23 and counting....

Yes, Happy Birthday to me. Never thought I would be writing this to myself. Nothing wrong with a bit of self-indulgence. All of 23 and 3 white hair to show!! On a more serious note, birthdays seem to lose their edge the older one gets. Ofcourse its still a great excuse to get wasted (err, who needs one??). As a kid theres always a sense of achievement on birthdays. First its the 'teens'. Then the magical I-am-an-adult 'eighteen'. And then the now-I-am-an-adult-everywhere '21'. After that it just seems another number. The only milestone I can think of after that is 50!! Phew, thats a long long way away.

Amongst other things. Finally the tag of World Champions is attached to the Indian Cricket team. It gives a re-assurance that there will be life after Tendulkar, Ganguly, Dravid & Laxman. Despite winning the tournament, Twenty20 kind of leaves me hollow and unsatisfied at a level. Probably because of ones familiarity with 50 overs and Test cricket. The opening game between South Africa & West Indies had a lot of entertainment i.e. 4s and 6s, but it left me jarred and a bit numb. After a while they dont seem to matter anymore. And wickets seemed to me only as an aberration.

I think the key to T20 as a contest lies in the balance between bat and ball. For which I think there needs to be something in the pitch for the bowlers to exploit. Which was evident in India's matches when the pitch was not a flat track. Also the notion that T20 will hasten the use of bits and pieces players is also false. The failure of the likes of Jeremy Snape and Mascarenhas showed that at the top level in any format, you require a bit of class. The top run getters and wicket takers merely highlights the point.

I just hope that we dont get caught napping vs Australia because they have won World Cups over 9 years and we have won just one in a format which can be a bit of a lottery. Also it is precisely these kind of victories which allows the BCCI to behave like all is fine and dandy and paper over the cracks in our cricket system. Shame. Also the ceremony at the Wankhede Stadium was a joke. It was a more an apt election kick-off campaign for the likes of Pawar and RR Patil, who actually thought he was at an election rally from the way he spoke. Yes the English team met Blair after the Ashes in 2005 but it was the players who were wasted and shitfaced, not politicians!!

Cricket is in for some interesting times because of the successful emergence of T20. How the administrators try to manage the format and its growth will have a direct impact on both 50 overs and Test cricket. Rest assured its a problem the ICC rather than facing doomsday.

Jose Mourinho will be missed. Both for his on field antics and press conferences. Twas classic. The man was a genius and Chelsea will miss him for all their demands of fantasy football. I think somebody should gift Roman Abramovich a CD of Championship Manager or Football Manager for Christmas so he can indulge into running a football club all by himself. Given his demand for beautiful football and winning football, it should another London club he should be coveting. No its not Tottenham and it starts with an 'A' and guess what, they are top of the league.