The Value of Facebook in our lives - 4 Reasons why we must use it regularly.

Ignore those who say Facebook is for desperate people. Let it go when they say Facebook is a distraction at work. And, push away those who want you to put your mobile aside when you are out partying.

Facebook is what you need to change your life. Facebook is what you need to recover from this depressing period that we all are going through. Facebook is our key to overcome frustrations and bring back what we will otherwise be missing.

You want to know how and why? This is why:

1    1-  Facebook helps us appreciate those small things in life

Remember the time when there was no Facebook? You may not, but just imagine it’s gone for a week.  How will your life be? Will you be happy and proud of the small blessings in your life?

No, you won’t be. Without Facebook, you will eat in a nice restaurant with your wife/GF/Friends and it will be just another lunch/dinner. You won’t even remember it after 2 days. After all, food is food and so what even if you spend a fortune for that. Do you remember all your lunches and Dinners from the past, your anniversary dinners? Your birthday dinners? Did it even matter?

And honestly, you would remember one thing: the feeling of lack it gave you. You were like, I am spending so much money on this, I just wish it can give me a long lasting happiness instead of a feeling of loneliness and emptiness.

Facebook is there to change the way you look at these small things in life entirely, and forever. Now, you go to a restaurant where you have been before and Facebook lets you share that moment with 200 plus “friends” of yours.

Your “friends” from school days, your friends from college days, colleagues and ex colleagues, and their colleagues and their friends will all know you went for your anniversary dinner and the best part is yet to come: whether they are happy for you or not, they will like your picture and there you go.

50 odd likes on your anniversary dinner picture and you see life in a totally different manner. That dinner now becomes a long lasting memory, a moment of pride.

Thank you Facebook!

      2- Facebook helps you to be your self

You wonder what the biggest issue with our world is today. What is the biggest reason for your emptiness in life? People around you don’t allow you to be yourself anymore. Everyone expects us to act in a certain manner, all the time.

You ever wonder how happy you can be if only you can be yourself for a couple of hours in your life.

Facebook gives you exactly what this society, in fact what your friends and family can never. It lets you fuck those guys, just pick your laptop/phone, get a cup of coffee or even beer (even better!!) and just be with yourself for a change – you will never judge yourself.

You can write a 10 line review about that movie you saw last weekend and you never had the courage to let people in your office know how you felt about the movie. You can browse thru all the pics of your colleague in the office or even girlfriend of your best friend, who you otherwise may totally ignore in real life, because well, let’s accept it- you don’t want to labeled as a desperate in your circle, because ..you are not…right?

3     3-  Facebook helps you in letting your loved ones know how important they are for you

The pain of any marriage is that no matter how much you love your wife and no matter how many times you compliment her, she will always feel your love has gone with time. And she is not entirely wrong too.

As years goes by in your marriage, there will be a dearth of those moments when you really let the other half know how important she is for you and it will become more and more difficult for you to convince her that she is a priority and not the world.

Imagine picking up a phone from a friend while she is sitting right beside you in a posh restaurant wearing that dress that she had been dreaming of for ages now. And worst, if your friend makes you laugh or smile. Even worse, if you tell him in front of her “I will definitely see you tomorrow man”.

Use Facebook and your life will become easier than ever. Just take a picture of both of you and write “dinner with my beautiful wife” – let the likes and comments flow in (don’t worry, no body writes any thing bad on Facebook). Your wife will not only sleep peacefully (and let you sleep), she will be busy replying to those comments when you are our next day – with your buddy.

      4- Facebook gives you the boost you need in an otherwise low life

One of the 7 sins – jealousy. Insecurity. Trust me guys, nothing kills a human more than the feeling that his friend, his colleague is more successful, more busy, more happier than him.

To add to this shit, you see a group picture of your friend having a blast in the club while you sit in front of the TV again: it sucks!!

But what we so easily tend to forget is that we can help ourselves pick up and make our life more happening and give ourselves that high we need so badly. We all can do it, no matter in what situation we are, all we need to do is to convince ourselves that we are having a blast too.

When Facebook was not there, well, you won’t see your friends having a blast, but now when you can see, you can use it to show as well.

