Arm Ball turns one.

So its a happy Birthday for my blog. 1 year complete when I returned to full fledged blogging. This has been an amazing ride. I was opinionated, passionate, looked upon as hater, chauvinist pig, racist, anti -- this, anti--that.......But in the end I enjoyed this.

IPL got me huge hits. 22000 hits in a year is a decent stat. People from USA, India and SL read this blog. I write a lot. Write more what comes in my mind. I have strong opinions on cricket. Strong liking for my generation of players -- the players of 90s. The players who attained their peak in 2000s. That was an era when the Indian cricket changed for good.

From being a good team who won occasionally it became one of the best team in the world.

I had another blog then -- Taking Strike, 22 Yards, Willow and Leather blog. All one. Finally google deleted that blog on behest of somebody I dont know. I was measured and practical over that blog. This is my 3rd cricket blog.

And the longest one.

First one lasted for a month when I accidentally deleted it after the worst tournament country ever played. Yup the 50 over world cup of 2007. Then the second one. 8 months, 340 posts and 5130 hits.

Sydney 2008 broke me on cricket blogging and I closed it down. Didnt blog during IPL - 1. Thought about it, didnt feel so to blog.

And then India won SL series in 2008 after Mendis wrecked the reputations of Indian middle order and prompted two of its best players to fade out. Thats one of the reasons I dislike SL (if you use word dislike)

I was back to the blog and with time I grew cynical. People whacked me. Some truths they didnt want to hear. Q labelled me as hater. Homer took me on when I commented as Sam and happily replied to my posts when I was anonymous :P.

Prabhu and Raj(ni) termed me anti-Tamil Nadu cos I dislike dancing jack of Indian cricket -- KKD and Subbu Dabri.

All happened here, I did not fade. I wont fade. I shall blog. I shall continue. Arm Ball turns one. If you feel something for it, do drop a note for it even if you hate it.

I know I cant attain the skills of writing some of the bloggers -- Homer, Gaurav, SP, Soulberry have. But I am here to express my joy and my anger when my team plays. My team as in my country.

So something would change here. The content. The style. The "hatred". Sri Lanka wont be blogged. 26/11 wont be blogged. Tough to forget this but then this hurts.

Happy Birthday AB.