When it came down to a France versus Croatia in the finals, it was very easy to predict that France would be the winner as the previous World Cup-winning captain, Phillip Lahm, had almost the same planets as Luka Modrić of Croatia. So a repeat of the same phenomenon wasn’t possible.
Fortunately, Hugo Lloris’ horoscope was available on the Internet. He had not done anything spectacular yet with such a fabulous chart and this was his best chance as he had lost out the last time in the UEFA Euro finals in 2016. Also, in Lloris’ horoscope, all the major planets in transit in 2018 were in his twelfth house, indicating colossal success in a foreign country. In 2016, the UEFA Euro was held in France, so Lloris couldn’t win it at home. He was destined to win it far from his country.
The important thing to note here from India’s perspective is that the World Cup in 2019 will be held in England. For all countries other than England, it is a foreign destination. If Eoin Morgan and his men have strong planets for their ‘home turf’, then they would win. If another country’s captain has planets strongly placed in the twelfth house, then they would win.
23.
The Logical Next Step and the 1986/87 Conundrum
The 2016 twist in the story of the UEFA Euro and the clear-cut, unambiguous victory of Hugo Lloris in the 2018 FIFA World Cup clearly establishes the probability of a 1986–87-born winning the 2019 Cricket World Cup.
Okay, we need to be absolutely certain. Should we look at sports other than cricket and football for further evidence to confirm this?
The most popular sport we can look at is tennis. One of the greatest tennis players to have walked on the planet is Roger Federer—a 1981-born just like Iker Casillas and Dhoni. Serena Williams, too, was born in 1981. After Federer, the trio ruling the roost is Rafael Nadal, Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic. While Nadal is a 1986-born, Murray and Djokovic are 1987-borns.
Looking at other sports, one of the greatest achievers in recent times is Usain Bolt. He too is a 1986-born.
The learnings from tennis go even deeper. While I learnt from tennis and football and successfully predicted the winners of the 2011 and the 2015 cricket World Cups, now the question about who will win the upcoming three World Cups (beginning 2019) will also be answered by the events in tennis if we can find out who comes after Federer and Serena.
The successors to Federer are Rafael Nadal, Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic. Dare I say ‘successor’? When did Federer quit? Well, he hasn’t. Dhoni hasn’t either; not yet. But it is clear as daylight that the three men born in the years 1986–87 fall next in the sequence. In fact, together with Federer, this group is called the ‘fab four’. In this group, Federer belongs to a different planetary era than the rest.
Andy Murray: three Grand Slams and two Olympic golds
Novak Djokovic: 15 Grand Slams
Rafael Nadal: 17 Grand Slams, one Olympic gold
A total of 35 Grand Slams and three Olympic golds.
In women’s tennis, there were no clear successors to Serena visible. Maria Sharapova stood at a long distance. Again, a 1987-born.
So, it goes without saying that the 2019 cricket World Cup, too, will be won by a 1986–87 born. In fact, don’t be surprised if the next three World Cups—2019, 2020, 2021, too, are won by 1986–87-borns. By a long shot, there is a minor possibility of the 2023 World Cup, too, being won by someone from the same age group.
24.
The Year 1986 and Australian Cricket’s Unusual Story
24th March 2018. Mumbai.
I was quite surprised to see Steve Smith going great guns during 2011–14. He was ranked the best batsman in the world, and the Australian media had already started comparing him with the legendary Donald Bradman. But, Steve was born in 1989 and didn’t have a great horoscope. How could he be compared to one of the greatest ever? It even seemed he would take over the reins of Australian cricket. I thought if that happened, it might not be good news for Australian cricket. But I could see it coming. I reckoned he would not be able to hold on to the top spot for long—given a mediocre horoscope. What I didn’t know about or expect were the extraordinary events that would lead to his eventual removal from captaincy—and not at all in a way I could have ever imagined.
Steve Smith was made the Australian captain in 2015. How could they have appointed a 1989-born as captain when they clearly had two 1986-borns in their set-up—David Warner and Aaron Finch? I was also surprised that the other good performer in the team, David Warner, was ignored for the top role.
