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Virendar Sehwag ruled out of World T20
With just a week left for the start of World T20, India received a body blow when Virendar Sehwag was declared unfit due to a shoulder injury. This is indeed a huge setback for the Indians as Sehwag is a key member at the top of the order along with Ghambir. Sehwag had missed the 2009 version of the tournament too under similar circumstances.
Sehwag absence means that Murali Vijay gets a chance at the top of the order. Vijay has been in brilliant form for the Chennai Super Kings in the IPL III but I am not sure whether he would be able to replicate the same at the international level. Sehwag played all the games for the Dare Devils in the IPL III, so his shoulder injury is kind of a surprise to me. He couldn’t have suddenly picked up the injury, so he should have been having it for a while. This raises the question as to whether the franchises should be more careful with the Indian recruits when they have a major tournament coming up right after the IPL.
IPL is a long tournament and I would be happy if the Franchises kind of rotate the Indian team players over the course of the series. I don’t think it is necessary for the players to play the entire tournament. Especially when the Indian team is going to participate in a major tournament right after the IPL, the team management needs to be little bit careful. I know that an injury can be picked anytime as we have seen players getting injured on the morning of the match while training but with a hectic tournament like IPL the possibilities are more.
With number of games increased for the next year’s edition, the teams have to be more careful about player fatigue. Resting major players in the team for few games in between shouldn’t hurt I feel. Indian Players representing CSK (Chennai Super Kings) and Mumbai Indians hardly get any rest before they fly to WI and will have to immediately get going. India does not even have breaks between matches as both their games are back to back in the World T20.
There is just couple of games left for the conclusion of the IPL and I hope that none of our bowlers get injured in the process as Vinay Kumar, Praveen Kumar, Zaheer and Bajji will be playing over the next two days. Sehwag’s injury should be lesson to the team management and the Franchises as representing India is more important.
Sehwag’s absence was felt in last year’s world cup when the youngsters struggled against short pitched bowling. Whether Vijay will be able to step into the shoes of Sehwag is something we have to wait and see. Ghambir will have the added responsibility of guiding the youngster through in a major event like the World T20. Hope that the rest of the team can pull their weight and guide the Indian team to their second title.
Armaan Ebrahim finished in the top 10 at Silverstone
Armaan Ebrahim finished at 8th and 9th in the two races over the weekend at Silverstone. He was the star performer for the Indian contingent F2 as both Ajith Kumar and Parthiva Sureshwaran achieved finishes in their first race of their F2 career.
Ajith Kumar who finished at the bottom of the pile (18th) in the race one, improved one position to finish 18th in the race two ahead of France’s Benjamin Lariche. Parthiva Sureshwaran though finished at identical 16th in both the races. Ajith would be extremely pleased with his efforts as he was able to complete both the races successfully and was able to beat one of the drivers in race two. Both Ajith and Parthiva have not been driving professionally for some time now, so it would have been a relief for them to finish both the races.
For Armaan though this was a good race and he ended up in points in the very first race of the season. He kept the Indian flag afloat in Silverstone and would hope that he can finish higher in the races to come. Parthiva and Ajith though would want to improve and try to finish in the top 15 in Marrakech on the 30th of April when the 3rd and 4th round of this year’s championship gets underway.
Good luck to all the three drivers and I hope that we get few podium finishes this year.
Ajith Kumar's decision to take a break from movies to concentrate on racing is a bold move
Actor Ajith Kumar recently decided to pursue his dream of racing and is currently participating in the Formula two world championship. He declared that he is going to take racing little bit more seriously starting this year. Well to be frank that’s a bold decision. We all know that he tried his hand few years back and met with some success in the same but was back with the movies after that. I was reading some comments by few readers on a popular website who were ridiculing his decision and wishing him a failure in his endeavor. This shows how grown up these people are. It’s easy to sit in front of a computer and type away on your keyboard and criticize someone’s effort to be different.
