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So the world celebrates Tendulkar’s 20 years of international cricket. Experts, former and present cricketers who has played with and against him, media, theorists have poured in their highly-emotional tributes to the man who almost seems as old as the game itself in India, at least to the current generation. It is almost like Tendulkarisation of Indian Cricket!

However, there are others, a different set of fans (and experts and former cricketers) who had a different opinion about the master, (at least they thought so in the period from 2004 to 2007). Who like the batsman Tendulkar, while disagreeing with many tributes such as ‘being the best ever’. I too feel that he is not.

Personally, I know him as the batsman as any other cricket follower, and of course I too feel privileged to have watched him during Chennai 1998, Sharjah 1998, or Centurion 2003, And I am enjoying the process of all this adulation on little master. I too watched him as the God of cricket, but only till 2003. I feel that somewhere, he has not been doing what he should have or could have done for himself, and that would been automatically rewarding for Indian cricket as well.

By coincidence or otherwise, I suspect that all such different set of people (at least in India) must be Dravid fans.

Not a single 300 in test cricket and only five 200 plus scores is a huge under-achievement by his standards. We talk of his records but these come when you play for 20 years, longer than anybody else from contemporary players.

That he is not a selfish cricketer is of course true but he has not been selfless either. There was time when experts including Ian Chappel and Ravi Shastri questioned his contribution to the team, around 2004-07 (though I do not believe that he was playing for statistics). But unlike Dravid, he has not gone out of the way, offering something extra (of which he is capable of, and is as good a manner as anybody else) to help the team cause. Many a times, when India was struggling to find a opening batsman in test cricket, Dravid was ‘ready’. Notably, test tours in South Africa 2001, Pakistan 2006 and Australia 2007. Remember, Dravid was the captain during Pakistan 2006 he took the initiative and challenge to open the batting despite his not-so-good record as an opener. Dravid did that in ODI also, West Indies 2006, and most recently Sri Lanka tri-series 2009, so that other players could play freely assuming that Dravid will keep the other end safe. And most often, he did.

On Australian tour in 2007-08, team again moved Dravid to open the test match to ‘accommodate’ Yuvraj Singh, who failed. Dravid too failed and the process repeated in next match and by that time Australia were leading the series by 2-0. Ever since India have tried to fill an open middle-order slot (Kaif, Yuvraj, sometimes Laxman, whose neck had been invariably on the wire), I always felt that Sachin Tendulkar should have been pushed down at 5 or 6 when less experienced batsmen were trying to be regular in the team. And I am very surprised at his dislike for not moving from no. 4 position (if you looking at stats, please exclude all such instances when night watchman made him bat at 5). Over the years, Border did it for Steve Waugh, and later S. Waugh did it for brother Mark or Martyn, to groom fluent and less-established players and he himself was better able to play with the tail. Azharuddin demoted himself to five bringing Tendulkar to 4, Ranatunga did it for D’ Silva, Cronje did it for Cullinan and Kallis. Tendulkar has never taken initiative to make adjustments for the team. On the contrary, when he failed in first 4 innings during Australian tour in 2003, he was moved to no. 5 position so that he could find form. Isn’t it interesting?

I suspect that he does not believe in process, and his belief is ‘I will score more will help team more’ isn’t always true. Sometimes, I sense that he plays (and scores well) as if he is oblivious of team problems (batting order, opening slot) which is not good for the team. His No to captiancy in 1997 and 2000 were understandable, and his decision is respected. But his decline to captaincy when Dravid resigned in September 2007, particularly when there was no other suitable candidate at that time, again raised a question on his attitude towards the ‘process’.

