Apocryphal Stories !!!

After watching a part of the Test match between Sri Lanka and India , we can safely assume that pitches don't impart much to the character of a match these days When India clean swept England 3-0 , there was a huge uprising against India preparing doctored pitches for their spinners. One of the major reasons why Champion teams are considered champions is because of the fact that they overcome the conditions and perform. For example, Australia covets the series wins over Sri Lanka and India because of the fact that they conquered the conditions and rose above them. Now that India and Sri Lanka are yet to win a series in Australia and South Africa, it takes some sheen of the fact that they are vying for supremacy in Tests If we cast our eyes over the records, we would find that except for the 1980's every other decade virtually ensured that scoring over 500 would bring in a "no-loss" feeling for the team. The problem with every team trying to run up a score in excess ...

With so much debate about Cricket, possibly being a sport in Olympics 2020 and Adam Gilchrist putting his weight behind the same, it was considered that it was not long before we could actually see Cricket on a global platform. With IPL being such a success, it has opened the doors for the newest and shortest version to be showcased to the world. With the ongoing saga between them and Lalit Modi on the ruckus that has been the administration of IPL, BCCI would have been well off without this controversy. BCCI, presently has a lot on its plate as they have to deal with WADA, Lalit Modi and most of all, its relations with its players The relations between BCCI and players seems to have reached a stage where they don't trust each other after the T20 World Cup in West Indies. By now its pretty clear that BCCI did not want to take the blame for the scheduling debacle. So they conveniently served show cause notices to the players who were involved in the pub incident to deviate the atten...

I remember a few years ago, around the time "Bluffmaster" released, Abhishek Bachchan saying he categorized movies into only two- good movies and bad movies. Apparently he did not know that there were more choices and he did not certainly know that movies like Sapno ke desh mein... were made I too subscribed to the views of JuniorB because it made sense to me. Reading the book "If better is possible" by John Buchanan these days, it is so easily made out that Chetan Shah either became too redundant with the actors or he indulged himself a lot while making the movie. I still don't understand how the producers- Raw Films, if am not wrong- came forward after listening to the narration by Chetan Coming back to the movie itself I felt that it had a good story to tell but then failed in the aspect of screenplay and incompetent performances by not just the lead cast but also the supporting cast. It starts with that tested flashback within a flashback format and starts ...

Circa 2009: Venue: Melbourne Park Incident: Roger Federer breaking into tears after the epic five setter , which he lost to Nadal All the Federer fans including yours truly was shocked with the turn of events and few converted to being Nadal fans, impressed with his grace and him consoling Federer by saying " You are a champion and am sure, you will win many more". Few fans even suspected if, Federer will manage to take a win from Nadal 2010, Roland Garros Nadal after his win against Lleyton Hewitt was all grace again as he admitted to Federer being the better player of them. He said numbers show that he won 16 slams to his 6 and even though their head-to-head tilts in his favour, it was skewed as most of the matches were played on clay What grace!!

Well there are many reasons that can be attributed to why I love the Australian cricket team. I guess my love for them started off somewhere during 1990, because my uncle gifted me a book on their 1987 World Cup win. The book in vivid detail explained why the Australian team won and how they won. The thing that stands out in my memory is the photo of Simon O'Donnell celebrating the fall of Graham Gooch's wicket. It was specifically mentioned in the book that they were not even the favorites to qualify from the group, given the struggles they had from the time G.Chappell, D.Lillee, R.Marsh retired There are so many reasons that I can attribute to me loving them. What stands out as a fan for me is the way they fought on the cricket field. I remember reading a piece on them in Sportstar where it was mentioned that on a football field it was Germany and on a cricket pitch it was Australia. These matches, arranged chronologically have helped a lot in increasing my love for them. P...

It was just in the last year that we were witness to a T20 World Cup in England. That another world cup is being held approximately nine months later can be put down to greed of ICC to encash on the T20 phenomena or as many say, just poor scheduling. Whatever be the case, it will be the players that will suffer in the long run Its an opportunity for the ICC to remove the demons from the poorly conducted 2007 World Cup. Last heard, they gave their nod to musical instruments to be bought into the stadium and also the ticket prices are not as steep as they were back in 2007 With the groupings also being a little tougher this time, its expected that T20 World Cup will be a better experience this time GROUP-A : Pakistan, Bangladesh, Australia Who would have imagined that Australis would be seeded not to go to the next round in a multi team tournament. With due respect to their record in World Cups and Champions Trophy, they are yet to solve the riddle called as Twenty20 Pakistan on the othe...

