UWMBCA Welegedara

How many pages does Uda Walawwe Mahim Bandaralage Chanaka Asanka Welegedara (UWMBCA Welegedara) have on his passport ?


Here's how I see a telephone conversation happening between Welegedara and an airline reservation specialist:

Welegedara: I need to book a round trip ticket to Sydney from Colombo?

Airline Specialist: Sure, Sir. I can help you with that. Can you give me your full name for me to book your ticket?

Welegedara: Here, we go again. Are you ready? U as in Umbrella, D as in David, A as in Asia - that is my first part of my first name, my second part of the first name is Walawwe - W as in Water, A as in Asia .............................................................................................................
.................................................................................................
Maam, did you get that?

Airline Specialist : ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

Saurav Ganguly, I apologize

Saurav,

I thought you were finished as an International Cricketer. We all owe you an apology. But honestly, don't tell me that the break from International cricket did not make you a better batsman and overall a better team player. Anyway, welcome back and hope you continue your good form Down Under.

cheers
Madras Maverick

You gotto go when you gotto go

Cell phone service will find toilets

Companies such as Vindigo Inc. in the U.S. offers similar cell phone searches but SatLav is being touted as the first text-based toilet-finder in Britain.

"It's the first fully managed service that we're aware of," British Toilet Association director Richard Chisnell said, praising the council.

"Thank heavens for Westminster's public toilets," he said.

ICL kicks off today - Kerry Packer 2 ?

ICL kicks off today with Chandigarh Lions taking on Delhi Jats.

Jazzy television coverage is expected too - GPS devices being attached to players, displaying their heart-beat rates, body temperatures etc. A giant screen has been installed and disco-like arrangements have been set up on the stage.

Its high time some one spiced up cricket coverage on TV.

Here's some of my wacky ideas for spicing up cricket telecast on TV and cricket in general. Harsha Bhogle had suggested similar ideas on this topic before.

1. Identify the total yards/km covered by each batsmen running between the wickets.
2. Selectively mike-up the captain in crucial occasions to get his thoughts and strategy - ensure that opposition team does not have access to this. Only the viewers should get access to this feed.

Here's some of my ideas on spicing up cricket in general and use technology effectively to remove any possible human errors in influencing the outcome of the games. Sometimes it is really boring to watch the middle over in a 50 overs ODI game.

1. Like in National Football League (NFL) in USA, the batting and bowling team must be allowed certain number of challenges per innings (say max of 3) to challenge umpiring decisions which would be referred to the 3rd umpire with audio/video access. If the challenging team wins the challenge. they get to keep the challenge, otherwise they would lose the challenge.

• This will open up interesting strategies for the batting team to pick and choose when they should challenge. They may want to challenge bad decisions against top order batsmen only and not for decisions that go against tail enders.
  
• The same thing goes for the bowling team. They may want to challenge a tough catch, given not out by the umpires on the field and hope for conclusive video evidence available to get a decision in their favor. Same thing goes for which decision they challenge - who is the batsmen, etc.

2. The TV umpire shall overrule the decision on the field only in case of conclusive audio/visual evidence. If not, the ruling on the field should stand.

3. I also like the old super sub rule with a tweak. Have both teams name 12 players and play them whenever. The old super-sub rule was heavily favorable for the team winning the toss.

Comments welcome ...

Indian test team for down under

Based on Rajaram's suggestion, here's my test team for the Aussie Series:

Jaffer, Gambhir, Karthik, Dravid, Tendulkar, Ganguly, Laxman, Yuvraj, Dhoni, Kumble, Harbhajan, Zaheer, RP Singh, Sreesanth, and Irfan Pathan.

Stand by: Munaf Patel (subject to fitness)

Why Saawariya is not doing well in Tamil Nadu

I am not a Sanjay Leela Bhansali fan. So please do not look for objective criticism of the movie Saawariya from me. You can check out reviews here and there.

Saawariya is not doing well in Tamil Nadu mainly due to its name. Saawariya in Tamil means "are you ready to die" or something close to that. People probably may not want to see this movie with an inauspicious title released on a festival day like Diwali . Om Shanti Om is doing well, I understand. The positive connotation with the name may have played part in its success.

Vintage Sachin

Because of articles like this, Rohit Brijnath will always remain my favorite sports journalist.

What does Tendulkar play for? Team, himself, pride, records? Maybe he plays because part of him is just a boy who finds himself when bat meets ball. Maybe he plays because of a boy agog in the stands. Maybe he has summoned this last reservoir of energy to show a kid, now old enough to understand, why, for 18 years, the world has made such a fuss about his father.

Sachin's score in his last 21 ODI.

99, 93, 8, 17, 99, 8, 55, 71, 94, 30, 0, 16, 43, 79, 47, 72, 21, 4, 99, 29, 97

Long wait for Jumbo

It took just 118 completed tests and 17 years since Test debut for Anil "Jumbo" Kumble to become the captain of Indian Test Cricket team. He has been one of the most consistent bowlers for India for a long time. One thing is sure - he is going to play his hearts out in Australia and he may even pull a surprise or two with his leadership skills.