Chappell VS Ganguly; Drama Ends in anticlimax

So once again we saw the worst infight melting down to a meek compromise. The peace-broker, BCCI, must be heaving a sigh of relief as it doused another flaming controversy and now they can concentrate on their own battle, the Elections. But does this truce means peace in Indian Cricket? Here is a post-mortem of the incidents that leads to the final show-down between the henchmen of Indian Cricket and the subsequent truce.

If you haven’t seen the full text of Greg Chappell’s e-mail, here is the copy of it.

http://baldy27.blogspot.com/

These are the main points Greg Chappell raised.

1. Saurav is not in a right frame of mind to lead Team India
2. He is faking injuries to avoid facing fast bowlers and new balls.
3. Spreading rumors to team mates that they are not wanted by the new coach, or in short bad-mouthing him within the team.
4. He is biased in his approach to team mates and
5. Manipulating team composition to save his place in team.

All these started with Saurav’s explosive revelations to the media right after his century in the 1^st test against Zimbabwe that he has been asked to step down. In his e-mail to the BCCI, Mr. Chappell vehemently deny this accusation and explained that it is Saurav who asked him as to what he thinks about his future in Indian Cricket. Being an Aussie, he made some frank observations, and Saurav went on to make a big issue of it. But that’s all now water under the bridge and let’s focus on this current issue, that WHAT HAD CHANGED now after the meeting to declare a ceasefire and shake hands? What was the role the review committee played to solve the acrimony between the coach and Captain? Who benefited from this fracas?

The immediate winner is, once again and as long as Dalmiya is at the helm of BCCI, Ganguly. He has not only held on to the captaincy but cleared his tarnished image that of scared of real fast bowling and negative influence in team. And got another chance to captain India.

From Chappell’s point of view, he is the winner in terms of long term goals. He knows that from now onwards he has a say in selection matters, Ganguly has to perform with the bat which is highly unlikely, and stamped his authority on the players.

The real winner, in short and long term, is Dalmiya. He has not only saved his protégé from going out unceremoniously, but made sure that he retained his captaincy and supremacy at least for the time being. And he bought more time for himself to fight off the threat of Pawar. Any drastic action should invite more criticism to him.

But the way Chappell and Ganguly accepted the formula put out by BCCI surprised every one. Every one was aware what Ganguly was up to. He just wants to save his place and even before the review committee meeting he was assured about it. But Chappell, a tough taskmaster, the typical Aussie, went down without a fight?

Now Ganguly won the confidence of the BCCI, and Chappell is being told in no uncertain terms that Captain is king on the field, and Coach should interfere only things off the field, has he lost his vision? Is The Commitment to Excellence a watered down version from now onwards? If members of the team defy him, what can he do? Has he found a place for Ganguly in his scheme of things? What about the negative influence?

The truce raised many questions than it answered. As Mahendra put it, from now onwards the selection criteria will be only performance. Does that mean it was not so until now? The answer of this question is public knowledge, yet he has to answer it.

Chappell must be fuming inside and this may reflect in his future approach to the team. A wary coach and un-trusting members is recipe for disaster. The after all the hand-shakes and media exercises just one fact emerges as ever. The loser in this drama is Cricket the game. And the true lovers of the game let down by the keepers. There may be more of this drama to come and more tamasha will be enacted before once again them shake-hands and patch-up. But the Cricket is dying here. A slow, painful death and only some divine intervention can save it from it’s sad destiny.

India and Athleticism; A lost dream

The topic was a hot item for every time India fails to make it in International arena. After every Olympics, Football World Cup qualifiers, International Athletic meets etc the International community and the people of India itself keep asking the same question. Why India can’t make it? There have been few answers so far. Some blame it on the system. Few others pointing their fingers towards the politician’s lack of will. But what is the real reason? What could make our athletes and players achieve it? Is there anything that we can do?

First let’s examine some big names in our country. There is always the ‘flying Sikh’ Milkha Singh. Then there is our sprint Queen P.T. Usha. Recently there is Anju Bobby George, Arjun Atwal, Leander Paese, Lt. Col. RajyaWardhan Singh to name a few. But in individual sport, our showing was never equal to the best in world. Our top ranked sportspersons are way down in international rankings. Just to endorse my view, here are some details of India’s individual medal tally In Olympics.

