2009 NFL Season - Predictions

So, its that exciting time of the year again when we are at the doorsteps of another NFL season (and the college football season). And this post is something that I have been planning to do, at the start of the season, for the last 2 years but just didn't get the time to do that. So, I am trying this one out now to see if I will be third time lucky.

What I am trying to do here is to just pick out the winners of each of the 8 divisions and also to pick the 2 wild cards for the 2 conferences and just stop at that. I am doing this based on the free agent acquisitions and the strength of the returning teams and not on the basis of their pre-season performances. Though I have been following the pre season games superficially, I do not think these carry any weightage once the actual season begins (the Lions were 4-0 in preseason last year and we all know how it went for them in the regular season) It is going to be too tough at this stage to predict the results of playoffs and thus ultimately who will make it to the Super Bowl & who will be holding the Vince Lombardi trophy at the end of it all. That is something I guess I can do at the end of the regular season. With that behind, let me get started with the division where the Seahawks are housed in.

NFC West

I am a big Seahawks fan but I do think they are a long way from getting back to the good old days when winning the division was taken for granted, and thus I predict the Cardinals to retain the division. Boldin wasn't traded and that makes a huge difference bcos Fitzgerald will be double teamed by opposition defenses which should leave Boldin relatively uncovered. Kurt Warner has atleast 1 more good year left in him. The 49ers and the Rams are still in the very early stages of their rebuilding process and they will thus make sure that for the 2nd year in a row, the NFC West will remain as one of the weakest divisions in the league.

NFC South

Now, this was a division which was one of the strongest in the league, couple of years back. Not so, anymore. I pick the Panthers to win this division again, inspite of Jake 'will-throw-5 Int-in-a-playoff game' Delhomme. As long as Bucs don't have a consistent QB, they are not going to be a factor. Saints still remain a middle-of-the-road team, inspite of Sean Payton & Drew Brees. I am not sure if Atlanta has it in them to repeat the season that they had last year, but they should still do decent as Matt Ryan is only bound to get better this year

NFC North

This will be the most watched division this year, because of Favre's umpteenth unretirement and Jay Cutler's trade to the Bears. Adrian Peterson with that O-line with Favre to back it up, the Vikings are definitely my pick to win this division. Bears will do better than the Packers, mainly bcos of Jay Cutler & Matt Forte. And Lions will live the 'Rome was not built in a day' lesson.

NFC East

This perennial powerhouse division has definitely lost some of its sheen because of TO's & Burress' departures. Giants suddenly do not look the potent team they once were. Redskins seem to be in perennial rebuilding mode, what with Jason Campbell at QB and an ageing Clinton Portis at RB. The Cowboys seem to be always 1 play/ game away form throwing it all away. So, the pick here becomes easier - Eagles. Though Jim Johnson's demise would be felt, the addition of Vick to their offense is going to make the defensive coordinators of their opponents scratching their heads.

NFC Wild cards - Atlanta, Cowboys

AFC West

This is the division where picking the winner should be the easiest job. The Broncos fired Shannahan and then traded Jay Cutler for Kyle Orton (seriously, what was that all about). That should say it all. Chiefs are bound to muddle in obscurity for seasons & reasons aplenty. The less said about the Raiders, the better. Jamarcus Russel has never inspired confidence at the QB position while their best player, CB Asomugha got injured and experts predicting few more weeks for him to get back to full form. So, that leaves us with the Chargers who should run away with the division. This is a make or break year for many in the team, including Rivers and LT.

AFC South

Tony Dungy & Marvin Harrison might have left but Peyton Manning is still there and that should be good enough for the Colts to win the division handily. The Texans might be everyone's favorite sleeper team of the season and I believe in that as well but that is not going to stop the Colts from winning the division. I predict a very pedestrian season for the Titans, one in which they might fail to make the playoffs. And the last team of the division, Jaguar's fall from glory of 2 years ago will be complete this year.

AFC North

The division with the defending champs, the Ravens and 2 other wannabe teams, in the Bengals & the Browns. I am (or any other Seattle resident for that matter) not big fan of the Steelers but I just don't see them not winning the division. The Ravens should be good enough to make it to the playoffs as a wild card but not good enough to stop the Steelers from clinching the division. The Bengals could suprise everyone with a much improved performance but that won't take them into the playoffs.

AFC East

Well, lets see what we have here, other than the Patriots. The Bills (even with TO, a decent team at best), the Jets (with a rookie QB and a new head coach, not expected to challenge the likes of Patriots) and the Dolphins (a resurgent team but with an offense still developing). That leaves us with the Patriots whom I expect to win this division rather easily. Tom Brady looks to be as hungry as ever and with Belichick determined to wipe away the bad memories of the last season when they didn't make the playoffs, the Patriots wrap up the division early on and then, expect them to go deep into the playoffs.

AFC Wild cards - Texans, Ravens

Conference Championships Preview

So, it has come to 4 teams after such a topsy-turvy season. Here are my thoughts on the 2 games for the weekend:

Eagles Vs Cardinals: It would be an understatement to say that the Cardinals have stunned the NFL with their advancement to the conference championship game. Absolutely nobody gave them a chance against the Panthers last weekend but they not only beat them but also humiliated them in front of their home crowd (I was in Charlotte for new year and you should see the cockiness in most of their voices as to how the Panthers will for sure make it to the Super Bowl without any issues). If the Cardinals are the most surprising team to be left in the fray, the Eagles are probably the most expected as once the playoffs began, they were the team nobody wanted to play. They have lived up to their name with 2 outstanding victories, at the Vikings and at the Giants. After the Seahawks, the Eagles are my most favorite team and McNabb is my favorite NFL player. So, I am really happy for them.

As far the game, I think the Eagles will win it handily. When Kurt Warner is given all the time in the world, he is a great QB and when he is subjected to pressure that one expects the Eagles defensive coordinator Jim Johnson is expected to bring, he is at best a mediocre quarterback. So, I expect him to have a game slightly better than the one he had against the Patriots where he threw for a mere 30 yards before being benched. The Eagles don't have a quarterback who makes poor decisions like Jake Delhomme did last weekend for the Panthers. Brian Westbrook is always just 1 play away from running away with the game. Good defense, solid running game, efficient passing game - the Eagles recipe for success.

Pick: Eagles by 7

Ravens vs Steelers - The Steelers are the team that everyone loves to hate and the Seattle folks certainly do that after our loss in the Super Bowl game 2 years back. Any time a rookie coach and a rookie quarterback take a team to the conference championship game, we should appreciate it. What the Ravens have done this season has been just short of remarkable. Their bloody good defense always keeps their offense in the game, no matter how badly they do. The Pittsburgh Steelers, on the other hand, statistically have the best defense in football and also have in their ranks the Defensive Player of the year, James Harrison. So, this should be a cat fight between the 2 leading defenses in the league in what is expected to be a low scoring game.

Given the fact that the Steelers won both the regular season match-ups and given the NFL reasoning that it is almost impossible to beat the same time 3 times in a season, I pick the Ravens in this one. Roethlisberger's tendency to hold on to the football, just that wee bit longer, is going to be a major factor as he either will be sacked or will be forced into a turnover of some sort by the ever hungry Ravens defense. Flacco hasn't been sacked even once in the playoffs nor has he thrown an interception. All that will be crucial in this match-up where the margin of error is going to be very small and will ultimately prove to be the deciding factor. As a loyal Seahawks fan, I will be rooting for the Ravens.

Pick: Ravens by 3

One rule that NFL can do away with

This has been that kind of year in the NFL where only 7 of the 12 playoff spots have been finalized going into the final week of the regular season. The bizarre tie between the Bengals & the Eagles, the potential perfectly imperfect season by the Lions, the improbable comeback of the Falcons (and most probably, the 1-15 Dolphins from a year back) back to the playoffs, the reigning MVP injured for the season a few minutes into the season, the defending champions looking good for a repeat unlike earlier seasons, rookie quarterbacks and rookie running backs outshining their more experienced colleagues, etc. The list is just never ending. But the reason I started to write this post was not to act as a round-up of the 2008 NFL regular season.

The reason behind this post is to lament the inherent flaws in the rules that exist due to which a team with 11 wins might not make it to the playoffs this year while a 8-win Arizona or a 8-win San Diego will make it. The AFC East and the NFC South have emerged as the powerhouse divisions of the season. (The perennial powerhouse division, the NFC East, shot one another in such a bad manner that we might just have the division winner from the NFC East in the playoffs.) That invariably means that teams with records better than other division winners might not make it to the playoffs.

The AFC East has been particularly harsh this year. The Patriots might end up with a 11-5 record but still might not make it to the playoffs. And if the Patriots win their game against the Bills and the Dolphins lose to the Jets, we might have 2 10-6 teams that will not make it to the playoffs. Same is the case with NFC South, where the Buccaneers with a 10-6 record might not make it to the playoffs.

