The Sports Month - A Wonderful opportunity for all to play and compete.
Was it?
Well, when all of us met to decide on teams, fixtures, schedules, Rules, etc. there were a multitude of opinions and debates, and finally a consensus was arrived upon.
But, democracy does not come without a price.
Consequently, and fairly, some good players were out of the tournament in the First Round itself, which was unfortunate, both for them and the spectators.
So, is there something we can do about it?
We surely can !!!
Why limit ourselves to the aegis of just the Sports Month itself? Why not play amongst ourselves?
A good question. But what about competitive spirit?
A proposal in this regard, which was discussed before too - Why not have our own Sports league?
It could run over a period of 2 months and we can have individual sports leagues of volleyball, basketball, cricket, etc.
We can form 3-4 good teams and compete...What does democracy say?
Monday, June 23, 2008
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Cricket Round One : Second Match
After watching some terrific performances in the opening match of cricket, everyone was expecting some more such type of performances in the next match which was played between CRK3(led by Vikas Gaur) and CRK4(led by Jon Pradeep). This match provided everything one could expect be it batting, bowling or fielding. Although Weather.com gave a forecast of a tornado in the evening, CRK4 felt the tornado named Himanshu Arora in the morning itself.He scored the quickest 50 of the history of the tournament and made the match a one sided affair within no time.'
Captain of CRK4 team Jon Pradeep won the toss and straight away chose to bat first. Amit Arora and Atul opened the innings for CRK4 while Mohibur Rohman and Vikas Gaur shared the new ball for CRK4. Mohibur Rohman , what a bowler he is! He took 3 wickets for just 14 runs in his first fiery spell of three overs. Vikas too bowled his trademark line and length giving only 8 runs in his first three overs which included the only maiden of the match. After a disastrous start, Amit Arora got Naren as his partner and what a partnership those two had after that.Both of them first saw off the opening spells of Mohibur and Vikas and then played their shots.While Amit stayed on the wicket and played with patience, Naren was more on a atacking side. He played his shots freely riding on his luck though, getting as many as three lives. CRK 4 was well placed at 48/3 after 10 overs and they were all set for the onslaught in the final 6 overs. But Vikas' trust on Himanshu proved right when he provided the breakthrough with the wicket of Naren. Fall of Naren's wicket brought Rajesh Dimri on the pitch and after that 14th over of the innings proved to be the most expensive over of the innings with left handed Rajesh hitting one six and two fours and scoring 20 runs in the over. Score read 88/4 after 14 overs and CRk4 looked all set to be the first team in the tournament to cross the magical figure of 100. But Vikas bowled a tight 15th over picking up 3 wickets and giving away only 1 run. Last over was bowled by Puneet and he polished off the tail by picking up 4 wickets in the over. CRK4 scored 92 runs with Amit Arora and Rajesh Dimri top scoring with 20 runs each. It was Amit Arora who held the innings together and was instrumental in setting up a fighting total for CRK3. Puneet Khurana took 4 wickets giving away just 9 runs in 2 overs while Vikas and Mohibur took 3 wickets each for 9 and 19 runs respectively in their quota of 4 overs.
Chasing a target of 93, CRK3 lost their Key batsman Mohibur Rohman very early when he flicked a full toss ball straight into the hands of Jon Pradeep at square leg. Score board read 5/1. Spectators started wishing CRK3 team best of luck for the next year because loss of Mohibur forced them to think that the match was over for CRK3.But what happened after that can never be forgotten. In came Himanshu Arora and he tore apart the opposition attack hitting 2 sixes on the first three balls he faced. Puneet on the other hand was given the responsibility to stay till the end and he performed it beautifully. Himanshu hit 4 sixes and as many fours in his innings of 52 runs without getting dismissed. He showed his class by playing some solid defensive strokes, frequent attacking shots and some usefull improvisation which included a beautiful reverse pull off a short ball from Amit Arora in the cover region for four runs. The most beautiful six was hit over the extra cover off Rajesh Dimri with no effort.This is where CRK4 missed a trick or two. Jon removed both Amit Arora and Rajesh Dimri from the attack while those two bowlers had the potential to turn the tables for CRK4. By the time Rajesh was brought back, the match was more than over for CRK4. Riding on the explosive batting of Himanshu Arora CRk3 raced to 70/1 after 7 overs. Spectators also saw a great team spirit from Puneet Khurana who ,thereafter, almost stopped scoring giving Himanshu each and every chance to complete his 50. Puneet got out just 5 runs short of the target . He scored invaluable 18 runs with one four.It was no surprize that winning shot was a six from Himanshu's bat. This six completed 50 for Himanshu and sealed the win for CRk3 team. For his extra ordinary innings and one wicket which he took, Himanshu was declared the man of the match.
