The funny side of cricket, and guest columns

The funny side of cricket :
Mok: : How about miandad telling merv hughes you look likea truck driver go drive a truck



Guest column -- The agony of being an Indian fan:
vinodh: vinodh@hclt.com: A well-written article that I am sure each and every cricket-loving Indian would agreewith its contents. For sure, we DONT want anything but a sincere, determined, positive 100% effort from this Indian Team. If you are ready to do this for INDIA, we would be there to receive you at the airport whether you return home with the trophy or just a wooden spoon. DO WELL GUYS!



Guest column -- The agony of being an Indian fan:
vishwa@bflsoftware.com: : I absolutely agree with you.U have come out with the feelings which I hope majority of indian cricket fans feel the same



The funny side of cricket :
Rohit Srinivasan: rohitjs@poboxes.com: Commentators???

This refers to the India Vs West Indies match in the 1996 world cup when Chanderpaul was caught brilliantly by Azhar off . Micheal Holding the commentator said: "Azharuddin is a very good fielder whether the ball is in the air or on the ground..."....now now, where else can the ball be????

Our Indian commentators are famous for their amusing stuff:

"Aur ye ball outside the offstump ke bahar..."

Once Kirmani and Sushil Doshi(I think) were commentating in recent years when the India batsman hit a four on which the later commentator said..."And thats a beautiful shot by Kirmani!" Wonder who was playing whom and who was talking what at that time!

And I guess the best of all is the statement that "We have a very good chance if we improve our batting,fielding and bowling..."



The Harsha Bhogle column:
ravi srinivasan: ravisrin@in.ibm.com: methinks Harsha has hit the nail on the head when he says that Ganguly, Jadeja and Tendulkar should bowl as much as possible. especially Ganguly.

they have that flair for producing the odd-wicket-taking delivery. Everybody would have seen 100's of hours of Kumble's bowling. they will be wary of srinath and prasad. robin singh cannot be looked upon to take wickets. so it is upto these guys.

even michael jordan gave it up to Steve Kerr for the last shot. let's hope these three can deliver.

The funny side of cricket :
nsbharath: nsbharath@hotmail.com: This is a hilarious incident mentioned by a friend of mine. This was during the Indian tour of South Africa, the test match at Cape Town. During the tea break, Charu Sharma interviewed one of the South African officials, and questioned the decision of leaving Paul Adams out on a track which might aid spinners. The official replied "Paul Adams is in the team", (Charu had to exclaim "where am I"). Surely, Charu we knew where you were, in the commentary box. After two full sessions he was cheeky enough to ask that question. Incidentally Paul Adams took 5 wickets in that match.



The Sanjay Manjrekar column :
Anand: ashah76@hotmail.com: What a waste of time this article was! With all due respect I think,the author has made it a habit to state the obvious, time and again in all his articles. I dont see any new insights or arguments or 'basic plans' put forth by the author himself. What the hell is a basic plan anyway?? Please, even a 3rd grader can write such a dumb article. This was a total waste of time.



The funny side of cricket :
satya puppala: spuppala@hotmail.com: I have an interesting piece to share. Once back in early 90's Greame Pollock, the legendary south african batsman known widely as white Viv Richards had a chance to Play alongside an upcoming and talented cricketer- Jonty Rhodes. It so happended that both the batsmen were at the crease and Rhodes made Pollock to run for every run in a way he was famous for. It continued for a while and since Pollock was at he fag end of career and getting old could not take it, he was terribly getting tired. He finally decided that he is not going to run for those sharp, quick, short singles. He went upto Rhodes and said " Enough of this short distance spirnting, lets play some cricket now ". and the next thing Rhodes see is one of the most electrifying display of fireworks from any batsmen. Pollock was on roll sending bowlers all over the park.



Guest column -- Why India is a favourite for the Cup:
nitin k: nitink@erols.com: Height of optimism. Get real and give us a break.



The Sanjay Manjrekar column :
ramprasad: rpmvadi@hotmail.com: timepass...



Guest column -- Why India is a favourite for the Cup:
Rohit: rohitsarkar@yahoo.com: Sir: India is definitely the best side on paper. Based on performance, I have reservations on India lifting the World Cup. You put India as strong favorites for the cup and support your argument by citing our bowlers and batsmen. No question that we have a very strong batting line up. However, a star line up will not make up for performance. India's batting is known to be fragile when it comes down to the wire! The bowling, even though we have excellent bowlers, leaves a lot to be desired! You, sir, have missed out a single most important determinant of victory in the truncated version of the game -- fielding. And we all know that India is probably the weakest fielding outfit to enter the World Cup. In my opinion, if India can polish up its fielding (take a leaf out of the South African's books) and tune up its batting, they stand a real chance of becoming champions. Lack of any one of the criteria will do India in and dash the hopes of 950 million people!! Good Luck...go India!!



