Namesake

Namesake. Not by Jhumpa Lahiri, but a small article, capable to be a blogging material on the matter, that no more red hot to me.

While having the occasional lab meeting, we happened to stumble across a topic named : Exclusion of Sourav from IP 4. A total massacre that the whole nation is making scoop of and the die hard fans of the great captain falling back to their sentiments, hitting back at IPL... SRK... KKR and even the BCCI and Sarad Pawar. The sentiments do let you imagine (may be aim) at an wide angle.

The Picture: Exclusion of Sourav Ganguly, the former skipper of the Team India and the Numero Uno test captain the nation had ever had.

The Spot: Indian Premier League (IPL) Season 4.

The ISO: Conspiracy Theory, not the one mentioned in the linked book, but the one that many Indians know. Bengal has been in the backyard of the game of Indian Cricket, neglected for ever. Just that, they could do nothing with Dada... the Maharaja of Cricket.

The Print: Distrust and Disrespect all over and lot of commotion.

How does Mr. Shah Rukh Khan place this film rolling? Korbo Lorbo Jitbo, guess will stop airing in the prime time in Kolkata Media. He already has created a bad smell.

The conspiracy theory  against the Bengal Crickets always have taken it's toll, man handled by BCCI, more after Mr. Jagmohan Dalmiya had stepped aside from the governing council. With Sourav being axed after a long 10 years, completed from every format of the game, the game is being repeated from the roots with more cricketers.

The latest victim, as according to my reckon is Wriddhiman Saha. The excellent wicket keeper has been bought by Chennai Super Kings. They didnt need Saha, for the talent, but to suppress the talent and kill it under the heavy armpits of Dhoni. Dhoni, no doubt is a fine player, but his presence in CSK will show the place of Saha be like Patel...worse even... no where! KKR gave a nod in the conspiracy by not bidding for this fine performer.

IPL4 comes mid of 2011. Guess, it will be full of unexpected crowd behavior at Eden Gardens. What ever it is, the name of Kolkata is in the hands of the people who live here. Think before you listen to your emotional cry!

Thank You!

An Emphatic Match.

Three days back, I spilled the beans after the literal surrender by the Kolkata Knight Riders' in the hands of Deccan Chargers. The mood was uplifted, but not satisfactorily after the rain truncated match was awarded to KKR, via the Duckworth Lewis system. (I don't prefer a truncated match being decided! After all, the fielding side needs 10 good balls to win a match, while the side chasing needs more than 11 runs to win, as always!)
Today, 23/24th April (IST), a match did glue us to our seats. More in Jaipur and Kolkata, the whole nation witnessed a thriller! Rajasthan Royals ultimately won the match snatching victory from the jaws of Kolkata Knight Riders, in a tie breaker over, called the Super Over! RR won with two balls to spare!

Chris Gayle started a "Gayle Storm", uprooting the Rajasthan Royals in a run chase of 151 runs in stipulated 20 overs! Initially, the Rajasthan Royals created an impact with Yusuf Pathan creating fireworks! He was joined in by R. Jadeja, Mascarenhas (Eng) and Avisek Raut! Mendis halted the RR bandwagon initially picking up Smith (SA) and Pathan, who was on his own Rajdhani Super Fast Train! But the show was stolen later on by the other three and hence RR posted a huge total of 150runs. The last over yielded the innings best of 18 runs!
Gayle scored 41 out of 33 balls, with four towering sixers! Sourav Ganguly played a gem of an innings being the senior most of the side, scoring 46 out of 30 deliveries. He was nicked out in the final over, in the second last ball. Everything was according to plan for the Men in Black and Gold, had not Y ashpal Singh, after repeatedly reminded to play with cool by Ganguly, awarded a catch at Long Off! Ganguly's dismissal left the equation with 1 ball, 2 runs! Ishant Sharma made a terrific shot, but the old wily Warne stopped in for a single, resulting in a Super Over. Only one man will bowl from each side and only three batsman can participate from the opposition! Only two outs are allowed. A run would be set up which the second team has to over take and become a winner! Yusuf Pathan did play the match winner role, snatching victory from the KKRs!

The game was upto standard, and I enjoyed the manner in which KKR responded and fought back! Congrats to T20 for setting up such exciting matches!

Aussies + Indians(Bengalis) + Experimentations = Disaster!!!

