IPL Semi Final Roads

IPL Semi Final Roads

Most of the cricketing experts of the country and even the common cricket follower citizens were considering and rating Jaipur’s Rajasthan Royals [JRR] as one of the weakest team of the IPL at the start of the tournament, surely they will say this is the glorious uncertainty of the game that this Halla Bol squad become the first team to qualify for the semis.

There was nothing wrong with consideration as none of the blasting names like Sachin, sourav, shewag, Dhoni, Yuvraj, Sanath, Symonds, Eshant Sharma, Shoaib Akhtar, Bret Lee and so on was associated with JRR, In fact this is the only team which was unable to find a suitable Indian player from the selective chunk to lead the team and was depending on retired Shane Warne for the purpose.

Besides this our Indian attitude of looking at things and happening with specific economic vision was also responsible for this view towards the JRR by the critics and masses. We Indians have a tendency of establishing a relationship between price and quality, more we pay more we become assured of quality and surely the JRR is the team of players with lower remuneration.

I recall early days or rather the days before the actual start of the tournament, when all the eight teams have finalized their player, my son was discussing about the winner of the tournament. He was not just surprised but eventually was shocked to hear name of JRR from me. As like the most of Indians, three best teams for him were the Kolkatta Knight Riders, Delhi Dare Devils and Mumbai Indians. I was supporting the JRR from the day one just because to me T-20 is the place of exhibiting all round skills and Halla bol squad is composed from many players having this ability. Most of the players included in JRR’s Halla Bol squad have to prove worth of their playing skills from this or that point of view and this attitude was going to make them the most competitive and dangerous team of the tournament.

Individual efforts are the key to team success but surely the clubbed one and not the isolated. Look at the highest run scorer of the tournament, Gautam Gambhir, baring the last match, middle order of Delhi team failed on whatever chances they got and as the result Delhi team is left with option of praying God for the semifinal birth. At the time of writing of this, JRR and Kings XI have qualified and three other teams
Delhi with 15 points from all 14 matches
Chennai 14 points from 13 matches and
Mumbai 12 points from the 12 matches are beetling out for the remaining two semis slots. Eventually Delhi team is on the mercy of performance of rest of two teams. Chennai will go under the “Do or Die” status when tomorrow they will took ground against Hyderabad but before they need to keep a hawk-eye on the match of Mumbai with JRR as defeat in that match for Mumbai will not only almost block the entrance of Mumbai in last four but also bring a respire of relief for the Chennai as their win tomorrow will change the point table to
Chennai 16 points from 14 matches
Delhi 15 points from 14 matches
Mumbai 12 points from 14 matches
If the Chennai and Mumbai both loose their, these matches Delhi will qualify as the third semifinalist and forth one will be decided only after the match of Mumbai and Bangalore. Here Mumbai will under tremendous pressure as they will have to play not just for a win but also need to take care of over all run rates.

All these if’s and but’s will be going to get answer in next 72 odd hours but one thing is sure, last league match of the tournament between Kings XI and JRR, is going to prove the real thriller as both the team are already qualified so they will battled out just for the pride. Once again the Kings will be forced to face the music of Halla Bol.

IPL Broken Images of Cricket

IPL Broken Images of Cricket

The much talked, most awaited and creating records of beyond imagination payments for the cricketers, T-20 championship organized by BCCI, Indian Premier League is reaching to point of completing inaugural session with tremendous media responses.

IPL is unique in many ways this was not only the tournament in which sponsored paid in Lakhs of rupees for every run scored or every ball bowled by the star cricketers. This tournament also provided space for the breaking some of established norms and images of the game and players on and off the field. This was of thought of centuries that cricket is the game of gentleman but can we say the same after the opening biding of cricketers resembling with the slave market of old days?

Cricketing skills were the matter which was meaning most for the game but IPL has changed the vision, now in the cricket it is money that matters most. Look at some of Australian players, for whom India was the country with most discomforts and Indian players were not having value higher than the forest grass, all of them are not only staying for almost two months on this land of most discomforts but also playing in IPL under the leadership of Indian players, who were never looked by them even as human beings, surely the only reason is the monetary benefits. This is the financial influence of IPL which forced PCB to suspend the ban of Rawalpindi express Shoaib Akhtar.

IPL also broke the image of several established cricketing names, Look at the performance of Ricky Pointing, Shahid Afridi, V V S Laxman, Anil Kumbale and even Rahul Dravid.

