Indian fan apathy to blame for Olympics, not Administration or Athletes

Do you know who Irfan Thodi is? Vikas Gowda? Joydeep Karmakar? Heena Sidhu? Ngangbam Chanu?

These are atheletes from India who made us Proud in Olmpics but we ignore them because they didn't return a medal. Irfan finished 10th in 20km walk. Vikas Gowda finished 8th in Discus throw. Krishan Poonia finished 7th in Discus throw. Joydeep Karmakar finished fourth in 50m rifle prone. Henna Sidhu finished 12th in 10m air pistol. Ngangham Chanu finished 7th in 48kg weightlifting.

Yes. They didn't win medals like 6 other Indians but because the public won't recognize the contribution of these athletes and will not give them a lakh (when bronze gets them 100 times that amount - Rs 1 Crore!), the apathy of a regular Indian guy is the main contributor to our poor Olympics performance. OK, when was the last time you stepped out for a hard run? or a competitive sport?

If i was made the Sports Minister or the Prime Minister and asked to solve the Olympics connendrum that we face, this will be my vision, goals and action plan

Vision: Healthy & Prosperous country. Through our health initiative, ensure that sports is a mainstream activity in an Indian's life

Goal: 10 Golds by 2028 Olympics. 25 Golds by 2040 Olympics. These are not far away. 2028 is 4 events away and 2040 is  three more from then.

Action Plan: Here is my top 10 actions

1. Starting this year, all school will make PT (Physical Training) a mandatory subject in school. Schools will have to spend as many hours in a week on PT as they do for Mathematics. Physical Training will be a 100 mark subject with 20 marks for drills and 80 marks for performance in 2 sports of choice.

2. Every school will have to mandatorily offer these 3 sports: Track & Field, Swimming and Cricket. In addition, they will have to offer at least 5 from these sports: Archery, Badminton, Cycling, Hockey, Gymnastics, Shooting, Table Tennis, Volleyball and Water Polo. Of the minimum 8 sports, schools are expected to have in-house facilities for at least 4 sports

3. Every Municipality will have to offer at least 5 of the above sports in their juristiction. Every MLA constituency will have to have facilities for at least 12 of the 2016 Olympic sports available for Public. Every MP constituency should have facilities for at least 20 of the 2016 Olympic sports available for Public. Every state should have facilities for ALL 2016 Olympic sports available for Public.

4. Twice a year, ALL students in the constituency have to participate in a District level competition. Every student has to enroll for atleast 2 sports and their performance will go towards their overall academic evaluation till Standard 9. Once a year, there should be a mandatory Schools competition across the state. This should be fixed for first week of October (9 day event starting 1st Saturday of October and ending on the 2nd Sunday of October).

5. National Games are a joke in India because they are not even conducted on a regular basis. National event will be once every 2 years and will be held between the first Saturday of March to the second Sunday of March.

6. Every Olympic sports council/association will have at least 5 International infrastructure tie-ups and at least 1 Academy in each of the 5 zones - North, East, West, South & Central. The Academy will be chartered to identify talent at School level and charter individual plan of actions for these athletes

7. Dismantle SAI. Re-create it from scratch. At least 90% of SAI budget should go towards new infrastructure, conducting competitions, reward prizes. Maintenance of existing or finished infrastucture will be done by the sport committees. No more than 10% to be spent on staff and their salary, maintenance and travel expenses

8. Remove quota systems in Universities and Public Sector Companies. Instead, the focus is towards ensuring every child has gone through a few sports. Instead of Quota systems, provide scholarships for students-athletes

9. Ministry of Sports should be a Cabinet Position and not a Minister of State position

10. Change comes from within. As long as India doesn't run, swim, jump, play - don't expect us to win awards. Government & Organizations can build the infrastructure; Schools can formulate your growing years, but it is up to us to ensure that we make Sports a part of our lives

What do you think? Will we change?

Budget day dreams ...

There is something about our budget that makes economists, stock market analysts, dealers, industrialists and even common man start day dreaming!

The fever catches as soon as people start breaking their New Year's resolutions, which is typically a fortnight or so into the year. Once, we are done with the festivities & the Republic day, the drumbeat starts to raise its voice and experts and sundry start predicting what the Finance minister will roll into the budget. This year is going to be an extra long journey as the FinMin decided to unveil the budget on March 16th instead of the usual end of February. All the better for media, as they fill time with fantasies about lower taxes, increasing limit of deductabiles or even increasing the various tax slabs. The media will line tons of eager housewives, retirees, 'young but struggling' and 'young and high-flying', public servants, private servants .... you get the picture ... Everyone and their uncle will ask the government for a narrowly defined favorable treatment.

So, let's get started. CNN IBN has already interviewed and made a few wishes/desires or 'feedback' as they call made known. First of many, i think ... Real estate thoughts, Power and Energy thoughts, International taxation issues, healthcare, bicycle manufacturers, Auto companies. Major media publications already have dedicated landing pages - Moneycontrol, Economic Times,

The worst of the lot - FirstPost asks "Budget 2012: Should you give a damn?" My friend, can you stop giving it a damn! Wait for a month and Pranab-da will introduce the budget and we can analyse it rather than day dream today ... What say?

PS: I wrote a blog post earlier related budgets. Differenet context but the data points are amusingly/sadly pretty similiar.

Travesty in Delhi ...

Nope, i amn't refering to the Delhi pitch ., though a lot of blame should go there  ...

...Nope, i amn't refering to Kumar Sangakkara gesticulating to this teammates to escalate a ridiculous delivery and use it as an excuse to stop the match ... i felt it was childish, but Sanga's loyalty is towards his players and rescuing them from a bad situation ...

... Nope, i am't refering to Arun Jaitley or any of the other politicians who don't have the moral responsibility of a fiasco ... no politician in the recent past across the world has ever realized his shortcoming and owed to it, why sacrifice only Jaitley for it?

