Science of Cricket

Every sport revolves around few basic aspects like skill, stamina, fitness, mental toughness, strategy and tactics.

Cricket is no exception. On further reading about the game one can understand the game better, play the game better. Not that passionate cricket fanatics (like me)lack the understanding; they would understand and appreciate the theories better.

By theories, I mean the science behind the techniques.Why does the ball swing? How your batting grip affects your timing? why strengthening the tendons can help you achieve better results in fast bowling? Things become clearer.

I was more keen on fast bowling. I found out that, it is probably the toughest aspect of the game and requires meticulous training to even sustain bowling leave alone mastering it.

To sum up fast bowling : a smooth run-up, a consistent action, the skill required to make the ball do various things, the stamina to run up and down 6 or more times in a 5 minute span, the flexibility to stay free from injuries, the aggression required to claim a wicket, ability to apply oneself according to the situation, which in turn requires some cricket acumen to read the situation at hand, strength and power required to hit the deck and keep the ball at a good speed, ability to predict the batsman's next move, change field positions when needed... the list is actually a big one.

I loved reading some of the articles and seeing a few videos by experts on fast bowling. The science behind it is overwhelming at times. To show you an example: The reason why shoaib akthar can notch up to 160 K. What is it he does ? His left arm plays a big part in his pace, might be a huge surprise for cricket followers.

Just to explain his action :His pace is due to 2 things;
momentum which he generates with his run up(70%) + the final action(30%).
The run up factor is the same for his contemporaries like shane bond and brett lee. They almost score 70 on 70.The action is the key here. Apart from the shoulder strength, which helps you launch the ball at a fiery pace, there are these subtle dynamics that help you get that extra bit of pace. At the time of delivery, i.e when he lands his left foot, if you may notice his left hand is as high as his shoulder level and his right hand is exactly parallel to the ground and behind his back. Making the leverage to a max of 90 degrees, given the fact that he delivers at the top of his action. If the left hand been a little lower then his right hand would be a little higher and his leverage would be less.


These details might be boring to many, but this shows how much of science is involved in the game and how understanding them can improve your performance.

My Love for the game has increased many folds. I just love the fact I play cricket even after coming to US, keeps me fresh and fit. To all those dumb computer addicted guys who have no or negligible physical activities, get out and play some sport. Sweat a bit, play hard and stay cool.

(P.S I'm not sponsored by RBK)

A Turning Point

I think, at times, as to what can bring in a change in oneself. I thought for sometime and eventually concluded that its an event with some magnanimity, that touches, modifies and reverberates in you till death. The impact that would last a life time.
I was hoping that it would happen to me someday.

It happened on may 28th, 2006, when I was shown the doorway to hell for a solid 20 odd minutes.
To be brief, I fell into the ganges while rafting, the whole raft toppled and whilst some got in, i wasn't the lucky one, i had to struggle for 20 odd mins without a raft, downstream and with a lifejacket, absolutely no swimming and the ironnic 'hope' that I wouldn't die. After a gruelling 20 mins i found myself on the raft again with my childhood friend easwar in it, smiling at me, to tacitly mean "yes, you are lucky to be alive".


The things that you think of, when you are damn sure you are going to die, is very wierd. My immidiete thoughts weren't hovering over my family or my friends. Nor did i think of uttering 'vande mataram' with the truest patriotism. I was thinking of as to how to stay afloat in the moving water, how to avoid the rocks if i were to hit one and how to motivate myself to keep me fighting if I get hit by a rock underneath the vehement rapid. Once you think of all those things, you just reassess your state, just to lie to yourself that you still stand a chance.. your subconscious and conscience becomes a single entity at such a crisis.. and i eventually "understood" that those were my last moments..


There were some funny thoughts as well..
the one i remember clearly is this "Fuck, I haven't had sex, Damn I'm going to die a virgin".

Once these thoughts flashed past my overburdened mind, the panic level which was always increasing with time, seemed to hit a new high. The reason being me seeing a rapid straight up.. it was a small one though.. give me a break.. for an amateur adventurer who swims like a 58 kilo rock, needs the slightest of the issues to get panicked... as the panic permeates through my body, i was in the rapid, drinking the holiest water a Hindu can drink(H20 from Ganges) at a rate, which would make any camel proud.

