For the love of Selecaos

"God created me to delight people with goals." Romario (Brazil, Barcelona and 9 other clubs)

I will go ahead and say God created the Brazilian football team to delight people with football.

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When I started understanding various sports in late 1980s India was a different country. No open economy, no internet, not even foreign sports channels. And hence like many of the Indian kids of that time I got familiar with names like Kapil Dev, Srikanth and Azharuddin pretty quickly. I loved cricket as a kid and that’s the very first sports which I adopt.

But then football has its global presence and own appeal. It’s difficult to ignore it and being a bong I started remembering names like Chima Okery, Subrata Bhatttacharya, Krishanu Dey and Bikash Pnaji and I still remember the evening when while watching a live match in the television my father explained why I should support the Mohun Bagan club and keep a constant dislike towards those red and gold players playing against them. But International football, what’s that? It’s only a few clips in the Sunday afternoon sports show in DD with Kishore Bhimani’s baritone.

Then came Italia’90 with its peculiar looking logo and a bubble gum which would give one free card with the picture of a world cup star and being the eternal fighter I get into a fierce rivalry with many of my friends to collect more cards than others. I remember having cards of Walter Zenga, Robarto Donadoni, Juregen Klinsmann, Careca and Roger Milla. I also went great length for collecting the card with Diego Maradona’s photo but not because I liked him because it was difficult to get.

And why I did not like him? Instead which player I supported? That’s the topic of this blog post.

During late 80s and early 90s there was a popular weekly magazine called ‘Saptahik Bartaman’, I think it’s still available but not sure whether it’s equally popular. My parents had a regular subscription of that and just before the 1990 FIFA world cup; the magazine started a feature where every week they had one page describing some key highlights of one previous world cup with hand drawn black & white pictures. I remember reading all of them from 1930 to 1986. I remember reading about ‘Battle of Santiago’, ‘The rise (8-3) and fall (2-3) of Hungary’, ‘The 1974 final where Netherlands took the lead before even a single German player touching the ball’ and ‘The hand of God’.

But the ones I remembered the most at that age was Maracana stadium and the heartbreak of 1950, Pele and the little bird mesmerizing the world in 1958, then again in 1962, and greatest Brazilian team of 1970. And I started having a soft corner for the Selecaos and knew that Argentina is the name of the arch enemy when I was just 6 years old.

Then came the actual world cup, I was in my Masimoni’s place, she was a big time fan of Maradona and I remember the party atmosphere on the opening day of world cup. I remember my mother saying, Argentina might lose! But no one took her seriously, why should they? Argentina, the remaining champs were playing with Cameroon, just another African country making up the numbers. But my mother’s strong intuition worked again when Cameroon gate crashed Argentina’s party thanks to a goal from Omam Biyik. I remember that I started watching the match but slept midway and next morning woke with news of the upset. I do not remember many matches of that world cup but I remember reading in the same ‘Saptahik Bartaman’ in the World cup final special issue about how Brazil was beaten by Argentina in the second round by the solitary goal from Cannigia. I read about the tears of Brazil supporters and my dislike towards Argentina just grew more.

Although I did not remember any other matches but I do remember names like Schillaci, Goycochea and Gascoigne and that was my short memory of international football for time being.

4 years passed and another FIFA world cup comes with a lot of hype because it’s happening in USA, the land of hope and dream. In those last four years I was busy with Sachin Tendulkar, Vinod Kambli, Anil Kumble and Hero cup win and India’s spin trio and home test wins but as the world cup came I have started rooting for my favourite yellow jersey. But that time I am 11 years old, read the newspapers and magazines in more details. I knew about the teams, their stars and the groups. The world cup being in US, the matches were really really late, and I remember lots of matches where I was scolded by my parents for sleeping with TV on. But I did make a point to watch all the Brazil matches staying up as late as possible. Romario was the hero who scored 5 goals to take Brazil in the final. The up-front partnership of Romario and Bebeto was lethal. And then Bebeto become the most popular player of that world cup with his baby rocking celebration after scoring against Netherlands in the quarter final just after few days of the birth of his 3^rd children. In the same match, Brazil very typically from a 2-0 score line managed to allow Netherlands to come back at 2-2 but then Branco converted a direct free kick from around 30 yards to take Brazil into the semis.

The final between Brazil and Italy started around 1 o’clock in the night and with 120 minutes of goal less draw and penalty kicks when it was finally over with Roberto Baggio’s missed penalty kick it was close to 4 o’clock. Never before I was awake so late in my 11 years of life. I was much tensed during the tie-breaker and remember spending some of it in the room and some of it in the balcony as I could not watch it out of nervousness.

The real transition happened from 94 to 98. Mind you, no internet and not much ESPN yet but the sports page of newspapers and magazines like ‘Sportstar’, ‘Khela’ and sports section of ‘Anandamela’ taught me a lot about football. I started knowing about the club football. I came to know about AC Milan, Real Madrid, Manchester United and Barcelona. I came to know about Copa America and UEFA Cup. Cricket was still my sports of choice but I was not as oblivious about football as in the first half of 90s.

The new megastar of Brazilian football was coming up. The shaved headed Ronaldo Luis Nazario De Lima came along with the group of superstars like Roberto Carlos, Dunga, Rivaldo and Denilson. By that time it’s not any more just watching your favourite team play, it was the whole hearted crazy support of the team. Fighting with friends in the school and memorizing history to use them in the argument. The prayers have started before the game and all the superstitions about what to wear and where to sit during a Brazil game in world cup has started.