Year Category Medal Name

1952 Wrestling Bronze K.D. Jadav

1996 Lawn Tennis Bronze Leander Paes

2000 Weightlifting Bronze K. Malleswari

2004 Shooting Silver Maj. Rajyawardhan Singh

Total 4 medals!!.

So where are we? As Mr. Steve Sailer (president of the Human Biodiversity Institute and Adjunct Fellow of the Hudson Institute) put it, India is the biggest loser of Sydney Olympics. For a population of 1 billion, we have nothing to show but Silver. Perhaps we are too obsessed with cricket, that we ignored other sports? It's long been theorized that militaristic nations should be best at sports, since sport is fundamentally training for and recreation from fighting and hunting. This correlation, however, has proved hard to test since practically every nation on Earth has a pugnacious history. Ancient nations that didn't like war tended to be put to the sword.

Where does that leave us? May be we, Indians were repeatedly been passive subjects to invaders, are failed collectively to stand up and contest? In the long history of colonization, we can get enough prove that we accepted defeat before standing up and fight. True, there were some exceptions and it is because those people we enjoy our freedom today. But the colonized mindset of our people still force them to believe that if things are from English speaking country, it should be better than ours. It is this believe that made cricket this popular.

Other thing that should be explored is our physique. The average height of an American is 5’9” and they are tallest along with Dutch and Norwegians. World Health organizations studies shows that the average height is a direct indicator to the well-being of the country, i.e. access to Public health care, nutritional food etc. Research has shown that average height is significantly associated with a country's per capita income. And this is directly linked to the infrastructure and facilities a nation can provide for sports. Of all races, Asians are shortest, but Indians are not the shortest in Asia. Japanese qualify for this, but they were way ahead of us in terms of Olympic medals. So not only height influences the performance but the physique as a total is the key. India, burdened by the ever-growing population, can’t afford to spend big bucks on providing infrastructure and new equipment which are a necessity for winning at the top level. We compete on bad turfs, cheap equipments and when it comes to international level, are up against the best in world.

There is no lack of talent here. But most of these young talents are nipped in the bud. Instead of providing best facilities, the authorities discourage the upcoming talents by not doing anything for them. Except cricket, no other sport in India can be a full time profession. There is no money or incentive in it. So now stop lamenting every time we fail to win a medal. Admit that we are not up to it. We couldn’t do it. Physically, mentally, gene-wise we are ill-prepared or not prepared at all. There may be a time when India leads the medal charts. But not in my or your lifetime.

The Circus Called Indian Cricket

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India won a test series outside the subcontinent after long 19 years! Cheers to our team for their extra ordinary performance. It takes a lot of effort to beat a team like Zimbabwe! The perennial whipping boys of International cricket were actually the winner of the series. They can take heart from their performance, such as Taibu’s Batting & keeping, Heath Streak’s return to form and Andy Blignaut’s all-round display. Just before the Indian team’s visit, The Kiwis just pummeled them into submission. Just look at these statistics.

1st Test : New Zealand won by an Innings and 294 Runs Ended in just two days

New Zealand 452 in 89 Overs at and average of 5.08!!

Zimbabwe were bowled out twice in a day, only the second team to suffer the

Ignominy, for the scores 59 & 99!

2nd Test: New Zealand won by an Innings and 46 runs ended in three Days.

This was a better performance from Zimbabwe, they managed to take 10

Opposition Wickets.

Compare this with Indian team's performance;

1st Test: India Won by an Innings and 90 Runs. Ended in 4 days!

India scored 554 runs at an average of 3.6! Zimbabwe's average: 2.83

2nd Test: India won by 10 wickets!

Average: 3.41

In fact the results doesn't show the pathetic show put up by Indian players. Those who follow international cricket are well aware the depth Zimbabwean cricket plummeted to.

Teams visiting Zimbabwe returned with their bagful of records. Career best figures, fastest hundreds, highest team total, etc. etc. Had it not been for Pathan, India would have suffered the humiliation of drawing the second test. The most amusing thing is that the way Indian Captain Saurav Ganguly scored his century in the first test. 262 balls for his 101. At a lowly average of 2.6 per over!! Right after scoring his labored century, he was seen talking to reporters about how coach Greg Chappell asked him to step down. Now he must be feeling that he has another 10 years of cricket left in him! Nothing else can be expected from a self-oriented player like him. If our selectors had any sense, he must have cooling his heels back home. Or may be it’s time that we introduce a new concept like Davis Cup’s Non-Playing Captain!! Just to accommodate him.

