2009 IPL Thoughts

After shelling out 100 bucks to watch IPL on Pay Per view, here are the 5 things I think I think:

1. The commentators are awful. Ranjith Fernando is the WORST ever. He never finishes his sentences. His commentary is full of cliches. The person who hired him must be fired.

2. KKR is in turmoil. The team management will be fired by end of the season and they have to start fresh next year. Too many hyper inflated egos in the team including Buchanan, the coach. Now it seems like Steve Waugh/Warne coached themselves and they won in spite of Buchanan during the Aussie hey days.

3. CSK is in a roll. MS Dhoni has proved that he is the best captain among the eight. One could argue that he is the best in the world at the moment.

4. It seems that Lalit Modi and team are trying to ensure us all that South Africa has embraced and enjoying the event. May be they are. But it seems they are trying to convince the viewers too hard of that fact. It makes you wonder if this was all a bit phony.

5. Compared to last year, the bowlers must be happy about the shift to South Africa. They seem to get a little bit more respect in this tournament. Last year was brutal on the IPL bowlers.

Weather Guarantee

Awesome. ROFL.

If you need a laugh

Check out this, if you need a laugh. ICC is pretty consistent in inserting its foot in the mouth.

Coovum, a state river

Along this line, I as a Chennaite, demand that Coovum be declared as a state river - if not a national river. That way, the TN Government might one day take the necessary steps to clean up this river.

I wonder the same ...

"The Holdings and the Athertons say I am one of the top three left-arm spinners in the world... People say I am the best left-arm spinner in India, but I am not playing for India."
Murali Kartik rues that he doesn't seem to be in the frame despite the retirement of Anil Kumble

When cricket takes a backseat ...

This is what happens when cricket takes a backseat. Stanford 20/20 is simply just not cricket.

"The ECB has pawned the national team off for little more than a rich man's ego trip. English cricket has become Stanford's WAG."
Michael Atherton looks at the big picture, in his column

Picture courtesy: cricinfo.com

Sarah Palin

Sarah Palin on her Foreign Policy experience:
"Our next door neighbors are foreign countries. As Putin rears his head ..."

Ladies and Gentleman, we will not miss Dubya if McCain/Palin win the November elections. Oh, that is really scary.



With Sarah Palin providing such entertainment, who needs Tina Fey? Maybe, Palin takes Tina Fey seriously and tries to imitate her.




Quote of the Week II (from MMQB)

"It was such a bad pick, I thought Al Davis made it.''
-- Chris Rock, on The Howard Stern Show on Sirius Radio, on John McCain's selection of Sarah Palin as his vice-presidential running mate.

Such a good line, Rock thought; I'm going to repeat it on Larry King Live. And he did.

Hindustan Times "Reporting"

Deepika joins Ranbir in Ooty!

I love HT for such outstanding reports! I am eagerly waiting to know what they had for dinner.

"Darshan" takes too much white space !

I'm sure that Director Priyadarshan is not amused with this headline.

The movie Billo Barber is a remake of a Malayalam film. Irfan Khan and Badshah Khan are playing the lead roles in this much awaited film. The film is based on the fabulous relationship between Sudama and Krishna and is expected to hit the silver screen by this Diwali.

It seems like every friendship story between a rich man and a poor man can be extrapolated as a relationship between Sudama and Krishna. Whatever !

Tennis - Random Thoughts

1. Normalcy Restored

Normalcy was restored in Men's Tennis with Roger Federer winning the US Open Men's Championship. This has been a down year for Federer with just only one Grand Slam Title (US Open) and 2 Grand Slam Final appearances at French Open and Wimbledon and a semifinal loss at Australian Open. Oh at Wimbledon, he lost to Rafa Nadal in the finals, arguably one of the greatest matches ever played in the history of the sport. Ya, down year, only by his standards. Now he has won 5 in a row at Wimbledon and US Open. Roger "Freaking" Federer !

I also read that Federer attributed his net play success at US Open to his Gold Medal winning doubles performance with fellow Swiss Wawarinka at the Beijing Olympics. It looks like even the greats need some change in routine to inspire them.

3 more goals for Federer:

1. Win the French Open
2. Get past Sampras record of 14 Men's Singles Grand Slam titles.
3. Olympic Men's Singles Gold.


2. Andy Murray

It was good to see another rising star in Andy Murray at the US Open. He has tremendous ground strokes. He will cherish his fantastic win against Nadal in the US open semi finals. The arm chair expert (or should I say, the Lazy Boy) thinks that, he must improve his net game to win against Federer on a consistent basis. Federer tortured him with his net game at the US Open final. If he can stay out of injuries, men's tennis would be a lot more fun in the near future with Federer, Nadal, Djokovic and Murray at the top.

3. Women's Tennis

WTA has plans to allow on-court coaching during matches, starting next year. The interesting thing is that the coaches must wear a microphone so that TV audiences can hear the conversations. This will make it more interesting for the TV viewers. I am not sure how they are going to ensure that opponent coaches don't get to know the strategies from this approach. We will have to wait and see.


4. Serena Williams

If Serena Williams is completely focused on Tennis she could be the best ever to play the sport, in spite of her frequent nagging injuries. Currently, she has other priorities like acting and fashion that seems to overtake Tennis. US Open is a fantastic win for Serena. She was lucky that Venus choked a bit in the semifinals.


5. Jelena Jankovic

Great player - still to win a major Grand slam event. I noticed that she spent watching the big screen TV quite a few times to adjust her hair and make up during the change over. I guess this is one of the reasons why she can't get the big one. You need to be mentally tough to win the big events and these acts affect your mental focus on the game.