Deep Backward Point

The indefatigable Subash Jayaraman recorded Dravid memories of a bunch of cricket writers and fans across the globe for a great 22-minute tribute to the wonderwall. There are contributions from Sriram Dayanand, Siddhartha Vaidyanathan, Jarrod Kimber, Samir Chopra, Nicole Sobotker and Sight Screen Editorial Members: Minal, Rohit Naimpally and Dilip Poduval.

Go listen.

∞

My contribution was the music selection for the intro, interludes and outro. If you’re curious, here’s what we used:

• Intro: first dozen seconds of the 1812 Overture by Pyotr Il’yich Tchaikovsky performed by the Skidmore College Orchestra (from musopen)
• Interlude: shorter clip from the same clip as above
• Outro: last dozen seconds of The Brandenburg Concerto by Johann Sebastian Bach performed by the US Army Band (from musopen)

Why did I select these? Well, because they’re awesome.

And because they are in the public domain.

∞

The quote in the title is from Sriram Dayanand’s contribution to the audio tribute.

And if you haven’t been listening to Subash Jayaraman’s awesome cricket podcast, Couch Talk, I have no words for you.

From Miss ESPNCricinfo Staff:

The Pune Warriors will remain in the IPL and its parent company Sahara will continue its sponsorship of the Indian team [..] The major concession Pune seem to have won is the restoration of its auction purse of $1.6 million and the licence to buy players who were not sold at the auction and also foreign players who were not part of the auction.

That’s blackmail. In a perfect world, the BCCI would have called their bluff and looked for another sponsor.

Also, in a perfect world the Pune owner would not have had to negotiate with the Chennai owner on the fate of their franchise.

Reinforcing my earlier point about modern changes to cricket, Andy Bull writes a great piece on the influence of DRS on the great game:

During Pakistan’s series victory over England it felt as though there was hardly a single facet of Test match cricket that had not been changed, one way or another, by the DRS; batting technique, bowling technique, the balance between bat and ball, the decision-making processes of the umpires and the experience of the spectators in the ground, all had been altered.

This isn’t to say that the impact has necessarily been negative. From that list I would argue that the only aspect of the game that is unequivocally the poorer for the DRS is the spectator experience.

Ultimately, what else matters?  Read the rest of this entry »

Sometimes someone else writes something and it feels as though they’ve pulled it out of your brain. Only it’s so much better, and clearer, than anything you could come up with. Here is American cricket-blogger Matt Becker:

Just last week, she (my wife) tweeted a link to a blog post about how to go about getting paid to do what you love, and it really amped me up about doing something that isn’t my mind numbing, soul sucking job, that there is a path there that I can follow if I want, that will lead me out of this cookie cutter existence does not make me all that happy.  Off of the grid, in a way, but still with electricity and high speed Internet. [..]

To take something and put every last ounce of yourself into it.  Make it something you are so terribly proud of.  And if you can do that, if you can find the time and the means and the idea, then, well, you have accomplished what we are all here for to begin with.

And that brings me back to this blog.  Despite the factual errors, and the lapses in posting, and the god awful typos (I am actually an above average speller), I am really quite proud of this silly little blog, and I really feel it could be the one thing that I do, that I make perfect, that I put everything into, that I sacrifice for.

Read the whole thing. I couldn’t figure out which passage to quote. I meant to link to this earlier, but really, I couldn’t figure out which part to quote.

Blech!

“What a nightmare to convince them not to terminate tanveer and also not to take flintoff,” Modi wrote. “Warne went of [sic] the handle. But have managed it by using stick and carrot strategy. Thus they have [$]1.875 [million] only. Much love Lalit.” Srinivasan’s reply later the same day reads: “Thanks. You are most sweet. Srini.” The existence of the emails was first reported by CNN-IBN in September, 2010.