Pitch Fixing

Pitch Fixing !!

A new terminology and new dictionary word coming out of Cricket Textbook, a sad day for cricket for sure.

Media will now frenzy how the curators mint money and try to find out few more curators to make it a point....
Be ready for few more Breaking News 😀

One needs to go beyond and look at the lives of these curators, normally they are the past cricketers who could not make it big in the sports world and end up doing these type of jobs which give them satisfaction to be associated with the game and also ensure bread and butter.

The man at the centre of controversy (don’t want to conclude Pandurang Salgaokar guilty without even knowing the details and background but if it has any iota of truth i would definitely feel sad for such a great cricketer) , though had never seen him play but had heard lots of good stories about his bowling through my old knowledge books and understand he had the misfortune on the lines of Paddy Shivalkar of never making it to the Indian Cricket team .He however remained as one of the stalwarts of Maharashtra Cricket.

BCCI conducts charity matches for top notch cricketers who have earned huge money, have good future as coach or commentators. Instead, Why can’t it come forward and make it a point that each and every Ranji player has some mode of retirement benefits so the old age is secured for the players. It also needs to take care of support staff including the curators . These guys need to be taken care off and well enough to sustain the livelihood. They are the ones who nurture the pitch throughout the year , match or no match and are the background boys for making a success of the match and players isn’t it? They ensure any cricket match happen in the right earnest. Being the richest board, BCCI can afford it without much trouble to its balance sheet !!

Remember one thing , to make it as sports person , one has to keep aside all other goals of life and trust himself/herself for making it to glory and if failure hits badly , then all those goals which had taken a back burner ensure success will elude the person for a long time .

Nonetheless spur of moment for such decisions and greed in any form is not justified !! And instead of Breaking NEWS , one needs to look for the root cause eradication.

- Jayawant

Secret Superstar

After a long time , I went for a movie and this time the 3 generations (my parents, me and my wife and my daughters)  made it to the theatre for Secret Superstar. The excitement was already at its pick with few of the chartbusters by now already making it to must listen list.

The movie picked up the interest right from the word GO and it turned out to be an amazing treat for all of us and the only word which could describes the movie as fantabulous !!

As usual stellar performance by Amir Khan , Zaira Wasim moving one step up towards the category of thinking actresses, Meher Vij establishing herself as the new mom of silver screen and the enite other cast justifying their roles playing it to perfection. The story of a suppressed child and supporting mother is a real tribute to all the mothers and touches the hearts of the audience.

To keep 3 generations of audience glued to the seats need a gripping story and a talented story teller and director.The real secret superstar of the film is Advait Chandan. To start your innings as a writer director believing yourself and following your own conviction has turned out into a truly amazing film on the silver screen.

The movie is worth a watch for anyone who loves to see the movies having a content and Secret Superstar fits it to perfection.

My GOD says ‘Chase your dreams , they do come true’ and I could see this come  very true for Advait Chandan !!

-Jayawant

Anil Kumble - A Jumbo birthday !!

As one of my favorites Anil ‘Saral’ Kumble celebrates his 47th birthday, I go back to a childhood story which my uncle had told me and I always correlated it with ‘The Jumbo’.

Once upon a time there was a sincere medical student whom the college Dean didn’t feel fit enough to be a doctor. Tired enough of this student not leaving the college, the Dean finally offered him the degree on a condition that he will treat every patient through lime juice only and no other medicine... . Years down the line , the Dean fell seriously ill and no one could treat him , then he heard of a famous doctor in a remote town who was the last option left. The Dean met the doctor and within days , was back to full fitness. The Dean asked the doctor who are you and what was the medicine? The doctor disclosed his identity and told the Dean who he was ? He was the same student who was not fit enough to be a doctor and the medicine was Lime Juice. Moral of the story ? “ Perseverance ,sincerity, focused commitment and loyalty to self and the profession always pays and returns the dividends’.

Sounds so close to Kumble who was supposed to be a fast bowler and based on the advice from his coaches , shifted to spin. When he started his Leg Spin , people failed to identify where the ball was turning to? as it always seemed straight (Saral in Marathi). No body treated him as a spinner but could not gauge if he was a fast bowler or slower fast or faster slow. The critics of the game banged his talent and wondered whether he would ever get a chance. I always felt as if ( though hypothetical) , Kumble must have agreed to become a spinner on the condition that he would never spin and would not call himself the master of the art, similar to the doctor above and proved all his critics wrong by becoming the highest wicket taker for India , 619 to be precise and proved the same morals as those of the doctor mentioned.

Jumbo was always a man on mission, still remember him getting LARA out when his (Kumble’s) jaw was broken and he had come on the field with face bandaged. Hero cup final when through his flippers and googlies he had his career best (and the then India best) of 6/12 against the Windies at Kolkata. His 10 in an innings Laker (Jim) phenomenon against Pakistan had brought the whole country to a standstill and who can forget his baby faced jumping in the joy when he scored his only Test century for India against England and remember , in that series none of the greats like Sachin or Dravid could score any. He still remains the only Leggie from India ever to captain a Test side.

Kumble called it quits with more than 900 wickets and had a great run as India coach which had an abrupt end.

Have a great birthday Jumbo and may you continue bringing in laurels to India , albeit in different roles.

- Jayawant

Happy Birthday - The Little Master !! India's legendory son Gavaskar

As the legendary Little Master celebrates 68th birthday exactly twice the number of his record 34 centuries, It takes me into some of the most important events of the legend's life being his childhood fan and wonder if situations would have been different than the way they turned out to be :

1) When Sunny was born , by some mistake he was interchanged with fisherman's baby and no one realised that except by his uncle who had seen the new born baby .The fisherman's wife flatly refused to hand over her child. Gavaskar has some birth mark in his ears which his uncle used to convince the lady and somehow got his nephew back .Wonder what would have happened otherwise ?

