On sports I know nothing about, and employee morale

I'm the first to admit I know nothing about any sport that is not cricket - and there too, interest has dwindled over time. If it wasn't for Google Now's helpful alerts that we're losing another match to Australia or Sri Lanka, I wouldn't even know we're playing any more.


So usually, when I see any headlines or tweets that appear to be related to sports, I ignore them, apart from the occasional wondering which sport they're talking about. But there's one type of sports-related headline/tweet that tends to make me think a little more.


I saw a tweet just now that some team is open to trading one or more of its players - and I think the players were named, but I'm not sure. I also think the sport in question was basketball, but again, I'm not sure. Let's just say there a lot of words that I did not recognize in that tweet.


AnyWAY. The thing I always wonder is, what do announcements like this do for player morale? To have the world know the team you play for is willing to let you go so that it can find someone who might do better than you? I mean, I'm sure very often the players are willing to be traded as well, and I'm sure there's plenty of money involved to make them happy-ish about the trade, but... still. Doesn't it create some kind of awkwardness and/or tension among players?


Can you imagine this happening in any other type of job? To come into work and see a company-wide or department-wide email from your manager saying they're perfectly happy to be rid of you if another manager offers them someone better from their team in exchange? (This may or may not be something I have occasional nightmares about.) As someone who worked in HR in a previous lifetime, I'm not sure I would recommend this.


It just... makes me wonder. Y'know?

The day we stood on the brink of history

Has it sunk in yet for you? I realise this is how most posts about the win have been beginning, but really, has it?

My twitter timeline, GReader Shared items, FB new feed - they're all full of one thing since the last 48 hours. Conversations at office all of today were all about who was doing what at the moment it happened.

So allow me to recap for you a bit, the events that unfolded on 2nd April, 2011.

1.40 PM: I switch on my TV to see there is no signal. All I can see is a silver haze.
1.45 PM: I call up DLF Cable and scream at them, and meanwhile find a decent streaming link online to try and catch the toss. Halfway through my screaming, I stop to stare at my laptop. A re-toss? What just happened?!? Get off the phone and get onto twitter!!! What are people saying?!?
2.10 PM: Two guys from DLF Cable show up and fix the signal. Hallelujah.
2.29 PM: Zaheer Khan is getting ready to open bowling. Memories of 23rd March 2003 rush back. Please Lord, no. Don't let this happen again.
2.32 PM: Zaheer Khan is the most awesome man in the history of mankind. And bowling.
4.30 PM: This is going well. Nice and easy, people, nice and easy.
5.20 PM: POWER CUT. AND the internet died on me. We decide to go to the club and watch on the big screens they've put up. Family and friend disperse to get ready. I wait, because I'm not changing - lucky yellow T-shirt has been worn.
5.55 PM: Friend reappears, wearing her brand new Team India T-shirt. Identical to the one I had bought. And wore for the first time in the India-SA match. And decided not to wear again for the rest of the World Cup, especially once the yellow t-shirt proved to be lucky in the India-WI match. The India T-shirt was put in the same category as Sreesanth; we could've given it another chance if there were any league matches left, but we're not going to risk it once we're in the knock-out stages. Not that I am judging any decisions any captain may have taken.
Back to my story. I glared at said friend, and informed her who would be blamed should we lose.
6.40 PM: Reached club in time for innings break. Not watching the the end of the Lankan innings in my yellow T-short proved to be catastrophic. Sri Lanka had slammed in the last ten overs, and set a target of 275. Doable? Yes. Would we do it? I have no freaking idea.
7.15 PM: Sehwag out. For a duck. SHIT.
8.15 PM: The lightning that was creeping closer over the past half hour, was now directly overhead. Faint thunder could be heard, occasional drizzle felt.
8.40 PM: The sky burst open. Open air screening comes to an end. WHY DOESN'T ANYONE WANT TO LET ME SEE THIS MATCH?
9.00 PM: Back home. Power's back, match is on. Whew. Online too. Thank heavens. What is a match with no twitter?
10.15 PM: We're inching towards this. We're beginning to realise we're almost there, as evidenced by this tweet. My friend, who hadn't uncrossed her fingers since we got home, looked at me in amazement - this was the first time I had been calm about a cricket match, especially one of this importance. There was a certainty that had come over me once the match started, and nothing could shake it off.
10.32 PM: WORLD CHAMPIONS. TAKE THAT, EVERY OTHER COUNTRY. And so began a state of incoherence which involve me basically screaming out periodically, smiling like a goofball, and tweeting in caps lock for the next five hours.

My approach to this World Cup, back in February, was very simple. Just get to the Quarter-finals, uske baad dekhenge kya hota hai. I was, however, praying right from 19th February that we wouldn't have to play the first QF, scheduled for 23rd March.