Guest column -- Why India is a favourite for the Cup:
Vijai Saran: saran42@hotmail.com: Everything is not so simple as you make it out to be. Agreed that Indian team is good but winning is a different ball game. Just assume this situation on 15 th May (or for that matter any day)Sachin is given LBW in the first over of Donald. A controversial decision. But now he is out. Donald has tasted blood. Other Indian batsmen ( Ganguly, Dravid, Azhar, Jadeja) turn pale and tremble at the thoght of facing a raring Donald and Pollock backed with very efficient fielding. Millions of Indians on TV will still be debating about Sachin's unfair dismissal. And look, Ganguly is caught behind. Another 5 overs go and Azhar is caught trying to flick , when actually he wanted to get out. Some very determined batting by Mongia, Jadeja will ensure that India is 174 for 8 at the end of 50 overs. And yes dont see the SA batting. They will finish it off in25 overs 175 for 3. The same will happen when and if India faces Pakistan or Australia or Windies or any team with a little killer instinct and some good pace bowling. Thats enough to beat this talented Indian team consisting of extremely talented players but a very bad team. The only thing required to beat Indian team is to somehow trap Sachin.



The funny side of cricket :
Vikas Sehgal: sehgal@mit.edu: You forgot some of the "insightful" remarks by the Doordarshan commentators (these are true):

1. Now coming to the crease is Carl Lewis (uhh....I think its Chris Lewis??) 2. Azhar has lost the toss and opted to field first.



The Sanjay Manjrekar column :
Akshay: akshayrao@hotmail.com: good thinking sanjay!I hope gaekwad or azhar is reading this or probably know this already!



The funny side of cricket :
Venkatesh Jagadeeshwara: rasikararaja@hotmail.com: Source : Illustrated Weekly

One day a teacher asked the whole class to write an essay on cricket match.Every body were busy filling up the sheets of paper except one boy .Teaches goes up and asks why he is sitting idle ? The boy says he has finished the essay .Upon examining his paper,the teached found one line - Rain - Match Abdoned .



The Sanjay Manjrekar column :
AC: chanda2@rpi.edu: I agree with Sanjay, that the Indian team should sit down and chalk out a plan, but I disagree with his methods. From the coaching point of view, it shouldn't matter how important a player is or how SENIOR (I'm emphaising this) a player is they should all be treated the same as any other player in the team. The players that are in the team are there because on their day they can single handidly make a difference in the game wether the team wins or looses. They all have the talent or else they wouldn't be there (no matter what zonal selector is backing what player). I remember when I played team sports such as soccer, our coach use to sit us down and have us all watch videos or opposition teams or the pro's. This was the time we as a team use to make a game plan. What do we see others doing wrong that we can take advantage of or what can we learn from others, etc. The things was that everyone participated in that excercise. No matter what position you played, if noticed something you just blurt it out and everyone would look at it and discuss it. This also had an effect of increasing team unity, and getting to know others better and becoming best of friends. If you do things togather everything else tends to fall into place. So what I'm saying is that the Indian team along with its coach and anyother persons they'd like to invite (like Kapil, or Gavaskar or any other former cricketer), should sit and go over their own teams and other teams weak and strong points. Everyone participate in everything not matter if you are looking a bowling or batting or fielding or anyother thing. It shouldn't be just ok we are going to look at the bowlers today and batsmen tommorow. It shoudn't be like the Coach, Captain and Vice-Captain going into a room and looking at these tapes. This is a team sport so why should three/four people chalk out plans for the whole team. The team should get togather and chalk out plans for the whole team togather. That's called team work. There should be not such thing as a think-tank. By saying that you are saying that others in the team don't think or can't see things that should be done by them or others. This will not just increase the probability of finding little things that they can use but this will also unite the team. Doing things togather as I said grows on people and that's how you usually make friends, by doing things togather.



The funny side of cricket :
vijaya: dantuluri@hotmail.com: atlast some fun. i have mailed all my friends about this forum. p.s: somebody kick that arvind out.he is no fun.



The Sanjay Manjrekar column :
Ravi Aron: rarunkun@stern.nyu.edu: I am a little lost when it comes to the reference to Wisden. Has Wisden seeded India at or near the top? That would be curious to say the least.

