Ferrari are back, well almost......

To all those who wrote off Ferrari, there you go! I always said Ferrari will not take this lying down and the last race is the proof. A team full of champions and the bad press they received is just PATHETIC. You can clearly see that I was waiting for this, yeah yeah, I know that Schumi did not win it and Barrichello DNF but then Ferrari was found a whole 2 seconds in that car. I was at Sepang in 2001 and Schumi finished third after starting 22nd, and next to that this memory will stay with me.

Now that I got all that off my chest, respect must be given to where its due and stand up Mr. Alonso, to keep a seven-time world champion in a far superior car following you meekly for 12 laps takes some courage doing and I was really surprised that he managed to do just that. Fantastic effort and if at all he wins the championship this year, he truly deserves it for this one performance alone. The sinister Kumar would like to point out the simply amazing traction control of the Renault and Imola being Imola is not a track famous for overtaking, these he thinks aided Alonso but even he cant deny that those 2 factors alone could not have kept the Master tagging with his tails between his legs :( It was a perfect tactical performance.

As far as the Heir to the throne, Mr. Alonso is being mooted to be the one, but my tip is Raikonnen. I think he is the real deal, my thoughts are slightly influenced by the fact that he is a Ferrari fan and I genuinely believe that he will be Schumi's replacement on the No 1 car. The tifosi would like an Italian taking that seat and Trulli is too old to stand a chance and maybe just maybe Fisichella could nick it. Also lets not forget that silly story circulating that Valentino Rossi after getting bored with MotoGP may actually give F1 a shot and he could be behind a Ferrari!

To finish off, my parting shot to those people who thought Ferrari were finished, "Come and talk to me after you clean the egg of your face, it smells!" If you are not still convinced, wait for a fortnight. I almost finished without my regular mention of Narain, again job well done sir. Yet another finish and as long as he keeps completing the race and does better than his teammate, I fully expect to see him back in a better car next season.

A fantastic cricket series...good for both nations

Kudos to our country, except for that bottle throwing incident in Delhi, we received the Pakistan cricket team gracefully, treated them really well and sent them home very happy. 6 real exciting matches with the Ahmedabad match and that last over by Sachin being the real highlight of the series. I myself thoroughly enjoyed it. A little disappointed with claims that it will end 3-3 and the matches were not decided by the players but by punters and diplomats. I don’t think people realize that makes everyone watching a big fool! There is no proof that they are wrong, but 4-2 suggests that it was not the call of the diplomat’s at least.

If I were to look back, Afridi's knock in the last 2 matches, Sehwag's in the first 2 matches, Rana's bowling, Dravid's stability, Pathan's 64, Zaheer's romance on camera are things that I will remember from the last the seven weeks. Rana got the Man of the Series award, while I agree that he did extremely well, probably even exceeded his expectations, the real hero was Inzi. I always thought the most dangerous one-day performer was Micheal Bevan of Australia, he may not have many individual records but from what I remember he has had many match winning performances, similarly I think Inzi plays for the team, plays in a difficult position, brings stability to the line-up. He has to be commended for his work rate - he has really improved his running between the wickets. He never cares for personal glory, 80 half centuries - enough proof for me.

Two major causalities from this series will be Akthar and Ganguly. Akthar - hope that what he saw of his teammates brings him down to earth and puts some humility into him. I am sure he would have thought that his team would suffer without him leading the line - Now, Rana has shown him discipline and hard work are more important to a bowler than pure pace and silly antics! Technically he would for sure improve this team but his character will only destroy the camaraderie amongst the players unless he changes himself. Ganguly, I am really sorry for him. The Indian cricket supporters need a scapegoat and even I cant come up with anyone better. His ban is probably the best gift he needs right now. He sure needs a break, hopefully he will come back the classy left hander we all love to watch. I hope Dravid's two matches have shown that Ganguly is still needed and the captain scoring runs does not necessarily translate into the team winning the match.

I hope this is another big step forward in improving relations with our neighbours. Pakistan has to lot to gain from co-operating with us, it is gifted in its geographical location, right amongst China and India, and hopefully they can work with amicably with both and help both the Superpowers to succeed. It’s hard to ignore the importance of Kashmir and Shimla to India's tourism income and the earlier we settle things with Pakistan, the better for both nations and if cricket is an avenue then, we should congratulate both Cricket Associations on a job well done.

Liverpool European Champions?