On the one hand while we have such intense competition for playoff spots, we also have the winners of perennial weaklings of the NFL - AFC West and NFC West divisions, that makes this whole clamoring of playoff spots almost laugh-worthy or even, meaningless. Lets take the NFC West for example, Seattle is 4-11, San francisco is 6-9, St Louis is 2-13 and the division 'winner' is Arizona with a 8-7 record. The same goes for the AFC West too where Kansas City is 3-12, Oakland is 4-11, San Diego is 7-8 and current division leader Denver is 8-7. And San Diego can win the division with an 8-8 record by virtue of a win over denver this coming weekend. No team has been as inconsistent as Denver this season. They started off strongly when they were a lock for the divisional winner' title a few weeks back (when the Chargers were 5-8. & were, for all practical purposes, down & out of the playoff race.) But now, they are in a must-win situation to win the game against the same Chargers this Sunday night in a flex game.

I am strongly for the changing of rules where winning a division should not matter and instead the records alone should matter. Period. The worst thing about this rule is that the divisional winners, in addition to getting into the playoffs with an inferior record, also get to host the wild card game on top of that. That should definitely hurt all those teams with better records. Here is looking forward to all those undeserving divisional winners lose in the wild card round of the playoffs.

When invincibles go down...

I did my schooling at TVS Lakshmi in Madurai. The school, back then & I am assuming still is, very popular for the high number of students it churns out who score above the magical number of 1100 out of a possible 1200 in the higher secondary exams. The year after I passed out, I met a school junior on the way and asked him how much did he score. He said he had scored 1155 but is still ranked somewhere around 25th in the school. That statement best explained the amazing regularity with which our school used to produce 1100+ scores. But then there was a reason why our school was able to accomplish this: the students that the school admits in the 11th standard. What used to happen was most of the toppers in the 10th standard exams from other schools in Madurai would switch schools and join our school for 11standard, mainly bcos of the reputation our school enjoyed. Thus our school literally didn't have to do anything special to produce that kind of results. The students pretty much took care of the results themselves. And that exactly was why when people used to talk about my school in glowing terms, I used to feel uncomfortable bcos IMHO, the school just didn't deserve all the credit it was getting.

Reason I am bringing all that here, where I actually wanted to write about the USC loss yday is simple: USC pretty much does the same when it comes to recruiting for its football team. Many of the highly talked about football players coming out of high school in America end up signing for USA. I remember looking at the list of top 10 prospects in the country for each one of the positions in the Souts.com site (that ranks high school players across all sports) in 2005 and atleast 3-4 players (out of that 10) for each position had committed playing for USC. Thus is their dominance when it comes to recruiting. It is said that the 4th string running back of USC can start at RB at any other college in the US. That is how strong they are. And that is exactly the reason why I hate USC - they recruit the best players in the country and then proudly tout themselves as the best team in the nation.

Going to their game against Oregon State yday as 25-point favorites, nobody was expecting what ultimately happened last night. The Beavers just stunned the college football world with their victory over the Trojans and throwing the national championhip game wide open. And you could not have found a happier person than yours truly last night, as nothing gives me more pleasure than watching USC lose. Last night was exactly one reason why I love watching college football even more than I do watching NFL. The sheer unpredictability and the fact that all it takes is one game to screw up your entire season, like the way USC did to their 2008 season yday.

Fastest Man on Earth

This post comes more than a month late but I still wanted to post it here, mainly bcos this is one sports event that I keep following fervently, though my general interest in track & field has come down drastically, after the hey days of Carl Lewis and Michael Johnson wound down. Anyway, now on to the new 100m record that was set recently.

Back in those days, experts used to believe that man can never run under 10 seconds. It was unbelievable when man first ran under 10 seconds and then slowly started chiseling off 1/100th of a second by 1/100th of a second, off the 100m record. But even then, the 100m record was stuck in the low 9.90s and high 9.80s for a while. That was when Ben Johnson ran that breath-taking 9.79 in the 1988 Olympics in Seoul. When he recorded that time, many declared that was it; that was how fast man could ever run. Period.

The reason I am bringing in all this history is bcos of the fact that the record was broken just more than a month back by Usain Bolt of Jamaica. Though the number of scandals that have rocked the athletic world in the last few years have doused fan interest (or atleast, this fan's interest), this is one record that even the most cynical of them keep following religiously. So, the moment I saw this news where it said that he had done 9.72, I was just flabbergasted. And when the fact that this guy is not even a regular 100m runner and he runs 100m as a preparation for his pet event 200m, my jaws dropped.



While on this, this article talks about just how fast can man run. Check it out and you will be surprised at their findings:

How fast can we run?

As if to upstage Bolt, US sprinted Gay ran the fastest ever 100m dash ever at 9.68 secs. though it is not considered a world record bcos of the reason that there was a tail wind more than the allowed limits,.

With both Bolt and former record holder Asafa Powell scheduled to run in the Olympics, along with Gay, the most looked forward to event of the Olympics just got bigger and more spicier.

Mission Accomplished

The last few years, watching & following tennis has been reduced to an excercise in monotony. And if you have been reading my blog for a while, you would know the reason for the same :) Grand slam after grand slam, one could almost pencil in the winner even before the tournament started (except of course, in the case of the French Open). And it was not just us, the average tennis lovers, who had been lulled by this sense of predictability. Someone like Pete Sampras, who still holds the record for the most number of Grand slam titles, wasn't joking when he asked Federer to win the French Open so that he doesn't have to travel to Australia to watch history made, as he has said all along that he will be there on the court-side when his record is broken.


It is not like I don't appreciate Federer's awesome talent. He is talent in its most pristine form, for what else could one explain his achievements without a proper coach. It is just that the invincibility that he brings to the court that made me sick. People usually compare his dominance to Tiger's dominance in golf. Somehow, I don't agree to that as Tiger looks every bit vulnerable even in the majors that he wins. But that has never been the case with Federer (at least until this year) as he decimates all his opponents and that has made this whole history-making achievements a big boring spectacle.

That is exactly the reason why yesterday's final was like a breath of fresh air. Nadal finally was able to do what no man has ever done - win a 3rd set from Federer on grass court! Though both the players as such did not stick to the grass court tradition of serve-and-volley play, it was unparalleled in the sense that both of them matched each other miraculous shot for miraculous shot. It was may be Nadal's ploy, of not letting Federer play his natural serve-and-volley game, that is so much critical to Federer winning on grass. Coming back from 2 sets down in the Wimbledon finals, is not something many players can do and Federer, being Federer, just accomplished that. But then Nadal wasn't giving up either. Though Federer clearly had the edge in the serving department, it was Federer's serve that was broken more times than Nadal's and that to me, was the single most defining reason for his defeat. You can't go 1 out of 13 in break points conversion and hope to win against the most athletic player in the sport.

Every time Federer found himself in a hole (none more so than in the 4th set tie-breaker), he came up with an ace or a passing shot winner. As the game progressed beyond the 4 hour 30 mins mark, I started to think that Nadal would give up soon bcos of the two, Nadal looked the one who was getting tired. The fact that Federer served first in the last set did not help matters either. But Nadal clung on to his serve like his life depended on it and eventually broke Federer & then held serve to close out the match.

The way Nadal reacted after winning the last point said everything that we need to know about how much this win meant to him. Spaniards winning French Opens is like Australia winning the ICC World Cup. But a Spaniard lifting the Wimbledon crown is something this and the last generation have not seen. It was overwhelming to see him reach out to his parents by climbing on top of seats, like a small kid would do. Federer's dad clapping & appreciating Nadal's victory too was a sight to behold. Moments like these are what fans like us live for and watch sports for. It was an incredible feeling to see John McEnroe (of all people) almost in tears in the post-match interview when he thanked both Federer and Nadal for having treated us to probably the greatest and best tennis match in his career.

Experts/ critics/ analysts/ pundits are a much ridiculed species, these days in any field and particularly, in the field of sports & politics. With most of their predictions going wrong time & again, their 'expertnes', if you will, was in question. But this Wimbledon was a comeback of sorts for them, as most of them had picked Nadal to win the whole thing. From McEnroe to Borg to ESPN columnists, every single one of them had said that this Wimbledon was Nadal's to lose.

Though Nadal won this epic contest, I still believe that Federer is the man to beat at all the 3 grand slams. All the talk of passing of the proverbial torch or for that matter, the end of an era, are a bit pre-mature, in my opinion. The outcome of the last grand Slam of the season, the US Open in September, would bring us the answers that we are looking for. Until then, let us just celebrate the sublime spectacle that we were witness to last night.

Where Amazing Happens

The NBA is running a series of commercials called 'Where amazing happens', for promoting the 2008 season. Though I liked all 3 of them - this and this being the other 2, the following is the one that I loved the most and so, thought of posting it here.

Monthly Sports Round-Up - August 2007

India wins test series in England for the first time in 21 years

This was truly an achievement. Though Dravid's decision against enforcing the follow-on in the 3rd test would be a black mark on the otherwise perfect series for India, I was so excited about this victory. And more than anything else, I felt happy for Sachin bcos his cricketing resume now would include a series victory in England. Same goes for Dravid and Ganguly too. These 3 guys have really stuck together after the world cup debacle and have guided this team to an extraordinary achievement. Though umpiring errors cost Sachin 2 centuries in this series, I was very happy that Sachin was able to make some sizeable contribution in 2 of the 3 tests. Zaheer Khan deserves special appreciation bcos it was his spell in the second innings of the 2nd test that ultimately tilted the test & thus the series in India's favor. Way to go, Team India.