Wisden in a recent article said India, in both batting and bowling, has what it takes to win the Cup: Sports Editor

The funny side of cricket :
: : Perhaps not tastefull, but clever nonetheless. On Sri Lanka's last tour Down Under, a supporter at Adelaide had this banner: HAIR or NO HAIR -- Murali's Balls are CLEAN !!!!



Guest column - High stakes poker:
selva: gselvakumar@hotmail.com: It was a nicely written article. Keep it up Abdul.



The Sanjay Manjrekar column :
JAYAKUMAR JANAKIRAMAN: jaykumarj89@hotmail.com: Ur Suggestions remind me of your elegant late cut SANJAY... Regards JAY



The Sanjay Manjrekar column :
MAsked: Masked@masked.com: I dont think he deserves a spot in Rediff news column... anyways, i read it. THanks Sanjay ... for not being in the team!! .. the slow killer you are for the team.

The funny side of cricket :
: : I would guess that about 90% of the stories here are made up.



The Sanjay Manjrekar column :
nikhil shende: v_nawathe@hotmail.com: Hi! I absolutely agree with you about the fact that the indian team should talk less and work more. I wish them all the luck which they will need inplenty.



The Sanjay Manjrekar column :
Sanjeev: sanjeevsk@jump.com: Very well written thoughts.



Guest column -- Tendulkar's turn at bat:
Sanjeev: sanjeevsk@jump.com: Yes we do.



Guest column -- Why India is a favourite for the Cup:
SURENDRANTH R BADA: sbada@hotmail.com: You have described very nicely about the chances of winning the WC99 by INDIA and others. I also doubt that SA could win. You bet West Indies would retain the WORLD CUP99 after a gap of 20 years. Their(WI) confidance is peaking up at the right time and also they are not at all under pressure rather than NEW ZELAND. West indians batting style is highly suitable to England conditions and their bowling is 100% perfect on ENG pitches,that is all for them to lift the WC99. SURENDRANATH R BADA DES MOINES IA.



The Wasim Akram interview:
Ali: smohammedali@hotmail.com: Fabulous interview. I think Akram is totally correct in saying that Indian try their best while playing against Pakistan, but they don't mind losing to Pakistan. On the other hand Pakistan doesn't compromise with the results and try to win all the matches from any point. That is even when they are down and out their sholders don't droop.



The Sanjay Manjrekar column :
Prasanna Chitturi: 1prc@home.com: Actually the hoopla is great. There is no other place on earth outside India that cricket and commerce can have such a close marriage.

Guest column -- Why India is a favourite for the Cup:
prgovil: prgovil@satyam.net.in: My Best Wishes to the Indian cricket team to win the worldcup 99 and bring the laurels back home.



Guest column -- Why India is a favourite for the Cup:
nsiddiqu: nsiddiqu@artsci.wustl.edu: I respect columnist's patriotism but the fact is that India is the team going in the competition with worst performance in the recent past. I would rate New Zealand higher than India because they are a more balnced side with a good record in England. It is even hard for India to reach super six stage from its pool. Only IF WISHES WERE HORSES ...............



Guest column -- Tendulkar's turn at bat:
nikhil Mehta: mehtanikhil@hotmail.com: If there is one man who is going to win for us it is going to be sachin ansd no one else. all the best to our tteam



Guest column -- Tendulkar's turn at bat:
nikhil Mehta: mehtanikhil@hotmail.com: If there is one man who is going to win for us it is going to be sachin and no one else. all the best to our team.



Guest column -- The agony of being an Indian fan:
munno25: munno25@hotmail.com: I completely agree with you, they really need to stop thinking for themselves and for their personal achievements. Why can't they show some killer instinct in them. Once you pick up some momentum you would be foolish not to capitalise on it and azhar's captain approach has clearly shown at several times to lose the grip pretty quickly. no wonder a team like pakistan kicks india's butt almost everytime. It's like they almost always know that in crucial time indian's are going to choke. It's about time they have a session with a psychologist to develop that instinct in them or make a way for more aggressive players and make the millions proud.



The Sanjay Manjrekar column :
s.venkatesan: s.venkatesan@tatainfotech.com: I think it is very right when Sanjay stresses the importance of English conditions and its complete variance to conditions in the sub-continent. This event has been billed as the last biggest event of this millenium and I am sure there is very heavy pressure on each and every indian player. T here is absolutely no point pondering over the past and it is high time Azzu bhai starting bridging the age and generation gap in the team.

