Cricket Thread III

[Guest]

Shoaib Akhtar named in rape?

[Guest]

Dawood's daughter to marry Miandad's son'

[Guest]

Avoid Ahmedabad, amicably

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[Guest]

Fellow teammates do a 'rail rokko' on Pindi Xpress

[Guest]

Anti-terrorist front to oppose Miandad's (in-law of the outlaw Dawood) entry into India

[Guest]

<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Pseudo-secularism and cricket

Tarun Vijay.

That Pakistan would try to take advantage of Indian secularists' dushmani for Narendra Modi and celebrate it with a 'no, no' to Ahmedabad is understandable. But the Indian government's pusillanimity and BCCI's pet-dog attitude are ironical to say the least. It's bad in taste and, worse, it humiliates one of our fastest moving states which was also home to Gandhi and Jinnah. If mere memories of the Gujarat riots is the reason, then perhaps we should just forget about visiting each other: the ghastly memories of the Partition are not yet erased. South Block is not just for the Congress-ruled states, it has to take care of the honour of every inch of Indian soil and every Indian citizen whether it voted Congress or not. Keeping mum on the isolation of Gujarat by a country which authored Kargil is an inexcusable sin against national honour.

Surprisingly Pakistan's refusal to play in Ahmedabad, first on "political grounds" then for "security reasons" defies any logic and has almost got closer to undo the sweet, almost indescribable tales of genuine love brought home by hundreds of Indians who visited Pakistan during last spring's tour by India. It was as if nothing bad had ever happened between us and we were happy to, carry the stories of our friends and relatives telling how a taxi driver refused payment and what gala evening they had in the bazaar with met and hugged were Pakistanis and this Ahmedabad boycott is by the Army general sitting pretty in American pockets and trying to get some credibility through their farcical media organisations being "handled" in India by known lefties.

I was in Pakistan a couple of days before and tried to find out my ancestors' place. As usual, being a Hindu, I was a bit scared and also tried to be as nice as possible to my Pakistani counterparts. I found that Pakistanis were more understanding and accommodating then my so-called Indian secularist friends who tried to underline my RSS connections everywhere I went. These secularists were on the payroll of some of the Pakistani outfits and were being encouraged by them. That's the core issue I thought and saw their game as an affront to the Indian psyche.

Now think of the situation when Pakistan refused to play in Ahmedabad. Before Pakistan, two other foreign teams hadalready played in the same venue and remember, Gujarat is not, I repeat not, the personal jagir of Narendra Modi. We are not certain who wears the pants in the government in Delhi, but whoever that is, must understand that he or she is responsible for the security of a foreign team arriving in India as a guest. We shall be ready to lay our lives for the safety and security of our Pakistani brethren, their comfort and a very very affectionate stay within the boundaries of the country known universally as India. There has to be some one, and I tell you that someone has got to be a Praveen Togadia or his look alike, who should tell our dear sweet-heart Pakistani brothers that as far as sports is concerned its desirable to keep politics out. We know politics better than your ancestors who happen to be the same as ours. So put your heart into your cricket and indulge in politics in its own time. When our sportsmen had arrived at Lahore, Multan and Rawalpindi, none had complained about the demolition of the Hindu and Jain temples there to avenge India's December 6. We know how to provide protection to our guests and believe us; no stone shall be unturned to give return gifts. We love you, we love the normal, common Pakistani and shall open our doors of small, congested homes to accommodate them with the due regard and respect while they come to watch Pakistani team play in Ahmedabad or anywhere else. But please don't play politics in the name of cricket with us.

We are ready to give our lives and open our homes and give return gifts on a scale far higher than what we received while in Lahore and Multan. We love you dear Pakistanis, in spite of harbouring some very legitimate fears and doubts about the intentions of your rulers who are being controlled by forces beyond our comprehension. But just give us a chance, visit Delhi's Karol Bagh or Law Garden of Ahmedabad, or any place of your choice. Indians will prove that we love you as much, nay perhaps more than you love us. Ahmedabad is as secure as Delhi or Kolkata or Bangalore. We are Indians and we may fight with each other on petty issues, but as far as foreigners are concerned our hospitality is indivisible.

I was in Lahore a few days ago and it was a mesmerising experience as far as the interface with the common Pakistani is concerned. I can't speak for the rulers but the awam or the common person wants a relationship based on trust and amity with Bharat. Whoever is playing politics in the name of sports from India or Pakistan shall never be excused by history.

