What's wrong with Indian Cricket now...

Its not the first time Indian team has lost matches overseas, or all the test matches of the series but this is the first time since 1999, after Ganguly took over the captaincy and joined by John Wright as coach.
in the decade of 2000, Sachin was at his peak and India got Dravid and Laxman, 2 batsmen of lifetime came together with 'one of its kind' ever to make Indian middle order one of the most strong of all times. On top , we had Sehwag, who just blew everything away, and with the Ball, we got Zaheer and Harbhajan and a champion who had aggression of fast bowler in his 6 step run up, Kumble. This Core team was supported by bunch of young players like Yuvraj, Kaif, Pathan, Gambhir, Dhoni and bunch of fast bowlers like Nehra, Agarkar , Sree santh etc. who can just play their own game and be themselves with bulk of pressure taken up by the core team.

Three Legends of Indian Cricket.. when will they bow out? 

What is lost in this golden period of Indian cricket is the realization that all these players were not part of any systematic development of cricket in India but just bunch of exceptionally gifted and driven cricketers coming together at the same time. They were also hampered by the same infrastructure as previous generations, no bouncy pitches at home etc, but they made it up with their talent and temperament when they travelled overseas. India fought well overseas , in SA, in Eng and in Australia, twice. They didn't dominate any series but won with enough regularity to shake off the poor traveller tag and for some reasons, Indian fans started to believe that all will be well now. It happened so often that Indian fans started to believe that Indians are getting good at playing overseas, which was not the case. Indians were not getting good, only the bunch of same players were getting better. There was nothing at home to sustain this success, no long term view to create second string of players who can carry this success forward. To be fair, it wasn't easy to do as well as there wasn't enough opportunity to induct fresh faces when you have 4-5 legends playing in team at same time.

When this happened to Australia, bunch of exceptionally gifted players came together around 1995 for next 12-14 years, likes of waugh brothers, warne, McGrath, Ponting, Hayden, Gilly etc. they just won everything, 3 world cups in the row and every single test and ODI series, this shows the difference in the set up. Not that Australian cricketers were more gifted during those times, they were just already better playing in any conditions where India just learnt as they went along. That's why India still lost few matches during this period, but we held off Australia, home and away(2001 & 2003). though we started loosing to them as well, 2003 WC final, 2006 series at home and 2008 away. but there was enough fight and controversy to keep the interest alive.
Now, when Australian legends retired between 2007-2009, they also started loosing, ask Ponting! how does it feel having lost Ashes 3 times, twice in Eng and worse, once at home. They knew they needed to rebuild and they did. India, however , still believed that our current set of core players are still good enough, though they were getting old, but easy thing was to ignore it.

Now , finally the truth has hit home. It has come right after when everything was looking ok, India just drew the series in SA and then won the big thing, WC 2011. No one thought that this will go downhill so fast, but it did. Indian legends found it difficult to repeat or better what they did in last 10 years. There was no hiding. their brain knew what needed to be done but body was not quite there.

I feel for Dhoni, no wonder he wants to hang around with Kohli's and raina's and Sharma's. He sees the hope there, he knows that he can't get much out of likes of Dravid and Laxman, or even sachin now. He can't even drop these folks and that's where the flaw of making some one captain with so less experience comes out. But then no captain can drop any of these 4 -5 guys. Only Selectors can do that. Kapil has asked why Raina was given so many chances, but what about Laxman, Sehwag or Dravid in tests? In Kapil's defence, he is anyway saying that these guys should retire, question is why are they not retiring?

Only Sachin, Dravid and Laxman can answer, and Sehwag need to find some answers soon , or some runs. They might still believe that they have it in them to actually go on, their bodies are so used to this that age doesn't matter. They can try another series, it might turn things around.

May be an injury might solve this , but that will be sad way to go for any of these guys. They need to pick the series and call it a day with head held high so India can have next batch of talented and driven players who can try to repeat what these guys did for last 10-12 years. If they delay it more, they will take India further back.











- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

iPhone 5- Five cool things it could have

while every one is waiting to see new iPhone from Apple, I start to wonder what new things Apple can bring in to keep the freshness and uniqueness of his products. Now that Apple has taken over the smartphone market and is a leader by long distance, it would be foolish to assume for Apple to take this position for granted. Not so long ago, Nokia was the leader in phone and Blackberry redefined the smartphone market, both are struggling, if not for survival but for investor's confidence in their position in the market.

