India managed to hold on for a gritty draw at Cape Town yesterday thereby ending the series on even grounds with the Proteas. After years of losing every test series on all South African tours, this was a great achievement. Also in both this one and the previous tour, the team has come close to inflicting defeat and take the series only to be thwarted at the last attempt by a common factor - Jacques Kallis, the greatest cricketer of this generation. Take a bow !

However, at the beginning of this tour I would have settled for the share of the spoils. India maintains its number one ranking and this makes the England(who have just thrashed the Aussies crazy)-India series in June a mouth watering prospect. Kudos Team India !!

The Master recorded a half century of centuries yesterday. However, it was greatly and I mean greatly soured by India's heavy defeat by South Africa at the Centurion. On the fifth and final day, however I was bemused by Sachin's approach as he did not farm the strike and led Sreesanth and debutant Unadkat to the slaughter and before time it was all over with Tendulkar remaining unbeaten.

Great achievement but remembered for the wrong reason. Long live the Master.

The consonants in the title might be the same but the range of emotions I went through in the first Test between India and New Zealand was contrastingly different.

Usually I am all excited about an India series but this time led to my behavior towards this series was apathetic to say the least. Even before the series had begun, I was looking forward to India's tour of South Africa later this year haughtily dismissing the Kiwis as minnows and ripe for a good trounce. However, when i woke up on the fifth day, I expected a "meander to tame draw" headline to greet me but it was famously Chris Martin who was featured on Cricinfo's first page . I was a worried man, ruing my views on the Black Caps. At the end of the day I was a relieved man, with Bhajji finally showing his batting abilities and the ever dependable VVS on the other side to guide India to safe shores. Although, it sounds gross but the fact is that the Kiwis made me eat crow :P

P.S. I think India will thrash New Zealand in Hyderabad. Bachcha log these kiwi boys :D

A 2-0 whitewash of the Aussies in cricket and a fantastic end to the CWG games with India coming in 2nd place with 101 medals , capped off a great week for the host nation. The icing on the cake being the spectacular closing ceremony and thereby setting a high benchmark for the games in Glasgow. Bravo! as the Australian and New Zealand media put it.

The CWG opening ceremony heralded the arrival of a new India. All doubts about India's ability to host a major even were laid to rest in a glittering show of culture, sports and fireworks. There will always be room for improvement but as the old cliche goes "Rome wasn't built in a day". Coming to the games itself, India has hit the ground running with the shooters and grapplers snaffling up the gold in their respective events. Here is to India winning much more.

And winning that too from impossible situations seems to be the norm for the current Indian cricket team, ranked as the no. 1 test side in the world, as they showed some great determination at Mohali to beat the rampaging Aussies by a thrilling margin of 1 wkt thereby retaining the Border Gavaskar Trophy. The heroes of this chase were VVS Laxman, Ishant Sharma and useful cameo by "the master". It felt sweet revenge after the farcical events that had occured in Sydney couple of years ago. What comeuppance for the Fab Four(oh dada why did you have to retire) People talk about replacing the older generation with new and upcoming cricketers but when the old men are performing so well, why touch them. Vangipurappu Venkatasai Laxman is the master of the 2nd innings. His 2nd innings(3rd or 4th in a match situation) scores from the past 18 months read : 124*, 61, 51*, 69*, 69,103*,73*. That is a stunningly mind-boggling average of 275. Whaddaplaya!! .

This is the golden generation of Indian batting and India deserves every inch of that no. 1 spot. Hope Dravid, Sachin and Laxman never retire.

Go India Go !

Excuse me people for the cheesy line but Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar's achievements are such that the English language is struggling to find new superlatives. The first double ton in ODIs, a barrier that had not been breached in 39 years of limited over internationals, was broken by the man most deserving to get there. And no it wasn't against Bangladesh or Zimbabwe but one of the world's top team - South Africa.

They say that it is impossible to turn the clock backwards but Tendulkar carries this almost nonchalant ability of picking out at will, defining episodes of his past years, and producing the sort of innings, a blemish-free display of pure cricketing strokes, that only geniuses are capable of. He unites the nation of a billion people, makes them cheer in one voice and sends them in raptures with just the turn of his bat. That is undoubtedly his biggest achievement, by transcending our differences and creating possibilities and an emotional high of tremendous magnitude that only sports can achieve.

Mamta Banerjee's rail budget was consigned to lesser headlines yesterday as Sachin collared the opposition. In it, he could be compared to Don Bradman who had got so much on English nerves, that the words "He's out!" - were blazoned across the London evening newspaper placards (1930 Ashes where Bradman scored 974 runs in 7 innings). when the great depression was grabbing all headlines. And interestingly this has once again resumed the debate over who is the best batsman to have played the game. The Don v/s Sachin Tendulkar.