Barry Bonds breaks the all-time HR recordSo, there it happened. Barry Bonds finally broke the most significant record in all of team sports, as the ESPN analysts would say. Though it has been only the last 3-4 years that I have been following baseball, I can kind of get an idea what this record means, by watching all the ex-players and Hall of Famers dwell on it. It is definitely a remarkable achievement, given the fact that he has had to maintain his HR hitting practice over a period of well over 20 years. But the one thing you can find when you talk to folks here about Barry Bonds is this - he is an extremely polarizing figure. No matter what side of the fence you are, this is one heck of a record.

A-Rod reaches 500 HRs mark
It was a special week where 3 important milestones were reached - Bonds breaking the HR record, Tom Glavine becoming the 23rd pitcher in MLB history to record 300 wins and A-Rod breaking the 500 HR barrier. He is having a dream season and though I am not a big fan of him, I do follow each one his HRs. He becomes the youngest MLB player to break the 500 HR mark and in all probability, unless a major injury or some scandal impedes him, the experts expect him to break Barry Bonds' record in the year 2013.

Tiger gets one step closer to Jack
With the 13th Major victory of his stellar career, Tiger moved one closer to the most holiest of golf records that stands in the name of Jack Nicklaus. As many ESPN analysts point out, it is now a matter of when rather than if and they are already predicting the British Open in the year 2010 when he will ultimately break the record. Tiger came into this tournament 0-3 this year in majors and by winning it, made sure that 2007 won’t be year when he will go without winning one. The tournament as such was over when he shot a mind-boggling 7 under par in the 2nd round, after which others were merely playing catching up with him. Tiger's record of winning a major when he is leading or sharing the lead at the end of the 3rd round remains intact. This BTW was Tiger's first major victory after the birth of his daughter.

Is he the answer to our prayers?
In a span of 3 days when he beat the top 3 players in men's tennis (Nadal, Federer and Roddick), Novak Djokovic made many experts come out in the open with the very question we all have been asking ourselves the past few years: Have we finally found the answer who can break the monotony of the FedEx? May be it is too early to speak about it but he has done something for the first time in 13 years (since Boris Becker did it in 1994) - a player has beaten the top 3 players in the world enroute to an ATP tour championship. Though he is yet to reach the final of a Grand Slam tournament, he has already gotten to the semis twice (at the French and Wimbledon) before losing to Nadal on both the opportunities. This US Open will serve as a perfect platform for him to put all the questions about his true talent & promise to rest. And Oh, BTW, he is all of 20 years old.

The US Open begins
The final Grand Slam tournament of the tennis calendar begins in New York city. Last year, this time around I was in NYC watching the matches, amidst all the rain delays and even as the Andre Agassi farewell story was unfolding. My only wish as far as this Open is concerned is that we should have a new men's champion whereas on the women's side, I would like to see Serena win it all. When the draw was released, there was a headline in ESPN saying that Federer could meet Roddick in the quarters. I was like 'So what?". Like Roddick has any chance against Federer. With the sport losing its ground in the US in terms of both popularity and the quality of up & coming players, the experts do all they can do summon up interest in the Open but then it makes for some awful media coverage when all you can write about is Roddick meeting Federer in the quarters where Federer is most likely to sweep him off without breaking a sweat.

Michael Vick pleads guilty
In a widely expected decision, Falcons star QB, the face of their franchise and one of the NFL's most exciting players, Michael Vick pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy and involvement in the killing of 6 dogs. This incident kind of completely took me by surprise. I mean, why would anyone do that when they know it can cost them their whole life. Of course, news of professional athletes getting involved in petty crimes (you know, DUIs, marijuana possession, strip club fights, etc) have been doing the rounds. But then, none of the players involved in them were big time players. Here, the case was different though for Michael Vick is the highest paid NFL player. When you have that kind of money at stake (130 mil in 10 years), it just did not make sense for me as to how someone can risk all of that for something as trivial as this dog fighting? Weird are the ways these athletes behave. But amidst all this, there was something I really liked - when Vick addressed the media, he did not read a prepared statement but rather spoke from the heart. That was definitely rare and the media rightly picked on it. Now the question that is on everyone's mind is - will the NFL let the ban coincide with his jail term? Bcos that decision could well be the difference between his career taking off again or not.

Monthly Sports Round-Up - June 2007

Justin Henin wins third straight French Open
Justin Henin wins her third straight French Open title by defeating Ana Ivanovic in the finals in straight sets. My interest in the women's draw extinguished the moment my favorite Serena lost to Henin in the quarters. So, was only academically following the proceedings from then on. And I have to write something about this Ivanovic girl - though I have come across her name before this finals, it was only during this finals that I really did looked up her in Google and was surprised to see how gorgeous she looks. In fact, a poll says that she is the second hottest female tennis player, second only to you-know-who (No, not Anna Kournikova as she has retired from professional tennis). I am sure I will be catching up on news related to Ivanovic from now on :)

Nadal follows suit
Well, what else to say than the fact that I was overjoyed watching the French Open finals. Though the game failed to live upto the hype that was given with both players committing unforced error after unforced error, the outcome of the match left me grinning. So, the one Grand Slam that matters to Federer still eludes him and I am so excited, atleast we get one more year of breathing space before Federer attempts to accomplish the impossible. The game was a huge letdown, and definitely not worth getting up at 6 am in the morning. Federer had an unbelievable 59 unforced errors and no player, no matter how good he is, can win a match after committing that many number of unforced errors. More than the striking number of unforced errors that both players committed, the statistic that stood out for me and the statistic which decided the final outcome of the match - conversion rate (in %) of break points by Federer. And the magic number was 6%. He got a total of ,hold your breath, 17 break points and failed to convert all but one of them and to me that effectively sealed the deal. And yeah BTW, this was Nadal's 3rd straight French Open title and improved his record at Roland Garros to 21-0.

Woolmer was after all not murdered
Finally, after weeks of leaving everyone following cricket feeling bad about the sport and its malice, the Jamaican police comprehensively declared that Woolmer was after all not murdered and he died bcos of natural causes. Though the news would have brought relief to the Woolmer family, those who followed the case were still not convinced of the final observation. On top of this, the man who performed the first autopsy on behalf of the Caribbean police, still insists that Woolmer was indeed murdered by manual strangulation. An unconvincing end to a sordid saga.

Spurs sweep the Cavs
Well, nobody including yours truly gave the Cavs any realistic chance in this series. But even to the likes of us, the sweep of the NBA finals came as a complete surprise. I really thought that the Cavs will steal atleast one game at Cleveland and force a Game 5. But that was not to be. Though the Cavs have to be applauded and appreciated for the progress they have made every single year since they drafted LeBron, unless something drastic is done through player trade or free agency, the Cavs or for that any team in the East is going to find it real hard to overcome the likes of the Spurs, Suns & the Mavericks and thus prevent Western conference team from winning the NBA crown year after year. As for as the Spurs were concerned, they took care of business in a matter-of-fact way. I was glad that they did not end up giving the Finals MVP award to Duncan again and instead gave it to Parker who IMO completely deserved it. The trio of Parker, Ginobili and Duncan was simply terrific and coupled with the perimeter shooting of folks like Brent Barry and Thomas Horry along with the defense of Bruce Bowen, it was all a cakewalk for the Popovich coached Spurs, as they raced to their 4th championship in 9 years. Dynasty, anyone?

BCCI embarrassed
In what turned out to be most telling proof of how the BCCI functions, South African Graham Ford turned down the offer to coach the Indian cricket team, merely hours after the BCCI offered him the job. Though the BCCI's way of functioning is known to all sun and sundry, the manner in which the whole coach selection matter was handled left even the biggest supporter of the BCCI running for cover. From the moment when Dave Whatmore was approached in Dhaka to the point when he was ruled out as one of the contenders to the point when John Emburey's name cropped out of nowhere to the final list, the BCCI just made a big mess of the whole process and were finally left where they started with. So, the Indian team will go to the English tour without a proper coach and Chandu Borde as the manager. What amused was the way in which the BCCI came out with the announcement even before Ford has accepted the offer. Pathetic handling from the richest body in world cricket.

Tiger finishes second best again
Tiger Woods, for the second major in a row, finishes second best to Angel Cabrera at the tough US Open PGA championships as he loses by 1 stroke. There is this one statistic that experts bring out whenever Tigers wins a PGA championship - that he is 12-0 when he starts the final round of a major with the outright lead or atleast a share of the lead. This defeat by Tiger brings to light another statistic that is usually overlooked and that also proves that Tiger is after all human. He is 0-for-19 when he starts the final round of a championship, trailing the leader by a few surmountable strokes. As for Cabrera, he becomes the first Argentine man to win a PGA championship in nearly 40 years. And guess what he was doing before he became a pro? He was a caddy. When asked what was his secret behind winning the Open, the chain-smoker coolly says "Tobacco". It is amazing how every time Tiger comes a close second or third in a major, it is always about how he failed to win it rather than how the actual winner won it.

