So...India exit World Cup 2009

The Indian cricket team are now in England for the Twenty20 World Cup 2009. Yesterday England beat India during a second round of play and bounced India out of the tournament. I visited some of the Cricket forums yesterday and it seems most Indian fans were slamming the Indian players of caving into pressure and making critical mistakes. I am disappointed too but had a feeling that it was going to be a close finish. Let me analyze what went wrong in yesterday's match.

1. Ishant Sharma: The tall, lanky fast bowler had a very good 2008. He had pace, good length and a bit of variation. He took wickets at needed times. However, his performance in Twenty20, the shortest form of Cricket, has been lacking and he leaked runs in the recently concluded Indian Premier League (IPL). It was also clear from the longer formats of the game last year that he had a tendency to be expensive in his first couple of overs before finding the right line and length. That type of bowling just does not work in the shortest format of the game. With RP Singh and Praveen Kumar putting in great performances, especially at the death overs, in IPL 2009, it comes as a big surprise as to why Ishant was retained in the playing XI in the World Cup. Praveen, for instance, can make the new ball swing and England has swinging pitches. He can also slog well. Praveen is also a much better fielder than Ishant...and I have never seen Ishant slide. In yesterday's match, despite leaking runs in his first overs, as I expected he would, Dhoni let Ishant finish his full quota of four overs. RP on the other hand was very economical (4.33) and yet he bowled only three overs. Why?

2. Irfan Pathan: I was expecting Dhoni to make only a single change to the playing XI: bringing in RP or Praveen instead of Ishant. Irfan leaked a lot of runs last year and early this year in New Zealand. But in the IPL last month, he bowled tighter and even won a game for Punjab with the bat. He had been in good stride in this World Cup. Yet he was rested. Why?

3. Pragyan Ojha: The spinner put in a terrific performance during the first round of games. But he leaked a lot of runs against the in-form West Indies and took, I believe, only a single wicket. So if Dhoni was anticipating trying out Raina and Rohit against England, as I was hoping he would, and figured he could do without Ojha for the game against England, well and good. But neither Raina nor Rohit (or Yusuf!) were used yesterday. Jadeja was brought in for Ojha and he took crucial wickets. So should we say that replacing Ojha with Jadeja worked? We will never know if it was a fluke or an act of brilliance by the team management.

4. Yusuf Pathan: Yusuf bowled really well against the West Indies and during the first round of play. He even bowled in the powerplay overs of those games. But he was not used at all yesterday. Instead Yuvraj bowled several overs. Yuvraj bowled well in the IPL. But Yusuf was containing batsmen well and taking wickets in this tournament. Yesterday Yuvraj gave away a lot of runs in his first over. There was still time to have bought in Yusuf to bowl as Yuvraj's first over had been right after the powerplay ended. Yet Yusuf didn't get a single over yesterday. Why?

5. Ravindra Jadeja: Jadeja, like Yusuf, is a big hitter and did a decent job for Jaipur in the IPL. If Irfan Pathan had been retained in the playing XI, Jadeja's batting would not have been needed. And the team still would have been left with two bowlers, Ojha and Irfan, who have so far done well in this tournament. So the pre-match question was: Why was Jadeja brought in? Remember this was a game that needed winning and yet two in-form players, Ojha and Irfan, were replaced. Ok. Let's forget that for the time being. Let's look at something else. With the top-order having succumbed to short balls, who walks in to bat? The really in-form Yuvraj? No. Jadeja. Why?

6. Virender Sehwag: Rohit did a good job opening, except for the short ball fiasco, but he comes nowhere close to putting the fielding team under pressure like only Sehwag can. I hear that the team management just took Sehwag's word that his injury was not serious. Eventually it was found the Sehwag did have a serious injury...serious enough that he was sent home. Would a proper inspection of Sehwag's injury before the tournament in turn properly prepared the rest of the Indian players mentally even though the other teams would have learned that they can now not expect explosive opening batting from India? Dhoni certainly seems to have been upset by the way the entire "Sehwag controversy" has been handled. Perhaps he had anticipated Sehwag to make an appearance down the tournament and based certain decisions earlier in the tournament on that. Or maybe he was just irritated people kept asking him about Sehwag when the Indian cricket board had told him to keep his mouth shut.

