Having seen so many Indian Cricket fans switch their support in the recently concluded World Cup…it just made me wonder – Should you support a team just because they are the favorites??
I guess it’s just one way of saving yourself the blushes…By supporting a winning team like Australia, you make sure that you don’t go through the emotional stress and the fear of losing….You take pride in all their wins and since they don’t lose often…you are not dejected often…
By supporting a team like Australia, you will more often than not…end up on the winning side…and even if you don’t…you can always get away by saying – “Hey dude…they are the best team..they will come back”. You see no emotional ties or embarrassment here…
Anybody who knows me…is well aware that I am not a big supporter of the Australian Cricket team…the reasons for which I will leave for some other time. Having said that, I affirm that the Aussies are undoubtedly the best Cricket team in the world today, more so now that they are 3 time champions.
But I wonder if your loyalty and support towards a team should be decided by the number of wins a team gets or the number of cups a team gets. Aren’t you just playing safe and making sure you are always on the winning side??
I am a die hard Indian and South African supporter and will remain so…even after the debacles that the 2 teams keep going through, but then again, sports is not about making sure you always end up on the winning side, a true fan stands by his team through thick and thin…and not just jump off a rocking boat!!
If you saw the World Cup Final on Saturday, you probably know what I am talking about. It really was a fitting climax to what has been a boring and probably the worst organized World Cup ever in the history of Cricket…
You would say the bottom line is – Australia are still the champs…and I would not disagree…Gilchrist played an innings of his life to take the Aussies through…I would only like to add that I think Srilanka got a raw deal and an unfair final….largely because of the insane and dumb people organising the event…the ICC
Why do I say an unfair final?? read on….
An Unfair Final
The fact that the World Cup final was reduced to 38 overs a side took the sheen off the final – It just suited the Aussies more with their powerful hitters.
The D/L confusion – It took the umpires good 15-20 mins to let the Srilankans know the revised target. Srilanka were 140 odd for 2 wickets when it started to rain again…now per D/L system Srilanka was trailing at this point. So they lost a few quick wickets trying to speed things along. Not that they were badly placed for a full 38 over game…but they were now made to play the “What if it rains” game..which cost them the wickets of sangakara and jaisurya…
Unknown target – Srilanka was not given the revised target for good 10-15 mins…so they were now playing with less that 15 overs remaining without knowing the new target…the umpires were all confused..the refree has no idea…wait a min…who is it hurting….it’s costing Srilanka the World Cup…BTW NO LIGHT IS OFFERED
Playing in the dark – Believe it or not, Srilanka ended up playing atleast the last 10 overs in dark. The stadiums in the carribean have no flood lights!
An embarassing Final
Srilanka played the last 10 overs in fading light. The last 3 in pitch darkness.
Confusion all round concerning the D/L system and what the revised target would be for Srilanka.
The umpires and the refree were confused about the rules of D/L and use of the reserve day.
The game should have been over per the D/L system long before. The umpires insisted in continuing.
With 3 overs left, batsmen take the light offer and walk off. Aussies celebrate, presentation dias rolls to the ground and the crowds party. But the umpires bring the players back on the field and get them to play the last 3 overs in pitch darkness.
800 dancers perform at the closing ceremony in pitch darkness. The crowds can’t see anything.
The Aussies lift the World Cup 16 teams were fighting for in pitch darkness.
What if?
Now I agree that it was a dead rubber with Srilanka needing 70 odd runs off 3 overs. But here’s my what if
What if it wasn’t a dead rubber?
What if Srilanka needed 30 runs off the last 3 overs with Malinga and Vass at the wicket?
A slim chance but a chance indeed.
Wouldn’t it have been unfair for them to play the last 3 overs in pitch darkness?
It’s a pity the World Cup had to end this way – but I guess it was just a perfect finale to a bizarre World Cup…I am not going to remember this one for long…Are you??
