American Idol Season 8 Thoughts

When Kris Allen was declared winner of the American Idol 2009 couple of nights ago, there was more than a few who were surprised. While there will always be surprises when it comes to winner, especially the competitions of this magnitude, this one was a total surprise even for the winner who said "Adam deserves this” right after winning.

Not that Kris is a bad singer, Adam Lambert, the other finalist, was just too good not only through the rounds leading up to the final, but more importantly in the final. Two of the three performances for the final from Kris was just average. In fact, the judges underplayed a little bit by saying "America should vote for you not just based on today's performance but based on the performances you gave right through the season".

Apparently there is no real acceptable way of selecting a winner. While judges pick could lead to favoritism, voting/text over phone could lead to duplicate votes and winner getting picked for reasons outside the competition. Kris, IMHO, was picked because of his "boy next door" look and attitude, come across as family loving, soft spoken person with good talent to sing. Adam for some reason came across as over confident, try something new always, take it easy attitude person and sporting colorful attire (remember Carly from last season, who in spite of her singing talent was still not a popular choice with public) and nail polishes did not go well with TV watching public at all, I guess. Some of the news and pictures on the internet did not help him much either.

This will probably be the best thing to happen for Adam, who now is not constrained on what he has to do next. He is on his own in terms of next project and can sign up with any band.

IPL 2 - Biggest Flop of the Season

When I look back at my IPL initial thoughts written couple of days right after the start of IPL season 2, I am happy now at the team standings (more or less) and it matches pretty much what I anticipated initially.

Delhi and Chennai emerged strong after league phase, Bangalore and Deccan looking good in this edition compared to previous season, Rajasthan and Punjab just couldn't cope up with the absence of key players and alien conditions and KKR just managed to win 3 games as predicted.

The biggest flop of this season IMHO is... (no it's not someone connected to KKR - enough on Bhooka bashing and FIP) Sachin Tendulkar, the captain. He just couldn't handle the job effectively and surprisingly there is no mention on this from anyone including ex-cricketers and media. Every single move/decision that he took back fired. From dropping Jayasuriya in a crucial match and then moving him to middle order to promoting Duminy as opener and demoting himself as opener(how come he always gets (and even adamant at times) opener slot in ODI for team India and Gambhir had to play #3) and bringing himself on as bowler (and conceding crucial 19 runs in an over) against Delhi to not able to chase a smallish target against Punjab to losing wickets in heap against Rajasthan..the list goes on. Not to mention the chat that he has with his bowlers after every ball and looking visibly disappointed/dejected when his team is down. Mumbai Indians need to think about the role of on field leader carefully at least for the next season. They goofed up big time last year with captaincy and looks like their losses this year could be attributed to some poor decision making.

On a final note, I am predicting Chennai Vs Delhi finals and as last year, I will be rooting for my home team Chennai to win the trophy.

Quotes of the week

Chris Gayle, the West Indies captain, in the process of hitting back at his opponent captain, Andrew Strauss, may have crossed the line. "I wouldn't be so sad," said Gayle on Test cricket's possible death". Thanks to "money is my only motive" Modi, we will soon have players getting greedy and care less about the game in general.

How would you describe a front foot drive played on a ball that was pitched up? Here's Arun Lal version "The batsman drove that ball up front".

Imran's quote on T20 "I don't watch Twenty20 cricket because it is just Toolah (chance) cricket. It is not about skills or talent. That is why I think any team can win the World Cup". What's his point? Did we not see teams in IPL showing enough skills to win a game even though they were low on talent or vice-versa?

Here's another gem (on a rainy day when covers are on before the match) from Arun Lal that will make you speechless:

“When the covers are on, there happens the unique phenomenon of ‘internal rain’ , moisture from the ground gets vapourised , gets condensed within the surface of the covers and it starts raining within the enclosed space even though the skies are clear”