead. We have to defeat at least one of Top Most 5, Warriors, Orange and DreamKillers if we are to entertain any thoughts of reaching the Semis ... our next match is tomorrow against The Rookies.

Update : Feb 6, 2009
We have upset the DreamKillers. Thats the news of the day. Yes we did it. We had 2 matches. We defeated the The Rookies in the first match 3-0. The 2nd was against the DreamKillers. We lost the first singles but won the doubles to tie it up at 1-1 going into the deciding singles that was to be played by me. It was tense. I was extremely nervous to be honest since the result was going to be the result of the series. I lost the 1st set 11-5 and was down 4-1 in the 2nd set. But I am glad I got my game back on track. Gopi was more than a formidable opponent. I came through the 2nd set 11-7. I kept the momentum going in the 3rd and was up 7-3. Some silly errors cost me and it was back at 7-7. But I held my nerve to win 11-8 and cause an upset. We now have 3 wins out of 3 and lead the table with 6 points but we have also played one additional match as compared to the other teams. But it feels good like almost getting out of jail. Keep going The Blues ... Cheers to Prabhash, Sabhtarsha and Sandip ... !!

Update : Feb 9, 2009
We have caused another sort of an upset. We have now gone on and defeated The Warriors. We have almost made it sure that we will be in the semis by defeating The Warriors. I played the first singles and won against Nishant. The first set was quite good. I won 11-4. I opened the 2nd set with a 4-0 deficit. But I played on and went onto win the 2nd set 11-7 and thereby the match. We won our doubles too with Sabhtarsha and Sandip defeating Abhijeet and Avdhoot. I pity Prabhash. He always has to play the difficult singles match. He lost to Jaswinder but put up a brave fight. But well played guys. We have won 4 out of 4 and lead the table with 8 points. One more win and we are certain to play the semis. We have another match coming up tomorrow against Nine with one of the defending champs in their ranks. Come on guys ... lets seal it tomorrow itself ... Cheers ... !!

Update : Feb 11, 2009
We are almost through to the semis. We defeated Nine today. It was a tough match. The tables turned this time around. Till now, our doubles and my singles were comparatively easier matches or atleast we made them look easier while Prabhash always had to play the tough singles. But we were facing the heat against Nine. I played the first singles against the defending champ Vineet. I was happy with the first set. I competed well but still fell short and lost the first set 11-8. But I completely lost the plot in the 2nd and lost 11-4. Vineet plays at such a different level. He is just an amazing player. Period. We were down 0-1. The doubles team had not lost a set so far in th tournament. We were left shell shocked when they lost the first set 11-8 against a weaker team. The 2nd set was also very tight but we managed to win it 11-8. But the 3rd set was quite convincing. We won that 11-3. So it was 1-1 going into the deciding singles. Prabhash had to play the difficult singles every time so far but this time I had already played against their best player. So Prabhash stuck to the basics and won in straight sets in the final game. So we win 2-1. 5 wins out of 5. Pretty impressive but plenty of food for thought for me and our doubles. Nice wake up call just before the business end of the tournament. Well played The Blues. Lets get as many wins as possible before the semis. Cheers ... !!

Update : Feb 17, 2009
We played after a long time and I think it showed. We were playing against a comparatively weak team. We were lucky to come out with a 2-1 result in our favor. Prabhash won the first singles and we were up 1-0. But the crowd got behind our opponents in the doubles. We started well. We won the first set 11-2 but somehow the crowd pressure got to us and we lost the next 2 sets and the match. It was 1-1. For the second time I had to play the deciding singles. Hasmukh is an efficient player and I was just praying that he didnt bring his A-game to the table. I started shakily. I lost a couple of service points. But I closed out the set well and won 11-7. I was down throughout the 2nd set until 8-8. I went up 9-8 but Hasmukh brought it back to 9-9. He held set point at 10-9 but I forced Deuce. Finally, I closed out the set 12-10 and won the match. Its extremely difficult to play if the crowd is against you. But I am glad we won. We need to assume that the crowd will be against us if we are to play better in such circumstances. The confidence has taken a bit of a hit. But I am sure we will bounce back. Our next match is against Orange. We could have played better but well done guys anyway. Cheers ... !!

Update : Feb 18, 2009
You dream of such days ... such occasions ... such an atmosphere. We defeated Orange 3-0. That does not tell the story though. This was always going to be a tough one for both teams. I played the opening singles this time around. I was pitted against arguably the best player at office ... Samir ... happens to be our VP. I was completely out of sorts in the 1st set. Lost 4-11. I started badly in the 2nd too. I was down 4-8. I dont know what happened after that though. I started playing OK from there on. I brought it back to 8-8. Then it was 10-10. Then 11-11. Then 12-12 and finally 13-13. I missed 3 smashes which could have won me the set. Then I buckled down and stopped with smashes. I won the next point to make it 14-13. The last point will remain with me for the rest of my life. I was too far back and Samir hit the ball towards my backhand. I played the slice. Till now I was hitting to Samir's backhand and he was surprised to see my shot go to his forehand. But the spin in the ball took it further away and he couldnt reach it. I won the set 15-13. Man I couldnt believe it. I had won a set against the best player at AirTight. I carried the momentum in the 3rd. I couldnt believe how well I was playing. I was up 7-3. But made lots of silly mistakes. It as 7-7 soon. Then 8-8 and then 9-9. I made it 10-9 and held match point on my serve. I dished out a different serve from my previous serves and Samir blobbed it back at a decent height and close to the net. The adrenaline rush just took over. I crashed down on the ball and after a long time connected on my smash. I won man. 11-9 in the 3rd. Fantastic. Samir was gracious in defeat. We then went on and won the doubles in 3 sets too after losing the first set. Sabhtarsha and Sandip were amazing in the last 2 sets. It was great to win 2 matches after being down 1 set in both of them. Prabhash made it a convincing 3-0 scoreline by winning 11-2, 11-4 in the last match. This has been a great show of character from us after yesterday. Well done guys ... this deserves a separate post ... Cheers to The Blues ... !!

