Same old , some new

All the festivities and celebrations surrounding India's victory in the T20 world cup came crashing down. In a matter of 1 week since the Aussies started their 7 match series here, its been the same old comments on how the Indian team should improve their bowling and fielding. And the same sunken feeling in my stomach when the Aussies start assaulting the bowlers and demolishing the much-hyped Indian batting line-up.

The most note-worthy thing about this series has been the attitude of the players in the two teams. On earlier tours the Aussies would come-bully-win and go. On this tour, the Indians are giving it back to the Aussies in terms of bullying.

Now, I agree that it has gone over the top some times and the incident where Sreesanth tried to run Symonds out was plain stupid, but the fact remains that the Indians are not backing down to the Aussies. Only if they could perform well and win matches !!

My thoughts on the first couple of matches:

1. The Aussies seem to have planned to bat first and put up huge totals. Indians are perennial chokers when it comes to chasing and the Aussies seem to want to exploit this to the fullest.
2. The 2 captains (Mahi and Gili) are very likable, though Ponting came back for the 3rd ODI. (I'm not a huge fan of Ponting)
3. We saw sari-clad women distributing drinks during the ODI in Hyderabad !! What will they think of next ??
4. The grounds staff also performed a puja of the pitch !! Pity, it didn't help wake the Indian cricketing gods.
5. Mahi seems to play a fair game and I am impressed by his no-nonsense presence on the field.
6. Dravid seems to be lost on the ground. We hardly get to see him on the field. He does not even venture out to give any sort of advise to Mahi (which Sachin regularly seems to do). I don't know if something is amiss between Rahul and Mahi or if Rahul just wants to give Mahi his space. In any case, a few words here and there will definately help.
7. The team mgmt sat out Ganguly even when he was fit ?? I wonder why?? What was the sense of playing Rohit Sharma when Ganguly was available??
8. The behavior on the field improved considerably from the second to the third ODI. Maybe someone knocked some sense into Bhajji and Sreesanth.

India now needs to win all the remaining 4 ODIs to clinch the series. Though I don't see them doing that, I think they should use this series to identify players and get some match practice for the Pakistan series.

AND GET A COACH !!!

Inspirational Lecture by Randy Pausch

A friend forwarded this to me yesterday. Its a lecture from a professor of the Computer Science department at the Carnegie Mellon University, Randy Pausch.

Its part of a lecture series that the university initiated where-in they asked professors to give a lecture as if it were their "last". The ironic thing in this case is Randy Pausch has been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and has only a few days to live.

It is amazing to see this man's zest for life and the will to live his life to the fullest. Its also amazing how many people he has touched by his innovative methods of teaching. We need more such individuals.

This is truly an inspirational video.

A Change of guard

Its official, Mahendra Singh Dhoni (or Mahi as he is well known) was appointed the captain of the Indian Cricket ODI team this week. This after the previous captain, Rahul Dravid, quit citing reasons that were unheard of earlier. Rahul claimed that the Indian captaincy has a shelf life and that life was fast decreasing. Going be his comments and the timing of his resignation it would seem that the shelf life is close to 2 years. I read an interesting article from one of modern eras best captains, Steve Waugh, where he expressed concern at this fact. His point was that if indeed the shelf life is so small it does not augur well for Indian cricket. I agree with him. A captain needs at least 6 months to a year to settle in (depending upon his seniority in the team). Also, a captain needs time to shape the team and guide it in the direction in which he wants. This requires continuously interacting with the core of the team and instilling ethics and values into the players. This does not happen overnight and specially not in a unit like the Indian cricket team. Two years in my opinion in too short a time to do all these things and then start seeing results. Now, that said, Dhoni does have some favorable things on his side :

• He is part of a team that has 3 previous captains in Sachin, Saurav and Rahul. He could make use of their immense experience and knowledge of the game to not only learn quickly but also make effective decisions. The key here is that he should be able to make these decisions independently without being influenced by one individual.
• He is taking over a team that has been a pretty cohesive unit under Rahul for the better part of the year (after the Chappel fiasco).
• The seniors in the team are a helpful bunch with little or no ego issues. I'm sure that they will support him a 110%. This is very important because if the ex-captains turn on the new captain, it can ruin the team (look at the Pak team)
• He is a cool headed individual. This quality will be tested to the LIMIT in his new role. Specially with the expectations of the people for the Australia and more importantly the Pak series.
• He is the best new comer in the Indian team who can hold his place in both the ODIs and Test sides. This stops the other "youngsters" (Yuvi and Viru) from thinking that they deserved the role more than him.

