Hey-days of Test Cricket Are Back….

With the Ashes so tantalizingly poised, cricket lovers are really having a ball. Who says that cricket has ceased to be interesting. All the juice is back, those gripping hours which used to pass by without anyone’s notice, those six & a half hours which always had us wanting for more & more action had just lost their way somewhere. But see what has brought them to life again! Test cricket! Yes our very own & ever so elegant test cricket has brought us the drama which we all had been searching for, all these days.

Where even one-dayers were starting to move away from the viewer’ fancy, unexpectedly test cricket has shown the way. In fact all of the Ashes tests this year have really had run-rates enviable even by the shorter version of the game. The high profile drama & nail biting situations in the last two tests have just overawed the spectators not only in the participating nations but throughout the cricketing fraternity. Suddenly everyone believes that test cricket is still very vivid & in no way lacks the versatility it was accused of, a few months ago.

Shane Warne is surely playing one of his last Ashes(maybe his last) but he’d certainly agree that its no less interesting than playing his first Ashes series. No doubt he’s now been with probably the most formidable side in the cricketing history for quite some time now, but this is the time for some real music. Australia playing to save a match couldn’t have been a reality a couple of years ago, but the biggest proof that cricket has revived comes from the fact that Brett Lee jumped in joy only after the last ball of the 3rd test had been bowled & only then it was confirmed that Australia had saved a match. Ricky Ponting’s ever smiling face also had sunk like a paper boat in an overwhelming lake of disgrace when his men lost the 2nd test by mere two runs. But nothing could be taken away from the English side which has a few points to prove to some big mouthed critics of English cricket.

A team that suddenly looks much more than a mere bits & pieces side, that England had been all through the last two decades or so. Micheal Vaughan has been a revolutionary captain & his men have all realized their importance in the team. Average guys like Simon Jones & Ashley Giles have started to look dangerous to some of the world’s best components of the game. Kevin Pietersen & Geraint Jones have imparted agility to a side which never boasted of such qualities since ages. And how can we ever forget the big Flintoff. He’s just all over the Aussies, as if his batting prowess wasn’t enough, even the ball has started swinging through his monstrous hands. The bloke has really come off age & looks to be a much more matured player than the time, when he took off his shirt in India. I bet even Sourav Ganguly would love to have him in his team, now that the taking off of shirts competition is over.

With the next test kicking off very soon, all of a sudden there’s interest generating in little trivia about the tit bits going on in the camps. News of McGrath being injured, Gillispie to be dropped, Shaun Tait to be capped for the first time with the Baggy Green & Micheal Karprowictz being rested have all hit the stands. Lesser news from the English camp & more chirping from the Aussies have definitely got something to suggest! It all shows that the mighty Aussies are in pressure. They always resort to off the field comments & more often send in a few rumors along with a handful of real news to unsettle the opponents. But they better beware this time, because this English team might not take long to turn the tables. On the other hand, the old horses are yet to fire, gutsy Gilly, monstrous Matty Hayden, Cucumber cool Martyn & half the Australian team are yet to fire all cylinders & time and again the Australians have been known for their never-say-die attitude. Bouncing back into the thick of action is bread & butter stuff for these men of attitude. So the balance dare not be biased or else it may have to eat its words. All in all, the greatest profiteer is the spectator who till now has had his money’s worth & can expect for more fireworks. So full house crowds at the venues & the T.V. sets open with uninterrupted viewing of the matches got to be expected events for the next 10 days of Ashes action left.

The best part of the Ashes this year is that unlike several Ashes in the past this one has lived up to its expectations. The dream of a test series being more gripping than a one-day or a twenty-20 series has materialized most soothingly for the hard core cricket lovers. 5 day cricket at it level best, the zing is back. Cricket at its best is back……….

Suvra(at his blabbering best is back)

One Week In Confinement.

For the last two years, I’d really been lucky enough to be free from the slightest of any kind of ailments & diseases .Life had been carefree for quite sometime now. It was only a couple of days before my sems when I used to give up eating Gup-Chups (Gol-Guppas) & that was the maximum I could do to keep myself healthy ,that too making sure that I’d have my favorite fast food as early as the last day of the exams .There had been a numerous virus doing the rounds in the town including Chicken-pox ,Malaria & many more but I kept evading them & was slowly gaining in with confidence that “Mujhe Kuch Nahin Ho Sakta……”,but who the hell knew that this stupid viral fever would spoil the party.