Tactical Mistakes

There were two huge tactical mistakes made by India yesterday. The first one was not sending in either Raina or Rohit to bowl. Twenty20 has matured to the point where most teams seem to realize that a bowler's job is all about containment of runs. Just look at Stuart Broad's bowling performance yesterday as opposed to his performance in the World Cup two years ago. He must have been following the IPL. Muralidaran voiced the word "containment" in an interview during the IPL last month. Dhoni himself used Raina very well toward the latter stages of the IPL. But despite seeing Yuvraj, Ishant and Harbhajan leak runs, neither Raina nor Rohit or Yusuf were given an over. You don't wait to see if a bowler will do better in his subsequent overs in a T20 game. You try someone else next as an active measure to put the lid on the batting team. Chennai did that remarkably well during a winning streak of five games in the IPL. Because T20 is all about being on top of the other team at all times. I have heard captains from several of the other teams state the same during this World Cup. Well, India were not on top of England during England's batting all the time.

The second tactical mistake India made was not sending the really in-form Yuvraj in after Raina got out. Actually that was not a mistake. That was a stupid mistake! I guess someone was really fatigued...

Going Forward

1. Short Ball Issue: It is always exciting to watch Rohit and Raina field and bat. They are very good. They don't just slog. They can play a mature inning too as they demonstrated in the IPL. But they need to master the short ball. The short ball issue seems to have been handed down by generations of Indian cricketers. Well, it has to be resolved. Maybe the Ranjit trophy needs to have matches that use a weighted Tennis ball. Whatever. It took the Tendulkars, the Laxmans and the Dravids a long time to get good at playing the short ball. Rohit and Raina are young and have not had much exposure to bouncier pitches. So their performance in the last two matches could be forgiven. I won't hold it against them especially in light of the afore-mentioned tactical mistakes. Gambhir doesn't seem to be in form so his performance issue maybe closer to Dhoni's rather than to Rohit or Raina.

2. Fatigue: No matter what Dhoni says, I feel that the Indian players were a bit fatigued. It was pretty obvious at times. I can't blame them, or anyone else, for playing in the IPL right after that long tour of New Zealand. However, the South Africans played Australia long and hard before the IPL as well. And they have not lost a single match in this World Cup. So is it a question of incorrect playing XI selection or is it a question of fitness or both?

3. Bollywood: Cinema and Cricket are usually the only two main forms of entertainment for many Indians. It was only a matter of time before the two mixed. The two did mix occasionally before but with the introduction of the IPL, many, including my brother, feel that Bollywood is distracting Indian Cricketers. I think that that is true with some Cricketers but not others. And I don't think that any such distracting is significant enough anyway. So in the end, that may be a moot point.

Louis L'Amour - My top 5

Well, I have a few drafts being prepared for posting on this blog. They have been in the works for a couple of months now. I just have to get around to finishing them. In the meanwhile, I thought I might throw this post in. It didn't require much thought...

If anyone ever took an interest in the literary works of Louis L'Amour, this post could help them get started. Yup, its my top five list of his books.

5.

A greenhorn drama troupe leaves the east to seek better fortunes in the untamed west. Couple of beautiful women in the troupe: Dodie who is a no-nonsense type of female who quickly understands that one cannot depend on the law for protection and the other, Janice, who disagrees with her. The troupe's wagon team handlers ultimately turn out to be criminals. King Mabry comes to the troupe's rescue. Great description of snow-bound travel.

4.

Two kids are attempting to find their Dad in a distant town. The only problem: the wagon company they were in got massacred and they are on their own in wild country with only a single horse. Their worried father hears of the massacre and along with a couple of friends starts in search of his kids. The kids are also being stalked by an "Indian" because he fancies the fine horse they are on. And winter is rapidly approaching. Again, terrific descriptions of the great outdoors.

3.

Not to be confused with the movie starring Sharon Stone and Gene Hackman. An eastern family of three is making its way West. They have no gold but heavy furniture in their wagon and some mules. All they seek is some good land near purple mountains to settle down and live out their lives. But a bunch of killers think they have gold and one of the baddies wants the woman in the family. Con Vallian, born and brought up in the frontier, comes to the family's rescue. Tense descriptions of encounters between Vallian and the Huron. The story wraps up near a settlement called Cherry Creek (now Denver).

2.

