Friday, May 6, 2011

World Champions

Hello everyone. The last time I wrote something on this blog was the time when few things were still the things of present for us. Team India won the world cup 28 years ago, Kapil Dev was the only Indian Captain to hold that crown, Sachin Tendulkar was still dreaming for his 1st world cup glory, IPL advertisement were just hitting the screens, "Satya Sai Baba" was still among us,Royal wedding dates were just arrived, according to India Osama Bin Laden was still hiding in Pakistan though nobody was ready to believe in this thing.Here comes the blog after 2 months of time and many things are things of past now.

To start with, Team India is the World Champions now or rather should I say, "WE ARE THE WORLD CHAMPIONS" and this is really a feeling of lifetime. How a world cup victory can unite the whole nation, we witnessed that just a month ago. As they say, if you want to become champion, you need to play like champions, defy all the odds against you and most importantly beat all the sides in the world. And yes team India did everything written above. They played like champions when it matters the most. They chased down highest total in the final, become the 1st side to win the world cup on home soil. They went according to their strength and most importantly they won it for the man himself "Sachin Tendulkar". This was supposed to be his last world cup and god has done the justice with his favorite kid. After waiting for 21 years he got the ultimate prize and not only he but all of us, who have watched or "Worshiped" should I say, for last 21 years have taste the sweetness of this ultimate prize. Whole team weather it's captain cool or the most influential person among the top 100 in world "MSD", the man of the tournament Yuvraj Singh, the man with the golden arm Zaheer Khan, the ever reliable "Bhajji", sloppy in the field but reliable with the ball Munaf Patel, Mr. street smart as he was named by Gary Kirsten Gautam Gambhir, the man for the crisis Suresh Raina,all among the 15 member squad(not to forget the supporting staff specially Gary Kirsten) and last but not the least SRT, they all contributed to the victory in the best possible manner. I still feels like shouting with joy once I see that clip of Dhoni hitting Kulasekra over mid on and surely I will be doing that for years to come. Not only me but the whole India celebrated in this moment of happiness and joy. Don't often you see, Sonia Gandhi, Big B, SRK riding on the open jeeps with Indian flags on the road. Such was the influence of this victory. Well done team India and thanks for giving whole nation something to cheer with.

Many other big events too happened in the last couple of months. Satya Sai Baba of putaparthi passed away after an illness and all their devotees fell in shock. His work for the humanity and his teachings will always remain there among the followers and devotees of Satya Sai Baba. May god give peace to the divine soul.

The wedding of the century finally took place at Buckingham palace and the world witness that. Such was the curiosity among the people that it really become the talk of the town only to be taken over by death of the man who killed many,
"Osama Bin Laden". Finally United States of America, after 1o years of search operation, spending billions able to find and kill the man who terrorized world with his act against humanity. With the death of Osama the thing that was hiding for years now come in front of the whole world that Pakistan is the country responsible for the terrorist activity and the Government itself providing the aids to the terror activity's in the country. Hope this will mark the start of something good when it comes to end the terror and killing of innocent people by our neighboring country. One can imagine the influence of the death of Osama bin laden among the people of America and whole world, that the person who live blogged the operation of OSB's death has become a personality. In just span of two days, he has more than 1 lakh followers on the microblogging site twitter, has already been interviewed by leading news papers and news channels of the world and still going strong.

Personally for me, these two months have been little up and down as always. Some family problem forced to minimize the joy of being World Champions but still would love to thank God that everything is going smooth now. Working in the night shift these days, and workload in the office is such that whole night passes like a blink of an eye. I have never worked that much in my life, and too can easily say never ever I learned that much in just a span of two months. Good going I should say. So that's it for the time now. It was awesome to summarize the bunch of great activities happened in past few months in a single blog. I would love to end this post by congratulating SRT for the world cup win by writing few lines that I copied from movie Om Shanti Om:

"Itni shidat se tujhe mene pane ki koshish ki hai, ke har zarre ne mujhe tumse milane ki koshish ki hai. Wo kehte hain na ke yadi kisi cheez ko dil se chaho to puri kaynat tumhe usse milane ki koshish mein jut jati hai."

So till next post, stay fit, stay cool(though bit difficult as summers are coming) and have a nice time.

