England wins the T20 World Cup 2010

Yes finally English Team has won the world Cup. It took 35 Years and 18 attempts to get this far. No other team has taken it thus far. Even SriLanka, (a team considered to be minnows like Bangladesh is now in 1979 WC) won their first World cup in 17 Years and just their 5th attempt. Therefore this has got to be the longest test that any national fan could have for a team. The fact that it has come on the brink of so many South Africans playing for England should not take any sheen out of the triumph. After all they did undergo the normal process to get this far.

Coming back to the tournament itself, it was the most clinical triumph seen from a a cricket team excepting Australia. No cricket team has won a world cup with so much domination except Australia in recent past. The two standout performers were Kieswetter and Petersen. Petersen being a star performer and a batting stalwart, he was expected to deliver but Kieswetter was a complete novice at least as far as international audience is concerned. To deliver in such a big tournament and in such a big stage (WC Final) speaks volumes on his abilities and promise that he holds in future for England. Another one man who needs special mention is Graham Swann, England have always been known for the pacemen or swing bowlers that you rarely get to see an attacking spinner come from English soil. It is perhaps for first time in my memory that I have seen England unearth a really talented and definitely the most promising spinner that England has ever had. In fact he is arguably the best spinner presently in International circuit on current form (with all due respects to Murali, Vettori and Harbhajan).

England lost only one match in this tournament but that too only due to Duckworth Lewis method otherwise they have been very clinical right from the start. Special mention should also be made of their final match. The way they played it so professionally and not even once letting Australia to claw their way back into the match was very refreshing to see for a neutral fan. This was exactly the need of the hour for a cricket fan to see some healthy competition developing between the rival teams and more importantly to see English team showing more interest towards shorter formats. English teams in past have always had tendency to ignore shorter versions of the game)

All the English fans should be rejoicing this victory and hoping for a similar triumph in the purer version of the game when the Ashes start later this year. I think this is a very good platform for England to defend their Ashes and to win a series in Australia after around 20 odd years. English team have all the firepower in all the departments of the game for winning Ashes series in Aussie soil and perhaps for first time in a very long time would start as favourites for the series. I sign off wishing England All the Best for Ashes.

Movie Review: 3 Idiots

Well I was very lucky to get hold of a movie ticket to this movie for almost first day first show (actually it was second day). The reasons were obviously Aamir and Hirani. Both of them haven’t delivered a flop or a dud at box office for a very long time. I knew the perfectionist that Aamir and the entertainer that Hirani is, this movie is sure to be engrossing if not fulfilling. I have to say that I was more than happy with the outcome of the movie. It was natural, soft and last but not least touching.

The Movie started in all too familiar way of a search for a person. It is not uncommon in Hindi cinema to search for a person. But the difference here in was not the search component but the person they were searching was quite different from any normal person. Well the name itself was very different Ranchoddas Shaymaldas Chajaad. This guy was not either the typical Hindi romantic hero or even the typical action Hero that we come across in each and every Hindi cinema. He was sensible, charismatic, entertaining and also very joyful character. Well I have to say that Aamir fitted in perfectly into this role and it didn’t seem odd at all that a forty plus person was playing a college student.







The other characters in this movie are also equally contributing and make a difference to the overall feel of the movie. The work of Sharman Joshi and Madhavan from RDB fame was expected to be good but what caught everyone the most attention and also the real surprise component in this movie was Chatur character. He was well suited to his character and made everyone in the theater to laugh his heart out. His Balatkar scene and his atypical Hindi accent were all the more good moments of the movie. The scene where Chatur impresses the most is when he reminds Madhavan and Sharman of the oath that he took of revenge and here he is delivering a perfect kickback. It sounded too childish and laughable but to think of it that is how a normal elite student of a premium institutes pit against each other nowadays. It is childish for us but that is the dirty world out there in those premium institutes.

The theme of the movie is very much coherent with the Taarae Zameen Par and the script of the Movie also had the feel of Munnabhai part one. The difference was the delivery of the whole package by different character with different story, screenplay and direction. The Movie is sure to be loved at first shot by everyone and may be people will not mind spending some more on the repeat viewing too. It is already breaking Sholay records and looks like becoming the all time favorite of Hindi cinema. Even then this Movie had certain shortcomings which needed to be addressed like for example not everyone will be as successful as Madhavan’s character if he goes away from the prescribed path. One example could be the US where every person has the maximum freedom that one can actually wish to have and you now have US president requesting his people to concentrate on Science and Maths. Well in a country like India it becomes doubly difficult to cross the paths.