Clay Bell gets tired of drifting and starts his own ranch in a rich and beautiful range. But a speculator attempts to take Bell's ranch and land away from him with the help of some tough lumberjacks who are also ruthless characters. The romance here sounds similar to the way it happens in a lot of his other books but it still somehow seems refreshing in this one. L'Amour doesn't ramble. The supporting characters are developed convincingly.

1.

A bunch of people from various backgrounds and with varying levels of savvy gather near a well in the desert. They are trapped there by an Apache War Party. Logan Cates, a tough, laconic hombre -- think Clint Eastwood -- comes to the rescue. Tense situations. The story moves fast. This book might have been made into a movie but I am not sure.

Honorable Mention

1.


Many consider The Walking Drum Louis L'Amour's finest work. But it didn't hold my interest as much.

2.

While I liked it, I didn't think that the leading character, a kid, could possess the maturity of thought that he did. I did like the cover art though. L'Amour's prose conjures up a haunting image of an age long gone by.

3.


This was made into a movie I believe. Never watched it. It was an engaging enough read. Likely belongs in a different top five category.

4.


About the acquisition of Alaska by the United States. Russian nobility including a beautiful Princess are involved. Surreal description of the grandeur that is Alaska.

Stagecoach (1939) - A brief movie review

Give me a good Western anyday. I will drop everything and watch it. So it was that a few evenings ago, I sat up straight on my couch and realized that I had never watched Stagecoach. I had caught bits and pieces of it but had never watched the entire movie. Guess what? I don't have cable and YouTube had Stagecoach.

Stagecoach (the movie) moves swiftly. From the moment the stage arrives in a dusty little town to pick up some new passengers and make its way out to far off Lordsburg, the screenplay moves swiftly. The Apaches are on the warpath. But an Army patrol, that leaves the little town around the same time as the stage does, could only accompany the stage part of the way. So there is a discernible amount of tension as the threat of an Apache attack always hangs in the air. This tension would have been enough to keep the audience's level of alertness high. But what is a Western without howling "Indians"?


"What about the other lady?"

Romances aren't usually given that much importance in Hollywood's early Westerns, which by their very nature were vehicles for portraying gunfights and showdowns between cowboys and Indians, outlaws and sheriffs, cowboys and outlaws and any combination of manly men. In Stagecoach, the romance is significant enough without being a standout. And surprisingly there aren't that many gunfights. The emphasis seems to be on presenting individual characters and their responses to various situations.

Speaking of characters, I have to say that John Wayne's introduction scene, close to 2/3rds of the way into the movie, was indeed dramatic. It is the kind of scene that can make a star. Stagecoach was the vehicle that catapulted the formerly bit part actor to film stardom. By the time John Ford cast Wayne in Stagecoach, the Duke had been working in the film industry for around a dozen years doing stunt work and playing an extra. And that just might be why Wayne, like Clint Eastwood continues to, persisted in the industry as long as he did: He was a working actor before he became a star.

This is a short movie by today's standards. Stagecoach does a fantastic job of padding that time between when you have to cook dinner and get to bed on an otherwise dreary, unconvincing Spring evening in New England.

A bit wet behind the ears, perhaps?

"Gopi, make sure you water the plants on Friday."

So with that ominous reminder, MJ, our office Manager left last Thursday for a two week leave. So I set myself a recurring reminder in Outlook. The first reminder popped up last Friday, the day after MJ left. So I duly watered the plants in the office but, for some strange reason, decided to ignore the tall plants in the receptionist area. I would feel guilty about that over the weekend but they looked sooo healthy.

Yesterday morning, as soon as I got to the office and turned on Outlook, the reminder popped up and I watered the plants inside the office. Suddenly a thought occurred to me as to why I didn't bother watering the plants in the receptionist area the previous Friday. So this time, I checked with Russ:

"Russ, those plants outside? They are real, right?"
"Oh, yeah."
"Becoz MJ had asked me to water them on Fridays"
"Oh, yeah, yeah. They are real."

So I went out, watered them and got back to my office.

10 minute go by and Russ walks by.

" Gopi, you do realize those plants out front are fake?"

I let that sink in for a moment.

I smiled. "Well, Russ, better safe than sorry...don't feel like being at the receiving end of MJ's wrath."
Russ gleefully muttered, "What a character. What a character." and walked off. I figured he would probably needle me about it on our fishing trip to the Cape on Sunday.

