IPL 2: Hurricane Gilchrist Sweeps Delhi Off Their Feet!

Adam Gilchrist has given more outright joy to followers of the game than any cricketer since Ivan Vivian Alexander Richards. Once Gilchrist called it quits, he was missed as a cricketing force, as a contributor and as an entertainer. Thanks to the advent of IPL, one could get another chance to see this man do what he does best. Entertain. Gilchrist did exactly that when he came out to bat last night to chase 154 set by Delhi Daredevils in the first semi-final of the IPL and single handedly won the match for Deccan Chargers to reach the finals.

No one had watched batting of such brutality so far the way Gilly batted last night. 20-20 cricket for me is like watching the highlights of 50-50 cricket. If that holds well, what the hell was last night’s semi final chase by Gilly? Was it like watching highlights of the 20-20 game? He played with the same gusto that had set him apart from others during his hey days. He showed why he was such a force in his days and reminded everyone why bowlers had that primal fear at the sight of this man at the crease. When he came out to bat yesterday, he retained his signature attitude, impressed crowds with merriment as he slayed bowlers with swashbuckling strokes.

After he scored 5 consecutive boundaries off Dirk Nannes first over and the first of the innings to score 21 off it, no one from Delhi Daredevils displayed good body language. They appeared that they were fighting a lost cause as Gilly didn’t spare anyone. He was in murderous mood and murdered almost every Delhi bowler. As Sehwag mentioned in post match presentation, no one had a clue what was happening at the middle when Gilly was batting.

Gilly scored the fastest 50 off just 17 balls and ended his innings of 85 off a mere 35 balls before doing the damage heavily and ensuring that his other batting colleagues had an easy task ahead. His innings was truly a definition for skipper’s knock and no one could have defined this better than he did.

Gilly provided cricket lovers an opportunity to witness the batting at its very best and entertained everyone. I do hope he comes back next year too and keep everyone entertained.

I dont want to cry Fed!

The whole world is busy stocking up face masks as a precautionary measure to stay off possible swine flu epidemic. I am not. I am in fact stocking facial tissues instead because in a few days time the three things that I hate passionately will come and haunt me sizing me down to tears. The three things I mean are “Clay”, “Rafael Nadal against Roger Federer” and “Rafael Nadal on Clay”. I do have developed a bad habit of breaking down and have picked it up from Roger Federer. Yes I do cry and give Roger a good company whenever he breaks down. At the same time, I am hoping against the hope that my facial tissues won’t come of use this time in the hope that Federer beats Nadal at Roland Garros . So the next couple of weeks starting next week, I am doubtless I see my emotions flare, witness happiness and soak in sadness etc as the French Open at Roland Garros gets underway.

There was some respite coming Roger’s way last week when the Swiss Master beat the world no.1 comprehensively in straight sets in Madrid Masters Tournament. Although the surface was clay, the court was too fast paced unlike the one at Roland Garros and was to Roger’s liking where he loved the ball coming onto his racquet nicely as he always does. He made full use of the newly laid Monola Santana Centre Court conditions and beat the tired Rafael Nadal in the finals to win his 15th Masters tournament needing 2 more to break the world record of 17 Masters wins held by Andre Agassi.

While it’s good to have a win against Nadal on clay before going into the Roland Garros, Roger knows that it means nothing as he has experienced before. Roger beat Rafa in Hamburg in 2007 on clay before going into the French Open only to be beaten in the finals a couple of weeks later by the King of Roland Garros.

To add to his agony, the times have changed from then to now. Roger was focused and strong mentally then. Now, the super-cool, fiercely focused, unbeatable-in-big-matches Roger Federer – has been behaving strangely. Like losing his cool, losing his focus, and like losing big matches as easily as he once won them.

In fact, his behaviour has become as retro as those knitted cardigans and blazers that he dons at Wimbledon, taking back to the days when he did stupid things as well as anyone; when in his own words: "I was throwing my racket like you can't imagine … I mean, I was getting kicked out of practice sessions when I was 16. I used to talk much more, too, and scream on court."

The lack of a proper coach is also showing up with every passing failure and every little emotional convulsion, be it a smashed racquet, recourse to tears or dejected press conference. He sacked Peter Lundgren as his coach in 2003 and then, two years ago, parted with the astute Australian Tony Roche.