Kareena Kappor did not have much to do in this Movie and it seemed more of a small role for her and Boman Irani’s character was again like his Munnabhai part one role where he was the same strict principal albeit in a engineering school. The NASA pencil scene and Balatkar scene is something we have heard of in our emails and school jokes yet it seemed different when it was put in as a movie scene. Javed Jaffrey’s brief stint was a nice gripping moment before interval but unexpectedly he just withers away after the interval.

Music didn’t seem all that great on TV and CD players but when seen in the context of the story and script, it seemed to make the cut. “Give me some sunshine” song had a nice feelings attached to it and seemed to cut across many people’s college days. Aamir’s courage in dealing with sensitive issues like student suicides, Indian education system, youth power, crossing new bridges are positive moments of the Movie. Overall this Movie felt like a complete package of message, music, masala (pregnant scene), sentiment and some non hand fights (between Aamir and Irani).

Music Review: Blue

I'm reviewing the soundtrack of the Hindi movie Blue after nearly a month of its release because unlike others I believe a musical review needs time and cannot be reviewed in an hour after listening to the songs unlike the movie which could connect to you instantly or if it doesn’t then it means you didn’t like it. Thus there is a delay in the review of this Album.

The Music director of this Album needs no introduction and movie coming from him after nearly six months gap which is long kept everyone interested. AR Rahman had a spurt of movies in a short burst namely Sakkarakatti (Tamil movie), Jaane Tu ya Jaane Na, Yuvvraaj, Ghajini, Slumdog, Delhi-6 in a span of about four months. Of late, he did not have any movies and being a fan of his, I was expecting a bit more from this. The Blue music definitely doesn’t disappoint.







The first song that I liked the most and may be the catchiest song of all is “Chiggy Wiggy”. If you listen to this number the first time, you will be instantly attracted to it than the rest of songs. The English lyrics makes a nice soothing feeling to ears and also the Hindi word coming at the mid of the song adds to its charm. Overall this song is a beautiful one but the Rahman fan always look for his melody and in “Bhoola Tujhe” we have a nice melody song. The song goes very slowly and captivates your heart as you listen to it three or four times. The USP of this song is why the review of this movie comes late as it takes time to both appreciate and enjoy this song. It also has nice visuals when watched in the theater.

The next two songs are fast paced songs in “Blue Theme” and “Fiqrana”. Both these songs are catchy numbers too and the “Blue theme” song has some amazing video to add to it. These songs are also very catchy and you feel, “Hey we are getting our value for money”. The other song “Yaar Mila tha” is actually very good too, but I do not remember seeing it in the Movie, perhaps it was edited out in the last touch.








The title song “Rehnuma” is little unique in its way as it first starts as a slow paced song and gradually picks speed that you could probably relate to this movie storyline which starts sedately to pick speed in the climax. The last song “Aaj Dil” has the AR Rahman written all over it. It’s a very neat song in its lyrics and keeps you reminding that Rahman rules as far as Indian music industry is concerned. The visuals of this song makes elderly people in your home say “we did not have this much shortage of clothes even in our freedom struggle times”.

Overall the Music of this movie is really good. It’s unique with its new techno instruments that we have not heard of before. Those who are still wavering over whether to buy this album or not, please go fast and grab a copy of this album. It’s Goddamn good!

Cricket: Five World cups in last three years

Yes will you believe it, there have been five world cups in last three years and we used to think world cup comes once in four years. There have been five world cups in three years:

1) ICC Champions Trophy 2006
2) ICC Cricket World Cup 2007
3) ICC T20 World Cup 2007
4) ICC T20 World Cup 2009
5) ICC Champions Trophy 2009







ICC has become cash rich body and still it wants to milk the cash cow. Players have become fatigued and there has been same winner (Australia) on three occasions but still ICC wants to conduct T20 every 2 years, champion’s trophy every two years and world cup every four years which gives roughly 5 trophies in one rotation. If you go back little more time, there has been one world cup every year in the period 2002-2004 and 1998-2000.

In the year 1998 when Jagmohan Dalmiya (the clever business magnate) was the ICC president, he introduced this new trophy called champions trophy. The main reason given then was that even though ICC was the main governing body of the cricket game, it did not have any money in its kitty. Thus he gave birth to this idea of champions trophy every two years which would cough up so much money to make ICC self reliant in its methods and help to develop its smaller member countries.






