Monday Blues: Champion like attitude

I am hooked to this song from last night and after watching an emotional team celebrations and the speech by the captain, I am stunned and excited. The team didn't have the money, resources to even get their jerseys in time for the tournament and yet have come to be victorious. The adversities have brought the team together and made them champions. The song by DJ Bravo has also helped and the team embraced the challenges and conquered them.

Here is what the Windies captain said at the awards ceremony.

West Indies captain Darren Sammy: "Firstly I want to thank the almighty. We have a pastor in the team in Andre Fletcher, we keep on praying. Really happy for this win, it's something we'll cherish for a long time. We have a few matchwinners, nobody give us a chance, every game somebody stepped up - good to see Carlos play like that in his debut World Cup. Shows the T20 depth we have in the Caribbean, hopefully we will continue to improve. People were wondering if we would play this tournament, we had issues with the board, Mark Nicholas called us players with no brain. But all of us came together, these 15 men put adversity aside, play this type of cricket in front of such passionate fans. It was tremendous. I want to thank the coaching team, Phil Simmons. We had a new manager in this tournament. Got to give credit to the entire team here. This is for all the fans in the Caribbean... I don't know when I'm going to be playing for West Indies again, I want to thank my team, thank my coaching staff. This is for the CHAMPIONS!"

Check out the song.

An over late!

Since the black and white EC TV came home one day to sweets and loads of tea, since the time we had to climb up to the roof precariously to adjust the antenna to get clean image and reception on TV, since Kapil paaji lifted the cup and Sunil Gavaskar lifted it's lid to see what is inside, we are a cricket crazy nation. Every time I went out to bat in my street, all our audience were empires giving us verdits of out and not out. Sometimes when there was a power cut despite all the precautions taken by out Ramana uncle, who worked in the electricity board, he used to come home much later in the night to avoid hate-filled glances as people were left to press the Radio close to their ears and listen tot he commentary.

Skip forward a few years, Sachin was just beginning to become a phenomenon and we all wore blue Adidas tees and posed with dummy MRF bats and did the famous groin-drop ceremoniously even when facing a 10 year old local kid we faced everyday. And we drank Pepsi even in rainy season and watched cricket. I remember watching the matches standing on the street outside the shop that sold TVs and would broadcast the match to a window outside so we can watch. 

Then we got the color TV. Things changed style changed. Still we would go out to the streets to watch the match. The atmosphere was electric when Sachin took us on against Australia in Sharjah singlehandedly. We jumped and jumped and shouted at the top of our lungs and hugged random people on the street out of pure joy and felt India ruled the world.

Things changed as I moved to college, got my Saching signed MRF original bat, started to work and got a place of my own. Now cricket still rules as the hidden page on the browser with several windows which I would frequently sneak and the muted celebration when Harbhajan swept Australians away. As I grew in my corporate ladder, the browser was more prominent and net connections got better but still I love to buffer it up before actually watching the action. An over late. I know. But still better to let it load. And Yuvi hit those sixers. Six in a match. I was a punjabi that day :) Sachin hit the double hundred. Rohit hit the grand double. Dhoni hit that six to get us the cup. All an over late. An over of confusion. An over of stress and nail biting. An eternity.

Gillette turns Indian

Most non-Indians would never understand what cricket means to us. Thank you for this wonderful ad Gillette.

 

Lessons from Virat Kohli

Virat is angry. 
Virat is young.
Virat is a genius.

When you are talented, blessed with opportunities and are severely clinically examined for every move and are always in the limelight like Virat, I think it is fair enough to be carried away and sometimes be yourself. When Virat gets angry, I understand he can be upset. I see many negative comments about him getting angry and irritated when he is given out and there are always many such occasions in Cricket. It is a game after all and we all know how unfair it can be sometimes. But to let out the anger and show disapproval and behave in a childish mood is being questioned. I beg to differ. I am glad Virat gets angry, I am glad Virat is showing it.

Why do we equate Virat with Sachin and behave as if he has to follow the little master? Let Virat be himself - angry, passionate, challenging, aggressive and expressive. We love him for his knocks, passion and for being himself. Be yourself, be brave, be expressive and be natural. Let people like or dislike you for what you are. Focus on improving, changing for better and moving forward.

Pic is from here.

Thank you Sachin

Wordsworth said... "The child is the father of man".

A true disciple, rather student of cricket  mastered his art and showed today that dreams come true. #thankyousachin

What you saw today is success, adulation and honours. What don't see is the hours of arduous practice, injuries, pain, missed family time, friends, sleep and personal space.