Despite all these problems, I do hope the Swiss Ace makes it to the finals this time surpassing the resurgent Andy Murrays, Verdascos, and Djokovics to beat his two nightmarish nemesis, clay and Rafael Nadal.

We will know in two weeks time whether Federer wins or did I use my facial tissues.

Who said there is no fun in sports injuries?

Do anyone like to see an injury to a player where sometimes player's career and life could be in question? But sometimes as a fan, you are left with no choice but to sit back and laugh when an athlete gets hurt. There are instances where an athlete does something so stupid, or is so careless, that you have absolutely no sympathy for his injury and wonder how these guys actually get paid to do something with their bodies. Here are some of the stupid, strange and funny athlete injuries.

Football:

Lomana Tresor LuaLua had a scan on the foot injury that kept him out of Portsmouth's last three matches in the English Premiership. The DR Congo striker damaged the joint of his left foot after celebrating an equalizer in the 1-1 draw against Arsenal last year with a somersault. LuaLua, 25, had promised to refrain from back flips until Pompey were safe from relegation in the Premiership but paid the price for a change of mind.

Dave Beasant, the former England goalkeeper, ruptured his ankle ligaments avoiding a falling bottle of salad cream he had just taken out of his fridge. He was injured for two months.

David James, an England goalkeeper, pulled a muscle in his back when reaching for a TV remote control. No wonder they call him ' Calamity James'.

Santiago Canizares, Spain's 2002 World Cup goalkeeper, missed the matches after he had dropped a bottle of cologne on his foot and injured it.

Rio Ferdinand, the England defender, injured a tendon behind his knee while watching TV with his foot up on a coffee table.

Cricket:

Derek Pringle, the former England cricketer, sat down to write a letter before a Test match and stretched his back only to put his back out.

Baseball:

Adam Eaton, the baseball pitcher, apparently stabbed himself while attempting to open a DVD in 2001.

Wade Boggs missed several games for the Winston-Salem Red Sox after hurting himself putting on his cowboy boots.

Vince Coleman missed the 1985 World Series after getting caught in the tarp machine.
[Tarp is machine for removing the tarpaulin covering on a pitch]

Golf:

Sam Torrance, the former Ryder Cup golfer, fractured his sternum in 1993 when he fell over a plant pot whilst sleepwalking. He almost missed the matches at the Belfry.

Student scores, teacher stumped!

A primary teacher starts a new job at a school in Bangalore and, trying to make a good impression on his first day, talks about IPL cricket matches and explains to his class that he is a Royal Challengers Bangalore fan. He asks his students to raise their hands if they, too, are RCB fans. Everyone in the class raises their hand expect one little boy, Johnny.

The teacher looks at the boy with surprise and says: Johnny, why didn't you raise your hand?'

'Because I'm not a RCB fan', Johnny replies.

The teacher, still shocked, asks: 'Well if you're not an RCB fan, then who are you a fan of?'

'I'm a Mumbai Indians fan, and proud of it', Johnny says it with pride.

The teacher could not believe his ears.

'Johnny, why are you a MI fan?'

'Because my mum and dad are from Bombay, and my mum is a MI fan and my dad is a MI fan, so I'm a MI fan too!'

'Well, 'said the teacher, in an obviously annoyed tone, 'that's no reason for you to be a MI fan. You don't have to be just like your parents all the time. What if your mum was a cheap model and a sleazy actress and your dad was a drunkard and a gambler, what would you be then?'

'Then', Johnny smiles and says, 'I'd be a RCB fan.'

Indian TV channel mothers the mother's day.

People in many ancient cultures celebrated holidays honoring motherhood, personified as a goddess.

Here are just a few of those:

- Ancient Greeks celebrated a holiday in honor of Rhea, the mother of the gods
- Ancient Romans celebrated a holiday in honor of Cybele, a mother goddess, March 22-25 - the celebrations were notorious enough that followers of Cybele were banished from Rome
- In the British Isles and Celtic Europe, the goddess Brigid, and later her successor St. Brigid, were honored with a spring Mother's Day, connected with the first milk of the ewes

Mother’s Day is observed worldwide on different dates. Different countries practice different traditions on Mother’s Day.

