Saturday, January 29, 2011

Female linesman in football

There have been female referees in football for some time now but this is quite new in the Premier League. Last weekend was one of those rare days on which I felt very lazy to wake up at 4 30 am to watch Liverpool play away against Wolves. Later I noticed friends on Facebook mentioning about female assistant referee officiated that game and Sian Massey did a fantastic job. If I were to believe people who watched the full match and whatever I saw in the highlights she was spot on. Her first match as a Premier League line official was back in December in Sunderland v Blackpool game. Don't know how that went unnoticed (just me or may other football fans??). Sian Massey was in the news this week because of the controversial "sexist" remarks made by prominent Sky Sports presenters Andy Gray and Richard Keys. The duo were caught on cam before the kick off for making comments such as "what do women know about offisde". The matter was taken seriously and Sky Sports terminated their contracts.

Coming back to Wolves v Liverpool, Sian Massey could have easily fallen for offside appeal. Instead she spotted the movement well enough to allow the play to continue and that resulted in the first goal. Her decision could have decided the outcome of the match and good that it went the right way. Not to forget how it have been for Mr. Gray and Mr. Keys, may be like a slap on their face :D. Hardly 4 days after that match, in Liverpool v Fulham game, a linesman got it all wrong when Torres was judged offside while he actually wasn't. Looks like football needs more female referees. Surely they can do better job than Howard Webb and other ducks around. And as one of my friends had commented on Facebook, players wouldn't argue too much ( F words etc :P) with a female referee and maintain dignity :D. Way to go Sian Massey!! Hope she continues her good record and sets an example for both male and female counterparts.

Female linesman in football

There have been female referees in football for some time now but this is quite new in the Premier League. Last weekend was one of those rare days on which I felt very lazy to wake up at 4 30 am to watch Liverpool play away against Wolves. Later I noticed friends on Facebook mentioning about female assistant referee officiated that game and Sian Massey did a fantastic job. If I were to believe people who watched the full match and whatever I saw in the highlights she was spot on. Her first match as a Premier League line official was back in December in Sunderland v Blackpool game. Don't know how that went unnoticed (just me or may other football fans??). Sian Massey was in the news this week because of the controversial "sexist" remarks made by prominent Sky Sports presenters Andy Gray and Richard Keys. The duo were caught on cam before the kick off for making comments such as "what do women know about offisde". The matter was taken seriously and Sky Sports terminated their contracts.

Coming back to Wolves v Liverpool, Sian Massey could have easily fallen for offside appeal. Instead she spotted the movement well enough to allow the play to continue and that resulted in the first goal. Her decision could have decided the outcome of the match and good that it went the right way. Not to forget how it have been for Mr. Gray and Mr. Keys, may be like a slap on their face :D. Hardly 4 days after that match, in Liverpool v Fulham game, a linesman got it all wrong when Torres was judged offside while he actually wasn't. Looks like football needs more female referees. Surely they can do better job than Howard Webb and other ducks around. And as one of my friends had commented on Facebook, players wouldn't argue too much ( F words etc :P) with a female referee and maintain dignity :D. Way to go Sian Massey!! Hope she continues her good record and sets an example for both male and female counterparts.

Sunday, January 23, 2011

The IPL Bazaar – The losers and gainers – Delhi Daredevils

Delhi Daredevils-

Delhi Daredevils are the southafrican team of ipl. The reason is, they squander the opportunity of entering the final by any means they can find. They were manhandle by gilchrist in ipl2 , in ipl 1 the batsman suddenly did not come good for them. In ipl 3 they did not qualify for the semifinal due to the fall of team integrity.

It’s ipl 4 and this time they did not retain any of the players except for virender sehwag. Surprisingly enough, Gautam gambir who went for the highest amount in ipl4 and the former captain of dd was not retained. They were pretty confused because of out of field controversy, they did not pick a great team as they had for the first three ipl.

