Stuff Over Here

If my last month's schedule was busy like Obama's, this month's is more like that of the president of Switzerland. Do they even have a president? Who knows, for all we know they may just be, you know, nobody making any trouble and generating news as interesting as drying paint. You know what I mean right? In case you don't; I'm having a quiet and quite sedated couple of weeks now. Not much work, already long weekend extended to 4 days by taking Friday off and all. Things are cool, so to speak, though not literally as it looks like this summer is going to be as hot as the last which was the hottest summer ever recorded in Japan. But then again, I'd take a hot as an oven summer day any day over shitty, gloomy and cold days of winter.

During the weekend I along with my teammates went to play our second game of cricket of the season. It was about an hour's drive away from Tokyo, actually it is in the now famous Ibaraki prefecture, a place nobody outside Japan would ever know if not for that earthquake. As is the custom with Sri Lankans we yet again got late about an hour but the opposition being Indians did help; we were quite early in their eyes. So after our good old skipper - actually he's quite younger than me - winning the toss and electing to bat (pretty much the default decision I must say) I went out there to open the batting, though of course not alone. However, as it is the custom with our team we were yet again in trouble with 4 down for 13 only few overs into the innings. Crisis alright. However I dug in with our next guy JT and started building a partnership mainly taking singles and twos. Unfortunately it was probably the hottest day of this summer so far, and I quickly realized how unlucky I was not to get out. To hell with ones and twos; running is a bitch when it drains you out like that. Anyway yours truly did not do a Mahanama but got the score up to 73 with good support from JT. But then a vicious in swinger - at about 12 noon on a hot-like-hell day - did me in and I was gone for a quick 39 off 35. Sad I couldn't stay longer but the others who batted after me too dug in, with a 60 n.o. from JT and an unprecedented double figure from Solomon, our usual last man, to get the score up to 201/9 after allocated 35 overs. Very good score but that was as good as it was going to get for us that day. Our fielding display that followed could give serious competition to eleven drunkards fielding on one leg with one hand tied to their backs. I don't think I need say more.

Secondly, I CAN'T wait for the Tri-Nations to start. Only months away from the Rugby World Cup 2011 in New Zealand, this is the last chance for three of the biggest competitors to get a measure of their strengths and fine tune the last bits of their machinery, so to speak. Wallabies already suffered a stunning defeat at the hands of Samoa last week which is NOT what they would have wanted going into the Tri-Nations to face the mighty Blacks. Bocks may not be the number one side in the world, but you never know what they can do. And All Blacks probably has one of their greatest teams in history with a set of backs as awesome as they come. Usually Tri-Nations offer much more competitive rugby than the RWC so the coming two months will be, well, I'll have something to look forward to. Go the Blacks!

Finally, though I have rugby to look forward to there's only one game per week. And I'm in a serious slump when it comes to watching TV series as all the regulars won't start till this fall. So can somebody please suggest a couple of good ones? And no I DO NOT want to watch The Big Bang Theory or Two And a Half Men. Why is it that EVERYONE suggest those two when you ask for a TV series? Beats me.

Fancy Cars. Meh

For as long as I can remember I've never really been a big fan of cars. RD will tell you that most men aren't like that, I agree as well, but then again I'm not most men. Though the title says 'meh' I don't really mean cars are such. Most of them are indeed pretty neat machines and offer you much more than their initially intended purpose of getting from A to B, A and B being two geographical locations not two girlfriends, though that is also quite possible if your car is impressive enough. They offer you one million or so options and services and some more, looks great and are fast. But it's just that they never really appealed to me much.

Of course if I were filthy rich I would not have minded having a few cars for no particular reason other than I am filthy rich, but I am not. And so, I don't really see the point of spending shitload on something that can go from 0 to 100 in 3 seconds because, well, what am I supposed to do once it goes to 100? In Sri Lanka you don't have roads where you can go at 100mph and in Japan you will get the ticket delivered to home if you go at 100mph. I'm not saying I don't want a car - in fact I do - but that's because I want to get from A to B comfortably and quickly. That's all I expect from a car, nothing more nothing less. I'm not laughing at the people who really do love their cars, the people who really do want to buy the hottest stuff around. I do understand that they really love those - I remember once reading somewhere that some big percentage of Americans loved their first car more than their first girlfriend - and that it's their passion. Just not my thing.