Now that Apple design, the software iOS and other features like touch screen , multi touch and Swipe are quite known and common and loosing the freshness, more like becoming standard for phones and tablets, what more Apple can bring to table?

iPhone 4S has attempted to redefine the personal assistance with SIRI, which is cool but not always useful as you don't want to be using this in public, else everyone will hear you. However, this makes it using your phone while driving or working so much better.. you don't have to touch the phone...
anyway, below I list some of my thoughts on what features I would like to see in iPhone, either the next iPhone 5 or sometime in future...
1. Dual SIM- I think Apple will do well to bring Dual SIM feature in iPhone too. Many people have 2 phones , one because they always had or work related and other is iPhone. if Apple can bring dual SIM feature, people will actually drop the other phone and keep iPhone. And other SIM should not be locked, they can keep the slot free but only works when the locked SIM is there as well , this will protect the interest of service providers as well.
2- Apple TV- Lot of TV channels are free to Air and Apple can do well to create the App to receive the free to air TV stations of whatever country you are in. Trust me, People have lot of time to kill even in today's world and they are on iPhone anyway. also they will never miss the favorite TV shows or Sport on the go.
3- Apple Money- Apple can develop App to allow people to pay for everyday shopping from their iPhone at all Major stores without using their credit cards. load the money in the App from Bank account and use it as credit card. Retailers can use iPad at checkout and app will send the receipt to iPhone which user accepts and makes the payment from Apple Money. Take the Credit card business out of the equation. Any points earned from this transaction can be used towards iTunes purchases.
4- Apple Projector- A small lens on the phone to throw the image on the phone to any wall/screen for larger viewing. people can play games in group watching the images on the wall as well as use to show keynote presentations to clients/office workers.
5- New Apple home screen- The familiarj site of iPhone home screen with multiple App icons is nice but it get crowded once you have over 40-50 Apps, you don't always remember the location and keep swiping left and right. Allow each page a short tab and show horizontal bar on left/right to jump directly to the page , people can arrange Apps on pages like Games, Office, etc, very much the same way how App Store categories are managed.

well, Apple may have some better ideas to bring to iPhone 5, and I look forward to be surprised, if it has any of the above features as well, It will make life more comfortable for me.



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

A TV Ad shows the way for retailers...

Recently I had seen a new TV advert in Indian channel and it has caught my eye. This Ad is about a major telecommunication comapny "Idea". There are some details in the Advert which catches the way Indian middle class does shopping even today. Let me explain the Ad first...There is this Indian middle class couple which is looking at washing machines in store and approached by this salesman (played by Idea Brand Ambassdor \'Abhisekh Bachhan\') , just before he approaches the couple, wife instructs the husband to be quiet, how many times we have seen that around us... and then some key elements of Indian shopping, asking for discount on Retail price..and when the response is negative, asking to keep it aside with intent to come back.. this is so common and expected that India middle class consumer will go around at least 3 shops before finding the right price, especially for white goods, big electrical items where the choices are too many and hardly any differentiation.. nothing new so far.. what happens after that is eye catching, salesman, takes out the phone, scans the bar code and do the internet search to find the prices around the areas.. now , apart from the technology part, there are some messages for Indian retailers..
1. Knowing the fact that Indian shopper is driven by price for commodity items, Retailer should train their sales staff to be consultant to shopper , even if it means some of the shoppers go somewhere else to buy, but they will remember the experience. they will come back for something else, knowing that they will get good advise, most times they will end up buying from you..as they did in the ad..
2. Enable sales staff with market information, what are the competitors prices? they may be few Rs cheaper but if your sales staff knows this, you can throw in extra (e.g. free warranty etc) to still make it appealing.

I have seen many supermarket in UK benchmarking their prices against the Giant Tesco, all products matching Tesco prices are tagged accordingly. it save the customer 2 things, time to search himself and also the peace of mind that he will not be missing lowest prices..

Steve Jobs- A Man who made a dent in Universe

While using my iPhone 4S and iPad2, I can't help but think about the first impact Steve Jobs made for me, it wasn't the iPhone or any other products Apple made but it was the man himself. It was in 2006 when I received transcript of his famous Stanford "Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish" speech as forward mail from some friends. While reading it, one of his point about 'Connecting Dots' made immediate sense to me. He also had 3 stories of his life in that speech, about dropping out of college when he didn't see the value, being fired from Apple and then coming back were inspirational and proved his point about 'staying hungry' and keep looking for what you want to do.