The key here is that he has been appointed for the first 12 ODIs only. This means that he absolutely has to win the 2 series if he wants to keep his position and for that he has to hit the ground running.Dravid was comfortable from the get-go because he had been the vice captain for 4 1/2 years before that. It remains to be seen how long Dhoni takes before he can start becoming comfortable with his new role. Dhoni has already been given the captaincy of the Indian Twenty20 side for the world cup, but the real test is when he has to face Aus and Pak in the ODI series in India. I hope after these series, the shelf life does not reduce further !!

Djokovic - The Joker

Novak Djokovic reached the semis of the 2007 US Open yesterday and in the process irritated and entertained the crowd that had gathered to watch the match.
He has the irritating habit of bouncing the ball for a long time before serving. Yesterday, he went to the extent of bouncing it 28 times before serving. On an average, he bounces the ball atleast 10-12 times. Now, isn't that irritating? Imagine what it must do to his opponents?

He displayed a different talent yesterday by imitating various players on the court.
Here's an interesting video where he imitates quite a few players. I must say that he's good !!

Tendulkar to retire from ODIs?

An excellent win against England went a little sour with the news that Sachin Tendulkar is contemplating retirement from One day international cricket.

THE greatest batsman to ever play the game has amassed phenomenal amount of runs in both forms of the game and will be heralded as the greatest who ever played the game.

His stats speak for themselves. There is no one even close enough to challenge him for his position atop the ladder.

The news says that the Pakistan and Australia tours could be his last. These are the teams against whom he has repeatedly shone and we wish he does one better on his last tour !!

Here's one from two of his most memorable innings that he played in Sharjah against Australia. The first to put India into the finals and the second to win India the cup !!

Falling dollar

Here's something a lot of Indians working in the US track very very closely: The exchange rate.

We should be proud of the fact that the Indian economy is doing so well.

I heard an interesting piece on CNBC the other day with respect to currencies and the recent sub-prime loan problem that has taken over the US economy.

First, what exactly is the problem?

The US Dollar, being robust as it was, attracted a lot of foreign investors in the past. These investors dumped money into the US and facilitated the huge growth and economy that the US boasts. A lot of investments were made towards the lending industry here. Probably the largest investment went into the housing loan industry. There were more people to give out loans that people who wanted loans. So, invariably, people with bad credit history got loans approved that they would not have in the normal circumstances.
All was hunky-dory until the US economy started slowing down due to a lot of other factors (China and India included)
Suddenly people in the lower income strata did not have the kind of money left to pay off their loans. This resulted in a lot of foreclosures and a lot of people lost their houses. But, now there was no one to buy these houses (again because of the slow economy), so the prices of these houses came crashing down.
For example, a house that was sold at $500,000, 7-8 years back was now valued at $300,000. Because of this the loan companies started incurring a loss resulting in the foreign investors, who back these loan companies, incurring a loss.

The bleak future:
The financial analyst on CNBC said that the future was very very bleak for the US Dollar. He seemed to think that as the foreign investors start looking at other markets to invest in, the value of the dollar will plummet to an extent that it will no longer be the de-facto standard against which other currencies are measured. He also said that he was advising his clients against investing in the US and getting rid of their dollar cash reserves !!

If what he says is true, I'm sure it won't be long before we see the graph above dipping into the 30s.

Start sending your dollars home !!

Wanted - A coach for the Indian Cricket Team

A lot of people have come out in support of the current arrangement of the Indian cricket team. They are out on tour with no coach. Agreed, they have a bowling coach in Prasad and a fielding coach in Robin Singh, but they don't have a "head coach". It would seem that the senior players in the side have gotten together and formed a think-tank of sorts and they take decisions collectively.
However, my opinion is this kind of arrangement reduces the authority of the captain. If the captain needs to bounce off his ideas on other players in the team, he may be perceived to be indecisive and incapable of taking a decision on his own. The coach is the ideal person to complement the captain in this capacity. Also, you usually need an eye/brain that is not in the game to notice things that people in the thick of things may overlook. Almost all the coaches these days sit in the dressing rooms with laptops open, taking notes. Agreed, that you can have a statistician do the same, but a coach will analyze this data and then provide a synopsis to the captain. In the current scenario, Dravid needs to go through heaps and heaps of data to find out what will be beneficial to him.
Bottom line is a coach is required to help the captain. Ganguly and Sharad Pawar gave statements saying -

We are in no hurry to hire a coach. Besides, what will a coach teach players like Sachin, Rahul, Kumble etc.