The respectful pickings by delhi were Australian cannonade David Warner ,Southafrican beast Morne Morkel. They opted for irfan pathan and spend a whooping sum of 1.9 million dollars, for a player who cannot find himself in indian world cup team.It is a touch too high. Hope he does the job with the bat and the ball as expected by GMR groups. The other shocking bid was for venugopal who is a very good odi and test player but for t20, he is not a very smart pick. May be they needed some one to stabilize the middle order if sehwag and warner fail. They got highly spoken southafrican colin ingram who is yet to prove his worth in international arena and victorian bush rangers all-rounder Andrew Mcdonald.

In the bowling front they got kkr’s successful bowler Ashok Dinda and veteran Ajith Agarkar. They did not pick a spinner , a surprise in indian conditions and instead opted for Australian all rounder James Hopes. Other notable team members were Australian aaron finch and delhi man for the last 3 ipl’s Rajat Bhatia.They picked royals player naman ohja as the wicket keeper and also Australian Wade.

With such a new team which will take time to bond, delhi would need sehwag and warner fire from all cylinders if they have any chance to secure spot in the semi-final. They still have money in the bank and if they are able to procure some good local talents ,it would be interesting to see. But for now delhi is not the team they were in previous three ipl’s

My Delhi X1-Sehwag, Warner, Naman Ohja,  Venugopala rao, McDonald, Irfan pathan, Hopes/Finch, Agarkar, Dinda, Morne Morkel,  Spinner Please.

The IPL Bazaar – The losers and gainers – Delhi Daredevils

Delhi Daredevils-

Delhi Daredevils are the southafrican team of ipl. The reason is, they squander the opportunity of entering the final by any means they can find. They were manhandle by gilchrist in ipl2 , in ipl 1 the batsman suddenly did not come good for them. In ipl 3 they did not qualify for the semifinal due to the fall of team integrity.

It’s ipl 4 and this time they did not retain any of the players except for virender sehwag. Surprisingly enough, Gautam gambir who went for the highest amount in ipl4 and the former captain of dd was not retained. They were pretty confused because of out of field controversy, they did not pick a great team as they had for the first three ipl.

The respectful pickings by delhi were Australian cannonade David Warner ,Southafrican beast Morne Morkel. They opted for irfan pathan and spend a whooping sum of 1.9 million dollars, for a player who cannot find himself in indian world cup team.It is a touch too high. Hope he does the job with the bat and the ball as expected by GMR groups. The other shocking bid was for venugopal who is a very good odi and test player but for t20, he is not a very smart pick. May be they needed some one to stabilize the middle order if sehwag and warner fail. They got highly spoken southafrican colin ingram who is yet to prove his worth in international arena and victorian bush rangers all-rounder Andrew Mcdonald.

In the bowling front they got kkr’s successful bowler Ashok Dinda and veteran Ajith Agarkar. They did not pick a spinner , a surprise in indian conditions and instead opted for Australian all rounder James Hopes. Other notable team members were Australian aaron finch and delhi man for the last 3 ipl’s Rajat Bhatia.They picked royals player naman ohja as the wicket keeper and also Australian Wade.

With such a new team which will take time to bond, delhi would need sehwag and warner fire from all cylinders if they have any chance to secure spot in the semi-final. They still have money in the bank and if they are able to procure some good local talents ,it would be interesting to see. But for now delhi is not the team they were in previous three ipl’s

My Delhi X1-Sehwag, Warner, Naman Ohja,  Venugopala rao, McDonald, Irfan pathan, Hopes/Finch, Agarkar, Dinda, Morne Morkel,  Spinner Please.

Saturday, January 22, 2011

The IPL Bazaar - The losers and gainers - Royal Challengers Bangalore

After a disastrous performance in the first edition of ipl, RCB pulled up their socks, changed the captain and put up impressive performances in the next two editions. When asked about retaining players, to everyone’s surprise they retained Virat Kohli while they had Kevin Pietersen , Dale Steyn ,Cameron White. But their decision has so far proven wise as Virat Kohli is ominous form.

The captain of the two previous editions Anil Kumble choose wisely to become the manager of the team and his decision was widely reflected in the auction when some players did not get bids or got bids for lower value. Let us now see what team they have got.

In bowling front they have considerably strengthened the line up, They got india’s best fast bowler Zaheer Khan, slinging Nannes, good swing bowler in langveldt and one of the most economic spinners in Daniel Vettori. In addition they have also got local talent abhimanyu mithun , a budding fast-bowler and also southafrican van der wath..

