Coldplay Roadtrip 2011

Article first published as Coldplay Roadtrip 2011 on Technorati.

Coldplay Roadtrip

Dare I say… that the Coldplay… concert was better than U2. I wasn’t the only one of this opinion after speaking to people after the concert on the train back and on Twitter the next day.

Four of us from Durban made a roadtrip to Johannesburg, straight to Park Station where we boarded the train to Soweto and FNB Stadium. It was a long 6 hour drive but rest stops and the thought of seeing Coldplay live!

Getting a parking at Park Station was crazy. The security staff was turning away cars. My friend said just drive through you will get a parking. We did and we got.

The train ride was easy and not busy at all. I guess most people took earlier trains. As we got nearer to FNB Stadium we could see the traffic building up on the roads. The Johannesburg International Motor Show was also happening at the same time and that didn’t help the traffic congestion.



Walking to the stadium was an amazing experience. This was the first time I saw the Calabash up close. It was impressive! I still like the design of Moses Mabhida Stadium back home and think it’s the best.

People were still milling around outside getting drinks and food when the opening act the Parlotones started playing. This must be the largest crowd the Khan and his band have ever played to. I might be wrong but the stadium attendance that day was 66 000.

The great thing about watching an established and big band like Coldplay is that you can sing along to nearly every song they performed. And they enthralled the crowd with plenty of their popular songs.

The highlight of the show was when these huge colored balloons were released into the crowd. It reminded me of the Sony bouncy balls TV advert. What a scene it created! There were also plenty of fireworks and other pyrotechnics!

Close to the end of the show, Chris Martin who kept communicating with the crowd asked us if we wanted to be in their latest music video. Of course the crowd agreed immediately! So at the end of Paradise, for one minute, Chris and his band adorned huge elephant heads and performed. I’m looking forward to see how it came out in the video!

My favorite songs performed were Yellow, The Scientist, Viva La Vida and Fix You. The crowds were still singing the chorus to Viva La Vida when they were leaving the stadium heading back to the trains. It was an experience many will be talking about for a long time and many will regret missing out.

Best Bunny In Durban 2011

I know I have slacked on updating in a while.

I won a bunny eating competition a couple weeks ago.

Relax. It wasn't a real bunny aka rabbit. It's a Bunny Chow! A bunny chow is a half or quarter loaf of bread hollowed out and filled with curry.

Any curry will do but the most common are mutton, chicken and beans for the vegetarians! All 3 are delicious. My favorite being mutton of course.

So there we were, four musketeers just finished celebrating the Boks win over the Welsh at Boktown in Suncoast Casino and hungry for a chow. Victor said there was the annual Bunny Chow Barometer competition happening at Blue Lagoon where they choose the best bunny chow in Durban!

So we decided to check it out. While the guys were getting the bunnies I heard Muthu Murugan's voice over the loudspeakers. He was looking for 3 men to come up to the stage. I was curious and went to see what was going on.

Nobody was volunteering and as soon as Muthu saw me he called me up. I had no idea what he wanted or what the competition entailed. Two other guys plucked up the courage and join me in front. After a few good jokes and a string of bad ones Muthu got down to business!

We had to finish a quarter bunny and down a half liter Coke. The first one to do so won a prize! The other two guys were quite skinny and didn't stand a chance against me! I wolfed down the bunny chow and downed my Coke like I had been starving for days on a deserted island!

What did I win? A cap, t-shirt and a Coca-Cola branded cooler bag! At least I got my 15 minutes of fame and the rights to brag that I'm the bunny eating champion of Durban!


Cafe India won the best bunny in Durban. I tasted it during the competition. I thought it tasted great but it lacked in spice as it was rather mild.

My favorite bunny chow take-away is Gateway Curries which is located inside Mistry's Furniture on the Umhlanga Ridge.

Manchester Destroys North London

This had to be the most exciting football weekend this season of the Barclays Premier League!

Both Manchester teams anihilated both North London teams. Manchester City beat a desparate Tottenham Hotspurs team 5-1 at White Hart Lane.

Four of City's goals came from Edin Dzenko, two of which were assisted by City's latest addition, Samir Nasri.


