Some of the people say that LTTE leader Prabhakaran is a savior and others say that he is a terrorist. That’s not the issue now. There are lots of controversies going on LTTE leader Prabhakaran’s death all around the world and especially in India & Srilanka. The Srilankan army stated that he is dead and officially released the video footages of dead Prabhakaran. Hope most of us would have seen that. This news created great sentimental feelings among his supporters and protests are going on here & there.In this crucial moment the LTTE's 'chief negotiator' and 'international spokesperson’ Selvaraj Pathmanathan ( person who is in above picture) gave a statement in a website called www.puthinam.com that Prabhakaran is not dead and he is safe somewhere in Lanka. This statement from him created a very big confusion among the public that whether Prabhakaran died or not. Even some of the politicians and people still believe that Prabhakaran would have escaped even after seeing his dead body. This attitude of people itself shows how close he is to the heart of people but scenario differs in Srilanka. In Colombo people started celebrating his death by giving sweets, cakes and dancing in streets.
Spanish GP 2009
Jenson Button claimed victory at Catalunya, his fourth out of five race this season, in a rather unconventional Spanish Grand Prix. The last eight pole sitters goes to win the race, but in a straight start-line-to-the-finish fashion. That did not happened to Button.
When the red lights went out, Button lost the lead to Barichello as Massa goes third and held Vattel and Webber behind him. A big crash at the back of the field saw Sutil, Buemi, Bourdais and Trulli got out of the race. Hamilton got off the track for a while but being a very lucky person, he got away from the third corner accident.
It all happened when Trulli, pushed out by Nico Rosberg hurriedly turn back onto the track and caused Sutil to hit him. That alone saw huge debris flying all over the third corner. Then comes Buemi, who, being a rookie and probably never before circumnavigate a big crash in a blink of an eye, virtually stopped on the track. And that caused his teammate to crashed behind him big time.
And being a defending world champion, Hamilton slows down and managed to not only avoid the collision but at the same time circumnavigate the debris on the track.
The Brawns opted for a three-stop strategy at first, since three-stop is the fastest way, but they changed it for Button in the first round of pit stop because they managed to conserve fuel during the six laps of safety car period. And that seal the win for Button instead for Barichello. He must be furious.
Massa defended third position like a true champion would, even after a wheel rim cover spun out of his left tyre. And even after the first pit stop where he and Vettel went in together and go out together in the same position.
In the process of holding Vettel behind him, Christian Horner deviced a different way to diffuse the bottleneck situation for Mark Webber. Webber was fuelled longer so that he will have extra laps when the second pit stop comes. And it worked. Webber stole third position after the second pit stop.
When we all believed that the race will be concluded as they were, something interesting happened. Massa's race engineer contacted him on the radio with an alarming situation - he don't have enough fuel to make it to the chequered flag! It happened to be in the second pit stop the pump didn't deliver enough fuel to his F60. And now the situation where we should be praising Ferrari for a leap of performance turned into a situation where we will be condemning them to the lack of scrutinity.
It's not the lacked of pace that hampered both Raikkonen and Massa. The former was due to electrical failure that shuts down his hydraulic on lap 18. Could be the engineers fault, could be yet another McLaren sabotage through its standardised ECU. The latter meanwhile was due to pure human mistake. In this case, you can sum up both cases as the lack of quality control.
Steve Slater, being a proud British mentioned that this would never happened under Ross Brawn's watch, and dare he say it - when Nigel Stepney was around. There's an air of truth in his view. Before the hoard of British came into Ferrari, even the genius of Jean Todt cannot turn it into a world championship winning team.
It was something imprinted into the Italian work culture. I'm not being racist, but I have the view that each nation and race are gifted with certain skills while the others are not. In the big picture, the key to the future is held by the united people of earth, to cancelled each other's weaknesses.
We need a British or two inside the Ferrari organization.
And these small things caused Massa precious points. He was forced to slow down his pace to conserve fuel, in the process have to let Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso passed him by. Vettel did it on lap 54 and then comes Alonso a few laps from home. A straight to the point solution. It could be even worse if the engineer did not detect it. It could be a catastrophy if Massa end up not having any points at all. He was forced to satisfy with three points, the same as Raikkonen. On the way back to the pit, he was stranded beside the track.
