Cricket circa. 2009

Rohan sent to me an article with prophetic predictions for the Indian cricket team in a few years time.

The Times Of India 14th Feb, 2009:

India is playing in a 5 nation tournament ; the other countries being Uganda, Sudan, Papua new guinea and the mighty Bolivia. Today is a must win match for India against tournament favourites Bolivia for a berth in the semi finals. The winner of the tournament will fight for a place to enter the top 35 rankings in the world.

On the morning of the match, a strategy session is being held by Greg and Rahul. This is how it goes.

Greg: Boys, this is one of the most important matches in the last three years. We have to beat Bolivia. Lets go through the batting line up and the bowling line up in this meeting.

Greg: So Sourav, you will open right?

Sourav: I don't know. Bolivia has a pace bowler who only bowls short pitch deliveries. His pace is consistently in the range 55-60 miles /hour. I cannot handle all that pace.

Greg: Oh, thats ok. He won't dare to bowl short pitch stuff against the Indian batsman (we have such good credentials). If he does by mistake, just to make a statement to the media, get Hit Wicket and come back. Such non sense should not be tolerated.

Greg: So who will partner Sourav.

Rahul: I think Sehwag should. He looked in form in the last game against Sudan. He hit 5 fours between first slip and second slip before he got caught at second slip. I think he is in the pink of his form and he should open.

Greg: Thats good.

Greg: Sachin, you will bat at four ... ok?

Sachin: I don't know.I have to go shopping at 11. That means I can't bat beyond ten overs.

Greg: Sourav and Sehwag will last till six overs. So, you will come then. Don't worry, just play your natural game and follow your instincts. You will go by ten overs.

Greg: So Dhoni, you will keep?

Dhoni: I am not keeping. Last time, I kept for three hours. My hair is getting spoiled. I have thousands of lice in my hair. As a result, the cows in my village have started snubbing me and my advances. These days, dragonflies have started staying in my hair as their food lice is there. I need a haircut, I am not playing.

Greg: Please play just one more match, its the mightly Bolivians, just one last one. Please !

Dhoni: Ok. But don't do this next time.

Greg meanwhile was going through the batting averages and noticed that Dravid had the longest stay at the crease for the last 67 matches. So he asked Dravid to give a presentation in front of the team as to what motivated him so much and what was the secret to his concentration.

Dravid: My wife is extremely ugly. So, I try to stay as long as possible away from her. That is why I play a low risk game (In the last game, he hit 3 runs from 92 balls). If I get out, I have to go back to her.

Everyone starts applauding. What an inspirational cricketer.

Now it is time to decide on the bowling line up.

Greg: Obviously Zaheer is opening. He was brilliant last game. (Zaheer had bowled only 23 wides in the last match and he picked up three wickets. The secret to this brilliant bowling performance was a result of a mentoring session from Venkatesh Prasad. Prasad told him that to bowl from mid off and aim at Third slip. As a result, Zaheer returned with the best figures in the match.)

Greg: Off-late I have noticed that Rahul has been facing a lot of pressure and so we have decided to come up with Batting, Bowling and Fielding Captain to relieve Rahul of some of the responsibility.

Greg: I have noticed that Munaf Patel has stayed not out in the last three matches (all the other batsmen had got out by then). I admire the commitment of this lad and as a result he is the Batting Captain.

Greg: I was also going through this figure. Sourav has been involved in 177 run outs. But he himself has never got out. He values his wicket so much. I think we all need to Congratulate him on the price he sets for his wicket. Sourav, you are the running-between-wickets captain.

Greg: Anil has been sitting on the bench for the last three years. He keeps taking snaps throughout the match. He is such a team-man. I think we need to recognize this loyalty. Anil, you are the Bowling Captain.

Greg: Harbhajan is the fielding captain.

Rahul: But he dropped the catch in the last match when he dived to his right to take it.

Greg: At least he dived in the right direction.

After this intense brainstorming session, India looks all set to take on Bolivia. Please pray for the team's success.

Invade Iran now ?

