justin bieber

The lull after India got kicked out of the World Cup... I am not of those die-hards who wanted India to win it. I'd rather see one of West Indies, South Africa or England pull off this one. Yet I cant deny the void that's looming around after the disaster against SL...

Little did I imagine , when I wrote a post supporting Bermuda a week before the WC took off, that midway through, a billion people will be cheering for this nation! The event also went in line with my previous post of "Multiplicity...". On a serious note with both India and Pak out, hope to see less of ads cutting through the commentary along with less of match- fixing, doping, chucking and tampering in the remaining days of the World Cup! And hopefully , no more murders... Maybe both India and Pakistan getting out was a toast to Cricket! Join in! Cheers! :-)

The fate of an Indian fan is entwined with the fortunes of other teams. Invariably. In tri-nation tournaments,we've seen this often becos we would win only one match and then hope that the most dominant team beats the second most dominant team by a huge margin and then we'll eventually go through to the finals thanks to Net Run-Rate or a washout or some stroke of luck, like a Virender Sehwag century. It's allright in these small tourneys , I'm sure we can cheer for a third team to win or lose but right now we're on an ICC World Cup and we don't know if we'll qualify to be one of the best 8 ODI teams out a game that's played by 10 test playing nations to begin with. For a start, if I'm a genuine Indian fan today, I'll cheer for Bangladesh. I cry hoarse for them to win it, run like tigers, take wickets, celebrate like chimps , take catches like dolphins and basically beat the sh*t out of Sri Lanka while I eat Hilsa ( I hate it but I'll do it) a...

So India got screwed. Nobody was celebrating the World Record win against Bermuda. Aptly so. Having got themselves in such a bad corner, it'll take a million things to fall in place for India to still qualify for the Super 8's. That group is bloody messed up. Somebody has to beat somebody, somebody must beat somebody by a good margin, somebody must win by not so great a margin, somebody must sneeze in time or somebody must pick his nose before the toss. God knows how many million things must fall in place before India qualifies... On a serious note, I don't care about India losing out but I belong to the community , the news of which you must've read on the front pages of any prominent newspaper in India. " Broadcasters to lose 150 Crore if India lose out." " Advertisers pulling out in the face of India's loss" And if there's money on the table to be made if India does well, I'd rather see them in the Super 8's than see them lose out...

SA have been wronged every time in a World Cup. Consider this: 1992: Rain rule. 1996: Got docked an over. Lost by 2 runs. 1999: They didn't lose the semi-final and yet didn't make it to the final. 2003: NZ didn't travel to Kenya last World Cup and Kenya got free points.Consequently, SA lost out on the 3rd spot. I'm not a huge SA fan but if they do win it, I think in many ways it might do justice in the overall scheme of things. So when I saw Boucher and Gibbs and Kallis pounding the sh*t out of Netherlands, I loved it. It wasn't funny. It was hilarious! However, my moment of the match was when during one of the slog overs Van Troost pitched a ball way too short and Kallis was about to go for a hook over his head. By now, the wicketkeeper who had so haplessly seen every ball hit the middle of every South African's bat had already given up hope of any batsman letting any ball go through to the keeper. At the last moment though, Kallis let go of the delivery only ...

Bermuda, I thought they'd be an underdog. They seem to be more like an underpest or undercaterpillar. They're nowhere close to being a dog...

One swallow does'nt make a summer and one match does'nt quite indicate how the World Cup will eventually span out but here's my take thus far: I think in some ways this World Cup is going to be like the '83 World Cup. More bits and pieces players will come into play and hence my hypothesis of the Windies doing well keeps getting stronger.(...Or I dont know if I'm making this up because I really want them to win.) I found out the other day that Danish Kaneria's fielding is probably as bad as Monty Panesar's. A throw to Kamran Akmal during the match was stupefying to say the least. It wasn't even as if the bastmen were scampering for a quick single and Akmal was dying to take off the bails but Kaneria was surely dying to throw. I mean, just throw, you know; like a javelin or maybe a shot- put. I also like the way Panesar cups his hands when he's about to catch a ball. I think its meant to be more like a prayer posture or something. Can't wait to w...

I did think of bunking work yesterday. Like, I’ve always thought, in school, during graduation and during my MBA. I’ve never felt like doing anything that takes my attention away from cricket on a match day. And more so, infinitely more so, during a World Cup. I know there are millions like me in this nation but this was a first for me. I’m working these days and the difference is, unlike in school and college, these days I get paid at the end of the month. Yet somehow I’d convinced myself yesterday to bunk work. “Hey, this is the first match of the World Cup; I need to be in a certain state of mind to be geared up for it.” But when I woke up this morning, the pangs of guilt of bunking work overtook my desire to stay back and I ended up at work. What the hell? Bunking school and college was never this hard a decision. Back then, it used to be a walk in the park. “Dad, Aaj Match hain and there are no important periods in school today. Is it okay if? ” What would follow this seemingly u...