The Ashes and the travel agency irritation
The Ashes Series Australia Versus England
An Ashes series has so much of hype leading up to the matches. In the last fifteen years Australia have been the dominant side . England had a brief spell of ascendancy in 2005 as Flintoff and some reverse swing bowling by Simon Jones helped them win the Ashes . But for this summer Ashes, being played in Australia , the Aussies seem to have given up on the series even before it has started. Their own fans have predicted a English win and that is unbelievable if one had followed the way the Aussies have played their cricket on the last decade. There are good reasons as to why the media in general and the Aussie fans predict a English win. Here are some of my thoughts
England have been playing very good cricket for the past year. They won the T 20 and under Strauss have been able to produce a fine balanced side
The Aussie team is aging. With the departure of McGrath , Warne , Hayden , Langer and Gilchrist , the team has lost talent and I have no seen no talent that can fill in this void.
The Current batting line up is not exactly young either .. They are all past their thirties , some in the middle thirties and all of them lacking consistency which was the Aussie Forte.
In situations where the Aussie top order collapsed , say five years ago , Gilly would walk in and then turn the game around in a session. Today if there is top order batting collapse , the opposition can easily run through the rest of the batting order.
It looks like all the talent grew up at the same time . At some stage , Australia had several reserve players who could walk in to the team and do what was needed. A Michael Bevan was always a one day finisher and there was no place in the test team for him although he was as good as anyone in the team at that point. Brad Hodge is a another example. There was so much competition that if a player missed out a match , his absence was never felt . Such was the reserve strength. Today , Aussies lack that.
They seem to have lost their confidence in winning ways. What else can explain their Mohali loss to India ?.( Ojha was allowed to play few balls -- Normally he would have been a first ball duck set up ) And their loss in the one dayer to Srilanka -- they allowed Angelo Mathews and Malinga to knock off 132 runs for the ninth wicket and on top allowed Murali to score the winning run in the same match ?
They are no more the no 1 team .. They have slipped and have continued to slip ..
My bet is on England to win based on current form but but it requires a inspirational Ricky Ponting to change my bet…. Any takers for a Aussie win ?
The Car Travel Agency Irritation
There is a car travel agency down my street. It was small agency some years ago .. Just a couple of cars and his business has grown in the last few years .. That is good for him but not for residents of the area of his operation, when he decides to park all his cars on the roads and create inconvenience to others. The problem becomes more acute because of the following-
1. Parking on both sides of the road leave little room for traffic to move.
2.Parking bigger vehicles ( Like tempo traveller type ) removes visibility to main roads
3. Natural rest room behind the parked vehicles being created
4. Repair work of the vehicles done at the parking spot.
5. A Potti kadai has sprung up to cater to the drivers of the parked vehicles
I tried to reason out with the Owner to avoid pile up -- No effect
I went on Air on Radio one FM Channel ( it was a good experience and I liked the way RJ Arun went about talking to me and have my recording aired "live" ) and voiced my concern. Tamil Weekly Magazine Junior Vikatan wrote about it .. Did anything happen .. No
I complained to the Traffic Cops -- Guess what .. Nothing happened ..
I wrote to the letters to Editor of the local Mylapore Times and this was published last week -- Again nothing happened
Any bright ideas ?
An Ashes series has so much of hype leading up to the matches. In the last fifteen years Australia have been the dominant side . England had a brief spell of ascendancy in 2005 as Flintoff and some reverse swing bowling by Simon Jones helped them win the Ashes . But for this summer Ashes, being played in Australia , the Aussies seem to have given up on the series even before it has started. Their own fans have predicted a English win and that is unbelievable if one had followed the way the Aussies have played their cricket on the last decade. There are good reasons as to why the media in general and the Aussie fans predict a English win. Here are some of my thoughts
England have been playing very good cricket for the past year. They won the T 20 and under Strauss have been able to produce a fine balanced side
The Aussie team is aging. With the departure of McGrath , Warne , Hayden , Langer and Gilchrist , the team has lost talent and I have no seen no talent that can fill in this void.
The Current batting line up is not exactly young either .. They are all past their thirties , some in the middle thirties and all of them lacking consistency which was the Aussie Forte.
In situations where the Aussie top order collapsed , say five years ago , Gilly would walk in and then turn the game around in a session. Today if there is top order batting collapse , the opposition can easily run through the rest of the batting order.
It looks like all the talent grew up at the same time . At some stage , Australia had several reserve players who could walk in to the team and do what was needed. A Michael Bevan was always a one day finisher and there was no place in the test team for him although he was as good as anyone in the team at that point. Brad Hodge is a another example. There was so much competition that if a player missed out a match , his absence was never felt . Such was the reserve strength. Today , Aussies lack that.
They seem to have lost their confidence in winning ways. What else can explain their Mohali loss to India ?.( Ojha was allowed to play few balls -- Normally he would have been a first ball duck set up ) And their loss in the one dayer to Srilanka -- they allowed Angelo Mathews and Malinga to knock off 132 runs for the ninth wicket and on top allowed Murali to score the winning run in the same match ?
They are no more the no 1 team .. They have slipped and have continued to slip ..
My bet is on England to win based on current form but but it requires a inspirational Ricky Ponting to change my bet…. Any takers for a Aussie win ?
The Car Travel Agency Irritation
There is a car travel agency down my street. It was small agency some years ago .. Just a couple of cars and his business has grown in the last few years .. That is good for him but not for residents of the area of his operation, when he decides to park all his cars on the roads and create inconvenience to others. The problem becomes more acute because of the following-
1. Parking on both sides of the road leave little room for traffic to move.
2.Parking bigger vehicles ( Like tempo traveller type ) removes visibility to main roads
3. Natural rest room behind the parked vehicles being created
4. Repair work of the vehicles done at the parking spot.
5. A Potti kadai has sprung up to cater to the drivers of the parked vehicles
I tried to reason out with the Owner to avoid pile up -- No effect
I went on Air on Radio one FM Channel ( it was a good experience and I liked the way RJ Arun went about talking to me and have my recording aired "live" ) and voiced my concern. Tamil Weekly Magazine Junior Vikatan wrote about it .. Did anything happen .. No
I complained to the Traffic Cops -- Guess what .. Nothing happened ..
I wrote to the letters to Editor of the local Mylapore Times and this was published last week -- Again nothing happened
Any bright ideas ?
Comments
Regarding your car parking issue..based on my experience here in UK..may be it is worth getting a couple of more people involved into the problem may be issuing some circulars around and making others more aware of whats going on ?..However, equally, i would be concious of doing such a thing..because..you dont want thugs coming at your doorstep!..So a difficult one really
Thx, Radha
On the ashes, I still think Australia has the chance. Agree that they have lost some of their legendary players but would never write them off at home. Last test series they played at home in 2010 was against Pakistan which they won 3-0. On any given day, Pak bowling is much better than England bowling line up and in that series; PAK had Asif, Aamer who bowled well through out the series including the Sydney test, though it’s controversial for PAK batting debacle. I don’t remember them losing a series at home in the recent past except for the loss to South Africans which again was a closely fought series. My bet is on Aussie...let’s see.