Adios Sachin!!

Longevity at the highest level can only be achieved by a culmination of several different factors and work ethics always tops them all. I was always impressed by Sachin's work ethics and what surprised me the most was, for a guy who is considered naturally gifted by many greats of the game, he never took anything for granted and was always working on improving his game. He inspired almost an entire generation and he had an lasting impact on most kids who grew up in post liberalization period. As a matter of fact, most of his contemporary Indian cricketers were inspirational both on and off the field(Dravid, Kumble, Srinath & Laxman). As any other kid from my generation, I too started watching cricket from the 1996 World Cup in Asia. The quarter finals against Pakistan was where it all started and one must thank Ajay Jadeja for the sparkling innings. Australia's tour to India and how he methodically took on Shane Warne is still fresh in memory. The consequent desert storm innings in Sharjah 1998 had made me an ardent fan of Sachin and during India's tour to Australia he was the last man standing and gave the Aussies a run for their money(though India had horrible tour). It's a loss to the game that Sachin couldn't shine as a captain as his tactical nous about the game is second to none. Apart from the minor glitch during 2007 world cup, his performance was above par to excellent in almost all global tournaments. Another thing that amazes me is Sachin Tendulkar volunteered to open the innings in ODI cricket at the age of 20(somewhere around March 1994). He was able to analyze ODI cricket and foresee where the limited overs cricket is heading and made sure that he was in the best position to capitalize.I had always enjoyed the way in which he took over the bowlers who had an upper hand earlier(Shane Warne, Shoaib Akhtar, Ajantha Mendis to name a few).

Post the 2007 CWC debacle, when there were many calls for his head, I am glad that he stuck around and firmly believe that the world cup victory in 2011 would not be possible without his contributions/experience. He was ready to grind it out for the team and the semi-final against Pakistan was for me the most ugly innings he had played till that point in time. The flamboyance we generally see oozing out of him was nowhere to be seen and he was dropped 4-5 times before eventually being dismissed. He really took one for the team and gutted it out. Also, a year before that, he scored a scintillating double hundred(200*)  when the world was predicting the Sehwags and Gayles to reach there.

The most important trait that I can attribute for the success of Sachin is his adaptability. The raw aggression with which he played in his early twenty's was replaced with a shrewd risk-assessment of the the game and playing a risk free game as much as possible. He not only changed  his game to how cricket evolved over the last 23-24 years but he still is hungry for more.  Such insatiable hunger should see him scale great heights in test cricket too.

For a man known for timing his shots, I think he might he missed a beat when it came to retiring. Personally, for a man of his stature I think he should have retired from limited overs cricket post  CWC 2011(a month or so after the win) instead of the limp exit we witnessed. I really hope he goes out on an high from test cricket.

PS: This post was a long due one and I always wanted to write about Sachin ever since CWC 2011. I had enough impetus in the last one week or so to get me back into writing and hopefully more posts should follow suit in 2013.

Photo Credits:

http://p.imgci.com/db/PICTURES/CMS/131000/131068.jpg
http://omgtoptens.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/sachin-tendulkar-wallpaper-with-world-cup-204.jpg
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvxfThmupqCvq1XIpwjT047IiSqykk2sCSOqig4FvnrAOfxIe9Zdl0Qm6RX4pw0RrOfQqsiZrte3qIaT8H_DjOtZ7PFYgpPfCRbyaq777hX592q-SocK2iP3GhS-_vm2_wuCcCoA/s400/39th+ton.jpg

Finally back!!

Strange that the irresistible urge to blog comes when I have a truck load of things to do. Anyway, the stats counter shows that I still maintain the sparse group of visitors. Thanks for the show of trust and confidence. Hopefully I'll be regular from now on.

Been following the super singer junior for some time. The winner and runner were my long time favourites(though I expected the order to be other way around). It does remind me of those days when we used to have music classes in our school(Jawahar, Neyveli) and how one unfortunate meeting of my music teacher with my mother led my parents to send to professional musical classes. Nostalgic memories aside, I was elated when the eventual winner sang the sone "Singara velane Deva". It's my mother's favourite(and most sung) song. And performance was awesome!! Hope you guys and gals would enjoy it as much as I did.

Ayrton Senna on Racing!!

Summer of 2009

The last couple of months have been hectic in some sense. Had been volunteering for a fitness program in the Centre of Physical Fitness and Sport Sciences in Hyderabad Central University for about 2 months. It was quite an experience in itself. Had to wake up at 4 in the morning and drive 10 miles to reach the university and it was really good to get a first hand experience of the kind of training that professional sportsmen under go.. Just the early morning ride is worth it. The scientific approach was much effective than pumping iron at the gym. Hope I'll continue this.

Attended a 7 day yoga program by Isha yoga center couple of days after the fitness program finished. Was worth the time and effort and would definitely recommend it to friends. Went to B'lore for the weekend of 05/30-31. Its more of a (bike) trip to Hogenakkal than to Bangalore. Hardly stayed for 5 hours in B'lore over the entire weekend. I was cruising at 120 km/hr without any helmet(the helmet was too small) and it was great to feel the wind blowing all over your face at such speed. This is my highest speed on bike(previous one was at 95 km/hr) and also my first bike ride in a hilly terrain. Friends at work say I am tanned to the maximum. Had loads of fun in the waterfall, driving consistently at 90+ km/hr, driving in the middle of the night with heavy downpour hitting on your face and blurring the vision in a region where elephants frequently cross. We went as a group of 18 ppl on 9 bikes. I never thought such a beautiful place existed in Tamil Nadu. Will post the pics as soon as I get hold of them.

Bike month!!

PS: BTW, got a 21 gear(3 X 7 actually) bike couple of weeks back

Write a letter & send it through the post office!!

Copied from "Today's Highlights from Answers.com"

"Read a book. Do a crossword puzzle. Play an hours-long game of Monopoly. Plant a vegetable garden. Take a walk. Have a chat with your mom or dad. Sight-see. Put the pictures into the photo albums. Start to tackle the list of projects that has been getting longer. Take a child to the zoo. Write a letter, put it in an envelope and send it through the post office. Cook a gourmet dinner. Help your daughter with her homework. Get into a pickup game of basketball. Repaint your living room. Give your dog a bath. It's National TV Turnoff Week, April 20-26. Also referred to as Mental Detox Week, it's a good excuse to turn off the TV, the computer and all the other digital toys that keep us inside and focused on a screen."

PS: Was reminded of all the snail mails that wrote to susi from 2001 to 2004

IPL 2.0

I hope the IPL this season  will provide qualtiy cricket compared to 2008's slambang version. Thoroughly enjoyed first two matches(Sachin and Rahul's innings in particular). Rahul emphasizing  the need to be play proper cricket was tongue-in-cheek reply to the current one day squad which mostly consist of guys who want to take the left foot out of the line and go for a huge swing. Was glad that he took a dig at them. The sight of Mandira Bedi was enough to send a shrill up my spine. I think I am yet to come to terms with the horrendous 2003 WC broadcasting experience. 

One thing that I thought will change this time around was the commentators' uninhibited worship of the sponsors. How wrong was I. Every six, boundary or stunning catch was one of DLF maximum, Citi moment of sucess,.. . And to top it all, there was atleast 3 instances in every match where the IPL team was thanking the huge list of sponsors(at toss, at the presentation and one at the innings break). Not sure if there is any noble gesture that would provoke such appreciation. May be they are right when they say IPL has something for everybody. I am in for the game. But the crap that accompanies it becomes too much to stand at times.