That fanatism just increased in all these years, from the heart break of 1998 final to the ecstasy of the 2002 and then again the heart breaks of last two world cups it was a wonderful journey. I have a special feeling for world cup 2002, it was amazing to see how could one single man, in this case Ronaldo, came back like phoenix from the ashes of his mysterious illness to ’98 final to became the main architect of Brazil’s world cup triumph of 2002.

In the meantime another dimension of world football was opening to me. I came to know about David Beckham and the great man Sir Alex Farguson. I watched the highlights of their breath taking win over Bayern Munich in the Champions league final and became an instant fan of the Baby-faced Ole Gunnar Solskjær. Slowly my love towards Manchester United grew and with the advancement of internet I started following Man Utd religiously but I never stopped keeping track of my Brazilian heroes.

I do get upset about the fact that the most of the Brazilian players choose Italy and Spain as their preferred country for playing club football and hardly any big name of Brazilian team came to play in Manchester but I never stopped keeping track of Kaka, Ronaldinho, Pato and Fabiano and always wish them to do well whenever they are playing any match for their club side (except against United). I also have a special feeling for Jose Ramirez Barreto who is represents that awesome and rare combination of my love towards Brazil and Mohun Bagan. And when it comes to their match for the Selecaos, be it Copa America, Friendlies or World Cup qualifier I try to follow it and support them with as much passion as possible.

The world cup is going back to Brazil after 64 years in 2014 and although I have made plans with Kanad and Madhumitadi to visit Brazil to watch 2014 world cup but I do not know how realistic this would be but be it in India or be it in Brazil, in my mind I will be there with my heroes as strongly as possible, may be more closely as I know that this team is not as strong as the team of 90s or early 2000s. And that’s how I see a fan’s role become important. Everyone can support their team at the time of success but a true fan is who stays with his team even at the time of difficulty and heartbreaks. The life keeps moving and you never know the glory days may be just round the corner.

So, my beloved Brazilian team, keep playing well and keep entertaining people. Trust me, no other team makes football as beautiful and graceful as you can do and I do believe you know how to win trophies through your beautiful style. I will be always there to cheer you and cheer those mesmerizing moments you create on field.

                                                                                    XXX--------------------XXX 

My most favourite Top Five Brazilian player (In order or preference)

Ronaldo

Kaka

Ronaldinho

Romario

Cafu

My Most favourite Brazilian moment on a football field

Ronaldo’s two goals in 2002 World Cup final

Bebeto’s celebration in 1994 quarter final

Ronaldinho’s free kick against England in quarterfinal 2002

Roberto Carlos’world famous free kick against France

From a Moving Train

In my home back in Kolkata, we used to have 9 coconut trees. There are many a time when I boasted in front of my friends about having so many coconut trees together. But for last couple of hours I am passing through one coconut jungle after another. And if you wonder what I mean by coconut jungle, it is a continuous stretch of coconut trees with total number of trees in the region of few thousands!!

Well I am writing this blog on a moving train (one of my long time wish to write real time blog during a journey, so tick!) from Bangalore to Chennai and trust me I do not have much idea about the route. My cell phone service provider did inform me that the train entered Andhra Pradesh before entering Tamil Nadu. The journey is smooth in AC chair car and the view from the window is mostly green with coconut trees (a lot!!) and hills in the far distance. I wonder whether those are Eastern Ghats and will check in google once I get my internet working. (update: Kind of confirmed it’s a part of Eastern Ghat only)

Train journeys are always fascinating, for example now I am in Katpadi Junction, never heard of it and don’t think will ever come here but this train took me here and will pass through it. These near empty railway stations, the chayewallas with their South Indian accented shouts and the non-stop talking kid in the next row add to the charm of an Indian rail journey.

It is 49 days since I reached Bangalore. A new city, a new office, a new place to stay, new furniture to buy, it was a hectic 7 weeks. Still me and a group of my friends found time to visit Pondicherry for a weekend trip. Improvement in my cooking skills and FIFA12 PS3 skills along with that trip are the highlights till now. (I am in Mukundarayapuram by the way)

I like cooking. And I am pretty serious about it, at least till now. I got an induction cooker and my biggest concern every day is not to have too long power cut to hamper my cooking. Power cuts are very regular in Bangalore and once I moved my new place on 13^th May, there is no single day without power cuts. And there are days with 3-4 power cuts.

So, most of the days, cooking is the first thing I do after waking up and even before having breakfast. I started with burning my first day’s rice, trying to cook it in 2000 watts, the max power. Now I know 800 watts is enough and I cook my rice every day in less than 10 minutes. I have also cooked Daal and Cauliflower with a few failed attempts, especially because in Bangalore, things take more time to get boiled. So, either you cook with the water you are buying to drink, or use tap water and ready to spend more time trying to boil your daal and vegetables. And obviously I cooked my favourite Egg Curry or ‘Dimer Dalna’ with near perfection from the first day. That’s my staple diet and I had to learn it as soon as possible. My mother came up with a pretty good line regarding my love towards egg when she told my girlfriend, “He will eat only two types of food, Dimer Dalna in the day and egg curry in the night!!” I also tried making Tomato chatni with my first attempt resulting in a salty chatni (It supposed to be sweet!) but added more sugar to it next day to make it taste really nice and chatni-like!

It’s close to 12.30 and some of my co-passengers are having card-rice (I am getting the smell), also quite a few vendors are selling the railway food, so let me take bite of the cake and fruits I have before finishing this part. Expected time to reach Chennai is 3 o’clock.

