Quiet, please

Reason number 1,456,687,432 why I am a bigger fan of Roger Federer than Rafael Nadal:  Their pace of play.

In the time it takes Nadal to serve between points, the viewer can surf other channels, catch up on the endings of all the NFL games and still not miss a single shot of the match.

With Federer, blink a couple of times and you may have already missed the latest exhibition of shot-making from the maestro.

Check out this split-screen video.  Roger Federer wins a game in the time it takes Nadal to get ready to serve the next point.  Roger's video begins with him serving at love-all.  Nadal's video begins with him hitting the winning shot of a point.

Surf's up: Random musings - 7

a)  So, last night the result of an NFL game was determined by the shoddiness of replacement referees.  Ho-hum.  The debacle could have been avoided had any of the Green Bay Packer defenders followed the first rule of defending Hail Mary passes - KNOCK THE BALL DOWN!

Take a look at the replay - no less than three Green Bay defenders had the chance to ice the game by simply batting the ball away.



Yet, all of them went for glory and tried to intercept the ball.    See for yourself.

Serves you right.  You don't have my sympathies.

b)  VVS Laxman retired a few weeks ago and it hasn't sunk in yet.  I am still not in the mood to write my eulogy but am getting ready for it.  Until then, here are two must-read articles about the good guy of Indian cricket.

First, Peter Roebuck is no longer here to write about VVS, but when he did (in the aftermath of 281) it was fantastic.  Poetry in prose.

As Laxman took guard he found himself surrounded by the din of the crowd and the biting resolution of his gum-chewing, green-capped opponents near at hand. Habitually, he cuts an impressive and impassive figure upon which hostility falls like raindrops upon a bear. He stood his ground.

Laxman was about to play the innings of a lifetime, one of the greatest knocks the game has known. His effort has not shrunk in retrospect for it was not a mere protest against fate but rather a purposeful pursuit of an impossible dream.

Second, check out Siddhartha Vadyanathan's piece, not so much for what he wrote but for some of the videos link to in the comments section.

c)  If you are a famous sportsperson, maybe even the best ever in your sport, winning a match is not the end of your day's work.  Here's Roger Federer's grueling post-match interview schedule.  I used to wish I could play like him.  Now I don't, for I do not want to have to do all the additional things that come with that gift.

d)  Roger Federer is the Most Interesting Man in the World.  Stay thirsty, my friends.

e)  Very rarely do I burst out laughing when I read a straight-forward sports article about how someone can help Tiger Woods get his game back on track.  But this one did.  Johnny Miller is soooo modest, it makes me blush to hear about all the great things he has to say about....himself.

Bonus: Here's Johnny's unvarnished thoughts from a different article:

The drive I hit on the last hole at Oakmont in 1973 at the U.S. Open was special. I'd hit every green that day, and my average birdie putt was about 10 to 12 feet. To this day, I've never seen a major championship round of that precision, with tee shots and iron shots, by anyone. That sounds like bragging, but I've seen a lot of rounds. 

f) If you have a few minutes, take a look at some of the photographs submitted to National Geographic for the National Geographic Traveler Photo Contest 2012.  Which is your favorite one?

g)  And finally, one last look as VVS walks off into the sunset.  A big part of cricket's allure died that day.

(Copyright 2011, AFP)

Light at the speed of light

Are we on the verge of the next hyper-leap in scientific possibility?  It sure seems that way.  The possibilities are endless...if we don't end our world in December, that is.

Watch the whole video.  it is worth your time.

Dear VVS

Dear VVS,

I will write a longer letter later when I have more time.  I have a lot to say but this is not the time to say it.

I just heard that you were contemplating retirement because you were "visibly hurt by the comments that by continuing to play for India (you were) blocking the chances of youngsters".  The next two Tests against New Zealand may be the last I'll see from start to to end.

I don't blame you for this decision and, while it hurts to see you go like this, I am in favor of it.  I'd rather you leave on your terms than be ushered an unseemly exit by a bunch of folks who seem to make decisions, in the words of some, based on popularity rather than practicality.

But I DO have a request of you - please retire ONLY from international cricket.  Please continue to play at all first-class levels.  I'd like to see you turn out for the Ranji Trophy and, maybe, a stint for an English county (Lancashire would LOVE to have you back).  You have a lot of batting left based on the recent centuries you've scored in domestic matches in the last month and by playing at the Ranji level you can continue to give upcoming players a chance to see what a world-class player is all about.  Further, the bowling stocks are so lousy, this is probably your best shot at winning that elusive Ranji Trophy for Hyderabad.

You are contemplating retirement not because your love for the game has diminished but because you are seeing some ugly writing on the wall.  Please don't confuse one with the other.  Play on until you don't want to any more.  Otherwise you'll end up regretting hanging up your boots too soon like some of your peers.

Listen to your heart, not your head, on this one.  Please.  For cricket's sake.

Sincerely
Jaunty Q

Maggi Noodle Review: The Dark Knight Rises

With great fanfare and much furor the final installment in Christopher Nolan's reinvention of the Batman saga - The Dark Knight Rises (TDKR) - was released last week.  Here are my thoughts on it.

(If you haven't watched the movie, fret-not, this is a spoiler-less review.)

(Christian Bale returns for the last time as Batman)

Batman Begins was about how Bruce Wayne sacrificed himself in order to become the Batman, a symbol of hope for the citizens of Gotham City and a harbinger of nightmares for evil-doers.  The Dark Knight (TDK) brought the dual personalities of the hero to light through the warped eyes of the Joker.  This movie was more about Wayne's struggle for an identity than anything else conjured up by the Joker.  Who was the real "person" - the crime-fighting vigilante or the playboy billionaire?  By the end of the movie, Bruce Wayne is beginning to wonder that himself.  In TDKR, Nolan's hero comes a full circle and the movie is clearly about the sacrifices made by the Batman in order to let Bruce Wayne exist.

In the eight years since the end of TDK, Gotham City has not needed the Batman.  Bruce Wayne has hung up the cowl and is holed up in his mansion, a recluse who rarely shows up in public any more.  This, more than anything else, tells us clearly that he believes that the Batman persona represents who he really has become while Bruce Wayne is the mask he wears so he can sleep better at night.  It takes a villain of monstrous proportions (physical and diabolical) to bring the Batman back onto the scene and the story takes off with some spectacular action sequences from there.

The movie is 264 minutes long and, yet, I never felt its length.  For a change, characters in an action movie take the time to talk to each other in more than a couple of sentences and the action scenes themselves are longer.  Rather than having scenes intercut every half-second or so the director lets us sit back and watch the action from a distance.  For the first time in 3 movies, we can actually see more than just one person on the screen during an action sequence and spatial orientation is not sacrificed.  