When it turned out we would take on Australia in the QF, I was very pessimistic. Yeah, yeah, you don't become world champions by avoiding teams, but just this one maybe?

I think I began to believe we could do this the day we beat Australia. Our league matches had been patchy, to be honest. We hadn't beaten SA, and barely managed to avoid losing some of the other matches. But when it counted, in the knock-out matches, this team really did come together.

The father always says that 1983 was our year not for any individual, but because every single person in that team played a key role. 2011 was no different. Yuvraj hit back at all his detractors, including yours truly, to have a dream run with the bat during the league matches all the way to the QF, and continuing to field and bowl through the knock-outs. Zaheer was brilliant all through, and Harbhajan took his wickets as and when. Nehra brought on the wrath of an entire nation with just one over against South Africa, and then redeemed himself against Pakistan. Raina and Ashwin came in in the QF and SF and blew away the opposition. Gambhir and Dhoni both had a very low-scoring tournament, but then came good in the final, and how!

Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar. I will admit, my superstitions extended to correlating this man's centuries with India's losses. But this man still played such a big part in our win this World Cup. As he has in our country's fortunes in cricket for two decades. Virat Kohli, whatever his future achievements may be, and Im sure there will be plenty, has written himself into history simply by virtue of his tribute to Tendulkar.

And then the moment came, when those 5 runs were need, and an entire nation thought to itself, hit a six and get there. The father never watches matches; he thinks we lose when he does. So he was listening to the radio commentary in the next room, while we watched. He's keep coming in to tell us what's happening because radio commentary is about 5 seconds faster than TV broadcasts. And then the moment came. He ran into the room, I could faintly hear someone screaming on the radio. And Dhoni hit the ball. And I screamed like I have never screamed in my life.

What does one say that hasn't been said already? Brilliant posts have been put up aleady by @sidvee, @greatbong, @cornerd, @daddy_san, and a host of others. The sheer joy a billion people have been feeling since Saturday night, the smiles that won't go away from our faces - it's hard to put these feelings into words.

As the generation that grew up watching Ganguly, Tendulkar, Dravid, Kumble, Laxman, and even Javagal Srinath and Venkatesh Prasad if I go further back, it was hard to keep away the wistfulness and the wish that they had got this too. As a Ganguly loyalist, the thought also kept coming that he and John Wright probably deserved so much of the credit for making Team India what it is today. But then when you saw the smile on Sachin's face as he ran onto the field, you knew that it was worth everything just to see this man hold that trophy.

We made it here

I started following cricket during the 1996 World Cup. The first match I ever watched was the quarter-final between India and Pakistan. We used to live just behind M-block market in G.K.-I those days, and I remember walking down to the market after the match with the father to buy paan. A Maruti 800 zoomed in out of nowhere, a guy stuck his head out of the window and yelled, "jeetega bhai jeetega," and the crowd which was loitering screamed back, "India jeetega." At 11, that scene made a permanent impression in my mind.

I don't know the technicalities of the game too well, even today. I have only recently really understood what LBW actually means. If you ask me to identify various fielding positions, I will stare blankly at you. I don't have a host of cricket-related trivia at my fingertips the way half my Twitter timeline does.

What I do have are a host of memories. Emotions. Images. Sounds.

Sachin and Saurav beating Pakistan in their opening partnership itself, Sachin outshadowing Saurav with his century. No idea which year this was - is it the Sharjah one people keep going #youremember over?

The 1999 World Cup, where Sachin had to go back home midway and then returned to hit a century in his first match back. And Ganguly, my beloved, hitting 183 in Taunton.

Yuvraj and Kaif bursting out of nowhere at Lords. You remember Saurav for taking off his shirt, I remember the sheer jubilation on his face. For a team that had been shattered by all the match-fixing drama, wasn't this the beginning of the era when we started expecting our team to win? It was for me.

The despair of 23rd March, 2003. The boundary off the first ball of Zaheer's first over, and the carnage that followed. The faint ray of hope we got when the rain started - would we get another day to salvage this game? But no, we didn't. A billion hearts broke that day. Thoughts of the Economics board exam that was four days away took a flying leap from the window.

Pakistan's tour of India in 2005. Mahendra Singh Dhoni announcing his arrival, and how. The commentary I would listen to on the car radio, as I took Kyra to Jeevashram every day to be treated for renal failure. I'd pass the Rajokri village and see crowds gathered outside the mithai ka dukaan, all watching the tiny television in the shop.

The anger we felt in 2008 in that test against Australia. Anil Kumble's dignified press conference at the end of that horrid day. And the vindication when we won.