More drama was to unfold. For no apparent reason Mohammed Kaif, one of India's finest batsman, was dropped for the second time. It is said that the reason behind the drop is that a batsman from Punjab can be included in the playing eleven so that in the forth coming BCCI elections, the ruling faction can persuade the Punjab officials to vote for them!

More about the elections later. The way Indian cricket is headed is a heart-ache for the fans who love the game. Ever since the new coach took charge, there's been talk of rift in the team, indiscipline of players coming to the fore etc. Is it a new phenomenon? No. In fact one Poor John Wright will be the right person to vouch that. But he was a thorough gentleman and believed in not ruffling any feather. There were rumors that the Kiwi has subjected to humiliation from a senior player. But Chappell is an Aussie and a tough nut.

The captain and his loyalists may want to harass him. They must be hoping, fed-up and dispirited, the coach may then quit. Only time will tell that the professionalism of a fine coach or feudalism of an outspoken captain will win. Till then we can expect more dirty linen being washed in the public.

But the way our players celebrate when you win or score a century against minnows like Zimbabwe truly shows how deep we have fallen. Lately Zimbabwe has been at receiving end of cricket. Take a particular Heath Streak and may be a Taibu, the rest is no international material. The world knows it. But our guys celebrated like they have just beat Australia and won the world Cup. Only one good thing emerged from this circus. This time around, Ganguly doesn't have to search for excuses. Since we won a series outside the subcontinent after 19 years, he can hold his head high. But the people know better, Captain. They are watching. May the statistics are on your side. The selectors too. But the real guardians of the game, the people, gave the verdict. Your days are numbered in international Cricket.

Hurricane Katrina Devastates US

New Orleans is reeling under the havoc wrought by Hurricane Katrina. It is the worst natural calamity to hit the US in more than 100 years. Thousands are feared dead and the city, which was famous for it’s below-sea-level altitude, is completely under sea now. The damages are reported to be above $100 Billion. The levees that protected the city gave way to the waves of Katrina and it may be months before the city can return to normalcy. May be years.
There were a lot of comparisons between the recent Mumbai floods and Katrina striking New Orleans. There were reams of newsprint spend on describing how efficient were their rescue operations and how swiftly they reacted. Not denying any of that. True, they have sophisticated tracking instruments, co-coordinated disaster management, and well organized local administration. It’s also true that our own BMC has completely failed to foresee the cloud-burst and take appropriate action. In short it was pathetic show. Kudos for their evacuation & rescue operations. The comparisons of this kind is totally out of place. Compared to their plight ours was just a minor calamity. But despite having all these, they failed to handle the aftermaths of the disaster.
This disaster has brought the worst out of American public. For so long, all the natural calamities, terrorist attacks and famine was just news for them. Now the grim reality of being homeless, being foodless and out in the cold stares them in the face. This has started with the terrorist attack on WTC. From then on, American public lived in constant fear. They were suspicious about everything. Now as the nature hit them savagely, the brutality and opportunism, so far hidden by a thin veil of sophistication, burst out. The looting and atrocities that is taking place in these affected areas are so far a third world stamp all over it. The poor, black-dominant state was in the front page of all news papers for the crimes that occurred in these cities.

What has triggered such an ugly behavior in normally content and easy-going Americans? The fact of the matter is, Americans were living under a false sense of security. That they are the superpower; they have the wherewithal and might to tackle every kind of attacks. The sight of that façade crumbling down in front of their eyes must have taken them to such low levels. There is no more security, no homes to return to, no money and some of the least sophisticated turn to violence. They are not sure they can emerge from this chaos alive. So a minority turned to looting, thinking of exploiting the situation, but it has a devastating effect on the morale of the average US citizen.

