Empty Wessels make the most noise.

Don’t we all hate them? The loudmouths, the ones that let the tongue wag, the ones that brag a little too much. I have been there too. Every time that I have done it, I have always come back and regretted it. Sometimes it is too difficult not to get carried away.

This post is a review of all those who made the noise. To see if they were worth their salt and to find out how many actually walked the talk!

All the noise that was made during the players’ auction could be limited to the Kolkata, Mohali and Bangalore sides. In the build up to the competition, King Khan continued to make a lot of noise and was matched decibel to decibel by the Deccan Chargers. SRK looks composed in defeat and has taken the beating well. I am still wondering what happened to the Special supplement that was being circulated free along with the Deccan Chronicle. I am still impressed with some great performances from that side. Dr. Mallaya has started talking about parties aboard his yacht and Mrs. Ecclestone’s birthday rather than the poor show at F1. I guess he has learnt his lessons about what not to talk.

Then of course we had Harbajan Singh who for once realized actions speak louder than words. His ouster from the tournament brought in a better captain and change in fortunes for the Mumbai Indians.

Dada made some noise about Warney, and the Australian inside Shane retorted. A great bowling performance throughout the tournament and a fine knock in the last game redeems Dada and the Kolkata Knight Riders. Sourav now truly deserves to repeat the antics of the Lord's balcony at the Eden Gardens and I promise not to say a word.

Shane “Pied Piper” Warne is a royalty in Rajasthan. He is the man with the Midas touch. Every team that plays against him turns to dust. His boys are all worth their weight in gold. Keeping with the tradition, let me, let him do whatever talking he has got to do. No comments on one Mr. John Marshall Buchanan from Queensland. I just have a kind request for him to shut up at the earliest.

Rahul Dravid is probably the story (that never was) of the IPL. When there was too much pressure on him from the fans, media and the beer baron; he did what he can do best. He let his bat do the talking. His persistent faith in his team helped them in the good outings against Hyderabad and Chennai. Rahul had once said that he had trained hard to adapt to One-Day cricket. I have tremendous respect for this no nonsense cricketer. He gave more than his best at an alien format. All his efforts can be summed up by the words of Edgar J. Hoover. “We the willing, led by the unknowing, have been doing the impossible for the ungrateful. We have been doing so much, for so long, with so little that now we are qualified to do anything with nothing.”

After watching half a dozen games from the dugout and playing nearly as many, Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar saying that he has not figured out this format does not add up. Thank god that he did not repeat, “It’s good for the team to win”, “The team’s victory means more to me than my Century’, “I played well, but it would have been nice had we won”. We have heard that so many times in the past and luckily he has not got too many runs to render his rhetoric.

I am waiting to see how the Mumbai crowd will boo Yuvaraj Singh when his team plays in the semis or even possibly in the finals. One in his right mind does not mess with the Mumbaikars. They have even booed the God himself. I am happy that the purple boy did not mess with the Kolkata crowd. Support from the stands is very important for any team to win. Ask the Jaipur boys, they know about it best. Mr. Ness Wadia should be a little careful about insulting police officers. The positive from Mohali is that a Ms. Preity Zinta has just kept to jumping, gyrating and dancing to the Bollywood tunes. She has not opened her mouth much and has kept herself out of trouble. Alison Krauss probably was talking about her when she sang the following lines “you say it best, when you say nothing at all.”

That leaves just one team- The team from my city. Sunil Gavaskar had a field day with a double dose of Srikanths. A deadly Dad-Son Combination like that in any team is a dangerous case of chronic verbal diarrhea. Mahi has not been saying the wrong things and has owned up some errors. I shall spare him but the one I cannot spare is the coach, Mr. Kepler Christoffel Wessels.

It’s great to use the feet movement and reflex skills from boxing to coach batsmen and wicketkeepers. If I am ever in boxing shorts the last ugliest face I would want to see would be that of Wessels. It is highly irresponsible to make negative statements ahead of a crucial match. I was a very poor cricketer myself, but if the best in me was brought out, it was because of the faith the captains and coaches had in me. I do not remember anyone ever telling me that they had to make adjustments because I was there or no one ever told me how it would have been better to have someone else on the team. I am sure they would have felt these things but one does not tell this to a member of a team game. Comments like “I was the last one hired”, “I was given this team”, “It would be a bonus if we make it to the last four”, “I am not too keen to come back next year”; are suicidal.

Kepler Wessels was a man, who was taken apart by Toni Grieg; this was someone who had a negative temperament about one day cricket, this was a cricketer who became disillusioned about Australian cricket and hung up his boots (or should I say gloves). When the team expects a knock out punch he just ends up knocking the air and confidence out of his young side. If you are not interested then please bugger off. We can use Srikanth as a coach and use the motivation from Shivamani to win matches. We just no longer need that ugly face hanging around the dressing room.

As an afterthought, please read Henry V by Shakespeare where he quotes Plato. “As empty vessels make the loudest sound, so they that have the least wit are the greatest blabbers”.

IPL's Fantastic Four.

IPL started with 8 teams locking horns. After the league games played in a round-robin half the teams would go back home. Then we have the traditional knock out at a Semi-Final from where 2 teams progress to the finals for a showdown or a face-off. I was always interested in the first four that will survive the 6 weeks of grueling tournament.

After the auctions, I had written off two teams. The Rajasthan Royals and the Bangalore Royal Challengers. That was now almost over a month ago. The points table and the team performances constantly changed the four favorite to make it the Knock outs. After nearly 10 games each one team has booked a place in the Semis and the other has no chances of making it.
The paradigm shift and how frequently the universal constant of change happened while deciding the 4 has been very intriguing for me.