Then came the second small rapid, not that I was feeling comfortable after the first one. The same old "water water everywhere and I need to drink the all of it" poem kept ringing in my head. I felt nausea for the first time. I told myself "Oh My god, now you wanna puke.. no way!! you dont have it in you to push out all that you ate"
and as I had lot of things to worry about like for instance 'my life', I was able to distract myself from vommiting.

Now there were few other things that were happening like one of the guys who was struggling like me without the raft, who also, sort of, followed the same course along the river, now changed his course due to his swimming capabilities and was heading to a raft that was almost still. One other similar dude, was already on another raft. "I'm the only one" isn't always a very happy thought. While I was watching these happen, the whole scene was viewed by hundreds of people, who were
walking past the "Ramjhula" or the "Laxmanjhula"(these are the long narrow suspension bridges that stretched across the ganges. Now I was on my way to making the headline on a local daily. I would have been the talk of the town, in a manner I would rather be not talked about.

The water was slowing down, not a rapid until the visible bend. These good signs was accompanied by a bad event. I was going down. I tried tightening my life guard. I shouted "I'm going down.. Help" and before i realised what was happening, my head was totally submerged in the still water. My hands were above the water level though. I was waving it, and FYI dumb charades doesn't help you in anyway in such a situation.

I was heading to a raft which was carrying 2 of my friends. I was hearing "do not panic... " and a gesture which was supposed to mean 'lift yourself up', initially made me feel "hang yourself.. kill yourself". All this done with a babylike smile on his face. Just giving me the last dose of temper. And my childhood friend was wearing a scott cooling glass, and wearing no emotion on his face, like he always does. All this was just before I sank.

When I was viewing the murky ganges from inside it, I was upright and I hoped i would soon reach some land from below and would kick myslef out to the surface. I was shaking my leg in a useless pattern, it made no difference. I was still, very gradually going down. Then the body came up with a great idea. Put its all the stored energy into use and save me. It pushed out the lunch i had devoured, a quarter ago, into the ganges, along with the ganges I had taken in. I was, to my relief, moving against gravity and hit the surface. Air that i had been breathing all my life, seemed like the elusive nobel prize that a physicist hopes to get. Soon after this, I was even more rigourous in making SOS calls out to the rafts. Like they say, a person goes down and comes back up 3 times, before he forever goes down. I had 2 more lifelines, but absolutely no energy to fight back in any manner. Then i found myself moving toward a rock, hit it with my feet, hugged it and climbed on to it. I held the rope thrown from the raft, pulled it closer to me, until it hit the rock i was sitting on and somehow climbed into it. Then, told myself, "lucky to be alive".

Anti Aussie Syndrome

If a team cant defend a total of 438.. gosh...

Big Bad Moon from the album "Flying In A Blue Dream" by Joe Satriani


I know... no mcgrath, no womeniser warne(dropped i believe).. SA dint have shaun pollock..
so it all puts things balanced...

probably the greatest upset ever possible.. ridiculing the concept of ODIs.. may be a side effect of 20-20 thing..
I guess Indians shld start playing 20-20... i saw the highlights of the australian inning, it probably wud have been the longest highlights if the provider decided to show every boundary for a single inning..
but it was a short film for 30 mins.. and the shorts looked surreal..
esp punter's... front foot across, ball comes to his hips and he bangs that for a six over deep square leg with his "innocuous" but extrememly effective short arm jab(almost like a flick of the pads)..

I was just able to see gibbs batting put in a 2 min package at the end of the highlights package..
unbelievable... i cant do something to that effect even if i was bowled to by a 4 yr old kid in my hall with a plastic ball
underarm with the walls of the hall being the boundaries... seriously speaking.. it was unbelieveable..
I had just seen Lara, sehwag, jayasurya and of course Sachin(during sharjah of course) play with immense fluency and arrogance....
relentless as he was left ricky and his "maytes" chokin for fresh air in that huge open space

Aussies made fun of murali when he conceded 10-0-99-0 against them..
Mike Lewis the victorian got 10 -0-113-0 far ahead of the great tamilians muthiaah muralitharan and thirunaavukarasu kumaran
the latter gave 97 and took 1 wicket(i guess against aussies)

