Cricket + TV + Haircut = Disaster

One should not keep TV in a salon. At least it should not be seen from the place where they are cutting your hair. And if these two things can not be achieved at least make sure they do not put IPL when you visit the salon. Well better don't go to salon when matches are going on. Why? Because if you're in the salon, sitting for that long-overdue haircut, and match is going on, and Jaysurya is on a rampage, and the the guy who is cutting your hair has his eyes glued into the TV, and you are giving him company mouthing oohs and aahs and "what a shot", things can go wrong. Very wrong. Very very wrong...

After the oohs and aahs, when we came back to the task in hand (his hand, my head) the damage was done. See the accompanying picture to see the effect.

Ooops... Sorry. Wrong picture. Here you are...


Yeah... What to do. At least he didn't cut my ears! BTW, it's not a bad haircut if you think about global warming. Also I'll save a lot of shampoos. And lot of time also, no combing etc... Also it's more aerodynamic. Well, I could go on and on praising my new haircut. None of them make sense.

Only good thing is, it's hair. It'll grow. Think about the same thing while tooth extraction at the dentist's. Or tattooing. Or body piercing. I know I'm lucky...

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Sardar Harbhajan 'Ewing'

I know what you are thinking. When did Bhajji changed his name? Desperate attempt to purge his sins (and Singh!) or just a disguise to fool the authority and play in IPL? Nope... Nothing of that sort actually. The fact is after the 'Slapgate' fiasco, Mumbai Indians suddenly found their lost feet, won back-to-back three (yes, three!!) matches, two of them against Shane's Royals and Veeru's Devils. They even made Shaun Pollock look like an inspiring captain! I know, I know, it's too early to tell but they are playing as a team for the first time in the tournament. Now, you'll tell it just 'smells like team spirit' and maybe you are correct. But I just couldn't resist to propose my great idea at this point. Well not mine actually, there are several blogs and experts thinking in the same line... Still I just love to see the 'I-told-you-first' smile in my mirror.

After so much useless build-up let's come to the point. We are talking about 'Ewing Theory' here. Now what on earth is that? Distant cousin of Swing Theory, being practised by Ashish Nehra? Again wrong. Ewing Theory is the a well known theory in sports-world (mainly in US) made famous by noted sports journalist Bill Simmons. According to Wikipedia,

Ewing Theory, the brainchild of reader Dave Cirilli and named after Patrick Ewing of the New York Knicks. Ewing's Knicks seemed to play better when he was hurt or in foul trouble. In 1998-99, the Knicks made the NBA Finals after Ewing sustained an Achilles' tendon injury.

Bill describes his theory here in detail, though the examples are from Major League and NBA and all those Yankee sports, so it become kinda boring people like me who thinks World Series is Border-Gavaskar Trophy. For your benefit the main criterion to qualify for the theory is given here:

1. A star athlete receives an inordinate amount of media attention and fan interest, and yet his teams never win anything substantial with him.
2. That same athlete leaves his team (either by injury, trade, retirement or ban in our case) -- and both the media and fans immediately write off the team for the following season.

So does it qualify our scenario as an example of Ewing Theory? Well for one thing, Bhajji was the biggest star in Mumbai's playing eleven and there was a view that after the controversy it's only downhill for them, as shown in Buchannon's comment. I think so far it fits the frame. Let's see where it goes. No doubt it's a very interesting theory. The funny thing is I am sure there are plenty of examples of Ewing Theory in cricket, but I can't remember any at this moment. Do post a comment if you can remember any...

All in all things have spiced up quite well. IPL is almost halfway through, still not possible to choose four semi-finalists convincingly. You can have your predictions just like everybody else. I will only say Picture abhi bhi baki hai mere dost... :)

God Bless Mano-Ranjan and Their Family!!!