A Video footage of the British Captives taken hostage by Iran has just been released. The detainees agree to trespassing into Iranian waters and also claim to have met with "friendly, hospitable and thoughtful' people.

It is very interesting to note that the voices coming from the British Ministries have a much harsher and an indignant tone than the people held captive in this report. There have been reports of other even more drastic developments .

Coming back to the original report, I do not find the attitude of the detainees hard to believe. It is easy to imagine a group of Britishers being treated well by people of Iran. Yes ! One can imagine an Israeli man shaking a friendly hand with a Palestinian and how very easy it is for an Indian to have a Pakistani friend. It does not sound unbelievable at all. It is natural - You meet someone new and different, and it is instinctive to be respectful !

It is a real pity that when the Governments are involved and when societies as a whole interact with another alien societies - the possibility of peaceful co-existence always seems more remote. Societies as a whole are always wary of each other.

I hope that the governments of USA and UK do not leverage incidents as these as an excuse for another invasion ! It is important that these powers of the world realize that it would be much more fruitful to develop bonds of peace - rather than to start wars.

It is important for economic and humanitarian reasons that USA and UK learn to live peacefully with the rest of the world.

A power which cannot control itself, is no power at all.

Whether good sense prevails - time shall tell.

Slinged 4 in 4

In a brilliant display of fast bowling, Lasith Malinga captured 4 South African wickets in 4 balls - including the well set Kallis.

On observing his bowling carefully I am left wondering if he "bowled" his way to the 4 wickets, or "Slinged" his way to 4 wickets ?

I know there is no bent elbow - Even then, am I the only one who finds his action a 'bit of suspect' ?

A bad bad day ...

I saw a forward in my inbox after the India-Bangladesh game.

It was one of those marginally humorous jokes that you tend to read - the kinds that get twisted a bit here and a tad there before being sent out for their bouts with our spam filters - till you must have read ten different flavors of the same joke.

When I read through it - I thought to myself that it was funny in a gloomy sort of way - one of those that attempt to draw a silver-lining smile from you from an otherwise gloomy cloud. It did make me smile though.

But looking back in hindsight - that forward in my mail-box was a cruel cruel one. It was plain sadistic ! People ought to think before forwarding such cruel things !

It is just a game. I know. But it has been a bad bad day.

Here is that cruelly humorous forward.

HER DIARY

Day night, I thought he was acting weird. We had made plans to meet at a cafe to have some coffee.I was shopping with my friends all day long, so I thought he was upset at the fact that I was a bit late, but he made no comment. Conversation wasn't flowing so I suggested that we go somewhere quiet so we could talk, he agreed but he kept quiet and absent. I asked him what was wrong - he said, "Nothing. "I asked him if it was my fault that he was upset. He said it had nothing to do with me and not to worry.On the way home I told him that I loved him, he simply smiled and kept driving.I can't explain his behavior; I don't know why he didn't say, "I love u,too."When we got home I felt as if I had lost him, as if he wanted nothing to do with me anymore . He just sat there and watched TV. He seemed distant and absent. Finally I decided to go to bed. About 10 minutes later he came to bed. I decided that I could not take it anymore, so I decided to confront him with the situation but he had fallen asleep. I started crying and cried until I too fell asleep.I don't know what to do. I'm almost sure that his thoughts are with someone else . My life is a disaster.



HIS DIARY

India lost the cricket match against bangladesh.

Nike Cricket - A great commercial

The Pleasure of Finding Things !

For people who enjoy "finding things" - here's a video of Richard Feynman himself. A great watch !

Prisoner

Rabindranath Tagore's Gitanjali is one the premier works in Indian Literature. Here is a great work from Gitanjali - Prisoner

Prisoner

`Prisoner, tell me, who was it that bound you?'

`It was my master,' said the prisoner.

`I thought I could outdo everybody in the world in wealth and power,

and I amassed in my own treasure-house the money due to my king.

When sleep overcame me I lay upon the bed that was for my lord,

and on waking up I found I was a prisoner in my own treasure-house.'

`Prisoner, tell me, who was it that wrought this unbreakable chain?'