Manchester United massacred Arsenal later in the afternoon with a full time score of 8-2! Wenger had no chance with trying to win the match as he fronted a very weak team against United.

Many jokes were popping up on social networks like "I'd 8-2 to be Arsene Wenger now" or "United 8 Arsenal for supper" and "Wenger released a statement: 8-2 Brutus"!

The stars of Manchester United were the youngsters, Danny Welbeck, Ashley Young, Tom Cleverly . They were quick, agile and innovative and the goals came quickly. Wayne Rooney scored his first hat-trick of the season, two from set pieces. His new hair is really helping his game!

Looks like it's going to be a race to the title by the two teams from Manchester. All the others can do is just stand and watch. One question in their minds. Will it be City or United?

Trey Songz Concert Durban

Last night Trey Songz performed at the Wavehouse in Durban's Gateway Theater of Shopping. His first live show in South Africa.

Before this concert I didn't know anything about this artist. The only reason I went was because Avusa Media gave me complementary tickets.

Well it was a full house with mostly young girls. The opening act was a local group called Tear Gas which I never heard of before but apparently is very popular with the younger crowd that sang along to their songs. Clearly I'm getting too old for too quickly!

When the American RnB singer eventually came on stage after making the crowd wait for nearly 45 minutes my ear drums nearly burst as close to 5000 girls began screaming at the top of their lungs!

I must admit that he's a good performer, has a great stage presence and interacts well with the audience although only one song seemed familiar to me.

I'm more of a rock fan but I can't say that I didn't enjoy the Trey Songz concert. What type of music do you enjoy? Would you pay to go to a Trey Songz concert?

Ard Varks Up The Anthem

Last night was the announcement of the South African Springbok team going to New Zealand for the 2011 Rugby World Cup. There were no surprises in the line-up with Peter De Villiers choosing 18 players from the winning team from 2007!

South African social networks weren't discussing whether he made a good selection or not but they were abuzz with Ard Matthews messing up the South African National Anthem!

It seems he forgot the words to the anthem 3 lines in and he even giggled at one point! If you know you're going to sing the national anthem live on TV surely you need to learn the words first? Who hires these guys anyway? Do they not audition them first?

Matthews later apologized on Twitter and John Smit said that he accepted Ard's apology and likened it to playing a debut test!

Ard Matthews is a professional artist and has performed in front of large crowds before. The excuse that he had succumbed to nerves is unacceptable.

The organizers of these events should really screen performers that are going to sing the national anthem before they give them a microphone and put them in front of the nation.

Who do you think was worse? Ras Dumasani who murdered the anthem two years ago when SA faced France or Ard Matthews at last nights Springbok selections?

Harry's House

Whatever happened to Harry's House?

I grew up in the 80's and one of the most memorable things about growing up in that decade is the children's TV shows we watched when we were having our tea and peanut butter and jam sandwiches when we came home from school.

I know there are plenty of Facebook groups about 80's TV shows that list Thundercats, He-Man, Gummy Bears, The Polka Dot Door, Bravestar and many more but there is one TV show that I can't seem to find any information about no matter how hard I Google and that show is Harry's House!

I've tried other search engines like Yahoo, Excite and Alta Vista and all results are about some Harry Potter fanatics or Joni Mitchell's song of the same title.

Harry's House was a children's programme that featured a character in a dog costume with human hosts. It was very similar to The Polka Dot Door and Pumpkin Patch. I know the theme song started with "Harry's House, Harry's House, let's all go to Harry's House." That sounds really cheesy but that's as much as I can remember.

Do you remember this TV show? Was it a local production? How long did it run for?

Sani Pass Winter 2011

We were given two Land Rover Defenders for the weekend from Land Rover Durban and we decided to put them through the most grueling test. Sani Pass in the Drakensberg.



Sani Pass is one of the most treacherous roads Southern Africa has to offer 4X4 enthusiasts and what better way to experience it for the first time than in the "Best 4X4 By Far". The pass starts near Underberg and ends 2874m above sea level up in Lesotho. In the middle of winter it is not uncommon to find frozen waterfalls and ice on the road.

