From no hopers to party poopers, the previous seasons must have been a roller coaster of sorts for all RCB fans. I am no different.More than the inaugral season, IPL 2009 was a remarkable one for me. Of course, RCB's surge to the No. 2 spot does play a major role, but apart from that I had my fair share of experiences trying to catch my favourite team in action.

Painful dental treatments, maddening college submissions, bets with Mumbai Indians fanatic friends, University exams...I've braved them all. To begin with, the 7:30pm dental appointments for a root canal, annoyingly coincided with the days the Royal Challengers played.Little did I know that my doc was a die hard Dada fan, hence the RCB omission. Then the projects/files submissions,every engineering student dreads them, too failed act as a deterrent. Each time Jumbo and Co. won in the league stage and upped their semifinal chances, I had a great time basking in RCB glory while my MI supporter friends went green with envy. Then the University exams which unfortunately spanned over a month while the IPL was on. With my text books in the deep and me glued to SET Max at the slips, my folks had a tough time wondering what was in store for me. Even after the presentation ceremony was over, hour long analysis as to what could have wrong or what clicked for the team, with my RCB loyalist dad and heated arguments with my MI supporter sibling (who always felt RCB matches were rigged) kept me away from books. Somewhere past 1am, with the victory/loss finally sinking in , the 'Oh i got my exams' syndrome creeping in , I used to finally make way for my books burning the midnight oil. Ah...getting all nostalgic now.

With IPL 2010 on the cards... bigger and better, thanks to RCB FFC, cant wait to don the Red and Gold jersey and watch them take
over the unfinished task, from the ravenous runners ups to coveted champs.

P.S. Would love to know your RCB experiences. Do leave them as comments.

Merwe is 200% energy all the time. You cannot get a more committed player than him. Will give his best to the captain all the time.



About this photo - this was taken during the 4th match against DD. He ran all the way from the bowling crease up to long on that saved a run.
Place - Chinnaswamy Stadium
Equipment - Canon 1D Mark III + Canon 500f4

Cheers
Siva A N

My review on the rookies whom i think will make it big in the cricketing world.

LATEST NEWS - South Africa In India..
But for what??
kya?.. Number 1 Tag in tests,
Oh please somebody tell them, just to FORGET about it...

What happens if you are the captain of a team that loses too often?  You get hungry for a victory and start chewing the ball to show your team mates and the world just how desperate you are.  At least that's what Afridi did in the 5th ODI between Pakistan and Australia and was caught tampering the ball, and has been banned from playing two T20 matches.




Can you imagine a cricket player involving himself in such unsportsmanlike practices?  Further more can you imagine a senior and captain of the national team doing such a thing?  well, you don't have to strain to imagine as Afridi did just that in front of the whole world bringing disgrace to his team, country and the game he plays.  Seriously, what was he thinking?  Does a white cricket ball by any chance look like a juicy red apple?  I love what Graeme Smith said of the incident,

"Perhaps he didn't appreciate the lunch he was given in Australia."

Afridi can be forgiven if this was his first offence and was a bit apologetic and  remorseful of what he has done, but rather he come up with an explanation justifying his actions! Shahid Afridi's initial response when asked by ABC whether he was trying to bite the ball was anything but serious as he said,

"No I was just trying to smell it, how it is feeling".

Afridi told Geo TV, a Pakistan news channel.

"I shouldn't have done it. It just happened. I was trying to help my bowlers and win a match, one match.  There is no team in the world that doesn't tamper with the ball. My methods were wrong. I am embarrassed, I shouldn't have done it. I just wanted to win us a game but this was the wrong way to do it."

 This guy gets only two T20 ban!  That's a little lightweight of a penalty to a player and a captain who disgraces the game and his team and also has the nerve to stand up for his actions showing utter disrespect to the laws of the game.  Afridi not only broke Law 42.3 [(b) It is unfair for anyone to rub the ball on the ground for any reason, interfere with any of the seams or the surface of the ball, use any implement, or take any other action whatsoever which is likely to alter the condition of the ball, except as permitted in (a) above] but also Law 42.1 [The responsibility lies with the captains for ensuring that play is conducted within the spirit and traditions of the game, as described in The Preamble - The Spirit of Cricket, as well as within the Laws.] and Law 1.4 [The captains are responsible at all times for ensuring that play is conducted within the spirit and traditions of the game as well as within the Laws. See The Preamble - The Spirit of Cricket and Law 42.1 (Fair and unfair play - responsibility of captains).].  Therefore getting away with a two T20 ban is nothing at all.

