Random Stuff

Well, it's been a long time since I wrote anything. The reason for this was partly because of a paper deadline. But, the other main reason was that the topic I had planned to write about last week became a very hot topic and there were articles about it all over the place - the role of technology in aiding the umpires in cricket. Basically, I had read an interview of Simon Tauffel on Cricinfo just a few days before the Bangalore Test. In that interview, Tauffel had said that the role of technology should be limited else it would devalue the skills of the umpires. Bah! Can anyone think of any worse excuse?!! Who the hell cares for the skills of the umpire - do people flock to the stadiums to watch the players or to admire the "skills" of the umpires! I had planned to write out a rant about this, but just then Sehwag@Bangalore happened and there were thousands of such rants about umpiring all over the net. So, here I am a writing a post a week later than planned ...

One ludicrous article that caught my article last week was the piece on Cricinfo which compared James Franklin with Wasim Akram after he took a hat-trick against lowly Bangladesh. I have no idea what the writer had in mind! Anyway, speaking about hat-tricks, here's one interesting fact that was mentioned in the "Ask Steven's" column on Cricinfo this week. Basically, there has been an instance in which the 3 wickets of a hat-trick have been claimed in 3 different overs. It took me quite a while to even think of a situation in which this can occur!! Anyway, such a hat-trick was claimed by Merv Hughes against the Windies sometime towards the end of the 80s. I guess I'll leave it as an exercise for the reader to think about how this could occur! ;-) On my friend Sumit's request (for all those dim-witted readers), here's a link:
http://plus.cricinfo.com/link_to_database/ARCHIVE/CRICKET_NEWS/2004/OCT/072425_COL-ASKSTEVEN_18OCT2004.html

Sumit has also been doing some research of late about the fourth-innings average of the leading batsmen in cricket. The main conclusion has been that both Tendulkar and Lara suck big time when it matters the most. Both average around 35 in the 4th innings. The leading batsman in this is Hayden, followed closely by Dravid. This analysis was motivated mainly by the stats recently posted on Cricinfo about Damien Martyn's performance in the second innings in the subcontinent. For those who haven't read that article, he has scored 4 centuries in the sub-continent, 3 of which have been after Australia had conceded the first innings lead.

I guess we have had enough of cricket for now. The other spotlights in the week that passed by have obviously been Boston's comeback against the Yankees and Arsenal's defeat at the hand of (or should it be the foot?!) ManU. The first has the potential of breaking Boston's 86 year old barren run and the other broke the Gunners' 49 game unbeaten streak. Actually, the NLCS slugfest between the Astros and the Cardinals also featured a superlative performance by Carlos Beltran, though for a losing cause. Midway through the series, Beltran had scored 8 homers of 8 games in the post-season, tying the record for most home-runs in the postseason. As expected, Barry Bonds was the sole owner of the record previously.

Other than performances of sportsmen, the other highlight of the week was the introduction of models as ball girls at the Madrid Masters. Don't know how fast this will catch up at other tournaments, but it certainly seems to have the marketing potential to be included in the Slams soon! There's soon going to be competition for Sharapova and the others on the court!