While the story follows a familiar arc, the movie finds time for sly humor in the form of Anne Hathaway's Catwoman (never clearly named that, though) and a love story between Wayne and Miranda Tate (Marion Cotillard).  Surprisingly, there are a couple of twists that I did not see coming, and an ending that I did.  

All in all, it made for a very satisfying conclusion to the trilogy and good way for Christian Bale to give up the role.  While I was more impressed with TDK, this movie is great viewing in its own right and must not be missed.  Christopher Nolan promised to give us a grander, more elaborate Batman and he has delivered on his promise.

Watch it in IMAX, if you can, or in a regular theater.  Either way, the final scene will tell you all you need to know about the rise of the Dark Knight.

287*

On the day Roger Federer reaches the very top, Nike says it best:

Here's a tribute to the 287 weeks he has spent at the very top of men's tennis: On a similar note, here's a tribute to Roger and the 17 Grand Slam tournaments that he has won:

The morning after

The after-life of a Wimbledon champ.  Here's a quick peek on what happens the next day as various media outlets try to find a nugget of information that will make for a different story than the rest of the competition.

My admiration for Roger Federer goes up even more.  What a gentleman!

Crash landing

Just watch this video and pay close attention to what happens.  You will not be disappointed.

(Note:  keep the volume low, especially if you are at work).

Backhanded complement

When Roger Federer was ruling the roost, his backhand was a fairly simple stroke, harking back to gentler times of serve-and-volley tennis.  While he was quite capable of the top-spin version, he much preferred to set up points by slicing it back with varying levels of spin and then running around it to unleash his forehand, once described by John McEnroe as the "greatest shot in tennis".

Lotur Rotak*

There are many ways to play tennis and the trivalry at the top of men's tennis today - Federer, Djokovic and Nadal - exemplify it better than ever before in the history of the game.  Federer is the artist, Nadal the ferocious fighter who is a ball-retrieving machine par excellence, while Djokovic has the ability to switch from offense to defense more decisively than anyone I've seen before.

From 2003-2008, Federer was the king of all he surveyed, picking up tournaments like nobody's business, at one point winning 24 consecutive tournament finals.

Reacher said nothing

My views on Tom Cruise reprising the role of Jack Reacher have been previously documented.  A couple of days ago, the first teaser trailer for the movie based on the book "One Shot" was released.  This isn't the Reacher I know and remember but since it is Reacher I am gearing myself up to embrace it.

Why couldn't Tom Cruise have been a foot or maybe even an few inches taller?  *sigh*

The best form of flattery

If imitation is the best form of flattery, where does that put someone who imitates and plagiarizes himself?!

Aaron Sorkin is one of the more sought-after screenplay writers for political TV shows and movies.  Here's a mash-up of the many times he "repeats" himself.  While you may have never seen any of the shows, the self-plagiarism is oddly hypnotic.

Beauty and the beasts

If you wonder whether the Earth is still worth fighting for when the (inevitable) destruction is at hand, here's a reminder of all the wonderful things we may lose when we do so:

A sound of thunder

What can one write about a person who wrote stories for a living and did so well that when he dies, it feels like something monumental has just happened?  What can you say about someone that many others better equipped to do so have surely already done so?

Well, you can start by mentioning his name.  Ray Bradbury is no longer with us, but his presence will be felt for a long time to come.

You can talk about strange, quirky facts that are not well known about the person.  For example,  you find out from his Wikipedia page that he never ever had a driver's license.  Who does that any more?

But, in the end, it would only be fair to talk about what the man's work has meant to you.

Bradbury is most famous for his seminal work - Fahrenheit 451 - but the ones I like even more are A Sound of Thunder and Dandelion Wine.  If asked to pick one among them, I'd settle for the former, a story that spawned the phrase "butterfly effect".  It is as close to the perfect sci-fi/horror/ominous portent story as there is.  I read it when I was barely in my teens and remember it as if I read it a few months ago.

In a career spanning over 7 decades, he produced 27 novels and over 600 short stories, many of them unread by me.  And I am grateful for that as it gives me plenty of things to read of his before I get to properly rue his demise.  Actually, let me rephrase that.  I will not rue his demise since I did not know him personally, but when the time comes I will rue the fact that I will have no more stories to read.

Not many people leave a mark for posterity in their lifetimes.  Bradbury did that and much more.  If you do one thing for me this year, do this: read a Bradbury story.  You will see exactly what I mean.

Pop Quiz #4: Who am I?

(Note: Every so often I shall have a pop quiz on my blog with questions about people, places, things, events, and any other thing that comes to mind. Please take the quiz without peeking at the answers, which will be included at the end, and let me know how you did. Previous quizzes can be seen by clicking here.)

Today's quiz is about sports personalities.

1)  In a Test match in 2007, I was involved in a 408 run partnership for the first wicket. I was the first wicket to fall at a personal score of just 129 runs.  At that time my partner was batting on 49.  Yes, you read that right, he had scored 49 runs and I had scored 129.  Who am I?  Actually, more importantly, how was this 408 run partnership possible, especially considering that the opposition had give up just 10 extras?

2)  I am the only batsman to have been involved in two partnerships of over 400 runs for the first wicket.  Both times, the partnership ended within one scoring stroke of setting the world record. Yet, I have scored more runs (than anyone else in Test history, in fact) at a different position - #3. 

3)  On my Test debut I opened the bowling for India along with my fellow debutant Tinu Yohanan.  My solitary wicket was of Graham Thorpe.  In the second inning I even made the winning runs.  In fact, I scored 100% of the runs made by India in that second inning.  I am one of the few genuinely fast bowlers who have opened the batting and bowling in their debut Test.  Unfortunately, I never played another Test match for India.


4)  I am the only player in the history of tennis to have won at least 10 tournament on every surface that the sport is played on - clay, grass, hard court, and indoor.


5) The Sportsmanship award in tennis is voted on by the players.  I won it so many times that, after I retired, the award was renamed in my honor!  I am the only man to have won all four Grand Slams tournaments in the same year, as a junior.  I would have completed a career Slam on the senior circuit if a 17 year-old had not caught fire and won his only major after I was leading him 2 sets to one and was even up a break in the 5th set.


Answers after the jump:

The speck in God's eye

This one's for you, GS.

I am sure you have heard of The Shard.  The next time you are in London you should try to do what this blogger did.  (Either way, I'm sure you'll enjoy the piece, once you get past the initial paragraphs that are not really helping his narrative.)

A much better piece on that architectural project comes from Roger Ebert's blog.  Ebert may have lost the ability to speak but he has definitely not lost his voice.

(For more photos of the structure itself, click here).

A tale of two chases

I give you two scenarios:

A)  The #1 ranked team in the world is playing the #7th ranked team.  The #1 team has 47 overs to chase 180 runs to win on the 5th day of the Test match.

B)  The #4 ranked team in the world is playing the same #7 ranked team.  The #4 team has about 50 overs to chase 192 to win on the 5th day of the Test match.