This match completed the list of three teams which will play among each other in the next round which starts from 06/14(Saturday).The list goes as : CRK1 led by Virender Chaudhary, CRK3 led by Vikas Gaur and CRK5 led by Nishant Daruka. Nishant was again on the field throughout the match. He is definitely going to give his invaluable inputs about the opposition team in his team strategy meetings. Is his presence in all the matches going to be the deciding factor in future games? Watch out for rest of the tournament to get the answers.
Captain of CRK4 team Jon Pradeep won the toss and straight away chose to bat first. Amit Arora and Atul opened the innings for CRK4 while Mohibur Rohman and Vikas Gaur shared the new ball for CRK4. Mohibur Rohman , what a bowler he is! He took 3 wickets for just 14 runs in his first fiery spell of three overs. Vikas too bowled his trademark line and length giving only 8 runs in his first three overs which included the only maiden of the match. After a disastrous start, Amit Arora got Naren as his partner and what a partnership those two had after that.Both of them first saw off the opening spells of Mohibur and Vikas and then played their shots.While Amit stayed on the wicket and played with patience, Naren was more on a atacking side. He played his shots freely riding on his luck though, getting as many as three lives. CRK 4 was well placed at 48/3 after 10 overs and they were all set for the onslaught in the final 6 overs. But Vikas' trust on Himanshu proved right when he provided the breakthrough with the wicket of Naren. Fall of Naren's wicket brought Rajesh Dimri on the pitch and after that 14th over of the innings proved to be the most expensive over of the innings with left handed Rajesh hitting one six and two fours and scoring 20 runs in the over. Score read 88/4 after 14 overs and CRk4 looked all set to be the first team in the tournament to cross the magical figure of 100. But Vikas bowled a tight 15th over picking up 3 wickets and giving away only 1 run. Last over was bowled by Puneet and he polished off the tail by picking up 4 wickets in the over. CRK4 scored 92 runs with Amit Arora and Rajesh Dimri top scoring with 20 runs each. It was Amit Arora who held the innings together and was instrumental in setting up a fighting total for CRK3. Puneet Khurana took 4 wickets giving away just 9 runs in 2 overs while Vikas and Mohibur took 3 wickets each for 9 and 19 runs respectively in their quota of 4 overs.
Chasing a target of 93, CRK3 lost their Key batsman Mohibur Rohman very early when he flicked a full toss ball straight into the hands of Jon Pradeep at square leg. Score board read 5/1. Spectators started wishing CRK3 team best of luck for the next year because loss of Mohibur forced them to think that the match was over for CRK3.But what happened after that can never be forgotten. In came Himanshu Arora and he tore apart the opposition attack hitting 2 sixes on the first three balls he faced. Puneet on the other hand was given the responsibility to stay till the end and he performed it beautifully. Himanshu hit 4 sixes and as many fours in his innings of 52 runs without getting dismissed. He showed his class by playing some solid defensive strokes, frequent attacking shots and some usefull improvisation which included a beautiful reverse pull off a short ball from Amit Arora in the cover region for four runs. The most beautiful six was hit over the extra cover off Rajesh Dimri with no effort.This is where CRK4 missed a trick or two. Jon removed both Amit Arora and Rajesh Dimri from the attack while those two bowlers had the potential to turn the tables for CRK4. By the time Rajesh was brought back, the match was more than over for CRK4. Riding on the explosive batting of Himanshu Arora CRk3 raced to 70/1 after 7 overs. Spectators also saw a great team spirit from Puneet Khurana who ,thereafter, almost stopped scoring giving Himanshu each and every chance to complete his 50. Puneet got out just 5 runs short of the target . He scored invaluable 18 runs with one four.It was no surprize that winning shot was a six from Himanshu's bat. This six completed 50 for Himanshu and sealed the win for CRk3 team. For his extra ordinary innings and one wicket which he took, Himanshu was declared the man of the match.