I had heard about Mac in 90s but never had seen one. India was not a market for Apple then. This was the time when IT boom had just started and PCs are only seen in IT companies. Pentium II and III were advanced technology and Windows 97 was major OS upgrade on Windows 95. Email was still Hotmail and Internet connection was through dial up only with max speed of 56Kbps (128kbps was fast!!). You were required to go to Internet cafe around the street corner for 20 Rs per Hr to check mails and do some chatting with friends or strangers. Mobile phones were new in India and even incoming calls were charged.

The thing which stuck for me about Apple was that it's incompatible with Windows. I thought , who would use Apple then. This was the time when every one was using windows, so what's the use of Apple Mac then?

There were few people coming form US who knew about Apple , they told me 3 things about Apple Mac. First, Its Amazing. Second, Once you used Mac, you will hate windows and Third, it's expensive. I was really looking forward to get my hands on Mac some day.

Apple was going great guns in 2000s, I heard about iTunes and iPod's but to me they were US things. One of my colleague who came back from US in 2007 always had his iPod on, he didn't have any music system in his car

because he will just have his iPod with earphones. It was the first time I tried track wheel of iPod, this was something different. And then he said , I have 1000 songs in my iPod. Wow.
Still , I didn't feel like that I have to have it, and it was not available in India. I believe that any gadget should be multipurpose. iPod was just for music and I had my MP3 player.

Also, I have had a chance to see iPhone by then, from someone who got this in UK. India was still dominated by Nokia, and Blackberry was status symbol of busy people. But there was something simple about iPhone which was very appealing. but then it was US/UK thing then. and I was happy with Java phones which were available in India, it was more about looks of phones. Internet on phone was still dream in India then. I had heard about App Store with 100,000s of apps but what's the use without Internet to use them, can't even download??

First time I sat up and took notice when I heard about iPad, that was neat and I was thinking why no one has thought of this before. Everyone was so focused on Toshiba and Think Pads Laptop for professional use only and this iPad came from no where.

By then, I had moved to Sweden and connectivity infrastructure was on different level here. 100Mbps internet connections at home, you can watch online movies as its being played on DVD on laptop, was something of different league here. I thought, I can use iPad here but it was leap of faith for me. Do I really need it? what is the use? there is no USB slots, It doesn't allow flash videos and no cameras and can't really use it for work/office purpose, which is what I use laptop for. and I am not big fan of typing on glass with one finger, more of keyboard person , this went on for few months...

Then I started following the news of Apple, store running out of iPad's, people lining up for 2 days to get it first. everyone is talking about their iPad and all shops are lined up with accessories for iPad.

what is this thing?

And then I got to play with it for some time some where and decided, I should have it, its neat and there is more to iPad then just worry about what's not there. Then I saw one cover for iPad which had keyboard attached to it. That's it.I decided to get iPad2 which was announced already with Cameras and new processor. Yes, that will be nice. It took me a while to decide to get only wi-fi model and it has to be black.

 I booked it and I remember I was happy when I picked it up after 2 weeks.

Since then, I had no idea how we lived without it.  its so convenient, always on. and every function is just one touch away. Laptop feels like burden now, who will bother switching it on!!! leave it for work only.

And then came the news of Steve Jobs' death, it was sad. I didn't know much about him, not read or seen him much on TV because he was mainly in US. And then his biography was released, I was quick to get it, it was huge and I was looking forward to know more about the man who impressed me few years ago.

It took a while to finish this book, but it was very insightful. Some of the incidents in the book were well known, like asking John Scully if wants to change the world or just keep selling sugar water (which was Pepsi !!) Most of the book about the Man who was visionary , arrogant to the core, charming, absolute disregard to mediocrity and genius at same time. One of the things which again stuck with me when he said, "People don't know what they want till we show it to them", this was when he asked team to launch iPhone. some call this arrogance, some call this confidence. it's fine line anyway..

Apple made products for Steve Jobs and sold to the world, and people lined up to buy it.

He changed reality just by his will power, nothing was impossible and actually was not.

He took perfection to the way it should be, The most beautiful parts of his products are the ones no one will ever see because they are inside.