... Nope, i am't refering to the 2 teams packing off to their hotels within an hour of leaving the field ... showcasing a lack of respect for paying public will catch up, but not today ...

... The target of my ire is Match Referee AG Hurst. How can he not realize the follies of the pitch before the start of the game? If he had as much knowledge as me on the behaviours of various pitches, he can stay home and i can be the globe-trotting match referee. The second charge against him, how can you allow 23.3 overs to be bowled before you deem the match dangerous? I don't think earlier matches lasted this long. Third, did you see the ball that triggered the complaint - it was pitched in the bowler's side of the wicket. Outside the subcontinent, you would have seen the same reaction. Foruth, please see the various replays (i have seen, thanks to Indian News Channels playing it endlessly) - most of the deliveries that kicked up were from short of the length deliveries and not from length. If the bowlers have to adjust to batting paradise tracks (400 runs tracks), why can't the batsmen fed with some questions? Most of the batsmen getting hit were playing forward to a short of length delivery, not on their backfoot. Fifth, This isn't your first series in India (second actually, the previous one was also the Ind-SL 2005 series), how does this pitch behave differently to a fifth day subcontinent wicket? Sixth, show me one wicket that was from an ackward delivery: Tharanga leaving the gate open, Dilshan fishing outside off, Sanga's lazy uppish drive, Jayasuriya outfoxed with a slider and the Samaraweera's running indecision - none of them can be attributed to the pitch conditions

As like your predecessors, you will hide your imcompetent decision behind ICC's opaqueness. This match shouldn't have been called off. You should asked Sanga & Dhoni to quit whining and asked them to continue with the match. You should have told the captains that the pitches in India & the subcontinent in the 1990s weren't any different and matches were conducted fine, thank you very much.

27th December 2009 should go down in history as  a watershed event in Indian cricket. It is the day when ICC rubber-stamped BCCI's move to create batting pitches. ICC & BCCI have sent clear signal to the next generation cricketers. Please become batsmen, don't contemplate about being a bowler. Matches will be called off if we don't see 300+ run ODI wickets ...

The pitch and the various players aren't blameless. However, the match should have gone on. 

All-Time India's Test XI

Cricinfo has started a country specific All-Time Test XI starting with Australia's All-Time Test XI. The process for England's All-Time Test XI is under way. I decided to jumpstart India's All-Time Test XI.

To whittle from the list of 260, i decided to have a minimum stats critieria

• Wickets (Min): 150 (Post-1950s); 100 (Pre-1950s) 
  
• Runs (Min): 2000 @ Ave (Min): 40 (30% leeway for Pre-1950s)
  
• WK: 100 Dismissals
  
• All Rounder: 75% of Min. Wickets & Runs
  

There are 6 categories - Openers (2), Middle Order (3), All-Rounder (1), Wicketkeeper (1), Pace (2) & Spin (2)

The following is the list of shortlisted candidates:

• Openers: V Merchant, P Roy, S Gavaskar, NS Sidhu, V Sehwag, G Gambhir
  
• Middle-order: V Hazare, P Umrigar, V Manjrekar, C Borde, D Sardesai, MAK Pataudi, G Viswanath, M Amarnath, D Vengsarkar, M Azharuddin, S Tendulkar, R Dravid, SC Ganguly, VVS Laxman, 
  
• Wicketkeeper: S Kirmani, F Engineer, K More, MS Dhoni
  
• All-rounder: Vinoo Mankad, Kapil Dev, Ravi Shastri,  
  
• Pace: Srinath, Kapil Dev, Z Khan, 
  
• Spin: Subhash Gupte, B Chandrasekhar, BS Bedi, A Kumble, H Singh, EAS Prasanna, S Venkataraghavan

The reasons for leaving out some folks - K Srikkanth (Average below 30; Only 2 Test Centuries); CK Nayadu (no Test Centuries), Lala Amarnath (Average below 25), N Contractor (only 1 century), Jaisimha (Average around 30), C Chauhan (no century)

Some folks don't pass the stats but are in the list: Vijay Merchant (brilliant batsman but played only 10 Tests, 7 as opener), P Roy (Pre-Sunny best Opener?)

Analysis & Selection:

Openers: Only 2 stand out as outstanding. Sunny & Sehwag. Roy & Merchant played in an era where India wasn't dominant and known for brilliant individual but inconsistent overall performances. Sidhu was good but weak against pace attack. Gambhir has the potential to challenge Sunny & Sehwag but has a long way to go.

Verdict: Sunil Gavaskar, Virender Sehwag 

Middle-order: Look how packed the middle-order is! There are 14 contenders and from them we get it all - class (Ganguly), grace (Laxman, Azhar), endurance (Dravid), technique (Viswanath). In this list, i think only Laxman & Amarnath never captained the side. As tough as the choice seems, the cream has a way of finding itself seperated from the remaining greats. 

Verdict: Tendulkar (no reasons required), Dravid (stellar record, match winning performances) and G Viswanath (IMHO, Tendulkar in the pre-Tendulkar era!)

All-Rounders: Indian Test cricket has had only 2 great groups - Middle order batsmen, Spinners. But the all-rounder class is the most barren. Ravi Shastri was good but not great. Pajji was the best we ever had and Mankad has stats pretty similar to Kapil Dev. Mankad was a bit better with the bat & Kapil with the ball.

Verdict: Vinoo Mankad, Kapil Dev (Kapil selected as All-Rounder/Pacer)

Wicketkeeper: While Dhoni might look the parts of the winner, i don't think this is as easy a selection. Primarily because Dhoni hasn't achieved his potential in Test cricket. Otherwise, what explains the fact that Dhoni has only 1 century in 37 test matches. Farookh Engineer has the advantage of being an opening batsman while Kirmani was the best pure Wicketkeeper we had. Dhoni has the potential to take this spot down the road.

