mar 23rd, 2007
so i was wrong. very strange. they did not fix the india-sri lanka match. the poor west indians are going to lose a packet, as nobody will show up (after all, it's 80% indian money).
but i was very right about sachin "jawaharlal" tendulkar and his zero. the guy who always rises to the occasion and delivers the big zeros when they are needed the most. if he has a shred of decency, the man should not prolong the agony, but should announce his retirement like that big pakistani guy did.
the gentleman's game, says the atlanticist. fiddlesticks, say i. inane, boring, about as exciting as watching paint dry. and a succubus destroying all other sports in india.
remember the jethro tull song: 'where was biggles, where were all the sportsmen, when we needed them most'?
cricket is just another piece of cultural trash from england, whose main contribution to world civilization is football hooliganism.
no wonder the atlanticist is bawling away about the woolmer murder.
http://www.economist.com/daily/news/displaystory.cfm?story_id=8908918&fsrc=nwl
but i did like the last sentence. what, the atlanticists are souring on their favorite creation, pakistan?
quote:
The rest of the cricketing world is meanwhile mostly keeping silent, while minded that in cricket, as in so many other areas, Pakistan is the source of an unseasonable amount of trouble.
unquote
i guess it hurts when some white guy is murdered by pakistanis.
9 comments:
"the poor west indians are going to lose a packet, as nobody will show up (after all, it's 80% indian money).
"
dear MBA Rajiv Sreenivasan,
Do you that that MBA are also called master of bluff affairs. Before you shoot off from your mouth, check the last two ashes series between Eng and Aus. One in 2005 and one in 2006-7. They were very well attended with more than half of the days sold-out. And all
this is for test matches.
As I said, pls restrict yourself to topics you know well.
you are one rocket scientist, aren't you, tambi dude?
you show up on this blog and proceed to do the following:
1. claim that tamil nadu's industrial progress is *because* of reservations. that's an absurd claim unsupported by facts.
2. then you assert that "we" don't read this blog for my views on cricket. how do you know that? who is "we"? did you ask a majority of the people who read this blog? or is it the royal "we"?
3. you indulge in personal attacks (more than once) on the moderator of this blog. real smart move, considering i could trivially delete all your posts (and have done so to other posters before). it is generally not a good policy to annoy moderators anywhere
you lack common sense, in addition to having no credibility. if you are in a forum for a while, people will give you credit and tolerate you to an extent, but a newbie like you is viewed with derision unless you produce stellar posts. alas, you do not. you come across like a, well, clueless newbie. judging by your demeanor and posts so far, you are ill-informed and illogical as well.
as for my views on cricket, i give it about as much attention as it deserves, ie. about 5 minutes a day. this makes me quite knowledgeable about it, because it is a trivial, brainless entertainment. any more time spent on it is wasted. also, my point about 80% of the money coming from india is supported by the nytimes and shashi tharoor at http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/23/opinion/23tharoor.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1
also, i am not going to waste any more time on you, so don't bother to reply.
ouch. That bluff affairs seem to have touch some raw nerve somewhere. :-)
My remark about reservation and TN was a sarcastic one. I guess they didn't teach sarcasm in IITM and Stanford. Sure there is nothing to
prove that TN's progress is due to reservation. Neither TN has proved that having high reservation is not good for the state. Go and re-read that thread. The poster wrote "why don't have 80% reservation like we have in TN", as if TN is one of BIMARU or Kerala.
I really like reading your views on China, India's foreign policy,
islam, asshole Nehru etc. You really come across as balanced and well informed there. But sometimes you also come across as highly opinionated person who shoots off from the mouth without any basis. Your postings about cricket is one and it gave me immense pleasure to prove you wrong. Have some grace and admit it.
Your insulting remark about salwar kameez was another worthless opinion passed off as profound wisdom. when I showed it to a north indian friend of mine, he asked from where you are. I told you are mallu. He told me something very nasty about the looks of mallu women. Do you want me to post that?
