Random Thoughts

Enemy Within

Mani Shankar Aiyer, of Congress Party goes to Pakistan and on a TV Channel makes a statement that Pakistan has to get rid of Modi and bring Congress back in power for the peace between two countries to be established. Asking an enemy country to support usurping the democratically elected Prime Minister of India, in my opinion amounts to treason and sedition. Why is Doval not arresting him and locking him up for good? Also a few days before that Salman Khurshid, another anti national, praises Pak PM and trashes our own. Congress has been quietly endorsing such activities. When I was with Hindustan Petroleum Corporation, I used to joke that my biggest competitor as a Sales Officer was my own people in the Supply Department, who will do their utmost to delay or not execute orders. When we have people like these, why do we need enemies?

 

Hypocrisy

When Terrorists attack third world countries and hundreds of lives are lost, the Western Countries calls for restraint in response, and gives only lip service to combating terrorism. When the same happens on their backyard, as it happened recently in France, or in England a few years back or in US a decade back, then it is a different ball game. Emergency is declared, war planes take off and purported terrorist hangouts are bombed to bits. There is no talk of restraint or such bullshit. A death is a death anywhere in the world. Assuming it is not, is sheer hypocrisy.

Idiots at BCCI

The mood of the people of the Country and the Government is anti Pakistan, except for a few bleeding heart stupids in the media and in public life. There is no way the Government would have allowed a Cricket Series between India and Pakistan, either in India or anywhere in the World. Then why oh why did BCCI began a dialogue with Pakistan regarding a Test Series, if it were to be played in India. This idiocy gave Pakistan to take the moral high ground, and refusing to play us, when all along they have been reduced to begging us to somehow play them. Pakistan Board is broke financially, and only a series with India will bring it some much wanted cash. When Pakistan has been identified as the root cause of terrorism, and when Duval is doing his best to  frustrate them by ignoring their tantrums and isolating them totally, the BCCI goes ahead and makes such a gaffe. I sincerely wish the PM or Duval would call Shashank Manohar and Anurag Thakur up, and give a public dressing down in Eden Gardens stadium watched by 100,000 people on the ground and millions on TV. They deserve nothing less

 

Oh for a Classical Wicket Keeper!

One of the saddest fall out of One Day and T 20 cricket is the demise of genuine classical Wicket Keepers. With teams opting to have batsmen who can be ball stoppers (I refuse to call them wicket

keepers) to don the gloves, there is no incentive for a youngster to work on his keeping ability. I have seen wonderful Keepers like Kirmani, Alan Knott, Bob Taylor, Sadanand Viswanath, Nayan Mongia behind the stumps and it is a pleasure to watch them take the balls with soft hands or effect a smart leg side take standing up. Their keeping to spinners was an art by itself. But the turn of the century saw the advent of the so called batsmen wicket keepers giving way later to batsmen stoppers. It is a tragedy that Sadanand Viswanath was lost to cricket due to personal reasons - he was a live wire and a class act. The match fixing scandal that put a cloud over Nayan Mongia was a big disappointment. He was superb standing up to spinners. Everyone hails Dhoni as one of the best. Perhaps yes as a Captain and a lower order batsmen. But his keeping was/ is atrocious. He gets up early, is not behind the stumps all the time to take the throw, has hard hands and never goes for the catch low in front of first slip. If anyone thinks that Uthappa or Ambati Rayudu should keep wicket for India, then they should have their head examined. Even the so called more proficient wicket keepers are found wanting in technique, be it Saha, Karthik, Parthiv or Sanju Samson. Perhaps the best wicket keepers in the world are Prasanna Jayawardhane of Srilanka and Dinesh Ramdhin of West Indies. And they both are not regulars. Sarfraz of Pakistan is adequate, at best.