All of us know that moving out of your comfort zone is not that easy. Ajith Kumar is a super star in Tamil cinema. He has his own fan following and supporters. He is a big name in the industry, so it would have been easier for him just sit back and go through the motions like most of us do in our respective fields. But he has decided to be different and is following his passion for racing. How many of us have the guts to do the same? How many of us have the courage to come out of our cozy jobs to follow our interests and passion? The answer would be a grand zero.
But we will make fun of someone who does, as it’s easier to criticize somebody who dares to be different. We have certain happiness in declaring someone a failure without even appreciating the effort that individual has put in. We have been taught from our childhood that if someone doesn’t win in something he is a failure and we grandly follow that yardstick in every field. As far as I am concerned there are few things which go beyond success and winning.
Harsha Bhogle, one of the best sports presenters in the world was a graduate from the reputed Indian Institute of Management. He did not end up in a stereotypical management job as most of the guys doing MBA end up in; instead he followed his passion with sports journalism and presenting. He loved cricket and he followed his interests.
Not a lot of us get to follow our dreams and interests. We are stuck in a typical 9-5 job, uninterested but keep doing it for the sake of our family. When someone dares to be different, we need not encourage them but can be without ridiculing their efforts. Ajith is just an example I took to drive home the point. Anyone who can leave their comfort zone has to be extremely courageous. Ajith surely is doing that right now.
Congrats to him for following his dream and hope that he has a wonderful season in Formula two this year.
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Ashoke Dinda was one of the few Indian pacers to impress in IPL III
The Indian team for the World T20 was announced couple of weeks back and there was hardly any surprises in the squad. Vinay Kumar got his maiden call up to the national team, a reward for his excellent performances in the domestic arena. Piyush Chawla too gets a call up ahead of Ojha and Mishra as the second specialist spinner in the squad. The rest of the team picked themselves.
The fact that Ashish Nehra makes it to the squad right after a prolonged injury break with hardly any practice proves how much the selectors are deprived of options. Praveen Kumar the other pace bowler in the squad has been pretty ordinary in the IPL after few good games at the start. Mithun and Tyagi have been pretty disappointing in the IPL and don’t look like T20 bowlers, similar to Ishant. Ishant himself has been pretty ordinary for the past couple of years.
So we are going into the world cup with two world class bowlers in Zaheer Khan and Harbajan Singh, one debutant, one bowler coming back from injury and one bowler making a comeback into the team. The selection pretty much emphasizes the problem we have with the bowling. So basically the selectors have done the best they can with the limited resources at their disposal.
But heartening thing is that after a pretty bad beginning by the Indian bowlers in the IPL III the second leg has showcased some good young bowlers. Ashoke Dinda of KKR, Sid Trivedi of Rajasthan Royals, Harmeet Singh of Deccan Chargers and Umesh Yadav of Delhi Daredevils have all impressed with their bowling at crucial junctures for their respective teams. The spinners also have been on song like Ravichandran Aswin, Pragyan Ojha and Jakati have been fantastic throughout the tournament.
So it seems we have some gas left in the tank after all. The problem is tapping the talent and giving them breaks at the right time. Bowlers like Mithun and Tyagi should not be ignored either. More than having talents at your disposal, knowing when and how to give them chances are important. Understanding the strengths and weaknesses of the bowlers and using them appropriately is something the selectors have to look into.
Even though the bowling looks thin for India in the World T20, I am happy that the selectors at least tried something different by giving a break to Vinay Kumar.
11th placed Armaan Ebrahim was still the best Indian driver on view at Silverstone
The Indian contingent had a disappointing testing at the Silverstone earlier this week. The Indian drivers Armaan, Parthiva and Ajith finished at 11, 17 and 20th respectively ahead of the season opener this weekend.
Armaan Ebrahim who finished 5th at Snetterton ended 11th in the combined standings at Silverstone and still remained the best Indian driver by a distance. Parthiva gave a slightly improved performance at Silverstone as his 17th place finish was fractionally better than his 20th place finish at Snetterton. Ajith though showed his rustiness as he finished last at 20th. Ajith has not been driving for a long time now, so his lack of practice needs to be taken into account.