This match completed the list of three teams which will play among each other in the next round which starts from 06/14(Saturday).The list goes as : CRK1 led by Virender Chaudhary, CRK3 led by Vikas Gaur and CRK5 led by Nishant Daruka. Nishant was again on the field throughout the match. He is definitely going to give his invaluable inputs about the opposition team in his team strategy meetings. Is his presence in all the matches going to be the deciding factor in future games? Watch out for rest of the tournament to get the answers.
Cricket Round One : First Match
The opening cricket match of TCS@Walgreens sports month was played between CRK1(led by Virender Chaudhary) and CRK2(led by Md Fraheem). This match was of equal importance for both the teams since format of the tournament made it a knock out situation for both of them. We saw some outstanding performances in the match with Ankur Sen and Hariom Sharma from CRK2 playing handful innings and Saida Mannava bowling his heart out. Rishabh Dvivedi and kamal kaul from CRK1 coming up with potentially two of the best spells of the tournament and Virender Chaudhary showing the spectators why he was made the captain of the CRK1 team by playing one of the most matured innings in the history of this tournament.
Virender won the toss for his team and took no time in deciding to bowl first on a wicket which was totally new for both the teams. Ankur Sen and Sangyshetty gave a decent start to CRK1 with Shetty being more offensive hitting 2 consecutive fours. But he had to go due to a poor umpiring decision after making a quickfire 11 runs. Ankur sen and Hariom sharma had a good partnership. Both played sensibly and took the score into 30's.Just when both looked settled, Rishabh Dvivedi provided the breakthrough with the precious wicket of Hariom. Hariom made 14 but the middle and lower order failed badly. CRK2 managed to get a respectable total of 75 runs even after a major collapse triggered by Rishabh, thanks to Ashish Bhadviya who scored 14. Rishabh dvivedi was the most devastating bowler and took four wickets giving away just 16 runs in his quota of 4 overs. Kamal and Virender were also good but it was Rishabh who stood out in the bowling and CRK2 was bundled out for 75 runs.Virender got 2 wickets for 15 runs.Kamal gave only 11 runs off his 4 overs.Virender also took two catches.
A target of 76 in 16 overs looked easy initially but CRK2's strike bowlers had different intentions. Saida was deadly in his first spell picking up one wicket in each of his first three overs.It looked as if he did not know what the leg stump was, since he bowled on or outside the off stumps at a brisk pace throughout his spell. Saida was not 100% fit. He had a cramp during pratice. Had he been fully fit, this match would have been even more exciting.Hariom Sharma on the other end was not ready to let the batsmen score freely. Amit Thapar was caught behind the wickets by Amit Arora off the bowling of Saida while Hariom took a stunning catch to dismiss Rishi Mehrotra. When Hariom clean bowled Jetal on 5,CRK1 was 3 down for merely 17 runs and it looked as if 75 could prove to be a match winning score. But Virender who opened the innings with Amit thapar got the perfect partner in form of Kamal Kaul. Lack of the good third and fourth bowler increased the woes of CRK2. Both Virender and Kamal played in single and doubles initially and took the score past 50 and once the match was in their reach they started playing their shots. Virender placed his innings perfectly and didn't try to hit it too hard initially. He hit three boundaries in his unbeaten innings of 33 runs.He could not have find a better time to play this innings. Kamal also played some eye cathing pull shots through square leg and fine leg.He also hit 3 fours in his score of 27 without being dismissed.Virender led from the front picking up 2 wickets, holding up 2 catches and scoring 33 unbeaten runs for his team.