I was sure this arrangement would not last long. Maybe this arrangement had come about for two reasons: first, it was a quirk of fate that an astrologically weak player was the captain, perhaps so that some other country could become a world champion. Besides, Darren Lehmann had already led Australia to a World Cup victory in 2015 and he didn’t have any chances at an encore. If someone else led the team, then there was a possibility of a win. Now, since Steve was leading, whatever chances they had had evaporated; and second, maybe Australia would have a better captain once again after Darren Lehmann quit. There was another great guy waiting in the wings. So, Steve Smith probably filled the void in the interim and was not a long-term arrangement.
So I thought he would be around only for a couple of years. There was also the possibility that he would be replaced because of non-performance. Then, finally, Warner would take charge and do a terrific job. With this in mind, I wrote an article[26] which stated that Smith would only be around for a couple of years.
When Steve Smith stayed on for a few more years than I had anticipated, I guessed it was nature’s way of ensuring that Australia didn’t win the 2019 World Cup. Darren Lehmannn and Steve Smith were a bad combination. That was a great opportunity for other countries, including India.
I was happy about that.
Then something incredulous happened that shook the entire cricketing world. To me it was a revelation of how destiny could manifest itself in an unexpected crisis. It was after all bound to happen. Steve Smith, Cameron Bancroft and David Warner were involved in a scandal that disgraced the game and Australian cricket for a while. The trio was caught red-handed, trying to influence the result of a cricket match by ball tampering. While Warner was penalised severely for being the mastermind behind the event, Bancroft was given a milder punishment. Steve Smith fell from grace and may not be considered for captaincy, at least for a couple of years, ending his chances of winning a World Cup as a captain. This was something I always knew, since he didn’t have the horoscope to reach there. What I didn’t foresee were the circumstances in which he would lose this opportunity.
The bigger surprise was David Warner. As I don’t have his exact time of birth, it is clearly not possible to say which planet was responsible for his downfall. There has to be one planet for sure. Being a 1986-born, he had all other planets in the right positions to make him a great legend, but one planet apparently caused the debacle.
I was also surprised that all these events paved the way for one man to reach the top position in Australian cricket—Tim Paine. All of these events must have happened because he was destined to reach the top. Tim had been ignored earlier and would have been forgotten had this scandal not happened.
The full-moon 1984-born has an interesting horoscope that clearly shows him reaching a top position—though under duress—and may not hold that position for too long. I thought he would probably be a transition captain—one who gets the captaincy when the original captain is injured or rested. The circumstances under which Paine became a captain were really unexpected. That’s how the planets surprise you. Yes, the exact birth details would have revealed clearer details but, unfortunately, we weren’t privy to them.
The way Steve Smith had been scoring made him the best candidate to lead Australia in all the formats of the game. The authorities may have gone ahead and done so and it would have been justified. But they would have lost the chance to win any tournament in any format.
And then the universe conspired on i
ts own to bring the man with the best horoscope to the top. Aaron Finch!
It may surprise many if I say that the entire episode of Sandpaper Gate happened just so that Aaron Finch could be made the captain. But, strange are the ways of the planets. That’s how they conspire.
Aaron Finch was the man chosen who would take Australia back to the glorious days. Also, if you notice, now Australia has two captains for different formats, something which will prove to be a fantastic arrangement in a few months.
25.
Hypothesis: Virat Kohli Could Not Have Been Born in 1988
Why should astrology only be used to make predictions about the future? Why can’t we use it, working backwards, to arrive at certain conclusions and theories about incidents in the past? It can certainly be done.
Yes, astrology can help reveal if an event was an accident or a murder, if it was intentional or unintentional, if it was done by this person or that.
So, even before we start with future predictions, let us begin this chapter with a hypothesis: a hypothesis about Virat Kohli’s true date of birth or, rather, the year of his birth.