He has openly heaped praise on Ganguly and Kumble as captains, and Sunil Gavaskar as a batsman. I wonder why he doesn’t talk about Dravid. India’s fortunes have changed in last few years for different factors including Ganguly’s captaincy, team’s better adaptability to foreign tours, and of course Dravid the batsman. I have rarely heard Tendulkar talking about Dravid, neither as captain for our series triumph in West indies (2006) and England (2007) or the glorious run in ODIs prior to world cup 2007, nor for Dravid the batsman. I was very surprised that a few days back, he took Bangar’s name before Dravid during that infamous Headingly test in 2002 and it was because he himself scored a hundred. And may be that is why he did not mention Adelaide 2003 or Kingston 2006, both pioneering moments in their own respective sense. Dravid as captain, emphasized on having the process which doesn’t work in India, and so he resigned. He was dropped from ODI, quite unfairly twice. It is fine if Sachin has nothing to say on his ‘dropping’ but now when he ways that ‘batting order’ was the reason for world cup 2007 debacle, I can read it between the line. And so many others can.

So, I feel that though we should enjoy this moment of little champion’s 20 years of cricket, and we applaud him, though the process could have been better, punctuated with the spirit of ‘growing together’.

(C) Copyrights Vinish Garg.

Meri Ye Do Ankhen…

Copyrights Vinish Garg

Copyrights Vinish Garg

To be continued… :)

A Flaterring Experience

Yes, I am flaterred :)

Yes, I am flattered :)

 This is the title page of a magazine that I designed for our anniversary. Yes, it was a flattering experience..!! A few snapshots are available in an album on Facebook – vin.jyoti.ish.  Login into FB and find me at: 

http://www.facebook.com/Vingar#/vinish.garg?ref=profile

The complete online edition is available to those who have a cup of coffee with me. Plan it  :).

I watched the first cricket match in 1987, 22 years back. The first names that I recall hearing was Raman Lamba, Arun Lal, Kapil and Shastri. I started watching it regularly in 1991, the tri-series in Australia with infamous 126 tie-match at Perth against West-Indies. I remember it as much for Sachin’s over as for Azhar catch to leave it a tie. I felt I was obsessed with it in 1993, during Hero Cup, and I wrote the first post on this gentleman’s game in 1999. From Arun Lal to Sidhu to Sehwag, from Vengsarkar to Manjeraker to Dravid, from More to Mongia to Dhoni, and from Kapil to Srinath to current brigade… I have seen all, along with of course generations from other countries as well.

www.cricinfo.com is the best thing to hook a cricket enthusiast like me but more than anything else, I like the collection of photographs available on this site (Courtesy Gettyimages because of their recent alliance with cricinfo).

Reconnecting with old and forgotten friends after years is an amazing experience, a feeling of joy, fulfillment, and of ecstasy. Particularly for those whom you have lost hope that you will ever meet or chat online. It never happened with me so frequently as it has happened in last few months. People whom I would invariably remember – the moments that we shared together, the classes, coffee or career, the curriculum, customer calls or jokes, sometimes with smiles or with moist eyes.

First it was Neha – the prime character in my first book was inspired from her. I never thought that I will ever chat with her after 6 years were passed. But we did.
Then it was Renu, my class-mate during MCA. She is settled in Germany and again it was 5 years since we had a chat or message.
Next was Daya ma’m, we worked together in Spice, and we reconnected back after 5 years.
And today, it was Sanjeev. We studied together way back in 1991-94, 15 years back.

I do not believe that it is ONLY technology that is helping (la orkut/facebook). It is something in nature. Something that wants us to not to give hope, to embrace positivism, to have will to love and connect with more people, to share joy and laughter, and to love yourself and back yourself. Imagine how you feel/react when you are about to reply to a client email (that you don’t want to), or planning to cook rice (wishing someone else could do that, just for today), or waiting for a cab/bus (wishing your colleague could pick/drop you along the way, again just for today), or you are stuck in traffic (when an important cricket match is about to be over)… I guess nature has its own ways to pay back. And reconnecting to loved ones is one of those.

I long to reconnect with a few more people and I guess the route has been planned. It must be on the way. I can see it coming. Soon. God Bless Me.:)

“I wish you use pencil and pad also, and not always THE KEYBOARD, at least occasionally.” I was startled at her words. “Pencil? I am a tech writer not an architect dear,” I said.

Her voice had raised, “Even when you are thinking something, you are looking at the screen, with fingers tapping (struggling on) the keyboard. With pencil and pad, sometimes you would see around, left or right at least when you are thinking.” There was no pause… “And you might have noticed that our roof is leaking, door needs paint, fan needs to be cleaned, and blah blah blah…. Can’t u even sense that you can take off your specs at least while ‘thinking’?”