Rafa Benitez should be the man, more than anybody else this success should be credited to. Yes for the current Liverpool team, I am sure this is considered a success, even the most die-hard fan would have not been confident that they would still be involved in the competition, definitely not when they drew Juventus. Great work, Benitez's success on the CL Scene should send a warning to the EPL teams next year, whether they qualify to the final or go on and win it, Liverpool will be a force next year. It would be funny if we discuss CL with Everton fans from now on, I am sure they all would be rooting for Chelsea, if the Arsenal fans know better, they should too because if Pool wins it, even Arsenal will go into the qualifying draw for next year's competition. As much I hate to say it, I think Liverpool can go on and win it, yes you read that right :)

AC Milan vs PSV - PSV captain fantastic Van Bommel's final year at the club and it looks like he wants to gift the fans the biggest prize. The teams seems to be working for him too, Bommel led by example and Barcelona should be adding one more fine midfielder to their ranks, do they really need so many? Tottenham will do extremely well if they get him, but I see him at a CL club. United should think of him, although United rarely gets players in this age-group. If it was 0-0 against the current Lyon team, they would have had a chance against Milan but I think the question is whether they can score against the Italians or not - Dida is on a run, against Inter yesterday, it was his 7th consecutive match without conceding. Again its the Manager who is their biggest player, Hiddink and his Korea team did wonders so why cant he do the same with PSV

With Mourinho trying to prove that he is indeed the "Special" one, Benitez trying his best to get into the Champions league next year, it has to be said the hard way, Hiddink looking to do the impossible in getting his team to eliminate Milan, this year's semis looks more like a chess game. Usually for the past few years, once United are out of the competition, I can never get myself to watch the CL but this years it looks very interesting, looking forward to Apr 27. How much money will I put on a Pool vs PSV final? All I can say is that I wont be surprised, and it that really happens Mourinho will have to give up his "Special" seat to the winning manager.

Pakistan won, United were embarassed.

From the last 3 games, it can be safely said that India and Pakistan rather not bother to play but close shop after the toss! India won the toss for the first 2 matches, decided to win and won comprehensively. For the crucial third, Pak did the same. I personally felt that Pakistan did a good controlled job at thier batting but it was definitely not something that would have tested the Indian batting order, especially with such a weak attacking line like Paksitan's current line-up. But, Rana proved me wrong, but I am still of the opinion there was a something in the wicket that should have helped him, dont get me wrong, he is not bad but 6/27! He either is very inconsistent or is very lucky. It makes things a little more interesting in the fact that its 2-1 and it can go either way.

As for United, sad, embarassingly sad. Its one thing to be beaten but another if you are played out of the game, then it really is embarassing. Manchester United can lose, all good teams will at somepoint lose, but it was the manner to the defeat. Right from the start, they did not look like getting the 3 points, all their efforts were blunt. Its the business end of the season, except for the mid-table sides, everyone has something to play for and its usually the team which wants it more than will end-up winning. Three points yesterday would have realistically changed anything this year except to reduce the margin with Chelsea, but Manchester United cannot give up, should not give up. Its more about the pride of wearing the shirt and representing the millions who are passionate about this Club.

Sir Alex did not help in not playing his best team, but again if you have a squad of 25 players and if you have a semi-final next week, his team choice is justified. The players let him down, simple as that. They did not want it like the Norwich players did, sometimes I dont think so the current set of players understand what it takes to be wearing the Manchester United Jersey. This is why you need local lads within the team, you will always get that bit extra from the local boys, especially during these games that require graft more than skill. To teams like Norwich, playing United is the glamour tie, they are always going to try that bit harder, adding to that is they need the 3 points to play teams like United for one more year, so in a way any team's position or on the table or form does not matter. The 11 out on the field, especially Silvestre should be ashamed, they have let a lot of people down including themselves.

Apprentice - Learning something by selling Ice Cream

I was told to watch Apprentice to see how certain things work with Businesses, for all the theory that we can learn from schools, the best lessons come from Guest Leactures and case studies. I am no fan of reality TV because except for in the Amazing race, I see more drama than reality. As for the Apprentice, its not about learning business but its like a case study to see how people do things and how small things can affect the big picture. Its good to learn about teamwork and different characters, imagine when you are on big projects, it would be nice to have a camera to track what every single member does and to see what and how every member contributes and what effect they have on the achieving or failing to achieve the final goal. This is why I am beginning to like the Apprentice, I am sure certain part of it is being "structured" to add to the drama, but still I am sure there is something to take out of it

