Same old , some new

All the festivities and celebrations surrounding India's victory in the T20 world cup came crashing down. In a matter of 1 week since the Aussies started their 7 match series here, its been the same old comments on how the Indian team should improve their bowling and fielding. And the same sunken feeling in my stomach when the Aussies start assaulting the bowlers and demolishing the much-hyped Indian batting line-up.

The most note-worthy thing about this series has been the attitude of the players in the two teams. On earlier tours the Aussies would come-bully-win and go. On this tour, the Indians are giving it back to the Aussies in terms of bullying.

Now, I agree that it has gone over the top some times and the incident where Sreesanth tried to run Symonds out was plain stupid, but the fact remains that the Indians are not backing down to the Aussies. Only if they could perform well and win matches !!

My thoughts on the first couple of matches:

1. The Aussies seem to have planned to bat first and put up huge totals. Indians are perennial chokers when it comes to chasing and the Aussies seem to want to exploit this to the fullest.
2. The 2 captains (Mahi and Gili) are very likable, though Ponting came back for the 3rd ODI. (I'm not a huge fan of Ponting)
3. We saw sari-clad women distributing drinks during the ODI in Hyderabad !! What will they think of next ??
4. The grounds staff also performed a puja of the pitch !! Pity, it didn't help wake the Indian cricketing gods.
5. Mahi seems to play a fair game and I am impressed by his no-nonsense presence on the field.
6. Dravid seems to be lost on the ground. We hardly get to see him on the field. He does not even venture out to give any sort of advise to Mahi (which Sachin regularly seems to do). I don't know if something is amiss between Rahul and Mahi or if Rahul just wants to give Mahi his space. In any case, a few words here and there will definately help.
7. The team mgmt sat out Ganguly even when he was fit ?? I wonder why?? What was the sense of playing Rohit Sharma when Ganguly was available??
8. The behavior on the field improved considerably from the second to the third ODI. Maybe someone knocked some sense into Bhajji and Sreesanth.

India now needs to win all the remaining 4 ODIs to clinch the series. Though I don't see them doing that, I think they should use this series to identify players and get some match practice for the Pakistan series.

AND GET A COACH !!!

Tendulkar to retire from ODIs?

An excellent win against England went a little sour with the news that Sachin Tendulkar is contemplating retirement from One day international cricket.

THE greatest batsman to ever play the game has amassed phenomenal amount of runs in both forms of the game and will be heralded as the greatest who ever played the game.

His stats speak for themselves. There is no one even close enough to challenge him for his position atop the ladder.

The news says that the Pakistan and Australia tours could be his last. These are the teams against whom he has repeatedly shone and we wish he does one better on his last tour !!

Here's one from two of his most memorable innings that he played in Sharjah against Australia. The first to put India into the finals and the second to win India the cup !!

Independence Day

India became 60 years young yesterday. Ever wonder how everyone becomes a patriot on Independence day?

I remember vividly enjoying the holiday from school (after the flag hoisting) and playing cricket in the backyard with friends.
Its a great feeling to go to school and then leave within a couple of hours. On that day, even if you see a teacher, you know he is not going to drag you into a class and start teaching you. You are expected to be out of classrooms during the day. Everyone from the school comes together and the mood is great !! I loved it.. That personifies freedom to me. Enjoying what you love doing.

Here's the complete speech that India's first Prime Minister delivered on our first Independence day.



Long years ago we made a tryst with destiny, and now the time comes when we shall redeem our pledge, not wholly or in full measure, but very substantially. At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom. A moment comes, which comes but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the new, when an age ends, and when the soul of a nation, long suppressed, finds utterance. It is fitting that at this solemn moment we take the pledge of dedication to the service of India and her people and to the still larger cause of humanity.