In times like this when the husband of a terrorist facing death sentence gets more sympathy than those security men martyred in the December 13 attack, Pakistan's refusal for Ahmedabad has come as a shot in arm for those who had been leading attacks on the nationalist sensitivities beginning from a ban on rakhi and other religious symbols in the Army, campaign against what they call "saffronisation", opening talks with various terrorist organisations andproviding state guest houses for the comfortable stay of their ring leaders, touting a made-to-order "inquiry" into the Godhra carnage to win Muslim votes,leaving no stone unturned to debunk and insult security forces while taking up the cause of terrorists and their hubbies from Gujarat to Delhi with such a missionary zeal that western Gora sahibs are pleased to award them spurious human rights medals, and of course, a few bundles of green dollars.

That's the national scene today and its not a sudden or surprising development. In a well calculated and methodical manner, things are moving fast in a direction that can have catastrophic effect in the coming years. Think of the fraud tamasha of a Benny Hinn attended by none other than the chief minister of Karnataka at the 'order' of the real power centre in Delhi and a Shankaracharya being humiliated in the most shameless manner. Which elements gets a boost and who are demoralised? When Babar got a Ram temple demolished in Ayodhya, he was just not insulting a place of worship, but the message was given to the entire Hindu society that look here is your place and now on be prepared to live subjugated lives. The same message was given by the Taliban when they demolished the Bamiyan Buddhas and were merely repeating what their predecessors had done in Somnath, Mathura and Kashi.

Today nobody speaks about a firm and time-bound resolve of the government to see that Kashmiri Hindus, refugees in their own motherland, are resettled withhonour and security. But a rebel insurgent group demanding mutation of India is not only provided help but before they begin talks with the Prime Minister in the South Block, a Christian prayer is sung and it's taken as a normalcy assuring gesture on part of the government. Would they allow the same gesture to a Hindu outfit?

I am referring here to the Nationalist Socialist Council of Nagalim,Issac-Muivah group, that held aconference in Hebron (Nagaland) recently and Church leaders presented a charter of demands to them on the dais in full public view as if these murderers have the key to their succour. The demand for a greater Nagalim is a step forward in the direction of creating a Christian- majority "homeland" and has already started a violent chain reaction in the neighbouring states. Ironically, the NSCN-government talks are being projected as "Indo-Naga" talks as if the Indian government is talking to an autonomous country's representatives.

Yet, the media chose not to publish anything on this issue. Why? Because those involved were fundamentalist Christian groups? That's what it means to becompromising on issues concerning national honour, whether its cricket or the Jihadis. Welcome, by all means, dear Pakistanis. Make them feel at home in the land of their ancestors. But for God's sake take care of Bharat, i.e., India, too.

(The author is Editor, Panchajanya)<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->

[Guest]

http://www.dailypioneer.com/indexn12.asp?m...t&counter_img=3

<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Why only Ahmedabad? Lets ban Kolkata too

Kanchan Gupta

There is something perverse about the manner in which attention continues to be focused on the 2002 riots in Gujarat, as if never before had communal violence taken a terrible toll of human life and property in India.If the rioting that followed the burning of Hindus by Muslim mobs at Godhra deserves unequivocal condemnation, do does the despicable manner in which that violence continues to be used for achieving political ends.

First, the Congress and the Left used the riots for pillorying chief minister Narendra Modi. Then the jholawalla brigade led by Teesta Setalvad made it into a judicial carnival (it now transpires that claimed affidavits from riot victims submitted in court were no more than printed pamphlets, but that is another story). During last year's general election, graphic visuals of the riots were used for mobilising Muslim votes; a cynical abuse of victims' misery that is being repeated in Bihar by Lalu Prasad Yadav.

We are now told that a member of prime minister Manmohan Singh's council of ministers has taken the liberty of discouraging the Pakistan Cricket Board from including Ahmedabad in the itinerary of the Pakistani team's forthcoming tour because playing in riot-tainted Gujarat is just not cricket. The Pakistanis, of course, have been more than happy to oblige the UPA worthy.

If communal violence must permanently tar a State's reputation and condemn it to living in ignominy forever, then no State in our Union would come out clean. If were to accept the logic of Pakistanis skipping Ahmedabad, then we should also insist that Kolkata, Mumbai, Delhi and Guwahati should never ever host a sporting event.

The terrible blood-letting in Kolkata on August 16, 1946, the Muslim League's "Direct Action Day", should strike this city and West Bengal off the list of cricketing venues.
The series of communal riots in Mumbai (the violence of 1993 pales into insignificance compared to riots in the 1970s and 1980s) should lead to the blacklisting of India's financial capital.

