Tryst With Footballing Destiny

I have just procured tickets to watch Liverpool FC take on Fulham at Anfield on Saturday 22 November. It will be my first trip to Merseyside in 13 years (I think) and my first time to the home of one of the world's greatest football clubs. Unfortunately, I will be sitting with the Away Fans but it was a choice of that or nothing. I won't be able to wear my Red colours but I don't care. I simply can't wait till I hear the Kop faithful belting out You'll Never Walk Alone as the players step onto the pitch. Hopefully Torres and Gerrard will both be fit and playing. There's a total of five of us goin up so it should be an awesome day out. Much drinking and revelry and perhaps even a Liverpool victory.

Meanwhile, I've also bought tickets to watch Liverpool take-on Tottenham Hotspurs at White Hart Lane in the Carling Cup on Wednesday 12 November. The tickets were fairly reasonably priced and it'll be my first visit to the stadium. The top stars will not be playing but it should still be a cracking match. Spurs have a new manager and we're top of the league table. But in bloody typical fashion, you go twenty-four years having watched Liverpool live in action only once, and then in the space of ten days two matches come running along. w00t!

Vishy Anand Becomes The World Chess Champion

I've been waiting for this moment my whole life, especially after the disappointment against Kasparov in 1995. The crowning glory to an awesome career. The media is obviously going to say he's retained his title but the truth is, a tournament blitz is to chess what Twenty20 and ODIs are to cricket. They're hit and giggles but not the real thing. It's a pity the two finalists could not play a proper chess Test match but it's better than nothing. Kramnik was comprehensively outmaneuvered in most of the games. Anand surprised the Russian with a number of novelty moves and was adventurous enough to forsake his usual e4 opening with d4 instead. And despite a lapse in concentration in the tenth game, it would be fair to say that there was only ever going to be one winner, after Anand took a three point lead by the half-way stage. The days of 24 game Finals are sadly behind us but at least the Titles have been united and we can safely say that in Kasparov's absence, Vishy Anand is officially the world's best chess player. Congratulations mate. You've done India and Tamils proud. JAI HIND!

(Incidentally, it is worth mentioning that Anand becomes the first person to win the game's biggest crown in three different formats. In 2000 he won the 128-player knockout format, last year he won an eight-player double round-robin format (that included Kramnik) and now this.)

India 7/613d (161ov; Gambhir 206, Laxman 200*) v Australia 0/50 (15ov), Day 2 of 3rd Test @ Delhi

VVS Laxman celebrates another double-century against the Aussies | Close but no cigar, Gambhir edges closer to his 1st double-century
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It's the first time India have had two double-centurions in the same innings and the first time Australia have conceded two double-centuries in the same innings. In the course of his second double-century (both have come against the Aussies), Laxman passed a number of milestones, including overtaking Gundappa Vishwanath's 6080 Test runs and becoming only the second Indian (after SRT) to score more than 2000 Test runs against the Aussies. The latter is an incredible achievement, almost Terry Aldermanesque in its proportion of runs against Australia to his total number of runs. If memory serves me right, half of Alderman's 180-odd Test wickets were against England and they came in only two Ashes series, separated by nearly a decade or something funny like that. Laxman's record against Australia is somewhat similar. Nearly a third of all his Test runs have come against the greatest team of his era, an astonishing record. Interestingly, this was only his second century against the Aussies at home and 6th overall. The first one was obviously that unforgettable 281 at Kolkata in 2001. Speaking of which, it will take the Aussies a similar herculean effort to come anywhere close to leveling the series. India are in an impregnable position and should reclaim the Border-Gavaskar trophy by the end of the weekend. Oh and before I forget, a special mention to Gautham Gambhir for becoming the first Delhiite to score a century at home since Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi in Feb 1964. Incidentally, Pataudi also scored a double century then. Gambhir has now scored back-to-back centuries against the Aussies and has cemented his place in the team. It remains to be seen how he will fare on non-Subcontinental pitches but if recent Indian performances abroad are to be taken into account, the confidence gained from this series should serve him well on our next such tour. COME ON YOU INDIANS!! JAI HIND!!

The Crumbling Wall

                   RUNS       AVG       100s/50s    MATCHES   INNINGS  NO
Rahul Dravid-1     4912       73.31     14/22       49        80       13
Rahul Dravid-2     1303       32.58     2/7         24        44       4
Gautam Gambhir      737       56.69     2/4          7        13       0
VVS Laxman         1556       53.66     3/10        22        38       9
Virender Sehwag    1268       50.72     3/3         14        26       1
Sachin Tendulkar   1578       49.31     4/10        20        36       4
Sourav Ganguly     1798       44.31     4/8         23        43       3
MS Dhoni           1012       38.92     0/8         19        31       5
Wasim Jaffer       1061       34.22     3/5         17        32       1

Rahul Dravid used to be the world's greatest batsman. Between 2000 and 2005 he scored nearly 5000 runs under Sourav Ganguly's captaincy at a Bradmanesque average of 73.31, breaking down bowling attacks all over the world and setting up famous Indian victories in Australia, South Africa, England, Pakistan and the Windies. Then Greg Chappell became the Indian coach and his spat with Ganguly resulted in the latter being dropped. Dravid assumed the captaincy and his batting has never been the same again. The rest of the numbers above are taken from all matches played since 30 June 2006 when Dravid's average reached a peak of 58.75. It has since dropped to below 54 and the free fall shows no signs of stopping. You know things are going wrong when MS Dhoni and Wasim Jaffer have done better than you over a two-and-a-half year period. Jaffer's even been dropped but Dravid's past heroics keep the Fab Four intact. He's also survived because others around him have masked his failures. If he doesn't score in the final Test, I'd say it's high time they dropped him for a youngster who deserves an opportunity and time to settle into Test cricket. As it happens, Sourav Ganguly has decided to be the first of the Galacticos to bow out gracefully and it is somewhat ironic that since his return to the team and without the burden of captaincy, he has scored more runs than any other batsman till date. Dravid's demise has been apparent for a while but I never realized just how bad it was. Even his strike rate, which was already among the slowest in world cricket, has taken a dip. Is this the end of the road for one of India's greatest batsman?