Get up and don’t be a victim! Get up, you don’t have too many friends, its ok! You won’t have access to THAT club, its ok! Get up , go anywhere and do whatever you can and are allowed to. Just make sure you tag yourself, your friend who is with you and friends who are not with you (that’s accepted too) and use hash tags too – write how happy you are – ##party, ##masti, etc etc.

You have one life to live, don’t let yourself go down so easily. And Facebook is there with you, when no one else is.

Conclusion:  You are not a looser if you use Facebook all the time. You are not jobless if you are on Facebook all the time. We were all born same. So what if today others have more busy lives than us. So what if we cannot do justice to our lives like they did. What GOD could not do for us, another man did – Mark Zuckerberg – he gave us Facebook.

Thank you Facebook!!

PS: Writer of this useless article is the biggest looser ever, but he won’t give up: not for now.

Indian Premier League: Has it helped Indian Cricket At All?

Last week, as the South African cricket team arrived in Bangladesh for 2 T20s, 3 One Day Internationals and 2 Test Matches, Faf du Plessis told the press that one of the reasons why South Africa has done so well in the subcontinent in the recent past is the positive influence of IPL (Indian Premier League). He told press “It’s one of the biggest reasons we’ve done well here”.

It’s in a way heartening to hear something positive about the IPL from someone who is representing probably one of the best teams in the world. And what he said makes sense: without IPL, a team like South Africa visits the subcontinent once in a while and it would take some time for them to adjust to the conditions. Even the best in the world has struggled here.

Since 2010, South Africa has won three of the eight Tests, 16 of 28 ODIs and 11 of 17 T20Is on the subcontinent.

From their current T20 team, nine players played in the IPL this year.

While above make sense, you wonder if IPL has actually helped the host nation too? After all, the front end agenda or the objective of IPL was to let the youngsters get exposure to play with international cricketers and take that experience forward to their performance for National Team, right?

During the Opening Ceremony of IPL season 8, Sourav Ganguly said that “IPL has done wonders for Indian Cricket”. Though I agree that an IPL is better than no IPL at all, as it helps so many young cricketers who may or may not make the final 11 or final 15 of the National Team, to enjoy cricket with Indian and International stars and also earn good money, But “IPL working wonders for Indian Cricket”. Am I missing something or people are just paid to say what they are supposed to say?

Let’s compare the performance of Indian Cricket Team in both tests and one day internationals between pre IPL Period and Post IPL. And for the sake of really testing the capabilities of the team with respect to challenging situations, let’s compare their performance outside home, especially in England, Australia and South Africa. Because this has been the week area for Indian Cricket and we all know about it.

IPL was founded in 2008, so as per Sourav’s claims, it must have planted its improvement since 2009? Hypothetically at least. Let’s compare Test Cricket Team’s Performance First:

From 2002 to 2008 (6 seasons), Indian team managed to register “One Test Series Win, 2 Series were drawn and they Lost 2”. This includes a test series win in England and a Series in Australia ending 1 match each. They lost only in England, by one match.

Then came IPL and from 2009 till date they “haven’t won a single test series in these countries, drawn 2 and lost 5!” This includes miserable whitewashes in England and Australia. The way they lost in England and Australia during 2011 and 12, it’s hard to understand what Sourav is saying.

May be I should not talk about test cricket? Though that should be the first priority if you are a cricketer, right? But anyhow, maybe he was suggesting one day cricket performance? Let’s see about that. From 2002 and 2008 again, Indian team managed to “Win 3 one day series in Australia and England”. Where as from 2008 until now, they have “Won 2”. More or less same? Or worse?

If we talk about World Cups, during the pre IPL period, India was finalist in One and Lost out in Group Stage in West Indies. During the Post IPL period, they Won a cup and reached one semifinal. The cup they won was obviously in India, as you know. One noticeable achievement was winning champions trophy in England. But that’s about it, that stands out.

I still don’t understand how IPL has done Wonders to Indian Cricket. Do you?