The Nellie massacre of 1983, when the Congress was in power in both New Delhi and Guwahati, in which 3,300 Muslim men, women and children, many of them suckling infants, were killed, should have a similar impact.

And Delhi should not host any international event because of the anti-Sikh pogrom of 1984 when Congress hoodlums went around slaughtering more than 4,000 Sikhs to lessen their grief over Indira Gandhi's assassination.

For that matter, India, born in communal violence of unimaginable scale, should carry the shame forever. Never mind if we have traversed a long distance and put that sorrowful partition of the sub-continent behind us. Where do we draw a line? At what point does an event become a thing of the past so that society can move ahead?

The lib-left intelligentsia, of course, will pounce upon any suggestion of putting the Gujarat riots of 2002 behind us as desecrating the memory of those who were killed. Which, in turn, raises the question: What about the memory of the Hindus roasted alive when a rail coach in which they were travelling was set ablaze?

No, we should never forget. We should remember the merciless manner in which Jihadis hounded more than 400,000 Hindus, most of them Pandits, out of Kashmir valley.

We should remember the callous disregard with which Mrs Indira Gandhi forced elections in Assam, triggering the massacre in Nellie. We should recall the butchery in Delhi when the police chose to be deaf and blind to the pitiful shrieks and sights of Sikhs with burning tyres around their necks.

We should also not forget the Meerut and Malliana massacres in Uttar Pradesh when a Congress Chief Minister fiddled while Muslims were killed. Or the ghastly Kalupur riots in the early 1980s when the Congress was in power in Gujarat. Or the Bhagalpur riots of 1989 when Bihar was ruled by the Congress; more than a thousand Muslims were killed, many of them were dumped in wells.

We should remember because there are important lessons to be learned from these bitter memories, the most important of which is that slaughter in the name of religion or for a political cause is senseless killing that besmirches the collective conscience of the nation and holds up the Indian state to ridicule, at home and abroad.

That lesson, however, has never been learned because our "secular" politicians and the lib-left intelligentsia would rather cynically reap political benefits from the grief and sorrow and loss of riot victims than force a social consensus,"Never again".

So we have a situation where the Pakistanis, egged on by a member of the UPA Government, have turned up their nose at Ahmedabad for "political reasons" and our "secular" politicians and their lib-left patrons have responded with glee.

Perhaps the next step will be for the UPA Government to discourage investors from investing in Gujarat. Or discourage tourists from visiting that State.

If we were to take such cynicism to its logical conclusion, not only Gujarat but all of India should then be made a no-go zone. Is that what the secularists, the leftists and liberals want to achieve?.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->

[Guest]

hehe.. in the meantime others are thinking in a different direction.. But then whats new ? Trust pakis and their suckular bed-fellows to always think in the opposite direction. Whats hilarious though is this euphoric paki-feeling that they will actually boycott a city in India .. How many countries have boycotted the land of pure completely in recent times ?

http://us.rediff.com/money/2005/feb/05micro.htm

<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Microsoft bets big on Gujarat

BS Regional Bureau in Ahmedabad | February 05, 2005 13:06 IST

Microsoft has announced plans to set up base in Gujarat, with a clear focus on rural development. Microsoft officials said that the sphere of activities will include providing vocational and computer knowledge in rural areas of Gujarat.

"We have to focus on rural economy for the development of Gujarat and are working to build business models that will lead to a five-fold increase in income," said Nandu Pradhan, director - public sector, Microsoft Corporation (India) Private Ltd.

He was addressing the inaugural function of Communication and Information Technology 2005 (CIT 2005) that kicked off at the Tagore Hall in Ahmedabad today. He added that Microsoft has been investing in telemedicine in Gujarat and will continue to do so.

Later, Pradhan told Business Standard that Microsoft has made an offer to the state government, to provide vocational computer training in rural areas of Gujarat.

"With such centres being set up, it could also help in telemedicine, since rural people do not have access to medical facilities like the urban people," he said.

Pradhan further said that the IT knowledge industry is growing at the rate of 30 per cent per annum and the future of IT looks great in Gujarat.

He stated that Indian BPO industry is growing at a break-neck speed and there will be a seven-fold increase in the industry in India by 2008.

J N Singh, secretary, department of Science and Technology, said that TCS is setting up a base in Gujarat and 13,000 more IT professionals will get jobs in state. He stressed on the favourable factors present in Gujarat like cheap real estate, web connectivity, power and other infrastructure facilities.

Addressing the CIT, Kishore Chaukar, managing director, Tata Industries said: "Knowledge is power, information is money and timely information is profit. IT and telecom bring better quality of living to the society."