• Mother's Day in Britain -- or Mothering Sunday – is celebrated on the fourth Sunday in Lent.
• The second Sunday in May is Mother's Day not only in the United States, but also in other countries including Denmark, Finland, Italy, Turkey, Australia and Belgium. By the end of Anna Jarvis' life, Mother's Day was celebrated in more than 40 countries.
• In Spain, Mother's Day is December 8, on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, so that not only mothers in one's family are honored, but also Mary, mother of Jesus.
• In France, Mother's Day is on the last Sunday of May. A special cake resembling a bouquet of flowers is presented to mothers at a family dinner.
• The Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, the Women's Action for Nuclear Disarmament, the League of Women Voters and other organizations still organize protests on Mother's Day: The Million Mom March, protests at nuclear weapons sites, etc.

In India, there was never the practice of celebrating Mother’s Day. I am not saying Indians never honored their mothers. They did and in fact in Hinduism, Mother and Father are considered gods and the tradition of children worshipping their parents is long known. Hence the older generation of Hindus didn’t think they have to set one particular day for their Mothers and one day for their Fathers to honor them.

Not any more. The younger generation of today is completely hit hard by Globalization. They have become Coconuts. Brown from outside and white from inside. They neither follow Hinduism nor follow Western culture but are badly caught in between in a state of confusion and are completely oblivious of both cultures. Globalization, to a great extent has helped to make this Western festival to make its presence felt in India. So Mother’s day is celebrated in India now. This is fine and I am not against it because it gives them an opportunity and a day to remember their mothers.

What startled me is the way one of India’s leading Hindi TV news channel celebrated this day. Instead of educating people about this day’s history or running a program dedicated to motherhood or honoring them, they spent the entire day remembering and honoring bollywood’s mother of mothers Nirupa Roy and her colleagues who donned mother’s roles in bollywood movies. Yes, this is true. From dawn till dusk they showed mom related lines taken out from old Hindi movies repeatedly mothering the viewers. I was one of them as I saw the same thing over and over every time I stopped at this channel while channel swapping. To add to my agony, I get only one Indian news channel and I couldn’t escape.

I do hope someone sane (if any left) in the Information and Broadcasting Ministry very soon will wake up and guide these channels right way and set some guidelines on what to broadcast and what not to show. If they can’t celebrate a festival properly, they shouldn’t observe the same. By doing this, they have not honored mothers but have disrespected the beautiful thing called motherhood.

God bless “Young India” and Happy Mother’s day to all the beautiful mothers in this world.

I have “excellent poof-reading skills” - how grammatical errors see CVs binned

A job applicant listed her interests as "cooking dogs" while another boasted of having "excellent poof-reading skills", a new survey of CV blunders has discovered.

Experts found that 94 per cent of job hunters risked missing out on vacancies through poor spelling, grammar or presentation on their CVs.

In some cases, applicants' attempts to impress potential employers failed through the odd missed word, with phrases such as: "I was responsible for dissatisfied customers."

For others, the omission of a single letter consigned their CV to the dustbin: "I am a pubic relations officer."

And sparing use of the comma led to seemingly embarrassing disclosures of equal note: "My interests include cooking dogs and interesting people."

From a sample of 450 CVs, researchers found that 81 per cent were laden with spelling and grammatical errors, while nearly half were poorly laid out.

Why would anyone want to employ a lawyer or a secretary who makes spelling mistakes or errors? If they can't pay attention to their own CV, why would you trust them to work on any of your documents?

Examples of CV blunders:

– My interests include cooking dogs and interesting people.
– As security guard my job is to pervert unauthorised people from coming onto the site
– I am a pubic relations officer
– I was responsible for dissatisfied customers
– My role involved coaching and mentioning
– I have excellent editing and poof-reading skills
– I relieved the conference manager
– I am a prooficient typist
– Socially I like to dine out with different backgrounds
– I get well with all types of people
– I was responsible for fraudulent claims
– While working in this role, I had intercourse with a variety of people
– Experienced sheet mental worker
– Highly adept at multi-tasting
– Left last four jobs only because the managers were completely unreasonable

My profound apologies to Mother Earth.

I always celebrated my birthday a day before April 22nd as that was the day I was born. I knew nothing about the following day’s significance nor I gave a thought or tried to learn about it so long. I was self-centered and all that mattered to me was to have fun and enjoy my birthday and not worry about the following day. Actually thinking, there is no harm in having fun or enjoying one’s special day but failing to understand the importance of the planet in which I am enjoying and having fun was criminal. I apologise. Now I am thinking vaguely that probably I would have received emails about this day’s importance for many years that I never opened to read, turning them to trash as spam. How much information I could have lost? I am now happy I gave a thought, understood and now I am thinking hard on doing my bit.