Finally it was the partnership of 59 runs between Virender and Kamal which not only changed the course of the match but also proved to be a match winning one.With this win CRK1 moved to second round, fixing the contest with CRK5 which directly went to the second round through a lucky draw. For his all round performance, Virender Chaudhary was declared the man of the match.
It was interesting to see Nishant Daruka, the captain of CRK5 team,on the field throughout the match, probably trying to take a glimpse of the strengths and weaknesses of his opposition teams. Was it a mere passion of watching cricket or a shrewdness of a responsible captain? We will get to know the answers as the tournament progresses.
Virender won the toss for his team and took no time in deciding to bowl first on a wicket which was totally new for both the teams. Ankur Sen and Sangyshetty gave a decent start to CRK1 with Shetty being more offensive hitting 2 consecutive fours. But he had to go due to a poor umpiring decision after making a quickfire 11 runs. Ankur sen and Hariom sharma had a good partnership. Both played sensibly and took the score into 30's.Just when both looked settled, Rishabh Dvivedi provided the breakthrough with the precious wicket of Hariom. Hariom made 14 but the middle and lower order failed badly. CRK2 managed to get a respectable total of 75 runs even after a major collapse triggered by Rishabh, thanks to Ashish Bhadviya who scored 14. Rishabh dvivedi was the most devastating bowler and took four wickets giving away just 16 runs in his quota of 4 overs. Kamal and Virender were also good but it was Rishabh who stood out in the bowling and CRK2 was bundled out for 75 runs.Virender got 2 wickets for 15 runs.Kamal gave only 11 runs off his 4 overs.Virender also took two catches.
A target of 76 in 16 overs looked easy initially but CRK2's strike bowlers had different intentions. Saida was deadly in his first spell picking up one wicket in each of his first three overs.It looked as if he did not know what the leg stump was, since he bowled on or outside the off stumps at a brisk pace throughout his spell. Saida was not 100% fit. He had a cramp during pratice. Had he been fully fit, this match would have been even more exciting.Hariom Sharma on the other end was not ready to let the batsmen score freely. Amit Thapar was caught behind the wickets by Amit Arora off the bowling of Saida while Hariom took a stunning catch to dismiss Rishi Mehrotra. When Hariom clean bowled Jetal on 5,CRK1 was 3 down for merely 17 runs and it looked as if 75 could prove to be a match winning score. But Virender who opened the innings with Amit thapar got the perfect partner in form of Kamal Kaul. Lack of the good third and fourth bowler increased the woes of CRK2. Both Virender and Kamal played in single and doubles initially and took the score past 50 and once the match was in their reach they started playing their shots. Virender placed his innings perfectly and didn't try to hit it too hard initially. He hit three boundaries in his unbeaten innings of 33 runs.He could not have find a better time to play this innings. Kamal also played some eye cathing pull shots through square leg and fine leg.He also hit 3 fours in his score of 27 without being dismissed.Virender led from the front picking up 2 wickets, holding up 2 catches and scoring 33 unbeaten runs for his team.
Finally it was the partnership of 59 runs between Virender and Kamal which not only changed the course of the match but also proved to be a match winning one.With this win CRK1 moved to second round, fixing the contest with CRK5 which directly went to the second round through a lucky draw. For his all round performance, Virender Chaudhary was declared the man of the match.
It was interesting to see Nishant Daruka, the captain of CRK5 team,on the field throughout the match, probably trying to take a glimpse of the strengths and weaknesses of his opposition teams. Was it a mere passion of watching cricket or a shrewdness of a responsible captain? We will get to know the answers as the tournament progresses.
Friday, June 6, 2008
For the love of sports...
Peeps!
I agree with all that's mentioned in the previous post about the team'ism, if i may call it.
There are two perspectives to looking at this whole setup (yeah, one of those boring starters)
1. Equal Opportunity : (Broader picture)
“All of us do not have equal talent, but all of us should have an equal opportunity to develop our talents.” - John F Kennedy.
