Quick Points

QP1: Its high time to do it!

Story 1 - Heavy rains in Maharashtra, red alert sounded as every dam in the state is flooded. Water released to prevent overflow in dams.
Story 2 - I call my parents in India. " Amma naan prabhu pesaren, eppdi irukka?" Amma says "nalla irukken da, oru 15 mins kazhichu call pannraiya, thanni vidara neram, vara antha 10 minutes la pidichaa thaan undu"

Yet another case to strongly circulate the idea of interlinking of rivers in India. Time and again people have come up with this idea and I have never seen a convincing reason to delay this concept. Sorry politicos! infrastructure and money cannot be the reasons, infact they should be the key factors in doing it now than waiting 5 more years to do it.

QP2: Ridiculous decision, not that it matters!

News source: The Hindu

Andhra Pradesh government to declare one-day mourning due to the passing away of the Saudi king. National flag will fly half-mast and there will be no official entertainment. Honestly, I dont know if there exists a connection between the Saudi ruler and our own Andhra Pradesh. And even honestly, even if he had donated 1000 crores to Andhra, I still don't see a reason for an Indian government to declare official mourning. Duh! politicos again at work probably. Not that this decision matters, but still.

To add to this QP2, the CM of Andhra Pradesh had promised a 5% reservation to muslims in education and employment at times of election. He did pass the bill (and obviously he became the messiah of Muslims)and Thank God! the courts have set them aside and its still under their decision.

QP3: Waiting for Ganguly's return

India's pathetic batting display in the first 2 ODI's guarantees a place for Ganguly to return to the opening position (he would have anyways) and expecting VVS to follow at the one drop position when India face Sri Lanka on Wednesday. But I sincerely hope and pray that Kaif or Yuvraj be dropped for Raina or Venugopal Rao to stick on to the team. Its high time, Kaif and Yuvraj step up and be consistent. I dont remember Yuvi hitting a fifty in the last year or two. Now if the batting starts to click (read as Gangs hits form --oooh, that would be so great to watch) we are definitely the favorites to win the tournament.

QP4: Sania Mania

I started loving the character and determination shown by Sania. She is steadily moving up the rankings and I am supremely confident that before the US open she would be in the Top 50's and that is no mean achievement. She plays the Acura Classic open this week and hope she plays good. Atlast India really found a star in woman's tennis.

Later,
- Prabhu

Ashes!

Lets do Sports first:

England - Rise from the Ashes?

England announced their team for the first test of the Ashes starting in a week from now. No real surprises with the team, I expected Pieterson to be picked ahead of Thorpey and thats what Graveney & Co also thought.
Let's see man-to-man on how the two teams compare (thanks to ICC for not implementing the stupid rule - 12-a-team like in one-day internationals)

Hayden - Strauss : Andrew Strauss is in unbelievable form this last year and Hayden atleast to me has already seen the best of his days. Hayden is scratching around the wicket these days than dominate the bowlers.
1-0 England.

Langer - Trescothick : I have never been a fan of Trescothick, not very technically sound for an opening batsman and tends to get carried away after hitting a couple of boundaries. Langer on the other hand has played second fiddle for Hayden, Slater over the years and he is the bride's maid all the time. Although Agarkar time and again exposed his weakness with shuffling across the line, think he is going to shine here in England.
1-1

Ponting - Vaughan:
hmmmm, thats something really close to call. Vaughan has always shined against Australia (just like our VVS) and Ponting's unsureness of his off-stump initially makes it a tough call to make. But going on current form and Ponting's tendency to carry form between innings, I would go with Ponting to win the battle.
2-1 Australia.

Martyn - Bell:
Does anyone else wonder like me as to how Damien Martyn has carried on for years both in ODI's and tests without having any special skills? (atleast I have never seen him possess one!). Not much to talk about these 2 guys in picture here, I would give this point as well to Australia counting on Martyn's experience.
3-1 Aussie!

Clarke - Pieterson:
Pieterson is in the form of his life. Did you know he averages close to 87 in his 20 odd ODI's and most of them were against Australia. Clarke was voted the cricketer of the year 2004 in Australia, but unfortunately not in a good form, although he is rich in talent. I will go with the wind here and choose Pieterson.
3-2 Australia.

Katich - Flintoff:
Again too close to call, surprisingly. (Didnt you expect me to pick Freddie easily?)
Katich impressed me most in his last tour to India and he has the temperament to go on with a long innings. Flintoff has learned to build a innings and could be a potential threat with his quickfire 50 or 60. I would go with Flintoff because his effectiveness as a bowler too! (Infact I expect him to pouch a lot of wickets this series)
3-3 back to even stevens!

Gilchrist - Geraint Jones:
4-3 Australia, lets move on! :)
That being said, Jones has the knack of scoring one big innings in a series, so better watch out! But to compare with Gilchrist whew! No way.

Warnie - Giles:
I feel Shane Warne was sorely missed in the evenly fought ODI's recently. Warne coming back to Australia side is going to be a big boost to Aussie bowling. Giles, sorry nothing big to say about you!
5-3 Aussie power!

Gillespie - Simon Jones:
Alright, Gillespie is fighting for a place with Kasprowicz on who bowls less worse (thats exactly the case happening!), but Simon Jones is still way short of fire-power to make a potential match winner.
6-3 Aussies and they are already winning!

Brett Lee - Harmison:
Harmison has been touted as the answer to Australia's Lees and Mcgraths, and I feel so too! Brett Lee has come back strongly from being the 4th choice pace bowler to an automatic pick with Mcgrath in tests, but again its Lee! I still have Lee pictured as being genuinely pacey, possesses good yorker length deliveries but then when he gets erratic, he tends to be that way for the rest of the day. I would go with Harmison on this one.
6-4 Aussie!

Mcgrath - Hoggard:
Outside off stump, Outside off stump, Outside off stump, Outside off stump, Outside off stump, Outside off stump.

Thats the Mcgrath over. Hoggard has the ability to pick up a couple of early wickets and then eventually fade out in the remainder of the innings.
Pick Mcgrath and make it 7-4.

I feel England would be able to pull one test win to make this Ashes series a 'contested' one after 1989.
My prediction about the series :
2-1 Australia.

Comeon! England aren't that bad to lose 4-0 or 5-0.
But as the saying goes, "Stranger things have happened". So lets look forward for an interesting battle of cricket ahead.

Lets get it started...

Good Morning fellas!
I have been itching to start a second blog for quite sometime now. I cant write stories, mega-serials, (I still dont how to take the story further in my other blog) so opted to spit out some news and my views on them. As always, I dont mean to do an excellent job, but hope to make it interesting.

News that I found interesting over this past week, news that caught my attention for all the wrong/right reasons, news that made me think (now that wont happen too often!), news about news - everything will go here.

And now its time to explain the naming of my blog - http://swiftnews.blogspot.com:
S - Sports, W -World, I - India, F -Filmi, T- Tamilnadu

So that makes up for the name (Couldnt come up with a better abbreviation). And me hailing from Tamilnadu, will definitely indulge myself in petty politics happening there and some kollywood tidbits as well.

Okie dokie guys,
Check back later for some interesting news coming your way!

- Prabhu