Simplicity to the core, Once you have used Apple products, even sliced bread will look complex.

Of course, Apple is not only Steve, there is another Steve who created first Mac and there are more people and many have contributed to the success story of Apple, whether they got their due or not, its for them to decide.

The thing about Apple products is that Steve made himself responsible for end to end user experience of his products, not just creating bits and pieces for commercial purposes. what this approach did to Microsoft and Nokia, you know already..

whenever Apple launched new product, the question was not why? but How? How did they do it?

It's not just about the way a computer, music player and store, a phone with internet or tablet PC was launched, they all existed before but it's about the way it was made simple that people had no reason to even try anything other than Apple.

I think Apple has not only dented the Universe, it has put it beyond repair. it will never be same again....

Rahul "The Wall" Dravid- Just for the love of the game..

When Rahul Dravid was first asked about his nick name, The Wall, his response was that he didn't like it. He said that in few years time, same people calling him Wall today will throw headlines about him such as "wall is cracking or crumbling". When I first read this, I thought why is Rahul bothered about headlines of future, he should enjoy this now. After all the name was given as an honor to his ability to bat long. But that was Rahul Dravid, smart enough to see the up and down side of  everything and not get carried away too much with adulation and also not get too bogged down when there is criticism. Its the balance like this which has allowed him to carve out his own chapter in the history of Indian Cricket during the era of Sachin Tendulkar where other players may just get a page or two.

Rahul has lived up to his nick name in true manner, he has played most no. of balls in test cricket than any other player in the history of cricket. This tells you 2 things, he has been around for long time and he has batted very long time. Bowlers have just bowled and bowled at him and I can imagine if they will prefer to bowl to the actual wall instead.. because atleast the actual wall doesn't punish bad balls but Rahul scores runs, 23000+ runs in international cricket are lots of them..

Rahul Dravid has always been there, you know this because you notice him in the middle when wickets are falling around him. His batting position is No. 3 , bridging the explosiveness of Sehwag and genius of Tendulkar. It wasn't until 2001 that Indian cricket fans realized the contribution from Rahul in Indian victory.. if you can recall all Indian major victories in last 10-12 years, Rahul Dravid has been the architect for all of them, though the final punch may have been delivered by some one else. Kolkata 2001, Headingly 2002,  Adelaide 2003, Rawalpindi 2004, Oval 2006, WI 2007 , they are all there. Sourav Ganguly and John wright got lot of credit for India reaching the WC final in 2003, every one forgot that it was Rahul's agreement to be the wicket keeper which allowed India to play 7 batsman and they almost pulled it off. Natwest 2002 final is remembered for Kaif, he wouldn't have been playing if Dravid was not keeping.

Rahul has always been the quiet dignified face of Indian cricket and always been the fallback guy. Ganguly pulling out of Nagpur 2008 at last minute, no problem, send Rahul for toss. Openers injured, Rahul will pad up. Micheal Slater shouting on his face, he will just shake his head..Selectors dropped him from ODI, he modified his game and came back to score 10000 runs in ODI as well.
The most aggressive reaction from Dravid had come only after taking some sharp catches in slip..by the way, he has taken most catches than anybody in test cricket..

Today, on 11 Jan 2012, Rahul turns 39. He is the oldest test playing cricketer today and though he had churned out one of his best year in 2011, age is catching up fast. How would you feel if you are the oldest person working in your profession?
He is still playing on, still able to score runs but age is catching up, he is fit but reaction is slower, some catches has started to go down as well, there may still be some fire left before it calls the day.. may be one more Rahul classic left in this series, one of those back to the wall defence, nothing passing the bat unless well left.. those cuts and some pulls..another big 100.. another bat raised and another come from behind victory for India against Aussies.. yes, it will be nice to go out like that..
Happy B'day Rahul, Its scary when you don't score runs, its scarier if you are not in the team..

India's cricket tours down under..Going Down and Under..

My first memory of watching cricket in Australia is from 1985, colorful clothing, white ball, big grounds, beer drinking crowd with no fence, summer days in Sydney when it was chilling cold in North India, I always thought December was cold all over the world. Most matches had early morning start in India, watching most of the match sitting in quilt and before school at 5 AM, on black and white DD transmission was the first time I really enjoyed watching cricket. New camera angles and unique animations (the duck which was on screen every time batsman was out for 0) introduced a completely new cricket watching experience which was out of this world, definitely out of India (Pun intended).

