Paruthiveeran: A movie of real Class

I saw this movie with little high expectations thinking that its Director Ameer won't disappoint me and I should say that I got more than what I bargained for. Though the movie was very villager theme and had no real city values attached to it, I liked it. I personally did not like the rude story, rogue hero or heartless heroine. But when you consider that the amount of effort that the director has put in to each of the scene and each and every character of the movie then you cannot do anything but bow your head to this breathtaking director.

Ameer is supposed to be assitant to another great Director Bala and I personally feel he has become touch better than Bala in this movie। People talk of selva ragavan as next Mani Ratnam, I think now they should think Ameer as next Mani Ratnam. The reason is not that his direction is great but rather unique. His parallel clips (showing two different shots in same clip) show he is not afraid experimenting. Riducling fan clubs (rasigar mandram) of famous and top actors shows he is not afraid of anyone. His audacity to pick newcomers and make them act in his movie shows that he wants himself to play the hero and his story and movie to be the selling point and doesn't want to rest on hero's laurels.






Talking about the hero of the movie Karthi, he has done wonderful job. Infact Superstar Rajinikanth was surprised to hear it was his first movie and his brother Surya said that in his first movie he did no acting and this performance from his brother was impeccable. The scene where Karthi impresses the most is when he shows love for heroine. He looks so natural and his wit (nakkal) scenes with his uncle is very comical and hilarious. Heroine of the movie has proved that when given a proper character the heroines can also influence the movies. She was so good and true to her character that it seemed as if she living the character and not acting. Same goes for other actors too. The credit for that should go to the Director Ameer to bring out so much from newcomers is remarkable achievement. This is where Ameer impresses me the most and promises a lot for Tamil Cinema.

Coming back to the movie it is a must go for all village people and the city dwellers might not quite like movie and would certainly hate the climax. This means movie might be hit but will not have huge collections. It is a every critique's hit movie but am not sure how good will it be in box office. The comedy scenes are great with subtle dialogues from hero and his uncle is wonderful to watch. For first time atleast for me I saw a tamil heroine in a tamil movie having equal character as her counterpart. She was simply breathtaking with her dialogue delivery and performance. The comedian deserves a special mention for his simple yet wonderful scenes in the movie. I would love to see Ameer take a city subject with bigger moolahs and that would probably set the ball rolling for making Ameer the next Mani Ratnam.

IT IS JUST A GAME, NOT A WAR!!!!!!!!

How many times and how many years and how many lives will it take to realize for our impulsive, reactive, angry, so called patriotic, intelligent, gruesome, nasty and ugly Indian and Pakistani crowd to realize its just a game and not a war. Are u guys crazy? Are u guys insane? Or are u guys plain stupid. Bob Woolmer (the Pakistani coach) died due to whatever reasons but he jus could not have beared emotional backlash that Pakistani crowds would have had in store for him. Tomorrow no foreigner would like to coach such senseless nation anymore. What is this? It is worse than anything you can imagine. You guys should learn to be bit more sensible and be bit more selfish. Yes selfish. The problem with us Indians and Pakistanis is that we are not selfish. You will never see an American fan dying for America if America loses in sports because he is selfish. You will never see Flintoff swearing an Aussie in Ashes clash because he is selfish professional. But you will see Prasad swearing at Sohail or Afridi swearing at Indians because they are not selfish.

Yes the reason is not tat we are too bad but rather we are too good. We are very emotional people. It is important to be emotional. We are unselfish people. It is important not to be selfish. We are very patriotic people. It is important to be patriotic. But the problem is we are selfish, unpatriotic, unemotional when we need to be (like in real life situations) and we are patriotic emotional and unselfish (like in this bloody game called cricket) when we do not need to be.

I have been a student of game called cricket for 16 years now. Recently I was in for a shock and deeply hurt when my so called close friend called me Pakistani!!! Then I heard of Bob Woolmer’s death and this prompted me to write this article.

Our Indian team for this World cup had so many deficiencies that it was bound to fail and not because Sachin did not score, Dravid did not stay, Ganguly had hatred for Dravid etc. Our fielding standards are so low that we just could not stand in the world arena. Moreover in not selecting Mohd Kaif, Pathan, Raina, Powar, our selection committee gave Dravid a very lame team strong on experience less on youth. It was only natural that we were going to fail in the World cup and there is no reason for us to be so disappointed.