`It was I,' said the prisoner, `who forged this chain very carefully.

I thought my invincible power would hold the world captive

leaving me in a freedom undisturbed.

Thus night and day I worked at the chain

with huge fires and cruel hard strokes.

When at last the work was done

and the links were complete and unbreakable,

I found that it held me in its grip.'

- Rabindranath Tagore

World Cup '07 Bhavishya-Vani

The Mega Cricketing event of the year will be commencing tommorow- can't wait for the action to start !

I will try to make some predictions on paper (err ... on keyboard) before the event begins. Time will tell how these predictions pan out in the long run. :)

In my opinion, this will be the most open world cup ever. Since the Australian team has been showing signs of vulnerability for the first time in many years, there have emerged plenty of contenders to challenge the Aussies. India, Sri Lanka and Pakistan should be able to do well in the West Indian conditions, while England and New Zealand have a new found confidence after beating Australia. A Brian Lara led West Indies, playing at home should also be a very dangerous team to come across - especially if Lara is on song.

Lets make this interesting by rating each team by how likely I think they are to win the world cup. In theory this approach should be a much safer approach then predicting one outright winner.

My Predictions for the Teams to Win the World Cup:

Australia -------------- 1/3
India ------------------ 1/3.5
Sri Lanka ------------- 1/5
South Africa: --------- 1/5.5
West Indies: ---------- 1/6
England: -------------- 1/7
Pakistan: -------------- 1/7
New Zealand: --------- 1/7.5
Zimbabwe ------------- 1/800
Bangladesh ------------ 1/1000
Kenya ------------------ 1/Inf
Netherlands ----------- 1/Inf
Scotland --------------- 1/Inf
Ireland ----------------- 1/Inf
Bermuda --------------- 1/Inf
Canada ----------------- 1/Inf

I will also be more adventurous and try to predict the performances of "my" team for the tournament - Team India. I will try to guess which players will do well, by putting numbers for their batting/bowling averages for World Cup' 07. At the end of the tournament, I can look back and see how close I was to predicting the fortunes of my favorite players .

So here is team India, and I have rated each player for what I think will be the batting average and a bowling average of that player for WC '07.

My Predictions for Player Performances :

Rahul Dravid Batting: 55 Bowling: NA

Sachin Tendulkar Batting: 60 Bowling: 45	Sourav Ganguly Batting: 50 Bowling: 40
Ajit Agarkar Batting: 10 Bowling: 25	Virender Sehwag Batting: 25 Bowling: 40
Harbhajan Singh Batting: 15 Bowling: 30	Zaheer Khan Batting: 10 Bowling: 27
MS Dhoni Batting: 40 Bowling: NA	S Sreesanth Batting: 5 Bowling: 30
Dinesh Karthik Batting: 25 Bowling: NA	Robin Uthappa Batting: 35 Bowling: NA

Anil Kumble Batting: 10 Bowling: 28

Yuvraj Singh Batting: 35 Bowling: 40

Irfan Pathan Batting: 20 Bowling: 30

Munaf Patel Batting: 10 Bowling: 24

Pictures Courtesy - http://cricketworldcup.indya.com

And Last, but not the least - I will also try to stick my head out and pick one player from each of the major contenders for WC' 07. These are the players that I think would be the most dangerous/valuable players for each team ( be it due to their batting/ bowling/ fielding/ captaincy/ experience/ .... ). Ultimately - I deem that a great WC '07 for any of these players could lead to that particular country doing very well in the tournament.

Here are my picks for valuable players :

Australia ------------- R. Ponting
India ----------------- S. Tendulkar
Sri Lanka ------------ S. Jayasurya
South Africa --------- G. Smith
West Indies ---------- B. Lara
England -------------- K. Pieterson
Pakistan -------------- Inzamam. Haq
New Zealand --------- S. Fleming


Let the games begin ! Go India !

UPDATE: results

Bemtya Joshi's new found spirituality

Gaurav Sabnis has been translating some of Pu La's works and posting them online. Check out this part of "Asa Mi Asa Mi". A lot of the humor may be better appreciated in the original marathi rendition. But even in the translated version - Pu La ROCKS ! :)

Divide Pakistan ?

