End of Summer, 2007

We are into the Last week of September and although the prediction of weather says, we got one more week of summer..It is kind of End of Summer in America.

We missed few trips this summer, like Six Flags or Niagara or Virginia but it was not a bad summer afterall. With one eye on money saving plans, I still played Golf, Stuck with no cricket, went to beach, went to small national park, started summer with few walks of the huge ground and had a trip to Pocono mountains/Washintong D.C. Hopefully, this Fall/Winter plans of travelling does not mess up and we can continue our plan to travel to Chicago / New Hampshire and possibly Hawai in the Chrismas. (just a thought nothing concrete yet.)

Another Wonderful Sports Weekend. Bulldogs pull off a great victory against Alabama in college Football. Tony Romo crushed Chicago bears and Pats/Colts/Steelers/Packers kept winning. Red Sox became the first team to qualify for "ACTOBER". Beckett became the First 20 winning pitcher of the year. Manchester United won against 1o men Chelsea.

We saw Political Thriller "Shooter", one hell of a movie, I mean bad movie. After Watching , Partner, Heyy Babyy and Dhamaal (3 comedy in last 2 months), we decided to drop the plan to watch DHOL. As there is one more Priyadarshan movie coming, "Bhul Bhalayya" in the next month of so and from the promo Dhol looked somewhat similar to last year's "Golmaal".

Got a disappointing news that, Amit Paul, one of the best singer from Indian Idol, got defeated by Prashant. This is second time in a row, Last year, Amey Date and Karunya were two most prolific singers and they both didnt became the Indian Idol. It is not the loss of Amit, who I am sure will get lot of success but it is defeat of Indian Idol show itself. If they continue to do that in the 4 th season as well, I might not watch that show again. Even from Saregama pa, the barbie doll, Sumedha was voted out. This reality shows are becoming more and more politically corrupt. Gotto keep an Eye on Prison Break and Heroes from tomorrow onwards.

I missed few friends phone call again this weekend, Sorry Guys...If I am watching an interesting game over the TV, I aint going to walk up to 3 yards to pick up the phone, Such a Lazy Bone. I realized at the end of the summer that, I gotto think of loosing a bit of weight. Earlier, I promised myself that, I will keep eating the food, the likeable food, as long as my body does not complain. My Body has not complained yet, (Touch Wood), but I guess Mirrors have started complaining. Atleast gotto start become little active. I thought, I will start from 2008, but earlier the better.

Before the summer started, I was not such a big fan of 20-20 Cricket. Over the summer, ICL, kind of got the momentum going and after watching each and every game of 20-20, I kind of started liking it. It is a good solution to One Day game which was getting boring during 15-35 overs. Loosing Quality Spinners like, Shane Warne, Saqlain Mushtaq or Kumble, In One Dayers It is like how to save wickets and keep getting singles. There is not a great amount of thrill left in the One Dayers in between 15 to 35 overs.

What 20-20 has done, is Speed up the processing. Also 20-20, It would be very rare and difficult to score 100's or 50's, and people would be eyeing the team score more than the individial score, Something that likes of Tendulkar's does not enjoy who play to score centuries more than looking at the Team score. I still remember those days whenever Tendulkar used to come to 90's, he used to slow down and have definate shot selections. Atleast those wont happen in 20/20's. You would have to go for your shots, no matter you are playing 24 not out or 96 not out.

Business minded BCCI, earlier turned down the offer and idea of 20/20's as 60 less overs in a game means 120 less advertisements and loss of millions of rupees in one day. But Now, Since the game is getting more and more popular, they have opened the doors. This competition also got over in 2 weeks of time with more fun and about 200 Sixes. Critical Game and Thrilling game against Australia this weekend, It also showed that it is not just Batsmen's game because turning point of the game was Hayden's dismissal. So Good In Depth bowling would still hold the key to the victory. I would continue to say, Test Match is a real cricket, but if 20/20 helps to make the game of Cricket popular, I dont mind choosing that route.

Before the Tournament began, I was more into give the captainship back to the Ganguly, but I must say after the game against Australia and looking at the whole tournament, I would like to give credit to Dhoni's captainship. I agree, he is still not ready but he showed tremendous improvement. I had scene, Azhar who was when given the captainship for the entire one year kind of looked the person lost in the desert or island, but with Dhoni, he seems to be confident enough guy. Atleast He was not looking panic and that too in the Worldcup Semi Final, at the crucial junction, no senior player (Ganguly, Tendulkar. Dravid. Zaheer were not playing, Sehwag was in the dressing room and Agarkar was not selected in the team), All he had was Yuvraj Singh's statement or two. but Boy o Boy, what a decision to give Harbhajan the over and then R P Singh and even to bring back sreesanth at the right time. He got all his moves correct.


Cant wait for tomorrow's game. Big Decision would be, is Sehwag fit or not, else Karthik is the automatic choice and Does Dhoni back, Joginder Sharma or go for Agarkar ? Again, Personally, I dont think so Agarkar should be given any chance, We had enough of his giving away consistently 10 run per over. Agree Joginder gave away 20 runs but then Australia were chasing 190 runs, they had to pick up one bowler to hit out, Like we hit ouy Symonds, That does not make Symonds or Jogindar sharma the bad bowlers. It is just the situation and I think Joginder Sharma hold his nerve in the last over.

So, Tomorrow is a game which comes once in a life span, India Vs Pakistan in a World Cup Final, Never happened yet. May not happen again in our life span. India Vs Pakistan in any Finals is a crucial game, Last time it happened, it was 22 years back in Australia when Ravi Shashtri got his AUDI. One in a 20 year life span, If you are not watching this game because of your parents, think twice, next time you get this opporunity, they might not be alive. If you are not watching this game because of your kids, think twice, after 20 years, they must have left you for some reason. If you are not watching this game for Vitamin M, think twice, money is not the everything (ofcourse, there is Mastercard :) )

There is no reason good enough for not watching this game live....No Reason. If you have once in a life span said to someone that You are Indian, You gotto see this game, Live ....Live....Live ....Live...because, Cricket is not a game but a Religion....