A memorable year in many ways. We had been to Maidstone today morning for Passport interview.
Need to review the year in more detail and make goals for 2015.
Wednesday 31 December 2014
Tuesday 30 December 2014
Dhoni decides to walk away from Tests
Today morning I woke up to the surprising news that Dhoni has decided to retire from Test Cricket with immediate effect. He will not be playing the last Test of the current series in Sydney. The abruptness of this news took everyone by surprise.
Some former players are very critical of the fact that he had chosen to go mid series. I think in the larger scheme of things this is a very good decision and whether he should have played the last test is a minor point.
I have been a vocal critic of Dhoni, the Test Captain , in the last 3 Years. I believed that away from home his captaincy had reached a dead end. No fresh ideas, no imagination. We kept being hammered and Dhoni continued to do the same things. But he still was good enough to continue as a wicketkeeper batsman for 1-2 years in Tests.
I must confess I have a soft spot for Dhoni as I am also from Ranchi and went to the same school as Dhoni. Dhoni single handedly put Ranchi on the World map. I am obviously very proud of him.
In hindsight this may prove to be one of the best decisions he has taken.
He could easily have hung around for another 10 tests, to archive the milestones of 100 tests, 5000 test runs, 300 dismissals. To his credit he didn't do that. We have seen some of the greatest icons of Indian cricket hankering after these well past their prime. Kapil Dev and Tendulkar come to mind.
Dhoni the Test Captain had to be replaced. But I think his achievements as a wicketkeeper batsman in Tests are greatly under rated. They got overshadowed by his captaincy. By any yardstick he is head and shoulders above all other Indian wicketkeeper batsmen. Kirmani played 98 tests compared to Dhoni's 90, has only 198 dismissals compared to Dhoni's 290. Dhoni was good enough to play purely as a batsman for a majority of his Test career. he has nearly 5000 runs with 6 hundreds with a highest score of 224. He was a match winner with the bat on his day. He was very consistent too. He would invariably score at least 20-30 runs. Rarely would he fail to make a contribution.
But people keep talking about his awkward batting technique and the fact that he was never considered a stumper in the classical mould. But he was always effective. His numbers speak for themselves.
I think the grind of being the wicketkeeper Batsman and captain in all 3 formats as well as IPL took its toll on him and has curtailed his Test career. He is BCCI's golden goose and especially N Srinivasan's and they never tried to balance his workload.
I hope, now freed of Test Captaincy, he will bring India another World Cup.
People are talking of his legacy not realising he is only 33. Misbah and Younus Khan are 40 but still going strong. So Dhoni is here to stay for many more years. At the moment he is one of the best ODI batsman in the World.
His place as one of the greatest cricketers India has ever produced is secure. He is the only captain to have won the World Cup, the T20 WC, the Champions Trophy as well as led India to No 1 ranking in Tests.
All of Ranchi will be egging their 'Mahi' to go on and on. The legend of this small town boy may grow bigger and bigger.
Thursday 25 December 2014
Christmas
IWe are at Vineet's new house in Woodley, Reading celebrating Christmas with them.
They have invited many other people, so we will have a great time......
Monday 22 December 2014
PK
Ammar's holidays have started.
Yesterday we watched PK in Cineworld Ilford. Vivek and family had also come from Reading. The film is good no doubt, but the second half dragged a bit.....Farah and Shweta loved the movie as did Ammar & Viji.....
Later we had dinner in Saravana Bhavan,
Ilford.
Friday 19 December 2014
Monday 15 December 2014
Virat
A must read article in Cricinfo by Mukul Kesavan - I completely agree with him that he should be made full time test captain now.
When Defeat Isn't Depressing
Sunday 14 December 2014
London By Night
We did 'London by Night' yesterday......we covered Tower Bridge, London Eye, Trafalgar Square, Buckingham Palace, Tower of London, Canary Wharf etc etc. It was wonderful.
Friday 12 December 2014
Today
When you move to a new place, one of the things to locate is the mosque or Islamic Centre. I went for Jumma Namaaz to NWKIC - North West Kent Islamic Centre in Crayford. This was originally a Church now converted into a mosque. This is a common occurance in the West as the number of active Churchgoers has gone down.
Anyway, it is about 8 min drive from my house and the jamaat was pretty good.
It seems the community here has a majority of Bangladeshis. But thankfully the khutba was in English, unlike Norwich where the whole taqreer would be in Bangla.
We also watched the movie 'The Message' with Urdu dubbing today. It is perhaps the best movie/documentary on Islam I have ever seen. Ammar loved it too.
Wednesday 10 December 2014
Nobel for Malala & Kailash
Hugely proud moment today when Malala and Kailash Satyarthi got their Nobel Peace Prize.....
Tuesday 9 December 2014
Move to Dartford, Kent
We moved to Dartford, Kent on 29th of Nov. We are still settling down here. We decided to move towards the end of October. It was not an easy decision considering the fact that Chelmsford was such a lovely city and we had a great house. Anyway Insha Allah if the purpose for the move is achieved in March next year then it will be worth it.
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