Update : Feb 24, 2009
Are we on a roll or what? We played our final match against Top Most 5. Both of us had won 7 out of 7 matches. This was the last league match for both of us. It was billed as the "Clash of the Toppers" and it lived up to all the hype that was generated at office throughout the day. The winner of this clash was going to be the top seed in the semis and end up playing the 4th placed team. Such was the anticipation among the employees that the TT arena was jam packed much before the match started. The atmosphere was electric. We decided to change our combination for this match. Prabhash and Sandip were to play the singles while Sabhtarsha and I would play Doubles. We decided on this keeping in mind that our opponents didnt have a weak player in their ranks. All 4 were good players. For us, Sandip is kind of a weak link but he has also progressed wonderfully through the tournament. Prabhash opened the series with his singles against Rahul. It was a great match. Prabhash lost a tight first set at 9-11. He showed remarkable resilience and fought back to win the 2nd sett 11-7. The deciding set was neck and neck till 6-6. Then Prabhash took over. He closed it out in a hurry and won 11-8 and with that we took a 1-0 lead. Defeating the favorites was enough to pump us up. The Doubles was next. Prabhash had given us enough confidence to assert ourselves on the match. Sabhtarsha and I were pitted against the 2 Vijays and we knew it would be a slugfest. And what a match it turned out to be. We started scratchily but picked up our game midway through the 1st set. It was tight. 9-9. We held set point at 10-9 but somehow we lost rhythm and folded up 10-12 in the 1st set. Down 1 set, we knew we had to pick up the pieces. We build a good lead in the 2nd set. We were up 6-2. But again we lost rhythm and allowed them to come back. It was 9-9 again followed by 10-10 and then 11-11. We missed some great opportunities to finish the 2nd set. But we still didnt lose focus and played well to win the 2nd set 13-11. Alright. 1 set all and the crowd were driving us into a frenzy. It was a pleasure to be playing amidst such an environment. We build a good lead again in the 3rd set. It was 7-3. Then a service point which looked Good was called Wrong by our opponents and after much debate we decided to replay the point. It looked Good to me but we decided to accept the decision. But I think we kept thinking about it. It was 7-7 very soon and it was back to being a tight match. But Sabhtarsha and I were continuously cheering each other up and we finished the game on a high ... winning 11-8. What a seesaw of a match. We had won both matches after being down 1 set. Remarkable. We had already won the rubber now. Sandip faced up against one of the best players in office ... Pushkar. He made a fist of it though Pushkar was going easy. Sandip lost the first set 2-11. He was down in the 2nd too ... but miraculously won the 2nd set 11-9 due to some poor errors from Pushkar. But Pushkar went on to win the final set 11-6. But, we won the match 2-1 and with that we become the top seeds in the semis. It was a brilliant performance from us. Top Most 5 are still the favorites to win the tournament but we have given them a more than noteworthy wake up call. Well played guys ... this was also the first match in which all 3 matches went to 3 sets ... the match lived upto its billing ... we play the DreamKillers in the semis on Thursday ... Cheers to The Blues ... !!

Update : Feb 26, 2009
And then there are days that you wish never happen in your life. After defeating every team in the tournament and being top seeds in the semis, we lost. Yeah, its painful to even write that. To be fair, our opponents did the basics right and we just couldnt get over the pressure. I played the opening singles against Atul. I played bad to be honest but he was just too good. Hats off. I lost the first 2 sets 8-21 and 11-21. The scores pretty much sum up his dominance. I tried to make a comeback in the 3rd. I won that 21-11. I was gaining on confidence. The 4th set was tight. We were even till 10-10. Then he played some good points and I played some bad ones. He went up 19-12. Still I tried to fight and made it 19-18. But then 2 silly silly silly errors later, we were down 0-1. I thought I should have competed better in the 4th set but it was that kind of a day. Our Doubles were immediately under the pump. Nothing was going our way. Our opponents were just too good. We lost the Doubles in straight sets. Prabhash won the last singles in straight sets but we eventually lost 1-2. Kudos to the DreamKillers. Yeah, they definitely killed our dreams ... :) ... but its been a great experience for us. We defeated every team in the tournament in the league phase and if we speak purely of progress ... then in the last edition we were placed 10th out of 11 teams ... and this time we are in the top 4 ... so thats pretty damn good ... plus we have a chance tomorrow to be 3rd in the match up between the losing semi-finalists ... I doubt if the motivation is the same but we will try and be 3rd at least ... well played The Blues ... it was a pleasure being a team mate of the The Blues ... Cheers ... !!

Update : March 2, 2009
We managed to finish 3rd but the fizz had pretty much gone from our game. The semi final loss was a jolt but it feels good that we are atleast placed 3rd. We played The Warriors in the 3rd place playoff match. Prabhash won the first singles for us in a 4 setter against Nishant. Prabhash lost the 1st set but came back strongly to win the next 3 sets. We played the next singles. Sandip lost against Jaswinder in straight sets. It was 1-1 and the Doubles to go. Sabhtarsha and I played against Abhijeet and Avdhoot. We lost the 1st set 19-21 but came back strongly to win the next 3 21-13, 21-17, 21-12. It felt good. Top Most 5 went on to win the tournament by defeating the DreamKillers. But it was such an amazing match. Both the singles were 5 setters while the Doubles was a 4 setter. In the end, they won 2-1. A memorable end to an amazing tournament. We played well as a team and we were the only team to defeat all other teams. No other team achieved that. Even Top Most 5 lost to us in the league phase. But we lost in the semis after being top seeds to a worth opponent. We learnt lots of lessons and I am sure we will be stronger in the next edition. Sabhtarsha and I (being the organizers) decided to award great performances in the tournament. There were 7 awards.

Best singles player - Atul
Best Doubles team - Vijay Gaji and Vijay Vachhane (Sabhtarsha and Sandip lost out)
Best singles match - Atul vs Pushkar in the Final. The score was ... hold your breath ... 13-21, 21-11, 21-23, 21-13, 22-20 in favor of Atul
Best Double match - Vijay Gaji/Vijay Vachhane vs Ashish/Shashank. The score was 9-11,13-11,13-11 in favor of Ashish/Shashank (Sabhtarsha and I vs Vijay G/Vijay V lost out)
Most improved player - Gopi (Nominees were Gopi, Sabhtarsha, Sandip and myself. 3 out of the 4 nominess were from our team but the award still went to the 4th nominee :))
Most Spirited Player - Raj
Dream team : Vineet, Pushkar, Atul, Samir and Prabhash

Cheers to The Blues ... !!

