The chances of the same captain winning the World Cup again are rare. Only if you see that the person has an awe-inspiring horoscope with the exaltation of Uranus, Pluto, Planet-X, Planet-Z, etc. can you include his name again.
Also eliminate teams that very obviously have weak captains. If the captain’s horoscope is weak or if he has won the Cup earlier, then you have a weak ‘skull’ and the team cannot qualify as a T-Rex.
Eliminate the teams where the captain and the coach combined together have won a World Cup earlier. That is a weak skull and tail and doesn’t look like a T-Rex.
Finally, you are down to two or three teams. Out of these there will be one that shines brighter than the rest. Pick that one. That’s your team. That’s your T-Rex.
Even if you arrive at the top three, you can pat yourself on the back.
I know it is easier said than done, but that is how I do it. Yes, it does involve using many Excel sheets. But the basic outline of the process is described above. I will demonstrate this entire process with the example of the ICC World Cup 2011.
Step 1:
After a thorough analysis, I arrived at the top three horoscopes amongst the participating 14 nations.
Ricky Ponting (Australia)
Mahendra Singh Dhoni (India)
Graeme Smith (South Africa)
Without putting forward too much astrological jargon, let me try and explain it. Ricky Ponting had all the top three planets—Planet-X, Planet-Y and Planet-Z in exaltation—and that was remarkable. Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Graeme Smith had identical horoscopes, with Uranus, Planet-Y and Chiron in exaltation. Both were born in the same year—1981. As I didn’t have the time of birth for Smith, I didn’t have a choice but to assume that he had all these three planets in the right positions. We could not count him out of the race.
Step 2:
Australia had a fantastic team. The coach, too, had a good horoscope. The core of the team certainly could win the World Cup. India had a phenomenal team too. Almost all the horoscopes from the openers to the bowlers dazzled. I knew that this was India’s best chance to win the Cup. This squad did look menacing.
Sri Lanka, too, looked like a strong team, with a remarkable coach in Trevor Bayliss, but their only chance to win would be if Lasith Malinga became the captain. There was no way Malinga would be made the captain in the presence of Sangakkara and Jayawardene. So, I was quite sure from the beginning that Sri Lanka had no chances to win this World Cup.
England could win only if Kevin Pietersen was the captain and, with him being out of the tournament with health problems, the possibility was almost non-existent. Besides, he wasn’t the first choice for captain either, with the old warhorse, Andrew Strauss, still in charge.
Step 3:
Australian captain Ricky Ponting had already won the previous two World Cups consecutively, and it would be almost impossible for him to win another. He had finished his quota of World Cup success. Australia only had a chance if Michael Clarke took Ponting’s place as the captain somehow. That threat always loomed large in the background, so Australia could never be eliminated from the list, but they were #3 on my list. Australia, with Ponting as captain, was like a T-Rex with a damaged skull. I didn’t want them to exchange it with Clarke’s strong one.
My top two choices were teams India and South Africa—both led by captains born in 1981.
Corrie Van Zyl, the South African coach, had a good horoscope too, but India’s Gary Kirsten had an extraordinary one and he hadn’t yet achieved the greatness his horoscope promised. This could be his moment, I concluded. South Africa and India, in particular, looked the T-Rex I was looking for. Complete with a massive skull, huge and sturdy body and an elongated tail. One of the two, I believed, should win the world Cup.
And, this is how you predict the result of the World Cups.
Over to you now.
12.
Karmic Quota in a Sportsperson’s Life
2011–2012. Mumbai.
As a teenager, when I landed in Mumbai, I realised soon that just a smattering of Hindi would not get me anywhere. I needed some serious linguistic skills if I intended to survive here, so I put in some efforts to learn to speak in Hindi. The constant companions were Kishore Kumar songs, whose clear diction helped me understand the words, and Amitabh Bachchan whose iconic dialogues were easy to remember. One of AB’s dialogues that made a lot of sense to me later in life went, ‘Waqt se pehle aur kismet se zyada kisi ko kuch nahi milta.’ Translated, it means nobody receives more than what they are destined for nor before the hour they are destined.
