Tuesday, November 4, 2014

What happened to IPL corruption probe ?

IPL can be considered as the biggest cricket tournament involving franchises. Although not officially allocated , most countries keep an window for this tournament when planning their cricket fixtures.  It currently have a brand value of over 3 billion USD. Starting from the removal of former IPL chief Lalit Modi controversies were not a strange thing to IPL.

The most controversial thing in the IPL 6 was the match/spot fixing allegations against some of the players and the owners. Several players including Sreesanth was arrested and some of them were banned. Anyway with all these allegations it seems that the final report of the scandal is released to the SC of India. (http://www.espncricinfo.com/india/content/current/story/795559.html

It will be interesting to see what actions will be taken against the players, team owners and others who are involved in match fixing. As BCCI is the ultimate controller of Cricket in the whole world, due to their financial strength, it will be very interesting to see the impact on World Cricket.
http://bsmedia.business-standard.com/_media/bs/img/article/2013-05/16/full/1368700278-4845.JPG

Sunday, October 26, 2014

The Glorious Sons

The Glorious Sons is a Canadian rock band which consists of five people. They released their debut album "Shapeless Art" in November 2013 and followed up with another album named, "The Union" in September 2014. Started as an indie rock band, both albums contains promising songs. Mainly "Mama" and "White Noise" in the first albums became hits in North America. The single "Heavy" from the second album is also gaining popularity. The band will be on tour with "The Trews" next month across Western Canada. 

"Mama" from "Shapeless Art" album



"Heavy" from "The Union" album
 "The Glorious Sons" will have a bright future in the rock genre and hoping to see more amazing stuff from them. You can visit the band's official website here and check out their updates on facebook.
taken from https://www.facebook.com/TheGloriousSons/

Thursday, March 6, 2014

Heaven Knows - Pretty Reckless

"Heaven Knows" is a song by the band "Pretty Reckless". Pretty Reckless is an American alternative metal / hard rock band which includes Taylor Momsen as the lead singer . This song has a very catchy tune and is gaining popularity . 



Jimmy's in the back with a pocket of high
If you listen close
You can hear him cry

Oh, lord, heaven knows
We belong way down below
Sing it
Oh, lord, heaven knows
We belong way down below
Way down below, way down below

Judy's in the front seat picking up trash
Living on the dough
Gotta make that cash
Won't be pretty
Won't be sweet
She's just sittin' here on her feet

Sing it
Oh, lord, heaven knows
We belong way down below
Go
Oh, lord, heaven knows
We belong way down below
Sing
Oh, lord, tell us so
We belong way down below
Oh, Lord, tell us so
We belong way down below
Way down below, way down below
Way down below, way down below

I've had better days, man
I've seen better days
I've had better ways, man
I know better ways

One, two, three and four
The devil's knocking at your door
Caught in the eye of a dead man's lie
Show you life with your head held high
Now you're on your knees
With your head hung low
Big man tells you where to go
Tell 'em it's good
Tell 'em okay
Don't do a goddamn thing they say

Oh, lord, heaven knows
We belong way down below
Oh, lord, tell us so
We belong way down below
Way down below, way down below
Way down below, way down below

I've seen better ways, man
I know better ways
I've seen better days, man
I've had better days

Jenna's in the back with a pocket of high
If you listen close
You can hear the crying

Oh, lord, heaven knows
We belong way down below
Oh, lord, tell us so
We belong way down below
Oh, lord, heaven knows
We belong way down below
Oh, lord, tell us so
We belong way down below

Way down below, way down below
Way down below, way down below

Friday, September 13, 2013

Friday The 13th



Today is Friday the 13th. Here are some 13 facts about Friday the 13th which some people believe as a bad day.

