Eating My Words

It isn't every day that the Indian team makes me eat my words, but it was a pleasant change over the course of the last test match to be done that. They played some out of the world cricket to blast South Africa out in their own den. Suddenly, the statisticians came up with numbers as to how India has been doing great in test cricket under Greg Chappell and how pathetic South Africa has been in that form under Mickey Arthur, a thing which baffles me. Where were these statisticians when India was being belted black and blue? I guess it just proves that you can twist numbers in any which way to come up with the kind of picture you want to project. Otherwise, they could have come up with these numbers much before the test series started so that people like me would have kept our mouths shut and wouldn't have made such a big fool of ourselves. Anyway, this was one time where I was very happy to be made a fool of.

Having beaten them once, I am hoping against hope that we don't fold up in the next test. There are lots of things working against us in Durban. For starters, it is generally a green top and where the ball doesn't just talk, it shouts. As has been chronicled umpteen times, India has folded up to 100 and 66 there. I certainly feel we'll do better than that this time, but have we got what it takes to win? The South African team which blew us out for those pathetic scores was much different from this current lot. That bowling lineup had the fearsome Allan Donald, a much quicker Shaun Pollock, sledge guru Brian McMillan, and a very young Lance Klusener. Though, like now, they had a similarity in attack to them, I guess they had slightly more discipline to them. I am sure they wouldn't have sprayed the ball around so much, except for Lance Klusener of then. On top of that, the Indian batsmen of those days had lesser belief in themselves while dealing with anything bouncing over their knees and anything swinging more than a millimeter. Things have improved somewhat nowadays, with the batsmen ready to apply themselves more. Add to that the fact that we aren't as dependent on one Mr. Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar, whose dismissal to a peach of an incutter from Donald in that match resulted in much of that rout, and we have a slightly better team now.

How will South Africa respond is something to ponder. Will they hit India with more pace or will they bring in some variety in their attack. Spin might not be such a big option as I don't think they have a good enough spinner who could trouble Indian batsmen in their pitches. Will they go for a green top, knowing well that India could exploit it better than them if we were to win the toss and bowl first? Or will they just sit back and hope for India to be complacent?

The last option looks the best of the lot since it won't be the first time India would have done something similar. Our test victories overseas have been so rare in the past that any win nowadays is a historic event. I read everywhere comparing India's celebrations after the Wanderers test similar to that of Australia's after their Perth victory over England. What was forgotten, though, was Australian's were celebrating a series victory, we weren't. The series is still very much alive for us. But then, after having copped brickbats for the last 4-5 months, I guess the boys were pretty relieved with any victory. I just hope the Indians will continue to make me eat my words.

Cricketing Yo-Yo

After being derided by all the "experts," the Indian cricket team has begun their campaign in the test arena. If there is anything in the team which leads one to believe for a better showing than in the one-dayers, I am yet to see it. The bowling has looked reasonably good, thanks to the generous amount of help the seamers are getting from the pitches. Even then, in the last one-dayer, India's bowling too looked rather pedestrian. Add to this a rather colorless fielding, and that paints a rather dismal picture.

The primary difference between a Ganguly-led India and anyone else-led India is the attitude. Under Ganguly, we had a drive to be considered as equals. For that, if sledging was required, we were ready; if gamesmanship was required, we were ready. Under Dravid, we are back to the Azharuddin, Tendulkar days when the Indian team would win a decency award hands down, but very little otherwise. It is fine for someone like Dravid to be quiet and still be attacking, but for certain others, a free rein of their emotion is required for the adrenalin rush. Ganguly, for all the pathetic batting that he displayed, could raise the bar for others in the team to perform and had the knack of getting performances. I wonder if Sehwag would have been as careless as he seems now. Having said that, I also firmly believe that the decision to get Dada out was a good one. Having taken such a bold step, I expect the selectors to look at people like Sehwag, Tendulkar, and company too with a similar view.

Just as I write this, Dravid too has fallen. Now, that is the 4th Indian wicket down. Ganguly is making a comeback. Will he make a grand comeback? My prediction is no. The romantic in me would like to believe he would shore up India's fortunes, but I have watched too many of these matches to know that India is going to crumple for something in the region of 160-180. For once, I'd love to be proven wrong. Will I be?

ID Fetish

The first id that I created in the internet was my hotmail ID way back in 1998. As part of a small course that I did on HTML programming, I was supposed to create a small website of my own with a section for contacting me. To this end, I was required to create my first email ID. Since I wasn't doing all that well both professionally and personally during that time, this specific course was supposed to shore things up for me. Added to that was the fact that I had created this website on Thrissur Pooram which was attracting lots of foreign tourists. Within no time, my overactive imagination conjured up images of hordes of tourists contacting me regarding details about getting there, accommodation, etc. I also dreamt of the various light-skinned (they were always light skinned for some reason) who would be dying to bed me. Life suddenly was in technicolor!!!

I never ever knew how many emails I received in that ID because I had totally forgotten the fact that IDs that weren't checked frequently got cancelled automatically. My rather tight pockets never allowed me the luxury of spending Rs. 40 for an hour of browsing at an internet parlor. Ignorance and the dubious financial situation deemed that I never knew what could have been in my life. So, here I am, sitting in Bangalore and filling in mundane things in my blog rather than lounging at some seaside resort with a bikini top for eyeshades.

Anyway, this was the beginning of my fetishes with ID. I don't know whether it was some misguided sense of nationalism or whether it was the limited knowledge I possessed about the internet, but my second ID too was in hotmail. This time, though, I was much more careful and kept checking it frequently, though mails to this current ID were few and far between. It seemed my friends faced the same problem I faced when it came to the internet - it just was too expensive in India.

After staying loyal with my hotmail ID for 2 years, I opened up my ID in Yahoo! which would eventually lead to my marriage, among other things. To this date, that happens to be my most active ID too, currently fighting a rather losing battle with my gmail ID. In between, I managed to open up a few in various websites. As always, the intention for each of them was pretty good and novel; the execution sadly wasn't.

Around the same time, my knowledge about the internet had also increased manifold, and I was beginning to expand my horizons in the net. So, much before I got married, I plunged headlong into various epal sites. All of them had various specifications which led to a multitude of user names and passwords. It wasn't long before a person with my kind of memory forgot all of them. In addition to the epal sites, I also was registering into various dating sites, job sites, adult sites, etc. You name it, I had an ID in it. Let alone the ID, I have even forgotten most of the websites where I might have registered.

With time, my hunger towards newer IDs diminished, though that didn't stop me from creating not one, but two, IDs in gmail. The entry into gmail also prompted me to acquire IDs in the various other Google ventures like Orkut, Blogspot, etc. The most recent addition to my ID stable is one in myspace where I have started a blog which would be competing with this current one (www.myspace.com/hariprabhakaran).

I guess, for me, it is somewhat like a kid who, after bawling badly for something, losing interest totally in it once he/she obtains it. I am not planning to obtain anymore new IDs though you never know with me. All I can assure you is that I'll be keeping one and all posted about the new development with regards to my fetish.