When you are running a blog site, you have to think twice before posting. It is not your personal opinion told in a bar after a drink or two.
cheers.
Rajeev,
I have been reading your columns for the past 10 years and have recently found that your arguments in recent columns are getting to be too jaundiced. Either my worldly view has changed in the last few years or yours have become too myopic. Your arguments against cricket that it is an English sport for instantce just doesn't make sense - so what if it is? Do you not wear pants because that is not an Indian creation but something we imported from the English? Your sweeping statements against people from TN, Salwar Kameez, etc. are certainly not very balanced. I suppose that is why you don't publish them on Rediff and post it only on your blog. But the problem is that once I read your biassed opinions here, your balanced arguments are not as enjoyable as they used to be.
You seem to like American Football a lot, pray tell my why it is so superior to cricket? And if you only spend five minutes on reading about the game how come you talk about it as though you are the authority on it? So when you belittle Tendulkar as your favorite term of derision (Jawaharlal), on what basis is that? Are you quickly forgetting the fact that it was on Tendulkar's back that India rode to the SF and F in both 1996 and 2003? To say that Tendulkar has fallen from the high pedestal he has set himself in recent times is acceptable but to say that he has never delivered is something only people not educated about the game or high on emotions would make and I suppose you qualify on both fronts. Before you brand me as anything, let me tell you that I am a Tamilian, ardent cricket player, a fan of SRT, RD, SG and any good cricketer out there in addition to good players of other sport.
BTW, my first statement was not only about cricket, it is about your general columns.
Prabu
quickly, prabu:
1. as people age, they get to be more crabby. surely this is a factor.
2. why is american football better than cricket? it doesn't take 5 days and there is some serious action. also, there is always fresh blood and the geezers are put to pasture and with the NFL rules for the draft, every team will eventually have its day -- rather even-handed and fair.
3. what's with the salwar kameez? it is my honest opinion that it is extremely ugly and that every southern woman who wears it looks horrible. women usually go to such lengths to look good i am amazed they voluntarily wear this... shroud. in many years of woman watching, i have seen exactly 3 women looking good in that. 1. a woman in san francisco who is stunningly beautiful and shapely, and looks good in anything at all, 2. a woman i once saw at a wedding, 3. a woman i once saw (a northie) at chennai central station in an abbreviated, tailored one.
i can buy the argument that the thing is more convenient than a sari. but then why not wear something even more convenient, namely jeans/trousers and a nice top? that also has the bonus of being attractive, modern and yes, western! no, the 'churidar' has become fashionable.
4. i didnt make any broad statements about tamils. i only made broad statements about 'dravidians' whom i consider rogues. they only form a very small minority of tamils, but have disproportionate influence. i like tamils. my sister is married to one. i used to have a gorgeous tamil girlfriend for years. she looked like one of those chola bronzes.
5. cricket is, in my opinion (which i am surely entitled to) a trivial pursuit. all the hoopla about it is like the wine hoopla: much ado about nothing.
6. as for aged cricketers who may have once upon a time been good, that's all in the past. time for them to walk off into the sunset instead of hanging on to lucrative advertising contracts like leeches. you fans should demand performance american style: ask the question "what have you done *lately*?" if the guy hasn't done anything lately, kick him out to pasture. all these fellows have made enough money to live happily ever after.
1. as people age, they get to be more crabby. surely this is a factor.
True for both of us
2. why is american football better than cricket? it doesn't take 5 days and there is some serious action. also, there is always fresh blood and the geezers are put to pasture and with the NFL rules for the draft, every team will eventually have its day -- rather even-handed and fair.
Your comments were about ODI which is not five days. And who said every team doesn't have it's day in cricket? Are you not aware of the beauty of the 2001 India-OZ series; Are you not aware of the games in which Bangladesh beat India, Australia, SL? Or the games when Kenya beat WI, Ireland beat Pakistan. Just say you don't like cricket but to belittle the game and others' who like it doesn't make sense. I hate watching American Football but don't mind playing it but that doesn't mean I should belittle the millions who watch the game. I'm sorry but your views on cricket just are not balanced, especially when you call it an English creation and hence we should drop it. Again, you never answered me as to why you wear pants despite it being something we imported from the British. Why not wear Veshti?