  1. More than 60 million people worldwide claim to be affected by a fear of Friday 13th. Some of them won’t go to work, drive cars or get out of bed on this day.
  2. The fear of Friday the 13th is called paraskavedekatriaphobia.
  3. According to the British Medical Journal there is a significant increase in traffic-related accidents when the date is Friday 13th.
  4. Every year has at least one and at most three Friday the 13th.
  5. Famous people born on Friday the 13th include Samuel Beckett (13 April 1906), Margaret Thatcher (13 October 1923), Fidel Castro (13 August 1926) and Steve Buscemi (13 December 1957).
  6. Tupac Shakur died on Friday, September 13, 1996.
  7. The Uruguayan rugby team’s plane crashed in the Andes mountain range on Friday, 13 October, 1972.
  8. Many hospitals have no room 13, while airports don't have a Gate 13.
  9. Triskaidekaphobia is the fear of the number 13. Napoleon and President Herbert Hoover were said to be sufferers.
  10. The Athens Olympic Games opened on Friday 13th of August, 2004.
  11. President Franklin D. Roosevelt would not travel on the 13th day of any month and would never host 13 guests at a meal. Napoleon and President Herbert Hoover were also triskaidekaphobic, with an abnormal fear of the number 13.
  12. Mark Twain once was the 13th guest at a dinner party. A friend warned him not to go. "It was bad luck," Twain later told the friend. "They only had food for 12." Superstitious diners in Paris can hire a quatorzieme, or professional 14th guest.
  13. The number 13 suffers from its position after 12, according to numerologists who consider the latter to be a complete number — 12 months in a year, 12 signs of the zodiac, 12 gods of Olympus, 12 labors of Hercules, 12 tribes of Israel, 12 apostles of Jesus, 12 days of Christmas and 12 eggs in a dozen.

Monday, June 24, 2013

ICC Champions Trophy ( part 2 )

The ICC Champions Trophy is finished and after a very competitive tournament India has once again crowned as winners. The success of the tournament has prompted ICC to review it's decision of discontinuing the tournament in the future. This is the second part of a review on the performance of  teams in the ICC champions trophy. ( visit part 1 )


  • South Africa 
South Africa reminded the world that they are still the "Chokers" at the big stage. However they performed without four of their main players. Steyn and Morkel are the one of the best opening bowlers pairs in the world. But SA had to play most of the matches without the service of these bowlers. Also they were without Kallis and Smith for the whole tournament. Probably the loss of Kallis who is a very good all-rounder ha affected the SA's team balance. Considering those facts the SA's performance can be categorized as satisfactory. However the way they lost their semi finals match was very humiliating.
  • Sri Lanka
This time Sri Lanka were able to lose at the semi final stage without getting qualified for finals and losing the final. Most of the time I think Sri Lankan team lacked the balance in the team. They played with just 3 specialist bowlers and 2 or 3 batting all-rounders. Also Kusal Perera was a great failure. He was unable to get into double figures in any of the matches. It is interesting to see whether he will get more opportunities at the top. The senior trio of Mahela, Sangakkara and Dilshan took the responsibility of building the innings but failed in the semis. Malinga proved that he is still dangerous in the ODI format as well.




  • England
With the home advantage England were favorites to win the tournament from the beginning. Yet their plans were hit by ball tampering accusations and the loss to Sri Lanka in the group stage. Yet they recovered well to reach the final. But as South Africa they choked under pressure at the final. Probably they now need to wait for some more time before adding a ICC ODI silverware to their cabinet. The way they lost the game in the last 3 overs was very surprising. Bopara has done a great work both with the bat and the ball.  Not so often we see the most performing player becoming the most criticized player. But with Trott it has been the case. He has performed extremely well in the tournament but been severely criticized for his slow batting.

  • India
At the beginning there were many problems associated with India. Many people questioned the ability of the Indian batsmen to survive the bouncy pitches and the ability of Indian fast bowling resources. But this young Indian team has performed extremely well and able to win the final. Dhoni continues to be a successful captain winning all the available formats of ICC trophies. Ravindra Jadeja has become a real superhero in Indian cricket. A young Indian team once again proved the depth of the resources available in India.
  • UDRS and Umpires
Apart from the teams another thing which caught the attention was the use of UDRS and umpiring. There
were several instances where the third umpire gave controversial decisions. The no ball call against Broad in the match against New Zealand was one such incident. Also the use of reviews in a match was very crucial. As an example in the SL vs NZ match both teams had use their reviews in the second innings. And if there were more reviews available the result may have been different. So in the latter parts of the tournament teams were very conservative about using their review early in the innings.

However with all these things the tournament was a grand success. ICC should consider themselves lucky to be able to play at-least a 20 over game in the final. With no reserve day for the final if there were some more rain the whole tournament would have been a waste of time. Yet we witnessed and enjoyed a competitive finale for a competitive tournament.