Memorykeeper

Australia XI or RoW XI, for Super Series

I have voted for World XI to win. However, do hold reservations as to how a bunch of players from different teams, cultures, attitudes, can gel together, play together in such a short time leading up to the main event.

Commented on: [Corridor of Uncertainty]

305 Holidays per year! GTD? What's that??

This is from a city website - [Baroda Online] - in India regarding the judicial system or rather the judicial non-system. This reflects honestly the situation of the judicial system across the board in India. Something radical needs to be done, obviously. But does this little city or for that matter, India have someone radical to intiate such changes.

[305 Holidays 'Annually']:
Did you know that 450,000 civil and criminal cases are pending in Vadodara's courts. The courts have worked for about 60 days every year for the last three years (instead of 135 days every year). The courts enjoy 23 public holidays, six weeks' summer vacation, two weeks' winter vacation, one week' Diwali vacation and a holiday on every second and fourth Saturday of the month. Each judge has about 15,000 cases on his hands, instead of the 500 cases he is supposed to handle. At least 150 judges are required to handle the cases quickly, but the court has only 30 judges.

GTD ? What in the world is that? This would be an ideal place for [David Allen] to set up shop to share the knowledge of how to [Get Things Done] (GTD)! Probably, if the system is worked the way it should be, these 'overworked' folk can still enjoy the holidays AND catch up on the back log.

Oh India!!

Neither god nor Buddha: How does Destiny happen?

I have become a firm believer in destiny and how major events of our lives have been pre-ordained. If it is meant to happen, happen it will. So many events in my life have proved to be culminations of events past or inception of events future.

Things have to happen, for things to happen. A term I am often reminded of.

How, what, or who makes these pre-ordained events happen? If we are supposed to be at a particular juncture of our life, who or what makes it so?

Haruki Murakami tries to delve into this in the following lines from his book, Kafka on the Shore, in a conversation between two charachters; one of which is portrayed as the 'representation', who or which makes the things happen for things to happen.

"..Shape I may take, converse I may, but neither god nor Buddha am I, rather an insensate being whose heart thus differs from that of man....Neither god nor Buddha, just an insensate. As such, of the good and bad of man I neither inquire nor follow"

..I'm appearing here in human form, but I'm neither god nor Buddha. My heart works differently from humans' hearts because I don't have any feelings. That's what it means..
..Since I'm neither god nor Buddha, I don't need to judge whether people are good or evil. Like wise I don't have to act according to standards of good or evil.

..I'm not beyond good and evil, exactly -- they just don't matter to me. I have no idea what's good or what's evil. I'm a very pragmatic being. A neutral object, as it were, and all I care about is consummating the function I've been given to perform...

I'm kind of an overseer, supervising something to make sure it fulfills it's original role. Checking the correlation between different worlds, making sure things are in the right order. So results follow causes and meanings don't get mixed up. So the past comes before the present, the future after it. Things can get a little out of order, that's okay. Nothing's perfect. If the account book's basically in balance, though, that's fine with me.

[Haruki Murakami] in [Kafka on the Shore]
Review by [Charles Taylor]

Want to be an Owl?

If you get up in the middle of the night to grab a glass of water, there's a simple way to avoid stubbing toes on the way back to bed. Close one eye just before you you turn on the light or open the fridge door, and keep it closed the whole time the light is on.

When you turn the lights off, open both eyes.  The eye you kept closed will still be dilated, and allow you to see in the dark.

Matthew, Tricks of the Trade

What shall we do with Inzamam?

1. He was not included. He was upset.

2. Injuries to players caused him to be invited as replacement. He is still upset.

3. He refuses, because he is upset.

4. Pakistan Cricket Board [PCB] request him to please go and play. He is still upset.

5. He finally agrees to play. He is not so upset.

6. He goes to meet the PCB chairman to work out plans to travel to Australia. He does not get parking at the stadium where the office is. He is again upset. [No entry. No parking]

7. He decides to pull out. He is upset, that's why.

8. Read 4. above.

9. He decides to play.

10. He gets left out of ODI. Yes, you got it. He is upset.

11. He is upset, but he still will play!

Will the real Indian Cricket please make itself known!

A lot of cricket personalities are coming to the fore, voicing their opinions and thoughts on this whole sorry mess. The more I read about it, the more I am convinced that whoever started it, it was good that it was started. Manjrekar indicates a positive stance to the whole matter and seems to imply the assumption that there will be a new captain. But at the same time, he holds reservations that when the time calls for Indian Cricket to stand up, it decides to sit back on its haunches and carry on rattling down the bylane at a steady grandfatherly pace. I trust Gavaskar, Shastri, Venkat will indeed get off the aforesaid haunches and move Indian Cricket to the fast lane with secure, sure and true hands of Chappell at the helm.