So it’s official…South Africa have yet again ruined their chances of getting in to the final of a World Cup…let alone winning it…they MUST get over this habit of getting so close and choking themselves to death…this is costing them big time..I read that the team had a support staff of 12 people..assisting them at the world cup including Jonty Rhodes in the fielding department…I guess it would not be a bad idea to get a team of psychiatrists in there as well…
Looking at the replays…some of the shots the South African batsmen played were attrocious…especially Smith, Kallis and Prince…simply unbelievable…while Smith and Kallis tried their best not to let Aussies dominate the mental games prior to the match….Ricky Ponting n his men surely had the last laugh…it seemed that South Africa only had one game plan…dominate and be aggresive..no matter what…while it’s great when it clicks..like it almost did in their earlier encounter…but they did not have a backup plan here…at 27-5 inside 10 overs…they were dead and out…
Australians in the mean while are having a dream run…..I can now only pray that they now have their long due bad day on 28 April – the finals!!
A funny thought occured to me this morning…I guess I didn’t sleep very well or something…or maybe I am getting geekier by the day..lol…anyways I was wondering – what is the one thing that a technology addicted person would miss the most when he/she begins the heavenly journey…for someone like me….it has to be my laptop…now I am scared, do they have computers in the heaven??…ofcourse I have assumed I am going to heaven you guys…everybody does right!!….
So while you may have high speed satelite internet connection if you land in heaven…but if God forbid (literally in this case)…you end up in hell…wonder if it there could be a greater punishment to a geek than to give him a Pentium 4 machine with a dial up connection!!
I bet that would be enough for any one of us not to commit a bad deed…
Anyways..just a thought…don’t take it to heart..enjoy and pat that awesome and faithful machine you have!!
As the World cup draws to a close, I gather my thoughts and bring forth my insights on the biggest cricketing event and the reasons that make it the most forgetful cup ever -
This has to be the first one, probably one of the biggest ones too – among all the hoo haas and the humongous expectations, India and Pakistan fail to make it to super eights
Pakistan Coach Bob Woolmer mudered the day after Pakistan lose to Ireland.
Empty Stadium stands – Stupid ticket pricing, poor marketing and maybe in part due to India and Pakistan not qualifying for super eight. The Carribean crowd has been known for it’s bands and dancing in the stands, it was definitely missed at the World cup.
Senseless tournament format – Now you can slam me for this, but I continue to believe that the format was shocking to say the least – here’s why
Senseless scheduling of matches – You would think that the administrators would want maximum stadium and TV audience for atleast the semis, well throw those thoughts through the window cause the semis are scheduled for a Tuesday and a Wednesday!
Too long and boring schedule – When the world cup runs for 2 months, you know there is something wrong.
Below International standard grounds – Not much grass on a lot of grounds, you could infact see dust flying all over in the outfield. Believe it or not, a lot of these stadiums are still under construction!
The insensitive fans and media backlash – It did not make pretty pictures, fans breaking through players’ homes, crazy people burning effigies, threats to players’ families – and ironically, the media covering and blowing up all of it – really very unfortunate and totally uncalled for
Security and safety concerns – Fire in the hotel, coach murdered – just makes you sit up and question the security and safety
The God accused – Sachin Tendulkar is dragged into a controversy for the first time in his 17 year career. His attitude questioned by the coach Greg Chappell – Unfortunate is all you can say.
But this can all be fine…really guys…just fine…we will remember this world cup for ever…We will party all night..but that will be if and only if…Australia does not win the cup….anybody but Australia….did I hear you say “Yes!” ?? amen to that…
Did I miss some reasons? Do you have more reasons that make this world cup more forgetful or may be memorable? Be sure to write in your comments!
This is one of the coolest ads and probably one of my favorites, now that I have watched it a few times. Watch Small B start off with Amitabh Bachchan – Deewar – Mandir scene, and follow it up with Dilip Kumar,Shahrukh Khan….just too good…a smile is guaranteed…infact it’s on me
It was a sad day today at Virginia Tech University. 31 lives (so far…) have been lost to an insane shooting spree at the university’s campus this morning…very sad indeed…
Now this statement would probably not go down well with a lot of people…but I am gonna say it nevertheless – I wasn’t as shocked…as most people…with the kind of control that the US govt has on the selling of guns and other weapons…this was almost always on the cards…just waiting to happen….
