Srinath and Manjrekar

At the end of today's match, Manjrekar and Srinath were discussing Dravid's captaincy and they concluded that even though India lost, he had done nothing wrong. Then, out of nowhere, Srinath says

Saurav, if you are listening to this, you are a good captain. But, Rahul is a good captain as well.

Obviously, that perked up Manjrekar and he asked Srinath

So, you think Dravid is a better captain?!!

That was followed by a moment of silence and then, Srinath (with his tail firmly in between his legs now!) says

Dravid is a good captain!

Got to love these guys! :))

Update:

Talking about ex-cricketers, here is an amazing story by another retired cricketer, Michael Slater, narrated in his soon to be released book Slats: The Michael Slater Story. For the benefit of those who did not know about the mental troubles he recently confessed to, here is a link about it. I don't know what his mental condition was when he wrote the above the story in his book!!

Cheers,
Harsha

Satisfaction = (Performance - Expectation)

I first read the above formula in an article by Narayana Murthy a couple of years back. And since then, its significance has hit me over and over again. Of course applicable in day-to-day life (especially in one's relationship with his/her advisor :P), it comes to my mind most often in sports. As every sportsperson progresses in his career, he builds up a set of expectations that the public has from him. And, the satisfaction that the public derives from his performance is relative to these expectations. To offer a trivial example, consider the unlikely event that Roger Federer and Sania Mirza emerge the US Open champions in a little over a month's time (:)) ROFL! :))). Clearly, the effective performance, if I may coin such a term, of Sania would far outweigh that of Federer (still can't stop ROFL :))).

Let me stop dishing out such vacuous examples and tell you about what reminded me of this today. The World Championships in swimming are currently on in Montreal and just like last year at the Athens Olympics, Michael Phelps is again bidding to win a bunch of gold medals. He had managed to win 6 golds and a total of 8 medals at the Olympics. Now, coming into the World Championships, he decided to try out his hand in freestyle races - freestyle is his least favorite stroke. He even skipped one of the Individual Medleys, his pet event (not exactly sure which one). As expected he was totally routed in the freestyle sprints. His pace in the 100m freestyle was no match to traditional sprinters such as Schoeman and Neethling of South Africa (some other dude from Italy whom I've never heard of ended up winning!), and he finished 7th out of the 8 finalists. Having set sky-high expectations in Athens, the media is clearly unimpressed with this Phelps outing and they have stamped their verdict on this performance as a flop! This is a classic example of the subject of this post. Even though Phelps actually had the courage to skip the events he could have comfortably won and contested in events that he usually does not, all with the objective of emerging an all-round swimmer, no one cares two hoots. They expect some standard from Phelps and when he delivers below that standard, irrespective of what his intentions might have been, it leaves them disappointed. Anyway, I think I have belabored enough about the point I am trying to make. :)

The standout performance for the day was however by Tiger. He had shot a 1 under-par 71 yesterday at the Buick Open and was just on the verge of missing the cut. Today, he came back blazing and shot a 11-under 61! That was the previous best ever on this course and he came awfully close to scoring a 59 (he narrowly missed out on birdies on the last two holes), which is the lowest ever on the PGA Tour. Kinda sad that I could not catch the round on TV :( Anyway, I'm sure the rounds during the weekend will be telecast live and if he continues in the same rich vein of form, it should be a treat.

Cheers,
Harsha

The purpose of life is to enjoy sports!

This article captures the essence of life. There cannot be a better way of leading life than to watch and appreciate great sportsmen day in and day out. As the article says, we are blessed to be born in the same age as Federer, Tiger and Rooney (Please note the conspicuous absence of one Mr. Michael Schumacher!). Let's just enjoy it!

