The Contenders - Australia

Australia will be playing this world cup to extend their unbeaten streak at world cup. Ricky Ponting have had many lows in his career especially as a captain like losing Ashes under his captaincy 3 times which is a notorious feat not touched by any Aussie captain. 

After the recent loss to England in Ashes series, Australia wouldn't be in the best of mood and under immense pressure to live up to the expectation of the Aussie fans and their World Cup Winner's reputation.

Batting

Aussie batting have been very inconsistent in last couple of years which have lead to the downfall in their performances. The only player scoring consistently, with the bat and bowl, is Shane Watson and Aussies will be heavily depending on him to score as he have been exceptional in the sub continent. Other than him the Hussy(Michael and David) brothers will be the most dependable players. Both the Hussy brothers have performed especially in the important matches and they have the ability to bat down the order and take the team to good totals and the best thing about both of them is that they can play with the lower order batters very well.

Ricky Ponting and Michael Clarke will also have to contribute as they have been due since a long time now. Ricky Ponting will also been one of those legendary players who won't be playing the next world cup, so this does becomes an important world cup for him for obvious reasons.

Tim Paine and Brad Haddin, both wicket keepers, so won't be expecting both of them to be part of the playing eleven. However, i think who ever makes it, chances of Haddin are better, will be opening the batting with Watson. Steven Smith is the all rounder they'll be carrying and will be playing an important role as a regular leg spinner and batter down the order.

Cameron White would also be an X factor if Australia wins this world cup. The big hitting middle order batsman is a big asset to the team and have been performing pretty good recently.


Bowling

Aussie bowling may looking a bit weak but you can never predict them. Doug Bollinger is my fav pick among the bowlers especially after his performance during the last year's IPL while playing for CSK. He has done good in the sub continent compared to any other Aussie bowler. Then, Mitchell Johnson is another player who's been inconsistent in the recent past and was also dropped from one of the Ashes match but made a great return. Then, we also have Brett Lee coming back in to the side after a long time. He has performed well in the recent matches he has played but i would still have picked Peter Siddle. Any who, moving on. John Hasting's inclusion was also a surprise especially with Ryan Harris sitting on the side lines. Another any who, moving on. Shaun Tait is also another fast, really fast bowler who can be lethal on the day when he hits the correct line because usually he is not.

Nathan Hauritz will be commanding the slow bowling department and again i have nothing to say. It's not because he is a bad bowler but his inclusion in the side feels like Aussies don't have any bench strength in the spin bowling department. Nathan Hauritz had a horrible tour of India last year. Steven Smith and David Hussy will his spin bowling partners.


Fielding

Aussies have always been a good fielding side. This Aussie side is also a good fielding side with Ricky Ponting, Clarke et. al. It's hard to find a bad fielder from this side. May be John Hasting but i'm only giving his name because i haven't seen much of him.

My three fav picks from this Aussie side are: - Shane Watson, Cameron White and Doug Bollinger

Ricky Ponting (Captain)   
Doug Bollinger
John Hastings   
David Hussey    
Mitchell Johnson
Tim Paine
Shaun Tait    
Cameron White
Michael Clarke (Vive Captain)
Brad Haddin (Wicket Keeper)
Nathan Hauritz    
Michael Hussey    
Brett Lee
Steven Smith    
Shane Watson 

Crook - Real Issues, Filmy Story

Hey All,

First thing first.......... I'm at home now and enjoying the life here. It's proving to be a great vacation till now and fingers are crossed for ahead.

It's been a long time since i saw a movie in theater. The last movie i saw was "Knight and Day". Yea, this was the only movie i saw in theater in past one n half year. So, i had planned about watching a movie as soon as i come back home and so i did. I went to watch "Crook" today.

Crook comes from one of the most famous banners of India, The Bhatt Camp. Bhatt's have given some of the best of Indian movies of all time. Zakham being my personal favorite. They also work around the real issues in India or affecting Indians like they made a movie based on the flood that hit Mumbai about 4-5 years back. So this time too they went in to do something different.

Crook had made a lot of buzz around because of it's music. The movies has songs like "Challa" and "Mere Bina" which are already hits. Then, Emraan Hasmi is also very popular among the youth. So, i was expecting a good movie again from Bhatt Camp.

Cast

Emraan Hasmi, said to be the "Serial Kisser" of Indian movie fraternity. I like Emraan as an actor. He has done some really good movies. I especially liked him in his debut movie. He is also a product of NSD (National School of Drama)  which is supposed to be one of the best and many Indian great actors have been there like Nassir-ud-din Shah to name one.

Neha Sharma makes her debut with this movie. This is her first movie so went in with no opinion of her.

Arjan Bajwa, this is his second movie that i saw. Actually, i didn't even know that he was part of this movie till i saw him on screen. I also believe that the movie wasn't promoted well. I had good opinion of Arjan as an actor from his last movie. He was really good in the movie but his character wasn't one of the prominent characters of the movie and he had lesser footage.

Mohit Suri, has made some different kind of movies and which proved to be successful too. I think Murder was this most successful which also starred Emraan Hasmi, i we can deduct that Emraan hasmi has been kind of his lucky mascot and that's why we see them working together pretty frequently.