I won ... !!

This is that kind of a day that everyone dreams about in life. Excelling in something and proving yourself against the toughest of situations. If I had doubts about what terms like PRESSURE-COOKER-SITUATION and ADRENALINE-RUSH meant ... it was put to rest today. What a day... I am going to photo frame this day ... ;)

It was our penultimate league match against Orange. Orange boasts of arguably the best player at office ... Samir ... he is also our VP. Orange also has our manager ... Sonal and one of our UI team mates ... Rahul. So it was quite a grudge match. Playing against your manager is daunting and fun at the same time ... this was expected to be a 2-1 scoreline match ... but we were not sure in whose favor ... after the bad match we had yesterday. We were a bit down in the confidence department.

We had already won 6 out of 6 and were secured of a spot in the semis. We didnt tinker with our combination. Prabhash and I were to play the singles and Sabhtarsha and Sandip were to play the doubles. We decided that I will play the first singles .. against whom? .... well ... against Samir ... Yes ... this was what I was looking forward to since morning. I wanted to compete with him.

I started off very shakily. I dont know what I was doing. None of my smashes connected. Most of my slices hit the net or went out and Samir also hit lots of winners. The first set was gone 4-11. Hardly competed. I was extremely disappointed. I knew I can do better than this.

It was more of the same in the 2nd set. I was just out of sorts. I was down 4-8. I decided to totally shun the smash. Thats when I started competing. I made it 8-8. Then 9-9. Forced Deuce at 10-10. Then it was 11-11. Then 12-12. And then 13-13. I missed 3 smashes on the way to 13-13. Why was I going back to the smash? I cursed myself continuously. Back to shunning the smash. I made it 14-13. Then came the moment of the match.

I was continuously a long way behind the table just to intercept Samir's smashes. He hit one ball to my backhand corner. I was a long way back and with very little options. I hit the backhand slice up the line. Till now ... I was feeding the balls to Samir's backhand corner since his forehand is a menace ... he was always expecting the ball at his backhand ... but he was surprised to see me hitting to his forehand. He had already backed away to his backhand corner. My shot landed at his forehand corner and swirled further away. He couldnt reach the ball. It was 15-13 to me and with that I won the 2nd set ... Bravo Pratik ... I had just taken a set off the best player at AirTight ... the adrenaline completely took over ... it was great walking to the other side of the table thinking that I had come from 4-8 down to win the set ... time to play ball ...

I was now on top of my game. I hit a couple of smashes too ... wow ... my weak shot had started working ... I was up 7-3 ... just 4 points away from winning the match ... then I made silly mistakes ... it was 7-7 ... Samir was not giving up so easily. It was 8-8 very soon. And then 9-9. The crowd had forgotten who they were supporting. I knew my team mates were cheering me. Every point was being cheered ... no matter who won the point. Every point took around 10 shots ... it was my serve at 9-9 ... I won the next point and made it 10-9 ... Phew ... match point against Samir ... this is what I dreamt about ... just one more point ... I took an eternity to serve ... I made up my mind that it will be a different serve from what I had served so far in the match ... I dished out a forehand top-spin serve. Samir did well to return it. But it was at a decent height and not too far away from the net. This was going to be it. I was going for broke. I slammed a forehand smash like there was nothing else in life to do ... it fell right in the centre of the table and went past Samir ... fantastic ... that was some feeling ... Samir and I shook hands and crowd clapped for around half a minute or so ... wow ... what an experience ... I had done it ... Samir was extremely gracious in defeat ...

I was feeling so proud of myself ... I has saved 4 match points in the 2nd set ... Samir actually won more points than me in the match ...

Everyone came up to me and shook hands ... man ... just amazing ... one set down ... 4-8 down in the 2nd ... a tight 3rd set ... and a result I dreamed of ... just fantastic ...

We were up 1-0 ... this was completely unexpected. It was assumed that whoever plays against Samir would lose. We had to win the other 2 matches to win 2-1. But due to this win ... the pressure from the 2 remaining matches reduced substantially ...

Sabhtarsha and Sandip were hurting after yesterday's loss and were extremely determined to start winning again ... the opponents were Rahul and Sonal ... one a Manager and the other a UI team mate ... there was plenty of needle ...

We lost the first set but competed very well ... we lost it 7-11. Again ... we were down 1 set. We played out a tight 2nd set. We were up 10-7 but they made it 10-10. But we closed it out 12-10. 1 set all and our boys were feeling it ... I think the adrenaline rush was very evident. I was shouting my lungs out cheering my team. We played the best set of the match thereafter. Though it became tight in the end ... we won 11-8. Sabhtarsha was exemplary with his chops and service while Sandip was hung up on putting the ball back on the opponent's side. Brilliant result. We had already made it 2-0 and won the rubber ...

By now ... Prabhash had witnessed 2 high-octane clashes. He was more than pepped up to win the last singles ... he just mauled his opponent in the last singles. It was such a masterly exhibition by Prabhash ... he won 11-2, 11-4 ... and hence I dont have much to write about it ...

What a day and what a match ... we defeated Orange 3-0 ... INCREDIBLE SHOW GUYS ...

Its 7 wins out of 7 for us. Top Most 5 also have 7 wins out of 7. We both have one match remaining and thats against each other. Moral victories up for grabs ...

Well done The Blues ... Cheers mates ... !!

An enjoyathon ... !!

I am so glad that I decided to run the Pune International Marathon. Simply put, its one of the highlights of my life so far. I would be lying if I say that I was expecting this kind of aura to the event. Of course, it turned out to be a sour event for the international stars but the atmosphere was truly electric.

It all started on the wrong foot for me. I was at my friend's place for the weekend in Kharadi and I had decided that I will go home on Saturday night so that I can reach the marathon on Sunday from my own place. But after being convinced of going from Kharadi itself, I decided to stay put. I borrowed Prakash's shorts(it didn't have pockets) and T-shirt. I had decided not to carry my cell for the marathon. Since I didn't have a place to keep my belongings, I was left with the prospect of driving at 5:30 on a chilly morning from Kharadi to FC Road. That's hardly a motivation. But, it had to be done.