Whenever the above concoction is available, it never cures..but creates disaster. The last time this happened when Greg Chappel was the Coach of Team India, did India see a hula-bula in the field of cricket, on and off field. The removal of the Captain, Sourav Ganguly resulted in anointing the deputy, Rahul as Captain of Indian Cricket team. The result? India was shown the door in the first leg of the World Cup, 2006. India had only one credit to her name, posting the highest WC score against Namibia, which was 400+ runs in 50 overs! Cheers!!

Now, on a much smaller version of the game, John Buchanan, the former Australian Natioanal Team Coach and another Australian by birth have taken the reign in his hands and removed Sourav Ganguly from Captaincy of Kolkata Knight Rider's team, in the IPL Edition 2. The result? Disaster. Knights lost to Deccan Chargers on 20/4/09 comprehensively by eight wickets, posing the lowest IPL 2 score batting first and utilizing full quota of 20 overs!

Buchanan voiced that he wanted to experiment with the concept of four captains: Main, Fielding, Batting and Bowling! Now he has only one: Brendon M'Cullum (NZ). Greg wantedto experiment with the batting order in both Tests and ODIs, hence did see Ganguly open in Tests!!! Ridiculous! What laws of heaven revive it's magic, when Indian(Bengali), Australian and Australian Experiments meet!! It always spells disaster!

KKR's performation was never near to good!! Too sad to write for a supporter!

A Dozen Years...

It was an evening in August 1996, Kalka Mail. I was then in the sixth standard, and that is the first time I heard, chota Sourav. My name is Somnath, not Sourav! Yet many eyes stared with awe about the then similarity. Seldom did I know about the feats of another Bengali, done a few weeks back in Lords, The Bethlehem of Cricket.

Sourav Chandidas Ganguly, made a Test Debut comeback against England, where he made back to back test centuries, under the able captaincy of Md. Azharuddin. Incidentally, the legend made his debut on the last test match of another legendary name in Cricket, Dickie Bird. Those two knocks ensured that the Son of Bengal was never to look back, and continue some glorious years, before he would retire 12 years later in November 10th, 2008.

Today, I am not going to enumerate his achievements, as have many many articles do, but I would put forward some incidents where by the Great and myself bear resemblance. Not only in Kalka Mail, but the direct "sweet" assault about my resemblance came in 2000, when in Netaji Bhawan I was taking some data to write a curricular project of Netaji Subhash Chadra Bose, when the museum curator inquisitively looked at me. He couldnt stop his inquisition, and went a step ahead to ask... Are you relative of Sourav Ganguly?

2001, while taking a regular class at Amartya Mukherjee's tuition at Rabindra Sarovar, sir followed the same lines and asked, tumi Sourav er bhai? (Are you Sourav's brother?) In both scenarios, the answer was No!!!

2005, while in my undergraduate years, I got slapped by a girl, Kasturi...the ONLY time in my 20 odd years, because I said Sourav is better than Sachin. Later on the poor soul treated me with chocolate candies to soothe my anger!!!

Sweet memories I would cherish through out my life. Dada will be missed, like a King is missed from his empire....

The Fighting Warrior: Sourav Ganguly.

Sourav Chandidas Ganguly, the Pride of Bengal... The Maharaja (emperor) of the Game... and the Big DADA (Big Don) of Indian Cricket, is back roaring with his paws held high, pouncing on each and every lions that try to come by his way... He is ferocious... and more hungry than ever...

there lurks a quite magestic silence in his approach... its not that shirt waving Ganguly that one saw in 2002 NatWest Final against England... its not that over ecstatic pitch slapping Ganguly any more.. he now a patient listener, more than the wall.. he is a cold poison in the veins of the opposition. He remains calm and composed, ready to pounce on an un-protective prey.

Today, he and Yuvraj put on the highest 5th wicket partnership in Bangaluru (erstwhile: Bangalore), of 300 runs, pulling the team from the dumps of 61/4 to 361/4 with Yuvi falling in the next ball faced. He scored 169. Its his come back test also, and he grabbed the oppertunity in style! Ganguly remained unflawed for 125* runs at the day end.

Can he touch his highest ever of 178 runs? Can he cross the double century mark. His 99th Test shall be the witness of one of the greatest tricks that came out of his worn out, soiled, yet working bag of goodies. In the previous test he had fulfilled one of his dreams of making a century at Eden Gardens, Kolkata, his home town.

He is on a role... oppositions be aware!