And we have to realize that "It is just a game and not a war!!!” You guys out there got to understand this is just a game formed by clubs representing our country. Our club is BCCI. Only difference between club matches and cricket match is that u have to be Indian citizen to play for Indian club. So if tomorrow India becomes so developed and Pakistan so poor. Then India can hire players from Pakistan and make them Indian citizens and they can play for India. Yes Pakistan born Pakistani citizens can play for Indian Team. It is true and it’s a fact of life. This is a club game. They play for a club called BCCI and not country called India. The only difference is they are so called Indian citizens. So this time living in American continent, I am supporting a club called West Indies. Yes West Indies, the club called West Indies. This fortunately or unfortunately have people from Indian origins. I will support this club no matter what other guys call me, because I know am correct. Call me unpatriotic, Pakistani, Muslim terrorist, Indian traitor.

Cricket WC 2007 - Part 2

As I said before am going to talk about minnows in this section and this is going to be much shorter than the other top 8.

The so called Minnows in this world cup according to their strengths and weaknesses are:
1) Bangladesh
2) Kenya
3) Zimbabwe
4) Scotland
5) Canada
6) Holland
7)Ireland
8) Bermuda

Bangladesh: I honestly think this is the best bangladesh side to have toured WC. I suppose its their third WC and I think they will be expected to be perform the best with their best team. Their best perfomance in WC was defeatin pakis in 1999 WC. I expect to them to do the same here, trounce one of the big 8's and reach super eights. Tht wud be awesome and incredible. Their main problem is with batting, their batsmen shd make more runs on the board and bowlers shd follow suit. Mashrafe Mortaza and rafique is wat bowlin wud be dependnent on and Habibul Bashar their skipper and Shariar nafees is wat battin wud depend upon.






Kenya: My fav minnows team since 1996 when they upset mighty WI. They have somethin tat none of the other minnows have. Fearless attitude. This is wat seperates kenya frm other minnows and the reason fr their so many upset wins includin impeccable WC semifinal performance in last WC. Still ICC is so god damn crappy tat they dont give them test status and even worse no odi tournaments to play for. Wat the heck is ICC doing and how will kenya improve further with this white dominated politics in ICC. Politics!!!! I hate it. I expect kenya to easily trounce england and reach super eights. Yups I expect 2 minnows bangladesh and kenya to reach super eights. Well to victor goes the spoils.
Zimbabwe: One of the weakest zimbabwean team ever to tour WC. May be weaker than even 1983 WC team. Thus I expect them to tamely exit after first round. Lots of ground work to be don and again politics is the reason, this time black dominated politics in zimbabwe. I hope they can atleast defeat Ireland.

Canada: John davidson is the name u remeber when u think of canada. His awesome battin against WI in 2003 WC. I expect them to lose all their matches but play well as they seem good outfit. Hope Anderson Cummins (former windies player) now representing canada can save them some blushes.

Scotland: Shd try to defeat Holland and learn in this WC.

Holland: A real good minnow team and played well against India in last WC and shd try to defeat scotland.
Ireland: Nothing special I know abt them. Shd try to give zimbabwe run fr their money.

Bermuda: Shd try to learn than perform.






Overall Prediction: Yups here is the overall prediction.

Super Eights:
1) Windies
2) Pakistan
3) South Africa
4) Newzealand
5) Australia
6) India
7) Kenya
8) Bangladesh

Semifinalists:
1) Windies
2) Pakistan
3) South Africa
4) Newzealand

Finalists:
1) Windies
2) Pakistan

Winners:
Windies

Let me warn u this is not astrology. Its basically a mix of my so called expert analysis(yaa I know u are better than me) and intuition ( sixth sense).

Cricket WC 2007 - Part 1

In this blog, I bring to you the Cricket WC 2007 in 2 parts. First part will deal with introduction and chance for the big 8 as I like to call it. People who follow cricket know who those big 8 are. Fr others, these ar the big 8 in the cricket, viz India, Pakistan,England, Australia, Newzealand, South Africa, WestIndies and Srilanka.