Another thing that contributes to this utter chaos is the shortage of rescue team and low and order is in total disarray. There is gunfire and rioting everywhere. Where are the specially trained forces to handle such situations? They are fighting in Iraq. 60 % of this special force is serving in a losing battle when US is reeling under the aftermath of such complete destruction. The rioting and violence prompted the Governor of New Orleans to issue a shoot-to-kill order to the police. He called it a national Disgrace and he wouldn’t tolerate any of these violence.
What about the rioting, rape and muders? The scene in New Orleans is one directly from hell. There are corpses everywhere, tens of thousands people are confined in refugee-shelters, and the total lack of transport and primary facilities must have provoked these poor fellows. They are ready to fly off the handle and at the mildest provocation, the savagery is out. This is the situation where none of your sophistication, your tenderness wouldn’t work. Everybody is in shock and not in the right state of mind. Surrounded by filth and dead bodies, without food or clean water, no connection to the outside, no wonder they are on the verge of snapping.
My heart goes out to the affected, and sincerely hopes to see their plight ends soon. But the Government of United State of America must understand that there are forces that are out of their control and they are not above the normal human being. When your own is suffering you don’t talk about killing others. So stop the futile wars, stop spreading hate and violence. It’s time to think about Love. At your plight, the whole world weeps with you. If you felt the pang of losing dear ones, think about the pain you inflict for millions of people, millions of mothers, millions of families. Awake and realize. Stop spending billions of dollars for killing. There is a lot of families out there homeless and foodless. Let’s all join hands to help them.

Plastic Ban-Belated reaction

[03/09/2005 12:44:33] | [mshinu@gmail.com ]
Plastic Ban-Belated reaction
At last, our government awakening to a plight that has been beleaguered Mumbai for last few decades. It took the government a loss of about 150 human lives and about 5000 crores rupees to react. Was it Plastic bags that caused the 26/7 flooding in Mumbai and the subsequent chaos? Wasn’t our over-burdened and century old infrastructure is not responsible?
Though the city’s Drainage network is century old, the main factor leads to the clogging of these are plastic bags. If you notice where open spaces are digging to lay a pipe or for a new building, under a few inches from the surface you can see a colorful layer. White, Red, Blue & Black. Little faded due to the dirt on them, but still bright and colorful. Imagine a scene after 200 years. Everything changes, but the little plastic demons will outlive all of us and our coming generations. 400 years, they stay intact. 27% of the total wastage Mumbai generates every day is plastic. This is inadvertently gets into the pipe network and clogging them. People carelessly toss these into their own backyard and they get buried under the earth and it blocks the rain water from getting absorbed by earth.
There is a lot of hue and cry from the manufactures of plastic. The reason: Lot of jobs lost. If a product is harmful to the society, it must be banished. If the government gives in to the pressure of plastic manufacture’s pressure tactics, the day is not far when manufactures of other banned substance like Gutkha will plead the same.
The only thing remains to see is how the government plans to implement this law. Proper steps must be taken before enacting it because two years back somewhat same law was passed and after the initial enthusiasm, it died a premature death. Plastic bags under 20 microns are still available freely. The people must be educated about the perils of plastic bag usage and encouraged to use other alternatives through massive awareness programs and stricter norms to control the spread of illegal use. May we are little late to react, but at least for the sake of our coming generations, let’s preserve what is left of our beloved mother Earth. Don’t choke her. Let her breath.