I can tell you for sure, we the Indian cricketing fraternity, which includes current players too, have always fantasised going the Australian way. It’s often talked about in close circles, amongst friends and believe it or not, sometimes in hushed tones, as if discussing a conspiracy to overthrow the Government.

But when the time or opportunity comes to actually make this a reality, we turn away from that way, which is basically about doing what is right and chose the road riddled with compromises.

So, we prefer that narrow lane with a lot of bylanes to reach the destination rather than that simple straightforward, six-lane highway which can take us to our destination in half the time.

….it’s important they also find out whether the rest of the team and not only the new captain is ready to go the Chappell way.

Here’s the Chappell way. Sanjay Manjrekar, Midday, Sept 26, 2005

We had the, now famous or infamous, email leaked to the world. Now on the day before the review meeting in Mumbai on Sept 27, 2005, we have the questions that will be asked of Messrs. Ganguly and Chappell, respectively. The writer says that Chappell gets the difficult ones! From the way Ganguly has been behaving and the level of maturity he has shown, surely his set of questions will prove to be the difficult ones. A man of Chappell’s stature, experience and honesty will find such questions as hard as answering ‘How are you?’!!

Questions for Sourav
• Did you tip off the press that it was Greg Chappell who had asked you to step down as captain?
• Who should have the final say in the playing 11: captain or coach?
• What do you think of Greg Chappell as a coach?
• What prompted both of you to create a wall between each other?

Questions for Greg
• Why did you send the email to three people — board president Ranbir Singh Mahendra, secretary SK Nair and joint secretary Gautam Dasgupta? (The purpose of this question is to find out who leaked the email.)
• Why did you send the email in the middle of the tour, when you knew the review committee would be meeting in Mumbai on September 27?
• How did you conclude that Ganguly was physically and mentally unfit in such a short time?
• How did the media find out that you had asked Ganguly to step down before the first Test in Harare?
• You called for a truce with Sourav Ganguly and even posed for pictures with him on September 18. On the same day you emailed the three board officials, criticising the captain.
What prompted you to do this?

Dear Greg: Why? How? What now? By: Debasish Datta, September 26, 2005, Midday

The elder statesman of Indian Cricket, Raj Singh Dungarpur speaks his mind. He has been ‘put out to pasture’, but is still vociferous as always. He has been known to say things that go off no a tangent, but the following excerpt of two lines, from his press conference, highlight the realities that pull Indian Cricket into the quagmire of mediocrity and complacency.

"It's painful for me to criticise an Indian captain, but I feel in this situation it's Ganguly who should quit. But I know this is not going to happen as he's been protected right through his tenure by another person from Kolkata, Dalmiya", Dungarpur told a press conference here today.

"The leak was to a Bengali paper and only two men (to whom the mail was sent) knew the lingua franca. One was Dalmiya and the other was (board's joint secretary) Gautam Dasgupta who would not have done anything without the former's knowledge," the former national selection committee chairman said.

Raj Singh calls for Sourav Ganguly's head, By: PTI, September 26, 2005, Midday

What will the news show tomorrow? A radical announcement or the expected compromise?

Posted earlier under cricket alter-ego - RJ on [World Cricket Blog]
World Cricket Blog's mention by [WeblogWatch: BBC]

Zim v Ind: T2 D1

The Teams:

Zimbabwe:
Taylor, Duffin, Ebrahim,Taibu, Masakadza, Streak, Coventry, Blignaut, Mhawire, Dabengwa

India:
Sehwag, Gambhir, Dravid, Laxman, Ganguly, Yuvraj, Karthik, Pathan, Kumble, Harbhajan, Khan.

Zim: 1st Inn:     161 off 44.2 overs

BRM Taylor            c Dravid           b Pathan               4   3   1  0
T Duffin              c Laxman           b Pathan              12  30   2  0
DD Ebrahim            c Karthik          b Khan                14  32   1  0
*+T Taibu             c Karthik          b Pathan               0   2   0  0
H Masakadza           lbw                b Pathan              27  69   4  0
HH Streak             c Gambhir          b Harbhajan Singh     14  42   1  0
CK Coventry           c Dravid           b Harbhajan Singh     37  32   4  1
AM Blignaut           c Karthik          b Pathan              13  28   1  0
KM Dabengwa           c Laxman           b Pathan              18  20   3  0
NB Mahwire            lbw                b Pathan               1   3   0  0
W Mwayenga            not out                                  14   7   1  1
Extras                (b 1, lb 3, w 1, nb 2)                    7
Total                 (all out, 44.2 overs)                   161

