Sachin Tendulkar Turns 40!

Sachin Tendulkar turned 40 yesterday, and as I could not write down a post yesterday, I believe it is never too late to wish the legend. So I would like to take this opportunity to wish him a very happy birthday and also thank him for all the glorious days of cricket I got to witness when he played for India, whether be it in tests or in ODIs. And his records in both the formats speak for themselves.

It is really unfortunate that he announced his retirement from ODI cricket in December, or else he could have become the first Indian to do so. Anyways, he missed on the longest ODI career due to his retirement, and since he did not play an ODI since Feb 2012, that would be considered as his last day of ODI career irrespective of the fact that he announced his retirement from the format in December. Though I would have loved to have watch him play against Pakistan in that series, and it could have been a fitting end to a career and against a team with which it all started in 1989. Though now he would seventh Indian player to play test cricket in his 40s, and the first to do it after since 1960, but this is subject to the fact that he should play a test match after this. Hopefully he would play against South Africa towards the end of the year. The most precious memory of his birthday I have is of 15 years back in 1998, when he turned 25, and when he smashed the Australian bowlers all around the ground to win the series. Yesterday he could not play a big innings against Kolkata Knight Riders, and was dismissed cheaply, but yes his team did not let him down and spoil his birthday party.

Anyways, I would want to wish him a very happy birthday again, and I hope to see him soon playing the test matches, and playing it for a few more years.

IPL 6 – The Most Competitive IPL So Far!

Well this year’s IPL is definitely one of the toughest in terms of competitive level. One-third of the tournament is over, and yet there is no certain team that would make through to the final 4. It is on Delhi Daredevils that look to be out of the reckoning for the final 4 spot as they have all of their first 6 matches, which they might need to win 8-9 matches of their remaining 10 matches something that looks difficult, but anything can be possible in cricket so they are not yet out of the tournament.

Well at the start of tournament, one would have bet 4 out of Delhi Daredevils, Chennai Super Kings, Mumbai Indians, Kolkata Knight Riders, and Royal Challengers Bangalore should make it to the top 4. Not much was thought of the other 4 teams of making it to the top 4. But surprisingly, team Delhi one of the strongest on paper has lost their first 6 matches, which probably make them the first team to be knocked out of the tournament. Again all of team Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, and Bangalore have should a little indifferent form in their first 5-6 matches. Though team Bangalore is placed second at this point, team Chennai at fourth, team Mumbai at fifth, team Kolkata at seventh, and team Delhi at ninth (last). The other underdog teams (especially Rajasthan Royals) have done well and in fact are at the top of the table at this stage. The other teams like Kings XI Punjab and the debutant team (Sun Risers Hyderabad) have shown indifferent form but have managed to scrape to victories on most of the occasions and they are placed sixth and third in the table respectively. Also, Pune Warriors have not played to the expectations of the fans but have defeated the big teams like Chennai and the I form Rajasthan and are currently placed at eighth, but yes they still have a very good chance to qualify.

Well who all are going to make it to the top 4, definitely looks like a surprise that would be awaited. Let’s wait and see what happens, I hope that at least Mumbai Indians makes through to the top 4.

Join the Indian Army – A New Innovative Advertisement!

For a long time the following image was displayed in different parts of the country to promote and advertise to make people of India proud to join the Indian Army.

For the last couple of days, a new picture is appearing on the internet as an advertisement that is currently displayed in Shillong, featuring 9 Bollywood actresses (Priyanka Chopra, Priety Zinta, Simmi Garewal, Chitrangada Singh, Celina Jaitley, Amrita Singh, Gul Panag, Anushka Sharma, and Sakshi Tanwar, all Army Officer’s daughters), and urging the people to join the Indian Army. Though I am not sure whether this image is a genuine one or a fake (as though the official site of “Join the Indian Army” is mentioned on the banner, there is nothing on the website relating to this). Also, there is no word from any of the above celebrities of have having given their consent of the advertisement (though I feel that they would not really oppose to such a thing).

After reading a couple of articles on the net relating to this picture, and I realized that this advertisement is more to promote a girl child in the Indian Army than an advertisement to join the Army, so in that case I feel this banner should have had a mention of AWWA rather than of “Join Indian Army” on the banner.

Anyways, if this is a true image, then it is a nice and an innovative way to urge people to join the Indian Army. All I can say is that, this advertisement is in a way a good representation of the exposure the kids of army personnel (I can say this, because even I am an Army officer’s son) get in their upbringing which thereby helps them emerge as winners in the field that they choose in their career.

Overall, I am surprised to such an initiative, and to a certain extent happy as well as Indian Army is getting innovative. And most of all is that this allows the kids of Army personnel (in this case these actresses), to contribute to the Indian Army, probably to which they owe a lot as it rightly pointed out by Gul Panag in one of her tweets.

About the join army ‘ad’.Whether in jest or not,I have no problem with it.I owe 100% of what I am to my AF upbringing. Proud of it. @rwac48

— Gul Panag (@GulPanag) April 14, 2013