The Legend 'Warne' announces his retirement

Sad day for cricket and even for also ran leg spin folks like me as Warnie has announced his retirement after the current series from both forms of the game as well as Australian Cricket and might play only for Hampshire. Warne was a magician who revived a dying art after Ritchie Benaud and with advancing age he mastered the art of leg spin to such an extent that he almost had 200+ wickets in the last 3 years alone

I liked this one by Peter English in Cricinfo where he has analyzed Warne as he progressed with age and added new skills to make up for the loss of the flipper due to injuries and surgeries.
His immaculate line and length, bowling to left handers from the rough, genuine leg spin and bounce on any pitch and his aggressive approach like a fast bowler were all phenomenal to watch and I loved every minute of the sporting action when he was bowling. Sad that his personal life is in shambles though I am sure given his grit and determination he would come out of it and make a great career as a coach or a commentator. He had all the qualities for becoming a leader in his own right but his off play antics cost him dearly and Aussies had also great captains like Border, Waugh and Ponting who were all world class during his tenure.

We have been fortunate to live in the age of a Wisden Cricketer of the Century, just like those who boasted about seeing Hobbs,Bradman,Sobers and Richards.Warne's name would be embedded for ever in the annals of test cricket and leg spin as truly a golden era.

RK

Indians create history in SA- Sreesanth-Kerala's answer to Andre Nel

Well, seems to be a day for outright victories and huge joyous celebrations. First it was the Aussies after winning the Ashes early in the day and now the Indians. For the first time they have won a test match in South Africa and that too after being written of by critics and even the ardent Indian supporter before the match started thanks to their poor record in SA and the string of failures in the ODI series.

The tide has turned, VVS and Ganguly came to the party after all the talk about their age, reflexes and commitment and our friend from Kerala Sreesanth simply summed up the Indian spirit with a superlative kollywood dance after that six of Nel. His bowling was aggressive and along with Zaheer and VRV after a long time the Indian pace attack looked menacing and destructive consistently hitting the 140 KMPH mark and the Proteas had no clue.

Well it's a boring and most often heard cricketing cliché but can't help it. 'Still a game of glorious uncertainties' and there lies the beauty of this wonderful game.

RK

Indian Salary levels- Hitting the roof!

Closely following last months report that the Indian salary increases were the highest in the Asia Pacific Region for the quarter at 14% rate here comes another one from Economic Times which is mind boggling.

Young IITian's from Chennai, Bangalore, Delhi and Mumbai walking away with Multinational offers ranging from 90 K-100K USD + bonus and the Indian majors like Infosys and TCS being relegated to the second week for the campus interviews. The Indian knowledge market is in the midst of a major shake up with unprecedented increase in salary levels and nobody can predict where this scenario would lead to in terms of the Economy as a whole!

Let's hope that the trend continues!

RK

England in Sambhals(Ashes)- Warnie-greatest of 'em all

As widely expected England lost the urn by the third test and were thrashed in all aspects of the game. Though there was lots of hype about an even contest it was clear that Aussies were miles ahead and the 35+ oldies like Gilchrist, Warne, Hayden and McGrath delivered in style silencing all those critics who had called for their retirement to give way to the budding Aussie youngsters who are waiting by the dozens.


One man to me symbolized the Kangaroo's fight, determination and never say die attitude. The Master leg spinner Shane Warne in spite of being 37 years and almost bowling close to 150 overs in the series still was looking for wickets every ball and some of the variety he had to offer coupled with the turn, bounce and the nagging accuracy was fascinating to watch. Arguably to me he is the greatest spinner of all times the game has ever seen and if he plays for another 3 years given his current fitness levels he might even cross the 900 wicket barrier.


RK

Best Employment response you can think of

This one is a actual response from a 17 year old when he applied for a position at McDonald’s restaurant in Florida.

NAME: Greg Bulmash.

SEX: Not yet. Still waiting for the right person.

DESIRED POSITION: Company’s President or Vice President. But seriously, whatever’s available. If I was in a position to be picky, I wouldn’t be applying here in the first place.

