Saturday, August 13, 2005

Lord Snooty gets the hot seat again ...

I love cricket and being a left hander myself, am a BIG fan of Saurav Ganguly. So, when Sourav Ganguly a.k.a "The Prince Of Calcutta" regained captaincy and a lot of my batchmates made snide remarks at the dinner table, i could not stop myself from jumping in and defending "The Tiger" .

I can't help but ask myself, are we a nation of thankless people? Have we forgotten this mans contribution to Indian cricket. Have we forgotten that he is the most successful captain India has ever had? The 2nd fastest and only the third player to score 10000 runs in ODI cricket. The man who by his sheer leadership skills put 'Steve Waugh's Invincibles' to shame after 16 consecutive test victories. Lets take criticisms against the 'Lord' and dissect them one by one.

He has not been scoring runs for the past two seasons

Fair enough, the statistics say so. But when have the statistics spoken the complete story. The following stats from Cricinfo.com may help shed some light.

Saurav's one day average batting at positions 1,3 ,4,5,6 have been 42.05 , 52.15, 24.84, 26.28, 7.50 respectively. Since the time he gave up his opening slot for the sake of the team(Rember Sehwag was not doing well down the order and since he clicked in the opening slot, Tendlya-Ganguly opening combo was broken), his averages started falling.

Given below are the series averages of sourav ganguly starting with the New zealand series in 2002-03 before the world cup. This is the time after he gave up his opening slot.

8.28 58.12 59.00 35.00 22.12 33.00 40.66 25 25.00 40.33 45.00 48.00 25.66 22.00 7.75 39.50 (BTW even these do not look pathetic as they are portrayed to be.)

Listed below are the series averages of the same player before the New Zealand series 2003

88.00, 39.40, 23.83, 63.33, 47.20, 37.80, 45.33, 21.28, 71.50, 49.40

Well, isn't the difference evident?? The averages are falling right? Or am in the only one who is seeing it? Agreed he has a weakness against the rising delivery, but then who does not. A short ball targetted at the rib cage can rattle anybody ... at times even 'The GOD' (Sachin). Saurav is not as gifted. But send him up the order when the ball is hard and he will play the ball above the infield and get useful runs. It is a big handicap for him to come down the order to a packed off side field with hardly any gaps. He has lost form and the pressure is tremendous. It is affecting his performance in Tests also. Problem is that the man who backs everyone, is finding himeself without any backers. What he needs is a couple of good knocks. Considering his performance in the county circuit i believe firmly that Saurav will start firing soon.

India has not done well as a team last season

Every one acknowledges that this is the best team we have had for a long team. The nucleus of the team one can safely say rank amongst the greatest Indian cricket has ever produced. But why blame Saurav alone?? What about the others who are not performing ? Will removing him solve the problem? Will the Non Performing Assets on the team suddenly start performing? What is needed is a bit of soul searching.

Captains have a shelf life

There are a few who believe captains have a shelf life of 3-5 years. Well, a certain Mr. Arjuna Ranatunga captained Srilanka for 10 years and his best years as captain were the last 3. So, I wonder if the 'shelf life' theory has any credibility.

Let's not get carried away. There are a few retired players who make bread and butter out of criticising the Indian team. These 'gentlemen' would do the same things as Saurav or the selectors if given a chance. Lets not pay too much attention to them. Some of the news channels and sports editors fall in the same category.

I would like to sign off with a quote by John Buchanan the Aussie Cricket coach. He said the following regarding Mathew Hayden's form. " Champions need to make a comeback at the highest level ". The author for one feels the same way about 'The Maharaj'. In a nutshell Ladies and Gentlemen, let's give the man a chance. Let him play a few series quietly, without additional pressure from the media. Let him gain the confidence back. Let - the 'Lord' rule.

cheers
'The Samurai'

Friday, August 12, 2005

Well, I just sent an email to lots of people trying to do some viral marketing for my blog. And then this thought occured to me. Buddy!! you have just a solitary post. No one knows anything about whats happening with you.

So Ladies and Gentlemen Here goes life@K

A typical day starts at 8:00 AM with a desperate bang on the door from either Simon/Arjun/Siddhartha...Wake up bhanu!! Gotta go.. You have a class.. Yours truly gets up groggy and red - eyed. One look at the watch and its a race against time.. Quick the manager starts making his first decision.. Hey ! do i shave / take a bath / have breakfast / do neither / do some and not others.... Tough one eh!
But better sense prevails.. without any probability distributions or estimations that one comes up with everyday during the QM class..... decisions are taken and the first deadline 9:00AM class is met.

The first hour is the toughest for me. I am still slow.. trying to comprehend whats happening around me. Luckily, the proffs are good and i somehow manage to shake it off. 1:30 pm ..Hurrah!! Lunch time.... Hmmm...

Hey there is something i am missing...Yes there is this thing at the back of the head... the assignments or the problem sets have been loaded on the public folder.. I need to submit them... Hmmm.... Decision time.... where do i start???

Well.. without getting into the gory details of how and when i manage what...its for the first time i have realised the importance of time.... There are times in the day when i end up questioning myself..Hellllloooo!! What do you think you are trying to do...You dont have time .. don't waste it..the more i waste it.. the lesser i'll end up with sleep......

You know what people.. just before i decided to setup this blog.. a noble soul warned me..... BLOGGING IS ADDICTIVE.... and i said.. don't worry dude...that would not impact someone with immense self control..... Hehehehe.... I think i'll go to sleep. The question about time in the previous paragraph is back again to haunt me.... What am i doing... Its 2 in the night!!!

So friends..this is where i sign off for the day... more about life@K will keep coming...Let me know your views..

cheers
Samurai



What!! The samurai started blogging!!

The samurai always tried to convince himself that blogging was worthless... A time waste. A job not meant for serious people pursuing an MBA from
a top B-school. So blogging would be a strict nono... atleast not during my stay at IIMK. And then there were the general excuses... (BTW - I am really good at them) Where is the time!! But wait, I came here to do an MBA right! If i can't manage time when what else will i manage?

For someone who by his own admission is not very expressive, blogging doesn't seem to be "Just what the doctor ordered". But this Ladies and Gentlemen is a humble attempt by yours truly to be a good blogger. So here i am at 12:20 in the night trying to start my own blog. Please bear with me if the first
few blogs do not exactly set the house on fire.

Finally people... keep reading the blog.. keep adding constructive suggestions.. Comment on just about anything and everything that you see here.

cheers
The Samurai