“"I am not married.I might not ever. I may also."
Anthony Martin is wishy-washy about his marital future.
What he really meant:
“It’s a heads you win, tails I lose situation. Help me out here, guys.”
What he definitely didn’t:
“’What’s love got to do with it?’—I love that Tina Turner number.”

“I don’t like losing. That ‘L" word is not in my vocabulary. Only Love and Lord. Not Losing."
Anthony Martin is a scribe’s delight as he comes up with original quotes following West Indies’ first victory in the ODI series against India at Antigua.
What he really meant:
”I can’t spell ‘losing’”
What he definitely didn’t:
“Bring me a fresh dictionary.”

Cricket lovers have Graeme Smith to thank for enriching their vocabulary last weekend.
The South African Test skipper was “Mampara Of the Week”—selected by the nation’s leading daily, The Sunday Times. It is a moniker reserved for politicians and businessmen but ‘Biff’ trumped all contenders last week with his “wishy-washy apology” to the South African public for his side’s early exit at this year’s ODI World Cup in India.
Mamapara roughly translates to “idiot”. I must admit—“You b****y Mampara” has a nice ring to it.
Sachin Tendulkar—in the sunset of his career—is an inspiration to older cricketers. Simon Katich is the latest to pay obeisance. The West Australian cricketer—in his press conference—slammed Greg Chappell ,rightly questioning his credentials as a selector as he pointed out his inability to predict the master bat’s recent heights.
“Elder cricketers of the world, unite. You have nothing to lose but bad selectors.”
Rushing to Katich’s defence was minister of defence for the realm, Stephen Smith. Australian politicians love their cricket and their cricketers.
“If he’s not in the top 25 Australian cricketers – and I can’t find one better opener than him on that list, let alone two – then I’ll go hee for chasey.” said the minister. An Aussie phrase learned here—take note,English language lovers.
The West Indians have been shafted once more. Zaheer Khan and S Sreesanth have opted out of the India-WI Test series citing injuries. Indian fans don’t seem to care. The boys in blue have ratcheted up wins—rising to the occasion. Who’s to say that Praveen Kumar and Abhimanyu Mithun won’t?
The trio of Rohit Sharma, Suresh Raina and Virat Kohli seem natural replacements for RahulDravid,Sachin Tendulkar and VVS Laxman.
There’s oft a slip ‘twixt the cup and the lip, though.
Remember the dynamic duo of Yuvraj Singh and Mohammad Kaif?
Kaif languishes in the minor leagues of domestic cricket whereas Yuvraj "blundered" from strength to strength.
ODI success does not instinctively translate to Test level. Yuvraj Singh will testify.
Quote of the day:
Anything not worth doing is worth not doing well. Think about it. – Elias Schwartz
If the Indian cricket team had selected Baba Ramdev as the team physio, then the men in blue could have been as flexible on the field as the sadhu himself. However, his insidious influence would rub off on them and at the first signs of terror from pace bowlers, bruised batsmen would migrate to women’s cricket.
If Barack Obama were to lose the 2012 Presidential elections, he could always consider coaching the Los Angeles Lakers. “Yes, we can” would resonate with Lakers fans, too. “It’s not the economy, stupid” could do just as well.
A few random thoughts:
We are into the second day of the Lords’s Test between Sri Lanka and England. The home side leads 1-0 following a devastating collapse by the Lankans on the last day of a boring first Test. We don’t need T20 if we can have wickets falling like nine-pins in less than an hour.
Now, if only we had a way of figuring out which session of a Test match will have all the excitement. I’d buy season tickets.
The evening of the final days’s play in the first Test was also an occasion to trot out over-used clichés about the game:
The Indian Test team for the West Indies tour has been announced.
In a surprise move, Indian selectors rested Sachin Tendulkar. The master batsman will not feature on the entire West Indies tour. West Indian cricket fans are denied an opportunity to catch one last glimpse of Tendulkar before he bids farewell to the game.
The controversial shoulder injury to Gautam Gambhir and the sudden illness of Yuvraj Singh mean that this is one of the weakest batting sides to tour abroad in recent times.
IPL-Bollywood Points Table
Star Played Won Points 13 5 (1 NR) 11 13 8 16 13 7 14
Another batch of random thoughts, in no particular order (are random thoughts ever sequenced?):
West Indies beat Pakistan in the first Test match. The most laughable captain in world cricket, Darren Sammy, comes up trumps claiming a fifer as the Caribbean side wins an encounter between unpredictable “a-bit-more-than-minnows”.
Devendra Bishoo and Saeed Ajmal impress. Ajmal gets eleven but ends up on the losing side.
Shivnarine Chanderpaul lets his bat do the talking. Walking the talk? Certainly.
A point of similarity between Gabriela Pasqualotto and Mahendra Singh Dhoni:
Until today, the two were content playing the game “Maybe I will, maybe I won’t”.
Pasquallotto, of course, was referring to whether she’d make her story public to the tabloids.
She will—if she’s paid and if she’s allowed to write it herself. Fair enough.
The Sri Lanka Premier League, in my opinion, has a couple of advantages over the IPL.