Verdict: Farookh Engineer

Pacers: The less said, the better. There are just 3 Indian paces with more than 100 Test wickets - Kapil Dev, Javagal Srinath & Zaheer Khan. I will go with Srinath for now. Khan has the potential to take this spot in a few years.

Verdict: Javagal Srinath

Spinners: Rich crop here as well. Kumble is a shoo-in because of the fact that he won the most matches for India. The fight amongst the rest is pretty intense. My vote for the present is for Bishen Singh Bedi but Bhajji is already on the rear-view mirror. If Bhajji can perform at the highest level over the next 3-5 years, the spot will be his.

Verdict: Anil Kumble, Bishen Singh Bedi

India's Test XI: Sunny, Sehwag, Dravid, Tendulkar, Vishwanath, Mankad, Kapil, Engineer, Srinath, Kumble, Bedi.

Just Missed: Dhoni, Kirmani, EAS Prasanna, B Chandrasekhar, Bhajji, Gupte, Vengsarkar!

The biggest myth about the Budget

Ok, it isn't a myth. 

It's more like people's aversion to accept plain truth.

The budget is more a mechanism of rewarding the supporters than anything else. That's one reason why the budget was more focused on the poor than on business. What else can we expect when India's business capital didn't even have time to vote in the recent election?

And to see the kind of bizzare predictions made by respected media outlet - Interest Payment on Home loans increased from Rs 150,000 to 250,000 (Business Standard), a figure that jumped to Rs 300,000 (The Economic Times). Slashing Personal Income Tax from peak 33.99% to 25% (The Hindu) or increasing the Income Tax Exemption from 150,000 for common 'man' (Woman have limit of Rs 180,000) to 200,000 (CII Wish List) or 300,000 (Assocham).

So, lesson to the Rich, Upper-middle class, middle class: Next time you want the Finance Minister to do you favors, go to the voting booth.

Educational Reforms in India - Are they headed the right direction (?)

Yesterday was a day for Educational news in India.

• Kapil Sibal mooted the idea of scrapping 10th board exams
• Mayawati wants to re-write rules of passing exams: Pass only 5 subjects instead of six to be declared SUCCESFUL
• Anna University (Tamil Nadu) released the rank list for Engineering Admissions. 

If Manniya Mayawatiji behenji had her way, you only need to pass 5 subjects to be declared succesful. No doubt, other chief ministers will try and outdo her to gain politicial mileage:

• Karunanidhi will declare that the pass mark for OC, BC, MBC, SC and ST in Tamil Nadu has been revised from uniform 35% for all categories to 98%, 30%, 25%, 20% and 10% respectively. To provide equal platform for all, the pass mark for OC will increase by 0.5% every year for the next 3 years while the pass mark for other categories will decrease by 2% every year for the next 3 years.
• Laloo & Sharad Yadav will join hands and raise voice to insist that OBCs, SCs and STs be given special status in examinations. They will be given question paper one hour before the exam start.
• Muslim leaders will insist that as an oppressed class, they be considered given the SC status and hence be eligible for 10 - 20% quota of SUCCESFUL candidates irrespective of whether the candidates pass or fail.
• Christian leaders will insist that they be provided a 20% quota on the total number of schools in the country. 
• Karnataka & AP politicians will insist that parents be allowed to pay money in lieu of marks for their children. The formula suggested is that the parents pay Rs. 10,000 (OC) per mark in each paper while the amount for BCs, SCs, STs, Muslims and Christians are Rs. 100, Rs. 10, Rs. 1, Rs. 50, Rs. 75 respectively

Okay, joke apart - i want to discuss the Anna University results to showcase how Mayawati & Sibal are headed the wrong direction. In the Tamil Nadu engineering admissions, 125000 students have been declared eligible for approx. 110,000 seats. 

• I learnt, with shock, from one of the website that there are 44 candidates with a perfect score of 200! Why the shock? The last rank to get into College of Engineering, Guindy's ECE course (the No. 1 course) is 31 (in 2008). That means 13 students will miss getting into this course inspite of getting a perfect score, just because they weren't born earlier or the computer gave them a low "random" number.
•  There are 5,700+ candidates who have scored 195 & above (97.5%). Based on last year's admissions, 5700 will not get you into ECE course in any Government College. In fact, they won't even make it to ECE in any of the leading private Engg colleges. 
• The only courses that 5700 can get in Government colleges are these: Agricultural Engg & Mining Engg (College of Engg, Guindy); Rubber & Plastic Tech (Madras Institute of Tech); BioTechnology (GCT, Coimbatore);Fashion Tech, Textile Tech, Metallurgy, Textile (SS) in PSG; Civil, EEE, Mech, Metallurgy (GCT, Salem); Civil, CSE, EEE, Mech (GCT, Tirunalveli); Civil (SS) in Thiagarajan, Madurai; Civil (AC Tech, Karaikudi)

Bottomline: If you don't get 98% and above, you shouldn't dream of studying in a mainstream course in leading Engineeing colleges in Tamil Nadu. And Ms. Mayawati & Mr. Sibal and stating that they want to de-stress kids from the rigors of exam. What is more impossible? Having only one exam in 12th (10th is scrapped) based on which your life ahead is decided or having multiple exams (2 or preferably more!) to ensure that kids gets acclimatized to the enivornment of competition. 

Even today, students of Andhra Pradesh state board appear for 3 public exams - 7th Standard, 10th Standard and 12th Standard (called INTER). I think that's a better path than scrapping exams. Have multiple public exams but maybe grade system in 7th & 10th and mark system in 12th. One of the strengths of Indian students seen globally is their basics taught in middle & high school. Where our system lacks is the ability to provide free thinking to the kids and this method isn't going to encourage folks in free thinking. It will only ensure that kids join coaching institute in their 8/9th standard to target 12th  exams and thereby missing on the basics. Mr. Sibal - I don't have too much hopes on Behenji. However, i can appeal to your senses. Don't Scrap 10th. Retain it, better still, introduce graded public exams in 7th Standard. 

