Well done guys!

After two narrowly missed final games, India won a series beating Srilanka in Srilanka. All the credit goes to MS Dhoni, for his great leadership and an excellent allrounder performance in all the games he played. He is back on the first place again as the world’s no.1 batsman according to ICC ranking. His young side has done well, even though there were some silly fielding mistakes. Yuvraj Singh continues his bad form while Zaheer khan and Praveen Kumar are back to the team in excellent form. As I have always said, its high time we give Yuvraj Singh a break. Like Sreesanth and Robin Uthappa, Yuvraj singh also should be dropped from the national squad so that he will get a chance to play in domestic games and prove himself. It is like a waste of space he is in the team. We remember his contributions for the team in the last few years, and we have loved him and paid him for that. Now when he is not taking the game seriously as he used to do before, a small interval from the international arena will give him some time to think and correct himself. The best thing came out from this tournament is that our guys are confident now to play Mendis and score runs off him. Suresh Raina may be the most promising youngster in the squad and I feel that he is going to be around for quite some time. Like Dhoni said, a cricket match cannot be won by individual performances, it is team effort that will get us the result.
Dhoni held the centre spot in all the games India played. He controlled the the whole team, he did all the thinking for the team, and he played superb knocks in all the games. Without him, it was totally impossible for our team to win even a single game, let alone the cup. Ever since he took his place in the team, he is a key batsman for the team. He is an intelligent cricketer, and a great leader. He stood for his team, played for his team, more than for his own gain. He led the group of young inexperienced group of players to win the tournament, which was “written off” by all the game pundits. Dhoni, we love you, and thank you very much for your hard work!

I am sorry for Badrinath , he could not really create an impact with bat or with his fielding. It was a great chance he got after waiting for many years for a place in the national team. I personally thought he did a good job with Dhoni in the second game, and that partnership took us in to victory. But that was it, other than that there was no noticeable performance from his side. I hope he will get another chance in the test team against Australia. All the best to you, Badrinath!
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KP - The new leader!

KP has taken over England’s captaincy. Now what we all need to see is that how is KP going to manage his excellent form and the captaincy at the same time. I can’t wait for the next IPL season when KP is going to be playing for Mumbai team. KP was always my favourite foreign cricketer ever. I am truly worried for KP that the pressure of captaincy may affect his batting. (Remember what happened to Sachin!) Now he is a sure bet for his side as far as runs are concerned. Since Vaughan and Collingwood resigned from their jobs in the interval of one day, it is KP who is going to take over the responsibility of both one day and test side for England. For me, KP is a role model for modern day cricketers. He is passionate, and fully committed to the game. He has never been affected by the inside politics of the national or international cricket. He works hard on the field, and always positive. He appears confident even when the chances are slim for him or his team. He always performed when the team wanted him to. He is certainly an intelligent cricketer too, of course after MS Dhoni. KP is probably the only person on England side to lead them to the “next level “. Hope England’s native born players will support KP in his task. Hope the Cricket’s answer to David Beckam will be as successful as DB himself.With the fourth test against SA and the New Zealand tour only few days away, I wish KP all the best in his new Job....

Verbal reasoning

The summer holidays in England are almost over. We are busier now than we were when the schools were on. Riya is showing a lot of improvement in Malayalam reading and writing. She is reading small words easily now. Usaully people tend to forget languages easily if we don’t use them. Arabic and Bengali were the languages I was fluent in. Because I have not been using them for long time, most of the words and letters are forgotten now. I am still an official interpreter of Arabic language in my workplace, but I struggle sometimes with Bengali. I will make sure that Riya keeps in touch with Malayalam language on everyday basis. I am so happy that she will be able to enjoy works of great Malayalam writers, especially poems.
Another thing which took my time and attention whole of this school holidays is the eleven plus tests for Riya. Even though she is only nine years old, we have started practicing the eleven plus tests, which she will be writing on 2010 march for the entrance tests for her high school admission in Sept 2010. I am badly stuck on the ‘non verbal reasoning tests’ and ‘verbal reasoning tests’. My brain is under severe stain. Even though I am a little older than an eleven year old J, it is still a bit of a struggle for me to help Riya to do them. Surprisingly, Riya is doing really well with them now, getting less than 5 mistakes out of 50.. She has got two years to practice four papers. I hope she will do well in the tests and get admission in one of our dream schools.
Finally India won a gold in the Olympics. I expected at least a silver from Rathode and a bronze for Dola Banerjee. But that was a disappointment. Thanks and congratulations to Mr.Bindra on his golden achievement. Whole country is proud of you. Also, a very happy independence day to all of you.
That’s all for now.
Time to get back to the ‘verbal reasoning’ test.
Be back soon.

Chak de India!

India is playing the set of five ODIs against Srilanka, starting from tomorrow. After the heavy defeat in the test matches only few days ago, a totally different team of players facing the ODI squad of Srilanka, which is more or less the same team.Srilanka is always very difficult opponents in their home grounds. With the recent streak of winnings and the newly found spinning talent in Mendis, they seem to be the stronger side when bowling department is concerned. Srilankan openers are doing well, with Sanath and Sangakkara in form. Murali and Mendis will be the main threat in the middle overs.India may not play Sehwag because of his ankle injury. Iinstead Virat Kohli will be playing. I was surprised to know that the selectors decided to give him a chance over S.Badrinath of Chennai. Thanks to Sachin’s injury, that now Badrinath is in the team replacing Sachin. I always felt sorry for Badrinath, because even after being the best in the domestic tournaments and scoring tons of runs, he was not selected to the A team for many years. I thought he was very unlucky each time not to get picked up for the national squad. Finally he got his chance and I truly hope he will do well. It is good news from Colombo three days ago that Yuvraj singh scored a century in a warm up match. In the absence of Sehwag and Sachin, it is added responsibility on Yuvraj and his role will be crucial. As usual Irfan Pathan and RP Singh will be leading the pace attack with Harbhajan and Ojha with the spin. I am shocked to see Munaf Patel back in the team and not Sreesanth. But happy that Uthappa and Dinesh karthik are out. Both of them were the luckiest amongst the newcomers to get many chances in the national team than anyone else.I wish Dhoni and his team all the best...

Chhayamukhi

A friend of mine sent me this CD from India, called Chhayamukhi, the recording of a stage play performed by a group of artists icluding film actors Mohanlal and Mukesh. I had no words to praise the wonderful performance of both of them, also the songs and screenplay are excellent too.Chhayamukhi is the magic mirror, gifted to Bheemasena, by Hidumbi. When one looks at the mirror, instead of own reflection, one can see the image of a person one loves most. Hidumbi sees Bhema’s image on the mirror, while Bheema sees Droupadi’s face. Bheema wanted to see his face in the mirror when Droupadi looks at it, instead, he sees Arjuna’s face. The strongest, bravest, aggressive, destructive, fearless Bheema was shattered by this revelation of the magic mirror, but still he continues to love Droapadi as much as he did before. He later on looses this mirror and keechaka, the army chief and brother of the queen of Virat gets it. Mukesh plays the part of Kechaka. Keechaka see nothing on the mirror. After Bheema killed Keechaka, Bheema holds the mirror against Keechaka’s face and he sees Droupadi in the mirror. Shocked again by this new revelation, Bheema throws the mirror away.It is easy to love someone, but very difficult to be loved. This is the message one gets from the story. The pain and frustration on Bheema’s face when he realises Droupadi’s real love is brilliantly portrayed by Mohanlal. One will feel sympathy and at the same time will be forced to admire Bheemasena.