Hair today, Gone tomorrow

I just watched the Lankans beat the English yet again. B O R I N G! The only thing of interest during this SL Vs Eng series has been the Sri Lankan hairstyles. This blog therefore, is dedicated to all those cricket fashionistas on the pitch.

Enjoy !!!

HAIR TODAY



Dhoni - From Brown to Black



Malinga - Wild Wild Waste, wtf was he thinking????



Warnakulasuriya Patabendige Ushantha Joseph Chaminda Vaas (PRESENT) - That 70's Show



Kabir Ali - As confused as his hair



Kevin 'then' ....







GONE TOMORROW



and Kevin 'now' ...



apna Veeru - a much better hairstyle, or lack off.



Inzi - allahtallah ka lakh shukar hai, Buoys plaid ver'well and barber did good jobs thenks to coach.



Santah Chromedomesuriya


We can't do a blog on cricket hairstyles without doffing our hats to the Brylcreem boys, so here goes...




And finally, the end is near. I enjoyed looking for these pics and my search for them was interesting. I came across a set of pics that I simply had to put up here. These pics belong to my favourite half-assed half-trekker, law of evrejes friend Ramiz Raja.







These pics are filed under the section 'I would not ask who's your barber'

Cheers y'awl ...

Riggs

Um..Hello

Salaam junta log. I see much has transpired while I sought respite from the blogosphere in much idling, arbitrary forest hikes,mountain treks, giant screen football, way too much beer and failed attempts at white water rafting. Mort has obviously stolen any thunder that might or might not have been with such novelties as color pictures and italicized clowns (Hello there, Mr Funnyman) but clearly, the blog has lost its significance as far as the noble quest of Dravid-bashing is concerned(matter will be presently sorted out, rest assured). Nonetheless, here's to the great job my teammate has pulled off(:D Morty, do you think it's about time we tell them who we really are?). And of course, allow me to announce the obvious : I'm Back.

Bartman

0-0, 3 Down.

What a day!

When the Windians declared, leaving India 392 to win in 86 overs, I was excited. It wasn't exactly a stiff target and I hoped that if Sehwag fired we would have made a match of it.

Sehwag, bless his booties and bald head, took the bait. A slash here. A thump there. 50 off 60 and looking good for more. India went into lunch at 109-0, with Sehwag on 65 and Jaffer on 35. India came out from lunch at 109-0. One ball later and Sehwag was on his way back. A rather heavy lunch, I would assume as his foot refused to leave the crease and stayed there. He has become sumwot of a Colley-flower bunny, falling to him in 4 innings out of 5.

The Hyderabadi Hero from the first innings, Very Very Special walked in and with Jaffer steadied the boat. Jaffer, looked good for much more than the 50plus he scored, wafting away outside his offstump. What followed was India's best chance at winning this test match. Very Very Special and The Wall put on exactly a hundred. VVS looked good for his second hundred off the match, sacrificing his wicket whilst pushing the score along, slashing a wide one to Lara at slip.

In walked Dhoni. A clear indication that the chase was still on. I was on rediff, discussin ball by ball with a pal who was watchin up in the Himalayas and another pal who was watching in Dubai and we all wondered what he would do. We didn't wait long and all yelled out loud, as Dhoni's first ball disappeared over long off for a huge six. He played a somewhat strange innings, leaving a lot of balls outside the offstump, hitting another flatbat six over cover before hammering one into covers which was snapped up by Gayle pulling off a complete blinder.

That's where the Indians gave up the ghost, drawing their shutters down and Yuvraj spending some time in the middle with Drav who bought up yet another test 50. He also is now 2 short of Graham Gooch's 8900 test runs. Once he goes back those runs, only the select few who have 5-figure-test runs are ahead of him. What a player!

Fine memories from this test match. Sarwan whallopin Munaf Patel for 6 fours in one over. VVS's fighting hundred in the 1st innings which was a work of art. The gutsy Indian tail-wag, Kumble gettin 40 plus, Bhaji a 30 plus not out and Munaf Patel who hung around for ages and scored 13. Dean Jones couldn't stop laughing as he thought Patel (who is possibly the worst Test # 11 today) asking for a fresh pair of batting gloves was the biggest insult to the Windians.