Oden goes number one
As widely expected, Greg Oden was picked by the Portland Trailblazers as the number one overall pick of the 2007 NBA draft, considered by many as the deepest drafts since 2003 when Dwayne Wade went at number 4. Though experts were talking in length both about Oden and Kevin Durrant, it was almost a given in the days leading upto the draft that Oden will be the number one pick. And thus the Seattle Supersonics landed with Kevin Durrant, in what as one ESPN analyst put it, the easiest draft decision that any team has had to make in the last few years. The Sonics in fact went in for a complete overhaul as they traded Ray Allen, arguably the player who was the face of the franchise, to the Boston Celtics, in what was considered as a not-too-smart move by the Celtics. Another first that happened during this draft was that 8 players from the Ohio State- Florida national championship game in April, were drafted in the first round of the draft. That’s a first in the NBA draft history. Yi Jianlian of China, who is touted as the next big thing to emerge out of China, after Yao Ming, was drafted by the Milwaukee Bucks as the 6th overall pick.

Sachin crosses the 15000 run barrier
The world got to see some glimpse of the Sachin of the old days as Sachin scored a scintillating 93 off 106 balls, on his way to becoming the first player ever (and in all probability the only man ever) to cross the 15000 runs barrier. At times, records like these do not seem to matter much, just because it is being broken by Sachin, who has made breaking records a personal hobby in his last 10 years. But seriously, if you think what it takes to score 15000 runs over 18 exemplary years as the best batsmen in the world, it is simply amazing. How many players have we seen who have produced consistencies that can be even compared against Sachin? Sure, the likes of Ponting, Dravid, Inzamam, Mohammed Yousuf, Hayden, Gilchrist, Lara have had their 2-3 years of brilliance but none can even come close to the consistency that Sachin has maintained for close to 18 years now. The man has been criticized like no other player but he has just carried on and let his bat do the talking. What he said in the aftermath of the match said it all, about how he views his criticisms: t is their job to have opinions. When I hold a cricket bat in my hand it's a far tougher and bigger job. That is what I will concentrate on. Cannot be said in better words. Here's congratulating the master on yet another milestone achievement in his stellar career.

Monthly Sports Round-Up - May 2007

Warriors eliminate Mavericks
In what is considered to be the biggest upset in the history of NBA, the Golden State Warriors eliminated the Dallas Mavericks from the NBA playoffs in 6 games. The Mavericks, which came in with an NBA record 6th best number of regular season wins and who were one of the favorites to win it all, failed to get past the 8th seed in the Western conference. This was the first time (after NBA went to Best of 7 games format for all rounds in the playoffs) that an 8th seed team had beaten the 1st seed. Dan Nelson simply out-coached the Avery Johnson coached Mavericks as Dirk Nowitzki never found his rhythm during the series, except in couple of games. Baron Davis used to be a high profile player 2-3 seasons ago when he was with Boston but had fallen by the way-side ever since but that was until this series, when he had a monster of a time.

Tiger wins at Wachovia
It was business as usual for Tiger as he won his 3rd PGA title of the year. This tournament, though not being a major, is considered the closest that a non-major can get to the level of a major what with each of the world's top 10 players turning in for this tournament (as were 27 of the top 30) on top of the prize money that the tournament offers. This was also the 4th time in his career that Tiger won a tournament after he had a double-bogey on the back nine of the final round. And now, Tiger gets ready for the Player's Championship scheduled for next week, in what will be his first back-to-back starts of this season.

Clisjters bids adieu
Kim Clisjters retires from professional tennis at the ripe (?!) age of 24. With her suffering form some major injuring over the past few seasons and also hinting about retirement sometime during this season, the announcement did not come as a surprise. She is one player on the women's circuit I greatly liked for the way she conducted outside the tennis court. When she was dating Lleyton Hewitt, I did not like it one bit bcos he always looked like a jerk to me and this lady here is as sweet a person as it comes. I was only happy when they broke up and now she is getting married to a football star in the fall. Here's wishing her the best that life can offer in her post-retirement life. Seriously, retirement at age 24, life just can't get better :) The Hindu had a good tribute to her. Read it here.

Dirk Nowitzki is 2006-07 NBA MVP
In spite of his team’s ignominious exit from the playoffs in the first round, Dallas Mavericks star Dirk Nowitzki was named as the NBA regular season MVP, thus ending Steve Nash’s reign as the NBA MVP for 2 consecutive seasons. I have never been a Steve Nash fan and so, was delighted when this expected news came out. Though he (and his team) failed when it counted the most, I still thought for all that he helped his team accomplish in the 82 games-long regular season, he deserved this award fully. His season average of 24.9 points, 8.9 rebounds, 3.4 assists per game easily deserved MVP honors. For the record, this is only the 3^rd time that the team whose player was given the MVP award, lost in the 1^st round of the playoffs.

NBA Draft lottery throws a lot of surprises
The Pacific Northwest emerged as the clear winner in the NBA draft lottery as the Portland Trailblazers and the Seattle Supersonics, both long shots given their last season record, won the most coveted first and the second picks and therewith the right to choose Greg Oden and Kevin Durant in next month's NBA draft. Though being a Seattle native, it was good news in that we got the 2nd overall pick & might most probably land up with Durant, at the same time, I felt that the very concept of the draft helping out the worst teams has been defeated by what transpired at the draft lottery. The Grizzlies, Celtics and the Bucks, who were the teams with the league's three worst records, only managed to bag the 4th, 5th and the 6th picks. Looks like that ever since the weighted lottery system was introduced way back in 1994, only twice have the worst teams gotten the first pick (The cavaliers in 2003 and Magic in 2004). And this is for the time since 1993 that the worst 3 teams failed to get any of the top 3 picks. The calls for the lottery system to be abolished has gotten only louder, after what has just happened. While talking about how remote a chance these 2 teams had a chance of getting the first 2 picks, ESPN analysts were saying that these 2 teams had as much chance, as that of Shaq making 11 consecutive free throws. That was way too funny.

India takes sweet revenge
Well, I felt corny writing that title to describe India's win over the Bangladeshis in both the ODI and test series. India, though a clear winner in both the series, never were ruthless in their demolition of our neighbors, given the fact that it is our loss to them that ultimately spelled doom for the team in the disastrous WC campaign. Though the victory in the 2nd test match was as good as it could get (in terms of victory margin), at the same time, we should not overlook the fact that the Bangladesh batsmen were done in not by any great bowling by the Indians but by their own poor shot selection. I was happy that Sachin got centuries in the 2 tests and at least help the call for his head to die down for the time being, though I have to say that none of them were memorable innings by any means. Now that the team has got some well deserved break (both physically and mentally from the ever scrutinizing eyes of the Indian public), this break should hold them in good stead for the grueling and tougher series ahead.

Defining moment n Lebron's career?
Lebron undisputedly produced the most stellar display of his short NBA career in Game 5 of the Eastern conference finals as he scored a career playoff high 48 points to guide the Cavaliers to a double overtime victory over the Detroit Pistons. It was almost surreal basketball as he scored the last 25 points that the Cavaliers as a team scored, starting from the 4th quarter of regulation. As I type this, the Cavaliers have finished the Pistons in 6 games and are headed to the NBA finals for the first time in their franchise history. But will Lebron be enough to overcome the solid Spurs? The answer is just a matter of few days away.

Monthly Sports Round-up - April 2007

Florida does a repeat
3 national titles in 12 months. No wonder ESPN.com called Gainesville as Titletown, FL. The whole athletic department of the Gators deserve all the praise they are getting for putting together this Championship run in these days of so much competition where there is little to choose between the top tier college teams in terms of talent and effort. In a game where the Buckeyes never really had a chance, the Gators pulled away for a 84-75 victory to win their second consecutive national championship. I am no big SEC fan and definitely not a Gator fan. So, it wasn't a pleasant watching the Gators win. Every time the Buckeyes pulled to within 5 to 8 points of the Gators, Humphrey will sink in a 3 and effectively douse all their hopes. The Buckeyes were one tired team and with Billy Donovan wisely rotating his players, this was as good as a no-contest mid-way through the 2nd half.

Zach Johnson wins the Masters
Tiger flops in the most prestigious of golf tournaments as he fails to reach par in any of the 4 rounds and finally ends up 3 shots behind the eventual winner Zach Johnson. Tiger's quest for an incredible 5th Master's championship victory thus came to an abrupt halt. He could not get his driving right all week long and he ended up finishing 46th in the field when it came to the number of fairways that were made during the week. It was a bad weekend in the office for all the big-name players and so it was indeed a minor consolation for Tiger fans in that he finished runner-up.

