Life Etc Etc

We won...! We won...! We won...!  For kids like me who grew up in the 90s the thought of India beating Australia in Australia was as inconceivable as dating a Ms. World or a Ms. Universe (but yours truly did think of... ahem! ahem! let's not go there). Yeah, stars have to be seriously aligned for a victory such as this to happen and stars were indeed aligned when Warner, Cameron and Steve were all sent off on a vacation for playing around with a certain  tape . That vacation helped the Indian Team succeed in their triennial vocation. Mantra for Steve / Warner / Cameron : If you use tape your team will scrape . The above mantra was just the beginning, I set out on a journey where I personally uncovered several such lessons while watching this coma inducing, patience numbing, sometimes nerve wracking but ultimately gratifying series. Let's take a look at all the lessons I've grasped one by one: Players with rock solid and dependable techniques don't get IPL contracts...

It's IPL time, the time of the year where cricket turns from a gentleman's game into a three ringed circus for the stars, the people and the players. It's hard to believe that it's been 10 long years since the IPL started but I just seem to remember it like yesterday. As soon I thought about the first IPL I remembered some tight finishes, some great performances, raw emotion, glamour that was on display and some utterly forgettable moments. So here are 10 random things I remember about the first IPL: Teams of the first IPL <Courtesy: Reddit > Akshay Kumar , the brand ambassador (Oh! the brand ambassadors was one way franchises burnt their hard earned money during the first IPL) for Delhi Daredevils (DD) zip-lined his way into the ground for an IPL match. DD followed his example of daredevilry all throughout the league phase before their stunt went all wrong crashing them into the ground in the semis .            Ricky Ponting (yes he p...

India's whitewash of Australia in the recently concluded T20 series was built on some strikingly brilliant individual performances.The victory obviously left me elated but also took me down the memory lane of some singularly awe inspiring performances in Cricket. Now a lot of these performances may not be not well known but inspiration in life comes from quality and not popularity. So without any further delay lets look at three ' stand and deliver'  performances from the 90s, a decade that revolutionized Cricket. WV Raman anchors : WV Raman's stay at the top was very brief but no body could deny his talent and ice cool temperament. Both of these skills were on display when India took on South Africa in the 3rd ODI of a series which was rapidly going down hill. South Africa batted first and set a target of 215 for India. The modest target looked unattainable considering the fact that India hadn't crossed 200 even once in the first two one day interna...

The time has come to induct another class of cricketers into the most meaningless hall of fame of them all. I was planning to postpone this induction to the new year but South Africa's epic blockathon  a few weeks ago triggered some painful memories. So without any further ado here are certain performances which will definitely up your BP levels and go down in the history of cricket as some of the most disgusting sporting fails . Kris Sricant : Before Sanath Jayasuriya and Virender Sehwag destroyed bowlers,  Kris Srikkanth  walloped them with the sort of a brutality that was never seen before. So complete was his mastery that even the most fearsome bowlers didn't escape the brunt of his bat. Who can forget the six he hooked of Andy Roberts  in the most important final of them all. But even greatness can wane with time, come 1992 the hero of 1983 was a pale shadow of himself. The confidence was absent, the technique was inconsistent and the reflexes were non-e...

Two teams punch their way into the Most Painful Performances in Cricket Hall of Fame  with their sheer misjudgment and lack of direction. Our dual inductees into the Hall of Fame share many similarities and their rivalry goes a long way back. These teams are guilty of burdening us (the fans) with two embarrassing sporting fails on the World Cup Stage. Without any further ado lets talk about the back story which intertwines these Hall of Fame inductions. The year was 1996, school was just about to finish when news arrived that Sri Lanka were 1/2 (read that as two wickets for one run) in the all important World Cup Semi-Final against India. That news was like nectar to my ears, I immediately rushed home, only to find that  Aravinda de Silva  had steadied the ship with a magical innings . Aravinda's fearless stroke play along with Roshan Mahanama's  resilience set India a testing but perfectly attainable target of 252 runs. Flashback India lost Sidhu's wicket quit...

Somewhere at the back of my mind I had to publish a follow-up to my previous commentary because in all these years of watching cricket there were lot more than just three performances which caused me pain. You might have already noticed that I am using the word ‘performances’ instead of ‘knocks’. This is because even though Cricket is a batsman’s game all the three departments of bowling, batting and fielding need to work in order to make a team go over the line. So here are a few embarrassing moments in the sport of cricket which have well and truly upped my pain levels. Shastri deadbats:   Ravi Shastri paved the way for many Indian triumphs over the course of his career but the 1992 world cup (which was also his last) came at a time when he was at the nadir of his powers. Shastri started off the world cup with a sluggish 57 (112) against England which India went on to lose by nine runs .   Shastri decelerated further in the next match against Australia where he blocked...