PS: I cannot but take a dig at Reservation system in Tamilnadu. The news release from Tamil Nadu shows that 8 of the 10 Toppers in Engineering Admissions come from "Backward Class". And this isn't an exception. Look back at 2008 & earlier data and you will see that folks from BC community usually have done well. Isn't it time to decrease the quota for BC community and re-classify them as Forward Class. Or is it too much to ask from a political system that works towards taking our society backward everyday?

PPS: Globally, yesterday will be remembered as the day when we lost 2 great artists - Michael Jackson & Farrah Fawcett (Charlie's Angel). For all his flaws, Jackson is the King of Pop and inspiring folks worldwide (hello, Prabhudeva and Lawrence Rahavendra)

No country for young men ...

31% of Indian population is below 15 years. Another 30% is below 40 years. While the representation of the former is not expected in the Union Cabinet, the lack of representation of the latter is really surprising. After the hundreds of hours spent by media and Congress leaders talking about youth, there isn't a single representative below 40 in the list of Cabinet ministers announced on 22nd May. In fact, there isn't one below 50!

• Gang of 70s: 77 - SM Krishna, 76 - Manmohan Singh, 74 - BK Handique, 73 - Pranab Mukherjee, 72 - Murli Deora, 71 - Vayalar Ravi
  
• Early retirees (60s): 69 - Veerappa Moily, 68 - Sharad Pawar, AK Anthony, 67 - Jaipal Reddy, Sushilkumar Shinde, 65 - Ambika Soni, 64 - P Chidambaram, Meira Kumar, 62 - Kamal Nath, 60 - Ghulam Nabi Azad, Kapil Sibal
  
• "Young Blood" (50s): 58 - CP Joshi, 56 - Anand Sharma, 54 - Mamta Banerjee
  

That's a grand total of 3 folks below 60; 11 in the 60s and 6 in the 70s. Congress really needs to search and understand the meaning of youth in the dictionary. 

Another interesting analysis reveals the ministry by states and the actual no. of seats received by Congress in these states (LS only): AP - 1 of 33; Assam - 1 of 7; Bihar - 1 of 2; Delhi - 1 of 7; Karnataka - 1 of 6; MP - 1 of 12; Rajasthan - 1 of 20; Tamil Nadu - 1 of 8; WB - 1 of 6. Rest - 0 of 106 including UP (21), Maharastra (17), Kerala (13) and Gujarat (11). In fact, of the 18 Congress ministers (incl PM), 9 come from Rajya Sabha and were not elected by the people in the recent polls. Dr. Singh, Deora, V Ravi, Anthony, Shinde, Soni, Azad, Anand Sharma and Krishna. 

So, can the Congress stop harping about "Youth" and "People's mandate". Political parties have very little respect with the general public because of deceptions like this.

The real analysis on Indian Elections 2009

The TV talking heads have cooled off a bit on their instant analysis of Elections 2009. Several winners were announced by the TV heads and several losers. I intend to spend some time over the next month to analyze if the TV folks got it right or wrong.

But, one person whom they got it all wrong was Nitish Kumar. Nitish Kumar, and God knows how much i like him, didn't lead the NDA in Bihar because of good governance. He swept Bihar because of the split between Congress(I) and RJD. I analyzed the results of each of the 40 seats and this the summary table:

So, if you see this simple analysis - INC & RJD are losers because the monkey ate the cake while the cats fought over it. Even when you take only 80% of translation of INC votes to the RJD combine, the results is at least 2.5 times better than today. There's a lesson for Congress in this result table. Ignore Laloo if you want to write-off any chance of becoming big in Bihar.

Another trend that i noticed and that isn't obvious here, is the fact that BSP is nearing the 50,000 votes in 9 constituencies. That should worry the Congree, RJD and LJP.

In short, what do i recommend for the Congress in Bihar? I ask them to give Laloo a chance of joining Congress and becoming it's party chief in Bihar as well a cabinet minister in the current government. And why shouldn't that happen? Ideology-wise, there isn't a lot that seperates the Congress and RJD and Congress needs to spend more than a decade to become relevant again in Bihar. The easier route is to leverage the current result and add weight in states where it isn't strong. Also, inviting RJD to merge with Congress will also result in reverse-regionalization of political parties. Post-Congress, NCP and SP are the other candidates that will see a clear writing on the wall and they might want to join the re-join Congress. The public has clearly given it's mandate - national parties over regional parties and Congress has the golden opportunity of using this leverage. My sincere advise to Sonia & team - ask Laloo to join Congress before the feel-good feeling from election success evaporates! You won't regret taking my advise.

SRK - Enough fooling around ...

Hi SRK.,

I know it is your money that you plonked on the table for the Kolkata team. However, what is happening with KKR is of concern to the entire cricketing fraternity. While you have the choice of appointing a candidate of your choice for coach, your current coach has no excuses for his excesses or his behavior. If i said that he has turned your team into Page 2 material, it is charitable at best.

And now, allegations of racism. Will you constitute an enquiry? How can someone say that against your fellow countryman and you remain silent in word and action? Have you forgotten that our independence is less than 62 years old? 

Tell me something, why does this team need more coaches that Indian national team. Since you claim that you don't know a lot about Cricket, let me tell you something. Ganguly was not only the best captain India ever had, he is also renowned for his eye for talent & grooming youngsters. Evidence include Zaheer, Yuvraj, Bhajji, Dhoni and M Vijay. In short, he is someone you aspire to have as coach - not Buchanan. Have you heard anything controversial from Gary Kirsten? Have you heard off-the-record comments from him ever? That's the sign of a good coach. Buchanan is repulsed by media as fish is repulsed from water.

Do us a favor and fire Buchanan & his team of 9 coaches. For crying out loud, there are just 11 Indians filling the 7 spots in the team. Don't you think 9 coaches is overkill. You would have heard of this - Too many cooks spoil the broth.