Heidfeld shows where BMW are in relative performance. He score two points, just ahead of Nico Rosberg. Kubica meanwhile finished eleventh, still searching for that few tenths that saw him fighting for the win in Australia earlier in the season.
Hamilton finishes outside of the points, sealing the fact that in the first round of upgrades McLaren are already fallen behind. I'm going to say this again - we could see the worst attempt at defending a World Championship yet.
Timo Glock, the last Toyota in contention did not finished in points either. One third of the diffuser gang, the TF1.09 clearly lack the pace in high speed corners of Catalunya. Trulli, lost the race in the third corner, means that Toyota came out of the Spanish Grand Prix empty-handed.
The next round will be the tight corners around Monte Carlo, Monaco - where aerodynamic and car balance is nothing and fuel load doesn't mean anything. The further up you are, the better you'll perform. Unless there's safety car period. Or rain. Or a big red Ferrari crash in your behind.
1 Button J. GBR Brawn GP
2 Barrichello R. BRA Brawn GP
3 Webber M. AUS RedBull
4 Vettel S. GER RedBull
5 Alonso F. SPA Renault
6 Massa F. BRA Ferrari
7 Heidfeld N. GER BMW
8 Rosberg N. GER Williams
9 Hamilton L. ENG McLaren
10 Glock T. GER Toyota
11 Kubica R. POL BMW
12 Piquet N. GER Renault
13 Nakajima K. GIA Williams
14 Fisichella G. ITA Force India
15 Raikkonen K. FIN Ferrari (out)
16 Kovalainen H. FIN McLaren (out)
17 Trulli J. ITA Toyota (out)
18 Buemi S. SVI Toro Rosso (out)
19 Bourdais S. FRA Toro Rosso (out)
20 Sutil A. GER Force India (out)
Monaco GP 2009
Jenson Button drove peerlessly around the streets of Monaco to win his fifth Grand Prix of the 2009 Formula 1 World Championship. In stark contrast defending Formula 1 World Champion Lewis Hamilton had a weekend to forget.
Button on Pole, Hamilton in the Barriers
Kimi Raikkonen produced a scintillating lap in his Ferrari to take provisional pole with just seconds remaining, but it was not to be for the Finn. He was pipped at the very end by Button and had to settle for second on the grid. Rubens Barrichello was third quickest in the other Brawn, ahead of Sebastian Vettel's Red Bull. Hamilton made a rare mistake in Q1 and crashed out, leaving the McLaren driver only 16th.
Button and Barrichello made the most of their super soft tyres, with the former keeping his lead and his Brazilian team-mate passing Raikkonen's Ferrari to claim second. Vettel was intially very quick, but his tyres soon went off and his pace dropped significantly. A frustrated Felipe Massa tried to squeeze past at the chicane, only to straightline it. While giving the position back to Vettel the Ferrari driver suffered a further setback when Nico Rosberg slipped past in his Williams.
Button and Brawn Dominate Monaco F1 Race
On lap 11 Vettel's stubborn resistance finally collapsed. Rosberg, Massa and Heikki Kovalainen all passed the young German in quick succession and the Red Bull driver had no option but to pit for harder tyres. A short time later Renault's Nelson Piquet had his race ended at Ste Devote when Sebastien Buemi unceremoniously rammed him in his Toro Rosso. The incident also forced Buemi to retire.
Ste Devote was also the scene of Vettel's demise on lap 17, when he ran out of road and crashed into the barrier. The main loser at the first round of pit stops was Rosberg, who found himself behind Massa and Mark Webber. Kovalainen's impressive drive came to an abrupt end on lap 53 when the Finn crashed heavily at the Swimming Pool section.
Amidst all this drama Button continued to circulate serenely at the front. He completed his second pit stop without any drama and reeled off the last few laps to score a comprehensive victory. Barrichello held on to second place, with Raikkonen completing the podium in third.
Massa was just behind his Ferrari team-mate in fourth position, with Webber fifth and Rosberg sixth. Fernando Alonso drove maturely to claim seventh place while Sebastian Bourdais scored his first point of of the 2009 Formula 1 season season in eighth. Giancarlo Fisichella just missed out on the points, ninth for Force India. Williams driver Kazuki Nakajima blotted his copybook when he crashed out on the final lap. Hamilton completed a miserable weekend in 12th position, a lap behind Button's winning Brawn.