Only wish someone could pay me for spending the rest of my life watching sports :)

Cheers,
Harsha

A new season of Indian cricket begins

Amid all the hoopla of the Ashes and the Tour de France, the start of the Indian cricket team's new season had totally escaped my attention. The new season starts off with India playing Sri Lanka and West Indies in back-to-back ODIs this weekend. Though it has been a couple of months since Greg Chappell was appointed the coach of Team India, these will be the first matches they play under his tutelage. I believe rather than the Aussie spirit rubbing off on the Indian players, it is going to be the case that the coach will be driven to frustration. I can already visualize the press conference at the end of this series. The news-hungry wolves from the media will be at Chappell's throat for explanations as to why India did not even make the final of the tri-series. And, I am sure Chappell is not going to spare any words in ridiculing the Indian players. Hehe ... should be fun :)

The thing that has pissed me off though is BCCI continuing to drag the issue of Ganguly's suspension. The ICC's rules when a team fails to keep up with the over rate were known to all and the Indian team has been guilty of this offence quite often in recent times. So, when the 6-match suspension was slapped on Ganguly it should not have come as a surprise to anyone. The Indian board could have just accepted this decision and moved on. After all, who the hell cares for the results of ODIs anymore. But no. How could the Indian board back down so easily? Dalmiya defended Ganguly so stoutly as though he had been handed a death sentence! The ICC looked into the matter once and said "Sorry guys! He's got to serve the suspension". But, the BCCI refused to be cowed down and persisted with the issue. I don't know what's taken the ICC so long to give a verdict, but the final decision is expected to be out tomorrow. In contrast, when Inzamam was handed a one Test ban after the ODI series in India, he accepted it without any cribs and Pakistan even managed to lose that Test to the West Indies of all teams! The sad part of this whole controversy though is that even if Ganguly's suspension is not repealed tomorrow, the two matches he missed at the end of the Pak ODI series will be counted as part of the suspension :( The more matches he misses the better for the team :P

BTW, talking about Indian cricket, here's a really sorrowful story that I came across today via Prem Panicker's blog. Koneru Humpy had Bank of Baroda as her sponsor for funding her training, travel, etc. Not just for making money by endorsements, mind you. And now, BoB has decided to instead sponsor Rahul Dravid and make him their brand ambassador. What a load of crap! Why the *@&! does a bank need a brand ambassador? As though every time one thinks of Bank of Baroda, he is going to remember Dravid and think - "Oh! This bank must be solid". No way. The bank is wasting money either way. They might as well fund Humpy and ensure that the money is put to good use. I'm sure Dravid couldn't care less if he had this one additional endorsement under his belt. Anyway, let us hope she does manage to find a sponsor and put up a good show at the upcoming women's world championships.

Huh, reading over my own post, it looks like I don't have anything positive to say about the state of Indian sport! Let's see how the Indian team fares over the next couple of weeks ...

Update:
Just realized that the West Indies is playing with a bunch of jokers in this tri-series. If the scenario I predicted above of India not making it to the finals does arise, I think Greg Chappell will have to take more drastic measures than just ridiculing his players in a press-conference!

Cheers,
Harsha

The role of skill in F1

This year, Fernando Alonso can seemingly make no mistake. He's been winning almost as often as Schumacher did last year without even having the best car around. For the past 3 races, McLaren has clearly had the best car with Raikonnen blazing away from the rest of the field during practice and qualifying. Sadly for Kimi though, his car's reliability has not matched up to its performance. I think he has had atleast 3 engine failures (If I remember right, one of them was during qualifying and due to one of F1's stupid rules this season, he had to drop down 10 places in the grid for having changed his engine!), because of which he has not been able to capitalize on McLaren's superior performance at the moment. But, atleast for me, what has been amazing is that Alonso has always been around to take advantage of other's misfortunes. In every race this season (other than the infamous US GP though :D) he has managed to grab a pretty good place at the finish, usually making it to the podium as well, even when it has been clear based on the performance of the cars on Friday and Saturday that Renault isn't the best car around.

Alonso's performance this season has made me believe once again that skill does matter after all in F1. After watching Schumacher's domination the last couple of years, when all that he needed to win was his Ferrari, I had lost complete faith that driving ability mattered at all in Formula One. This season has brought forth a fresh breath of air. In fact, this weekend was the best example of this. Not only did Alonso manage to capitalize on Raikonnen's misfortune, but Montoya managed to make good use of McLaren's advantage over the rest of the field to finish second after starting from the back of grid (this time because of his own error doing qualifying). Schumacher's 'skills' were for all to see as he was first passed by Montoya and then by Button :) It's time to retire Michael! BTW, F1 is considering some radical proposals for the qualifying format for next season. Check them out here.

