Thursday, June 11, 2009

T20 World Cup Fixture is Buggy

The fixtures and schedule for the ICC T20 World cup 2009 are faulty. The concept of pooling them into groups based on the previous world cup rankings is pretty justifiable but ranking them this time based on their last world cup's performance is sheer stupidity. For instance, even though England and South Africa have topped their respective pools this time they have been named as B2 and D2 and hence they have to play against the tougher teams A1 and C1. So for the super eights you have a pool which has teams like India,England,South Africa and West Indies. Three out of these four have topped the tables this time around. And the other pool has Pakistan,Ireland,New Zealand and Sri Lanka, only one pool topping team among the four. Ideally the pools for super eight should have been decided based on what ranks the teams achieve this tournament. Now, this has resulted in huge imbalance among the pools for the super eights. Another effect of this mistake is the the last few matches have become inconsequential. For instance, the match between West Indies and SriLanka and the match between New Zealand and South Africa. They just served merely as a practice match where teams tried to seize the momentum as they go into the next round.
I believe the reason for making such fixtures was to boost the sale of tickets and advance bookings as it was known well in advance where will the teams meet for super eights match unless there is a upset like the ousting of Australia. It is time the organizers think beyond petty gains like this which kills the competitive spirit of the game and makes the series a lackluster one.

Monday, June 8, 2009

Memories down under in Coimbatore

Well, somethings don't happen when and where you wish . They just happen when they are destined to. And till then you have to wait for the moment. I had been thinking of going and visiting my college and the beautiful city of Coimbatore where it is situated ever since I completed a year into this corporate world but then the thought had a wait time of 4 years before it finally materialized.

Yes, indeed this weekend I visited Coimbatore and more importantly spent a time of full 2 hours inside the campus taking snaps and recollecting memories of lost times, of times which will never come back again. It was really bad that there was no one in the college except some staffs who were invigilating over some exams happening. So, here I had an unrestricted access into all the hostel and department blocks. Of course, the labs were closed. The Coimbatore weather in June, stayed true to its expectations and was at its typical best. It was breezing all the while with intermittent drizzle now and then. Many things have changed and many new things have cropped up new. Like the new Civil Engineering block. But some things are rock solid and unchanged. Like the hostel and the greenery around. It goes to the credit of the college administrators for not giving in to expansion at the price of greenery. As for around the college, there are a lot of new bakeries which have sprung up. Also, noteworthy for me was the new snooker,billiards and pool outlet which has come up. Brave move by the owner I would say knowing my college mates finances. Nakshatra has become Ponnusamy, K.R Bakes has become K.R. Restaurants , I think this change is all across Coimbatore. Somethings have vanished, like the all famous Karthick mess.

Life has to move on and so have we. But some memories remain etched in ur minds forever though in dormant state. It was like hitting the rewind button on the remote control and then watching the highlights of the play again.