Warne the Magician and Dada the great

I am happy... both the matches go as I wanted, first a thrilling win to delhi and then a loss to Kolkata with Dada proving his worth. In the second match, no one would have thought the way warne thought to defend a moderate total of 150. To block Gayle and McCullum, warne brought Yusuf and that appeared to be a well thought decision and then when they were almost done by the heroics of Dada, he took the things in total control.

When KKR required just seven from the last over, he put the new guy Kamran, who has never played even a ranji game, I was not able to stop myself from comparing Kamran's performance with that of Dilhara in IPL 1.0 RR Vs MI. Dilhara has loads of experience of international matched and he was not able to withstand the pressure of last over whereas now this new guy successfully restricts the opponents.

I wanted Warne to beat his ex coachie, who thinks of himself another Sun Tju. There are certainly big problems going in KKR camp thanks to Coachie, it was evident by the newcomer Yashpal was ignoring Dada'a advice. This guy Yashpal seems to be very arrogant or may be is on high with the closeness to new order in KKR. That guy got two catches and both the times his reactions just shown the arrogance. But at the end of it I am happy for Dada, who made blistering 46 to bring his team back into the contest, which I believe is just a start to make Vinnie and Coachie realize the real worth of Dada as a player. Also the Sun Tzu's bet on Mendis was so foolish that even a rookie like me told my friends before the super over that he will be butchered by Yusuf, who is particularly good against spin.

But there has been something not good yesterday and that was not blog from fake ipl player. I am worried about the guy, is he caught or he has just taken a break to escape the high levels of scrutiny. Whatever it may be, I am desperately waiting for his new post to know more about the happening after yesterday's match. Or if he was caught, I am eagerly waiting for the insider news about the identity of that guy.

I am loving it... the fake IPL Player

A couple of days back I read about this guy, who claims to be part of KKR team, played ranji probably for WB and has no hopes of being in the playing eleven. The blog is www.fakeiplplayer.blogspot.com, and the posts are just hilarious. I believe this guy gives some reliable info, else no one would have taken him seriously. The nick names given are also damn interesting and if you read all the posts, you can easily find who is who, but just to make your task easier, I will put down the nicknames used by this guy:

Sheik of Tweak - Shane Warne
Vinnie/Winnie/Badshah Dildo - Shahrukh Khan
Lord Almighty/ Lordie - Saurav Ganguly
Pedophile Priest - Adam Gilchrist
Kaan Moolo - Ajit Agarkar
Appam Chutiya - S. Sreesanth
Calypso King - Chris Gayle
Prince Charles of Patiala - Yuvraj Singh
Kishen Kanhaiyya Commentator - Ravi Shastri
Little John - Ishant Sharma
Meera Bhai - Harbhajan Singh
Babli - Priety Zinta
Big Sister - Shilpa Shetty
Junta Tormentor - Ajantha Mendis
Havai Chappal - Greg Chappel
Baja of Baroda - Anshuman Gaekwad
John Wrong - John Wright
RDB - Ranadeb Bose
Bangla Tiger - Mashrafe Mortaza
Very special friend Ram - VVS Laxman
Sandy Baddy Babe - Mandira Bedi
Coachie - John Buchannan
Phoren Babas - KKR Coaching Squad
Bevdaa Team - Bangalore Royal Challengers
Mr. Batlivala - Vijay Mallya
Biggest Bevda - Jesse Ryder
Commentator who crossed the border for this tournament - Alistair Campbell
Chatterjee Kaku - Old man in the KKR Ad
Big Sisters Team - Rajasthan Royals
Bubblies Team - Kings XI Punjab

A few recent posts have not been up to the standards set by him in the initial posts, may be because now every thing is scanned and the time is less rather now he also claims to be putting his blog via his bro in India.

My take on the blogger is that this guy is certainly not as described in the blogs, the kind of unique writing skills he has, it would have been easier to identify as you wont find many people with such skills. Other thing is that, he gave so many clues and anyone having inside information could have found as their are a few instance where 2-3 people only were present, so definatly this guy is faking it but for sure is some insider.