Before the IPL the whole world was sounding with the voices of favoring younger generation for this shorter version of the game. Experience and cricketing skills started to be being under shadowed by the physical fitness; surely IPL has succeeded in broking this age myth. Look the best performers of tournament, majority of them are over thirty, till date highest wicket taker Shane Warne is no more representing his country, second fastest century scorer Santh Jayasuriya is of 39 years of age even the fastest century is scored by recently retired Adam Gilchrist. Though Delhi boys are calling “Uncle” to speedster Glem Mac Grath but surely the players who faced him in IPL have a kind of fear in their mind along with respect for this ace bowler. Diving catches of Sourav Ganguli, running back catches by Romesh Pawar and even the reflex ion return catch taken by Shane Warne surely are the practical lessons for youngsters about the fielding excellence.

IPL has also broken the myth of cricketing stars, over the years the game was revolving around the star performers. It was even beyond imagination the current status of Decan Recharges and Rajasthan Royals. At the start of tournament Hyderabad was among the favorites of winners of the tournament and Jaipur was among the weakest teams of tournament. Surely the presence of not so many star cricketers was the reason for considering Jaipur for this status. This surely the planned game of Halla Bol squad which proved once again that cricket is a team game and mutual efforts are more valuable than the star performers. Frankly speaking I am not discarding the star performers, they have their own values, they can win some matches for the team but for a constant good performance by the team they have to perform in tandem. Performance of Knight Riders is lowered after the home return of Maculum but even after the successive failure of middle order Delhi is performing satisfactory with support of their star materials Gautam Gambhir, Shewag and Shikhar Dhawan.

When the concept of T-20 was introduced it was thought that this format of game will prove helpful for increasing the dominance of batsmen and bowlers will be at the suffering end. IPL also proved this though a myth with the performance of Sohail Tanvir, Laxmipati Balaji, Amit Mishra and even the old wine Shane Warne. Till date most of teams have played 9 – 10 matches out of maximum 14 league matches and highest aggregated individual runs scored are just over 300 runs which mean just over 30 runs per match, where as the highest wicket tally is 14 which means 1.4 wickets per match. Here we have to keep this in mind that in every match batsman have chance to bat for all the twenty overs but bowler is restricted to bowl just four overs in a match.

I am concluding this in a very pleasant mood as my favorite IPL team Rajasthan Royals yesterday made almost certain a semi final birth for them by forcing Royal Challengers to bow down before the Hall Bol attitude. Team of the famous wall never looked in position of sustaining or overcoming the Hall Bol cricket played by this desert cricket team leading the point table. I feel sorry for the Delhi team as rain has taken a certain looking win from their hands with yet another defeat at the hands Kings XI.

Killer Last Over

Killer Last Over

This title “Killer Last Over” strikes my mind while watching the IPL match between Delhi Daredevils and Chennai Super Kings. This was an important game for both the teams as both have lost their last match, In fact Super Kings were the suffering end in their last two encounters. Neither of them was in mood and in situation to face yet another defeat and looked much desperate to record a win. Especially for Dhoni’s super Kings this was a do or dies game after two successive and humiliating defeats at hands of Rajasthan Royals and Decan recharges.

As usual coin favored lucky fellow Dhoni and he invited home team to exhibit their batting skills, might the last two batting collapse of the team forced Dhoni for this decision otherwise this is almost a set trend of Dhoni to bat first after winning the toss. Delhi openers Shewag and Gambhir were in mood of giving yet another demonstration for their firing start and Delhi went on to score 46 runs with both the openers at the central 22 yards long strip, but before the Dhoni feel guilty of committing a mistake, stamps at the batting crease uprooted twice for the home team.

Fielding side was assuming a relief breeze after these two dismissals but Gambhir and Dhawan made sure non existence of it, as this pair went on to register the highest partnership of the tournament. Delhi went on to finish the allotted 20 overs with formidable total of 187 runs.

Till the end of 19th over of batting of Super King all was demonstrating daring and devilish powers of Delhi as the opponent need to score 15 runs from the last 6 ball of their inning. M.S. Goni went on to stroke the first ball of the over for the maximum and this over proved the Killer one for the Devils as with the last ball Kings made sure the killing of the devils. This was not the first instance as previously one such over, when Rajasthan Royals utilized last six balls to score the required 19 runs for victory and discharge the powers of one of the stronger contestant team of the title. While writing this match of Kolkatta Knight Riders and Royal Challengers went under the same phase of Killer over as Royals challenger were need of scoring 19 runs from last over for a victory. Mark Butcher started the over with hitting Sharma’s first ball across the boundary on ground levels, but this time Eshant was with very rigid frame of mind not to follow Australian Symonds at least for this and made sure a 5 run victory for the Riders.