At the dawn of history India started on her unending quest, and trackless centuries are filled with her striving and the grandeur of her success and her failures. Through good and ill fortune alike she has never lost sight of that quest or forgotten the ideals which gave her strength. We end today a period of ill fortune and India discovers herself again. The achievement we celebrate today is but a step, an opening of opportunity, to the greater triumphs and achievements that await us. Are we brave enough and wise enough to grasp this opportunity and accept the challenge of the future?

Freedom and power bring responsibility. The responsibility rests upon this Assembly, a sovereign body representing the sovereign people of India. Before the birth of freedom we have endured all the pains of labour and our hearts are heavy with the memory of this sorrow. Some of those pains continue even now. Nevertheless, the past is over and it is the future that beckons to us now.

That future is not one of ease or resting but of incessant striving so that we may fulfil the pledges we have so often taken and the one we shall take today. The service of India means the service of the millions who suffer. It means the ending of poverty and ignorance and disease and inequality of opportunity. The ambition of the greatest man of our generation has been to wipe every tear from every eye. That may be beyond us, but as long as there are tears and suffering, so long our work will not be over.

And so we have to labour and to work, and work hard, to give reality to our dreams. Those dreams are for India, but they are also for the world, for all the nations and peoples are too closely knit together today for any one of them to imagine that it can live apart Peace has been said to be indivisible; so is freedom, so is prosperity now, and so also is disaster in this One World that can no longer be split into isolated fragments.

To the people of India, whose representatives we are, we make an appeal to join us with faith and confidence in this great adventure. This is no time for petty and destructive criticism, no time for ill-will or blaming others.

We have to build the noble mansion of free India where all her children may dwell. The appointed day has come-the day appointed by destiny-and India stands forth again, after long slumber and struggle, awake, vital, free and independent. The past clings on to us still in some measure and we have to do much before we redeem the pledges we have so often taken. Yet the turning-point is past, and history begins anew for us, the history which we shall live and act and others will write about.

It is a fateful moment for us in India, for all Asia and for the world. A new star rises, the star of freedom in the East, a new hope comes into being, a vision long cherished materializes. May the star never set and that hope never be betrayed! We rejoice in that freedom, even though clouds surround us, and many of our people are sorrowstricken and difficult problems encompass us. But freedom brings responsibilities and burdens and we have to face them in the spirit of a free and disciplined people.

On this day our first thoughts go to the architect of this freedom, the Father of our Nation [Gandhi], who, embodying the old spirit of India, held aloft the torch of freedom and lighted up the darkness that surrounded us. We have often been unworthy followers of his and have strayed from his message, but not only we but succeeding generations will remember this message and bear the imprint in their hearts of this great son of India, magnificent in his faith and strength and courage and humility. We shall never allow that torch of freedom to be blown out, however high the wind or stormy the tempest.

Our next thoughts must be of the unknown volunteers and soldiers of freedom who, without praise or reward, have served India even unto death. We think also of our brothers and sisters who have been cut off from us by political boundaries and who unhappily cannot share at present in the freedom that has come. They are of us and will remain of us whatever may happen, and we shall be sharers in their good [or] ill fortune alike.

The future beckons to us. Whither do we go and what shall be our endeavour? To bring freedom and opportunity to the common man, to the peasants and workers of India; to fight and end poverty and ignorance and disease; to build up a prosperous, democratic and progressive nation, and to create social, economic and political institutions which will ensure justice and fullness of life to every man and woman.

We have hard work ahead. There is no resting for any one of us till we redeem our pledge in full, till we make all the people of India what destiny intended them to be. We are citizens of a great country on the verge of bold advance, and we have to live up to that high standard. All of us, to whatever religion we may belong, are equally the children of India with equal rights, privileges and obligations. We cannot encourage communalism or narrow-mindedness, for no nation can be great whose people are narrow in thought or in action.

To the nations and peoples of the world we send greetings and pledge ourselves to cooperate with them in furthering peace, freedom and democracy. And to India, our much-loved motherland, the ancient, the eternal and the ever-new, we pay our reverent homage and we bind ourselves afresh to her service. Jai Hind.