Done with my lunch and let me resume writing in Arakkonam station. The new office is a cool place and with an existing group of friends it’s fun to be in office. And also, due to some strategic change I am not much occupied now days and utilizing my time by playing a lot of FIFA12 in the office PS3. I started playing FIFA in 2006, I was in IITK, and I will be ever grateful to Suddha Prasad Bagchi to teach me how to play FIFA and telling me about the wonderful thing called ‘career mode’ in FIFA. Since then, I kept playing its different versions in my home computer but playing in PS3 is much more different than playing in computer and playing against other players and also play with 2/3 members in same team is a completely different ball game than playing alone against the computer. It’s much more fun playing in PS3 with lot more real like moves and tricks. Still need to improve a lot. Need to learn how to head properly, how to take penalties and free kicks and how to use some of the tricks to baffle the opponents like Budha, Ashwini and Sayantan. Already contemplating buying a PS3 in home but with its price tag of around 15k to 19k it’s not an easy decision to make.

Having the usual sweet and sour romance with Shreya with calls, sms , Facebook chats and YM chats. It’s always fun to be around her and although I miss those evenings in Karunamayee and City Center and Princep Ghat we try to be in touch as much as possible by sharing everything, can’t wait to meet her again in August.

The Pondicherry trip was nice. It was hot and humid and also I particularly did not like the meal in Aurobindo Ashram but it was an experience and there are plenty of options for food of my taste. We had octopus in one of our meals and prawns aplenty. I absolutely loved the French style structures of buildings and the beautiful churches they have, the road in front of the beach is also wonderful. The plan of cycle ride through a whole city was an awesome idea which four of us (Sayantan, Soumyabrata, Tushar and me) did.

The only flaw in our Pondicherry plan was that we did not consider the possibility that KKR could reach the final of IPL and when they did we realized that we will miss the final as we will be in Pondicherry and will be traveling in a bus from 10.30 PM. Missed the match, but following the score in the cell phone when KKR won and then celebrating the whole night in Facebook and being in a call with Shreya is an experience I will remember forever.

This pretty much sums up my first 49 days in Bangalore, have not travelled much inside the city although went to MG Road couple of times but it’s not enough to know everything about the city. I have planned to go out for a full day city tour in one of these weekends. Also, I won a quiz competition in the office, it was good one and liked the experience, the questions were intelligent and learnt quite a few things along with answering some of them.

I just passed Tiruvalla, It’s 1.30. I don’t think I have anything much to write so let me stop here and get back to the ‘Ghanada Samagra Part 2’. Ghanada stories are wonderful and I would love to write a blog about the great man someday.

The KKR Story: Their Road map to IPL Triumph

In most of the action-revenge dramas which comes out of Bollywood, it is the most common theme to see the hero going through pain, heartbreak and as much distress as possible (parents getting killed, sister getting raped, friends betraying and so on) before coming as triumphed after an intense battle with the villain.

For last 5 years Kolkata Knight Riders was the team with mostly filmy mashala as two of its owners are Bollywood stars and despite not performing up to the mark there was no lack glamour, money and hype around this team. But this year the way they have turned the table and their transition from a loser and subject to infinite jokes in Facebook and real life to a deservingly champion team is nothing short of a film script!

 All the controversies and misfortune of previous seasons, from John Buchanan’s multiple captaincy theory to Fake IPL blogger to the decision of not picking Sourav Ganguly in 2011 auction the list of controversies is as big as the number of sixes scored by Chris Gayle, add to it the number of player unavailability and close last ball losses made KKR the weeping boys of first 3 IPL. Things started to change in 2011 but still some parts were missing. But in those 7 weeks of April-May 2012, along with the countless hours of training and planning before that KKR finally did what their captain Gautam Gambhir described as ‘Mission Accomplish’.

What I am trying to do here is to rewind some may be small but key milestones in their journey to 27^th May when sometime close to midnight, Manoj Tiwari’s two consecutive pull shots give them their maiden IPL trophy.

Match 10 - Royal Challengers Bangalore vs Kolkata Knight Riders 

Balaji’s Magic Spell

Knight Riders started their campaign with two losses and when they came to Bangalore to play Royal Challengers, they knew that they have to turn their fortunes pretty soon, otherwise another season would pass with them not seriously challenging for the title.

KKR, put into bat, started strongly and reached 125 for 1 in the 14th over. A score around 180 looked quite possible but a middle order collapse where 7 of their batsmen got out for single digit scores resulted them scoring just 40 runs in last 40 deliveries of the innings and end up scoring 165.

With the Chinnaswami batting condition and the RCB’s batting line up in mind, 165 was gettable but what follows was the first of many great team bowling performance by KKR, where every bowler played their part efficiently. Where Kallis gave KKR a great start by removing both the openers of RCB including the super dangerous Gayle and Shakib took care of the death overs, it was the middle overs of Laxmipati Balaji, which makes the difference. Balaji bowled 4 overs in a trot (6th, 8th, 10th and 12th) and took one wicket in each of his 4 overs to dent RCB’s chase. The one which took care of AB De Villiers was the special one; it was bowled with an in-swinging angle and got straightened after pitching to take the off stump of the talented South African.

The win showed the first signs of KKR’s class against teams with such big names.