This is the ninth Cricket WC in its history. So far there have been five teams that have tasted Wc success, viz WestIndies,India,Australia,Pakistan and Srilanka. England,SouthAfrica and Newzealand are yet to taste a world cup triumph. There is something in Asian teams that once they are slightly good, they win WC. Same was the case with India, Pakistan and srilanka. So tat leaves us wit only one asian team without cup success tat is bangladesh. Now I expect bangladesh to win cricket WC in the year 2019 twenty years after their ICC trophy triumph (1999) following the lankas tradition of winning the world cup(1996) after sixteen years of ICC triumph (1979). Wateva this WC is played fr first time in the land where cricket is festival time and those who admire cricket like anythin in WestIndies. Carribean brings to cricket which noone has never brought or will bring. So it will be great to see a WC there.

Now coming to the teams analysis. Lets analyze the teams one by one in the ranking which I feel is suited to them to their chance in WC according to their strengths and weakness.

1. Australia
2. South Africa
3. Newzealand
4. India
5. Pakistan
6. Srilanka
7. West Indies
8. England

Australia: Yaa they are still the worlds best whether u accept it or not. It is not because they are most talented or most disciplined. Its because they are the most complete team in the world. Though they like most teams have their weaknesses and strengths.

Strengths: Team skills is what comes first to mind when you talk of australia, if the going gets tough, australia gets tougher। Remember 99 WC, everyone said australia is finished fr this cup when they lost to pak, nzl and struggled against other teams but then inspired by steve waugh they made comeback. If it was Indian team, we wud have given up when everyone said so and never have tat steel to show the fight within and prove the distractors wrong. (Exception was 2003 Indian team). This is where aussies differ and other teams lack. Whether they are strong or not, they show they are strong and whether they are mighty or not they show they are mighty. Ponting is obvious strength in batting and rest of batting looks weak. Bowling isnt might as it used to be and fielding and team skills are their only strong point in this WC unlike previous 2 editions.

Weakness: Batting looks weak with no Martyn, Lehmann, Bevan, Steve Waugh, Mark Waugh. Hayden in not best of form. Clarke, Hussey, Hodge too new to create stability and watson too injury prone to sustain WC tornament. Hayden doesnt seem to be in his best of forms. Bowling is also weak wit abilities to allow team to chase 300 scores. Only bracken looks economical. Glenn Mcgrath looks too old and worn out to have same effect. Rest can be smashed. No warne means no spin and brad hogg isnt the best replacement. Also they had problems with keepers as gilchrist initially wanted to skip few matches and then later on decided against it which means it saved australia some blushes. There is also no experience in this side unlike previous sides like 2003 and 1999. Just no experience in middle and lower order and bowling especially. This means lots of chances fr opponents and this aussie team is most fragile since 1992 when they had first round exit.

Predictions: Very Big upset. Australia are gonna get out soon. Wont qualify fr semis. Lose badly and have lots of brickbats. Super eight exit is my prediction.

South Africa: yes they are no-1 odi side according to cricinfo but stats hide more than wat they reveal. Most of their wins have come in home soil and have struggled in subcontinent but the WC is played in carribean which resembles both their home and subcontinent. So it will depend on pitches fr them to prosper or lose.

Strengths: SA have lotsof strengths compared to australia this time around. Their bowling is quite solid as far as pace dept goes with pollock,ntini spearheading and nel, langeveldteyn, kallis supporting, they look to be a good set. Also there is telemachus to support in case of injury. Their allrounders are again strong with justin kemp, kallis and pollock making SA the best allrounder side in this WC. Batsman arent the strongest with gibbs and kallis being only 2 solid pros. Rest either lack experience or class. Prince, Devilliers are good but how good are they under pressure would be a question mark. Wicket keeper is solid in Boucher and fielding is world class.

Weakness: Their main weakness is going to be spin bowler. They have not had class spinner fr long time. I pesonally felt Nicky Boje was better option than Robin peterson that they have now. Simply there is no class and spin is somethin tat is not found even in part timers in SA. Graheme smith shd roll his arm more but tat is just not going to be enuf. Chokers tag cud come again to haunt SA. They lost in close in all their previous 4 attempts and on some other day cud have got 4 WCs by now but rather they have none. Such is the world.

Predictions: If they keep chokers tag away and hide their spin weakness they cud go all the way but its SA and its SA so my prediction is yet another sorry defeat in the semifinals where u will see smith breaking chairs.