One of the teams won the match and the other drew the match.  Which was which?

Team A was India in the West Indies last year.  Team B was Australia in the West Indies yesterday. India settled for the draw despite losing just 3 wickets (with Laxman, Dravid, Dhoni, and Kohli still not out)., Australia chased the win, not letting up even though they lost 7 wickets along the way.

A year later, the botched Indian chase (and its farcical end) still stings.  Yes, it helped preserve India's #1 ranking but it also betrayed a safety-first mindset that came back and bit the Indian team really badly on the next two away tours to England and Australia.  MS Dhoni's timid captaincy shocked me and, in my mind, he has never shaken that tag since then. The seeds for the winter of discontent had been sown a few weeks earlier, but the weeds began to flourish on that sad day in the Windies.

It would not surprise me one bit if Australia continued to climb the rankings and overtake India in the near future.  They deserve to because they play to win.

If you do not fear failure, success will soon follow in your wake.

Hat tip

One Saturday evening, RT and I exchanged text messages in anticipation of the final round of the Master's tournament.  One thing we agreed upon was that the winner would not come from the final pairing of Peter Hanson or Phil Mickelson.

My pick was Louis Oosthuizen.  RT picked his namesake - Bubba Watson.

20 holes later, Bubba came through with a shot for the ages.

This post is to acknowledge how prescient RT was.  Too bad he wasn't as prescient when he picked Duke to go all the way a few weeks ago.

Anyway, I owe him a G&T the next time we meet in August.

Georgie Porgie

Here's Darren Sammy's take on how the recent Test series against India played out:

"In India, where teams don't go there and win, we went out and played and dominated India in two out of three Test matches. "

Darren Sammy

Are you reading this MS Dhoni?  Are your teammates in the Test team listening?  India won the 3-Test series 2-0 and the third one was an insane "draw" where the scores were level at the end!!  But Darren Sammy thinks that the Windies "dominated India in two out of three Test matches."

Do you know the sad thing, Masada?  Coming as the series did, sandwiched in between two 0-4 drubbings, I had to think for a few minutes before remembering how the series against the Windies played out.

More importantly, does it even matter to you that a vanquished opponent is now revising past history and no one even cares to remember that it was probably otherwise?  Do you care?

Oh wait, I forgot, you have more important matters to attend to...

Why do I even bother?

Why I hate Rahul Dravid...and other random musings

....I hate Rahul Dravid.    I hate him for making me believe that as long as he was batting we had a chance to save/win a Test match.  I hate him for being such a team-man that he sacrificed so many of his preferences just so the team could do well.  I hate him for timing his retirement so perfectly that even the BCCI could not botch it.  I hate him the fact that, for years, he prevented VVS Laxman from occupying the #3 spot that he was best suited for.  But the thing I hate most is that he is no longer going to be there in the Indian line-up at #3.  *sigh*  I hate that he has gone away and I will never see him in whites again.  Good luck, Rahul, may you find that retirement is just the starting point of the more meaningful phase of your life.

...VVS Laxman should be seriously contemplating playing county cricket in England.  Any sort of cricket to keep him "match-fit" for the Test matches later in the year will be a must.  Unless, of course, he already knows that he is going to retire soon and not play those Test matches.

...If folks can change their stance and switch hit, then I say we abolish the amnesty that batsmen get from being adjudged LBW to balls outside the leg-stump.

...I do not want Sachin Tendulkar to retire.  (There, I said it, BRB....bring it on!)

...I don't follow the IPL but I also do not follow the logic of folks who claim that the IPL is a domestic tournament.  As long as the strength of an IPL team is determined by the strength of the foreign players in the roster, it can never be a domestic tournament.   Having said that...let me know when the tournament ends so I can go back to reading CricInfo regularly again.

Cold dishes

365 day ago (or was it 366?) was the last time I cried.  One year removed from that day, it is hard to imagine that I may be crying for an altogether different reason.  What a price to pay!

The world has turned upside down and, yet, there is reason for hope.  New Zealand will be here for a tour, followed by England, before Australia comes back to face the music as promised by the miserable tourists when they were being pummeled by Australia.

But before that is the beast that needs to be fed, the IPL.  May the best team win.  I would rather watch Sri Lanka and England battle it out.

When when became if and then became when

In my head, I have written and re-written this piece multiple times.  I cannot do any more editing.  What follows is exactly what I feel about Sachin Tendulkar's 100th 100.  If the thoughts are jumbled and disorganized it is because that's how they are in my head.

CricInfo's headline at the end of the Indian inning today was: Tendulkar's 100th century takes India to 289.  (Or something similar).  In my mind it actually was - Tendulkar's 100th century restricts India to 289.

Why, oh why, could he have not done this in the tour of West Indies, which he skipped?  Why, oh why?!!  For the want of a nail, a kingdom was lost.

For all his posturing about not caring about the milestone, it was blatantly obvious that he did.  If you believe him, then I own a statue of a lady in New York that I want to sell to you.

I woke up at 3am with a "premonition".  If India was batting, this was the day.  I am an unabashed admirer of VVS Laxman, but I am a fan of SRT when he bats like was born to bat.  For brief periods today, that SRT came to the fore.  When he did, I smiled.

I have a feeling we are going to see a couple more years of SRT.  No reason why he cannot continue playing.  He is still among the best batsmen in the world.  With no clauses.

Light and dark

How do artisits think the way they do? How do they come up with such beautiful expressions of their talent?

I can barely draw an X and they can create something so visually stunning it beggars belief. Here's an example of how to use shadows to create something magical. Awe-inspiring.

On a totally unrelated (and related) note - here's a very rare image, one that I am 100% confident will never be taken again - an artist working on the least-known skill of his.

The rest is silence

Thank heavens for small mercies.  By defeating Australia and qualifying for the finals, Sri Lanka did the Indian selectors a great favor.  Imagine how embarrassed they would have felt had India made it to the final and Virender Sehwag, who is nursing an injury so severe he cannot play a game two weeks away, would have had to struggle through that very-same injury to play the final.

He who watches out for Indian cricket (Mr. Srinivasan God) must be happy.  It gives his Chennai Super Kings Indian players a chance to rest before the very important IPL Asia Cup.

Call off the hounds!

I did something a few minutes ago that I have never done before - I stopped watching an Indian Test match.  In the past, no matter how dire the situation, I never gave up on the team.  Today, I am as close as I have ever been to do that.

I just saw Ishant Sharma, bowling just his 8th over of the day, about half an hour after lunch on the first day, trundle in and throw down an innocuous loosener, short and wide outside the off-stump to a salivating Ricky Ponting.  When I contrasted that with the number of times the Aussies have blasted through from the first ball of their spell, I felt like weeping.

YOU DON'T DESERVE MY SUPPORT!!