They say that you can see the remains of vehicles on the side of the mountain that failed to make it up. I didn't see any. What I did see were hikers, mountain bikers, a few Toyota Hiace taxis converted into 4X4's and the occasional mountain goat.



The Defenders we used were a two door short wheel base and a six seater long wheel base. I was counting my lucky stars we were in the short wheel base Defender as it is easier to maneuver around the almost vertical hairpin bends. The guys in the long wheel had a bit of difficulty with a greater turning circle.



On the top of the mountain we found the highest pub in Africa at the Lesotho border post. After stamping our entrance into Lesotho we went over to Top Chalet for a drink. They don't keep beers in the fridge because they're just as cold on the shelves! We opted for the hot chocolate to keep us warm. A favorite is Glühwein. A hot wine and spice drink.

We then took a drive further into Lesotho for about 10kms. To our delight we came across snow and being men who like to act like boys we promptly wrote our names in the snow the way only boys can!



The snow capped mountains in Lesotho are beautiful. But it's a wonder how the locals live in the highest country in the world in those extreme conditions. Coming back down we hit an ice patch around a bend that sent our Landy sliding sideways. Fortunately we had a very experienced driver and didn't end up down the side of the mountain.

I really felt like we were on a Top Gear expedition and I would do it again in a heartbeat!

Would you dare go up Sani Pass? What would be your ultimate adventure?

WWE, Costumes and Cirque

What an awesome weekend!


On Friday night I had the privilege of watching the WWE Smackdown event at Durban's Westridge Park Tennis Stadium from the ringside. I am not a huge wrestling fan and don't know most of the wrestlers of today. When I was a fan there were the likes of Hulk Hogan, Diesel, The Ultimate Warrior and Ricky The Steamboat Dragon! The wrestlers we got to see at Westridge were The Big Show, Kane, Randy Orton, Mark Henry, Christian and a few others including SA's own Justin Gabriel!

Today's wrestling is filled with theatrics and rivalries but that's what makes it so entertaining. The spectacle was sold out and there were fans from the ages of 2 to 80 years old, all screaming from the top of their lungs for their favorite fighters! There was a kid behind me that was screaming so loud I'm lucky to still have my eardrums intact!

Although you can see that the fighting was faked or staged it was still impressive to see some of the moves these guys had to make. They are without question superb athletes, most of them in peak physical condition!


Saturday was Waewest's Superhero and Villains Costume Party. I hired a Batman costume from Troubadour Productions. I was afraid that it wouldn't fit but fortunately it was made out of lycra which is super stretchy! There were some stunning costumes, most of them made from scratch but still amazing! Some worth mentioning was the beautiful Poison Ivy(@waewest), Spidergirl(Christy), Batgirl(@wildchild2006), Psylocke(Jill), Lumo Boy(@Al_Dog7) and Superman(@AMG133)! There were many more costumes but I think Waewest won the best costume with her Poison Ivy outfit!


Last night I had the good fortune of being invited to Madame Zingara at Suncoast! Madame Zingara is a traveling circus and dinner theatre! Although it was freezing cold last night you are quickly intrigued by the magic that is Madame Zingara as soon as you enter the circus grounds. Strangely dressed characters greet you and there are stalls to gear up for the entertainment inside. Many bought feather boas and fun hats.

Inside the circus tent is where the magic really comes alive and a three course meal is served between the entertainment. People were awed by flying trapeze artists, a little dwarf, amazing contortionists and beautiful singers. The food was great but the entertainment was spectacular. A must see if you can get tickets as most nights are sold out!

Twitter Blanket Drive #TBD 2011

The 4th of June 2011 marked the second Twitter Blanket Drive. Annually the South African Twitter community rally together to collect blankets at different venues all over the country for charity in anticipation of winter.

This year I helped with the #TBD in Durban. We had three venues setup and one down the South Coast. The venues in Durban were I Heart Market, Luna Rossa and Linvingston's Gastropub.


It was the first time that I attended the I Heart Market and discovered that it was a beautiful flea market that is held on the 1st Saturday of every month. It was great to see people dropping of blankets while enjoying the items on sale at the different stalls, good food and listening to the pleasant sounds made by the live bands playing.