Is there any team we've disliked more than Australia? No one likes someone who has it all. Particularly when they display the kind of arrogance Australia has. So the match against South Africa, where they scored 434, and South Africa, bless them, responded with 438, was sheer joy to watch. I remember watching the highlights of that match. I knew what the outcome was going to be, but I still had goosebumps all through.

Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar. The first man to score a 200 in an ODI. I was in office that day, not really working, but refusing to leave till he got there. I cursed Cricinfo with all the plagues in the world, but forgave them two days later when Sambit Bal wrote that refreshingly honest apology.

The 2007 T20 World Cup, six months after the first-round exit from the main World Cup. I would stay up till 2 AM every night to watch those matches, pacing up and down in our basement. The shoot out style "Super Over" that took place when we tied with Pakistan, and how we rocked it. The final, oh sweet Lord, the final.

Despair, anger, jubilation, vindication, grief. I've felt it all the 15 years I've been following cricket. Heck, I've felt them all in the last month of following this World Cup. But we've made it this far. After a rocky start, we beat Australia in the quarter-finals, and Pakistan in the semi-finals. Both matches that had me with my heart in my mouth almost all through. And on Saturday, for the second time in my life, I'll see India play a World Cup final.

I don't like our captain; I think he's survived on luck more than anything else all these years. I'm not too fond of several of the players in this team, but they've redeemed themselves on several occasions, I'll grant them that. Some of the players I do like haven't been given the chance to play too much in the tournament. But none of this will matter on Saturday.

If you win on Saturday, dear Team India, this team will get immortalized by us forever. The despair we felt of 23rd March 2003 will get erased forever. I won't say win it for Sachin, like many others are saying. I won't say win it for the billion people in this country; we're too fickle in our affections to deserve that. We decide you've lost much before you lose, and occasionally also decide you've won before you actually win. We blame you, we victimize you, and then we forget we ever said anything to you when you win a match. And when I say we, I mean I.

Just... win it, okay? Please?

Wouldja look at that?!?

This is what the 47th over of the third ODI being played today between India and England in Kanpur looked like (Read from the bottom; makes more sense that way!):

 1 . 1^nb 1^nb 5^wd 1 W W 1^wd . 

46.6 I Sharma to Broad, no run, good length outside off stump, Broad swings and misses Ishant runs in for the tenth time in the over. 46.6 I Sharma to Broad, 1 wide, and he's sprayed it wide outside off stump! It's a huge wide! Stuart Broad to face the hat-trick ball. 

46.5 I Sharma to Prior, OUT, what a crazy over this is! Ishant's now on a hat-trick! Prior walks across his stumps to try and flick the ball towards long leg, he misses and the ball swings past him and clips leg stump. Two no balls, one wide that cost five, and two wickets in the over so far

J Prior b I Sharma 5 (13b 0x4 0x6) SR: 38.46 

46.4 I Sharma to Patel, OUT, caught in the deep! Patel charges to loft Ishant down the ground, it's another slower ball from Ishant and Patel mis-hits it high in the air towards long-off where Raina settles under the catch and takes it easily 

SR Patel c Raina b I Sharma 26 (29b 1x4 1x6) SR: 89.65 

46.3 I Sharma to Prior, 1 run, Prior chips the free hit towards midwicket, and Ishant hasn't over-stepped this time! 

46.3 I Sharma to Prior, 5 wides, Ishant's lost it today, the ball slips out of his hand and goes way down leg side, Dhoni had no hope to reaching that and the ball goes down for five wides, the free hit carries over to the next ball 

46.3 I Sharma to Prior, 1 no ball, Prior swings and misses the free hit outside off stump but would you believe it, Ishant's over-stepped one more time, Prior gets another opportunity 

46.3 I Sharma to Prior, 1 no ball, now he's got beaten by another lower one, this time outside off stump, Ishant's over-stepped yet again, that's his fourth, a criminal offence in this age of free-hits 

46.2 I Sharma to Prior, no run, Prior attempts a wild heave over the leg side but gets completely foxed by a slower ball that just misses the leg stump 

46.1 I Sharma to Patel, 1 run, Ishant looks for the yorker and Patel plays it towards the off side for a single

 

A few notes on the IPL

The Rajasthan Royals just won the first tournament of the DLF Indian Premier League - and I mean that both in terms of time and how it happened. I'm rather disappointed, because RR has been my least favourite team all through the tournament - primarily because I'm a sucker for underdogs, and I don't like teams that win everything they play. But then, I wasn't supporting Chennai either, because I'm not too fond of Dhoni.

Actually, once it got to the semi-final stage, I wasn't really fond of any of the teams. I thought I'd support the Delhi Daredevils, but when you think of the way they just gave in to the RRs, there's just no point. But I never thought Punjab's King's XI wouldn't make it to the finals, and I really thought they were the only team who would be able to beat Rajasthan, but that didn't happen either.

