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I'm writing this while on vacation...taking time off while waiting for the cab to come in and take me to the Dharmashala cricket stadium. So the love for the game has not been lost yet but....(apologies for the rambling tone and some lack of structure to the whole post)
I have always maintained T-20 is a great format. In fact, Max Cricket (Crowe's invention) is better. The problem is with the IPL - the auctions, the owners, the BCCI, the brazenness of everyone involved - would you have a Rajiv Shukla and Srinivasan strut around your house, controlling things? That's the feeling I got when these people went about systematically desecrating my favourite pastime/way of life. What was disgusting was to see the likes of SRT,SCG,RD,Kumble not raise a voice against this - if your regular fan felt this to be sacrilegious, surely, the doyens who helped Indian cricket come out so strongly after 2000, should have felt worse but not a single voice of dissent. Journalists/players like Gavaskar and Shastri preferred to Board the gravy train and consistently parroted the 'We Indians got bullied like this when we were playing, so everything is justified now'. The likes of Bhogle who kept putting up this 'I'm just fascinated with the game and I haven't heard or seen any wrongdoing myself and if there is any, it should get cleaned up' clearly didn't do justice to their responsibilities as a journalist. The new markets which got opened up by the IPL - children, families could have really changed the game for good. If they continue to support the IPL in spite of seeing all this, it will be a sad day for Indian society because that would mean we have accepted that there is lot of wrong/bad but as long as we are enjoying it, we are ok with it. Having said all this, should we ignore all the good that the tournament has done - especially the money for the cricketers outside the top 20 players? It has meant that sport can be seen as a career in India. That's huge for sport in general. What next? Change the format of the tournament - don't make it a 40 day program. Make it like the EPL/La Liga/Serie A - an 8 month league with matches over the weekends only, have teams buy players but not auction them, have windows for 3 Test series every year, let the owners form publicly listed companies, bring the owners under SEBI rules, get a proper regulator who is NOT related to the Board - this will ensure the clubs have a loyal fan base (meaning more revenue from merchandise and other business activities around sports teams), transparency, there wont be an overdose of the game and even the Test Match will survive. I'm not suggesting the football world is corruption-free but the IPL system is built for the corrupt to thrive. There was only one voice of dissent after the first round of controversies under Lalit Modi came out - he admitted that he didn't do enough and resigned from the council. Some of his aura did wear off for me after the hunting case. But he was, is and will always remain a few leagues above the best. MAK Pataudi was made a member of the IPL Governing Council by Modi along with Shastri and Gavaskar but he was the only one to admit that he should have done his job better and resigned from the council. Indian Cricket is missing a character like him today. The only one who can come close in terms of honesty, strength of character is Dravid - please rise and take charge.6View comments
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In the next 3 days, we will start hearing about the laments of how a billion people can produce fewer than 10 Olympic medals. The outrage will last for a week; some companies/ people will (hopefully) donate some money to the Olympic Gold Quest and assume their responsibility is over. The media will move on (has it already moved on?) and we will revisit this in 2016; of course there will be the odd clamour when we will qualify in some sport, get walloped in others.Compare this with what happened after the bomb blasts in Pune : outrage for 3 days, politicians, RJs, news anchors talking about the Government's failure/responsibility; assurance of insurance for the good folks at the BDDS (finally), increased vigilance at hotels, malls, public places for 3 more days and we're back. Sometimes I wonder if the terrorists must be feeling what a waste it is to execute such acts – nothing happens; people don't even bother to think why the blasts happened. Is this the secret policy of the Governments to tackle terrorism – bore them into defeat.Let's take the case of the water problem – every year, the monsoons cause flooding, dams release water in July/August, we have water shortage starting from March, running up to July. In Amit Paranjape's words, we just about meet the required run rate in July.
There is no silver bullet for any of these problems (jargon to show off my mngmnt. background). Ok, there may be a 'direct solution' to each problem – talented sportsmen who can be coached to win medals, an efficient intelligence, policing and judicial system, a water management authority etc. Many responsible people, although well-aware of the gravity of the problem feel they can't contribute to the solution because they are not equipped to be the 'direct solution'. Ohh! I can't box; my son is not interested in sports. Someone else should be able to contribute more than me.This isn't true. Waiting for, planning for, hoping for the 'direct solution' to work independently will be like living in a fool's paradise.