Newzealand: This cud be the best kiwi side tat has played WC ever. I am sure kiwi can create lots of upsets here and cud go all the way this time. Their main stumbling block in past was skill. They had one or two great players but never had a set of 5 or 6 tats required fr lifting WC.

Strengths: Their main strength in bowling is Bond, Shane Bond. He is a police officer by profession but on cricket field he is a rogue killing every batsman in vicinity. He is going to be tat trump card tat cud mean a big difference fr this kiwi team. Daniel Vettori is a veteran and in vettori they have wat SA shd envy, a world class spinner. Daniel Vettori along with bond cud form wat mcgrath and warne formed fr australia in 99 WC and create upsets. In jacob oram they have a very good allrounder replacement fr chris cairns. There are also good bits and pieces players like styris, mcmillan. Their batting is their big weakness except fleming, there is no just no class in others especially with astles retirement. Keeper is damn class in Brendon mccullum. Their team skills and fielding is also world class.

Weakness: As I said before, its batting. In peter fulton, mason and vincent they have wat I term inexperience and highly fragile batting order. This cud backfire as a team which has good pace bowling team like idnia, australia or pakistan can ran through their battin in no time. Their lower middle order and lower order is good but it cud jus not enuf to compensate highly fragile batting.
Pace bowling is good with james franklin as good support fr bond and tuffey.

Predictions: I expect this kiwi team to repeat wat they are so famous fr, Semifinalists. They were semifinalists in the year 1975,1979,1992,1999. Super sixer in 2003.

India: Arguably the best talented side in this world cup. Does tat mean India is goin to win this W, ofcourse not. Infact I analyzed this idnian team in detail in my previous post so let me keep it short and crisp here. We are goin to have super eight exit.

Strengths: As I have said in my previous article, experience is our strength in batting. In sachin,sourav and dravid we have 3 world class batsman which none of the other teams in teh world have. In yuvraj,dhoni,sehwag we have 3 most talented young upcoming brigade in teh world. In robin uthapppa we have one of the most excitin prospect. In kumble and harbhajan we have the best spin bowling option in this WC. In zaheer, pathan,munaf, agarkar and sreesanth we have the best pace bowling set in this WC. in dhoni we have the best keepr batsman in the world at the moment arguably fightin with gilchrist who has gone past his prime.

Weakness: Well as I have said before fielding and team skills. In both India and pakistan its well known that there are things tat run deep down in them like jealousy, favouritism, power houses, cheating etc. With two former skippers in ganguly and sachin, dravid has to make sure tat there is no seperate groups formin in mid of WC. In favourin Dinesh karthick and sehwag over others like laxman,kaif,gambhir or dinesh mongia etc. He has sent a strong message tat he likes these players over others and believes they can deliver better. In not selectin powar he has again shown tat he will take wat he wants even if u perform super consistent. Also droppin kaif when he is in form, givin him chance when everyone is failing and then not givin him chance in sucontinent where pitches are flat. Playin him against aussies and if he perform well against them then drop him. He has shown he can be a chameleon and make media feel kaif deserved to be dropped. Dravid is very cunny and gets done things by using brain rather than words like dada who did things more openly and always used words and not brains. Also his usage of pathan is the worst ever seen, first pathan does well wit ball and then wit bat. Then dravid makes him regular 3. Its only natural his bowling will go down and now dravid uses this and says 'pathan go back play ranjis'. I suppose pathan and kaif shd get best support frm captain coz they are rare species in indian team. A allrounder and fielder. When was last time we had a good fielder let alone great. It was azharuddin,jadeja,robin singh but they were good but kaif is great, unsee ever before in asian circuit let alone indian. If SA wit all their best fielders can still have jonty as a specialist fielder, not a specialist bowler or batsman. Why cant India with all their mediocre fielders and mediocre runners have one specialist fielder in kaif. Pathetic!!! I have all the respect fr dravid fr his batting and commitment but as a skipper he has done things which is downtrodden politics.

Predicitions: If the game was played in paper India will win this WC 3 times again and again. But unfortunately its played in cricket field and we will have a shocking super eight exit after excellent start.

Pakistan: With shoaib akhthar and mohd asif missing this WC due to things tat look much bigger than juz minor injury, pakis have the work cut out. (u know they dropped him coz they don want asif and akhthar coming back afer failed dope test). Actually it cud be blessin in disguise as it wud mean they are weaker which fr normal teams its a bad sign but fr a team like india or pakistan its a good sign. It means they will be more united and cud juz spring in a surprise this WC.