The second venue was Luna Rossa which is situated in the outside food court at Gateway Theatre of Shopping. We were fortunate to experience great Durban weather and many Twitter users joined us for some cool refreshments when they dropped of their blankets.


Livingston's Gastropub in Durban North's Glenmore Center was the final venue and tweeps dropping of blankets had the opportunity to watch the Super Rugby game between the Sharks and Cheetahs while enjoying the good food and drinks provided by this popular establishment.

At the end of the day close to 500 blankets were collected and special thanks were in order for those that contributed to and donated blankets to the drive. Some businesses stepped up and matched donations and blanket contributions. One of the biggest was Makro with a R50 000 money donation and dropping the price of their blankets to cost for the week.

The blankets were donated to Izulu Orphans Project.

For more information on the Twitter Blanket Drive click here.

Horward Webb: The Worst Referee In The World

Is Howard Webb the worst ref in the world?

Recently Liverpool supporters have been hating on this man like he was the Devil incarnate. There's even an online petition by Twitter users asking the FA for him never to referee another Liverpool match! LMAO!

Here is the link if you don't believe me or if you want to add your voice to this ridiculous petition! http://twitition.com/g5iig



Surely the man that refereed the 2010 World Cup Final and last year's Champion's League final has to be the best there is or they would never have let him ref those 2 important matches!

So what does that tell you about Liverpool? According to their fans Liverpool Football Club has lost the last 5 matches refereed by Webb with 2 of them being against Manchester United! Therefore making Webb a puppet of Fergie or a hater of the Scousers!

I personally think he is a great referee! When I watch a match he is officiating I know there will be very few mistakes and no disaster decisions. Webb is a fair ref and seems to get the big decisions right according to Jose Mourinho, The Special One!

Apart from reffing the WC2010 final and CL final last year the Queen of England made him an honorary MBE.

Calm down Liverpool fans. You have a great team and a manager that finally seems to fit! You can finally say that it can be yours next year! With Dalglish leading the side and the likes of Suarez, Andy Carroll and Maxi Rodriquez making the magic happen LFC will be a strong contender for the Barclays Premier League and the FA Cup! One ref won't make a difference if you play good football!

I wouldn't want to mess with a ref that looks like Robocop anyway! Would you?

Once Upon A Time And Charlie's Angels 2011

This fall (autumn if you don't live in the US of A) ABC is releasing two new TV series that look very promising!

I have been privileged to be given the opportunity to have a first look at these TV series by Technorati and you can only view them by clicking on a link they send you as the videos are unlisted on YouTube.


The first one is Once Upon A Time. It is about a woman that gets drawn into the strange world of Storybrooke, the place where her son lives that she gave up 10 years ago.

After having a look at the video and discovering who the actors and writers are I am very excited for this to be released! The setting switches between a fairytale world and present time. Apparently all the characters from a fairytale book are trapped in this town and Anna/Emma Swan who might be Snow White and Prince Charming's daughter has to save them from the Evil Queen!

Some of the characters are played by some amazing actors with Ginnifer Goodwin as Snow White, Josh Dallas as Prince Charming, Jennifer Morrison as Anna/Emma Swan, Lana Parilla as the Evil Queen (magic mirror and all) and Robert Carlyle as a weird inn keeper/Rumplestiltskin. I'm a bit confused with Jennifer Morrison's character because IMDB and every other online media including the YouTube link state that her character's name is Anna Swan but in the actual first look video clip I'm 100% sure that Robert Carlyle's character calls her Emma!


It might be a bit confusing at first as you would expect from Tron and Lost writers Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz but if it's great visuals and special effects you like then this is a must see! I'm sure this is going to be another TV series we're going to be addicted to. Hopefully we won't get lost in this story but will discover a happy ending!

The second show to premier next fall on ABC is a remake and not just any remake. It's about three sexy ladies kicking some bad guy butts! That's right! Charlie's Angels are back! It is produced by ex Charlie's Angel Drew Barrymore and the team that brought you the hit TV series Smallville, Alfred Gough and Miles Millar!