Messi or Ronaldo: The Final Verdict is here - Last Volume

The stats might have changed a bit since last 2 weeks when I wrote part 1 of Messi or Ronaldo. But that won’t help you either to convincingly award one player as the best. Two weeks back, we focused on these stats (updated now until 23 May 2015):

Messi			Ronaldo
Appearance	Goals		Goals	Appearance
577	455	All time career – club and country	488	742
480	410	All time – club	436	623
315	286	League	312	421
98	77	Europe	78	121

Messi, I guess edges out Ronaldo above with regards to goals per games ratio. The Champions league performance is staggering. And he doesn’t take as many penalties as Ronaldo does. To be fair to Ronaldo, he has scored at a much faster rate at Real Madrid.

I extracted some stats with respect to their Honours too (Since 2003-2004):

Messi		Ronaldo
7	League Titles – Spanish or English	4
3	UEFA Champions League	2
4	Ballon d’Or Award	3

Messi edges out Ronaldo here too.

No, I am not taking personal sides here. Yes, I would pick Messi in my side, but it won’t be an easy choice. I would suggest that Messi’s success has come partly because of his genius and partly because of his team Barcelona. Sir Alex once suggested that Ronaldo may be able to fit easily in any team, whereas Messi is made for Barcelona. How Messi performs in another team can only be seen when and if it happens, but the playing style of Barcelona and Service of the likes of Xavi and Iniesta definitely helped Messi in achieving what he did.

It’s another thing though: how Messi has gelled with Suarez and Neymar and in fact has helped them grow, has again highlighted his team player ranks, whereas Ronaldo I feel has never been able to completely stop his critics for his individual ambitions.

Again, we are just lucky to be present in the time when both these players are at their best and entertain us like no other. And we can choose to just sit back, relax and let both of them edge out the other week in week out.

Messi or Ronaldo: The Final and The Ultimate Verdict is here

Not really! Just kidding.

Whatever it is, it can only be an opinion. That’s the whole point, it’s all about opinions. Will you have Messi in your all-time greatest team or Ronaldo, and why? Throw that question to a crowd and you will divide them. I am basically saying a cliché. We have never got a convincing answer and why do we need a convincing answer?

Get me a Real Madrid fan who will choose Messi over a Ronaldo. Get me a Barca fan who chooses Ronaldo, any day. And for a neutral, it’s about who you want in the pitch. Do you love a dashing hunk, running with the ball like a tiger, muscling defenders away, at times with his trickery too, and other times bending the ball like only he can. You love what he does off the pitch too J.

Or you would rather see a slightly more serious, small figure, a born genius, taking the ball away from defenders ( at times 4 or 5 of them) before they even realize it and looping the ball over the keeper. It’s just who you want to see on the field.

You might argue that let the performance, the records say it. Here you go:

All time Stats updated on 9^th May

Messi			Ronaldo
Appearance	Goals		Goals	Appearance
574	452	All time career – club and country	481	739
477	407	All time – club	429	620
313	283	League	306	419
97	77	Europe	77	120

Now what do you say? Even this will lead to different opinions.

We are just lucky to be present in the time when both these players are at their best and entertain us like no other. 

There would be one personal argument though (another opinion); who makes a team better? A team is not about Ronaldo or Messi alone. It’s about how these 2 players take their team and their team mates to new heights. A lot of questions were raised when Barcelona decided to play Messi, Neymar and Suarez together, but to every one’s surprise and pleasure, they have complimented each other amazingly.

How about the situation at Real Madrid at this moment? How is the BBC of Real Madrid – Bale, Benzema and Christiano gelling? Just an opinion and I shall continue next week.

Liverpool Football Club: Being re labelled as “the selling club”

I wrote an article for Weekender (Daily Tribune) during last week of December 2014 “Big stars are Liverpool? May take another season of TOP 4 Finish”.

My argument was this: When a player of the quality and record of Cesc Fabregas (36 Million), Diego Costa (40 million), Alexis Sanchez (44 million) look for a football club shift, they look for a pedigree, consistency in management, ownership, football at top flight and trophies.

Liverpool has a huge history and without a shadow of doubt, they are one of the most followed clubs in the world, but they have not won a Premier league title since its inception.

