IMPOSSIBLE says I'M POSSIBLE

Indian Cricket... Whats happend to it????

Wasim Akram has been Pakistan's no. 1 fast bowler for quite some time and he exactly knows what india needs... He kinda agrees with me on getting back Daada and laxman into the squad... clearly, the batsmen we have currently show no promise other than the captain himself, how now is injured and the wicket keeper... anyways... this is what wasim had to say....

With the South African tour turning out to be a nightmare for India, Pakistan's cricketing legend Wasim Akram on Monday said the team's batting and bowling performance were below par for the first time in five years and suggested that Sachin Tendulkar should show the same aggression in his approach as West Indian genius Brian Lara.

"Your (India's) batting is looking below average; they are looking out of it. For the first time in last five years, the year since I retired, I am seeing an Indian batting line-up below par," Akram said after India once again surrendered abjectly to South Africa in the third ODI in Cape Town on Sunday.

Referring to the slump in Sachin's form in the last two ODIs, Akram said the Master Blaster seems to have "gone into a shell" and lacked the attacking mode.

"I have been watching Sachin. He has achieved everything. Now he should be toying around the bowling like Lara does. People say he has responsibility but so has Lara.

"Sachin should come out and play his shots, especially in one-day cricket. When he goes back in his shell, leaving deliveries outside the off stump, then the bowler gets to him. When Lara comes, it is totally opposite. He looks for two or three balls and he then starts playing everywhere," he said.

The former Pakistani fast bowler said he has noticed that Tendulkar in the last one year or so had been conscious about correct technique as reflected in his decision to leave the ball outside the off stump.

"Tendulkar I have noticed in the last year or two that he is very conscious when he comes out to bat. He wants to be proper, leaves the ball around," Akram said.

Akram juxtaposed Sachin's aggressive batting in the previous World Cup in South Africa and his present style to drive home his contention about a certain tentativeness in the approach of the Mumbai batting maestro.

"I remember the game in Centurion during the last World Cup when Sachin was in a mood to dominate. If I bowled up, he would come on the front foot; I pitch short and he would be punching it through. That's when I get worried," Akram said.

"When Abdul Razzaq dropped him, I told him he has dropped the match not Sachin. I know what the wicket was doing, there was no swing and he wanted to punch every delivery. But when he is defending and blocking every delivery, I would know that unless I bowl a really bad one, I would be on top of him."

Akram was highly critical of the quality of India's overall batting in the current tour and suggested the inclusion V V S Laxman and Sourav Ganguly in the team.

"Everybody looks average. They (the batsmen) are not even coming behind the ball. Your team is inexperienced; bowling too. It appears in shambles. Five years ago we used to say winning against India in India is impossible. It is totally opposite now. Your batsmen never used to get out," he said.

"There is no aggression, no passion. Body language is not positive. It seems they are praying Allah kare tour khatm ho (God! End this tour soon)," he said.

Akram believes the selectors should have followed the "horses for courses" philosophy and bring Laxman and Ganguly for such an important tour.

"You have dropped key players; Ganguly and Laxman are missing. Please ignore them if somebody is better than them. But if you want the World Cup, this is the tour to practice and experiment," he advised.

Akram lashed out against the Indian medium-fast bowlers including Irfan Pathan who was once his prot�g�.

"Look at your bowlers. Agarkar is average, so is Irfan. Munaf Patel looks like 124 and not 24 years old to me. The way he was bowling the second spell in the second game, somebody should tell him with such performance he would be dropped," Akram said.

He said Pathan's action has gone bad and he is not using his front arm at all.

"His action has gone bad. He is not using his front arm at all. He is not pivoting and coming sideways. He has three or four major issues with his bowling. It can only be told by a bowling coach," Akram said.

He said Indian coach Greg Chappell can only show Pathan certain things about bowling. "But somebody has to tell him the finer points," he said.

Akram appeared disappointed that Pathan did not come up to him to seek his advice to improve his bowling.

"I am here but he hasn't come up to me. If I am struggling, I will go up to anyone. I spoke to Marshall, Hadlee, Kapil everyone," he said, adding that "Irfan wouldn't learn unless and until he asks people around. I am not going to go to him."

Well... I really hope the indian selectors realise this and get back Daada and Laxman into the side.... then our batting line up will really improve... I also feel the need to play Kumble more often in the one day side. My Batting Eleven is as follows

Sachin
Sehwag
Laxman
Ganguly
Dravid
Dhoni
Pathan
Agarkar
Harbhajan
Kumble
Sreesanth

I am sure most of you wil agree to me, and for me, this is a match winning line up for sure, even without the services of Yuvraj Singh, who has been really gud till he got injured.......

posted by ASHWIN KRISHNAN @ 8:08 PM 0 comments

The Wheel of Mis-fortune

Well... as I sit in my lab trying to introspect as to why things have gone they way they have gone today, Here I am typing this out... for the better of me, or so I think....

So... anyways, as i said... or may be I dint... but yeah... it was a forgetful day today... to actually start with India losing yet again to SA badly without much fight absolutely. Anyways, as the match ended and I was certainly hungry and wanted some Indian food badly. So, I set off on this mission to search for potential seniors with cars, who could accompany us to the resturant and give us a ride in their car, for the nearest resturant was like 8-10 miles away. Since today was potentially a bad day, no senior was interested in going plus they were busy with finishing work for the upcoming week. But couple of my frens and me were pretty desperate to eat in this Indian resturant. So, we had this very wild idea of taking the bus to that place. Well, I call it wild because, Albuquerque's public transport system sucks. We have a bus like every half hour on the busiest of busy roads and its more like once an hour on an average. We had to board two buses and reach the resturant.

But since, we were desperate, we took off on this mission to getting to this Indian resturant for the Afternoon buffet. We started off at 12:30PM, knowing very well that the buffet closes by 2:30PM, so we had two hours to reach the place and finish eating. Anyways, our first bus came in no time and we were very happy that the travel had started off well. We reached the next bus stop (where we had to get down and wait for another bus) in like 15min. After that, we realised that we had to wait like 20 min for the next bus. So, we had this wild idea of actually walking down the road and then reach a certain busstop on the road by 20min, so that the bus eventually turns up there and also with the idea of making us more hungry to eat more indian food. Well, we did walk... walk.... walk... and finally reached a busstop, when we thought it was enough and then started waiting for the bus. (This road was potentially, not a very busy road and so the bus frequency was once an hour) So, as we waited till like 01:30(that was like half and hour after we had got down).. the bus finally arrived.... and to our horror... DIDN'T STOP at the bus stop.... guess why... because we had stood about 10 feet away from the board that said 'BUS STOP' and the driver assumed that there was no one in the stop and continued on his mission.

I was f**kin pissed off... not knowing wat to do now... had come all the way to eat... and I had like another 2(¹/₂) miles to go. We dint even have the energy (and ofcourse no time as well) to walk and reach the place. So, sadly, we returned home, taking the bus in the other direction. Near by, we stopped at our usual hangout place, had a pizza and went back home and slept(we were kinda very tired, you see after that marathon for absolutely nothing)

I just gotup like half an hour back and have started re-typing my term paper because some virus has apparently deleted all the files from the department hard disk, where all my files were stored. Well... On this kind of a day, a sunday, when people actually relax for the week ahead, here I am.... sloggin off, burning my midnight oil for absolutely no mistake of mine....

Well.. two things I want to point out about the USA here, which I never expected... Very bad public transport facilities and a server without a fire wall... oh my god... hopefully, this will be cleared off and we should get some good work done in the coming days....................

posted by ASHWIN KRISHNAN @ 8:03 PM 0 comments