It stars Annie Ilonzeh, Minka Kelly and Rachel Taylor as Kate, Eve and Abby. Bosley gets a new look as he is played by Ramon Rodriguez. No more old, balding dude. Bosley is as young and sexy as his female counterparts! The girls are beautiful and a pleasure to watch.


With plenty of eye candy and the combination of Gough and Millar this is sure to be a hit. I'm a huge Smallville fan and was sad to see it end. Maybe an angel might be just what I need to lift my spirits when this show starts!

I'm not sure if I'm allowed to do this but here are the links to the first look videos Technorati sent us:

Once Upon A Time
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yz9VFa7Z6Y0

Charlie's Angels
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19VFDlCnOXc

Will we get lost in the fairytale of Once Upon A Time or will it be hell or heaven to watch Charlie's Angels?

UnstoppaBull

This season of Formula 1 racing is being dominated by the Red Bull Racing team. These bulls seem to be running so far ahead of the pack that none of the other teams stand a chance of catching them!

Surely Sebastian Vettel is getting bored being out in the front leaving all the action behind him in nearly every race! And believe me there has been an abundance of action in the pack following the leader.

In the past two Grand Prixs the race strategies have evolved with the management of the tyre use and increase of the number of stops drivers have to make. Tyre wear, KERS, DRS and fuel consumption have really changed the dynamics of the 2011 season of Formula 1.

Red Bull and Sebastian Vettel seemed to have gotten it right from the beginning, McLaren are following closely and Ferrari seem to have only stepped up to the plate in the last race with Alonso finishing third on the podium. Ferrari's first podium finish this season.

With the completion of the Turkish Grand Prix the team standings have Red Bull Racing in the lead with 168 points, trailing not far in second is McLaren-Mercedes with 105 points and Ferrari with a late start in third with 65 points.

The driver standings place Sebastian Vettel as the alpha bull with 93 points, Lewis Hamilton in second with 59 points and Mark Webber in third with 55 points. Nico Rosberg might be the dark horse for Mercedes!

The season is still young with only 4 races complete. What will be in store for the Spanish GP? Will Alonso claim a victory for Ferrari with the support of his home crowd? Will Sebastian Vettel stamp his dominance in yet another pole position and number one podium finish?

Bella Swallows A Monkey

About three weeks ago I was travelling on the N3 Highway to Eston. About 10 kilometers before Camperdown a monkey jumped in front of my car.

I was doing about 120km/h when I saw a flash of grey, heard a thud and saw my number plate flip up. The next thing I know there's smoke coming out from the front of the car and I had to pull over.

I get of and go to the front to assess the damage and get the number plate only to find that a monkey was stuck head first in the grill! It was one of those little grey vervet monkeys you get all over Durban that like raiding unguarded kitchens and it was still alive and kicking!

I didn't know what to do! What condition was it's head in? How was I going to get this roadkill out? I couldn't drive around with a monkey stuck in my grill! I was thinking of flagging down a truck to get the driver to help me but I don't think anyone would have stopped on that part of the N3!

Eventually I gathered my wits and got a towel from my gym bag. I grabbed the monkey by it's legs, closed my eyes, pulled and flung it over the barrier! The monkey landed on it's side. It's eyes were open but blinking and I thought it would die anytime soon.

I took my towel and covered it thinking that it's end was near. I grabbed my number plate and jumped into my car. It took me a while to gather my thoughts and take in what had just happened.

To my utter surprise I saw the towel come up! The monkey sat up, pulled the towel of it's head and tried to take a few wobbly steps. I think it was still dazed from the knock. After a few minutes of watching the traffic go by it calmly got up and walked of into the bush like nothing happened!

The monkey didn't have a scratch on it. I guess the honeycomb grill of my car took most of the impact and cushioned the blow to the monkey. The smoke was actually gas from the air conditioner and besides the grill being damaged one of the heat sensors was kaput too. All in all damages came to R15 000!

Monkey 1 - Golf GTI 0

The Year Of The Bull

Sebastian Vettel showed who's boss when he comfortably won the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne on Sunday. Vettel dominated in Qualifying and didn't give up his lead the entire race. All in all the 23 year old probably had quite a boring race. His RB7 was untouchable even though he didn't use his KERS system.