Australia completes a hat-trick
So, my prayers of Australia not winning a 3rd consecutive World Cup were not answered, as the Aussies completed a clinical demolition of the Lankans in the finals of the 2007 ICC World Cup. Though the Aussies were head and shoulders ahead of any other team in the tournament, I was still hoping for a miracle where the Lankans would pull off a surprise. But it was not to be. Gilchrit's 149 will find its place in the list of unforgettable knocks ever produced in a World cup. Even after Australia put together 281 on the board, as long as Jayasuriya and Sangakkara were knitting their little partnership, I was carrying faint hopes that we might be in for something special. But ultimately, the target of 282 in 38 overs proved to be just too much. The way Gilchrist bulldozed through the Sri Lankan bowlers, I was really looking forward to the Aussies breaking the 300 run mark but somehow they did not go for the whole hog in the final overs bcos may be they thought a score of 280 is more than enough for these Lankans.

End of a forgettable World Cup
What a chaotic ending to an already uninteresting World Cup. I really thought that this world cup almost deserved such a rain shorted game in the finals and absolute chaos towards the end of the game. To me, this World Cup has to be THE most forgettable world cup, ever since I started following cricket in the early 90s. The most obvious reason is the fact that India was knocked out in the first round. Looking beyond that, the other reason why this World Cup will be forgotten by me in a matter of weeks is the fact that apart from couple of games (one of them being a dead rubber), there were no real close games and last-over nail-biters that are usually what World cups are remembered for (South Africa – Australia semifinal in the 1999 WC, anyone?). Add on top of this the literally empty stands that watched the games, day in and day out. But if there is one thing this World Cup will be remembered for (apart from the unfortunate murder of Bob Woolmer) is the fact quite a few legends of the game called it quits at or after the World Cup. Lara, Inzamam, Kumble and McGrath - that is quite a list.

Russell goes first
Jamarcus Russell, the heavily built LSU quarterback who led his team to last year's Sugar Bowl victory, was drafted as the number 1 overall pick by the Oakland Raiders, ending months of speculation as to who among Russell or Quinn would be the number 1 overall pick. Brady Quinn fell all the way to the 22nd pick where the Browns traded a pick to draft him, after failing to draft him with their 3rd overall pick. Other than Brady Quinn, there were very few surprises in the draft and going by popular consensus, it is the Carolina Panthers who emerged as the clear winners with them stealing among others, WR Dwayne Jarrett and center Kalil from USC with their late 2nd round picks. Though the Seahawks did not reach out and draft any big-name college player, they did what they had said they will do - take players they had on the board that they liked. They added 4 players each on both sides of the football, also making sure they drafted players at positions which cost us games last year.

Moss goes to New England
Bill Belichick is just not done as he made the biggest of his off-season moves to sign Randy Moss from the Raiders. Though talks of Moss going to New England (or to the Packer nation) were doing the rounds during the free agency market frenzy couple of months back, it did come as a surprise when the Patriots, after completely revamping their receiving core earlier by signing folks like Daunte Stallworth and Wes Walker, chose to further strengthen their receiving core and decided to rope in Moss. If Belichick with his debilitated offense of last year could take the team to the AFC Championship game where they gave the Colts a close call, imagine what the Patriots can do with such a star-studded and healthy looking team. It is safe to say that the Patriots will start as the pre-season favorites of the 2007-08 NFL season.

Nadal's unbeaten streak continues
It is a well-known fact that when it comes to clay court tennis, Nadal is simply the king. So, him winning a 3rd straight Barcelona Open on clay is not really news. But what about his streak of unbeaten matches on clay court that stretched to 72 with the win, isn't that something to rave about? After upstaging Federer in last year's French Open's finals, many believed that they had their someone-please-stop-Federer prayers answered but he kind of withered off in the subsequent Grand Slams, failing to make it to the semifinals of the 2006 US and 2007 Australian Opens. But that was until now when he started playing on his favorite surface. My only wish is that he carries this form of his into the upcoming French Open and further stretch his streak.

Monthly Sports Round-Up - March 2007

The ICC World Cup begins
Though did not watch the complete opening ceremony, managed to catch some action of it. Should say wasn't very impressed. Somehow all the opening ceremonies of major sporting events (soccer world cup, the Olympics and the Super Bowl to name a few) are all getting very monotonous and I am no more excited to watch them as I used to get, say a decade ago. All these opening ceremonies seem to have a preset readymade template and the WC opening ceremony was no different, with it religiously aping that template. There would be lot of fireworks, display of a wide range of colors, some music band will be playing hit music and last but not the least, some selected locals will be dancing near the stage. The organizers sure put in a lot of effort behind the show but I am guessing as long as there is nothing new or unique in the show, it is going to be tough to attract the audience.

Federer's 41 match winning streak ends
Anytime Federer loses a match, it is news and not the other way around (I had written the same words about Tiger in my last month's write-up but I think this is applicable to Federer much more than Tiger). Guillermo Vilas' record of the longest winning streak (at 46 matches) was the one which I thought will be the next one to fall in the Federer era that we are living in. Thankfully, Guillermo Canas who got in as a lucky loser knocked out Federer in straight sets in the Pacific Life Open masters series tournament at Indian Wells and has given all tennis fans some hope for the future. It really felt so good to know that someone can indeed beat Federer and that Federer can have a bad day at work, just like any other player. Here’s hoping for many more such bad days :)

Patriots on a free-agent signing frenzy
If you are a big NFL fan, there is no real off-season to relax. Ever since the free-agency signing period opened up, every team has been signing up players like crazy but none did it like the New England Patriots. They have completely revamped their wide receiver core, by signing some prominent names like Daunte Stallworth (who had a big year with the Eagles last year), Kelly Washington and Wes Walker. Other big name trades involved Thomas Jones signing with the Jets who were in desperate need for a running back and the Browns signing their once chief tormentor Jamal Lewis, which BTW I thought was a stupid move since Jamal Lewis is well past his prime and he is hardly going to have a handful of 100 yard games the coming season. As for the Seahawks, they made one big move by signing DE Patrick Kerney of the Atlanta Falcons in a fierce fight involving the Broncos, who settled the score by signing TE Daniel Graham in whom the Seahawks were interested in. Overall, the Patriots were the big winners in the free agency signing and looks like the loss to the Colts in the AFC Championship game has hurt Bellichick just a wee bit more.

Gibbs sets World record
Hitting sixes off all the 6 balls in an over is a dream for every cricketer and to be able to do it in International cricket is just next to impossible. But Gibbs just accomplished the impossible task by hitting 6 sixes of the 30th over in their contest against Netherlands. Poor Dan van Bunge was the one who endured the ignominy of seeing his name being associated with such a humiliating record. Though records like these are highly entertaining, ironically, it is also exactly feats like these that completely dampen one's expectations from these early stages of the world cup. One boring and insipid game after another.

Tiger goes from boom to bust at the Arnold Palmer Invitational
Not often do we see Tiger going from within 1 shot of the lead mid-way through the final round and finally ending up a whopping 11 shots behind the eventual winner Vijay Singh. It was a completely un-Tiger like performance from the golfing maestro who is known for his patented Sunday march. Every time he has been in the lead entering the 4th day, he has managed to win the tournament except once. Though he wasn't sharing the lead entering the 4th round in this tournament, the fact that he was just 1 shot behind the leader midway through the 4th round should have made all Tiger fans to anticipate another charge by Tiger. Unfortunately that did not happen and instead Tiger ended up tying his career-worst score in a non-major, finishing off with a bogey, double-bogey and triple-bogey finish. With just 1 tournament and 2 weeks between now and the Master's, it is going to be an interesting 2 weeks to see how Tiger bounces back from such a performance.

A billion hopes dashed
In a do-or-die game against the neighbors from the Emerald Islands, Team India folded without putting up a fight and thus were sent packing out of the tournament even before the Super 8 stage began. This is India's earliest exit from the World Cup tournament since 1991 where again we were knocked out in the first round. Before anybody could wake up to what was happening, India was out of the World cup. The bowling was decent in all the 3 games but it was the batting that let us down inexcusably in both the games we lost. Just like how Azhar and Ganguly's decisions to field first in the 1996 & 2003 World Cups have notoriously become part of the history of Indian cricket, Dravid's decision to bowl first against the Bangladeshis will forever be remembered as his biggest blunder. But as always, there was a bright side to the whole sad saga - our other neighbors Pakistan too lost, though unlike us, they had match-fixing to be blamed for the loss against the Irish.

Tiger express back on track
After losing at the Arnold Palmer invitational tournament the week before in a very un-Tiger like performance, Woods comes back strongly to win the WGC-CA Championship in Doral, with a comfortable 2 shot margin. When Tiger started the final round with a 4 shot lead, none had any doubt as to who is going to win the tournament. But Tiger & his fans had to go through some nervous moments before clinching the title. Now, everything is set for the big daddy of them all - The Masters, which begins this week at the Augusta National Golf Club, GA.