I feel it can be Lordie himself, as the start date of blog coincided with the announcement date of McCullum's captaincy and Lordie has good enough reasons to be against Vinnie and Coachie. Also one needs to have balls to do such an act, as any newcomer's career will be destroyed if caught and there is only such player who can take the team management head on when caught. Again I feel that Lordie has quite good oratory skills and he might be using his some journalist friend to put the blog and he is also cleverly putting the things about himself. I hope its Lordie.. and if that's true hats off dada, BRAVO.

If not lordie then it can only be a parts of Vinnie's marketing team, just to keep the interest of viewers after loosing the fan base in Kolkata. Vinnie is a very shrewd guy and any one can make out that fact from his take on Dada but unfortunately its too easy to find that he is faking it. Vinnie also is a very good business man and wants to earn profits by hook or crook and this might be one of his crooks anyways I feel next year onwards KKR will either remain KR with a base on Ahmedabad or Vinnie has to get rid of Phoren babas and lick a&% of Kolkata's dear Lordie.

Change of guard at Election commission and Chawla starts

Mr. Naveen Chawla is all set to take over as chief election commissioner of India. 20th April is the date on which he will take over, and I am not aware of the status for today as I believe Mr. Gopalaswamy is already retired. The first news I have seen after this change of guard were of EC blocking BJP's video for ad on black money and Sonia being cleared of the Belgian award controversy and with that I can see an end of neutral Election commission of India.

With Sonia Loyolist Naveen Chwala at the helm of affairs in EC, these two events might turn out be just an start. With the biased media (one might recall their different views of media about Varun Gandhi and N. Srinivasan), even the previous CEC had to take some decisions which can't be termed neutral. Now with Mr. Chawla, who is a well known congress loyal, we might just see EC working in tandem with strictly anti BJP Indian Media.

We must recall that Gopalaswamy put the specific instance of Belgian award controversy as a proof of biased nature of Chawla and Chawla gets that done as his first task. Coming to the issue of black money, I can understand the Congress's attitude with the top leadership relying mainly on swiss bank. The reasoning given by them sounds ridicules for their stance and then now Election commission says that showing a foreigner taking a bag from Indian puts the things in bad taste. I fail to understand, why such a well known fact can be considered a thing in bad taste, unless the foreigner in the video was a look alike of Quatrochi ( whose accounts were cleared by CBI during a hidden visit of Indian Law minster to london)

The greats of Tests rule in T20

IPL 2.0 started in a grand fashion yesterday, as it did last year. However there was a big difference in the matches played, last year's inaugural match was defined by reckless batting of McCullum, whereas this time both the matches were classified by some classic batting from the all time greats of the game, and genuine bowling firepower that also included two of the top three in tests.

If day 1 of IPL 2.0 has to be defined in one statement, i will say "The greats will rule in any form of the game". Yesterday's two matches featured three of India's Big Five in tests (Sachin, Rahul, Kumble, Saurav and Laxman) and of these three two bagged the man of the match awards and third ended with 5-5. Neither of three is playing T20 internationals for India as people say that this is the game for youngsters. Sachin's capability in in any form of the game is unquestionable and he made his own decision to sit out of the Indian squad for T20s, but the same reasoning might not hold good for Dravid and Kumble. In addition to these three, Warne was one more great of tests, who bowled superbly yesterday.

Going by the performances of these four, I can only say that this time around IPL is not going to be any one's game just by their attacking ability. On the pitches of SA, the application will matter the most. Not every ball can be dispatched to the boundary and scores like 140 will provide thrilling finishes and even those 140 can be made only with prudent shot selection. Dravid's innings was not only classic but also had a flavour of aggression required for T20s, he played the role of the anchor and provided the thrust when necessary. For RCB another stand out performance came from Kumble, who is not playing any form of cricket at international level (the argument used to oust Ganguly from KKR's captaincy). Even though RR's top order was wrecked by Praveen and Ryder, still last 6 could have easily made the match interesting. a 5-5 in a T20 is always a defining performance.

Tendulkar exemplified why is he considered modern great, even though his innings was not as great as that of Dravid but still he provided the stability to the batting order of Mumbai Indian. He kept one end safe, and provided the required support to the batsmen attacking from the other end. He also played some glorifying strokes, as you always expect from people like Tendulkar.

