Knockout of 2000 or Champion of 2025

 March 2025 - Boston Massachusetts USA

On March 4th 2025, India comfortably beat Australia  and marched on to the finals of the 2025 ICC Champions Trophy. On March 5th, NZ beat South Africa and set up a final clash with India, to be played at Dubai International Stadium on March 9th. 

I was rooting for South Africa to win, who have been an underrated team, and it was time for them to knock of the "Chokers" tag. Alas, that will remain with them for sometime I guess. 

As I saw the footer flash on the TV channel "India v New Zealand - Final Champions Trophy 2025", memories of 2000 ICC Knock out Trophy rushed in my mind. 

*The ICC Champions Trophy was earlier known as ICC Knock Out Trophy in the 2000 Inaugural edition*

Cut to 2000

October 2000 - Chougale Building Jamkhandi (Belgaum Karnataka India)

Class XII board exams were just 6 months away and my mind was engulfed in Electromagnetic's, Static Charges, Chemical Equations, Differentiation and Integration. Well, it was not voluntary but the pressure to meet parents expectations (Emotional Blackmail) was just enough to focus! :D

I had very little access to TV, let alone watching cricket! I followed the tournament through news papers and hearsay from friends. Nevertheless, it was a moment to cherish as India progressed through the tournament with the then never seen spectacular performance. 

Indian Cricket team had some new faces. After the notorious match fixing scandal the new team was headed by the then young and dynamic Sourav Ganguly. Most of the seniors like Manoj Prabhakar, Nayan Mongia were booted out and young guns like Yuvraj Singh, Zaheer Khan were included in the playing XI.

With some exciting overall performance from veterans like Sachin Tendulkar, Anil Kumble, Venkatesh Prasad and from not so new but well established players like Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid the team had comfortably come out of the shackles of the match fixing episode. To see the team in the final was like a dream come true especially after the 1999 World Cup Campaign debacle. 

I used to see my landlord glued to TV watching these matches as I walked in and out of my room. I was tempted to stand by the wall and take a glimpse but I couldn't muster the courage to match to grumpy old landlord's look. 

I didn't get a chance to watch the final match but through hearsay I got to know that India had set up a challenging total of 265 runs. To chase 265 runs in those days was a monumental task. It was so tempting for the next 3 hours that my mind didn't have the strength to think anything but the proceedings and anxiousness of the result. 

Seeing my desperateness, my 7th grade neighbor, Rohit,  in the same building started reporting scores every 15 mins. As the NZ wickets tumbled, the excitement to win the trophy was at its Zenith. It was the last over and I was confident (or over confident?) that this is a cakewalk and we have the trophy and was all ready to celebrate. But then the boy came and said "We Lost!!". I was "What?!.. Are you serious?. How is that even possible?". He said "Chris Cairns hit big in the last over and NZ made it with just 2 balls remaining".

I couldn't believe him and let the day pass by thinking that India indeed won and I would see the result in the news paper next day. 

Not sure it was my naivety or stupidity but I rushed to local library early in the morning to check the news paper and was disheartened  to read "India fumble in the last Over; NZ win their maiden ICC championship  ever".

March 2025 - Boston Massachusetts USA

25 years later.. Is it time to reverse 2000 memories, which I still don't believe that NZ won that year, or is it to reaffirm that NZ is better than India in ICC Tournament finals?!

Well, as my friends and I in Boston excitedly plan to watch it together, I will get to know tomorrow if the nightmares of 2000 are indeed washed away. 

To be continued .....

OMG...PK!

PK.... Not a day has passed without seeing any news article related to this word for the last one fortnight now. The buzz generated by this word is so humongous that I wouldn't be surprised if this becomes of sort of daily usage.

What next ??

Just as I was thinking about what topic should my next post be, the idea of posting my incomplete posts flashed across my mind. I have 2 incomplete posts which I had begun writing a year ago and remain incomplete till date.
My next post will be on two very different topics - Cricket and Politics.

VJ

Not anymore....

