Happy Birthday, Parthiv!

... So I have a confession to make.

Back in 2003, as a hormonal 13 year old fledgling, I'd just begun to take to cricket. For some reason, right from the beginning, even before I was fully aware of what a wicketkeeper did, my favourite player in any team would be the wicketkeeper (all English keepers were and are exceptions). Always.

So there was this dude who was keeping for the Indian team, right? The little one, all of 17, who looked remarkably like he could be my classmate, and as I grew a few years older, he could be my little brother's classmate? Well, I fell for him, chubby cheeks, Wide Eyed Innocent Stare of Doom, adorably diminutive stature and all.

Parthiv Patel was my first celebrity crush.

And this happens to be the first time I'm admitting that publicly, by the way.

I remember being furious when he was dropped after a patch where his wicketkeeping deteriorated into atrocious levels, to be replaced by the likes of Dinesh Kaarthick and Mahendra Singh Dhoni. Nobody could replace Parthiv, I fumed. These replacements will be no good.

Of course, exactly six months later, my affections were firmly centered around a certain long-haired stocky wicketkeeper, but hey. It was bound to happen, right? And I was fourteen.

I still follow Parthiv's exploits now, though; like a big sister I know how to be I feel proud of his achievements, pray for his continued success. Come on. Just look at that face. You can practically feel those parental/older-sibling instincts shooting up.

You can imagine how insanely delighted I was when I learnt that both Dhoni and Parthiv would be playing for Chennai Super Kings. I honestly would never consider atheism again, as obviously there is Somebody up there listening to my secret, coveted desires.

Why this confession? Well today, the little dude turns 24. Tomorrow, he celebrates his first wedding anniversary.

Happy birthday and best wishes for your continued success, Parthu!

This is PATHETIC.

NZ 156/0 after 20 overs in their chase of 393.

Two easy chances dropped.

Ryder and McCullum batting like they're playing against Bermuda 'A's reserves' 2nd XI.

Misfields galore.

Poor bowling.

Pathetic.

This team doesn't deserve its line-up of surreally good batsmen.

Good Lord

Sachin Tendulkar.

Now I truly get why so many adore you. Not really before.

Please to be batting forever.

Couldn't even imagine

... that it would come to this.

Following the Lahore attack, there is now a distinct possibility that the IPL might not happen this year, with several foreign players and officials expressing their discomfort at the security situation in the subcontinent. It's not just about Lahore either, apparently. The unease existed right from the 26/11 attacks in Mumbai.

Now even the 2011 World Cup, scheduled to be held in the subcontinent, is under doubt.

I want to be cynical of the players expressing their doubts, I want to assert that something like Lahore can never happen in India, I want to sneer and laugh and pray. But yesterday's incident proved that cricket is far from immune to terrorism, and I still get the chills everytime I involuntarily imagine the Indian team in the Sri Lankans' position. Could this sort of thing happen in India? Maybe maybe yeah. Well.

Hell yeah.

Already there was talk of an IPL postponement before all of this, with the Home Minister suggesting the IPL clashing with the general elections might be a bad thing. While methinks he may have a point, I merely laughed and laughed when I first heard of it, because hello? Postponement of IPL might as well be translated into cancellation of the season, and that? Was so not going to happen.

Except now it actually might.

The players' attitudes (outside of India, particularly outside the subcontinent) regarding the IPL have always baffled, amused and mostly irritated me (because, hello, gleefully signing up for large amounts of money on one hand, and then taking some sort of perverse pleasure in extolling the Evils of Indian Money in Cricket on the other? So not on), and with this thrown into the mix, things have gotten a whole lot more complicated.

I can only somehow naively hope for restoration of some normalcy, because, dammit I want to see some IPL action this summer. I don't want to see cricket as a whole suffering from this, because the subcontinent? A pretty large chunk of land providing a pretty large chunk of cricket watching and playing population.

I don't even know anymore, and damn if I'm not getting overly melodramatic.

Not for the first time, I follow and love this game way more than I should be.

But... damn.

And so it happens

We won today. Dhoni top-scored, man of the match, NZ steam-rollered. I should be ecstatic, but I'm not.

Why?

LAHORE, Pakistan, March 3 (Reuters) - Six members of the Sri Lankan cricket squad were wounded when around a dozen gunmen attacked their bus as it drove under police escort on Tuesday to a stadium in the Pakistani city of Lahore, witnesses and officials said.

Lahore Police chief Habib-ur-Rehman said five people were killed in the attack by the unidentified gunmen, who fired AK 47s and rockets and hurled grenades as the team bus drove to the 60,000-seater Gaddafi stadium in the eastern city.

Sri Lanka's sports minister said five players and an assistant coach were wounded, two of whom were being treated in hospital.