Last episode, am not sure of the episode number but it the one where the 2 teams were asked to conjure up a new ice-cream flavour and sell the ice-cream. They were attached to an ice-cream company Ciao Bello, the 2 teams were Mosaic (A guy called Kelly, with military experience was the Project Manager) and the other was Apex(A lady called Iwana, was voted in as PM). Mosaic could not come up with anything creative and as they were running out of time, they decided to mix Donuts with Vanilla and Choclate. Whereas at Apex, it was pure chaos, atleast that the camera view, it was like school children, anyway over time they came up with something called Red Velvet. Although the first team made a decision earlier, they had to go out and hunt for the doughnuts (About 200 of them) but Apex were lucky as Ciao Bello had all the stuff needed in house. So they did not lose out on time.

Next was the Marketing strategy i.e. Where to sell the ice-cream, Apex initially were targetting Restraurants but Mosaic were targetting Times Square. I think Times Square was a better option because selling in bulk can help to finish the stock faster, but selling directly to the public will remove the cost of the middlemen and increase the profit margin. The target afterall is to make the most money. The twist was that Apex eavesdropped on Mosaic and changed their strategy to do direct sales too, if not for, that Mosaic would have been a shoo-in. Mosaic were eager sellers, with a help of some creative thinking i.e. getting pretty women in to help them and calling their ice cream "Breakfast" ice-cream were steady. They still had a trump card because they promised part of thier sales to charity and used the charity pitch effectively. Apex were really chaotic, they parted ways by mistake and started late, although they tried to catch up by selling directly to restraurants.

At the end of the day, Mosaic actually made 250$ more, inspite of contributing a part of thier earning to charity. So Iwana's head was on the chopping board and she was given a choice to choose 2 or 3 ppl to accompany her to the board room to face Mr. Trump. Iwana choose, Stacie J, a loosecannon, who was not a team player, and 1 more girl, Jennifer. A guy on her team Bradford who cannot be queried Basically he got "cocky". Bradford gave up his exemption because he was so sure he did well and he wont be voted out.

Donald Trump sumed up why the four of them were in front of him: Ivana was a lousy leader, didn't have respect of team. Stacie J was hated by all. Jennifer really has got to keep her mouth shut because she opens it at the wrong time. Bradford made a stupid, impulsive decision. He fired Bradford. In business o­nce if you get too cocky and full of yourself you go downhill. Bradford was so happy about his part, the was just too confident and gave up his advantage unnecessarily. I believe that is what Trump was thinking. It was a strategic advantage which he gave up emotionally and emotions dont have any place in business, that was the lesson.

Always pick the winner!

If you thought this is going to be related to betting, you are wrong but dont be harsh on yourself because it was inspired by betting, off the subject, I have to mention about my Architect guy at the office who predicted Liverpool to win 2-1 and Liverpool to win both at half-time and full-time, just lucky you think? He wagered 20 dollars on Chelsea to win 4-1, if he was right it would have earned him 660 SGD!!! One can only imagine his reaction to Ballack's dive 93 minutes into a 90 minute match that changed the result from 4-1 to 4-2........

Returning to what I wanted to write about, when we feel inadequate in things that we want to be a success at, we usually tend to boost our self-esteem by joining up with people obviously inferior in that same thing that we hold dear. Mixing with people who are superior most often is threatening and leads to a lot of self-reflection, the outcome can be positive but we dont dare. Mixing with equals is the next best option but its not too comfortable and mixing with people who havent made it actually makes us feel a winner and we tend to do that often because that inflates our ego and makes us feel better.

I am sure at some point of time we would have found ourselves in such a position, one thing that we should hope that happens to us, is to realize that we are in such a position because its such a comfort zone that its quite reasonable not to wake up. The lesson from sports that we should learn is that we can only improve by playing against superiority, only then will we push ourselves. If we dont mix with people better than us, we may find comfort in the knowledge that we will never be challenged, but then we will never find out what the next step is all about. Remember if we avoid "growing pains" by sticking with people who either haven't made it or who are not interested in "growing", we will NOT grow.

Australian Football team joining the Asian Football Federation to avoid playing against the team that finishes 5th in the South American Qualifying FC is a perfect example for this discussion because, from the Aussie point of view is that since they are not being challenged all the way till they reach the play-offs, they cannot raise the game just for those 2 games and thus fail to qualify. So they say that they are willing to muck it with the Asians because they feel will be challenged more by the Asians that their pacific neighbours. I am still not ok with this because, the Asians teams are not going to test Australia any better than thier local rivals do, they gain by not meeting the South Americans and so instead of playing 2 tough games every four years, they will qualify to the World Cup and will play 3 first round games against better opposition - just a game extra. Australia is to gain from this and Asia will lose in the short term.

