ICC should ban any references to 1983 and the Indian Cricket Team in the run up to World Cup 2011

For the good of mankind and to restore public sanity by and large, may I launch a formal request to the International Cricket Council asking them to ban the following two things in the media?
1. Any reference to the 1983 world cup victory
2. References to the chances of India winning this edition of the world cup.

It is just too tiring to see every Tom, Dick and Harry (not to mention the Bhajjis, Dhonis and Kapils) talking about India being a front-runner for world cup victory this year. The media is going all gaga over the 1983 world cup win and asking all and sundry from the Indian squad of 15 about the chances of winning the event. I wholeheartedly wish the ICC issues notices to all journalists suiting this description, at large in this country to stop working for a while, till the completion of the 2011 mega event. They should be given a quarter off and should be packed off to some place like Egypt for tourism. :P.

People seem totally off their minds when answering stupid questions during the conferences. For instance, Kapil Dev feels that the toss could hurt the Indian team's chances in this world cup. Can somebody give me a sleeping pill? He went on to say that Dhoni's win loss record as captain has been attractive at something like 78-48 while his toss record in the same set of matches looking like some 68-74 or some such number. How does it matter Kapil? Is the toss even something to talk about at this juncture? Are you hinting at some toss practice for Dhoni besides practicing with the bat and the gloves?

Aakash Chopra..who is a former Indian opener..for people who are caught unawares at this point, please check this out. Aakash who thinks India have the potential to lift the world cup this year. "I am an optimist and I believe India have the potential to win the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011." Yes sir. We realize you are an optimist and thanks for the information. It would add to our knowledge kit. Chopra who is an optimist hurray!!!!

India had a disastrous world cup in 2007 - they were dumped out of the tournament after the first stage where they lost to Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, defeating only Bermuda in the competition. So keeping these facts in mind, shall we ask the media to shut the F up and concentrate on some other important thing like the 2G or the Adarsh or the Egyptian crisis? Or if you are bent upon cricket in general, talk about the team's injury crisis and give us updates on how Sehwag/Praveen Kumar are shaping up rather than ranting about Dhoni's confidence, Tendulkar's last chance or Kapil Dev's last night's dream.

We cricket fans are here to watch it and we shall get to know what will come out of this edition, set to start in a fortnight's time. We do NOT want any predictions, speculations or forecasts about the end result whatsoever. And lastly, before I forget, is it possible to ask the ICC to ban astrologers and soothsayers for the period starting now till the end of the world cup apart from banning the list of people/communities mentioned earlier? We are tired of statements like these -- "jupiter will be transiting in 11th house from dhoni's moon sign and india's lagna"...or some such equally stupid thing.


Thanks

My half century on the double century

Bat Up! Half century of posts on my blog. There wouldn't be a better time to talk about the "double century".

If you are

a) A Cricket Lover (or)
b) A Sachin Fan (or)
c) A sane human being (or)
d) All of the above

You will get goose bumps on reading the following few lines. If not....Sue me!!!

"When Sachin Tendulkar travelled to Pakistan to face one of the finest bowling attacks ever assembled in cricket, Michael Schumacher was yet to race a F1 car, Lance Armstrong had never been to the Tour de France, Diego Maradona was still the captain of a world champion Argentina team, Pete Sampras had never won a Grand Slam.When Tendulkar embarked on a glorious career taming Imran and company, Roger Federer was a name unheard of; Lionel Messi was in his nappies, Usain Bolt was an unknown kid in the Jamaican backwaters. The Berlin Wall was still intact, USSR was one big, big country, Dr Manmohan Singh was yet to "open" the Nehruvian economy.It seems while Time was having his toll on every individual on the face of this planet, he excused one man. Time stands frozen in front of Sachin Tendulkar. We have had champions, we have had legends, but we have never had another Sachin Tendulkar and we never will."

P.S: The above paragraph is a TIME magazine quote on Sachin Tendulkar after he scored a double ton for the first time in One Day International Cricket.

P.P.S: The buzz word in blogosphere these days is about saving our tigers. Hence, my two pence on that front:

"Save our Tigers. Only 1412 (1411 from the cat family + 1 (me) ) left.