Today's generation hasn't seen and never will see Bradman play, so one doesn't even have a yardstick to start with. A lot has been made of statistics but they hardly tell the story. Yes, there is absolutely no argument that an average of 99.94 is phenomenal. But the pressures of modern day cricket are different, there are a lot more teams, different conditions to counter etc. A game played under the shadow of the Great Depression, the maintenance of colonial supremacy on English minds, cannot be equated with game set amidst commercial brouhaha whose upshot is a highly professional milieu that is much more competitive and organized.

So then what remains constant is to influence people irrespective of its environment, to embody that spirit of accomplishment, to bring the world to a standstill and take notice of the phenomenon unfolding in front of their eyes. Bradman did it and so has Sachin. It would be futile to compare these two masters. All we can do is revel in their success, our success. In the mould of the modern day sports legends like the Federer, Jordan, Woods and Schumacher, Tendlya is up there with the very best gracing the cricketing summit for the past 20 years.

I have watched cricket for 18 of those years. It has had its share of ups and downs, the inevitable heartbreaks, the breeziness of important victories but it is days like these that make, being a cricket fanatic and an Indian worth it. The day this great man decides to hang up his boots, the game will be poorer for it.

If it is Eden Gardens, then it must be VVS scoring centuries for fun. If it is Eden Gardens, then it must be Bhajji taking wickets with the same passion as slapping naughty mallu boys :P. If its Eden Gardens, it must be India clinching a cliffhanger.

India's proud record at the hallowed grounds continued as they beat South Africa by an innings, in the process retaining its No. 1 ranking. It did not come without its hiccups though. A superhuman effort from the brilliant Hashim Amla almost halted India's charge as he spent almost close to 9 hours denying whatever our bowlers threw at him. But India got the other wickets quite cheaply, chief among them, Bhajji who took his 6th 5-for on this ground. Amit Mishra too, got the big wickets of Smith, Kallis and De Villiers.

I woke up at 5 am, extremely weary eyed I really don't know for what. Even as I waited for the website to load, I grimaced at the heavy possibility of a tame draw, Hashim Amla showing his middle finger and hungry Bengalis hurling bottles and rossogollas at our players. I chided myself for disturbing my sound sleep since my joints were aching from a game of dodgeball last night. My eyes agreed with my thinking wanting to close lest my fatigue escape . By the time the last wicket stand had batted for 126 balls, both my sleep and nails had vanished in the morning sunlight. I have to tell you, it was extremely frustrating with me jumping around in bed at that time of the morning and severely hoping that my vigil did not go in vain. And then Bhajji got the LBW and the crowd erupted. What atmosphere, what drama, what a victory. A highly cherished one this !.

Kudos to the India. Oye Chakde

After a very long time I watched an opening ceremony of a major sporting event. The event in question is the Winter Olympics being held at Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. And was it impressive or what. I forget now what the budget was but it was put to bloody good use.

What with some countless projectors, vivid images of the Canadian landscape were created right on the floor. It is just amazing what technology can do and you might be forgiven for thinking that the visuals were straight out of AVATAR 3D. From the icy north and maple leaf laden grounds, to the prairies and rocky mountains, the depictions were so real and breathtakingly beautiful. Also a "bear" completely made of LEDs was lowered from the ceiling that represented the Ursa Major constellation I think. Unbelievable ! Do try to catch the opening carnival on youtube. I assure you, if you appreciate creativity then you will immensely enjoy this ceremony.

However it was a sombre beginning to the Olympics as one athlete from Georgia had fatally crashed in luge practice. After researching what exactly is Luge(see here), I shuddered to think what might have gone wrong. Luge is basically a sled, where the athlete kind of steers with his leg on a specially engineered track having am obvious gravity based gradient. Professional speeds can reach up to a dizzying 100 mph.

On recreational levels though, the tracks are designed so that the speed hardly crosses 30mph. After trying snowboarding 2 weeks ago, trying luge is also beginning to play on my jobless, adventure- starved mind. If I try the sport, I will let you know how it went, although do not discard a 2 week absence, since I might be hanging around a pillar, my body having flown in one direction and the luge sled in another.

Coming back to the Olympics, I was surprised to find that India has three athletes in its contingent(for comparison sake, Pakistan has one). Even by my optimistic standards though, we are going to struggle to compete with the Europeans who live in naturally cold countries and have world class winter sports facilities to match. But Good Luck to India for showing the grit to contend in a world class event. In a country where cricket rules the roost, and other sports are "commercially" avoided like the plague, our athletes are shining examples for showcasing the country's sporting aptitude.

