AAGEE Syndrome on a long weekend...

Long weekend of Holi-Easter-Id-Milad was too much to bear for me. As all I had to do was just sit at home & watch the Idiot Box go blah-blah-blah… After spending two days in the confines of the four walls, the third day was really refreshing… A good Formula1 race, some good food & a little bit of cricket surely did cheer me up or should I say prepared me for the grueling week ahead…

A friend of my room mate came-up with the Idea of going to the ICL T20 challenge, the price banding really warmed me up to the challenge a meager Rs. 100/- So after the Formula1 race & seeing my hero Kimi win, I was all cheered up to go. Now it was time for “Good Food” I accentuate here because all week long it is the same exorbitantly priced tasteless office canteen food of dal-roti/chawal… bleech!!! Not that I have anything against dal-roti/chawal, I guess most office-goers will understand & agree with me.

So after food it was turn to go. The best part of all was none of us knew where the stadium was situated! We had our tickets courtesy internet, knew the name of the place but didn’t know the way!

After a lot of asking directions & hearing only one direction “AAGEE” (straight ahead) we managed to reach. If ever one has to ask directions in the dust-city called Gurgaon don’t bother, everything is “AAGEE”. Collecting the tickets wasn’t much of a fiasco. Again we were hit by the “AAGEE syndrome” of Gurgaon. I have come to call it so because in just one evening I heard the word around 30 times. Genuinely no one knows where the place being enquired is they have just the same answer. AAGEE… I am planning on applying for a patent for a new syndrome I happened to discover.

Anyway be as it may be, after collecting tickets we entered the preordained location. On reaching we found were felt let down. The coveted stadium is called Tau Devi lal stadium. I would say Tau Devi Lal Park would be more precise. The longest boundary was I think, around 45-50 Yards. This according to me was fit to play a tennis ball tournament between two school teams. It reminded me of my Engg. College Cricket ground only difference this one had a green cover all over.

Despite being such a small field of all only 2 6s were hit in the entire match & both in the Lahore team innings. The main reason for this was Mushtaq Ahmed. Mushtaq was wonderful, for a guy almost into the 40s he was fantastic... He was a class apart... Delhi batsmen weren't able to pick him... like Navjot Singh Sidhu would say; they were bamboozled, flummoxed, like a baby in a dance bar. Mushtaq bowled one Delhi batsmen round his legs... that poor chap was just gaping as to how he got bowled.

Pricing of tickets is ok, Rs 100/- sit anywhere you want. Most of the crowd that came was more interested in the dancing girls than the sport...

When it was evident that the Lahore team had outdone the Delhi team all of a sudden there were Indian & Pakistani flags sold & a cry of India India… Hey this is just a private company conducting a competition to earn money. Why bring in patriotism here? As the last few overs of the match were being bowled there was pin drop silence in the stadium. This sort of behavior was shameful… No one, yes sir, not a single person spotted the fact that the throws coming in from the deep fielders of Lahore team were thudding into the keeper’s gloves… There was a passion in the way they played. Why can’t Indian fans just accept that??

Imran Nasir again showed the world why the legendary Imran Khan regards him so highly. He saved around 15-20 runs at point position. Then guiding his team to a wonderful victory scoring majority of the runs.

Once out of the stadium we again experienced the AAGEE syndrome managed to get home. End of the day it was a wonderful experience. A good way to spend a weekend. A good chance to meet some of the international stars & see them play from close quarters.

Vrooom... Formula1 2008 underway...

A wonderful racing weekend in Albert Park, Australia. Didn't miss a split second of it. Out of 22 cars only 6 managed to finish. Cars flying, tumbling, crashing into each other… Wow nothing can get better for a season starter.

Reliability again hit Ferrari. Unfortunate incident saw curtains down on Massa’s chances, rash & irresponsible driving by Kimi. Ferrari's performance w/o Todd & Schumi will be scrutinized. Probably we could see some in clashing develop in the team. got to wait & watch.

A bad day for most teams, guess this will be the pattern in which the season will progress.

Nico Rosberg was fantastic. Now not many will call him son of great Keke Rosberg but Williams Team Leader Nico Rosberg. Excellent driving, wonderful pressure handling. Nick Heidfeld also drove a wonderful race. Robert Kubica drove beautifully soaking all the pressure from Hekki, until a freak incident ended his race. These guys are the ones who have grownup without driver aids like traction control & all they will be the flavor of the F1 2008.

Super smooth driving by Lewis... he is going to be more than a handful for Ferrari & all the other teams this season. Lewis has a super smooth driving style developed as a result of GP2 series where there is no traction control but both Ferrari drivers have grown on traction control & driver aids so it is going to take some mistakes by Lewis & lot of luck for Ferrari to come out winning...

Kimi did all the good work on soft compound tyres to get up to P3 & then he undid himself by trying a Maverick on Hekki result P9 at end of race had he waited just another lap he could have reached podium. Alonso did well, kept his cool unlike Kimi & came out flying experience telling him to do so. Renault has had reality check last year & seems to have made some progress or is it just the brilliance of Alonso will be answered in few months time.

Force India hope to revive but can't see them going anywhere now... all the investments made by Mallya till date have been great runaway success so got to wait & see where he will take the team... they have a good experienced driver in Fisichella. Their main aim this season would probably be to complete as many races as possible... Fisi came up with some superb performances last year in Renault... hope to see the same with Force India. If they manage to score a couple of points then it will be great...Fisi is one of the right choices Mallya has done…. I would think he could get just not couple of points but he can pose a lot of questions to the other teams to put thinking cap on the other teams permitted the Force India team delivers him a quite a descent car. A lot is said in Indian media about this team. Got to wait & watch... lets see what they come up with...

With the number of cars crashing out & the new rules & regulations guess the teams will not be able to bear the financial burden if Australian GP was an indicator of anything in store for the year ahead. We could see the return of driver aids. Ferrari will be a team that will welcome this change with open arms.

I would rate Nico’s effort as No.1, Kubica No.2, Alonso No.3. & finally Kimi No.4. (till the time he got a rush of blood & did the Maverick maneuver to loose out his position). Alonso tiff with Hekki was the highlight for me, the entire maneuvering was excellent and that few secs when he moved from 4-5-4 were superb… Handling pressure has to be learnt from him. If the reaction from the pit wall of McLaren was an indicator of anything that had happened last year during these few seconds then it would be an understatement. The moment Hekki overtook Alonso, Ron Dennis jumped with the joy of a school kid being handed a handful of Ice-cream.

An overall wonderful weekend at Albert Park, Australia, Lets wait & watch what is in store for us in less than 5 days time at the Sepang circuit, Malaysia.

Till then Drive safely.