He added that the Indian BPO industry is in an upswing mode in India and we need quality and well qualified people to support the BPO industry and increasing demand.

There is shortage of quality people and the industry have to do something. IT and telecom can improve health, agriculture, animal husbandry, commerce and rural business. It facilitates pace, accuracy and transparency.

"There are challenge to change the mindset and need to learn new things and unlearn old things. We should understand globalisation, technology, development, though globalisaton leads to cut short in jobs but also jobs are generating new jobs in various sectors," Chaukar added.

Chief Minister Narendra Modi said this is the age of transformation and IT is booming sector and our government has doing number of things in IT sector and doing better on IT application.

Modi claimed that Gujarat is the most preferred destination of IT in Asia. "We are building information and communication institutes in Gujarat to future development of IT and telecom sector," he said.
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->

[Guest]

Does this make any sense ? I think Gujarat Cricket Association should threaten to boycott all TSP matches. What onedayers ? We dont want the pukes in the gujju territory period.

http://www.htcricket.com/htcricket/14_1246237.htm

<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->India scrap Ahmedabad as Test venue
Reuters
New Delhi, Feb
India have scrapped Ahmedabad as a Test venue for the home series against Pakistan starting next week after the visitors raised security concerns.

The Ahmedabad Test has been shifted to Kolkata, according to an Indian cricket board official who asked not to be named.

Ahmedabad witnessed some of the country's worst religious riots in 2002, during which around 2,000 people died.

Pakistan are likely to play a sixth One-Day International in the city as part of a compromise. The teams were originally scheduled to play five one-dayers on top of three Tests.

Pakistan are scheduled to arrive on February 25 for their first series in India in over six years due political tensions between the neighbours. India went to Pakistan for a Test tour last year after a 13-year gap following a thaw in relations.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->

[Guest]

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[Guest]

I don't know about Gujarat CA but I am boycotting this whole series. I will not look at scores, check analysis, buy VCD or DVD. Nothing. In fact I cancalled the idea of buying the India series in Paki land VCD because the royalty might go to PCB.

[Guest]

Then people wonder why Indian Muslims are considered pakistanis ? How stupid is this article ? And how disgusting is the spin ?

http://www.indianexpress.com/full_story....t_id=64874

<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Play cricket in Gujarat at Halol
Mehboob Chacha was the first to have thought of cricket as a great healer
SAEED NAQVI 

Saeed Naqvi Gujarat deserves an Indo-Pak test match, provided it is played at Halol. I have just returned after watching cricket at the most spectacular setting in Halol, part of Panchmahal district. Halol is exactly between Vadodara and Godhra, the epicentre of the Gujarat pogrom of 2002. The match was actually the final of a month long tournament in which 64 teams from three talukas of Panchmahal — Halol, Kalol and Gogamba — participated.

The tournament has been a unique effort in healing communal wounds. Each of the 64 teams has been composed of Hindus and Muslims in equal numbers, more or less. As Mehboob Chacha observed, stroking his long, grey beard, selecting teams in such a communally charged atmosphere was not easy. Mehboob Chacha is part of Janvikas and Yuva Shakti, groups which provided the sinews for much of the post-pogrom relief in the area. He was the first to have thought of cricket as a great healer three years ago.

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After the ’02 disturbances, he had noticed youngsters had stopped playing together, something they always did in his living memory. Initially it was difficult to put together a team across the communal divide. Many, on both sides, had lost relatives in the pogrom and could not now reconcile to playing together. The traumatic events had torn the social fabric to shreds. Community leaders lost the initiative even as triumphalist VHP and Bajrang Dal volunteers, flushed with success, moved deeper into the countryside with their evangelism.

Patience and perseverance led to the formation of one eleven, then two. As Mazhar Hashmi pointed out, once the inner fear and anger was overcome, people came in droves. He realised of course that efforts like these run the risk of being cut off from the mainstream if there isn’t a good secular Hindu to lead them. The “Hindu leader” came in the shape of Gagan Sethi — the elder brother of billiard champion Geet Sethi — who is the principal architect of Janvikas. Last year the group put together 25 teams for the tournament. The final was played before an audience of 20,000 people. Former India captain, Kapil Dev, was the chief guest.