The memory is sweet for the cricket as well, India won the B&H champions trophy, Srikanth made some attacking 50s and so did Azhar. Kapil won the match which was lost, Shastri was always there and I think most of India still remember his Audi. Since then I have always looked forward to watching cricket from Australia. Unfortunately, it was not to be, next series I watched when India toured in 1992, 7 years later , for 5 tests, tri series and world cup. The whole tour was disaster for the results, but for some fantastic batting from some one named Tendulkar, and for Australia, there was a fat, blonde spinner making debut named Shane Warne.. I some time still look for highlights of those matches on YouTube...

For some reasons, India didn't tour Australia for another 7 years, next tour was in 1999. Lot had happened till then, match fixing scandel, Ganguly and Dravid made debut for India, Kargil war and 2 world cups.. Sachin was captain again.. and India was to play Pakistan in tri-series as well..

This tour also India didn't do any better, Sachin still the best batsman, Ganguly made few runs, in tests and ODI, and India lost most matches, more painfully to Pakistan. Australia beat both India and Pakistan and won everything...They were getting to No.1 status...

I was working for TCS then and my first major onsite assignment was ... Sydney.. The first thing I was looking forward to was to visit SCG and MCG and play cricket in some of the lush cricket fields.. though I managed to watch few matches in SCG and visited MCG twice, India didn't tour there, though Australia toured India in between. I watched the 2001 epic series from the other side, in Australia.. and also watched the 2003 world cup in Australia.. India did reach the final but lost to Australia..very badly..

I moved back to India in Dec 2003 and India tour just started in Brisbane... I thought what a timing for me.. 4 years in Australia and India is touring after I left..

This 2003 tour was going to be different, there were signs.. India played brilliantly in 2003 WC, India won the last test series against Aus in 2001. In 2003, Warne was banned for Australia, not that India had any problems with him, Mcgrath was injured and India had many problems with him...and it was Steve waugh's farewell series..

Ganguly made 100 in Brisbane and no body imagined what's coming up next.. India's tour of 2003 is one of the classics.. one of the best performance of Indian team down under.. 2 double hundreds by Sachin and Dravid, 2 300 runs partnerships..and 2 100s for Laxman.. and India even scored 700 in an innings...but couldn't win the series...

Now India was scheduled to tour Australia every 4 years.. next tour was in 2007. Every body remembered how India played last time...Kumble was captain, Sehwag, Sachin, Laxman & Dravid were still there.. and some new faces from both sides.. This tour ended up being the biggest controversy since match fixing, the monkeygate.. the jury is still out there but I believe what sachin said, he didn't have to made up the story and it makes sense...

this fired up India, we won in Perth of all places...though we lost the series... Sehwag was back in team with big 100, there were 100s from Sachin and Laxman and as usual, Dravid helped too.. but the best part was first victory in Tri-series under MSD, Sachin finally scored ODI 100 as well in Australia, in finals... I was on my way to London on that day...I missed the live innings...

When 2011 year started, it was supposed to be cream of cricket season for India, India started 2011 as No. 1 ranked in Tests and No. 2 in ODIs, First there was World cup in India then overseas tours of England and Australia, 2 best places to play cricket and watch cricket, live as well as on TV. I was so looking forward to it..

it all started perfectly, India won the WC after 28 years, which was scripted for us to win, still, team has to go out there and win it...that was the highest point...and then things started to go bad..

there was IPL in 5 days time... who wants to eat M&Ms after eating 3 course meal which had the best dessert of final served... but it was planned earlier and it went on... midway through the IPL, some players started getting injured (Sehwag) and some dropped hints of dropping out of WI tour (Sachin, Dhoni).. it looked odd but not much attention was given..

finally the test matches started...

First symptoms were visible in WI, team of youngsters had to rely on Dravid to bail them out in tests, India won 1-0 against the club side WI team..it was shocking when they called of the chase of 90 odd runs in 15 overs in last test, with 6 wickets in hand.. Dhoni didn't even come to bat..

well, I thought, this was just warm up, England tour is main thing.. they had just won Ashes in Australia..looking very strong...India had won the series in Eng in 2007 and it was fresh in memory..