They had a fantastic last season (2013-2014) and reached Champions League again. But, from 2014-2015 onwards, the club needed to show that it was not a one season wonder thing, and they can maintain their TOP 4 status, if not winning the League title or some trophies like FA cup.

But how did this season go?

Liverpool lasted only in the group stages of Champions league this year, winning only one game against Ludogorets. They had a very bad start to the Premier League Season, loosing 7 of the first 16. Then came a turn around and they went ahead with 13 games without losing. But it went downhill again, losing to United and Arsenal, making their position extremely difficult for a top 4 finish. After the league cup semi-final exit at the hands of their recent nemesis Chelsea, the club was left with one big hope – to win the FA cup. This too lasted only till the Semi Finals.

Now what from here?

Press is full of claims that Liverpool has become a “Selling Club”. With one trophy in 9 years, Liverpool will be forced to sell more players this summer. Can you deny that so many big players who left the club in recent past, has already won major honors with their new clubs? I actually respect the way the new Liverpool owners has handled the club, in terms of handling the debt and their player wage policy. But, to compete with the likes of Chelsea and City, to win the Trophies, they need to reconsider the strategy and mission.

Or this, once a great club, will soon become a Southampton. Dream and objective each year will be Top 4 finish, players will be developed at the club, which is a fascinating thing. But they will eventually leave the club “for Trophies”.

Indian Premier League: Another Indian Tamasha or a Real Cricket League

During the Opening Ceremony of IPL season 8, Sourav Ganguly says that “IPL has done wonders for Indian Cricket”. 

Though I agree that an IPL is better than no IPL at all, as it helps so many young cricketers who may or may not make the final 11 or final 15 of the National Team, to enjoy cricket with Indian and International stars and also earn good money, But “IPL working wonders for Indian Cricket”. Am I missing something or people are just paid to say what they are supposed to say?

Let’s compare the performance of Indian Cricket Team in both tests and one day internationals between pre IPL Period and Post IPL. And for the sake of really testing the capabilities of the team with respect to challenging situations, let’s compare their performance outside home, especially in England, Australia and South Africa. Because this has been the week area for Indian Cricket and we all know about it.

IPL was founded in 2008, so as per Sourav’s claims, it must have planted its improvement since 2009? Hypothetically at least. Let’s compare Test Cricket Team’s Performance First:

From 2002 to 2008 (6 seasons), Indian team managed to register “One Test Series Win, 2 Series were drawn and they Lost 2”. This includes a test series win in England and a Series in Australia ending 1 match each. They lost only in England, by one match. Then came IPL and from 2009 till date they “haven’t won a single test series in these countries, drawn 2 and lost 5!” This includes miserable whitewashes in England and Australia. The way they lost in England and Australia during 2011 and 12, it’s hard to understand what Sourav is saying.

May be I should not talk about test cricket? Though that should be the first priority if you are a cricketer, right? But anyhow, maybe he was suggesting one day cricket performance? Let’s see about that. From 2002 and 2008 again, Indian team managed to “Win 3 one day series in Australia and England”. Where as from 2008 until now, they have “Won 2”. More or less same? Or worse?

If we talk about World Cups, during the pre IPL period, India was finalist in One and Lost out in Group Stage in West Indies. During the Post IPL period, they Won a cup and reached one semifinal. The cup they won was obviously in India, as you know. One noticeable achievement was winning champions trophy in England. But that’s about it, that stands out.

I still don’t understand how IPL has done Wonders to Indian Cricket. Do you?

And the Winner takes it all?

Is winning everything in sport? Yes? So what role the remaining 10 teams played in the Cricket World cup? And if you are thinking of only Australia as the winner, what role did other 13 teams play?

Definition of Sport from WikiPedia: Sport (or sports) is all forms of usually competitive physical activity which, through casual or organised participation, aim to use, maintain or improve physical ability and skills while providing entertainment to participants, and in some cases, spectators.

Though it also says: In competitive events, participants are graded or classified based on their "result" and often divided into groups of comparable performance, (e.g. gender, weight and age).