IPL images & reflections

IPL images & reflections

Cricketing world is under the phase of being redefined under the influence of IPL a T20 cricket tournament, a BCCI organized sponsored competition. Primary image of Indian Premier League [IPL] is a tournament organized to face the challenges created by Indian Cricket League [ICL] organized by a private body of former cricket players lead by Great Kapil Dev Nikhaj, ever first genuine all rounder and most inspiring captain of India and sponsored by Essel group. IPL is also looked as the efforts of BCCI for keeping the undisputed and undivided rights of conducting the game of cricket on Indian land.

Look at the dominance and inflow of money with the IPL. Sponsored have paid approx. Rs. 43 Lakhs for the solitary run scored by star Indian wicket Keeper Mahindera Singh Dhoni in the match against the Rajasthan Royals. Delhi’s speedster Eshant Sharma, playing for Kolkata Knight Riders, is bowling in the tournament at the unbelievable rate of over Rs. 1.3 lakhs per ball. A few Australian players, like Bret Lee, Pointing, Symonds etc. who played in 3-4 matches of IPL and returned back to join their National team for touring to West Indies, have landed on the kangaroo land with money purses heavier even then that of an Australian player might have only after playing for two years for the national team.

Dominance of IPL, which in fun often called as Indian Paisa [Money] League on Indian land, is very much clear from the Shoaib Akhtar episode. This speedster from Pakistan was banned for five years by PCB for misbehavior on and off the field. This fast bowler was supposed neither to represent country nor to play any kind of cricket in the Pakistan, however PCB has allowed him to play cricket in other parts of the globe without representing Pakistan. IPL rules are very clear about the playing of banned players so even being very much eager Kolkatta Knight Riders have denied the participation of this speedster. This is the true reflection for the influence IPL have on the world cricket that PCB has forced to adjourn the ban till 3rd June 2008 so Shoaib can play in IPL. [Earnings of shoaib from IPL is much higher than what many players might earn by playing five years for the national team of Pakistan]. Just consider on one side PCB chief initiating a judicial suit against this fast bowler and on the other side same PCB is making sure for a crystal clear way of participation in IPL by this star speedster.

Another reflective image of IPL lies with creation of new line of difference among the players [though this was in existence with English County Cricket but was not so deeper]. Prior to IPL, players were getting unanimous remuneration for their participation in same tournament representing same team. These unanimous and equal rates of payments are now deposited with history. Look at earning of some of young star performers of IPL like, Virat Kohali, Yusuf Pathan, Sohil Tanvir etc. they are going to earn for playing in whole tournament much lesser than what some of their other team mates might be earning for playing in single match of same tournament and representing same team. Surely this earning difference is working with the psychic of players, deeper this valley of difference of remuneration, more the ups and down in the performance of the team.

Look at team performance of Rajasthan Royals, at the start of tournament team was with the lowest ranking for winning the tournament and today when we are at almost halfway of tournament, this, Halla Bol squad of Rajasthan Royals are leading the point table, just because with this team the money difference valley is narrowest in comparison on other teams.

Last but not the least image of IPL, this tournament has not left anything unturned for making this gentleman game, a racecourse. Starting from the franchise of team to picking the players for the team, nothing was hidden, each and every thing was available for biding and all this was giving the look of crucial olden days of Slave market.

Positive and shining reflection of IPL lies with the performance by the Indian players which is on the way of proving that this is the tournament of dominance by Indians in the cricketing world. Highest Individual inning record is not with an Indian but a musical chair race is on between Rohit sharma, Gautam Gambhir and Shewag for being the highest run scorer of the tournament at present the “Orange cap” is changing hands in succession with them.

Pakitani speedster Sohil Tanvir exposed the magical rabbit under hat by taking record 6 wickets for just 14 runs while playing against the Super Kings but still Indian Irfan Pathan playing for Kings Eleven is the highest wicket taker of the tournament till date. All rounder Yusuf Pathan is miles and miles ahead of well known names from other countries and playing in IPL.

Coming to captaincy, the only foreign captain Shane Warne playing for Rajasthan Royals is on success run and creating new definitions for leading a cricket team but still with the daring decisions MS Dhoni and innovating inspiring game plans Shewag and Yuvraj are the front runners. It will be a genuine treat for cricket lovers from all part of world to be witness for the captaincy tactics, after a long time, of master blaster Sachin Tendulkar as and when he comes out from injury and start leading Mumbai Indians.

