In a club of
his own

2009 has been a good year for Gaganjeet Bhullar, who was recently ranked sixth with earnings of $3,08,916 after the WGC-HSBC Champions event. He also topped birdie leaderboard with a tally of 235 birdies, writes
Donald Banerjee

Gaganjeet Bhullar is riding high. The Kapurthala lad who turned 21 on April 27 this year, has logged six top 10s on the Asian Tour and is ranked sixth with earnings of $3,08,916 after the WGC-HSBC Champions event. His long drives and perfect putting have seen him sinking 235 birdies to be on top of the birdie leaderboard. His tally of 235 birdies is six better than Thailand’s Thawon Wiratchant, whose birdie tally stands at 229 with Australian Darren Beck third at 214.

Bhullar, who got his first Asian Tour title by winning the Indonesia President Invitational, also heads the par leaderboard. His score of 77 under is 10 better than Chapchat Nirat of Thailand.

Big-hitting Gaganjeet Bhullar brought Kapurthala on the world golf map when he qualified for his maiden major at the British Open by finishing in the top-four of the International Final Qualifying in Singapore. The young golfer has age on his side and is all set to become the country’s torchbearer after Jeev Milkha Singh and Jyoti Randhawa.

This has been a good year for the Kapurthala boy, who picked up the game as a four-year-old from his father H. S. Bhullar on the Kapurthala greens. He managed a full card on the Asian Tour for 2009 when he pipped Adam Groom to the 65^th spot on the Order of Merit, the final place for a full card by a mere $ 681. This was the result of a superb 64 final round for the tied 11th spot in the Johnnie Walker Cambodian Open.

In 2009, Gaganjeet continued to show his promise as a rising star by notching three straight top 10s. He was joint 10th at the Singha Thailand Open, tied second in the SAIL Open in India and shared fifth place at the Black Mountain Masters in Thailand. He sweetened his year by qualifying for his maiden major at the British Open when he finished in the top-four of the International Final Qualifying in Singapore.

He created history by becoming the youngest Indian to clinch his first Asian Tour title by winning the Indonesia President Invitational at the age of 20. He thus beat the previous record of Jeev Milkha Singh and Shiv Kapur, who got their first Asian Tour title when they were 23. He followed it up with the second spot in the Brunei Open. His tied 16^th slot in the Hero Honda Open and the tied 14^th position in the Barclays Singapore Open kept him on the run.

He could manage a tied 74^th slot in the World Golf Championship event in Asia — The HSBC Champions event.

His triumph in the DLF Masters conquering Jyoti Randhawa was indicative of the changing order in the Indian golf. It virtually ended India’s search for a torchbearer after Jeev Milkha Singh and Jyoti Randhawa.

The DLF Masters triumph got him accolades from top golfers. In Jyoti Randhawa’s words: "The way he is going, he will definitely be in top two. Jeev, myself and Gaganjeet.....there will be a toss of the coin over who is better. Gaganjeet definitely is in good form and I would definitely say he is a better player now."

But the Kapurthala lad has his head firmly on his shoulders as he says: "I don’t know whether the order is changing or not. But I have grown up watching Jyoti and Jeev. Today it is the first time that I was in contention with Jyoti and luckily I won. I am really, really happy about that". He was India’s number one amateur in 2004 and 2006 and claimed a silver medal in the team event at the 2006 Asian Games in Doha. He also won the World Junior Masters Championship in 2005.

Batsmen will have trouble playing me: Mendis
Mystery Spinner

Ajantha Mendis is tipped as the most exciting bowler the cricket world has seen after Shane Warne. The Sri Lankan spinner has troubled the batsman world over, including batting maestro Sachin Tendulkar, with his tricky deliveries, specially the carom ball. A. Roy talks to Mendis on the mystery ball and other aspects of the game.

After Champion Trophy, its now time for Champions League. Is it easy to make a quick transition from 50 overs game to Twenty20?

Cricket has changed now. We are professional cricketers and can’t complain about anything because we are being paid for it. The sudden shift from 50 overs to Twenty20 is a bit difficult, but since we are playing a lot of cricket we are getting used to all such things.

It is big tournament for me because people hardly know about my team, Wayamba. We are the underdogs in the tournament. It will always give us an advantage. But we have enough firepower to cause a few upsets in the tournament. So just wait and watch out for us.

Indian pitches always favour the spinners. That’s why Murali (Muttiah Muralitharan) has tasted success here. I don’t find any reason why I can’t pick wickets here.