From a holistic view, this whole setup appears fair and absolutely just. Every person gets to play in a team that has a few "good" (experienced?) players and thereby step their own level a bit higher. If people were let to choose their own team, these guys, though filled with a lot of enthu, would not be picked by the better ones, for obvious reasons. This would have got these guys squashed out of the first game and never would have given them an opportunity to feel what its like to be in a highly competitive game (which by the way, I've heard, is awesome :-) ). Also, these aren't any league games playing for big bucks or knockout tournaments that decide your future. Just as Amit Chandna had already mentioned, its about getting to know each other across floors, across buildings. So yeah, its a peaceful world. We all go, take part, win/lose, go back home, sleep, wake up next day and move on.
2. Passion : (Deeper picture)
"An athlete is a normal person with the gift of an undying passion to be the best and achieve greatness." - Some genius.
The opening line of the TCS Sports month invitation letter read: "June is knocking on the door and the sportsperson in us is craving to get out in the sun and compete". For some, this might seem like a typical marketing line. For the rest, it is absolutely true and those are the words straight from the heart. Its been a ridiculously long 7 month winter wait. There aren't many winter sports that can be done on a regular day-to-day basis. And worse, we aren't very used to those games as well. So, this month means a helluva lot to those passionate sportspersons who crave for such events ever since they passed out of college and got themselves stuck in the very "beautiful" world of computers. These guys wouldn't start and stop thinking about these events during the month of June. Its a long wait until end of May and anxiety for the next year's event starts from Day 1 in July !
However, all this zeal might be crumbled down to tiny particles when they see themselves crashing out of the competition right after the first game. Let's face it, most of these are team events. A single guy can't do enough miracles. Remember LeBron James. Yes, there are a few who are glad they took part in a sports event. But this isn't a charity exhibition event that's organized to entertain some poor kids in Darfur. This is a competition man. You get there, sweat it out and pour that passion all over the field. Remember, you have to wait another long year for a similar event. And with the forever uncertain world of IT Consultancy, you don't even know if you'll be in Chicago with a million fellow desis or be the first indian to land in Alaska, next year same time ! (With TCS, you can never say, we really might have clients up there, but still, you got the point!)
Its a tough decision to choose between the both, considering the nature of this event. So, having said all that, how do we bring this ideal world of combining the two perspectives together, to reality? For one, I think, squeezing all the events into 3 or 4 weeks isn't the best of ideas. I frankly don't see any significant reasoning behind this except that we can't call it "..sports month". Who cares? In my honest opinion, it should scale to atleast 2 months minimum. I agree this might not have any direct connection to what we were talking about all along, but there is a remote one. When you have a longer duration, we tend to have leagues. Leagues help people get to know their teammates and plan a game much better. For most of us, its a direct transition from sweat pants to sports jerseys on the day of the competition. By the time a person warms up and gets back to previous year's form, he's already out of the competition.
(The old adage: "Form is temporary, class is permanent" won't work out as a defending argument against this , 'cos this is a knockout contest and u've got to be in the form from Day1) This way, even new entrants into these games will get a chance to learn a bit and exhibit certain quality, thereby, making this an all the more successful event. So, there you have your sports passion, team dynamics, getting to know fellow TCSers and also continuous fitness regime during the fewer months of summer that we poor people have. Well, let's take care of this next year.
For now ..... LET'S HUSTLE ! BRING IT ON !!!!!
D
"Sports remain a great metaphor for life's more difficult lessons. It was through athletics that many of us first came to understand that fear can be tamed; that on a team the whole is more than the sum of its parts; and that the ability to be heroic lies, to a surprising degree, within."
I agree with all that's mentioned in the previous post about the team'ism, if i may call it.
There are two perspectives to looking at this whole setup (yeah, one of those boring starters)
1. Equal Opportunity : (Broader picture)
“All of us do not have equal talent, but all of us should have an equal opportunity to develop our talents.” - John F Kennedy.
