A litmus test for the gen-next

How things will turn out in South Africa is the most pressing concern amongst the Indian cricket fans presently.

The absence of Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid in the batting line-up, bouncy pitches, lack of depth in the inexperienced bowling attack, handful number of matches played by the members in the current Indian cricket team and the back to back whitewashes in the overseas conditions are some of the issues which are causing worries among the Indian fans, despite team India being the number one and number 2 side in the ICC ODI and ICC test rankings respectively.

The most experienced players on our side are the pace spearhead Zaheer Khan and skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who have played 50 test matches each in the overseas conditions. The fact that the current Indian batting line up consists of the top 3 run-getters in the world for 2013 (i.e. Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli), is superseded by the fact that among them only Virat Kohli has played 7 overseas matches while the other two are yet to play a test match away from home. Even Cheteshwar Pujara who bats at the crucial no.3 position for India in tests and has a lot of runs under his belt in the domestic career and has an impressive record in the international test matches played at home, has just played two tests away from home.

The bowling department is not looking very impressive either, due to the fact that M.Shami and B.Kumar haven’t had a lot of international exposure and both of them would be playing their first test match in this tour. Presence of Zaheer Khan provides a sense of relief among the fans as he has a bit of international exposure and has proved his mettle at the international level a lot more times in the past.

On the other hand, if we look at the positives, team India is being led by ‘captain cool’ Mahendra Singh Dhoni who has been adjudged as the captain for the ICC test as well as the ODI team of the year 2013. He knows how to utilise his resources to the most of the capacity. He likes to up the ante when the odds are against his team and more often than not he is successful in making his team victorious. He just follows his intuition and never thinks twice before taking risks. He never loses his cool in tense situations and always backs his team-mates which helps them to play freely and deliver results. Not to forget, he is also the best ODI finisher currently with an average of 53.44 coming in the winning run-chases for India.

The batting line-up has also been in good form of late and as already mentioned above, the top 3 run-getters of 2013 are Indians. We have Cheteshwar Pujara at the no. 3 position who has a technically sound temperament just like Rahul Dravid. He also has a very impressive record at home. His recent knock of 257* for his state of Saurashtra in a Ranji Trophy encounter should ease his mind and help him play a relaxed innings at the tour of South Africa.

B.Kumar and M.Shami will also get a lot of help from the bouncy pitches in South Africa and it would be interesting to see how they make the most of it.

Not to forget India has the likes of Suresh Raina, Yuvraj Singh and Ravindra Jadeja who are match winners and can turn the course of the match by themselves if it’s their day. Along with players like V.Kohli, R.Sharma and S.Dhawan they form a formidable fielding unit which would help team India to save a lot of runs in the matches.

The fact that India will play the ODIs first will help them to get used to the alien conditions and will help them to prepare for the tests in a better manner.

It can be said that it is a litmus test for the young Indian team. The players are extremely talented but are going to play in conditions which is out of their comfort zone. It would be an interesting contest to watch how the Indian players play against the likes of the fiery Dale Steyn, V.Philander and Morne Morkel.

An era called 'Sachin"

Here's to an era named after a man. A man who showed us things which very few men ever have.

Sir,

 You showed us that a 17 year old can play the gentlemen's game at the highest level gracefully.
 You showed us that a championship as well as an exhibition game should be played with the same discipline.
 You showed us how not to play a particular shot for 10 long hours in an inning.
 You showed us how to put a smile on the face of your followers' match after match.
 You showed us that an ODI 200 is a real thing.
 You showed us that form is temporary but class is permanent.
 You showed us what it takes to keep on chasing your dreams.
 You showed us that you were always prepared for the next challenge well in advance.
 You showed us how to aim for the diamond while others were aspiring for gold.
 You showed us that a nation's interests has to be kept above personal issues.
 You showed us what words like humble, longevity, consistency, class and sincerity mean.
 You showed us that respect has to be earned, it cannot be forced.
 Thank You very much Sir, for your extraordinary contributions to Indian cricket. You created a league of      your own and we as your fans are proud  to be a part of this wonderful era called 'SACHIN'. From now  on, we wont get a chance to bunk our schools/colleges/offices just to experience the joy of watching you  bat. The families wont get an opportunity to witness history-in-the-making on television.  We wont  experience a situation where grandparents would command their grandchildren to change the channel, just to  see you bat.
 There have been many champions and there will be many more, but there will not be a legend like you.