Now when ICC is so rich, do we need to see so many global tournaments at such a fast pace. What it does in short is to take the sheen out of such tournaments and the main source of income (spectators) loses the interest in global tournaments. With the result that India was world champions only 2 years ago but still do not get the deserved attention. The reason why the tournaments of grand scale, be it Olympics, soccer world cup, European championship etc comes once in four years is to keep the general public always glued to such tournaments which in turns gives such tournaments such a huge popularity.

I think it is high time that the Champion’s trophy is scrapped and the T20 world cup gets lesser participating countries (probably six is right). This will give the spectators some open space to think and more importantly gives the winner the necessary attention. Pakistan the present T20 champions will be defending their trophy in nine months time is something totally inconceivable. This makes us to think whether making money is the ICC’s sole objective. Shouldn’t the tournament deserve the much needed respect?

Cricket: How many LOI's do we need?

For those of you who have seen so much of cricket and still don’t know this term LOI, LOI stands for limited over international. It’s been about roughly three years since the first twenty twenty game was played. Since the advent of 20-20 the main question in every cricket lovers mind is whether we need two separate LOI (20-20 and 50-50) or do we need to gradually finish off 50-50. The important point here is 20-20 is still in nascent stages and is yet to fully establish itself but its attraction has been huge. It’s never been common in Indian domestic cricket to attract such huge crowds. Of course the case in point here is that there are so many foreign star in display but still people get to see almost 40% foreign players in action. If India plays say a foreign country in Indian soil it of course attracts huge crowds where we have 50% foreign representation. But the important thing to keep in mind with IPL is the winner is always an Indian team irrespective of who performs.

Anyways coming back to the central point is do we see the end of 50-50 or is it going to coexist with 20-20. Lets do some comparison between the both.

20-20:

Pros: Time, Speed of the game, boundaries, close games, evening out the teams, unpredictability

Cons: Better team need not always win, no comeback chances, too fast, one person can change the game, fielding becomes irrelevant, bowlers getting demoralized

50-50:

Pros: History, comeback chances, Better team always wins, Team game, Fielding important, bowlers get more respect.

Cons: Time, speed is too slow between 15-40 overs, predictability of the game easily, very few many nail biters, fewer boundaries.

As you can see from the list, the main pro for 20-20 game has been its speed. It’s not normal for a cricket game whether test or 50-50 to have the spectator so closely gripped to your TV screens. Yes there have been many close 50 over games but if you look at it as percentage of games played, its very low. Moreover the 50 over game gets interesting only in the last 10 overs or in its initial stages which makes it watchable for say 20% of the time then what do you do with the rest o keep the spectator interested. Spectator likes to see action and 20-20 game brings loads of it and that keeps everyone interested. Also you get lot more close games in 20-20 unlike 50-50.

50-50 has its own advantages of its very long history (including its ancient 60-60 days) but the main advantage of 50-50 over 20-20 which any cricket lover who admires its game very elaborately would be its fairness. By fairness I don’t mean the discipline here but rather the necessity that the team that played better cricket needs to win and that is more or less tru here. You could always argue that a test cricket is more correct cricket than 50-50 but that is a different debate in itself. The main argument here is that in 50-50 if you need to win a game you need to do lots of things correct whereas in 20-20 you need to do say one great innings. You could always play a commanding knock in odi but unless you bowl well you need not win. Also the bowlers get so much more respect that a batsman cannot literally close his eyes and swing its bat and still are called a hero. Well in one line “50-50 is more real cricket than 20-20”.

But we already have another format called Test cricket which will always be the cricket in its purest form and the question is do we need one “middle pure” and one “completely impure cricket”. The thing is 20-20 could never become a fixture in international calendar like 50-50. The reason for it being it’s not possible to always get a fair result. But club 20-20 games would be the most popular form of the game. Looking at the initial interest, it is possible people might show more interest in these country leagues like IPL, Champions league than say a international 50-50 games. But its interest will probably rest with club matches and may be occasional international games (World Cups). The test and 50-50 could be the fixtures in any tour calendar. What will die is probably not the 50-50 game in itself but those meaningless 50-50 tournaments we used to have in Sharjah, Malaysia, Singapore etc and also possibly the champions trophy.