Half an hour past lunch on the 1st day and they cannot summon their best stuff?!!  The fielding is lethargic, the field positions are defensive (I promise you, placing just one lone slip at 2nd slip is asking for trouble.  There will be an edge that travels between the keeper and the lone slip.  Just you watch), and the body language is of total surrender.  Senior citizens show more interest that these fellows.  Did you see the way they walked onto the ground?  Gah!

It's too bad I don't have a say in the selection of the Indian Test team.  This would have been my 11 for the Test (in batting order):
Ajinkya Rahane
Virender Sehwag
Virat Kohli
Sachin Tendulkar
Rahul Dravid
Rohit Sharma
Wriddhiman Saha
Abhimanyu Mithun
Umesh Yadav
Pragyan Ojha
Zaheer Khan

Oh, and I'd make one more change out of left field.  With the caveat that a failure will not affect his chances, I'd make Virat Kohli the captain and put Sehwag, Dravid and SRT on notice.  Twin failures from any of them and it would be the last Test match they play for India.  Anything less than 75 runs in an inning is a failure.  (By the way, unless MS Dhoni shows me in a first-class match that he is willing to tough it out and bat for a long time in the longer form of the game, he does not deserve a spot in the team, either.  Anyway, for me, his Test captaincy days are done).

I'm done with this Test team.  Wake me up when the new-look Indian team is revealed 8 months from now.  Until then I shall watch the Pakistani team and root for them to exact revenge on England.

Run, Forrest, run!

There are some things you can hide on the silver screen and some that you cannot.  One thing you cannot hide is how you run.  At least for a long distance, in a long shot.

For years, in my mind, the champion runner was Amitabh Bachchan. No one ran better or more impressively than him.  Check it out:



(The dude also got shot in the back quite a few times, didn't he?  I guess he couldn't outrun a bullet).

In Hollywood, the undisputed leader is Tom Cruise.  I have yet to see a movie of his where there isn't at least one scene of him running.  It's almost as bad as Paresh Rawal and eating scenes or Sridevi and monochrome saris in a song.  Here's a compilation of Tom Cruise running and running.



For what it's worth, I still think Amitabh is the better-looking runner.

Surf's up: Random musings - 6

Trolling through the web I often come across things that I file away for future (posting) reference. Here are some of the ones that still seem interesting enough to pass on to you.

a) An oldie, but a goldie. Do you want to know why Test cricket is dying (i.e. why spectators are not turning up to watch it any more?)? Well, look no further - it's the spectators who are to blame.

b)  Who says cricket is a batsman's game?  Here's some food for thought - Over 2,000 players have played Test cricket.  As of December 2011, a debutant has taken 5 wickets in an inning on 143 occasions.  In contrast, in spite of many more opportunities, only 93 debutants have scored a 100.

c) I can't really say much more than repeat the title of the link: High Speed Liquid and Bubble Photographs by Heinz Maier.  Wow!

d) Tring, tring.  Click clack.  Ka-ching.  Some of the sounds your kids will never hear in their lifetime.

e)  Which batsman and bowler has the highest rating - ever - in the history of Test cricket?  Check out #3 on the bowler's list.  He was the first bowler who scared me even though I was just watching him bowl on TV. The #1 on the Batting list is not a surprise, but see where Sachin Tendulkar's highest-ever rating places him on the all-time list.

f)  I know a picture is worth a 1000 words, but this picture being worth $4.3 million is simply ludicrous.  Why, oh why, is it worth that much?

g) I don't think I will ever have the guts to take this ride.  But, it does not stop me from living it vicariously.



h) And if you liked the previous one, you may like this one, too:



i) And, finally, I was debating whether to end with this picture, or this picture, or this picture or this picture.  But instead I settled for the one reproduced below.  I hope it is of Laxman tying his shoelaces for future battles, not of him getting ready to hang up his boots (more on that in a different post).

(Associated Press - 2012, via CricInfo)

If, not when...

All these days I was convinced that Sachin Tendulkar's 100th century was a matter of when, not if. After watching the way the guy goes into a shell and becomes defensive for no reason whatsoever, I am not so sure any more.

The man has scored blah,blah,blah number of runs in cricket. If that ball-hitting ability of his had been alloyed with the temperament of a real accumulator he would have been challenging Jack Hobbs himself. I am not pissed that his tentative prod robbed him of a 100. That milestone is an artificial one and it will come when it comes and I will be happy for him if it does. What I am really pissed off with is his tentative prod, with the new ball just a few balls away, that opened the door for the Aussie, who then came thundering through it. You gave an easy wicket to Michael Clarke, SRT. Michael Clarke, for heaven's sake. Did the Aussies gift Sehwag a wicket when he bowled? Nah, they took him for 75 runs, no less.

So what were you doing, you gutless idiot, defending like you did not know how else to bat?  Leave that style of batting to untalented mutts like me.

Maybe the Wizard of Oz can give SRT a heart...he badly needs one.

ZAK, you invertebrate!

Zaheer Khan, your attitude is atrocious.

A few months ago, I got really mad at VVS Laxman and told him that he could no longer survive as a one-skill player.  Right now I am watching Zaheer Khan bat....let me rephrase that..I am watching Zaheer pretend to bat and I am befuddled by it.

As a bowler on this very same pitch you saw three Australian batsmen put on more than 650 runs while you trundled around in the field and did nothing noteworthy after an initial burst of wickets.  Yet, when it is your turn to bat, you are hell-bent on throwing your wicket away and making it easy for the bowlers to stay interested.  Gah!  On top of it, your fitness sucks.  You are a below-average fielder and a total liability in the field.

Since you are Zaheer Khan and your bowling carries an aura you will play for India till you decide to drop.  If I had anything to say about it, I'd pack your bags for you and tell you to come back when you were more prepared to fight it out.

As I type it, you are still flailing around while the Aussies refuse to bowl that full ball on the stumps that will get you out.  I have a feeling they are toying with you like a cat toys with a mouse when it knows the mouse cannot escape.

Your dismissal is a matter of time.  With this attitude of yours, it's too bad that dismissal is not from the Indian side.

How SRT and the IPL ruined the Summer of George

(or) The Eternal Lament of the Spoiled Indian Cricket Fan

This was supposed to be the Summer of George. India had just won the World Cup and ahead of me, over the next 9 months, were no less than 14 Test matches, 6 against the West Indies, 4 against England and then the Big Daddy of them all – a 4 Test series against Australia.

On April 3rd, being a fan of Indian cricket was a good occupation to have. Then, two not entirely unrelated things happened that eventually ruined the happy ending.

First came the lure/pressure of the IPL, call it whatever you will. Virender Sehwag was injured but still played in the IPL, nursing his shoulder injury as best as he could. He played 11 games and, tellingly, only when the Daredevils were eliminated did he opt for shoulder surgery, rendering him inactive for the tour of the West Indies.

Sachin Tendulkar played every game (16 in all) in the IPL but felt compelled to seek rest after that from the West Indies series.