Make the changes today.

Why can't we have events like this in India?

Obama attended the Whitehouse Correspondent's dinner and gave a wonderful speech - full of self-deprecating humor lines and pulling the legs of his friends and foes alike. However, the star of the day wasn't Obama. The honor goes to Wanda Skyes. I haven't heard much about this lady before, but boy, was she funny! In fact, she went beyond funny, she was amazing. The way she took Dick Cheney to task was brilliant, not only because of the message, but the way she encapsulated it in humour. 

And it makes me wonder, imagine an event like this in India - where all our politicians get together for charity and crack jokes at each other. Laloo taking a dig at Mayawati in good humour; Modi chiding Prakash Karat; Karunanidhi going all-out against Advani. Wish that day comes sooner ...

Fake Disappointment - Rediff & IPL Indian Coaches

Rediff asks this provocative article - Why do all IPL teams have foreign coaches? Why not even one Indian coach. Let's see. I examined the list of most prominent Cricketers who played between 1980 & 2000 (at least 10 Test matches or 40 ODIs) and have retired. This is the classification of their status.

• Coaching (6): Venkatesh Prasad, Robin Singh, Pravin Amre, WV Raman, Syed Kirmani, Kharsan Ghavri
• TV Career (10): Nikhil Chopra, Saba Karim, Vinod Kambli, Sanjay  Manjrekar, Maninder Singh, Arun Lal, Ravi Shastri, Sunil Gavaskar, Navjot Singh Sidhu, Ajay Jadeja
• Administration (11): Javagal Srinath (match referee), V Raju (selector), Kiran More (ex-selector), K Srikkanth (selector), Shivlal Yadav (Hyd Team Admin), Yashpal Sharma (selector), Dilip Vengsarkar (ex-selector), Brijesh Patel (ex-selector), G Viswanath (match referee), Chetan Chauhan (Team manager), Narendra Hirwani (selector)
• ICL (5): Nayan Mongia, Sandeep Patil, Madan Lal, Roger Binny, Kapil Dev
• Politics (2): Mohammad Azharuddin, Chetan Sharma, Kirti Azad
• Not Known (4): Narendra Hirwani, Manoj Prabhakar, Surinder Amarnath, Mohinder Amarnath
• Business (1): Dilip Doshi.

So, you see that most of the former players don't think Coaching is a great career option. Of these 7, i think at least the following are employed by current IPL coaches in various capacities - Prasad (Bowling Coach - CSK); Robin Singh (fielding coach - HDC); Pravin Amre (co-coach, MI). So, i don't see a reason for too much complaint here. India has a dearth of ex-cricketers who have turned to umpiring & coaching as their focus is mostly on administration.

2 stars of Indian Politics in their own rights

We are 15-16 days away from a new Parliament term & maybe a new Prime Minister as well. While there are a hundred aspirants to the throne, including the 2 that i am going to write about, only a handful have the credentials to get there. Of the folks who don't make the cut with me - 

• Deva Gowda (fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on ME!)
• Jayalalitha (nope amma, your good English skills & mediocre Hindi skills don't hide your narrow thought process)
• Mayawati (She is Jayalalitha Ver 0.0.1)
  
• Prakash Karat (No, Thanks. I don't want to live in the 19th century!)
• Sonia Gandhi (too much baggage Ma'am - You fled to Italy during the 1971 Indo-Pak War & your procastination in getting Indian Citizenship till your Cabinet Minister husband are 2 reasons why you should never be India's PM & not your foreign birth!)
• Sharad Pawar (What, he wants both ICC Presidency as well India's PM post!)
• PA Sangma (what! If your abilities as Lok Sabha Speaker are any good measure, the country will be in chaos during your term!)

On to the 2 gentlemen that i wanted to highlight today. Not because, they are my choice for Prime Minister but because they have skills in certain areas that are much needed. No one could predict that Laloo Yadav will revolutionize Indian Railways. I believe that the same will happen if these 2 folks get anywhere close to the PM Chair. 

Drum rolls, for Person 1 - Narendra Modi ...

Let me make the case for Modi. Have anyone see the way Gujarat has jumped up the charts in economy & Human Development Index in spite of the continued marginalization of the Muslims. Do you see how respected Industry leaders sing his praises? Do you see the amazing amount of passion in him to lead his state? Do you see the dwindling rural-urban divide in Gujarat where rural development has been given as much importance as urban growth? Sentiments & party membership aside, does India have any leader who has Modi's "Ready-in-2-minutes-PM" candidature?

Now, for the negatives - his non-apology for post-Godhra riots. I have 2 issues with Modi on this attitude - Marginalization of minorities always leads to radicalization of society and is the first step for downfall of any civilization. For the last 7 years, Muslims have been using 2002 riots as the excuse for nearly every terrorist attack in India. Modi's attitude towards Muslims needs radical shift. While Modi will never fall in love with Muslims, at the very least he needs to show genuine concern for Muslim & other minorities. Else, he is no different than the narrow-minded Mayawati to me. The second issue with Modi on the Godhra incident is that his non-apology has made folks focus on post-Godhra riots and there has been next-to-zero empathy for the victims of the train attacks. Had Modi succeded in avoiding post-Godhra riots, the focus over the last 7 years would have been on the radicalization of Muslims and their inability to join the mainstream. That could have bought shame to right-wing Muslims thereby reducing their numbers. Modi, you did a major dis-service to the nation by not taking action post-Godhra attacks. 

The second person that i want to highlight is Mulayam Singh Yadav.

