My Ipl team

My IPL XI.

Openers :

Adam Gilchrist and Mathew Hayden. One of them the super captain and second the damn sexy opener happily into retirement. I wonder would Australia not need him in the Ashes. I feel he should consider going to Aussie colors for the Ashes. Thump the Poms and return back to
happy world of retirement.

Middle Order:

MS, AB DeVilliers, Roy, Yuvraj Singh, Raina

MS as a batsman. He is still good as a batsman and despite not having tasted success in IPL this year, he remains a dangerous batsman in middle order in T20. AB and Roy are automatic picks. Roy for his bowling skills. Remember he turned around the final with 2 back to back wickets in 11th odd over (or 12th or 9th).

Bowling Order :

RP Singh, Anil Kumble, Irfan Pathan, Pragyan Ojha

Lethal combo. Openers

Final XI contains : 6 batsmen, 3 bowlers, 2 allrounders. 2 part timers.

Final XI

1) Hayden

2) Gilly

3) AB

4) Yuvraj Singh

5) Roy

6) Raina

7) MS

8) Pathan

9) Ojha

10) Kumble

11) RP Singh

Coach : Darren Lehmann

Technical consultant: Shrikhand

Soul of cricket battered with the closing ceremony of IPL

The closing ceremony of IPL proves that the cricket is dead for Modi , for him all is money power, cricket is just nothing for him. After every final, we see the man of the match, man of the series and of course the players sharing the trophy on the dias. But for Modi, this is all irrelevant. He has got some pop singers from US (Akon), a 4 wife President and old age singer of apartheid days. Question is do we need it ? Do we need to see Ms Bollywood here ? Is Bollywood the center stage here or is it the cricket?

I hope this all doesnt happen in World T20. And I also fear that some of the Indian cricketers now (read RP, Pathan junior, Yuvraj) would prefer playing T20 than Tests or ODIs.

Ms Bollywood, IPL ka jalwa, Akon smack are all fuck.

Gimme back the cricket I know. I dont want all this. No no no. No Bollywood or Lolly or Polly or watever wood. I just need the wooden bat and leather ball. Good bye IPL. Thank God, its over to international cricket now. The World T20 should be preponed a week to get rid of this shit. The Modi shit. The Bollywood shit. The money minting shit.

I was happy with big players putting their best part into the game. Symo, Gilly, Gibbs, RP, Kallis and of course Anil. But with the game being ended, the soul of cricket flew away. And nude show of commercialization of game took over. I feel cheated.

With this Kaif dance, the Wanderers has been littered with the shit of Bollywood which goes and pees everywhere. The hugs, kisses, the parties, the wines, the lap shows and of course the behind the scenes. I feel cricket’s soul has been raped brutally and hurt beyond repair by Modi. If he has his ways then there would be 2 IPLs every year. No. Not at the expense of international cricket or to prove that BCCI is powerful and ICL is weak.

I would still prefer the old fashioned whites cricket and the colored cricket in ODIs. Cannot wait for the Windies tour and then the Sri Lankan home Test series. Cricket needs resuccrection(spell mistake) right now. From Moditva. From IPL. From Money.

Kumble fetches his man

No world cup final, no Gilchrist fire. Anil Kumble nails his man. Whadda start. Whaada player, Anil Kumble.

Mr Final

2003 World Cup Final

Opponents : India

Gilchrist fires Australia to a great start. A quickfire 66.  Australia scores 2/359. Indian dream crashed.

2007 World Cup Final

Opponents : Sri Lanka

Gilchrist with squash ball in his gloves fires the highest score(140 odd) in a world cup final. Australia win the world cup. Lankan dream crashed.

1999 World Cup final 

Opponents : Pakistan

Gilchrist gets off to a quick start in pursuit of 133 to win the world cup. Pakistani dream crashed. Australia win the world cup.

2009 IPL – 2 Final

Opponents : royal challengers bangalore

Though the importance and scope of this tournament final isnt as grand and wide as  the 3 world cup finals, the man remains same.  Whats he going to do today? Mr Final.

RCB favorites for the finals.

Royal Challengers have been the unlikliest of the entrants in the finals. And theirs has been the cindrella story. Languishing at the bottom of the table in the mid way stage, they have scripted a turnaround in their fortunes. Won 7 out of 9 games. Moved apart the hyped teams, hyped cities and hyped players. The team did basics right, the openers got runs, the middle order fired at times. Bowling clicked and moreover the captain had a great attitude. He didnt have to prove it to anybody his capacity or his mentle.

Manish Pandey, Ross Taylor, Jacques Kallis, Mark Boucher, Rahul Dravid and Anil Kumble have been the stars for RCB. Ross Taylor’s innings against KKR(most prolly) turned around the things.

They stand favorites today for the title. and if they win, its just going to be another feather in the cap of Anil Kumble, the fighter and hard spirited cricketer we know. The one whose attitude was the best in the team alongside his batting great peers.

Go RCB…..Purely for delight RD, AK bring watching them.

Quitting on cards

I am contemplating quitting Arm Ball. I was distraught and shaken up after a disgraceful personal attack on me for opposing Mumbai cynicism of a Blogger based in US who like Thackerays vies blindly for Mumbai team. Enough said about him. If all that was based on arguments and analysis, which wasnt of course the case and I was being said not to have it, it was fine. But then it was a barrage of personal attacks from Shrikhand and one of his readers “Raj” on a post in Q’s blog.