I wish the indian team all the best and also thank Sanjay and Rediff for such wonderful insights on English conditions.

Regards

Venkat



The Sanjay Manjrekar column :
sanjay: sanju_s74@hotmail.com: Hi sanjay .. I too am sanjay .. i leave in singapore and i am die cricket crazy fan of India ... If india reaches the final , i have my ticket ready to england to watch the final myself ..

keep in touch

Load of best wishes and good luck to Indian XI

Sanjay Sane Singapore



The Sanjay Manjrekar column :
Pramod: p_achanta@hotmail.com: I feel the w/k area is the weak link in the Indian team. Agreed, Mongia is among the better keepers currently. But his batting leaves plenty to be desired.

Take other teams, and look at their keepers : Aus - Gilcrist, Pak - Moin Khan, WI - Jacobs, NZ - Parore, En - Stewart and to some extent SA - Boucher : they all are perfectly capable of notching up 50+ runs in quick time. Mongia is not certainly in that class and as a result, we are one batsman less.

If only we could develop Dravid into a batsman/WK, we can have a better oneday team

Regards, Pramod.



The funny side of cricket:
Kiran Laturkar: kiranlaturkar@hotmail.com: Hi!

Here is one anecdote about India's great leg-spinner and googley bowler, B S Chandrashekhar.

Chandra was one of the nicest person - on and off the field. Even his enemies (if he had any) would agree that he hardly ever got upset on the field.

This incident occured during a test match in India's tour of New Zealand in 1976. The umpriring was atrocious, to put it mildly. Time and again, Chandra, Bedi and others were frustrated when their appeals for caught behind, bat-pad and leg before were turned down.

The last pair was in and Chandra, with one of his unplayable deliveries, clean bowled the last man. The conversation went something like this:

Chandara: "How's that?" Umpire: "But he is bowled!" Chandra: "I know he is bowled. But is he out?"

Guest column -- Tendulkar's turn at bat:
vidhika: vidhikap@hotmail.com: i dont agree with u at all.u mentioned his bad avrage in england,west indies,sa.well let me point out thta in the 96 tour ina 3 match series sachin was declared wrongly out once by none other than darell hair!,was run out once because of rathore who called and then made sachin return and he was only once legitimately out,morever he has played just 6 one days in england ,so u cant judge him simply by that. in SA almost all players suffer specially those who open like even brian lara,anwar etc and he did score 104,41,32,45 in india's last tour in 97 after a poor start in the tournament.i still remeber he got a ball from pollock which the comentators belived was simply unplayable and i remember them quoting in the next match that sachin actually asked one of them how could he have played that ball!anyway the scores i told u were not so bad.

and finally he has had just one tour to west indies in which he played 4 onedays and got the following scores of 41,65*,1,2.and to remind u that the first innings of 41 was played on a cracker of a pitch and sachin was again wrongly given out by umpire eddie nicholls.that innings is still etched in my mind because i think it was one of his best innings and later i read in one of sachin's interveiws that he also thought the same.infact the pitch was doing so much that sachin said even the bowlers dint know where their ball would land up!!anyway to remind u in that match india got a very low total and sachin was the highest scorer and dravid who was the next highest scorer made 23 of some 80-90 odd balls!and mind u tendulkar got his 40 odd in more than run-a-ball!

and talking about playing and missing,may i know which player doesnt do that?even the grt viv richards used to play and miss!infact that is the best thing about sachin's innings that he rarely plays and misses as compared to others!



The Sanjay Manjrekar column :
kunal: k_mehta24@hotmail.com: nice column would like to hear more about the indian teams performance at england.



The funny side of cricket :
Rajeev Muralidharan: RajeevM@Rocketmail.com: This was back in my college days when my college team was playing an important match in a zonal competition. We had a Physical Department (PD) Head who just like so many others in other colleges in Kerala, held this position, mainly because of serving the country in the military. Didn't have much knowledge about cricket. Anyways, in this particular match, our opening batsmen were playing really well with a hundred run partnership. It was a drinks break and our PD head, not to be left behind in the action, comes across to the the batsmen and gives this very useful coaching tip "Be careful again, from now on...they will aim at the stumps".