Laugh all you want, but i would take MSY anyday above some of the other leaders in view. His anti-English & anti-computer stance are meaningless populism measures that he himself will abandon post 2009 elections. I recall a Shekar Gupta story on the Sukhoi-30 defense deal. Mulayam worked together with Vajapayee, Jaswant Singh & finished a deal that was started by PV Narasimha Rao & Manmohan Singh. Reason? The deal was good for India. That's the bottom-line. Politics was left outside the door when it came to our strategic interest. Second example, Mulayam Singh was the key reason why the Indo-US Nuclear deal was signed. The UPA goverment was in shambles after the Left Front abandoned them & when APJ Abdul Kalam called Mulayam Singh for a meeting & provided his support for the deal, Mulayam agreed to prop the UPA government. In effect, the anti-US SP provided support to the nuclear deal rather than the pro-US BJP.While some can contend that Mulayam's support was opportunistic (and it might well be the case!), we should acknowledge the fact that Mulayam put India's interest before his own interest. And by the way, Mulayam was all for giving APJ Abdul Kalam a second term as President. In fact, Mulayam was one of the early proponents for Abdul Kalam as India's President in the first place in 2002.

The case against Mulayam has been well documented. His pro-Muslim lean along with anti-Hindu stance is the mirror image of Modi's stance. 

The nation will be well-served if we had a 50:50 mix of Modi & Mulayam.

Karunanidhi & fasting ...

So, we have all heard about Karunanidhi's dramatic attempt at indefinitive fasting in Chennai today which started after breakfast and ended before lunch. 

What a noble attempt. Right? Karunanidhi's action speaks for itself

• 19 July 2008: Karunanidhi doesn't go on fast but senior leaders of his party do. Reason - Protest killing of fishermen by Sri Lankan foreces
  
• 1 October 2007: Karunanidhi goes on indefinite fast protesting the dealys in the Sethusamudram project. 
  
• December 2003: Karunanidhi ends fast within minutes of starting one protesting the arrest of partyman.
  
• 2002: Karunanidhi goes on fast protesting attacks on his MLA office in Chennai. 
  
• June 2001: Karunanidhi goes on fast protesting his arrest by the Jayalalitha regime

You make your own judgement. Is Karunanidhi today's version of Mahatma Gandhi or is he a selfish politician?

WTF Moment of the Day - Ram Temple & Secularism

Sonia Gandhi was in Mumbai & before she reached the rally venue, Ramdas Athavle uttered this WTF sentence:

"Only the UPA (Congress-led United Progressive Alliance) can build a Ram Mandir because we are secular.

I mean - what was that & where did that come from?

I was always under the impression that Secularism meant that Hindus donate away their temples to Muslims & Christians. I was under the impression that those pressing for building the Ram temple (BJP, Shiv Sena) are called communalists. As per your definition, BJP is the most secular party in India. Isn't it so?

If this wasn't the election season, i would have sympathized with this man believing that he was in the midst of suffering a heat stroke. Personally, i am tired of this chalta hai attitude of the public - Politicians can state whatever they want & get away before the elections. 

By the way, Mr. Athavle, did you know that this UPA government that you believe will build the Ram temple doesn't even believe Ram ever existed! That's what they told the Supreme Court of India in September 2007 before withdrawing it in the face of widespread protests & condemnation.

IMHO, Congress wants to have the cake & eat it too! They want both Hindus & Muslims to believe that their interests will be addressed only by Congress and that's why we get to hear these WTF statements.

The Big Fight - Sri Lanka

I watched the Big Fight: Sri Lanka Shadow in Tamil Nadu Politics last saturday. What a fight it was.

There was quite a panel - Jayanti Natarajan (Congress - She escaped by the proverbial skin of the teeth when Rajiv Gandhi was assasinated); AIADMK leader (didn't get his name); L Ganesan (DMK - recently switched back from MDMK); Dr. Subramanian Swamy; Catholic Priest who sympathizes with LTTE; N Ram, Editor - The Hindu; a pro-LTTE mid-30s student leader; Anti-LTTE journalist.

Before analyzing these folks' comments on the show, let me salute to the 2 brave girls & one guy who dressed down the pro-LTTE student leader for his comment that Prabhakaran should be compared to Bhagat Singh & Bose. The 2 girls, in particular, shook down, a vehemently patronizing comment from the stupid LTTE student leader and landed quite a few punches. The power of Youth at it's best & also the reason, why India 20 years down the line will be in much safer hands. Kudos to all 3 of you.

My thoughts on each of the leaders & their party/party position:

1. Jayanthi Natarajan: Had such thin-skin that it was incorrect to get her to come to the show. She had the opportunity to get leverage to Congress in the opening remarks & missed it completly. She couldn't send a strong message that the UPA govt saw the difference between LTTE (for which it has no sympathies) and the Sri Lankan Tamils. However, kudos to her, for slapping down the LTTE student leader when he displayed patronizing behaviour towards the 2 girls.

2. AIADMK Leader: Whatever you drank before the show, from your performance, never drink it again. You cannot call the nation's NSA advisor, a "chaprasi". Shoes might be the rage of the season, but never again call anyone chaprasi if you don't want a mob to beat you up. Moreover, you cannot ask that a secular nation be forced to bifurcate with the demand for "Eelam". Why is Pakistan wrong when asking for seperation of Kashmir while India is correct when calling for Eelam seperation?

3. L Ganesan: You look drunk! Period. And remember that this is 2009 & not 1989. The rights of Sri Lankan Tamils is different that LTTE.

4. Catholic Priest: You got too worked up by SL President and called the current situation a "genocide" & "humanitarian crisis" by the evil Rajapaksa. Never mind that you don't know the definition of genocide (def. not 40 civilian losses a day) and Sri Sri Ravi Shankar called that the relief camps in Sri Lanka were much better than the relief camps in Tamil Nadu for Sri Lankan Tamils or the Kashmiri Pundit relief camps. How can you not comment on the recent photos showing LTTE holding civilians hostage at gun point? You were yet another disaster in the show.

5. Subramanian Swamy: Nice opportunity for you to mention the February lawyer attacks as well as showcase your legal expertise. I don't like you a lot, but am impressed by your knowledge.