What I noticed first about Virat were his piercing eyes. His eyes looked into the camera and into yours, as if he would split you open with their intensity. That intensity! It was visible even when he was a cherubic little Under-19 World Cup-winning captain.
What I also noticed was his bling. Yes, he definitely loved showing off. He wore branded clothes, an impish smile—and the brash, devil-may-care attitude shone through.
I love identifying the zodiac signs of people from their demeanour. And, every time a famous personality does anything that advertises the zodiac sign in them, my belief that astrology works is vindicated.
When I say zodiac sign, people immediately think of their sun sign. And, you know what? What you believed all your life to be your sun sign could actually be wrong. The Earth has been undergoing a wobble and the planet’s orientation towards the fixed stars that form those zodiac signs has shifted drastically. One zodiac sign consists of 30 degrees and the current shift is calculated at about 24 degrees. So, most people who think that they are Capricorns could actually be Sagittarians. We recognise this factor in India and all our festivals follow this shift in pattern. Makar Sankranti is the celebration of the ingress of the sun into the zodiac sign Capricorn. This is celebrated every year on the 13–14th of January when the sun actually enters Capricorn. So, Salman Khan is not a Capricorn, people! All those born between 15th December and 13th January have their sun in Sagittarius.
If this myth is not enough, people have another strange belief system. They think people are of only 12 types, representing the 12 zodiac signs! Most people don’t know that it is not just the sun sign but also the zodiac signs in which you have your Mercury and the moon that add up to make you the kind of a person you are. Your sun sign indicates your soul, your Mercury sign the mind, and the moon indicates your emotions. The permutation and combination of the zodiac signs in which you have your sun, Mercury and moon indicate your persona.
Hence, Salman Khan is a Capricorn, but a Scorpio~Sagittarius~Aquarius. The Scorpio in him makes him intense and aggressive—someone who doesn’t forget a hurt so easily. Think of all those who have hurt him in the past. Even with Shah Rukh, he took five years to patch up again. He is also an instinctive and wild Sagittarian and a truly humanitarian Aquarian friend—a complex mix indeed. Yes, he is not the scheming, practical and manipulating Capricorn.
I have written an entire book on this subject, called What is Your True Zodiac Sign?. It classifies people into 186 types, based on the combination of these zodiac signs.
Shah Rukh Khan clearly exhibits the extraordinary communication skills of Libra, combined with the intensity of Scorpio and the shrewd business sense of Capricorn. Amitabh Bachchan exemplifies the perfectionist, a workaholic Virgo with the immensely graceful, charming and diplomatic Libra.
Talking about cricketers, with the giving Pisces and the fighter Sagittarius in him, Rahul Dravid looks every inch the gentleman he is. Ganguly personifies the hurt Cancerian with the dogged and stubborn Taurus. Though the Scorpio in him restrains him, Shikhar Dhawan’s leonine streak shines through with his twirled moustache and tattooed biceps. Pisceans Ajinkya Rahane, Dravid and Parthiv Patel are doe-eyed, soft-spoken and almost apologetic about their very presence. Though the Aries in Tendulkar ensured he was an extraordinary competitor and remembered every dismissal and sometimes even took revenge on the field, he remained unfazed and maintained humility due to the Pisces in him. Extraordinary combination indeed.
The Gemini-tinged Harsha Bhogle is always at his eloquent best and another Gemini, the legendary Sunil Gavaskar, could mimic others, a typical Gemini trait. The Virgo, Kumble, could send that delivery 3,000 times at the same spot and the Aquarius in Ravichandran Ashwin makes him try hundreds of variations and even legspin.
When I looked only at the birth date of Virat Kohli, 5th November 1988, I wasn’t too impressed. 1988, eh! He would be just another cricketer. Cricket greats weren’t born in 1988. They were born in 1986–87. So, he was just a passing phenomenon. Some odd hits here and there and then he might fail and fade away. And, yes, if he was born before 15th November, then he undeniably had his sun in Libra and hence spoke so well. His aggression and passion? Yes, maybe he had his Mercury in Scorpio. I didn’t think it was important to look deeper. Maybe, winning the Under-19 World Cup would be the story of his life and there would be nothing more to add to it.