Tour started as nightmare...Sehwag was missing.. Zaheer broke down on first day, Harbhajan looked like a part timer and batting never clicked...Batting didn't click the whole tour and bowling looked so ordinary.. India didn't win a single match whole tour...and all were wondering about Sachin's 100th 100.. Dravid was the lone man standing from India...

Somehow the tour ended and every body thought by the tour of Australia , India will be back full strength and it will be back to normal.. meanwhile, couple of meaning less tours from Eng and WI were brushed aside with victories on dustbowls.. Sehwag helped himself to 200 in ODI. Sachin missed the ODIs after playing tests.. 100th 100 was still missing..

After learning from Eng series, this tour had 2 practice matches and Zaheer was fit.. all looked good for India... and finally , the toss was called at MCG..

India played well at MCG, in patches, they were in the match for first 3 days but lost it completely on 4th.. what a disappointment.. Batting still looked patchy, bowling was fantastic though.... I couldn't understand this captaincy from MSD, too defensive I think.. and so does Ganguly, who knows bit more about captaining India..

Australia was gaining momentum, their weak link was batting, top 3 were no names and middle had Ponting and Hussey.. facing knives and axes in their own country.. if only we can post 400 in SCG and take them under pressure.. obviously their new bowlers can not keep up this good bowling for 2 test matches..

but they did.. India batted first, as they wanted and every thing else was in reverse direction.. Bowling was even better, India couldn't make past 200 or past day 1, Australia batted as if they will never stop, 100s for Ponting and hussey and 329* for Clarke.. India bowled and fielded as if they can't even buy wicket with all the IPL money... mercifully Australia declared.. they also thought that they had enough.. and lets finish in 4 days and take rest...

and they did.. India was never going to save the match, but didn't go into 5th day.. only notable team achievement was scoring 400, which may have included some long handle shots into open spaces due to close in catchers.. Sachin went for 80..and Laxman 66, both of SCG old timers couldn't get 3 figures in their last innings...

2 more tests to go.. I half expect some revival in Perth and Adelaide.. Dhoni's captaincy has left lot to desire.. I think he should captain in ODI only, he is different player there...but then who can captain in Tests, and keep wickets.. I will be happy if we can draw remaining 2 matches and move to ODIs.. the stars are fading.. these are tired legs of Sachin, Dravid and Laxman..

I will still be up all night for next 2 matches as I have a feeling that this will be the last time i will see all big players play together in Australia.. results aside, I don't want to miss this... some thing to cherish for life..

watching cricket in Australia has given many sweet memories and more will come, but most of the sweet memories of last 15 years include Sachin , Dravid and Laxman, there is still some chance left for redemption.. next 2 weeks will be closing moments for greatest chapter of Indian cricket..in the best country to watch cricket.. I am not missing them...

Andre Agassi- a very OPEN book about world no. 1 Tennis player who hated tennis the most

First I heard of Agassi was in early 90s when he refused to play in Wimbledon because they mandated white clothing. Since I was cricket buff, which was still mostly played in white, and have always believed in traditions of sports, I didn't think much of Agassi. who does he think he is? My favorite was Boris Becker and at most I can watch Ivan Lendl at that time, because he was no. 1 and never won the Wimbledon. Remember those were the days when most homes in India still relied on DD to show some matches of Wimbledon from London in evening time. Steffi Graf was another favorite because she started beating Martina Navratilova. So both my favorite players were Germans..

After that whenever I have seen or heard of Agassi, he was always with long hair and earrings.. always playing Pete Sampras. and loosing half the time. which meant he won half the time as well but that I didn't realize then. and he was no.1 for some time as well. but then he fell of the radar...

Then he was in news again when it became common news that Agassi and Stefi Graf are couple now. I was bit surprised though, couldn't think of any other tennis couple who were both world no. 1 at some time and Grand Slam champions... It was bit odd to see Stefi in Agassi's box during his matches..but anyway, I have never cared about sports people's personal life, I only watch them play...

Then Becker retired, Sampras retired, and then Agassi was no. 1 again. I thought every one else must be very bad.. I stopped following much of Tennis from 2002 onwards, India was doing so well in Cricket those days..

2005 onwards it was time for Federer and Nadal. Their 2008 Wimbledon final was epic and I was in London, lucky to watch it on TV live..But Agassi was still around and playing mostly US Slams finals.. I started watching his matches..not bad for 35 year old player I thought.. then he retired as well..