Yes, every time a sports man comes out to the field, all that is there in his mind is to give his most competitive, best shot and emerge as a champion. It makes sense; a sports man provides the best sporting skill (which is what we are watching on the TV) only when he gives his most competitive best in the sport. Only the best foot forward is the most entertaining and eventually a “winner”.

But, sometimes, a looser or the second best man/men/team wins your heart, if I am a spectator. The whole world minus the Aussies, wanted New Zealand to win the final. Why? One reason is that they wanted a change in the order. Australia had won it 4 times before this one; New Zealand had never even emerged in the final before this one.

It’s the love for the underdogs, the story of dreams, and the story of revenge. That is always more beautiful than the story of Sporting Mastery to the level of monopoly – the super power.

The story of a team who played like gladiators and laid down tactics to counter punch the superior power, to bring down the almighty power. The story of rebels uprising.

It wasn’t to be the case this time, it happened in 1983 when India won the cup defeating the almighty West Indies, or in 1992, when Pakistan did so to England. But the Gladiators from the kiwiland did win our hearts. 

They might still be under the shadows of the “All Blacks” (their Rugby team who has ruled the sport), but this time though they can hold their heads high, as the they took one major step forward. They made the Rugby obsessed country, talk about this team.  

Cricket World Cup 2015: Too Long, But not too Frivolous

By the time you read this article, Cricket World Cup 2015 might be at its final stage and South Africa or New Zealand would have reached their First World Cup Final Ever. And either of them would be getting ready for either Australia or India.

But from what we witnessed so far in this edition, few things will remain in our memories and few will be quite unique to this World Cup.

For me, among all, the performance of the Associate Nations stood out. I have reflected in my earlier articles on how teams like Ireland and Afghanistan gave top test playing teams a run for their money and a reminder to ICC on what they have not done properly at all – and that is to help these teams grow beyond “the once in 4 years World Cups”.

This World Cup broke batting records I guess. No other world cup saw so many teams scoring 300 plus totals. In fact, we even saw scores of 400 plus. This did not come as a huge surprise to me, as the initial indication was to encourage good batting tracks and the likes of AB de Villiers and Glenn Maxwell were bound to exploit it, with their fearless batting, which in itself, is a testimonial to modern day “I play my way” cricket.

But a pleasant surprise though, was a reminder to every cricket fan that fast bowling is not dead in shorter format of the game. No matter how big the bats become, how flat the pitches and how audacious the batting, if you can bowl your heart out at 140 KPH plus, you can still put the batsmen on the back foot and in fact turn the game completely. The ‘chin music’ is here to stay!

Wahab Riaz’s scorching spell at the Aussie batsmen, Mitchell Starc’s 150KMH Yorkers at the Kiwis were two of my favorite moments from the cup.

What were your stand-out memories?

Why Cricket is a Better Sport than Football

During a Cricket World Cup game, I came across an advertisement which says “while you wait for the next over to start, you can go to our website and compare various insurance policies and save Rs. 7000”. At first, it sounded like every other Indian Advertisement. But, I gave it a thought and it’s not totally bizarre. That’s the beauty of this game.

Unlike football, I don’t have to dedicate myself to a cricket game completely. I can use washroom while a fast bowler goes back to his long run up, rubs the ball with his pants, spits on it a couple of times, etc. I can take a break after the first hour of the game (15 overs or so) , go to grocery shopping with my wife and come back after an hour, and last hour of the game (the most entertaining one) will be left still. I can then take another break, may be respond to my emails or eat my lunch and come back for the second innings. Can I do all this with Football?

I have the privilege to watch my team play our arch rivals or neighbors again and again. How often England football team play Scotland or Ireland or their rivals Germany? In Cricket, India plays Sri Lanka twice in a year (for a full series). It’s easy; there are hardly 10 regular teams in the cricketing world. Familiar foes, familiar game, all the time. It’s so comforting, the usualness of it.

It gets even better when you move to Indian Premier League: Beautiful cheerleaders, 100s of Sixes, Spicy commentary by the likes of Navjot Singh Sidhu. I will never get this kind of entertainment ever in football. The so called legends and pundits of football are too boring and they focus too much on the game and analysis. I can read a newspaper for that. I am not watching the game to learn anything from it, I just came back from my office, and I need entertainment.

