23 man Squad

I have been trying to collate the data of the 23 man squad all the teams were supposed to announce by 15th May. But the wonderful Football365 site has made my job easy by giving at the following link.

Reserved friends.

The hot thing in newspapers right now is the protest by Medical students and an organisation called youth for equality all over India against the HRD minister Arjun Singh's proposal against 50 % reservations for minorities in all Educational institutions across the board. In this context, I got a wonderful SMS joke today, which goes like this;
Why does Arjun Singh have sex only three days a week?
Ans: Because for the rest three days his wife is reserved for OBC's and on Sunday's for SC/ST.

I know it is a crude joke and bit vulgar considering that Arjun Singh such an old man and his sex life must be almost non-existent, we presume. But the point is well made. So I aptly started forwarding the sms'es to my friends. Of course, I was being sensitive enough not forward to any of the girls (I did not want any feminist backlash), then I also thought should I not forward this message to any of friends who belong to the Reserved category. That's when I realised, I really do not know the caste or category of my friends. So just messaged most off them who would like this joke. That highlights the point, that we don't in normal life discriminate among the caste. Caste based discrimination is very prominent in uneducated and Rural India. Religion based discrimination is very prevalent among all classes in this country but not caste based. This discrimination has been created by the politicians, first by Mandal commission and then now with Arjun Singh's last ditch effort for glory.
Lot of commentators in the media seem to write, how shallow these anti-reservationists are and how they do not care for the greater good of the country. What this commentators do not get, is that we have had reservations for the last 15 years. Who has benefited from it.... only private colleges which are owned by politicians. I did my Engineering from college which had rotten or non-existent infrastructure. This college is owned by now Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Mr. Vilasrao Deshmukh. That time, he was a rebel leader, fighting against Sharad Pawar. But now in power, he has put all his black money on the college, built a illegal building for them in Versova (a posh locality in Mumbai). Do you think he could have swindled so much if he did not sell those vacant OBC and SC/ST seats to candidates who would have got in some the top colleges if it were'nt for reservation. The same goes with most other private colleges in Maharashtra, which are owned and benefited by crooked politicians.
If these politicians had their way, there will be wide spread discrimination in our country. Before every job interview, interviewers would like to know if the candidate actually deserved the IIT degree or was just "being born a the right place at the right time". The Reservationists claim that the above syndrome is exactly that they are trying to combat. But the truth is contrary.

Bouncebackability!!!

A term used by the Crystal Palace Manager Iain Dowie in the year 2005, when his team came back from behind against Arsenal. The word describes the ability of teams to comeback from behind in a game. We have all seen games where sportsmen do the incredulous. We have witnessed the Davids beat the Goliaths and players coming back from the dead. But you don't expect that to happen with the same team and the same set of players again and again.

But that's exactly what has happened at The FA Cup Finals in Cardiff yesterday. Liverpool beat West Ham in penalty shoot out.There is nothing surprising on the final result, Liverpool were the favorites to win, they were 2 goals down after first 30 minutes. They pulled back a goal before close of first half and equalized early in the second half. But then West Ham's Paul Konchesky scored with a curling shot from the left which went over the Pool goalkeeper Pepe Reina. Then Steven Gerrard did what he has made a habit off. In the 89th minute, he scored a volley shot from the edge of the box which shot like a bullet in the goal.

With extra time and penalty due, I think everyone knew Liverpool would do it. May 25th 2005, Istanbul will haunt all teams facing Liverpool. If they can come for 3 goals down against AC Milan which, composed the likes of Shevchenko, Kaka, Stam, Maldini, Crespo, Cafu and Gattuso, and win in the penalty with a goalkeeper of the likes of Jerzy Dudek, then anything is possible. Earlier in that same Champions League season, they had to win against Olympiakos in the Round robin stage, and Steven Gerrard scored a scorcher in the second half extra time. Not that Liverpool have great individual players, but there belief in the team, that they can comeback from any adverse situation.

For me personally, the word bouncebackability has become a mantra for kicking myself out of a lull. Liverpool has become a symbol of the same. So whenever one is down and feel depressed, tell yourself if a team like Liverpool can do it so many times, you definitely can!

End of season.... Beginning of the Dreams.

This week all European First division league football has completed . The season will finish over
this week in all the key European nations. This is the time of the year when football fans start
getting all lazy and sluggish and basically bored as they have nothing to look forward to over
the weekends. No Super Sunday or late night middle of the week Champions League to get the couch potatoes to the edge of their... couches. But every 4 years the Mother of all sporting events make its appearance. This year the grand event is starting on June 09 and will run upto July 09.

