Indian Cinema & Cricket 2008

Indian Cinema & Cricket 2008

Indian are said to be people with passion and for the youth and modern Indians cinema and cricket are not mere a passion but the basic style of living and interacting with each other.

More than half of the year 2008 has been deposited with history though the country is undergoing a political instability due to much awaited withdrawal of support for UPA government by the left front but still majority of population is worried about the loss of title at Asia Cup and Tri series of ODI cricket recently concluded in Pakistan and box office of many of big budget Hindi films released in the first half of the year.

On the fronts of both the passions of Indians, first half of year is some what a mix bag as for as success is concerned. IPL has created a record of new success and opened the doors of unlimited earnings for the players but towards the end fatigue of Dhoni, in bits and patches success of Yuvraj, Non justifying treatment of selectors for the Asian top batsman and Bengal Tiger Sourav Ganguli [he is not among the 30 probable Indians for the Champion’s trophy to held in September in Pakistan?] are giving space for the worries of the game lovers. The satisfactory side of the coin is the amazing success run of openers Shewag and Gambhir.

When we turn to another Indian passion cinema, Hindi movies are having a fusion of a lot of failure with some quantity of success. It seems that since last 4-5 years this trend of majority of releases not performing well at box office and first half of 2008 can’t be said different from that. Trade experts of Indian cinema are listing
[1] Race [Abas Mastan] [2] Jannat [Mahesh Bhat [3] Sarkar Raj [ Ramgopal Verma] [4] Bhutnath [Ravi Chopara] [5] Jodha Akbar [Ashutosh Govarikar] as the most successful five released and [1] Hall Bol [Rajkumar Santoshi] [2] Black & white [Subash Ghai] [3] Tashan [Yashraj] [4] Mare Bap Pahle Aap [Priyadarshan] [5] Thoda Piyar Thoda Music [Kunal Kohali] as the biggest flop movies of first half of 2008.

First half 2008 has once again underlined the importance of Amitabh [Big B] for the Indian silver screen out of the five most business oriented Hindi movies are credited with him. Mahesh Bhat’s Janat is based on cricket and proved once again that Indians are more than crazy for the cricket. Ajay Devgan’s first directional attempt “You Me and Hum “, Rakesh Roshan’s “Crazy Four” failed to meet with the expectations of cinegoers, where as success of “Aamir” [Rajiv Khandelwal] and “Mithya” [Ranbir Shouri] has proved that there is still ample space for the off beat cinema and Indian are no more made for the star, they had started to give importance to another aspects of movies also.

There are some waves of blaming IPL for not much successful first half of 2008 and even people are thinking in terms of meeting with the challenge posed by IPL in terms of withholding release of movies during the next session of IPL. Any how the remaining six months are going to be prove acid test for many star performers. The first on the list is our own “Bole to munna bhai Sanjay Datta as with ready to release films like “EMI”, “Kidnap” and “Allauddin” are going to decide his worth for the Indian film industry. Much talked “Gajani” for whom Mr. Perfectionist Aamir Khan has started to present self without much hairs on head, Akashay Kumar’s “Singh is King” will also released in next few months. Towards the end of December King Khan, after the failure of “Panchavi Pass” on small screen, will try to come back with a movie. These six months are said to be not as bad for Salu Miyan as he is showing a good amount of power holding with “Dus Ka Dam” on television screen.

Most successful event IPL is undergoing phase of drug addiction, shadows of match fixing and cinema is running with flops from the some of the established names and big budget movies. Let us hope in the second half of the year both the passions cinema and cricket bring the glory and enjoyment for the Indians.

Selected Sixteen

Selected Sixteen
[Indian Cricket Tour to Australia]

Once again the credibility of selection committee of Indian cricket team is place under the microscopic observation. The tradition of coming up with shocking inclusion was kept intact when yesterday board secretary announced “Sixteen Selected” to tour the kangaroo land. It was looked a few days back that selection process of Indian cricketing team is started to run on the reasonable and transparent level when the selection committee announce the probable 24 touring and out of form Shewag was not in the list. The message went to the world of players, at least now the performance at domestic level will get recognition but what happens on the day of picking the team is unsolved mystery. Look at the list of selected sixteen
Anil Kumbale [captain]
M. S. Dhoni [Vice Captain]
Vriendra Shewag
Wasim Jaffar
Sachin Tendulkar
V V S Laxman
Rahul Dravid
Saurav Ganguli
Yuvraj Singh
Harbhajan Singh
R P Singh
Zahir Khan
Irfan Pathan
Ishant Sharma
Dinesh Kartik
Pankaj Singh

My objection is not for the sudden inclusion of Shewag, eventually I was surprised not to see his name in the probable 24 list, but for the pseudo reasoning tactics adopted my the board, why not they are able to generate courage to admit the mistake? How long will they shelter their shortcomings under the fitness cover of players? This it is said fitness of Gambhir forced the selection of Shewag, my question is that even if it was true, why the preference is given to shewag [not in probable in 24] over the in form Aakash Chopara [included in 24].