Can't wait for Sabina Park. The last 8 test matches played on that ground have produced results. Six of which were won by the West Indians. Is it going to be Lucky Number 7 for Brian Lara or is Dravid going to do what Ajit Wadekar did 34 years ago? Only time will tell.

Watch this space

De Riguer

The Roebuck stops here.

Having nothing to do this lazy Saturday I decided to tune into those channels that air lots of sex, titalation and violence.

No not HBO or Sun Tv, I was watching the News. CNN-IBN. NDTV. Headlines Today. All these channels have 'cricket experts' who are ex-players (and in the case of NDTv that has Jadeja on, an ex-game-thrower) that put on nice clothes and air their views on National Tele. NDtv has Sidhu and Jadeja, Headlines Today has Saba Karim. CNN-IBN who has imaginative shows like LOC (Love of cricket, Lagaan of Cricket, Love of Calypso) that changes its name according to the team India's playing against. I also spotted the rather portly figure of Ashok Malhorta on one channel (who's logo I didn't see as I was too much in a hurry to get rid of the image on my screen).

My favourite is Sidhu-ji. He is Punjab's most famous expert (after Pongy, who lives on MrFunnyMan's blog). I tuned into NDTv because I saw Sidhu in mid-rant. Anyone who knows Sidhu, knows that a mid-rant Sidhu is normally good fun and that the only thing that can shut him up is a Luminous Inverter. I wondered what piqued his ire this time and had to wait all of two seconds to hear the words 'Peter Roebuck'.

All those of you who know Peter Roebuck know him as a first-class-cricketer-turned-columnist. Apparently he was good enough to play for England but those thieving cads (not bastards, we're white) at the ECB never thought so. Which is why, perhaps, he turned columnist.

The good Roebuck in his latest column suggested that Sachin Tendulkar made a 'mistake' of turning up to play for Lashings. For those not in the know, Lashings is a bunch of ex-test cricketers who play for charity. (http://www.lashings.com/ . Sachin turned out for them yesterday and smacked a 91 ball 100 (155 in total) and said he was easing back into cricket in a 'no pressure, relaxed environment'. Good for him, one would imagine. Mr.Roebuck in his peice insists that Sachin was better off having a net in Mumbai instead of coming and playing a club match Vs Cambridge, playing along with other team mates such as Richie Richardson, Courtney Walsh, Aravinda de Silva, Chris Cairns, Tatenda Taibu and England’s Ashes winning femae Captain Clare Connor.

I have searched high and low for the said column and have not been able to find it. Has Mr. Roebuck taken it off the internet as he knows he's put his feet (with pads on) in his mouth? I share the same sentiments of Sidhu-Sahib and Jadeja who said Peter Roebuck knows as much of cricket in India as he does cricket in Togo. If Sachin had indeed stayed back and had a net in Mumbai, he would have been in a raincoat, using his umbrella as a bat.

I fail to see the logic of a first class crickert such as Roebuck who has played 335 first class matches and 298 one day county matches from 1974 to 1991, who thinks that having a bat at a net is better than actually being in a match, irrespective of its stature. Batting at nets does not involve a batsman having to concentrate on the ball, run between wickets etc. I fear that Peter Roebuck, despite having scored 17,558 first class runs at an average of 37.27, was never picked for England because he would have wanted to bat at the nets instead.

What a whiner.

Also, at this juncture, the rain effected 3rd Test is as interesting as watching a Peter Roebuck innings. The only items of interest for me on Day 2 was Ramnaresh Sarwan showing Munaf Patel what the big league was all about. Sheer brilliance.

Shall be back later !

Funniest Cricket Posts ever!

For all those who haven't read this gem by Sidin ( http://sidin.blogspot.com ) here's possibly the funniest thing I ever read about the game of cricket.

http://sidin.blogspot.com/2006_02_01_sidin_archive.html

I never thought that would get bettered and recently came across this site, http://ahnooie.blogspot.com/ , please read a post called 'Cricket Basics for Housewives'. My tummy still aches from the laughs.

Enjoy,

Da Riggs

PS. I have know idea where Bartman's disappeared off to. Trust her to be like all the other women I know, start something with a kindly man (such as I) and then dispeer, leavin me holdin the bloggybaby)

God and The Great Escape!