That in my opinion is the worst attitude to have. If you think these players know everything, why do they not score a century or take 5 wickets everytime they bat or bowl? A senior cricketer can always add value to any player by virtue of their experience. And please don't tell me that these guys think they are so good that they don't need anyone's help.

The BCCI recently posted their requirements of the person who can apply to be a coach, and its about time too . They are :

The candidate must have played at least first class cricket and must possess experience of coaching an international or national team or should have been a coach at an elite coaching centre of international repute.

The aspirant should be a qualified coach with minimum Level III coaching credentials obtained from Cricket Australia, England or India and should also be able to build positive relations with the public and the media.

The coach's key responsibilities also include working closely with the selection committee and inter-acting periodically with the Review Committee to be set up by the board, it said.

He should have the ability to plan and manage programmes for the elite cricketers, should have basic Information Technology skills and be familiar with the use of performance analysis software packages.

The aspirant must also possess excellent communication skills to deal with different sections of people like players, team management, selectors and the BCCI, the release added.

The aspirant for the coach's position should be available to conduct clinics and workshops for the local coaches and provide the team with tactical expertise, according to the conditions laid down by the BCCI.

Another requirement stated by the board is that he should have basic knowledge of Indian cricket, player pathway, culture and ethos, should be capable of handling the team under high pressure situations and have outstanding organisational skills.

The candidate should have extensive coaching experience and expertise in working with elite cricketers.

The candidate should also have knowledge of international coaching trends and possess ability to use video technology, the release further said.

The term of the new coach will start on October 1 and involves extensive time away from home while travelling with the Indian team both within India and abroad, the BCCI has said.

My candidate -

conVICKt ?

OK, so you must have read by now how Michael Vick, the quarterback of the Atlanta Falcons, ran an illegal dog-fighting operation and killed dogs that were under performing.

What surprises me most is the kind of support he is getting from some quarters, especially other athletes. There hasn't been a single football player who has come out openly and condemned Vick's actions. Hell, some of them went to the extent of saying that he should be allowed to play when he returns.

I say, treat it as homicide and book him for multiple homicides. Isn't a dogs life a life? If he were to drown and hang and electrocute a human being, wouldn't you have put him behind bars for the rest of his life. Then why not now. This kind of behavior only proves what this man is capable of. Sending him back into society after 18 months is not going to change him. It may shake him up a little bit, but its certainly not going to reform him. Let him rot in the prison cell and think about the 8 poor dogs that he murdered. He deserves no less.

A lot of people have found ways to voice and show their displeasure at Vick's actions. The best one was where a student made her dogs chew Vick's trading cards and then sold them on eBay for charity. . [Update - It sold for $7400]

The three scumbags have run into a judge known to be strict and has handed out long sentences in the past. I hope he outdoes himself !!

Sania Mirza climbs to 28

Finally, something other than cricket that the country can obsess over.

Sania Mirza has climbed to the 28th rank in the recently released WTA tour chart.
She is now the first Indian woman ever to be seeded at the US Open (Seeded 26th).
Methinks this is a golden opportunity for her to climb even further up in the rankings.
If I were a betting person and looking at the draw, I would say she has a good chance of reaching the 4th round.

Her fan site states :

Sania Mirza is the current youth icon in India. Coming from Hyderabad, this teenager is creating history in Indian tennis by becoming the first ever Indian to break into the top-50 WTA rankings. She also became the first Indian woman to win a WTA tourney when she lifted the Hyderabad Open trophy in February 2005.

Still not out of her teens, Sania Mirza has got a huge fan following, both inside and outside the country. Having trained under C.G.Krishna Bhupathi (father of another famous Indian tennis star, Mahesh Bhupathi), Sania's ambition is to one day become one among the top-20 in the world. At the rate in which she is going currently, that day is not far off.

I agree. GO SANIA !!!

Weekend of Cricket

This weekend, like most others, I played some cricket with a team that I joined recently. We played a match in a local tourney here and even though it was no nail-biter, it had its moments.
A close game that went one way than another till about the last 15 min of play. We won the hard fought game eventually and now are at the top of our group.

Speaking of Cricket, a new cricket league has officially started in India called the Indian Cricket League (ICL). Its supposed to be a competitor to the BCCI in India.
ICL claims that they just want to help Indian Cricket by finding talented youngsters that have the potential of playing for India. They introduced 51 players at a glitzy ceremony yesterday and guess what, most of them are international rejects and semi-retired players (Press Conference). The remaining are players who have frequented the domestic circuit long enough to be "discovered" if they had talent to play at the highest level.