The rest of the contenders on the other hand had plenty of excitement during the race. Rubens took out Rosberg and Schumi went out with a flat. Alonso and Massa decided to make a Ferrari-McLaren sandwich with Button before the Englishhman got "pushed" into a run off getting ahead of Alonso and Massa. He suffered a drive through penalty.

Petrov had a good race making it for the first time in his F1 career to the podium after finishing 3rd. I guess Alonso couldn't pass him... again!

Sergio Perez had the race of his life finishing 7th after an amazing one stop race but both Saubers were disqualified for wing technicalities. Perez lost his 7th place and Kobayashi lost 8th.

Both HRT cars didn't even qualify for the race.

Race winner was Sebastian Vettel for Redbull, 2nd was Lewis Hamilton for McLaren and 3rd was Vitaly Petrov for Renault, 4th - Alonso, 5th - Webber, 6th - Button, 7th - Massa, 8th - Buemi, 9th - Sutil and 10th - Di Resta.

The race also saw the return of Pirelli to Formual 1. The drivers had to use both hard and soft compound tyres during the race.

Although the podium finishers had uneventful races the rest was pretty exciting. Some exhilaration and some disappointment but a great start to the 2011 F1 season.

Hijack!!!

On Tuesday evening I experienced my second hijacking. Yes. They tried to take away my 3 month old car!

I arrived home just after 7pm from gym and noticed 2 young boys walking up the road. They had passed my house and after parking my car and going to close the garage door I heard footsteps running towards the house.

I immediately knew something was wrong and expected trouble. When the first hijacker came around the corner I punched him in the face and kicked him in the gut. I turned around to face the second hijacker and noticed he had a gun. I decided not to tackle him and ran into the house slamming shut the gate between the garage and the house.

They kept asking me for my car keys and I just swore them back. I had my keys in my hand but they decided to check the ignition anyway. After discovering the keys were not in the car they decided to leave. Not run, they walked!

When I called 10111, South Africa's equivalent of the USA's 911 emergency number, I got through to Pinetown Police Station and they said that I called the wrong station and proceeded to give me Sydenham Police Stations number! I flipped! I insisted on not calling another number. What's the point of having an emergency number then? After taking my details the cops arrived within 5 minutes which was impressive.

The Five-O said that these guys probably had a vehicle waiting for them up the road and were long gone.

I don't know what got into me to retaliate and realize that I took a big chance. If these hijackers were more experienced I wouldn't be writing this blog right now. The SAPS need to do something about crime in Durban. People are getting fed up of living in fear. And they wonder why people want to leave our beautiful country!

Stay safe Durban!

IPL BID 2011: Teams

Here is a list of the players that were bought after the 2011 auctions that happened in Bangalore on the weekend of the 8-9 January 2011


CHENNAI SUPER KINGS

R. Ashwin $850,000
S. Badrinath $800,000
Doug Bollinger $700,000
Michael Hussey $425,000
Sudeep Tyagi $240,000
Scott Styris $200,000
Dwayne Bravo $200,000
Joginder Sharma $150,000
Francois du Plessis $120,000
Wriddhiman Saha $100,000
Nuwan Kulasekara $100,000
Ben Hilfenhaus $100,000
Suraj Randiv $80,000
George Bailey $50,000

Total: $4,115 million

DECCAN CHARGERS

Dale Steyn $1.2 million
Cameron White $1.1 million
Daniel Christian $900,000
Kumar Sangakkara $700,000
Kevin Pietersen $650,000
Pragyan Ojha $500,000
Ishant Sharma $450,000
J.P. Duminy $300,000
Shikhar Dhawan $300,000
Amit Mishra $300,000
Manpreet Gony $290,000
Juan Theron $85,000
Michael Lumb $80,000
Chris Lynn $20,000

Total: $6.575 million

DELHI DAREDEVILS

Irfan Pathan, $1.9 million
David Warner $750,000
Venugopal Rao $700,000
Morne Morkel $475,000
Ashok Dinda $375,000
James Hopes $350,000
Aaron Finch $300,000
Naman Ojha $270,000
Ajit Agarkar $210,000
Umesh Yadav $150,000
Mathew Wade $100,000
Colin Ingram $100,000
Andrew McDonald $80,000
R. Van der Merwe $50,000
Travis Birt $20,000
Robert Frylinck $20,000

