BR is losing his touch

Buddhi Rakshasan was upset with me and refused to take my calls. But my persistence paid off, and he relented.

"Swamy, you have forgotten me. It is ages since you talked to me"

"I am sorry BR. No excuses. Just one of those phases when I retreat to myself. So what is new  these days?"

"This guy Ajit Duval has made life difficult for flies in the walls like me. Very difficult to get inside information these days"

"Ah.............................."

"I am afraid I cannot give you any political gossips, though there are plenty irrelevant things about Congress and APP"

"I am not interested in both of them. Anyway there is nothing secret about both. The dirty linen is washed in the public"

"I have some inside information regarding Indian Cricket"

"That should be interesting"

"Dhoni is definitely on his way out after the WC, irrespective of what happens in the knockout stages"

"That is no secret"

"With him his chamchas will also leave"

"That is the best piece of news you could have given me, which means.................."

"Ravindra Jadeja, Suresh Raina, Ishant Sharma and even Rohit Sharma"

"If Kohli takes over, then........................"

"Shikhar Dhawan will be feeling shaky after their spat in Australia. He is a marked man"

"Only Murali Vijay, Rahane is sure of their places under Kohli amongst the batsmen, Shami and Bhuvi amongst the bowlers along with Ashwin are bound to be in"

" Hmm..............."

"With Dalmiya at the helm, expect Wridhiman Saha to have a long run and perhaps Ashok Dinda and Manoj Tiwari"

"Oh no!"

"Saurav Ganguly will replace Ravi Shastri as Team Director"

"Saurav is ok. He at least has a good cricketing brain"

"Duncan Fletches is out and we may not have a foreign coach at all"

"With Saurav in charge, we might see some youngsters being roped in"

"But where are the youngsters?"

"Swamy! There are some good ones around but because of the focus on IPL, we don't get to hear of them. It is time to really have a go with Rahul, Unmukht, Baba Aparajith. And there is none better to groom them than Saurav"

"Is Kohlis temperament as a Captain suspect?"

"He is aggressive alright but he needs to accept the reality that our bowling as it stands today is not going to win Test Matches, either home or abroad"

"What will Dhoni et al do?"

"Dhoni is learning baby sitting, Raina will settle into a quiet married life, Jadeja will become another Irfan Pathan, and Shikhar Dhawan will play Big Bash in Australia, to be with his family"

I took leave of BR, but got a nagging feeling that he has lost his touch. Must be the inaction of the past year when he is not getting fodder for gossip from the Government.

Modern Day Nero

 
 
 
 

"When Rome was burning, Nero was Fiddling!" ( though technically he as not fiddling but playing harp. we will let that by)









So what is the Modern Day Nero doing when his party and State he heads are burning?








How the 'Mighty' has been exposed!!!

World Cup thoughts

I am still not sold out on India being one of the top teams in this World Cup. True, they have won 5 out of 5 so far, and likely to win the 6th and possibly the 7th match too.

 

But the only noteworthy victory was against South Africa. We will come to that later.

 

Despite all the hype surrounding an India-Pak match, the current Pakistan team is not up to a scratch!! They don't have any world class players in their ranks, and are consistently inconsistent. Misbah may be a lone exception, but he is hardly expected to do miracles in one day cricket and Younis Khan is an apology for a ODI cricketer these days, as is Shahid Afridi, or Umar Akmal. Less said about their bowlers the better. And they lost miserably to West Indies, which takes a special effort!

 

Anyone can beat West Indies these days and even Ireland did, and Zimbabwe gave them a spirited fight. They were thrashed by South Africa who scored 400 plus. So India beating them is no great shakes.

 

UAE and Ireland are the relative minnows of the world and we were expected to win against them anyway.

 

This leaves the only creditable victory the one against South Africa. In all fairness we played a good game and they had a bad day. But remember SA are known chokers, and they managed to lose to Pakistan too, quite an achievement.

 

With Bangladesh expected to be QF opponents, we have a good chance of reaching the Semi Finals.

 

But one has to admit, that this has been a World Cup of average teams. Australia has a good bowling attack, but their batting is very shaky. Clarke is unfit, Watson a shadow of his former self, and others not quite world class. But their pace attack is top notch with Johnson, Mitchell Start and Cummings.

 

New Zealand has looked the best team overall, but they have not played outside their Country so far and have exploited their swinging conditions to the hilt. They have struggled to chase down 150 twice, and if McCullum doesn't fire, their batting is in a bit of bother. But they too have a lovely attack with Southee, Boult and Vettori.

 

Srilankan bowling is woesome, and but for the brilliance of Sangakkara, Mahela and Mathews, they will be easy meat for others

 

England was pathetic and Bangladesh has punched above their weight. But they had their game against Australia washed out, didn't do well against Srilanka and may well be exposed against New Zealand in the last game.

 

This is an open World Cup, but a mediocre one.

 

Just prior to the commencement of the Knock out stage, I would put my money on Australia. They have not peaked yet and they know the conditions well.