So the controversy over the exclusion of Pakistani cricketers in the IPL rages on. But the Pakis love to talk without the walk. Their performance in Australia speaks volumes about their abilities. It justifies the franchises' decision on cricketing grounds. One might argue that they are playing 50 over cricket and 20 over cricket is different. But you need the same basic skills. The bowling is looking increasingly toothless, the batting is in shambles while the less said about the fielding, the better.

What irks me here is some of our esteemed "stars", the two Khans and Bachchan, not satisfied with their horror show on Phir Mile Sur Mera Tumhara, decided to visit the theme of national disintegration again. So they spoke what they thought, it is a free country after all. Admittedly our media too made a mess of things and could have handled this topic with some sense. But that was the optimist in me. Does our media have any other job ? Another jobless nut called Ball Taank re - also mouthed his opinion for the umpteenth time. Taankre's own family has given up on him while the UP/Biharis are sh**ting all over his unbridled love of the Marathi Manoos. His sentiments would be better served to win some seats at the Sabha and not hog headlines with useless statements. A great city like Mumbai is what it is because of its immigrants and settlers, which mirrors any great city of this world. It is the culture which results from the mix, that defines what the place becomes. Although his views might still hold sway in Mumbai politics, the cartoonist has definitely seen better days, no?

That said, I agree in part with Taankre's views. After Mumbai 08', I would not not like any Pakistani cricketer to come an earn money in what is after all an Indian Tournament financed by Indian money. Although this is a simplistic view of things motivated by perhaps a misplaced sense of jingoism on my part, I would once again draw attention to the first paragraph of this post. Pakistani cricketers do "not" deserve to be part of this tournament on the basis of their recent displays. Time to blood some young talent in the Indian ranks.

I never knew a domestic game would keep me so interested. Mumbai beat Karnataka by a mere 6 runs to get their 39th Ranji Trophy. Remarkable achievement by Mumbai. Hard luck to Karnataka. But what an innings by young Manish Pandey who scored 144 of only 151 balls to spearhead Karnataka's improbable chase of 338. This guy could well be in the senior side within the next two years. He is a red hot talent, this lad.

Over the years now, other Ranji teams have begun to catch up with Mumbai , known as the breeding ground for special talent and one step away from national selection. In the coming years it will be interesting to see how they fare against the big Daddy of Ranji cricket. Ultimately Mumbai's depth in resolve to counter even the most adverse of situations won them the contest. Congrats to them.

The talent pool of cricket in India seems to have shifted from Mumbai to Delhi. 5 cricketers namely Viru, Gauti, Kohli, Ishant and Nehra who were in the starting XI for our match against Sri Lanka at the Eden Gardens, Kolkata call Delhi as their home.

And it was the 2 Delhi Dashers - Gambhir and Kohli who scored magnificent tons to lead India to an easy victory despite chasing a stiff target of 316 in 50 overs. Gambhir remained unbeaten on 150 and India romped home with 2 overs to spare and with that took the 5 match series 3-1.

Great Stuff, we have our own Delhi 5..

Yup it is true, India finally is the numero uno Test team in the world on the ICC rankings. This dream was achieved after 18 months of hard work and nailed after thrashing the visiting Lankans at the Brabourne stadium by an innings. The most satisfying aspect was Dravid, Laxman and Tendulkar being part of this momentous occasion. They are the three remaining from the Fab Four and how I wish Saurav Ganguly was there with them to celebrate, the man who started this rejuvenation and instilled in our listless team, the pride to play for India.

Of the Gen X , Viru and Gauti have, what it takes to become the greatest opening pair in the history of the game and with tremendous youngsters like Vijay, Yuvi, Rohit, Raina & Kohli waiting in the wings, the future looks very flowery.

And how can one forget Gary Kirsten and the support staff who have kept the team fit and raring to go for every game. Mahendra Singh Dhoni is no fluke captain as some detractors would like to bring up everytime. He is an excellent batsman-keeper, a shrewd captain and really at present the only man who can lead India to even greater heights.

Pity the BCCI is reluctant to organize more tests , hence India's reign at the top might be short-lived, but for the moment let us savor this occasion and bask in the glory.

Kudos to India!!!

And the hero of millions completes 20 years in world cricket. Congrats Sachin on this scintillating achievement. Just the amount of articles that have been written on the guy is overwhelming. I won't waste time writing one more. Catch them at cricinfo by clicking below

http://www.cricinfo.com/sachinat20/content/site

India vs Sri Lanka, 1st Test Ahmedabad
Q. How does the little master play his first ball of his 3rd decade at the top?
A. Get to the pitch of the ball and caress it through the covers.

Good Omen......? Nope,he gets bowled two balls later while playing a poor shot. Gavaskar, praising the man for his form and feet movement , jinxes the Bombay Bomber. Uff :(