Button's victory leaves the Englishamn with a 16 point lead in the Formula 1 World Championship over his team-mate Barrichello. In the constructor's standings Brawn GP's lead increased to 43.5 points over Red Bull. The next race is the Turkish Grand Prix which takes place on June 7th.
Indian Premier League (IPL) in South Africa :Review
IPL season 2 is over! What a finish for Deccan Chargers. After being the last in previous season, definitely the team has done a lot of preparations for this edition. Full marks to captain, coach, management & supporting staff and more importantly, the players. For a change, this year none of the teams shown consistent performance like last year, except Delhi. But Delhi too didn’t look like unbeatable. Namma Bengaluru came good at critical time, Rajasthan Royals did it in negative side, in crunch time. Kolkata need to do two things asap – throw Buchanan and Co. out and decide on a desi captain. Whether Ganguly is fit for T20 or not is debatable but for me, one thing is clear - if Ganguly was captain of KKR, the results would have been far better than this.
My suggestions for next season
- No need of strategic breaks, make 3 challenges (on field umpires decision) system working – sponsors will get time for advertisements, and the dubious umpiring decisions can be avoided. The second part is more important than first.
- Don’t drag the tournament so long. It should be of maximum a month. Do the necessary arrangements for that. I lost bit interest in between the tournament, feels it is bit too long.
- Why there is no prize or importance for fielders? I think the broadcasting channels should show top 5 catches or top 5 fielding moments of the tournament after every match. Personally, I enjoy more of this sort than any sixer hit or a wicket. Missed Collingwood in this department, this year. The catches of McCullum, Raina, Rohit were some of the moments to cherish.
Teams
Deccan Chargers: Utilized their foreign players’ very well, even though Vaas didn’t play much. Edwards and Smith were good, a hope for WI in coming T20 world cup. Rohit Sharma was exceptional so was Gilly, the player of the tournament.
Bangalore Royals: Played very well under Kumble. I think Mallya don’t have to think who should be captain next year. Kallis was good, so were Kumble, Taylor and Pandey. Uttappa disappointed big time.
Other teams: Chennai and Delhi were good but from semifinal onwards it was anybody’s game – Gilly destroyed Delhi whereas collective effort from Bangalore sinks Chennai. Haydos, Raina, Hodge, Nehra, Dilshan, ABdV, Yuvi, Duminy, Mallinga performed well. Ganguly, Harbhajan, KP, Oram, Flintoff, McCullum (except his last few knocks and that brilliant catch), Jayasoorya, Delhi openers(a worrying factor for India’s T20 hopes)and entire Rajasthan batsmen disappointed their supporters.
My best list:
Batting
- Gilchrist’s semifinal knock – 85(35) – superb, superb innings, forget this year’s IPL, this should be one of the best in all time T20.
- Taylor’s 81 not out against Kolkatta. The on-side sixes were mind-blowing.
- Pandey’s century against Deccan. Well timing young man, keep it up.
- Bopara’s innings against Bangalore. I think this innings didn’t get credit it deserved.
- Hodge/Mccullum’s innings against Chennai.
Smith/Raina/Dravid’s innings were just missed in the list.
Bowling
There are lot, better don’t mention them, otherwise the list will be too long. Many part time bowlers too did pretty well.
Matches
- Rajasthan v/s Mumbai – clash of titans, and Warney won the battle. Tensed last few overs, Munaf bowled really well.
- Super over match – Rajasthan v/s Kolkata – Ganguly’s innings bought life back for KKR, but Yousuf Pathan stole the show with his ‘super’ batting in super over.
- Bangalore v/s Kolkata – Taylor stole the show.
- Deccan v/s Kolkata – Rohit..Rohit…Rohit…
- Punjab v/s Mumbai – Punjab defended mere total of 119.
My IPL-2 dream team
- Hayden – any doubts? If yes, you don’t know what is IPL-2.
- Gilchrist(captain) – that superb knock in semi’s enough for pick him in any dream team.
- Raina – Shown solid temperament, what a gain for India T20 team.
- AB de Villiers – provided very solid middle order(with Dilshan) for Delhi
- Rohit Sharma – undoubtedly the best youngster in the tournament, his bowling and fielding a added advantage
- Yuvraj Singh – can anyone imagine Yuvi getting 2 hat tricks in this season? What a gifted player.