I drove from Kharadi to FC on Sunday morning. Stopped at 2 points on the way for Shekuti :) ... that's at Mundhwa and near Corporation. By the time I reached college, it was as if my legs were stuck in cement. But it turned out to be a blessing in disguise. I had to walk from college to Chitale and that warmed me up. I met Sonal, Manish and Vinay outside Deccan Post office and we were raring to go. The speeches from Suresh Kalmadi, Priyanka Chopra and another Mr someone was a dampener since it kept delaying our race. I don't understand why the people need some other people to constantly remind them about something bad that has happened to the country. I am sure everyone is mature enough to realize that and hence have decided to participate in such an event to pledge their support and to condemn the terrorist attacks. Anyway, that's beyond common sense.

The race started at around 7:55 am from Khandoji Baba Chowk, 25 minutes behind schedule. As we descended from Lakdi Pul, there was a sense of excitement, not just with the participants but also with the people who peeped out of their homes, from their galleries and from the streets. There were scores of people supporting the race. As a participant, it does not get any better than this. Patriotic slogans were the order of the day. Kids stuck their hands out just for high fives. It was more than inspiration, at least for me and I am sure it was the case with everyone else. The first 2 kms came and went and it was only after the 4 km mark that I started to feel the heat. Close to the 4 km mark, there was a stage set up that was playing patriotic songs. Those songs kept me(and lots of others)going. When we crossed Seven Loves Chowk, I started to believe that I can complete the race without stopping. It was almost as if the legs got used to it and took me to the finish. There were lots of people on Main Street in Camp.

I also saw school kids from my school on Main street with Lejims and dhol taasha in tow. Also, it was quite refreshing to see vehicles stacked at traffic signals just to allow the participants to run past. Wow, that was some feeling. It was quite an odd feeling to go past all those roads you zip past so effortlessly on/in a vehicle. Every km mark was so eagerly anticipated. To be honest, the stretch from Camp to the finish line was least tiring as the only thought running through my mind was to NOT STOP.

There were a couple of incidents too. There was a group of around 5-7 youths that was always either in front of me or behind me. They were continuously shouting slogans like Bharat Mata Ki Jai, Vande Mataram and Jai Shivaji Jai Bhavani. When we were passing from Residency Club, they were engrossed in Bharat Mata Ki Jai. In this case, one of them would shout till Bharat Mata Ki ... while the people around him would chant Jai. They did this twice and everyone except one shouted Jai. Now these guys got irritated at the fellow who was not responding to their slogans. This could have been due to multiple reasons, most obvious being that the person must be tired to even say anything. But this group lost their cool. They howled at him "Kaay re ... Pakistani aahe ka tu $#@!%". The person still didn't respond. This group moved close to him and said "Chal mhann ... Bharat mata ki Jai". I felt sorry for that person. He was panting and looked short of breath. But he still managed to let out a rather squeaky "Bharat Mata ki Jai". The group was happy and they resumed their chants practice.

When the 9 km mark passed and we were close to Kanbay, I passed a man. He asked me "Aur kitna dur hai?". I could see the 10 km finish line in the distance at Bund Garden. I told him (pointing towards the finish line) "Bass aur 5 minute, nazdeek hi hai". He replied "Kab se bhaag raha hoon mai ... saala 4 km ke naam pe kitna bhaga diya". I almost stopped. I told him "Boss, 4 km kaa route to alag hai ... aap yahaan kaise aa gaye?". He got so bugged that he stopped there itself and started shouting "Kidar hai woh kamine? Inko samajhta nahi bataane ko". And I moved on.

I reached the finish line within 5 minutes from there. I met Vinay at the finish line. He had completed the race in 53 minutes. I came in 6 minutes later. Sonal came in another 7 minutes later followed by Manish. To be frank, we all seriously felt that we could have gone on for at least another 3-4 kms. Not because of our ability but because of the momentum.

We all walked from Bund Garden to Madhuban for breakfast. We talked about how good it felt after finishing the race and how the body is going to ache tomorrow. We all left for our respective homes in some time.

I can say one thing for sure. If I am in Pune in December in any year, I will participate in the Pune International Marathon. An enriching experience without a shadow of a doubt.

Cheers ... !!

Kudos to Teamwork ... !!

What a ruthless performance ... !!

I have read and heard about that phrase before. But it was always used for the Aussies. Somehow, the best tests experienced by the Aussies in the last decade have been at the hands of the Indians. Every series is like a slug fest. I still wonder why the Border Gavaskar trophy isn't a 5 test series. Make way Ashes or India-Pakistan. India-Australia is THE series to look forward to.

It was such a wonderful experience by a team that has withstood the fire from a cricket frenzy nation to win the inaugural T-20 world Cup, the under-19 World Cup, drew 1-1 in Australia (the result of Sydney should not be counted), won the last tri-series on Australian soil by humiliating the Wallabies, drew 1-1 against South Africa and now overwhelmed the Aussies at Mohali. Whether this performance will be mimicked is a question worthy of a debate but lets just rejoice for the time being.

Teamwork was one of the forces of this win. Just try and glance at the numbers ...

Gambhir - 67 and 104
Sehwag - 35, 90 and 1 catch
Dravid - 39 and 1 catch
Sachin - 88 , 10* and one of the best catches that I have seen by a 35+ cricketer
Ganguly - 102 and 27
Dhoni - 92 and 68* (5 sixes) and 2 catches plus astute captaincy
Harbhajan - 5 wickets
Zaheer - 4 wickets - 3 of them bowled
Mishra - 7 wickets on debut - 6 of them were bowler's wickets in the sense that the mode of dismissal was lbw, bowled or assisted by the keeper...
Ishant - 4 wickets - all 4 bowler's wickets - including Ponting in both innings plus Hussey and Watson (all top order batsmen)

The worst performer was Laxman with 12 runs ... but even thats not too bad ... there are days when 12 is the 4th or 5th best score if not the best ;) ... yeah I am over exaggerating ... but when am I not ... ;)

The figures do not reveal the complete story.

It will take a lot of history searching to find another instance when Indian fast bowlers have flattened the stumps of the opposition (and a quality opposition like the Kangaroos). The dismissals of Ponting in both innings, Hayden (1st innings), Watson(2nd innings), Haddin(2nd innings) and Lee(2nd innings) will surely make every Indian sit up and take notice. Off the 20 wickets that fell, 17 were bowler's wickets. Phew ... !! The catch by Sachin to dismiss Katich was an absolute blinder. No wonder that the Indians were pumped after that and took 3 more top order wickets immediately.