In batting department the young hero Virat Kohli, last year’s ipl find   Saurabh tiwari, Cheteshwer Pujara. They also managed to bid successfully  for srilanka’s dashing opener Tillekaratne Dilshan, Australian left hander Luke Pomersch bach and South Africa’s most successful batsman AB De Villers. If they are able to procure Manish Pandey then they seem to have the most balanced side in this years ipl.

My RCB X1- Virat Kohli(C), Saurabh Tiwary, Manish Pandey, Zaheer Khan, Cheteshwar Pujara, Abhimanyu Mithun, Dirk Nannes, AB de Villiers(Wc), Tillakaratne Dilshan, Daniel Vettori and another local batsman.

With such a balanced side they surely are one of the main contenders of the cup and have the side which can go al the ways to the final. The only thing to watch out for is, who will be serving as captain .will it be vettori or zaheer khan.That would be interesting to watch out.

The IPL Bazaar - The losers and gainers - Royal Challengers Bangalore

After a disastrous performance in the first edition of ipl, RCB pulled up their socks, changed the captain and put up impressive performances in the next two editions. When asked about retaining players, to everyone’s surprise they retained Virat Kohli while they had Kevin Pietersen , Dale Steyn ,Cameron White. But their decision has so far proven wise as Virat Kohli is ominous form.

The captain of the two previous editions Anil Kumble choose wisely to become the manager of the team and his decision was widely reflected in the auction when some players did not get bids or got bids for lower value. Let us now see what team they have got.

In bowling front they have considerably strengthened the line up, They got india’s best fast bowler Zaheer Khan, slinging Nannes, good swing bowler in langveldt and one of the most economic spinners in Daniel Vettori. In addition they have also got local talent abhimanyu mithun , a budding fast-bowler and also southafrican van der wath..

In batting department the young hero Virat Kohli, last year’s ipl find   Saurabh tiwari, Cheteshwer Pujara. They also managed to bid successfully  for srilanka’s dashing opener Tillekaratne Dilshan, Australian left hander Luke Pomersch bach and South Africa’s most successful batsman AB De Villers. If they are able to procure Manish Pandey then they seem to have the most balanced side in this years ipl.

My RCB X1- Virat Kohli(C), Saurabh Tiwary, Manish Pandey, Zaheer Khan, Cheteshwar Pujara, Abhimanyu Mithun, Dirk Nannes, AB de Villiers(Wc), Tillakaratne Dilshan, Daniel Vettori and another local batsman.

With such a balanced side they surely are one of the main contenders of the cup and have the side which can go al the ways to the final. The only thing to watch out for is, who will be serving as captain .will it be vettori or zaheer khan.That would be interesting to watch out.

Sunday, January 16, 2011

The IPL Bazaar - The losers and gainers - Mumbai Indians

Tendulkar and Pollard helped Mumbai Indians reaching the finals of the last year which they lost out due to some batting line up errors by SRT. This year they would not be enjoying the exclusive serices of pollard like last year as he has some international commitments.And with this in mind they picked another player who is the only player who could justify the role Pollard plays in the team. They picked Rohit sharma for a whooping amount of $2 million. Rohit sharma has always been a very good ipl player.It is only in the international arena he has failed. So he is a really good addition in strengthening the middle order which was given a dent as they no more get the services of saurab tiwary who was bought by RCB. There is no jp duminy also and neither does shikar dawan fail in the line up. So it is in the hands of symonds and rohit to strengthen the batting line up.They also got flourishing austrlain batsman aiden blizzard.

[caption id="attachment_352" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Mumbai Indians Logo"]Mumbai Indians Logo[/caption]

It is the bowling that had made them the strong team in previous ipl.But this time they were not able to procure in Zaheer Khan as RCB got him also. So they had to strengthen the bowling line up very heavily. They still have the services of  Bhajji and Malinga the slinger.They bought Munaf Patel in place of Zaheer Khan. I dunno how efficiently he would be able to perform Zaheer's job. They also got australian fast man cint mzkkay but it is tough for him to find  place in the team. They got davy jacobs , a highly rated south african who is yet to shine in the international arena.