This year the organisers were even more ambitious. Not only would there be a month long tournament for the boys, there would be another for the women. This proved to be even more difficult than putting together a men’s cricket tournament. The youth on both sides immediately saw the attractions of playing cricket together, Mehboob Chacha explained, but it was impossible to persuade Muslim religious leaders to allow a women’s cricket tournament. The local imam threatened to go on fast. Various Jamaats swore such a tournament would be played over their dead bodies. Gentle persuasion resulted in a compromise. Last year, the women of Halol were allowed to play cricket in purdah. In other words a cricket ground was enclosed by tented walls. So successful was the experiment that this year four women’s teams played in a parallel tournament on a school ground. Gone was the purdah!

A pity Gujarat recently has been known for the wrong reasons. Let’s not forget that it’s one of our most colourful states. Its splendid handicrafts were all on display at the final. The cricket oval, in the shadow of the splendid Pavagarh hills, was decorated with shamianas, sashes, colourful banners, the crowds, interspersed with men and women in tribal gear, breaking out occasionally into a dance. Indeed, the BCCI should look at the ground for a stadium to boost cricket as well as the idea of Halol.It is an amazingly potent message deserving amplification. Sunil Gavaskar, who was chief guest at the final, agreed that he has not seen a more spectacular setting for cricket, played before a packed house of about 25,000.

The running commentary was a parody as much on cricket as on secular persuasion. Every now and again the commentator would break into song: Hindu na banega na mussalman banega, insaan ki aulad hai, insaan banega (our being human precedes our being Hindus or Muslims). The winner of the women’s tournament was the team named Zara (from the film Veer Zara). When Captain Zakia Makrani received the award, someone burst forth emotionally, aurat ne janam diya mardon ko (it is women who give birth to men). It was all surreal.

Of course the possibility of political mischief was always there. Two days ago, a match full of suspense (3 balls, 6 runs) was abandoned by crowd invasion. Politicians, unnerved by the success of the tournament, sought a stay on all the matches which they alleged might disturb the peace. The young players intervened. The tournament must continue. The politicians went away shaking their heads in dismay. Is it not strange that political parties which should build on the success of the tournament are just not around?

Write to saeednaqvi@expressindia.com<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->

[Naresh]

<b>1. I CALL YOU MY ARCH ENEMY – AND I MEAN IT – BUT YOU MUST INVITE ME TO WATCH THE CRICKET MATCH</b>

<b>2. I STABBED YOU IN THE BACK WITH MY KARGIL MISADVENTURE AND NOW THREATEN TO ARRIVE IN CHANDIGARH TO WATCH THE MATCH – EVEN IF YOU DO NOT INVITE ME</b>

<b>3. INDIA OH! INDIA - IAM BEGGING AND BESEECHING YOU – PLEASE INVITE ME</b>

With due respect to Ghalib :

<b>Bheekmangney Walon Ki Pakistan Mein Kami Nahin

Bin Dhoonday Milay Crore – Sub Say Pehla “Musharraf”</b> <!--emo&tupid--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/pakee.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='pakee.gif' /><!--endemo-->

[Guest]

http://in.rediff.com/cricket/2005/mar/23wright.htm

Wright to quit.. <!--emo&:blink:--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/blink.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='blink.gif' /><!--endemo-->

[Guest]

http://in.rediff.com/cricket/2005/mar/25inzy.htm

Inzy p1ssed at Chuckter..

<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->"But he has to learn to play with discipline and according to the team requirements. I tell you some of the players have been very uneasy with his level of commitment because they have seen his behaviour in recent times. So tell me what am I supposed to do," Inzamam added.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->

Make him eat rice and veggies.. <!--emo&tupid--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/pakee.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='pakee.gif' /><!--endemo-->

[utepian]

Shoaib Malik gets engaged to Indian girl on phone

http://newindpress.com/NewsItems.asp?ID=IE...=Sports&Topic=0

Marries Hyderabadi girl. Nikah performed on phone!

[Guest]

<b>Former cricketer Eknath Solkar dead </b><!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Sunday, 26 June , 2005, 16:27
Mumbai: Former Test cricketer Eknath Solkar died of cardiac failure in Mumbai on Sunday.
He was 58.

Solkar was ill over last four to five days and died at his residence, according to former team mate and ex-India captain Dilip Vengsarkar.
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->

[Guest]

Sourav Ganguly became the third batsman to cross the 10,000 mark in one-day cricket

[Guest]

I was asked to step down as captain: Ganguly
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Ganguly did not quite take Greg Chappell's name but gave enough indications that it was the coach himself who wanted him to do so.

Chappell, when asked about it, said that the only thing he would share with the press is the composition the team should have in the match.
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->

[Guest]

Somebody finally noticed that Ganguly aint the player he was. Fine and i am ok with it. But then whatsup with VVSL being dropped ? Methinks thats foolish..