For all the war of words said between the teams... Womeniser warne, the greatest leg spinner ever, mocked smith when the latter had challenged the aussies to beat them in their home, that "smith shouldn't be speakin the way he did, esp after losing to us in the most detrimental fashion"....
Fuck hole aussies need to learn one important lesson... no matter how good they might be... never ever ever let their squeaky incorrigible accented English words out too early and get away with it in the name of "psyching the opponents" during their illmouthed pre series press talks...
Like wat Prof.kamakoti said abt IIM managers "there will be one crore bank balance but no hair in the head"...(absolutely no offense for IIM mgrs.. i just like the way he said his views thats it)
"they might be the best team in the world, they have their mental disorders to be taken care off".. ponting will have nightmares till he dies, I'm sure abt it..
he may forget the 2003 world cup victory against the Indians but he wont forget this great match... esp because its on the same ground...
I saw the aussies reeling with joy in their dressing room when their team reached 400.. rightly so... but they dint even have an iota of wat was abt to happen
that afternoon...

Ponting wud have said to gilly "hey mayte.. u wanna roll ur arms over.. u can afford to"... I'm almost sure Indians wud have contained them... captaining was poor.. when clarke and symonds put the brakes on during the late 30's and early 40's overs
he brought back the legendary lewis... and helped vanderwaath make up for his poor bowling show..
I might sound extremely sadistic though i dont take pride in it..when i saw the aussies walking off the field(in the pic)
after boucher had slammed a boundary to win the match.. their faces made me euphoric... its may be because India lost to them very badly in the finals or anything else.... but its a moment I wud cherish and will be emphasized, italicised and underlined in a chapter about my cricketing life
in my autobiography...(or biography)

I wish Steve waugh was captaining this team( I can see some folks claiming it wud have been otherwise if he had captained.. but this is not for those hypothetical theoreticians) and I wish Gibbs said "hey steve u'd wish i had taken the catch that day and u had beaten us in this game"

to quote the histerical kollywood hero.. the deplorable rascals of all time "ilayathalapathi vijay"
Vaazhkai oru vattam maadhiri.. thoathavan jeipaan jeichavan thoapaan... from the mouth of a rascal the words as terse and sensible as Pascal the prgming language..

to an extent the whole match was like this stupid actors movie.. lotta action.. lotta fun.. and an unbelievable
climax with hero victorious..

Hey Aussie fans...need a tissue or something!!! LOL (I hope u r still a fan of AUS cric team)

Myriad Instantiations of Euphoria

A long legged lean kid with pretty long hair sitting with his legs stretched out on a parapet leaning against the side wall, just his silhouette visible on a dark blue night sky background...
His hair waving to the vibrations of the air.... Moon shining in the sky.. Its light glinting on his eyes creating a silver lining along his iris...
The ambiance is so very peaceful he starts to ruminate about his past, contemplate about life as such.... Probably its a summary in one of his life's chapters where the author,himself, recapping what this intangible, yet so real life, has done to him....

He is none other than me...

Being happy is everyone's intention... So is mine... Even the most selfless souls feel happy when they do some good deed to others... It makes them wanna do it over and over again...

Certain instances in my life.. I have been overwhelmed by joy.. Nothing but happiness...
the so called Euphoria

I can think over it again and again and though I wont get euphoric just by thinking over it, I will still feel the minute subtle happiness... May be these are the magic potions given to us, where we can force ourselves to a state of happiness...

This time I plan to give the magic potion to every one.... it might not work for you... but u might end up knowing how I get the potion working for me... Here goes...

the god is back.... the instant when he hit a straight drive past the bowler, I knew he was back to his olden days.... those golden days... where he played every other bowler like a school boy.. smashing them around...
for me the one of the most blissful sight is the little master stroking a breath taking straight drive, the technique so perfect that watching it few times over can make a newbie in cricket play the drive better, love the game more... scratch his body over and over after every over dew to goose bumps... and after all this inimitable qualities... he lives the life like just another Indian... for me the way in which one handles his victories speaks volumes about his attitude than how he tackles his defeats... He is inhuman... a true legend...

watch the makers name as he drives


Thinking is a gift, its free and it can throw u into euphoria if the repercussions of it are worth
while.. like when Archimedes shouted "Eureka"... I never had such instants... may be I have had miniature versions of it... like solving a problem, proving a theorem, writing an algorithm...
but what I have had at times is not the "thinking" but the "not thinking" variant...

not letting any thoughts bounce back and forth in ur head is divine... like these..........

when I plug my ear phones tight... scroll the ipod clockwise to maximize the volume..
and close my eyes... listening to "vellai pookal.." or "dil se re" or "kannathil muthamittal.."....
Lost in music... feels like heaven doesn't it???
once the song is over... when I try to think of what I was thinking when the song was playing.. I couldn't find a single thought... may be thats when my mind is formatted(as in formatted partition)... ready for some 'nerdy' data to be filed in.... my mind is definitely an old DOS FS.. like FAT16... cos my mind requires constant formatting... very crappy most of the times and crashes often due to lot of bad sectors... LOL...

