A load of crap from an idle brainPersonal, Movies, Music, IT, India, Singapore, Politics, Fun

So, the main bidding for IPL-4 is complete.  New teams, new players and newer loyalties.  Again, dont think that i need to define my loyalties, which remain firmly with Deccan Chargers.  The loss of Symonds and Gilchrist is a bit upsetting, but then life moves on and i believe DC has a more balanced team this time.

Given below is the list of the players (info source: Cricinfo) picked up in the auction and the ones retained by the teams.  The first player in each team (according to my assumption) will captain the team.

The IPL-4 looks much more formidable this time with more players, more teams and no clear favourites.   Again happy to see no Pakistani players in the auction and glad to see them being kept out of the whole tournament.  Hope this courtesy is extended to all their artists too who are feeding off our film & music industry.

First the World Cup in February and then the 4th edition of IPL.  Ah, life’s gonna be busier again.

Previous posts on IPL here

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Saina Nehwal makes it 4 Super Series Wins for the year 2010 apart from the Commonwealth Games gold by beating China’s Wang Shixian in the Hong Kong Super Series finals.

India’s Saina Nehwal won the Hong Kong Open Super Series badminton tournament beating China’s Shixian Wang 2-1 in the women’s singles final here Sunday.

Second seeded Saina won 15-21 21-16 21-17 against third seeded Wang, an Asian Games gold medallist, in a match that lasted one hour and 11 minutes at the Queen Elizabeth Stadium.

For Saina the win was her fifth title of the year, which includes three Super Series and Commonwealth Games gold.

The Hong Kong Open was the fourth Super Series title for Saina, who won her first Super Series at the Indonesian Open last year and retained it this year.

Earlier on Saturday, overcoming mid-match blues, Saina Nehwal waltzed into the final of the Hong Kong Super Series with a 21-19, 17-21, 21-12 victory over Juliane Schenk of Germany in the keenly-contested semifinal at the Queen Elizabeth Stadium.

Above news courtesy:  TOI

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Finally got time to change the look of the blog.  Its been some time since i have been wanting to change the theme.  While going through Matt Mullenweg’s website, found this colourful theme on his blog.  Btw, who is Matt Mullenweg?  He is the founder / developer of WordPress; the open source blog publishing software that powers this and millions of blogs & websites the world over.

Matt, whose blog is  http://ma.tt (can you have a web address cooler than that?) founded the company Automattic which came out with products like Gravatar, Akismet (the spam catching software), WordPress etc.  Visit Matt’s website for more information about technology and to read about himself and his interests in photography.

Managed to find all the previous codes of the Marriage ticker, World Community Grid etc. Also feel that the Equity portfolio and Books Read widgets look much better on this theme than the previous ones.  Not only that, the comments section on all the other pages of this blog which mysteriously went missing in the previous themes have re-appeared with this theme

The 16th Asian Games are to begin today at Guangzhou in China.  Unlike all the mess associated with the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi in October, the Chinese got all the infrastructure ready (along with the stadiums) months in advance.  Now, that is what is called an awesome planning and execution.  Am sure the Chinese would put up an even better display than the mind blowing performance they put up during the Olympics in Beijing in 2008. The opening and closing ceremony would be something to watch out for.

The opening ceremony would be at 2000 hrs Singapore time (+8 hrs GMT).  Expecting the Indian team to repeat the performance of the Commonwealth Games would be simply too much.  Even though the Aussies, English and Canadian teams were around in the Commonwealth Games, the Chinese, Japanese and Koreans are different cup of tea.

China ended with 166 golds in the previous Asian Games at Doha.  They would be certainly gunning for 200 in front of their home crowd.  Also the Chinese are fielding the biggest contingent ever, a younger team which will be put to test before the 2012 London Olympics where they are poised to top the medals tally again.

Also India take on New Zealand at Hyderabad, India for the 2nd test match.  Wish i was back home, and i would have gone to the stadium to see Sachin, Laxman, Dravid etc play for probably the last time in Hyderabad.  The Uppal stadium is just a few kilometers from my home and would have been fun with friends and family.