Keep running, learning, be humble, stay true and love what you do, love your parents and success will chase you.

Sachin Tendulkar! Well left.

All the best.

Lessons from Cricket

Its things we internalize that become part of us. Part of our lives. Cricket in India runs on such lines. Its embedded into the Indian psyche. As they say, its almost religion. Now the marketing lesson in it is, cricket's become what brands want to be. Brands want consumers to make them part of their lives. Part of their identity. Iconic brands are those that have achieved what's cricket's done. They have wormed their way into consumer lives. So much that consumers draw part of their identity from them. Of course, this doesn't come easy. In fact it materializes only if consumers are willing to connect with brands at a psychological level.

The way cricket has. In India.

Pic is from here & article from BBB.

Unleash your limits

Worth your time. Love the cricket rewind.

Saluting Tendya!!!

Where are my slippers?

Change is so unexpected but happens in Cricket. Read an interesting observation by Mike Browning on the missing relevance of slip position in Cricket over the years.

The popular saying goes, “Bowlers win matches.” In the longest form of the game they can’t without help. First-class and Test matches are also won by guys who are usually the least athletic members of the team. They are the fieldsmen who don’t run much and stand with their hands on their knees; sticking out their backsides at the spectators. For these are the “slippers”, the unsung heroes of Test cricket.

As a quality pairing though Australia were never in better shape than when Mark Taylor stood at first and Mark Waugh at second slip. They were equally brilliant catching spin or pace and added pressure to opposing batsmen who must have believed any mistake would be their last. Taylor like Colin Cowdrey and Greg Chappell at one time topped the tree for Test catches. In one of the greatest fielding feats of all time he won the Man-of-the-Match award in a one-day international against West Indies at the SCG in 1992 for taking four slips catches.

Mark Waugh, who has now be pushed to second spot in the Test catches list by Rahul Dravid, has said, “Slip is a position where you have to be a natural at it. Really, you’ve either got it or you haven’t. You have to have reflexes and the ability to concentrate every ball. You might be in there all day and the ball comes to you once and you have to be ready for it. It’s a tough spot.” Waugh’s spectacular ability was best demonstrated with the low right-handed horizontal dive when he caught Alec Stewart at Leeds in 1993. It is available on recorded vision and one of Waugh’s own personal favourites. The anticipation, speed and flexibility will leave any viewer gob smacked.

Try gifts n retakes

KKR's journey at IPL 2.0 will be forgotten. The sooner, the better. What happened this year? What can they lean from this experience?

• You don't mess with Captaincy at the last moment
  
• Unlike movies there is no retake on the field
• Cricket is a team game
• All games have heavy odds
• Selling a Brand is different from making runs, taking wickets and catches
• Too many cooks spoil the broth. Ditto for captains(at least for now)

Few positives:

• KKR still is the best brand at IPL 2.0 with its brand value at $42.1 million
• KKR Reebok Jersey still sells most
• Great time to show the proven marketer in SRK

How is the future for KKR then? Sometimes your best efforts fail. SRK has to face the wrath from many quarters. Disgruntled fans, team members, sponsors, etc. Good luck SRK.

Noodle to who?

From blinker to noodle straps Mandira has come a long way. Invading into what was for decades considered a man's world she took the small screen by storm. Now she is back with IPL 2.0 and this time storm seems serene.

The action moved to a larger picture from the comfort of the four walled studio to the ground. With several celebrities to vie for screen time and real cricketing quips being necessary Mandira's splash is really small. But she did come with a bang with a new haircut and statement look. With bigger than life stars like SRK, Priety and Shilpa with Shamita grabbing more sheen than cricket Mandira has had tough competetition to beat. There is a lot of gap in terms of strategies, wit to build the cake below the icing.

Still she managed to be in the news and evoke attention, living to her title: The First Lady of Indian Cricket.

Fake it, Make it

Though it is premature to state that it has become a cult, I would like to risk it. Well I am talking about a new blog that climbing up the charts like the temperature this summer. Its Fake IPL Player! Posing as some one in the team and describing in detail what happens in team meetings, individual differences and what not this blog has more than what comes around in the press. The infamous blogger reveals info about what happens in the dressing room, the conversations between SRK, the coach and the team. At present this blog has nore than 4800 followers along with numerous visitors who visit it daily. Each character inj the blog have been given funny names and this is firing up the blog even more. Some claim this is a player in the IPL while some claim Sharukh has figured out a way to get free publicity. Only time will tell. Till then happy reading.

