Karun in the RBR pits.
Image from http://karunchandok.com

Karun Chandok made the best use of his test with Red Bull Racing, driving alongside David Coulthard, the past two days. Sitting in the cockpit of the Red Bull senior team’s car, powered by Renault engines, Karun managed to set the 18th fastest time on track on the first day. He was only trailed by the two Force India cars. Although teams test various components and set up’s, they normally run the car for a few laps on low fuel for the bragging rights.

For the second day in a row, retired Ferrari World Champion, Michael Schumacher, helping Ferrari with their testing, set the fastest time, fueling speculation that he might return. What went unnoticed was that Karun managed to hoist himself to 11th. Although the press was going gaga over Schumi’s pace, I am fairly confident that a few major teams have taken notice at Karun’s performance.

In other F1 – India news, Bernie Ecclestone has confirmed that India will be hosting it’s GP starting 2010. Bernie was quoted as saying

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Remember “Roop ki Rani Choron ka Raja” (RKRCKR)? I dont. Actually I do, but for all the wrong reasons. The year was 1993. The movie was overhyped, way overpriced, featured aging stars and had a predictable and lacklusture script. It sank at the box office faster than you could say “Anil Kapoor’s moustache”. It is to date known as one of the biggest disasters in Bollywood. Hollywood is no stranger to this phenomena either.

Fast forward 14 years. We had on our hands another big time event that was the Cricket World Cup. The hype was immense. This was the first ever world cup to be held in the Carribean. The Carribean nations hosting the World Cups matches were set to be invaded by throngs of visitors especially from the sub-continent. The event featured a list of 16 teams instead of the customary 12. A total of 51 matches were set to be played over 47 days. The defending champions Australia has a relatively tepid start to the year and it was general consensus that the trophy was ripe for the picking, maybe by one of the big three teams from the sub-continent India, Pakistan or Sri Lanka. Blatant jingoism was the order of the day as television commercials, news reports, talk shows, media, politicians and even Bollywood stars openly rooted and in some cases even predicted India to win it all. And finally, this was to be the swansong for a host of aging stars – Sachin Tendulkar, Brian Lara, Glenn McGrath, Inzamam-ul-Haq, Sanath Jayasuriya and others.

However, as it transpired none of this would take place as planned and this edition of the Cricket World Cup would become the RKRCKR (refer to first line) of Cricket World Cups.

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47 days later, it all comes down to one game. Two teams, one that has steamrolled every single barrier in front of them and the other that while not being as spectacular as the other, has come out with a professional performance every single time. Australia has been the behemoth that everybody loves to hate. And the Sri Lankans have reprised the roles of the eternal charmers, well, for everyone except the Australians. And tomorrow they meet and as the cliché goes, there can be only one winner.

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Have I ever told you that this World Cup is the most evenly matched tournament in its 30 year history? Oh I did? Let me tell you again. This World Cup is the most evenly matched tournament in the 30 year history of the tournament. And this first semi final match is no exception. Man to man, New Zealand and Sri Lanka are matched almost evenly. Each team depends on a few key players to fire. Read the rest of this entry »

It has been so long since I posted here that I almost forgot why I had a login and password here on Uber Desi. These past couple of weeks, every day I used the login and stared blankly, not knowing what I was doing there. But this morning, it all changed. Well, it was when I saw blond highlights bobbing about, with a cricket ground as a backdrop, that I realized what my purpose in being Uber Desi, was. Read the rest of this entry »