Strength: Their strength is their batting. With inzy, yousuf and younis they have solid middle order. They have attackers in afridi,kamran akmal. Also they have good allrounders in odi format in afridi, akmal and shoaib malik. They do miss razzaq badly and he cud have made this team even stronger. Their lower order is quite okk thouh none of the specialist have any great talents with bat. Their pace bowling is juz decent wit umar gul,anjum,naved and yasir. There spin is led by danish and supported by shoaib and afridi which is also no great especially considerin danish lack of odi experience. Also surprisingly pakis are more united than ever under leadership of inzy and cud have good team skills.

Weakness: Their main weakness is in fielding dept with no specialist fielders they have big gap wit other teams. Their pace and spin bowlin isnt all great as well.

Predictions: I think they mite win this WC if they peak at right time coz they juz have correct ingredients but havin said tat u never know it cud juz backfire if inzy gets injured as he is bonding player and pakis cud be all splits again without him. More correct prediction cud be finalists or winners.But I think tey will reach semifinals fr sure.

SriLanka: This lankan team is good team under able leadership of jayawardene but they also have good set of weakness which cud expose them. Sanath jayasuriya cud just hope to add another cup to his tally before biddin a final goodbye.

Strengths: Sanath provides a good openin option in battin along wit sangakkara, atapattu and jayawardene. The comeback man arnold cud do somethin special in this WC. Basically they have some problems tat needs to be sorted out in battin as they lack experience and class except the top 4. Basically their lower middle order is weak and needs arnold to do well like he used to do in past. They have good allrounder in farvez maharoof and vaas is also good lower order batsman but no great class in them. In malinga they have fiepower in pace bowling and mutthiah gives the world class spinner to lanka. Their fieldin is decent and best in Asian teams as it has always been.

Weakness: Basically as I said before lower middle order, bowling isnt tat good except vass and murali.

Predictions: I think a super eight exit or may be bangladesh can send them packing first round.

West Indies: This west indies team is special and is much better than 2003 or 1999 team whcih cudnt qualify super sixes. They are good not coz they suddenly have all class players but they are playin well as a team and gelling together well as it cud be seen in the recent ICC champions trophy.

Strengths: Their strength is their batting in gayle, sarwan,chanderpaul, lara, samuels and bravo, they have amazing talent in batting. Their keeper batsman ramdin is also okk. In lower order in bradshaw, he provides good support. Taylor is a good fast bowler along wit powell. Economical bradshaw and good set of fielders.

Weakness: One day they cud be tigers, other day they cud turn croppers in batting and there bowling can be taken to places many a time.

predictions: I predict a westindies triumph in this cricket WC 2007. Windies are gonna lift this WC and windies are the team I will be routin fr in this WC. Fr everyone else hostin is a burden, fr windies it comes naturally. Lara will play his skin out. Other will just follow him. At the end of it all I see brian lara liftin this cricket WC 2007. My prediction is

England: The team tat u wud have said has no chance, has some chance because it did well against aussie in australia but was it england performing well or was it australia depletin will be known in this WC based on the both team performances. I personally feel it is aussie depletin and its end of an era fr this australian team like windies team of past.

Strengths: Their strength is the allrounder in flintoff who doesnt need to share the burden of captaincy after vaughans return and pieterson who provides tat charisma and flair which is very much unengland like except botham and flintoff. In paul collingwood they have a fighter. But except flintoff, collingwood, pieterson and andrew strauss to an extent rest of batting literally su***. With no trescothick or nick knight their openers are too weak and inexperienced and also ian bell doesnt seem tat much an odi batsman and everyone knows odi battin isnt vaughan's repertoire.

Weakness: Their bowling isnt world class wit james anderson supposedly leadin a pack of newbies. Paul nixon hasnt proved much as a keeper as well. Monty panesar is a good spin option but how good will he be in high pressure odis is again a big question mark. In simple words they just arent a complete team except 3 or 4 world class players and cud struggle.

Predictions: A simple super eight exit or may be a even harsher first round exit if kenya can spring in a surprise.