A bad sporting weekend......real bad!

My roommate walked into my room on Thursday and reminded me of the exciting weekend ahead, a cricket match between Ind and Pak, Premiership returning after the International break and the Bahrain GP. To add to all this excitement, F2005 was out on the tracks and doing quite well. A perfect weekend would have been a Pak Victory, United collecting 3 points against Blackburn, Chelsea not managing anything more than a draw away to Southampton and a Ferrari 1-2 with Schumi taking the podium. I know that is asking for too much but then when exactly the opposite happens, it is a dampener.........sad :(

Cricket - Brilliant start after sending back 2 dangerous batsmen in Tendulkar and Ganguly but then those 2 stupid mistakes with Sehwag cost them dear. He was the in-form player coming into the match and he made the Pak team pay, brilliant innings. As for Pakistan's batting, when you have the 10th and 11th batsmen gettting all the glory, the less said about the team's batting performance, the better. They need a good strike bowler to partner Sami - whatever happend to the 'Gul' guy - cant remember his full name....

Football - United failed me too. Ruud really looks out of sorts and is taking far too long to get back into the mix of things. Maybe he was rushed back too early - the pressure on him to score is immense, it was very sad to see him taken off. United before Ruud's return, were flowing, on hindsight it looks like a big mistake in rushing the great man back. I dont blame Fergie because no-one in their right mind would not play Ruud provided he is available, but then his confidence seems real low and his movement seems restricted. Finally Ronaldo, one day he sets the world alight and the next weekend he just cannot create anything, he was run ragged by Blackburn, could not make any impact on the match although the referee did not gaurd him, some were real crude challenges.

Its Chelsea's title, no doubt about that, for both United and Arsenal its now, all about damage limitation and getting that second place and being guaranteed Champions League for next season. Btw, if Liverpool did go on and win the Champions League, the second placed team in the League will not qualify automatically and will have to play the Qualification matches - something my Football Manager 2005 experience had taught me

Finally, the Bahrain GP - The only positive from the race, F2005 is fast enough. The real insult of the weekend was the fact that the only cars that finished behind a Ferrari was either a Jordan or a Minardi - It was that bad! Great work by the one person I for sure know had a worse weekend than myself -Barrichello, he did great in getting that car to finish, the technical problems were very obvious and you could clearly see that he was struggling. Schumi's pursuit of Alonso during the first few laps showed that there is light at the end of the tunnel and the end of the tunnel is near. At Monza, I am very confident that the Tifosi will go home with a big smile, the extra week before the next race is a boon in disguise and am sure Ferrari will be on the podium.

Karthikeyan - it was all praise before the race on how he was the best rookie among the 4 who started this year, then he was harshly reminded that he was in a Jordan. As long as its not his mistake, I am sure we will see him back in a better car next year - my best bet is Sauber - I dont see Villenueve being around for long. I pray that Karthikeyan gets his big break, maybe even this year, with the way Villeneueve has been doing (Not any better than Schumi, I know), I see him being replaced soon. Red Bull, another team brought back down to earth, Klien - extremely unfortunate and unlucky and Coultard - extremely lucky to get to finish amongst the points for the third consecutive race.

To finish off, congratulations to Alonso, again a brilliant performance, leading from start to finish. He does not have to lap a Ferrari every race, it really hurts. De La Rosa, if there was any man-of-the-race award, it would have certainly gone to this man. I would have switched off if not for this man, I would really love to hear Montoya's thoughts on this guy's performance. I intially thought that it was a struggling Ferrari that was showing him in good light but the way he drove right to the end made me change my mind. McLaren wont be that worried with Montoya's injury right now, they have a better behind the wheel for now. Along with Hiedfeld, he had yet again proved the vast difference a good competitive car can make make to a driver's performance. So, for now lets just pray that Karthikeyan can impress enough to get a better racing seat next season.

Real bad sporting weekend, the good news is that its over and the only way is up - Predictions - United to return with a bang and take the Cup, Ferrari to return to take the podium at Monza and Pak to win atleast 2 matches. Almost forgot the highlight of the weekend, Coultard commenting on the speculation that Montoya damaged his collar bone riding a motocross bike said, "When fat people start exercising that's what happens" Waiting to hear from Montoya..... :)