Indain Cricket-Good for other sports

Indain Cricket-Good for other sports
Te recent performance of our over-hyped, over-rated cricket team has generated a big cry from enthusiastic fans. Every conversation, be it in a crowded local train, restaurant or coffee-breaks revolves around this subject. There is a big disappointment about the whole thing. And drawing the most flak from public is our Captain Ganguly. Whatever the situation, or whoever to be blamed, I am glad that at last, our team is where they are deserved to be. At a lowly spot of 7 where the total number of countries that features in the list is a mere 11 as per latest ODI rankings of ICC. They were world beaters once. But now they are just a bunch of chokers. The only thing is still intact in our team is the egos of our cricketers. They still carry that inflated egos despite all the humiliating deafeats our team is subjected to. Despite all the beatings we take, they still sports that arrogant, devil-may-care attitude, which is annoying the most. I have recently spoke to about a 75 people, coming from different back-ground are were a die-hard fans. About 64 % of these WERE hard-core cricket fanatics, now turning attention to other spectator friendly sports like F1, tennis mainly because two Indians are involved in this, or watch interesting cricket like the current Ashes series. 36% are still what they were, watching cricket matches as they used to when India was performing big-time.
The recent slump in our cricketing fortunes is in fact a good thing, as I see it. If trends are anything to go by, the long-forgotten, long-neglected sports are fast catching up and if the cricketers continue their Good show for other sports they will be the new national interest in near future. Take the case of Khel Ratna awards this year and not a single cricketer made the cut. A Narain Karthikeyan and a Sania Mirza is catching more eye balls than a Sachin Tendulkar or Saurav Ganguly. These Overly-pampered, the self-proclaimed demy-god cricketers are facing the grim reality of being dethroned from their ivory towers. Another gleaming example is a particular Major Rajyawardhan Sing who won a Olympic silver medal in Shooting. He is a true national hero in every sense of the word. Anju Bobby George, the long jumper won many hearts. Gone are the days when corporates are jumping for cricketers as their brand ambassadors and looking for alternatives. Reports suggest that the same corporates who were reluctant to sponsor Narain Karthikeyan when he was looking for a seat in F1, now pumped up $19 Million to sponsor him. Only Hokey remains in the backyard now, but if the present administration is very adamant that it would never allow hokey to come forward and flourish by their dictator-like ruling and nefarious selection policies.
BCCI, the controlling body of Cricket in India has done everything possible to speed up the demise of cricket in India. Ridden by crippling factionalism, they are more interested in raking in money even if it is at the cost of national interest. They even went to the extent of declaring in a Court of Law that the cricketers represent not the Country, but the board. I guess if that’s the case, we shouldn’t worry about our teams plummeting ratings. They are just a club, and therefore, doesn’t represent our nation. And they don’t have time for administration of the game. One Big patriarch at the head, even though in the shadows, controls the show by pulling the strings of a puppet President. They can’t even arrange preparatory camps before they embark on a tour, as was the case in the recently started Zimbabwe tour. Most of their time is spend in courts, defending themselves against various cases regarding Television right. The ineptitude of them leads to many legal tussles which was otherwise avoidable.
These are good signs that the nation is coming out the iron-like grip of cricket, the colonized mentality of ours, and are concentrating more on other true sportspersons. The true professionals, who sacrifice their family life, their other interests in order to pursue the greater height await them and our country. The professionalism of our Cricket captain is such that, he came to the tour party late in the evening, so that he can celebrate his wife’s birth day bash, when the coach asked them to report In the morning.
So move over the Tendulkars and Gangulys, other true sportspersons are here. Hats off, Narain, Mirza and others. Keep on the good show. The nation is behind you.

Gujarat-Some deliberate Mistakes

Gujarat-Some deliberate Mistakes
Gujarat is again in the news! As usual for all the wrong reasons. This time, it is for making a new rule, making parental consensus mandatory for court marriages. And those in the-know will admit that; in India 90% court marriages are love marriages. It is goes without saying that most of these marriages are without parental consensus. So what is the exact purpose behind this draconian rule? If you are watching the developments in Gujarat for some time, you can see a pattern is evolving. Very ruthless one.

There is a very conscious effort to make the gap between two communities wider. Ever since Narendra Modi is elected second time as the CM, this effort has been more profound. A string of measures are introduced in the state to further alienate the minority. The attack on Christian Priests, continuous rioting, and now a new regulation to prevent inter-cast marriages. This is just to name a few. The agenda of the Gujarat Government is clear as crystal. They want a Hindu state. Rid of Muslims or any minorities. When the Ayodhya makeshift temple was attacked, there was a Bandh in Gujarat. Who had benefited from it? In fact the terrorists. Ultimately they were successful in spreading the terror one way or other and bring life to a standstill. There is a growing intolerance towards the minority. In a case, a hindu procession allegedly threw vermillion into a mosque and that sparks another riot. The violoation of Human rights in this state is so widespread that none of them considering it as human right violation. It has become a norm there. Now once L.K. Advani resigns as Party Chief, it is widely believed that Mr. Modi will be outsted as the CM of Gujarat.