Well as with any celebrity we are very intent on knowing what they undergo, how they have to come to be the Superstars that they are. Perhaps the stars also know it, as the narrative never drifts to describing in entirety any given situation. The same is the case with Serena Williams: My Life Queen of the court co-authored/authored by Daniel Paisner. What strikes you from the chapters about her childhood is the fact that, she will certainly come out with another book after her career ends Well coming to the book itself, Serena has a habit of maintaining a match/tournament journal. She starts every chapter with one of the match entries and the common thread through all of it is the SMS language. There are a lot of things that go against the prototype we have of her. The way she describes the struggles is almost pleasure-like and it certainly would have been tougher than that (maybe as said earlier, she has stored that away for another book). The chapters are almost arranged chronologic...

hype1 colloq, noun 1 intensive, exaggerated or artificially induced excitement about, or enthusiasm for, something or someone. 2 exaggerated and usually misleading publicity or advertising; a sales gimmick. 3 a publicity stunt, or the person or thing promoted by such a stunt. 4 a deception. verb (hyped, hyping) to promote or advertise something intensively The fourth definiton seems to work for this movie, where nothing despite the presence of the actors of the calibre of Suhasini and Ashish Vidhyarthi . This is the second film in the recent past where the antagonist walks away with the piece of cake( the other one being Ek Niranjan There are two kinds of good directors. One which make the actors suit the part. Mani Rathnam , Gautam Menon , K.Viswanath to put in a few belong to that part and the other being those who select apt actors for the part. The examples of this kind being Bharatiraja , Balachander . I once remember R.Madhavan saying this about Mr.Manirathnam "Mani sir ...

Coming from a director, who has basically had only one huge hit in the last 12 years, it being Tholi Prema, the expectations on the movie- which was really huge- is surprising Darling, one of the big ticket releases this years falls flat on its face because of the lack of a convincing script and a non-moving screenplay. In fact, the first refuses to come to an end. In the past films like Vamsi, Tulasi were rejected at the turnstiles because of the exact reason of them being predictable and had a feeling of deja vu attached to it. Like Gunasekhar, who has made it a specialised craft of inserting a kidnapping sequence, Karunakaran, has made it a speciality to weave the story line around a lie by one of the protagonists Coming to the actors, Prabhas looks jaded and disinterested. Kajal reminds one of bollywood themes, where she is constantly running. The elder tribe of the actors acquitted themselves well Scenes to lookout for The thread between the hero and the heroine's brother wo...

Every player who hits a six and a four is said to be the new superstar. Ian Bishop the other day committed the biggest blunder when he said that the fielding standards have dropped! Come on Ravi Shastri and Sunil Gavaskar, please carry your weight around!

Back in January, in the third Test of Basil D'Oliveira trophy after Collingwood had completed another rescue act, the joke going around was that the next act would be repeated in Chittagong against Bangladesh. There was a logic to it and it precisely was this- Collingwood was a major factor in pulling off draws at Cardiff , Centurion , and Cape Town . Few cynics also suggested that Collingwood be the first choice for games played at these venues and they suggested that Calcutta and Colombo retain their old names! Well coming back to this series, it got off to an inauspicious start in the media with the withdrawal of Andrew Strauss and Cook was drafted in as the skipper. Adding to Cook's woes was the poor form of Pietersen. Coming back in the series against South Africa, he continued his poor run into the series against Bangladesh. His form was so poor getting into the first Test that he scored 69 runs off 111 balls in 7 innings. It was so poor that a bowler called Allaudin Ba...