From a holistic view, this whole setup appears fair and absolutely just. Every person gets to play in a team that has a few "good" (experienced?) players and thereby step their own level a bit higher. If people were let to choose their own team, these guys, though filled with a lot of enthu, would not be picked by the better ones, for obvious reasons. This would have got these guys squashed out of the first game and never would have given them an opportunity to feel what its like to be in a highly competitive game (which by the way, I've heard, is awesome :-) ). Also, these aren't any league games playing for big bucks or knockout tournaments that decide your future. Just as Amit Chandna had already mentioned, its about getting to know each other across floors, across buildings. So yeah, its a peaceful world. We all go, take part, win/lose, go back home, sleep, wake up next day and move on.
2. Passion : (Deeper picture)
"An athlete is a normal person with the gift of an undying passion to be the best and achieve greatness." - Some genius.
The opening line of the TCS Sports month invitation letter read: "June is knocking on the door and the sportsperson in us is craving to get out in the sun and compete". For some, this might seem like a typical marketing line. For the rest, it is absolutely true and those are the words straight from the heart. Its been a ridiculously long 7 month winter wait. There aren't many winter sports that can be done on a regular day-to-day basis. And worse, we aren't very used to those games as well. So, this month means a helluva lot to those passionate sportspersons who crave for such events ever since they passed out of college and got themselves stuck in the very "beautiful" world of computers. These guys wouldn't start and stop thinking about these events during the month of June. Its a long wait until end of May and anxiety for the next year's event starts from Day 1 in July !
However, all this zeal might be crumbled down to tiny particles when they see themselves crashing out of the competition right after the first game. Let's face it, most of these are team events. A single guy can't do enough miracles. Remember LeBron James. Yes, there are a few who are glad they took part in a sports event. But this isn't a charity exhibition event that's organized to entertain some poor kids in Darfur. This is a competition man. You get there, sweat it out and pour that passion all over the field. Remember, you have to wait another long year for a similar event. And with the forever uncertain world of IT Consultancy, you don't even know if you'll be in Chicago with a million fellow desis or be the first indian to land in Alaska, next year same time ! (With TCS, you can never say, we really might have clients up there, but still, you got the point!)
Its a tough decision to choose between the both, considering the nature of this event. So, having said all that, how do we bring this ideal world of combining the two perspectives together, to reality? For one, I think, squeezing all the events into 3 or 4 weeks isn't the best of ideas. I frankly don't see any significant reasoning behind this except that we can't call it "..sports month". Who cares? In my honest opinion, it should scale to atleast 2 months minimum. I agree this might not have any direct connection to what we were talking about all along, but there is a remote one. When you have a longer duration, we tend to have leagues. Leagues help people get to know their teammates and plan a game much better. For most of us, its a direct transition from sweat pants to sports jerseys on the day of the competition. By the time a person warms up and gets back to previous year's form, he's already out of the competition.
(The old adage: "Form is temporary, class is permanent" won't work out as a defending argument against this , 'cos this is a knockout contest and u've got to be in the form from Day1) This way, even new entrants into these games will get a chance to learn a bit and exhibit certain quality, thereby, making this an all the more successful event. So, there you have your sports passion, team dynamics, getting to know fellow TCSers and also continuous fitness regime during the fewer months of summer that we poor people have. Well, let's take care of this next year.
For now ..... LET'S HUSTLE ! BRING IT ON !!!!!
D
"Sports remain a great metaphor for life's more difficult lessons. It was through athletics that many of us first came to understand that fear can be tamed; that on a team the whole is more than the sum of its parts; and that the ability to be heroic lies, to a surprising degree, within."
Thursday, June 5, 2008
Team Formation
We were discussing team formation in the organizing committee meeting and immediately my mind went back to an email that I received from a friend of mine, about team affiliation in competitive sport. It said the following:
"In a way, it's not so surprising; provenance always decided which team you rooted for in English football. If you came from a particular area of London, you'd support West Ham; if you came from another, you'd go for Arsenal. Julian Barnes, one of England's finest living novelists, once described how and why he supports Leicester City, a thoroughly and determinedly unsuccessful football side: "Leicester City are my team because I was born there, though we moved to London six weeks later," he told the Observer Sport Monthly in 2001. (I mean, six weeks?) "Starting to support them when I was four or five was a sentimental way of hanging on to Leicester. An emotional bond is formed at an early age and, unless you are a complete tart and transfer to a rich side, you stick with your childhood team.It isn't merely English football. Indian cricket fans old enough to remember a time when our first-class game mattered anything at all, a time when Test players actually captained zonal teams, and the Ranji and Duleep Trophies were followed with fervor, will recognize the same impulse at play while determining support. (If there's anyone from Mumbai who supported South Zone or anyone from Bangalore who rooted for West Zone, I'd like to know.) "
Last year team organization was based on some provenance that "We all belonged to the same project team, at least most of us". This year the TCS Sports teams will not be formed on basis of any known association or provenance but would be rather churned using an inhuman computer generated random algorithm.