Finally, for many a aficionado, India defeated Australia at the verbals. I have not seen an Aussie team tormented by the on field duels. Harbhajan, Zaheer, Ishant, Gambhir, Sehwag and Dhoni bombarded the Aussies with sledging. It was such a joy to see an Aussie team face the heat. Laying our hands on the Border-Gavaskar trophy would be the best start to the winter with the Poms coming up next in order to gain some momentum before THE ASHES. Looks like a mouth watering cricketing prospect in the next 6 months.

Cheers to India ... !!

Ryder Cup ... !!

I couldn't resist it. I had to write about THE Ryder Cup. For my money, the best GOLF tournament in the world. I will not go into the details about the rules of GOLF since I have already written about it here. I will directly delve into the details of this tournament.

As I have mentioned before, the Ryder Cup is not a tournament for individuals unlike other tournaments. Its a team tournament more like the Davis Cup in tennis or the Mosconi Cup in pool. But only 2 teams are involved in the Ryder Cup namely USA and Europe.

The first task is to choose the non-playing captain for each side. This task is carried out using a voting system by the golfing associations of each team (PGA for USA and EPGA for Europe). This time around the non-playing captains are Paul Azinger for USA and Nick Faldo for Europe, both greats of the game.

Once the captains are finalized, the players need to be selected. Currently, each team has 12 players. The selection of the top 8 of each team is straightforward. The top 8 of USA and Europe are automatic selections. The selection of the last 4 slots is quite dicey and generally controversial. The last 4 slots are at the discretion of the captain. He is free to choose anyone and he need not follow the rankings. The captain can come under a lot of fire from the associations and the media for selecting someone way down in the rankings. Most of the times, its the gut feeling of the captain about a player that makes the decision. Some of the reasons for selecting a low ranked player might be due to the fact that his current form has been great OR he is a local to the venue.

So once the team of 12 is comprised, its time to head to the venue. The Ryder Cup is a 6 day event. The first 3 days are reserved for practice and photo shoots (YES, its a gala event where media all around the world is flocking to create news). The next 3 days are the business days of the tournament.

So, are the rules any different from other golf tournaments? Well, YES and NO.

NO, because you follow all the general rules of GOLF. YES, coz there has to be something different to separate a grand tournament from other tournaments. Here are the differences:

As I have said earlier, its a team tournament. The scoring system is also different. In essence, there are only three possible results on every hole. A team either wins the hole, loses the hole or halves the hole. Here is what each one of them means:

All 18 holes are played is a team versus team manner. This means that if player A from USA is playing against player B from Europe and on a Par 4 hole, A takes 4 shots while B takes 3 shots ... this means B wins the hole (which also means A lost the hole). But the most distinguishing fact is that there is no score as such. Its just spoken/written as:

Player A (USA) vs Player B (Europe) 1 up

If A would have won the hole, it would have been written as:

1 up Player A (USA) vs Player B (Europe)

If on a Par 5 hole, A takes 3 shots while B takes 7 shots, it does not mean A is up by 4. I reiterate that the hole is either won or lost or halved. In this case, its just that A won the hole and it counts as a lead of just 1, no matter how many less shots you took. In a normal tournament, it would have meant that A is ahead of B by 4 shots. But in Ryder Cup, it means that A won the hole and he now leads B by 1. In essence, whether a player takes 1 shot less or 10 shots less doesn't matter. A winning hole means you now lead by 1 more, thats it.

Halve means that both players took the same number of shots on a particular hole. Its more commonly called as THE HOLE IS HALVED which does not change the score. If the score is the same at the end of 18 holes, the match is said to be halved and the score is commonly called All Square denoted by A/S.

Now that the scoring format is in place, its time to visit the playing schedule of the tournament.

There are 3 types of matches played. Foursomes, Fourballs and Singles. What are these?

FOURBALLS
Each captain announces 4 teams of 2 players each. The selection is entirely up to the captain. So USA and Europse both will have 4 teams each. The draw is made and each team is pitted against some opponent team. As the name suggests, there are 4 balls in play at a time. Each player plays for himself on a particular hole. After all 4 players complete the hole, the person who has taken the least number of shots wins the hole for his team. Lets take an example.

Suppose Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson form a team for the USA and Padraig Harrington and Paul Casey form a team for the Europeans. Now all these 4 players will start off at Hole 1. Suppose it is a Par 5 hole. Now lets say, Woods takes 3 shots, Casey takes 4, Harrngton takes 5 and Mickelson takes 6 shots to complete the hole. Since Woods took the least number of shots ... at the end of the 1st hole the score would be 1up in the favor of the Americans. In case more than 1 player has the least score for a hole, it is checked if 2 players from different teams have the least score. If YES, then the hole is halved. If NO, it means both players are from the same team and hence that team goes up by 1 shot. So, if Woods and Mickelson both take 3 shots while the other 2 players take 4 shots, it means that both players with least score are Americans and hence America leads by 1 shot.

In this way, Fourballs matches are playes over 18 holes.

FOURSOMES
Each captain again selects 4 groups of 2 players each, much the same way as Fourballs. The difference here is no player plays for himself. Players from each group play alternating shots. This means that Player 1 plays the Tee shot on Hole 1. The next shot is played by Player 2 from the place where Player 1 landed his first shot. Player 1 plays the 3rd shot and so on. Note than irrespective of the outcome of the hole, Player 2 will play the Tee shot on Hole 2. So in essence, just 2 balls are in play, one from each team. The team that takes the least shots wins the hole. If both teams take the same number of shots, the hole is halved. Lets take an example with the same player formation as in the example of Fourballs.

Woods plays for 1st shot on Hole 1 for USA. Casey plays the 1st shot for Europe. Mickelson will play the second shot from where Woods' 1st shot landed. Harrington will do the same for Europe. Woods will play the 3rd shot as will Casey and so on. Suppose Mickelson plays the last shot on the hole for USA. It does not mean Woods will play the 1st shot on Hole 2 since Woods hit the Tee shot on Hole 1. Mickelson will play the Tee shot on Hole 2 since Woods had hit the Tee shot on Hole 1. This also means that irrespective of how the holes play out, both players in a group will hit 9 Tee shots each. Woods will Tee off on all odd numbered holes while Mickelson will Tee off on all even numbered holes.

