Heroes ...

Despite the magnificent Warne,
Whose travails were immense but forlorn,
The brave men of Ponting,
Were sadly found wanting,
And now their prized Ashes are gawn ...
- BBC Sport Fan Reaction page



Image from Cricinfo

The Aussie juggernaut came to a screeching halt, as they lost the Ashes - and England have finally regained the Ashes have 18 long years! The same feelings are being evoked the world over, that spurted forth in 2000 when the Aussie win machine with 16 back to back test wins faltered in that unbelievable test match in Calcutta. It wasn't as dramatic, but exciting I'm sure it was. Shane Warne did his best to give the Aussies a chance, but Kevin Pieterson wouldn't have any of it ... and McGrath's arrogant 5-0 prediction remained exactly what it was - a slice of arrogant Aussie humble pie ... congratulations England ... and hats off the Aussies who came back time and again ... and went down fighting ... like true champions

Permission denied ....

The 20th anniversary of Independence Rock (Mumbai's annual monsoon rock music concert series) turned out be a dud this past weekend following the refusal of permission by Mumbai Police Commissioner AN Roy to allow rock music at the Gateway of India.

Indy Rock took me back to the good ol' college days in Mumbai - it used to be an open air event at the Rang Bhavan near Metro cinema in Mumbai. I still remember standing in the rain enjoying Parikrama thorougly entertain the crowd while playing timeless classics from The Doors, Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, and ofcourse Pink Floyd. I still remember their version of 'Another Brick in the Wall' accompanied by a great pyrotechniques display. While I don't know for sure whether Roy was justified in allowing a loud concert at a protected monument (the Gateway of India), my heart certainly goes out to those who were there to listen to the music, and to the budding artists belonging to 17 bands from all over India who were going to perform there.

More news coverage Indian Express Mumbai and Pune editions.

a hit or miss girl ...

Sania Mirza just finished her first exposure to the big center stage - playing #1 Maria Sharapova in front of a packed holiday crowd at Arthur Ashe stadium. Everyone kind of expected the outcome, but it turned out to be a blowout 6/2, 6/1 ... a rather disappointing finish .. turned out to be a dud!

a hit or miss girl ...
a trigger happy type of player ...
terrific racket speed ...
she definitely has to work on her second serve ...
hard hitting ...
streaky ...
only 76mph on her second serve ...
an 82mph first serve ...
has tremendous ball-striking ability, but a lot needed in just about every other department.
sania has all the building blocks in place, but lots of work to be done.
both are still 18, maria hits hard too - but has got great fitness, footwork, and sets up the point great

these were just some of the comments about sania during the match from mary carillo, john mcenroe and dick enberg on CBS. this was my first opportunity to watch a full match of sania mirza and i must say i was sort of disappointed (the hype had raised my expectations too much i think!) ... she moved sluggishly, was seriously trigger-happy and relies far too much on trying to blast the ball through. but she is quite young, and inexperienced and hopefully her coaches will help reign in some of the zealousness for some focused aggression. ofcourse i am merely an amateur USTA league tennis player ... and its just my opinion. looking forward to more success for sania on the WTA circuit.

[Added later] I was just watching the Serena v/s Venus Williams game, and started to wonder if Sania Mirza was really ready for the top yet .... the difference in consistency and shot selection is just dramatic - its a long road for Sania, hopefully she will make rapid strides ... she has won the juniors event at wimbledon, and her overall result at the US Open is heartening. a top 50 ranking will allow her an automatic entry to a lot more tournaments, allowing her to build her skills and match up against the top players in women's tennis ...

i think its time i used my USTA membership to get discounts on US Open tickets ... maybe next year!

Its finally here ....

Its the first Saturday of September, and that means that the college football season is finally underway ..... ending the painful and seemingly unending drudgery of regular season baseball on sports TV. And even on the first weekend, there are some interesting games to look forward to:

Pitt v/s Notre Dame: ex-NFL coaches Wannastedt and Weis try to restore their alma maters to football glory. this would be the best time to kick the irish out of championship contention. the games to win for pitt are this one, and against louisville (which has moved thisyear to the big east) ... go pitt!!!

Miami v/s Florida State: easily promises to be the best game this weekend. much as i dislike that team, i think this is the year Miami makes a comeback after two relatively disappointing years for the 'canes. And ofcourse, they always manage to bring the highly overrated (atleast in recent years) Florida State teams to their knees. Since the addition of VaTech and Miami last year, FSU's domination of the ACC has pretty much come to an end.

TCU v/s Oklahoma: actually this would have been a totally useless one, but for the fact that this game concluded with TCU upsetting the Sooners earlier today!!

VaTech v/s NC State: Marcus Vick makes his first start for VaTech - highly overrated IMO. Gets the attention simply because of the awesome skills of older bro Michael. I think this will be the year Marcus Vick goes bust ... or blossoms into a great option QB under Beamer.

Boise State at Georgia: The high octane Boise State offense comes to Athens to get real recognition for their program. But a lack of any credible defense will mean that they might come short.

either way ... looking forward to an exciting season of football. the NFL season opens Thursday with the Patriots taking on the Oakland Raiders featuring the first silver and black start for Randy Moss

failure googled ...

A Google search for 'failure' - check out the first link that shows up! the second link is interesting too ...