To end, hats off to Lance! How many ever times I read about his story, it has always been an inspiration for me. I was still hoping Ullrich or Basso would manage to defeat him this year :P



Cheers,
Harsha

Ashes first Test summary

I guess I don't really need to say much. The above pic pretty much summarizes what has transpired in the first Ashes test. The English batting has been woeful and it has only been Pietersen who has batted with any degree of confidence in either innings. But, I wouldn't pass Pietersen as a Test player just as yet because he came in to bat in either innings with England's innings in doldrums and the Aussies beginning to take things easy. In fact, Pietersen might have been the cause for this English defeat having dropped 3 catches. If Clarke had been dismissed for 21 in the second innings, who knows what the future had in store ... Anyway, irrespective of the dropped catches, everyone in the English top order clearly needs to pull up their socks. England cannot expect to win matches if Vaughan, Bell and Flintoff don't even make it into double digits!

For now, all that England can hope for is that Pietersen manages to strike a few blows tomorrow morning and garner a few psychological points before the next Test. Only Mother Nature can save them from a certain defeat now!

--Harsha (The occasion certainly does not call for 'Cheers' :( )

A great start to the day!

I just woke up half an hour ago and as I opened up Cricinfo, all bleary-eyed and full of yawns, I was immediately brought back to life by the score - Aus. 100 for 5! Wow! I pinched myself wondering if this could indeed be true (OK, confirming all doubters, I did not pinch myself; I just hit the reload button :P). Anyway, seeing Australia reeling on the first morning of the Ashes was the best start to the day I could have had. But, with Gilchrist at the crease, I still had my doubts. All you need is an hour of power hitting from Gilchrist with staunch support from Katich and the score is all of a sudden 250 for 5! And my fears grew over the next 20 minutes as Gilchrist smacked 6 fours in the space of 4 overs. Thankfully though, the plot went according to script for England, and a few moments ago Flintoff manage to induce an edge from him which Geraint gleefully accepted.

So, do we finally see the re-emergence of the England team out of the shadows of the Aussie dominance? I guess only time will tell (what a lame cliche :P)! As I have said previously, it all comes down to whether Strauss and Trescothick can handle Lee and McGrath. Australia already seem to have started off the Test on the wrong note by choosing the totally off-colour Gillespie in place of Kasprowicz. I'm sure that decision is going to cost them. For now, let me enjoy the moment! Let us see whether the tables are turned by the end of day's play ...

Update:
This pic says it all ....


Cheers,
Harsha

The start of Tiger's domination?

As most of you might know by now, Tiger Woods won the British Open yesterday by a margin of 5 strokes. In fact, he led from wire-to-wire without looking like *not* winning at any stage of the tournament. From my previous posts, it was apparent that I was rooting for a Tiger victory before the tournament began. But, after the victory and also looking at the way he won it, I am left pretty downcast over the whole scenario. As I have stated previously in this blog, the primary reason I root for Tiger is because of the basic human nature potrayed in his story that no man can be perfect. After utterly demolishing all competition around him during the period 1999-2003, he did not win a major for a long long time and people began to wonder if the Tiger era is over. Seeing him re-emerge from the slumps would have (and has indeed now) made for a great story. And, my allegiance with Tiger was basically to experience the vicarious pleasure of being able to emerge champion once again, fighting off the competition that had managed to chip away at his dominance.

The beginning of the year held great promises with Vijay Singh coming off a great season in which he had stolen the No. 1 ranking from Woods, and with Ernie Els and Phil Mickelson in the form of their life, there was great anticipation from the "Big Four". But, now it looks like Tiger is once again back to his dominant best and the other three have failed to provide any opposition. Tiger was challenged by Chris DiMarco and Michael Campbell, in the Masters and the US Open, respectively, both of whom were in all probability just one-off wonders. So, if Tiger is once again going to dominate every tournament, winning majors by such huge margins, there clearly isn't much motivation left to follow the game. Golf would become pretty much like what F1 was last year with the dominance of Schumacher/Ferrari making the whole season a farce. Who would want to follow a sport in which there is no competition? Let's hope that is not going to be the case and Vijay/Ernie/Mickelson can wake up soon.