Like they say, for start-ups to work, they need an ecosystem – a culture of patient, risk-taking angel investors, a student community that will readily take up a job opportunity with a start-up, other businesses making it possible to work with start-ups (typical example being logistics companies are needed for most e-commerce companies to thrive) etc. for families to get ready to support entrepreneurs/people taking up jobs in start-ups.
Like how an individual doesn't have to become an entrepreneur herself to support the culture of entrepreneurship, one doesn't have to take up the sport himself to support India's improvement in Olympics. A parent could encourage her child to become an excellent physiotherapist; a dietician contributing to more healthy people is ensuring a healthier nation which is bound to increase the chances of spotting a better talented sportsperson. An excellent marketer could make sports fashionable for kids to get attracted to. A library could get kids to know more about different games. An IT Services company could do more back-end IT work for managing sports tournaments! All this will contribute to creating a movement which will translate into the 'direct solutions' to thrive. So please don't get discouraged that you don't have sporting talent at your disposal; you can contribute in whatever way you can.
For tackling the terrorism and water problems – in fact any problem which affects the whole community, we need to have a similar approach. Contribute in whatever way we can, and there will be someone who will put his hand up to take the solution to the last mile (the OGQ/the Army in the case of Olympics).
The only thing we need to be wary about – not let cynicism creep in, about how we can't directly contribute to solving the problem. We need to build a culture – an ecosystem for all the 'direct solutions' to thrive.6View comments
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While I couldn’t read the book, I did the next best thing – I checked out Sheena Iyengar’s TED talk on the art of choosing. I was surprised at how she drew such perceptive inferences from the experiments she had conducted. It would have been dull, drab data for her. How did she choose to ignore the dullness of the data and opt to, instead, get fascinated by the beauty of it? I was impressed.
The TED Talks present the same challenge that she talks about – information choice overload. While everyone says TED Talks are great, you ask them about how many talks have they watched, the number is usually in single digits (few will get to double digits). Most Indians would have watched Pranav Mistry’s demo of Sixth Sense technology or Hans Rosling on population growth – why? There was some Indian connection and more importantly, these got forwarded/shared on Facebook/Youtube. This tells me two things –
- There are ‘Made to Stick’ principles at work in everything we do and
- People don’t make the effort to check out other TED Talks because (surprise!) there are just way too many of them. It is the same jam sampling experiment that Iyengar talks about in her talk.
It might be a good idea to start a curating service for TED Talks –
- You subscribe to the service. Share your linkedin and facebook profiles.
- You give three areas of interest (from a set of say 7 areas that are thrown up automatically, based on mining of topics from your linkedin and facebook profiles).
- You specify the periodicity of talks that you want to watch – once a week/fortnight/month/specific month.
- You get a relevant link sent to your mail.
Wow! The simplicity appeals to me – I’d sign up for such a service. If someone can do this, great. If no one volunteers, I’ll start it very soon.
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Is it the rest? Is it the exercise? Is it the nice heavy breakfast? Is it peace of mind? Is it getting rid of the below-par, irritating co-workers? Is it refusing to watch the news shows? Is it the conscious attempt to stop getting into a self-righteous mode? Is it the watering of plants every morning?
These last few days I have been relatively more productive – definitely more than what I was in the last year. Why?
The best wedding gift we got was ‘Out of My Comfort Zone’ – Steve Waugh’s autobiography from Ramanand. There are couple of things that have remained with me –
- After his first child was born, Steve Waugh was more determined to do well on tours because he thought only then, the sacrifice of not being with the family was worthwhile.
- He spent some time trying to figure out what he did when he played well and tried to build the same conditions every day so that his chances of success improved – this could be listening to the same song or keeping the same red rag with him (Ian C would probably include the green rag as well).
I try to think of the first one whenever I’m away from home but I’m never on any mission so doesn’t become important but the second one – try as I may, I’m not able to figure it out. It is not as if I hate hard work – I know I can, if I buy into some bigger goal (usually for the good of others rather than for me). I feel my biggest problem is to find motivation and one that will stick! A few days ago, Niranjan talked about The Flow and I feel I need something which is challenging enough to even get me started.