Ind: 1st Inn:      14/0 off 4 overs

Pathan seems to have used the Zim team as his own personal practice team. Zim finished off for 161 with Pathan at 7/59 from his 15.2 overs. These are the figures that reflect Pathan's capability. However, these figures will always be followed by 'Oh, but that was against Zimbabwe'! Which is true, but the capability exists and more performances like this can only help Pathan set himself up for all future series. Chappell needs to watch and control the growth. Today's figures show Pathan gradually stamping his name on the 'Opening strike bowler' slot. Well played sir.

Migrated to Typepad

After my previous bloghost decided to unilaterally change my blog layouts and insertion of their own advertising gimmicks linking to my posts, I finally decided to up and move.

Moving bloghosts is as big as moving house. Leaving a friendly comfortable environment to a new, strange and different environment. Prior to that choosing the right environment. In this case, the right blog host.

Initially I was drawn to another similar bloghost. Weighing the conveniences and after the initial browsing of the respective sample blogs, I finally rested these tired feet at Typepad, albeit a trial month. On a sharp learning curve, but the incline made easy by the excellent support material and documentation.

Looks like a move which will extend further than the temp one month. It will cost, no doubt. This one month will show and prove whether the cost is a. justified and b. worth it.

Zim v Ind T1 D4 Wrapped Up

Zimbabwe 2nd innings                                            R   B   4  6
BRM Taylor            lbw                b Pathan               4   4   1  0
T Duffin                                      b Khan                 2   6   0  0
H Masakadza           c Kumble      b Pathan               2  12   0  0
DD Ebrahim                                b Pathan               1  13   0  0
*+T Taibu             c Karthik         b Kumble             52  83   8  0
HH Streak             lbw                b Pathan               0   1   0  0
CK Coventry     c Gambhir      b Harbhajan Singh     24  27   4  0
AM Blignaut                         b Harbhajan Singh     26  40   4  0
KM Dabengwa           lbw      b Harbhajan Singh     16  30   3  0
GM Ewing              lbw        b Harbhajan Singh     34  47   7  0
NB Mahwire            not out                                  13  31   0  0
Extras                (b 2, w 2, nb 7)                         11
Total                 (all out, 47.5 overs)                   185

Harbhajan gets the necessary practice and wickets. He needed these, even though they may be Zimbabwean tailenders. Lately his performance shave been lack lustre making him seem to pretty pedestrian.

These Zim test matches should be used as a Booster series. A not so strong opponent where players can ease into their 'groove' that they, in the past, had been ejected out of. Sehwag, Gambhir, Ganguly, Laxman, Harbhajan all fall into this basket.The tailenders still seem to have given some sort of reply to India. Something that needs to be corrected if India want to remain strong, even in the way the figures and records show at the end of the series.

An innings defeat of a Zimbabwe team, such as this, has to be the benchmark.

Live like you're dying

Live like you're dying

Tim McGraw

He said I was in my early forties
with a lot of life before me
when a moment came that stopped me on a dime
and I spent most of the next days
looking at the x-rays
Talking bout the options
and talking bout sweet time
I asked him when it sank in
that this might really be the real end
how's it hit you when you get that kinda news
man what'd you do

and he said
I went sky diving
I went Rocky Mountain climbing
I went 2.7 seconds on a bull named FuManchu
and I loved deeper and I spoke sweeter
and I gave forgiveness I'd been denying
and he said someday I hope you get the chance
to live like you were dying.

He said I was finally the husband
that most the time I wasn't
and I became a friend a friend would like to have
and all the sudden going fishin
wasn't such an imposition
and I went three times that year I lost my dad
well I finally read the good book
and I took a good long hard look
at what I'd do if I could do it all again

and then
I went sky diving
I went Rocky Mountain climbing
I went 2.7 seconds on a bull named FuManchu
and I loved deeper and I spoke sweeter
and I gave forgiveness I'd been denying
and he said someday I hope you get the chance
to live like you were dying.

Like tomorrow was a gift and you got eternity to think about
what'd you do with it what did you do with it
what did I do with it
what would I do with it'

Sky diving
I went Rocky Mountain climbing
I went 2.7 seconds on a bull named FuManchu
and then I loved deeper and I spoke sweeter
and I watched an eagle as it was flying
and he said someday I hope you get the chance
To live like you were dying

~ 0 ~