Historic Indus valley land: Sindh Part II

Historic Indus valley land: Sindh Part II
Before I start here, I feel this is my most obligatory duty to pay homage to ever inspiring memories of my parents Dadanbai & Dr. Premchand Manghirmalani, as whatever you are going to read are the memories of both of them, which I am trying to present with addition of some of recent facts.
Historic rulers & Political Status
On the political fronts life of land of Sind was started with the Vedic life style. Brahmanism and Buddhism also found this land for flourishing. Raja Dahar was the last Hindu King of Sind. This land in the Indus valley also witness ruling by the Somara Dynasty, almost for 200 years, Samma rulers for almost 100 years. Though Humayun visited Sind during the reign of Samma rulers but Mugul rule started only with the Emperor Akbar and lasted till the time of Nadir shah and before the British rule Sind was under the governing of Talpur Mirs. After the Independence in 1947 Sind become part of newly formed country Pakistan and presently is the second largest provision with Karachi being the capital city. It is a historic fact that Islam was propagated on the land of Sind under the influence of powers of sword [for details visit “Sindhi Deity Jhulelal” in the Sindhyat section of www.thesindhuworld.com] and Hindus were saved by Lord Jhulelal. If we go back to Vedic era, the north region of India, Pakistan and east Afghanistan were referred as the Sapta Sindhu in the Rig-Veda. For the travelers from Arab and Persia this sub continent was composed of two countries Hind [entire ancient India] and Sind [part of present Pakistan] in fact the names Hind and Hindu have origin with Sind and Sindhu.
Till the time of King Jayadarth [Mahabharat era] inhabiting population of Sind being called as Sindhi, was mainly of the follower of Vedic [Hindu] religious life style. As the land went under rule of various dynasties with different religious faiths hence the indigenous population was affected from the disciples of that religious faith. There was an infiltration of migrated population of Rajputs [Yadav & Parwar], Jatts, Baluchi, Arabs, Persians, Turk & Mugals and most of them got accustomed with social life of Sindhi, this might be the reason for the recognition of Shah Abdul Latif as one of greatest sindhi poet. It was time of rule by Mohamad Bin Qasim and period after that Islam also become a dominating factor in the religious world of Sind and as a fact in the present times in the Pakistan there is population of Sindhi Muslims also along with Sindhi Hindus, where as in rest of entire world most of the Sindhi population is of Sindhi Hindus. During the times of Sikh Guru, Dhan Sri Guru Nanak Dev sahib Sindhis were highly influenced with the religious thinking and ideology of Guru Sahib, might the resemblance with Hindu life style was the reason for that because it is a historic fact that in those times Islam was under propagation in Sind under the shadows of sword. The natural result is that though present Sindhi are looking at Lal Sain Uderolal [Jhulelal] as their deity but still recitation of Gurbani is the part of daily life for many Sindhi families and Guru Nanak Jayanti is among the most celebrated religious Sindhi festivals. After the partition in the year 1947 Sindhis along with Punjabis have been forced to migrate to India as situations at that time were not suggesting for being favorable for a future religious freedom in that part globe, though a considerable population of Sindhis was forced to stay there only due to the fact that historically sindhi cultural have roots with the river Sindhu. Barring a selective chunk who is still Hindu, majority of this Sindhi population has adopted Islam. In the religious world of migrated Sindhi, settled in India and other parts of the globe some Hindu based religious panths like Prem Prakash Mandal, Sant Mirankari Mission, Radhaswami started to be religious faith for considerable Sindhi population [For details visit Religious faiths at www.thesindhuworld.com ] .
Sindhi Language
Sindhi language is one among the Indo-European language which has a close resemblance with Arabi in script of writing [with 52 alphabets, written from right to left] and Sanskrit, Urdu and Hindi in spoken styles. After the independence from the British rule, especially in India there is a dispute over the script of Sindhi language as the interim at present for Sindhi language Arabic and Devnagiri scripts are used. Sindhi speaking population can be observed through out the world though the majority of population is with Sind [Pakistan], Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and the Union Territory of Delhi [India], Hong Kong, Japan, the Gulf countries [Asia region] beside that various cities in America, Australia, UK and South Africa also have considerable population of Sindhi speakers. Common spoken Sindhi is “Vicholi” dialect; other five dominating dialects of spoken Sindhi language are Siraiki, Lari, Lasi, Thari or Thareli and Kachhi. Leave apart the religious faith but this is fact that including the Sindhi Muslims almost 80% of population is Sind is of Sindhi speakers and this is an interesting fact that after independence till 1972 official language of Sind was not the Sindhi but Urdu which was spoken by population less than 10% of total population. Sindhis of Sind Pakistan, who at the time of independence opted for joining Pakistan, are feeling cheated and most worried by the dominating status and preference given to immigrant Urdu speaking Muslims being called as Muhajir and probably these are reasons for the movements like “Jiye Sind”. According to reports of World Sindhi Congress, Sindhi students are finding hard to get admission in Karachi University, which was among the major Sindhi educational institutions in the pre independence era.

