Madagascar - following in the footsteps of sequels

Frankly this movie was a huge disappointment but the whole trip to the movie was the best experience we had - a bit of contradiction.
First the movie - the story line is extremely weak and luckily they keep it short and sweet. Fun part is restricted to the "King", the monkeys and the penguins.

Only people like us who were taking their kids for their first movie (and subsequent movies) will enjoy the movie.

Rahul Dravid and other old men

Finally Rahul Dravid has scored a century, for this a lot of people especially ex-cricketers like Ravi Shastri will say things like how you cannot forget the 10,000+ runs etc. Sir – an Indian cricket team has place for 11 best people only, there is no obligation to carry baggage for so long. Especially in these days when cricketers make such a lot of money at the international level - tolerance for non-performance should be minimal.

Yes Dravid – I have to use this harsh term and it is you who has brought it on yourself.

The second innings brought back familiar memories of failure. It is high time Dravid retires or is then kicked out. Laxman and Tendulkar are next in line. But will their egos allow them to take the correct decision or then will the Indian team have to suffer their seniority

OLD MEN in cricket

The Indian Test Cricket Team is full of OLD Men and it is time for them to GIVE WAY. Unfortunately no one likes to give up even when they stutter and totter on their way to their crickting grave.

KUMBLE the Old man no 1, look at his performance over the past few series and you will see that performance does not count. Instead we are asked to rely on his supposedly "RECORD". Well the record is great but it is worn out and needs to be replaced. Kumble should set an example by putting in his papers immediately.

This will inspire Laxman, Tendulkar to follow.

Sourav Ganguly meanwhile is setting the stage for a political career by appealing to the Bengali sense of justice by saying he was discriminated against. But then if you look it the other way - he has heaped injustice against a Bengal player Saurabh Tiwari (and the India team as a whole) by staying too long.

In the end it is just not how good these people are but then how good will be Suresh Raina, Viraat kohli, Rohit Sharma, Saurabh Tiwari and amit Mishra in their places.

The Movie without a end

While I love movies which have some amount of suspense and especially loved the way it was built into a Movie we saw recently "Via Darjeeling".
But then what disturbed me the most was that the director did not give the movie a ending and in true NFDC style left it to our imagination. The movie is great and you will love it if you like the other ones from the Vinay Pathak / Rajat Kapoor factory but then it could have been better if there was a conclusion which was used to drive in some message.

Any way Rs 175 for the ticket and I am still wriggling my hand.

group stage runners up go ahead, while winners head home

The quarterfinals have been turned on its head. First Germany beat Portugal and then Turkey beat Croatia.
Portugal have been victims of their own success in the recent tournaments when they have always made the semis. Their overconfidence meant two stupid decisions on the part of their coach Scolari - resting the core of the team against the swiss which lead to a 2-0 loss and showed that if a few players were taken care of the Portuguese were vulnerable and Scolari's mid-tournament announcement that he would leave them.
But I will not discount the improvement shown by germany driven by Schweinsteiger. With their current form and pedigree, the title is not a dream.

Turkey and Croatia match was between 2 similar teams, which croatia lost and turkey showed phenomenal presence of mind in scoring another last minute goal.

So what next - Netherlands V/s Russia will see a close fight and Spain V/s Italy looks slightly loaded in favour of spain unless Luca toni is replaced by an accurate striker or then he discovers his touch

Euro 2008 Quarter Finals, last of the remaining group matches

QuarterFinal 1
Portugal V/s Germany
Portugal have lost their momentum with their second string losing against the Swiss. Germany on the other hand have no momentum at all after their first match and are lucky to be in the quarters.
While in normal circumstances I view a loss of momentum with great alarm, in this case I fancy that Portugal's chances against a totally lacklustre Germany. I don't think Germany's past reputation of getting the most of their limited abilities can save them this time.

QuarterFinal 2
Turkey v/s Crotia
While my money is on Croatia, I think the match will be too close too call.

Euro 2008, Semi Final line up Prediction Portugal, Italy (Germany), Czech and Netherlands

Euro 2008

Group A

I would consider Switzerland to be very unlucky! They were done in by the injury to Alexander Frei, which put him and effectively them out of the tournament. He was very impressive in the short time he was on the field and the foul against him should have landed the Czech player with a Yellow card atleast. But in that match the Swiss faced the impossible task of having to overcome bias from the Italian referee in addition to their limited abilities. But I think if it was not for the former they could have still given the Czech’s a shock. But with the last minute goal by Turkey, they are out of the tournament probably a little earlier than they should have been.

Portugal are clearly one of the best I have seen in the tournament and look dangerous with C Ronaldo in full flow and others like Deco, Carvalho and others doing well.

The Czech team lacks good goal scorers and appear quite mediocre, they will be lucky to make it to the second round and it will depend on their match with turkey. Both the team have been extremely lucky to win over the Swiss, but then have to fight it out amongst themselves to determine who is best amongst the not so good.

Group B

Germany look set to qualify, but it will be a toss between the Poles and the Croats. Germany have also been impressive and can be dangerous as they can win tournaments even when they are not impressive at all.

Group C

The group of death, I think Italy and Netherlands have a good chance of going through. France have been as dull as they were during their first round world cup exit in 2002. Romania retain the right to upset everyone’s calculations.

Group D

Spain and Sweden look to be good, Russia can be a threat to Sweden, but were completely undone by the Spanish forwards.

The Spanish forwards have looked impressive and they along with Portugal and The Netherlands are the most impressive at this stage.

Euro 2008 - Highlight of the week

What is arguably the greatest and most competitive inter-nation tournament in the football world starts on June 7, 2008.
For your schedule and other details visit the official site.
http://www.euro2008.uefa.com/

the matches are at 6 pm CET ie 9:30 IST and 8:45 CET ie 12:15 IST. So the interested ones can actually catch atleast one match per day.

Of course as the Q/F onwards is going to be at 12:15 IST, catching them will be a challenge. But then 2 of the 4 are on weekends and so is the final.

I will post my views in the coming days and want you to post your comments.

Gavaskar and Tendulkar and the Mumbai Indians

Over the years I listened and read as Gavaskar went on praising Tendulkar. He did not require any reason, just a mike in hand was enough. I was so sick of it that I had stopped paying attention to his ramblings.

But finally after 3 close defeats suffered by Mumbai Indians (which according to me was a result of a aging Tendulkar unable to come up to grips with his falling batting standards and non-existing captaincy aptitude.), Gavaskar finally without alluding to Tendulkar did criticize the failings of his captaincy.

A great man's greatness lies in knowing when to fade away from Limelight. Unfortunately even with his fitness failing Sachin Tendulkar does not seem to recognize this. Poor GUY may GOD grant the Nice Man strength to recognize that it is all over.

Tendulkar as a Captain - IPL match Mumbai V/s Punjab

I managed to see the last part of Mumbai Indian' second innings in its IPL match versus Punjab XI and followed the Punjab innings on cricinfo.
It managed to reinforce what has been my view for some time, Tendulkar is not a good captain (it is an understatement - he actually is a lousy Captain). While some may say, Mumbai lost the match only by a run, look at his mistakes which allowed the Punjab team to score atleast 30 more runs-

• The bowler selection today was horrible - two young spinners were selected, they each gave away 40+ runs
• Pollock did not complete his fourth over a poor decision considering his economy rate in the 3 overs he bowled was 4.66
• He did not bowl Jayasurya and kept Andre Nel on the bench
  

He panicked and went for a run which was not there and that was the end.

It is high time Tendulkar admits that he can never be a good captain and let Pollock captain the Indians.