Gosh! it really got me down & the temperatures up! Well, the way I’m built, not too many of my friends would agree that I too can fall sick & that too for one full week on the bed. But that’s how it was this time & the exile from the outer world is still not over yet. And now the most exciting part for u all guys! Something that really worried some, was the news that I fell senseless during this fever. Thanks to the person who spread the news, I got two calls & both with admonishing tones. But before I get a couple of more calls, let me clarify that though I fell down & that too twice, I didn’t get senseless .It was merely due to excessive fever(over 103degF) & headache. I was in my full senses then, so much so that I felt ashamed at that very moment, thinking “Oh! Shit,I fell down!!!!”, both times I tried to get up quickly .Once I was successful & could reach the bed too, but the other time I slept in the floor & my mom took care of me. That’s it. Now don’t keep asking me about the big fall & don’t embarrass me again.

Now coming to the pain of being confined at home for a full week’s time. Sticking with the bed all the time. Neither the TV was serving the purpose & nor could I sit with my PC. Even my ears were sore of listening to music. No food seemed eatable & no books readable. The only thing going in the right way was the routinely intake of those highly repelling medicines .Those little demons that have taken all my taste buds into my belly by now. God! I wish I never have to depend upon them another time in my life.

During this gloomy week, one day was also Rakhi Poornima. This was the first time in my life that my sister was not with me to tie Rakhi as she’s in Guwahati. So this was an added sorrow which appended to the situation. Her absence was felt even more when I had to tie the Rakhi sent by her on my own wrist, with which I was successful only after a tussle of about 30 minutes. Really, most of the time we get to know the value of someone or something only after they are gone. I really wish this to be one lesson that man could learn in his lifetime.

Actually now I have almost recovered fully with just some weakness in the body. Still I would say that this wasn’t a very serious situation for me as I had my parents by my side. Lots of time to spare(my college bunking won’t hamper my studies a lot) .And telephone & mobile to stay connected with whomever & whenever necessary. But what worries me is that a year from now when I’d be living all alone without my parents nearby, with a lot of responsibilities around & time running far ahead of me, this sort of a break could be an absolute disaster. So all of u staying away, beware & really take a lot of care of urself .Because if u fall down twice then both the times u’ll have to get up all by urself………..

Signing Off
Suvra.

Our Online Existence...

Have u ever thought about ur online existence ?How long have you lived in the wires & just how much have you contributed to it after-all ?But we all would surely agree that the so called wires have been at our disposal right from the time we have befriended them .The Internet has casted its magical spell upon all of us .Believe it or not, our existence in the cyber world hardly matters to the online inhabitants, but we have, for sure, become more & more dependent on this world .Can the tables turn? Could the cyber world ever value our existence too?

Well the answers aren’t too difficult to find out .A little bit of knowledge about the Internet would tell us that it is nothing without the generous co-operation & precise co-ordination of both big & small organizations and numerous individuals .Now we all know that these groups or the individuals are simple mortals like us. The difference though lies in the fact that we are here to milk the system while they prefer to nurture the system while milking it .The perception of online existence in the general netizen’s mind is to maintain a couple of e-mail IDs, a dedicated chat ID ,some accounts in some of his/her favourite sites & a good knowledge of some search engines which could rescue him at the time of distress .Just by forwarding a series of stupid SPAMs, sending e-mails & chatting online we consider ourselves to be great internet-surfers .Yes! By all these stuff we are just surfers & most of the time, are pretty satisfied with this title.

But what really appeals me is the tremendous scope to reach out to the entire world through this wonderful medium called the Internet. Unleashing your creativity to a boundary-less world which benefits from ur work & also appreciates it at the same time, got to be a sure temptation. Then why do we not try & do that more often? In India there are of course a few valid reasons why we can’t contribute .The most common reason being the comparatively high cost of domestic internet connection, to add to it there are the bandwidth constraints which does little help to the cause. Where even downloading a few MBs of data is a painful exercise, uploading something for public use seems to be a foolish bet. But more than any of the above reasons there’s one main thing that prevents the Indians from contributing to the online fraternity & that’s their lack of urge to do so.

The general mindset of the net users in India is to get the max benefit from the system forgetting entirely the mutual side of it. There’s absolutely no harm in it as far as we are myopic, but in the long run its going to be a great loss as very soon the internet revolution would be at its zenith & then it would be too late to catch up. The more matured netizens would not appreciate such an approach & it just may be, that one day several of the ways to benefit from the internet would be limited to only those, who are mutually committed to the system. Seems a rare possibility from now but in this competitive world you must dish out something to gain something & there’s nothing wrong in it. So very obviously, what seems a rarity today can be a humdrum tomorrow.

There’s absolutely no doubt that the Indians are surely some of the quickest of learners & sooner than later should realize their online responsibilities so as to grow up in terms of their internet commitments .The question is how long we take to adopt to this culture to the fullest. The time has come to make our online existence felt .The sooner we adapt, the better for us.