One big challenge when I am in the mood is to figure out what to do? I usually get very impatient, knowing that there are quite a few projects/tasks which are waiting for my Afridi-esque (now it can even be called Sehwag-esque) form and try to do multiple things simultaneously and very soon, the form dies on me. (Cue: Start reading The Art of Choosing by Sheena Iyengar)
I have decided not to wait for those flashes of inspiration – if I keep rotating the strike, I will get the bad ball and then make it count.
What I have noticed is that when I’m in the mood, I do a few things right – like writing in paragraphs instead of the ghastly bullet points. I don’t know if writing is a cause or an effect – even if it is an effect, I don’t want to let the flow get wasted. And yes, I will try to write more often, without it feeling like a chore. If you are reading this, brace yourself. Hopefully, I don’t start running an RGV-style factory.
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11:52 AM : I fall for the temptation. Let's check the score on cricinfo.com. But while the page is loading (cue for cricinfo - stop those interstitial ads, they are irritating), I have a bet myself - what will the score be? I say 30 for 2; the inner me says 30 for 3. I win - it is 39 for 2.
- I have read a few articles by noted columnists, former cricketers, some backed with data, some with hunches, some sponsored by big corporate clients. While I'm flummoxed by the Indian team's response, there are some observations that I have been trying to piece together for some time now. I'll point them out and someone can do the dirty job of putting together the analysis -
- India's no. 1 Test ranking was a manufactured one with (multiple) series against SL, New Zealand,Bangladesh and home series against Australia, England. The only away series where India was faced with resistance was South Africa in 2010. It was not a great series for India and in spite of Steyn, Morkel, Kallis, this SA team is a well-disciplined team, not an Australia with McGrath, Warne, Ponting, Glichrist etc.
- The period of 2008-2010 also saw a decline in most teams except for England with lot of retirements and general lowering of standards and consistency of performance (and so, results). So when India won series after series (mind it, series and not Test after Test), it looked good.
- India came back in a few Tests - against New Zealand, against South Africa - this was similar to a Mohali Test long ago when New Zealand bowled out India on the first day for 80-odd, yet, India batted well in the second innings to force a draw. It was responsive wicket (not a hostile one); bowling was benign but incisive by Indian standards. What is my point? The comebacks seemed bigger than what they were because of the way we struggled early on. if there was steel, it should have been displayed by the lower order in the first innings itself - that's what great teams used to do in their heyday. How many times would teams get the top 4 or top 5 for 50 odd against Australia only to still stare at a total of 300+ in the early 2000's? Not just because of Gilchrist but because everyone chipped in.
- This Indian side is one of the best ODI teams around - of all time. I'm not talking of 1 set of 11 players but a side over the last 10 years now. Forget the 2007 World Cup - it was a one-off. The ODI team has been up there right from the ICC Knockout tournament in 2000. When you play 5-10 Tests and 25-30 ODIs and your ODI team is so good, will you prefer to ride the wave in ODIs or work on weaknesses in Tests?
- IIRC, the Test series in 2009 and 2010 were manufactured after it was pointed out to the BCCI that India was all set to lose the no. 1 Test ranking immediately after attaining it because India was not going to play many Tests in that year.
- India has always followed this cycle of 2 years of too much cricket at home followed by 2 years of too much cricket abroad. I'm sure someone at BCCI (Srinivasan?) is thinking like a politician - "Let's ride out this series and then we are set for 2 more years of playing at home. No more Press conferences till then."
So, am I saying -- Stop IPL? No. To use the cliche, it was an idea whose time had come.
- Drop the Seniors? Not at all. You do that and you'll start losing in 4 sessions.
- Have a balanced spread of the tours ? Yes but only if you want to build a side which is good in all formats on different kinds of wickets. But would you compromise your financial targets from ODIs/T20 cricket to do that? I doubt it.
- Have grassy wickets in India? Again, only a few spectators like an even contest between bat and ball. Match gets over in 75 overs, fewer commercial breaks, fewer ads, lesser money; no-go.
What about the game itself? I feel it is time to sunset Tests, ODIs and teams representing countries. Why? Just because India is not doing well? No.- The sport just doesn't have the critical mass to be called a world sport.
- Tests take too long to be completed.