Historic Indus valley land: Sind

Historic Indus valley land: Sind
Before I start here, I feel this is my most obligatory duty to pay homage to ever inspiring memories of my parents Dadanbai & Dr. Premchand Manghirmalani, as whatever you are going to read are the memories of both of them, which I am trying to present with addition of some of recent facts.
Geography and Statics
This was the Indus River commonly known as the river Sindhu [in the Sanskrit language Sindhu Means Ocean] which works for the fertility of this land and well being of native on its banks. In fact the this land derives name Sind from the river Sindhu, the name mentioned in world’s oldest knowledge books Vedas, more times even the holly river Ganga. Area wise Sind is larger than England in the lower Indus basin with Arabian sea Indian ocean in south, Plains of Punjab in north, desert extended to merge with Thar desert of Rajasthan in east and Khirtar mountain range in the west. The human population was in the proximity of 5 millions [at present about 50 millions].
The river Sindhu covers a length of almost 3000 kilometers and all most one third of it is in the Sind. This was common saying that this land is Gift of river Sindhu to human beings another such gift of nature is the Egypt of river Nile. Less rains and hot climatic conditions, average temperature above 30 degree Celsius with world’s hottest city Jacobabad being part of Sind, river Sindhu was working as the life line for the citizen. Among the major cities Dadu, Hyderabad, Mirpurkhas, Larkana, Nawabshah, Tando Adam, shikarpur etc. of the sind, Hyderabad was the city with a some what pleasant climate and cool breezes while the Jacobabad and Sevahan were the among the hottest places of the region. [According to records of meteorological reports in the year 1919 mercury went to touch 52 degree Celsius at Jacobabad].
Economy
Sind was an agro based economy. The main crops were the Rice, wheat, cotton and sugar cane but rice was cultivated in abundance and Larkana was famous for its very fine quality rice crops though Dadu and Thata were not legging for behind in the cultivation of rice crops. Cotton was the main crop of Hyderabad and Nawabshah, and production of cotton has included sind on the world map of textile industry. Sugar can was cultivated in the southern parts. Sind was also producing good quality fruits like the Mango and Banana. Rice Mill was the main industry in the Larkana and Dadu districts.
Beside the agricultural and textile people of Sind were also earning very handsomely from their skills of pottery, leather work and art of weaving of carpets. Specific and very unique way of polishing the ornaments also brought considerable praise for the natives of Sind besides adding to their physical wealth. Mahoan-jo-daro have very distinctive illustration that native of Sind were well versed with these artistic works since the ancient times at least in the pottery.
[ Still to come Part II]

India Tourism: The Sindhu world Renovated

India Tourism: The Sindhu world Renovated

Friends sorry for my long absent but since last one month or so I was over busy with renovation and up gradation of www.thesindhuworld.com the virtual home of world wide scattered Sindhi Community and as the natural result my blogging was at the suffering end. Now the renovated and upgraded version of the site is functional from 27th April 2008 and that busy schedules are over baring SEO work of few pages, so I am back and promise for regular blog posts.

In this renovated and upgraded version of www.thesindhuworld.com we had tried for increasing the utility of the portal even for Non Sindhis by adding a separate section on the tourism of India.

India with rich flora and fauna, cultural and social heritage, religious diversity and long illustrated costal area is the land with tremendous scope for tourism to meet with all moods, tastes, and interest of human world. In this section we had tried to cover almost all aspects related with a holiday in India, because India is the only country where theme tourism is practically possible. Here in India only it is possible to go on Pilgrimage tour, Beach tour, heritage Tour, Mountain Tour and Wild life tour. In the section “India Tourism” you will find information about
* 100 odd Indian cities
* About 60 Hills Stations
* More than 50 Wildlife Sanctuaries / National Parks / Tiger Reserves
* 60 odd Forts, Monuments and World Heritage Sites in the country
* Location of almost 400 Temples, Gurudwara, Churches & Masjid [Mosques]
* More than 60 most famous Beaches with a brief description of each.

You can assess this information from the home page of the site or can directly go with link www.thesindhuworld.com/india

Do visit site as and when with time and keep us updated with your views about the site.