It's been more than a year since my last post in this blog. I just can't imagine that a year has gone by so quickly. Well, obviously one doesn't have time to think about time when so many activities take place in a year's time which make you feel that everything is done within a wink of an eye.
Well to begin with, secured a job and had to relocate to Massachussets. New job, new people, new area - I was excited!
Just as I was getting accustomed to daily routine of professional life, I was hospitalized after I was diagnosed with small kidney stones. Though I recovered quickly, suggestions, cautions from colleagues and more cautions from parents and dear ones made me always think twice when ever I ate or drank anything.
I recovered and as I was about to start blogging/writing (which is my passion), it was time for wedding bells!!!!!!. Yes, I got married to my childhood sweetheart. Marriage celebration was fun. Got to meet many school friends and long lost relative and family friends.
Well, marriage takes a lot of time of every man but it is always for the better. And now I am almost outdoor during weekends and visiting places which I actually reserved for this time of my life.
But I can't wait anymore.. I am dying to get back to blogging. Though my blog doesn't boast of any major no. of posts nor it contains any interesting posts for that matter, but still I would like to make it a point to continue and post chain of articles with all links in tact which make reading interesting.
I will wait not anymore....I will continue to write to quench my thirst.

VJ

IPL 2009 Campaign

This year's campaign began with a lot of confusion, whether the event will be staged in India or abroad. Though this year's event will be remembered by all cricket fans for the unexpected end results, but many would be disappointed for they couldn't witness the matches on Indian soil.
Nevertheless, I feel this was an opportunity to take brand India global in terms of sports and kudos to BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India) and Lalit modi (IPL Chairman) for leaving no stone unturned to make this event a memorable one and successful too.
The end result of Deccan Chargers(Hyderabad) and Royal Challengers Bangalore in the winners and runners-up spot respectively was very surprising and enthralling too. None imagined that previous year's bottom teams in the points table would end up as this year's top two teams.
This result brings to me the statement once made by Harsha Bhogle wherein he says "Anything is possible in cricket and one can expect the unexpected". This statement is very apt to IPL 2009 campaign.
The credit for the incredible performance of these teams goes to their respective captains who have toiled hard to bring their teams out of quagmire. Just imagine, what Kumble could have gone through to restructure and breathe a new lease of life into Bangalore team which was branded as a TEST TEAM.
I wish and expect the unexpected to happen in the next year's event too and hope to see more such surprising results in the future IPL tournaments.

VJ

All the Best !!!

This compliment is exclusively for Akshat Agarwal, peer and a friend of mine for over 2 years.
The stint at Syracuse University has come to an end and the first among our Engineering Management (EM) coterie to say good bye is Agarwal (This is how he is addressed by many). These 2 years have been very memorable and will remain ingrained in our minds forever. The memorable events which have surfaced over these 2 years are endless and I restrict myself to just bid adieu to Agarwal and not list them.
Agarwal is leaving back to India for good. He has an onerous (I guess this is the right word, isn't it Agarwal? :D )task of looking after his family business and has stuck to his words of returning back which he has been saying from the day one.
Dear Agarwal,
All the best for all your future endeavours and may God bless you with all the strength to execute the responsibilites bestowed upon you.
Keep in regular touch and lets strive to keep our friendship afloat for ever and ever! :)
Take Care.

Yours
EM Gang (This is how we refer ourselves ) :)

VJ

RGV ki tryst with Indian National Anthem

To all those, who are not familiar with the acronym RGV, then here it is.. RGV stands for Ram Gopal Varma, one of the finest film makers in India.
If many are not aware of the recent developments in Bollywood( Indian version of Hollywood), then the title of this post sounds bit weird.
I have a penchant for keeping track of cricket, India and world politics and Indian films.
I hardly miss watching any trailer of a new film. RGV's new film which is tentatively titled as "RANN" is one of the most anticipated films of the year. I was quite surprised to see the trailer released amidst the on going tussle between the producer's and multiplex owners.
Just after few seconds of the trailer, I realized that this is going to create a controversy and this issue will certainly not go well with the Indian audience.
It happened exactly the same and was immediately banned by CBFC (Central Board of Film Certification).
RGV, as told to the media says that he wanted to showcase it to the audience about the disparity happening based on the caste, religion, region and language in the contemporary India.
At the same time, he also says that it was just a marketing tactic and attract the audience's attention. He is not firm as to what he wants to make a point. The above two statements are quite contradicting.
Well, there were many films in the past which have portrayed the conflicts and disparity among the contemporary Indians through their own lyrics and not tinkering and interspersing words in the National Anthem. Ex: Bombay , RDB (Rang De Basanti) and many more....
RGV, if at all he wanted to showcase his ideas, he should have done it without playing around with the National Anthem. There are 101 ways to attract public attention and National Anthem is not the thing which one has to resort to.
This act of RGV clearly points to the second statement of the above two i.e marketing tactic.
The issue is now with supreme court and I am very sure that the apex court will come out with a judgement which will protect our national values.
The link to the trailer of RANN is here...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jYlb_orVnc

VJ