I want my game’s experts to tell me “it’s gone for four” when it’s “gone for four” and also to let me know that “players are shaking hands” when “players are shaking hands”. I mean I can see what’s happening on TV, but instead of over reading the game, analyzing it etc, I love my TV to let me know exactly what’s happening on TV, right?

Cricket World Cup 2015: Performance of Associate Nations, a reminder of what the game could have been

Continuing and concluding my last week’s article on how ICC is failing in its mission to globalize the game of cricket, let’s look back at this year’s cricket world cup thus far and you will be amazed how the “associate cricket members” like Ireland has performed so far.

Ireland “handsomely” defeated West Indies in their group game, New Zealand lost 7 wickets chasing Scotland’s minor total, Afghanistan nearly triggered an upset at the cost of SriLanka. Now these Associate sides do not face regular cricketing teams other than in World Cups, and yet, they are good enough to compete with them. So imagine how competitive the game can become, if they are allowed to play with these teams more regularly.

Why this doesn’t happen that way then? Reason is simple. Unlike Football bodies like FIFA, International Cricket Council does not put growth of the game as their agenda, at all. That’s it. Simple.

That’s not the priority, that never was. And they decided on it long back, when they decided not to include cricket in Olympics (which will give global exposure to the game, with much larger audience, taking game to new countries and generation). The only agenda for the cricket body is to focus on three main members of the council (India, England and Australia) and make them richer, more richer than they already are.

World of Cricket cannot survive without these 3 – even SriLanka, South Africa , New Zealand and others are dependent on these boards to survive. These 3 countries are the custodians of the game, because they are the ones who are financing the sport. Hosting a tri series between India, Ireland and Afghanistan would not bring even a tiny percentage of what sponsors can bring to the table for an IPL or a series between regular members.

A Cricket World Cup involving 14 nations this year is already quite interesting and you can only imagine how it would be if only ICC don’t tag teams like Ireland as “Associates”.

International Cricket Council: The Guardians of Sport’s Growth (Part 1)

If you go to International Cricket Council’s website, home page highlights their Strategic Direction – “Our long-term success will be judged on growth in participation and public interest and the competitiveness of teams participating in men's and women's international cricket” its mission says “promoting the global game”. 

How about if you really judge their success in terms of this mission?

Since 1989, ICC has added Bangladesh and Zimbabwe to its Full Member List (10 out of a total membership of 106) along with South Africa who was anyways “reelected”. Out of 106, these 10 are Full Members and rest either Associates or Affiliates.

As you know by now that it’s the Full Member nations: Australia, Bangladesh, England, India, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa, Sri Lanka, West Indies and Zimbabwe who have the right to play Test Cricket – this also means that they don’t have to qualify for the World Cups. And you know these teams very well; they are the only ones who play cricket for you, right?

Associate members on the other hand are supposed to qualify for the World Cup Tournament, though; they are eligible to play One Day Cricket with Full Members as well. From ICC’s website:

“ICC  One Day International  World Cricket League One Day International status, which allows associate and affiliate teams to be eligible to play the full members and play-official ODI cricket.”

Do you know that Afghanistan (who nearly pulled off a set back against Sri Lanka on 22^nd Feb Game), Ireland (who crushed Full Member West Indies on Feb 16th World Cup Game), and Scotland (who made New Zealand work hard for their game on Feb 17th game) are actually eligible to “grow by playing more one day internationals against full members”?

Now, when was the last time you saw these Associate Members touring or inviting any of the Full Members? And do you know that the next two world cups might be played only between 10 countries and not 14 like in this world cup? So no Ireland and Afghanistan in the next World Cup.

How then ICC will reach its mission of “promoting the global game”? (To be continued…)

Cricket World Cup 2015: Romancing the Quarter Finals

This world cup has to be one of the lengthiest in terms of number of matches and duration – 42 matches over a period of one month. It may sound as if it’s a treat to cricket lovers, but a lot can be asked about the format of the tournament.