Review of Guru

Mmmmm wat a heck of movie it was, once again from the guru of directors Mani Ratnam. I know its not a mega hit, just a hit or may be even lesser according to bollywood sources which are nothing but crap accordin to me. Otheriwse how else can u explain mega super duper hits for films of real sub standard quality compared to guru in KKKG, Krishh, Dhoom-2, Don etc. Please gimme a break, these movies are not even 5% of wat Guru is. And Mani is like 100 times better director than karan johar, nikhil advani, farhan akhthar put together. They have loads to learn frm Mani. Just explains the politics in bollywood industry. They just dont wanna another southie there. Already AR Rahman is the best music director, now they cant stand mani being called the best director. Wat makes it best is both are frm my state and boyyy we tamilians shd be real proud of these 2 jewels frm tamilnadu.

Coming back to movie, could mani have done better? I dont think so. Everything was perfect. Dialogues, characterization, cinematography, music, background score etc. Few songs seemed out fo place but u cant do without songs is a fact of life in bollywood or Kollywood. I havent seen a better movie in bollywood fr like long time. This movie was better than yuva fr the message and execution was more subtle. Abhishek accordin to me acted fr the second time in his career after yuva. Aishwarya didnt have much role except climax when she speaks fr abhishek. I am too small to comment on other people in teh movie. They are just god level. Whether it be music, cinematography, choreography, direction, screenplay, story etc.






Then why isnt this movie super duper hit? Well as far as my friends go, all of them loved it except may be climax or ending of the movie. Okk still this shd make huge bucks but unfortunately as shown in teh movie itself, the big players (read yash raj, yash johar etc) dont want a common man frm south to make big in bollywood. They know they will go bankrupt in 5 years time. Such is the politics in bollywood tat mani has to suffer due to it.

Now abt climax, ppl say abhishek shd have been punished. Guysss wake up wake up plzzzz. When will indians realize there are no white and no black people in the world. Everyone is gray. Only the shades of gray vary. One guy cud be darker gray, one guy cud be lighter gray but noone is white or black. Abhishek was medium gray. He wasnt dark gray by any chance. Yes he cheated the govt and made millions of money but who is to blame fr tat. The govt itself which never supports a middle class or lower class and is always obsessed with upper class people then how cud he make big. Again He cheated govt, not people. Infact people made huge money frm him thro stocks. Now when middle class start gettin money, wat shd govt do, close his industry and let everyone suffer. Coz if industry is closed then its not abhishek who loses money, its all his share holders which includes countless middle class families. Rather govt fined him like 63 lakhs crores i suppose and let him free. Amazin decision and three hurrays to abhi fr convincin the judge with his 4.5 mins speech. Again 0.5 mins profit.






Basically I loved this characterof abhishek, wat india really need is 1000's of abhishek whoc dont make profit only fr them but fr lakhs of ppl trustin him. Its amazing character. Ppl say he cheated he cheated, who doesnt. When ur mom said sleep otherwise some ghost will come and eat u, she was cheatin u, when ur boss said wait two more months u will get promotion, he was cheatin u. When politician said i will give roti kapda makaan he was cheatin voters. When Abhisheksaid he will make profit to his shareholders, he didnt cheat. He didnt smuggle heroin or ganja, he didnt kill people at his will, he didnt bribe a honest person. Infact till end he respected his godfather mithun. Awesome.

Yaa I know there is an analogy in this movieto a real character which mani is known to hide as ever. Like he did with his tamil movie iruvar. Wateva it doesnt matter.As they say in hindi song. Samajne wale samaj rahe hai, jo na samje woh anari hai. Thus I sign off with this hindi song, see u soon.

Indian Cricket Team for WC 2007

Well here goes my article after a long time and its on my fav sport cricket. Well as you guys know the excitement of Cricket WC(World Cup) 2007 is surrounding everyone, I thought why not write somethin on Indian Cricket Team fr the WC.

First heres the team:

Opening Batsmen: Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Virendar Sehwag, Robin Uthappa

Middle Order: Rahul Dravid (Captain), Yuvraj Singh, Sachin Tendulkar, Virendar Sehwag, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Dinesh Karthick

All Rounders: Irfan Pathan, Virender Sehwag, Mahendra Singh Dhoni

Wicket Keepers: Dinesh Karthick, Mahendra Singh Dhoni

Fast Bowlers: Zaheer Khan, Ajit Agarkar, Irfan Pathan, Munaf Patel, Sreesanth

Spinners: Anil Kumble, Harbhajan Singh

Fielders: Yuvraj Singh, Ajit Agarkar, Dinesh Karthick

Now there are only fifteen players in the team. Dont get confused as I have some players who qualify for more than one position. Now I will comment on this selection one by one in the order I have written them.