Cheers,

Munish Sharma

Saturday, February 19, 2011

World Cup 2011 Preview

The Image says it all.Yes the world cup is here and I am just going to write about that for next couple of months.First of all Happy new year to all.. Though it’s more than one month since the new year starts but still because it’s my new post so just would love to wish everyone a very happy and prosperous year 2011. Time is moving like a fast train and really feeling the heat with the span of time. But as i wrote in the last post that this year is going to be a very special one, not only for me but for the whole country and specially for the cricket fraternity. This whole nation is full of people following cricket more than anything, so next couple of months seems to be special for everyone. These are not only special because Cricket world cup is happening in India or subcontinent but because by any means this is India’s best chance to win it. And why not!!! This team is at the peak of it’s game and if form says something then yes, this side has caliber to repeat the heroics of 1983.
As a die hard cricket fan, this is really something enormous and exciting for me at least. So will be writing a lot about Cricket stuff for coming 2 months at least. Today I will look at all sides, their strong points and weaknesses. To start with The world cup Co-host India and one of the favorites to rewrite the 83 history. Though team India carry favorite tag in almost all the big tournaments but this time it seems as a necessity to just consider them as the biggest contenders for the world cup. Everything seems to be at place for them. Batsmen scoring runs of late, bowlers taking wickets specially spinners doing a wonderful job which is the best thing for any side playing in sub-continent, though pacers are a little worry but still they have capability to run through any side. If we look at the batting perspective for this side, they got 7 match winners in their batting line up which is a big plus going into a big tournament like this. And then they got, of course the special mention, The little master Sachin Tendulkar who is possibly playing his last world cup (though we would not mind him playing two more :p) this is a huge occasion. He has shine in almost all the world cups, so he knows what it takes to be at the personal best for the huge tournament like this. I will pick yuvraj, pathan, bhajji with sachin as team india’s game changers this time around.
Next I will talk about the defending champions Australia. They are always favorites when it comes to ICC trophies but this time around they seems to be lacking in confidence and this Australian side is just not looking like the old Australian side who has that never die attitude, so it will be great to see how they will they come up in this tournament. But still they got a very good chance of making it to the semis.
Next on the radar is co-host Sri-lanka and other favorite tagged side. They are favorite because they got a good opening pair, middle order, spin bowling but they certainly lacks in strong middle order. Their is almost nobody to back up Mahela, Sanga and Dilshan. So it will be interesting battle once they loose quick wickets. But still very much a formidable side. And with Murali is still around and hungry for wickets he will certainly want to make this last World cup as his last shot at the big prize. Semis seems to be a almost certainty for them. Next are another favorites South Africa but again they say they lack the big tournament pressure handling technique or we can say they choke when it matters the most. Talking about their side, they got a good batting line up with likes of Amla, Smith, AB Deviliars, kallis and duminy. And in bowling they got the best pace bowling attack but spin could be a problem but still will say, if they play up to their levels and don’t choke under pressure, they certainly are my pick up for semis. Now next are the four sides who are not the favorites but suddenly you can’t write them off as they all got World beater players but as a team how they come out would be a thing to watch out for. Pakistan got a talented side with likes of Afridi, akmal brother, razzaq,Misbah,younis and akhtar but their problem would be to play as a bunch of team and that will be most important thing in this big tournament. English side was looking in good shape in Ashes but really they are not the side tailor made for the ODI format and the loss of Eoin Morgan put them further into hole. But still with the likes of Pietersen, Collingwood, strauss, bell, anderson, swann this side could come up with few surprises. Black caps seems to be in totally disarray and they almost forget how to win a match. But hope that their big players Maccllum, Taylor, Ryder and vettori would come out with some inspirational performance to have some fight. Semis seems to be a big thing for them. Next is the Caribbean side but again they really almost forget how to win a Cricket match. But with likes of Gayle, Chanderpaul, Sarwan and pollard you can’t write them off. But surely they will get a huge fight from Bangladesh who as co-host really seems to be a dangerous side and are very much capable of pulling of few surprises in front of their home crowd.
So all in all this world cup seems to be a far far exciting and surprising then earlier editions. But before finishing off the post would love to predict something and would love to watch the output after at least one and half months.
Seems to be India, Australia, South Africa, Sri lanka are the sides to go upto the semis. And in the end it will be India that will surely come up triumph this time around.
In the end would just like to wish Team India Best of luck and hope they will bring the 83 glory back this time around. So till next post that will be after the India bangladesh match, have a nice time and have a happy cricketking month.
Cheers,
Munish Sharma.