DESIRED SALARY: $185,000 a year plus stock options and a Michael Ovitz style severance package. If that’s not possible, make an offer and we can haggle.

EDUCATION: Yes.

LAST POSITION HELD: Target for middle management hostility.

SALARY: Less than I’m worth.

MOST NOTABLE ACHIEVEMENT: My incredible collection of stolen pens and ‘post-it’ notes.

REASON FOR LEAVING: It sucked.

AVAILABLE FOR WORK: Of course. That’s why I’m applying.

PREFERRED HOURS: 1:30 – 3:30pm., Monday, Tuesday and Thursday.

DO YOU HAVE ANY SPECIAL SKILLS?: Yes, but they’re better suited to a more intimate environment.

MAY WE CONTACT YOUR CURRENT EMPLOYER?: If I had one, would I be here?

DO YOU HAVE ANY PHYSICAL CONDITIONS THAT WOULD PROHIBIT YOU FROM LIFTING UPTO 50lbs?: 50lbs. of what?

DO YOU HAVE A CAR?: I think the appropriate question here would be “Do you have a car that runs?”

HAVE YOU RECEIVED ANY SPECIAL AWARDS OR RECOGNITION?: I may already be the winner of the Publishers Clearinghouse Sweepstakes.

DO YOU SMOKE?: On the job, no, on my breaks, yes.

WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO BE DOING IN FIVE YEARS?: Living in the Bahamas with a fabulously wealthy dumb blond supermodel who thinks I’m the greatest thing since sliced bread. Actually, I’d like to be doing that now.

DO YOU CERTIFY THAT THE ABOVE IS TRUE AND COMPLETE TO THE BEST OF YOUR KNOWLEDGE?: Yes. Absolutely.

SIGN HERE: Aries.

Result- He was hired not only because he was honest but his sense of humour would be a huge+ for the clients

Let's not forget our sense of humour irrespective of the situation. Always helps!

RK

Path breaking interview

Well, for those of you who missed the Prannoy-Musharaf interview yesterday here's the link for the highlights.

General Musharaf was very forthright in this interview and his views on giving up UN resolutions as well as claims over Kashmir in lieu of a four point formula whether feasible or not given the nature of political lobby in both countries is still a bold statement and is worth pondering over to find a ever lasting peaceful solution to the valley of Kashmir's woes.

Dr.Prannoy was able bring out the best of the General to speak out his mind on such a complex issue which has been a thorn in the relationship between the two countries for the last 6 decades and to that extent it's a feather in his as well as NDTV's cap. Goes to show how powerful the Media can be in bringing in Countries and even Heads to a negotiating table for solving border problems where even organizations like UN have failed in their so called diplomatic initiatives.

RK

Victor and the Vanquished

There were lots of brickbats as expected following the disastorous performance of the Indian ODI team and columns from reputed sports scribes during the week. I liked this one from Anand Philar in SIFY especially his analysis of captains and the difference between encouragement and motivation where he finds Dravid very much lacking with motivation skills as compared to Ganguly who was a master of both when it came to younger players.

This 'Kool' joke on possible future email id's of the Indian cricketers was the best of the lot:

LAXMAN : available@home-only.com
GANGULY : nowdays@no_use.com
KUMBLE : only@test_match.com
SACHIN : admitted@hospital.com
KAIF : good@for_nothing.com
SEHWAG : mailto:consistently@out_of_form.com
DRAVID : mailto:stick@crease_like_fevicol.com
PATHAN : mailto:takewickets@only_with_kenya.com
Munaf Patel : only_line&length@nospeed.com
Harbhajan Singh : mailto:no_spinpitch@nowicket.com
Suresh Raina : why_i_am_there@god_knows.com
GREG CHAPPELL : only_experiment@noresult.com
BCCI : Media @ advertisingonly.com
Pawar : meetingsonly@ fit for agriculture.com
Sidhu : One six@ man dead.com

Next Block Buster of Rajni and Mani- Too good to be true??


Maniratnam's Next Venture: Bus conductor
Starring: Rajinikanth, Sehr Mahmood (Miss Pakistan 2006)
Music : AR Rahman
Release Date: End of 2007 or April 14 2008.