Opening Batsmen:
Indian opening batsmen are Worlds best, there are no two ways about it. You wont get any better. On one hand you have the best odi batsman Sachin with 40 tons, on other hand you have ganguly who is arguably second best odi batsman in the world then sehwag on his day is the most destructive odi batsman and uthappa is what sehwag was 6 years ago. In simple words this is the best and it doesnt get bigger than this. Full marks to this for the selection team and India should be proud of this. I will rate our opening batsman 9 on 10.
Rating: 9/10

Middle Order:
The middle order isnt the worlds best but is definitely one of the more solid ones in the world. Leading the middle order would be Rahul Dravid with his impeccable stokes and his calm poise. I think dravid is the backbone of the middle order. If grapevine is to believed he is gonna bat at no-5 which I feel is perfect for him with our array of batsman. Yuvraj singh is a gifted batsman and his calm attitude could help us as well. Sachin is going to mostly bat in middle order if we go by recent matches. Sehwag in middle order could also be handy in some situations. Dhoni has won us many matches and could surely be another one to watch out for. But now the weakness, except yuvraj and to some extent I suppose Dravid none of them are good runner between wickets. In simple words pathetic. They make 3s into twos, twos into ones. As they say only indians can do it. Most of Indian spectators when we lose a close match, blame a one bad ball by a bowler or a last minute dropped catch or last minute bad decision by a skipper. But actual reason for most of our odi losses are not these. Its this running between wickets. Now if I remember little, there was one priceless player called Mohd Kaif who unfortunately doesnt seem to be in good books of Chappell and dravid plans. Can there be any better runner between wickets and for a team like India who have all these pathetic runners whom I dont want to name but they are so they are needs Kaif badly in this middle order. And this is what makes this middle order much weaker than it is stats. Thus my rating is bit low for them.
Rating: 7/10

All Rounders:
Do we have something called as allrounder? Oh we never did for like past 10 years and all we had atmost were batsman like sachin, jadeja, sehwag, ganguly, yuvraj etc trying to fill in tat 5th bowler slot. Still there are sehwag, sachin, yuvraj, ganguly to do the needful with sehwag being the best among them for his ability to bowl at death. Who can forget his impeccable bowling at death against SA at ICC Champions trophy 2002. Now there was one guy touted as next kapil Dev and still possess excellent average in both bowling and batting. Then why isnt he the next big star in the team but rather is fighting for his place. Frankly speaking chappel and dravid are hellbent on destroying his career, he was a bowler who can bat a lot better than traditional indian bowlers. He started as bowler with excellent form then played some good innings with bat then Mr Chappel and Mr Dravid say you should bat at no-3. What does pathan do, he bats lot better but his bowling takes a dip then Mr Chappel and Dravid say you were a bowler who can bat a bit and thus eventhough your batting average is ecellent your bowling su*** so get out of the team and go play ranji trophy cricket. Boyyy I call this cheating. Either you call him a batsman or a bowler or aallrounder. Basman bats at 1-6. Allrounder at 7, bowler at 8-11. If he is batting 1-6 then he is a batsman who can bowl a bit and can have real bad days.. If he bats 7 he is supposed to do both. If he bats 8-11 then he is a bowler whom you shouldnt ask if he doesnt bat. I hope chappel and dravid go back to ranji trophy and learn their lessons and then think about teaching pathan. Seriously they need it more than pathan. Actually we have good set of allrounders but our management makes it worse than it is. Thus my rating is 6 for this.
Rating:6/10

Wicket Keepers:
This could a quiz question for the WC 2007. Which is the only team in teh WC which has two specialist keepers? Answer India, Correct answer!!! and you win cash prize of 1 lakh ruppes and free ticket to India vs Srilanka match in the WC 2007. Seriously why do we need two keepers coz Mr Dravid doesnt need to keep for even one match. Being captain, cant he even do this small thing. If at all dhoni gets injured then karthick can reach carribean in 3-4 days which means losing one match which could be filled in by dravid. Thus this points to a question why do we need two keepers. Coz Mr Dravid likes Dinesh Karthick. Come on man gimme a break. If you say that you selected karthick as a middle order batsman then again kaif with his skillset is much better option than karthick. Dhonis keeping is decent and his batting extraordinary. But having two keepers mean I have to reduce the rating by one point and give it 7 instead of 8.
Rating: 7/10