 Sincerely,
 A Sachinist.,

The Indian Poker Scenario

                  

The biggest mystery associated with this wonderful game is that whether is it a  game of skill or a game of luck? If the poker pros like Daniel Brunson, Steve Gee, JC Tran, Phil Helmuth are to be believed, its definitely a skill-based game. They say that in order to be a good poker player you should know when is the time to fold’em or hold’em, you have to be attentive all the time and you have to think about various permutations and combinations before checking or raising, you are required to read the strength of your opponent’s hands.

But on the other hand we have seen Dan Brunson winning a World Series of Poker(WSOP) event by going ALL-IN pre-flop on as week a hand as 10-2 off-suite. Even when we as a player experience bad-beats on the river(last card) then the first sentence which we say  is that our opponent’s luck was very good or luck didn’t favoured us. There are a lots of times when we experience a bad-beat, for instance one card straight or one card flush. You have the best hand on the flop(1^st three cards) but somehow your opponents’ hand improves over the turn and the river.

So it can be said that luck and skills are two different sides of the same coin in a game like poker.

Over the past few years poker as a game has been developed manifold in a country like India. Nowadays people spend a lot of time playing poker. Around 90% of the people playing poker in our country falls in the age category of 16-35 years and it can be said that it is slowly and gradually replacing the traditional card game called teen patti in our country.

College students spends around 6-8 hours a day playing poker with their friends or online. They don’t think that they are addicted to this game, they say that they just play it for fun and in the process they learn a lot of things. Eventually they are making their minds work in the things which they like.

Raunaq Bhatnagar(name changed), 20, studies in Mithibai College,  has taken part in the Indian Poker Championship(IPC), makes it a point play poker in his free time and as well organises poker scenes regularly, where he arranges for a poker table and calls a professional dealer from outside. In return he collects rakes from each deal which ranges from 3-10% of the pot-money, which depends on the additional services which are provided during the scenes such as free smokes, beers, hard-liquor, food, etc. His rationale of organise such scenes is to provide the players with an experience which they see in high stakes poker videos on television or online. He says, “The people don’t mind the rakes which is a small % of the total pot value, since they are relieved of dealing cards on their deal and the feeling which they experience while playing on a poker table as compared to when they play in their houses on their beds.” He further says that, “He has to be careful while organising such scenes, since gambling is illegal in India so he cannot tell about the scenes to everybody.” He just invites the people who are very close to him and who won’t report it to the police.

Nowadays people have started organising such scenes at their farm-houses which are located far-away from the main city, to be a little relieved from the cops. There are farm-houses in places like Alibaug and Matheran which the organisers hires for poker scenes for as high a rent as 25-30000 per night. They don’t mind paying such high rents since the privacy offered by these places is of top-level and they generally organise high stakes poker events there, hence they are successful in covering all their costs and make a profit  out of  the event as well.

The craze for poker is growing very rapidly in India. This fact can be proved by the fact that you get to see packed houses at Casino Pride, Goa where there is a dedicated poker room comprising of 9-10 poker tables. There are some poker clubs opened in Bangalore which are approved by the Karnataka government, which runs to almost full capacity throughout the year.

To conclude I would like to say that poker as a game has a lot of scope for further development. If the government approves poker as a recreational activity and make it legal in India then it(i.e. Government of India) can earn a lot of revenue in the form of entertainment taxes.

A Tribute to Sachin Tendulkar

A Tribute to Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar.