There are 14 teams in the tournament: 10 ICC full members and 4 associates. 14 teams are divided into 2 groups of 7 each and they fight out with each other to “qualify for 8 quarterfinal spots” – 14 teams reduced to 8 teams for the quarterfinals, right? Now, if Bangladesh does not manage to perform beyond expectations (which is the expectation), which 8 nations will qualify for quarterfinals? This won’t be a million dollar question, would it be?

So, then, we have 8 traditional test playing nations “trying to qualify for 8 quarter final spots”. I assume that as each of them play 6 matches each in the group stage, they will qualify, even if they go thru one rare/unexpected result with an associate team. So even the out of form, out of sorts West Indies will, in all probability, qualify.  And then they could end up playing one of the better teams – Australia or New Zealand in the quarters. And, one fine day of cricket will take them to semis, or, 2 fine days of cricket will take them to final, or, 3 fine days of cricket will win them the cup.

So, it takes 3 fine days of cricket to win the world cup after all! In Football world cup, you have 32 teams  and even these 32 teams go thru a tough format to even qualify to play for the world cup – such is the competition and hence, 16 teams from 4 groups qualify for the pre quarterfinals. It’s needed, it makes sense. But in cricket, where you can make a guess on quarter finalists even before the opening ceremony, the format is more helpful to a West Indies than an Australia or New Zealand.

On the other side though, If results of 16^th Feb (Ireland upsetting West Indies) are repeated, we might be in for an interesting one.

Cricket World Cup 2015: What to look forward to

The 11^th edition of the Cricket World Cup in Australia and New Zealand is a huge event to look forward to for any cricket fan. The tournament which is merely 3 weeks away will host 49 games to be played among 14 teams. What do we really look forward to?

A Competitive Tournament

I feel that this World Cup could be more competitive than its previous editions and this is simply because of the form and combinations that various key teams carry from last year. India are the defending champions and will always pose a shot under the leadership of MS Dhoni. Australia will always be the favourites, being the host and also because of the team they are posing now under the young leadership of Michael Clarke (should he recover from his injury) or George Bailey. Same goes for the second host New Zealand. I believe the Kiwis enjoyed a great 2014 and they have a team to compete for any situation.

South Africa has always been competitive in these tournaments and will do everything to reach another semi-final and may do better. Pakistan and Sri Lanka have always surprised us in World Cups and England are lining up to get the team combination right (under a new captain Morgan) to try and reach their 4^th final.

More runs down under

Generally, Australia and New Zealand have been providing bowler friendly pitches and that has over the years made the case for low or medium scoring games down under. But this time around, we may see batsmen enjoying much more friendly pitches and hence, much on the lines of Subcontinent, this tournament may also provide some high scoring games

Young Leadership

This tournament may well see a very young leader lifting the trophy. World Cups in the past have generally seen senior leaders like Imran Khan, Arjun Ranatunga, or consistent leaders like Dhoni and Ponting lifting the trophy and their nations. This time around, it might well be a young leader like George Bailey or Brendon McCullum or AB de Villiers.

The Game will never be the same, but more or less the same

The sad and unfortunate incident involving Phillip Hughes left all of us shocked, terrified and bemoaning. The Australians were not alone in the feeling that life can be so unfair.

The game was on course to never be the same again and no other incident can reflect it more than the one when Mitchell Johnson hit Virat Kohli on the helmet during the first test of the Border Gavaskar trophy a while back: unlike the typical Australian response of getting closer to the batsman (who has just got hit with the red hard leather ball coming at a speed of 150 km/ hr ) and yelling at him “you will get a broken arm ”. Mitchel Johnson walked towards Kohli in a rather more concerned manner, as if he wanted to know “if he is ok”.

“The game had changed”- but only for a while. After all, the show must go on. The same leather ball hit many other Indian batsmen over the course of 4 Cricket Test Matches and intention may not be to hurt them bad, but to let them know that it’s capable of reaching their face.

In this game, it’s a bowling side’s way of saying that we are not here to let you place the ball where you want, while you enjoy yourself on your front foot.