BTW, here's an article in today's Indian Express precisely expressing my emotions. I hadn't realized the time when I would not be rooting for a Tiger victory would come so soon!

Cheers,
Harsha

It's the Albatross!

As most of you would know, in golf, each hole on the course is assigned a number of strokes that is considered standard for that hole. In golf terminology, it is called 'par' for the hole - basically a synonym for standard. Now, if 4 strokes is par for a hole, then completing it in 3 strokes is not called just 1 below par. Instead, it has a special term 'birdie'. Similarly, 2 strokes below par is instead called 'eagle'. On the other hand, 1 above par is called 'bogey'. Instead of coining more terms, 2 above par is unimaginatively called 'double bogey' and 3 above par is called 'triple bogey'. (Never heard of anyone doing worse than that! :))

Now, on most golf courses, all holes are one of par-3, par-4 or par-5. Clearly, atleast one stroke needs to be made! And, the par-5 holes have presumably been classified as such since they are significantly longer (from the tee to the hole) than any of the par-4s. So, the best one can hope for is either a hole-in-one on a par-4 or to complete a par-5 in two strokes. However, I've never seen either of these happen live on TV and so, I've always wondered whether there is any special term at all for 3 below par. Surely, they must have some term to celebrate such a occasion than try to dryly capture the player's jubiliation with the statement - 'He just scored a 3 below par!'. :) I finally came across the term for it today while following the British Open. It is called the albatross! I came across the term not because one of the players scored an albatross, but rather because one of the players just missed out on making one. On his second shot on a par-5 hole, the ball went right at the hole and then bounced off the flagpole!!

Anyway, my long-lasting quest for 'the' term has finally ended - it's the albatross. Birdie, eagle, albatross ... who the hell came up with these terms!

Cheers,
Harsha

MLB Blackout

Ever since I've moved to the US I have wondered whether I'll ever get to see on TV the "Sorry for the Interruption" blackout that used to be common on Doordarshan back home in India. In fact, even in India, I never remember seeing such a blackout on any of the channels other than Doordarshan, but that could be because we got cable TV at home only after I passed out of IIT! Anyway, considering all the professionalism that the Americans are supposed to bring into everything they take up, I was just curious if this happens at all on the channels out here. The golden moment finally occurred today, and it turned out to be even more stupid than DD.

Basically, tonight's baseball game between the Atlanta Braves and New York Mets was supposed to be telecast on TBS beginning at 7pm. Instead, after the episode of Seinfeld that was showing from 6:30 completed, they put up a message saying "Due to MLB restrictions, today's game of the Braves vs. the Mets cannot be telecast on TBS". Well, that is a bit unusual, but nothing surprising. What shocked me was the rest of the message - "Regular programming will resume on TBS after the baseball game. Stay tuned!". What!!! Not only do they not show the game but instead of telecasting something else instead, they decide to have this message up throughout the duration of the game, and they expect viewers to stay tuned. The guys at TBS must have gone crazy. What is this strange restriction imposed by MLB anyway?! I hope it isn't a part of their rules that channels who don't have to rights to telecast a game cannot broadcast any other program as well while the game is on. :P They better improve their anti-doping policies instead because of which they got kicked out of the Olympics.

The US is much crazier land than I had imagined!

And, oh, Tiger shoots into the lead in the British Open in the first round itself. Way to go!

Cheers,
Harsha

PGA Championship

Just found out that this year's PGA Championship is to be held in Springfield, NJ next month. Looking up in Google Maps, the golf course is a couple of minutes walking distance from the place I'm planning to move to in Summit, NJ! But, sadly, the lowest ticket price available for among all 4 days (Thu. to Sun.) is $95. I guess I'll have to make do with going to see the practice rounds on one of the days from Mon. to Wed. Or, maybe I'll go on all 3 days - tickets are available for just $10 on these 3 days!

