Played Volley Ball for the first time in my life, did a decent job(at least my team mates said so ). Its a nice game, odd that I never played it before.

Cricket was what I was looking forward for the most, sadly I was really injured tired with all the Volley Ball action that I really messed up my bowling My fielding was comparatively much better, took a nice running catch in the outfield. That catch was one of the best I have taken ever Batting was something that came easily, Ended up playing a good knock but sadly we were like 6 runs short at the end of the match

Shuttle and Table Tennis was something I was not expecting to do really well in. It was all in good fun though

My whole body has been hurting for the past 2 days but I just loved the feeling of all that adrenaline. I am going to make a point of doing this more regularly

My instinctive reaction was that I started laughing! BRC is my team and I really support them but this is so wrong(a little funny though) For ppl who did not know, Chennai Super Kings are clearly the strongest team in the IPL so far and the Royal Challengers have faced a fair share of defeat.

Ps: This constitutes vandalism doesn’t it? How do I report it?

UPDATE: The vandalism is removed! Was just about the do it(after figuring out how ) and someone already did it Looked at the old revisions of changes and that moron who did the vandalism looks like a top class loser!

Virat Kohli’s superb catch against Mumbai on Sunday(Apr 20 2008). He followed that up with an amazing batting display!

ICL was not that interesting coz Bangalore did not get a team but IPL with the Bangalore Royal Challengers is looking like a cooler league to me

The team looks good with a mix of young and experienced players… Someone had commented saying that the Bangalore team would be better playing test cricket rather than T20. With some world class T20 specialists, All Rounders and The Wall, I feel pretty safe supporting them

Anyway now you know where my allegiance lies

1. What did you do in 2007 that you’d never done before?

Where do I start!!! (I will skip all the small ones ) Quit my job(first ever job so yeah it was the first time I did that) and started my very own startup with my friends , Bungee jumped! , Read a couple of books I have been waiting for years to read and Wrote something important to me

2. Did you keep your New Years’ resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
Yep I did and will do again

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
Nope but think a few friends might become mommies next year

4. Did anyone close to you die?
-

5. What countries did you visit?
nope but hope to this year

6. What would you like to have in 2008 that you lacked in 2007?
Lot more traveling(It died down towards the end of 2007), maybe being a bit more social(relationships?), lot more sports

7. What date from 2007 will remain etched upon your memory?
28th June 23:45 pm(give or take 2 minutes)

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Drone keeping in mind my future… The Sculptor’s Statue keeping in mind my past

9. What was your biggest failure?
Failure… hmmm I believe in “What does not kill you only makes you stronger…” so cant term anything a ‘failure’ but yes have had a few tough lessons

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
The regular cold, throat infection and viral fever

11. What was the best thing you bought?
My Bike and my Laptop!!!! There is one more planned purchase before Jan 1st (will talk about that later)

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
Indian Cricket team in the T20 World Cup!

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
Nope, nothing to fit this category

14. Where did most of your money go?
Bike and Laptop

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Start of the F1 championship (bit of a melodrama this year) Waiting for my Bike and laptop to be delivered and most definitely the Final of the T20 world championships!

16. What song/album will always remind you of 2007?
Saawariya… The closest thing to a good musical

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
i. Happier or sadder?
Sadder actually but I know its just the calm before the storm.

ii. Thinner or fatter?
The same… still underweight

iii. Richer or poorer?
Probably poorer Well I did buy a couple of large gifts for myself

18. What do you wish you’d done more of?
More reading and writing… My personal journal was very neglected this year and I wrote just one story this year and wrote 2 plays(short ones)

19. What do you wish you’d done less of?
Obsessing over irrelevant incidents… Its something I just need to get out of my system

20. How will you be spending Christmas?
Spent it at Work… But I will be making up for it big time in a few months time

21. Did you fall in love in 2007?
Well I believed I did… am too confused to be sure Fall out of love yep once

22. How many one night stands in this last year?
None

23. What was your favorite TV program?
Psych, totally am in love with the lightness of the show I continued watching all my favorite shows from previous years though.

24. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?
lol nope… become fonder of a few ppl though

25. What was the best book you read?
Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk

26. What was your greatest musical discovery?
That I can listen to Kishore Kumar and Mohd. Rafi all day and everyday!!!

27. What did you want and get?
Opportunities

28. What did you want and not get?
A Surprise. Its been a long time since someone did something/bought something for me that truly surprised me.

29. What was your favorite film of this year?
Ooh tough one… Johnny Gaddaar & Rocky Balboa

30. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
23 and I ran around all day!

31. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
A cup of coffee with *****

32. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2007?
Lol, well it was ‘Just Haas’

33. What kept you sane?
Theater and writing

34. Which celebrity/public figure did you like the most?
SRK I think, was very impressed with the way he handled things around him. Vijay Mallya too(for Force India ofcourse)

35. What political issue stirred you the most?
Karnataka’s politics… thought it was like a bad play

36. Who did you miss?
All my friends that decided to live on the other side of the globe

37. Who was the best new person you met?
If you have read *every* post I made in the last month or so… then you already know

38. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2007.
“Most often than not we have no idea what we actually want and what is good for us”

39. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.