No such excuses for both Armaan and Parthiva though as they are both professional racers. With the season opener at Silverstone this weekend all the three drivers would want to put up a decent show. I hope that we see at least one top 10 finish this weekend.
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Ajith Kumar would want to put up a better show in the season opener at Silverstone next week.(Pic courtesy - Formulatwo.com)
The formula two season began this week with the testing at the Snetterton on 6th and 7th of April. This was the first chance for the new drivers to test out their cars ahead of the season opener on the 16th at Silverstone. The Indian drivers had mixed results at the testing as Armaan Ebrahim finished in top 5 but Parthiva Sureshwaran and Ajith Kumar were seen at the bottom of the standings at 20 and 22 respectively.
Armaan Ebrahim led the Indian charge at Snetterton with a 5th place finish
This was just the beginning of the season and both Ajith and Parthiva would want to quickly adapt to their cars and would want to give better performances in the season opener next week. The season gets underway with the Free Practice on the 16th and the eventual race on the 18th of April next week. Hope to see the Indian drivers put up a very good show in the first race of the season. I will surely be following their progress throughout the season.
It seems like motorsports will be my top priority this year with lots of Indian participation in both F1 and F2.
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Pankaj Singh from Rajasthan signed up by the Royal Challengers does not find a place in the Rajasthan Royals squad
IPL III is in its third week and with the race for semi-final spot heating up every game seems like a knockout for the teams. Even though IPL as a competition has been interesting this year, the length is still a worry. It already feels like too long and I am not sure how we will feel next year with 94 games.
But the length of the tournament aside the major concern for me this year has been the team composition of the franchises. The teams have basically ignored the local talents in the team in search of glory. I thought that IPL was going to be used as a ground for nurturing and finding young talents but as the years passed by the franchises have gotten greedy. For example Ranji champions Mumbai are unable to find players from the Mumbai team to represent their IPL franchise Mumbai Indians and Rajasthan is even worse as they don’t even have a single local player representing them.
Rajasthan has been the worst offender off all the IPL teams. The franchise is been completely made up with Rest of India and the mandatory foreign players but there is no sign of any home grown talent. This I feel is ridiculous and shows how much money hungry the franchises have become. Mumbai Indians play just 2 players out of 8 in their team from the Mumbai team and Deccan Chargers somehow manage to play just one or sometimes 2 local players in their team. How do they expect locals to relate with the team if the entire team is made up of players from different teams? I am not against young Indian players getting a chance but ignoring local players takes away the charm of a city based rivalry.
This is the exact reason the IPL teams will find less success in the champion’s league. If you take Rajasthan for example, except for the 4 weeks of IPL none of their team members play together in any form of cricket unless they represent India. Entire year they play against each other and they are suddenly thrown together and are expected to gel as a team immediately. They will be playing teams in the CLT20 who play an entire year together and are more cohesive units in comparison to the IPL teams. The locals who play for team Rajasthan in Ranji trophy might actually feel little hard done by this situation. Teams like them who compete in the plate championship of the Ranji trophy hardly get any visibility with the selectors and a global tournament like the IPL should be used to showcase their talents.
The other issue is the curious case of Deccan Chargers. Due to the political issues in Andhra currently the Deccan Chargers are playing at other venues which are currently proving to be a disadvantage for them. While rest of the teams has received excellent local support for their home games Deccan have struggled in that regard. Deccan have played both their games against Mumbai Indians in Mumbai which is ridiculous I feel as whom do you think the Mumbai crowd will support in a matchup between these two teams? I feel that Deccan have received a pretty raw deal with the fixtures.
Even though the tournament has been a success and is here to stay, the organizers need to look to correct the above glaring anomalies.
HRT elated as both drivers finish
Posted on: April 6, 2010
Karun Chandhok lead HRT finishes over the weekend at Sepang
Hispania Racing Team (HRT) achieved what they were set out to do in the Malaysian Grand Prix when both their drivers completed the race. Karun Chandhok finished his second race in a row and this was the first race finish for Bruno Senna. Both the drivers were very satisfied with the results.
Karun Chandhok who finished 15th at Sepang was very happy with the result.
