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Tiger-Roger- Who is the greatest?

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It has been going on for quite a while now, the debate, Tiger or Roger, Roger or Tiger who is the greatest? Is it harder to win 14 Grand Slams in golf or 15 in tennis? Can they even be compared? I have struggled with these questions for some time now but never had any convincing arguments to push me in any direction. This past month though, I had a breakthrough, I found logic in an argument and am now convinced. And so while we are fresh of a memorable grand slam victory of my favorite sportsman in the world, here is my take. I have a sinking feeling I am going to get trashed for my views (or the fact that I even had the guts to compare these two legends). More often than not I would say that you probably can't compare achievements in two different sports. How do you compare golf to tennis? The games are so dramatically different. One has multiple surfaces, the other multiple clubs, one has 7 rounds in a grand slam, the other has 4. But here we are not comparing tennis to golf, we ...

Random Thoughts 5- The slapping MP one

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Random thoughts with no real focus, the slapping member of Parliament, Saina, ODI's, Indian Boxers, World Series of Poker.  Don't know how many of you caught the news of the member of parliament Manda Jagannadham slapping a bank manager . Check out the video here and you will die laughing. The best part is our dear MP's statement. He said, if it is proved that he manhandled the bank manager then he will apologize. Err....proved?? He claims he was trying to put his hand on the bank managers shoulder and by mistake he touched the manager's cheek. I wish you could see me right now because I am holding my stomach in pain with laughter, if you saw the video you would know why. What an excuse, this guy is a legend.  A few other notes. Saina - A little late write up from my end but how about Saina Nehwal winning the Indonesian Open. This girl is going from strength to strength. Yet, Sania Mirza gets more coverage when she reaches the second round of tournaments. Sorry but I...

Random Thoughts 4

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Friday's 5 random thoughts with no real focus. Indian football, Shiny Shiney, other Indian sports, rain, and other stuff. Enjoy Indian Football- Disgusted is not the word on reading the tirade by India's football coach Bob Houghton in today's TOI. Get this- the Indian football team is going to Dubai for training because there is not a single location in the country where they can train. Our facilities are so bad that we have to fly to another country. We are an embarrassment. I know there are far more important issues in the country like poverty, power, clean water, health care etc etc. but this is about sports and we are pathetic. Would keep rambling on but honestly, there is not much to say. MS Gill probably doesn't care and frankly after today's article in the paper, there probably wont be a follow up article till some other controversy comes up a few months later. No point in me getting high blood pressure over it. Other Indian Sports- While I know that no int...

India's Exit- Instant Reaction

The disgust at India's exit from the T20 is keeping me up blogging at 1:30 in the morning instead of getting a good nights sleep. We were terrible. Every time we lose a match people throw out questions. Here are 5 that cropped up in my mind. They are brief, confusing and frankly, don't have any answers from my end. Please help me answer them because I am struggling. Firstly, hats of to England. I think Naseer Hussein put it best when he said that England were tactically beating India. They studied our eternal weakness of the short ball and exploited it beyond belief. Now for the questions 1) Why drop Irfan Pathan and keep Ishant Sharma? In the match against the West Indies Irfan went for 4.5 runs per over in his two overs and took one wicket. Ishant on the other hand went at 10.33 in his 3 overs with no wickets. Plus this gives you an extra batsman. Ishant went for a nice 9 runs an over today against England. It just seems that Ishant has not come to terms with this form of...

Random Thoughts 3

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Another post filled with random thoughts with no real focus. Australia (Cricket not violence), Roger, Tiger, Lakers, Leander etc. Enjoy Saw about 200 status updates from friends on FB rejoicing in the early Aussie departure from the T20 cup. I love the Australian Cricket Team. I have loved them since the Alan Border's days and are my second favorite team, after India of course. They are aggressive, talented, play hard (I don't have issues with sledging) and are winners. Fine Fine, I will agree they have lost their invincibility for sometime now but they are still the team every other team wants to beat. Choosing between them and say an Ireland in the Super 8's, no question, I would want Australia. Even if you hate them you have to admit, the matches they would have been involved in make for more interesting entertainment than Ireland's matches. No disrespect to the Irish of course.  Anyway, let the comments attacking me for liking the Aussie Team begin. Oh and please d...

Dhoni- The Greatest Captain

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I always thought MS Dhoni was a good captain. He is ice cool, leads from the front by being pretty consistent with the bat, inspires his younger players, can be a risk taker and takes every win or loss within his stride. But after what he did in the press conference in England to display team unity, I think he might be the greatest captain India has ever had.  For those of you who have been unaware, there have been articles and rumors that there is a rift between Dhoni and Sehwag . To have a cold war between the captain and vice captain of a team right before the start of a major tournament is never good news. The press of course lapped this story up with joy. In fact the day the story was published I had 6 different conversations with cricket fans about the rift. The alleged cold war was slowly growing in to a full blown battle. That was before Dhoni stepped in. The press conference on Friday can only be described as a stroke of guts, grit and genius. Instead of having the usual p...

Random Thoughts 2

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Some stuff going on in the news. Saeed, T20, Federer, Xbox. Real random thoughts with no real focus... Lahore High Court lets Saeed Out . Can someone please explain to me why we are playing a warm up match with Pakistan today? Yes Yes I know it is not the players fault and all that nonsense. But we banned South Africa from cricket for 21 years for apartheid and 60 countries boycotted the 1980 Moscow Olympics because of the USSR's insurgence in to Afghanistan. The Olympics which is an event that comes every four year and a once in a lifetime chance for most athletes that participate was boycotted. Those countries took a stand. I think if we are taking a stand we should take a firm one. We should not even play them in the world cup if we have to. We should boycott the match in protest. If that effects our chances to win it then so be it. If we really want to get the message across we should take bold steps. That's just my view but I am sure you have plenty of opposing ones. Yuvra...