2) Then came the challenge of naming the baby as his paternal aunt had decided to name him Maruti and his mother didn't like the name so after so much of deliberations, Sunil was identified as name which according to some reference matches Maruti , else we would have Maruti Gavaskar as a legend. Isnt it?

3) As a kid , he wanted his maternal uncle and former India player Madhav Mantri to handover test cricketer's sweater to him and his uncle did not bog down to the demand and told him to earn it on his own , thankfully as a kid Gavaskar listened , else?

4) The world complains about Gavaskar dealing in boundaries only and rarely hit sixes but the secret to it lied in Girgaon locality.To ensure no window panes were broken Gavaskar practiced hitting on the ground which made him one of the best players not getting out to mistimed shots .Had he come from any other parts of India , having huge open space then?

5) Sunny could not score a century on his debut against Windies but hit the winning run and went on to pile a still valid record of 774 runs by a debutant and remember , he was not part of the playing 11 in the first test . Had he played the first test ?

6) The new generation of cricket suffers from nervous ninety syndrome , Gavaskar never faced such an issues as according to him , he only counted boundaries and post 25 boundaries he treated it as a century , also he never heard any noise on the ground , as he switched off his ears while batting , such was his concentration. Had he not been so focused then ?

Apart from these ifs and buts , Gavaskar was a genius and was a class apart scoring 13 centuries and more than 2700 runs against the mighty Windies wherein even the look at the names of the Windies players would make any batsman jittery .

Gavaskar was always known as no-nonsense captain who once famously asked one of the superstars to keep his girlfriend out of the hotel as it was against the team policy , few would reckon this as a feud between these two legends but he helped the same legend when he realised that one of the tainted players is recording the conversation on match fixing and alarmed this guy not to say anything which would put him under the lense !!

As a commentator he made Indian English acceptable all over the world.

A genius who ignited Indian spirit amongst a generation , made Indian cricket one of the richest sports in Country and made the world take a note of India all through his life.

Such gems are gift of God and Maharashtra being the special recipient of such prowess , we wish and pray the almighty for long life for Gavaskar ..and let the cricket be bestowed upon by his genius for years to come .

Happy Birthday Sunnybhai !!! 🙇

-Jayawant

RIP Vinod:The Eternal Khanna !!

Whilst coming back from work  , as usual I switched on the FM and all the stations were already in RIP Vinod Khanna mode . Was wondering whether I thank them for their condolences to the megastar or slam them for making use of any sad or happening instance into a TRP opportunity, nonetheless I could traverse my thoughts backwards into one of the most handsome men of Bollywood Vinod Khanna's beautiful journey in Indian Cinema.

From Mere Apne to Dabangg via milestones of Mukaddar ka Sikandar , Qurbani , Amar Akbar Anthony, Chandni , HeraPheri and so many memorable roles. I still remember watching MKS in its 50th week after release, Qurbani running to full house after 10 years of re-release. Which superstar  can achieve it today ?

Khanna left all the glory and instead of continuing as the 2nd best of all times,moved to the US of A to be disciple of OSHO . It’s extremely difficult to leave the pole position and keep aside everything to choose a path of mental peace and what one believes in. No normal mortal would have that kind of courage except for the real Punjab da Putar Vinod Khanna.

Vinod Khanna came back with a bang through many hits to his name in second innings , consistently won the  Loksabha seat from Gurdaspur and as MoS for foreign affairs used his films to bridge the gap with our super active neighbours . It was one of the lifestyles which only Vinod Khanna could lived and he lived it in style.

RIP Vinod Khanna !! The fans are gonna miss you .

- Jayawant 

Celebrating Master Blaster' 44th birthday

As Sachin turns one more page and completes 44 years today , I feel like getting down memory lane and rekindle the unimaginable reality which India lived with him for 24 years.

As a 16 year boy making his debut against the fearsome Akrams, Waqars the whole India watched the then Tendlya with an awe in that memorable 1989 series which is best remembered for Bradmansque and unbeatable Sanjay Manjrekar, undefeated Captain Shrikanth and David v/s Goliath battle between Sachin and Qadir during the one dayers and people adoring when Sachin played with bleeding nose and coming out with flying colours.

Centuries started flowing in and Sachin was looked upon as the next Gavaskar, the next VIV and last but not the least the Don himself, who too agreed to it but Sachin never moved away from the focus of batting . Who can forget the exploits at Sharjah against the Aussies under the rarest desert storm , scoring 241* against Aussies when being out of form ,scoring a century as a tribute to his late father against Kenya in 1999 WC, the duel against Shoaib in World Cup and unending wait of 2011 for the World Cup .

Remembering the mood of the nation , I am convinced with the fact that the entire India was overjoyed with WC victory but somewhere down there in hearts, we had tears of joy and relief for getting over the burden of winning the World Cup with and for Sachin.

100 centuries , 50k first class runs ,unbeatable record that would make anybody a legend but carrying that aura on the field and off it makes Sachin so special and is one of the rare phenomenon we have seen in our lives.

One always looks at the glory what Sachin achieved but the sacrifices his brother Ajit made , his parents understanding and supporting him to follow his dreams,his Kaka kaku playing the background role in the making of their nephew ,his kids taking their father's absence in their stride for his career ,wife Anjali taking a backseat when she herself could have got a flourishing career of her own , his coach Achrekar sir persistently believing in his student and the student never failing his master ,like a true Eklavya attitude that has made him what he is today.

Legends are not born but they are self made human beings and Sachin proved it to perfection.
Take a bow master !!

- Jayawant