Warne's final figures might not put him as a standout performer, but we must keep in mind that he was bowling to Dravid. 2-18 in four overs is good in a T20 but if one as seen his bowling yesterday, its just a warning for the rookies in the coming matches. He bowled Kohli and Akhil with a sheer brilliance of controlling the turn of the ball.

With the rule of veterans on Day1, I am eagerly waiting to see the response of Dada to Buchanan and Shahrukh (Dada has a knack of responding with bat). Laxman' performance will again be closely monitored and I bet on him as well.

IPL 2.0, Dada and Elections

The so called shrewed combination of business and cricket is just about to begin and with that I can see the politicians getting anxious about the kind of response they will get from Media and the people. Since yesterday media has restricted its elections coverage and diverted good time to IPL, and once IPL is on, the crowd at rallies will be hard to gather.

Also came a news that dada is sacked as KKR captain, and to my complete astonishment, no news channel is reporting the response of Kolkata. I expected effigies of Shahrukh and Buchanan being burnt on the roads of Kolkata, but till now no news. But still i feel, next year it will be a big problem for Buchanan and Shahrukh, when the matches will be held in kolkata or may be they will ask for another home stadium. As IPL is a shrewd combination of cricket and business, KKR management must have had the business in their mind before making such decision, or may be the multi captain theory was just to give jore ka jhatka dheere se. Anyways I am waiting for the images of shahrukh being booed in kolkata ... my destructive mind :P.

Pakistan’s absence: who will be impacted?

This time around IPL will defiantly miss the action coming from across the India’s western borders, which also brought with them the support of millions of Pakistanis for teams like KKR. IPL was a huge hit in Pakistan, I guess maximum interest among the foreign nations, mostly because of all big players of Pakistan playing along with the popularity of Sharukh and Zinta in urdu speaking country.

The biggest sufferer of this absence will be KKR, who had four players coming from Pakistan. I consider Umar Gul as one of the best T20 bowlers, as he has the ability to bowl the Yorkers consistently and for that I believe he will be a big miss from the KKR squad. Umar Gul’s last year performance might not have been able to match the might he showed at world T20 2007 in SA, and since IPL 2.0 is held in SA I think Umar could have been a great asset for KKR.
Salman Butt was another big player on KKR payrolls. Salman again did not contribute significantly during IPL1.0 but still his impact at the top of the order can not denied. At international level this guy has a knack of performing well against India, but I am not sure how does that transform when he plays for an Indian team. Salman might not be a big miss because of prolonged availability of Chris Gayle and McCullum.

Shoib Akhtar was another big signing of KKR from Pakistan, and he made some impact during his 4 match stint at IPL 1.0. But I believe apart from cricketing prowess Shoib was one of the biggest factors of Pakistan’s support for KKR. Hafeez came to IPL with a badge of a big hitter, but ended up as an extra baggage, and might not be missed at all in the presence of other big hitter in the ranks of KKR.

So KKR will miss the firepower on the seam bowling department and will also loose their big fan base in Pakistan, still I am not sure if that will also impact their fan base in Bangladesh.
The other team, which will miss Pakistanis a lot is the current IPL champion Rajasthan Royals. They had three Pakistanis on their payrolls and Sohail Tanvir’s contributions to their campaign can not be debated. In absence of Tanvir their bowling attack will be led of Morkel and Patel as Shane Watson, another big find of IPL 1.0 will also be missing from action. They will have to rely on the new (publicized) sensation Kamran Khan.

Rajsthan will also miss their wicket Keeper batsman Kamran Akmal and now they have rely on local talent to fill that gap. Also their middle order might miss the stability that could have been provided by Younis Khan. My take is that from the pure cricketing perspective RR might turn out to be the biggest losers.

Delhi comes next with two Pakistanis in its squad, but both Shoib Malik and Asif turned out to be the over heads with their limited contributions. Malik was a big flop as an alrounder and Asif was also not able to match the firepower of McGrawth, Mahroof and Yo Mahesh. Now with Ashish Nehra also coming back to his home team, Delhi will not miss the Pakistani duo at all.