It is true that now some bowlers (Amit Mishra and Piyush Chawla) are trying to develop their own deliveries. But I am confident that none can replicate my carom ball. It came naturally to me and I didn’t develop it consciously. So I am pretty confident that the carom ball will be unique and it was worked successfully for me.

When I started playing international matches, batsmen, especially Indians, who are great players of spin, had some trouble in reading me. Since now I am playing a lot of cricket, batsmen are getting used to me. But again reading is one thing and playing is another. As long as I bowl accurately, batsmen will have trouble playing me. I have seen that with Dhoni. Whenever I erred in line, he had hit me, but when I was accurate, not only Dhoni but others as well had no other option but to defend.

For a spinner, it is always good to have a variety of deliveries in his repertoire. But at present, I am trying to polish my skills and am concentrating on what I know. I have played just nine Test matches, and as I progress I will surely try out new things.

I feel bowling against Indian batsmen is a challenge for any spinner in the world. And if you bowl well against them then you can think that you are on the right track. Bowling to Virender Sehwag has been tough. When you are bowling to Sehwag, there canbe even 1 per cent margin of error.

How important has been the Indian Premier League for you?

I didn’t get much chance with Kolkata Knight Riders. But sharing the dressing room with some great cricketers was a great experience. But I feel I should have got more chance in the IPL both in India and South Africa.

It’s true that there is lot of money in cricket now. But I am not running after money. I still have a long way to go and want to establish myself as a good cricketer. Only then will everything fall into place.

It is a great honour to partner Murali. But it is not a pressure job because Murali takes the pressure off you. He will always walk down to you and will have words to cheer you up. I enjoy bowling with him.

I like all three versions. Twenty20 is fun and you have to bowl just four overs so it is not much of a task. But in 50 overs and Test cricket you have to outthink the batsman and that’s a challenging task for any bowler. — TWF

Fit Zone
Yoga for the frequent computer user
Bharat Thakur

In today’s modern world, most of us have a sedentary lifestyle. Thanks to technological innovations, there is no dearth of instruments and machines to help us perform our tasks easily and without having to move around much. Today, everything is available at the click of a button. As a result, most of us spend our time in front of the computer.

With the development of the Internet and other communication technologies, most jobs today are desk jobs. Hardly do we have to move about. All we need to do is to type on the keyboard all day long. Because of the increasing sitting nature of jobs people are now becoming conscious about the need to have a good workout before starting the day’s work. Despite this, at the end of the day, after having spent the whole day doing desk jobs like typing, our neck, shoulders, arms and back become stiff.

There are many yoga postures to cure the uneasiness and stiffness caused by desk jobs. These postures stretch and loosen your shoulders, neck, arms and back and also increase the blood circulation to these areas making you revitalised. Bandha hasta utthanasana removes stiffness from the shoulders and upper back and the synchronised breathing with it improves blood circulation. Akarna dhanurasana exercises the shoulders and also a few deep muscles of the neck and shoulder blades, which can hold a lot of tension. It is also good to cure stiffness in the arms. To ease the muscles of the back and also strengthen them, you can practice kati chakrasana and tiryaka kati chakrasana.

Tiryaka kati chakrasana

1. Stand with your feet more than shoulder width apart.

2. Inhale as you raise your arms up over your head and place your palms together.

3. Exhale and bend forward in half way with your back straight.

4. Stretched your arms forward straight and hold

5. Move your body side to side.

6. Now inhale and come to standing position back.

Akarna dhanurasana

Sit with legs outstretched.

Bend the left leg and hold the big toe of the left leg with left hand.

Keep the right leg straight and hold the right leg with the right hand

Inhale and start lifting the left leg with the left hand and pull it up to the left ear, and stabilise it at that point.

Hold for a while with normal breath.

And slowly straighten the left leg and take the sitting position.

Repeat for the other side.

Kati chakrasana

1. Stand with feet shoulder width apart.

2. Inhale as you raise your arms level to shoulders.

3. Keeping the feet flat on the floor, exhale as you twist the upper body to the right side, wrapping the right arm behind the waist and the left hand onto the right shoulder.

4. Turn the head fully to the right to look behind and hold for 30 seconds. Inhale and back to standing position.

5. Do the same for other side with proper breathing.

Bandha hasta utthanasana

Stand with feet shoulder width apart.

Take your arms behind you and interlock your fingers

Exhale, bend forward and stretch arms over the head as much as possible.

Hold the position for 30 seconds.

Inhale and slowly come back to the standing position.