Devil’s Advocate

Bob woolmer is dead. Long live his legacy.

Bob woolmer and Hansie Cronje go hand in hand. Both complemented one another.South-africa reached great height under their supervision and unarguably both were best when hunted in pairs. They gained theirs popularity simultaneously and in death there was a similarity. Both died mysteriously and to an extenet in disgrace.But no doubt i and i am sure that everyone loved both of them on and off the field.

Now coming to the point i heard rather to my disbelief that he was dead and from the news, though it didn’t stated explicitly, died in mysterious circumstances. And like all the famous cases i don’t think it will ever come to light(examples galore: princess Diana,Lal bahadur shastry, king of Nepal etc).and this is what makes it more interesting and different from detective novels that seldom the mystery is solved.

People are every where(read pakistan and Akhtar in particular) praising his way of functioning the way he lived and the way he conducted himself both on and off field.But anyone can imagine that if he would be alive after the ignominous beating in the worldcup his life would be like a hell and sooner than later someone would have attempted to take him to task for the failure. one thing was sure that his coaching assignment would have definitely been terminated and many scapegoats would have been found.

Now here is what i want to tell, was that reaction that would have been greeted to him in pakistan and to the players too was delivered to him a little bit too early (mind you that pakistan was already out and heads were to roll).This could have been the handiwork of the overjealous fan to get out his frustration, but the way secrecy is maintained it is also quite possible that some big hands might have been in the work.

In my opinion someone from the cricket establishment might be involved so as to somewhat douse the fire that the fans would have saved for theirs homecoming.His death has ensured two things that the criticism and some harsh reaction (like attacks on players on previous outings) might get a little mild. moreover woolmer’s death,him being an foreigner, wouldn’t matter to anyone.

Another theory of mine being that the conspiracy may be more deep-rooted.General parvez musharraf is facing flak from all the quarters and is at this point of time most vulnerable. the vulnerability comes from the fact that the lawyer community(intelligentsia) are agaisnt him in the chif-justice removal issue.Reports that the United-States is looking for an alternative of him in case he is assasinated and openly stating that general isn’t indespensable. TV journlist(geo channel or something) attacks has provoked the opinion makers. The attack from religios fanatics are not subdued and the return in form of Benajir bhutto isn’t an ominous sign for the General.

So as seen in the Pakistan political history widely some new incidents are propped up so that they get the support from the world or theirs people within. Taliban india and US support, are all propped time and again to divert the peple or world from the real issues.There are many incidents within Pakistan.

General being at the helm of affairs of Cricket and taking a deep  interest in the cricket and knowing that the people are pasionate about cricket might have seen a chance!!

And that’s my DEVIL ADVOCATE.

Cricket going hockey way?

Here after a long period of time. Now the worldcup fever was slowly going to build but the balloon has been punctured by the loss to
Bangladesh. The timing of the matches isn’t suitable to the Indian masses but still many people were awake to watch their stars thrash the  opposition. Me too was not expecting anything less than that. But alas they lost and in what fashion. Kudos to them for winning.

 

One more thing that has come to my mind watching the first round matches is that the minnows are much stronger now. Already it has been demonstrated by the Ireland and by
Bangladesh, others have also shown great character display against the best teams in the business (if only 10 teams play and all are top 10). Seems that less teams were there that’s why
India was in top 5 and we were proud of theirs achievement. But now other countries coming of age we will slip further. And then ours interest will be as now in hockey. So the masses interest in cricket has limited days. Further it increases my suspicion that Indians aren’t meant for the sports theirs body isn’t meant for the extreme rigours required, neither the body is flexible enough for the gymnastics like sports.

 

Now, coming back, to the game and the related economic ramifications. Pakistan and
India are the major cricketing nations (in terms of revenues). Pakistan is already out and
India is not in very good position and may be out soon (good for the masses that they won’t have to be awake in the night and spoil the whole next day like I did). If such thing happens then advertisers are not going to put their money and those like set max who have pumped a lot of money by fighting the combined might of Espn-star would not try burning theirs finger again. I think that max has already lost money in the earlier tournaments also the neo sports of nimbus wasn’t having much respite by outbidding all for the BCCI rights.

 

I have a tendency to go left and right and left and deviating from the main topic but then that’s the flexibility one can avail in blogs. So in economic terms it might be a big disaster for all, after all money does matter. And the ramifications back home will be big, and a scene to watch. Already the MS Dhoni’s house under construction has been attacked and that’s just the beginning.
Pakistan has at the moment much bigger issue at hand. And the news that Bob woolmer is dead now must have complicated the matter. Also I can see this as a major hurdle in Parvez Musharraf’s  path complicated by the removal of chief justice and attack on media with the hint of US backing not being that strong. I foresee many ramifications out of this loss of
Pakistan’s. But on the other side one furious matter noise can drown the other vital issue and can be blessing in disguise for the General.

Nokia

Did i mention that i got a new Nokia N-73 series mobile! i wanted it from the first time i saw the mobile in the ads but didn’t had enough resources for the same, besides there was a compulsions on me to get CDMA phone because the rentals and intra-operator cost were absent.

Also the day before i was in the same shop and was looking for cdma mobile that too for the cheapest set available. fortunately or unfortunately i couldn’t get that because i didn’t had a residence proof, which i still don’t have. so came back empty handed and next day in office i heard song on my colleague’s set and at that moment i wanted to have one music phone and i have a natural liking for the camera phone(a good one at that). so i bought one nokia n-73 music edition which cost me almost 22k. having good 3.2 megapixel camera and good music.

and people might find it amusing that i wanted this phone only because of camera and music and i am using it for that purpose only. My motto is in having only that thing which is having everything in it or it should be the most basic of all.Nevermind that i will have to struggle with my finances for the next couple of months for such a bargain. But then i am content with it….