Match 17 - Kolkata Knight Riders vs Kings XI Punjab

 Knight’s New Weapon

When KKR bought Sunil Narine after intense bidding for $700,000, which was 14 times his base price, in the 2012 IPL auctions, most of the headlines had words like, surprize, unexpected and gamble. Narine impressed once and all in the 2011 Champions Trophy while playing for T&T including his spell against CSK where he spellbound players like Suresh Raina and MS Dhoni with his tricks. An off spinner with a high arm action and plenty of varities, Narine looked to be a smart purchase by Kolkata.

But come IPL, it turned out to be the buy of the season, when Narine ended the tournament with 24 wickets at an average of 13.50 and economy rate of 5.47. He was the second highest wicket taker and the player of the series.

Kolkata did not play Narine in their first match against Delhi. He played the second and the third match, both against Royals with moderate success to be dropped in the 4th match against the Royal Challengers. In the fifth match in home, KKR decided to play Narine against KXIP and in his comeback, Narine produced a wonderful display of spin bowling. Coming to bowl as early as third over to take the wicket of Adam Gilchrist, one of the greats of the game, and then taken care of the death overs by taking 3 wickets in 18th and 20th over, Narine was unplayble. 14 of his 24 deliveries were dot balls and his analysis 19 for 5 was as impressive as you can get in a T-20 match. 

Kolkata could not pull off the win by messing up their chase in last two overs, but the buzz about Sunil Narine’s mystery started to take momentum which was in show for almost all of the remaining matches of Kolkata.

Match 41 - Chennai Super Kings vs Kolkata Knight Riders

 Challenge in Chennai

Chennai Super Kings are the most successful and consistent side in first five years of IPL. Not only they were the champions of last two years, they never finished the tournament without being in Top Four in the points table. Captained by MS Dhoni and consisting of players like Michel Hussey, Albie Morkel, Suresh Raina and Ravi Ashwin, CSK is the team to beat in IPL.

KKR had a poor 2-5 win-loss ratio against them and never won a match in their fortress M. A. Chidambaram Stadium. But when the bowling unit restricted the Super Kings for 139, a required rate of just 7 runs per over looked manageable. KKR lost McCullum early but like many occasions in last two years, Gambhir and Kallis steadied the ship and added 70 runs in the second wicket with a run rate, at per of the require rate. But few overs later when Gambhir got out in the first ball of the 19th over KKR still required 16 of 11 balls. Things were getting tight when Yusuf Pathan was joined by Debabrata Das, an interesting little player who is playing in IPL since its very first edition without playing even a single first class match. He is a fearless heater who had only few innings of note in the previous IPL seasons. He started with converting a full toss on his pads to a four and KKR entered Ashwin’s last over requiring six for win.

Pathan cut the first ball to deep point for two, the second was a dot ball and when Pathan got out trying to slog sweep the third ball of the over, pressure came on KKR. And that’s when Das showed his metal by hitting the next delivery of Ashwin through the mid-wicket boundary to give KKR an important win. It not only strengthens their position in the points table, the win over the current champions also gave them lots of self-belief which they carried forward in the next games.

Das only faced 4 balls to get those 11 runs, but that thumping boundary was a real key moment in Knight Rider’s IPL journey. Gautam Gambhir, who by that time had shown significant glimpse of his captaincy skill, recognized the effort and was ready to give away his ‘Man-of-the-match’ award to Das.

Match 47 - Kolkata Knight Riders vs Pune Warriors

Away match in Home ground

Sourav Ganguly may be one of the most controversial characters of world cricket but Kolkata is his land and for most of Kolkatans like me he can’t do any wrong. Hence, during the failure of first 3 seasons Kolkata was unhappy but never even thought that there could be a team from Kolkata without Sourav. Then came the IPL auction of 2011 and Sourav was not picked by any of the franchise, not even by Kolkata. As expected huge uproar was followed and conspiracy theories were put into place. But a big part of Kolkata became more heart broken as their beloved Dada was not any more part of Kolkata Knight Riders. At the beginning of 4th season, KKR experienced empty stands in their home matches in Eden gardens but slowly the public turned back towards the team and Home matches again become well attendant.

In the meantime Ganguly was also picked by Pune Warriors as their key bowler Ashish Nehra was injured and Sourav played the second half of IPL-4 with moderate success. Came IPL season 5 and Sourav was given the captaincy role as Yuvraj Singh was out recovering from his cancer treatment.

Warriors started strongly and even were at the top of the standings at one point thanks to win over big teams like CSK and DD but their form was on the decline and they came to Kolkata with 4 consecutive losses. 

No one knew how Kolkata would behave, are they going to root for their team or are they going to support their man. The opinions were divided and may be slightly tending towards the man. Specially with KKR in a strong position people may had more sympathy towards Pune in the match which was termed as ‘Dada vs Khan’, pointing towards KKR’s one of the owners Shah Rukh Khan.

But, as always Gambhir was completely away from all these hype and tension of the big match. He won the toss and started with a blistering pace to take KKR to 68 runs in the powerplays at a run rate above 11. He played another little gem to score 56 of 36 and took KKR to 113 in the 13th over. But his departure was again followed by mediocre batting by the middle order and they end their innings with 150 on the board, at least 20 short of what to be expected after that opening stand.

If KKR’s middle order batting failure was a regular thing another regular sight was to see Kolkata bowling attack performing considerably well to put a up a great show. Young Marchant De Lange came to the party and gave Knight Riders a great start by removing big guns like Michel Clarke and Robin Uthappa in his first two overs. And when Narine trapped Steven Smith, Pune’s most dangerous batsman in the 9th over, Pune was reeling at 55 for 5. 