Total: $5.85 million

KINGS XI PUNJAB

David Hussey $1.4 million
Dinesh Karthik $900,000
Adam Gilchrist $900,000
Piyush Chawla $900,000
Abhishek Nayar $800,000
Praveen Kumar $800,000
Shaun Marsh $400,000
Stuart Broad $400,000
Ryan Harris $325,000
Dmitri Mascarenhas $100,000
Nathan Rimmington $20,000

Total: $6.945 million

KOCHI

Mahela Jayawardene $1.5 million
Muttiah Muralitharan $1.1 million
Ravindra Jadeja $950,000
S. Sreesanth $900,000
R.P. Singh $500,000
R. Vinay Kumar $475,000
Brendon McCullum $475,000
Brad Hodge $425,000
V.V.S. Laxman $400,000
Parthiv Patel $290,000
Steven Smith $200,000
Owais Shah $200,000
Ramesh Powar $180,000
Thisara Perera $80,000
M. Klinger $75,000
Stephen O'Keefe $20,000
John Hastings $20,000

Total: $7.315 million

KOLKATA KNIGHT RIDERS

Gautam Gambhir $2.4 million
Yusuf Pathan $2.1 million
Jacques Kallis $1.1 million
L. Balaji $500,000
Manoj Tiwary $475,000
Shakib Al Hasan $425,000
Brett Lee $400,000
Eoin Morgan $350,000
Brad Haddin $325,000
Jayadev Unadkat $250,000
R. Ten Doeschate $150,000
James Pattinson $100,000

Total: $8.575 million

MUMBAI INDIANS

Rohit Sharma $2 million
Andrew Symonds $850,000
Munaf Patel $700,000
David Jacobs $190,000
Clint McKay $110,000
James Franklin $100,000
Moses Henriques $50,000
Aiden Blizzard $20,000

Total: $4,02 million

PUNE

Robin Uthappa $2.1 million
Yuvraj Singh $1.8million
Angelo Mathews $950,000
Ashish Nehra $850,000
Graeme Smith $500,000
Murali Kartik $400,000
Callum Fergusson $300,000
Mitchell Marsh $290,000
Tim Paine $270,000
Wayne Parnell $160,000
Jesse Ryder $150,000
Jerome Taylor $100,000
Alfonso Thomas $100,000
Nathan McCullum $100,000

Total: $8.07 million

RAJASTHAN ROYALS

Ross Taylor $1 million
Johan Botha $950,000
Rahul Dravid $500,000
Shaun Tait $300,000
Paul Collingwood $250,000
Pankaj Singh $95,000

Total: $3.095 million

ROYAL CHALLENGERS BANGALORE

Saurabh Tiwary $1.6 million
AB de Villiers $1.1 million
Zaheer Khan $900,000
Cheteshwar Pujara $700,000
Dirk Nannes $650,000
Dilshan Tillakaratne $650,000
Daniel Vettori $550,000
A. Mithun $260,000
Charl Langeveldt $140,000
Md. Kaif $130,000
Luke Pomersbach $50,000
Johan van der Wath $50,000
R. Rossouw $20,000
Nuwan Pradeep $20,000
Jonathan Vandiar $20,000

Total: $6.840 million

Some big hitters weren’t picked: Sourav Ganguly, Sanath Jayasuria, Mark Boucher and the Windies’ Chris Gayle.

Sunday Night Cricket

January 09, 2011 was the perfect day in Durban to host the Indian cricket team in a spectacular T20 match against the Proteas. The Indians won the match by 21 runs but the South African flags still flew high as they said goodbye to one of cricket’s greatest contributors to the sport, Makhaya Ntini.

This was the first international cricket match at the Moses Mabhida Stadium. The crowd, 50000 strong, couldn’t stop cheering as a golf car took Ntini around the stadium thus ending his career innings.