Inclusion of Shewag has made the process of playing eleven more complicated; accommodating Yuvraj was a burning problem for the team management. If we go with the reports coming out about the Indian playing eleven in Australia, not only Yuvraj but inclusion of Laxman [most successful batsman against Australia] seems to be remote possibility. It is said that Indian think tank is planning to go into the field with combination of 6 batsman and 5 bowlers that means the first five slots will be occupied by Jaffar, Shewag, Dravid, Sachin & Saurav than Dhoni and five bowlers to follow. Over the years spin is the strength of Indian attack and when playing with five bowlers, inclusion of two spinners is most reasonable. Selecting only two spinners for Australia tour is yet another question mark on the selection process.

Looking at the team selected I think the playing eleven will be as follows [in bating order]
1] Virendra Shewag
2] Wasim Jaffar
3] Rahul Dravid
4] Sachin Tendulkar
5] Sourav Ganguli
6] V V S Laxman
7] M S Dhoni
8] Irfan Pathan
9] Kumale
10] Zahir Khan
11] R P Singh / Harbhajan

BCCI & New Dispute

BCCI & New Dispute
It looks that disputes and BCCI [Board of Cricket Control in India] are running on the parallel lanes of cricketing roads. One after another dispute is following the BCCI. Before coming to recent one, my question is why it happens always that decisions of BCCI, goes on to give birth to dispute and why always BCCI comes out of winner? If we look at the composition of BCCI, over the years it is managed by nonprofessionals and most of times by the politicians. This non professional attitude is putting the decisions under the dispute and for the politicians nothing is more important than time being gains, though politicians are said to be most compromising persons through out the world but here power makes their ego such high that they often forget to think or listen the views of others and that keeps the space for the dispute. Coming to winning of BCCI in the every dispute it is happening because BCCI is one among the richest sports association not only of India but also of the world. Who can deny the power of money in the modern life? More importantly the structure in India that there is no other association that can challenge BCCI in the cumulative format, this might be the reason behind the non recognition of ICL [Indian Cricket league] because in future this might result in constitution of another cricketing association in the country. In every dispute, it may be the dropping of Saurav or Rahul, one has to fight at individual levels and it is natural that in this fight of individual and association, association comes out as winner. It is not easy to forget how rudely Kiran More, chairman of selection committee was giving statement to press “Sourav will not be selected in the team till he is chairman”.
The recent decision of BCCI, which has provide space for the dispute, is restricting the members and chairman of the selection committee from giving interviews to media and writing columns in the news papers. I can’t understand how the bylaws of BCCI suggesting this, in a country where right of expression is the basic right of every citizen? Dilip Vengsarkar has started opposing it but it might be more effective if the members of selection committee had resigned their post at the moment this ban was posed on them and try to collect the protesting force. We had to remember that BCCI had provided many occasions for the union of players and others but concerned people always failed in utilizing the opportunity. This failure is yet another reason that give birth to dispute along with Every decision of BCCI.

Kangaroos on Indian Land

Kangaroos on Indian Land

Those were the days when we waiting over 2-3 years for a cricket series against teams like Australia or West Indies and these are the days when even cricket wonder and genius like Sachin are complaining in direct way about the excess of cricket with words like Now it hard to get time for the overcome fatigue and recover from injuries when there are matches one following other at the interval of 2-3 or 4-5 days.