Bangalore and Hyderabad had one player each from Pakistan with them last time, but both Misbah and Shahid afridi were not able to justify the high price tags they came with. Even though Misbah was a personal choice of Malya, he failed and was not able to match the level of so called test players in the team. The biggest failure of star studded Deccan Chargers team undeniably was the Man of the series of world T20 2007. Shahid Afridi failed miserably both with bat and ball. With their pathetic performances the tow bottom teams might be feeling a bit light after doing away with the excess baggage.

Mumbai Indian, CSK and Kings XI were the teams with no Pakistanis and obviously have no impact coming from the stand off between India and Pakistan.

The New Age Jaichands

Prithivi Raj chauhan's campaign against against Mohammed Ghori's repeated attempts came to an end when Jaichand decided to take personal revenge by helping the forigner.

When Sonal Shah was appointed in the Obama’s transition team, some Indian-Americans expressed their concerns about her VHP and RSS Links. A big news was made of this, however I still fail to understand why someone having links with RSS can raise concerns among Indians living in USA, after all RSS is not a terrorist organization. Obama has links with church and no one makes an issue of that, then why should someone having links with VHP be considered a problem by Indians. Same way congress and its supporters living in US make it a point to lobby strongly against the visa to a democratically elected CM of Indian State.

I do not know really how brutal it was in Kandhar, but the way it was portrayed it just looked like another holocaust. EU expressed its concerns for the safety of cristians in India, why because of some people in India sitting and reporting and making it another holocaust. It might have been bad, not as bad as was reported. I know a few people, working in MNCs, who applied for immigration to European countries on grounds of threat to their lives in India. Then there are NGO who have to sell such things to get the money.

Coming to the report of SIT, which was appointed by Supreme Court, that says that NGOs actually cooked up the events in Gujrat after Godhara. SIT clear points out that people like Teesta have actually tutored the witnesses. The role of media can also not be denied in this, people might remember the sting operation done by Tahlka just before the last Gujrat Elections. Are the people like Teesta are doing it just get some extra money, which casts India to be ranked among the countries not safe for minorities.

I think all such people, who just for the sake of some personal rivalries or some money go all out to malign the image of India, are more dangerous then one Jaichand. If such people are not controlled, I fear India might be just getting closer to another partition (Current population break up of India is pretty close to what it was in 1947). Anyways the experiments like Ulema Council have already began, which if work out the bad days are around.

IPL Outsourced

In a week’s time, the cricket’s biggest extravaganza will set its first global footprints, thanks to Indian Government. In an era of outsourcing, India has benefitted the most by bagging the IT and other jobs. However as is the case with any business having money, people around the globe will be more then happy to work with you or work for you. India is the biggest market for cricket and that makes it easy for even the cricketers from first world countries (even those who criticize the playing condition in third world countries) to argue with their national boards about the 6 weeks stint at IPL that can earn them a million dollars.

This time around when this ultra rich baby was aborted by its parents, SA decided to take care of it. Obviously South Africa knows the kind of stimulus IPL can provide in such times. But with that I also see an opportunity for IPL in this. Last year’s IPL was a mega event for sure, but was mostly confined to India or at most in south Asia. This year when the 8 city franchise teams start their journey for the trophy, they will find more supporters in form of those living in Johannesburg and Cape Town. IPL has almost every good cricketer across the globe on its payroll, but still a person in SA or Australia will not be bothered much about the performance of Smith or Lee for RR or Kings XI, just think how much interest we have in county cricket when our players participate in that. However now with the teams starting their journey on an offshore location (a term highly used in outsourcing), it will be interesting to see the kind of interest It can generate there with the help of Big Indian diasporas and bollywood stars.

Franchises may loose some money of ticket receipts and might have to incur additional travel costs (Actually hotels in SA are much cheaper than those in India), but still I consider it a good opportunity for them increase their support base. Still I am not much happy with the format, if every team was allotted a home ground in SA and then they were asked to repeat the same format as that of last year, the city based loyalty might have hit the roof.

