Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Scolari Sacked from Stamford Bridge

Disappointment for Chelsea and Big Phil, but not a bug surprise. Big Phil who has taken this home country to glory during the WC 2002 and also took charge of the Portugal Nation team in 2004, has been a inspiring coach through out his career. Unfortunately he hasn't inspired Roman Abrahomavich , the chelsea owner.

I personally feel that this isn't any big surprise to me, but sometimes we feel that few great people are at the wrong place, for wrong reasons and at the wrong time. And unfortunately i feel this has happened to Scolari. Sometimes you feel that you had too much masala in to the sambar and that's how i feel when we see Chelsea playing or fielding their first team. This team is a anonymous to Real Madrid where there are too many stars and each star is too bright that they don't glow as a group. Individually there are the best players in the planet, no one can deny that. But to win games at the highest level the need of the hour is to play as a group. This has been the major drawback for the team and i feel that Phil was not able to manage them as a group. He was handed this prestigious job after a serious of unfortunate events at Stamford Bridgt.It started of with the dispute between Jose Mourinho after which we saw Avram Grant holding the job during the far end of last season and then he was sacked after which the job was handed over to Phil.

What makes owners to sack coaches? The owners have the money to talk and the coaches has to listen to them but this always not the case with all big clubs. They need results, they don't expect you to go level on a match against under dogs at home. I hope they find one similar to Jose Mourinho to bring the Blue from their blues.

Thursday, February 5, 2009

Bowler were Confused : Dhoni

I have taken a small article from Times and pasted down here. This was the post match interview after second One day against Srilanka where India clinched a thriller in Colombo.
Jaideep Marar | TNN

Colombo: Having won seven games on the trot, MS Dhoni was not exactly in seventh heaven on Saturday night. The Indian captain was concerned that his bowlers had allowed the Sri Lankans to come dangerously close. He was upset that his bowlers had confused themselves by not sticking to their plans.
“It’s very important to have a clear mind,’’ he said after the match. “If you are running in from the bowling mark, you need decide that this is the ball I’m going to bowl. Accordingly you place your fielders. If you are in two minds then you would be confused about what you are doing. If you have just one thought, you can execute it better,’’ he reasoned. “It’s better to have a plan—even if it is a bad plan—in mind than end up being confused. You need to be clear what you are bowling. If you are bowling a bouncer, you don’t need a long on and a long-off. If you are bowling a slower one, you don’t really need a third man, you can have a deep midwicket. At the same time you can confuse the batsmen with this field and bowl a yorker. But if the ball is completely different than what the field is then you have a greater chance of conceding a boundary.’’
The captain’s ire seemed to be directed at pace bowler Ishant Sharma, who conceded 40 runs in his last four overs, including six boundaries. To Sharma’s credit he continued to strike telling blows despite the mess he was in. His haul of 4-56 fetched him the man of the match award, but the bowler wasn’t too happy with his display either.
“It was not my best performance,’’ he said at the presentation. Dhoni even dropped the cool captain guard. “In international cricket when there is pressure on you, you are never cool. You give the opportunity to the bowler saying, ‘you bowl according to your plan and your field,’ but at times when it doesn’t work you turn from a democratic captain to a dictator... you become like a king... you say no more powers to you. Now, this is the field and you bowl according to the field.’’
He made it clear that it is not always the case. He always gives the first preference to the bowler. He had his reasons for that too. “With experience, with their own plan, they will get better. After two years, they won’t run to the captain and ask what they should bowl. They will grow if they learn by themselves,’’ he said. It would also help them mature, he felt.

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My personal opinion: "Dhoni is the best thing that has happened for Indian Cricket in recent times. His resource management skills, Belief in Self-Convicition, Choice of diction and straight talk will make him take Team India a long way in world cricket." These comments and gyan also applies to our day to day life where you need to know and decide what you are trying to do!!!