This forms the essence of karma. When we are born, our share of past-life karmas—positive and negative—define the quality of our current life. The karmic quota refers to the amount of positive or negative energies you will deal with throughout your life.
When I talk about karmic quota, this is exactly what I mean—the amount of success and failure predestined (at the time of birth) for your current existence, during this very life. Each one of us is born with a certain quota of karma that can be good or bad, and will be resolved in our lifetime. However, once that karmic quota is exhausted, there is nothing you can do to replenish it, at least not in this lifetime. It simply means that one can gain only so much from one’s life; nothing more, nothing less. It’s preordained.
In the grand scheme of things, people with extraordinary and better karmas are grouped together and are born in particular time frames. Certain planetary positions indicate the degree of magnificence they will achieve in life.
That leads us to the understanding of karmic quota for a sportsperson. For example[11], sportspersons born in 1980, 1981 and 1982 will see successes on a much grander scale as compared to those born in 1977, 1978 and 1979. Also, sportspersons born between the latter half of 1978 and the former half of 1979 will do better than the other 1977–79 borns.
Too technical? Okay, I’ll explain it with the help of personalities. Dhoni will have more successes as compared to Virendra Sehwag and Sehwag will have more successes as compared to Mahela Jayawardene. But even Dhoni cannot win more than he is destined to. The quota was only for two World Cups. He has already won both. Hence I wrote[12] in 2013 that India would not win any World Cup under Dhoni again and they never have.
Also, in 2012, it was clear that after winning back-to-back IPLs, Dhoni could not win it a third time immediately. That was because there was another 1981-born, Gautam Gambhir, leading a team. This was an excellent opportunity for Gautam to open his karmic account as a captain. His horoscope was strong, with him being born in 1981. While Dhoni’s quota was being depleted, Gambhir’s was yet to be used. Hence, Gautam won the 2012 and the 2014 IPLs.
By 2013, the biggest dilemma for me after seeing Gautam Gambhir and Rohit Sharma winning the IPL in 2012 and 2013 respectively was whether Dhoni still had some karmic quota left to win a couple of other mega events—such as the World Cup in 2015.
If he wasn’t winning any more IPLs, did it mean he was inadvertently saving up his karmic quota in order to win a bigger event or had he completely exhausted his quota after winning all of those IPLs and World Cups?
I would know the answers to these burning questions only later. In fact, in the very next month after the IPL in 2013.
13.
The Last Miracle of Dhoni
6th June 2013. Mumbai.
The 2013 Champions Trophy was going to answer a lot of questions for me. As an ICC event, it was second in importance after the 50-over World Cup. If Dhoni won it, he would end up being the first captain to win all the ICC trophies. And that would be phenomenal.
I took a survey of his numbers until then: a World T20, an ICC World Cup, two IPLs, and a Champions League. It seemed like a superhuman feat. He had achieved more victories as a captain than anyone in cricket history. If he achieved another titanic win—and the Champions Trophy was huge—it would be like squeezing out every drop of his karmic quota. From India’s perspective though, it still mattered a great deal.<
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I could see that if Dhoni won the Champions Trophy, it could also deal a severe blow to India’s chances in the 2015 World Cup. After all, Dhoni was only human. He couldn’t win it all. Perhaps he could still win relatively minor trophies like an IPL or a bilateral series, but winning an international event involving all the test-playing nations would be next to impossible.
Even winning the 2013 Champions Trophy in itself would be a miracle. It would mean Dhoni would have to use up the very last of the powers of all his planets. Being able to do it all over again after this would be highly unlikely.
Hence, I wrote[13] that winning the Champions Trophy would be the last miracle of Dhoni as the captain of the Indian Cricket team. Inevitably, it also meant that it would be a massive blow to India’s chances in the 2015 World Cup.
14.
