It's not about the bike

No it sure isn't. It's about courage, an unwavering determination and a fighting spirit.

Lance Armstrong grew up in a rugged town in Texas, without the love of a father or the comfort of a stable income. But he was surrounded by his mother's tireless caring which instilled in him the confidence and the fighting spirit that saw him through not just the record breaking 7 Tour de Frances' but also through the even more difficult cancer treatments.

I've spent my life racing my bike, from the back roads of Austin, Texas to the Champs-Elysees, and I always figured if I died an untimely death, it would be because some rancher in his Dodge 4x4 ran me head first into a ditch. Believe me, it could happen. Cyclists fight an ongoing war with guys in big trucks, and so many vehicles have hit me, so many times, in so many countries, I've lost count.

At the age of 25 Lance was the picture of health, and begining to look the picture of wealth. All troubles seemed to be behind him, but the feeling was short-lived for fate had other plans. He was diagnosed with testicular cancer which had already spread into his lungs, he was in stage 3, and there were only 3 stages.

I thought I knew what fear was, Until I heard the words 'You have cancer'. Real fear came with an unmistakable sensation: it was as though all my blood started flowing in the wrong direction. My previous fears, fear of not being liked, fear of being laughed at, fear of losing my money, suddenly seemed like small cowardices. Everything now stacked up differently: the anxieties of life- a flat tire, losing my career, a traffic jam- were reprioritized into need versus want, real problem as opposed to minor scare. A bumpy plane ride was a bumpy plane ride, it wasn't cancer.

Immediate surgery was needed followed by an intensive chemotherapy, but the tale took another twist, the cancer had spread to his brain, his chances were slim, as slim as 3%, this information was somehow withheld from him, and he believed he had a 20% chance, whereby he started researching the disease, trying to strategise how to beat it. The game plan!

Brain surgery was called for to remove the malignant tissue. Followed by months long Chemotherapy.

The question was, which would the chemo kill first: the cancer, or me? My life became one long IV drip, a sickening routine: If I wasn't in pain I was vomiting, and if I wasn't vomiting, I was thinking about what I had, and if I wasn't thinking about what I had, I was wondering when it was going to be over. That's chemo for you.

The sickness was in the details, in the nasty asides of the treatment. Cancer was a vague sense of unwellness, but chemo was an endless series of specific horrors, until I began to think the cure was as bad as or worse than, the disease. What a casual bystander associates with cancer- loss of hair, sickly pallor, a wasting away- are actually the side effects of the treatment. Chemo was a burning in my veins, a matter of being slowly eaten from the inside out by a destroying river of pollutants until I didn't have an eyelash to bat. Chemo was a continuous cough, hacking up black mysterious, tar like matter from deep in my chest. Chemo was a constant, doubling-over need to go to the bathroom.

Despite the odds stacked up against him, he made it. And the cancer made him a different man.

People think my comeback as a triumph, but in the begining, it was a disaster. When you have lived for an entire year terrified of dying, you feel like you deserve to spend the rest of your days on a permanent vacation. You can't, of course; you have to return to your family, your peers, and your profession. But a part of me didn't want my old life back

With the help of his friends and newly found wife, he fought the depression and did get back on the bike. His previous contract with the professional cycling team "Cofidis" was withdrawn while he was in hospital. They didn't beleive he was going to make any more money for them. As Lance puts it, "The rug was pulled from beneath my feet" ,and "they let me there to die"

They searched for months for a team who would be willing to risk signing in a weakened ex-biker, until a new organization, the US postal services team decided to sign him up. And he didn't let them down.

Lance Armstrong went on to win 7 Tour de la France Tournaments, considered one of the toughest sporting events in the world. He established the "Lance Armostrong Foundation" which continues to raise funds for cancer to date.

Cricket at the G!

Ok, so this is a long overdue post, 7 days overdue in fact.

We went to see the cricket match between Australia and Sri Lanka, at the Melbourne Cricket Ground also known as the MCG, and yet again known as "The G".