Looking at Yousuf's ton yesterday, this question does spring up in the mind. Well for a batsman not crossing 59 in 32(international) strikes at crease, he saunters to the crease and unleashes the second fastest T20 ton. One resemblance from his Deodhar trophy heroics - both ended up in losing causes. Rayudu plays a bold hand in raising Mumbai Indians total in the innings but does not seem to posses the same resolve, when it comes to playing for Hyderabad in the Ranji Trophy! Maybe we can attribute it (comfortably indeed and thereby increasing the legend) to being with Sachin Tendulkar in the same dug-out!!

What happens when you have given a hit like "Happy days" in your last outing? What happens when as a production house, you are making huge revenues by making movies like "Sivaji", "Ayan" ? What happens when you are the flag-bearer of the third generation of the biggest production houses in the state? - Expectations build up and with those expectations came AVM's "Leader". Leader was supposed to be Diwali but various non-filmy reasons led to its postponement What added weight to the movie was its positive title and it releasing in the time of a political maelstorm adds to the gloss of the movie. A movie can sustain itself only when it has some story happening on a nice thread. Leader does that - atleast for me! With the insurgent demand for a separate state, it was hoped that "Leader" would have a few words on the issue. It veered clear of this issue and came out with a protagonist, who looked the perfect fit for the role ****** It d...

Definition of greatness is 'Very large in size' or ' Remarkable or outstanding in magnitude, degree, or extent'. Now can we with conviction name a player, who qualifies to the definition above? The only two people who come closest to the above definition in ODI terms are IVA Richards and SR Tendulkar. I would put Viv Richards on a higher perch (yeah! even after yesterdays 200) because of the fact that he has won a WC final, with a century coming from his bat. If mere numbers indicate the greatness of a player, then Desmond Haynes has to be the greatest ODI player before Sachin Tendulkar took over the mantle of highest century scorer from him. A player's value in a team cause goes beyond mere numbers, which is the reason we don't tend to remember players like AB Agarkar. Coming back to Tendulkar, he would certainly sit on top of the pile if he wins the WORLD CUP for India in 2011, which, presumably is his last chance to do so Now 17,598 runs at an average of 4...

Now I would certainly start talking about movies and cricket ....

After all those talks of gaining psychological advantage and moral ground and etc, we got down to real action on the Boxing day Test at Kingsmead, Durban. Having rained in the last few days, the air was heavy and it looked certain that the team winning the toss would certainly choose to field but flowing away from the stream Smith won the toss and elected to bat on what looked a clear day Anderson, England's best bowler in conditions prevailing started off in a positive manner by getting Smith to edge one to fine-leg and beating Prince all ends up off two consecutive deliveries. The way he beat Prince was an education to every budding bowler as he got it to pitch on the middle and made the ball to swerve away across him. Onions who shared the new-ball with Anderson showed the way to bowl to Smith as he pitched it on the good length and got the ball to move away and by the end of two overs South Africa looked like they had a task on hand. Anderson having softened Prince in the firs...

Release date : Jan 1st 1983 Star Cast : Kamal Hassan, Jayaprada, Sharath Babu, SP Sailaja Director : K Viswanath There are some movies that tend to leave a permanent mark on us. As in other fields, greatness is a virtue gifted easily to people these days. Back in those days one man whom we consider a legendary actor now and a director, who already carved a niche for himself collaborated on a movie called "Sagara Sangamam". Any movie-buff would answer in affirmative if asked about this movie. The viewing experience is such that we would grudge Kamal for being such a genius and feel relieved that we are not him because of the way nature cruelly plays it's part on him Well even though my taste lies in the jhatka and matka songs which have come to define this decade, the songs of this specific movie never fail to enthrall me. It would be almost sick of me to get into the story details and analysing the acting of the protagonists. Simply said a Telugu speaking pers...

I would be putting up my choice of movies and cricket matches, complete with the best ODI and Test knocks, best spells in ODI's and Tests too. In the new year also I will try for something that I have not before- analysing the entire decade !

Haven't England perfected the art of perfect escape in Test matches? Hope this series does not follow Ashes to the 'T' !!!

This year we have been witness to some superb knocks. I remember reading a piece on Cricinfo with the same title somewhere before the 2003 WC. With 2011 WC coming up, we will have a pleothera of such characters. We have been witness to a good number of knocks this year where the strike-rate of the batsmen was above 100 and that too in Test cricket ............ cont'd