April 22nd is Earth Day. Having it on the mind stimulates a thought process that most of us do not engage in often.

• What is the state of our planet? Its resources? It’s overall health?
• What is my relationship with planet earth? Do I have one?
• Do I give back to this planet that provides me a home?


Different cultures teach us that the greatest wisdom of the earth is respect. Earth is intimately linked to our past and our future, and it holds the key to our survival. There is a belief that everything on earth, animate, inanimate, and in the sky has a spirit. The earth itself is often referred to as Mother Earth.

Native cultures respected and lived in harmony with the earth. What happened? Our modern world seems to have lost touch. Removed is the thought process that we have a responsibility to the earth.

God made the earth to provide us with all that we need. Why do we, as individuals and as a society, treat earth with such disrespect? Littering and filling landfills with products that cannot be naturally decomposed and damaging the earth and its environment.

I learnt that it is important to protect and respect our earth because earth gives us life. Earth gives me space for my happiness, fun and enjoyment. Why don’t we reciprocate by following simple steps such as these to start respecting the Earth?

● Show respect by not adding to the pollution. Stop thoughtlessly littering and become a responsible recycler.
● Embrace a green lifestyle. Use recycled products. Avoid driving and if you cannot, drive a gas efficient automobile. Little changes can have a big impact on the planet – vow to make those changes each day.
● Create the best for the earth by holding the vision of earth’s perfect health and harmony, in your mind’s eye. Hold that vision as if it is already taking place.
● Teach your children and grandchildren to love and respect the earth. Lead by your example. Spend time with them outside in nature.

While understanding Earth and its environment and people who have contributed for its cause, I stumbled upon this inspiring talk by Dr. John Francis that I want to share with you all today. For almost 30 years, Dr. John Francis has been a planet walker, traveling the globe by foot and sail with a message of environmental respect and responsibility (for 17 of those years without speaking).

http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/391

Give just 20 minutes of your time and listen to Dr. Francis. That's all it takes to get inspired. Believe me, It’s thought provoking.

Wimbledon Centre Court - A victim of commercial reasons?

Come this June and the Wimbledon centre court this time around will not look the same as it did from 1868. The centre-court, this year onwards will boast the retractable roof to be used during rains and there wouldn’t be any breaks for players and the audience from the famous Wimbledon intermittent rains.


This is both good and bad for the game. Good because it helps all commercial aspects as it will be a boon for spectators, players, broadcasters and officials. But it will put an end to impromptu performances by Sir Cliff Richard, and won't do anything for umbrella salesmen and exhibitionists. There wouldn’t be a sight of colorful umbrellas opening up in the stands anymore. Introduction of roof will certainly see a big shake up in the scheduling of matches in the 138 year old tournament.

It is bad because I feel for the past champions. Champions who not only had to put up grueling fights against their tough opponents, they also had to fight the weather gods which they were never trained for by any of their coaches during their careers.

For instance, Ivan Lendl was not fated to lose all the finals at Wimbledon because of his game. Who can forget that final he played against Boris Becker in 1986? Lendl was much ahead of Becker when strong winds and rain broke the momentum. Boris Becker too struggled with the winds but took that break to his advantage, thought carefully and came back mentally stronger than Lendl to win one of his greatest matches of all time to seal the victory. Lendl was a victim of factors that were not in his control nor that he was trained to combat. Had he was playing under the roof that night, he would have certainly won the grand slam that has haunted him till date and would have boasted the silverware in his collection.

Roger Federer too struggled with the strong winds and intermittent rain intervals against Rafael Nadal last year. He not only had to deal with a player of immense mental toughness and agility, he had to bear the challenges from Mother Nature and ended up losing against everything and proved to the whole world that night that big boys do cry.

I will always hold players who have won Wimbledon crown without the roof at high esteem and in my list Bjorn Borg, John McEnroe, Jimmy Conners, Pete Sampras, Boris Becker, Andre Aggassi and Roger Federer will always remain as true champions who not only beat their opponents to win their coveted Wimbledon trophies but also defeated the weather that challenged them during every match that they fought on centre court.

An amazing 138 year old Wimbledon history is going to change this year with Wimbledon becoming another victim to commercial reasons.

The address might remain as SW19 as always but the glory of the park won’t be the same anymore.