In this way, Foursomes matches are playes over 18 holes.

SINGLES
This is a one on one series where all 12 players have to play. The draw is made and it is as easy as 12 matches where each player plays for himself. Not much to explain here.

On the first 2 days, 4 Foursomes matches are played in the morning session while 4 Fourballs matches are played in the evening session. So at the end of the first 2 days, 16 matches are played overall. Singles are played on the 3rd day. So overall, 28 matches are played over 3 days. Each match carries 1 point. The team that wins a match gets that point. If the score is A/S at the end of 18 holes, both teams get half a point each.

There is beauty to the scoring system. I think I will have a problem explaining it.

If one team is ahead of the other team by a margin which is more than the number of holes remaining, then the match is called off there itself and the remaining holes are not played. It makes sense. Lets illustrate with an example.

Player 1 (USA) is playing against Player 2 (Europe). Player 2 is 4 up after 15 holes. Now only 3 holes are remaining. The best case scenario for player 1 is that he wins all the 3 remaining holes but it will still mean that Player 2 won by 1 shot. Hence the remaining 3 holes are not played. Player 2 is awarded the match by the score of "4 & 3". What does this mean? It means Player 2 won by 4 shots with 3 holes to play. I think now it sounds simpler than I thought at first.

So thats about it regarding the playing rules and the format of the tournament. USA will be the hosts this year and the venue is Valhalla in Kentucky. This is after Europe thrashed America 18.5-9.5 2 years ago in Europe. America last won the Ryder Cup in the last decade. Europe has won 8 of the last 11 Ryder Cups and they start favorites this year too. Reason? Tiger Woods is injured and he wont be playing. He is considered as the single most defining player for the Americans. Thats a huge loss for USA.

I cant wait for it to start tomorrow and come Sunday, expect lots of people to flock to Valhalla to see who takes home the RYDER CUP.

Cheers to a great tournament and an even better sporting legacy ... !!

Decoding GOLF ... !!

I was chatting to one of my friends when GOLF came up. He was of the opinion that its a boring game. Possible reasons for this is that it is a slow game and not many people know how it is played. When I started watching GOLF, I too was under the impression that it is a boring, slow and dull game. But believe me, its one of the most skillful games on the planet. Plus, one of the biggest money earning individual sport on par with Tennis and Formula 1. So what exactly is this game all about?

I don't know how to formulate the work flow of the game. So I will just let my mind rip.

Well, for starters, there are 18 holes in a standard golf course. Now, 18 holes also has a 1 to 1 mapping with fairways. In essence, when you say hole, it actually comprises of the fairway and the green. So what is a Fairway, a Green and a Tee?

There is a small piece of real estate called Tee on each Fairway. It can typically be thought of a circular/square area of radius/side = 3 meters. You have to place a ball holder (I am sure people have seen this in some Tom and Jerry cartoon. A Ball holder can be imagined as a small 1 inch nail which is dug into the ground and you can place the golf ball at the top of the nail) anywhere you want on the Tee. Place the ball on the ball holder and start off in your attempt to putt the ball. Phew!! Now what is a putt? Putt is defined as the attempt to make the ball go inside the hole of a particular Fairway. Now what is a Fairway? Fairway is the distance between the Tee and the Green. Simple. What is a Green? Green is the piece of real estate where the hole is situated. It can be imagined as circular/haphazardical (is that a word) area triple the size of the Tee.

So in short, there are 18 Fairways in a standard golf course and hence 18 Tees and 18 Greens. I hope I have been successful in my endeavor so far.

Each Fairway (from now on Fairway and Hole will be used interchangeably) has a Par value assigned to it (does 'par' ring a bell? I will come to this later). It is typically either Par 3, 4 or 5. Now what do you mean by Par? Well, the par value of a hole means that you need to putt the ball in maximum those many number of shots to not change your score. Confusing? Lets take an example.

Lets say you are on Hole 1 which is Par 4. Your score is Even(zero) at the start of the game. I will come to scores later. Now, you start at the Tee of Hole 1. Typically, Fairway lengths are the functions of the Par value. Par 5 holes are longer than Par 4 and Par 4 holes are longer than Par 3. So when you tee off from Hole 1 of Par 4, you will land somewhere on the Fairway, still some distance away from the Green. This was your first shot. The second shot will take you somewhere closer to the Green, if not the Green. The third shot will be your putt shot where you attempt to put the ball in the hole. Now if you do so in the 3rd shot itself, then you have taken one less shot than required for Par, since it was a Par 4 hole. This will subtract one from your score of Even. Even can be though of Zero. So now your score will be -1. Remember, in GOLF, lesser the score, better you are. The person with the least score wins since he has taken the least shots to putt the balls in the 18 holes of the course.

This is becoming longer than I imagined but I am enjoying it.

So the 18 holes of the course are made up of Par 3, Par 4 and Par 5 holes. I have seldom seen anything other than these 3 values. Typically, when you add all the par values of the holes in a golf course, it should add up to 72. Very few golf courses around the world add up to 70, 71, 73 or 74. So a snapshot view of a golf course can be 10 holes of Par 4, 4 holes of Par 3 and 4 holes of Par 5 which imply 10*4 + 4*3 + 4*5 which adds up to 72. So if you take 72 shots to putt 18 holes, your score will remain Even, hence the English phrase "par for the course" which means average or not bad.

Now the scoring system. In most golf tournaments, there are 4 rounds, each of 18 holes where each round is played on a new day. So typically all major golf tournaments span 4 days. There is a cut off for every day similar to our entrance exam percentile system. Each tournament has its own percentile system. For example, if the percentile value for a tournament is 50%, then all players within 50% of the score of the leader make the cut for the next day. The remaining players don't make the cut and are eliminated. Of course, there is much more the percentile system than just this. I have just written the most basic elimination system.

So the scores. Every player starts off on the first day at the score of Even (denoted by capital E and most often in BLACK. E denotes zero). If on a Par 5 hole, you take just 4 shots to putt the ball in the hole (from Tee to the hole), then you have taken 1 shot less. So your score at the end of that hole is -1 (most often, scores less than zero are denoted in BLUE). If you take 1 shot less than the par value, it is called a BIRDIE. If you take just 3 shots to putt the ball on a Par 5 hole, it means you have taken 2 shots less. This is called an EAGLE and it subtracts 2 from your score. If you take 3 shots less then it is called a DOUBLE EAGLE and implies you subtract 3 from your score. In almost 100% of the cases, you cant putt the ball in 1 shot on a Par 5 since Par 5s are the longest holes/fairways. You need to be Heman/Shaktiman (or a cartoon) for that to hit the ball right from the Tee into the hole (Par 5s are upwards of 500 yards).