So when the tournament started my four were Chennai, Delhi, Kolkata and Hyderabad. I did not give a chance to Bangalore and Jaipur. Thought Mohali and Mumbai could put up a fight.

After a few matches Rajasthan had emerged the dark horse; Mumbai, Bangalore and Hyderabad were clearly in disarray. Delhi and Kolkata looked formidable. Chennai and Mohali looked comfortable. So it was Hyderabad that took the "Much hyped but pathetic" title first. Few more games and Rajasthan was clearly growing from strength to strength. Chennai was at the top. Delhi and Mohali were getting stronger. Kolkata were suddenly struggling and joined Mumbai, Hyderabad and Bangalore. That’s when the cream of the Foreign players left, and with them the fortunes of Chennai.

At the half way mark Bangalore and Hyderabad were looking hopeless, Jaipur were sitting on top. Chennai was looking shaky; Mohali and Delhi were still at the top four. Mumbai came back strongly and Kolkata had new blood. It looked like the 4th semi-final berth would be a closely contested one between the 3 largest metros of India.

Some more matches and now, definitely Bangalore and Hyderabad are out. No miracles can work in their favor. Mohali is a more balanced and consistent side and they are good to go. Rajasthan looks comfortable on the top. In my opinion they are the first team that has qualified.
S. Rajesh actually thinks otherwise.

http://content-ind.cricinfo.com/ipl/content/story/351448.html

So the question that remains now is among the Metros which 2 are going to join Jaipur and Mohali at the top and which 2 will more likely sit out with the Bangalore and Hyderabad boys.



Chennai has had a great batting and now their bowling is looking great. The inconsistent performance weighs heavily against them. Their bench strength is also weak and Mahi has limited options. If there is not too much of a pressure on Dhoni they look a great team and can win with a team effort.

Kolkata is one team that has looked spirited; their fortunes are getting reversed too often. They have a few high profile signups and Dada needs to get his act going. The options for both bowling and batting are plenty. King Khan is no Mallya and will be okay with either the Mumbai crowd booing him or his team loosing.

Delhi is too dependent on its openers Shewag, Gambir and the No 3 Dhawan. The middle order is very shaky while the bowling department has started having a few niggles. McGrath is too good for any team. Delhi has two important home (against Kolkata and Mumbai) games and an easy away game against Bangalore.

Mumbai has comeback very well under the captaincy of Pollock and are very lucky under Tendulkar. Jayasurya single handedly influenced two matches. Andre Nel is a great replacement for Bravo. Mumbai suddenly looks very balanced after they have found the winning habit. Of course any team that can afford to play Pollock at 7 should be great. Three back to back matches in the last week can test the bench just before the knockouts.

So coming back to the question, let’s understand how questions work before we attempt to answer it. There are two places where you can ask a question. Your heart and the head! Now, after having said that, let’s go ahead and ask the question. Which Two Metros will progress?

My head says Delhi and Mumbai.
But my heart says Kolkata and Chennai.

Let’s keep our fingers crossed and touching some wood too!

Thanks Dad………For everything!

My dad was my own superman just like all other dads. Dad was the one who knew everything about the big people from the grown up world. He was in my eyes the chosen one; the one who could do anything. I don’t remember the exact day but like all good things that come to an end, I realized my dad was not superman. There were people who knew more, people who made more, people who had much more power and people capable of doing deeds beyond my dad’s comprehension. He had transformed into a simple, bread winning, tax payer working at a hospital run by the state government’s health department.

If I speak decent English, its because of all the efforts he had taken. From teaching me stuff beyond the scope of a two year old, to introducing a protege like Dr. Pasupathy into my life, to sending me to good schools, to forcing me to attend the Toast Masters, to spending a fortune for a fine education, to encouraging me to speak my mind out and discuss issues fearlessly, to buying expensive books.

If one is wondering on why there is so much fuss about learning a language like English, the answer to it is very simple. What I am today is because I can speak this language a little better. End of the day I am what one calls an English Teacher.

I thank him for everything that he has ever done. I enjoyed all the designer clothes from the Pilaka Taylor, the endless math games on the way to school, the word associations and memory techniques, all the field trips, endless supply of money (No clue on how he manages it!), DB Spectrum Plus (my first comp in 87), the attitude, the reading habit, crosswords on newspapers, weekend chess games and more recently sudoku. Yes I truly enjoyed them all.

Sometimes I wish I can thank him for all things that he had not done too. He always gave me what I needed, I have never had a situation to ask him for what I wanted. He has definitely done more than what an average dad does. How supportive he was when I had a crisis, the cool authority he displayed when I crawled back home drunk, the long chat we had about the girlfriend, the space and liberty he has extended. That way he will still be my superman! I am not sure if I can provide half of this to my kids.

Sometimes everything looks very funny and more like a sitcom. His take on all my friends being worthless and bad company, his view that I am wasting my life, probably his unhappiness that I did not end up as a medical professional or probably that disappointment of me not getting that cent um in high school maths are all justified. Probably his priorities were not mine. Probably my priorities are not his too. So its OK if he sells my first car. The happy days in that Omni is something that no can ever take away from me. Also, there is something else that no one can take from me. Its the person that I am. The real me.

Now, more than while studying Genetics, I believe in genes and traits. I realise I am everything that I did not want in my father. It is not that we have a misunderstanding, the fact of the matter is the we understand each other well, only too well.