In it’s attempt to gain popularity among investors, Gujarat CM Narendra Modi has downplayed the significance of The Genocide and put it just as a mere riot. The truth is it wasn’t a riot and selective killings. The hawks in the state machinery were looking for an opportunity and it was a heaven-send excuse, the Sabarmati carnage, for them. Till today the real perpetrators of that crime has not been caught, but there are strong doubts regarding who (read which community) was behind it. Ever heard of an old adage sacrificing our own to achieve better goals? Forensic experts say somebody from outside poured an inflammable liquid, like kerosene or petrol, into the ill-fated compartment and set it ablaze. It’s just that the location was close to a Muslim dominant area the majority was made to believe that it was Muslim’s handiwork. This started a widespread riot. Instead of controlling the riot and asking for military assistance, the local government started it’s vengeance and purging. If it wasn’t a Genocide, then how come that all sufferers belongs to the minority? An MLA and some prominent personalities were killed in these incidents but there was not a single enquiry and no convictions. The best publicized case, the Best Bakery case, is still in the court but seeing the see-sawing nature of the prime witness, Zahira Shake, we could be assured about the outcome of that trial too.
After the riot there was sporadic incidents reported from Gujarat but no one paid much attention to it. Then came the elections, and much to the surprise of Human rights activists, Narendra Modi came back to power with a thumping majority. Was this verdict is an approval for his well-known role in the killings? If you dig deep, there was a lot of rumors about minorities prevented from voting and widespread fake voting.



Times of India July 23, 2005
Parental Consensus need for Court marriage; Gujarat
Hitler glorified in std 9 & 10 text book. Holocaust removed and glorifying remarks such as fierce nationalism, self-pride atc.
These are not a lone incidents. These are precursors to the change that is about to happen in Gujarat. Deliberate mistakes made to test the water. It is time that the secularists in this country should awaken to these demons to fight and save our beloved land.

Goa-Tha land of Fun

Wondering where to go this vacation? Well, pack your bags and go to Goa, the land of sun, sand and Churches. But not necessarily in that order. It’s up to your preferences. Or priorities. But God gave these three things to Goa in abundance. One should have a great appetite to get all of it.
I always wanted to visit, but all the time one or other commitments stopped me from being there. But by the time I was ready to go back, I thought my wait was worthwhile. “Sabr ka phal meetha hota hai!!” The fruit of Patience is very sweet. Even though I only got to see the capital and places around it, I think like, the things I saw are beautiful, those I didn’t are magnificent. It makes me want to go back there soon.
What makes me to praise Goa so much? Is it the white, pristine beaches? Or the bud-tickling taste of sea food? Or yet the easygoing natives? Imposing monumental structures? Or that night cruise? Guess I’ll debate that for the rest of my life without any answer. The only drawback, or what Goa lacks is night life. Most of the bars & hotels shut their gates around 10:30 or 11. As a Mumbaikar, I am used to go to a hotel and get my food even at 12:00 or later than that.
I have visited the peninsula of Dona Paula, Miramar beaches. The view from the top of the structure at Dona Paula is breath taking. And then Fort Aguada, the old Jail, the greenery, everything is fantastic. Landscape apart, what I found most interesting in Goa is the discipline while driving. I was mildly irritated when my friend stopped his vehicle at every corner, look out at the intersection then go on. Here in Mumbai, I never remember anybody ever done that. What amazes me is that it’s not only him, but taxis and Rickshaws, and even youngsters did that! Can you imagine an autoriksha stops at an intersection in Mumbai and wait for a cyclist to pass?
One other thing I must mention is the state of the roads. The new highways and roads and gleaming! I was thinking most of the time about Mumbai’s pot-hole filled roads and how they dig the roads right after they mended it. Here I give you an advice. If you got a Ferrari or Renault, then take it to Goa and the highways there won’t break it! Not one pot-hole, no protruding manhole lids nor dangerously close-to-the-road hutments. One must laud such development in such a small state.
And the last but not least, Bike Taxis. These guys weave through the traffic, (not like Mumbai’s choc-a-block traffic) taking you to your destination within minutes. I was little afraid when this cabbie (can I call him that?) was negotiating curves through the right side. But that was his trust in the system. It was a one-way road and he was sure no one will come the wrong way. In which other city, one can be that assured? I think may be in Europe or US. Not in India.
So what are you waiting for guys? Pack your Back-Packs, don’t forget to take that camera of yours and get there!