Gratitude !!!

Hi all,,
It is my mistake that i am away for so long ..please forgive and read on,, i have completed 12 years of coaching at the medical college grounds now..  i am contented ,,many of the shy 12 and 13 year old who came to me with hope in their eys and fire in their bellies are grown ,, some married ,, some have reached their goals,, some are marching on to newer horizons and steeper heights,, some have fallen  ,, alas ,, some have fallen !!
what is the difference between the fallen and the acheivers ?
i can only say it is the singlemindedness in their pursuit and the attitude of gratitude towards this noble game1
imagine a guy like Sanju Samson,, now with the KKR franchicee , from the hamlet of vizhinjam , from alow middle class family,,now a  star..rising in the horizon,,  if not gratitude towards this game then what else?
take Prasanth,Niaz ,, many more ,, cricket has given them the ride of their lifes ,, taken them places ,, given them a livelihood ,, money ,, oppurtunities
and me ,,, i am gratefull , i thank JESUS for making me a cricket coach, for letting me touch countless lives , thank you !!

VALUES, lessons from the Regional Cancer Center

Hi all,

It has been along long time and the fault has been entirely mine, pray that you guys will excuse and encourage

There is now a lot of money, galmour and what else you can say in cricket, i am not talking about the IPL and international cricket , a lot has percolated down to the state and even club cricket.

A player makes millions playing for the state and even playing for a rich club nets him at least a thousand a day

But do they value money , time and social obligations like before?

I have a few posers for you all!

For those of you who have time to kill and does not know what to do with it, let me introduce you to a relative of mine a college lecturer, Sam, down with liver cancer , living from plasma infusion to other, praying that he will hang on till march so that he can make sure that he leaves behind a pension for his family.

ASK HIM HOW MUCH HE VALUES TIME!!!

For those of you bred on violent movies and thinking of goondas as heroes,

let me introduce you to Satyapalan a coolie from the vegetable market of Coimbathore, his son !7 yrs old plus 2 student has blood cancer and only regular transfusions can hold out an iota of hope,

desperately yet with dignity asking me to get some donors so that his reason for living can live on a cold rainy morning at the grounds

ASK HIM THE VALUE OF BLOOD! EVEN A DROP!

For those of you who flaunt neo geek mobiles and think nothing about blowing a thousand on an evening out at the pizza outlet , let me introduce you to Mrs ...... caught for prostitution from a motel near the medical college. she was selling her body, the only asset she had left, to raise money for the chemotherapy of her loving husband stricken with cancer. her only plea was to make sure that the next course of chemo is started before she is jailed.

ASK HER THE VALUE OF MONEY!

I have tried to inculcate different values in all my trainees,

I WILL BE HAPPY ........IF ONLY THEY HAVE EMPATHY ....AND NOTHING ELSE.

Winter in Kerala?

hello,


This snap was taken at around 8 am , there is a guy batting in the nets at Medical college grounds Trivandrum .
Me , standing 20 yards away can hardly see him. I really started wondering, how can he possibly see the ball.
That took me back to lecture i attended recently at the national cricket academy.
The speaker was laying stress on the point that we don't see the ball as such, but pick it off the background.

wow!relative velocity can be judged at ease while observing from the side or at an angle, but to do this, when some thing approaches you at the rate of knots! No wonder some batsmen are good while others ordinary .

I started thinking, and i realized that , the ball starts getting bigger and bigger as it nears you,ie if you keep your eyes on the ball.this rate of getting bigger, is what helps you compute the relative velocity of the ball

The same thing is happening in my sons life, he is going through period of crisis and strife in his school. His id card has been impounded by a dictator(according to him) , Mr Narayankutty, whom all boys fear. He stands accused of throwing stones at the tamarind tree. His exams are approaching rapidly, and as in the case of the fast cricket ball, the exams look more bigger and menacing as the dates draw near.
My dear son , you will ,as many batsmen and scholars before you will soon know, it is not as you thought it would be, you just have to pick it off the background.
In my sons case the larger picture of life.
He will soon know ,
TODAY IS THE TOMORROW THAT HE WAS SO WORRIED OF YESTERDAY!

mixed bag , gloom and cheer after all

hi all,

I was away for along long time and really "I wanted to be away from all things cricket!.

I am made the seventh accused in a vigilance case in which I am accused of getting rupees 21000, from the association in installments of 3 and 18 thousand each.

I have given all for kerala cricket, borrowing from my savings to keep the nets afloat often, neglecting my family and here I am " an accused".

I will go way from kerala, i know that is what many want. But I will be a coach some where else and I know that my lord will care for me

I have to thank mr Santhanu for all support and trust, and i wish to tell him that his trust in me and Raify is not misplaced.

That lifted the pall of gloom and the greyness in my life for today. Tomorrow , well is another day. what pains me is the thought of leaving talented guys like sanju , saly and niaz half way . it like leaving your cooking on the fire and walking away.