- What it takes to have a good Test match - good wicket, technically correct players, patience, wily captains, knowledgeable crowds - are all in short supply and things are only going to get worse.
- T-20 is more easily acceptable, understandable across countries, markets, customer segments.
- If India doesn't do well in Tests (and I see no reason why India will do better in the next 4-5 years unless England, Australia and South Africa all lose 7-8 players each because of injuries), there is no commercial standing for Tests to continue. Indians are not cricket crazy - they are Indian-team-winning crazy.
- Clubs all over can continue to play IPL like tournaments where players will still be able to exhibit how best to play a particular shot, a Warne can still show how a ripping leg-spinner can be bowled. The league which attracts the best talent gets the maximum revenue and thrives. The minute you involve countries, some not-so-logical things creep in - like having to play 11 Indians instead of having Chris Gayle open the batting (as he volunteered to do, against Australia in the current series).
Radical solution
Play Tests for an only-TV audience. This can be staged at your local maidan anywhere in the world. No staging costs; the players who still want it and these will be the players who really love it, play it; the match gets shown only when there is a critical mass of paying viewers. What this means is -
Test match played at Kaanta stadium in an Ordnance Factory Varangaon estate between two teams involving players like Dravid, Bangar, Ashish Chopra, Tendulkar, Ponting, Clarke. Only when there are more than 10,000 viewers who have agreed to pay $1 per day to view the match on youtube will it be streamed. The revenue goes into paying for the recording and hosting infrastructure; the players are anyways doint it for the love of it! Will it work?3View comments
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I'm sure everyone who reads this blog knows about Ramanand and knows what a great guy he is. Still, I thought the increase in my fandom levels should be made public - JR has been hosting a daily question blog called Infinite Zounds. He started it after I had left my job with Cognizant when I was working with him in the same team; my priorities had changed a bit, more work to do, having to pay for my own internet connection at work and other sundry excuses which can all be bracketed under laziness can be claimed as reasons for not reading Infinite Zounds every day but I have been following the progress. JR is now batting on 401* and I'm sure it will soon be the 500*.
Now anyone who has taken new year resolutions, weight gain/loss promises, de-addiction programs will know the commitment it takes to do something like this day in, day out for 400 consecutive days. I'll probably lose it after 3 or 4 days.
What JR has accomplished speaks of his commitment and devotion. So while Kanika should be very happy about this attribute and Dravid should feel the lessening of the strain of being the only active Indian to show such resolve, I see another person feeling very happy about this.
Now if someone can get JR to endorse and support the jan Lokpal bill, it doesn't have to be Anna Hazare who has to do all the hard work while others enjoy their in-flight meals. If only...11View comments
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The next time someone tries to pitch Amway or Oriflame or any other Multi level marketing scheme to you, this is what your response should be :
This is great. I'll sign up with you. But you will have to do me a favour in return.
You must have heard that Watson, the computer built by IBM has defeated a team of Humans at Jeopardy. The age of Skynet (like how envisioned in Hollywood films like Terminator and Matrix) is not too far away. Given this, few like-minded scientists, mathematicians and anthropologists from different countries have got together to form a company secretly funded by billionaires Jimmy Bale, Sergey Page and Larry Brin. The idea is to follow the model of the most important intellectual asset of our generation - the wikipedia. Like the SETI program, my company has come up with DNA-42, a super computer that will be powered using the unutilized brain power of human beings. It is absolutely essential to add to the power of DNA-42 to overcome the eventual domination of Watson. The unique way of powering DNA-42 means that its power will always lie in the hands (heads!) of human beings and we will never become slaves of robots. The success of DNA-42 lies in how many people you will help sign up and how many your referrals will eventually help sign up. We will supply you a pair of electrodes connected to a USB storage device. All you need to do is, stick the electrodes to your head whenever you think you are using your mind the most e.g. when you are making a sales pitch. The excess 'power' that your mind generates will get captured in the USB storage device, which you can upload on a website. Eventually all this power will be used by DNA-42 and you will be part of the Resistance. So can you give me your postal address, all your email ids, phone number so that I can send you the pair of electrodes and your contact details will get added to the list being maintained by the Resistance. In case of an eventuality, you may be contacted to provide extra brain power.7View comments
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