I swear, my dear reader. Those plants looked real. But then they also looked too good to be true...

The wetsuit

As summer gets ever closer and I start developing notions of spending sunny Saturday afternoons swimming in the blue atlantic off the coast of Cape Cod and flexing my ass to any eye candy on the beaches, my thoughts stray back to when I first took swimming lessons. I wasn't 5 or even 15 years old then. I grew up in Madurai, which had a lone swimming pool. I think it may have been operated by the Lion's Club. I have bicycled past that pool many times during my time there. And I barely had any interest in it other than a mild curiousity as to who was using it. So, as I passed by, I would crane my neck a bit to see over the compound wall that ran the perimeter of the club. I can't recall seeing anyone use it. Just before I immigrated to the United States, I vaguely remember hearing someone mention that that pool was closed down after someone found "something" in it...kinda like the blue humor that one would expect to see in an earlier Adam Sandler movie.


Those amazing Indians! They are exceptionally good at some things like coming up with innovative dance moves, the Sciences and making great music. But...

Anyway, fast forward to the late 90s. A few years ago after I had arrived here in the US, and the Internet was starting to become ubiquitous, I decided to take swim lessons and contacted this swim instructor through a budding website called Craigslist. We agreed on a lesson price of $30 per hour of swimming instruction. He recommended that I get a wetsuit as it was still April and the water in the outdoor pool in his apartment community, out in the burbs, would be cold. Good advice. And the "swim instructor" himself turned out to be a 14 year old kid. I wouldn't recommend doing something like this if you are an adult...which I was but then I was pretty naive: no mentors, no friends, nuthin'. I pretty much had to figure out a lot of things by myself. I am just glad I didn't get into any trouble! Yes, the lesson went well. I learnt that I couldn't tread water no matter what I did. I kept sinking (in 5 feet of water) like a shark that had given up...

A couple of weeks later, I joined the YMCA in Quincy because I wanted to start practicing my new found skills using their indoor pool. I decided to take one more swim lesson. Y'know. Just to be on the safe side. Again I couldn't tread water. Other than that, the lesson went well. But after seeing the video above, I remember what did make me feel very subconscious during my swim lesson at the YMCA: the wetsuit I had on...while everyone else was in swim shorts!

RIP Zabo

August 20, 1944 – March 29, 2009


An undated picture...probably from the late 60s or early 70s.

"The best way to never worry about getting into shape is to never get out of shape."
- Irvin "Zabo" Koszewski

Conan the Barbarian (1982) - A brief soundtrack review

Not many people really equate Conan the Barbarian to class. But that is probably because they label it as a "Schwarzenegger vehicle", dismiss it as a movie "for guys who like movies" and move on. Oh, they don't know what they are missing! The outstanding soundtrack aside, it really is a very well-made movie.

I believe that the only movies I've watched with music composed by Basil Poledouris are Conan the Barbarian and Conan the Destroyer. I am not sure how much Schwarzenegger and the rest of the cast appreciated Basil's efforts after filming but the soundtrack is definitely one that even Crom, for once in his life, would bow to. For brevity, I have only listed the five tracks that I listen to most often.

5. Riddle of Steel/Riders of Doom

Watching the visuals when this track is played is sure to get the hair at the nape of your neck stand on end...and the prime reason why the opening sequences in Saving Private Ryan (1998) and Gladiator (2000) didn't impress me...as much as those two were very well-made movies indeed.



4. Theology/Civilization

I don't recall in which segment of the movie this track is played but many would feel that the sometimes cheerful nature of the track does not quite reflect the grit that is the rest of the movie.



3. The Atlantean Sword

I believe the pictures in this video are from Age of Conan, the PC game. This mostly brooding track conjures up visions of magic and sorcery more so than any other from the soundtrack. A third of the way into the track, there gathers a very strong feeling of melancholy. Overall there develops an impending sense of something significant in the air, a drastic change of sorts.



2. Theme (Anvil of Crom)

The theme is majestic, draws you in with gutsy, warmongering chords and winds down with a surprisingly serene sense of direction...reminiscent of a father who toils under the sun and, at the end of the day, comes home to play with his son. And the way the track switches back and forth between the booming bass of a horn and the feminine chorals of violins is simply fantastic!



1. The Orgy

In my opinion, the abolutely best piece of soundtrack ever recorded for a movie. 'nuff said!