Sportsmanship

Take time to deliberate, but when the time for action has arrived, stop thinking and go in.

~Napolean Bonaparte

Yesterday I was reading a newspaper, when I came across this News. Some great minds had rated the cricket players on the basis of their consistency and their contributions to their country. 5 Indians qualified for this race namely, Sachin Tendulkar, Vinod Kambli, Virendra Sehwag, Rahul Dravid and Sunil Gavaskar. Believe it or not Sehwag was placed higher than Sachin Tendulkar in terms of the value of the runs contributed.

Here is the URL of the same. http://www.bdnews24.com/details.php?id=170861&cid=26

The same day, a shameful incident took place at Dambulla, which will probably rock the rule-forming committee of ICC. Sehwag was just 1 run away from his well-deserved century, when Mr. Suraj Randiv bowled a no-ball (“deliberate”, as they say) to deny Sehwag a century. Though Sehwag managed to hit the ball long into the stands, but all in vain. The question is, should Sehwag be denied a century when that particular ball is being counted in his innings. This was an act of shame and that too coming from a player of a country like Sri Lanka which can boast of having won the “Fair Play Award” 2008 and 2007. Sri Lankan team for sure, does not deserve this award, if this is the spirit that they play with.

In a post-match talk, a livid Sehwag accused Randiv of doing it deliberately. More importantly, it wasn’t the first time that a Sri Lankan has done so, earlier the victim was Sir. Sachin Tendulkar when he was playing at an unbeaten score of 98 in Cuttack. More importantly, Sehwag celebrated his century and India achieved what they were searching for, that is a bonus point and a win.

Why do people give so importance to records? Aren’t records mere figures? Do records speak? I have been accusing Sri Lanka since the starting of this post. Can anyone recall, if India has ever done so, for a record. Let me help you.

Recall, the match against Pakistan in 1998-99 at Feroz Shah Kotla. The second last over, Javagal Srinath was bowling far wide off the stumps, so that the batsmen does not get out. The image on right is the scorecard of the same, see the extras given by Javagal Srinath. India wanted Anil Kumble to complete his record of 10 wickets in a single innings. Was India maintaining the spirit of the game? I guess your answer must be, a big NO. So fighting either for one’s own record or not letting other make a record is equally competitive in my view. If you gave away records, just like that, a hat-trick would have been a cakewalk. The pressure from fielders, and the best ball from the bowler can only fetch him a hat-trick, it’s not easy as it seems.

And if we talk of that no-ball to be deliberate, I am sorry, I am not with you. Sehwag said that Randiv had not bowled a single no-ball in the whole test series, then why now? If a class player like Sachin can get hit-wicket out at the end of his 17^th playing year, why can’t a newcomer like Randiv bowl a no-ball after a gap of a series. Let’s manipulate the situation a bit, we know Dhoni got to play the latter 3 balls of the second last over. Suppose if he would have scored even a single run in those 3 balls. Sehwag would have come to play the next over and remember that ball which went for a 4, passing by Sangakkara’s gloves. The match would have been over at that moment. There would have been no discussion either on Randiv, Sangakkara or Sehwag.

All that happened might be deliberate, but you cannot deny a coincidence as well. If running on the pitch in the line of sight of the wicket, to stop fielder’s throw from hitting the stumps is intelligent running, then throwing a no-ball at such a moment is what I call, “Intelligent bowling”.

Sprints @ Bombay

6 AITians at IITB’s Gulmohar Restaurant, eating their lunch (which was of course, provided free of cost by IIT, Bombay) could be the most significant feature of this blog post.  Actually, “eating the lunch” would be an understatement. Let’s get over with it, since any person who’s been living on AIT’s mess food would have hogged.

As mentioned in the previous post, the reason of we, 6 at IITB, was “SAGE DAYS 25”, an international seminar on open source software, SAGE.  Though none of us had any genuine interest in it, but still we went just because it was like killing two birds with one stone, always had an urge to see IIT and luckily it happened to be IIT Mumbai, so IIT and Mumbai, the two birds, and SAGE DAYS being the ”stone”.  Luckily, my college AIT got ready to fund the trip.