Things on and off the cricket fields went under the dramatic and speedy changes with the introduction of twenty-20 format. Indian team was still busy with felicitation for winning the twenty-20 world cup at Wankhede stadium Mumbai, when Kangaroos landed on Indian earth at Banglore for the seven matches ODI series. It is not easy to change from one format of game to other and that too when you are still under the hangover of winning the world championship of shortest version and going to face three time world champions as the opponent in the longer version of the game. India is fortunate in many senses, this series is home series in well known and familiar ground conditions with the support of home fans, which will be touching sky after the winning twenty-20 world cup [ this might work for increasing the pressure and may produce the adverse result], Three most successful ODI Indians players, Sachin, Sourav and Rahul are back to team, in all probabilities one among the world best opening pair Sachin and Sourav are going to open the inning for India, The famous wall Rahul Dravid is playing the inaugural ODI on home ground and has to prove how his bating is blossoming without the responsibility of captaincy, Irfan Pathan is in the mood of celebrating his come back where as aggression of Shrisanth is creating a concern in the opponent dressing room. The new find of twenty-20 cup, captaincy of hard hitter wicketkeeper M.S. Dhoni is shifting the pressure ball in the court of Australians. Even all these favorable, it is quite possible that India might loose the Banglore encounter just because of hangover of twenty-20 world cup win, failure in maintaining the dressing room and on the field energy level as some of the twenty-20 team players are being replaced and it needs time to reach with same energy level and interaction among the players. Unfortunately Indian team is not with time, players will be hardly with just 24 hours for all these adjustments. One thing is sure Indians are over 70% of chances of winning the series.

Australian are wounded with semis defeat of twenty-20 and history supports that kangaroos always become hard to defeat team after such humiliating defeats. Though some things are going against them, Australian attack is not looking as effective as it should be in the absence of Glen McGraw, Ricky Pointing is not in the best of form and health,there off the fields statements like "return of three senior players will make Indian team weaker" are not producing desired effect just because new Indian captain Dhoni says we don't believe in winning or loosing, we believe in enjoying our game. It is sure when you are enjoying your job success is intended to follow you. All these are not sufficient to write off Australia, after all they are ODI world champions and know the business better than any body else so this is going to be turn into battle that promises cricket at its best, just cricket and pure cricket with all its uncertainty and glory, Who ever loose the series but surely cricket is going to emerge as the winner.

New way of getting out

New way of getting out

Change is the name of nature everything is bound to change with time and rules and regulations or the playing norms of games are also changing. As for as cricket is concerned it not just another game [though hocky is the national game] for the Indian it is even more than passion. Since last few years a new way of getting out is unofficialy being added to the cricket rules and it is "FALLING PRAY TO UMPIRES DECISION"

the most recent illustration is the dismissal of Sourav Ganguli at oval yesterday. THE BALL WAS SWINGING ON THE GROUND BUT IT WAS GOING STRAIGHT IN THE MIND OF UMPIRE EVEN AFTER A CLEAR MEATING OF INDIAN BAT AND ENGLISH DUKE BALL" so his finger went up and Ganguli forced to leave the field being judged and decleared out as LPW. Now even if go by the famous idiom Human Thy name is error , than if the players are being punished for violation of rules in the form of deduction in match fess or bann for next 2-3 matches , why the same set of rules is not implemented for the umpires? Does we wish to say that players are not human or the umpires can't be categoried as human beings? This is a serious matter which needs to be addressed seriously by the authorities of the game. It is good thing that we Indians believe in luck so Ganguli returned back to pavalion cursing his luck.

India and World Cup 2007

India is on the way of crossing the first hurdle for repeating the success of 1983 in the world cup. There are some differences and similarties in both the participating teams. just have a look on these

1983 Captain Kapil Dev : One of Top All rounders of the game.
2007 Rahul Dravid : Sound Defence famous and compaired with The Great China Wall, the only human made structure visible from space, The Wall

1983 : Opner : Sunil Gavaskar A record of unbeaten 36 runs in 60 over one dayer.
2007 : Opner : Sourav Ganguli A player with record of highest sixes in the world cup [23 six] which has been broken in this world cup by Ricky Pointing by taking his tally to 24.

1983 : Wicket keeper : Sayad Kirmani highest skills behind the wicket and so so performs infront of wickets.
2007 : Wicket Keeper: M.S.Dhoni: Famous explosive bat with sufficient good skills behind the wicket.

1983 : Bowlers: Spin centered attack with a special blend of medium pacers.
2007: Bowlers: Munnaf and Shrishanth are likely to bowl the fatest ball of the tournament. Kumble on the death end of retirement is likely move over the fingers on the ball to get maximum spin on slow carabian tracks with world famous support from Harbhajan Singh.

1983: Under eastimated Player : Mohindar Amarnath man of match of Semi Final and Final.
2007: Irfan Pathan A player with the capacities but with a shacken confidence.


What we can do is just to pray the God for the success of Team So friend start from this very moment.