I was not following tennis much off late. Nadal and Federer were playing most slams finals and I don't even remember the top 5 seeded players. In 90s, I used to remember top 20. well , then I used to remember match figures of Kapil Dev bowling also from 80s..

Cut to 2011, Infosys was hosting the Annual Sales conference in Las Vegas in Aug 2011. Some of my colleagues were going from Stockholm and I heard about the guest speaker from them.. Andre Agassi.. Hmm, I thought, nice idea to call in a sports person as key note speaker and for motivational talks. and rightly so as he lives in Vegas. Still, I thought , It will be good for every one to hear a world champion speak. They always have nice stories to tell...

After couple of weeks, I asked Reza (Infosys colleague) about the Agassi session, I am glad that I asked him as he was the one who attended from Stockholm team, and he was impressed. And he said that Agassi opened his speech with statement, "I hate Tennis". Everyone laughed. Everyone thought it's really funny way of open his speech as most speaker try to do, coming from legend of Tennis, its really funny. but then Agassi was serious and he explained why. My colleague was so impressed that on his way back , he bought his book at the airport to read.

Interesting, I thought. Few days later, I got hold of his autobiography (and rightly named as OPEN) as well, in Kindle format. I realized, ok, This will be the first book I will read electronically. I have always preferred to read books traditional hard copy way, because that's the way I have always read it.

After few weeks (and after completing the mammoth biography of Steve Jobs, which i will talk about in my next blog), I got to it. and I just finished last week.

What a nice book it was, to be honest, I was bit skeptical as some of the earlier autobiographies I had read were in 2 categories, one where the sports person was a hero, bragging about his talent and efforts through out his life, or the other kind where there was no story, just details of person's match records, results and his travel log. Also, this was the first autobiography I was reading who was not a cricketer, last one I read was of Steve Waugh, 970 pages, but that's for another day...

This book is engaging, as if Agassi is talking through his life with you, written as first person in conversational style, with short and sharp sentences, funny at most times but insightful none the less. it keeps you engaged and entertained throughout. and also tell you about Agassi the person as well as the player..

It starts with a day before one of his matches of later years..with kids and stefi around..how he prepares and goes about his schedule, glimpses of discipline of top class sports person.. then he cuts back to the age of 7, early days of his struggle with his father pushing him to hit harder..there is dragon, which spits tennis balls..through the eyes of 7 year old, looks real.

then some stories about his early playing days, and his dad pushing him.. playing tournaments, winning most, loosing some, his first loss was due to cheating, and he will get back to that..

then moves to academy, meets some of his long time companions, some by fate, some by chance and some by choice..

life goes on.. winning, loosing and playing..some times not playing and finding meaning of life..then playing again..some funny incidents and some when he cried.. off the court struggles, first commercial deal with Nike, and loosing all the money in 2 years.. first affair..called off by girl..meeting Brooke shields.. and getting married.. and getting divorced.. mention of "Friends" TV serial shooting episode which started problem between them. I have seen that episode few times and now to think this has started ground for Agassi and Brooke shields moving away is shocking.. and then he mentions, he hates Boris Becker.. I am shocked again, Agassi hates my favorite tennis player... he portrays completely different picture of Becker.. but then, they were competitors.. I am ok. They had their reasons..I only watch them play..

Agassi also mentions that first time he approached Stefi even before he met Brooke, but there was no response.. his whole story of his courtship with Stefi, sending flowers and waiting for days for phone to ring, it doesn't seem that these 2 people involved are world champions and no. 1 players.. I am sure he will have great time telling this story to his kids in "How I Met your Mother" TV serial kind of way..

Though the book moves at fast pace, if you look closely, the struggles of champion comes out, the discipline, hard work and dedication is hard to miss.. and another important point that he makes it clear that no one makes it to top alone. He met right people and he kept them, they stayed together. Without them, Agassi would not have played 1000+matches, highest in tennis history.. and would not have become World no. 1 twice, first time because his father wanted him to, and second time because he himself wanted it... for once he wanted to be no. 1, and he did..

He has called some of the key moments of his matches in so much details that I had to go to you tube and watch the videos.. its great to see the action knowing what player was thinking at that time.. especially the one he played and defeated Becker in 95 US open semifinal.. he almost didn't shake hands after the match.. and its shown in the video as well on You Tube.

So I finally read my first real book on iPad, and that brings me to topic of my next blog, Steve Jobs..but that's next week...