We started from Pune at 12 midnight of 9^th Aug.  The leader immediately had to come in action, in deciding the means of transport, either comfy Volvo or general compartment of train. Looking at the track record of AIT, in financial aspect, we decided to minimise our expenditures and chose train. This time we were lucky and each of us could get a seat and hence we had a nice journey. We reached CST at 4 am and then took a cab for our guest house SAGARIKA . We had an idea of the NAVY guest house SAGAR and so made out that it will also be grand like SAGAR. The accommodation was arranged by the JD, dear readers, it won’t be difficult for you to judge the quality if I tell you that we paid Rs. 15 per head for 1 day. Fortunately, the place was in Colaba, so TAJ, Leopold Cafe and Gateway of India kept us away from our room.

Travelling in Mumbai can be as hectic as attending our JD’s long talks or as simple as passing a practical in Computer Department [PRODIGY]. First day, when we 6 went out for our destination, it took us 4 hours to reach there (thanks to that Rs. 25 wala ticket). But return journey was easy, since we took Mumbai ki Dhadkan, local train. It took us 1 hour which is 75% less than the previous timing. IIT Bombay was established in 1952 and the buildings do give you an idea of that fact. The most exciting feature of “SAGE DAYS 25” was the lunch. Registration fee was Rs. 200 and we would have gulped food worth Rs. 400 on the first day itself.

I saw a male and a female standing at a crossing (common scene in AIT), but when we passed by, it was no flirty stuff or strategy for Aakriti, to my surprise they were discussing Robots. “Welcome to IIT”. I wondered if they ever watched porn, and if yes, it must be Robot porn. They were least bothered about their surroundings, everyone is busy. In AIT, its the other way round, no one is bothered about himself. An AITian does not know about his own progress, but tell him that his roommate has done 2 units, I bet he’ll be at the 3^rd one in the next couple of hours.

The 3rd day was off at IITB. The Maths Club went out chilling @ Juhu and at Marine Drive. This could be the most romantic place, I guess. A lot of couples can be seen sitting on the Marine drive stretch. Trident is also on the same road. Then is the Circuit Point (place where circuit sat down after he got annoyed with Munna Bhai). This is near to Nariman Point. At Juhu, couples get involved so much into each other that, they forget the presence of others. Rest, I don’t need to mention, Samajhdar ke liye Ishara hi Kaffi hai. Watch out for the rates of various eatables at Chaupati, looks like you are holding a menu card of some 5-star hotel.

Something annoying was, people now have stopped going to Elephanta Caves and other places of historical importance, instead they like discussing the 26/11 attack with locals and staring at these 5-star hotels, standing in front of them. We too, are no born ideals. We did the same. After that what happened is something, that is not clear is any of our minds. Don’t worry I was absolutely sober. We all had a party in Leopold cafe. All then went to bed without letting anyone else to know of anything. I am sorry readers, I had to skip a few things here. They aren’t worth writing.

The last day, we set off once again but with a new frame of mind. Today was the day, when we had to collect our certificates. Luckily, thanks to our hard work in the lecture hall during SPRINTS(the competition part), though for a few amount of time, but mind it, it was hard. Our hard work paid off, and we got the certificates and hopefully will get the T-Shirts too.

This was it, but something I forgot to mention, is the people out there who gave the lectures. The word “Genius”, will probably fall short if I address them with it. Believe me, they were updated, even up to what had happened in the field of Mathematics just 1 day back. I am from college, where a teacher cannot even explain the differential equation in one go. So the difference was quite clear in the standard of infrastructure and the faculty.

But when it comes to students, AITians in fact are the most intelligent people born on the face of the earth. It quite obvious from the fact that, we solved 12 questions each, which was above average, and that too after directly sitting into the Sprints, without attending the lectures. Kudos to the Mathematics Club and its president of course. I fear someone from management and especially my Maths Teacher, does not see this post, or I can get into a serious problem. That was it. Over all, it was an awesome experience with loads of masti and fun.

I hope you enjoy reading the post and ya remember, Mumbai Rocks simply as AITans do!!!