SL were batting first and apart from a couple of exciting shots from Jayasuriya, (who decided to get back to the pavilion in a hurry) the first session was quite ehh.....boring.

Coming out to play

We would have fallen asleep if it wasn't for the "illegal" Mexican wave that kept going around the stadium. Yes, the Mexican wave is banned in Australia. But that didn't stop some enthusiastic Aussie fans from keeping it going. And every time the wave was 'flowing' through the crowds there would appear a message on the giant screen

"The Mexican Wave has been banned from sporting stadiums, persons who are found starting the wave will be evicted from the ground"

Funnily enough this seem to only add to the enthusiasm! Thankfully nothing really drastic happened, however towards the end of the match it was evident that there was a huge decrease in the number of people in that stand.

Another one bites the dust

Anyhow, Sri Lanka put up a score of 221 and Australia came out to bat, we were expecting a 'murder scene' but pretty soon things started to turn around when the Aussie batting line-up came crashing down. Things got a bit exciting at the end where there were still 2 overs to be bowled and Aussies needed about 12 runs (I think) and it was their last wicket which the SL bowlers were having trouble getting through! This is where Jayasuriya came to the rescue and bowled out Brett Lee who was itching to hit some big shots.

Yeeeah!!!!

'The G' at dusk

Gilchrist and his squash ball

Here we go again..

After I finished the post 'bye bye world cup' I was pretty resolute in not writing about the world cup again. But the hot topic of Gilchrist and his squash ball which keeps popping up in a lot of blogs and discussion groups just pushes me into writing some thing on it.

The first time I heard that he's got a squash ball inside his glove to help him with his grip I also asked the same question from myself "Is that........legal??" And I've been debating it with myself and my husband....well, if some extra object does enhance a players performance, it doesn't truly reflect his/her abilities, does it? No doubt Gilchrist is a great cricketer, but in this innings he did seem like 'superman'.

There are a lot of arguments going around, and I beleive the question is to be taken up at ICC's next meeting.

http://different-stroke.blogspot.com/2007/05/sri-lanka-cricket-to-question-legality.html
http://andhracafe.com/index.php?m=show&id=22452
http://wordpress.com/tag/cricket-etcetera/

Anyhow, my question is that if he's allowed to do that, does that mean that any batsmen can stuff in any object of their preference under their gloves to enhance their performance?. Surely there has to be some regulation in this.

If the wicket keepers are not allowed to put on extra padding in their gloves, and bowlers can't wear bandages when bowling, and definetely fielders can't wear gloves (even inner ones) to improve their grip on the ball..........how come that batsmen can?

Bye bye World cup

Ok, so the world cup is over, and Australia took it home.

This certainly has been quite an eventful world cup, with a load of controversies, confusions and emotions. Just to name a few

• The heavy weights Pakistan was sent home before the Super 8's
• Bob Woolmer, Pakistan coach was murdered (so they say)
• Inzamam resigns, the Pakistan cricket board president resigns and lots of mayhem
• Another big contender India also sent home before the Super 8's
• Riots in India
• Greg Chappel steps down
• Flintoff gets sacked
• Critisim towards the ICC at the organisation of the world cup; too long, bad turnout of spectators, loss making, no carribean atmosphere, not enough resources for players etc
• Many big names retire; team coaches from Tom Moody to Duncan Fletcher; players like Lara, McGrath, Stephen Fleming, and our Russel Arnold (this will also probably be the last world cup of Jayasuriya, Murali and Vass as well)

Oh boy! It's good that a world cup comes along only once in four years!

The world cup final that shouldn't have been

We were all excited to watch the world cup throughout the night.. I put on an extra winter coat to keep myself warm throughout the match and was all ready to watch the match. Was feeling very excited and nervous! to my annoyance the tv channel was showing "spiderman" till just past 11 o'clock ??!!!!^%@^&@ (the match is supposed to start at 11) Then finally they switched the channel to the sports channel, where Ian Healy and Mark Taylor were discussing weather, it was raining in Barbados..oh great! so the match is delayed.