In his home ground, Sourav came at number 7 and built a partnership with Angelo Mathews , who suddenly gave Pune a glimmer of hope with 3 consecutive sixes of Yusuf Pathan but the required rate was increasing and when Ganguly got caught at deep mid-wicket, trying to hit Rajat Bhatia for a six, Pune needed 23 of 14. And with Narine bowling the 19th over for just 4 runs, even Mathews could not get the 18 runs required in the last over and KKR won by 7 runs.

The fans who were supporting Pune in the beginning were found to shout at top of their voice for KKR after a good well-fought T-20 match. KKR again found his home among their most passionate of fans.

Match 65 - Mumbai Indians vs Kolkata Knight Riders 

Mesmerizing the Master

Going back to the film analogy, which I gave at the beginning of this article, for KKR supporters Mumbai Indians is that terrifying villain whom they hate the most. Not only KKR had a 1-7 IPL win-loss ratio before this year’s IPL, this is the team who gave KKR some of its most humiliating and heart breaking defeats. From their lowest score of 67 in the first IPL to the Rayadu’s last ball six in IPL-4, it was only the story of failure and despair. Even in the home match in the Eden Gardens MI won quite comfortably thanks to Rohit Sharma’s century.

When Knight Riders went to Mumbai to play the return leg, they knew a win is absolute necessary to keep their chance of finishing in top two alive. Finishing in top two was important as that would give them two chances in the knockouts to reach the final.

Put into bat, KKR started badly, RP Singh’s double strike made them tottering at 6 for 2, and at 96 for 6 in the 16th over, another familiar loss was well on cards. KKR recovered somewhat to add 40 runs in last 4 overs to reach 140 and had at least something for their bowlers to bowl at. But as it turned out, it was more than enough for KKR bowlers to restrict MI batsmen.

Gibbs scored a painstaking 13 of 24 balls to leave MI scoring only 26 runs in the powerplays. Tendulkar kept batting till the eleventh over and his battle against Narine was fascinating to see. But the last delivery of the 11th over was a vicious off break from Narine which hit Tendulkar on thigh and then crashed on to off stump. Once he was gone, KKR bowlers ran through the MI batting line up to bowl them out for 108. Narine finished with 15 for 4 and another Man-of-the-match award.

The Mumbai Indians were also humbled in their home ground and KKR started looking really dominating and a well-balanced unit at this point.

1st Qualifier - Delhi Daredevils vs Kolkata Knight Riders

The Four over Madness

72 group matches are completed and here are they, two most dangerous and consistent teams of IPL-5 met in the first qualifier for a place in the final. The venue was Subrata Roy Sahara Stadium in Pune where the pitch was slow, low and one of the most difficult ones to bat on. Despite the slow nature of the pitch Delhi continued to go with their strategy of Four-pace bowling attack with Yadav, Aaron, Pathan and Morne Morkel, who was IPL’s highest wicket taker. Like Delhi, KKR also go with their strength, the spin bowling attack consists of Narine, Abdulla and Shakib with Yusuf as another potential spin bowling option.

Gautam Gambhir won a very important toss and decided to bat first. KKR started briskly but lost the momentum in the middle overs to lose 3 wickets for 19 runs and at the end of 16th over KKR were 106 for 4, looking at a potential score close to 140. 

That’s when Laxmi Ratan Shukla Waled out of KKR dug out. Laxmi Shukla is another fringe player for KKR, he had experience of first class cricket for more than 12 years and once used to be considered as a potential India all-rounder, but he never got his proper chance and never fulfilled his aspirations. Shukla also played for KKR in all 5 seasons with limited opportunities and even considered moving to Pune Warriors before beginning of the season. KKR team management had different plans and convinced him not to leave.

Shukla joined Yusuf Pathan, who has a different career graph but had a relatively quiet, non-significant IPL and people did raise a question over his price tag of $2.1 million. But somehow both these all-rounders decided to play their most significant parts in IPL 5 at that night and what followed was madness when these two amassed 56 runs in last four overs. There was a method in their madness as they scored 9, 11, 15 and 21 runs in those 4 overs respectively and scored runs through clean hitting in the gaps or shots out of the ground than mistimed edges and stricky boundaries. KKR ended with respectable 162 for 4 in their 20 overs.

Daredevils had a strong batting line up with two explosive batsmen at the top in David Warner and Virendra Sehwag. They also had lots of class in the middle order in Mahela Jayawardene and Ross Taylor. But as many a times this season, all the KKR bowlers played their part and everyone ended with at least one wicket behind their name. 

Some of the Delhi’s strategy was baffling, specially sending Taylor at number seven after Rao and Negi lacks any sense. But the Knight Riders were not complaining. They have reached their maiden IPL final in the fifth attempt.

IPL Final - Kolkata Knight Riders vs Chennai Super Kings

Innings of a Life Time

So after 4 years of pain, embarrassment and heart break here are the Knight Riders, playing their most important match against the reigning champions Chennai Supper Kings in their home ground in Chennai. It can’t get bigger than this. 

But before that KKR had to deal with the massive blow of Balaji getting unfit for the final. Not Only Balaji was one of the meanest of KKR bowlers with an economy rate of 5.40, his absence would also mean that the team balance is disturbed and Kolkata needed to bring in Brett Lee by keeping one of their foreign players from last match out. Narine and Kallis are two players who were impossible to be dropped, so the choice was between McCullum and Shakib, either drop Shakib and play Das, by which KKR would lose one bowling option or drop McCullum to include Manvinder Bisla who played his last match 15 days ago. The recent strong showing of Shakib, especially with the ball, helped him to get the preference over McCullum and hence Bisla got a chance to play and keep wickets in KKR’s most important match of the season.