Anyway, great news to end my day :)

Cheers,
Harsha

There are just too many ODIs

Finally, we are done with the worthless sequence of ODIs between Aus. and Eng. which I'm not sure who really cared for. Also, the last 3 games clearly demonstrated that the new "innovations" introduced certainly don't help in improving interest in the game. Frankly, I believe no amount of changes introduced is going to bring back the excitement to the one-day game. The problem is clear - there is just too much one-day cricket being played. How the hell can interest in the game be sustained if there are matches going on at all times of the year. Too much of anything is bad and so is the case with ODIs too. So, the simple solution to ensure every one-day game is treated with the same amount of anticipation is to just play them less often!

On a first cut at analyzing this logic, one might find this is counter-intuitive to what's happening in other popular sports such as soccer, basketball, baseball, tennis, golf. In all these sports, there are matches/tournaments being organized every week during the season. But, on a closer look, the differences become apparent. In soccer, most of the matches played are between local clubs, and most of these matches are pretty much inconsequential (other than between heavyweights such as say Man U. and Chelsea, but these games happen only around half a dozen times in a year). Similar is the situation in baseball and basketball. The only reason the games in the regular season count for anything is that they finally decide who makes the playoffs. So, an alternative solution one could possibly consider to solve the problem with ODIs is to introduce an annual World Cup, with the games played throughout the year determining who makes it to the World Cup. (The ICC has introduced an official ranking system but clearly it matters for nothing at the moment.) But, this solution will not work in cricket because there just aren't enough competitive teams! There are only 8 teams playing at the top-level and you cannot organize a league based on these many teams. This works in basketball, baseball and soccer because leagues usually have around 30 teams. I don't see so many teams making it to the top tier in cricket anytime during my lifetime :)

The other approach to take is that of tennis and golf. Though tournaments are held every week in these sports, hardly anyone cares for any of them other than the Grand Slams/majors. And they don't seem to have any problem with that! So, that's one more alternative solution - just ignore the fact that ODIs are getting boring and keep playing them nonetheless. Looks like the ICC is better off with this approach than trying out useless 'innovations'.

Anyway, let's hope the Ashes turns out to be a cracker of a contest. And, before that, here's hoping that Tiger conquers the British Open again. And, also hope someone on the T-Mobile team finally manages to figure out Armstrong. Phew .. too many exciting events in store. Thankfully the ODIs are done with! :D

Cheers,
Harsha

All-Star breaks

As I am following the MLB home run derby online right now (following it online because some worthless undergrads are seeing Friends instead on TV!), I am wondering what the equivalent of this is in the NHL and the NFL. All-star breaks exist in all 4 sports - baseball, basketball, football and hockey - wherein they have a game with the best players in each division facing off against each other. In addition, the NBA has the skills challenge, the 3-point shootout and dunk contest on the night before the All-star game. The equivalent of this in MLB is the currently ongoing home run derby. But, I don't see how any such similar event can be held in either football or hockey. It basically boils down to the fact that in both these sports, there is no way to test out individual skill levels (for that matter, there is no way you can have a competition involving just the pitchers in baseball as well). The only possible event I can think of in football is to see how far quarterbacks can throw the ball; but that would be one real lousy contest :) I can't come up with anything at all for hockey! Do any of you have any ideas? Or, are there already such events and I'm one poor ignorant soul?!

Cheers,
Harsha

Closer than a photo-finish

Phew! The image says it all. How much closer can it get after 216 km. of cycling?! This is the snapshot of the finish at the end of today's stage of the Tour de France. I am not sure the winner can be decided even based on this picture - so, theoretically it is closer than a photo-finish ;) Anyway, supposedly, every bike has a sensor attached to it, based on which the winning time was determined to be 0.0002 seconds! Who the winner was though - I'll refer to them as No. 14 and No. 59 as I am sure none of you have heard their names :) - is left as a test for the reader's vision!

Cheers,
Harsha

The ugly NBA riot

Just happened to come across this video of the horrendous melee that broke out in the NBA game between the Pistons and the Pacers early last season. This is basically the complete coverage of the episode as shown on Sportscenter that night. For those you who haven't seen coverage of this before, take a look and realize why cricket is still called the "gentleman's game"!