On the flip side, if you take 6 shots to putt the hole on a Par 5 hole, it means you have taken 1 shot extra. This is called a BOGEY. It adds one to your score. (Most often, scores greater than zero are denoted in RED) If you take 2/3 shots more, it is called a DOUBLE/TRIPLE BOGEY. It means you need to add 2/3 to your score. And the most common score in golf is Par. This is when you take the same number of shots as the Par values. So on a Par 5 hole, you will take 5 shots to make a Par. Par does not change your score. So the champions have more of eagles, birdies and pars rather than bogeys and double bogeys.

The equipment comes next.

Every golf player carries a heavy bag with himself. Since he devotes his entire time on analyzing what shot he will play, he leaves the task of carrying the bag to another person. This person is called the CADDIE. You will generally see a person walking with the golfer carrying his bag. Now what does this bag contain? Lots of stuff.

By lots of stuff, I mean lots of clubs. Yes, golfing clubs. Golfing clubs are divided into 3 parts. Woods, Irons and Putters. Woods are those clubs which have a solid base at the bottom (looks like a sophisticated version of a hockey stick). A very thick one. Woods are used when the golfer wants the ball to cover a lot of ground on the fairway. Typically, Woods are used for Tee shots since the hole is very far away from the Tee and the golfer wants to get as close to the hole as possible. There is variety in Woods too. There is a universal scaling nomenclature for golfing clubs which I am not too sure about. For example, there is stuff like 1 wood, 2 wood and 3 wood which essentially means that the base of the club differs in some respect. I don't know how it differs. Typically, Woods help the golfer cover around 250 yards. Similarly, there are Irons. Irons are used when the golfer does not want to cover a lot of distance, Irons help the golfer cover around 90 - 200 yards. Why such a big gap? It is because irons also have many flavors. Like Woods, Irons also come in the type of 1 iron, 2 iron ... right up to 9 iron. 1 iron has the capability to cover the maximum distance while 9 iron will cover the least. Putters are used on the Greens when the hole is very close. You just need to push the ball and not hit it. That's when putters are used. Whenever you see a golfer position himself close to some hole, it means that he is using a Putter. Putters don't have numbers but most golfers carry more than 2 or 3.

So, adding up everything, 3 Wood clubs, 9 Iron clubs and around 3 Putters. This gives you around 15 clubs to carry in the huge bag. Pity the Caddie. Mind you, caddies get paid a lot. So if you fail in your endeavor to learn Golf, you might be interested to give Jeev Milkha Singh a ring.

Some errors that golfers can make on the course.

There are some patches on the fairway that are troublesome like trees, bunkers and water. When a golfer tees off, he might not always land the ball in a suitable position for the next shot. There are lots of trees on all Fairways. In fact, a Fairway can be thought of an avenue with trees on both sides. If the ball falls among the trees, then his next shot may become difficult since he has to negotiate the trees and then head towards the hole. The shot might hit the trees and fall at the same place. One shot wasted. Remember, every shot counts to your score. On a Par 5, if your tee shot ends up in the trees and you take 2 more shots just to get out of the trees, then it means that you have consumed 3 shots and you have just 2 more shots to putt in order to avoid your score being incremented. Then there are bunkers. Bunkers are trenches of sand mostly found near the Greens. The problem with them is that once the ball falls in a bunker, you need a lot of ability to get it out of the bunker and at a spot close to the hole. Most often, golfers goof up bunker shots which leaves them far away from the hole. Irons are used to get out of bunkers and they are mostly the high numbered ones since the hole is very close to the bunker. Water is the most interesting according to me. Most of the holes on the golf course also have a small pond (even small lakes), sometimes close to the hole, sometimes not. If the ball falls in the water, you cannot go inside the water to hit the ball :). The golfer is allowed to place a new ball somewhere close to the place where the ball fell in the water. Of course, this means that the new ball is now placed on the course and not the water. But the golfer has to give up one shot in the process. For example, if on a Par 4 hole, the golfer's tee shot landed on the fairway and his second shot landed in the water (which is close to the Green), then he will place a new ball somewhere close to the Green. But in doing so, his shot count will be 3 and not 2, since he was provided the liberty to get the ball out of the water.


Now about the golf course. Not many of us know that there is a lot of thought and planning that goes into the designing a golf course. Yes, a golf course is designed and most of the golf courses in the Americas, Europe and Asia are almost wonders of the world. I may be exaggerating but one of the reasons the popularity of golf has gained is due to the fact that people flock to the courses to enjoy nature's bounty besides enjoying some high class golfing acumen of top players. Every golf course has pretty ponds (almost on every hole), small waterfall streams, bunkers (trenches of sand), serene and green fairways, pretty trees and a clubhouse (where golfers rest after the day's play). Golf has also become an extremely fashionable sport. The clothes and the entire attire of golfers make people sit up and take notice. More so with the women players :)

Now about the tournaments. The golfing universe is governed by a body called the PGA (Professional Golfer's Association) in the US. In Europe, its called EPGA and the woman's counterpart is called the LPGA. There are 4 Majors in Golf synonymous to the Grand Slams in Tennis. The only difference is that the Golf Majors happen only in the US and nowhere else. The Majors are Augusta Masters, US Open, the PGA championship and the Open Championship. There is the thrilling Ryder Cup which takes place once every 2 years alternating between US and Europe as a venue where the top 15 players from the US take on the might of the top 15 players from Europe. It has the same needle as the Ashes or an India-Pakistan encounter or a Brazil-Argentina match up in soccer. It is my personal favorite although the Augusta Masters comes a close second. The number of people that turn up for the Ryder Cup is amazing especially on the last day of the tournament when tension runs high among players. I think I will need another post for the Ryder Cup. I can go on and on with the Ryder Cup.

Some common terminology now.