When I was younger I watched Charles Bronson and associates (a veritable Hollywood's Who's Who - Steve McQueen, James Garner, ol' Dicky Attenborough, James Coburn etc), all prisoners of war, dig themselves a nice ol' tunnel and escape from Za Jhuhmans. This film 'The Great Escape' came out in 1963 and is said to be a Hollywood Classic War Film.

So much for Hollywood.

43 years hence I watched the same theme played out on a slightly wet and damp cricket ground in the Carib. The St. Lucia test was absorbing, considering that from the very first over of the game, it was team India all the way.

Viru Sehwag, sporting a Yul Bryner hair-don't, took the game away from the Windians within the first few minutes of the Test. A post-lunch 99 only got better after his obvious hearty meal and he went for a 190 ball 180. My main man, the Skipper, the one and only, his Gritty Wall-liness Dravid-ji hung about to score a super-duper 140 odd, his innings cut short by a shot hes's liable to play again only after he retires from test cricket, to a ball that will only be bowled again, after he passes on to the great mid-wicket in the sky. Sarwan, who bowled the said beauty, was last seen sending the video clip of the dismissal to the 'World's Funniest videos'. If two big hundreds were not enough, Kaif decided to get into the act and post his first test hundred, the first of many, one hopes. He is a player who knows his limitations and plays well within himself and it was good to see him get a long bat. The Windian Bashing continued for a bit and India piled up a big almost 600 run total.

The Windian batting commenced and soon did nothing but to emphasise how straight the Indians bowled, Ganga-Lara-Sarwan-Chanderpaul all falling leg-before and the other batsmen all getting small starts and falling to the new Indian Spin Twins, Kumble and Viru Sehwag. Before we knew it, the Windians were batting again and Gayle, edged a little beauty from Pathan to Dhoni behind the stumps. The Windians on the mat and entered God (Refer title of post). Lara came in at One drop and was almost as quickly on his way back, his inner edge from Pathan missing the stumps by the proverbial whisker. The Windians then went on to end the day with no more heart attacks and then, sneakily, hired assorted voodo daddies and rain gods to ensure no play happened on Day4.

Day 5 began with much excitement, Kumble getting rid Ganga with a wrong 'un and Patel compounding Sarwan's misery. Chanders and God then decided to drop anchor and did so, for a good part of the day. India's close in catching left much to be desired, the lads need to learn to dive forwards, not sideways when pickin up catches on spinners, Lara and Chanders both survived, and helped the Windians to another draw. God scored his 32nd Test hundred, which was certainly not one of his best but it helped save the Test and thats what matters.

All in all, a good game, even an hour on Day 4 would have helped the Indians win this one. One cannot find fault in an Indian team playing an away test, piling up 600 runs in double quick time and then almost bowling out the opposition twice in under two and half days. Just hope our run of luck changes for the final test which I'm sure will be a rocker.

Riggy

Of time gone by...

A mail from a friend prompted this post. I thought it deserved to be up here so that everyone else could have a read. It's over to our cricket loving pal in the 'Gelf', Ravi Menon.


The link with the cricket pictures was interesting, I would however like to point you to a book by Emma Levine. Cricket a kind of a pilgrimage. Wonderful pictures! She has traveled over India Pakistan and Sri Lanka and put together a collection of pics. It even includes some of the place you live in, what was that city again? :P

Afghani kids in Peshawar and the Big Game in Sri Lanka, one of these days I shall scan a few for you. Of course it takes me back to the days I played cricket. We shared pads, one on each foot, played barefoot and footwork was evident when the bowler tried to york you! You jumped in the air both feet off the ground blocking the path and supporting yourself with the bat kinda dug into the ground! The gloves were cotton and about as thin as inners today, with a strip of spiky rubber on the fingers. I am kinda amused when I hear of VVS and RD and ST talk of having two rubbers on the handle, if we felt any rubber through the holes in the gloves that was a new bat!! It usually was more twine and wood when we gripped the bat! Of course taking off for a run and if Dean Jones said "ground that bat" only one bat was available, strategy therefore dictated that the field threw the ball to where the non-striker was headed! But I must scan and send you some of these pics cos trust me its wonderful to see some people play the game like I did.


Just wanted to add my two-paisa!!!