Rather the penalty has affected the Pakistani team more than Afridi.  The team already in turmoils and utter confusion are now without a captain, as the T20 captain Afridi is banned, Mohammad Yousuf - the ODI captain is back in Pakistan and Yunus Khan - the skipper who lead them to their T20 World Cup victory is now retired from the shortest format.  The PCB is left with a headache and they must soon appoint a skipper for the next two games.  The team is full of youngsters, so the only likable choices for the PCB are Shoaib Malik or Kamran Akmal.  Both are senior players but are not the captaincy material, as Malik was removed from captaincy after many players felt that his relationship with them was deteriorating and considering Kamran Akmal's current batting and keeping form, it's a miracle that he is part of the playing eleven.  But PCB must make a choice and thanks to Afridi, they have a huge headache on their hands (or rather their heads).

The Pakistani coach, Intikhab Alam has termed the incident as 'unacceptable' and chief selector Iqbal Qasim resigned citing that it was his moral duty.  He said. "I am very disappointed, like millions of Pakistanis.  As I am responsible for the selection of the team, I quit from my post."  At least some people are willing to take the blame, for theirs and the action of the team's.  What about Afridi?  The T20 captain of Pakistan and one of the senior most players in the team, who was in many people's opinion the person to captain Pakistan in all three formats of the game, but now finds himself faulted and unremorseful.     Since the ICC has been soft on Afridi, it must be PCB's responsibility that this never happens again and impose a stricter punishment than a wrap on the knuckles.  PCB has vowed to take some corrective measures, but it still is to be seen if they will.



I conclude by asking a simple but difficult to answer question, "will Pakistani cricket ever not be in chaos?"

The above tweet is in response to the article on this site When Mount Everest Gazed At Don Bradman, He Looked The Other Way

PK is extremely camera friendly. He wants to be clicked all the time and ensures that his pictures come good always Once he even came to my room to check a particular snap of him. If he sees a snap that is not good, he will ask me to delete it



About this photo - This was in the team bus before the 1st match. You can see how PK loves to pose and our very shy Rahul is trying to avoid the shutters.
Place - Red & Gold chariot (Team Bus)
Equipment - Canon 50D + Canon 18-55 + Canon Speedlight

Cheers
Siva A N

I started scripting this blog about Ross Taylor's impressive performance in HRV Cup, by then the finals between the Central Stags and Auckland Aces had already caught fire at Ply Mouth, New Zealand. Ross was already on the field in the HRV Twenty 20 Cup finals, and what a knock it was!!! The live score on the NZ cricket official website was struggling to catch up with the pace of the scoring of Ross!!! And I mean it. Auckland Aces won the toss and elected to bowl. Central Stags were struggling at 3/71 when Ross the Boss scored a mind boggling 80 runs of 30 balls with 8 sixes and 5 fours helped Central Stags to score 206 in 20 overs. Chasing the tall 207, Aces were all out for 128 with all the 5 mainline bowlers of Stags sharing 2 wickets each.

The Royal Challenger had a great outing this year with his bat for Central Stags. Ross contribution in this domestic series is as follows:

Jan 3rd 2010 - 47, against Wellington Firebirds
3rd Jan 2010 - 40, against Otago Volts
8th Jan 2010 - 53, against Northern Knights
13th Jan 2010 - 53, against Canterbury Wizards
17th Jan 2010 - 31 against Auckland Aces
24th Jan 2010 - 23*, against Otago Volts
26th Jan 2010 - 28*, against Northern Knights
31st Jan 2010 – 80 against Auckland Aces in finals of HRV Cup.

Way to go Ross, The Boss!!!

With this win Central Stags are the champions of the HRV Twenty20 Cup and are qualified to play the Champions League T20 later this year. Victorian Bushrangers(Winners) and Red Backs(Runners) are already qualified from Australia featuring in the finals of KFC T20 Big Bash.

The other issue that would raise the heartbeat of RCB and its fans will be that whom will Ross opt to play for in the Champions League T20? CS or RCB?? Too early, of course, but it matters a lot!!!

In RCB, We TRUST.

Fans,

I was mentioning about how crazy and brand loyal I am towards RCB to Nidhi and she said that I just write a small note on that. so here you go...just some points

1. Whenever I travel to Bangalore or some other city on some personal work, I always wear the RCB jersey. Especially in the airports, I get quite a few queries asking do I play in the team / do I work with the team / have you met Rahul Dravid / are you the guy who won that contest (sometimes I wear the team jersey and sometimes the chief photographer jersey).

2. I always travel Kingfisher. I used to do this even before I joined the RCB club because of various reasons and the important thing being the service. I continue that today as well and being RCB's chief photographer, I makes more sense to be brand loyal. When I am in the airport and in the flight I have felt that I get slightly better service from the KF staff / if not the best (may be because I am in the RCB jersey). Not sure though as KF always provides the best service.

3. Weekends when I hit any mall in Hyd, sometimes I wear the RCB jersey so that it kind of spreads the awareness and I have seen quite a few charger fans staring at me

4. I stick to KF beer. Sad that Hyd still does not have KF ultra :-(

I think from a brand and awareness point of view, this is a very small bit a fan should do and does not take much effort as well.

Cheers
Siva A N