Football World cup is an event of dreams for the whole world. So this is a time for the dreams to begin. The people of all the 32 countries qualified for the event will feel they have chance. On
paper, Brazil can win the World Cup with their B Team! But thankfully football is more
unpredictable than this. The best example has been the Euro 2004 winner Greece who could not even qualify for the World cup. Liverpool one the UEFA Champions League last season by the most freakiest fashion. So the world can dream on. Perhaps Ivory Coast will get out the group of death and go all the way!!!
By May 15th all the countries have to submit their 23 squad members. So the first round of
controversies will begin from there and will try to track them down. So henceforth, I will be using this blog to provide my views on this big event. The timing of the matches might be a little problematic here in India as 21:00 German time would mean the match will start at around 1:00 a.m and run upto 3:30 next day morning. But there are plenty of 17:00 starts also, and I am not going any of the crucial matches. Guess will have to make rain excuse to get late office.

Who wants to be a Bowler?

Bowling, must be the most thankless job in the Indian sub - continent right now. Around 3000 runs have been scored just 2 tests between India and Pakistan in Pakistan. Supposed to be one of the most exciting series in the world. The media compared it to the Ashes serise of 05. But it has turned out to be a damp squib.
The curators are being blamed for the whole thing. But it looks unlikely that the curators could
be blamed for such a good batting wicket. The buck has to stop at the PCB who are responsible for the whole event. They obviously under pressure to ensure that Pakistan do not lose. So they made wickets which were batsmen friendly. It is not an easy task to make them, especially in winter when due to cold and foggy conditions there is bound to be some "life" in the pitches.
The good points as far as India are concerned from these 2 matches were that they fought back
against a huge score in both the matches. Very rarely do see teams score such huge targets under pressure away from home. To do that twice shows the calibre of the Indian Batting, particular of their captain Rahul Dravid. Equally impressive is the innings played by Younis Khan. He is real captain material and can be called the Dravid of Pakistan. His consistency is amazing so to is his technique of play.
The media has been full praise for the new bowlers from both the sides, namely RP Singh and Mohd. Asif. But these were performances in the pitches that had no sting. Their real tests will be bowling in even balanced pitches.

End of an Era or beginning of a struggle.

The announcement of Rahul Dravid as captain of Indian cricket team for the home ODI series against Sri Lanka and South Africa has excited everybody from the media to the roadside cricket enthusiast. The general feeling is that Ganguly's term as captaincy has ended for ever. This perception is partly made by media and partly by the cricket lovers who loathe him. Obituaries about his captaincy have appeared in newspaper about how it was a great era for Indian cricket and how Ganguly is destined not to play cricket for the country any more.

But the Indian selectors have sidelined Ganguly only for the first 2 games that also because of his injury. There is every likelihood that he will be selected later albeit as a batsman and not captain. My own feeling is that Ganguly is a shrewd person who will maneuver the selectors first to choose him as a batsman and later as a captain. Then tug of war will begin between what coach Greg Chappel wants and what Ganguly can achieve.

The politics apart the selection of the 15 for the first 2 games are exciting and controversial. Some good performers such as Laxman and Zaheer Khan have been dropped and in place new talent such as RP Singh, JP Yadav, Sree Santh and Venugopal Rao have been inducted. Venugopal Rao deserved his place just on the merit of his performance in the Challenger Series. But Laxman also performed exceedingly well in that series as well as in the ODI's in Zimbabwe. Sachin Tendulkar on the other hand coming out of an injury has shown very poor form in the Challenger series. But the question is does any selector in India have the guts to drop Sachin when he is ready to play. Even the so called professional Greg Chappel has defended his inclusion in an interview saying he is a mater batsman and with time and better competition he will raise his game. The inclusion of Sree Santh is a pleasant surprise. For 2 reasons; 1. He was relatively unknown before the Challenger series and, 2. He has been chosen over Zaheer Khan and L. Balaji.
The selectors for a change have been bold to make these selections and the fans should be patient with the newcomers. But then the Indian cricket fan is a very demanding customer. They expect miracles from day one. And many a youngster has shown in the past and have faded away due to pressure and/or politics. Sanjay Bangar, Hemang Badani, Dinesh Mongia, SS Das are just few of the names that are slowly fading away from public memory.

Squad
Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, Gautam Gambhir, Rahul Dravid (captain), Yuvraj Singh, Venugopal Rao, Suresh Raina, JP Yadav, MS Dhoni (wk), Harbhajan Singh, Murali Kartik, Irfan Pathan, Ajit Agarkar, S Sreesanth, RP Singh.