David Beckham in MLS

When David Beckham moved from Real Madrid to LA Galaxy, there was lot of criticism aimed at Beckham saying that his move motivated due to the money offered. That was refuted by Beckham saying that his move was only for football reasons. I was not able to digest that and could not agree with his reply. I enjoyed watching Beckham playing for Manchester United and then Real Madrid but now he has gone from a higher level to a much lower level. MLS cannot be compared to the leagues that he had played in before and I seriously doubted his hunger for the game while playing for Galaxy. There was no denying the fact that he wanted to play for England but when he turned out for Galaxy, I was not able to see the spark in eyes. This belief of mine was further enhanced by Landon Donovan’s comments about Beckham’s commitment to Galaxy. I wondered where he was going to go!!! And this season, he was proved me wrong in every sense. I can see the same passion that he had while playing for the top clubs in Europe. And the results have proved it with Galaxy well on their way to win Western Conference title. Way to go Mr. David Beckham…

Lone warrior

I wouldn’t call that as a cricket match. I saw a battle field live; where a lone gladiator was fighting his soul out…. Reminded me of great wars in history, where soldiers face the opposition single handed! I would think there wasn’t any cricketer and there wouldn’t be any like this man. Once Gilchrist said, “Now I got to know how Sachin feels every time he walks out to bat”. From ball 1 pressure, pressure, surmount pressure. And coming to this innings, my whole family was before the TV. My grandmother was asking me what’s happening time and again because of her poor vision. All my cousins were gripped with tension and I can’t express the atmosphere there. Every time he came down the pitch, tension was surmounting. When he danced down the pitch and hit in the air, we screamed in unison!! Sachin played his only bad shot of the day and there was stun silence everywhere inside and outside TV. And what followed was inevitable as we had known about the quality of the tail. When Hauritz threw the ball right from long off, he would have missed the stumps by an inch but he was bang on in hitting through billions of hearts! I went right away, and lied down on one of myleather beds - couldn’t react anything.

Plastics - Yes or No

The use of plastics is increasing in our day to day life. Though it is useful to us in a lot many ways, the excessive use of it causes harm to the environment. We carelessly throw away plastics on the road side or even when we visit jungles and sanctuaries which is the prime habitat of wild animals. This causes harm to the wild animals and also degrades the forest. But we can reduce this to a large extent by reducing the use of plastic articles where ever possible and also by not littering our surroundings. Although the many "say no to plastics", why don't we for once just mention some good things about plastics! You won't believe, there are entire engineering degree courses devoted to the study of plastics. So there is much more to these materials apart from just plastics bags.

It's always good to KNOW before saying NO, isn't it.
I'll start off with an unusual fact....

90% of the volume of a modern automobile is made of plastics

Wayne to miss Blackburn clash

Wayne Rooney will miss Sunday's trip to Blackburn Rovers, but should be back for the Manchester derby. The striker made a miraculous recovery from minor ankle ligament damage to start Wednesday's Champions League clash with Bayern Munich, but aggravated the injury during United's defeat to the Germans. He will now sit out the visit to Ewood Park on Sunday, but United boss Sir Alex Ferguson expects him to be available for the trip to Eastlands on 17 April. "I don't think it's as serious as we said when he got the injury the first time, but I think he'll be ready for the City game," he told press at his pre-match press briefing. "We've got more time to work on it, anyway. Other than that, everyone else is fit”.

Following United's midweek exertions against Bayern, Sir Alex says he will freshen up his starting XI for the clash with Sam Allardyce's side."Given the nature of the game on Wednesday and the energy spent, we have to address the situation of freshness," he said. "We've got a squad to use - we have the likes of Paul Scholes, Ryan Giggs and Gary Neville and we also have John O'Shea back now. He came on against Bayern and did 30 minutes' work - it's good to get him back because he's such a versatile player for us. "Sam Allardyce's team is in fantastic form. Blackburn is always a difficult place to go and they have a good home record. Hopefully we can get the energy back in the team. If we do that we'll be all right.

Sir Alex backs Rafael

Sir Alex was unwavering in his praise for Rafael ahead of the Reds' trip to Blackburn on Sunday, despite the Brazilian’s match-turning red card last Wednesday night. Following the right back’s dismissal on 50 minutes, 10-man United struggled to match Bayern Munich, who went on to score a crucial second away goal and clinch the tie. But the manager refused to apportion blame to the talented teenager: “He is young and he is inexperienced but his performance on Wednesday night... he was probably our best player. He was fantastic. He absolutely dominated [Franck] Ribery and it is just disappointing for the boy." Immediately after the match, Sir Alex voiced his displeasure at the role Bayern Munich players played in Rafael's second booking. And he remains convinced referee Nicola Rizzoli was unduly influenced. “It was unfair, it was totally unfair. They [the Bayern Munich players] got the boy sent off. It was not a sending off. "He barely touched him. In fact, Ribery has done more to him than he has done to Ribery. “The issue was how they reacted. They knew the boy was on a yellow card, they surrounded the referee and that happens, we see it time and time again within football.” Rafael's dismissal came at a crucial point in the match. Up to that point, United had dominated proceedings. “Our performance was fantastic," Sir Alex said. "At 3-0 it could have been 5-0. We were magnificent, absolutely magnificent.”

Realmadrid break 19 year old jinx

Real Madrid demonstrated just how title-hungry they are on Saturday with an historic victory at Riazor Stadium. The eight unavailable players served as added stimuli for the Madridista starting eleven, which included eight Spaniards. Granero notched the first goal of the night and Benzema fired home the second two, the first following a heel flick by Guti. Riki, a former Merengue youth teamer, scored Deportivo’s only goal of the evening from the penalty spot with five minutes remaining, by which time it was too late. Real Madrid broke the 19-year curse at the Riazor.

Dhoni leading India's charge

Indian cricket team is going through a great phase under Captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni. The team is very well set in all three formats of the game and has been performing consistently. The main difference between Dhoni and the captains thus far is that he is calmer under pressure and does not force anything on the players. He lets the players play their natural game and his approach is reaping rich rewards.

Team looks like a single unit, they enjoy each other success and Coach Gary Kirsten along with the other backroom staff must be given credit for that. There is no more fingers pointing among the each other. On the field, Dhoni is in charge and the players are willing to play for him. He also makes smart moves while playing in the field. There has been a lot of talk that Dhoni is very lucky and his real test will come during the tours outside India. But I don't have any doubt that Dhoni will prove everyone wrong in the upcoming New Zealand tour. Beware Kiwis, Indian Tigers are coming at you.