- Yousuf Pathan – Even though not consistent, the matches he won for RR were enough to pick him
- RP Singh – What a comeback for RP. Well deserved place in the team, same as Haydos.
- Kumble –Same as Haydos, the true fighter.
- Nehra – The change in team worked out for him, very nice performance, reminding the 2003 world up in RSA.
- Mallinga –Even though was bit down during the end of series, was good enough for picking him.
- Dilshan/Ojha –Unfortunate misses in the team.
Hits
- Modi, the hero: he has done it. I personally don’t have any high opinions about BCCI heads, but this guy planned and organized it successfully. Take a bow – to all people involved in planning including authorities of RSA.
- Vodafone’s Zoozoos. What an idea! The ads, in general, were not as boring as earlier.
Misses
- Mcgrath not playing in the entire season, Delhi could have tried him for atleast for some matches, but can’t complain as they were winning without him, but still cricket lovers missed him.
- Not much local talent performed very well, only Manish Pandey, Jadeja, Shukla, Sangvan and couple of others shown some glimpses of their talent. But not upto the mark. May be due to lack of exposure to foreign pitches affected, but we need more from them.
- Somehow I am having a feeling that some of matches looks like fixed. I sincerely hope I am wrong.
About Warne
Personally I am quite disappointed with Warney’s performance as bowler. Expected lot more in some of slow pitches, he couldn’t bowl up to mark. He had exceptional first match, so does against Mumbai where he was MOM. The ball to get Sachin out was outcome of some awesome thinking. His captaincy was exceptional, as usual. Hope RR will get a better set of(or better in form) batsmen next season. What a gem of cricketer Warney is. He re-wrote the art of captaincy. One more interesting thought: I think if Aussies plays with these guys in next T20 worldcup, I bet they will play equal, if not better, than current team: Hayden, Gilchrist, Hodge, Ferguson, Warne, Nannes, Mcgrath plus any 4 other guys.
Conclusion
Overall, it was nice entertainment(and bit late sleeps) for few days and I am having quite good feeling regarding the pitches – there was always something to bowlers unlike as in India. Well played DC and BRC. Good luck to all the teams for next season..… Keep going.
--------------------------------------------------------
Best And Worse
So it is finally over. After five weeks of frenetic action, the Deccan Chargers were crowned IPL Champions on Sunday in an exciting tussle with the Royal Challengers Bangalore. Though some continue to look down their noses, it is clear that, as a spectacle, IPL 2009 delivered everything that it was expected to do. There were boundaries aplenty, exciting finishes and the crowds seemed to lap it up. But as the fireworks fade and the clean up begins, there's time for one more visit to Modi World as we hand out the Betfair IPL Awards 2009.
Top Batsman
IPL 2009 was no batsman's paradise. The tired, end of season pitches made strokeplay tricky and many from the subcontinent struggled with the springy bounce. Still, class will out and two veterans showed everyone how it should be done. Adam Gilchrist didn't let captaincy cramp the freedom of his batting and his 85 from 35 balls against Delhi Daredevils in the semi-finals was the innings of the tournament. But Matthew Hayden was immense, scoring more runs than anyone else and looking back to his brutal best. He was also Mr Consistency, top scoring for Chennai Super Kings in seven of the 12 games he played.
Top Bowler
RP Singh was the tournament's top wicket taker; his mastery of swing and consistent length proving deadly in the opening overs. But his success and that of the resurgent Ashish Nehra were rare examples of quicker bowlers thriving. IPL 2009 was dominated by the spinners. Muttiah Muralitharan was particularly miserly, but Anil Kumble managed to combine economy with wicket-taking threat. He bagged 21 victims and his overs cost only 5.86 runs apiece. Time and again, he put the brakes on with the ball and got Bangalore back into the game.
Top All-Rounder
Genuine all-rounders struggled at IPL 2009. Jacques Kallis toiled away manfully but his bowling was expensive on occasions. Yusuf Pathan was tidy with the ball but didn't produce with the bat. Rohit Sharma was perhaps the ultimate part-timer, his stylish batting supplemented by taking eleven cheap wickets. But it was the newly shaven-headed Andrew Symonds who took the accolade of top all-rounder. Though he only played in eight games, his impact was immediate. He shored up the wobbly middle order and his tidy bowling enabled Deccan to strangle the opposition.