Horrible. The Sri Lankan team went to Pakistan when nobody else was willing to, as a gesture of peace, to prove to the rest of the world that Pakistan was indeed a safe place to play cricket. And this is what they get. Sick.

Thankfully none of the players were seriously wounded, but six policemen died, taking the brunt of the attack.

Nobody's going to think of setting foot in Pakistan for cricket for some time now.

Just, just. So sad. And so sick.

My prayers are with those affected.

... and AGAIN.

Yeah.

So India apparently suck at Twenty20.

Startled by the inexplicability of the statement, I picked it up. Prodded. Examined. Dissected. Peeled off a cross-section and examined under the microscope. Made sketches. Notes.

And yet?

I'm left with more questions than answers. And a firmer conviction that this ain't gonna be a pretty tour for the Indians.

Also? I think I know what the other side feels like now. Remember the 2nd final of the CB series? Where Irfan, who was bowling utter crap, was given the final over where Australia required 13 runs to win? And he went on to bowl a superb over which not only fetched him two wickets but sealed a historically monumental win for India?

And this time around?

Irfan was bowling beautifully, 12 runs required to win off the last over, only 4 runs from the first 4 balls, and then?

And THEN?

The Brendon of McCullum hits two consecutive fours off the last two balls and New Zealand win and I die.

Reminds you of a lot of the Great Escapes that India has managed to pull off over the last year, yes? (The greatest of them being the World Twenty20 final, which was, ow. Unbelievable.)

Now I grit my teeth as I read people like Iain O'Brien go "It's wonderful to have beaten the world champions", (yeah, champ, why don't you have a cookie now) and the NZ newspapers go, "omg India is in such great form, they are clearly the favourites", and at this point I'm seriously wishing for them to tell us how crappy India really are, Aussie-style, because that never fails to rile the Men in (now a terrible shade of) Blue up and inspire them into spectacular performances.

Only tthree things console me now:

1. India've always been crappy starters on overseas tours, and going into this one with zero NZ experience, zero practice matches, a two week layoff after the SL tour where they vacationed, partied, and constantly had people telling them how great they were? Yeah, for them to be hitting the ground running would've expecting too much. Also, the performance in the second Twenty20 was a marked improvement from the first. I'm expecting better and better performances in the ODIs and Tests.

2. India, world Twenty20 champions, national team of the home of the IPL, chock-full of cricketing superstars, losing to hardworking, efficient and understated New Zealand? Hopefully it's enough of a slap in the face to shake off the last dregs of complacency and over-confidence.

(And also, Dhoni? Please to be shaking off your rustiness. It be painful to watch.)

((And who asked you not to play domestic cricket in the interim between SL and NZ, huh, HUH? Sheesh. ))

3. Remember South Africa's immensely successful tour of Australia recently? One of their few major blips was losing both their Twenty20s comprehensively to the Aussies. But they comfortably took both the ODI and Test series, and no prizes for guessing which was the happier team at the end of the tour. So, India? Hint there, hello!

Watching the team lose is a much harder pill to swallow now than before. What have you done to me, team?

So we lost.

There's this Twenty20 the Indian team was supposed to be playing that kicked off their tour of New Zealand, right? Apparently we lost it. By 7 wickets.

Hm. Deep breath. Close your eyes, brace yourself.

Yes.

Fine. I think I've been spoiled quite a bit by India's winning streak, so despite my predictions of Doom and Gloom for the Indian team in New Zealand, I was kind of expecting them to win anyway, deep within. Apparently they had plenty of chances to do so, too - judging by the text-message updates a sick friend at home was kind enough to send me while I was in class. Oh, and they were entertaining text updates, too, my favourites being:

"dhoni has lost all his batting skills, i guess... what kind of a shot was that?"

"raina nails it! awesome 50. 162 for 8"

"ha ha, take that jesse ryder! 2 for 1 after 1"

"Ishant is throwin the match away 2 no balls seriously what is WRONG with him"

"India has lost major ground! nz 53/1 in 5.5! Recovery, we need recovery!"

"17 off yuvi's over, 39 req off 30. What is Dhoni SMOKING, bringing yuvi into the attack NOW?"

"28 req off 4"

"12 off 12"

Then, finally:

"4 off 10"

and the messages stopped. Um, I got the hint.

Oh well. I was predicting it anyway. I expect more of the same in the rest of the tour. (So prove me wrong, boys! )

Plus, plus, I'm delighted anyway because A R Rahman won both of his Oscars, (ahahaha, Chennaiite, people! "Ellam pugazhum Eraivanuke!" My heart burst with joy that moment, I swear!) and Jared Padalecki from Supernatural has suddenly risen up to Number Two on my all-time obsessive fangirling list, right after MSD. Mmm hmm.