3. what's with the salwar kameez? it is my honest opinion that it is extremely ugly and that every southern woman who wears it looks horrible. women usually go to such lengths to look good i am amazed they voluntarily wear this... shroud. in many years of woman watching, i have seen exactly 3 women looking good in that. 1. a woman in san francisco who is stunningly beautiful and shapely, and looks good in anything at all, 2. a woman i once saw at a wedding, 3. a woman i once saw (a northie) at chennai central station in an abbreviated, tailored one.
i can buy the argument that the thing is more convenient than a sari. but then why not wear something even more convenient, namely jeans/trousers and a nice top? that also has the bonus of being attractive, modern and yes, western! no, the 'churidar' has become fashionable.
I do not know if you meant Salwar Kameez only when you talked about it or clubbed everything like Chudidhar, etc. but personally a tight-fitting Chudidhar is as sexy as Saris. But who am I to change your opinion on it? Salwar's are good to hide extra flab on women and show them look a little better - Saris, Jeans + Tee or anything else is not aas effective as Salwar when it comes to that. Also, if women find it comfortable why complain? I find that a loin cloth is simple, cheap, easy and convenient for many things, but that doesn't mean I am switching to it for I prefer wearing an undy.
4. i didnt make any broad statements about tamils. i only made broad statements about 'dravidians' whom i consider rogues. they only form a very small minority of tamils, but have disproportionate influence. i like tamils. my sister is married to one. i used to have a gorgeous tamil girlfriend for years. she looked like one of those chola bronzes.
OK
5. cricket is, in my opinion (which i am surely entitled to) a trivial pursuit. all the hoopla about it is like the wine hoopla: much ado about nothing.
Isn't that true about every sport out there? What is the great pursuit of American Football or Badminton or even Golf? At least cricket teaches (at a young age) to be honest when you play the game. Even today the game at least has the "spirit of the game" listed in its rules. Not many sports urge people to play the game in the right spirit.
6. as for aged cricketers who may have once upon a time been good, that's all in the past. time for them to walk off into the sunset instead of hanging on to lucrative advertising contracts like leeches. you fans should demand performance american style: ask the question "what have you done *lately*?" if the guy hasn't done anything lately, kick him out to pasture. all these fellows have made enough money to live happily ever after.
My grouse with you on Tendulkar is that you have baited him even when he was at his prime. And why the condescending tone when it comes to him? He certainly has provided millions of us with hope and joy through the 90s and even recently was the MVP of a series. Why single him out for the team's failures? To begrudge the money he makes is silly - a Dhoni who has only been there for 2 years without doing anything is making tons of money too! How come your theory of supply and demand doesn't apply to Tendulkar? You seem to be advocating that India uses its "power" wherever possible but somehow if a certain SRT uses the same you say he doesn't deserve it.
@Tambi Dude,
A Pretty pathetic attempt at making fun of Rajeev yet again.. Dont forget this is his blog and he has every right to air his views on whatever he feels like (that includes cricket and Tendulkar)...If you dont like him or his blog.. y do u visit this blog...
Even in the earlier thread abt reservation in TN...you were many a time downright rude and abusive without understanding the context of the discussion or the contributor..
Guess what.. Rajeev may not be the perfect guy out there but he is one of the most popular bloggers and he has a fairly democratic system and has given even ppl like u a place to vent u r spleen.. So y dont u be grateful and contribute something substantial to the discussions instead of whining and abusing..If u cant please dont bother us with u r comments..
if u want to feel happy poking fun at Rajeev (as u said).. there is another blog run by a fellow whiner like u iamfordemocracy.. u can write u r hearts content there about things u dont like with Rajeev.. guess wat u might even find fellow supporters!!!
U know sometimes.. u can eat crow even without u realising it..(to use u r favorite crow analogy!!!)
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