It is the baap, dada and pardada of all manoranjan and boy, it rocks... Yes, I'm talking about the IPL (check the ad here). With all the whoopla and hype and stars from bollywood and international cricket coming together it was meant to be. Still I had some niggling doubt. Will the players give their 110% as they give when they play for the country? Will the fans be that much passionate when their city plays against another? We know when Arsenal play United or Barca plays Real, the players give their best, and fans don't take it any less than a war, a prestige-war, but a war nonetheless...

Came and went April 18th and all my doubts have been put to rest. I'll start with the opening match. Bangalore plays Kolkata and being a bong in Bangalore, it was a lifetime opportunity. So me and my friends all geared up and reached the stadium at 6 P.M. dot. And it's already full!! So we pushed and shoved and squeezed ourselves into the steps. Not a bad view, but we couldn't see the screen from there. What to do… (Note to self: Next time you go to see a cricket match reach at least 2 hour early). 

Anyway the opening ceremony started. I won't bore you with the details. In one word, it was just great. The dancers, performers, acrobats, music and last but not the least the fireworks... It was simply awesome. 

So the firework ends, the game starts and it is fireworks again! This time it's on the pitch, fired by Brendon McCullum!! If you don't believe, ask Rahul Dravid and Co., if they weren't seeing stars... All in all I was enjoying it tremendously. After all I was routing for Kolkata, and McCullum just went on and on and on, like a one-man-army. He is special, no doubt about it. 158* in 73 balls is a rare innings even in T20 standards. I think he'll play some 4-5 matches in IPL and then he has to join his national team. Sigh...

Anyway, Kolkata innings was superb (at least for me), and it was time for the Challengers. In came Rahul Dravid and Wassim Jaffer. Well, you just can't chase 223 in 120 balls with this opening pair. And they didn't. Dravid in a very un-dravidian style tried to slog a inswing, almost-yorker-length delivery from Ishant Sharma in the 2nd over and as a result saw his leg stump flying. It all went downhill from that moment. Although I was happy with a Riders' win, I came to watch a cricket match, not a one sided (actually one manned) thrashing. It was almost pathetic and the crowd soon lost interest when the wickets started falling. More attention was paid to the cheer leaders (Vijay Mallya sure knows how to choose his babes). Even they got bored very soon as no boundary was coming. Heck, the batsmen couldn't even connect and when they did, it was nick to the slips. That too, in bowling of Agarkar, the worst purchase of SRK I must say (hopefully he won't be in playing eleven when Umar Gul joins the team). Whatever, after 8 wickets down, my friends (all of them proud and disappointed Kannadigas) decided to leave to avoid the end-rush and I followed suit (I am completely dependent on them for transport).

All in all a spectacular opening act somewhat marred by absolutely-non-competitive game. Still it was great. We shouted, danced (from hip-hop to bhangra), sang, boo-ed (BCCI president, who else), chanted (Sachin's name when he came to sign that pledge or whatever), ogled (you-know-what), passed silly wisecracks and was home by 12-12:30. Not bad for a Friday evening I guess. 

Yes, IPL is here to stay. Three cheers for IPL…

Latest results: On Saturday, Chennai Super Kings defeated everyone-and-his-uncle's favorite Kings XI Punjab, thanks to Mr. Cricket. On Sunday, Riders won a thrilling low-scoring game on a very un-T20 pitch against another favorite Deccan Chargers, this time thanks to Mr. Cricket's younger bro. And, to the relief of all my friends and neighbor, Challengers won against Mumbai, in another thrilling but not-low-scoring (166 is not that high scoring in T20 standards), this time thanks to Kallis and Boucher. Surely inclusion of Chanderpaul has helped a lot (but I still think Dravid is not the right person to open the innings). Today it is the minnow Rajasthan Royals winning against Punjab. Tough luck Ms. Zinta, looks like having Yuvi and Lee is not enough. Anyway, the tournament has just started and it will definitely get better as it progresses with more and more unexpected results. And that is T20 all about. Bring it on…