From the cricket’s point of view IPL anyways presented a great opportunity for the domestic cricketers to get a feel of Big Games, before venturing into the international arena. This year it takes the experience forward by giving them an opportunity of playing with big guns of cricket at a global location, which must help them and in turn Indian team for future. Anyone can see the evolution of likes of Asnodkar, Ravinder and Dinda. I also feel that this time around the results might be very different from the last year’s as I doubts the capabilities of domestic players on bouncy tracks and that might just change to order of teams.

I will quickly rap up the discussion with a little SWOT analysis of IPL at an offshore location:
Strengths: Teams with international players will be able to get good results as well as support base. Indian domestic players will get more recognition.

Weaknesses: Only four overseas players allowed in a team, thus restricting the global fragrance. Indian domestic players might not be as accustomed to playing the shots on backfoot as compared to their mastery on front foot on slower Indian grounds.

Opportunities: A new market thrown open for IPL and with that it can really get a global status. Also it will be good for Indian cricketers to get a feel of international cricket at international location. The timing is also perfect from Indian team’s perspective as they will play on wickets, which are closer to those they will get in England during world T20, thus enhancing their chances of retaining their champion status.

Threats: With no matches in India, the city bases loyalty may fade. Anyways no Hyderabadi would back Hyderabad this time around :D.

The Future of India by Samajwadi Party

After looking at the manifesto of Samajwadi Party today, I felt they are the most futuristic party of India, as they are probably the only one supporting the reversal of wheel of development. In the time when every one is crying about the global warming and bad economy of America, Mulayam and his team has really gone a step ahead and devised the plans accordingly.

First and most important thing Mulayam Promises is to curb the usage of computers, and I am sure its the first leap towards past. He is very true in telling the people that computers are bad, as they let the people to get the information easily (even with bad government websites a person can get his land records on web) without paying chaipani to Babus. Indian government is yet to utilize the computers at its fullest, but Mulayam singh must have got horrified by seeing the way computers help the common people in developed countries, and he must have also got a glimpse of what can be done with IT in India, by looking at the IT Policy of BJP. But don't take him wrong, he knows that computers consume lots of electricity and also they are symbols of US capitalism, so he is trying to help us save energy as well (Anyways UP doesn't have much). Also computers enabled the seem less flow of information across the borders and also helped to move the funds easily, and Mulayam can not tolerate some one sitting in NY continuously keeping watch on BSE, and rather controlling it along with other exchanges. Also Mulayam doesn't like stock exchanges and future trading, very true whats the point of betting on future and making the prices artificially inflated.

He also plans to curb usage of English, as US economy is sinking and now with his plans of cutting of the India from the rest world, whats the point of carrying the extra baggage. He however will send his illegal children along with those of akhilesh (His legal son) to UK and USA for studies as used to happen in the era of Rajas and Ranis.

Once English and computers are gone, he has machines in is agenda next and with that Indians will back to the era of Mother India (Someone might remember Sunil datt pulling the plough). Sanjay Datt would love to see others doing what his father did in that movie. Sanjay Datt will also start the publicity of charkha, but since charkhas will need wood, which is no where available, they will ask us to shed the clothes altogather, anyways they don't make the people civilized (well the "Return to Blue Lagoon" movie proves that). However people will still use the cell phone as Amar wont like to harm his friend Anil Ambani, and with no clothes (Vimal Still with Mukesh) and motors around Mukesh will be busy managing Mumbai Indians. Anyways IPL can continue as BIG TV will beam the signals live. This will be a great society you can imagine.

Also Mulayam singh will be pushing for the good relations with Pakistan and Bangladesh, with Pakistan falling in hand of Taliban, it would be sin for Mulayam not to talk to Islamic fundamentalists sitting in Islamabad, and he would need their best wishes to keep is regime in India flourishing.

Then Amar Singh might also start building another Taj in the Memory of Jaya Prada, anyways they will just keep the tradition of moghuls going. Also Taliban will get entry into India and Non Muslims will be forced to pay Jizya.