23^rd December 2012, it is one of the days which I’m pretty sure that every Indian cricket fan would like to forget. Our hearts sank and eyes were moist after hearing the news of Sachin’s retirement from the ODI format without giving us a last chance to watch our god play in the blue coloured jersey with no. 10 on his back. All his fans around the world were in a state of shock and must have checked various sources over and over again to confirm this news and then hesitantly convince themselves that it had to happen.

After hearing the news of his retirement from the ODI format, I personally thought that we as his fans should respect his decision and not raise questions about it.He made cricket larger than entertainment, greater that a sport and more than a religion. He redefined the reputation of the game and made it part of everyday banter between friends at the canteen, elderly people at their poker tables and even the circles of the gossiping lady folk. From the stadiums and grounds to the smallest of nukkads, Sachin has inspired each and every one.

 Generally every inning began with an outward bending knee movement, an adjustment of the abdomen guard followed by a tap on the top of the handle and then the Sachin guard would be taken. Over the years as he has scored more and more runs everything about him has become cricket. People all over the country shut down their shops and offices, youngsters bunk their classes and the cab drivers call it a day off just to see him bat. More than the records which he had created, it is his ability to get the whole nation to a standstill which makes him the greatest cricketer India has ever had. 

Whenever I think about this legend, the 1^stimage which pops up in my mind is his cover-drive off Wasim Akram’s delivery, which went for a four. It was in the 1^stover of the Indian innings in the Indo-Pak World Cup clash in 2003. That boundary set up the momentum for an Indian win in a high-voltage game, chasing a respectable target of 274 against the team which had one of the finest bowling attacks in world cricket at that time, on the fast pitches of Centurion (South Africa). In that inning it seemed that the only thing which could stop this man who was out on a mission to make India victorious, were the advertisements and the drinks brakes.

Indian cricket fans can recall numerous instances when this legend has managed to make them feel proud of being an Indian. Fans respect him because of his sheer love for this beautiful game called cricket as well as his commitment towards his country.For me some of the prominent innings were, his 175 vs. Australia at Hyderabad in 2009, where he silenced his critics who had asked him to retire and proved to the world that he still had a lot of cricket left in him. His back to back 100s at Sharjah against the Australians, who were the No.1 ODI team at that time, is another personal favourite. Every Indian took pride in watching that marvellous inning, because there are very few moments in a fans’ life where their team outperforms the best team in the world. Glenn McGrath and Jason Gillespie were taken apart and it seemed that nothing was going in their favour. Then came Shane Warne, who was treated so badly by this legend that later he was quoted saying Sachin Tendulkar had appeared in his nightmares after that series. Irank his century against Kenya at Bristol in the 1999 Cricket World Cup higher than his 201* at Guwahati against South Africa, since the special thing about that century was that he scored that one after attending his father’s funeral. Three days after his father’s death he left for England to join his team for the World Cup. This shows how much he’s been committed towards our country. He dedicated that century to his father and wished that he would be satisfied after watching that knock from above.

He also teaches others the importance of respect. During a net practise session, a young Ishant Sharma kicked the ball in frustration after a poorly executed delivery. Sachin calmly went over, picked up the ball and returned it to him, telling him in a gentle manner, “it is because of this ball that you have what you have got in life, without this ball you have nothing. Treat it with the respect, it is due.”

So much has been said about his selfishness as a batsman. They say he plays for his personal records and is not a team man. He could have easily attained the feat of 50 centuries in the ODI format, by scoring one more century, but he decided to call it a day off so that a youngster could take his place in the team and the team has ample time to work out the strategies and the game plans for the 2015 Cricket World Cup in Australia.

We shall consider ourselves lucky that we are a part of an era which belongs to this legend. We still have the golden opportunity to watch him playing test cricket for India. Without giving us a warning, he went ahead and broke a million hearts retiring from the ODIs. A humble request as a die-hard fan would be that he gives us a final warning before retiring from the tests, allowing us to remember a final inning. Allow us to discover our religion for one last time, for if there is no god, there can be no religion.