 

 

 

 

 

SPICED test while recruiting a person

When you recruit a person, check against the following parameters;

 

Skill

Personality

Intelligence

Commitment

Emotional Stability

Decision making ability

 

 

I call this my  SPICED Test

Not having enough cover

With four wins out of four, India have qualified for the Quarter Finals of the World Cup. And in all likelihood, they should top the group winning all the 6, with only matches against Zimbabwe and Ireland to follow.

 

The bowlers have put up their hands and delivered, so has the fielders - a couple of lapses not withstanding.

 

People are already talking about India retaining the World Cup, but I wouldn't hazard a guess there. This team has serious weaknesses.

 

Rohit Sharma at the top of the order is still a worry. When he scores - about once in 10 innings - he scores big, but is just not consistent enough. And Raina has disappointed, as he is expected to in the bouncier overseas pitches. Less said about Dhoni's pet Jadeja, the better! As Shane Warne once said famously about a fellow player ' Can't bat, Can't bowl, Can't field '

 

The real worry is in the lack of bench strength. Ambatti Rayudu doesn't inspire much confidence, nor does Stuart Binny in Australian conditions, nor Axar Patel, who is untested. Bhuvaneswar Kumar is not fully fit.

 

Lack of replacements makes those in the first 11 complacent.

 

It would have been a different story if we had Murali Vijay instead of Rayudu, Varun Aaron instead of Axar Patel (3rd spinner warming the bench is a luxury and Aarons extra pace would have made a big difference) and anyone else for Stuart Binny!!

 

Vijay could have opened with Dhawan, and that would have made Raina and Rohit fight for a middle order berth. With ball doing a bit in the first ten overs, Vijay could have played himself in and seen the new balls off, which would have provided the cover for Kohli and Rahane.

 

With India likely to top the group and face probably Bangladesh or England, we can hope to reach Semi Final at best. Then the real test begins.

The Lonely Crow

I have been not too active with my Camera of late. But a unique combination of a leafless tree and a crow sitting on it (Crows are rare in Oman), silhouetted against the evening sky was too big a temptation for me to resist clicking my Camera.

Putting the Country back on Track takes precedence for Modi

Many 'so called' "intellectuals" and "Commentators" are taking Modi to task for non fulfillment of poll promises - mainly prosecuting the corrupt and bringing back the black money.

 

People need to understand that we have given a 5 year mandate to Modi. There is no compulsion on him to achieve everything in 6 months.

 

In my opinion, he has played his cards well. He has managed to get his team of bureaucrats in place, has allowed Congress appointed Bureaucrats to hang themselves ( a la Sujatha Singh), and are slowly easing out political appointees like the Congress Governors and leeches like Amartya Sen and Leela Samson.

 

Last time when Morarji Desai and Janata Party won a landslide victory against the Emergency tainted Indira Gandhi, they made the mistake of taking on Indira Gandhi, and foisting cases on her which boomeranged. She managed to play the victim to perfection and stormed back.

 

Atal Bihari Vajpayee was more of a consensus politician. He didn't have much against Sonia, as she was in the background throughout the Narasimha Rao rule. It was not in the nature of Vajpayee to be vindictive, and he probably didn't see Sonia a major threat.

 

Modi is not either, by nature. He has a history of finishing off his opponents, and he will do so, as time goes by.

 

His primary objective is to clear up the mess in Governance (mis-governance) of the past UPA Regime, and to put the Economy back on track. His strategic direction and leadership has ensured, we are moving in the right direction. This budget will be a trend setter. He has restored India's credibility in the Global stage, and has the country talking about how to take India forward. Dismantling the Planning Commission, making the Ministers and Bureaucrats work, and have won crucial elections in State after State (Delhi was an exception, which doesn't matter really, as it is nothing more than a glorified Municipality).

 

He cannot afford to antagonize the opposition too much by taking it head on, as he doesn't have a majority in the Rajya Sabha. It is why winning all those elections were a priority. Without Rajya Sabha in his control, he cannot get key bills passed. Going for a joint session at the drop of a hat is not an option. So he has to wait it out for 2-3 years, by which time he will have majority both in the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha.

 

As a citizen, which would you prefer? Putting the corrupt behind the bars on priority, thus jeopardizing the development agenda, or make a small compromise now to push the development bills and take on the corrupt at a later stage? I would go for the latter any day. Country comes first, second and last.

 

It is only in India that we view businessmen with tinted glasses. If the businessmen don't invest, then there wont be any development, and who suffers? The Common Man. Even during the Congress or Communist regimes, businessmen had a field day, but they fattened their pockets through crony capitalism, and hardly brought any development. The classic case is that of the Coal Block allocation under UPA. Businessmen close to the Regime got the coal allocated, but they sat on it, without exploiting the resources to produce more power, so essential for a power deficient country. Under Modi, we will definitely see Businessmen will get a level playing field, and even some benefits, but will assure the projects take off.

 

I, personally, would like to see some out of the box initiatives in both Education (across the spectrum) and in Public Health Care. These two will go a long way in helping the poor more than anything else.