When I started seeing more and more of him, I was convinced that he was special.
Then one day, after many months of ‘knowing’ Virat, when I switched on the calculator, put in his birth details and checked the positions of his sun, Mercury and the moon, I was shocked. He didn’t have any personality-defining planet in the zodiac sign Scorpio. Neither the sun, nor Mercury, or the moon. Can you believe that?
The intense, aggressive, in-your-face brute force didn’t have any of his personality planets in Scorpio! To add to the horror, he had his sun and Mercury in Libra and the moon in Virgo, the exact combination of Amitabh Bachchan, Lal Bahadur Shastri and Leonardo Dicaprio.
Now, don’t allow the larger-than-life persona of Mr Bachchan to colour your thought process. If you peel off the superstardom of Mr Bachchan, you will see a sincere, workaholic, non-controversial individual who never gets into fisticuffs of any kind with anyone. And Lal Bahadur Shastri was the most ‘harmless’ PM we ever had, before Manmohan Singh came along!
Compare them with the confrontational, aggressive, foul-mouthed, menacing Virat Kohli!
Ramachandra Guha, noted historian and writer, wrote an article on Kohli that showcases his inherent characteristics. Probably nothing ever written on Kohli can ever match this piece for the way it brings out the essence of this cricket superstar. ‘No one in the entire history of the game in India has quite had Kohli's combination of cricketing greatness, personal charisma, and this extraordinary drive and ambition to win for himself and his team.
I would say that of all of India's great sportsmen past and present, he is the most charismatic. He is a man of a manifest intelligence (not merely cricketing) and of absolute self-assurance. Gavaskar and Dravid were as articulate as Kohli in speech, but without his charisma. Kapil and Dhoni had equally strong personalities but lacked Kohli's command of words.
Kumble was, by some distance, the greatest bowler produced by India. He was a superb thinker on the game. Moreover, he was well educated, well read, and had an interest in society and politics. And he was not lacking in an awareness of his own importance, although he carried his self-belief in a Kannadiga rather than Punjabi fashion.
It may be that Kumble alone is in the Kohli league as a cricketer and character. That perhaps is why they clashed and perhaps why Kumble had to go.
Ravi Shastri was chosen over Tom Moody (and other contenders) because Vinod Rai, Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and VVS Laxman were intimidated by the Indian captain into subordinating the in
stitution to the individual.
In Indian cricket today, the selectors, coaching staff and administrators are all pygmies before Kohli.[27]’
It is not that Guha found something no one knew before. Kohli always possessed this callous pride about him. He wore it on his sleeve just like he wore the passion to win.
Well, what all of this means is that Virat Kohli is certainly a Scorpio—the forceful, win-at-all-costs Scorpio. But the surprising thing is that if his official birthdate is correct, 5th November 1988, then he cannot be a Scorpio, since the sun, Mercury or the moon were NOT in Scorpio on that day! How can Virat possess those traits if he was born on that day? If it were the same date, but maybe a year or two earlier then, yes, it would make sense. He absolutely doesn’t seem to fit into the saintly combination of the Virgo-Libra of 5th November 1988.
If we go to 5th November 1987, we find that the sun and Mercury are in Libra and the moon is in Aries. Aries is the most aggressive zodiac sign other than Scorpio.
Yes, he does have the intelligence and the charisma of Libra and the aggression of Aries. Also, it was a full-moon day. Full-moon days are very auspicious and many extraordinary individuals are born during those days. Virat is, unquestionably, in that league.
If we go back a year further, on 5th November 1986, we find the sun in Libra, Mercury in Scorpio and the moon in Sagittarius. Guha mentions Virat’s manifest intelligence. Sagittarians are amongst the most intelligent about most things; Librans have style and a fabulous sartorial sense and Scorpios are the epitome of aggression and passion. This combo describes Virat Kohli perfectly.
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