Speaking after the race he said, “I am fantastically happy to have finished my second race today after our difficult debut in Bahrain. I kept out of trouble and pitted on lap 17. On lap 45, I had a tricky moment, passing Trulli’s Lotus. A great thank to the team who did a fantastic job. To finish was very difficult today but I am happy to have done it.”
Bruno Senna who completed his first race this season was really pleased with the efforts of the team to get both cars to finish.
“I had a good start and gained as much as I could. I am really pleased for the team to have finished the race with both cars. It has been another positive weekend for the team taking a good step forward.” , he said after the race.
The team Principal Collin Kolles was visibly elated as his team was able to finish both the cars only in their third race and was all praise for both the drivers.
“A fantastic day for the team completing our first two-car finish in only our third race, with no pre-season testing. Bruno Senna had a good start while Karun Chandhok had a bad one. But Karun could find a good pace then and both drivers had reliable races. Again we have made a great step forward. We reached our goal with two cars finishing the race. Congratulations to the team who worked again hard to achieve this result. Now we have to work on more developments for the next Grand Prix in China.”, he said.
So the HRT team has achieved their first goal but now would want to do better in the upcoming Chinese Grand Prix. Both the drivers would be confident with their cars after a good race at Sepang and would want to carry over the confidence to the rest of the season.
Ajith back on (Race) track
Posted on: March 31, 2010
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Tamil Superstar Ajith Kumar (Thalai) to race in Formula 2 this year
Ajith has decided to give his passion of racing another go as he is competing in Formula 2 championship this year. We all know Ajith’s immense love for motorsports and Karun Chandhok’s entry to Formula 1 has inspired our “Thalai” to give his racing career another chance. Ajith though quickly dismissed any intentions of him trying for formula 1 and is much happier to be racing in Formula 2 right now.
He also says on his exclusive interview with Rediff that he is going to take racing career seriously this time. He said that he is going to concentrate on racing for the majority of this year and has plans to do just one movie with Gautham Menon later this year. Ajith has already raced in Formula Asia and Formula 3 before and he also had couple of podium finishes in the competitive British F3 championship.
Ajith was thrilled about his prospects with Formula two this season,
“I am really excited about racing in F2. I have a great regard for Jonathan Palmer – thanks to him and his efforts Formula Two is the next best thing to F1. Coming from India with a population of 2 billion, I want to take motor racing in this country to the common man. Right now, it is still a niche sport largely popular in the urban areas. Given my profile as a film star, I hope to use my status to popularise the sport in India.” he said
So best of luck to Ajith and I hope that he has a great season. It will be great to see our “Thalai” get couple of podium finishes this year.
You can follow Ajith’s progress this season at official formula 2 site. You can also get more information about his racing career at Ajith Kumar profile on the same website.
Karun Chandhok was absolutely delighted as he achieved the first finish for his team HRT in the Australian Grand Prix. He finished last in the race but a finish nonetheless for the Hispania Racing team. Karun who hit a bump and had to retire in the first race of the season seemed very satisfied with his efforts in Australia,
“A great thanks to the team. To finish was very difficult today, and all the more satisfying because of that. I dedicate this race result to all the mechanics and engineers who worked so hard since Bahrain, without any pre-season testing. This is a fantastic day for the team and a great step forward. I am proud to have ended our first race.”
He was confident that they will be able to finish higher in the races to come. His teammate Bruno Senna though wasn’t that lucky as he had to retire following a hydraulic failure. He was visibly frustrated but remained hopeful that his team would be able to finish both the cars next race.
“I didn´t intend my second Grand Prix to end with a hydraulic failure, but that´s racing. I made a good start and was in 14th after the big crash in front. It’s fantastic for the team to make it to the finish and we have got a great deal of data to work from for Malaysia. I hope we can finish with two cars next race.”
The next race begins in about 4 days in Malaysia and the HRT team will have their work cut out in getting both cars up and running. The fact that one of their drivers completed the race would give them much needed confidence for the remainder of the season. And as Senna said the team will be hoping for both the cars to finish in Malaysia.
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