I am not here to win fans or comments or blindly support a city. For me cricket is bigger than all of this things. And I dont claim to have great writing skills.

So I might go off the blog for good. Last time Sydney defeat made me quit the Tubby’s Zooter for long and when i tried to back up the posts few days back, the blog was removed.

Thank you Shrikhand for guiding me to how to blog and nice pointers to shortcomings in me.

Manish Pandey

Manish Pandey, you beauty.

Mumbai Indians’ loss is RCB gain, the dude played for MUMBAI last season. Today he scores first hundred of IPL-2 (correct me if i m wrong).

Brilliant innings.

The likes of Rahane, Nayar, Takle and Raje Gaje should learn from this lad. Same age group, talent, but the difference in application.

This inning could almost see RCB to the semi final.

Bye Bye Preity. Bye Bye Sreesanth. Cmon Bombay blogger, blog about Pandey….

IPL ‘s USP

The concept of city based franchisees never appealed to me. It was not only a way to propel the regional feelings but also a way to look the other teams in demeaning light. Cricket teams should always be analyzed on the strength of its composition and collective capabilities than the city based jingoism and nude fights. Some of the IPL games in season 1 and 2 offered me a chance to watch the duals between legends something which wont be possible to see anymore in international cricket.

something which you wont see in the international cricket. We for lifetime have watched Sachin running to Kumble to take his sweater to give it to the umpire or Sehwag thrashing the spinners. But besides nets we haven’t had much chance to see how this batters scale up with the bowlers of their own team. Not just for India but for other teams too. For example how do SL’s best of batsmen in Sanga, Jaya and M Jaya scale up against Murali and Malinga. Ditto for Aussies.

That’s the biggest USP of the IPL. Forget Bollywood, cheerleaders, Lalit Modi, FIP and cities. If I support Delhi because I love Viru and Sehwag blasting off bowlers and if its most balanced team amongst 8, then it should not be a problem given the fact I don’t hail from Delhi and there is no team from my state of origin. But then cricket for me never has been confined to the regions in India. I have liked Sachin Tendulkar and Sunil Gavaskar with same intensity as I have liked Anil Kumble, Dravid from south or Ganguly from East or Sehwag, Gambhir from north and Azharuddin from Hyderabad. For me liking cricket is always based on the skills and the joy he brings to me watching. His batting, his bowling. If that means I support many teams, then who bothers.

I used to see games of MI with equal intensity as the Bombay blogger just cos I got to see Sachin Tendulkar bat. KKR cos I got to see Ganguly bat and pitching in for RCB cos I get to see captain Kumble in action, which wont happen once IPL is over. Bad habits of 19 years of watching Kumble every Test India plays and I see and 13 years of watching Ganguly open the batting every ODI India played or # 5 in Tests just don’t go away in a season.

And if I have to watch this players in action, I rise above the limited city vision, limited regional vision and enjoy the delight I get while watching this greats. Dub me anti – Mumbai or anti-South or pro – North or lack of whatever attribute that it takes to have a “good blogger and popular blogger network part”, I care two hoots on it. Personal attacks, I care two hoots on it. I am here for my love of the game and my version of take on the matters cricketing. That’s what matters. Labels don’t.

FIP discloses himself.

FIP is not a cricket player, neither he is SRK, neither he is a local Indian player. He is a fucking journalist who must have had some insider info and then posted on a blog with intentions to get some cheap publicity.

From his accent he is not an Bong, he is a Bollywood journo with some fucking intentions to spoil the game of cricket. He seems to speak good Hindi and he knows Bollywood stuff. So imho he must be some fly on the wall who attends and follows the SRK.

He ends his RIP speech with KANK. He must be a die hard SRK hater or a lover.

WHatever he was, he has left Cricket bruised and hurt with the unproved allegations of match fixing. He began with pretending himself to be unaware of blog technology (he said he wasnt sure of how to post visitor count) , then as a sidekick player who hasnt got a talent or 2 to play a game or get a game. Yeah right, how can a sick Bollywood journo get a game. He nicknamed all players, he ripped them apart and then his language went on changing. From naive to a smart jackass.

I just wish he is flushed out whenever he is unearthed. I doubt if his identity ever would come across. And if it comes, he wont be alive for long. He might have earned lot of enemies. For sure SRK would be after this thug.

Fuck FIP. Disgrace. I just hope today ownwards FIP wont be mentioned in the traditional cricket. He might be discussed in the “social circuit” by the party hoppers, but thats not what bothers me. I just wish this kind of negative blogging doesnt become a fad for every Test series or a major tournament.

Royals out of the tournament.

Local Indian lads kicked Mumbai Indians out of the IPL 2. And the local Indian lads do it for Rajasthan Royals it too. 4 runs in last over. A single off first, 2 of the next for a misfield and one more off he 3rd ball sends Royals out of the IPL.

An underrated ex Indian player and a something who could be kapil dev but who couldnt be even a Jimmy player do it for Kolkata. KKR would go with some pride, but they would need to look up for their team selection for next season 3. They got to answer why Langveldt wasnt played who made all the difference today. Most probably no Aussie coach, support staff and perhaps no Ganguly too.

Selection errors for RR, dropping of Smith (not sure if he was injured / dropped), poor batting performance and then poor fielding by Indian lads throw Warne magic out of the IPL. Warne joins McCullum and Tendulkar in the list of ousted captains.

Now all depends on the next big game : CSK vs Punjab. CSK favorites but for their poor bowling and even poorer fielding. I hope they dont play Balaji any more.