Gautam Gambhir got injured in the World Cup but was not totally aware of it until he re-aggravated it in the IPL. However, he continued to play with the injury until the Knight Riders were eliminated, and then rested, missing the tour.

Yuvraj Singh played 14 games but missed the West Indies tour because of a lung infection. All in all, four stalwarts of the the Indian World Cup campaign were rendered hors de combat for the Windies tour. However, I will not apportion any blame on the IPL for that.

Coming on the heels of a long and arduous World Cup campaign, the timing of the IPL was not the best. However, it is revealing that all the major players named in the previous paragraph did not seek “rest” or “treatment” for their ailments during that tournament, instead choosing to forego the West Indies series altogether instead.

I have absolutely no issues with a person choosing to make some more money at the expense of playing “for the country”. They have an obligation to themselves and their families and I am no one to tell them how they should go about maximizing their revenue or what their priorities should be. However, I do have an issue with the consequence of that choice and how it affected the rest of the campaigns over the next 9 months.

The second factor crept up on us during the World Cup, when Sachin Tendulkar was in sublime touch, continuing his rich vein of form of the past few years. He scored a couple of centuries, had a near-miss against Pakistan, failed in the final, but got the ultimate prize – courtesy a ride on the shoulders of his teammates. Somewhere along the way a new beast was unleashed by the media – the quest for the almost-mythical 100th international 100.

It is at that point that some of SRT’s choices become curious, especially in hindsight. By eschewing the Windies tour, SRT ensured that his next international match would be at Lord’s. Ooooooh, how perfect, his handlers (and he himself, maybe) crooned: a century of centuries at the Mecca of cricket. What a perfect setting for the feat. It made great business sense to score that century at Lord’s than, say, at Roseau.

After a fruitless Test series in England, SRT skipped the return ODI series at home. Why risk scoring the 100 in a meaningless ODI on an Indian highway, when Test matches at Kotla, Eden Gardens, and/or Wankhade were yet to come, each carrying an alluring ring for the media and his sponsors? When that did not work, the ODI series against the Windies was skipped since the Boxing Day Test at Melbourne beckoned. Longingly and achingly.

Now, bear with me while I imagine an alternate scenario. (Not a guaranteed scenario but still a very possible one.) SRT goes to the West Indies and scores a century in one of the Test matches (maybe at Kingston). Suddenly the stories go away, the pressure is lifted, none of the remaining Indian players have to field any more questions about whether SRT is feeling the pressure. Viru and Gambhir decide to skip the IPL, get rested during the Windies tour and are ready to play in England, fully healthy. With SRT playing the Windies series, the Indian batting order does not have to be reshuffled, and  since Viru and Gambhir are ready for the England Tests, VVS Laxman can continue to play at #5, and Rahul Dravid does not have to become an opener in England and the batting order is not unsettled. Since the batting order is more settled .... I can’t bear to carry that dream any further. It hurts too much to contemplate what could have been.

Damn you SRT and the IPL!  This was supposed to be the Summer of George. It really was...

Maggi Noodle Review: Hugo

I had no intention of seeing Hugo.  I am not a big fan of 3D movies.  I feel it is more of a gimmick than an artistic improvement on 2D.  On top of which, I felt the the preview for the movie was about a Dickensian orphan living by his wits in a French station.  Been there, seen that.

Now that I have seen the movie, I am super-duper glad I did.  it is a gem of a movie, an ode to movie-making, and the 3D is non-intrusive, making you (the viewer) a part of the action as opposed to the target of it.

I should have known.  Martin Scorsese, the director, is a man who has long professed a love for the movies and probably sees 3D as the wave of the future and wanted to make a definitive movie for the medium.  Much like James Cameron's Avatar (the only other 3D movie that I recommend must be watched in 3D), Hugo is a movie that relies on the story as the hook on which to hang the visuals where a lesser director would make the mistake of doing it in reverse.

Some of the side characters are caricatures, behaving in a typically predicable manner, but at the heart of the story is the connection between the eponymous hero and an elderly gentleman who own a toy store played with great elan by Ben Kingsley.

Go, see the movie while you can on the big screen and in 3D, if possible.  Then we can talk in more detail about the story and how it is, at its heart, a love story.  A love story between a director and movies.

P.S.  The only jarring (and sad) note for me was that the main protagonists speak in a decidedly English accent even though the entire action is taking place in Paris.  *sigh*

Book review: Beyond the Blues

For a few weeks I have working furiously on a personal deadline of writing a book before Christmas rolled around.  Now that the deadline has been done and dusted with I can get back to more important things like living my life again.  (Some will snicker that the deadline was less about Christmas and more about Boxing Day.  Oh, how well they know me!).

Anyway, thinking about books took me back a couple of years to a book that I had read, liked, promised to review but had never gotten around to doing.  So, here it is - my review of Beyond the Blues by Aakash Chopra.  Better late than never.

From September 9th, 2007 to June 5th 2008, Aakash Chopra kept notes of his actions and thoughts in the form of a diary.  Eventually, to the happiness of many of his fans, including me, he went ahead and published them.

The book is filled with an insider's perspective of Indian cricket, from the behind-the-scenes shenanigans in the backrooms of selectorial meetings to the on-field skullduggery that the viewer is unable to pick up on from 90 (or in these days 60) yards away.

It is a compelling book, written from the heart.  The best way to appreciate the book is to read it in its entirety.  Here are some of the nuggets that caught my fancy and should serve to whet your appetite for when you read the book.

On Sachin Tendulkar (p48):

Aakash Chopra had a very pivotal hand in Sachin's classic exercise in self-denial, that face-saving 241* at Sydney in Steve Waugh's final Test in 2004.  In fact, it is safe to say, that Aakash saved SRT's life that day.  He did something that made him "... one of the few people in the world who has given something to the Little Master without taking anything material from him in return."

On a fellow team-mate (p60):

He has definitely mastered the way to score at this level consistently and I wouldn't be surprised if, one day, if he plays enough domestic cricket (given his India commitments), he goes on to break every batting record on the domestic circuit.

Never die wondering

Seven years ago, the man said he would do it.  Today, he did it.  The "he" is Virender Sehwag, the "it" is a double century.  In an ODI.  Which he achieved with 6 overs to spare.

Last night I was very tired and went to bed very early and slept a dreamless sleep till about 2:55am, when I woke up and was instantly as wide awake as I was going to be.  Call it premonition, call it luck, call it what you will - I turned on the PC and saw that India had won the toss (again!  Take lessons, MSD) and was going to bat.

For years, I played in a local league with a batsman whose appetite for gargantuan scores was seemingly limitless, except that he kept getting out.  We always wondered how much Sohail Chaudhry would score if he lasted the entire 25 overs.  And then one day we found out.  I have always had the same feeling about Sehwag.  He still hasn't ever batted for the entire 50 overs but on the day he does, I am pretty sure he will score more than the 219 runs he scored today.  What a player!