Lets face the truth. ICL has been established so that Zee can tap into the HUGE cricket market of the country. They are not here to serve Indian cricket by looking for youngsters and potential stars, they are here to make a buck (or millions). And the players joined to make a quick buck. Players like Lara and Inzy have finished their cricket careers and are now looking to make some quick money by playing minimum cricket. The rest were never in consideration for international selection anyway so they go where the money is (read: ICL)

But, on the flip side, its a welcome jolt to the BCCI who for too long has had a monopoly on the game. They run like a private organization and have done little or none to improve the domestic circuit in India. With the salaries that they offer the domestic players, its no surprise that fewer and fewer youngsters turn to cricket as a full-time profession and unless you don't treat cricket as a full-time profession, you're not going to reach the level thats required to play international cricket. They seem to be learning their lesson now but I wonder if they will ever match the kind of salaries that ICL is offering.

Here's the complete list of players who have signed contracts with ICL

International players
Inzamam-ul-Haq, Mohammad Yousuf, Abdul Razzaq, Imran Farhat, Lance Klusener, Nicky Boje

Indian players

Ambati Rayudu, Syed Abbas Ali Khan, Abhishek Jhunjhunwala, Abhishek T, Alfred Absolem, Avinash Yadav, Deep Dasgupta, V Devendran, Dheeraj Jadhav, Dinesh Mongia, Hemanth Kumar, Ibrahim Khaleel, Inder Shekar Reddy, Ishan Malhotra, J Hariesh, Jai Prakash Yadav, Kaushik Reddy, Laxmi Ratan Shukla, Manish Sharma, Mohnish Mishra, Puskaraj Mohan Joshi, R Satish, Rajesh Sharma, Ranjit Khirid, Raviraj Patil, Reetinder Sodhi, Robin Morris, Sachin Dholpure, Sarabjit Singh, Syed Akhlakh Ahmed, Shalabh Srivastava, Shashank Nag, Shibsagar Singh, Shreyas Khanolkar, Subhojit Paul, Subhomoy Das, Sumit Kalia, Dakshinamoorthy Kumaran, T Surendra, Thirunavukarasu Kumaran, G Vignesh, D Vinay Kumar, Yashpal Singh

The New India

I was at a party yesterday and came across a gentleman who, though born in India, has stayed in the US for 52 years.
It was an interesting conversation with him where a couple of us tried to enlighten him on the new India. Though he seemed interested at first, he soon started comparing facilities and infrastructure in the US with that in India and we figured we were fighting a lost battle.
But, the point is, India has progressed rapidly since the past couple of decades and the progress is here to stay.

Here an article called "India: the Empire strikes back" by acclaimed historian William Dalrymple which compares India of the 80s with the India of today. It gives me a lot of hope.

From Raj to riches: as India celebrates 60 years of independence, acclaimed historian William Dalrymple salutes a country returning to its pre-colonial wealth

When I moved back to India with my family four years ago, I took a lease on a farmhouse five kilometres from the boom town of Gurgaon on the south-western edge of Delhi. From my road I could see in the distance the rings of new housing estates, full of call centres, software companies and fancy apartment blocks, all rapidly rising on land that only two years earlier was billowing winter wheat.

The first time I lived in Delhi, in the late 1980s, Gurgaon was a semi-rural Haryana market town, with a single large Maruti car plant to one side; it was home to no more than 100,000 people.

Now it had become a city of several million; some said three million, some said more - the speed of growth was so enormous that it was difficult to obtain accurate figures. Either way, Gurgaon was now home to a population almost equal to that of my native Scotland.

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Independence Day

India became 60 years young yesterday. Ever wonder how everyone becomes a patriot on Independence day?

I remember vividly enjoying the holiday from school (after the flag hoisting) and playing cricket in the backyard with friends.
Its a great feeling to go to school and then leave within a couple of hours. On that day, even if you see a teacher, you know he is not going to drag you into a class and start teaching you. You are expected to be out of classrooms during the day. Everyone from the school comes together and the mood is great !! I loved it.. That personifies freedom to me. Enjoying what you love doing.

Here's the complete speech that India's first Prime Minister delivered on our first Independence day.



Long years ago we made a tryst with destiny, and now the time comes when we shall redeem our pledge, not wholly or in full measure, but very substantially. At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom. A moment comes, which comes but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the new, when an age ends, and when the soul of a nation, long suppressed, finds utterance. It is fitting that at this solemn moment we take the pledge of dedication to the service of India and her people and to the still larger cause of humanity.