Next to keep the viewers entertained till the match started, they began showing the extended highlights of the world cup final of '92, match between Pakistan and England. what the hell?!!@!
Out of all the possibilities why did they have to bore us with a match that had nothing to do with either Australia or SL? At least they could have given us a recap of this world cup or a summary of all the world cups since '75 or something interesting as such. Well, by the time the match finally started I was bored to death watching Imran Khan bowling the same ball to Ian Botham in slow motion over and over again!

Finally,..the match started with just 38 overs, what a pity for a much anticipated world cup final!
You would have expected the most important match in the whole series to have been organised so well, that you could kick back and enjoy. But this match turned out to be a bit of a nightmare. All went well for the Aussie innings, and Gilchrist (Gilly) batted out like mad! it was an incredible batting performance! Specially for someone who hasn't been in form all throughout the series.

Next the Sri Lankans came out to chase what seemed like a humanly impossible target of 281 in just 38 overs, that's a run rate of 7.4! but we still had Jayasuriya so there was a glimmer of hope, so I thought. However, to me it didn't seem like any of our batsmen were confident enough to go all the way. I dozed off and missed a couple of overs around 5 in the morning and woke up to a boundary by Jayasuriya. Jayasuriya and Sanga settled down a bit and lifted the run rate, but the strokes they played seem to be more out of desperation.

To add to the annoyance, it started raining again (just after we passed the 20 over mark; should have been good if the rain poured down a bit earlier :) but that was not to be) anyway, after another while yawning away, the match started again. The batsmen came out into the field not knowing what the revised target was. So both the batsmen and the Aussies stood there confused, waiting for the information from the umpires who were doing the D/L calculations. Wow, how professional. Finally it was announced that the 38 overs were further reduced to 36.

From there on the match went ok until it was begining to look very dark out there. Next came the biggest blunder of the whole series. The SL batsmen were offered to take the bad light condition and call an end to the match, which they did. And the Aussies started celebrating the victory, but not for long, the umpires intervened and told them the match isn't over yet. We were all confused as to what is going on. Next the SL batsmen were called back in to bat in the dark. The commentators were furious. it seriously was absurd, the ground didn't have lights to play on. So Mahela and Ponting discussed to use spinners for the last couple of overs instead of throwing fast balls at someone who could barely make out where they are coming from.

After what seemed like ages, the match came to an end, with Australia winning the 2007 world cup,..... Again!!

Have to admit it the Australian team is doing exceptionally well, and they do deserve to win the world cup.

But the Sri Lankan team has done very well to have come into the finals and put up a brave performance. Win or lose we are with you, you have always been the pride and joy of the tiny little island in the Indian ocean.

Oh well, better luck next time!

World Cup - The Grand Finale!

Just finished reading a few Sri Lankan blogs and news online and listened to a new song by the Gypsies made for our team, seems like the whole country is on their toes and getting ready for the big thing! The country's president is also in the Windies for the final.

My brother is also ready with enough snacks to last throughout the match.

Here in Australia there's no atmosphere of a Cricket World Cup final going to be played in a couple of hours. Not even an advertisement on the tv about it being telecast tonight. Nobody seems to care about it. It's all footy for them, a game played only in Australia among local clubs, a cross between rugby and soccer. They are just crazy over it. Cricket is just another game, not a part of life as in Sri Lanka.

Wish I was in SL to enjoy the anticipation and the excitement. Anyway, looking forward to a victorious sleepless night.

A match well played

Still recovering from staying up all night to watch the match SL Vs NZ, which started at midnight Aussie time. And having to watch the World cup semi-finals on live streaming on the internet (sitting in front of the laptop and cramming our necks) because these people here don't think it worthwhile to telecast on tv!!! outrageous! But of course the Aus Vs SA match was on tv because it was Australia that was playing!

Anyway, we won!! it was all worth it!