Super Kings had an indifferent IPL in 2012. In fact, compared to their high standards this season they performed pretty mediocre during the group stages and they only qualified for the play offs because some other teams, most notably Bangalore Royal Challengers threw their chance to qualify by losing their last matches. A devastating spell by Dale Steyn and some poor shot selection by RCB batsmen meant CSK held to its 4th position in the points table and qualified for the play offs.

And like any strong team, CSK got back to his best form in the knock outs, suddenly their batsmen started scoring runs and spinners started getting turns. They thrashed Mumbai and Delhi quite comfortably to reach their 4th final in IPL’s 5 year history. Everyone realized that KKR had a tough task in hand, facing the rampant Super Kings in their home of M.A. Chidambaram stadium. But KKR was silently confident, especially after their win in that venue during the group phase of the league.

MS Dhoni won the toss and while batting first CSK displayed an imposing batting display, only 4 batsmen were required. Mike Hussey and Murali Vijay gave them a good start before Suresh Raina, the most successful batsman in IPL history thumped 73 runs at a strike rate above 192. CSK ended their innings with 190 runs in board, much higher than the per score for big finals like this. KKR bowlers had an off day and none of them could put any control over CSK batsmen. Narine had his most expensive showing of the season and Brett Lee leaked 42 runs in his 4 overs.

KKR’s chase had poorest of starts when they lost their captain, most successful and only consistent batsman in the line-up, Gautam Gambhir in the last ball of the first over with just 3 runs on board. Bisla was joined by the great Jack Kallis and what followed was not in anyone’s wildest dream. With Kallis’ calm presence and solidity, Bisla found a new edge in his game and played a wonderfully free flowing innings and maintain the run rate close to 10, which was required. He scored 89 runs of 48 balls with 8 boundaries and 5 sixes. It was an awesome display of sensible stroke play which caught the entire CSK attack off guard. By the time Bisla got out he brought the equation to 52 runs required of 32 balls. Kallis showed his class to score a gritty 69 of 49. Although he got out with KKR needing 16 of 7 balls which was scored by some innovative and sensible hitting from two Bengal boys (may be from the different side of the border) Shakib Al Hasan and Manoj Tiwari. 

Tiwari later said that, he felt the fielding placement for him was wrong but he took full advantage of that to hit two consecutive fours of Dwayne Bravo though to square leg region. And with the second hit Kolkata Knight Rider’s story was complete. They achieved what they were playing for. They put a lot of sincere hard work and were ecstatic to get their reward. Their emotional story reaches a wonderful and happy ending, just like a successful Bollywood movie.

P.S.

 The above matches or those specific performances may be some of the key junctions in their journey to the triumph but to me this team’s journey started on 8th and 9th January 2011, in the IPL auction for season 4, when KKR management went with a specific plan. They wanted to get away from previous three years’ failure; they decided to have Gautam Gambhir to be their next captain and went all out for him. They did another major purchase in Yusuf Pathan within next 10 minutes and then throughout the next two days they did smart buys like Kallis, Lee, Shakib, Balaji, Tiwari, Morgan and Ryan Ten Doeschate. It showed the management had a proper plan and did a detailed analysis of their strength and weakness to decide on their requirement. 

To me, that was the day when the first seed of KKR’s 2012 IPL win was harvested.

[As always, a special note of thanks for my two most favorite websites:

i. www.cricinfo.com for providing all the stats, scorecard and photos.

ii. www.youtube.com for helping me reliving those great moments]

When She Writes

"MP Tendulkar theke TV Anchor Aamir Khan, Budhhijibi theke Bhooter Bhobisyot, IPL or I-league, Sharadindu othoba satyajit.. Karunamayee r rashtaye brishti bheja bikele sobaike obak kore diye amra style of cricket writing niye jhogra kori..amader gift er list e chocolates, flowers, cards er pashapashi thake Anil Kumble er Wide Angle.. scoop jane amader romance, Eden jane amader SG-RD jhamela.. n dts y you are special, dts y I cherish each & every moment with you. I know I fight a lot, I know I never accept d fact but trust me I am actually in love with your presence in my life. Miss you a lot.. Tapabrata Banerjee"

-------------- Shreyasi Talukdar

Missing You a lot Baby!! 

এক ব্যাঙ্গালোর প্রবাসীর গল্প

লেখাটার শুরুতেই মনটা খারাপ হয় গেলো। এই যে ‘প্রবাসী’ শব্দটা ব্যবহার করতে হল সেটা খট করে কানে এসে লাগল।

তপোব্রত, শেষে তুমি কিনা প্রবাসী হয়ে গেলে!