The cricket wasn’t the only entertainment that evening. There was a concert commemorating 150 years Indians have been in South Africa. Spectators were treated to stunning performances by Bollywood Stars Shah Rukh Khan, Priyanka Chopra, Malaika Arora and Shahid Kapoor. The best part of the friendship concert was when SRK called up some of the SA cricket players to demonstrate some their other talents. AB de Villiers stunned people when he belted out the classic “Yeh Dosti” from the movie Sholay!

The worst part of the concert had to be the emcees, Tarina Patel and Claudia Henkel. There’s no question that both these women looked beautiful on stage but someone forgot to tell them that they were holding mics and they didn’t need to scream for the crowd to hear them. After spending almost 9 hours in their seats people had no energy to scream when requested by Tarina and Claudia. They just wanted to see the stars perform!

As the concert ended with a spectacular fireworks display and people were heading out the stadium it looked like what our forefathers might have looked like when they disembarked the ship 150 years ago. People looked tired as it was a long day but they all looked happy and it was interesting listening to their experiences of that day as they headed home.

IPL Bids 2011

The bidding for IPL teams for 2011 began yesterday with a few upsets and surprises. Some big stars went unsold and some unexpected players went for really high prices! I think the biggest shocker was Sourav Ganguly went unsold! Gautum Ghambir was the most expensive player sold to Kolkata Knight Riders for $2.4 million.

Here are the most expensive players sold yesterday:

Gautam Gambhir Kolkata Knight Riders $2.4 million
Yusuf Pathan Kolkata Knight Riders $2.1 million
Robin Uthappa Pune $2.1 million
Rohit Sharma Mumbai Indians $2 million
Irfan Pathan Delhi Daredevils $1.9 million
Yuvraj Singh Pune $1.8million
Saurabh Tiwary Royal Challengers Bangalore $1.6 million
Mahela Jayawardene Kochi $1.5 million
Dale Steyn Deccan Chargers $1.2 million
AB de Villiers RCB $1.1 million
Cameron White Deccan Chargers $1.1 million
Jacques Kallis Kolkata Knight Riders $1.1 million
Muttiah Muralitharan Team Kochi $1.1 million
Ross Taylor Rajasthan Royals $1 million


By the end of today all 10 teams should finalize their players. I will post a list later today. In the meantime I am looking forward to watching the friendly T20 match between India and South Africa’s Proteas today at the Moses Mabhida Stadium. This will be the first cricket match to be played at this world class sports venue and I am looking forward to being a part of it!

Looking Back At 2010

The year that has just passed must have been the most eventful in my life so far. So much has happened that it has to be documented in some way besides Twitter and Facebook. Hence here is a list as far as I can remember.

1. Went to my second Top Gear Live/MPH show.
2. Celebrated my 32nd birthday
3. Had an awesome St. Patrick’s Day at Waxy O’Connor’s
4. Met Miss India Worldwide Kajal Lutchminarian
5. Pig and Beer Festival!
6. Test drove the then new Mercedes Benz C63 AMG (awesome monster)
7. Spent an awesome long weekend in Cape Town with the boys
8. Did the big swing at the Moses Mabhida Stadium not once but 3 times!
9. Went to a few matches for the FIFA Soccer World Cup 2010 (Spain lift the cup for the first time while the world is introduced to the Vuvuzela and Paul The Psychic Octopus)
10. Won an ice sculpturing competition
11. Met the girl of my dreams but she put me in the friend zone! (I’m a big Ryan Reynolds fan!)
12. Lost about 5-6kgs
13. Bought a new car (2010 Golf VI GTI aka Bella)
14. Attended a few Airtel Champions League matches (T20 cricket)
15. Sharks win the Currie Cup (Rugby)
16. Red Bull win the Formula 1 Constructors’ Championship and Sebastian Vettel wins the Drivers’ Championship becoming the youngest driver to do so at the age of 23
17. Played my first round of golf ever and scored a 106
18. Got my first iPhone 4G and instantly became an Apple fan
19. Made a whole lot of new friends on Twitter
20. Had my first Eggs Benedict
21. Survived 2010

Bring on 2011. According to the Mayans and a few other ancient civilizations we only have 2 years left in this universe so let’s make the most of it!