Kobe goes berserk
Scoring 50 points in a game in the NBA is not easy. But Kobe just went on a scoring rampage and scores 50 points in 4 games on the trot. This was Kobe at his best. After the Lakers lost 7 consecutive games (a first in coach Jackson's illustrious career), Kobe decided to take matters in his own hands and went on this scoring spree. And no wonder, the Lakers ended up winning all 4 of them. The streak ended when he could 'only' score 43 points in another game against the Warriors. The experts of the game were so much awestruck that they even started comparing him with the best of them all MJ (which would be considered sacrilege if anybody else had been compared to MJ). The Lakers are now well in the playoff hunt but once they get there, I feel that they have no chance against the Big 3 from the Western Conference - Mavericks, Suns and Spurs.

Canas does it again
Looks like God has answered my prayers. As though beating Federer 2 weeks ago at Indian Wells was not just a flash in the pan, Canas does the improbable once again by beating Federer at the Sony Ericsson Open in Key Biscayne, FL. This time around Federer puts up a better show and took Canas to a 3rd set tie-break before losing eventually. These 2 defeats of Federer have given me the hope that the monotony that we have been witnessing the last couple of years - in the form of Federer winning every game and Grand Slam he plays - might come to an end. But the problem with this reasoning is that Federer lifts his game up couple of notches above whenever he plays in the Grand Slams and so beating him in a Grand Slam tournament is still going to be an uphill task. But till then, lets enjoy this well-deserved break for the moment.

The World Cup debacle

I did not want to write about the debacle of the Indian team since I was too disappointed and upset at what transpired in the Caribbean Islands. But I thought that if I don’t write it now, I would never do it and hence just jotting down my random thoughts.

The Indian team is never as good as it is made out to be when they win and they are not as bad as they are made out to be when they lose These are not my words (one Cricinfo writer wrote something meaning this) but these are words that I am completely in agreement with. The Indian team is not as bad as it looked like on the field when they lost to Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. I am one of those thousands of fans who still could not come to terms with the fact that India are out of the world cup even before the actual fun has begun. 2 days of irresponsible cricket and we are out of the tournament. Now that the Super 8 stage of the competition has started, it is really painful to watch other teams play each other.

When we restricted Sri Lanka to 254 in the first innings, I was really looking forward to the Indian chase with the hope that they will easily chase this down. Uthappa started pretty strongly but as has been his wont, lost his wicket when trying to go for a shot one too many against the guile of Vaas. Ganguly was taking his own sweet time to get settled and thus was putting pressure of himself and then finally holed out to mid-off. I will have to write something about Ganguly here - Ever since he has gotten back to the team and has scored all those half-centuries, I personally thought that none of the innings meant anything to the team and I did not find him to be very convincing in even one single innings. His shots were clumsy and it looked more like he was trying to just stick around to keep his place in the side (and also prove his detractors wrong). Then came Sachin's dismissal. Got a really faster one and bowled through an inside edge and it was a sorry sight to watch Sachin walk back to the pavilion, what with the thought that this was Sachin's last World Cup innings lurking at the back of my head. But even after that, I thought we could have won the game, what with Sehwag sweetly timing his strokes and Dravid giving him great company. But once Sehwag and then Yuvraj departed, that is when the feeling that India are going to get out of the WC slowly started sinking in.

Looking back at the performances of the guys in the 2 games we lost, it is really hard to place the blame on one individual for the loss. May be, Dravid who as captain has to share most of the blame bcos I always think it is never a good idea to chase in a high pressure game and hence winning the toss & inserting the opposition in was not a very good decision. Coming to team composition - Dravid missed the point by having both Sehwag and Uthappa in the team. Both are identical in so many ways (their shot making, temperament, technique to name a few) and hence if we had played only one of the two, we could have played someone like Dinesh Karthik who could have been useful in the middle order. They say its no use crying over spilt milk and so let me stop my own post-mortem right here.

If there is one thing that we can also put some blame on, then it is the way the tournament structure has been designed. I thought that there was some merit in Dravid's statement that the structure of the World Cup was bad in that if a team has 1 bad day, then they are out of the tournament. I mean, look at the world cup winning expeditions of Pakistan in 1992 and Australia in 1999 where they both had lost 2 or more matches in their first 3 games. But they went on to advance to the next round and ultimately win the whole thing, bcos the tournament's structure during those editions was kind to teams which had couple of bad days. I am not saying that if the structure was different, India would have won the whole thing. But we would have had the chance to watch our team play for 6 more games. And it is the fact that we deprived ourselves of the chance to play those 6 games that is hurting us all so much (frankly, how many of us believed that Indian will go all the way) and trying to find some uncontrollable reasons to blame (like the tournament structure) for our exit.

Now, all eyes are on the BCCI meeting on April 6th and 7th. I am sure heads are going to roll, starting with Dravid being stripped of the ODI captaincy atleast. Greg Chappell most probably will be the next big casualty and will be relieved of his coaching duties. Then comes the big question mark - will Sachin be dropped? Being the big Sachin that I am, it pains to see that things have come to a point where we are discussing Sachin being dropped from the team. But I think the BCCI folks will not be taking such an extreme decision. Even if I were write as a neutral observer, I will say that Sachin is definitely good enough to be in the team bcos everybody in the team has been as inconsistent as Sachin in the past few months. Apart from that, he still has a good 2-3 years of cricket left in him. So, if you were to drop Sachin, everybody in the bating order should be dropped, for even Dravid has been very inconsistent in the last few months. While on this topic, this article is a good read. It exactly echoes my thoughts on the subject.

Other than that, folks like Harbhajan, Agarkar, Pathan and Sehwag will find themselves out of the team. Agarkar is decent most of the time and picks up important wickets but then he gives up runs at some really crucial points when we can ill afford to give them up. Plus, his batting is such a disappointment that he hurts us. When someone like Munaf or Zaheer do not score runs, we are not disappointed a bit. But this guy, who has feats like a test century at Lord's and fastest 50 by an Indian batsman to his credit, hurts us literally by batting in the most irresponsible of manners. Whatever happened to the Harbhajan of 2003, nobody knows. Though Sehwag looked to be in good touch in the game against SL, the Indian team has reached a point where we can not afford of the luxury of having Sehwag in the team, what with his 1 in a 10 hit rate.

Like many have written, this disastrous campaign might actually be good for the game of cricket in India. The euphoria around the cricket team was just a huge bubble waiting to burst. The only sad part is that this bursting of the bubble has happened at the most inopportune of moments. If our folks are really serious (which is evident from all the outpour of anger against the team and the players), then the unprecedented and undeserving hype surrounding the game & the cricketers will die down, which is always good. (Already there is talk that businesses are contemplating reworking their contracts with the cricketers whereby they will be paid a good 30% less than what they are getting right now) It might even lead us, as a nation, to treat cricket as just a sport, nothing more, nothing less. And more importantly, take victory and defeat in stride without resorting to passionate and extreme responses. I think the time for that has come and I sincerely wish that this world cup humiliation will help us achieve that.

Monthly Sports Round-Up - February 2007

Tiger loses at the Dubai Open
These days, anytime Tiger loses, it is news (and not the other way around). Hence this entry. Tiger loses in the Dubai Desert Classic, coming behind winner Henrik Stenson and second placed Ernie Els. Since the Dubai tournament is not officially part of the PGA tour (it is part of the European tour), Tiger's streak of 6 continuous wins on the PGA tour is still safe. The final day saw Tiger staging his popular comeback once again before poor putting let him down and as he fell short by 2 strokes at the end. The presence of stars like Federer and Schumacher at the tournament not only increased the glamour quotient but also was a telling proof of the growing popularity of the tournament in the desert.

Manning finally gets the monkey off his back
In a Superbowl that was as sloppy as the South Florida weather, the Indianapolis Colts beat the Chicago Bears to win their first Championship in 31 years and their first since moving over from Baltimore to Indianapolis. Critics and Nay-sayers had repeatedly asked questions if Peyton Manning, arguably one of the best quarterbacks in the history of the game, would be able to win the big one and Manning responded in kind with a MVP performance in the Super bowl. Though I will have to say that IMO the MVP award should have been given to the Colts RBs - Dominic Rhodes and Joseph Addai. The organizers just went with the more popular and emotional choice, that is Manning. Like I had written here, the way the game would be decided, depended heavily on one man - Rex Grossman. And unfortunately for the Bears and their fans, the terrible Rex showed up to work and once Dungy sensed that, the game was good as over. I mean, the guy couldn’t even collect the ball cleanly from the center. The Bears defense stayed on the field for a whopping 36 out of the 60 minutes and with no help from their team-mates on the offensive side, helped the Bears stay within 5 points until the 4th quarter but finally gave in. So, there it is - Manning & Dungy get the monkeys off their backs and the NFL has a new champion. (On a side note, if you are a NFL fan, this one is a good read)

Mumbai - Ranji trophy champions again
Well, Mumbai does it again. Ranji Trophy finals is something which we rarely talk about but not when a resurgent Sachin and comeback kid Ganguly are squaring off on the opposite sides. Sachin plays 2 crucial innings in both the innings, including a well-made century in the first innings for Mumbai while Ganguly, after falling prey to Zaheer Khan for a duck for the umpteenth time in domestic cricket, almost accomplishes 'Mission impossible' of helping Bengal chase an improbable 472 in the 4th innings. Ultimately, Bengal's first innings capitulation for 143 proved to be the decisive factor in the final outcome of the game and Zaheer with 9 wickets deservedly won the man-of-the-match award. It was a riveting game to follow and a game that surely lived up to the billing it received prior to the game. Fittingly, the channel that telecast the game saw it ratings take a huge jump for the game. It is amazing how Mumbai continues to dominate the domestic cricket scenario in India, with this 37th Ranji trophy championship in the tournament's 70+ year old history.