Plot

An Indian guy (Jai/Suraj) is shifted to Australia forcefully by his foster father, so that Jai can move away from the net of the bad people/mafia to which he was getting trapped.

Jai moves to Australia with a new name Suraj without any criminal records. He starts working for a guy as a cabbie. As suggested by his friend, he tries to not get into any illegal shit and also to get a PR (permanent residency) in Australia. As he starts spending his new life in Australia, he finds the Aussies being racist to Indian and beating them just because of their color. But he wants to stay away from the issue saying “that it’s not his war”. Eventually, he also falls in love with a girl who is working on getting Indians and Aussies to work together and to learn each others culture to kill the Racism issue. Even though Suraj tries hard of not getting involved but he does get into the shit.

How does he lands into the mess? What all he does to get out of it? Does he succeed in his plans? And many other questions are answered in the end.

Good Things

Music was certainly the high point of the movie. I liked the romantic moments in the movie which were really good. I loved the new comer/Debutant Neha Sharma in the movie. She was convincing in the character she portrayed. She looked innocent, cute, beautiful and sexy in different frames of the movie.

Emraan Hashmi has been a good performer and pulls a great performance in this character too. Same with Arjan Bajwa, who have really impressed me even though, this is just his second movie.

Bad Things

The script and the story line felt pretty weak. Would have loved the movie way more if only they had tried giving it a realistic touch. Discrimination on the base of color or nationality is a part of almost every nation which makes it such a great base for a movie but you do have to live up to the mark. The movie did try to chase a good topic but with a very filmy kind of attempt.

5/10 for me.

Bodyline Series (1932-1933)

Bodyline Series played between 2nd December 1932- 28th Feb 1933 played between cricket teams of England and Australia in Australia. If you refer to any cricket Guru or pundit, then you'll know that this is one of the most remembered cricket series ever played. You can call it the "Most Notorious" series of all time.

Hunter and Pray

High Points of the series was the BODYLINE strategy, which was invented by  the English Captain Douglas Jardine(in pic) with the captain of an English Country Team Nottinghamshire, Arther Curr with his fast bowlers Harold Larwood and Bill Voce. This strategy was especially tailor made to get rid of Don Bradman(in pic) as soon as possible because Don Bradman was always a threat to the English team and was majorly responsible for holding England from winning against Australia. Don Bradman made a whooping 974 runs in the previous 5 match series of 1930 in England with an average of 139.14 which still is a record to be broken. Jardine knew how dangerous can Bradman be again to his team and he wanted to win the series at any cost this time. Though, the strategy was successful and England won the series 4-1 but Don Bradman still made lot of runs at an average of 56.

The Rebel/ Protagonist

Iftekhar Ali Khan, well you should remember him by his name but if you don't know him then he was the great father of Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi, another Indian Cricketing legend. I.A Khan was selected in the English team to play against Australia in the bodyline series. He made a century on Debut - 102. But, when he came across the bodyline strategy put up by his captain Douglas Jardine, he refused to take field or participate cause he thought it was not in the spirit of the game. He was dropped of the team after the test match and never played in the series in the team again.

Douglas Jardine said "I see His Highness is a conscientious objector." 

Towards the end of the tour, Pataudi commented, "I am told he has his(Douglas Jardine) good points. In three months I have yet to see them." 

Bodyline Strategy

So, now what Bodyline Strategy was????

Bodyline Strategy was when a bowler bowls short pitched delivery aiming towards the body, between rig cage and head to be specific, trying to make batsman play or loop the ball in the air on leg side and hoping that one the fielders will catch it. This tactic was considered by many to be intimidatory and physically threatening.

Although, there wasn't any serious injuries from the series but it brought a ill feeling between the teams which led to diplomatic controversies. This strategy was treated to be bad for the spirit of cricket and many laws in the coming years were made to avoid such practice again in future.

"OK, which of you bastards called Larwood a bastard instead of this bastard."
Richardson on opening the dressing-room door to face Jardine demanding an apology after he overheard one of the Australians sledging Larwood. Ref- Cricinfo

 You can find more infamous quotes of the series from the same link.

Some of the picture's i found.

Though, the series was notorious but the high points would be the passion and killer instinct with which English players played the game and haven't seen the same in years till now.

English- Wordless Wednesday

Although, India has some 15 National Languages and some hundreds of other.....which we speak but are not recognized as the National Languages. Still people are going crazy to learn English. Its really tough for an Indian to survive or to get good job, if the person doesn't know English. People think other who don't know English are stupid and they don't deserve anything.

People who know English think they are from some other world and look down on the people who don't. It's hard for some people to learn English. I mean.....think of it....you have been brought up in an Hindi Speaking family......and suddenly after.....20 years .... you are asked to learn English....that to fluent and with an accent.

People are doing everything. They fake accent as if they are living in America, Australia, England or any major country and are here in India for some vacations. F***k you, fakers.

I used to work for a call center and yes, you may thinking that i used to fake my accent there but no, the good thing about that company or call center was that the people who were calling in knew they are calling in India.......and in a way both - the call and the receiver- will have to adjust to understand each other. This feature was like the best thing about there.

I'm an Indian and i too want equality for all no matter what region or state you come from or what language you speak.