Rubbing it in.....

In the recent past with Sani Mirza putting on a superb show in tennis and Narain Karthikeyan in Formula 1 and Anju George on the track, our beloved cricket team performing like minnows, the sport has suffered a serious setback. The row between the skipper Saurav Ganguly and the newly appointed coach, Australian Greg Chappelle has taken out whatever respect the people have had for the game.
The underperforming Indian team has had its problem with Sachin Tendulkar out of the action, Rahul Dravid being out of form, Virendar Shewag not firing like the way it used to last season. The last time the Men in Blue won a final was, I don't know how long ago. ( U can check the ancient history texts for that).
True, Saurav has been India's most successful test and one day captain, but the aggression that he possessed the day he took charge of the team is not visible any more. In fact the same goes for Sachin also, he has become a more circumspect batsman with age. And I feel this is not doing him nor the team any good.
We can't rest on past laurels. Greg Chappelle, has made it very clear by stressing on this by not allowing Ganguly to take his place in the team for granted, and questioning his fitness. The deciplinarian that Greg is, I am of the opinion that, he'll clear most of the mess in the team and not succumb to the pressure put on him by the public and corruption.
Lets hope they rise from the ashes like a Phoenix, it's OUR team after all. Team India.

Sania Mirza

India's new tennis sensation Sania Mirza has been winning hearts all over India and the world. Her 'attitude' has been something she's is proud about. This what has helped her scale the heights that she has. Her recent outing in the US Open has confirmed that she can deliver even on the biggest stage. In her first year and a half out she has jumped from a WTA ranking of 450 to 47 [pre USopen], this speaks a great deal about her talent and determination to be one among the top ranked stars.

Her nose ring was the talk of the town but, her match against another beauty, the Russia born American, Maria Sharapova, was the first time I had seen her play. The first aspect of her game I noticed was her forehand, and the power she manages to pack in it (like in pic above) . Her racket speed is simply 'off the charts'. She also plays very risky shot and manages to pull them off very well. The angle and power combined make her a difficult opponent when she's rallying. But her Achilles Heel is her service. This is one aspect of her game she needs to improve if she is to pose any challenge to the top players like Serena who have mind bogglingly powerful serves.

One of the reasons she has been so successful inspite of her below par services, has been her perseverance and attitude [She loves 'to wear T-shirts that say a lot of things'. She appeared for the post match conference with a "I am Cute" T-shirt] She goes out there every match unperturbed by the magnitude or experience of her opponents. She played the Sharapova match like she would have played any other. In fact few of friends even tell me that she put up a better on that day than she has done before.

With her power, and attitude, if Sania works on her service I definitely believe that she can beat any player. Hey junta, we have more than just a few mediocre cricketers to support. So lets do it wholeheartedly! Three Cheers to Sania Mirza!

Katrina ....(Anything but the starlet we Indians know a lot about)

Katrina has become the talk of the town off late. Modeling, acting and having great vitalstatics has helped. Katrina Kaif has taken the Indians by storm and left them tongue tied with her beauty.

On the other side of the globe Katrina has wreaked havoc flooding New Orleans and neighboring areas and leaving tens of thousands of people homeless. It has left 2.5 million people without power. The destruction and forced-closure of oil rigs has resulted in the prices soaring up to 70$ a barrel. Refugees have been put up in stadia, and all kinds of possible places.

According to the engineers of New Orleans, 'the city's flood walls were in excellent shape before the Storm, but weren't designed to withstand a storm of Katrina's magnitude'. So in reality few practical measures were taken to avert a possible damage by storms.

Considering damage and loss of property, the number of people who have lost thier lives has been a very small number. Kudos to the planning and design committee of New Orleans and America. The evacuation procedure was so effective that the number of lives lost was drastically reduced. In the USA each and every life is valued very high and that's the reason for the tremendous and awesome safety measures employed. A similar situation in India would have resulted in an immediate toll of many ten thousands and many more during the period of the long and unplanned rescue operations.

India, a country which is going to become a very strong monetary power by the mid twenty first century, needs to invest more money in such safety measures, in case of a disaster like the Tsunami last year, or the cyclone the hit Orissa in 1999. Let's give our citizens a safe place to live in.

MS or Ferrari - Man or Machine

Michael Shumacher has been struggling in 2005: Is it that he's a bad driver? Or is the car not good enough? (to at least match the pace of the Jordan's, :) )

Ferrari with a reliable and fast car like the release in 2004 were absolutely unstoppable. MS were comparable to the Almighty. It gave him a record maximum number of wins in a season. Barichello was almost as good for a car a little slower than that of the Rain Master. The duo notched up 7 one-two's last season. In 2005 the Renaults and McLaren's had left the Dream Team staring into oblivion for answers! The only performance worth mentioning this season had been in the tainted American Grand Prix at Indanapolis, when only 14 out of 20 cars started (because of a problem with Michelin tyres).

Let's take a look at Valentino Rossi (Moto GP 1000cc) for a sec, to get some perspective. He beat the living daylights out of his competitors in 2003, so he decided to switch from Honda to a smaller teams to prove to himself that he could do it with lesser know and inferior team like Yamaha. Now this is what u call a challenge! He is also so confident about his racing skill he wants to try his expertise out on the biggest stage for car racing Formula 1!

True, the Ferrari 2005 has underperformed. But this could truly have been the perfectopportunity for MS to write down a fitting swan song (he's talked about his retirement after 2006) if he were to perform just as consistently with a mediocre car as he's been doing with great one. The next year will really confirm if Shumacher was actually the man behind the machine or just the machine itself?