Goodbye Sanath

Let us stop ridiculing the man for a moment. Much has been said about his return to the team, rightly so even, but what's done is done so let us move on and appreciate a man who changed not only Sri Lankan cricket, but world cricket as well, a feat that only a handful in the history of the game can claim rights to.

In fact, I'm just going to talk about just one innings which I think is the best of the lot. He has played so many breathtaking knocks it's so hard to pick one as the best, but this in my opinion beats them all. I am not talking about his devastating 189 in Sharjah, nor his fastest 100 versus Pakistan and it's not even his 125 in the Asia Cup Final 2008 which I thought is one of the greatest ODI knocks played in recent times. The best innings by Sanath, for me, is not even a century; it is his breathtaking 79 against India in the 1996 WC preliminary round game.

That was the innings that defined him. That was the innings that made bowlers the world over excrete bricks just at the thought of bowling to him. That was the innings that changed the world cricket for good. For every six they hit, for every match they win the likes of Gilchrist, Sehwag, Gayle, McCullum and Pollard owe it to Sanath for without him neither would they have emerged, and in turn Sanath would not have been who he was if not for that innings. That was the innings that started it all.

Until then, he had some big hitting knocks - even when opening the batting - under his belt. He was known for his big hits, but there he just took it to a new level. Back in the day when there was only 15 overs of powerplay and much better pitches for bowlers, a 250 was a competitive score and 271 - which India made - was pretty much a winning score. Especially considering the fact that India, on paper at least, were much better a team and Sri Lanka were - a lot of youngsters these days don't get this - ranked minnows back then. When we look back we think what an awesome lineup we had, but the truth of the matter was that lineup became awesome because they won the World Cup; before that they were just another minnow, and inconvenience the other teams had to get through to advance.

So when he walked into the middle with Kalu, after Sachin's brilliant 100 albeit two decisions going in favor of him, Sri Lanka were not expected to win. And they certainly weren't expected to be on 42/0 after just 3 overs. It's taken for granted these days, but back then that kind of a score line was unheard of. That instilled so much fear into Azharuddin and his boys' mind it went a long way in us winning the World Cup. That innings alone created so much buzz suddenly Sri Lanka were a team to be feared of and our chasing had achieved some legendary status, almost mythical. So much so that when the two teams met in the semi-final later, Azharuddin decided to bowl first on a pitch that had so much evidence that it would crumble later on; a decision had a lot if not everything to do with that knock of Sanath. The moment Azar decided to play for Sri Lanka's (supposed) weakness than to play for India's strength, they had lost. Aravinda played one of the greatest ODI knocks of all time in that game, yet it was Sanath who had defeated the Indians even before a single ball was bowled. Such was the impact that one innings had on us winning the World Cup.

Thank you Sanath, thank you for all the memories.

Originally published here.

Blind Dude and Me

Today, there I was inside a train station, on my way to work. There's nothing unusual about it you might say and of course there isn't. There was an escalator, an ascending one at that but still there's nothing unusual about it of course. However when I was about to step onto it came a dude out of nowhere, and seeing his white walking stick I realized he's a blind person so waited a moment to let him pass wondering at the same time how the hell is he going to step onto the escalator without stumbling.

Then the dude stepped on to it as effortlessly as Justin Bieber would pass for a woman. It was perfection personified; the blind dude's movement, not Bieber's feminine qualities though one can argue that they also are near perfect. I was so surprised that I almost stumbled stepping onto the thing following him.

Thank god he didn't offer me any help; probably he realized the irony of it all.

Keeping my Word(s)

Days fly by quite fast these days, weekends even more so. There I was on last Friday getting drunk merrily with the thought of the weekend ahead, thinking how I would relax and before I know it here I am typing this out on a Monday night and wondering how the hell did the weekend go by that quickly. Maybe the world really does spin faster on weekends. If I were an astrophysicist I would do my thesis for the doctorate on that. However I am not one, and I am glad about it for two reasons; a) I have a feeling I might find it difficult to defend that thesis and b) astrophysicists is a ridiculously difficult word to pronounce. I would continually run into trouble whenever I introduce myself to hot chicks and they ask what I do.