As the adage goes "sing like no one is hearing... dance like no one is watching"...
it works miracles for me... Yeah.. its such an effective medicine that can push me up in the
"happimeter".... it requires a minimum level of happiness to get it working.. when i'm damn dead due to some catastrophic news, standing in my bath tub and singing wont ease my mind..
it works when I got nothing to do and I dont know how to self motivate and cheer myself up... these tonics come in handy..

singing the songs not giving a damn about my voice, discarding sweet curses like "SHUT UP" from my cohabitants... and with every instant passing by, I prove einstein's time dilation theory... time flies at the speed of light... and I never realise it.. I need a physical intervention to get me out from that state.... and its usually a sore throat or a jaw ache... LOL

Dance.... well well well... I may not dance very gracefully... But I do possess the most important quality necessary for dancing... dancing following my inner beats... just stop thinking and follow my subconscious to choreograph on the fly... dynamically... let me tell you my subconscious process has a great compiler... better than GCC!!!

There are many other things... but letting them out is like providing a peeping hole into my lovely soul... so i would like to stop here... and stay out of fear... but if u think u deserve to know more about me.. u can always ask me.. and if i feel like letting itout.. i will definitely open the door..

Some cricket and my hectic schedule

hello everybody!!!!!!!!!!!

For those of you who dint know... i got my GA...
GA stands for Graduate Assistantship.....

in the english department....
lotsa big shots....
and the best part of my job is that i get to interact with them as their colleague...
i have my own room... its full of junk computers and its organs...
u guys can visit http://www.uic.edu/depts/engl if u wanna know more about my
colleagues and have a look at their faces....
my boss's name is Nancy Gebhardt, a stereotypical old american lady.
Almost everyone around me is very nice....

okie lets talk about some cricket...

I'm now part of a cricket team....
We are called advancers...

first match... we won... we played in astro turf.. awesome out field....
we scored 223 in 40 overs and they were allout for around 109 i guess...
i scored 8 opening the innings and was out driving a ball upishly straight into the hands of cover fieldsmen...
dint bowl... but i think i can better than many of my teams' bowlers...
i just coiudln't ask for them to give me a chance... they are all unlces... if u know
what i mean!!!!

second match... we lost ... but i played well... again in astroturf and this pitch was much faster than the older one....
scored 22 unbeaten runs.. i came as 7 down batsman and i had to play with the tail...
i had a hit in my crouch area... guys who play cricket know that its not funny
to get your balls wacked by the cricket balls.. though i had the cup in place it still tickled and i
had to gasp for breathe for a feww minutes....
i also kept wickets...
i dropped the openers catch when he was in knot and he went on to score 61 in 3o odd balls...
we lost the match only because of that....
we came pretty close though...

for scores click here
our batting scores is not updated yet and i guess it wont ever be updated but
i know the reader will believe me....
"Faith is a beautiful thing if not the best of things"

Home away from home

his post is dedicated to my new permanent accomodation @

826 S claremont avenue, Apt#2,
chicago, IL 60612.
US

I tried sending to groups but the size exceeded the limits and hence i'm posting it...
Sorry for the delay in loading this page...



This is one bedroom with newly bought stuff in it

Another bedroom.........
Another bedroom.... yeah its a 3 bedroom apt with guys in it...
Me, Siddharth, Sai prasad, VIjay krish and Sirish apparantly others haven't moved in then...
Corridor with 3 bedrooms and a common bathroom doors on the left... straight door is our balcony
This is kitchen...got a fridge, baking oven and shelfs(this comes with the house) and an oven(which u see in the pic) and a mixer are the ones we bought
kitchen again

me and sid
My roomie Siddharth boiling milk in oven...(see we dint give up on our heritage/culture/religion et al)


The above one is our pooja shelf...

