Brett Lee, a sidelined pacer

Five for forty seven, was the first five wicket haul of Brett Lee in his Test debut against India, since then this Pacer has went to became one of the most feared bowler in Cricket arena.

Making his debut under the likes of Glen Mcgrath, Damien Fleming, Jason Gillespie and Shane Warne was unnoticeable but this pacer catched everybody’s attention by his pace, accuracy and aggression. He soon took his first ODI five wickets haul against India and since then onwards he has managed to take 365 ODI wickets in his career which is complied with great heights and injuries.

Today, Lee remains one of the oldest and senior Pacer in the International cricket circuit. All his compatriots and other contemporaries with whom he started his career have retired. Lee made his debut in a period which was equally dominated by Pacers and spinners. On One side the World witnessed Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis, Glenn Mcgrath,and Allan Donald , on the other side Spinners like Shane Warne, Muttiah Muralitharan, Anil Kumble were making the batsman dance on their spin and in comes Brett lee in a dominated bowling world.

He soon graps the spotlight for being the fastest bowler in the World cricket and having a competition with Pakistani bowler Shoiab Akhter for that but he was never in the spot light as been a face of the Australian attack. At times it was Glenn Mcgrath or Shane Warne. Another reason for been the backup was the Dominance that Australia had created over cricket world. The start of 21^st century saw Australia becoming an undisputed team, a team which does not depends on a single player, a team who only likes to win. In that period been the junior member, Lee was just considered the second best.

Today, the cricket world has faced huge changes and bowlers too have come up with a different attitude,as a result bowlers don’t find it interesting to play Test cricket and prefer to play T20’s but Lee still remains the pacers along with Zaheer Khan who still has the old approach of 21^st century, where playing for the nation and Test was the first priority. Bowlers like Lasith Malinga,Kieron Pollard, Shaun Tait have refused to play test cricket for T20’s (with all respect to their reason) but Brett Lee still remains the bowlers who wants to play all format of the games even after going through career-ending injuries.It will not wrong to say that Brett Lee has been ignored to some extand by the world cricket but it is Lee’s talent and passion for the game that we see Lee still playing the game fair and square.

Why India can’t Dominate Badminton….??

Saina Nehwal loses..

Badminton is followed in India not since Prakash Padukone’s win in the All England Super Series; infact it’s followed before Prakash Nath heroics in the finals of All England Super Series. Overall it’s not wrong to say that Badminton is followed in India from seventy six years, but even after seven decades India has been over shadowed, first by the Indonesians and then by the Chinese.

It’s not like that Indians don’t take Badminton seriously, in the decade of 1950’s, after Cricket, Badminton was the most popular sport followed in Mumbai, Allahabad and other south cities and still the Indians are lacking behind to rule the badminton world.

Although India have produce greats in Badminton from time to time like Prakash Nath, Prakash Padukone,Pullela Gopichand and Saina Nehwal, but why does India find only few greats  even after playing since seventy long years. Whereas nation like China who became the part of world badminton in 1980’s now Dominates the entire Badminton world.

No doubt the facilities in India earlier were poor; as a result players like Dipankar Banerjee, Rajeev Bagaa were not able to give complete justice to their talent, but since the inception of 21^st century, things have changed, Indian shuttlers are now lucky enough to get better facilities, As Hyderabad is the center of Indian Badminton, Players do get an opportunity to practice in the world class Pullela Gopichand Badminton Academy but even though Indians are lacking behind the others.

After Pullela Gopichand, no other Indian have won All England Super Series, the present Badminton star Saina Nehwal too have been thrashed out even before the quarter-finals in the ongoing tournament.

No doubt with the last few years the standard of Indian Badminton has raised considerably high, players from all categories are playing well but somewhere Indian are not able to conquer the Gold, which matters the most.What can the reason for this? The players are getting better facilities, experienced coach, good support from the Sport Ministry and what else a player want to prove himself in the world.Can it be the fitness level or the talent or the culture that differs from others which is a big huddle in the race of dominating the world of Badminton?

Mr. Abramovich, have some patience…

It was not the first time that Chelsea Owner Roman Abramovich sacked his football club manager on the basis of club’s dismal performance. In fact Mr. Abramovich sacked his eight club manager in a span of nine years and Andre Villas-Boas was sacked with in just 257 days.

From September 2000 onwards, Villas-Boas is the only manager to be sacked in just 257 days. Before him it was Guus Hiddnik who left the job in just three months, as he wanted to coach Russian national team. But the exit of Hiddnik was not as controversial as Villas-Boas. Hiddnik left the club on his own terms with a better win percentage of 73, whereas Villas-Boas has been fired due to his poor winning percentage of 47.5, lowest than any other Chelsea Manager since the year 2000.

No doubt winning and earning profit is the prime objective of any club but to achieve all the goals, it’s important to have faith and patience on the person who is leading the club. Sacking a manager on the basis on a year performance is like setting a bad example to others.

Manager like Sir Alex Ferguson too took four years to win his first trophy for Manchester United. Hence if any club wants to win trophies, it should bring and show confidence in the manager and also give him time, instead of pressurizing him from the moment of signing the contract.

It is acceptable that Chelsea’s this season performance is one of the worst since the year 2000 but it is not acceptable to sack managers like Carlo Ancelotii and Jose Mourinho on the basis of one bad season, before sacking the Mr.Abramovich should have also noticed their success with the club.

In this case, Mr Abramovich must learn something from Arsenal management who still has confidence and respect for Arsene Wenger even after not winning a premiership title since 2004. Arsene Wenger is still out there all because of his success.

It’s really suppressing to see Chelsea appointing number of managers in a period of nine years. In fact in the recent decade Chelsea has played its best football. After 1955, they won their championship title back 2005, reached Champions League final, won F.A cup, Carling Cup and even then Mr.Abramovich is not happy with the club managers.

Is Virat Kohli the next big thing in World cricket ?

Being appointed as the Vice Captain of the team for Asia Cup, added yet another line in Virat Kohli’s cricket resume. The Smashing knock of 133* against the Lankans cleared the selectors mind for post of Vice captain.

No doubt after this innings Kohil has cemented his place in the ODI’s much before the likes of Rohit Sharma, Suresh Raina. Who had debuted earlier than Kohli. Even these young lads are part of the ODI Indian team but the when seniors like Yuvraj Singh, Virendra Sehwag will come back, it will be Rohit Sharma, Suresh Raina who will have to sacrifice their post. The reason for Kohli’s safety in the starting eleven is his consistent performance as compared to other young Indian batsmen.

Since last one year Kohli has proved himself as the best promising lad as compared to Sharma and Raina. He stands one step ahead when it comes to making runs in the ODI’s. From Jan 2011 he has managed to score 1127 runs, where as Raina has made 904 and 690 runs by Sharma. This Cleary shows that Kohli has been the consistent batsman   in the team and he deserves to get a fixed berth in the starting eleven.

Apart from young contemporaries, Virat has also managed to put behind the greats like Brain Lara, Sachin Tendulkar, Ricky Ponting. In his Seventy-nine ODI innings Virat has scored 3223 runs with an average of 47.54 leaving behind Lara’s 41.11, Tendulkar’s 32.40 and Ponting’s 39.34 averages. The only other batsman who matches the stats with Kohli is Kevin Pietersen, who averages 47.87 in his seventy-nine innings.

Establishing himself in a short span in the cricket world has definitely made the experts to keep an eye on him. No doubt he has the potential to became one of the greats of the game but for that he has to be consistent  like Lara, score tons like Tendulkar and  lead the side like Ponting .