The Harsha Bhogle column:
suresh mony: monys@bom5.vsnl.net.in: the article was wonderful. i myself have often voiced such feelings and hence i share every thought /feeling of yours. after reading your piece i immediately passed it to number of other genuine sports lovers.

i have always believed that leander is a player with average talents but has transcended limits which probably no other insian sportsman has with his sheer passion and pride while playing for india. in this regard i still vividly remember his performance in the davis cup semi final against france a few years ago which epitomises his spirit.

i believe sachin tendulkar is as much a patriot but somewhere the finish is lacking otherwise there would not have been so many " so near but yet so far" cases in matches we have lost.

i still feel as a match winner has a long way to go aand is nowhere near lara, inzamam, chis cairns, michael bevan who have won number of matches from seemingly hopeless positions.

also, while chasing big totals india has always been weak. probably, india's best chasers were dilip vengsarker and kapil dev in tandem. in the present team robin singh and jadeja appear to be the only good chasers. however, jadeja 's best performances are when he india has been batting first.

i can talk cricket with you for hours and hope that we meet some day.

regards

suresh mony



The Sanjay Manjrekar column :
Nilesh: nilesh23@hotmail.com: I would completely agree with manjrekar on this issue, ithink its high time indian cricketers pull up their socks and concentrate on the game then carried away by the media tycoons, i personally feel that the other cricket teams are better prepared then the indian cricket team and it will be no suprise if India are trashed in the world cup for even Zimbawe which was considered to be babies of cricket have become a team which is tough to beat, so buck up indians and start concentranting on the game and do the job for which you are paid for



The Sanjay Manjrekar column :
Amit: : i did not learn anything new in this article From someone as experienced as Sanjay i expect an analysis that is much more insightful. Better luck next time! amit



The Sanjay Manjrekar column :
rajeev khajuria: rajeev@svnetworks.com: good judgement and advice by a good player. Key to all things is only devotion & hard work, and the same implies to IndiN CRICKET, AND Manjreker has rightly commented that. please try you best to reply.



Guest column -- Au revoir, Carl Hooper:
Paresh Raheja: praheja@giasbga.vsnl.net.in: Mr Gopalam, You did mention about the magic of his batting but what about hi LITTLE LOLLIPOPS as Boycott used to call them. They were more than just effective I guess.



The Sanjay Manjrekar column :
santosh: santosh_kul@hotmail.com: Dear Readers & Columnists,

Is it fair to disturb UR friends when they are having there annual exams??

If you really feel "NO", then

it's high time for all of us to stop bragging about cricket, cricket & only cricket.

It seems that India ( a country of more than 920 million) don't have any damn thing to do, apart from cricket & the pathetic politics.

So folks, it's a Exam time for our friends in England,don't disturb them, and also don't get yourself disturbed.

We should stop all the non sense regarding cricket, and only wait till the day for the result arrives.

Till then have a nice time. ( Ofcourse without cricket.)

Santosh



Guest column -- Why India is a favourite for the Cup:
Waqas: wakhatri: Pakistan's been winning too many matches and cant keep up the trend? I can only expect such silly logic from an Indian.



Guest column -- The agony of being an Indian fan:
bavan: bavan98@hotmail.com: Excellent Article. Congrats Dharmarajan for your candid comments.



The Sanjay Manjrekar column :
Sandeep Randery: sandeepdr@hotmail.com: After reading about all the "World Cup Hype", one couldn't help but wonder what would have happened if only a fraction of the amount of money involved in all the fanfare was spent on developing cricket in India at the grassroots level....



Guest column -- Tendulkar's turn at bat:
Siva: ssiva46@hotmail.com: I am glad you have realized that Sachin struggled in the Diana Memorial match against fast-bowlers and scored mainly from Sohail and Ganguly. Aravinda's innings was far beter in that match, though he didn't reach one-hundred. Also, De Silva scored mainly off fastbowlers and Kumble. Sachin cannot play pace and scores all his runs against Sri Lankan spin "attack". De Silva can smash all bowlers. New boy Mahela has smahsed all bowlers too, even Akter who bowls Dravid all the time, and who Sachin cannot play at all.



Guest column -- Why India is a favourite for the Cup:
siva: ssiva46@hotmail.com: if Sri Lanka make the super-six, they will win the world cup. But the question is "will htey make the super six.



The Harsha Bhogle column:
kvenkat@cognizantcorp.com: : Harsha, Debates and disussions about who should be captain will continue before and after and even during the worldcup. Thats what is so interesting about this game and how we Indians feel about it. However, here is my two bobs worth - I cannot for the life of me understand how Azhar could have been chosen the captain. He doesn't come out as a strong motivator, does not lead by example and is really over the hill. We need someone with GUTS real guts, a never-say-die attitude and who can lead by example-someone like Ajay Jadeja. He has done so in the past and he is of Kapil Dev's ilk. They should have had the sense to nominate him the captain. Now I will hold my peace.

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