Mahela was excellent. At first I was quite annoyed with him for defending each and every ball without hitting it with the bat and getting some runs. But of course they are the experts, and what do I know? He didn't play hard because he knew it's not the way to go. But later on he gradually hit the accelerator and ended up with a century (not out) and a strike rate over a hundred. That was literally a 'captain's knock'!

And all credit goes to Upul Tharanga, and for the team to have kept their faith in him. Comforting to know there's young talent emerging to replace the senior players in the near future.

Next...against the ruthless Aussies in the finals on Saturday...hope...hope...hope!!!!

End of an era..

Brian Lara, who created a sensation in West Indies cricket retired after a successful career which spanned almost two decades.

It's a bit sad that towards the end of his career, he had to become more like a one-man team for his country.

But in the international cricket arena, he will always be remembered as a legend who brought life to the game of cricket.

An interesting blog

We found this very entertaining blog

http://www.ranjitfernandosucks.blogspot.com/

so thought I should spread the word... :)

Big deal!!!!

We lost the match against Australia, which was not a very big surprise, but the surprise was that the SL team decided to rest two of their best bowlers, and that's excluding Malinga who's got an injury.

Well, I agree that it was a bit of a surprise, bit too sudden and made me go like "huh?...what?!....why?... ehhh ........ hmmm ...... blank!" But once the news had time to digest, I don't think there's anything really wrong with that move, it's not illegal or anything!! After all that's why there are reserve players in a team.

But what I can't understand is why everybody is so wound up about it. It's understandable that it's a bit of a shock (at first), but to go to the extent of suggesting that match fixing can be involved is taking it waaaaay too far!

Ponting has been complaining too, but then again he has been complaining about practically everything since the tournament started.

And guess who had joined the list now, the captain of Ireland, preparing for the next match with SL "Every team we've played against has put their full-strength side against us, which is a credit to the way we've played our cricket in this tournament."

!!!!!!!!

We won!

Got up a bit early to follow the SL Vs Bangladesh match on the net. No game, we won by 198 runs on a Duckworth-Lewis decision. It's nice to see all our key batsmen putting up good scores for a change (without the usual one-man show).

Hope they would keep up the good work!

What did I tell ya?

In the chain of events following Pakistan's cricket world cup controversy, Captain Inzamam Ul-Haq is retiring from One-days.

....................

Shockers!

Some world cup this is turning out to be!

It all started when Bangladesh beat the daylights out of India over a 5-wicket victory. Even though it was unexpected it was still not unbelievable. Next day some of my colleagues were debating whether non-test playing countries like Netherlands, Scotland, Ireland, Bermuda etc should be given the chance to play in the world cup. After all it's THE world cup, it's a big thing to even participate in it, so teams should fight to get in!

And Voila!! Ireland defeated Pakistan! and threw them out of the tournament! That was a big stunner!!

Next even before that news was digested, came the news that Bob Woolmer, the Pakistani coach had collapsed and died! within 24 hours of Pakistan's defeat. hmm.......I wonder what the next shocker is going to be.

Cricket World Cup 2007

The Cricket world cup is here! Not here exactly, it's on the other side of the planet, in the West Indies. And I'm REALLY, REALLY annoyed that the tv stations here are not broadcasting it!!!!!!!!!!! It's the world cup for god's sakes!!!#^%@!&$!!!!

I suspect they are hoping to telecast some of the 'good' matches that Australia will be playing. But that's not fair!!!

I guess we'll have to rely on cricinfo.com for the scores.

I hope Sri Lanka wins! Failing which, anyone but Australia.

Australian Open

Roger Federer won the men's finals last night as expected, but I was hoping that Fernando Gonzales would win it, well, not a very realistic hope, but... he did put up a very good fight! But still Federer was simply unreal! I can't understand how any person could smash a ball over 200 kmph without even flinching a single muscle in his face!!

Serena Williams won a well deserved Women's finals the day before, which was a nice comeback for her.

So, the 2007 Australian Open is over. However, the cricket world cup is coming up in March in the West Indies!!! So there's always something to look forward to!!