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I think the last warning served its purpose. I hope the Indian cricket team continue its form all the way to world cup glory.

Mean while the cricketing world has witnessed shocks beyond imagination. When Hansie Cronje died in an air crash, I was in awe because I still held him in high respect in spite of his involvement in the match fixing scandal. But when I heard about Woolmer’s death, I had my foot in my mouth! They both complimented each other well. South Africa’s phenomenal success in cricket was largely due to the coachmanship of Woolmer . I still remember how they first introduced wireless headphones in cricket during the World Cup in 1999 so that the coach can directly interact with the captain in the field. He is also credited with the introduction of technology, more specifically laptops, for coaching sessions.

On the final leg of the tour, A1taf said that Woolmer wanted to meet the man who exposed the match-fixing scandal in which Hansie Cronje, his beloved captain, was charged with taking money to throw away matches. Could I arrange the meeting? The day the Pakistan team was to leave for Karachi, Woolmer and I met Delhi police chief KK Paul at his residence in the morning. For an hour and so, Woolmer defended Cronje and Paul very firmly defended his stand and told him that the case was based on facts. To the surprise of both Paul and me, Woolmer disclosed many secrets of Pakistan cricket, which won’t be right of me to reveal here, for dead men never speak. On our way back to the hotel, Woolmer said he was writing a book, an expose on a television scam that involved the embezzlement of a lot of money

I salute this great man who lost his life because of this love of life, Cricket!

The inevitable has happened. Dreams were shattered, hearts were broken and many were sent to deep chasm of depression after seeing India lose to minnows Bangladesh. All the hype around ‘Team India’ seems to have suffered a big blow. I wonder why they still show that Pepsi ad, where Indian team poses like the tigers, when they falling like nail pins. Bangladeshis would have had a heartily laugh seeing these tigers become asses in front of Bengal Tigers.

Bangladesh deserved the victory because they played to their own satisfaction. They outplayed India in all departments of the game. I wonder why Indian team, being such an old and experienced, still struggles to dive and fly in the field even though India has the most powerful whitener called Rin. We have the power of Mandira Bedi, perhaps the only women commentator ever in cricket, and her fancy saaris.

Pakistan team should wait for their counterparts from across the border to get done with things and then they can together escape via the sea route. Indian players can cross over to India with the terrorists infiltrators, just a way to save money or else why spend so much or air fares.

So what should India do to get over this mental depression? Take a lesson from UP politics

DEPUTY CHIEF Minister R.R. Patil may have shut down dance bars, but Mumbai’s bar girls have found a new stage — campaign rallies in Uttar Pradesh.

The seven-stage Assembly election begins April 7 and ends May 8. Politicians have already started ‘booking’ the girls, hoping that their performances will attract larger crowds to their rallies and, ultimately, translate into votes.

Confirming the bookings, Bharatiya Bar Girls’ Union president Varsha Kale said: “The girls are flooded with such requests and are paid about Rs 1.1 lakh per show.� The money is shared by a group of 10.[HT]

They already were in a jolly mood so let them at least enjoy Caribbean. Their escape route is already set.

The Ho Ha ad is the recent Nike advertisement on TV

The two-minute ad shows boys leaping out of cars and taking up fielding positions; a Parsi statue stands with a finger up in the air, like an umpire; two girls blush as a ball hits a player in his crotch; a ball ricochets off a nearby billboard, jolting a man clipping his nose-hair; and a fielder calls out, “Ai, Balcony, ball de na!�

As for the logistics, it took four days to shoot, 250 vehicles to create the jam, 300 extras to simulate the feel of a bustling street, about 40 actors, one elephant, 20 chickens, a few pigeons, a dog and two star cricketers (Zaheer Khan and Sreesanth) to create Mean Streets cricket.

Interestingly, the set was adjacent to the Bigg Boss house, which led to some amusing and unexpected situations. “One of the balls landed on the Bigg Boss set and we could hear Rakhi Sawant screaming,� recalls Deo. The Bigg Boss producers also bor rowed their elephant briefly for an episode.[HT]

South Africa’s Herschelle Gibbs created World Cup cricket history when he smashed six sixes in an over in a crushing victory over the Netherlands in their Group A match here today.

On a record-breaking day for the South Africans who steamrollered the outclassed Dutch by 221 runs, Gibbs became the first player to pile up 36 runs in a one-day international over.

After hammering leg spinner Daan Van Bunge back over his head four times and over the ropes on the on-side twice, he also became the third man ever to complete the feat at elite level.

India’s Ravi Shastri and West Indian Garfield Sobers had achieved the record in first class cricket.[source]

This picture confirms my earlier speculations about the back-up plan of the Indian cricket team to escape secretly from the world cup. Points to be noted from the above picture

1. There is no Saurav Ganguly on the boat as Mr. Chappel is there

2. Sachin is with Zaheer and Chappel on his either sides.

3. Sreesanth seems to have now learned Caribbean belly dance which he practicing at the back.

Picture- HT