সত্যি বলতে দাক্ষিণাত্যে প্রায় দুদিন কাটিয়ে ফেলেছি। পৃথিবী বিখ্যাত তাজ হোটেলের এই শাখাটিই এই অঞ্চলের একমাত্র হোটেল আর তাই আমাদের সবাইকেই অফিসের কাছে রাখতে এই হোটেলটিতে তোলা হয়েছে।

শুনতে ভালই লাগছে জানি, এমনকি আমার কিছু পাঠক যদি আমাকে হিংসে করতে থাকেন তাহলেও তাতে আমার কিছু করার নেই কিন্তু সত্যি বলছি আমার মত পাতি লোকের পক্ষে এই ঝাঁ চকচকে হোটেলে থাকা বেশ চাপের ব্যাপার!! পদে পদেই অপদস্থ হওয়ার ভয়ে আতঙ্কিত হয়ে আছি। সারাক্ষণই মনে হয় এই বুঝি হাস্যকর কিছু করে ফেলব। ঘরের অতিরিক্ত জিনিসগুলোর কোনগুলো ফ্রি থেকে শুরু করে আলো নেবানোর সুইচগুলো কোথায়? আমাদের মনে প্রশ্নের অভাব নেই।

তবে সবচেয়ে হাস্যকর করলুম প্রথম দিন দুপুরে। আগের দিন সারা রাত ঘুমোইনি, তারপর ভোরবেলার বিমান যাত্রার ধকল কাটাতে ঠিক করলুম যে স্নান করে ঘন্টা দুয়েক ঘুমিয়ে নেওয়া যাক। তাজ হোটেল, পুরোটাই এসি, সেটাও বেশ ভালই চলে। শুয়েই বেশ শীত করছিল, কিন্তু অনেক খুঁজেও কোন কম্বল পেলুম না ঘরে। ঘরের সব কম্বলই নিরুদ্দেশ! সব জায়গাই দেখলাম ভাল করে এমনকি খাটের তলা পর্যন্তও, কিন্তু কম্বল পেলুম না। কি আর করি, শেষ পর্যন্ত খাটের ওপর রাখা একটি দেড় ফুট প্রস্থের চাদর এবং একাধিক বালিশের সাহায্যে শীত নিবারণ হল। মানে ওই যতটুকু হয় আর কি!

বিকেল হতেই সৌম্যজিতের ঘরে গিয়ে দেখলাম খাটের ওপর দিব্যি একটা কম্বল। মনে মনে যখন তাজের লোকেদের একচোখোমির গালাগালি দেব ভাবছি তখনই বুঝলাম যে, ব্যাপার আর কিছুই নয়, কম্বলটা পাতা আছে বিছানার ওপরেই আর আমি সারা দুপুর কাঁপতে কাঁপতে সেটার ওপরেই শুয়েছি, ভেতরে নয়। সৌম্যজিৎও আমার মতই করার চেষ্টা করেছিল তবে শেষ পর্যন্ত ওর স্ত্রীই খুঁজে বের করে কম্বলটা। অতঃপর কম্বল নিয়ে আর সমস্যা না হলেও তাজ হোটেলের রহস্যের সেই সবে শুরু। তাজে আর দিন ১০ থাকব, জানি না শেষ অবধি এরকম আর কত অভিজ্ঞতা হতে চলেছে!! 

The Countdown

As my Dear Friend Soumyajit has started a countdown in Facebook, here comes my version in this blog...

9...

[24th December 2010: A whole day Kolkata trip with some very nice
 people in the office.]

                                                          ...

8...

[Ashtomi 2008: Baba-Ma was happy to done with the 

Mahashtomi Anjali among a crowd of more than 1000

people waiting in the queue.]

                                                             ...

7...

[11th December 2011: This Indian Kite decided to have a quick rest in 

our place!]

                                                             ...

6...

[24th December 2007: Taken in a random newspaper

stall in College St. Both the man and the mag are 

integral part of my city]

...

5...

[24th April 2012: My Super Self obsessed Girlfriend doing what she does

best! Admiring Herself!!]

                                                             ...

4...

[21st June 2008: Olypub! A Regular Destination in Last five years.]

...

3...

[20th November 2010: Lots of my friends and colleagues got married in

last 5 years. Here's a Happy gang in the reception of Rik & Suchi.]

                                                             ...

2...

[March 2011: Khhirer Putul created for Babaida's Wedding]

                                                             ...

1...

[31st December 2011: This photo was taken somewhere between Mudiali

and Kalighat Metro Station. That day I was alone and spent couple 

of hours walking through the streets of my city. Already knew the 

the Big change is coming. The change came along with another

bigger Change. The crazy one!]

                                                                                                         ...

0

[30th April 2012: My Bags are packed & Ready to Go!! Take Care All!!]

See You My Love

This is a long overdue post. I have planned this one sometime in January but did not gather enough willingness to pen it down.

Obviously, there are lots of topics to write today. I can write about ‘Bhooter Bhobishyot’, a wonderful comedy with great acting and witty one liner like “United we stand, Divided we misunderstand” and “Apnar Phuto ache?” This one is a very nice, different kind of movie so if anyone of you have not seen it please go and enjoy a show.

Then I could have write on ‘Sonar Kella’, I mean not the movie, but the entire controversy surrounding the image created based on the theme which offended our honourable CM of Bengal. Ahh… political games!

The Next topic could have been IPL, Shakib Al Hasan or the great (yet another) comeback by Dada, the Warrior Prince (BTW, a DVD by the same name is gifted by Shreya and it worth its every penny!).

As Shreya’s name came, she could also be a possible topic to write on. Write on all the crazy stuffs she does to make my life no less interesting than an adventure biker.

But today, I am not going to write about any of those topics. No. Something is slowly creeping in to my mind. I knew it. Knew it for a long time (You can check my post in last August) but it seems the time has come. The execution is going to happen soon.

I first time came to Kolkata in September 1983. Pretty funny as you might think, because till that time there was no existence of mine in this world. I was still in my mother’s womb. She was close to 6-7 months pregnant by that time. My parents spent the puja in there new rented house in Goria and then Ma went back to Dakishnshwar, my ‘Mamabari’ for the delivery and that’s where in a govt. hospital I saw the first light of planet earth in the afternoon of 6^th December.