I will often wonder , how they all turned up, rare , medium , well done or crisped.

after all coaching is like cooking

REMINISCENCES

Hello all,

Remember the last post in which I wrote about the Mynah and the Crow. Well here they are, sharing a papaya . Then they will go about their respective duties, Mynah to his singing and the Crow to his what ever'

Today was Sunday, and after church I was just thinking , reflecting on my journey, as a coach and as a human being, I remembered a lot of guys who were at certain point of times were my trainees, and are now on their way in life . May be none of them became world famous, but I am sure that each in his own way , will contribute to humanity and will espouse the cause of kindness,cause I firmly believe that it is acts of kindness, both random and deliberately constructed, which will enable us in this troubled times to have hope

I remember NJ John, son of a great sports man. I remember the bond between son and father.I saw them butting heads, John was may be 12 at that time.It was in the crowded railway station of Trivandrum, and the shared love brought tears to my eyes and warmth to my soul. Johns Father, N J Jose, JOSE CHETTAN to me and TITANIUM JOSE to a multitude of football lovers to whom he brought cheer and happiness.I remember as just now , years back, when i was may be 12 years old, during a furious football match at the university stadium,Jose Chettan, wearing a striped black and white jersey, scooped the ball over the heads of two defenders who had cornered him and let loose a thunderous shot at the post.
I remember John as a u 16 player who knew his limitations and will play accordingly, but boy he never would let go. I remember him now heart broken after being left out of the team in spite of being the top scorer against Maharashtra the year before.
I see him now, a proud MBA holder,Wow John !God bless you and keep you

I remember Mahesh, aspiring wicket keeper, who came to me in tears and said in a trembling voice that the selector asked him whether he can bowl off spin. I remember him huffing and puffing during the off season conditioning camp, never letting go. I remember him showing the same grit in his fight against cancer. I saw him last month, dressed like a king, Praise lord, it was his marriage. yes he is married to a beautiful girl, an accomplished dancer and no doubt a good cook, but I doubt whether he has disclosed his fondness for fried chicken to his orthodox brahmim beauty. I wish him the very best in life

I remember Ramakrishnan,now the proud father of a beautiful daughter. I remember him as a teenager fighting his doubts but trusting in his ability. I remember him , fighting his way time and again in to the state senior team, only to be sidelined by devious captains and stupid coaches.the same determination, I am sure will make him a winner in life

I thank my lord JESUS for having given me the opportunity to witness at close range how men of strength and character emerged from the cocoons of clumsy teen age, like the beautiful butterfly emerging from the Grey shell of it s cocoon.I am thankful that I could contribute in my own way in their flight towards their destiny
There are many others, and I will write about them all in random

THANK YOU LORD FOR MAKING ME A COACH

sparrows , mynahs and cricketers

hi,
Well here I am, writing again. I guess that some things just don't die , they might fade way though.
The day before , I was in my nets coaching, and a guy called Arjun asked me why , some players are so good at cricket and why others were not?. I was stumped to say the least, I could speak on talent , genes , slow and fast twitch muscle fibers, enhanced rate of neuron firing leading to faster response to stimuli and all, but there was a catch, this guy was all of 8years old, and a philosopher in the making.
He aspires to be a wicket keeper and one day as I was making him do some drills with an agility ball, he missed some , stood with his hands on his tiny hips and asked me a question! How any years have I been coaching? I replied 19! He asked me again. Have you ever seen a ball that will bounce off at tangents in a cricket match? I was stuck for a plausible answer.
And now here he is with this question!
I took a deep breath looked around and saw a sparrow and a mynah. I asked him ,How awkward that sparrow is walking?He agreed, noting with glee that it looked like a dignified old man running after a bus. I shooed it and and Mr sparrow flew up. Wow , such elegance , such poise and grace.I asked him do you notice some thing? He said NO! Then the resident mynah started it beautifull song , I asked him to listen, He said wow!
There it was the answer to his question, I told him that not all sparrows are good runners but they are experts in avionics and the even though the mynah was not so hot in looks but his voice was tops .
Same way , some one must be good at cricket but bad at singing and still others good at writing.it is for each one to find out where his talent lies and endeavour to polish it till he or she becomes the gem, he/ she was designed to be by god.
Each child is a gift from god, special, with talents none else has. He or she should not be enticed, cajoled of forced to take up sports , profession or life styles which will kill the genius in them.

SO LET SPARROWS FLY, MYNAHS SING AND TALENTED CRICKETERS FLOURISH.

Speaking of talent, talent with application, dedication and single minded pursuit of excellence will produce results . look no further that Sambasiva Sharma. I remember, years back as he was struggling to come through the U 19 ranks. the state chairman of selectors telling me " This Sharma will never play quality cricket". But he believed in himself, his family supported him, he trusted me when I told him to switch to opening from middle order,most of all he worked hard. Look where he is now, the only player to score two centuries for kerala in a single match.

HATS OFF TO YOU "DEAR SAMBA" KEEP PUSHING AND AS I TELL YOU ALWAYS , "WHAT EVER HAPPENS . DONT LET GO!'

Y THIS SILENCE

hi all,
Its been quite some time since i felt like writing, cause the passion and love I had for this game slipped in to a coma on the 26th of October 2008, at the scenic Infosis grounds Mysore on being operated upon (lobotomy) by the eminent English and Australian bred surgeon Kerala cricket association authorities had brought over to revive cricket in this beautiful state.

He convinced me that my passion and enthusiasm for this game was misplaced and that i can never ever aspire to coach as I have not, in his words "played at the highest level". so here I am wondering why I have wasted such a large amount of my time . and what hurts most was that there was no one to put in a word for me.

"wasted, wasted"
I have wasted a decade in this futile pursuit in this state where there is ,
no honor for being true to your profession,
no compassion for the honest trier
no virtue in being honest and truthful
no one to support
and all to point fingers
"wasted wasted ! a decade wasted