Anyways, here is wishing the best to both the Indian cricket team and the Indian contingent at the Asian Games.  India won 10 golds, 17 silver and 26 bronze at the Doha games.  Here’s wishing they improve the performance by at least 50% this time.

Asian Games Official Website – http://www.gz2010.cn/en

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Blackburn have edged closer to opening up a new frontier in English football by becoming the first Premier League team to have Indian owners.

The club confirmed that talks with the Venky’s conglomerate over a £46million deal are close to conclusion and a takeover should be completed next month. The price includes £25m to buy the club from the family of the late Blackburn benefactor Jack Walker and a further £15m to clear debts.

Venky’s managing director Balaji Venkatesh Rao, whose father founded the company, said: ‘It’s very much confirmed and we will be announcing it formally in the next 10 days.

‘It’s a £46m deal. I wouldn’t say that is cheap or expensive but we will have to pump in some more money later on. The money is up front from our own sources. We are not here to compare with anybody but this is a first for India. It’s a prestigious moment for everybody and one we should cherish.’

Read the full article here

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The wait is over. The complaints built up (courtesy our incompetent media). A few players stayed away.  When the players actually landed, they were astonished at the amount of misinformation and lies told to them by their own media back home.  Which was partly or fully supplied to them by our own homegrown media.

Well, ignore the naysayers.  No matter what we say or do, the first thing the western media likes to portray when it comes to India is a cow standing in the middle of the road.  What they cant seem to understand is how inspite of being the so-called beacons of democracy themselves, the cows of India have so much rights on walking on the roads of India.

Let’s face it.  Poverty sells.  Else the movies of Satyajit Rays and Adoor Gopalakrishnan’s of India wouldn’t be patronised whole-heartedly by the western media / public when they are themselves consigned to the garbage by the Indian public (the world’s biggest patrons).  Of course its not easy for some of the snooty public / media in the western world to understand why and how the games could be awarded to a developing nation.  The same happened with the Australia and English cricket teams.  Today they see that their traditional source of power in cricket has been usurped by the BCCI.  Its not easy to accept the truth that you are not longer relevant in the grander scheme of things.   Wiser people accept the truth and mould themselves accordingly to the changing situation.  Fools are buried in the shifting sands of time screaming and kicking.

The collapsed rainbow bridge is up; courtesy the Indian Army which put it up in 5 days flat.  Eventhough, its a bailey bridge, it still does its job of standing up when people walk over it.   The stadiums are ready, the games village has been praised by officials and players from all across the world.  The food has been simply divine (according to the players), there are regular cultural programs and the players themselves are actively participating in them.

Lets admit it, the city of Delhi and its citizens are the biggest benificiaries of the games.  A new world class metro, many flyovers, bridges, roads, parks, traffic lights; in short great infrastructure for Delhiites.

Of course there will be detractors who will complain of child labour being used for the construction of venues (What else will the child do sitting around when their parents are working at the site?  They will also contribute and earn some money…so what’s wrong with it?). Shanties and slums being demolished (they were all illegaly occupying the government land and they were demolished.  Is that wrong?  Why don’t those bleeding heart liberals take each of the families affected by the demolition and give them shelter in their own homes?).

So ignore all the crappy complaints, rest and relax as the biggest ever carnival on the land of India begins tonight.  The opening ceremony of the 19th Commonwealth Games gets underway at 1900 hrs IST.  Watch it on TV or at the stadium (if you are lucky to get the tickets).  As for all the ones who complain of human rights abuses and corruption, go and take a hike.  The people of India care two hoots for your complaints.

By yesterday, 6700 players had confirmed their entries to the games making it the biggest Commonwealth Games ever (beating the 5766 athletes and officials who took part in Melbourne four years ago). 71 teams from 54 countries.  Millions of viewers across the world watching the games and a giant alien over the Jawaharlal Nehru stadium for the opening ceremony. 5000 years of civilization and the secular ethos of the country will be a part of the ceremony.  Enjoy.

Come out and Play.

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