And the game was never supposed to change. Right from the time Cricket was invented, a bouncer is a weapon for the bowlers to let the batsmen know who is the boss or in a more sporting sense " i am here too" and above all, it’s one of the key weapons to win the mental games and edge out the opponent. And not to forget, that’s what tests a batsman’s skills too.

In today’s scenario, with the game so much in favour of batsmen, it will be one dull affair if you take that away from a bowler. It’s the Malcolm Marshalls and the Mitchell Johnsons that make the game what it is.

And tell me if there is a sport in the world which guarantees complete safety to the sports men. No one wants to see a human get hurt in a sport, but this world won’t be complete with a chess or a darting game.

Why League Position at Christmas can be so important for English Premier League Clubs

It’s that time of the year again: a lot of festivities, a lot of rain, a lot of happiness and a hell lot of football. Its Christmas time!

Obviously, if you ask the players and managers, it’s not a very merry time for them: they have to play more than 2 games within 8 days at times in England – when you take in to account that some teams have to play Premier League games along with Champions League and Capital One Cup games. But it’s something they cannot avoid and it’s something that has a very important relevance for English Premier League Teams.

Sticking to English Premier League, most of the team roughly plays 6 to 7 league games in the month of December and how they stack up in the league’s table can be very crucial. It goes without saying that their position has a lot to do with how they have been playing since August, but with so many featured games in one month, how they perform in these games can actually change a lot of fortunes for them.

Interestingly, how they end up in the league table at Christmas may just decide their position at the end of the full season. For English Premier League, since 1993, the teams who finished 1^st at Christmas has gone on to win the League 10 times. And only once, they finished below top 4. Since 2010, 4 times,  teams finishing Christmas as league leaders has gone on to win the league eventually.

With one more weekend in the Premier League to go before Christmas, games for Chelsea and Manchester City may hold huge significance, as they are currently separated by 3 points only.

What about the teams down the table then? It’s bad: only once since 1993, a team in bottom 3 survived from the Relegation. Now this makes the matches involving QPR, Hull and Leicester very interesting and actually pivotal.

An Instrumental Leader and a Tactical Genius

"A leader takes people where they would never go on their own." Hans Finzel

In the world of football, above can be said for quite a few football managers, but no one will come closer than Jose Mourinho, currently Football Manager for Chelsea Football Club.

Today at 51, Jose is regarded by many as one of the Greatest Football Managers ever and his record speaks for himself: he has won the domestic leagues with Porto (2002-2003 and 2003-2004), Chelsea (2004-2005 and 2005-2006), Inter Milan (2008-2009 and 2009-2010) and Real Madrid (2011-2012) and Champions League with Porto (2003-2004), and Inter Milan (2009-2010).

7 Domestic League titles with 4 different clubs and 2 Champions League titles with 2 different clubs is a staggering record which no other football manager has achieved so far.

Achieving what he has, coming from a humble background, is something that cannot be done by sheer hard work and leadership qualities, but needs a Genius. Jose Mourinho has in fact done enough to show the characteristics of a man who can come to a mid-table football club, force the changes, influence the minds and characters of the football players and lead them to be Champions – eventually, if not immediately.

Jose has always been considered by all football players he has managed as an immensely influencing leader: one who has always left an ever-lasting mark on their character. This is a sign of a leader who picks you from an average and makes you do things, you never imagined you would or could do.

They say “there is no great genius without a touch of madness”. Jose has never cared to keep his thoughts to himself and have always been confident of what he is saying. He declared his arrival at Chelsea by calling himself as the “The special one” and I will never forget that he gave the promise to make Porto “champions next year” when Porto came third in 2002 – he knew what he was talking about.

Large part of his success at crucial stages has come due to his tactical genius. He has held an impeccable record for Big Games. Below record against the top guns in English Premier League is just an example:

Season	Games	Win	Draw	Loss
2004-2005	6	4	2	0
2005-2006	6	5	0	1
2006-2007	6	1	4	1
2013-2014	6	5	1	0
2014-2015 (so far)	4	2	2	0

 

He is reaching his 400 points as a football manager in English Premier League faster than any other manager in the history and am I surprised?