They also got back Moises henriques who has never fogured in the previous playing X1 of MI, but still they got him. James Frankin, a New Zealand  bowler who suddenly took up the role of All rounder for the kiwis in the recent past was also bought.

In addition they also have the services of local talents in Dhawal kulkarni , Rajagopal Satish, Ambati Rayudu. It would be interesting to see whether they will be able to retain them back.

Overall Mumbai has a very strong team but it is the middle order that needs a tightening up.Otherwise Tendulkar as usual would have to play a very powrful role in building up the team just like he has been doing it for the past 20 years for India.

Final X1

SRT, Sathish, Sharma, Symonds/Pollard, Davey Jacobs, Rayudu, Bhajji, Munaf, Malinga, Kulkarni, Local  Allrounder/Batsman or Blizzard.

If both pollard and symonds is available the last slot would not be needed to be filled.

Will continue about the rest of the teams in my forthcoming posts.

The IPL Bazaar - The losers and gainers - Mumbai Indians

Tendulkar and Pollard helped Mumbai Indians reaching the finals of the last year which they lost out due to some batting line up errors by SRT. This year they would not be enjoying the exclusive serices of pollard like last year as he has some international commitments.And with this in mind they picked another player who is the only player who could justify the role Pollard plays in the team. They picked Rohit sharma for a whooping amount of $2 million. Rohit sharma has always been a very good ipl player.It is only in the international arena he has failed. So he is a really good addition in strengthening the middle order which was given a dent as they no more get the services of saurab tiwary who was bought by RCB. There is no jp duminy also and neither does shikar dawan fail in the line up. So it is in the hands of symonds and rohit to strengthen the batting line up.They also got flourishing austrlain batsman aiden blizzard.

[caption id="attachment_352" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Mumbai Indians Logo"]Mumbai Indians Logo[/caption]

It is the bowling that had made them the strong team in previous ipl.But this time they were not able to procure in Zaheer Khan as RCB got him also. So they had to strengthen the bowling line up very heavily. They still have the services of  Bhajji and Malinga the slinger.They bought Munaf Patel in place of Zaheer Khan. I dunno how efficiently he would be able to perform Zaheer's job. They also got australian fast man cint mzkkay but it is tough for him to find  place in the team. They got davy jacobs , a highly rated south african who is yet to shine in the international arena.

They also got back Moises henriques who has never fogured in the previous playing X1 of MI, but still they got him. James Frankin, a New Zealand  bowler who suddenly took up the role of All rounder for the kiwis in the recent past was also bought.

In addition they also have the services of local talents in Dhawal kulkarni , Rajagopal Satish, Ambati Rayudu. It would be interesting to see whether they will be able to retain them back.

Overall Mumbai has a very strong team but it is the middle order that needs a tightening up.Otherwise Tendulkar as usual would have to play a very powrful role in building up the team just like he has been doing it for the past 20 years for India.

Final X1

SRT, Sathish, Sharma, Symonds/Pollard, Davey Jacobs, Rayudu, Bhajji, Munaf, Malinga, Kulkarni, Local  Allrounder/Batsman or Blizzard.

If both pollard and symonds is available the last slot would not be needed to be filled.

Will continue about the rest of the teams in my forthcoming posts.

Thursday, January 13, 2011

The IPL Bazaar - The losers and gainers - Chennai Super Kings

The long awaited IPL auctions finally took place last week. The players were thrown up for sale and every team got what they want or is that what they thought. Let us have a look at what each team got and how they measure up while in comparison to other teams in winning the million dollar prize(which ofcourse goes to the players).


Let me start with the Current Champions Chennai Superkings and try to cover one team every article.


Chennai Superkings


Chennai superkings had only one thing in mind going into the auction.To retain the same team that they had already had.They never wanted to add new members into the team as they did not want to break the team rapport and they went for some players like balaji and gony really had only to loss it because of the lack of funds.


Now to the team: They maintained the same batting line up they had for the last 3 years and they had to pay around 850000 for getting Badrinath, which shows how darly they wanted the whole team. No hayden in the squad which is a relief as he was clearly struggling last year and the mongoose bat didn't do any tricks.