We always, always had only 4 stumps. Three were used at the batting end and the 'runners' end had one stump. Which is why the fielders never changed ends when we played, batsmen did.

We NEVER had any bails. Opposing teams would have called us sissies.

For most of our games we had 'cork' balls, proper cricket balls only made an appearance at 'real' school matches.

We almost never ever played in full whites!

Wicket-keeping gloves were made of plastic and would have caps covering your fingers inside the gloves that would always break into little bits.

The team batting always umpired. Which is why little nicks and LBWs never entered score books. Scorebooks were actually the first notebook you found in your bag.

We also had three fascinating concepts. One :- The world reknowned 'Trial Ball' where the bowler always bowled one to you which you could do anything with and still be there to face the 'real' first ball. Second :- 'Last Man Batting' where when you ran out of partners and were the last man left, you would still bat. And run. Third :- 'One tip one hand' of course was not in the maidan but was used in school a hell of a lot, especially when we played with a tennis ball or a rubber ball. Here, the batsman could be dismissed off a bump ball as long as the catch was taken with one hand.

That was a lovely little 'Arjuna Ranatunga-like stroll down the wicket for a single' walk down memory lane. Thanks a whole bunch Ravi.

More later

Da Riggs

Rain Rain Go Away !

I sat up all of last night and watched football. On ESPN. I wouldn't have, had Ten Sports not kept showing the WI-Ind ODI highlights throughout. The Windians, on the mat, must have prayed long and hard to the raingods and am sure, paid off all those bad mama voodoo rastas to come along and ensure that absolutely no play took place on the 4th day of the 2nd Test.




Gloomy and Wet, is St Lucia



Gloomy and well, not so wet, is Rahul Dravid


Are the Windians gonna get themselves The Great Escape? Will the rain gods stay away today? Can the Indians bowl 9 Windians out in 3 sessions? Is Dravid's luck never going to change?

All that more, revealed by 3 am IST, Thursday.


Before I sign out, is it just me, or does Dhoni have a bod??? You be the judge.





Da Riggs


NOTE :- ALL PICS SHAMELESSY TAKEN FROM CRICINFO.

Absolutely Brilliant !!

Chanced upon a cricket blog called The Corridor of Uncertainty - http://www.cricket.mailliw.com and while surfing it came across the most brilliant cricket topic, aptly titled 'Most bizarre and brilliant places to play cricket'. The thread has the most amazing pics which were an eye-opener for me. I had no idea cricket went this far. Many thanks, Will.

The link is
http://www.cricket.mailliw.com/tag/cricket_photos


Go through all the pages.

Enjoy!

Riggy

What's in a name?

An amusing tidbit, courtesy Tony Cozier commentating during Day 3 of the St Lucia test, resulted in yet another Bartman and Riggs chat.

Enjoy.

Riggs: W.P.U.J.C. Vaas is Chaminda's full name, accordin to Tony Cozier

Bartman: huh what? what does wpujc stand for or do i not want to know?

Riggs: ROTFL Mon check this out … Full name Warnakulasuriya Patabendige Ushantha Joseph Chaminda Vaas, Born January 27, 1974, Mattumagala

Riggs: thats like half the team rite there

Bartman: wtf? why do people hate their kids so much?

Riggs: i think this is the case of lots of peepils hating the kid

Riggs: can u imagine his school book labels?

Bartman: lmao

Bartman: can yu imagine his school life??

Riggs: Warnakulasuriya PRESENT Patabendige PRESENT Ushantha PRESENT Joseph I SAID IM HERE DAMMIT Chaminda HERE HERE HERE Vaas BANG BANG @ roll call

Bartman: rotfl

Bartman: still laughing

Riggs: feckin LTTE in schools, I tell ya hehehehe


More later...

The Riggster.

And then there was One.

Cricket is a game of glorious uncertainties is what we have grown up listening to and it could not have been more evident on Tuesday when Fidel Edwards and Corey Collymore, the West Indian 10 and 11 kept out 19 balls, any of which having gotten through would have made for a famous Indian win.