The sign of a truly great man is that he leaves room for improvement even when he accomplishes the unthinkable.  By not batting the entire 50 overs, Sehwag has left the door open for a few more dreams.

In parting, of all the comments I heard/read so far today, the best of them all was by someone named Jim Morrison on CricInfo's (outstanding) ball-by-ball coverage.  Reacting to Sehwag's double, he wrote:

"So, Sachin now holds the record for the SLOWEST double century in ODIs!"

Priceless!

Surf's up: Random musings - 5

Trolling through the web I often come across things that I file away for future (posting) reference. Here are some of the ones that still seem interesting enough to pass on to you.

a)  The shirts worn by the Australian Test cricket players has new design, probably to help them sweat less or something like that.  All I know is that it makes it seem like they are wearing sports bras under their shits.  Not a good look for them.  Fail!

AFP via CricInfo 2010

b)  Of late, soundbites from MS Dhoni have started to take on a fairly simplistic note, probably mindful of his ever-burgeoning public image.  But there was a time, not so long ago, when the man would speak from his heart and speak eloquently enough about his life.  Here's an interview from 2008, a few months after he had become India captain and well before he became the media-created behemoth he is today.

c)  While on MSD, have you ever seen a batsman "walk" for an LBW.  Take a look at MSD's reaction from about the 1:50 mark of this video.  Who knew that in a few years from then, he'd be captaining Murali to IPL (cough) glory.

 

d)  I was directed to the video in the previous point from the subject of this musing.  For those of us who cannot stand the television coverage of today (aptly described as a bunch of commercials interrupted by a few seconds of cricket), our best recourse to "watching" a game remains online text portals such as CricInfo's outstanding ball-by-ball commentary.  Another frequently visited website is The Guardian's Over By Over (OBO).  To whet your appetite, here's an OBO of the 2011 World Cup final between Sri Lanka and India.  Almost as good as some of my match day analyses.  *sigh*

Open letter to the Indian team

To: Indian Cricket team - Test edition
Date:  Day 2, Test 1 - India-West Indies, November 2011

Dear friends,

After watching most of the first two days of the first Test match against West Indies, here's what I have to say to each of you:

Gautam Gambhir:  Get out of ODI mode.  Stop dabbing at the ball, trying to run it down to third man with 3 slips and 2 gullies waiting for the ball.  You are lucky you got to 41.  You not unlucky you got run-out.  You should have been out much sooner and, also, you were holding the bat in the wrong hand.  You got what you were courting.

Virender Sehwag:  We all see very clearly that you do not believe a spinner exists who is worth your time.  But still, you are a little too casual for your own good.  Having said that, I MUST say this - you rock!  Very few batsmen make a game's situation and the bowling seem as superfluous as you do.  When you were batting, 304 seemed a matter of time.  You got out and the pitch reverted to being a mental minefield.  Now, go and bat in the second dig with your foot inside the crease at all times.

Rahul Dravid:  Respect.  While you may be regretting the pull shot, I think it is a godsend.  The team needed a wake up call.  If you had brought the score close to the Windies total, it would have papered over the cracks.

Sachin Tendulkar: I have never seen any batsman look as guilty as you do when you are hit on the pads in front of the stumps.  My goodness, your body language takes away any semblance of doubt the umpire may have.  By the way, smart of you to have failed in the first inning.  Now the stage is set for you to hit a heroic century in the second inning while leading India to a win, a la Chennai a couple of years ago.  As your financial adviser no doubt told you - very strategically smart move.  (Of course, I jest when I say that...maybe).

(By the way, Sachin's aura is undiminished.  As soon as Sehwag got out, the BCCI.tv server crashed!  It was almost as if millions of voices cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced.)

VVS Laxman:  Are you close enough to that wall that you seem to always have your back against?  Now turn around and look closely.  There's some thing written on it - your future.  You play in just one of three teams for India.  And you land up after a long gap looking like you had a dozen too many extra sweets?  Really?  You can no longer afford to slide by with an inning here or there.  Like Dravid, you need to realize that what you have ahead of you are your last flashes of brilliance before the sun sets.  Lose that paunch, get into a little better shape.  Then maybe you wont look so leaden-footed when playing spinners.  When you inside-edged your 4th ball and it barely missed the leg-stump, in the process getting you off the mark, I though that (maybe) luck was in your favor.  Well, guess what?  You got out off the next ball you faced to a routine ball outside the off-stump from a leg-spinner in the first over of his spell.  Gah!!  Virant Kohli cannot be denied much longer and I don't think he is looking at Yuvraj's spot anymore.

Yuvraj Singh:  Right attitude, right way of playing.  Don't fret.  You were doing the right thing, the execution was slightly awry.  Just retain that attitude, and you'll be fine.

MS Dhoni:  Just pretend you are playing an ODI, for crying out loud.  You got out to Darren Sammy.  Think about that.  You played Finn, Bresnan, Anderson, Broad, Swann and didn't get out and then you get out to Sammy.  Darren Sammy.  Has it sunk in yet?

R. Ashwin:  The second inning was made for you.  You bowled well in the first inning, but I'd like you to pitch the ball up a little closer to the batsmen, giving them less of a chance to play you off the pitch.  Now that you are bowling with the new ball, go forth and prosper.

Ishant Sharma:  You remind me of Jason Gillespie.  And in my book that is a good thing.  Keep your chin up, the rewards will follow.

Umesh Yadav:  Not much to say to you.  The pitch isn't really tailor-made for you.  But you can learn something from the way Fidel Edwards persevered, in spite of being hammered around the ground.

Pragyan Ojha:  You are the Wizard of Ozha.  Give Sunil Gavaskar a few more days and he will come up with that nickname.  Your bowling is just what was needed on this pitch.  Relentless probing on a stump-to-stump line with just a little bit of spin in either direction.  You grabbed your chance with both hands and the sound we hear is of the door swooshing as it starts to slam on Amit Mishra and, if Ashwin can continue to do well, Harbhajan Singh (who went wicketless in his recent Ranji game).

Sincerely
JQ

Beefing up one's obituary

Ignore the fact that he is selling some random brand of beer.  You will become a little more intelligent simply by listening to the Most Interesting Man in the World.
   

The Prestige

This video is just 13 seconds long, but you MUST look at it. Two kids attempt to pull of an amazing magic trick and succeed beyond their wildest imagination.

Don't try this at home.

On second thoughts, DO try this at home.  Just be sure to record it while it happens.

Almost heaven

I spent almost a quarter of my life in a beautiful city nestled among the Appalachian Mountains. The Monongahela River languorously winds its way by the city, providing ample opportunities for residents and visitors to marvel at the pictures it leaves behind. Fall, Winter, Spring or Summer - it does not really matter which time of the year it is. Morgantown, West Virginia, home of the Mountaineers.