However, as said in my last post, we finally did play our first match of the season and it was quite dramatic I must say. For starters it was the first match of the season and it was 2.00 in the morning when we finally located where our cricket gear was, since nobody really remembered who took them home after the last season. Plans were such that we would meet at a nearby place at 7 in the morning, then be at the ground by 8.30 and the match would start an hour later. So staying true to our nationality, we met at 8.30 or something, was at the ground around 11 a.m. and the match was started past midday. The opposition was an Indian team which means they were worse than us, so nobody was there to bitch about us being late.

So finally proceedings went ahead, the match was reduced to 30 overs a side, and our captain A won the toss (that bugger!) and elected to bat. So I opened the innings, and though I did not get my promised run-a-ball 100, I did top score with a 53 not out. It wasn't really a pretty innings, was too rusty, and also our good old Indian friends were nice enough to drop a couple of sitters I offered earlier on. Sweet. So finally we got to 140 with only one wicket to spare before our 30 overs finished, a below par score but considering we were 50 for 5 or something like that it was a reasonable score. Then we leaked 40 off first 3 overs, which is not really you'd want defending 140 but then we pulled them back with some tight bowling and continuous wickets. Finally it came down to 12 off 12 with their last pair in the middle and the bastard hit one in the air straight at me off the first ball of the penultimate over. That son of a bitch. It took ages to come at me, and I was contemplating whether I should take the catch fingers pointed upwards, downwards, or if I should just let it go returning the favor. I finally decided, just in time, that I should go with the third option. I'm generous like that. Oh and it went for a six too. Now only 6 off 11, and the Indian dude thought he too should return the favor which I returned and hit one in the air again, and our teammates were not as generous as me. So that ended the day with a satisfactory six run win to kick off the season.

On a slightly different note, reading one of the articles I wrote for The Score, some of my 'friends' suggested that I should walk the talk and play cricket without a helmet like I said in that article. They were even nice enough to pull out an old photo from my FB albums where I was playing a match with a helmet on. Such nice guys they are, aren't they? However, fear not for yours truly didn't chicken out but did play without a helmet and will do so for the remainder of the season as well. Have that $200 ready folks.

Status Update

Today is the end of two insanely busy weeks and what a friggin' relief it is. I literally had to work day in and day out for the last two weeks, including Saturday and Sunday, which is far from my idea of how weekend should be spent. Add 3 hours of daily travel to it which in fact is the worst part of it. I can work till late no problem, but I can't friggin' wake up so early everyday. But that's what I had to do, so the last two weeks was pretty much wake up at 7 in the morning, be at work at 9.30, work till about 10 or 11 - P.M. that is, not A.M. - and then be back home at midnight. And then the same routine again. And again. And then again. You get the drift right. Anyway I'm not complaining for a) I knew what I was in for when I came here and b) late night and weekend work means a fat pay check. As someone somewhere said, whoever said money can't buy you happiness simply didn't know where to shop. So yeah, I went ahead and ordered online a CASIO G-Shock watch; a present to myself for no particular reason. A note to everyone who doesn't know where to buy happiness; go to Amazon.com - you don't even have to spend a lot as things are quite cheap over there.

On other things, Sunday will be our third (I think so, I've lost count (losing count when you count up to 3 is sad, I know, but still)) attempt at starting the much awaited cricket season this year and I pray to the non-existent gods please don't spoil the party. I don't remember why but the first time we couldn't play as scheduled for some reason, then last week we couldn't play because of weather. Of course I wouldn't have played anyway since I was at work, so I didn't really miss much there, but I'm not going to miss it a third time too. Bashing a hapless Indian team is always fun so there's extra motivation as well. Wish me luck, as I have a feeling that I might need it since I'm planning on scoring a run-a-ball 100 and following it up with a five-fer, but of course that would be possible only if we bat first, and since I have not planned to take five wickets and follow it up with a hundred, run-a-ball or otherwise, it all depends on our newly appointed enthusiastic captain, let's call him A, winning the toss.

P.S.
Keep this quiet; I'm hoping against hope the bugger will lose the toss.

P.P.S.
There will be a company gathering sort of thing this evening, which means getting drunk to your heart's content, and god (no-existent again) I can do with a good ol' shot of whiskey right now. Off to getting drunk then. Later peeps!

Smartass Fail

Me : So where's the pervert?

S : I'm talking to one, and the other must be cooking.

Me : No no, I'm not cooking.

...

Oh shit.

Shit.

Shit.

Shit.

S : LOL, do I own you or what?