I'm all CUBS and BULLS

Chicago is known for Chicago Cubs(baseball team.. which i'm getting addicted to) and Chicago bulls..... Jordan is still a GOD in my part of the world...

okiedokie...

I'm doing good here.... not good enuf for a GA though...
Something keeps pushing me...i still haven't found out wat...
but my day goes like this
wake up at 8 00 am
wait for the restroom(my bowels r on a strike i guess!!)
breakfast is : cereals with milk, protein shake or a half boiled egg, and a coffee(not even close to my mom's!!!)
and head to either west campus or east campus... east campus is engg and sciences... west campus is medical, nursing pharmacy n
stuff like that..... where ever i go i do this....
" hi i'm a grad stud... looking for ga(this with a big smile and they usually wish me.. they r artifically courteous..)
i just thought i wud drop in my resume.... hm huh.. is there ne openings here ?(reply :a spontaneous polite no) okie ne way
u may want my resume for ne future openings.... have a nice day..(i usually end up smiling as if i earned a million dollars) and sorry for the trouble..."
or something to this effect..
and we usually meet in some place to have lunch.. my fav is cheese pizza with a choc milk(3.5$.. the cheap and best in the east campus)
or eat in a chinese restaurant.. my good god they serve fried rice for 3 people and they call that "small veg fried rice" which is around 3.25$ and its not that good or not that bad either... and we go as 6 or 8 peeps and we will buy a JUMBO fried rice (small< medium< large< jumbo) which is around 8 $ and it turns to be a long fun lunch and also the cheapest possible...i once saw a fat (1 in 4 r obese) female devouring a large all by herself... and after that she went to the neighbouring shop to have a sub( a burger kinda thing sold in subway) and a drink(large.. close to 750ml)... i was shcoked to see that... peeps here live to eat...
i now no longer stay with those DAL fellows(DAL = kaboor[mocked version of kapoor]= north indians)
i live with tam folks.. when i say tam folks i mean pakka tam guys ranging from coimbatore, erode, chennai etc etc..
and the count is around 20 and we (5 of us) have signed a lease and will be moving in on sunday making the count go
to 25 everything is pretty close.... each house is either meter away laterally or a floor above me... so its immense fun esp in the weekend..
they screened padayappa... samma koothu!!! and we also played cricket...

speakin of cricket... guys take some 30 tennis balls(not exaggerating) and end up returning with mostly 0 or less than 5...
we play on sundays in between the lecture halls and we loose a tennis ball every 3 overs...start around 4 pm and end up around 8 30 pm....
sun sets here at around 9 pm ... and thats damn deceiving .. i while away my time thinking its just 6 and suddenly i realise when my dad calls up and the time is 9 30 or so....

i bowled after a long time and my shoulder went crazy....

and u guys must read my resume... it sounds as though i'm ready for a coding job in AT&T or BELL(bleeding babu bell hahahaha)
will post my resume or just mail you guys...

there was a b'day party for one of my senior... i saw some real time gross videos.... like the ones we download in kazaa and we see a guy getting killed alive or something to that effect...
b'day bums... i thought 'thank god my b'day comes in march'... machees dharma adi na dharma adi... and all are drunk...
the guy then gets ready for a abhishegam session and it goes like
samber 1 vessel full
rasam if any...
pepsi as many as ppl wish..
and some sarakku as well.. volume of it depends upon the cost of the sarakku..
and then he comes out bathing and guys r even more drunk now and now again a bums session and follwed by
cake abhishegam... he then again goes for a bath.. poor guy comes out hoping nothing happens and he gets some goodies...
this senior named JUDE got a Apple ipod shuffle... 200$ or so and other goodies like chocs and stuff

i usually hit my home at around 4pm and then music rings till i sleep.. and i walk in to ne of the seniors house and eat wat ever i want..
chips, juices, desserts, rice with sambar, biriyani wat not... dinner is usually very heavy as all of us eat lunch outside and breakfast is also very light....
and sit with comp for sometime.. get some conversation goin with seniors and get some tips from them....
and i crash at around 12 pm...

and u guys(my friends) and my family visit my dreams..... and at times some hot female who smiled at me when i said "have a nice day".... guess wat then... a guy named umashankar wakes me up saying "dey baadu time evalo theriyuma 8 15.... endhiri!!"