6. N Ram: Dignified, calm response in volatile environment. Just what we expect from him everytime

7. Pro-LTTE student leader: Counldn't defend a thing! Uttered rubbish statements like "Prabhakaran is equivalent to Bhagat Singh & Bose". To you - Bhagat Singh & Bose were ready to sacrifice their lives for the needs of their fellow citizens; Prabhakaran has murdered many a Tamil & non-Tamil leaders for his cause; Prabhakaran has abused the political process to get out of tough situation; Prabhakaran has a death sentence warrant against him & never against compare him to great people.

8. Anti-LTTE Journalist: Great summary of LTTE's war crimes against fellow Tamilians.

Vikram Chandra did a great job. He called out people when they uttered non-sense but i felt that he could have been more decisive and pressed the leaders for depth in the topic.

What's my take:

• I won't feel sorry when the LTTE is decimated. They don't belong to the present times. They hurt too many Tamilians to generate the sympathy that they have today.
• Rajapaksa has the golden opportunity of correcting 60 years of mistakes and prove that he is a World leader rather than a narrow-minded state patriarch. Announce the repeal of "Sinhala Only" Act completely; provide for affirmative action for Tamilians in educational & government for a period of 20 years; provide a federal structure within which the Tamils get enough autonomy to rule the Northern & Eastern states where they dominate; repeal the military constitution and replace with a civilian constitution.
• Indian Government: Pressure SL by recalling our ambassador & contemplating firing their envoy if Tamilians don't get political benefit
• Indian political parties: Avoid making stupid statements against a soverign nation. You could be booked under NSA.

My Vote is for Sale - 3

In 2008, we saw history created in United States, when they elected Barack Obama (47). In 2009, India will create history if we elect LK Advani (82) as the Oldest Prime Minister to take office. Manmohan Singh at 78 looks positively young!

I am amazed how developed economies can find fit leaders in their 40s & 50s to lead their countries while we find no such non-dynasty leaders. So, my vote is for the party that will bring a change in Indian politics. No more room for oldies who doze off in cabinet meetings. My vote is for the party that will limit the age of Ministers to 65 and limit the age of MPs to 70. 

That means, we will see 35 retirements from the 2004-09 Lok Sabha - the highest number of 70+ MPs that Indian Parliament has ever seen. Maybe half of them will be replaced by their kids, but i am hoping at least the other half to be new blood.

If my rules are followed, we won't see the 80s club - Bagun Sambrui (85), Jalappa (84), Kuppuswamy (83), LK Advani (82), Sis Ram Ola (82), Radhakrishnan Varkala (82), Lakshminarayan Pandey (81), Ripple Kyndiah (81), Bhanwar Singh Dangawas (80), AR Antulay (80), Kailash Joshi (80) and Venkatswamy (80).

The members of the 70s club won't be missed much either: Kalyan Singh (77), Ajit Singh (70), Subrata Bose (77), Deva Gowda (76), Pranab Mukherjee (74) amongst others.

Biggest theft in Indian History: How Western India has lost!

Care to guess the most valuable item in independent India?

Gold - Nope. Folks have tons (if not Kgs at home!)

Water - Getting close. But inspite of the perennial Cauvery, Krishna, Ganga water fights, it isn't Water.

Giving up?

The answer: MP seat. Yup. Do you disagree?

When the Lok Sabha was created, the founding fathers divided the kitty to states by their population representation assuming that each of these states will have near-equal status in various parameters like Growth, wealth, HDI etc. And why not? If the Gangetic & Indus plain was good for agriculture, the south had their own Godavari, Krishna & Cauvery basins. States that lacked good agricultural area had natural resources wealth - Jharkhand, Orissa, Rajasthan.  However, the last 20 years has shown how there is a huge North-South divide in terms of revenue generation. So, i wonder - why should we still use population as the only criteria for allocating MP seats. Why not use more progressive elements as well - GDP & HDI came to my mind.

So, i did a quick calculation. Let me not bore you with the gory details but the weightage for Population, GDP & HDI were equal. If you need more clarification, revert back to me. 

The results are startling. I wasn't expecting what i saw. Check for yourselves.

What was i expecting? Southern states to be the victims of the system while UP & Bihar were the major beneficieries. But, i was astounded to see that Maharastra (16 lost seats), Gujarat (6 seats), Delhi (5 seats) and Harayana (4 seats) have been the losers. The only Southern Indian state that can harbour a grudge - Karnataka (robbed of 3 seats). AP & TN have a long way to catch up on HDI & GDP parameters with the rest of the country. 

What's more - UP & Bihar have been the greatest robbers. UP deserves no more than 66 seats while Bihar should receive only 29 seats. That's a reduction of 25 seats or 20.8% of their current quota.

Will our politicians agree to such an excercise, where the MP seats are decided by factors other than plain population? I am not going to hold my breath for that to happen.

Till then, let us enjoy the next episode of "Greatest robbery show"

My vote is for sale - Part 2

It was quite a coincidence that i wrote a blog & the BJP manifesto (asking for "Swiss black money" to be returned) was released. Let's see if there is any other political party that answers the questions in this blog.

Issue #2: My vote is for the party that will flight "shadow black money system". 

Chidambaram came up with a fantastic idea in 1997 - VDIS'97 - Voluntary Disclosure of Income Scheme where unaccounted income could be disclosed & with tax paid on the same, the money would be regularized. If my memory doesn't fail - there was huge publicity and the ads were displayed on TV during Sharjah series cricket matches as well. The end result - the government netted Rs. 10,000 crores on "black assets" of 33,000 crores. The highest  payment came from Andhra Pradesh when a gentleman declared black assets of 500+ crores and paid 170 crores. Phew!

I think the time for VDIS II has come. With the real estate boom & the criminalization of politics, it is time for the government to remove black money from the system - estimated at 18 to 20% of GDP ($210 to 234 billion). Thus, putting together the offshore loot & local black money - it's an astounding $1.5 trillion! And to see no politican speak of it ...