I recently came across a time lapse video of the city. I know every location that is shown in this video. I have driven on it, walked past it, or simply stopped right there and admired the view.  If you like Morgantown, you will love this video.
 

(Credit: Chad Griffith, Chad Griffith Photography; www.chadgriffithphotography.com, chadgriffithphotography@gmail.com) 
 (I am a sucker for time lapse videos. Click here for previous posts on time-lapse videos, including the most beautiful video I have ever seen.)

Nor any drop to drink

(Quoting verbatim from the Youtube spot.  For more, click here)


To mark World Water Day, on March 22nd Solidarités International and its agency BDDP Unlimited rolled out a campaign to build awareness of the scourge of undrinkable water. 


The campaign called on journalists to spread awareness of this scourge and appeal to readers to sign a petition that was to be personally handed to the French president during the 6th World Water Forum in March 2012.

To evoke the silent and invisible threat of unhealthy water, BDDP Unlimited opted for a minimalist approach that is both visually appealing and surprising, using water and ink exclusively. The spot shows the power of ink to reveal the invisible.

The spot, created by BDDP Unlimited, was produced by Hush and directed by Clément Beauvais, a young director, illustrator, musician and photographer. His multiple talents and mastery of various techniques enabled him to both create the drawings and direct the spot.

Read, rinse, repeat

With all the ruckus over Anil Kumble's perceived (and real?) conflict of interest, it is interesting to note that this is not the first time the press has gone ga-ga over the issue and neither will it be the last time they do.

Earlier in the year, Prem Panicker gave a detailed explanation of all the activities of N. Srinivasan, the current President of the BCCI.

Back in the day, there was a big brouhaha about the corruption of the Jagmohan Dalmiya regime; hosannas were sung when Dalmiya was replaced by Team Sharad Pawar (what irony!), which sought an electoral victory on the plank of introducing transparency (more irony — Pawar and his hand-picked successors have if anything been more devious, their corruption more subterranean, than anything Dalmiya ever did). The Modi regime at the IPL was deemed corrupt; it has since been replaced by the N Srinivasan regime (Chirayu Amin is nominally in-charge of the IPL, but discount that — as must be painfully evident now, all decisions whether they relate to the BCCI or the IPL emanate from the office of India Cements the Board Secretary). Come to think of it, the shuffling of the board bears parallels to the various Cabinet reshuffle exercises at the center, no? Same problem — endemic corruption. Same solution — move the corrupt around the party table, Mad Hatter  style.

Nothing much came of it then, and nothing much will come of it now.  To paraphrase Lord Alfred Tennyson:
For men may come and men may go
But conflicts of interest will go on forever.

When the die was cast

Not many people can claim to have changed the world.

On 6th August, 1991, Tim Berners-Lee did just that when he posted a short summary of a project of his on a newsgroup, opening the box and making the World Wide Web publicly available.

The world, as we know it, has not looked back since then.

Fly over

I want to get off this planet and travel among the galaxies.  I wish I could jaunte like Gully Foyle.  Oh, how I wish the space program would take off and I could read books while a spacecraft slowly took me to my destination, the stars beyond the stars.

Until then, I will have to vicariously live my dream through the eyes of the astronauts at the International Space Station.



A time-lapse taken from the front of the International Space Station as it orbits our planet at night. This movie begins over the Pacific Ocean and continues over North and South America before entering daylight near Antarctica. Visible cities, countries and landmarks include (in order) Vancouver Island, Victoria, Vancouver, Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Los Angeles. Phoenix. Multiple cities in Texas, New Mexico and Mexico. Mexico City, the Gulf of Mexico, the Yucatan Peninsula, El Salvador, Lightning in the Pacific Ocean, Guatemala, Panama, Columbia, Ecuador, Peru, Chile, Lake Titicaca, and the Amazon. Also visible is the earths ionosphere (thin yellow line), a satellite (55sec) and the stars of our galaxy. 

Bad to the bone

How dangerous/fabulous must a villain be if it takes so many super-heroes to fight him?  Get ready to root for the bad guy!

Don't people know?  Dream Teams rarely work out (just ask the Miami Heat, Philadelphia Eagles, and the Indian batting line-up, all of recent vintage).

Odds and ends

Recently, during a lull in the action while on a field trip, I asked a couple of students, RS and FO, to complete some sayings/statements I had written up.  The only condition being that they could not complete the sentence in the normally accepted manner.  Here's what they wrote:

1)  Where there's a will, there's a death.

2) If you run away from home, you also run away from your best friend.

3) What goes up, must not be dense.

4) Whatever else you do, don't ever repeat yourself.

5) The only thing I am certain of is that I am not certain.

6) When I meet St. Peter, the first thing I'll ask him is this good LSD?

7) If you climb every mountain you come across, you will have tired feet.

8) Never say no to a giant.

9) A thing of beauty is a dangerous thing.

10) The brain does what the heart cannot pump.

The eye of the beholder

The NASA website publishes one new photo everyday.  Most are usually spectacular.  Sometimes, they exceed even themselves.  Here's one such gem.  Click on the link to find out more.

Image credit: Cassini Imaging Team, SSI, JPL, ESA, NASA - September 2011

Look closely to the top left quadrant of the photo.  Inside one of the rings is a tiny blue dot - the Earth!

Standing on the toes of giants

In 2005, when the Sharad Pawar faction wrested control of the BCCI from Jagmohan Dalmiya, many followers thought that it was a new dawn for cricket in India.  Heck, even the new committee believed in it because they published a vision statement!  Today, reading it makes one wonder whether to laugh or cry.

(Click here for the entire vision statement)

Here are some snippets that should tell you how seriously (not!) they took their own vision.

To make domestic cricket attractive, at least 4 weeks in the month of October be kept free from international cricket.  While finalizing bilateral tours, this Edict is to be kept in mind.

Ahem! In 2011, from October 14-29, India is going to play an ODI series against England.  Clean bowled!

Hello, world.

In my review of Casino Royale, I had written:

In the third act the movie meanders a little bit as Bond recovers from the trauma of his last encounter with the bad guys. Then there is a twist, and from the wreckage emerges a more definitive Bond. At the very end he walks past a fallen bad guy, the iconic Bond music playing for the first time in the movie, and then he looks into the screen and identifies himself. I do not get goosebumps often enough in a movie theatre these days, but after this scene I was tingling.
James Bond is back, and how!

Trolling the web, I finally came across the scene I was talking about that day.  Yay for Youtube!

नदिया किनारे ...

A few weeks ago, while the Indian cricket team was getting shellacked in England, Hasha Bhogle and Sanjay Manjrekar took some time out to have some fun by the Trent River.  (Sanjay is quite a singer).