For me, the man of the hour was Fidel Edwards. He's done this before in the company of Ridley Jacobs, having blocked 33 balls to deny the Zimbabweans a win in Harare in 2003. At least there he had both his legs and no runner. This time around the setting could not have been more perfect. The last match at the ARG, a ground that has as many records as hurdles in a steeplechase event. The crowd dancing on, irrespective of the possibility of a West Indian loss; the Indians bowling like a team possessed; fielders crowding the bat And 10 and 11 holding on for 19 balls. Stirring stuff. And they say Test cricket is boring.


Kumble bowls Dave Mohammed, 19 balls to go, One wicket, Ten Indians in the same pic

The Indians did themselves proud after a dismal first day of the first test and came back rather strongly. Wasim Jaffer was brilliant, his double ton makin sure he looked as good if not better than VVS while driving through the covers. I think the Indian’s have finally found a consistent opening bat. Dravid, Kaif and Yuvraj played neat little knocks and then the Windians, sadly, ran into Hurricane Dhoni. Dhoni was spectacular in his brutality. For those here who have seen The Patriot, Dhoni did to the Windians what Mel Gibson did to the redcoats who captured his son. Mayhem. Massacre. And what a joy to behold. Two successive Windmill Sixes. Six Sixes in all. I almost choked on my Pepsi TV, bada bubbly channel hai.



BOOM BOOM DHONI




All this was followed by the most petulant act I have ever seen since my 8 year old nephew decided to bawl his guts out at the supermarket for not getting his ice-cream! If I had been the match referee I would have knelt Sir Brian over my knees, fetched his bat and proceeded to spank his bottom in the manner than would have made my nanny proud. Just a bad day for the umpires, having to take the Rauf with the smooth.





Day 5 of the test match, interestingly poised at lunch, 3 down with Gayle and Shivnarine looking like they would hold out. And hold out they did till tea. And then got themselves out. All thanks to that street corner in Bangalore, Anil Kumble Circle. 4 to him in the second after 3 in the first, he just goes on and on. Viru more than made up for his shenanigans with this bat by prising out Bravo and Ramdin, losing 20% of his match fees in the process.

And then followed the most gripping hour of cricket I have seen in a long long time. Vive La Test Cricket!

Can't wait for Test 2...

Riggs

Chuckles, courtesy Cereal Killer

Did you hear about the daschund that ran onto the cricket field? The commentators said it HAD to be a fast bowler coz he had 4 short legs and was swinging his balls both ways !

Thanks Ravi, that was a hoot !

An enigma called Laxman

After having played the greatest innings by an Indian batsman at Eden Gardens Vs The Oz, VVS Laxman got himself the moniker Very Very Special Laxman.

After having slogged a Windian leg-spinner (Dave Mohammed is turning out to be another Monty Panesar, always in the game) from outside the off, high in the air to be caught at mid-on, I think the time has come for him to be now called Very Very Silly Laxman.

Twice now, in the first test against the Windians, VVS has been sent back to the hutch by ordinary bowlers bowling ordinary deliveries. 29 in the first innings (caught behind playing a rather extravagant drive) , 31 in the second (caught, as described in the above para) , I would think he needs dropping for the second test, purely on disciplinary grounds, he doesn't value his wicket anymore.

Time to pull up those Hyderabadi socks, methinks!

Riggs

Of Gravy and all things non-alcoholic.

Gravy in the middle.

Anyone who's been watching cricket being played in the West Indies will know who Gravy is. For those who don't, here's something Rahul Bhattacharya wrote about him.

Gravy is a performer. He cross-dresses and dances and writhes and swings from the rafters and puts on a show that you will not ever forget. For twelve years he kept doing it. In many ways, he was the face of the Antigua Recreation Ground more than Viv Richards or Curtly Ambrose.

It's easy to stereotype Gravy. A chap slightly off his rocker, a blazing extrovert, an attention seeker, and a man with no worries. Actually, he is soft, sober, sentimental.



The rest of this article can be read here - http://in.rediff.com/cricket/2002/may/13rahul.htm

Anyways, getting back to Gravy, anyone who watched India play out yet another familiar away series first test, first day of cricket, would have chanced upon Gravy doing a headstand and dancing like one of those early 80's breakdancers.

I cannot recall an Indian batting display like yesterday, so many batsman gettin caught either by the keeper or slips, tempting Jeremy Coney to day India had been Edged out! The cricket was sad especially since all the top order batsmen save Jaffer got runs. Sehwag (36), VVS (29), Dravid (49), Yuvie (23), Dhoni (19) and Kaif (13). Thank god for the batting heroics of Jumbo Kumble and Breakdancer Santh, their 47 run stand havin put us over 200.