There has been an interesting and even outrageous series of advertisements, articles and even a book detailing the role of Pakistan in fostering terrorism. The author of the book is a France based gentleman called Jamaluddin Syed.

Mr Syed raises some interesting arguments about Pakistan's role in world terrorism - especially pointing to the grooming of the "terrorist mindset". He claims that no other country in the world other than Pakistan - be it N. Korea, Iran or Syria, actually "groom the terrorist mindset" as Pakistan does.

He further delves into the cause of creation of this "terrorist mentality" - arguing that the manner in which Pakistan was created in 1947 had a large role to play.

He also offers an outrageous but interesting solution to the problem - advocating that the International community initiate a division of Pakistan to help curb the terrorist mindset from spreading.

A lot of it ends up sounding very far-fetched - but a very new interpretation none the less.

Check out this site - especially the videos

http://www.dividepakistan.blogspot.com

Disclaimer : All these are the views and opinions expressed by Mr. Jamaluddin on his web site - not necessarily mine.

India Booming !

India's economic march in the past few years needs no introduction - the world has been witnessing it for some time now. But even keeping that in mind, the sheer force with which India is rising boggles the mind. Just a cursorary look at the Forbes List released today throws up some amazing numbers.

The Ambanis - Mukesh and Anil, are placed at #14 and # 18 this year - last year they were #56 and #104. Anil Ambani has gained a net 12 Billion this year, while Mukesh has gained some 10 Billion. In 365 days. Pause a bit to think that they have not even started their dream projects of setting up mega retail chains and the other mega ventures.

India now has more billionaires than the economic powerhouse of Japan. India has more billionaires in the top 20 list than any other country - bar the US.

But that just covers the the richest of the rich, you say ? - Look again. And look again carefully.

India's GDP is growing at a net rate of about 9 % for quiet some time, the forex reserves have never been higher, and the BSE index breaks some record almost every day you check.

The Infrastructure is growing. The Airline Industry is opening up. India just signed a deal with the US to generate nuclear power. India is one of the premier countries working in the field of rocket science. The Indian pharmaceutical companies are booming - competing to take over the divisions of US Pharmaceutical companies that they would not even dream of competing with 10 years back.

The largest aluminum company in the world now is India's Hindalco. The worlds largest steel company, Mittal Steel, has set its future interests in India. Tata Steel succeded in an outrageous bid to take over the very reason for its former rulers power - British steel - the very company that fueled Britain's Industrial revolution. All the major car manufacturers have their eyes set on India to fund their growth in the coming years. Let us not even speak of the many smaller industries and companies that are trying to get their foot in the door.

This list does not even talk about the software and the services sector. We do not even need to go there.

I had met an american friend when I was in Pune few months back and he had said to me then - "I still do not see what the fuss is about - the roads, the cars, the infrastructure is nowhere near what is present in the western countries "
My reply to him would be this - " Yes - we still have a long way to go, but consider this - If we are doing so well with what we have right now - can you imagine where we will be - when all these problems you talk about are dealt with ? "

To put things into perspective, recall this. The United States - which is an economical behemoth of almost unrealistic proportions, was near bankruptcy by the year 1929/1930. The backbone of the US - its interstate highway system was started in the 1950's. The USA beat USSR to the moon in the 1960's. Thousands of Nuclear weapons were piled up - just as a gentle reminder to the world. By the 1970's , US was one of the foremost powerhouses in the world - powered by a generation of brilliant industrious americans - those that we call the "Industrial Baby Boomers"

Now take a look at Modern India. Post Independance - upto the 1970's India was near bankruptcy. After opening up the economy in the 1990's- the money started flowing in. India developed indigenous missiles, beat Pakistan in the "Nuclear Club" race - oh yeah - our gentle reminder to the rest of the world. The Golden Quadrilateral was completed by 2005. The Railways - managed by a rustic leader - set record profits in 2006.