.. isn't a surprise. Most politicans are the beneficieries of this ill-gotten wealth. Let me take one example of a recent addition to the political environment. Actor Chiranjeevi -my favorite Telugu actor & the star of Andhra Pradesh. 

Chiranjeevi filed his nomination papers for Tirupati MLA seat on 4th April 2009. As part of his papers, he declared assets worth Rs. 88 crores in the name of his wife & himself. No information on assets belonging to his children were released. That seems normal for a film icon whose 30 years in film world has produced more hits than one can count. However, one particular detail caught my attention. Chiranjeevi declared owning a site in Mount Road, Chennai  measuring 4,092 sq. yards (36,828 sq feet or 15.345 "grounds" @ ground = 2400 sq ft) worth Rs. 2.046 crores.

The calculation works to Rs 13.33 lakhs per ground for the property! That's a joke. We don't get property for Rs. 13 lakhs, 50 kms outside Chennai forget at the heart of the city. The actual value of the site is worth at least 25 to 50 times the declared rate at the least (Rs. 50 to 75 crores). Assuming the same kind of under-declaration, Chiranjeevi & his wife would be worth at least 300 to 400 crores if not more. And Chiranjeevi is contesting as a champion of middle-class! What travesty!

I am not singling out my movie-idol Chiranjeevi, but this is the trend amongst all politicians in India. 

The single largest source of black money in India is in these land-holdings. Let me explain how black money is created & funded. Assume Chiranjeevi wants to sell the land. The government guideline value might be Rs. 4 crores for the 4092 sq. yd land (i have no info on the guideline value in Mount Road). The seller buys stamp paper (11% of sale value - Rs. 44 lakhs) for Rs. 4 crores but the actual sale price might be Rs. 40 crores (assumption). In this case, Rs. 36 crores of black money is either created or routed. The government is also a loser - instead of receiving Rs. 4.4 crores as stamp duty, it receives Rs. 40 lakhs. The modus operandi of Indian politician at it's shameful worst!

Nationalist apologists!

Nationalist apologists are people who disregard history and pout nationalist sentiment to question or explain away half-baked truths or full-fledged lies as FACTS. Here is one from New Zealand:

Paul Lewis writing in New Zealand Herald:

Now that the Indian cricket tour is nearing the end, it's time to ask: Why have we been so nice to them?

The answer to your question. You are returing our favour. Plently of teams in India sweat & cry blood when they see a dusty brown track but that hasn't been a problem for New Zealand because BCCI refused to upset the visitors.

New Zealand played 2 series in India over the last 10 years. In 1999, we played a 3 test match series which ended in 1-0 verdict against New Zealand. In fact, we dished a green top where India (the hosts) were bowled for 83 in the first innings. It wasn't our fault that the black caps refused to take advantage as they were bowled for 215. After that, it was all India, as we piled on 505 (2 centurions - Dravid & Tendulkar with fifties from openers Gandhi & Ramesh) and a predictable draw followed. In the second test match, the spinners ruled the roost and picked 16 wickets. NZ spinners didn't do badly - Vettori picked a 6-for. Tendulkar created a personal record in the third test with his first Test match double century. The game meandered into a meaningless draw thereforth.

In the 2003-04 series, we resumed in the same location & by the looks, the same pitch. It was Dravid's turn for a double century and the bowlers found no support from the pitch. In the second test at Mohali, NZ plundered 630 runs and 4 centuries in the first innings after winning the toss. India however saved the Test with VVS Laxman making a century in the first innings and 67* in the second innings to lead India to safety. Guess, who were the last men standing in the match? The same pair of Laxman-Yuvraj as the second test in 2009 series in New Zealand. Is Laxman becoming a pain for New Zealand after being Aussies tormentor for the last 8 years?

Bottomline: 5 test matches with 4 high scoring draws in India isn't bad. New Zealand received batting wickets in India in their last 2 tours. It is wise on their part to return the compliment else they face turners in their next visit to India. Get the point, Mr. Lewis.

Bow to thee - Master Gambhir

Small quiz: If i were to ask you to name Michael Atherton's best test knock, which would it be?

Wouldn't it be the 185 in Johannesburg - the "Great Escape" / "Great Survival"? Ray Illingworth called it "One of the greatest innings of all time". The basic stats - 185* off 492 balls in 643 minutes. Rest assured, Gambhir's latest 137 off 436 balls in 643 minutes (what a coincidence!) isn't going to be called as one of India's greatest but it does deserve a lot of applause. Gambhir, Sehwag's understudy (unbridled aggression) looked like Dravid's long lost brother or even Gavaskar's nephew!

When i checked Cricinfo Statsguru, Gambhir is in rare company. The list of players who batted 400+ deliveries to save a test or win it is an elite company of 24 innings by 23 players (Andrew Jones from New Zealand achieved this twice!). Gambhir's 643 minutes is the fourth (tied with Atherton) longest & apart from the Gordon Greenidge (226), the other three were match saving innings (following a follow-on declaration). Two have been featured in this blog. Care to know the others - the best was 275 in 878 minutes & 642 balls made by then-South Africa opener & current India coach - Gary Kirsten. The third longest belongs to New Zealand's own Mark Greatbatch who scored 146 in 485 balls and 655 minutes.

Gambhir, don't worry if this innings isn't placed in the same pedestral as Laxman's 281  or Gavaskar's 221 that nearly won the match (the other entries from India in the list of 24!), but your coach & team would know that your innings came very close. In fact, this one deserves to be in Top 10 Indian innings of all time . Also, one more small point - your Delhi teammate & stand-in captain, Virender Sehwag, owes you one. You (with copious help from the seniors) avoided the ugly questions for sehwag post his twin inning collapses against ordinary spin bowling. Encash it now!

PS: I played around the Cricinfo stats tool. To me, "Saving an away test match" is someone batting for over 500 mins (4 session) and 400 balls on foreign soil. That list is even more elite - just 7 "centurion savers"