For those who are new here are few names and equivalant---

Gilli danda : Ashok Dinda
Bhookha Naan : John Buchanan
Boy George - BRAD HODGE
Style bhai spinner - Murali Karthik
Lord Almighty = Ganguly
Phoren baba = Mccullum (also Gayle & Hodge when used in plural ?)
Calypso king = Gayle
Vinnie Dildo / Badshah Dildo = Shahrukh Khan
Kishen Kanhaiyya = Ravi Shastri
Sandy: Mandira Bedi
Sultan of tweak = Warne
Sparrow / parrott = McGrath
Bevdaa team = BRC (Mallya’s Team)
Big Sister’s team = RR (Shilpa Shetty’s team)
Mr. Bativala = Vijay Mallya
RDB = Ranadeb Bose ?
Prince Charles of Patiala = Yuvraj
Prince of Patiala = Yuvraj
Little Monster = Little Master / Sachin
The Rajputs = RR
Pedophile Priest = Gilchrist
Little John = Ishant Sharma
Very very special friend Ram = VVS Laxman
Kaan Moolo = Agarkar
Former India fast bowler who will remain a former India fast bowler = Agarkar
Bangla Tiger = Mortaza
Appam C = Sreesanth
Junta Tormentor = Ajanta Mendis
India’s best fast bowler = Ishant Sharma

Attack on Lankan cricketers and implications

Harsha writes: For years, we in India, have shifted our eyes westward, only marginally westward, with awe and admiration at the kind of talent that came bursting through. Suddenly Wasim Akram appeared, suddenly Waqar and Inzamam and Saeed Anwar and many others who, though not quite destined for greatness, played lovely cameo roles. In recent times that production line has got clogged. There is hardly any incandescent talent that illuminates stadiums now. And in the years to come it could only get worse. Wasim Akram was in awe of Imran and Waqar wanted to be like him. Shoaib Akhtar wanted to bowl with Waqar and that is how it always is. One generation inspires another as Tendulkar did with Sehwag and Dhoni. If there is no cricket in Pakistan, there will be no inspiration. Expect lots of journeymen T20 players unsure of whether they are playing for Sussex or Northern Transvaal or South Australia.

This half-hour of madness in Lahore has far-reaching implications. Increasingly cricket grounds will be heavily guarded, cricketers will play in what look like garrisons; it will take longer to get into a T20 game than actually watch it. Little children will no longer eye the wax paper packet in which their mother has packed the best sandwiches in the world. People might stay in drawing rooms, not only because they are more comfortable, but because they are safer. Increasingly cricket will be limited to what the camera shows and what the commentator says. If they can fight their way through all the advertising! I fear cricket watching will become clinical rather than innocent.

Ultimately though, cricket is only a tiny part of the reality of our existence. Like the movies, if more strongly, it can allow us to escape into our little cocoon for a few hours. But thereafter we must emerge and place it in the context of our times. This is a time of extraordinary hatred and violence, of tearing apart rather than stitching together; of grown-up men fighting like neighbourhood kids but with weapons that can maim and kill. The sad reality in our part of the world is that we have far too many people to police and far too few that don’t need policing.

The ICC must act fast and not close their eyes to reality like they did with the Champions Trophy. A firm decision on the World Cup will have to be taken quickly and without emotion or appeasement. This is neither the time to cater to vote banks nor for the former gentry to get back at the nouveaux riche.

13.2 fm

What happens 15 people wish to be in a team and the new rule says only 13 can? And the team has people from both marketing and finance? And if this is a scenario from a B-school? Well here they use some branding stuff and name it 13.2 fm!

13.2 fm! It suits most of 11 Immutable laws of Internet branding.

Good work guys.

Enough is enough

This is no time to demonstrate gesture. This is the time for me to listen to a leader that shall strongly assure me of what needs to be done and will do it ! This is the time for each citizen of this country to act and behave in a dictated disciplined profile. This is the time for those that lead, to educate us all in a common curriculum bearing a common code of conduct. A code that shall bind us all as one collective strength. If the invader has been psychologically brain washed into believing that what he is doing to us is ordained through divine intervention, then let him face 1.2 billion brains that have been ordained in unison to ‘teach’ him how horribly wrong he is.