Top Fielder
Despite the presence of one or two wrinklies, the fielding was pretty good throughout, with the home players impressing the most. JP Duminy, Herschelle Gibbs and A B De Villiers were agile as panthers in the field and, when required, were safe pairs of hands in the deep. But the most eye-catching fielding performance was by young Roelof Van Der Merwe, who flung himself about with impressive zeal and his one-handed catch to snaffle a Mahendra Dhoni drive in game 44 was the fielding moment of the tournament.
Top Captain
Shane Warne again performed miracles to get Rajasthan within touching distance of the semi-finals and his old team-mate Gilchrist led Deccan with humility and energy. But Kumble's leadership was the most impressive. Taking over from Kevin Pietersen with the team in disarray and four defeats on the board, he also had to cope with an unbalanced squad and a demanding franchise owner. With coach Ray Jennings, he reshuffled the team and with quiet control, determination and dignity, led Bangalore from the foot of the table to the IPL final.
Top Crowd
One of the delights of the tournament was the way that the South African crowds supported it. The carnival atmosphere for the final at Johannesburg was hard to beat. But the crowd at St George's Park, Port Elizabeth were the best. The entire ground seemed to reverberate with music; a song throbbing constantly like a pulse underneath the action as the crowd banged their inflatable clappers, sang, cheered and shouted as if their lives depended on it. English supporters have a lot to live up to during the World Twenty20 starting on June 5 for which India are the current favourites at 4.5.
UEFA :Review
Rome has seen many major events throughout the ages, but the 2009 Champions League UEFA Final between Barcelona and Manchester United is one of the biggest events the city has seen next to John Paul's farewell. Being the winner of 2009 UEFA Champions League Final is very meaningful for the both teams, and even one of the coaches.
Manchester United will strive to retain the Champions League crown at Rome's Stadio Olimpico tonight making them to be the first team to hold the title two years in a row back to back. Barcelona's winning will mean for them to become three time Champions League Final holders. It has a special meaning for the Barcelona Coach Pep Guardiola. If Barceloan won the UEFA Champion's League Final of 2009 Guardiola will be the first person who has become a Champions League player/winner and a winner as a coach. This is Guardiola's first season with Barcelona.
Manchester United and Barcelona were semifinal opponents last season. United won the game. This year both of the teams had to get rid of two British soccer clubs to make it to the UEFA Champions league Final 2009. Barcelona became the winner in the semifinal game with Chelsea, while Manchester united won the game against Arsenal.
It is estimated that approximately one billion worldwide audience will watch the UEFA 2009 Champions League Final on TV. Keep in mind that these are the two most popular soccer teams in Europe. They have millions of fans throughout the world. Today's dream matchup will decide the true Champions of Europe: Manchester United vs. FC Barcelona.
For the English speaking fans you can follow the 2009 UEFA Champions League Final online. You can enjoy live match commentary from Rome for free with MUTV Online. Audio coverage of the UEFA Champions League final between United and Barcelona will begin at 19:00 BST - 45 minutes before kick-off - on Wednesday 27 May 2009. Join Hugh Ferris and Mickey Thomas as they talk you through the build-up and then describe the action live as it happens at Stadio Olimpico.
Stadio Olimpico, which is hosting the UEFA Champions League Final in 2009, is the major stadium of Rome in Italy. It is located on the Foro Italico. It is the home of both A.S. Roma and S.S. Lazio. It was built in 1936 and has a capacity of 82,307. It was the site of the 1960 Summer Olympics, but has also served as the location of the 1987 World Athletics Championships and the 1990 FIFA World Cup. All eyes are on the game to crown the winner.
The much awaited UEFA champions League Soccer finals between Manchester United and Barcelona will be played today and both the teams have promised a grand finale for this years UEFA finals.
Preview:
Entire Italian City of Rome is with Football fever because of this match. The point is to see if Barcelona can stop the holders this year.
To ensure a smooth LIVE telecast of this match so that we all can watch FC Barcelona vs Manchester United FC UEFA finals - there are around 1,200 TV production and technical staff engineers, technicians and support people were working hard to put together the finishing touches to their equipment and setup through which they can beam pictures from the UEFA Champions League final between FC Barcelona and Manchester United FC around the world.