I do not know when I returned to Kolkata. I could assume sometime in early 1984. And then my growing up period was started, deeply connected to the city. I grew up from a child, to a boy, to a youth and finally a man. At the same time, my city gets old, or does she? With all the dazzling shopping malls and flyovers and Millennium Parks, the city of Kolkata looks new with every passing day.

But the city is changing, and changing fast. All the mid-afternoon hawkers who used to sell various products ranging from egg to fish to utensils to toys, by roaming around the streets are being replaced by the delivery men from Flipkart (God bless them!) and Snapdeal (Not so impressive). The ‘Mudir Dokan’s are replaced by Spencers. The old Tiger printed red government buses are replaced by new Volvo look-alike buses by some company called ‘Jnnurm’ (Funny name, I have to accept).

One interesting change I have observed is the tele-communication. In 80’s, only a few homes used to have telephones and I remember neighbours of such houses used to give those numbers to their relatives for emergencies. But then telephone started becoming necessity and those telephone owners became less friendly and by early-nineties there was a boom of STD-ISD booths throughout the city. And since we did not have a telephone in our house till 1998 and due to my father’s job in Patna we used to use those booths pretty frequently. Then by 2000, most of Bengali high-middle class households became proud owner of BSNL telephones and those booths started losing their importance. But hey, if your businesses is down stop the sell and change the product and the easy replacement was computer/internet. And then suddenly you started finding a lot of cyber cafes at every corner of the streets, this continued for another 7-8 years by which time a computer/laptop became affordable and is a regular piece of household décor. And finally the cyber café business has started going down and now days you would mostly find those shops selling prepaid mobile cards or providing services like Printing, Scanning and Photocopy.

My city is changing. Big time.

It’s still Kolkata, the heart and soul of the city is remaining same but may be the clothes are changing. The old shirts from Gariahat are getting replaced by Van Heusen suits. The city looks more colourful, more intimidating and less green, even sometimes less friendly. But still it’s MY city. This is the City of my dreams. Yes, I want to visit London, Paris, New York, LA and Munich but at end of the day I want to come back to Kolkata, the city which I can relate to.

In last 28 years, I have gone out of Kolkata quite a few times. I was part of various trips in Benaras (When I was 2 and half years old), Goa, Rajasthan and even Sydney. And every time I loved returning to my place. It’s better feelings in case you are returning by Train to look at those arches on Howrah Bridge. I felt like my city is welcoming me back with open hands, telling me, “I missed you!”

I spent couple of years during my masters in the industrial town of Kanpur and I still remember how much I used to miss my city for those two years. I used to miss the dust, the traffic, the food, the crowd on the roads; I missed the smell of my city. I remember how much I used to become desperate to come back during every possible holiday. To tell you the truth, I feared that I would get a job in Bangalore and would have to settle there, I also mentally prepared myself to accept the dreaded fate but as the luck would have it; I was the only guy in the class who end up getting a job in Kolkata. And after two years I came back, as we say in Bengali “ঘরের ছেলে ঘরে ফিরল!”

The last five years were mixed. Had good times, not so good times, felt great joy and became heartbroken! But as the poet said, “এই শহর জানে আমার প্রথম সব কিছু” and all my feelings were shared with the every bit of this great city. I felt peace while walking down the streets around Maidan. I have enjoyed the lighting at every Durga Puja, every Christmas! Walked with thousands of man after the completion of a cricket match in Eden Gardens, waited for hours in the queue in front of Peter Cat to have my own plate of Chello Kebab, Had ice cream by the Ganges with my sweet heart, went to Victoria Memorial with my friends. Cried in my mind when I heard about boys and girls of my age got killed in the fire in park Street, abused the weather change with my colleagues who shared a cab with me at two o’clock in the afternoon pickups.

But with all the good, bad and ugly aspects it is my city. I can do whatever I want here. I can bash it like anything and at the next moment I and only I can have a fight with a Delhaite to prove my city is awesome!

But, now the time has come. In two weeks’ time I will be gone, gone to Southern state of Karnataka, yes in Bengaluru. Is it permanent? I don’t know, and that’s the scary part! I am telling myself, “Two years! That’s it. You will be back!”

But what if I can’t, what if there’s no suitable job for me in my beloved city. What if my struggle for existence and my wish to keep my parents and that crazy girl happy keep me away from coming back to my city?? I am sorry, I can’t even think about that now!

Okay, answer to that question is hidden in the future, but right now, I have to leave my city. I have to pack my belongings and stay in an unknown city, a city without any connection. A city where the only thing I can speak in the local language is “Kannada Gotila!” I do not like this at all. For last few months whenever I am out in a date with my girl or sometimes when I am alone, I have tried my best to accumulate all possible memories of my city.

But well, now I have to go. The alternates are not good enough and decision from heart rather than my mind could hurt me a lot. So, I am going my dear Kolkata but I will miss you. I promise I would come back at every possible opportunity (ok just a secret to be shared with you only, there is this another beautiful girl for whom I will try to come back too, I know you love her, don’t you). Be good. Keep your people happy, keep them in peace.

ভাল থেকো কলকাতা!!     

[The above video is a tribute of mine to my lovely friend, Kolkata. I have created this video in 2007 using the Photostory software. The background song used is 'Amar Shohor' by Kolkata's very own Chandrabindoo. A big thanks to them. Most of the pictures used in this are taken by a French friend of one of my cousins, and a few photographs are taken from the net with the help of www.Google.com]

Enjoy!!