But with All this no one would be required to bother about Global Warming and no more fighting at WTO (as No more global tread from India) and G8. India will be a clean country as it was thousands year back and Mulla...yam would be the Shanshah (Amar will deal with Amitabh for no claiming his copyright)

I Know its a bad dream... But with such great leaders around dreams may come true.

The New Emotional Atyachar- Juta

When Raj Kapur sang the song "Mera Juta hai Japani", he would have never imagined that the Juta is going to be one of the most pronounced ways of expressing one's anger against the mighty people. The most powerful person alive on the earth was probably the first among them, then the list just keeps going on and the latest addition is Naveen Jindal.

Even a few people tried using some other substances like custured(In UK) in place of Juta, but I am sure nothing can meet the emotional power of a Juta. If the trend carries on may be the Netas, before coming out in public will ask the the audience to come barefoot and I know for sure Madam Mayawati will be the first amongst them, who already imposes a curfew on roads when she moves around. May be the union home ministry will come up with a new Z-Boot category of security for the possible targets and most importantly the commandos guarding them wont also be allowed to wear the Juta (as people still remember Indira was killed by her own security guard). May be for them the dress code will include the black painted toes (as was done by the participants of one Indian reality show). Also may be a new act on the line of NSA will be devised to protect the lawmakers, by putting any shoe hurler behind the bars for at least one year without bothering about bail. Or may be a Juta in hand can be included in the Arms Act (Sanjay Datt's one).

However once ready with all the acts and agencies to act against Juta Hurlers, the union ministry will carry out an assessment to decide the category of threat. I think that assessment should include past and present acts of screwing up the people. If I was to come up with the assessment my list will go like this: threat level max at top

1. Mayawati
2. Karunanidhi & Vaiko
3. Amar Singh
4. J Jayalalitha (The leaders from tamil nadu may do the task themselves)
5. Lalu Yadav
6. Mulayam Singh yadav
7. Shivraj Patil
8. Raj Thakre
9. Narendra Modi
10. Rabri Devi
11. Mamta Banarjee
12. Prakash Karat
13. Arjun Singh (For OBC reservations)
14. H D Devegauda
15. V.S. Achutanandan (Kerala CM)
16. Narayan Rane
17. Shalman Khan
18. K. Chandrasekhar Rao (TRS guy)
19. Ram Muthalik (a surprise entry, thanks to our media)
20. Om Praksh Chautala

However even after blocking all the Jutas, there might be other even more deadly weapons like the undergarments (Not sending by post, actually some one might remember Kangna Ranut doing the act in Woh Lamhe http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIHLeulXRTI).

# Even though I tried to be as unbiased as our Media is, however my perception might have caused a couple of name not included in the list. However I want to make it very clear that these are not the people who I want to target, but simply I think they might be targeted.

Others are free to put their additions and omissions for the list.

Is Indian Media too biased

I have just put following post on IBNLive.com, I am almost sure of this not being allowed to appear on their website. If it does appear Kudos to IBN, or else they should just revisit the concept of freedom of speech.

If this topic appears, means that Indian Media really cares for freedom of speech.

I have suggested this topic, as while browsing through the various Indian News channels and Websites, I found a strange similarity that is an anti BJP and stron Pro Congress views expressed by all the bloggers, and commenters.

Take the case of Sanjay Jha's Latest Blog on Ibnpolitics.com about Mr. Rahul Gandhi. I do not know how can someone boast of a democracy with dominance of one family. I just wanted to compare the views expressed by Rajdeep on Varun issue and on D Srinivasan (If you don't know, he made similar statement as that by Varun but this the tables were turned). Or a debate topic on BJP's manifesto, the topic of the debate itself is biased, shouldn't it have been Comparison of Manifestos of BJP and congress instead asking if BJP's one is more xyz.

If I browse through India Media sites, it gives me a strange feeling that BJP is a pathetic party without any support at least among the educated class, but the max thumbs up on IBNlive are for Advani. When I browse through Orkut in any Community I find more Pro BJP people, is Indian Media not allowing even the people to express their views freely. Media companies always cry for the freedom of expression, I feel that should be applied to them as well. If we are allowed to protest against government on a road built by government, we should be allowed to debate about the role of Media on a Media website as well.