Cheers,
Harsha

True rumour!

The first news headline that I saw as soon as I woke up today is "London to host 2012 Olympics". Immediately, my heart sank in sorrow for all Parisians. After being fed on the hype instilled by the media that Paris is the clear frontrunner for almost two weeks now, I'm sure a cloud of gloom would have been cast over the whole of France today (Literally, it indeed began to rain around 1:49pm local time in Paris - just before the decision was announced!). I can almost visualize the general lack of spirit in every Frenchman's heart, just like the state in India after a loss to Pakistan in a cricket match :)

Anyway, the title of this blog is regarding another bit of news involving London and France. One of the many articles I read about the IOC's decision stated that there was a rumour going around that London had also been selected as the city from where next year's Tour de France would start. My instinctive reaction was that this is obviously impossible. Come on - isn't it the Tour de "France"? How the hell can they even consider starting the race in London? But, in fact, after googling around I found that this is indeed true! The TDF organizing committee is considering 6 candidate cities to host the prologue time trial that starts off the event every year - 4 of them are in France, then there is London and there is also a city in Denmark! London has proposed that the event be flagged off from the Mall outside the Buckingham Palace. After reading this, I lost all sympathy for the French. When they are so foolish as to even consider starting their traditional event - the Tour de "France" - in London, their certainly is nothing unfair in them losing out to the English capital for hosting the Olympics!

To close, here's the mind-blowing stat for the day: the average speed set by the Lance Amstrong-led Discovery Channel team in yesterday's team time trial was 57.32 kmph! If there are more of such guys, they'll soon need to introduce speed limits for bikes :)

Cheers,
Harsha

Controversy in cycling too!

Cycling was the last sport in which I expected any illegal tactics to be used. Hitting other riders during the race I thought was possible only in movies such as Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikander, but today the same was seen in the Tour de France as well! Today was basically a normal flat ride in which the sprinters fight for points and bragging rights of a stage win, but the result of the overall race could only have been affected by one of the major contenders getting injured. Robbie Mcewan from Australia, who won the green jersey (for the best sprinter) in 2002 and 2004, was relegated to the last position at the end of today's stage even though he finished third. This was because right at the finish line, he tried to nudge out one of the other contenders by head-butting him. And even worse, he later claimed that he had to resort to doing this because the other rider had elbowed him! All in all, a sorry sight. Here's the snapshot of the miserable event.



Anyway, I hope the Tour de France turns out to be more exciting this year than the last two years (that's when I began following it). In the previous two years, the race was pretty much like a standard F1 race with the expected winner emerging champion (in the TDF, Lance Armstrong in both years, and in F1, Schumacher last year and Alonso this year) and the challengers just not living up to the hype surrounding them. Hopefully one of Jan Ullrich, Ivan Basso and Iban Mayo will come good this year and give Lance a tough fight. Else, the Tour is going to have one less follower! :)

Cheers,
Harsha

Women in Sports

Just saw Venus clinching the Wimbledon title. Not really a great match in my opinion. But, sadly, it will still go down as one of the greatest women's finals in history as it is the longest women's finals in Wimbledon in the Open era. The previous record was 2 hours 28 minutes and I think this one exceeded that by around 10 minutes. That set me wondering why exactly is the women's game limited to 3 sets while the men play 5 sets? Watching this game, it was clear extending the women's game to 5 sets is not an option as both Venus and Davenport were exhausted in the middle of the 3rd set itself!

For that matter, consider other sports, says athletics. The world records set by women in all track and field events are worse than the bests set by their men counterparts in the corresponding events. In fact, if I remember right, I think the distance for the marathon is lesser for women compared to the distance run by men. I guess the same is seen in swimming as well. So, what exactly is it that limits women? Is it something intrinsic about the biological setup of the human female body? I can't imagine the reason being the domination of men in the social sphere! Or, are women just lazy?! ;) Hope someone will be able to offer some insight on this.

Cheers,
Harsha