CSK Logo
CSK



They get 2 more all-rounders in thefaces of dwayne bravo(his availability is an issue) and Scott Styris in addition to Albei Morkel.the selection of styris was a neat move as they had known bravo won't be available for long and styris really adds to the team a lot with his slow off cutters which plays a pibotal role in indian surfaes and useful batting. The only thing they would be missing is the energy in fielding in which clearly has an upper hand.The bowling department was the sole concern of CSK till the middle of IPL3 which got really boosted up by the inclusion of doug bollinger.And this year they get another australian in ben hilfenhaus who is really a good swinger in the ball.Nuwan Kulasekara may remain as a substitute in case both bollinger and hilfenhaus fail to do their job.They also got ashwin(the best indian spinner presently). They also got srilankan spinner Randiv, who has always been handy in Indian conditions and also sudeep tyagi who has remained as one of the local bowlers so that they could replace him. Joginder sharma was bought in the agony as they could not get Manpreet Gony and Balaji.


Wridhiman saha was bought just as a substitute for dhoni .George bailey is also retained and they got some player by the name of faf du pliess who is a southafrican allrounder .I don't see any reason how  he would fit in the team unless something terribly goes wrong for csk in ipl.


On the whole CSK have once agai got a very powerful team with a perfect balance and rapport.It is still the bowling that needs to do the job.If tyagi and sharma can perform it,there is no doubt they would find a place easily in the semi-final.


The Final X1


Vijay, Hussey, Raina, Badrinath, Dhoni, Bravo/Styris, Morkel, Ashwin, Tyagi, Bollinger and Joginder Sharma.

The IPL Bazaar - The losers and gainers - Chennai Super Kings

The long awaited IPL auctions finally took place last week. The players were thrown up for sale and every team got what they want or is that what they thought. Let us have a look at what each team got and how they measure up while in comparison to other teams in winning the million dollar prize(which ofcourse goes to the players).


Let me start with the Current Champions Chennai Superkings and try to cover one team every article.


Chennai Superkings


Chennai superkings had only one thing in mind going into the auction.To retain the same team that they had already had.They never wanted to add new members into the team as they did not want to break the team rapport and they went for some players like balaji and gony really had only to loss it because of the lack of funds.


Now to the team: They maintained the same batting line up they had for the last 3 years and they had to pay around 850000 for getting Badrinath, which shows how darly they wanted the whole team. No hayden in the squad which is a relief as he was clearly struggling last year and the mongoose bat didn't do any tricks.




CSK Logo
CSK



They get 2 more all-rounders in thefaces of dwayne bravo(his availability is an issue) and Scott Styris in addition to Albei Morkel.the selection of styris was a neat move as they had known bravo won't be available for long and styris really adds to the team a lot with his slow off cutters which plays a pibotal role in indian surfaes and useful batting. The only thing they would be missing is the energy in fielding in which clearly has an upper hand.The bowling department was the sole concern of CSK till the middle of IPL3 which got really boosted up by the inclusion of doug bollinger.And this year they get another australian in ben hilfenhaus who is really a good swinger in the ball.Nuwan Kulasekara may remain as a substitute in case both bollinger and hilfenhaus fail to do their job.They also got ashwin(the best indian spinner presently). They also got srilankan spinner Randiv, who has always been handy in Indian conditions and also sudeep tyagi who has remained as one of the local bowlers so that they could replace him. Joginder sharma was bought in the agony as they could not get Manpreet Gony and Balaji.


Wridhiman saha was bought just as a substitute for dhoni .George bailey is also retained and they got some player by the name of faf du pliess who is a southafrican allrounder .I don't see any reason how  he would fit in the team unless something terribly goes wrong for csk in ipl.


On the whole CSK have once agai got a very powerful team with a perfect balance and rapport.It is still the bowling that needs to do the job.If tyagi and sharma can perform it,there is no doubt they would find a place easily in the semi-final.


The Final X1


Vijay, Hussey, Raina, Badrinath, Dhoni, Bravo/Styris, Morkel, Ashwin, Tyagi, Bollinger and Joginder Sharma.

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Its here - Cricketing stuff and news on my blog !

