Cricket for Charity

Well after India is knocked out from the World Cup, and loads of advertisers have lost money, ad agencies have to come up with smarter ads rather than make Sachin Tendulkar smile, and sell more Toothpaste, Motorbikes to Energy drinks, and every Indian has started talking about how bad the game is, all is not lost.

At least here in London, CRY (Child Relief and You) has organised in London, a cricket tournament which would raise money for the poor orphans. Now since obviously they cannot rope in the popular and much loved (??!??!??!?) indian national cricket players, generating money by selling tickets (leave alone television rights) is not possible, they are roping in corporates, to play the tournament and actually pay money for playing in the tournament, when there is NO prize money. (only incentive to win is you get to play more matches, which might be a good one, especially for those in the Indian Cricket Team)

When a colleague forwarded an email about this and asking for volunteers, saying it is some thing like 100 Pound Sterling to play, I was a little taken aback.
Come on I am the kind of guy who likes watching sports, and my dose of adrenalin rush comes from cheering my teams (and sighing in despair when they invariably lose).
My complete lack of fitness, (as regular readers might know my whipping in squash by Murari continues) and with my increasing waistline, my right arm medium fast i guess has become right arm gentle medium, and am sure my dibbly dobblies will be despatched for boudaries (that is when i bowl the ball on the stumps). All this is when bowling is my strongest suit in cricket. [:D] The less we talk about my batting and fielding (I am sure I here a couple of giggles here) the better.

But nevertheless, since it is for a noble cause and i shall have something to look forward to on the weekends, I am game.

Also with the Indian debacle I can root for the team i really like, Stephen Fleming's Black Caps.
The Kiwis have got a couple of setbacks during this cup, the worst being Lou Vincent's injury (Darryl Tuffey has also been sent home, Mark Gillespie and Ross Taylor are still injured).

And India's outster from this world cup would sure have its benefits. I am sure it would have been much worse if India lost all matches in the Super Eights. We have been spared the pain, and also with India out most of indian fans will be able to focus on work, and the Indian GDP will rise 0.3% faster this month, and surely Indians can do better than play this silly sport. Acquiring global companies for instance [;)]. Ratan Tata, Mukesh Ambani and Kumarmangalam Birla should have their eyes focussing on manufacturing firms abroad, not a motley bunch of guys dressed in blue.