She was right!. How this PC has reshaped our thought process. I have noticed that even while planning tasks or time estimates, why I am (most often) looking at the screen? I recalled that when I was writing a fiction few years back, I would spend time looking at ceiling, or walls or at lawn outside the window. Of course technology has obsessively possessed our heart, nerves, veins, brain, liver, stomach, and everything, even spiritually. I can’t live without it but thanks to my dear wife, now I use pen and pad while ‘thinking’ or ‘planning’ something. God Bless Her.

Hi

Just want to share an excellent source of Microsoft Vision 2019 at:
http://www.istartedsomething.com/20090228/microsoft-office-labs-vision-2019-video/

Interesting!

Technical Writers are not just any other writers, they are different from all other writing professionals. That’s interesting :) .

Know more at: http://www.stc.org/2009/05/04/us-govt-acknowledges-tech-writers.asp.
Cheers to the efforts by STC!

IPL 2009 Contest

The cricket’s new cash machine – IPL 2009 is all set to begin again. My only concern is that it may dilute the interest of 20-20 cricket world cup that follows within 2 weeks after IPL ends. After all, Indian team is the defending champions of 20-20 world cup when we famously won the crown in South Africa about 2 years back. And any such event run by ICC is far important than any cash driven ‘personal’ tournament.

IPL is huge for its hype and the cash it is expected to generate (the 7 min break after 10 overs in the innings is the latest card IPL offered to users. What users will get is, a break for updates on news channel as to what V^%&* Gandhi had in dinner, proofread an advert quickly, quick shower, salad dressing, walk with the dog, etc.) This space is for cricket lovers who love to track the game NOT ON game-by-game or over-by-over basis, BUT follow it for ball-to-ball, CLOSELY.

If I ask who are the players most likely to shine in IPL, 90% of people would start counting batsmen. Unfortunately, this is the game of batters, with due respect to bowlers. So, let’s guess who are the batsmen that are likely to dominate the tournament?

I have selected a list of 5 top batsmen who will be highest run getter in the tournament. I do not consider strike rate, average, or the batting position (though opener is more likely to score more runs than a number 4 or 5). I tried for loop but could not develop anything that I could integrate for user interaction. Simple, plain, technical writer’s calculations – highest run getter. That’s it.

The 5 batsmen are most likely to be from the following list:

McCullum, Taylor, Gibbs, Hayden, Raina, M. Hussey, Warner, Gambhir, Sehwag, de’ Villiers, S. Marsh, Yuvraj, D. Hussey, Duminy, Tendulkar, Jayasurya, Sangakaara, Kallis, G. Smith, Dhoni

Notable players who are less likely to make to the list of top 5 batsmen are:
Jayawardane, Ryder, Oram, Ganguly, Dravid, Flintoff, Peterson, Gayle

*Peterson and Gayle were in the original list but they are available only for few games which virtually means that their chances of being highest run getter are nil.

So, my list of 5 players who will top score in IPL 2009 are:
McCullum
Gibbs
Yuvraj
Taylor
de’ Villiers

Hard to leave were: Sehwag, Duminy, Raina, D. Hussey, Hayden, Dhoni, Tendulkar, Sangakaara

Your Guess?*
* You will win satisfaction of being a knowledgable cricket fan :) . All the best!

As always, I registered myself for the New Delhi STC Session for 21 March, and as always, I missed it. On 20th evening, I packed my stuff and had my dinner early. This ensured that I could sleep early because I needed to travel 300 km before next morning. The next moment I heard thunderstorm and saw that it was raining cats and dogs :( .

I cursed the fate as night travelling in heavy rains was not really a good option. For next few hours, I dreamt of DITA (the subject of discussion) and oh… I missed it. It had happened earlier too, I would register and could not make it for some reasons. How much I miss STC in this sleepy (sleepy for technical writers) but othrwise beautiful city :( .

And as always, I vow to be there next time – Come What May (Probably it would be in MAY:) ). God Help me please.

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