just like that

This World cup has been a big disappointment to me for two reasons

1) India didn’t make it past the first round

2) The overall mediocre cricket played (except for the top four teams, to an extent)

However, this World cup would still be remembered as the World cup of the minnows. Bangladesh truly arrived in the league of big teams. It will be interesting to see how they shape up from here. They can go on and become a major power like SriLanka did or fade out like Zimbabwe. The next five to ten years are going to be crucial in this regard. Another team that made it big in this World cup was Ireland. From being just part-time players on a holiday to the islands they have risen to the tenth position ahead of Zimbabwe and Kenya in the ICC table. Once again, the cricket administration here needs to develop a sound first class schedule and develop a pool of players. On the other hand, they could ensure that most of the players get good county experience in England. That should not be difficult after their recent performances.

Anyways, we are now at the business end of the tournament and truly the top four teams have made it here. My friend asked me to pick the winner of the World Cup just around the time the World cup was about to start. I told him that would be difficult but instead picked the four semifinalists – Australia, India, South Africa and New Zealand. Looking back now, that prediction isn’t far off :) As for picking the winner, if I were to purely go by what by the formbook says, there is only one team which is winning this World cup – Australia. Alas, this is the World cup of the minnows and my heart wants any of the other three teams to win. New Zealand, SriLanka, South Africa in that order would be my choice for the champions. However as things stand, I hope SA defeat the Aussies and NZ defeat the Lankans. And in the final, I hope Shane Bond takes the last wicket in a tense final over and wins the cup for New Zealand :) Above everything, I just want to watch three good, nail-biting matches. Please!

All the best. May the best team (apart from the Aussies) win!

Update, May 1:
Aussies won the World cup :(. At the moment, they seem unstoppable for at least another couple of years. Anyways, well played Srilanka! India needs to learn a few lessons from them.

To kick-start my re-entry to blogging, just a round-up of yesterday’s important events and my views on them:

1) The much hyped Abhi-Ash marriage took place yesterday. I was getting really sick and tired of all the useless coverage that the news channels were bringing over the last 3-4 days. If they wanted to have a private affair, let them have it. Why do these channels have to haunt their houses waiting for something/someone to show up? Anyways with that marriage, my cup of woe is full. Aishwarya was the last in the list of my favorite actresses – Revathy, Kajol and the eighth wonder. Now have to turn my attention to the promising Asin :)

2) Brian Charles Lara announced retirement from international cricket. Despite what has happened in the recent past, he will always be remembered as one among the greatest batsmen ever. When in full flow, he was such a pleasure to watch. However, just like Inzamam a few weeks earlier, it’s not always possible to get your timing right.

3) The Indian team for the Bangladesh tour was announced. The selectors were forced to do something dramatic after the WC debacle. They had to show that they were tough; that they shall put Indian cricket back on track. Unfortunately, they have only made the water muddier. A couple of silly things I could notice:

a. Dropping Virender Sehwag from the test team and selecting him for the one-day team – Absolute bullshit. With the exception of the SouthAfrica tour, Sehwag has been our leading batsman in tests last year. And he should have been dropped from the one-day team for obvious reasons.

b. Playing Piyush Chawla for the one-dayers. In today’s scenario, fielding a young leg-spinner in the one-dayers is not a good option. He will go for control of run-flow over wickets and in the process lose the edge. Should have atleast let him stay for the tests as well.

4) The Government has asked the IIMs to put on hold the admission process. If the new quotas are only incremental and are not going to affect the general category students (as promised by our HRD minister), why not go ahead with the admission process for the general category? Why cause unnecessary trouble for everyone? As far as I can see, this is once again a ploy used by the HRD minister to put the time pressure on the Court to force the verdict, probably without providing the latest census data as required by the court. At the end of the day, I just hope genuine students (whichever category they may belong to) don’t get affected in all this politics bullshit.

Chalo then, that’s it for now. Hope to get back to normal blogging for sometime before I join work.