England salvage some pride
First time in 15 years, the Aussies have been beaten at the annual tri-series tournament where they have always dominated. That tri-series usually follows the test series where the Aussies in the last decade have made it a habit of decimating the opposition that the opposing teams would be already waiting to go home by the time the ODI series starts. Then, the Aussies provide the killer punch. The teams change - India, Pakistan, England, Sri Lanka but the scenarios have played perfectly to script. And that's how the 5-0 drubbed Englishmen started the ODI series too, in complete shambles. Things didn’t get better even half-way into the series. But in a remarkable transformation, they came back and won the last 3 games of the round robin phase and qualified for the finals. And it was the finals where they managed to do the impossible - sweep Australia 2-0 in the best of 3 finals. Even a 2-1 victory in the finals would have taken some gloss out of this victory. Beating Australia exactly the same way they have been beating all other teams (drubbing in the finals) was such a sweet thing to watch.

India warms up to the big dance with a series win over Sri Lanka
In a series that was billed as the warm-up to the World Cup, both the Lankans and the Indians played their hearts out. Inspite of a phenomenal collapse in the first ODI that handed the game on a platter to the Lankans, Team India came back rather strongly and finished off the series in style in the 3rd and final ODI. Almost all the missing pieces of the puzzle seem to have been solved and Chappell & Dravid should be happy men, as far as their mindset for the big one goes. Ganguly continued his dream return to the Indian side with a man-of-the-series performance. But personally to me, what was more heartening to see was the return to form of Yuvraj, who is going to be the mainstay of our lower-middle-order along with Dhoni. The World Cup squad that was announced mid-way through the series did not hold any surprises. The only thing that caught everybody’s attention was Kumble’s inclusion and Powar’s exclusion. But Powar’s failures with the bat haven’t helped his cause and Dravid’s affinity towards Kumble made sure that Kumble found a place in the squad. IMHO, the squad looks pretty balanced (atleast on paper). My starting XI would be something like this: Ganguly, Robin, Sehwag, Sachin, Dravid, Yuvraj, Dhoni, Zaheer, Agarkar, Munaf and Harbhajan.

Longest tenure at number 1 for Federer
Another long held tennis record falls, as Federer's tenure atop the ATP men's ranking stretches to 161 straight weeks, thus beating the previous 30-year old record of 160 weeks that was conjured up by the legendary Jimmy Connors. As I read somewhere, if only Jimmy Connors had done a better job (of coaching Andy Roddick so that he could have beaten Federer), his record would have been safe. The way this guy is playing, it is only a matter of couple of years before every conceivable record in the tennis history books will be in his name, including the most treasured of them all - most number of Grand Slam victories, currently held by the inimitable Pete Sampras. Federer has 10 titles against 14 held by Sampras. Nobody is going to beat him at Wimbledon and even assuming he loses at the French Open, both this year and the next to Nadal (or some other Spanish player), the 2008 US Open will see him breaking Sampras's holy record. My prayers to God are only getting more earnest - Dear God, please send someone to stop this guy. It is getting plain boring to watch this disaster unfold.

NBA trade deadline passes away without incidents
This is not something I would be very excited about. Not certainly something I would write about in my monthly sports round-up. But I am writing about this here bcos of the potential trade between the Nets and the Lakers which would have sent Jason Kidd to the Lakers. I am a big Lakers fan and I seriously felt that Kidd would have filled in the last piece that the Lakers team is missing. Though many were skeptical about how Jason Kidd would have been beneficial to the Lakers with their triangle offense, I was so much looking forward to the spectacle of watching Jason Kidd feed off passes to Kobe. Even the other potential big trades didn’t go through - Kevin Garnett did not go anywhere and Mike Bibby stayed put at Sacramento. Overall, the NBA trade deadline turned out to be one big anti-climatic day.

Cool read(s)

Got nothing worthwhile to write. So, thought of posting couple of interesting articles I came across today.

The game's most bizarre injuries

This article in Cricinfo about the weirdest injury stories of cricketers is a good one. Some of the 'interesting' injuries include Jimmy Adams cutting the tendons of his right hand while trying to slice through a bread (making him miss an entire tour) and Chris Lewis practicing in the sunny Caribbean weather without a hat, after shaving his head. Read on...

Why is U.S. always last in line for new phones?

This MSNBC article explores the reasons behind why the phones we get to use here in the US are anything but path-breaking. Of all the reasons he lists, the one that stood out to me was this - the widespread progress of the PC evolution over here whereas in the countries where the latest & greatest cellphones are introduced, the spread of the PC culture has generally been slow, when compared to the US.

Monthly Sports Round-up - January, 2007

Nope, I am not going to write about the joke of a game that was last night (If you still want to know what I felt last night after watching the letdown unravel, read this and this). Instead, here is my usual monthly sports round-up.

1) Buckeyes buckle under Gator pressure
This was a game that the Buckeyes were expected to just bulldoze through. I am a big Michigan fan and naturally I have to hate the Buckeyes. But I was actually rooting for the Buckeyes bcos I completely detest any team form the SEC, which keeps boasting that they are the best conference in college football. The Gators coach Urban Meyer is a known tactician but everyone thought the Gators would be no match to the overwhelming talents present on both side of the football for the Buckeyes. But what happened during the game was something nobody was prepared for. The Gators completely dominated the Buckeyes, scoring at will and also not letting the famed Buckeye offense get into any sense of rhythm. The Heisman trophy winner, Troy Smith, was made to look pedestrian and he easily had the worst game of his college career. The pressure the Gator defense brought on Troy Smith was relentless and except for the one drive when the Buckeyes looked comfortable, it was Gators all the way. After so many years, the Gators become the first school to hold on to the 2 most prestigious achievements in college football - National Champions in both football and basketball.

2) India squander lead and lose to South Africa in the test series
This was our best chance of winning a test series against a really good quality side (FYI, I do not count WI among the good test teams of today) and I had even predicted an Indian victory in the test series. And how badly did we screw it up. All they had to do was to bat sensibly on the 4th day of the final test and we could have made sure that we atleast came out with a draw. Instead, our batsmen, including Sachin, bungled in a dramatic fashion and finally, South Africa wins the series quite easily on the 5th day.

3) Australia whitewashes England
I knew this one was coming. Ever since the defeat at the hands of the Englishmen in the last Ashes series, you can sense the fire and the hurt in the eyes of every single member of the Australian team. And when McGrath talked about a whitewash much before the series actually began, many did not take that comment seriously. But I always had a bad feeling that this Ashes series is going to be one of the most one-sided series in recent memory and it was exactly what it turned out to be. The phenomenal collapse of the English batsmen in the 2nd innings of the 2nd test is where it all began and it only went downhill from that point on. England is literally down in the dumps right now, having lost whatsoever credibility they had with an abysmal performance in the ODI series too.

4) Beckham signs with LA Galaxy
Clearly aimed at increasing the popularity of the sport here in the US, the Englishman has been signed to an astonishing 5 year 250 million USD deal, which many say is actually more than the combined salaries of players from 5 MLS franchises. Looks like Pele was brought to do the same many years back, in which he was partially successful. But over the years interest in the sport dwindled and now it is the turn of Beckham to try doing the same. It remains to be seen if he will be successful to revive interest in the sport here in the US. A not-so-impressive performance at last year's soccer world cup by the US team does not help matters.

5) Serena wins Australian Open in style
Serena wins her 8th Grand Slam championship of her career in an unbelievable fashion. In a tournament which she entered ranked 81st in the world and in which nobody gave her a chance, she improved with each passing round and knocked off one seeded player after another, finally getting to the biggest of them all, Maria Sharapova, in the final. It was easily the most lop-sided Grand Slam final that I have seen in a long time, a game in which Serena just conceded 3 games. It was immaculate tennis from the American woman who had gone out of the radar of women's tennis for the last 2 years. She says she is here to say and that she is more determined in her comeback this time around. Lets just hope that she means it, which would only be a great news for tennis fans in the US

6) Federer completes another fortnight in office
OK, this is getting ridiculously monotonous. Federer wins his 10th Grand Slam in the Australian Open. It sucks. Period.

7) Tiger does what he knows best
Tiger begins his 2007 season in right earnest as he registers a come-from-behind victory in the Buick International PGA tournament. This was Tiger's 7th straight PGA tournament victory, which started all the way back in the US Open, last September. There has been this comparison between Tiger and Federer on how these 2 guys are dominating their respective fields. But I frankly believe that Tiger, for all his accomplishments, is not as dominating as Federer. Watching Federer win tournament after tournament, grand slam after grand slam is becoming plain boring, while Tiger's victory in all of his 7 consecutive victories (save for the British Open where he ran away from the field right from day 1) has provided us some great entertainment in the form of the important aspect that sport offers called 'competition', something that is sorely missing in men's tennis right now.