Front 9 refers to the first 9 holes.
Back 9 refers to the last 9 holes
Hole in 1 means that on a Par 3 hole, the golfer's tee shot directly put the ball in the hole, which is an amazing feat, more to do with luck rather than ability. This also means that he has made an EAGLE, since he took 2 shots less than the par value and now his score needs to be subtracted by 2.


The golf course is a sea of green but immaculate planning takes place to keep different shades of green at different places. For example, the Tee is a light green patch of grass. The fairways have comparatively thick grass and also a darker shade of green. The Green (the place where the hole is) is the most contrasting. Almost 90% of the Green (again, the place where the hole is) is a very light shade of green starting from the hole and flowing outwards. The Green is like a circle inside a bigger circle where the non-common part between the two circles is lined with the darker shade of green as that of the Green.

When you see a golfer hitting a shot on TV, you can see some graphic like the following:

Tiger Woods -4
Hole 12 423 yards Par 5
2nd shot 2I
193 yards to the hole/pin

This can be deciphered as: The current score of Tiger Woods is -4. He is on Hole 12 which is a Par 4 and it is 423 yards long. He is playing his second shot of the hole. From where he is at the moment, he is still 193 yards away from the hole. This also means that his Tee shot (first shot) made a whopping 423-193 = 230 yards. 2I means that he is using a 2 iron club to hit the ball.

You can also see something like the following when a golfer is attempting to putt the ball in the hole on the Green.

Phil Mickelson -11
Hole 4
For Birdie

Note here that when a golfer is actually attempting a putt, all other details are not shown in the graphics. Since he is on the Green itself, the length of the hole is not required coz he is very close to the hole now. Neither is the par value required since "For Birdie" tells you that if he makes the putt, then he has done so in 1 shot less. If he makes the putt, then his score will become -12 and he will move onto the Tee of Hole 5. If he misses, then the next graphic that comes up will be:

Phil Mickelson -11
Hole 4
For Par

If he makes this put, then there will be no change to his score and he will move to the Tee of Hole 5. If he misses then he has to attempt the BOGEY putt.

At the end of the playing day, the card of the golfer may look like something like this:


Front 9
Hole 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Par 4 5 4 3 4 5 4 3 4
Score 4 4 4 3 5 5 3 3 3

Back 9
Hole 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18
Par 4 4 4 3 5 5 4 4 3
Score 4 3 5 2 4 5 4 4 3

This can be read as follows:

Hole 1 was a Par 4 hole and the golfer took 4 shots to put the ball in the hole. Score Even
Hole 2 was a Par 5 hole and the golfer took 4 shots to put the ball in the hole. Score -1
Hole 3 was a Par 4 hole and the golfer took 4 shots to put the ball in the hole. Score -1
Hole 4 was a Par 3 hole and the golfer took 3 shots to put the ball in the hole. Score -1
Hole 5 was a Par 4 hole and the golfer took 5 shots to put the ball in the hole. Score Even
Hole 6 was a Par 5 hole and the golfer took 5 shots to put the ball in the hole. Score Even
Hole 7 was a Par 4 hole and the golfer took 3 shots to put the ball in the hole. Score -1
Hole 8 was a Par 3 hole and the golfer took 3 shots to put the ball in the hole. Score -1
Hole 9 was a Par 4 hole and the golfer took 3 shots to put the ball in the hole. Score -2
Hole 10 was a Par 4 hole and the golfer took 4 shots to put the ball in the hole. Score -2
Hole 11 was a Par 4 hole and the golfer took 3 shots to put the ball in the hole. Score -3
Hole 12 was a Par 4 hole and the golfer took 5 shots to put the ball in the hole. Score -2
Hole 13 was a Par 3 hole and the golfer took 2 shots to put the ball in the hole. Score -3
Hole 14 was a Par 5 hole and the golfer took 4 shots to put the ball in the hole. Score -4
Hole 15 was a Par 5 hole and the golfer took 5 shots to put the ball in the hole. Score -4
Hole 16 was a Par 4 hole and the golfer took 4 shots to put the ball in the hole. Score -4
Hole 17 was a Par 4 hole and the golfer took 4 shots to put the ball in the hole. Score -4
Hole 18 was a Par 3 hole and the golfer took 3 shots to put the ball in the hole. Score -4

It can also be observed that the golfer made 6 birdies (on Holes 2, 7, 9, 11, 13 and 14) which makes his score -6. He also made 2 bogeys (on Holes 5 and 12) which makes his score +2 and he made 10 pars (on the remaining holes) which don't change his score. So his overall score is -6 +2 = -4 as seen as the score after the 18th hole.


Now the greats of the game.

I don't know a lot of them but Jack Nicklaus (The Golden Bear), Arnold Palmer and Hale Irwin are legends of American golf. Some of the more contemporary American names are Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Fred Couples, Davis Love, David Duval, Corey Pavin, Tom Watson and Chris DiMarco. Some great European players are Colin Montgomerie, Seve Ballasterous, Sergio Garcia, Bernhard Langer, Jose Maria Olazabal, Padraig Harrington, Nick Faldo and Lee Westwood. There are some greats outside America and Europe as well like Ernie Els, Greg Norman, Nick Price and Vijay Singh (he is from Fiji and not India). Some of our dear Indian players are Jeev Milkha Singh, Jyoti Randhawa and Shiv Kapur. The women's game also has a lot of greats but I know only two ... Annika Sorenstam and Laura Davies. The problem with remembering names with women is that you are hardly looking at the names ;)

Well that's about it. I don't know if I have missed something but I think I have covered the basics of the game. I will end with a short summary of the game.

• A golf course contains 18 holes.
• Each hole consists of the Tee, the Fairway and the Green.
• The hole is on the Green.
• You start at the Tee and end at the Green.
• The distance between the Tee and the Green is called the Fairway.
• The distance between the Tee and the Green ranges from 150 yards to 600 yards depending on the Par values.
• Clubs are classified as Woods, Irons and Putters.
• Each hole has a Par value assigned to it. It is either 3, 4 or 5.
• Shots made by a golfer are called Double Eagle (-3), Eagle(-2), Birdie(-1), Par(0), Bogey(+1), Double Bogey(+2) and Triple Bogey(+3).
• Troublesome areas on the golf course for a golfer are trees, bunkers and water.
• The person who carries the golfer's bag of clubs is called CADDIE.
  

Cheers ... !!