At the dawn of history India started on her unending quest, and trackless centuries are filled with her striving and the grandeur of her success and her failures. Through good and ill fortune alike she has never lost sight of that quest or forgotten the ideals which gave her strength. We end today a period of ill fortune and India discovers herself again. The achievement we celebrate today is but a step, an opening of opportunity, to the greater triumphs and achievements that await us. Are we brave enough and wise enough to grasp this opportunity and accept the challenge of the future?

Freedom and power bring responsibility. The responsibility rests upon this Assembly, a sovereign body representing the sovereign people of India. Before the birth of freedom we have endured all the pains of labour and our hearts are heavy with the memory of this sorrow. Some of those pains continue even now. Nevertheless, the past is over and it is the future that beckons to us now.

That future is not one of ease or resting but of incessant striving so that we may fulfil the pledges we have so often taken and the one we shall take today. The service of India means the service of the millions who suffer. It means the ending of poverty and ignorance and disease and inequality of opportunity. The ambition of the greatest man of our generation has been to wipe every tear from every eye. That may be beyond us, but as long as there are tears and suffering, so long our work will not be over.

And so we have to labour and to work, and work hard, to give reality to our dreams. Those dreams are for India, but they are also for the world, for all the nations and peoples are too closely knit together today for any one of them to imagine that it can live apart Peace has been said to be indivisible; so is freedom, so is prosperity now, and so also is disaster in this One World that can no longer be split into isolated fragments.

To the people of India, whose representatives we are, we make an appeal to join us with faith and confidence in this great adventure. This is no time for petty and destructive criticism, no time for ill-will or blaming others.

We have to build the noble mansion of free India where all her children may dwell. The appointed day has come-the day appointed by destiny-and India stands forth again, after long slumber and struggle, awake, vital, free and independent. The past clings on to us still in some measure and we have to do much before we redeem the pledges we have so often taken. Yet the turning-point is past, and history begins anew for us, the history which we shall live and act and others will write about.

It is a fateful moment for us in India, for all Asia and for the world. A new star rises, the star of freedom in the East, a new hope comes into being, a vision long cherished materializes. May the star never set and that hope never be betrayed! We rejoice in that freedom, even though clouds surround us, and many of our people are sorrowstricken and difficult problems encompass us. But freedom brings responsibilities and burdens and we have to face them in the spirit of a free and disciplined people.

On this day our first thoughts go to the architect of this freedom, the Father of our Nation [Gandhi], who, embodying the old spirit of India, held aloft the torch of freedom and lighted up the darkness that surrounded us. We have often been unworthy followers of his and have strayed from his message, but not only we but succeeding generations will remember this message and bear the imprint in their hearts of this great son of India, magnificent in his faith and strength and courage and humility. We shall never allow that torch of freedom to be blown out, however high the wind or stormy the tempest.

Our next thoughts must be of the unknown volunteers and soldiers of freedom who, without praise or reward, have served India even unto death. We think also of our brothers and sisters who have been cut off from us by political boundaries and who unhappily cannot share at present in the freedom that has come. They are of us and will remain of us whatever may happen, and we shall be sharers in their good [or] ill fortune alike.

The future beckons to us. Whither do we go and what shall be our endeavour? To bring freedom and opportunity to the common man, to the peasants and workers of India; to fight and end poverty and ignorance and disease; to build up a prosperous, democratic and progressive nation, and to create social, economic and political institutions which will ensure justice and fullness of life to every man and woman.

We have hard work ahead. There is no resting for any one of us till we redeem our pledge in full, till we make all the people of India what destiny intended them to be. We are citizens of a great country on the verge of bold advance, and we have to live up to that high standard. All of us, to whatever religion we may belong, are equally the children of India with equal rights, privileges and obligations. We cannot encourage communalism or narrow-mindedness, for no nation can be great whose people are narrow in thought or in action.

To the nations and peoples of the world we send greetings and pledge ourselves to cooperate with them in furthering peace, freedom and democracy. And to India, our much-loved motherland, the ancient, the eternal and the ever-new, we pay our reverent homage and we bind ourselves afresh to her service. Jai Hind.

Introductions

Ramblings about an Indian staying in the land of opportunities.

3 years ago, if I would have read this statement, I would have assumed this Indian is staying in Bombay. Such was my mindset that I never even thought of coming to the US. I was happy where I was and was content with life.

Then came the fateful day when I was asked to go to the US, for a project, and ever since I became one of the herd.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that I don't like it here. Life's been good to me and I have been very lucky to have gotten this opportunity to work in the US, but I still long to be back home ...