Here we are - we’ve just begun
And after all this time - our time has come
Ya here we are - still goin’ strong
Right here in the place where we belong

- Here I Am by Bryan Adams

After that I had one errand to do… I needed to get dinner for myself from the near by fast food hotel.

I stepped out and felt like I had just walked into a different dimension all together. There were genuinely happy people on the streets, there was firecrackers and cheers. But nothing could beat the smiles. The average state of people around me was actually “happy”! In the few minutes i spent at the restaurant each time some one screamed a cheer on the road everybody broke into this smiling frenzy

I have watched cricket all my life… Like most Indians I agree that it is a religion more than a sport. I always wanted to watch India win a major tournament… They should have won the 2003 ICC Champions Trophy but the final was rained out and the trophy shared with Sri Lanka(whose ass we could have kicked so easily at that time)… Sharing is a slap on the face when you had the prospect of Winning! I had my fingers crossed for 2003 world cup but they lost to the only better team in the world at that time Australia… We had won every match in the event except the ones against them

After that, I felt the day would never come… But it did!

I don’t give a shit that it was a new format… Hell India had played only 1 international T20 match before the tournament! I dont care for people telling that 30 more overs and they would have never won… or that if someone caught a catch they would not have won!
Well the bottom line is they did Win! They won fair and square! They took all the catches that needed to be taken and fielded they way they have never done!!!

Monday was a moment of Vindication… Not just for me… for that guy that spent sleepless nights watching matches of India in Canada and West Indies… For the people that were saddened and heartbroken each time we lost but did not lose hope… for a millions of people across the world who don’t consider Cricket a sport but a religion!

And then I realized that I wasnt the only one with that feeling… And when you have a feeling like that, You have got to…. Celebrate!!!

Q: Do you think Cricket has become interesting again?

1. Hell Yeah
2. Yeah kindof
3. Not sure need to watch a few more matches
4. No
5. What is ‘Cricket’?

Vote here

After a long gap Im finally back to watching cricket again. Call it the Dhoni effect or just the fact that Indian cricket team is finally winning consistently. But cricket is not just it… frankly im watching a lot more stuff I used to watch religiously.

I can remember the match fixing scandal which took a huge bite out of my love for cricket. Then India went to the finals of the world cup and came out second best. Ever since then they have not been performing the best and frankly I went thru most days not knowing there was a match.

So what changed it all… one man Mahendra Singh Dhoni. What is so cool about the dude… you wont be asking that if you happened to catch India’s 3rd One day international(ODI) against Sri Lanka.

India went into bat requiring 298 to win of 300 balls. Indian batting was immaculate till now in the series and even though the target was a lot many believed India could do it. The first shocker came in the first over when Sachin knicked one to the Lankan keeper. In comes Dhoni… The flamboyant chap begins an innings that will be remembered for years to come. To fully understand the magnificence of the knock dont look at the highlights its just not enuf instead just listen to the post match interview of the Sri Lankan captian Marvan Atapattu.

He had toiled all day keeping and then came to bat. If you think keeping is easy consider doing 300 situps over a 3 1/2 hr period and add a little diving and running at regular intervals

If that does not satisfy you consider this… Dhoni had a score of 183 not out at the end of the match with 23 balls remaining… if he had those 23 (wtf even 10) balls he would have eazily crossed 200 runs. The second higest score was 39… yes, just 39. The knock involved 10 sixers and 15 fours that makes up 120 runs of boundaries. What does that mean… well what ever Sri Lanka did those 120 runs were almost unstoppable, considering no body can stop sixes and as for boundaries well a few of them could have prob been saved by field placing but I seriously doubt that.

To add to the fun he came out in the 4th ODI with India in a very delicate position… and he goes on to play a mature innings untill the last ten overs. Again India needed like a run a ball in the last ten and they finished it with 27 balls to spare(almost a runrate of 12 per over).

The Icing on the cake is that Tendulkar, Pathan, Dravid and Agarkar seem to be in form not to mention the consistent Harbajan Singh, Yuvraj and Viru

Looks like the golden age is shining on Indian cricket again and all I want them is to carry this momentum until the next world cup. Go India Go…

It seems like yesterday when ppl were talking about the possiblity of India winning the 2003 world cup. 2 years hence and Indian cricket has only gone downwards. Strangely its a rift between a coach and captain that has brought back cricket to the news.

In all the hustle and bustle of rumors and alligations, an email was leaked and things got totally out of hand. I got a copy of the email by mail and had a look at it…

He starts up by saying:

1. At no stage did I ask Mr Ganguly to step down from the captaincy of the Indian team and;

2. At no stage have I threatened to resign my position as Indian team coach.

He continues to mention terms like “Divide and Conquer” and mention Saurav’s Injuries.

I believe that if there is even a sherd of truth in the email(and I think most of it is) then Saurav must be sacked and possibly told to go back to domestic cricket. Its stupid to hold back the team because one player tries to run his wims and facies when ever he pleases.

Tmrw the decision will be taken on what will happen in the clash between Saurav and Greg. I am inclined to believe that Saurav may survive and Greg might even stay but that will only hamper the teams growth and performance. Greg clearly says he is here to build the team that wins the 2007 world cup. Most of us cricket fans dont expect less.

Here is the full Transcript of the email from Greg Chappell