(Update:  It is mostly in Marathi, but if you listen carefully, you'll understand the gist of what they are saying.  Wait for him to sing, it is worth it.  Also interesting is the choice of songs.)

Travel by proxy

Have you ever visited London?  If so, you will like this.  The photograph claims to be the largest photo of its kind in the world as of November 2010. 


If you have never visited London, do you really need to any more?  What's left to "see"?

The photograph is a lot more than just a 360 degree view of London.  Right-click on the photo and explore even further.

Enjoy!

Office space

I have been in a pretty bad funk for quite a few weeks.  I figured I would get my work done and only then blog.

Well, I haven't been able to get all my work completed (hence the absence from the blog) and at the same time I am missing out on blogging.

That ends now.

This is what my desk used to look like in the good old days:

(C.S. Manish 2010)

This is what my desk looks like today:

(C.S. Manish 2011)

Hah!  Wouldn't you know it?!  SC, a fellow blogger, captured my feelings perfectly on his blog.  Maybe the same muse visits both of us and it took a little while for it to travel from the East coast to the heartland.

Exit interview with the Indian team

If I were the coach of the Indian team and I had to conduct exit interviews with some of the Indian players in the aftermath of the Test series, this is what I would have said to them.

TGIF: Songs to hum - 5

On Friday afternoons, after I am done teaching (or preparing for teaching, as the case is this week) for the week, I sit in my office, put my feet up on my desk, lean back in my chair and softly hum songs to myself, unwinding and releasing the built-up tension of the week so far. Youtube is a good companion during these times and I have my own version of Chitrahaar, with the songs following some unfathomable pattern, changing per my mood and wishes. 

Here is today's trip through Youtube:

How could I not start with a Shammi Kapoor song? I should probably elaborate on this some other day, but for now let me just say that the songs of Junglee were the first songs I knew the lyrics to. All of them. Bar none. And I still know them after all these years. (More on that some other day, I promise). In that movie, this was my favorite song, though it not the one that is most commonly associated with Shammi Kapoor.

Time to channel the inner Dhoni

Dear MS Dhoni,

Plenty of knees will be jerking helter-skelter. Don't let that get to you. (Though, of all the captains India has had since I have been following the sport, you appear to be the one who is best equipped to deal with the highs and lows of being captain).

You've captained exactly half (30) of the Test matches you have played (60), which let's us have a wonderful exercise in comparative stat-play.

If they say your batting has become worse since you became captain, tell them this:
As a captain, you've scored 1800 runs at an average of 45 with 3 centuries and 14 fifties, strike rate 58.
As a non-captain, you've scored 1422 runs at an average of 33 with 1 century and 9 fifties, strike rate 62.

If they say, your captaincy sucks and you have put up a good record by beating up on a couple of teams, tell them this:
You have registered Test victories against 7 different nations (Zimbabwe and Pakistan are missing but you've never captained against them). In those victories you average over 56 runs an inning.

Future rewards

Dear MS Dhoni,

Things are not as dire as they may seem. This Indian team reached the #1 ranking over a period of time. You may have lost consecutive Tests to start a series for the first time ever, but fret not, you are still India's best option as a captain. Just as you did not become a splendid captain overnight, you did not become a horrible one in the span of two Tests either.

The Bell run-out fiasco is done and dusted with. However, there is one unintended consequence that will play into your hands as the series progresses. By invoking the nebulous "Spirit of Cricket", the two Andys may have put you in a bind but in the long term it is going to come back to haunt them. Can you imagine the furore the next time they are in a position where they have to uphold the "Spirit of Cricket" and fail to do it? The media will be more than happy to pull them up for their double standards. In time, this decision will reap its rewards. For the rest of their career, Strauss and Flower will have this millstone hanging around their neck. After all, they instigated the whole thing by knocking on your door at tea time.

Travel: Day 6 - Puerto Rico - In the footsteps of James Bond

One of the advantages of teaching at a small liberal arts institution is the freedom to design and offer courses that are close to your heart. In January 2011, I was fortunate enough to lead a group of 6 students through the world of Tropical Ecology. Apart from not being in the right ecosystem, Nebraska in the winter is definitely not the place to have field trips about Tropical Ecology. Consequently, one portion of the course involved a 10-day trip to Puerto Rico where we got to see for ourselves all the things we talked about in the classroom.

This is a travelogue of our adventures together, the sights we saw, the things we did, and the lessons we learned. (You can see all the previous posts in this thread here).

****************************************************************

After 4 fantastic days at Guánica, it was with a heavy heart that we bid adieu to our temporary home. MB and LP let us know in no uncertain terms what they felt about heading back to San Juan.

(Miranda Beran 2011)

So, one final photoshoot later we left Mary Lee's By the Sea. (If you are ever in Puerto Rico and are looking for a place to stay, you have all the information you need!)

(Andrew Jacobsen 2011)

Dhoni must open

Nine years ago at Trent Bridge, Virender Sehwag was sent to open the inning and responded with a 106 that changed his life. One can even make the argument that it eventually led to India gaining the #1 Test ranking for the first time ever.

Sometime tomorrow either India will somehow get the 4 wickets it needs in the second English inning of the Trent Bridge Test or Andrew Strauss will play that favorite parlor game of commentators (when will he declare?) and no matter when he declares it will be said to have come at the wrong time.

Either way, it appears that India will have to score more runs in the 4th inning to win than anyone has ever done in the 2000 previous Tests played. More realistically, they will have to bat about 4-5 sessions to secure a draw. Based on how they responded to a similar scenario in the first Test, it probably isn't going to happen.

Which brings me back to Sehwag. In 2002, India opened with Sehwag and his blistering starts have set the template for many an Indian win since then. Tomorrow, I am asking MS Dhoni to do something he has never done before in his life - open the batting in a Test.

That move has all kinds of upside and very little downside. He gets a chance to take the attack to the English bowlers. If he gets out, no sweat, he has not exactly been in the best of form and the second new ball has anyway gobbled him up. But if he does get off to a flier, he is the sort who capitalizes on these moments. By leading from the front he will regain some of that equanimity that seems to have ebbed from his countenance of late. Also, by opening, he lets the batting order settle back into Dravid at 3, SRT at 4, VVS at 5, Raina at 6, Yuvraj at 7, Harbhajan at 8...enough gun powder to capitalize on a good start if it comes.

Come on, Dhoni, show me that you still have some of that out-of-the-box thinking left in you. Step forward and pick up the gauntlet. Viru did it in spectacular style for Ganguly so many years ago, you can do it for yourself. It is the time to send messages, and this will be as resounding as any you've sent in the past, including the time you seized the moment on April 2, 2011.

P.S. By the way, I may be the only person who wants to see you suspended for a Test match for the appallingly slow over-rate maintained by your team. You look like you really need the rest. Also, what's with sending Rahul Dravid to face the press at the end of the day after what happened today at the stroke of tea? Man up, MSD, and face the microphone!