gar firdaus bar ruhe zaminast, haminasto haminasto haminast!
translated into English - "if there is heaven on earth, it is here, it is here, it is here!"
Now if you are wondering why I am suddenly jhadofying shayari - is it because I have taken to the bottle big time or something, stop right there! It is nothing of the sort! I heard this one from my friend He-Man! We were having lunch in the office cafeteria (grinmonster and the lala were also present) and I happened to have got lunch from home (yeah, me aunt was here for a few days and had managed to convince her to make lunch for me :-p) She had made theplas (can see neta drooling ;-) )
and on having a few, the above shayari flowed from He-Man's mouth! And no it's not an original nor do I know who actually wrote it. But apparently, Shah-Jahan uttered it on seeing Kashmir!
Why did I put it here? Well simply becuase I liked it :-D And totally agreed with He-Man..when you get awesome home-made food after an eternity, it does feel like you are in Heaven!
And now that normal life has resumed for me, time to go and have the same old boring cafeteria food :-(
-uv.
Thursday, April 12, 2007
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
A Comparison
As expected, a lot of noise has been/is being generated over Team India's early exit from the World Cup. The first casualty has been the coach, who has quit (some say was told to quit rather than be fired!).
This set me thinking on the role of a coach and whether he should be the one to take all the blame (or at least most of it). And for comparison I used, what else but one of my other favorite sport - American football :-D
So I shall attempt to compare the role of coaches in both these games and see if it makes sense in blaming Greg Chappel for our fiasco!
For those unaware, American Football (AF) also has 11 players like cricket...the only difference being, there are special sets of people for different tasks. For e.g. there will be 11 for offense, 11 for defense and 11 for what is called special teams. But the main player is the quarterback who makes all the plays during offense. There are different coaches for each aspect of the game and there is a head coach, who decides the overall strategy. He is the one who tells the QB which play to make for a given down. So the QB informs the other 10 and they try to do what they have decided! In the end though, it is the skill and quick analysis of the situation by the QB which decides what actually happens during that play.
Now coming to cricket, the coach is there mainly to help the players focus, pick out their mistakes and help them rectify those and to formulate a strategy before the game. The captain and other senior players are also involved in all these decisions and hence it can be said that the coach's word is not final. He is there only giving suggestions! In AF, it is the coach who calls each play, decides which 11 are on the field and he even has the option of challenging an official ruling on the field! In cricket, on the other hand, the coach has no such powers! He cannot even tell the captain after each over, which bowler to bowl, where to set the field or what to do next. Basically, it is plain obvious that the role of the AF coach is played by the captain in cricket!
So coming back to the question of should Chappel have been blamed for Team India's exit...I would say not really. He never got the team he wanted; even during the WC, the final 11 was decided more by the captain and the chief selector rather than him. His suggestions were apparently ignored by the seniors and also his strategies (assuming he did have some!). Also, there is only so much a coach can do, if his players are not going to implement what he has asked them to do! Of course, same is true of AF, but there if the players do not do as told, the coach can make them warm the benches. Imagine an Indian cricket coach having the same power! I doubt one can make Tendulkar or Ganguly warm the benches for not performing!
Bottom line, we lost because our players didn't play as a team nor was there enough preparation done before the WC. And yeah, we as a nation really need to get a life and stop living our lives based on how 11 people perform on a given day!
-uv.
This set me thinking on the role of a coach and whether he should be the one to take all the blame (or at least most of it). And for comparison I used, what else but one of my other favorite sport - American football :-D
So I shall attempt to compare the role of coaches in both these games and see if it makes sense in blaming Greg Chappel for our fiasco!
For those unaware, American Football (AF) also has 11 players like cricket...the only difference being, there are special sets of people for different tasks. For e.g. there will be 11 for offense, 11 for defense and 11 for what is called special teams. But the main player is the quarterback who makes all the plays during offense. There are different coaches for each aspect of the game and there is a head coach, who decides the overall strategy. He is the one who tells the QB which play to make for a given down. So the QB informs the other 10 and they try to do what they have decided! In the end though, it is the skill and quick analysis of the situation by the QB which decides what actually happens during that play.
Now coming to cricket, the coach is there mainly to help the players focus, pick out their mistakes and help them rectify those and to formulate a strategy before the game. The captain and other senior players are also involved in all these decisions and hence it can be said that the coach's word is not final. He is there only giving suggestions! In AF, it is the coach who calls each play, decides which 11 are on the field and he even has the option of challenging an official ruling on the field! In cricket, on the other hand, the coach has no such powers! He cannot even tell the captain after each over, which bowler to bowl, where to set the field or what to do next. Basically, it is plain obvious that the role of the AF coach is played by the captain in cricket!
So coming back to the question of should Chappel have been blamed for Team India's exit...I would say not really. He never got the team he wanted; even during the WC, the final 11 was decided more by the captain and the chief selector rather than him. His suggestions were apparently ignored by the seniors and also his strategies (assuming he did have some!). Also, there is only so much a coach can do, if his players are not going to implement what he has asked them to do! Of course, same is true of AF, but there if the players do not do as told, the coach can make them warm the benches. Imagine an Indian cricket coach having the same power! I doubt one can make Tendulkar or Ganguly warm the benches for not performing!
Bottom line, we lost because our players didn't play as a team nor was there enough preparation done before the WC. And yeah, we as a nation really need to get a life and stop living our lives based on how 11 people perform on a given day!
-uv.
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