8) Team India back on track
After months of frustration when questions were raised as to how good the Indian team really was, the Men in Blue finally overcame their latest nemesis, West Indies, in a dominating fashion. I was particularly impressed with the way India won the 2nd ODI, when they defended a sub-200 total. That is where the character of a team really stands out and I was glad that we won it. I am no Sourav Ganguly fan (alright, I should word that better - I belong to the Ganguly haters club) but nevertheless, it was good to see him bat the way the used to bat during his glory years. This was clearly not the Ganguly we all saw during the days when India were winning under his captaincy and clearly not the Ganguly who got on our nerves with his repeated failures to go his callous attitude. Apart form that, the biggest news for me was Sachin's coming back to form and his innings in the 4th ODI. He was batting on 85 with just 8 balls remaining and it was gratifying to see him get his century off the last ball of the innings. Perfect script. It was also great to see him win the Man-of-the-match and Man-of-the-series awards at the same time, after so long. Like Dravid said in his post-match press conference, everyone can breathe easy and not talk about Sachin's run of low scores for a while.

Super Bowl XLI - Preview

This time last year, the Seattle Seahawks were in the Super Bowl and I was in India, unable to relish the whole Super Bowl experience. This year, I am here in Seattle but the Seahawks are not in the Super Bowl and it is only now I realize how much fun I have missed last year. Anyway, enough of my rambling. If you are someone who talks to me quite often about football, you would know that the Colts are not my most favorite team. It is the Patriots whom I admire (obviously, after the Seahawks). I have great respect for the Colts team but being a fan, no. When the Patriots blew a 18 point lead to lose to the Colts 2 weeks back, I was naturally dejected and lost interest in the Super Bowl. But hey, after all it is the Super Bowl and as a football fan, there is nothing like this and so, I wanted to write down my thoughts on the big game.

Just like what happened before the College football national championship game, this Super Bowl title has already been given to the Colts even before the game has actually started. It does not surprise anyone bcos of the glaring and telling difference between the players playing the all important Quarterback position in the 2 teams - Peyton Manning vs. Rex Grossman. While Peyton already holds a long list of NFL records and is sure to end up in the NFL Hall of Fame even if he were to hang his boots today, Rex Grossman is being unfortunately billed as the worst quarterback ever to lead his side to the Super Bowl.

To me, I would like the Bears to win, for a couple of reasons. First and foremost - I hate this media hype about how the AFC is far better than the NFC. Whenever I read an article which talks about the difference in quality between the teams in the NFC and AFC, it just drives me crazy. Of course, the NFC teams have been indifferent this season. While 4 teams in the AFC had a 12-4 or better record, only 1 NFC team had a record better than 12-4. But somehow I
think that Bears, when their offense is on song, are one of the toughest teams to beat in the league and Bears, being the NFC representative in the Super Bowl, I would like to see them win.

Other reason is the upset that happened in the Buckeyes - Gators national championship, where the Buckeyes after holding on to the number 1 ranking in college football right from the pre-season, saw nothing going their way in the Championship game, in the face of a spirited performance by the underdogs, the Florida Gators and ultimately lost rather badly. So, something keeps telling me that history might repeat itself in the Super Bowl too.

Anyway, apart from my hunches and instincts, I sincerely feel that the Bears have a very realistic chance of upstaging the Colts, if and only if, Grossman does not commit the sort of turnovers that he has become (in)famous for. I believe that the Colts haven’t faced a defense, that is even close to being as powerful and strong as the Bears defense, all season long. I would say that the Baltimore defense was the toughest defense they played all year and we all saw how the Colts won that game - not by Peyton's arm, but by Vinatieri's right foot. The Bears offense is a lot better than the Ravens, with a formidable running game. Except for Larry Johnson, the other running backs the Colts have faced this post-season - Jamal Lewis and Corey Dillon - are clearly over-the-moon players. So, the Colts’ much-improved rush defense will have their hands full with Thomas Jones and Cedric Benson. On the offensive side, the whole world knows what Peyton Manning can do. But the Bears are known for their big plays and if Grossman connects couple of long passes to Muhsin Muhammad or Bernard Berrian, the Bears will be able to come back rather quickly into the game even if they were down in a big way. Then, there is also the looming threat of Devin Hester who hasn’t done much in the post-season after returning 6 punt, FG & kickoff for TDs during the regular season and thus will be raring to go. So, if Grossman's stats at the end of the game look something like 14-20, 172 yards, 1 TD, O INT, the Bears are in good shape to win this one.

Fingers crossed. Go NFC Champs...

Second Coming - Nike's new commercial

I have always wanted to do such a post, embedding a YouTube video. And this commercial captured my attention the very first I saw it and I thought of starting with this one (I didn't use YouTube though - for YouTube users, the video can be seen here). Nike's commercials are always cool and this one is a good proof of the same. All the NBA superstars come together in this well-conceived ad, with my personal favorite Kobe standing in the middle of the lot. Nike has a good wallpaper that you can download here.

My picks for the Divisional Playoffs

As expected, the AFC produced 2 lop-sided games last week and the fiesty NFC served the NFL fans with a close encounter and an instant classic. It's time to pick this weekend's games. I am in the mood to pick the underdogs in each of the 4 games this weekend.

Colts over Ravens
The Ravens might have a superior defense but I have the confidence in Manning & co. to score the points against any defense. Plus, the Ravens offense is nothing to rave about. And they do not boast of a powerful running game, which is what you need if you want to keep the Colts offense off the field. The Chiefs failed to get their running game & offense going and they paid the price for it. The Ravens may the favorite but I am picking the Colts to win this one, in a surprisingly convincing manner.

Patriots over Chargers
The Chargers, in everyone's opinion, are the best team in the NFL. But to me, the best coach in the league is Bill Belichick. Who else can lead a team which lost 4 of its best receivers from last season, to a 12-4 regular season record. His clinical execution of the Jets last weekend was a gentle reminder of his coaching capabilities. LT has been held to under 100 yards in 5 games, this season. So expect the Patriots to do that too. IMO, the only thing that is going for the Chargers is the home field advantage. But the Patriots have been outstanding on the road this season, with only 1 of their 4 losses coming on the road. I pick the Patriots in this one, which should be very close.

Eagles over Saints
Sean Payton has brought this team from the very depths to the best team in the NFC and he deservedly won the Coach of the year honors. They have everything going for them - 1 week's rest, home field advantage and all that. But the Eagles have been resurgent under Garcia. Nobody, absolutely nobody, gave the Eagles a chance when McNabb was done for the season. But the Eagles have truly defied all odds and have come thus far. The Saints offense wont be able to score easily, the way they have done against most teams this season, against a Brian Dawkins-led Eagles defense. Plus, the Eagles have a really effective running game. Expect a high scoring affair with the Eagles edging out the Saints in the home stretch.

Seahawks over Bears
As a Seahawks fan, this was the match-up that I asked for. If there was ever a chance for our struggling team to get to the next round, it has to be against the Bears. The vaunted Bears defense is definitely penetrable as the Patriots (and even the Cardinals in that infamous Monday Night game) showed. Rex Grossman will be Seattle's trump card, as we need him to be inconsistent. Finally, it all comes down to the Seattle offense, or to be precise, to Shaun Alexander. His failure to get going has hurt the offense, making it too one dimensional and thus putting too much pressure on Hasselback. Being in Seattle, I have to pick the Seahawks in this one :)

There goes my 4 picks for this weekend's games. At the end of it all, I might end up looking foolish with all 4 favorites (and overwhelming at that) winning the games, but I am still placing my bet on the underdogs.

Priceless in Seattle

Qwest field tickets - 115$
Parking - 20$
Soda, Fish & chips, Fries - 30$
No. 37 Shaun Alexander jersey - 75$
Watching the Seahawks beat the Cowboys in a nail-biter - Priceless


Saturday night was just unbelievable as I along with my friends & thousands of Seahawks fans were witness to an instant classic at the Qwest field stadium here in Seattle. As the Cowboys were ready to take a 2-point lead on the Seahawks with 1:19 left in the clock, we were already talking about how and if the Seahawks will be able to gain around 40 yards to give Josh Brown a chance at winning the game for us. That's when the now-infamous fumble by Romo happened and after some nervous moments which included a Hail-Mary pass from Romo that fell incomplete, the celebrations inside the stadium had truly began.

The atmosphere inside the stadium was something that I was not prepared for, even with my 3 game experience of watching the Seahawks play. Playoff games have their own intensity & aura which regular season games can hardly match. We almost watched the full game standing from our seats and the only time the fans let us sit in our seats was during the turnovers and timeouts. And when the Cowboys botched that FG attempt, the stadium went absolutely crazy and there was absolute mayhem in the stands. This was football at its best. Would be just awesome if the Seahawks are able to carry forward their momentum and come up with a victory against the Bears next weekend. Fingers crossed...