The Return Of The King!

He had a dismal run in the first 3 races...even the premature introduction of Ferrari's new baby F2005 didn't help...to add to that, he had a disastrous second qualifying session resulting into 14th position on the starting grid of the Imola track...given the circumstances, no one would have ever imagined a podium finish for Michael Schumacher...but he did it!! The 2005 San Marino GP witnessed a great comeback by Schumi and Ferrari as well...thanks to some brilliant strategy planning by the ferrari crew and a gutsy effort by the King himself! had Alonso not just managed to hold him back, this race would have been remembered as the greatest comeback win ever...but that was not to be...the disappointment on Schumi's face during the post-race press conference said it all...he can settle for nothing less than a win, can he?...the rare mistake he commited in the qualifying session was on his mind all the time!...quoting him, "If not for that, this would have been a perfect day for us"...not to forget, a dream run for Fernando Alonso...with the third consecutive victory he looked all set to be the next champion...but now on, one thing will always be at the back of his mind...the tiger is roaring again!

A Non-playing Cricket Star

You might be tempted to think that I'm writing about "Dada" Ganguly...but NO...there's hardly anything to write about him than whether he prefers chips or sandwiches, sitting in the dressing room! This is about a guy who lives on cricket...quite literally! but doesn't even step a foot on the ground...well enough of plot-building....i'm no Dan Brown!....this is about Harsha Bhogle, the most celebrated commentator, TV anchor of our times...why the hell am I writing about him now? well...one fine day I switched on the TV to get glimpses of my favorite morning time TP...a program telecast on ETV marathi called "Sanwaad", a celebrity interview show, hosted by Raju Parulekar, a writer, journalist....my favorite interviewer, other than Harsha himself...will write about him sometime later...yaa...so Harsha Bhogale was on the show! As you must have guessed by now that it was a Marathi interview!!!...was a treat to watch him speak fluent Marathi, considering he's from Hyderabad...i found him very agressive during the i/w...not quite known for this...as he himself stated that on his own show he tries to be as modest as possible because he himself is just a mediator between the viewers and the stars themselves...hope certain individuals like Siddhu, Shastri are listening! anyway it was nice to hear about his journey as a commentator...among various Qs asked to him was "What is so diff about Indian cricket than the Aus?" he said..."people won't like this answer much but its the same as the diff between a Merc and an Ambassador car!" he put most of the blame on the "system", the admins, the poor state of domestic cricket...spoke quite strongly against the commercialization of cricket....another Q asked to him was about should cricket be restricted to just test matches...I discuss this a lot with some of my cricket buff friends...was glad to see that Harsha had the same opinion as mine....He supported existence of all forms of cricket...said 20-20 should be introduced in a big way! his logic behind this was let the viewers make their own choice!...in the end he was asked about the emotional struggle between he as a cricket lover and a commentator...he accepted honestly that it gets difficult sometimes to control when india is not doing well...but he's got used to it now...well many more things were discussed during the show...can go on writing...but must take a commercial break now and get back to work :)