There are distinct advantages of this approach:
1) People will get to know each other so sport will serve the purpose of creating new associations
2) Less passion in the game so jobs of referees and coordinators is much easier
3) No Malice in team formation..its random ..you see..
However there are significant cons too..
1) No affiliation makes it difficult to gel together as a team and think as a team.You could be indifferent because you are in different teams in different sports.
2) Its difficult to decide which team gets the overall champion trophy
3) Logistically its easier for people from same team to communicate
4) You will not be able get a team jersey..there are different teams for different sports..
5) Audience know whom to cheer for and it can create some magical cheering and jeering moments.
Well..Its easy to see which side I am on..however we have decided as a team that we will have no provenance and will use random numbers to pick our teams..What do you think?? Am I the only one sweating too much about it..
Your thoughts will help the next Organizing committee come to a better team formation next year around..lets plant the trees and not think about the fruit!
By the way..What about team Jerseys.we need some identity .how will we identify players in Basketball/Football..cos we might end up in teams where we don't know a lot of other players..this will true for lot of people who have just joined the account.
Thoughts?
"In a way, it's not so surprising; provenance always decided which team you rooted for in English football. If you came from a particular area of London, you'd support West Ham; if you came from another, you'd go for Arsenal. Julian Barnes, one of England's finest living novelists, once described how and why he supports Leicester City, a thoroughly and determinedly unsuccessful football side: "Leicester City are my team because I was born there, though we moved to London six weeks later," he told the Observer Sport Monthly in 2001. (I mean, six weeks?) "Starting to support them when I was four or five was a sentimental way of hanging on to Leicester. An emotional bond is formed at an early age and, unless you are a complete tart and transfer to a rich side, you stick with your childhood team.It isn't merely English football. Indian cricket fans old enough to remember a time when our first-class game mattered anything at all, a time when Test players actually captained zonal teams, and the Ranji and Duleep Trophies were followed with fervor, will recognize the same impulse at play while determining support. (If there's anyone from Mumbai who supported South Zone or anyone from Bangalore who rooted for West Zone, I'd like to know.) "
Last year team organization was based on some provenance that "We all belonged to the same project team, at least most of us". This year the TCS Sports teams will not be formed on basis of any known association or provenance but would be rather churned using an inhuman computer generated random algorithm.
There are distinct advantages of this approach:
1) People will get to know each other so sport will serve the purpose of creating new associations
2) Less passion in the game so jobs of referees and coordinators is much easier
3) No Malice in team formation..its random ..you see..
However there are significant cons too..
1) No affiliation makes it difficult to gel together as a team and think as a team.You could be indifferent because you are in different teams in different sports.
2) Its difficult to decide which team gets the overall champion trophy
3) Logistically its easier for people from same team to communicate
4) You will not be able get a team jersey..there are different teams for different sports..
5) Audience know whom to cheer for and it can create some magical cheering and jeering moments.
Well..Its easy to see which side I am on..however we have decided as a team that we will have no provenance and will use random numbers to pick our teams..What do you think?? Am I the only one sweating too much about it..
Your thoughts will help the next Organizing committee come to a better team formation next year around..lets plant the trees and not think about the fruit!
By the way..What about team Jerseys.we need some identity .how will we identify players in Basketball/Football..cos we might end up in teams where we don't know a lot of other players..this will true for lot of people who have just joined the account.
Thoughts?
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
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