For too long we have remained the servile submissive nation. There has been no strong adjective to describe our character. When you meet an Indian abroad and when you ask where he is from he invariably states the State he comes from, not the country. A motorist on a street in Mumbai will willingly open the door of his car and decorate the road with his colorful mucus lined spit. Same motorist in Singapore will not dare to perform similar feat. A cyclist at 2 in the morning on a deserted street in London shall respect the red light at a signal and wait for it to turn green before crossing it. He not only depicts discipline, he reflects the character of his country. Here even in the busiest moments of the day, the red light at a crossing is an indicator to ‘GO’ !!

You know why the Indian Cricket team has had its phenomenal run of successes in recent times ? Its because it has shown character and attitude. Yes, of course it has the talent, but its body language and behavior on the pitch is rattling the opponent. When a Gambhir elbows his response to continuous sledging of the foulest tongue, I like that. It is a fault and it is up for penalization, but I simply loved his statement thereafter, that he ‘did not regret doing it’. When a Harbhajan challenges a Symonds and walks up to exchange words, when Yuvraj back answers his English opponent and follows it up with 6 sixes in one over, it shows character.

--- Big Blog

Go Tendya GO!

• On the journey:
  Success is a process and during that journey sometimes there are stones thrown at you and you convert them into milestones. It's a great feeling.
• On how long he thinks he can keep the record:
  I don't what is going to happen in future. I started as a 16-year-old, without any such targets. There might be another 16-year-old, who might not be having any targets and who knows where he is going to go.
• On the pressure:
  "To be honest, I was not under any pressure for this record. I knew that I have to go out and play my game. It will come at some stage. There was no burden as such. Today I decided just to watch the ball as closely as possibly."

Source: Cricinfo.com

Balapuwaduge Ajantha Winslo Mendis

Balapuwaduge Ajantha Winslo Mendis worked as a gunner in the Srilankan army. No wonder he is successful and passionate. Old habits die hard. When winning becomes a habit you need to be really persistent in what you do.

Despite being a star cricketer, winning many awards Mendis enlisted to the army as his father, who was the sole breadwinner for his family, died of heart attack. He didn't complain! All winners are hard workers and beat many odds to win. On the other hand we have people cribbing and whining. His laurels in cricket have earned him promotions in the army ranks. He is a Second Lieutenant now in the Sri Lankan Army!

Are you a winner?

Dravid Ignored?

What Shetty says makes no sense to me. Just saying you let down some one will not undo your mistakes. Dhoni has been conferred with the Khel Ratna. Congrats. Good for him. I dont have any problem with that. What pains me and many other followers of Indian Cricket Scenario is that Dravid, who I feel is more deserving has been left out. Sachin got it after a decade of extraordinary performance.

Shetty said what impressed him most about Dhoni was the way he conducted himself. "What I like most about Mahi, apart from his cricket, is the way he leads. He is a cool customer and never gets agitated. I’m also impressed by his clarity of thought. He speaks his mind even if it may not be seen in the right sense," he added. "

Show me an occasion where Dravid got angry, revolted and was not cool. The wall of Indian cricket, backbone of Indian middle order for over a decade is shown an empty hand. How many matches did Dhoni help India win, how many innings does he have to his credit that turned the match. I think Dravid(10K+ runs in both forms of the game, 193 catches), Kumble(600+ wickets, 35 5-wicket hauls, 57 catches), Yuvraj, Lakshman.. the list of deserving cricketers is endless. Dhoni stands at the end of the queue. May be even after Gavaskar and Kapil.

Just an after thought. Does Shibu Soren, Lalu, Mallya and Karunanidhi have something to do with this? I don't know.

Indian Cricket Team

There is no doubt that Indian Cricket team looks the best on paper. But when we come to performance on the field we all know what happens. Deccan Charges faced the same problem. Individually the players have lots of records to show but as a team they let down many times. All the qualifications do not matter if the player fails to take the team through. Same applies to management as well. All the experience and the credentials do not come to the rescue if the person fails to deliver: every time. So you need to know that there are a thousand eyes looking at you and be on your toes. The secret is to be ready every time and perform. Consistency and efficiency matter both on the field and off it.

New Record

Gambhir's 100 in yesterday's game represents the 150th hundred by Indian batsmen in ODIs. India is the only country in ODIs to have 150 hundreds.

Sachin 42
Saurav 22
Dravid 12
Yuvraj,Sehwag 8
Azhar 7
Jadeja, Sidhu, Lakshman 6
Gambhir 5