Lady History loves repeating herself and the stage is perfectly set for India. It is for India to take the lead and set the trail for the next century - and the young generation of Indians have to shoulder the responsibility of acting as the "Software Baby Boomers" of this century. We must not fail her.

Indians form the largest pool of the worlds educated youngsters. Millions of young educated people - living in a free and democratic country. Millions of them eager to get a chance to prove themselves. Millions who, from the very day they are born - are pushed by everyone around towards just one goal - to be successful.

Something is bound to happen - one way or the other. The road ahead is long and a lot has to be done. We all know that no work is done until it is really done.

The world still looks on as India is waking. As India is Rising. She must not forget her tryst with destiny.

At the very Limits of Modern Science

Here is an interview with Dr. Robert Lanza. Dr. Lanza seems to be asking a lot of very interesting and very pertinent questions.

Read the transcript as below -

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Wired News: You call your theory of the universe a biocentric theory. What, exactly, does that mean?

Lanza: This new theory presents a shift in world view with the perspective that life creates the universe instead of the other way around.

WN: I imagine that a lot of physicists will be rather upset by your article. How do you expect them to react?

Lanza: People are not going to be very happy with what this all means. This theory is going to invalidate their (some scientists) entire life's work. I will definitely get crucified.

We've got the scientific structure and framework incorrect. We need a theory that is internally consistent. We can't do this without creating a biological understanding of space and time. This will require restructuring science so that biology is above physics.

WN: Does that mean you think that big physics and astronomy projects should not be funded?

Lanza: Of course they should be funded. I don't think that everything should be changed. What I am saying is that there is a missing piece to the puzzle of how the universe works. The answer is biology. It is as simple as that. The biological picture of space and time must be integrated into our understanding of physics.

WN: Why do you think that there is such a deep misunderstanding of what time and space really are?

Lanza: Our minds are structured to think that way. Even Einstein avoided the question of what space and time are. He simply defined them as what we measure with clocks and measuring-rods. However, the emphasis should be on the "we," not the measuring.

WN: Do you expect that some people will read your article and think you mean that they can sit on a mountaintop and meditate to change the world around them with mind powers?

Lanza: We can't decide that we want to jump off the roof and not get hurt. However much we want, we can't violate the rules of spatiotemporal logic.

WN: In your article, you make the assertion that time and space do not exist. What do you mean by that?

Lanza: There is something very unusual about them. We can't put them in a marmalade jar and take them back to the lab for analysis. Space and time are forms of animal sense perception. Space and time are not objects or things -- they are forms of animal sense perception.

Thousands of articles and books have danced around the desire to toss off the current mechanical world view that has dominated Western culture for hundreds of years. While some imply that time and space may not in fact exist, this article diagrams, for the first time, such a universe -- a universe in which time and space do not exist as physical realities independent of humans and animals.

WN: You seem to disagree with how the world was created.

Lanza: There are serious problems with the current world view. We pride ourselves in our current beliefs and then we (scientists) say, and by the way, we have no idea why the big bang happened.

WN: Can you explain why we should doubt the things that are accepted as the truth in science classes everywhere?

Lanza: For the first time outside of complex mathematics, this theory explains the provocative new experiment that was just published in Science last month. This landmark experiment showed that a choice you make now can actually influence an event that has already occurred in the past.

Source : http://www.wired.com/news/technology/medtech/0,72910-0.html

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To say that the answers to these questions have been the holy grail of all physicists since time eternity would be an understatement.

In these hazy realms where the modern western-centric science fails to answer some questions, one could turn more eastward for some of the most profound ideas ever thought of.

Dr. Lanza may not find all the answers over here - but i deem that this and this is the closest that anyone has ever got to answering all these questions !

I would rate Vivekananda and all those who thought of these concepts, among the brightest scientific minds to have walked the face of the planet !

My Political Leanings

That is where my political views stand - give and take some room for errors !

And of course, I reserve the right to change my position - depending on the situation at hand :)

Here are where some past historical persons figure on the same chart
And here are some more --

Source : http://www.politicalcompass.org