Having sounded suspiciously like Manjrekar, lets get to why this blog is being written. While the Indian batsmen put up another forgetable display, what kept me glued to the telly were the Windian supporters. Having followed cricket being played in the Windies for years now, I can assure you, watching the spectators between overs and during drinks, swaying to the music, one would be forgiven for thinking one was watching an outdoor episode of Mtv Grind. The Windies have it all (spectator-wise). Skinny women, Fat women, Fit women, Stacked women, Hot women, Gorgeous women, Not so gorgeous women etc etc etc. And yes, men too. All having a good time. It's like a party out there. Grounds have sound stacks all over, DJ pump nout good old reggae music all day, fans dancing, rum flowing, BBQ grill sizzling, beer flowing and yes, between all this, Test Match happening.




Then the ICC makes an announcement. No Alcohol at World Cup Games. Smart. Take away the booze, so no one will dance, no one will grind, no one will do crazy things like Gravy and certainly No one is gonna be interested when the camera pans the grounds. This is the West Indies. No herds will leap up for the camera makin retard faces so that mum back home squeals with delight, seeing Munna on Tv. This is not Oz and SA so there won't be any smart placards for us to chortle over. Those bastards wot sit up and head the ICC are going to take the West Indies and turn it into the Members Stand at Lords, where geriatric gents, dressed in 3 peice suits at a cricket match (????), sip on their gelusil and talk about Sir Don, cause they watched him play.

PATHETIC.

I hope better sense prevails and the powers that be leave the Islands alone. Why take the flavour out of a country just because you decide to give them a world cup to host? Damn White Skins. Taking the fun out of everything.

More on this space.

The Riggster

As an Andhra native, I PROTESTant.

Ladies, Gents and Internet Peepils of all ages, I must apologise profusely for this No Ball of a NON-CRICKET Blog and pray that the Good Lord Beamer me up if I ever do something like this again. I'm sorry, O readers of Sticky-Wicket, I am as furious as Akhtar who's had a clear caught behind given not out by Steve 'Halleleujah I Can See Without a TV Replay' Bucknor. Howzzat, you may ask and I don't blame you. I can't beleive that those sons of Pitches actually went and banned the Da Vinci Code in AP as well.

Us Andhra Agassis (oops, wrong sport, scuzi) now join denizens of other such states as Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Assam and Goa (I hear) who will not be able to straight drive to the closest Cinema Ghar and watch Sri Hanks gaaru and Company enact the quite riveting story laid out by Dan Brown-ji.

Movie reviews the world over say the movie sucks possibly as much as Yuvraj Singh bein done in by a googly bowled by Dave Mohammed but thats not the point. I don't care if the movie is as exciting as a Kenya Vs Bangladesh test match being played out on a belter at Faislabad. That just doesn't matter. What really gets my goat more than Inzy refusing to get out while all others around him crumble is some daft politician who knows as much of Christianity and Dan Brown as he knows of cricket decides that a consenting adult such as I will NOT be allowed to see the movie in a theatre.



Let me see, I'm way over the age that people tell me what I should do. I can drink. I can drive. I can marry. I can divorce. I can have sex. I can abstain from sex, citing age. I can pretty damn well do anything I please as long as I'm not breaking the law. I can even VOTE that daft son of a pitch into a position of power, which, alas, is like Sourav Ganguly being adamant that Greg Chappel should be made coach. I realise now, Maharaj and I have both been shafted.

I wonder if the other states in this 'democratic' country will follow suit. Maybe Good Ball Sahib Thackeray will let it run in Mumbai and Jr Gowda Shot will let it run in Bangalore. Or maybe there's a theatre in the Andamans that will screen the movie. This also raises another question to my rather irate mind. What the heck do we have a censor board for? It's obvious they passed the movie. Sharmila-jee, are you listening?

I shall end my rant now. This is complete bollocks. I want to to see Da Vinci Code and I want to watch it in a theatre. I don't want to watch a bootleg DVD. I am still annoyed.

Jesus Christ, this is insane!

I protest.

De Rigeur.