Fast Bowlers:
Seriously I feel this set of fast bowlers are the best India has ever had in the world cricket in past 15 years. I have followed Indian cricket team for past fifteen years and seriously its only off late that I can proudly say that we have great fast bowlers. On one hand we have the great upcoming swing bowler Pathan then we have zaheer who with his experience is damn good. And now I want to dig a little on Indian media. The Indian media highlights zaheers WC 2003 as his performance in the finals, its another maater tht none of them bowled well tat day and only he gets highlighted. But why Mr Media do you forget he was Indias highest wicket taker in WC 2003 and he was the best in the show overall. I call it ridiculous. Jdge him by overall performance and not just one match. Also Munaf patel is good upcoming fast bowler along with sreesanth. Ajit Agarkar with his so called all rounding abilities still gets to find a place in the team though I seriously dont know when will he ever make it permanent. He has been around for nearly 10 years now and still is 2nd or 3rd fast bowler and isnt leading paceman. In indian terms this fast bowling set deserves 10/10 fr its sheer ability but as am talking relative and overall, I will give it 8/10. Not to forget we were the best set of fast bowler in last WC 2003 too. Nehra, zaheer and srinath were excellent. But I think this set is more durable with munaf and sreesanth as youngsters.
Rating: 8/10

Spinners:
Again this is one of the best set we have ever got. One with so much experience behind his name that he has done it all seen it all in Anil Kumble and another a really established spinner and the best hope for future in Harbhajan Singh. Seriously cant think of any better combination in any other team but I think we could have done with Ramesh Powar as well which would have given us more options with his batting abilities and also his form. I would have dropped a fast Bowler for it probably sreesanth who doesnt yet fit into odi scheme. But what it is what it is. So we gotta live with this two legends and I give them 7.5 coz though they are most talented in the world, they have done anything special of late.
Ratings: 7.5/10






Fielders:
Everone knows it we have the worst fielding set in the world may be along with pakistan. Then of late we had good set with people like kaif,yuvraj and raina. Now only one remains who is also not 100% fit. Other two are dropped for I dont know what. Raina is bit understandable as he is youngster and needs some time in ranji trophy but I would have had kaif in my team anyday. People say about his batting ability but what about his running between wickets, runs saved and his continuous encouragement. Please gimme a break with your selection, you couldnt seriously have told him to go back and correct your technique in ranjis. Please he has seen it all and been for more than 7 years that his strength and weakness are well known and who doesnt have weakness. Everyone has it. If you were to believe me, even sachin does. Sachin cannot score bundaries when is 85-100 even when he has 40+ tons and its a fact. With all this I would have had kaif for dinesh karthick anyday. Now with the set we have, one of the worstwe had in recent times. Why cant people remember it was kaif who instigated the collapse of eng vs ind in tht WC 2003 match and who knows if tat runout would have been affected eng could have won tht match and our whole WC 2003 could have been different. Thus with just one good fielder who is also not 100% fit, I will give it 4/10.
Rating: 4/10






Overall:
Overall our team is very good on paper and will win WC 3 times in a row but unfortunately cricket is not played on paper and is played on something called as cricket field and will require every other thing like strategy,captaincy,fielding,running between wickets, pressure, team skills etc to name a few and all this couts fr 50% and skillset counts fr 50%. With even our strong skillset even if we get 50/50. Our other abstract factors are so bad tat we mite just not do too well. My prediction for this team get to super eights and struggle to get into semis by losing very closely. Also this would have been my team which would have atleast qualified semis:

Dravid
Sachin
Ganguly
Yuvraj
Robin Uthappa
Sehwag
Kaif
dhoni
pathan
powar
kumble
harbhajan
zaheer
agarkar
munaf

two changes frm present team:
1) Kaif fr karthick
2) powar fr sreesanth

Its been a while

Yaa its been about 6 months since I last blogged but I think i might be blogging more now. So just informing guys and gals if u are interested u can watch fr some interstin articles frm lomi once again.