For a while today, I really did think Chennai would make it, but the last two balls of the match changed everything around. I was hoping for a bowl-out when they needed just one run off the last ball, but Sohail Tanveer managed to pull it off on the last ball.

Come to think of it, nothing in this tournament went the way I wanted it to go. I supported the Kolkata Knight Riders, and had very high hopes of their success in the first match when Brandan McCellum hit his 158 and the Bangalore Royal Challengers just didn't know what to do. But I am extremely glad I didn't get tickets for their match against the Mumbai Indians when I was in Bombay on the 16th of May, because the way KKR played was just ridiculous. I still think they could have made it through to the semis if that damn rain hadn't washed out the match in Delhi, but who knows?

The other teams I liked which didn't make it through were the Mumbai Indians and, well, the Deccan Chargers of Hyderabad. MI totally deserved to not make it through to the semis consideruing the way they fielded in their last few games. And that Dilhara character who gave a wide in that last over against God knows which team now, and following it up with dropping a catch on the last ball, is just a fool of the first order.

The thing with the Deccan Chargers is that you can't really figure out why they lost everything they played. They have two people in the top ten scoring batsmen list, R P Singh was one of the leading wicket takers, they made decent scores in quite a few matches, but then... something would just go wrong. They just couldn't close any of their matches on a winning note. I really admired VVS Laxman for giving up his icon status so their team could use the money to get more players, but that team... just didn't click when it mattered.

But at the end of the day, you've got to give credit to Shane Warne for bringing the Royals together the way he has, more so since half the players in the team probably don't speak English. Like them or not, the team completely deserved to win the IPL.

It's been a very exciting 40 days (which started during my exams) of cricket every single day. But at least I'll be allowed to watch my shows which come during matches. And I really really hope ravi Shastri didn't mean his statement about Makhaya Ntini "bringing a lot of colour to the tournament" the way I suspect he did.

Announcement of the day

I usually don't announce the additions of any widgets, but leave it to y'all to discover them. However, this time round I suppose I feel the need to do so.

I've added an Article list to the left, right below the Blogs I Read section (which needs a major overhaul!). I'm going to put links to any interesting articles I come across there instead of dedicating one-line entries to them. If I feel the need to add a commentary to any article, I may do so, but I don't see that happening too often, do you?

Of course, this probably means my frequency of posting is going to drop sharply, but you'll just have to swallow the lump forming in your throat and live with it.

Also, I don't think Bloglines or Google Reader will catch updates happening to the list (yes, I do get to know when you use these; yay Statcounter!), so you'll probably just have to check every time you visit.

To start off the list, I've put up two articles. One is fairly outdated, but talks about Ganguly, so you should read it. The second is about a cause very close to my heart, and a person very dear to me - Anuja Gupta of RAHI Foundation and her work against child sexual abuse and incest. Read it, please.

Also, to know more about RAHI Foundation, you could visit their site, or even the Wikipedia entry I created for them. (Yers, I know, I'm very kewl.)

WE WON!

We won we won we won we won we won we won we won we won we won we won we won we won we won we won we won we won we won we won we won we won we won we won we won we won we won we won we won we won we won we won we won we won we won we won we won we won we won we won we won we won we won we won we won we won we won we won we won we won !!!!!!!!!!!

I'm happy.

Free association

I feel almost apologetic about the bombardment of posts this month.

So I'm just back from watching the movie Chak De. A quick review before I bring up the two points it brought to mind: Nice movie - rather well made, I thought. The girls were good, while SRK was annoying in the few scenes he had to give inspirational speeches, tolerable in the rest of the movie.

I'm not an SRK fan. Let's move on.

I was amazed that Aaj Tak agreed to give its name and be portrayed in such a manner. Aaj Tak is one of those channels I refuse to watch because the few times that I have found myself watching it, all i have seen is either the latest news from Bollywood, in which case I would rather go straight to Zoom, or very absurd things being reported with highly dramatic background music being played. However, from what I gather, Aaj Tak is also one of those channels which enjoys pretending it's a court and judging people based on little or no evidence. And you've got to hand it to them; it takes guts to go out and let yourself be portrayed in a manner you'd be stoopid not realize you're criticised for.

What was the other thing? Oh yes.

March 23, 2003 remains one of the most painful memories for me. My economics Board exam was three days away, but practically everyone in my batch had kept their books aside that day to watch the cricket World Cup final between India and Australia. Chak De totally ripped off the pattern for that World Cup in this match. Lost the first League match against Australia, come back with a bang to win every single match to follow, and meet up with Australia again in the finals. The only thing they didn't rip off was the goddamn conclusion of that match. Sheesh.