2014 T20 World Cup—The Last-Minute Twist in the Tale
6th April 2014. Mumbai.
Sometimes cricket works like the prime-ministerial elections in India. Many a time, at least in the past, we never knew the prime-ministerial candidate until the last moment. PV Narasimha Rao, IK Gujral, HD Deve Gowda, Manmohan Singh are some such examples. It could be someone who no one could have ever expected to become the PM before the elections.
All through this ruckus, the person who had the best horoscope out of all the prospective candidates was destined to be the prime minister, and every force worked towards it. We only came to know about that much later.
Similiarly, sometimes in cricket too a player has such a powerful horoscope that every force in the world works towards making him the World Cup-winning captain. At other times such a person comes to the fore through an injury or non-performance by their own team mates.
Lasith Malinga was one man with an excellent horoscope. He had Uranus in deepest exaltation at 10 degrees in his horoscope. He had the best horoscope to lead the Sri Lankan team to victory in a World Cup. But the Lankan authorities thought otherwise and handed over the reins to a young Dinesh Chandimal. While Dinesh didn’t have a bad horoscope, he was still too young to lead the team to a World Cup victory. In a way I was glad when I saw that. It meant that they didn’t have a chance to win the 2014 T20 World Cup.
Before the start of the World Cup I confidently wrote[14] that India had no chances to win the event since Dhoni had won two World Cups already and there was no way he was going to win another one. There was no karmic quota left for him for this event. I had zeroed in on two more 1981–82-borns with Uranus in exaltation, just like Dhoni, to win the 2014 event. They were Brendon McCullum of New Zealand and George Bailey of Australia. Both had an extremely powerful Uranus in their chart and either could win.
Unfortunately, India had not chosen Gautam Gambhir as captain, the man with the best chances to win the World Cup. It is amazing how many people’s career or legacy has been overshadowed by the towering presence of MS Dhoni. It is not just Dinesh Karthik.
In the 2014 World Cup, Sri Lanka was initially captained by Dinesh Chandimal. He was too young to start his innings and I predicted that Sri Lanka would not win despite having brilliant performers in the team. And then the Lankan selectors had a sudden brainwave. Uranus must have caused it. With it around, everything happens suddenly. One day, I opened the paper and learnt that Lasith Malinga had replaced Dinesh Chandimal as the captain for the rest of the matches.
Oh my God! What a brilliant plan to fool me! The planets had conspired to keep me in the dark, but somehow I smelt the plot.
Under Lasith, the Lankan team suddenly seemed turbo-charged. They started winning all the matches. When the final happened against India, I didn’t hesitate for a moment before coming up with the new prediction[15] that India would lose the match. It was clearly another man with the same Uranus power, who could win it this time. Dhoni’s quota was over by then anyway.
15.
Why Some Predictions Go Wrong
22nd April 2013. Mumbai.
‘Exactly at 1 pm,’ Derek Abraham screamed.
‘Are you sure? You double checked?’ I asked him.
‘Yes, man. I saw the ledger with my own eyes. Can you believe this—there were no kids born in the hospital a week before and a week after his birth. Special child indeed!’
Derek also sent me on WhatsApp the picture of the register in Nirmal Nursing Home at Shivaji Park, mentioning Sachin Tendulkar’s exact time of birth on 24th April 1973. This was a huge relief. At least now I would be able to work out the reasons why this man was one of the greatest batsmen ever.
Derek was doing an article on the batting legend on his fortieth birthday and he decided to do a special one this time. He also fulfilled my long-time wish with that—getting the exact birth details of the maestro. Every birth detail of a famous personality I get adds to my knowledge of astrology and, without doubt, this one was the most important birth details ever.
Thanks, Derek, for taking all the trouble. I wish I knew someone as good as you in Delhi, who could have helped me with the birth details of Virat Kohli. The biggest mystery would have been solved and I wouldn’t be writing about a third of this book on presumptions.
Making a living on predictions is a tough business, especially if it involves a science which is still evolving—and there are too many sceptics around to accept it as such.