The weapons are so easily available to virtually anybody – anybody who has no criminal record and has a valid ID…u just walk into Walmart in some cases and get your hands on one of em…it’s almost as easy as buying a candy!
It appears as if the US weapon policy is a result of an arrogance, an over confidence in the system…that the system can do go wrong…that the people who get the guns can do no wrong…what needs to be realized is that people do crazy things when they go crazy…why increase the chances of them hurting other people….this has clearly been proved with the shooting this morning..if not already in the past…the DC sniper brings back more hurtful memories…
The innocent kids shot dead cannot come back…and the heart goes out to their parents…it’s about time the country takes a hard look at the guns and firearm policy…
If you’ve been following up the developments the last few days, you probably have an idea what I am talking about. Just to recap..A PIL has been filed saying Sachin Tendulkar cut a cake which had colours of the national flag on it….and by doing that he apparently has insulted the National flag…as also the National sentiments…
I am actually pretty amused and surprised at these allegations…I don’t understand how cutting a cake with the National Flag on it is bringing disrespect to the nation considering it was not done intentionally…it’s not as if Sachin said “hey it’s been a while I have done something daring..what should I do…umm…yayayaya….let me show some disrespect to the Indian Flag!!”
As Navin Jindal – the man who fought for the right of common people to unfurl and wear the national flag puts it “On days like birthdays, the name of a person is written on it. When the cake is cut, does it mean we are cutting and disfiguring the person? The sole intention is to wish the person a long life.” Couldn’t agree more. It is just the way you look at it.
One really feels for Sachin. With what he has done for Indian cricket and given to the world of cricket for the last 17 years, the treatment he has been getting last few weeks is simply appalling.
It’s almost a fag now to abuse the “little master”…a phrase that was coined just for the genius batsman…..If you don’t abuse or criticize Sachin, you must not be sane, you are almost instantly outclassed from any cricket conversation.
Further the BCCI gag orders has now made him a soft target. Anybody can broadcast what he wants to, get his moment of glory and get away with it.
The PIL’s on the other hand are soon becoming a joke. People are misusing the whole concept of the PIL’s. It is a quick and sure shot way to get some quick publicity given the current state of the news hungry Indian media.
A guy slaps the Indian coach Greg Chappell…he gets his share of publicity…You burn effigies of the Indian cricketers…you can be absolutely sure to have video cameras flashing on you…break into Dhoni’s house…you are on the front page…
People like Sachin and Infosys Mentor Narayan Murthy are being targetted for either political gains or settling some personal scores. This clearly is hitting below the belt…and uncalled for…India can definitely live without this…here’s a call for some respect for the great men of India…
I recently transferred this word press site(amitabhjotwani.com) to a new host. Although I knew it would involve transferring the database (Word press stores all the content in a database) as well as the actual files, I wasn’t quite sure how to go about it. So began my quest for an answer…and as is the norm…a website called Google came to the rescue…anyways…long story short…while there are plenty of websites out there explaining how and what to transfer…it took me a little while to gather all the information and create a step by step process for the transfer. Here’s a quick summary of what I discovered needs to be done to ensure a smooth transition -
1. First you want to copy all the word press files from the old host to your computer using your favorite FTP program (I used the awesome and free File-Zila)
2. Next you want to back up the word press database from the old host using either the word press database backup plugin or using phpmyadmin provided by your old host. For some reason myphpadmin did not work out for me and I used the plugin. It is very easy to install and use. Export the database to a SQL file on your computer.
3. Now you want to create a new database on the new host. Make sure you note the details of the new database like database name, username, password etc. We will need this to configure the WP-config.php file later.
4. Now Import/restore the database using phpmyadmin on your new host. This would involve importing the SQL file you created in step2.
Note: If u get the following error while importing, Search and delete all instances of the phrase “DEFAULT CHARSET=latin1″ from the sql file and import again. “You have an error in your SQL syntax. Check the manual that corresponds to your MySQL server version for the right syntax to use near ‘DEFAULT CHARSET=latin1?
5. Copy the WordPress files that you copied from the old host in Step1.
6. Now update wp-config.php located on the root folder on the new host with the appropriate database information.
7. Change the DNS information so that the domain name now points to the new location.
amen to that…