I’d have liked to write some more on the topic but maybe some other time & then I would speak more from a global point of view than just from the Indian side. But before that, looking for ur comments……..

Signing off,
Suvra

TWENTY-20

Hey all u people out there, just thought I’ve been too philosophical in the last two blogs, so what better topic than cricket to break the jinx .Actually I happened to watch the match between Ind-Sri this weekend, as the 20-20 matches of the Finals day was also going on so I was swapping the cannels to have a track of the semis between Lancashire & Surrey, this is when the story started.

My mother who also happened to be watching the match got a bit disturbed by the swapping of channels & finally asked me, what was it, that was going on, in the other channel .My Mom happens to be a cricket literate(My criteria 4 a person 2 b a cricket literate is that he/she should b able 2 judge if an appeal for LBW is genuine or not, that’s coz I myself took a long time to understand that,& I believe that my Mom can do that to some extent) .So I told her that it was a 20-20 match going on & said that as India scored 205 runs in this match in 50 overs ,Lancashire had gone on to score 216 in just 20 overs! Astonished with this she started asking me all sort of questions like “is the ground small ?,Are there less members in the teams? Were there different rules with 10s instead of sixes & 8s instead of fours etc?(Actually she didn’t ask this last ques explicitly but I definitely thought that she would have loved to believe that)”.To her surprise all the answers were ‘NO’ .After explaining her a lot of things I could get it to her that there was nothing different except for the format & the mindset of the players.

As some of my readers would know, how passionate I happen to be about the very word “CRICKET!” & how much I like to blabber about it, I just started telling my Mom that the 20-20 is not the real way cricket should be, all slam-bang stuff & no cricketing techniques isn’t the real sprit of cricket ,etc ,etc ,etc……….At this she replied negatively & she believed that this is the way of going abt the game .She said that, if even India would have played like that in this match then at least they would have scored over 205.Now this couldn’t be denied, at least not by saying that Sri Lanka was a much better team than Surrey, coz if u’ve followed the 20-20 this year then u’d know players with what kind of pedigree participated .Cricketers like Graeme Smith ,Flintoff ,Trescothick ,Symonds & so many more to add 2 the list were all fighting it out. So back I went to stuff like, in 20-20 no one plays to play they just play to hit the ball hard by whatever means possible .After-all I couldn’t lose an argument to anyone over cricket, could I??? But then my Mom said one thing which shut my mouth & yes I lost this argument clearly.

She just said, “Every batsman plays cricket to get runs & every bowler plays to get a wicket & that’s it ,barring that, everything is secondary ,Would u have a player in ur team who is technically perfect but scores at a snail’s pace ?So why is the method of getting the runs so important to u?” Believe me I felt that all my knowledge in cricket was useless .I felt that I’m still living a couple of ‘cricket generations’ behind the present ‘cricket generation’!!!

Well, I still would love to disagree that cricket should be as result oriented as 20-20 but at some point of time I got to realize that cricket in its primary form isn’t the same as it used to be a decade earlier .In my school days we used 2 spend hours discussing passionately about cricket but today I really feel hurt when children say with great pride that cricket is a boring game.F1 & EPL have taken its place for many a sports enthusiasts .Probably people have become more & more sharp & choosy in their sports viewing habits .A 5 day test may interest a few outdated cricket followers (including me), but for them its sheer waste of time .5 days of tussle & toil just for a single win or loss or even more frustratingly a draw !A sprint athlete becomes 20 times more famous in just 9.77 seconds! But for me cricket in any damn form is gold dust, just can’t help it.

However, what we all know deep inside is that cricket is still the best, it just needs a facelift .And what better facelift than the Twenty-20.If the able handlers of the game really want an upsurge in the popularity of the sport then they got to get this format in soon, but again with a very careful approach !It should never play a replacement of one-dayers & needless to say test cricket just cannot be replaced .I’m not too sure if it would work on a local level in all the cricketing nations as it has worked in England coz after-all England & Australia have that rich domestic cricket culture(I’m talking about people viewing those matches) .So as per me an international 20-20 championship should come up once every year & then we can always have 20-20 friendly matches between the host & the tourists in every tour as & when convenient .

What I mean to convey through all this is that the time is just perfect to throw the 20-20 trump card for the betterment of the cricketing fraternity but it just isn’t ripe enough to start producing 20-20 specialists .Nor is it time to tell our youngsters that they can make a career in 20-20.Because if this starts happening then in just another decade there would be little difference left between cricket & baseball, and none of us would like this to happen, would we?