People don’t remember the 50 predictions you got right, but they will always remember that one prediction you got wrong. They make this one prediction the basis for maligning you or, worse, the science itself. I don’t have a problem if I’m accused of being wrong regarding a prediction. I have chosen this path, so I need to be ready to face the consequences. But I do have a problem if the science is criticised—an astrologer can be wrong, but not astrology.
That is the simple reason why many smart astrologers take the easy path of explaining the cause of an event or occurrence astrologically after it has already happened. I prefer the more difficult path of predicting it before it happens, since I feel I owe this to the science of astrology. This oldest science deserves the attention if not love for what it is.
There are three main reasons why some predictions go wrong:
The astrologer’s assumptions/theories were wrong.
The astrologer’s estimate of the timing of an event was incorrect—either too early or too late.
The data the astrologer worked with was incorrect.
In the first two cases it would certainly be my fault and I would deserve all the brickbats. If such a situation arises, I identify what went wrong, correct myself and go on with the next prediction.
When a prediction goes wrong, you learn something new and are better prepared the next time. The accuracy of your future predictions improves. The important thing is to realise what exactly went wrong. If you cannot pinpoint that, it can be a problem.
In fact, my own mistakes in the past led me to create my own system of interpreting and practising astrology. Therefore, they don’t upset me too much; I gained from the experience anyhow. They only helped to streamline the process.
Let us look at the three parameters:
A theory can be wrong or unclear. For example, in the beginning I did not know that there were actually 12 planets ruling the 12 zodiac signs, instead of the five used by Indian astrologers or the eight used by the Western ones. When I got the prediction about the 1999 World Cup wrong, I came to understand the importance of Pluto. My inclusion of all the planets like Uranus, Neptune and Pluto helped me make more accurate predictions.
Later, I discovered the presence of Planet-X, Planet-Y and Planet-Z. Further, the inclusion of Chiron also fine-tuned the predictive techniques. The confusion regarding why the 2003 and the 2007 World Cups were won by Ricky Ponting was cleared when I discovered Planet-X and Planet-Y.
The time estimate can be wrong. Certain assumptions can also work against the predictions. In IPL 6, I wrote KKR would not win, but it turned out to be a wrong prediction. Here’s why, in IPL 5, I had predicted that Gambhir would win it and he did. IPL 6 was
won by the 1987-born Rohit Sharma. Now, suddenly, from 1981 the influence had shifted to the 1986–87 period and I thought it could not go back to 1981. I forgot that both the 1986–87 and the 1981 patches were so powerful that they could produce multiple winners.
Gambhir had as good a horoscope as Dhoni and he could surely win another IPL, if not a World Cup. In fact, to my dismay, Dhoni, a 1981-born, came back to win once again as late as in the IPL 10. Here too, I got the timing wrong.
It is difficult to be spot on since the events are slightly less important. The World Cup comes once in four years and is easier to predict. The IPL comes every year and is more difficult to predict. What is even tougher is the sequencing of predictions. You need the exact birth details of all the captains in the fray to gauge who will come out the winner and in which year.
Luckily, I have been getting them right more often since my understanding of the sequencing of years has improved.
The data can be wrong. Now this is a serious problem and an astrologer has little control over it.
Finding the dates—the correct dates, mind you—is no simple task, especially when fake birthdates are touted as real ones. Many people falsify their birthdates on record. They shave off a year or two to add to their working years. If white collar professionals can do it, would some sportspersons be far behind? As it is, they have shorter shelf lives. It is quite common in the Indian subcontinent.
Over the years I have found ways to find out more details when the predictions seem off-key. I ask acquaintances and friends who know some of the players; I call the players directly to confirm the details; I ask around. It takes time and energy and can also backfire if people take exception to my questions and resort to stonewalling me. Most players tell me the truth when I inform them of my interest. Here I would like to thank all those sports stars who provided me with their real birth details, which helped me a lot in my research and also in arriving at correct predictions.
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