Hey everybody out there and thank you for taking time to read my blog :-)

I was searching for a blogger who can contribute to cricketing stuff for Yusuf at his Blog, Kumar jumped in and here's me introducing "Kumar R" - a self (and everyone) proclaimed cricket fanatic who cannot stop following news and talking about cricket.

Watch out for Cricket category under Sports up there on the menu of categories. IPL season is on and we sure expect some fiery blogging from Kumar. Cheers!

Saturday, January 8, 2011

The Best 3 of Technology in 2010

To start with the best 3, here are 3 words from me for all the readers of yusuf.in - "Happy New Year". Cheers to +1 and wish we get more 1's(positives) and less 0's(negatives) this year. I was to publish this post on Jan 2nd but couldn't due to a technical glitch which was a result of me trying to install an incompatible plugin on this blog's WordPress.

OK, lets get the topic started and going. Here is my listing of three best things in Technology from the year 2010. Well, don't ask me why only 3 things, I just wanted to share three best things of the category which i love to follow over the Internet. BeckRam already made his contribution of the facts in sports of 2010 in his post of Looking back at 2010 in Sports. Now, here's me with MY favourite and best things in technology from 2010. Note that I am not making a 3,2 and 1 over here, I am only listing the best three which means that all are equal to each other, IMHO.

iPad: Nothing could beat this one out of the my best 3 in technology.

[caption id="attachment_315" align="aligncenter" width="434" caption="Apple ipad"]ipad[/caption]

Call it sheer innovation or sheer branding from Apple Inc.  "Tablets" is one word that none apart from geeked out techies would have known, until Apple's iPad was launched. Apparently, Steve Jobs said "iPad is a device that sits between a phone and a computer" and thereafter it knocked out the netbook market and netbooks are nowhere to be seen from 2011 I guess. Any guesses how many were sold so far ? I can guess some 10 or 20 millions. And the latest buzz is that we should probably wait for ipad 2 from Apple, if rumours are to be believed, this one has new and enhanced features starting from iOS4.0. I should mention about stiff and huge competition from Android. There were other devices which were touted to be ipad killers but only got to make a pretty small dent on the ipad which was, eh, brushed away.

Cloud Computing: 2010 saw small and also large business embrace cloud computing to a good extent.

[caption id="attachment_314" align="alignleft" width="180" caption="Cloud Computing"]Cloud Computing[/caption]

Amazon's cloud computing stood as the front runner and I can proudly say that my blog is also hosted on cloud servers. Office applications are being hosted on cloud's so that people who are hooked onto the Internet 24*7 can use these applications to manipulate on their office files on the move. There are many cloud computing companies and here are Top 10 from them.

[caption id="attachment_313" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Say about Cloud Computing to your boss"]Cloud Computing[/caption]

One problem about cloud computing is that the IT guys really need to explain patiently about cloud computing and its benefits to small businesses as these business persons are the ones who need to understand where their data will be stored, computed on and what kind of service they can expect from a cloud computing company.




Social Media: Many would rather prefer to call this Facebook and not Social Media. But no, that might be wrong. Social Media is that which encompasses all of the entities on the Internet using which you can be Social.

[caption id="attachment_317" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Join the Social Media Bandwagon"]Social-Media-Jump On![/caption]

Now I am not going to mention all those which are encompassed; this list will take a full page. Social Media Marketing was at its peak this year. 2010 saw Social Media being embraced to an excellent extent by businesses and they are using it the best way to promote, sell, help service, keep customers posted through tweets and announcements and also to patiently answer angry customers, in a social way, as well. We saw Ford Motor Company launching their SUV the "Ford Explorer" on Facebook!

[caption id="attachment_328" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Social Media Marketing"]Social-Media-Madness[/caption]

Clearly, Facebook was the leader of the Social Media pack by claiming $2 Billion in 2010 Sales and this is just a claim, we do not know the exact numbers(It should be more and more). Mark Zuckerberg got his extra share of fame from the title of the 'Time person of the year' and also from 'The Social Network' - a movie being made on him, his friends and Facebook.




Note: All images on this post are sourced from Flickr.com, if you are the author for one of the images and do not like them being here, please contact me at http://www.yusuf.in/about/contact-me/